Provident Partners news

My take and recommendations from the Frontier social media webcast

Is Social Media Working For You?

I’ve seen questions and comments about how to get more people to participate on a Facebook page. I am finding in some of those cases there probably needed to be a bit more research on whether the audience you need to reach is participating in social communities. It could be there either isn’t a whole lot of people in that company’s geographic area on Facebook, which means there is a limited pool of people to engage.

Another issue is subject matter. The company may want to talk about what it does and the Facebook audience wants to talk about something else. Those marketers that realize this and want to engage will find a way to participate in the topics their audience wants to discuss.

Look at it this way, say you are a utility company who wants to talk energy. Perhaps a way to do that is have a weekly contest giving away five ice cream cones during the summer to people that participate on your page. While you promote that contest, you are reminding people about energy conservation, air conditioner usage, potential brown outs, weather forecasts, what do to in severe weather, etc. You can even hold an event at the selected ice cream stores in your coverage area.

Social media can be about your company, but it starts with what is of interest to the people you want to reach.

Seeing is Believing

Dig into Twitter using these research methods. This will help you quantify and qualify your audience that are active participants.

Audience Interest and Your Geography

Facebook can help identify social media audience size by either “likes and Interests” and/or location.

A final recommendation is to do a Social Media Assessment that can provide:

1) Audience Size by geography and topic

2) Key participants and thought leaders in your area

3) Recommendations for engagement, audience growth strategies, and content

contact me for more information

Albert Maruggi and His PR and Social Media Guests Can Be Streamed to Smartphones

St. Paul, MN, August 26, 2009 — The Marketing Edge podcast – one of the Web’s longest running marketing podcasts – is now available in streaming form on iPhones and many Blackberry models via Stitcher Radio.

Stitcher allows users to access podcasts on their mobile devices without downloading them and creates stations that customize to users’ preferences and interests. Listeners can also stream podcasts on Stitcher’s website. “We are delighted to add podcasting veteran Albert Maruggi and his Marketing Edge podcast to the Stitcher Radio line up,” said Colin Billings, Director of User Experience at Stitcher Radio. He was interview about audio and mobile applications on a recent episode of the Marketing Edge.

“Stitcher is the combination of consumer customized information on a mobile and streamed platform,” Maruggi said. “Mediums like Stitcher Radio serve as a platform for unique and niche content as well as the mainstream media. It is another opening for audio, one of my favorite mediums because it is passive which allows organizations to reach end users, while accommodating an end-user’s busy and mobile lifestyle.”  Stitcher Radio is capitalizing on the growing number of smartphones and the inevitability of a mobile, on-demand information world.

“We are excited by how quickly smart phones are developing. In addition to supporting the iPhone and many Blackberry models, we are preparing to release a Stitcher Radio application for the Palm Pre very soon, and plan to support Android based phones later this year. As mobile phones and wireless networks become more sophisticated, Stitcher will continue to harness these improvements in order to deliver rich listening experiences, and ease users’ transition to consuming talk and audio content on mobile handsets” said Billings.

The Marketing Edge podcast, created in February of 2005, focuses on the latest in the social web, business technologies, public relations, social media and marketing. Maruggi is joined by journalists, business leaders, authors and other innovators to discuss topics spanning from Twitter to health care The Marketing Edge recently interviewed Chris Brogan, author of Trust Agents. Upcoming shows will feature Jeremiah Owyang the former Forrester analyst, Shel Israel author of Twitterville and a preview of the Health 2.0 conference.

About Provident Partners
Along with hosting and producing the Marketing Edge, Maruggi is also the founder and president of Provident Partners, a Minnesota based marketing firm which specializes in the effective use of social media, business communications, and public relations strategies. Maruggi is a frequent conference speaker on how business, organizations, and society can benefit from new technologies and communications strategies. Provident Partners also provides PR and marketing strategic consulting, execution and multimedia production.

I’m trying something a bit different, instead of just a blog to land on from Twitter, I’ve decided to provide a unique page that I’ll update as needed. First some basic items to consider when following me on Twitter. I use Twitter as a total communications outlet, business, personal, relationships, and even sometimes, What I’m doing now.  

Confessions: I use it to highlight, even promote new blog posts. I don’t go hog wild, a couple of tweets here and there to let people know I’ve something potentially worthwhile on the stove.  By the way, I write the Marketing Edge blog and podcast, that even others have recommended. :>)

Hidden Objective:  I crack myself up. And I hope to share some of those chuckles with people on Twitter,  people, I don’t care if the bots following me laugh or not. So you might see some tweets that don’t make sense, unless you read what I responded to.  I know, I know, I shouldn’t end a sentence with to, sorry Mrs. Grady (elementary school English teacher) 

 
Clients: Sometimes I will share what I’m doing with or for clients on Twitter. I usually will indicate those tweets with a (C) just to save space.  If there is room the first time I tweet about clients I will spell out the word.   I have not yet taken on clients that I promote their stuff, for example. Here’s XYZ software company, they have great stuff, you should buy some.  That situation has not yet presented itself and I’d rather not get into that kind of relationship.

I have pointed tweets to clients that have a software product in beta that they want feedback about.  I believe this represents more of Twitter’s core value, it is a two way street and I’m not asking someone to shell out cash. I also do not get paid for Tweeting about clients. 

What I do like to do is report about industries and trends. I will do that for clients and gladly take that conversation to Twitter to get more dialogue on a topic. To me, that is the beauty of social media in general and Twitter specifically.  For example,  I am doing project work Verizon Wireless.  I will reference articles or blog posts that highlight the issue of the Android phones, cell networks, and mobile application development. As part of this interesting project, I tapped into an organization I have a commitment in the Social Media Breakfast. Verizon Wireless is interested in being a part of the social community, in Des Moines there is an active and growing community online and in mobile development. I am involved with Nathan Wright of Lava Row in organizing the first Social Media Breakfast in Des Moines, Iowa with a dynamic panel conversation about the mobile web. I will be Tweeting a lot about it. I have also created Twitter lists in the areas I’m interested.

Dogs: Occasionally I talk about dogs, and you’ll see Torry, I am guaranteed to get a smile from at least her when I come home. Thanks for following.

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