Social Media is ever preset in the Super Bowl this year. How will you be following the super bowl? Good old fashioned TV, or through social media? We want to hear!

Check out these great articles for how to stay social this super bowl.

Mashable: How to Follow Super Bowl 2012

ABC: Super Bowl advertisers go big in social media

Davids Soundview Catering is offering their fans a chance to win a free platinum Keurig this holiday season! We are obsessed with our Keurig machine at RMG, and know you will be too! Enter for a chance to win the Platinum Keurig here. Their sweepstakes ends December 26th. Good Luck!

Win a Platinum Keurig from David’s Soundview Catering!

Enter to win here:

http://www.facebook.com/DavidsCatering?sk=app_28134323652

In case you missed it, check out Kris Ruby of Ruby Media giving BRAVOS Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger some Twitter advice!

Tonight I will be making a special appearance on BRAVO’s Millionaire Matchmaker at 9 pm.  Patti and I will be discussing all things social media and Twitter! So tune in to the opening of tonights episode for a special treat!

This morning I spoke on a social media panel at the 914 Inc. Westchester Magazine Business Breakfast and Social Media Discussion. Here are some of the questions we discussed and some of my business insights on the recent Facebook changes, social media for your business today and more! Thank you to Dave Donelson for a great job moderating the panel discussion, as well as all of the other panelists.

Why is social media important to businesses?

Social media is important to businesses because people are talking about your business. It is better to have a voice and opinion then to ignore what people are saying about your company altogether. Social media is important to business because it is an integral part of business; especially how any new business in the current economy can function and market itself cost effectively today.

How does it differ from other forms of promotion?

Social media differs from other forms of promotion in that it is, in essence, not supposed to be promotional. Social media is truly brand building. The issue is that people today don’t realize just how important brand building is for their business, and instead think forms of direct marketing or advertising is more powerful then other types of promotion. Social media is equally as important.

Social media marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it does not focus on immediately establishing the value of your services or products, but rather it is about establishing you as an icon and thought leader in the industry- to create an awareness of your name and brand.  It is not a specific advertisement for a given product or service- it is about brand engagement.

How much time and money does it take?

Social media is not free. On average, it takes anywhere between 25-40 hours per month to integrate your social media and public relations campaign. The two should work hand in hand.  Social Media is an extension of corporate branding.  As a client, you are paying for the ability to utilize modern electronic techniques to get in front of a targeted audience.  Social media is not an advertisement and it is not a banner ad.  Social media is inherently about branding to a focused audience.  It is about the ability to quickly get in front of prospects, current clients and leads, and to establish an online relationship with them and build customer engagement.  The type of results you should be looking to expect is similar to what you would expect from a long term branding campaign.  Social media marketing is essentially a global awareness and branding campaign that takes time to develop.

How do you know if you’re getting any results?

You know if you are getting results based on community awareness of your brand, an increase in press mentions, an increase in brand identity (positive brand identity), or an increase in new leads.

What’s the most important factor in success with social media?

The most important factor to be successful in social media is to have clients who are willing to make the commitment to work with you on content creation. If you are going to represent someone online (similar to how a Hollywood agent represents an actor) then the agent needs to be in fairly frequent communication with that actor. The same is true for social media. In order to truly represent what your clients are doing in real time, you need to be in frequent contact with them so what you are posting about their lives represents what they are actually doing. If you have a client that is impossible to get in touch with or only wants you to make up stories about what they could potentially doing, the campaign will never truly be a success.

What is the one thing you should never do in social media?

The one thing you should never do in social media is to be too promotional, and yet we are all (myself included) guilty of it. Once you have committed this crime, it is best to disappear off the Facebook radar for a little while so you redeem yourself, or you can try 30 days of positive posting and make sure NONE of your posts include the words “Me” or “I” in them and are only informational, sharing posts that have nothing to do with you, your clients, or your company.

Any media, social or otherwise, needs an audience. How do you get one in social media?

You get an audience by branding yourself as an opinion leader and expert in your field. Take your knowledge that you have in a specific niche market and start sharing it with friends and family to begin building the audience. If they like what you have to say, they will then start sharing your posts with THEIR friends and family, and it can eventually lead to you developing your own unique audience.

Given the limited audiences of most social media, how does a business justify it?

I disagree with the premise of the question. According to recent statistics, Facebook has 800+ users and Google+ has 43 million users. Definitely not a “limited” audience.

If you have to prioritize, which social media should come first?

1.    Social Media Strategy should always come first (so to answer the question, the first social media to come first is NOT social media, it is traditional marketing/PR laid out in MS Word!)

2.    Once you have chosen the appropriate channels for your strategy and business goals, you can then choose which networks work for your company accordingly

What’s the newest, greatest thing in social media?

• The new Facebook Timeline will revolutionize your Facebook experience, but it also has the potential to drudge up everything from your entire Facebook history (from 5+ years ago that you thought was gone forever)

• On Sept 30th, everyone’s Facebook profile will go through a drastic change and everyone will have the Facebook Timeline. This change will be mandatory.

 ”Rather than just displaying your most recent activities, your profile will become a scrapbook documenting your entire life, all the way back to your birth. Facebook will become a record of your existence: All your memories, your victories and your defeats, your loves, your losses and everything in between. You’ll be shocked, as I was, when this change is made. Suddenly your life is laid out before you, the highs and lows somehow pinpointed by Facebook’s algorithms.” Pete Cashmore, CNN “You’ll Freak When You See the New Facebook” 

• Users will have more control over what shows up on their newsfeed. You can unsubscribe from people’s updates as opposed to de-friending. Additionally, you can control how much of what you see from their updates
• Hulu and Spotify are now integrated directly into Facebook. You can actually watch and play music directly from Facebook. Additionally, you can share what you’re listening to and comment directly on what other people are listening/watching as well.
• You don’t have to just “Like” something anymore; you’ll be able to use any verb through “Facebook Gestures.” I wonder if this will change the premise of “Liking” a fan page and how this will impact business fan pages?

Check out Jason Fells latest article on the home page of Entrepreneur Magazine.com.  I particularly love his intro with Disney!

“Master animator and entrepreneur Walt Disney suffered an emotional meltdown in 1931, three years after the debut of Mickey Mouse in the cartoonSteamboat Willie. He was cracking under the pressure of running Walt Disney Studio and overseeing a brand that was beginning to receive global recognition.

“I had a hell of a breakdown,” Disney recalls in a TV biography called Walt: The Man Behind the Myth. “I got to the point that I couldn’t talk on the telephone. I’d begin to cry.”

Disney ultimately began to better manage stress by traveling with his wife, Lillian, and by playing polo. For other business owners, the road to recovering from work-related tensions isn’t so clear. “Stress reduces the entrepreneur’s ability to make effective decisions and manage risk, which creates additional stress,” explains Dick Thompson, author of The Stress Effect: Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions — And What to Do About It (Jossey-Bass, 2010).” Jason Fell, Entrepreneur Magazine, copyright 

Read The FULL article here! 

Definitely also want to give a major shout out and thank you to my business coach Bonnie Haber of Corporate Calm, who worked with me through surviving “startup stress” Thanks Bonnie! Highly recommend her

 

 

 

Dig Boston published an interview today titled “Up-Start,” Socializing your Business, where Justin Korn summarized some of my main takeaways for business owners to start their own companies.  My Favorite part, where he discussed my notion of “social media snubbing.” Have you been snubbed?

“Within the next few weeks or so, approximately 300,000 students will migrate back to Boston for the fall. Essentially, Boston is a college town at heart; it gave rise to some of the most prolific minds in the country. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are products of Boston, names that bring as much pride to Boston as Ted Williams and Bobby Orr. Whether or not you attend a university or have a B.A. in basket weaving, Boston’s youth is driving an entrepreneurial movement that is exciting and promising.

Got any top 40 entrepreneurs under 40? We do. She’s only 23 and she’s wise beyond her years.

Kristen Ruby, founder of Ruby Media Group—an agency that specializes in Social Media Marketing, Public Relations and Personal Branding—is another product of her environment: Boston. She graduated from Boston University’s College of Communications and patented RMG (Ruby Media Group LLC) right after graduation. While RMG is well on its way to climbing Forbes’ lists in years to come, Kristen’s goal is paving the way for other young-minded thinkers to drink the Kool-Aid and start their own company.

So instead of sending out hundreds of resumes, deforesting ponderosa pine trees with your printed CVs, try creating your own job stability. Yes, you still need to put food on the table, and yes, you will have to motivate yourself to turn off Springer’s paternity test specials and take charge! But, there’s nothing like being your own boss— ask anyone, especially Kristen.

In Short, Kristen came to a lot of realizations that if left untreated, clash together in a not-so-pretty midlife crisis. Kristen interned for a company that later gave her a “trial run” as a social media specialist, which would eventually turn into a full-time regular job. During her internship, she was lucky enough to discover her passion for social media, albeit she also became weary of answering to a higher power— the boss. Kristen jettisoned big corporate America, taking what she learned and delivering a product businesses thrive on. She interned, she saw, and she conquered.” (Copyright Dig Boston, Justin Korn)

For more, read the FULL article here!

 

 

 

The Westchester County Business Journal recently published some very interesting articles on the rise of social media in Westchester County. Read them here! Interested to hear your thoughts.

Tech, Social Media Boost IPO Rise- By Patrick Gallagher

Adding a Social Channel- By Ryan Doran

RMG was recently featured in Time Magazine- another reason why we love the YEC and why the YEC rocks! I would like to especially thank Scott Gerber, Ryan Paugh and Natalie MacNeil for bringing me into this amazing group as a founding member. They inspire me every day, and I am so honored that Scott included me in this column on Time. I urge everyone to look into their businesses, and the YEC. They are crushing it. Thank you again! Totally honored to be included in this awesome column and hopefully inspire some other entrepreneurs!

Read the full article here

This year at Best of Westchester 2011, RMG helped Westchester Magazine create the first ever social media tent.  What is a social media tent you ask? The goal of the social media tent was to bring together bloggers and active social media partners together for an opportunity for fans to “Meet and Greet” with them and put a face to the Twitter handle.  We even held a meet and greet with Miss Westchester Christina DeLeon and Publisher Ralph Martinelli.  For one night, under one roof, we tried to see people by their Twitter handles, not by their organizations. There were competitive social media agencies, publicists, Publishers and journalists- but all of that was invisible when social media brought them together and they were defined by their Twitter handles. We tried to do, what many would say, was the impossible. Social Media can bring together people in a way that most any other form of traditional business cannot. 20 years ago, it would be unheard of to have different publishers, different communications agencies, and different media outlets all under one roof- promoting one cause-, which was to bring together a community of digitally active voices. I believe we accomplished something very special that evening under the social media tent- we brought together people that otherwise would never be under the same roof, and we were there for the same mission- to increase community and share our experiences of the evening. Granted we learned it was hard to keep journalists in a confined space for any length of time (especially when there are 1,000 things taking place at the Best of Westchester to absorb) but it was really special to see a community come together under the alias of a Twitter handle and a hashtag.