Social Media Education in a Business

Educating a company about social media can be very hard. One way I am working on educating at Axiom Marketing is by compiling a "Social Media Reading List." I am able to read hundreds of blog posts a week (and not everyone at Axiom has this kind of time), so I filter through these articles in order to create a weekly list of reading about social media, marketing, and the evolving world of digital pr that would be beneficial and relevant. Once the list is sent out, I make an effort discuss the material and dialogue about the topics.

In conjunction with my Reading Lists, I am also working on teaching my coworkers at Axiom how to reach out to bloggers and not sound like a flack. Walking them through a step by step process, I outlined how to find blogs to read, how and when to make comments, ways to give instead of just take, and other various do's and dont's for blogger relations. Learning proper blogger etiquette will be important for the future success of marketing companies.

The online world is going to continue changing things, so not only do you need to prepare, but your company must as well. How have you been educating your coworkers and business partners on social media? What has worked? What hasn't?

Marketing with Chaos

This week, we have seen a few big discussions on the validity of a product or message due to their apparently chaotic image being portrayed (Pepsi logo redesign, Jaoquin Phoenix on Letterman).

These things may be real or they may be fake, but I think that maybe marketers are using confusion to create buzz.

While a clear, solid message is often the best approach, disorder, brand inconsistency, and chaos often get just as much attention, whether it is on purpose or not.

The Gravitational Pull of Pepsi: Scientific or Sham?

Pepsi recently redesigned their logo as they have done many times in the past. I came across the document outlining Pepsi's process and rational behind the redesign and was surprised by what I found.

First, Pepsi analyzed their past logos, deconstructing them into shapes and studying the reoccurring patterns. This part seemed pretty straightforward and made sense for deciding where to take the design next.

Next they overlapped the circle patterns to determine what a new logo should look like also taking into consideration the evolution of bottle shapes and how that affects design.

Section C is where thing started to really get interesting. Titled "Towards Innovation: Projecting Pepsi's Future, Applying Universal Laws to Establish a Blueprint for the Brand," this section dug into natural laws such as ratio, proportion, scale, and even gravitational pull of the earth to calculate factors that should be considered for the redesign.

Apparently by studying the Earth's "naturally occurring electric generator in fluid motion that sustains the Earth's magnetic field" the redesign team was able to determine the best way to align the new Pepsi logo curves of blue and red.

After looking through these diagrams, things really moved from scientific to ridiculous for me. Earth's magnetic fields and angles of the light from stars determining the logo for a sugar water beverage?

I believe the aim of this document was to get people talking and to cause people to write about the absurdity of it (looks like they succeeded in getting me to help them). I can't help but believe that at least a good chunk of this document was pure tongue-in-cheek and humor. I could be wrong. What do you think? Scientific or sham?

How To Catch All of Your ReTweets and Mentions On Twitter

Did you know that the @Replies Tab in Twitter only lists the Tweets that begin with "@yourname" but doesn't include any tweets that contain your handle inside of the Tweet? For example - the following Tweet (although it contains @axiompr) would not show up in my @Replies tab because the @ isn't at the beginning:

If you aren't watching your stream constantly, there is no way to catch everytime someone ReTweets you or mentions your name. There is probably a lot you are missing out on. How can you be sure to not let these valuable interactions slip by unnoticed? The answer is simple and will help you become a much better Twitter user.

Step 1. Go to www.search.twitter.com . This great tool will allow you to search for people who are talking about what you are interested in, which in this case is your handle.

Step 2. Search for your term. When I search for "axiompr" (my handle is @axiompr) the search will bring up all the times "axiompr" has been Tweeted. This will find not only my own Tweets, but those times when someone else ReTweeted me or used my handle in the middle of their Tweet.

Step 3. Click "Feed This Query" at the top right of the page. Now, anytime that someone ReTweets you or mentions your handle within their Tweet, you will catch it. This is also a great way to be alerted on other key terms, to keep track of hashtag conversations, and to become aware of opportunities that you may have not known about.

Axiom is Hiring!

Wanted: A candidate who can work a minimum of 30 hours per week for a stipend-paid internship. Best candidate for the position must possess fire-in-the-belly initiative and won’t shy away from being stretched across multiple communications projects, i.e. results lists, product pitch follow-ups, and idea generation for a number of home and garden, hospitality, consumer tech, and automotive clients.

We’re also looking for someone who has confidence; it’s a no-brainer for delivering messages over the phone, in meetings, and via e-mail. Due to our small office environment, ideal candidate must demonstrate independent work ethic, so it’s preferable to have previous internship/class experience in marketing, PR, journalism.

But the biggest thing you must possess… is a love for emerging media platforms and technologies like FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and a number of blogs that benefit Axiom’s clientele. This doesn’t mean you know of them-- it means you use them and understand how businesses can market their products by leveraging multiple social networks. Like to write about social media? Good. You’ll be a daily contributor to our Daily Axioms blog and assist in developing strong word-of-mouth buzz for our guerrilla marketing adventure, the Phone Booth.

If that sounds like you, @ reply either Drew or me on Twitter and we’ll send you off to the guy who hires!

Axiom Marketing Communications is based in the Twin Cities. Only locals may apply!