Thank you to Maureen Kedes for interviewing Valerie Jennings Friday on PR Insider. During the interview, Valerie discussed how she started Jennings Social Media Marketing by transforming it to a more non-traditional way of approaching PR. Although she still incorporates the standard components that make up for a typical public relations company, Valerie embraces her work more through social media and the art of online storytelling. Here’s a brief transcription of the interview.
Maureen: Today I have an expert on the show in social media storytelling. Her name is Valerie Jennings, Founder and CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing.
Maureen: Tell us how you started before the birth of social media?
Valerie: My background is as a journalist. I was a print reporter and I did some on-camera work. I worked on the government side; I did some public affairs, media outreach. I got more training on the traditional side. Even though I’m not a senior entrepreneur, I started my business at the age of 24. I did give us a huge boost from competitor’s standpoint. When I first started the business, it was traditional PR–pitching, press releases, media coaching, prepping for interviews, and looking at what’s going to sell.
Valerie: We experimented with a PR Web and we used a a lot of search engine optimization to capture the story; what was interesting and what was going to drive traffic.
We’ve continued to expand what we do, and we still do a lot of traditional. But we’ve maintained the social networking side as a way to penetrate some of the traditional aspect. For example, we have a great blog post; we’re a great video to produce for a client. We’re going to maximize that on the client’s Twitter site on a social media press release on Facebook, whatever it is. So we talk about success in an exclusive client list, and we’re really looking for companies that have amazing stories. We try to figure out what is a possibility and we figure out what is trending. As a journalist, if people aren’t looking for it, why would they be paying attention?
Thank you Maureen Kedes for booking Valerie Jennings, CEO and founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing, on PR Insider to review social media storytelling: How To Be The Best Social Media Storyteller
Twitter has created ‘connections,’ their own version of Facebook’s ‘mutual friends.’ In a recent article from techcrunch.com, written by Alexia Tsotsis, explains that even though Twitter has experimented with the feature before, the change is a permanent step towards developing a more useful Twitter social graph.
The article states that Twitter has collapsed its “Followed By” and “You Both Follow” features into one area called “Connections.” This allows you to see what users you have in common with other Twitter users. While you still can’t see the number of users you have in common, you can see a complete list of mutual follows and people you are both followed by when you click “more.”
Twitter’s Carolyn Penner says, “By exposing accounts that you and another user have in common, you will now know how those accounts are connected to other accounts you already follow. As a result, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about which accounts to follow.”
Franchises have been embracing social media platforms as an opportunity to help extend their brands. In a recent article, written by Jason Ankeny in entrepeneur.com, he explains the significance in using social media for franchises.
The article states that among franchises active in social media, 45 percent tell Franchise Business Review they’ve leveraged tools like Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter to boost brand awareness, and 24 percent are pursuing new customers. But 11 percent are looking at social networking as a way to recruit franchisees.
“Social media is a part of every marketing campaign we have. We have a presence on various social networking sites, and many franchisees have their own sites as well,” says Christie Wells, customer experience and communications manager for Häagen-Dazs Shoppe Co, a gourmet ice cream business in Minneapolis. “These are awareness opportunities for us, and we’re using them to get the word out there that we’re looking for franchisees.”
“The heart of the social media opportunity is that we’re continuing to get better at building a dialogue with our fans. We can understand what they want and what they don’t want, and respond in ways consistent with our brand equity,” O’ Reilly of Einstein Bros says. “Consumers are smart and they’re savvy, with opinions that need to be respected. Social media is the best way to keep them engaged.”
1102 GRAND, Kansas City’s data center and Internet hub, saw a 200-300 percent increase in its website and blog traffic, and cut 75 percent of its Google Adwords budget. The marketing ROI is part of an ongoing social media campaign with Jennings Social Media Marketing (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).
Darren Bonawitz, principal of 1102 GRAND, said that Jennings Social Media Marketing helped 1102 GRAND have a better perspective of online marketing strategies. “We were in need of marketing experts and that is exactly what we found in Jennings Social Media Marketing. We have worked with Jennings Social Media Marketing for approximately two years. In that time 1102 GRAND has had an increase in website traffic, saved 75 percent of the budget on the Google Adwords campaign, been requested for more interviews than we can handle and been able to realize significant quantifiable results through additional revenue,” said Bonawitz.
Bonawitz added that the focus on social media is extremely beneficial. “Jennings Social Media Marketing implemented many facets of social media marketing including Facebook, Twitter, e-newsletters, blog, case studies, organic search engine optimized press releases and Web videos. Social media is such a vital tool because it is constantly working. We have had so many great results, and it is hard to argue with results,” said Bonawitz.
1102 GRAND is a Midwestern carrier hotel and network neutral collocation facility specifically enhanced with the infrastructure to host and provide services to an array of global network operators including carriers, service providers and enterprise customers who demand highly secure and connected, customized solutions for their core networking equipment. 1102 GRAND offers a wide array of collocation options including cabinets, cage space, suites and space for private data centers, all of which are connected to a carrier neutral Meet Me Room, housing nearly 30 carriers and service providers including AT&T, Level 3, TeliaSonera, tw telecom, Zayo Enterprise Networks, and Hurricane Electric (http://1102grand.com/).
2010, often referred to as “the year of social media,” has come and gone. As we move forward into 2011, we will continue to see social media evolve and grow.
Below is an article from Mashable.com, written by Tim Ferriss, providing his insight into-
Ah, social media marketing. Fewer things are so lavishly spent on, yet so poorly measured. Here are a few predictions for 2011 related to where the smart money and dumb money will go. Special thanks to a number of high-volume retail experts for their insights, including Ryan Holiday, director of marketing at American Apparel. Read on for our predictions and let us know in the comments what you think social media marketing will look like in the year to come.
1. YouTube Beats Yahoo — Video Will Convert
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the English-speaking world. That’s right: YouTube is bigger than Yahoo. Zappos, as one example, added simple videos of people holding shoes and moving them around to its sales pages and increased conversion rate from 6% to 30%. When I look at the traffic sources for my book trailer on YouTube, the biggest referrer isn’t my own blog. It’s The Huffington Post. I customized the video and text content to a niche (but sizeable) outlet that didn’t exist two years ago: Huffington Post Books. With proper targeting and syndication, this 50 second video almost immediately propelled my book from an Amazon rank of approximately number 150 to 30, now stabilizing at number four in all books. We usedRankForest to track this sudden change.
2. The Full Resurrection of E-mail
Groupon has an e-mail list of at least 15 million strong in the U.S. (the company says it’s 30+ million if you include international), which goes to show that a true permission asset can be worth nearly $6 billion on the bidding table. E-mail addresses are a safer long-term investment than social media features. Think about all the money companies spent advertising their MySpace pages in 2007. Even on Facebook, your direct messages to fans are relegated to a second tier inbox no one reads. This is something you don’t have to worry about happening in e-mail marketing. Among 20- to 35-year olds, at least, their physical addresses change more frequently than their e-mail addresses. The smarter marketers will budget “social media” acquisitions based on lifetime value (or a set duration, like 6 months’ retail purchases) of e-mail addresses. One major retailer did the math and learned that an e-mail subscriber is worth roughly $20 a year in annual online revenue. Knowing this number allowed the retailer to:
Calculate the value of the real estate it gives the e-mail signup box at the register in stores. It turns out to be one of the most lucrative converters in an already competitive area.
Easily say “Yes” or “No” to requests to participate in contests/sweepstakes by judging return on new e-mails acquired.
Calculate what the company can spend to build its list.
There are companies like Opt-Intelligence that can be paid a CPA (cost per action) for what are called “co-regs.” Co-reg example: If you’re signing up for an account at NYTimes.com, and it says “Get 4 issues of Golf Magazine FREE!” someone paid for that because they knew it will make money based on lifetime value. After the above-mentioned retailer quantified what an e-mail subscriber was worth, the company was able to double its subscriber base in less than eight months. The majority of that growth came not through spending money upfront, but from the redirection of already existing resources in ways that weren’t possible before calculating that number. Let’s say that added 500,000 e-mail addresses, each worth $20 in 2011; that means an additional $10 million in revenue with no significant capital outlay. Aaron Ray uses the same tactics for the “free agent bands” (major acts who’ve left a label) at The Collective. He figures out how many tickets you sell through your fan club, how many downloads come from your e-mail list, and how much traffic you can drive through Facebook and Twitter. It’s critical for two reasons: 1) For accurate revenue/sales/attendance predictions, and 2) As ROI metrics to justify investments for growth. This also allows loss-leader campaigns. Even if the math on a Groupon deal is razor thin, a smart retailer (online or offline) can acquire e-mails through a special form they set up and add an extra $20+ per transaction, per our hypothetical example. Many companies can afford to give product away for “free” if they have the right metrics. Most companies don’t, which leads us to number three.
At the Social Good Summit held by Mashable and 92Y, Chris Hughes commented on the upcoming release of a new social network designed for non-profit organizations. Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, explained his passion for Jumo, the new network. Jumo will primarily exist to build relationships between people and non-profit organizations. He believes that giving begins with a relationship, and Jumo will help create these connections. Watch this video to learn more about the innovative social network that Hughes has planned.
There has been an increasing emphasis on charitable giving in the online world in recent years. In 2009, people contributed $15 billion more online than the total given in 1997. Shane Snow, a New York City writer and entrepreneur, created this informative graphic which compares online and traditional offline donations and outlines who is giving and how they choose to give.
Valerie Jennings offered tips in a podcast that was picked up by MSNBC.com. She provided advice for business owners and marketers on attracting visitors to their websites, building brand awareness, and protecting their brand online.
Jennings said that one method for driving website traffic to a page “is by using social media press releases that are highly search engine optimized.” She goes on to suggest the use of Marketwire and WordPress to increase search engine optimization.
Jennings promotes the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These social media sites build brand awareness. However, she advises managers to utilize them carefully. “If these sites are set up properly and managed well, it will prevent competitors from trying to hijack your company’s brand,” said Jennings.
Watch this video regarding the humanitarian effort the social media industry has put into the world and the history of Jennings Social Media Marketing.
Social media has changed the world dramatically. We are seeing more and more charitable actions carried out by social media channels. For example, Twestival is the largest global grassroots social media fundraising initiative to date, raising over $1.2 million within 14 months for 137 nonprofits. Under disastrous circumstances, like the BP oil spill, Tumblr promoted awareness and raised funds by offering a new background color. When earthquakes devastated Haiti and Chile, Google Earth launched special search engines to help families find their loved ones.
Valerie Jennings, the founder and CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing started the company in 2003. Coinciding with the US social and economic conditions, Jennings has been through the unstable post-9/11 period, inflation, recession as well as natural disasters. As a small business, Jennings not only survived, but thrived during the past 7 years. All of these made us reconsider our values and beliefs. Why are we here, what do our families mean to us and what are our life purposes?
Jennings Social Media Marketing is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. Jennings creates comprehensive social media marketing and web advertising strategies from website design and development to viral videos. The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the U.S. and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate.
Follow Valerie Jennings on Twitter @ValerieJennings
Like Jennings Social Media Marketing on Facebook here
Social networking sites are implementing creative methods for presenting advertisements to their users. Businesses recognize the impact of advertising on sites such as Facebook and Myspace. This article by Adam Ostrow at mashable.com shows that U.S. advertisers are expected to spend more this year on social networking sites.
The latest numbers from eMarketer project that advertisers will spend nearly $1.7 billion in the U.S. on social networking sites in 2010. Worldwide, spending will hit $3.3 billion according to the report.
The numbers represent a significant bump up from estimates published by the research firm at the end of last year, when it projected $1.3 billion would be spent on the space in the U.S.
Have you ever wondered how much time the average person spends on the Internet? And have you ever wondered how much of that time is spent on social networking sites? Thanks to Neilsen, we now know that people spend more time on sites such as Facebook and Twitter than on any other site. Here is an article from mashable.com by Adam Ostrow about the Neilsen findings.
Social networking now eats up twice as much of our online time as any other activity. According to new stats from Nielsen, sites like Facebook and Twitter now account for 22.7% of time spent on the web; the next closest activity is online games, which make up 10.2%.
The stats also show the degree to which social networking is displacing other forms of communication, with e-mail as a percentage of online time plunging from 11.5% to 8.3% from June 2009 to June 2010. Instant messaging also saw a significant drop in share, with a 15% decline from last year.
However, e-mail use on mobile is still on the rise – from 37.4% to 41.6% — presumably as users continue to migrate to smartphones from feature phones.
Last Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg sat down for a rare public interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer to discuss the continued success of Facebook along with the latest pressure it has faced. Facebook, the largest social networking site, recently hit a major milestone of 500 million users but along with fame has come issues dealing with privacy and a lawsuit that Zuckerberg sold a portion of the ownership in exchange for work in the early years of Facebook.
Here is a podcast from Valerie Jennings, entrepreneur and CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing.
“Hi this is Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing. I want to offer a few tips about how you can use social media to protect your brand, build awareness on the Internet and drive traffic to websites like your blog or primary company website or even a landing page. Some of the things that we look at are competitor analysis reports, so that we can see how competitors are appearing on the Internet in comparison to some of our clients. Additionally, we try to make sure that we have all of the holes plugged as far as having a Twitter account, Facebook page and do they have their LinkedIn site set up properly. These are some simple things you can do as a business owner to make sure that you have all of your social networking sites reserved so that a competitor does not try to take the name or hijack your brand.”
Click below to listen to the rest of Jennings’ tips on how to use social media to protect your brand and drive website traffic.
Two popular Kraft Food brands are increasing their social media marketing efforts with campaigns on Twitter and Facebook. Here is an article from nytimes.com, by Stuart Elliott, about Oreo cookies and Wheat Thins revamping their brands on social networking sites.
The number of advertisers with presences in the social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are increasing faster than the lines at the supermarket when the values of the cents-off coupons are being tripled.
Now, two familiar brands of baked goods sold by Kraft Foods are stepping up their marketing efforts in social media.
One brand, Oreo cookies, is going to be giving its Facebook page a global look, effective on Monday. The other brand, Wheat Thins crackers, is starting a campaign to reward fans of the brand who discuss it on Twitter.
Oreo has been on Facebook since last August with a page that has been primarily American-oriented. But the many comments left on the page from other countries — reflecting that more than half the brand’s 5 million Facebook fans are from outside the United States — led to a rethinking of how Oreo is presented on the Web site.
“It was an ‘A-ha’ moment for us,” said Mark Clouse, senior vice president for global biscuits at Kraft Foods in Northfield, Ill., reflecting that the company understands Facebook “is now a global vehicle and a platform we can use to have a global dialog” with consumers.
This series is supported by Ben & Jerry’s Joe, Ben & Jerry’s new line-up of Fair Trade and frozen iced coffee drinks. Learn more about it here.
Infographics help communicate information in a digestible manner as they creatively present data in an understandable and engaging format. With social media growing at an ever increasing pace, there is now a wealth of data about how people interacting with one another on the web. Naturally, infographics have proven an excellent aid in expressing high volumes of social web information in a clear, visually appealing manner.
Here are 10 infographics that prove as beautiful as they are interesting.
1. Social Web Involvement
This is a global map of social web involvement which illustrates that hundreds of millions of web users are creating and sharing content every month. It provides a clear visualization of the ways in which social technologies are adopted differently across the world, showing the number of active bloggers, social networkers, video sharers, photo uploaders and microbloggers.
Interestingly, it reveals that despite the Twitter hype, microblogging is still not a mass social activity and is nowhere near the size and scale of blogging.
2. Social Marketing Compass
A compass is a device for orientating oneself and guiding physical direction. The social marketing compass points a brand in a physical and experimental direction, allowing them to connect with their customers, peers, and influencers, where those users already interact and seek guidance online.
Created to illustrate social marketing within the book Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web, this infographic was also available as a poster to celebrate the book’s pre-sale.
Dr. Robert Patterson, Chiropractor & Internal Health Specialist of Overland Chiropractic recently reviewed social media marketing for the health care industry, which showed up on bussinessweek.com.
As the world becomes a more global place, businesses are increasingly building relationships with international clients, which can often be difficult. I would like to share an article from mashable.com about six ways to manage international relationships online.
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Sometimes the hardest part of having international clients is finding a way to connect with them. Small businesses often have to worry about different time zones, different languages, and even different customs and traditions.
While there’s no catch-all, golden resource that can solve every problem a small internationally-minded business could have, there are some easy ways to keep your business up-to-date and in the overseas loop.
Here, we’ll help you through the basic steps of interacting with overseas clients, from translating pleasantries to tracking shipments to making sure you don’t accidentally call them in the middle of the night.
1. Basic Information
Before you even get started, it’s important to know the basic information about your client’s country. Usually the most thorough and reliable way to bone up is through the country’s official webpage. England, for example, has a good site with lots of information. Unfortunately, most of these sites are geared towards tourism and less so the time-pressed businessperson.
Wikipedia can actually be a great, quick and comprehensive alternative. Wikipedia pages exist for most major countries and include a helpful info bar on the right side of the page (usually just below the country’s flag). This information includes official languages, government make up, population estimates, GDP, currency, time zone, and calling code.
Also check out The World Factbook, maintained by the CIA. It includes “information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities,” according to their website.
Dr. Robert Patterson, Chiropractor & Internal Health Specialist of Overland Chiropractic assesses how social media marketing has helped his busy, Overland Park, Kansas practice gain maximum exposure.
Dr. Patterson first began working with Jennings Social Media Marketing about six months ago and has utilized a range of Jennings’ services including viral videos, website design and development, search engine optimization, social networking site management, blog posts & graphic design. Overland Chiropractic has already seen measurable results which they continue to track, such as an increase in e-newsletter subscribers, increased website and blog traffic, increased Twitter followers and TV interviews. Jennings Social Media Marketing booked Dr. Robert Patterson for an interview on one of Kansas City’s local news channels, FOX 4.
According to Dr. Patterson, “Valerie (CEO of Jennings) is very high energy; she really keeps things moving. I need somebody to push me and to give me deadlines and she does that.” Dr. Patterson views Jennings Social Media Marketing as an extension of his staff and looks forward to a long term relationship.
Jennings Social Media Marketing is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. Jennings creates comprehensive social media marketing and Web advertising strategies from website design and development to viral videos. The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the U.S. and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate.
For more information on Jennings Social Media Marketing, please visit jenningssocialmedia.com
For more information on Overland Chiropractic and Dr. Robert Patterson, please visit overlandchiro.com
Here is a podcast from Valerie Jennings, entrepreneur and CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing, regarding social media integration with sales.
“Hi this is Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings social media marketing. I want to review some social media marketing strategies with you that include sales and social media marketing integration. One way we do this is by looking at a current companies sale system. We need to know where there needs are coming from rather that be ecommerce, direct mail, phone calls, it could be advertising. It could be promotions they are currently running. And we want to understand how those needs are being processed in order to best accommodate the sales team and the sales system.”
Click the play button above to listen to the rest of Jennings’ strategies for social media marketing integration.
As of today, real-time results from millions of users’ Facebook posts will now appear in search results on OneRiot, one of the world’s leading real-time search engines.
These Facebook posts will also be accessible through OneRiot’s API, which powers more than 100 real-time apps around the web and on mobile devices.
OneRiot already pulls data from blogs, Twitter, Digg and millions of other sources all over the social web. Having access to Facebook’s nearly 500 million members, however, takes these search results to a higher plane by pooling a much larger dataset when finding and ranking links for search results.
Facebook data that will appear in OneRiot search results include publicly shared links on user profiles and publicly “liked” stories from all over the web. For example, a search for “World Cup” on OneRiot will reveal the most popular links about the soccer tournament being shared by Facebook users right now.
The AP Stylebook caused a bit of an uproar back in April when they announced, via Twitter:
Responding to reader input, we are changing Web site to website. This appears on Stylebook Online today and in the 2010 book next month.
Well, the new Stylebook is out, and it includes some additional webby updates. Namely, a new “Social Media Guidelines” section.
AP announced:
The new Social Media Guidelines section includes information and policies on using tools like Facebook and Twitter, how journalists can apply them to their work and how to verify sources found through them. Also included are 42 separate entries on such terms as app, blogs, click-throughs, friend and unfriend, metadata, RSS, search engine optimization, smart phone, trending, widget and wiki.
I would like to share a unique study over the age demographics of social media users. Many would assume that most social media users are young tech-savvy teens but this online story brings out the truth behind the myth.
How old is the average Twitter or Facebook user? What about all the other social network sites, like MySpace, LinkedIn, and so on? How is age distributed across the millions and millions of social network users out there?
To find out, we pulled together age statistics for 19 different social network sites, and crunched the numbers.
Full list of sites in this study: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Slashdot, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, Last.fm, Friendster, LiveJournal, Hi5, Tagged, Ning, Xanga, Classmates.com, Bebo.
is the second largest search engine in the English-speaking world. That’s right: YouTube is bigger than Yahoo. Zappos, as one example, added simple videos of people holding shoes and moving them around to its sales pages and increased conversion rate from 6% to 30%. When I look at the traffic sources for my book trailer on YouTube, the biggest referrer isn’t my own blog. It’s The Huffington Post. I customized the video and text content to a niche (but sizeable) outlet that didn’t exist two years ago: Huffington Post Books. With proper targeting and syndication, this 50 second video almost immediately propelled my book from an Amazon rank of approximately number 150 to 30, now stabilizing at number four in all books. We usedRankForest to track this sudden change.
pages in 2007. Even on Facebook
Social networking now eats up twice as much of our online time as any other activity. According to new stats from Nielsen, sites like Facebook and Twitter now account for 22.7% of time spent on the web; the next closest activity is online games, which make up 10.2%.
“Hi this is Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing. I want to offer a few tips about how you can use social media to protect your brand, build awareness on the Internet and drive traffic to websites like your blog or primary company website or even a landing page. Some of the things that we look at are competitor analysis reports, so that we can see how competitors are appearing on the Internet in comparison to some of our clients. Additionally, we try to make sure that we have all of the holes plugged as far as having a Twitter account, Facebook page and do they have their LinkedIn site set up properly. These are some simple things you can do as a business owner to make sure that you have all of your social networking sites reserved so that a competitor does not try to take the name or hijack your brand.” 
Sometimes the hardest part of having international clients is finding a way to connect with them. Small businesses often have to worry about different time zones, different languages, and even different customs and traditions.
“Hi this is Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings social media marketing. I want to review some social media marketing strategies with you that include sales and social media marketing integration. One way we do this is by looking at a current companies sale system. We need to know where there needs are coming from rather that be ecommerce, direct mail, phone calls, it could be advertising. It could be promotions they are currently running. And we want to understand how those needs are being processed in order to best accommodate the sales team and the sales system.”
As of today, real-time results from millions of users’ Facebook posts will now appear in search results on OneRiot, one of the world’s leading real-time search engines.
