Whether organizations like it or not, marketing trends are requiring brands to rethink how they tell their story and consider engaging their audience in a very human way. These days, your audience wants to connect with people —  not a logo, not a suit, not a paragraph full of verbiage above a college reading level.

What does this mean? It means you’ll notice C-level executives are designating more space in their bios to  family and volunteer activities over degrees and certifications. Retailers are leaning towards customer-generated videos showcasing their products; not high budget advertisements created on a stage. Restaurants are giving sneak peaks into their kitchens rather than boasting that you can’t get a reservation there for two more years.

Where’s a nontraditional place I see this working really well? Animal shelters. Let me explain. Tell me which these dogs you’d be more willing to adopt if you were searching local shelter websites for a new pet:

Dog 1: Cinnabon, a two-year old mixed terrier, was returned to our shelter from a previous owner. She’s afraid of loud noises so potential owner must have a 6 foot fence as she tries to escape when startled. Because she’s so nervous, she must be adopted by someone with no kids, or children over 12 only. She’s scared of men and we think she has some sort of allergy that requires daily medication. OK with other dogs, we aren’t sure about cats.

Dog 2: Hi, I’m Baci, a two-year old petite terrier mix ready to join a family of my own! I’m a little nervous in my kennel, but when the nice shelter volunteers bring me into their office, I love napping on their couch, cuddling up next to them, showing my new friends how I can make stuffed toys squeak, and convincing everyone to give me treats with my puppy dog eyes! It takes me a few minutes to warm up to people, but once I do, I’m a really good listener. My friends at the shelter say I LOVE food and am easily trainable provided you reward me with snacks– I already learned sit, stay and “high five!”  I especially love when I get my allergy medicine in peanut butter (don’t worry, I only need it once a day, and only in the spring and summer)! I love other dogs and could run around with them for hours, but when it’s time to come inside, I just want to nap with you on a nice comfy fleece blanket or couch.

Spoiler alert: Both descriptions perfectly describe my dog, Baci (who was once named Cinnabon in the shelter) at the time we adopted her. While description #1 tells us everything that’s “WRONG” with my dog in a third-person, somewhat cold, way; description #2 humanizes her and illustrates how she’d fit right in with the right family.

I know. You are thinking, “What if a man with 10 kids and a yard with a 4-foot fence came in to adopt her?” Here’s my response:

1. Shelters aren’t just handing out dogs to every person that walks in without talking to them. You get fully vetted (pun intended) to ensure you are right match. My husband (this dude right here, who, you’ll notice has switched out his stuffy headshot for a more human “I’m just a lawyer hanging out being awesome and professional at the same time” look) and I visited Baci three times before the shelter let us take her home. Once as an introduction and to complete an application; once to see if she’d warm up to my husband; and finally a visit that included our dog Scooter to ensure they’d get along.
2. Let’s say we weren’t a good match. That post still brought us into a shelter and the staff could have introduced us to a dog that did fit in with our family. Whether we walked out with Baci, or another dog, we were freeing up much-needed shelter space for other dogs needing the care and kindness of our local animal shelters.

What’s my point? Really I have two. From a communications perspective, I urge you to examine your brand and see if your message is connecting with your audience on a human level. From a personal perspective, please, if you are looking for a pet, consider adopting from a local shelter to rescue (shout out to Delaware Humane whose fabulous staff matched us with Baci, and South Jersey Regional Animal Shelter, whose great work I see all the time).

 

 

 

 

 

If you are on the East Coast, you’re probably digging yourself out of the first big snowstorm of the year. Here in Wilmington, we got well over a foot of snow and social media was on fire from Virginia up to New England talking about Snowstorm Jonas and its effects across the East Coast.
If you manage social media accounts for your business, I highly recommend hopping on the “bad weather” bandwagon and updating your social media platforms with news and pictures about the weather event, even if it does not directly relate to your business. I have found that media outlets have increasingly been hyping up the possibility of bad weather more and more, and you can use that to your advantage.
When a big storm hits, snow, flooding and wind all hamper the media’s ability to get to every corner of their coverage area. Here’s where you come in: Have you noticed local news channels will ask members of the public to send in photos of the storm near them and then broadcast it during storm coverage? It’s the easiest, quickest way to get the most up-to-date information on the storm.
Here’s some tips to ensure your company or organization can leverage a weather event into a PR success:
1. Find the trending hashtags and use them in all of your posts: In Delaware, it was #stormDE; in New Jersey, it was largely #blizzard2016 and #Jonas. Weave these into your posts so both regular social media users and the media can find them when searching for storm-related updates. (Caveat: Don’t use too many hashtags, this is a pet peeve of mine.)

2. Pay attention to media-related hashtags, too: I live in the Philadelphia media market and 6 ABC news anchors must have said, “Send your pictures to us with #6ABCSnow” at least once per minute. The result? A large portion of their newscast was images from all over their coverage area – Cape May to the Poconos – showing the wind, rain, flooding and snow damage. I represent a property management company in New Jersey, and we hashtagged one of our photos #6ABCSnow and it played on air, with a news anchor even mentioning how great it was that the complex already cleared some walkways. Boom! Easy PR across the whole viewing area!

3. Share other posts liberally and in real time: When people lose power (like many did in this storm), they turn to social media for the latest. And if they know your platform will basically serve as a curator for the latest news, they’ll keep coming back to you. In Delaware, I work with a coalition of organizations that care about keeping Delaware’s waterways clean by investing in infrastructure and other programs that would improve water quality. From Wilmington down to Lewes, we shared media coverage all weekend on our Facebook page. And, of course, we peppered in tips about how to ensure you don’t put toxic substances down your storm drains when using snow melt and highlighted how clean water infrastructure would help reduce flooding. To date, a couple of these posts have been some of the most popular on our page.

4. Stay Safe: If you don’t have electric yourself, don’t run the battery down on your phone unless you know you can charge it back up. You may want a picture of that 20 foot wave at the beach, but don’t get so close to the shoreline that you are in harm’s way! Safety first!

As you are putting together you business plan for 2016, are you wondering what role social media should play? The short answer is that it should play a very important role, if done correctly. Digital media is constantly changing, sometimes so quickly we feel like we can’t even catch up, so it’s hard to know where to spend your time, money and effort. Ultimately, it depends on your goals and audience. But, hopefully these predictions help you plan accordingly! Enjoy!

Virtual Reality Hits Social Media

This isn’t the virtual reality every 90s kid (like myself) might be thinking. Don’t expect to be hopping inside some sort of hi-tech tube in your basement to experience living on the moon. But, thanks to the lower cost of 360 video cameras (like the Ricoh Theta) and the emergence of Google Cardboard (a virtual reality “viewer” that works with your smartphone) average folks like myself will be able to create a virtual reality experience right from their phones! Think retail/factor tours, property highlights, and deep dives into your operations.

Video Is No Longer an Added Bonus, It’s Expected

Refer to my first prediction. Technology has gotten cheaper and easier, and social media users can’t get enough of video. Expect new platforms to focus on video while older ones reinvent themselves to make the inclusion of video easier. We’ve seen this in 2014 and 2015– Twitter and Instagram allowed video, Periscope became a social media darling and Vimeo gave YouTube a run for its money. Even Apple got in the game by allowing “Live Photos,” which records a snippet of video before and after you take a picture, to provide a “moment in time” rather than just a picture, on it’s new iPhone 6s. Expect more video-centric technology and ideas in 2016.

Retail Goes Crazy on Social Media

Last month, the new New York Times reported that digital ad spending will soon surpass TV ad spending. This isn’t surprising, and social media networks are making it easier and easier for users to directly purchase goods and services from their platform. Pinterest caught onto this early. They were one of the first to add “buy” buttons on retailer posts, and it’s paid off. Despite having a fairly smaller user base, Pinterest drove 16% of social revenue in 2014.

Why is direct retail gaining on social media? I expect millennials have a lot to do with it. They are a large generation, have a ton of purchasing power, and, by this point, are more comfortable on their phone than almost anywhere else. Swiping to purchase something seems more normal than waiting in line!

In addition to social media platforms creating technology to make direct purchasing easier on their site, I expect we’ll see improvements and innovations in e-commerce. More retailers will weave Google Wallet, Apple Pay, Bitcoin and the like, into their e-commerce abilities.

Authenticity and Transparency Are Key

This isn’t new. In fact, I’ve been saying this for years. But, thanks to the rise of photos and videos on social media, it’s becoming even more and more important. I think the popularity of live streaming  platforms (like Periscope, Blab and Meerkat) make authenticity even more important. People don’t expect polish when you’re live streaming. They expect the truth. I’ve done a ton of work with government agencies and elected officials, and live streaming, if done right, could be really helpful for this sector (and, really, all sectors). They key here is to have a strategic plan to ensure you are providing helpful information to the right audience while remaining authentic.

Simplicity is Key

By 2016, most companies and retailers have been using social media one way or another for a few years now. I expect companies will focus more on what works for them, what has the best ROI, and what doesn’t seem to resonate with their audiences. If you can get the same ROI from managing two social media platforms instead of 10, why wouldn’t you take that path and use your energy fine-tuning your most successful platforms? I recommend simplicity to my clients all the time and think it’s a good path to take. There’s a lot of static out there and efficiency can be the key to social media success.