The process started with “grounding”, some research, planning and a better understanding of where we were and where we needed to go. At first there was still some fear; then realization; and finally excitement about creating and implementing change. Simply put we are experiencing a “shift” in our approach, style of messaging and behaviour.

We found that in order for us (Brickworks and its clients) to move forward, we needed to be more focused and have a better understanding of who the “influencers” are (namely, YOU) and how we should communicate with them. When the shift happened from one-way communications to two-way (between consumers and companies), we quickly realized that communicating had evolved into something bigger, better and definitely more challenging.

Together, we agreed that we needed to talk “with” not “at” our audiences, and needed to do it under “their” terms not “ours”. This meant integrating all aspects of our business together both online and offline, internal and external. Throughout our research, we found that the best place to start was with a detailed audit of the client, the competition and the opportunities.

Today, Brickworks is a closer team than ever before. We’ve expanded into the social media realm and have hired SM experts to help lead the way. We are also working closely with our clients developing a culture that is about learning and teaching rather than just “doing”. We are creating change that is producing results.

Hold on – the experience just got started!

During her time working at here (working about 15 hrs/week), Kasia also juggled classes, homework and a part-time job. Even though she led a pretty hectic life, she always came into the office with a bright smile on her face and a “can do” attitude.

Thanks again for all of your help, Kasia! You will be missed!

*jw

The advancement of technology over the last couple of years has been astonishing. It seems as though no matter where you are or what you are doing, there’s a way of staying connected with the world. Now, one can access social media networks on their phone, allowing them to constantly stay up to date with the latest news, gossip and trends. Social media is not only used for personal reasons, but it is being used at schools, where students and professors go online to access various data.

I’m a student at McMaster University, and I can tell you that I can’t imagine my life without social media. Moodle is one application used that allows students, including myself, to engage in conversations online. I have used this for a lot of my classes and my internship at Brickworks Communications. In my opinion, I think that the use of social media in schools is essential, because let’s face it now-a-days who isn’t online? Going online and actively engaging is the future of communication, everyone wants to share.

In a recent article, Vadim Lavrusik illustrates how universities apply social media to everyday life in the education system. One example is Stanford University’s use of social media via mobile. They released a free iPhone application called iStanford allowing students to register for classes, look up campus maps and instantly message friends if needed. I have never heard of something like this and I was quite surprised but at the same time, I think this is a helpful tool which will only become more popular in the future.

The University of Texas also uses social media for emergency situations by instantly notifying students via Facebook. Personally, I’m not surprised at all…I am more inclined to go onto my Facebook account to check updates before anything else.

Most people are usually nervous when it comes to change – even when it comes to the way we communicate. However, if we can get over this feeling and begin to engage ourselves in social networks, we will begin to see a new world.

In Amanda Lindner’s article, she discusses that educators are now using social media and claim it is the way of future communications; first there were papers, then radio, then TV and now the Internet. I think that over time, every school will be using social media and for those who are hesitant may have to change their ways, because it will become an expectation amongst most new student. Social media is becoming a revolutionary change in the way we communicate, so get on board, because the future is friendly!

On November 30 at 7 p.m., Renowned Author Bill Strickland will be speaking about his crusade that inspired others to dream bigger and to achieve the extraordinary in Pittsburgh; a city that experienced widespread unemployment following the decline of the steel industry.

Strickland’s dream was to develop a template for “social change” and to form collaborative relationships with all those who shared his vision. And for those who have had an opportunity to drive through Pittsburgh lately, you’ll see that his dream is now a reality. If you are interested attending this FREE event you can still reserve your seat(s). We already have more than 2,000 seats reserved!

If you’re unable to attend, I encourage you to join me (@jwestera) on Twitter the night of the event. I will be using the Twitter hashtag #hamiltonnow. A hashtag connects tweets allowing people to easily find and aggregate tweets related to a topic or event. This is a great opportunity to get involved with a community of people that want to see Hamilton’s future expand and succeed.

Hosting the event is the City of Hamilton and Jobs Prosperity Collaborative (JPC) Hamilton. JPC is a group of about 65 members who promote Hamilton’s prosperity through job creation and retention. If you share similar interests and goals with the JPC, come out and support the vision and help JPC make it possible to create future job opportunities for Hamilton.

Happy Tweeting! *jw

On Thursday, October 8, Anji and I were invited to the CHML900 radio station to talk to Shiona and Bob on the morning show. Like I said in my tweet after the show, “started a little shaky but we got into the groove quickly.” The purpose of having us on the show (other than to talk social media) was to promote a breakfast seminar we were hosting along with the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce the following Tuesday.

The presentation went well. The only way it could’ve gone better is if we weren’t missing a key member on our team: Anji Barton. Anji suffered throughout the entire Thanksgiving weekend with a terrible sinus cold. Although she gave it a valiant effort, she wasn’t able to join us.

So that made me the Lone “social media” Ranger handling the presentation on my own, with a couple welcome comments from Brickworks Managing Partner John Pitts, of course : ) I think the best part about presenting about social media is the fact that I can talk about something that I love for an hour straight. It’s a great to have a captive audience again. Most of my friends and family have developed the insanely convenient skill of being able to tune me out at moment’s notice when I start going on about the new cool things happening in Web 2.0.

*jw

]]> http://www.brickworksonline.com/blog/index.php/uncategorized/brickworks-spreads-the-word-of-social-media/feed/ http://www.brickworksonline.com/blog/index.php/social-media/the-importance-of-social-media-monitoring/ http://www.brickworksonline.com/blog/index.php/social-media/the-importance-of-social-media-monitoring/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:04:16 +0000 Anji Barton http://www.brickworksonline.com/blog/?p=150 Guess what. Your customers and potential customers are talking about you online - and there are many reasons to pay attention. Monitoring is a critical first step of an overall social media strategy.

For starters, social media monitoring can help you to:

• know what people are thinking or saying about you in near real-time
• get an overall sense of sentiment surrounding your brand or product
• identify influencers, advocates of your brand
• understand what goes viral, word of mouth
• keep an eye on your competitors
• discover new opportunities, leads
• generate ideas, product development insights
• measure the impact of both on and offline marketing initiatives
• gain insights to apply to your branding and messaging
• plan your online communications strategy
• avoid or mitigate crises
• protect your brand’s reputation
• be helpful

Knowing who’s talking about you and what they’re saying is only the first step. What do you do when negative comments are being made about your brand or your product? What do you do when someone says great things about you? What if people are saying positive/negative things about your competitors? What is the impact of just ignoring the whole thing? You have to know when to respond and when not to, who to respond to and who not to, and exactly how to respond.

One thing is for sure – you should be monitoring the conversation about your brand online, because it is happening, and to ignore it is a terrible waste of valuable insight.

Brickworks has experts and an established process in place for monitoring, analyzing and reporting our clients’ “buzz” online. We also provide expert advice as to how to respond, no matter what the scenario. Feel free to contact us for more information.

Are you doing any online monitoring? If so, how have your findings affected your business?

Photo by Marco Pakoeningrat

Integrated marketing is not a new idea – a campaign with print, broadcast and web components is certainly not unheard of. So what is different with Starbucks’ latest campaign? They’re weaving social media marketing into the mix.

Apparently, the idea of encouraging fans to expand the reach of the ad campaign online came from watching how the company’s over 180,000 Twitter followers and 1.5 million fans on Facebook are already interacting with the brand. People try to be the first to find a Starbucks decorated for the holidays, and post photos on Flickr that have more than one Starbucks in shot.

The new campaign, launched today in six major U.S. cities, asks fans to be the first to spot the new ads and share their find on Twitter for the chance to win one of five preloaded Starbucks Gold Card cards.

Will the marrying of their offline and online marketing pay off for Starbucks?

Read more:

• Official blog post about the contest at Starbucks.com (post has been removed)
  
• Original article on NYTimes.com

What is ISO? I’m glad you asked! ISO is the international standard for the quality management of businesses. It applies to the creation and control of an organization’s products and services, and is put in place to ensure client expectations are met or exceeded.

It’s not easy to get ISO certified, and the task represents a company-wide commitment to our business and to our clients. ISO registration has become a cornerstone of Brickworks, as it helps us continually improve the ways we plan, document and deliver our services.

But very few marketing/communications agencies have earned this quality registration, so we are often asked why ISO?

In 2002, our board of advisors – the three wise men – suggested we pursue ISO registration. The aim was initially to aid in marketing ourselves, especially because we do a lot of work for manufacturers and automotive suppliers. Little did we know then the journey we were in for, as the company learned the benefits of ISO registration and worked hard to put it in place.

Now, after three full years of ISO registration and over five years of benefitting from its influence, we recognize ISO as the catalyst that helped us improve our service delivery and make us more efficient overall. As a company, we better understand our strengths and weaknesses, and we’re able to focus on what we’re best at. We’ve been able to streamline hiring and orienting new employees, and standardize the way we organize, plan and communicate projects.

We’re also better organized to deliver targeted results that meet our clients’ objectives. Through the ISO registration process, we have honed our ability to define and document processes and procedures to strategically help our clients through reorgs and acquisitions. In the end, the most important result of our adoption of ISO has been the benefits to our clients – efficiently delivered, well-structured, strategic communications services.

Brickworks’ ongoing commitment to ISO 9001:2000 is part of our way of life. We’ve embraced the benefits of ISO, moving from a marketing tool to an integral part of the fabric of the company.

We think we can help with an answer.

Brickworks has a sister company called EnerUSE Inc. which has developed a really cool little electricity meter called a PlugMeter.

EnerUSE is very excited to have just shipped the first batch of PlugMeters to its first customer, Hydro Ottawa. Along with this first shipment is the release of a fully-functional electricity usage calculator that anyone can use, whether they have an electricity metering device such as the PlugMeter or not.

Although we’ll be sharing more information about the PlugMeter in upcoming posts, right now I’d like to focus on the calculator, which is a cool tool that lets you do a number of neat things…

• You can create a customized home electricity audit by adding or removing appliances from a pre-set list of appliances
• You can then learn what would be “typical” usage for each of the appliances on your list
• You can easily and quickly add “estimate” readings by inputting the
  wattage (if you don’t know, we provide guidelines) as well as the
  amount of time each day you use an appliance
• For the most accurate feedback, you can use a PlugMeter, Kill A Watt
  meter, or any other electricity metering device, and input an actual
  reading (based on measured kWh used over a period of time)

The goal is to help people calculate how their electricity is actually used, rather than relying on generic information that may or may not be personally relevant.

For example, this personalized information changed how I used computers at both home and the office. Before starting on this project, my home computers were left on 24/7, each with multiple hard drives and each connected to the network. After measurements with a PlugMeter showed that I was paying over $390 a year to leave these two computers running, I swapped them out for a single, newer computer that only runs when needed.

Without a lot of effort, a few small changes was all it took to shave off at least $350 off my hydro bill, but it was only after I measured, and really understood, what some of the appliances in the house were costing.

Today (Earth Day 2009), we invite you to give it a try by visiting www.eneruse.com. You’ll find that there are quick and easy ways you can conserve energy in your home and office. (Not to mention, it is a real eye opener to understand what some appliances cost to operate!)

The breakfast provides a high level overview of what is going on, how services are being used and how companies are engaging with their customers!

The feedback has been great and I believe that through these workshops, Brickworks is of great assistance to companies that want to enter the social media space but are either fearful of the unknown or had a bad experience and don’t want to try it again.

Well…
We had another one this morning and it was spot on! Talk to John Pitts or Jonathan Vinden to book your seats today.

Monica and I will even throw in a sock puppet show (just joking)

We look at it as a little giving back and love to share with people a viable compliment to traditional media mix. Read more about our SM core competencies.