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Social Media at the Emmy Awards

As we've seen before, there is immense power to strengthen your brand and reputation by holding a virtual press conference. Now, entertainment is taking social media and virtual outreach to a new level by making the Emmy Awards social. As Mashable reported earlier this week, the 2010 Emmy Awards will be equipped with Twitter, UStream and yfrog to bring a virtual real-time experience to audiences world-wide. But what are the elements that can make this event a success?

1. Live Twitter Messages

The Host Jimmy Fallon is going to be receiving live tweets during the Emmys -- making him accessible to thousands of fans who want to ask questions or chime in about their opinions of the Emmy awards. Fallon may then use these tweets during his introductions and bring virtual commentary to the Emmy awards, making it more democratic than ever before. In addition, NBC will also be taking requests for red carpet inquires via Twitter and reaching out to celebs that virtual viewers want to hear from right on the red carpet.

2. Live Back Stage Cameras

Want to know what's going on backstage? NBC and CBS are going to have live cameras set up so that viewers will always know what's going on behind the scenes. This adds a unique element to the show, taking the stage behind stage and allowing for everyone to have a back stage pass to all the action. The network hosts hope that this will increase their ratings and encourage people to visit their websites, becoming more familiar with their brand and finding new ways to love the Emmys.

3. Real Time Red Carpet

In addition to having the ability to Tweet to the red carpet, fans and show hosts at the red carpet will have an online place where they can share their pictures and videos of all the stars decked out and glamorous on the red carpet. This will also provide a place where people can comment about their favorite stars dress and vote if what they are wearing is "hot" or "not" -- another way to bring democracy and participation to the Emmys that's never been seen before.

The goal of this new social media Emmy Award strategy is to engage fans in a new way. Today, many network televisions are finding that their views are down and that people are more likely to tune in online than on the television. This has led them to change their engagement strategy and to involve their fans in creating the Emmys. This type of strategy can also be used at events for your business or personal brand, meetings and conferences to give your customers and potential clients more ways to interact with you and participate virtually. Since so many businesses today are based online, it’s important that you find ways to reach your base and to give them an experience with your virtual reputation and brand no matter where they may be in the world.

Creating an Outreach Plan

If you want to get your brand and your company out to the public and potential clients or customers, you have to develop a successful outreach plan. Outreach plans are different depending on your goals, however all outreach plans have one thing in common -- they have a goal and a pathway to get there. For the purpose of this article, we're going to give you a basic outreach plan that you can use with any of your projects.

Articulate Your Objectives

The first step, is to articulate your objectives. What is your goal? For most people, it's important to get your main message, your logo and your contact information online and on to the screens of a targeted group of people for starters. You should know what you want to say and who you want to reach to be most effective.

Start Building Virtual Infrastructure 

The next step is going to be to build your virtual infrastructure. A website might be further down the line, but you can start pushing your brand and your business with a simple facebook page,LookupPage profile or other virtual profile. This will help get your brand and your business into Google search engines quickly, build your Google CV and provide a way for people to become familiar with your company and get your contact information.

Establish Your Home Base

The next step is to establish your virtual home base. Today, it's easy to create a Wordpress or Typepad blog, among others, and most websites are built on blogging content management systems. You can either purchase a domain name, or use one of the subdomain names that many blogging systems give out for free. This will give you a place to continue to build your virtual presence and give you a further professional virtual presence and reputation.

Connect Your Network to Your Home Base

After you've established your home base and a presence in a social network, you will want to start collecting the contacts that you've made -- from facebook, from your email contacts and other related networks. Building an email list will make it easy in the future, as your contacts grow, to keep in contact with your potential clients and customers and keep them updated about your business or personal brand as it grows. You can sign up for several online email campaign managers like Constant Contact, AWeber and MailChimp, to help you manage your lists and eventually, segement them depending on your relationships and your targets.

When Your Company Reputation Goes from Good to Bad

For years, Apple was able to keep up it's good reputation based on it's underdog status, high quality products and friendly "genius" sales people. But slowly, slowly, as the company grows, the Apple brand has been taking more and more hits, changing it's reputation amongst consumers and wanna-be employees. In addition to the recent controversy over Apple's latest iphone, one of Apple's managers has recently been indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges. He is also accused of being spy and selling secrets about Apple to Chinese accessory suppliers. This case, amongst other suits pending against Apple, is starting to take some of the shine off of Apple's reputation. 

At the same time, Apple is finding effective ways to fight back. According to the Mercury News and Journal reports, in order to negate some of the bad rap that Apple's currently enduring, Apple's spokesperson said that Apple has “zero tolerance for dishonest behavior inside or outside the company.” This kind of a statement is essential for Apple in distinguishing itself from the bad behavior of one of it's managing employees and distancing itself from the crimes associated with the case. Instead of having the public connect the actions of the employee with Apple, the spokesperson distances the Apple brand from the action of the employee and reaffirms that Apple is an honest company that holds it's employees to the highest moral and ethical standards. 

This example shows the importance of making public statements for companies and brands. It isn't enough to let the newspapers cover the story, spokespeople must step in and say the right things at the right time in order to insure that the connections are made and severed appropriately. Making a clear distinction between what Apple does and what their employees do, makes it easier to keep the brand and reputation going strong and people's expectations of Apple, which are still fairly high, on mark. 

How to Manage Your Reputation When Quitting Your Job

Recently, several people have decided to use the power of the Internet to quit their jobs and made attempts to cause reputation management crisis's for their former bosses. However, using the Internet to quit your job could have a much more devastating impact on the former employees themselves, who will have to endure the impact of their actions and the trail of news stories left by them online for years. Before you quit your job and share your distaste for your former boss online, you should consider the impact that it will not only have on your former employers, but on you. 

Speak to the Right People

Most everyone has been frustrated with their job at one time or another. And while most people will be able to understand your frustrations with your job, boss or co-workers -- these kind of feelings are normal and certainly can be grounds for leaving your job -- it’s important that you choose to vent these emotions to the right people. For example, taking aside one of your co-workers during lunch to tell them how terrible your boss is might not be the best idea -- especially if you have the same boss. 

This can often put your co-workers in an uncomfortable situation and not necessarily be the most effective way of dealing with you frustrations. In fact, it’s usually best to find someone who is outside of you work environment to discuss your problems with. Their outside opinion can be very helpful and it will allow you to say the kind of things that you need to get off your chest without being worried about how it will effect them in the workplace or their relationship with their boss.  

Don’t Vent Your Frustrations Online

Another pitfall that people fall into, is venting their frustrations online. Perhaps it’s just a facebook update or a Tweet but this kind of information can get back to employees and your boss quicker than you’d imagine. While you may feel the need to speak about your current employment situation, it’s probably best if you don’t do it online. When you publish something on the internet, even if it’s just 140 characters, the chances that it can get out and damage your reputation are very high. So usually, it’s better to keep your thoughts about your boss and co-workers off line and out of social networks.

Think About Your Future

One thing that's hard to keep in mind when you're frustrated with your current employment situation, is your future job. However, this can be one of the best ways to calm yourself down and to make sure that you don't cause any damage to your reputation. Think to yourself, would I want my future employer to know this about me? Would I want them to worry that I would cause a reputation problem for them as an employee or can I deal with this in a more mature way?

Improving Your Google CV with Online Profiles

Since so much networking today happens online, it’s no surprise that people will be Googling your name and contact information before you even meet. That’s why it’s important that you keep track of your Google CV and know at all times what kind of content people are finding online about you. 

One of the best ways to keep track of your Google CV is to keep Google Alerts running about your name. These Google Alerts are easy to set up and get running within a matter of minutes. All you have to do is sign into your Google Account and select Alerts from the menu bar. Then, enter your personal name or company name into the alerts and determine if you would like to get an alert when something is published immediately, every day or once a week. These alerts will be delivered to your email box and you’ll know at all times when new content is being published about you.

Another way that you can improve your Google CV is by signing up for free profiles online that you’ll control. For example, today there are many free online profiles that end up in Google’s search. LookupPage, our free personal and business profile, is easy to use and let’s you control the content that is there. In addition, our tool is specifically created to be high ranking on Google and get you on the first page results. This means, that you’ll have control of one of the top results when people search for you on Google and will be able to put the positive content that contributes to your reputation or brand there immediately.

You can sign up for a free LookupPage account simply by registering and entering your information into our easy to use site.

Turn Social Media Interaction Into Action

While it isn't the easiest thing to get people to "like" your post on facebook, it certainly isn't the only important action that you want people to take. Most of the time when you post something to facebook you want people to click your link, watch your video, see your pictures and then ... TAKE ACTION. But how do you get people to take action using social media campaigns? Recently, Mashable published a short article with some incredibly helpful tips about getting your fans and followers to take that important final step. Here's some of the findings that they put together to help you get people moving!

In order to convert attention into desirable outcomes: 

• Create programs with an “end” in mind. What do you want to cause, change, inspire, sell, build, or organize?
• Introduce conversion opportunities through existing and emerging touchpoints.
• Learn where campaigns or click paths break down.
• Measure performance.

One of the most important steps that most people forget is to plan your social media campaign and strategy. Decide what you "end" goal is -- not what do you want people to click, but what kind of action you want them to take and when. If you have this in mind when you launch your campaign, you'll be much more successful at achieving your goal.

It's also important to direct people to the places that they need to go. This means that you have to create links at the appropriate places, have plenty of opportunities for people to interact and to be lead straight to the most important link or target that you've established for your campaign. Track how people use your website and marketing materials and see where the action is breaking down. Is your email too long? Is your post too complicated to follow without a link up front or at the most compelling point.

Lastly, make sure you measure carefully what type of marketing efforts are the most successful. Perhaps facebook will be best for getting the word out, but your blog posts or emails will convert to more action because the followers on these lists are more dedicated to your cause. Keeping these ideas in mind when you plan your strategy will help insure that you take your followers from awareness to action and make your campaign that much more effective.