• Always remember your audience and the impact that social media will have on them. Sometimes we get so caught up in the tools that we forget to think about how our audience will interact.
• Social media isn’t about controlling a message, it’s how we engage and build channels to facilitate conversations.
• When it comes to social media, measure outcomes vs. outputs.
• Social gaming is a powerful communication tool. Just take a look at everyone’s favorite Facebook game Farmville. Launched in July 2009, Farmville now has 83 million monthly active users.
• Fifty-five percent of social gamers are women with an average age of 43. (I would have never guessed that!)
• One-third of all online participants are conversation drivers, the remaining participants are conversation passengers. Social media can be a great tool to engage both.
• A good coach doesn’t just tell people what to do. They frame the conversation so that people come to a conclusion themselves. (My personal favorite tip of the day.)

With the constant growth and change in social media there is so much to learn about different uses and applications with unique audiences. Have you successfully used social media to engage with an audience? Any tips or best practices you would like to share?

1. This year brought another successful Mardi Gras celebration to St. Louis.  Following the Soulard celebrations over the weekend, the Lumière Place Light up the Night Fat Tuesday Parade brought some 26 krewes out to parade downtown with the theme “famous couples.”
2. We learned yet again how social media allows one person and one incident to quickly impact the image of a company with @TheKevinSmith and @SouthwestAir.
3. In light of the FTC’s new guides concerning endorsements and testimonials, WOMMA issued its Social Media Marketing Disclosure Guide.  The report offers ethical practices your company can utilize to stay compliant with the FTC and to maintain good social media engagement etiquette.  Still not sure about the FTC guides? Check out Shelley’s blog post from earlier this week.
4. TVG’s own, Cassie McCloud started to prepare this week for her presentation at the St. Louis IABC March seminar. Join us on March 25^th for her discussion on engaging employees in the web 2.0 world.  She’ll be joined by HOK, Hallmark, Webster University and many others!
5. Lastly, St. Louis saw a hint of spring this week with some sunny weather and temps moving into the 40s!  TVG’s Amy Crump took the occasion to start some early spring cleaning around the office.

Let’s hope the nice weather lasts so we can all enjoy our weekend!

What does social media mean for employees? Paul Van Klaveren, Director of Branding and Social Media at TVG, addressed this topic in his recent presentation at Webster University titled: Engaging Your Employees: Web 2.0. Below is a quick summary of the presentation.

Even if your organization isn’t formally using social media to communicate, you can bet that your employees are already using it. They are using Facebook, Twitter and Glassdoor (just to name a few) to talk about their experiences while on the job. Using the power of social media, organizations have a unique opportunity to become part of the online conversation and create two-way dialogue between employees and organizational leadership. Some examples of ways that social media can be utilized in the corporate world include:

• Capturing Employee Feedback
• Training & Education
• Employee Recruitment
• Project Collaboration

Not only does social media allow organizations to collect real-time data, but it is often a cost effective solution to allow employees who do not work in the same office to connect and share ideas. Social media can also have an impact on the overall culture of an organization by creating an environment that acknowledges employee input and values their comments.

But, before jumping into social media as a means of employee engagement, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Remember the importance of monitoring social media for mentions of your organization.
• Develop Web 2.0 policies and training to establish expectations and guidelines for employees using social media.
• Make sure to get buy in from C-level executives. They should be participating in the conversation and letting employees know they are listening.
• Instead of employees starting their own conversations on various social media outlets, create the space for them. This could be a micro site available on the company intranet or something as simple as a designated Facebook page. As long as you create a means for engagement, conversations will begin and a community will start to build.

Thank you to everyone who came out bright and early to listen to Paul’s presentation and thank you to the team at Webster University for hosting the event. Click here for more information on TVG’s social media or employee communications programs.

IABC Luncheon

Nearly 100 people showed up to the IABC luncheon that focused on social media in the B2B workplace, a presentation put on by Dora Smith, the director of global social media for Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software.

Smith covered:

• Social media effects on communications from a location, influence, quantity and culture perspective.
• Siemens’ (a B2B software company) approach, goals and objectives in social media.
• A technology launch integrated with social media that won an IABC Gold Quill Award.
• Her recommendations on social media frameworks and resources.

Some of Smith’s tips:

• Consider social media’s impact on search and the new Social Search.
• Follow Forrester’s 4-step Social Media Approach: People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology.
• Survey your customers first before venturing out into social media and monitoring a conversation.
• The most important aspect of Twitter is that if you do things right, you begin to surround yourself with a great group of people.
• Social media road map: Listen, train ambassadors, engage, train bloggers: start internally, talk externally, energize.

SMCSTL
The SMCSTL event later that evening featured speaker David Garland, the founder and host of The Rise To The Top on ABC in St. Louis. His discussion, titled “Maximizing Content Marketing: Creating, Promotion, and ROI,” focused on how to create and take advantage of the content you put online and achieve measurable results to execute your strategy. Garland was a great speaker and interacted with the crowd well. “I approach social media like working the room at a cocktail party,” he said.

As a member of IABC’s Professional Development Committee, we have seen that events focused on social media tend to increase attendance due to the high interest to learn more about how to use social media as a communication tool. Judging by the turnout at both of these events (and the fact that they were on the same day) I think it’s safe to say that social media is sticking around for a while and is constantly gaining popularity in St. Louis.

Upcoming Social Media Programs in St. Louis
Webster University and The Vandiver Group, Inc. (TVG) will also be putting on an event focused on social media. Webster’s School of Business and Technology and TVG will present a social media seminar, “Engaging Your Employees: Web 2.0” on Friday, December 11, at Webster University. This event is free and open to the public and includes a free continental breakfast, which will be served at 7:30 a.m. The seminar will begin at 8 a.m. At this seminar you will learn the benefits of the latest social media platforms when engaging with employees. Seating for this event is limited, so RSVP today!

IABC – St. Louis (@IABCstl on Twitter) puts on events, panels and speakers on the last Thursday of every month and SMCSTL (@SMCSTL on Twitter) holds events on the third Thursday of every month. Due to the holidays, IABC will be putting on a special event on Tuesday, December 15, again focused on social media at the Schlafly Tap Room. Schlafly Co-Founder and Vice President Dan Kopman will present “See What’s Brewing at Schlafly: Social Media” and he will share Schlafly’s experiences in Web 2.0 and how your company can get results with social media. This program is open to both members and non-members, and you can register here.

Last week I attended two well planned, successful events discussing social media, and yes, both were here in St. Louis.

Social Media Club

The first event was put on by the Social Media Club of St. Louis, which is an organization that enables people to share knowledge and build relationships. Their slogan is, “If you get it, Share it.” St. Louis founders, Reem Abeidoh (@rabeidoh on Twitter) and Todd Jordan (@tojosan) started the club this year with the goal of building it as a hub for all social media users to exchange knowledge and develop relationships among people they chat with online. The kickoff event was held back in May, and they have had a meeting on the third Thursday of every month since then at various venues throughout St. Louis. Each month features a different panel of social media experts discussing a variety of topics.

Oh, and did I mention that all of their events are free? Well, they are. You don’t even have to sign up for a membership. The only thing they ask is that you RSVP on their Web site, and after that, you can opt to have emails reminders sent to you for future events.

You can also check out their Facebook page for more information on the monthly events.

This month’s panel discussed new media versus old media and featured Craig Cheatham (@InsideNews4 on Twitter), an investigative reporter at Channel 4 News – KMOV; Erica Smith (@ericasmith), multimedia producer at the St. Louis Post Dispatch; Bill Streeter (@billstreeter), a video blogger (lofistl.com), blogger for the Riverfront Times, and teacher/advisor at St. Louis University; and Mike Flynn(@mikeflynn), a blogger at PunchingKitty.com and a web developer.

They discussed the benefits of social media and blogging and how it is changing the face of old media.
Some key points of the discussion included:

• Journalism ethics in blogs vs. print media.
• How bloggers have raised the bar and helped enhance the integrity of journalism.
• Blogs need to be backed up with links and sources in order to be trusted and considered authentic.
• Social media is driving the first response to breaking stories, whereas traditional media is still having difficulty responding as quickly and effectively.

Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Returns Home to St. Louis

The second social media event I attended was the Jack Dorsey Tweet Up sponsored by Webster University. I was surprised to find out that Dorsey (@jack), the co-founder and chairman of Twitter, is a St. Louis native who grew up in Compton Heights and attended Bishop DuBourg High School. He told an audience of almost 1,000 about his story, how his love of maps led to one of his first jobs as a dispatch programmer for emergency personnel and how he eventually started Twitter with co-founder Biz Stone.

For a recap of his speech, the following blogs offer a nice rundown:

Blogger Erin Eschen’s Notes

In Media Res Blog: The Highlights

The Social Media Report’s Recap

Dorsey also gave St. Louis a hint about his new company that is currently in the works with his former boss, Jim McKelvey of St. Louis-based Mira Digital Publishing. He mentioned health care and financial services as possible industries for the new company and he said St. Louis would play a role.

The Riverfront Times reported that the new company would be based on the “three concepts (of Twitter): immediacy, transparency and approachability.” He couldn’t give us much more information, because it is currently still in “stealth mode.”

I would like to commend Dr. Benjamin Akande (@benjamin_akande), Dean of the School of Business and Technology at Webster University, and Webster University (@websteru) for putting on such a successful event. One interesting feature of the event was a large projection screen that was displayed on the stage showing a live feed of tweets with the hash tag #jackatwebster. Dr. Akande also announced at the event that #jackatwebster made it to the list of Trending Topics on Twitter, to which the audience responded with cheers and clapping. While the Twitter feed was a little distracting, it was an interesting addition to Dorsey’s speech and made the event more interactive for the audience.

After his speech, Dorsey took questions from the audience and the media. Dorsey’s visit to St. Louis caused quite a stir in local media, prompting news articles and blogs left and right. To see a list of the media coverage, as well as video of Dorsey’s speech and photos, click here.

Webster University then honored Dorsey with the Success to Significance 2009 Person of the Year award. However, Dorsey’s day did not end there. After visiting Webster, Dorsey went on to St. Louis City Hall to receive the key to the City of St. Louis by Mayor Francis Slay. Lastly, he ended his eventful day by throwing the first pitch at the Cardinals game that night.

It was a big day for Jack Dorsey, the St. Louis native and Twitter CEO, and yet an even bigger day for St. Louis. This may be the jump start St. Louis needs to become a key player in social media.

First some facts:
• The city is named for King Louis IX of France.
• St. Louis is the second largest city in Missouri, but is the largest metro area in the state.
• St. Louis lies at the heart of Greater St. Louis, a sprawling region including both Missouri and Illinois.
• As St. Louis entered the 20th century, it was the 4th largest city in the United States.
• The Greater St. Louis area was the 16th largest metro area in the U.S. as of the July 2007 U.S. Census estimate, with 2,866,517 people.
• The city is built primarily on the western banks of the Mississippi River, just south of where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers meet.
• St. Louis region is home to over 20 Fortune 1000 companies. The region is also home to some of the country’s largest privately held corporations, including Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Graybar and Edward Jones.

But facts aren’t how you learn about your audience- you want to know what goes into their everyday life. I moved to St. Louis in August 2007, and before then had never visited the city in my life (I had never even been west of Illinois in the United States). Looking for a job in a new town and subsequently working at a communications company is one of the best ways to learn about a city. Here are some of the things I’ve learned over my first 20 months in the Gateway City.

It’s a great sports town. I moved here from New York City and I was really going to miss my Yankees, but St. Louis has some great teams and even better fans. The MLB Cardinals definitely rule the roost, but the NFL Rams, NHL Blues and Mizzou college sports keep St. Louis rooting year round.

It’s a college town. Although it doesn’t feel like a college town, St. Louis is filled with world-class universities. Schools that pull in a superior workforce, fuel science and research and keep the town young and thriving. Top schools include Washington University, St. Louis University, Webster University, University of Missouri-St. Louis and many more.

Beer isn’t the only leader in town. Anheuser-Busch (recently acquired by Belgium based InBev) is by far the most well known company in St. Louis, and is a revered icon to locals, but it is not the only major company to call St. Louis home. Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Energizer, Edward Jones, Express Scripts and Monsanto are some big names in STL. Other leading industries familiar to St. Louis residents include information technology and biotechnology, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and transportation.

Culture and tourism is St. Louis’ hidden gem. I knew St. Louis had the Gateway Arch, but that isn’t even in my top 10 favorite attractions in the region. In addition to the sports, they have a world-class zoo, botanical gardens, science center, art museum, Forest Park, theaters, casinos, Mardi Gras parades’ and the indescribable City Museum. St. Louis is a family-friendly town and offers a diverse yet relaxed and unique variety of activities.

A mix of big city and small town communications. Before moving to St. Louis, I had not experienced the PR world outside of New York City, so I had a lot to learn about media outlets in my new town. The St. Louis region is large enough that PR often has a big city feel, but at the same time, audiences maintain a smaller community perspective. Neighborhoods, local leaders, high schools and families are all leading priorities to audiences.

I could write a book about all the things I’ve learned about St. Louis over the last 18 months, but instead I’ll leave it up to some of my fellow TVGers, and long-time St. Louis residents to share their thoughts.

“It’s a bigger town with smaller town feel, a great place for families, and the food’s not bad, either!” –Donna Vandiver, President & CEO

“St. Louis is a family friendly, community- based city. The joke is everyone asks the question “Where did you go to high school?” and it is completely true. I think it has to do with trying to find connections and breaking the ice through that question. People want to find out more about others and that is our most popular way to do so.” – Shelley Lester, Team Member

“A food item largely unique to St. Louis is toasted ravioli. Best I can tell it is virtually unavailable anywhere but St. Louis restaurants and stores. (I find this really odd, in that most any Italian restaurant has ravioli and a deep fryer. So they could add it as a menu item without purchasing new ingredients or hardware.)” –Rich McEwen, Senior Associate

“I have to give a shout out to the greatest baseball team of all time (in my humble opinion) The STL Cardinals. I feel like fans here truly value the game and appreciate all of its history. And, fans are loyal to say the least. I’ve been to games at several other stadiums across the country and am always amazed at the Cardinal red you can see throughout the crowd.” –Cassie McCloud, Team Leader

“I think one thing that makes STL unique and locals are proud of is we have a free Zoo. I’d like to say we have great sports teams but our teams haven’t done so well, but we have great fans.” -Cathy Femmer, Office Coordinator

“St. Louis truly has a small-town feel. No matter where we go, we always run into someone we know. And on the flip side…we are lucky to have all of the amenities of a big city – Zoo, Symphony, Science Center, Botanical Gardens, great restaurants and interesting neighborhoods such as the Hill and Dogtown.” –Patty Olsen, Account Coordinator

“Here’s what I love most about St. Louis, what makes it unique, and what locals love (and hate!) about it — in one sentence: It’s America’s biggest Small Town.” - Sara Howard, Senior Team Leader