With news this month that UK Prime Minister David Cameron name-checked a ‘fake’ account in a tweet, it’s clear that not even world leaders are immune to Twitter blunders. Earlier this year, disgruntled employees at HMV took over the company’s Twitter stream and used it to voice their concerns about redundancy issues, causing a social media nightmare for the HMV marketing team.
Social media is an indispensable channel to communicate with customers and stakeholders, and used effectively, can help generate sales enquiries, raise your profile and establish strong relationships with existing customers. With many social media predictions circulating for the New Year, our resident social media expert Courtney adds her own to the mix.
CJAM is pleased to announce the launch of #MembershipMonday, a rapid and efficient way to engage with members. Using the new hashtag, we hope to encourage membership organisations and associations throughout the country to discuss their challenges and share best practice examples. Every Monday, we’ll invite membership organisations to interact and provide hints, tips and advice from our association management and marketing specialists.
Monitoring social media campaigns is vital to managing reputation and gaining meaningful business and brand insights. How best to measure the value of these campaigns is a hotly debated subject among PR and marketing professionals, particularly when it comes to securing support from senior management. Defining clear business and marketing objectives is therefore essential, as is gathering smart data to demonstrate positive outcomes.
As the PR and marketing media continues its frenzied coverage of Pinterest, one of this year’s biggest social media success stories, we consider how the charity sector can make best use of the site to engage with their supporters. After all, surely a social media site that grew by 4,000% in its first six months shouldn’t be ignored.
Social media is fast becoming one of the most important forms of sparking interaction among members. The greater the opportunity for members to share information and best practice, the more value they derive from their membership. We are consistently noting a strong interest in association LinkedIn groups, as professionals embrace the concept of sharing and discussing ideas and challenges more openly. Meanwhile, Twitter remains an important means for disseminating news, valuable tips and advice.
Charities are increasingly embracing social media as a means of reaching out to new and existing donors. While UK charity shops are experiencing record profits, with reported takings up £34m year on year, more traditional fundraising methods have typically suffered during the recession, leading charitable organisations to seek alternative methods of raising money. The answer, reports the Institute of Philanthropy , is social media, which is fast becoming an essential tool for securing donations.
Charities throughout the country are busy tweeting, blogging and creating Facebook apps and social media games, including the RSPCA, Dyslexia Action and our very own J’s Hospice in Essex.