CDPR108 - Week 3 Foursquare and QR Codes

I have actually been using QR Codes for advertisements for a few months now. We support several skating competitions and in turn we are given advertising space in the competition programs. During these competitions we also have a small boutique set up most of the time. Therefore, we decided that the best thing for the advertisements would be to promote our website and our online store - therefore the QR Codes are perfect. With the QR Code, we are able to link people directly to our website.

QR Codes are very easy to set up and sometimes we change the codes to send people to our Facebook page, or our Twitter site, or to provide coupons and discounts.

Foursquare on the other hand is something that I never really focused on, and in fact I needed to read these articles to remember what Foursquare is! That being said, the biggest learning experience from this week was the use of Foursquare for coupons and deals. I had no idea that you could do that with Foursquare!

I do have friends that have obviously linked their Foursquare to their Facebook accounts and I have seen them "check-in" to places however, I did not know that by doing that they could receive coupons or discounts to these places. I always thought it was just another annoying app on Facebook that told people where you were and what you were doing!

I think Foursquare could be a valuable addition to your public relations campaign, however I'm still not convinced of its popularity. I don't think it has caught on enough - and with things like Facebook offers, I think those avenues are better and can reach more people than Foursquare.

Promoted Tweets - CDPR108 - week 2

Is there any value to Promoted Tweets?

I have seen promoted tweets on my twitter feed before, however I don't think I have ever clicked on any of the links in these tweets. I know this assignment requires us to do some research on the value of these, including the cost and the reach of promoted tweets and promoted trends, however prior to doing this research I want to say that I don't think they are valuable! I am interested to see if my thoughts on this change with some more research.

Researching.... researching..... researching... researching....

I can safely say that I didn't realize the amount of targeting that you could accomplish through promoted tweets and trend. Promoted tweets can reach users in a search - when they are searching things on twitter, these promoted tweets are targeted to search terms and will appear at the top of the results page. Promoted tweets can reach users/followers by posting near or at the top of their timelines when they login or refresh their homepage. This can target your followers or users who are like your followers. Even more than this, your promoted tweets can be specific to a platform - mobile/desktop.

Promoted trends can be used to "kick-start" conversations on Twitter. business.twitter.com explains: "Successful Promoted Trends give users something new and exciting to discover, participate in, and share." A promoted trend would appear at the top of the Trending list on the side panel of your Twitter homepage. 

As I continued my research, I discovered that a promoted tweet costs $120,000 PER DAY!!! This is up from $30,000/day last year. While the initial figure is staggering, it is important to keep in mind how Twitter works and the number of people that are on Twitter. In one article I read, someone was quoted as saying they paid $4.00 for a customer, who they will now be able to keep marketing to. When you think about it that way, it doesn't seem like so much money. That brings up the concepts of the cost-per-engagement and cost-per-follow. Instead of paying a flat fee for the service, you "pay your bid price when a use clicks on, retweets, replies to or favourites your Promoted Tweet" (http://www.quora.com/How-much-is-a-Promoted-Tweet). Promoted Accounts are offered on a Cost-per-Follow basis, much in the same fashion - you bid a certain amount of money (ex. $4) to have your account promoted at the top of an interest-target Twitter user's "Who to Follow" section (http://www.quora.com/How-much-is-a-Promoted-Tweet). This goes back to the quote I read about paying $4.00 for a customer. You now have a follower on your Twitter account, to whom you can carry on a conversation, explain your business, and market to - and more than once!

When it is laid out this way, as a business owner, I would consider this to be a valuable PR solution. However, your business must have this kind of a budget for your public relations. I currently work for The Figure Skating Boutique, and we are a mid-sized business. We do not have this kind of money to spend on promoted trents or promoted tweets, and to be honest, I'm not sure that this would be valuable for us. The figure skating world is small enough that we are able to reach many of our customers via word of mouth. In turn, we have been able to generate a Twitter following of 200 in just a few months. Most of this is because of the well-known skaters that we know and that we follow on Twitter. Some of these skaters follow us, and  then their followers see that, and they then follow us as well. 

I think for large companies the idea of the promoted tweet or promoted trend is valuable. For a company like Rogers to only pay $4.00 for a customer is incredible! But for small business, or even mid-sized businesses, this idea is just not valuable. The PR budget can be better spent! 

CDPR108 - 1st Post

I have had this blog for a while now but I have never really used it to it's full potential. With Facebook and then Twitter, I never really got into the whole blogging thing. I have started to blog a bit for work - I am the Marketing and Promotions Manager for The Figure Skating Boutique, so perhaps those blogs and the use of this personal blog for school, I will get back into things.

For this first post, I don't have too much input for the course as of yet. I registered a bit late, and actually had some problems submitting the registration online (only to find out it was a problem with RAMSS), so I don't have my books yet and I have yet to do any readings for this course.

I have taken some time to figure out how to get my blogroll going, which you can see that I have on the side, and I have started to read some of the recent blog posts from these users. There is some very useful and insightful information! It makes me think that perhaps there is a lot more that I can learn from blogs, and perhaps these can be used almost like reading a very specific newspaper or magazine.

I am excited to take the time throughout this course to read more about the use of Social Media for Public Relations. I have great knowledge of social media, but I know that there is more that I can be doing with it in terms of promotions, public relations and even marketing.

I have recently switched jobs from a non-profit organization to a medium-sized business. I know that in most of the courses that I have taken so far for the PR Certificate have been geared toward non-profit organizations, so I am interested to see what I can take from this course to apply to my new position.

THAT didn't happen

Well... I clearly didn't get back into a blogging mode.

Months have passed! Now I will be hitting the blog again... but for school! Perhaps this will force me back into the writing and blogging mode again?

It's been way too long since I have used this blog... so I have decided it is a good time to revive it!

Looking through my previous posts I almost have a mixture of a Facebook page and a Pinterest site going on - perhaps that's why I started using those sites more than this one! But in one of my classes right now (PR certificate through Ryerson) we were to make a blog and that reminded me that I actually have a blog already! So here I sit... ready to use the blog again.

I will mostly use this to update my Ride to Conquer Cancer which is happening next weekend! Biking from Toronto to Niagara Falls in 2 days...over 200km. It is going to be an amazing experience and I just hope that I can get through the whole ride without walking or taking their shuttle cars. That's my goal. I want to be able to say that I biked the entire thing!

I have raised over $3,000 for cancer research which is absolutely incredible. In order to race I needed to raise $2,500 and I was amazed that I was able to even reach that amount! This will definitely be a once in a lifetime experience (because it definitely won't be happening again! - not anytime soon anyway). It will be incredible...but even the journey to raise the money has been a task in itself. I have to say a HUGE thank you to all my friends, family, family of my friends, my church, and all others who have donated. The support has been amazing! Even those who haven't been able to donate have given me such encouragement which is just as incredible.

I have my bike...my helmet...just got my jersey for the ride and all the necessary numbers and signage for my bike...as well as a gps for my helmet so they know that I haven't gotten lost at the back of the pack somewhere!!! Although I really REALLY hope I'm not last!  :(

More updates to come this week.

Week One

My first week is complete!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I was warned that I would kind of be thrown into the job during a very busy time, and have lots of things to do... that hasn't QUITE happened yet! (Although from what I can tell, next week might be that way).

But I really didn't do too much until Friday! Monday-Thursday was spent cleaning my office, organizing it, reading through manuals, looking through old files to see what it was I will be doing... and trying to waste time! lol

There is one lady in the office who, from what I can tell, was getting a lot of emails with work that I would normally be doing and questions I would normally be answering... but since I only just got hired last week, the news hasn't totally spread around yet, and people didn't have my email or contact information or anything. So they were emailing her and calling her. Then she went away for 2 days! So I really had nothing to do because she couldn't forward me the emails or give people my contact information.

But on Friday some people started emailing me, and calling me, and I had some things to do - paperwork and emails and such!

So I think on Monday this will continue to pick up!

I will keep you all updated :)

Job/Life update!

Well... as I'm sure many of you know by now (news travels fast!), I am officially a career woman! Yesterday morning, around 9:40 am (yes I am keeping track of the exact time), I was offered, and accepted of course, the position of Event Coordinator with Skate Canada - Central Ontario!! A very long job title!

I am VERY excited and ready to get started! And I don't really have to wait!!! I will be starting Monday, November 8, 2010... at 9am!

I have been "warned" (and I put it that way because they are saying they are warning me, but I am very excited about it) - that I will be thrown right into things and I will have a lot to do right away because there are a lot of competitions coming up. This is the super busy time for competitions... from now until about April.

I will be working Monday-Friday, 9-4:30... and it will be salary + benefits!

Here is the job description! So you can see some of what I will be doing!

Overall Purpose of Position:

Reporting to the Executive Director of Skate Canada-Central Ontario and working with Special Events Management Team, the role of the Event Coordinator is to provide operational and logistical support on all COS marketing and events initiatives, in accordance with policy and strategic directions set by the Board.

Primary Roles:

Orchestrate, administer, and efficiently manage all operational and logistical aspects of the COS’ marketing initiatives, as directed by the Executive Director.

Orchestrate, administer, and efficiently manage all operational and logistical aspects of the COS’ event initiatives, as directed by the Competitions Director.

Maintain day-to-day responsibility for the timely and effective implementation of Board approved policy and direction related to event coordination.

Expected Results:

Effective relationship management of external stakeholders, COS sponsors, clubs, members etc.

Provision of timely and accurate marketing & event information/knowledge to key stakeholders.

Represent and promote a positive image of Skate Canada – Central Ontario, Skate Canada and skating as a sport in general.

ADDITIONAL POSITION DETAIL

Core Responsibilities:

Marketing-Sponsorship Management

Administer negotiated sponsorship contracts.

Draft preliminary contract agreements with COS sponsors, and present for final signing approval to the President, and Executive Director.

Act as primary contact for COS sponsors; ensure COS contract obligations are met (e.g., signage, public address, product exclusivity, etc).

Communicate any contract revisions/changes to the President and Executive Director for file administration.

Working with the Executive Director on research marketing opportunities.

Prepare marketing/sponsorship proposals to the consideration by the Executive Committee.

Co-ordinate and organize all COS events as directed by the Event Management Team Chairman.

Schedule facilities as directed by the Competition Director.

Prepare protocol agreements and budgets for each COS event to include sponsorship and advertising.

Act as primary administrative resource for Host Committee.

Confirm and schedule sponsors and advertisers for COS events, upon final approval from the Competition Director.

Prepare P.A. announcements etc. for events in accordance with sponsorship agreements.

Act as host for sponsors at COS events.

Act as on-site coordinator for events as directed by the Competition Director.

Administrative Management

Working with the Executive Director develop and implement a short and long-term marketing plan in alignment with COS strategic direction.

Coordinate advertising materials for COS competitions.

Maintain competition hosting manual for COS clubs.

Coordinate all correspondence to sponsors as determined by the Executive Director, Competition Director and the Section Chairman.

Oversee and manage the coordination of sponsorship signage and maintain sponsorship boards.

Personal Development:

Keep up-to-date and notify others on all Skate Canada and COS Marketing policies, practices and programs.

Continue to develop and foster COS alliances and partnerships with sponsors.

Continue to personally develop and upgrade relevant skills.

Working Relationships:

Work in co-operation and partnership with the Executive Director, Board of Directors and selected committees.

Work effectively with any advisory groups/committees that may be established by the Board or other external organizations with which COS has a professional relationship.

Authority:

Approval authority within assigned events budget, as identified by the Competition Director, Board of Directors and Executive Director.

Other as delegated by the Executive Director, Competition Director and/or Chairman/Board of Directors.

Desired Candidate

University graduate. Formal training in Event Management, Communications, Marketing and/or Business/Sports Administration is considered of great value.

Minimum of 5 years experience in a communications/marketing positions.

Demonstrated event management experience.

Strong team player with the ability to develop effective external working relationships and partnerships.

Will take initiative and use sound judgment to resolve complex internal and external issues that can impact COS as a whole.

Current Ontario drivers license and vehicle are a necessity.

Able to originate new concepts using research and analysis to develop creative and innovative approaches and/or solutions.

Excellent command of the English language.

Has strong written/verbal/presentation skills.

Proficient with various computer software applications relating to the job (e.g., MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc).

Able to travel approximately 30% of his/her time.