Monthly Archives: April 2012
Your Agency is Social but Your Company isn’t?
Have you ever walked into a store to inquire about a deal that you came across in a magazine, or heard on TV only to come across eager salespeople that have no idea what deal you’re talking about? This unfortunately happens a lot not only in big franchises but I would guess the majority of small businesses and franchisees. Now with social media and digital marketing as a whole growing to be a dominate portion of ad dollars a lot of businesses are turning to outside agencies to spread their brand in all online channels. Which is not a bad thing especially if you do have an in house “digital quarterback,” they can’t possible do all of it on their own. Now that isn’t the issue, it’s really just the lack of communication internally which is the biggest fail of why sales teams aren’t informed of marketing deals in traditional and digital ads. But, that’s an entirely different topic all together.
The biggest mistake I see businesses make is getting gungho that they finally have a solid digital marketing strategy and have incorporated social media into the mix successfully, but treat it as though it’s on pilot drive and fail to revisit their digital storefront exposure. This is how companies can really appear to be, well…. dumb. For example if your agency is managing your social community, and they’re posting and advertising contests to get fans engaged, but internally no one in your company knows what’s going on. How does that make the business look?
Social Media has allowed us to get information out to the masses in seconds. This makes it even more important for companies to have that internal communication. So many businesses treat digital as a separate thing that’s just kind of out there, (especially the car business). Really if you follow this rule of the thumb: If it’s on the internet chances are someone saw it! So if you do have that “digital quarterback” in house or at least an internal liaison for your outside relationships be sure the strategy is thought out first and all communication has been spread through out the company before posting it first!
Have you come across this before?
Ciao~
Your Diva @taneshawhite
Use Social Media and Apps to Your Advantage to Stay Fit Part II
As promised I am continuing my post from last week, “Use Social Media and Apps to Your Advantage to Stay Fit.” Using social media and apps is definitely a passion, but I also am passionate about staying fit as a mom and a busy professional. So being able to marry technology and fitness is a plus.
Like I mentioned last week,
The two biggest obstacles to overcome is:
- Motivation
- Eating RIGHT
I mentioned different social networks and Facebook ideas to connect with like minded individuals to keep motivated aka, virtual workout partners. So needless to say the “motivation” piece was thoroughly covered! The biggest challenge and most important obstacle is “eating right.” I recently pinned this saying to my pinboard last week, and this has been a great motivation for me in really watching my calorie intake on a daily basis:
I know what you’re thinking, calorie counting… seriously?? Well Weight Watchers isn’t successful for no reason! All they did was interpret calories into points which, is by default easier for people to understand. Well I’m here to tell you I’ve found a great app that can take all of the guess work out for you.
I recently downloaded the “My Fitness Pal” from iTunes and I have to say I’m really impressed. You basically enter in all of your information such as, height, weight, measurements, and your goals. This cool app allows you to keep a diary and will show you your progress mtd. It allows you to log all your meals, and activity on daily basis. What I love about this is that it has an extensive library of foods and activities ranging from work out routines and equipment used to just everyday house work. You can select the duration and it gives you an approximate number of calories that you burned. The food library not only has all the foods you can cook from home, it also has foods on there from every restaurant you can think of and it even allows you to scan a barcode and logs instantly. A great way to use this is if you’re indecisive on what to eat, because you can plug the food in and you might actually change your mind once seeing how many calories are in it –goodbye delicious frappe:-( I’ve tried numerous apps similar to this but, in my opinion this is superior and it’s free!
Now if you’re like me spending an hour on the eliptical is enough to bore you to tears. So to help spice up the workout I have always been a fan of the ” Nike Training for Women app.” This app has some great work out routines ranging from 15 to 45 minutes. I really like how it categorizes by:
Beginner to Advanced
Cardio to Strength training
So if you’re late missing a class, just pick your workout and jam to your favorite Pandora playlist and get in the zone! What apps or social sites do you use?
Ciao,
@taneshawhite
Use Social Media and Apps to Your Advantage to Stay Fit: Part I
Even though I absolutely love what I do, I hate that it requires me to sit for long periods of time. But, this is very common in today’s business world and well, it is what is. Mix that with grazing over high carb food left over from meetings, and donuts in the breakroom is an excellent mix for an Obesity Martini. To read more on how to change those eating habits check out this article: Occupational Hazard: Is Your Job Making You Fat?
My focus is on how you can use technology for your fitness goals. Being a busy professional, wife, and mother of kids that have their own active agendas as a woman it can be overwhelming to put yourself first. And by no means is that an excuse and it doesn’t have to be with all this technology at our finger tips, Literally.
The two biggest obstacles to overcome is:
- Motivation
- Eating RIGHT
Are you a FB junkie and just a social butterfly in general? Then use social networks to your advantage for motivation. It’s pretty much like having a workout partner, but you can have hundreds of them and can interact throughout the day. For Example:
Start a group or event on Facebook: This is a great way to get more engagement with your friends, and acquaintances. You can make your topics fun, like a No Fast Food challenge, or Goals for doing Exercises through out your day. Post to the event or group how you’re feeling or how you’re progressing and the great thing is that you will have tons of supporters to help you reach your goals.
Pin your motivators: Of course you have seen all the buzz about this cool social sharing network of pictures called Pinterest. But, have you used it yet or you are but haven’t found the point of it yet? It’s said that you can change your mood just by visualizing something that makes you happy. I remember having a picture of an Aston Martin Vanquish in my car taped the sun visor, it always motivated to work hard and yes one day have one. But I digress, Pinterest works the same way.
Create a pinboard just for your inspiration about getting fit. If your like me, I get overwhelmed with content jarble, so pinning a pic from a website is so much easier to recall the information. See my “I Work Out” Pinboard, now how could I possible think of eating a big mac looking at her awesome abs??
Join A Fitness Specific Network Or forum: In all honesty you can do a simple search for “fitness forums” and you will get tons of sites to choose from. To prevent information overload have an idea of what kind of information you’re wanting from these places such as, specific exercises, food plans, and supplement questions. There are tons of Fitness guru’s on these sites that can really get you on track. A good one to visit is Bodybuilding.com.
Hash All about it: If you’re a Twitter user then definitely use this for motivation. Create a hashtag and be sure to tweet it out to your audience and also spread the word in all your other networks. For example #beFit2012 could be hash that everyone wanting to get involved can tweet there activity. Now just save the search on hootsuite, boxcar, or any other platform and receive notifications on your tag throughout your day so you don’t miss a beat.
All the motivation is out there, no longer do you have to sulk because you can’t find a work out buddy. Before eating that french fry refer to these networks for advice or just an extra push. In part 2 I will share some mobile apps that can keep you on the right track to eating right so stay tuned!
Cia0~
@taneshawhite
Part II-The Allstar Cheer Community Trends on Twitter in Outrage
I just wanted to give a quick update to my post last week. Quick overview:
There was a huge upset in the cheer community about some major rule changes announced by the USASF (the governing body of allstar cheerleading). To say the least cheerleaders all over the country were not happy at all. My whole inspiration for writing the post in the first place was because the upset trended on twitter reaching over 20k, every minute you saw expressions of outrage streaming in.
Long story short USASF decided to revisit their decisions just 24 hours later. Today just a few hours ago they released some revised rules. While its not exactly what everyone was hoping for, they did change nonetheless.
Thanks to social media the voice of all these talented athletes were heard. And thanks to the coaches for their persistence in the matter.
Ciao~
The Gen Y Woman Brand Offline, But Did You see it Online?
You ever wonder what people say about you if your name is brought up in a conversation? Or wonder what kind of first impression you left after a business meeting? I’m sure you do, because it’s human nature. Although you may not know most of the time, you can assure to leave a positive impression by being consistent with your personal brand. I titled this for the women reader, only because it’s even more important and more challenging for a women in the workplace to maintain that positive consistency.
Let’s face it we just have more challenges to overcome- period! Really don’t need to make this the battle of the sexes.. On the bright side studies have shown that Gen Y women have a more positive out look on equality in the workplace, and that “glass ceiling” is a lot more fragile to break through.
Now, this sense of power and running things in the workplace has of course taken years of being consistent with your:
positive attitude for every person you encounter
under promising and over delivering what you say
getting things done and coining yourself as the go to person
Being the go-getter and asking for what you want and setting expectations
But, have you taken a look at your brand online? The internet brings great power, social media can bring devastation especially your choice of pictures! It’s kind of funny finding the inspiration to write this. It started with my husband showing me the profiles of recruiters that have contacted him on linked in. LOL, I couldn’t believe some of the pictures these women had as their profile. Finger in the mouth here, wind blowing through your hair there…. Too funny. Did these ladies not get the memo that Linkedin is not Myspace 01? 
So I would think this would be a no brainer, if you want to be taken seriously on the professional level present yourself that way in a professional network. Now when it comes to using Facebook and twitter have you ever searched for your name? Do you realize that your posting can rank in the search engines such as, google, Yahoo, and Bing? These are marketing techniques us digital marketers use to our advantage, but in the civilian world this could come back to bite you. Recruiters perform searches on potential candidates all the time, do you really want to leave a negative impression before getting a chance to speak with them? Even if you think you’ve got your privacy buttoned up on Facebook remember nothing is a 100%.
Have you come across some funny Linkedin pics?
Ciao~
The Digital Diva 