Star Command: Social Media Style

Social media is continually growing as a key element of successful marketing and advertising. Because of this, businesses and professionals who do use social media need a strategy to keep up with all of their profiles, posts, mentions, comments, etc. Without a strategy for your social media management, you won't get far. One way companies are managing their online presence is through social media command centers. Yes, social media command centers. Sounds pretty cool, right? If you're like me, when you heard the words command center, you probably thought of the Space Mountain Command Center (seen below) from Magic Kingdom Park. Anyways...

Companies today are continually building and using social media command centers to help monitor all of their sites at once. Social media monitoring is important for the following reasons:

• Allows you to discover conversations happening in real time. This way, you can reply to comments or questions immediately, creating a strong connection with your audience.
• Allows you to understand your audience better.
• Helps you determine what content works best and doesn't work at all with your audience.
• Helps you discover which content your audience is most engaged with.
• Makes a connection with strategies and objectives of a social media campaign.

These social media command centers are a great investment for businesses wanting to have a better way to control all of their social media sites. All a social media command center really requires is a few TV screens, computers, and the wires needed to hook them together. The American Red Cross, Dell, and even the 2012 Presidential campaigns use social media command centers to manage their social media sites and receive the benefits of having them.

So, if your business isn't quite keeping up with all of its social media, think about building a social media command center. You'll only benefit from it if you do! And, you'll be able to pretend like you're Buzz Lightyear when you talk to your coworkers by saying things like "We have a new comment, Space Ranger!" or "This is *insert your name* of Social Media Star Command, do you read me?" Or at least I would. :)

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!

An 8-Bit Day in London Town

Earlier this year, Disney transformed London's Brick Lane into "8 Bit Lane," inspired by Disney's latest animated classic, "Wreck-It-Ralph." 8 Bit Lane, the world's first pixelated street, ran from January 11-13 last month at Truman Brewery on London's Brick Lane. Disney had artists build 8-bit sculptures and then scattered those sculptures all around for people to see and talk about.

This guerrilla marketing technique by Disney didn't allow for much interaction between people and the exhibit, but it definitely got people to talk. Disney hung a large banner (seen above) with a picture of Wreck-It-Ralph himself, along with the #8BITLANE hashtag to encourage people to talk about the 8-bit street on social media sites such as Twitter.  Disney definitely created a buzz about the movie in the U.K. where the release date was February 8, a month after the street campaign launched. 

I think this street campaign was a great idea for Disney. The sculptures ranged from things like a dog, birds, and even clouds, creating a truly 8-bit street for people to walk through. Take a look at the video below to see the street exhibit for yourself! 

Get It Before It's Gone!: "Limited Time Magic"

Disney's limited time ice castle in Time's Square

On October 17, 2012, Disney announced “Limited Time Magic” for Disney Parks by creating a giant ice castle, much like Cinderella’s, and placing it in front of The Disney Store in Time’s Square. This ice castle, made of 45,000 pounds of ice, kick started Disney’s “Limited Time Magic” by showing magic, but only for a limited time (ice melts, ya know?).  

So what is this “Limited Time Magic” thing all about? Well, each week, Disney will surprise guests at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort in unexpected ways. 52 weeks in the year, with 52 limited time surprises! For example, from Jan. 21-27, Disney delighted guests with “Long Lost Friends Week” at Walt Disney World. During this week, guests had the opportunity to meet and greet with characters from the olden Disney days, such as Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, The Three Little Pigs, Robin Hood, and even Friar Tuck! Amazing! I would have LOVED to meet Clarabelle Cow. How about you?!

This week, Disney is celebrating “True Love Week,” with special romantic dinners for two, a blushing pink and red Cinderella Castle, and even meet and greets with all your favorite Disney princesses…joined by their princes! Swoon!

Here are some of the “Limited Time Magic” events that Disney has announced but haven’t happened yet:    

·         President’s Day-A Weeklong Celebration

·         Independence Week

·         Pirate Week

·         Dapper Dans Sing Boy Bands (...I'm especially looking forward to this!)

·         Unleash the Villains

So if you’re traveling to Disney World or Disneyland this year, be sure to click this link to check back with Disney's Limited Time Magic  page for updates on new and exciting events happening! I’ll be going to The Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in March, so I can’t wait to find out what event will be going on during my visit! Whatever Disney may do, I’m positive it will make my trip much more magical! 

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!

Infographics: Think Visually!

If you love Pinterest as much as I do, you’veprobably encountered a few infographics during those long (wasted) hours spentpinning to your heart’s content. Infographics are emerging as a more popularway for businesses and individuals to present information in a visual andinteresting way. Mark Smiciklas, author of “The Power of Infographics,” definesan infographic as “a visualization ofdata or ideas that tries to convey complex information to an audience in amanner that can be quickly consumed and easily understood.”  

    

 Infographics should combine both art and science, and can bethought of as ‘idea art.’ They need to create a mixture of visuals and data toshare information that is relevant, interesting, and unique to the brand,topic, or industry the infographic should be representing.  If done successfully, infographics can help toextend your personal brand or company presence. Another awesome benefit frominfographics is that they’re easily shareable on social media platforms.  

     

There are several characteristics of infographics thatrepresent different kinds of data. These characteristics are as follows:

•  Statistics       
• Cartoons
•  Concepts
•  Models
•  Information
• Timeline

The infographic (to the left) called  6 Reasons to Visualize Your Data is a great example of avisual and captivating representation of data. Also, it shares wonderful reasons why you shouldshare information visually! 

Another fabulous example of an infographic done right isthis one (to the right), done by the Disney Parks Blog. This infographic is atimeline called 40 Years at Walt Disney World Resort, so check it out to see some of the amazing milestones Disney World has experienced since its opening in 1971!  

     

Thanks for reading and have a magical day! 

Monsters University and Rainy City Tales

If you haven't heard already, Pixar Animation Studios is releasing their fourteenth feature film this summer..."Monster's University". As a prequel to the 'monstrously hilarious' "Monster's Inc.", I'm expecting to laugh enough times while watching "Monster's University" to fill at least fifty laugh canisters. (If you're unsure of what a laugh canister is, stop reading this right now and go watch "Monster's Inc." because your life is incomplete. Then come back and finish reading of course!)

Anywho...Pixar is famous for not only their feature films, but also their much-loved and adored short films. Some of my favorite Pixar shorts are "Geri's Game" (where the old man plays chess with himself...so funny!) and the quirky "For the Birds" (the one with the judgmental birds who face the unfortunate, but funny consequences of bullying a larger silly bird).

Pixar has been working on a new short film to place in front of "Monster's University" in theaters this summer. The creative people at Pixar created a viral marketing campaign to create hype for the upcoming short by creating an code-named tumblr page documenting the work being done on the film, giving away subtle pictures and hints to what the film will be about, without revealing that they were even Pixar. How dare those Pixarians be so sneaky! Even with the stealthiness, Pixar fanatics who had been keeping a close eye on this blog saw the picture below on the tumblr and made their assumptions about the man behind the curtain, if you will. Pixar followers found that the "MU" in the picture below stands for "Monster's University", giving away the identity of the masterminds behind the Rainy City Tales tumblr!

Here's the link to the Rainy City Tales tumblr page: http://rainycitytales332.tumblr.com/

 

Here's a close up of "MU"

Earlier this month, Pixar shared their first sneak peak at the film and gave its official title: "The Blue Umbrella." The short is going to center around a blue umbrella who fancies a red umbrella. In his attempts to get close to this red umbrella, the blue umbrella gets a little beaten up by the weather. I think that sounds adorable enough, so when Pixar released their first clip of the film, I fell in love with the cutest little umbrella you'll ever see. The animation looks great and very realistic which is a bit of a change for Pixar shorts. Will the blue and red umbrella fall in love and have a happy ever after? I can't wait to find out. Can you? : )

Watch the sneek peak clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wY7KQmPYlo

Have a magical day!

Privacy, Ethics, and Legalities

Social media has changed the ways in which we communicate with people everywhere. What used to be a telephone conversation has turned into commenting on a status update on Facebook or replying to a tweet. Information can be easily shared with just the click of a button. The only problem is once you click that button, whatever you've posted is now open for all those in the web-o-sphere to see…for good.

Online privacy is a controversial issue these days, especially dealing with advertising companies gaining access to different websites’ databases. Advertisers then use the information from the databases to strategize and focus their ads toward a specific target audience.Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is, but there are some people out there who think this sort of practice is positively blasphemous. For this reason, it is important to know that once you place information online, that information automatically has a chance of being taken and used by someone else for some kind of purpose such as advertising.

Another issue we face with social media is ethics. More people who are actively involved with social media believe questionable behaviors, such as commenting negatively about their company on social media sites, are acceptable. As social media becomes more and more important in our culture, it is necessary to be aware of ethical pitfalls and how to avoid them. Here are a few tips to help you stay as ethical as possible:

·        Always be honest and transparent. If you are hiding any kind of information, it reflects poorly on your character.

·        Know exactly how to portray yourself or your company through social media. Your online personality is often viewed as your physical personality, so make sure not to post anything questionable.

·        Make sure all of the information you present online is accurate and correct. Be careful of potential legal issues such as defamation.

Legal issues are also important to note when discussing social media. There are hundreds of social media lawsuits settled in court yearly. And let’s not forget about the out of court settlements. MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are a few social media companies who have gotten into legal trouble repeatedly. Here are a few things to do in order to stay aware of social media legal issues:

·        Draw a bold and distinct line between personal and professional accounts. Don’t mix the two.

·        Know the social media policies and keep up with them if/when they change.

·        Be privy to the knowledge of legal issues and how to use technologies. Knowing what you’re up against is imperative in being social media savvy.

I hope these tips will help you understand social media better and allow you to become more knowledgeable on social media privacy and ethics. Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Blog Beginnings and Gorgeous George

     Hello blog-o-sphere! Allow me to introduce myself… My name is Caitlin Brooks and I’m currently a sophomore student at the University of Louisville. I am majoring in Communications and focusing my classes around public relations and social media in the hopes of becoming a strategic communicator for a large company in the future.  I grew up in the small town of Maysville, KY, so living in Louisville is a drastic change for me. Although many of my high school classmates (and even myself at times) complain about our hometown being the most boring, Mayberry-esque place on this side of the Mason-Dixon line, Maysville is actually a pretty neat and historic place. In fact, Maysville is the hometown of the following people:

1.  Rosemary Clooney (her debut film “The Stars Are Singing” premiered at the Russell Theatre in downtown Maysville)
2.   Darius Miller (former UK basketball player and currently playing for the Iowa Energy)
3. Chris Lofton (former University of Tennessee basketball player and current professional basketball player)
4. Heather French Henry (Miss America 2000).

  Sure, the only thing to do in Maysville is to stay home or go to the run-down four cinema movie theater. But, Maysville is an important part of me and has shaped my personality and who I am today. And did I mention George Clooney (Rosemary’s nephew) and Renée Zellweger came to Maysville to premiere their movie “Leatherheads”? Yep, that happened.

Click the following link to check out People.com’s article on the Leatherheads premiere. http://img2-2.timeinc.net/people/i/2008/news/080407/george_clooney.jpg

   
 Being raised in a small town has made me thirst for knowledge from bigger places…like Hollywood and New York. I love popular culture, and I credit that to my hometown. My love for popular culture is what got me interested in communications in particular. Remember earlier when I said I hoped to work for a large company as a strategic communicator? Well, the company I have in mind is The Walt Disney Company. You guessed it; my ultimate dream and goal in life is to work for “The Mouse” himself. Disney has always been a big part of my life and has given my family and me so many happy and magical memories; I hope to be a part of the company who creates happiness for people all over the world like it’s nobody’s business.

   
 Since this is my first blog, I should set a few goals to help myself stay focused and organized. My goals for this blog are pretty simple:

1.       Write about topics such as social media and public relations as well as other interesting topics like Disney, animation, theme parks, etc.    

2.       Keep up with the blog throughout the remainder of my college experience and beyond! (Buzz Lightyear voice).

3.       Keep my readers interested!

   
 So now that you know a little bit about me and what this blog will be like, I’d like to hear from you! Feel free to post comments and ask me questions about social media, UofL, Disney, etc. I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay here at my blog!

   
 Have a magical day!