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9 Golden Rules for Optimizing your Social Media Presence

November 28, 2011 By lgoodale Leave a Comment

Heather Stone, Interactive Producer, Palio

Online or offline, we’re perceived by our actions. Because social media has become just “part of how business gets done,” it is easy to forget to be mindful of how we interact with others. In many religions and cultures, there’s usually some variation of the golden rule – do unto others as you wish to have done to you. Applying this rule to your online communications can help optimize your social media presence and contribute to positive perception of your company and personal brand.

Treat others how you’d want to be treated – Good relationships are the cornerstone of a successful social media presence. That requires listening to the needs of your audience and communicating with them in a way that resonates. Want to increase customer loyalty? Remember it’s about them, not you.

Be welcoming – If someone likes you on Facebook or follows you on Twitter, they’re open to having a relationship. Get them at hello, whether that’s offering a promotion, inviting them to subscribe to your newsletter or simply acknowledging the relationship (caveat: no auto-reply, please).

Be responsive, caring and thoughtful – Displaying empathy towards your customers is a valuable competitive advantage. If they’re having a service issue, show you care by being proactive in communication and problem resolution. If they’re looking for information prior to making a buying decision, go beyond product-specific information to connect them with a like-minded community.

Ensure interactions add value – Remember that social media is about conversations – not just opportunities to name drop your company, product or service. If you’re using Facebook to post the same discount offer or website link multiple times, you’re going to turn off your audience. There’s no shortage of information out there, either. Keep content fresh and make every conversation count.

Embrace opposing viewpoints – You can learn a lot about your customers by listening – especially when they’re disagreeing with you. Rather than run away from or get caught up in the argument, keep communication transparent and deliver messages that speak respectfully to contrarian ideas.

Think before posting – Even the best community managers can get emotional. Snarky replies don’t do anyone any favors. Not pausing before you post can damage your career, reputation or company. Word things carefully, and if you need to, walk away for a few minutes before responding.

Sharpen your listening skills – Paying attention to what customers and competitors are saying provides valuable business intelligence. Empower and collaborate with your audience based on the things that are important to them.

Share and share alike – If you want engage people as brand ambassadors, provide information that is worthy of sharing and make it easy. Something as simple as “please retweet” can move a message.

Be authentic –Use your social media presence to let people know who you are and what you stand for by painting a picture across all your social networks. Take responsibility for your words and actions – even during difficult times.

Communication is a key to better relationships and long-term customer engagement. Follow the golden rule, respect and honor those you interact with and commit to listening and responding appropriately to optimize your social media presence.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

Filed Under: Career, Creative, Industry Trends, Media, Social Media Tagged With: empathy, golden rule, Twitter

A World of Change

August 31, 2011 By lgoodale Leave a Comment

The world isn’t what it used to be. Neither is the marketplace. And changes to both are happening at a faster and faster pace. So what do you do when you need to anticipate the future and you don’t have Nostradamus around to help? You shore up your brand’s ability to adapt. Which means getting used to change because nothing’s ever going to be like it used to be. One reason why can be summed up in two little words: social media. It hasn’t just created a shift, it’s caused an upheaval.

Just check out the facts: social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web. It’s created a major shift in how we communicate with each other. Facebook reached 100 million users in less than a year. Twitter has 2-3 accounts created every second and generates over 50 million tweets a day. Social media is credited with doing everything from creating brands to toppling governments.

For your brand, the message is obvious. You have to adapt to new ways to connect with your customers. Plus, you need to be where the new technology is to show people that your brand is relevant. Which isn’t as daunting as it sounds because Palio can help you navigate this new world. We’re right at home in the flux of today’s fast-evolving communications ecosystem. We can show you how to talk to your customers via social media and provide other ideas on how to increase the size of your digital footprint.

At Palio, we’re not just on top of technological innovations, we’re building them. We have a department devoted to digital content creation, including Web and app development, video production, and interactive programs. In fact, all our brand teams “think” digitally, so any one of them is capable of creating a new idea that can take your brand places it’s never been before. Add to that our deep history in healthcare marketing and pharmaceutical advertising – a level of expertise few others can match – and you have an agency that can lead you past what’s happening now, and through what’s ahead, without flinching.

Since you’re already on our site, now is a perfect time to check out some of our other posts to see what we’re thinking. Then, if you want to know more, call Mike Myers at 518.584.8924. He’s not Nostradamus, but he can tell you how your brand will have a brighter future if it links up with Palio.

Filed Under: Advertising, Creative, Industry Trends, Social Media, Technology Tagged With: digital, digital footprint, healthcare marketing, Palio, pharmaceutical advertising, pharmaceutical marketing, social media, Twitter

Using Social Data to Inform Brand Strategy

July 28, 2011 By lgoodale Leave a Comment

Catlin Renaud, Research Analyst, Palio

Marketers have long used consumer insight to guide decisions and strategy. Today, getting information about consumer attitudes, buying habits, preferences, trends and opinions is as easy as following a Tweet stream or collection of Facebook postings, right?

Not so fast. With the abundance of information available today it’s hard to distinguish critical data from noise. Before using social data to redefine your brand or offering, you need to take a step back and “look under the hood.”

Not everything that gets posted is accurate. Because of its immediacy, social media can become a platform for fleeting thoughts rather than well-thought out ideas. Someone writing that your new applicator is difficult to use may not follow up later with a positive post after they complete the learning curve. This makes this kind of data unreliable.

It’s easy to miss information. There’s so much activity on the social networks – in May, Twitter reached more than 4,000 Tweets per second at the beginning and end of President Obama’s speech – that you’re likely to miss critical information, even with rigorous monitoring. This makes your data incomplete.

Recognizing trends can be difficult because of skewed data and missing information. It also can be difficult because social media is still relatively new and companies are unsure of what to measure.

Listening in on customers via social media helps companies identify what people are saying about their products and services, but it’s important to validate the data before acting on it. By separating valid, actionable data from noise, companies can use this real-time feedback as the ultimate weapon in redefining their brand, products or services.

When thinking about social data and brand strategy, consider the following:

Size matters. The bigger your fan base, the more likely you’ll be able to raise awareness of your company or product and increase interactivity among consumers. Be sure to also look beyond size and at volume to identify frequent posters or tweeters. Encouraging either is likely to benefit your brand.

Follow your information. Want to know if your message resonates with your audience? Watch where it goes; is it being retweeted? Are bloggers linking back to your content? By understanding where your information is shared, you can further refine your messages and ensure you’re tapping into the interests of your buyers.

Don’t get hung up on time spent. Does it really matter how much time someone spends on your blog or Website? To a degree, yes, but that metric as a reflection of your popularity is flawed and hard to validate. How many times have you left a browser window open and walked away? Instead, monitor what people do when they interact with your brand. Look at activity and focus on where they came from, what they do when they arrive or why they came in the first place. This kind of feedback will tell you more about your target than your brand, which enables you to craft a strategy that aligns with their interests or requirements.

By listening to what people are saying, and validating what you hear, companies can get a better understanding of their buying audience and create a meaningful strategy that drives results.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

Filed Under: Advertising, Brand Planning, Industry Trends, Media, Research, Social Media, Technology Tagged With: brand strategy, consumer insight, Facebook, social data, social media, Twitter

AstraZeneca’s Digital Press Conference

February 23, 2011 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Michael Villanella, Copywriting Intern, Palio

AstraZeneca hosted the first live pharmaceutical Twitter chat this past week. Leading up to the event, bloggers and tweeters created a substantial buzz on the web. They wondered how successful/safe this event would be given the lack of FDA regulations. AZ’s main objective (among others) was to receive feedback on Prescription Savings Programs. Although this seems innocent, many were holding their breath due to the potential of the chat going sour.

The format was simple. AZ led discussion by tweeting questions and participants gave their responses. In an attempt to have two-way discussion, followers would occasionally return fire at AZ. Depending on the risk factor, AZ may choose to answer or not answer these questions.

Since AZ had chosen the open forum of twitter, there was a concern for “hijackers” or individuals who take over discussion by asking off topic questions. Although AZ tried to combat this with an introductory disclaimer, hijacking attempts were in abundance.

At times, hijacking attempts were so outright and obnoxious that I couldn’t help but laugh. My hunch is that some of these people were being over the top on purpose in order to test the waters. I would guess they wanted to see how far AZ would go.

Was the AstraZeneca chat successful?

In regards to AZ utilizing social media, the chat reminded me of Alex Rodriguez’s steroid press conference in 2009. Questions were answered, but more sprang up as a result. The chat succeeded in proving that the use of social media is possible and safe. But the question becomes how practical was the use of social media?

By hiding behind the veil of Twitter, AZ was able to pick and choose, or simply ignore questions that didn’t fit their agenda. Their cold shoulder treatment served as both a blessing and a curse.

On one hand, AZ was able to avoid trouble by dodging touchy questions, but on the other hand, they were forced to shut out a lot of their followers who had decent questions. One frustrated tweet said “I would like to thank @AstraZeneca #rxsave @TonyJewell @ACUnderserved for ducking important questions & wasting an hour of peoples time.”

While there is some truth to this statement, it can’t be expected of AZ to answer the “important” questions through twitter; at least not at this time. In AZ’s defense, they did the most they could by taking the least amount of risk.

Was this a breakthrough in the social media realm for pharmaceutical companies? Probably not, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. It seemed as though AZ’s objective was to gain information rather than give it. While AZ did answer some questions, they were restricted to scratching the surface. This is the main problem with social media – there’s only so much that can be done without taking risks.

At the end of the chat, AZ posed a final question regarding the success of its twitter event. It was almost unanimously agreed that this live chat was a great idea and had great value. Judge for yourself and check out the chat transcript here.

Palio is a full-spectrum global pharmaceutical and consumer advertising, marketing, and communications agency that excels in brand creation and specializes in brand strategy, product launches, global marketing, and digital and integrated media.

Filed Under: Creative Tagged With: AstraZeneca, press conference, social media, Twitter

Social Media’s Impact on Non-Profits

October 26, 2010 By jfisher 1 Comment

From Peter O’Toole, VP, Associate Director of Operations, Palio

Most of us have a favorite charity or a not-for-profit group that we follow and support. We see them as making a positive impact and it makes us feel good about ourselves when we send them a check in the hope that we can help make a difference in our community and our world. As someone who has given to a broad range of charities, I have often wondered how consumers make decisions on what charities they support and what role social media might make in that decision making.

I have been serving on the Board of Directors of a newly formed local not-for-profit that provides cash grants to children who have lost a parent or guardian to cancer. As most startup not-for-profits discover, the competition is pretty fierce for donation dollars. Before the rise of social media, most non-profit organizations needed to either buy expensive advertising or receive media coverage to attract the attention of their target audience and to spread awareness about their group’s mission. With the Web, and social media in particular, the playing field has been leveled dramatically.

Our group needed a way to get our name out there to publicize an inaugural fundraiser. We had the advantage of having experienced media/PR people on the Board, but they were all very focused on traditional old-school promotional methods and word of mouth. I was crafting press releases and sending them off to radio/tv/newspaper contacts, hoping to receive some free press. Word of mouth and e-mail was also important, but not a very sophisticated marketing outlet. Enter the brilliant idea… we tapped into social media.

According to a study completed last year by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, charitable organizations were outpacing the business world and academia in their use of social media. The study was based on interviews conducted with the executives of 76 of the largest charities in the U.S. and it found that 97% of those organizations were using some form of social media including blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis and Twitter. Do you wiki? The full study is located here.

Hindsight being 20-20, my organization’s plunge into social media was not very well thought out. Once I set up our group page on Facebook (that was the extent of our social media strategy) and anchored our brandmark in the upper left corner, I was immediately confronted with questions.

Who will be the spokesperson and the voice of our organization?

Will the voice of that spokesperson be personal or professional?

Who will be in charge of responding to conversation and social media buzz that is created?

Who will be monitoring the impact of our social media efforts?

What, if any, monitoring tools will we or should we use?

How will we protect the brand of our organization?

It was all fuzzy math, and these questions came to me over time… they didn’t just arrive with the traditional clap of thunder. Being the adventurous sort, I pushed ahead. After populating all of the specifics of our group that I knew (our mission statement), and after sharing the page with all of my Facebook “friends,” I had to begin to think about what I was going to say. The fundraiser we were working toward was just a few weeks away, so it was obvious to me that as far as this vehicle was concerned, I was really just going to be pushing awareness of our group, our mission and the fundraiser. We didn’t have a strategy to track donations based on social media outlets or any outlet for that matter, but I was pretty impressed with the analytics that Facebook offered to be able to track views and posts by viewers.

Our inaugural event went off well and we were able to raise over fifty thousand dollars through the kind donations of our supporters.

With the event behind us and our Board now able to focus on bread and butter issues (like a business plan), we will begin to slowly explore the possibilities open to us via social media. Working through what our organizational voice will be is another challenge we will be addressing that in the near future. Most important, we will be making our first grant awards to a couple of local kids who lost their mother to breast cancer.

While some quarters decry the way social media impacts how we communicate (or don’t communicate) together as a community, I believe that it has made new connections possible that wouldn’t ordinarily be found by word of mouth or traditional outlets. Not-for-profits are able to project messages to “friends” more frequently and for a fraction of the cost. In my case, it just takes a click and a sip of coffee and my social media plans begin to unfold in my mind.

Visit the Kelly’s Angels Facebook page. We also have a Website.

Filed Under: Industry Trends, Media Tagged With: Facebook, Kelly's Angels, social media, Twitter

Confessions of a Deconstructed Luddite

June 10, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Steve Dubansky, MD, SVP, Medical Director, Palio

As a confirmed, proud, self-professed Luddite, I have somewhat stubbornly resisted the onslaught of social media, preferring to use the telephone (rotary of course) or the person-to-person meeting in order to do my socializing. Keystrokes, whether 140 (tweet tweet) or more (blog blog) just didn’t do it for me.

Strongly “encouraged” to tweet and blog by my employers, I hesitatingly dipped my toe into the social media water with a few very tentative blogs and tweets. However, rather than find the anodyne experience that social intercourse usually provides, I found the experiences polymorphously frustrating. What do I say? What about this? Would that interest anyone? How do I keep it ≤140 spaces? Who even cares what I think? Paraphrasing Groucho Marx, would I ever want to “friend” someone who wastes their precious timing reading my thoughts on-line?

Most frustrating was the simple fact that I never received feedback. Never. It was akin to talking to (not “with”!) someone at a party who spends the entire time looking everywhere but at you, searching desperately for someone more interesting and/or attractive. No real conversation. Kind of like dinner table conversation when you ask your children the dreaded question, “How was school today?” What you hear, minus the “Okay,” is the sound of silence that tweets and blogs give you.

But then one day, about 2 months into my daily enforced tweeting, after posting a tweet about an Environmental Working Group report on pesticides poisoning fruits and vegetables, my epiphany came in a tweet response from “Chem React.” Just a few simple words, “Agreed. Even just on Twitter, every day-so much evidence of the scary dangers around us. But nothing happens… Time to change.”

That’s all it took to get me to realize that while I may never see their responses, there are people who are reading what I’m writing. Perhaps they dismiss it, perhaps they think it unworthy of a response, or perhaps they simply don’t have the time to respond. Doesn’t matter. It’s kind of like a party, where not everyone is interested in conversing with you. It’s even better than a party in one important aspect. When tweeting or blogging, you don’t have to see the other people ignoring you, or looking past you for more fertile social intercourse.

So rather than curse the darkness, I’ve now lit the candle and brightened my attitude about social media. The applications are just waiting to be discovered. I can see potential utility in both the pharma and medical spaces.

Just this week, the Disney Company launched a Facebook application called Tickets Together, which lets you buy tickets via Facebook. When you do, your Facebook friends get messages letting them know where and when you’re going to the movies, in this case it’s “Toy Story 3.” Tickets, not available to the “general public” till the middle of June, may be bought in groups of up to 80.

Marketers in the pharma space should readily be able to use the social media to rapidly disseminate things such as drug-related information and discount coupons. Any marketer worth his/her salt should be able to come up with even better ideas than those.

Physicians can easily disseminate health maintenance, disease prevention information to their patients. Practice-related information (appointment times, doctor is running late, meet-up support groups of similarly affected patients) presents lots of opportunities.

While I’m not completely sold on the idea, social media is here to stay. It will without doubt evolve in ways we can’t imagine. An open mind is the prepared mind, and we better be prepared because things are moving fast. This deconstructed Luddite doesn’t want to be left behind. In fact, I think I’ll blog about this right now. Oops. First I’ll have to bike to the store and pick up some ink for my fountain pen.

Filed Under: Industry Trends, Media, Uncategorized Tagged With: blog, connected, digital, personality, positioning, social media, trends, Twitter

HIV in America

April 27, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

I recently stumbled across a blog post about HIV in America, thanks to my good friend Twitter, who never ceases to open my eyes to newsworthy items every day.

The point is simple – HIV is still a major issue in America. Many of us believe that what was once a death sentence is now a chronic condition. Yes, the medications have side effects, and living with HIV is not easy, but the drugs exist to help people live longer, healthier lives with HIV. The danger we face in acknowledging our progress in this disease state is developing apathy for the disease itself.

Jose Antonio Vargas makes a compelling point – AIDS must be part of our national consciousness. As a society we can fund better prevention programs, we can better educate on the risks, we can hope for better therapies – but until it is a part of our national consciousness and, I’d argue, part of our personal consciousness, the epidemic will continue to spiral out of control.

Check out the post, and more importantly, take 3 minutes to view the trailer for a new 90-minute documentary that will be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival next week. I sent the trailer to a colleague of mine who had worked in the HIV category with me for years. We were both overwhelmed and impressed with the clarity and focus it brings to this ongoing issue. And while neither of us is lucky enough to be attending the Tribeca Film Festival, we are anxiously anticipating a DVD release or perhaps will be lucky enough to find a screening in a nearby theater following the festival.

If nothing else, it’s brought the reality of HIV and those at risk for it back into my stream of conscious thought.

Filed Under: Account Services, Industry Trends Tagged With: AIDS, HIV, Tribeca Film Festival, Twitter

What in the World Do All These “Trends” Mean on Twitter?

March 3, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Jeremy Lichtenberger, Senior Brand Planner, Palio

I’m relatively new to Twitter, but I’m learning more and more about it every day. One thing that bothers me and, maybe you, is deciphering the “trends” list. It seems that words or phrases are trending but they mean nothing to me. Sure you can click on them and the “TwitScoop” will show you the actual tweets but then you still need to spend time reading and figuring out what is being tweeted and it’s often a waste of time.

The website “What The Trend” is a great resource for understanding what is trending and why. The site also allows you to see what trends were tweeted for the previous week or predict a trend for the upcoming week. And if you are correct you could win a prize…which is nice.

Twank you for your twime!

Follow me on Twitter: Air_Master_J

Filed Under: Brand Planning, Industry Trends Tagged With: Palio, trends, Twitter, What The Trend

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What in the World Do All These “Trends” Mean on Twitter?

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