Archive for March, 2010

Words You Should Never Say To A Client

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 31st, 2010

Phyllis Schaeffler Dealy has an excellent blog post on iMedia today. In it, she discusses the seven words you should never say to a client. It’s worth a read whether you are a client, the agency or a service provider.

One of the points that Phyllis touches on (and they are all solid, relevant points) is that you should be fearless, but not reckless. This is an important consideration for many organizations because the larger they are, the more risk adverse they can be. In this new world of communication, it is taking time for many on the…

Dealing With Critics, Backlash Or Attacks

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 29th, 2010

There is an interesting piece in BusinessWeek that talks about how companies need to respond to their most vocal customers. It outlines some of the software now available to help organizations monitor the Web for those discussions.

One of the key points that this article makes is that organizations can no longer control the message. You cannot rein in the conversations that are happening. There are discussions happening online whether you like what is being said or not.

Often, that is the biggest hurdle that a new AHA client needs to get over. Not just accepting that the world has…

The Nestle Crisis Keeps Going

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 23rd, 2010

There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for candy maker Nestle. I just checked their Facebook page and the negative comments are still being posted on a regular basis. I also checked out their Twitter accounts (@nestle and @nestlecsv) – which stands for creating shared value. While there are plenty of comments to and at Nestle on Twitter, they aren’t tweeting much.

I found information on their website that announces that Nestle commits to using sustainable palm oil by 2015. It’s interesting that you can get this news via mp3 on their site as…

When A Brand Is Attacked – A Live Case Study

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 22nd, 2010

Jenn Riggle of The Buzz Bin has a great blog post on Seven Ways Hospitals Can Address Facebook Criticism. While Jenn’s post focuses on hospitals, her advice can be translated to any organization that faces public scrutiny and criticism.

Being attacked publicly is one of the main concerns that we hear when we speak with new clients about the potential of using social media as a part of their communications efforts. This is a valid concern and one that needs to be addressed, especially for those organizations that have outspoken critics—critics that understand and use social media and…

Social Media – What Works?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 18th, 2010

iMedia has a great article with the headline: Does Facebook Work? It goes on to showcase some of the purchasing stats of retail customers, stats that don’t quite live up to the hype of Facebook.

I think one of the challenges that we face in using social media is that we are looking for this magic thing to come along and replace all the stuff from the past that didn’t work. Currently, social media is being hailed as the best tool ever for sales people, for marketing people and for PR—as well as for consumers, non-profits, businesses and other organizations.…

Developing A Social Media Policy For Your Organization

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 17th, 2010

I came across an interesting site that may help those starting out in social media to develop a social media policy for your organization.  You can check it out here.

The site is free and asks a series of questions in order to provide a reasonably customized social media policy that fits your organization’s culture and needs. I went through the process to see how it worked and below you can see the results for AHA Creative Strategies.

This site is worth checking out for any organization that does not have a social media policy in place. There…

Starting With Social Media…Getting Past That BIG First Step

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 15th, 2010

Last week, I spoke to an audience that consisted of members from several different groups, boards and associations. They are all a part of a large—and important—industry. It was a very interesting presentation. (In the interest of client confidentiality, I am not going to identify the group I spoke with.)

When I present, one of the first questions that I ask is if anyone is tweeting. Not one person in this group raised their hand. It was the first time in more than 18 months that I was in a room that did not have at least 25% of the…

What if you gained 15,000 Twitter Followers Overnight?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 09th, 2010

In a random act of humour, Conan O’Brien decided to follow one of the 600,000 people that follow him on Twitter. The Chicago Tribune outlines the story very well.

Turns out, the person Conan chose to follow is Sarah Killen (@LovelyButton). She is in her late teens and is from Michigan. And about 15,000 of Conan’s followers began to follow Sarah. Sarah turned this opportunity into something very positive.

She tweeted about an upcoming breast cancer awareness walk, the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, sending her new followers to a site where they could…

Guest Blog Post from Della Smith of Q Workshops

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on March 08th, 2010

Our friend and colleague Della Smith of Q Workshops has been telling us about Drive by Daniel H. Pink. We asked her (as we wait for our copy of the book to arrive from Amazon) to write a book review for us for the AHA blog. Here it is:

DRIVE – THE SURPRISING TRUTH ABOUT WHAT MOTIVATES US

BY:  Daniel H. Pink

This book resonated as strongly with my brain as it did with my heart.  Dan Pink presents a strong case for a new way at looking at motivation. Say goodbye (well, maybe not totally) to carrots…

Why Your Organization Should Be On Twitter

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on March 04th, 2010

I came across a blog post today from Twitip on 11 reasons why you should be on Twitter.

When Twitter originally came out, we, at AHA, didn’t see much of a business application for it. It seemed to us that there was mostly a lot of noise going on, chatter of no value. As time went on, more and more business-minded people signed up and for our purposes, that added value. It then made sense for us to join in the conversation.

Find us at @AHApr. And don’t worry, you won’t see us talking about…