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.…

A Strategic Plan Can Only Work If You Use It

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 03rd, 2010

I came across a great post by Brian Solis on social media integration. It’s worth a read. (Just about everything Brian writes is worth a read.)

Integrating social media into your communication efforts doesn’t stop when you write a strategic plan. It is an ongoing and evolving effort. We have recently had some interesting conversations with a client that we work with on a project basis. This client is someone that we have a huge amount of respect for and we want to see him succeed. His company is young and growing and he has a strong philanthropic…

What comes first – the brand or social media?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on August 31st, 2009

There is a very thought-provoking blog post by Lauren Fernandez that created some interesting discussion here at the AHA office. At the heart of it is the question – do we conform to social media standards or should they conform to us?

The challenge that Whole Foods is facing is an example; social media became a big part of this issue. Thanks to blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other tools, more people learned about the letter and could weigh in, making their opinions known.

Should the CEO of Whole Foods NOT have written the letter to the editor because it could…

Timing is everything

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on July 06th, 2009

First off, let me state that I am not going to speculate about why Sarah Palin resigned her position as Governor of Alaska. I am, however, going to put forward a few things about her resignation that make you go hmmmm…

As communicator’s we know that sometimes the news (both mainstream and online) focuses on one big story and may exclude others. In the past couple of weeks that story has been about the death of Michael Jackson. Coverage about how the “King of Pop” died, his will and the custody of his children has been extensive. I found it…

The medium IS the message – at least for now

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 22nd, 2009

Craig McInnes had an interesting opinion article in The Vancouver Sun yesterday with the headline: Digital pictures are the tattoos of the Internet: You wear them forever. It is a great headline, a good piece and worth a read.

In the article, McInnes talks a little about Ray Lam, NDP candidate for Vancouver-False Creek and the Facebook photos that led to his resignation. He also mentions Sharon Smith, Mayor of Houston, B.C., who had a photo of her wearing only her chain of office show up online. There are many instances and incidents—political, corporate and…

Edmonton & Other Social Media Thoughts

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 21st, 2009

There are a couple of topics for today’s post, so I will try to keep them short and sweet.

Della and I had the honour of speaking to the Edmonton Chapter of the Canadian Public Relations Society on Friday. It was a great group of people – all interested in how to apply social media tools and tactics to their communications strategies. You can check out some of the tweets throughout the session here.

Chris Brogan, who I have a huge amount of respect for, has a great post on The Undiscovered Country of Presence Management.…

What Social Media & The Grieving Process Have In Common

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 08th, 2009

There is an interesting gap in knowledge and acceptance when it comes to online/social media in some organizations. I have seen a range of emotions about it from some senior executives (including communicators). And it hit me the other day – it’s not much different than the stages of grief that are often cited.

First we have denial. – Oh come on, this is just a trend. It will all work itself out and go away. Look at the dotcom boom and crash. This is all just a bunch of technology that has no business case for our organization. None…

Can Big Media Control Google Content?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 07th, 2009

TechCrunch has a very interesting article entitled “The Whining Sound You Hear Is The Death Wheeze Of Newspapers.” It’s well worth a read.

The article discusses how some large media organizations are accusing Google of “stealing” their copyrighted content. It also links to another TechCrunch post about the Associated Press declaring that it will now police the Web and “develop a system to track content distributed online to determine if it is being legally used.”

There is a huge challenge in trying to police the Internet and, while I am not a copyright expert,…

You've Been Served

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 17th, 2009

It was reported recently that a New Zealand judge has allowed papers to be served via Facebook – check out the story here.  This isn’t the first time that the legal world has used social media, and it won’t be the last. It does make a pretty interesting point – social media is a part of our day-to-day lives now.

I was at the Ragan conference on social media in Las Vegas last week and there was an underlying theme that came from all of the speakers – social media, online media, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 –…

Social Media – Not Just For Kids

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 10th, 2009

There is a great post on how Imedia Connection on how mothers are becoming more and more engaged and involved in social networks. It would appear, according to a recently released industry study, that year over year growth of women ages 25 to 54 with children in the household has gone up nearly 50% on Facebook since 2007. This post is worth reading. It has some very interesting stats and facts, such as: according to a recent MySpace study, the average MySpace mom spends more than 12 hours a week on the site. — That’s a lot of…