AHA

There seems to be a trend happening that is quite interesting. It certainly created some engaging discussion at the AHA office. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit beside the VP of Social Media for a large PR firm. I have a passing acquaintance with this woman and we got to talking about the demands of our jobs and how our roles have changed because of social media. She surprised me by saying that at the end of the month, she was turning in her BlackBerry and was going back to a cell phone. One that would be turned off at 6 p.m. and back on at 8 a.m. – just business hours. Keep in mind, this is the VP of social media.

Another friend approached me to ask about Facebook protocol and etiquette. It turns out he took a look at his Facebook “friends” and realized that, for the most part, they were friends of friends or acquaintances that really don’t impact his life very much. He was trying to figure out how to “unfriend” people, going so far as thinking about deleting his page and starting a new secret page just for people that he wants to stay in touch with.

I have another friend who entered the Facebook world cautiously. He doesn’t use his real name on Facebook, he keeps his friends to a small number because the only way you really know he is on Facebook is if he emails you and explains that his “alias” wants to friend you and it’s really him.

Share this article:
Read more

We don’t normally discuss client work here on the blog, but this week has been so incredible, we thought we would share a little about what has been happening at AHA.

Working with our client, Tourism New Zealand (TNZ), we had two high profile projects that certainly had our office hopping this week. Our phones were ringing, emails arriving, and requests were coming in nonstop.

Share this article:
Read more

We recently had a U.S. client visit us in Vancouver for planning meetings and media updates. At AHA, we’re very fortunate that we have clients in the U.S. and Canada – on both the east and west coasts. That AHA is based in Vancouver – with our head office in Gibsons (a short 40-minute ferry ride from Vancouver) isn’t an issue with our clients or with media. We communicate on a regular basis by telephone, email, and online chat. The world has evolved enough that where we are based isn’t relevant, the work we do is.

Share this article:
Read more

We hear it from clients, colleagues and friends all the time. Keeping up with what is going on in social media is overwhelming. Just recently, Facebook rolled out community pages and began to group people based on likes. They have also stopped supporting Facebook Lite, which appeared to be a Twitter-like approach to Facebook. Ning has announced that it will eliminate the free component of its service…and the list goes on and on. How can anyone keep up not only with the changes, but what they mean to your organization?

Share this article:
Read more

Tamar Weinberg has a great blog post on the seven truths about social media marketing. It’s worth a read.

One of the key points that we focus on, here at AHA, is that social media doesn’t live in a silo. It needs to be integrated throughout your marketing and communications efforts. More often than we should, we hear about organizations that have something happening on a social networking site that their communications team knows nothing about.

Share this article:
Read more