To my surprise I received a phone call from a writer at Willamette Week wanting to see if I would give her an interview for the Best of Portland issue. First, I was in shock and of course quickly said yes…then I got online and looked at last years Best of Portland. The list included a Glass Bender, Best Archivist of Ass-Kicking and Best Badass Barkeep- where in the world do I fit in? I am not a badass something-or-other and I feel that I am pretty boring but a creative person. My idea of a hot night out is cuddled up on my couch with the boys, watching TV and making homemade pizza from stuff out of our garden. In other words, I am not very exciting. But now I think I am pretty damn cool person that has a lot going on, more than I thought.

During the interview I started talking about myself and what I do not only do at LVD Media but how I love doing things in the community. I love living in the Pacific Northwest, and I love my fellow Oregonians and Washingtonians…and BC’ians. We are so lucky to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world that give us so much. It is not hard to take a weekend and volunteer at one of our publicly owned beaches picking up garbage or walk a dog in the warm Spring rain or on a cold Thanksgiving day serve up a meal to senior citizens that have more advice than hands to help wash the dishes.

People often ask me where I get my energy and time to do the things I do, and simply I do not know. I try and be organized but if you looked at my desk you would laugh and my calendar usually quickly fills up throughout the day. I have not had a real vacation in over seven years, nor had a honeymoon but I am not complaining but just been contemplating why am I not more cranky about not having that summer vacation like most of my friends do. I think why I am so happy and satisfied is because my heart and head is full of memories of walking dogs in the rain or cooking a full Thanksgiving meal to 50 or so senior citizens that kept telling me I was doing everything wrong. My favorite memory is when I watched Obama get elected with a small group of co-volunteers. When it was announced that Obama won we hugged and cried, and stayed up until the wee hours laughing, talking and of course drinking. But I was proud to be a part of something so big even though I was just a little drop in the bucket but I know I had made a difference…and this is why I am happy and satisfied- I am a drop in the bucket that can make a difference in my community.

Best of Portland

Social media is firmly on the scene as part of the marketing strategy for an overwhelming number of companies, groups, and individuals. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are a communication vehicle, bringing the people to your brand. When you build a community around your brand, you engage in a dialog with far reaching networking capabilities. Keeping your fan base informed (and even entertained) with valuable content is important to gaining credibility on the social media scene. The goal is to be seen and talked about, leading to brand buzz and new clients.

One of the many features offered to business pages on Facebook is the ability to create custom landing pages. Think of this as a visual and contextual extension of your brand within a Facebook wrapper. Your brand should be consistent across all mediums from print to website to Facebook. A custom landing page conveys to your Facebook visitors (potential fans and clients) that you are unique amongst the blue and white. Keeping fans on your page is just as important as getting them there. Even if your “like” numbers go up, active content will keep your fans spreading your word through sharing links and making page suggestions to their own Facebook friends and colleagues.

It is vital to remember that a landing page should not just be a clone of your website home page. Your audience is looking for unique content and a personal connection to your brand. Additionally, while you should certainly be magnetic in personality, be aware that escape from visual overload is just a click away, and Facebook users will click away. Your landing page should be visually clean while providing relevant information. Consulting with a designer and media expert is a good way to determine which of your visual branding and content should make it to your Facebook page.

There are many ways to create landing pages (and other content tabs) for your Facebook page. Third party applications designed for Facebook integration often boast easy drag and drop design and integration. However, integration and navigation of these apps can be confusing if you are not familiar with the Facebook app process, principals of design and, sometimes, web programming code. These apps typically offer subscription levels. Free subscriptions may require you to host your own images on a server connected to the World Wide Web and only allow one custom tab/ landing page for one Facebook page per account. Paid subscriptions (of varying levels) often have easy upload options and host your images and page designs for you, while allowing you to customize multiple tabs/ landing pages on your various Facebook pages.

Your website developer can also design a Facebook landing page that resides within your current website, allowing you to make changes just as you would to any other content. If you have questions and concerns about how to extend your brand to include a Facebook landing page, you should consult with a design, media, and web technology firm.

alison
Director of Programming and Web Development

Websites are part of a network of computers that extend all of the world. This system can be confusing to those who are not familiar with the theories and mechanics of the World Wide Web, and those who are! So I would like to explain the steps of setting up a website as well as give you a basic idea of how websites work. (Click on diagrams for a larger view)

This diagram explaining how web servers work is an extremely basic explanation. There are more steps going on behind the scenes, however diagramming these steps is not necessary for you to get the gist of how your website is working.

I hope these diagrams help you understand how we work to get your new or updated website up and running. A general understanding these steps will also help you complete your Technical Brief more thoroughly and, hopefully, with less confusion. As always, let us know if you have any questions!

alison
Director of Programming and Web Development

Recently I met with a potential new client. After talking and agreeing to an initial campaign that covered both traditional and new media, including a website, blog and PR efforts, they changed their mind.

“We are just going to go with social media. We do not need a website”

My suggestion that social media should only be a portion of a campaign fell on deaf ears. So why is it so wrong to only want social media? First, doing just one form of interaction with your customer base – be it at a consumer or B2B level – is shortchanging your commitment to them. Not that every company needs to do a full-blown media campaign, but just limiting yourself to social media is not giving them the entire picture, especially when there is no website to push your “friends” to.

A final reason would be professionalism and lack of knowledge. A company website gets to who your brand is, why you exist and lets people dig deeper into the who, what, where and mission of your brand. Why cant companies be more informative about who they are? Just having short bursts of information on a Facebook page is not setting yourself up to be taken seriously. A Facebook page should be the casual voice of your company; the one that speaks back and forth with customers on a more personal level. Email, blogging, mission statements and branding should all be handled by your company’s website. Having your own website also ups your SEO considerably and lets you continue the conversation you started on Facebook.

There has always been a big fat grey line within the public relations and marketing industries and now with social media coming into the mix, the simple structures we were used to are now falling apart. Many companies are trying to make a decision if social media or is right for our company, and how do you first facilitate and then keep the social ball rolling? Then the big question, what can we get rid of to cut costs since social media can be a 24/7 job for one person?

I have noticed that smaller companys and nonprofits are getting rid of the traditional PR applications and focusing entirely on social media. To me that is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Focusing and having a strong strategic marketing and PR plan is a must in todays fast moving consumer world.