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BLASTmedia Intern Report Summer 2013
MaryClaire Cieply, Kristen Hay, Jackie Kew, Aaron Moreno and Lara Parker
GOAL Increase awareness of BLASTmedia’s superior services (PR, Social and Paid Media) and position it as a thought leader within these areas to potential clients.
STRATEGIES -‐Drive traffic to website -‐Create presence in PR/marketing industry -‐Demonstrate BLASTmedia’s superior services TACTICS -PR Outreach Coverage:
Status Outlet Circulation
Date Details URL
Ran CommPRO 160,801 8/8/13 Posted Pinterest blog
http://www.commpro.biz/marketing/digital-‐marketing/is-‐your-‐social-‐media-‐marketing-‐plan-‐pinteresting/
Ran The Bulldog Reporter
14,464
8/6/13 Posted Crisis Communication blog
http://www.bulldogreporter.com/dailydog/article/crisis-‐communications-‐for-‐a-‐client-‐5-‐key-‐tips
Pending Communication World Online
40,838
Posting and Tweeting Intern to Employee blog
Pending PR News Blog
24,957 8/27/13 Posting Crisis Communication blog
Request Fortune 500 371,756 7/29/13 Requested Intern to Employee blog
Request Flack Me n/a 7/24/13 Requested Client Communication blog
Event Planning: Since BLASTmedia already does quarterly volunteer work, we thought a good way to get the word out about our company while doing a good deed was to run a seminar for non-‐profits to attend and learn more about PR and social media. Titled “The Changing World of Marketing,” this free event will take place at Launch Fishers on Sept. 16 at 9 a.m. and will include breakfast. At the seminar BLASTmedia employees will speak about public relations, social media and paid media, followed by a Q&A session. Twelve non-‐profits have RSVP-‐ed as of now. Another event in the works is Media Monday. Due to the quarterly volunteer event in September, this will not take place until October, but we have set a topic of creative pitching. Networking: Although Blast’s ideal clients are national businesses, it is always a good idea to maintain contacts and relationships locally. We believe many opportunities and benefits can come from this, and that we at Blast should work harder to do this. On July 10, we attended the PRSA Monthly Luncheon. Hosted by Bohlsen, the topic of the luncheon was crisis management. The meeting was very interesting and educational, and a great way to meet other PR professionals in the area. We believe Blast should send two representatives to each monthly luncheon in order to become more established as a top PR agency in Indianapolis. On August 6, we attended the Indianapolis Business Networking Event hosted by Tip Club Inc. This hour long gathering was a time for people of all different backgrounds to share what their company does and chat with other attendees about possibly business opportunities amongst one another. We believe it would be very beneficial for either Lindsey or Kelly to attend events like this, as many in attendance are looking for services, and they could best spot potential clients for Blast. Possible networking events in the summer of 2013:
-PRSA Monthly Luncheon July 10, Indianapolis -‐Increase Leads and Sales July 10, Indianapolis -‐Indianapolis Business Networking Event July 16, Indianapolis -‐PRSA New PR pros Happy Hour July 18, Indianapolis -‐Indianapolis Business Networking Event Aug. 6, Indianapolis -‐Fast Track Professional Networking Event Aug. 6, Indianapolis -‐Network After Work Aug. 14, Indianapolis
Another great opportunity for BLASTmedia outreach is through national conferences. PR conferences are a great opportunity to network, learn and reach out to possible clients. While not all conferences are free, many are inexpensive and worth the cost.
Possible PR Conferences to attend in 2013: -‐PR & Marketing Conference July 14-‐17, Lake Buena Vista, Fla. -‐PR Summit Conference Series July 30-‐31, San Francisco -‐PR News’ Next Practices Annual Conference Aug. 6, San Francisco -‐Digital PR Best Practices Conference Aug. 15-‐16, San Francisco -‐Social Fresh West 2013 Aug. 22-‐23, San Diego -‐PR News’ Media Training Workshop Sept 10, New York City -‐PRWeek Conference Sept. 17, New York City -‐Social Media Strategies Summit Sept. 17-‐19, Boston -‐Incite: Communications Summit Sept. 18-‐19, New York City -‐PR Best Practices Summit Sept. 25-‐27, Washington D.C. -‐15th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition Oct. 15-‐17, Las Vegas -‐PRSA National Conference Oct. 26-‐29, Philadelphia -‐Social Media Strategies Summit Nov. 6-‐7, San Francisco -‐Small Business Expo 2013 Nov. 7, Los Angeles
Awards and Case Studies: An awards calendar for the month of August has been compiled and submitted to Lindsey. We will continue to add awards to the overarching calendar for future use. We also created a case study highlighting what BLASTmedia has done for the client CrashPlan. This will hopefully be displayed on the company website to appeal to future clients. -Social Media Outreach Instagram: We launched the BLAST Instagram to show our company image, environment, client work and employees, but we also wanted to connect with other platforms and new potential followers. It links to other posts, and not only positions us as a company that’s current with the times, but also one that’s fun, personable, approachable and relatable. Client success stories are also a good way to pique the interest of potential clients and show that our fun company environment doesn’t impede on our quality client work-‐-‐ in fact, it probably helps it! In one month the BLAST Instagram has gained 37 followers. Pinterest: Similarly, we launched the BLAST Pinterest in order to maintain and strengthen our social media presence, link to our other platforms and drive traffic to our website through linking blogs and website content. We’ve also been engaging with other PR and Social Media-‐related companies and showing our knowledge and skills set in these areas through our creative boards and subsequent pins. Some of our Pinterest boards have also provided a good opportunity for promoting our clients and their successes, work, and promotions as well, which is a good way to pique interest for other potential clients and drive more traffic to our website.
In one month the BLAST Pinterest has gained 29 followers. Pins that drove the most traffic to our website in July: the Instagram Brand blog pin contributed seven page visits, and the Keep Calm and Be a superINTERN had five visits. The Instagram Branding pin had a higher-‐than-‐average average visit duration time of 5:54, and from July 1st – August, the Client Media Love Pin had an average visit duration time of 8:20. For August, the Instagram Brand pin and How to Set-‐Up Pinterest for Your Business in Five Easy Steps pin also had over five pages per visit. Fun fact: For July and August, the #1 pin (with the most visits) was the PR Team Member Spotlight: Molly Noonan #PRExecutive #PR pin. #BLASTchat: This combined effort was launched in order to position BLAST as a thought leader in the PR, Social Media and Paid Media worlds. By linking BLASTchat topic tweets to previous blog posts, it also serves as a way to drive traffic to our website. Because of the frequency that other agencies and organizations engage in or host their own Twitter chats, we thought that our Twitter chat, and its related topics, would give us a stronger presence in these fields and with all the current “hot” topics. It’s a great way to branch out with others in the field, attract more Twitter followers and start friendly conversations related to these topics. It also shows our prowess with all 3 departments (PR, Social and Paid), which our website might be lacking. With the launch of the first #BLASTchat, we reached 11,747 accounts and ended up with 18,894 impressions. By the second #BLASTchat, we increased our contributors by 23.1% and our replies by 28.6%.
Twitter: Alongside our #BLASTchat efforts to position BLAST as a thought leader, Twitter was a tool in driving traffic to our website, Pinterest and Instagram. We continued to post current issues in the news and BLAST blogs to BLAST’s Twitter relating to PR, social and aid media. In an effort to make BLAST more personable to our followers, we posted information that showcased BLAST’s employees, office, success stories and praises from both current and former clients. These posts provided a chance to link to our Pinterest and Instagram to feature the range of our social media. Our goal was to engage more followers to reach out and talk to us rather than only providing information.
Blog Posts: The Grammar, Instagram and Pinterest blog posts were written to not only drive traffic to our website and position us as thought leaders in relevant topics and fields, but to also introduce new ideas, provide thought-‐provoking content, explain our take on writing and social media and to introduce our newly-‐launched company Instagram and Pinterest. The blogs also provided a means to link to other BLAST blogs and related articles, showcase our talents and current social media status and provided better SEO for BLAST and our new social media platforms. Our six intern BLAST blog posts drove a total of 397 page views to the BLAST website for the month of July. The Intern to Employee blog post had the most visits, with the Instagram Branding blog and Grammar Rules blog following. The Instagram blog had the most page views for August, and five of the intern blog posts had a much higher than average time on page (1:41) with time averages between 2 and 5 minutes. More potential blog post ideas: -‐Marketing 101: From small businesses on up! (focus on what platforms to
use, how many likes, etc.) -‐Act ethically and carry n: Following ethics in the workplace -‐Bounce rates: How to keep readers from bouncing around -‐What effective writing can do for YOU (focus on small business,
professionalism, personal branding, a big business – or a component of it) -‐Firework-‐proof your PR and marketing campaigns: Tips for keeping your
company in the spotlight -‐How other agencies do their social media and what we can learn from it -‐Your business suit fits, but does your social media suit your business? -‐The art of multitasking: How to create a beautiful balance in your overall
picture -‐Why your social media and PR should be handled by the same agency -‐Seasonal attributes: What fall fashions and PR have in common -‐Who needs football? We’re running the field with our client coverage -‐Cool content creation: Pro blogging tips from the pros!
-Overall Website Traffic Total Visits: June = 6,838 July = 7,493 Increased by 10% Pages Visited Per Visit: June = 1.49 July = 1.55 Increased by 4% Average Visit Duration June = 0.52 July = 0.55 Increased by 6% Top Referral Source for July
1. Google Organic 2. Direct 3. Twitter Referral 4. Facebook Referral 5. Google Referral 6. Bing Organic 7. Yahoo Organic 8. LinkedIn Referral – Jumped up from #10 9. Pinterest Referral **New on list
a. Lowest bounce rate out of top referrers (62%) b. Highest pages-per-visit (2.59) c. Second highest visit duration behind Facebook
10. Google France Referral