New Home for my Blog

Hello faithful friends and followers. I got wise in the ways of social media professionalism and acquired an externally hosted blog with a custom domain. From now on, you can follow me at StaceyAlex.com

See you there!

President Follows Social Media Marketing Principles

According to The Next Web’s “Lunch with the President?” post, Obama’s full schedule is now online for everyone to see. It’s up on the White House’s website. You can look at it by day or week, and there’s even a box where you can change the date so you can see his schedule as far as it goes into the future.

As TNW says, “the President’s schedule has always been available to the press, just not like this.” Although this feature may be aimed at the press, it’s available to anyone; from a marketing standpoint, this makes me think. The main points in social media marketing are to:

• bring out the human in your brand
• create a sense of transparency
• make your audience feel connected.

No other President has had the ability to accomplish these things like President Obama now does. Today, we can access his schedule on the internet and through an app on our iPhones. What’s the next step? Will this administration continue to break down the walls that have separated the people from their government? Is this a campaign to improve/strengthen the public opinion of the President, or just a way to use technology to make things easier? I’d be interested in seeing how this—and possible future steps toward transparency, connection, etc.—affect the next election.

Photo by Jason Means

Social Media Marketing and the Chico’s Brand

I read a post today on the SAS Get, Grow, Keep blog that featured a great video with the CIO of Chico’s FAS, Gary King. It’s a part of SAS’s “Nuts and Bolts of Social Media” series, so there was a focus on how Chico’s FAS is using social media to build their brand. And it was fascinating.

A couple of my favorite parts are:

1. The FAS in Chico’s FAS stands for Folk Art Store. This now huge apparel company, featuring three brands (Chico’s, White House Black Market, and Soma), began as a seller of folk art. In the video, Gary says that the sweaters on the side table of the store were selling better than any of the folk art, so they became a clothing retailer. I love that they were so open to adapting to the market and evolving to fit their customers. That mindset has obviously served them well, as they now have approximately 1,100 stores all over the United States and Puerto Rico.
2. The Soma-hosted Facebook Pajama Party. For four hours, their intimate apparel brand, Soma, hosted the world’s largest pajama party on their Facebook fan page, where fans had the opportunity to “celebrate and share their thoughts about their favorite pajamas, movies, stories and recipes, as well as participate in personality quizzes and surveys and chat with Soma Intimates style experts.” What a creative way to engage your customers! Not only was the event far reaching and related to the product, but it helped to build a relationship between the company and the customer. I can only imagine how much fun these women had participating in an event that reminded them of their younger years, creating a warm fuzzy feeling among them for the Soma brand.
3. What color underwear are you wearing? A while back, there was a game circulating the Facebook world where you were supposed to post what color underwear you were wearing in your status line. The White House Black Market brand president saw this as an opportunity for customer engagement, and immediately offered an incentive for people to participate in the survey. At the end of the weekend, they randomly picked a name from the participants and the winner received a gift card and shopping spree at the store. This was a great move because the survey had already acquired its own publicity, and White House Black Market basically got to ride that wave into customer engagement and buzz that the brand is fun and relevant in the community.

You can find the original Get, Grow, Keep post here.

Getting a Job in Social Media

I recently had a meeting with my boss to discuss how to get a job in social media once my internship is up next month. He gave me an incredible amount of great advice. Advice that I will share with you now.

For this post, I’m going to assume that you have a background in communications, marketing or public relations. For those who don’t, getting a job in social media is going to involve way more than what I can give you in a blog post.

The first step is to establish your online presence. Cultivate your brand. That means getting accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and a blog. Facebook is optional, as many professionals in social media choose to keep their Facebook profiles for personal use. I am one of those professionals. I’ve locked down my Facebook profile so that only my friends can see any of my content. If you decide that your Facebook profile is to be for personal use, you must use your privacy settings to their full extent. As a social media professional, this can make or break your career.

As for Twitter, create an account with a handle that is some part of your name. For instance, my name is Stacey Alexander. That handle was taken, so I went with Stacey_Alex. It’s close to my name, and not only will people recognize me by it, but it can also help them to remember my name even if we only interact through Twitter. If your name is completely different from your handle, others may forget it. Once you pick a handle, start tweeting. Retweet others. Tweet blog posts you’ve read. Engage others in conversation about social media. To start out, try to tweet about five times per day. Once you get the hang of it, you can go toward a more lofty number.

LinkedIn is one of your best tools for professional social networking. It’s sort of like a Facebook profile, but just for business. You can join professional groups in social media, connect with current and past colleagues, meet others in your field through mutual friend introductions, and get recommendations that will appear in your profile—which is essentially an online resume and general cover letter.

Once you have those accounts, start using them. Follow influential social media tweeters. Not sure who to follow? Go to the Twitter account of someone you know of in social media and follow who they’re following. Likewise, join social media groups on LinkedIn. It will give you a chance to learn from and interact with other people in social media you wouldn’t have connected with otherwise. Ask for recommendations from past and current colleagues. Basically, use these platforms to gain information and build your brand as a social media professional.

Follow influential bloggers in social media. Set up feeds on a personal dashboard like iGoogle or Netvibes. Read their posts daily. This will keep you up-to-date on what’s happening in social media, and give you content to share on Twitter, LinkedIn and your own blog. Don’t know any? Start with Amber Naslund, Christopher S. Penn, Chris Brogan, David B Thomas, and Mitch Joel. These are some of the people I follow.

Blogging yourself is another main component in building your online presence. This allows you to be a giver of information, further emphasizing your value to possible employers. WordPress blogs (like this one) are a great tool to accomplish this goal. Not only can you have a place to blog about your social media knowledge, but you can use your site as a hub for all your social media involvement. Follow buttons, extra pages. You can essentially create your own website from your WordPress blog. Try to write a post every day, even if it’s just a link to another blog with a couple paragraphs adding your opinions or a bit more information. Show readers that you are present and up-to-date on social media today.

When looking for a job, note that you will be a “Communications Specialist” and that you will likely need to get a job in marketing or public relations, where your experience and knowledge in social media will give you the upper hand on your competition. Jobs purely in social media are few-and-far-between for entry-level persons. To get contacts in the social media field—who can help get you a job—attend social media club meetings. If you’re in the Raleigh area, Triangle Social Media Club is a good one. Meet people; make connections in person that you can then maintain online.

Another good approach Dave enlightened me about is info interviews. Make a list of firms that offer social media services. Contact people in those firms and request information interviews. This just means that you have some time with them where you can ask their advice on making yourself more presentable for a job.

Any pertinent information I’ve left out? What tips do you have for those getting started in social media?

Photo by webtreats

My Summer at SAS: Week 6

I first wrote this post for the SAS blog Conversations and Connections. SAS has been awesome enough to let me repost it here.

Editor’s note: In this week’s installment, Stacey eats a peach and comes perilously close to crossing the self-promotional boundary.

Week of July 19, 2010

(Monday, 7/19) Day 25:

Not too much work today, as I’m waiting on more info from the SAMS team. I did write a post about the internal student resource, Student Connect, for the internal blog. I also made 2 more Twitter lists for the SASSoftware account and finished updating the directory with information I already had.

(Tuesday, 7/20) Day 26:

Today, I went to a meeting to talk about Facebook page optimization. I learned a lot of stuff about Facebook I’d never even thought about. Like the place where Facebook looks for keywords on a page is in the “about” box just under the picture.

(Wednesday, 7/21) Day 27:

Just had a peach from the break room. It was delicious. This place is great.

(Thursday, 7/22) Day 28:

Had a class called Money Talk with Lead Financial Coach of Lukas Coaching, Derek Sisterhen. It was awesome. I learned so much that I decided to share it on my new blog, imaginatively titled Stacey Alexander. Still working on the set-up, so go easy on me.

(Friday, 7/23) Day 29:

I had a working session with Christine today, where we talked about putting the curriculum and the directory up on the portal. Things will be going up pretty quickly now. I’m super excited about this!

Weekly Recap:

Well this week, I’ve gotten a lot of work. I’ll be pretty busy next week. The biggest highlight for sure is the information going up on the portal. This is the stuff I’ve been researching and begging other people to help me get. This is what I’ve been working on all summer. And it’s finally going up! I’m going to have something to show for myself. Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do there.

In other news, Dave and I had a discussion about how I was going to find a job when my gig here is up next month. The information he laid out for me was just short of overwhelming. This is a competitive field. You got to keep up with the Joneses (or in this case, the David B Thomases). Ok, ok. So I’m definitely not on the same playing field as Dave, but I’ve got a lot of work to do to build up my branding and portfolio to compete with the people who are on my level. Wish me luck!

photo by Rob Lee

Financial Planning Class for Students and New Grads

I just got out of a student learning session where Derek Sisterhen of Lukas Coaching presented an easy-to-understand PowerPoint on financial planning. Not being one for math and all the concepts that come with finance, I was pleasantly surprised that he got me so excited and determined about setting myself up for financial independence—a term he defined as being content and confident in your financial circumstances. There was also an unexpected amount of marriage talk, relevant because 84% of married couples cite money as the leading source of tension in their relationship.

He started out by telling us that “personal finance has more to do with who we are and less with math…which is unfortunate because most of us can add, subtract, multiply and divide, but can’t control ourselves.” This leads us into the first section of the 3-part presentation: setting goals.

“If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” –Zig Ziglar

In this country we’re pretty good at talking about goals, but pretty bad at actually setting them. Derek says set achievable, measurable goals—both material and emotional—so you can have a sense of victory. You say something is important to you, when are you going to do it? Set a line in the sand, and ask yourself, “What do I have to do between now and then to make it happen?”

In part 2, Derek went on to define opportunities and threats to financial independence. Threats included credit cards (the most expensive way to borrow money), car loans (the biggest asset we finance that depreciates in value), student loans, marketing (which can influence us into making bad financial decisions), and discontentment. Opportunities he highlighted were Roth IRAs (which come out TAX FREE when you cash them in), home buying (if you save up a 20% down payment), car buying (if you pay in cash), getting married (if you have savings and a desire for open communication about money), and college funding for your kids. Derek does say that you should invest in the kids’ college fund after you invest in your retirement, seeing as how “they don’t offer loans for retirement.”

That leaves us with the “Six Keys for a Financial Plan that Works”—my favorite part. You can learn more about what Lukas Coaching is doing on Derek’s radio show Past Due: Radio.

1. Having the attitude of a giver. This is an important part of financial planning because it makes you think of yourself second.
2. Living on less than you make. According to The Wall Street Journal, “70% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck.” 70% means it’s not related to certain income levels.
3. Having a written monthly spending plan. This means “telling your money where to go so you don’t have to wonder where it went.” This is a proactive approach. Budget for the coming month, not the current one.
4. Having a vision to live debt free. One of the bullets on Derek’s PowerPoint reported that “when surveyed, 75% of the Forbes 400 cited becoming debt free as the primary reason they generated their wealth (The Millionaire Next Door).”
5. Working together with a spouse or accountability partner. Understand your personality type (saver/spender, nerd/free spirit) and get someone to hold you accountable when you’re not sticking to your plan.
6. Sticking to the Four Walls Concept. Have a “Plan B” for times of financial famine. Prioritize what matters most to what matters least. Know what you will need to spend money on, even when you don’t have much.

The presentation ended with a few minutes for questions that ranged from “When should we start investing our money?” to “Is a house a good investment?” But I won’t go into those subjects. I learned a lot, but this is a communications and social media blog. I’ve got to keep it relevant, which I am about to do.

Just after returning to my desk, I saw a tweet by @SocialMedia411 that said “Got Debt? Be Careful What You Post On Facebook, Collection Agencies Might Be Watching You” complete with a link to a blog post about how “More collection agencies [are] turning to social networking sites.” The argument continues about whether it’s a violation of privacy, or whether the fact that the information is out publicly makes it ok. Either way, it’s a subject we should all be aware of.

Photo by Tracey O

My Summer at SAS: Week 5

I first wrote this post for the SAS blog Conversations and Connections. SAS has been awesome enough to let me repost it here.

Editor’s Note: Once again, our summer intern Stacey seems to have snacking on her mind. Maybe it’s because she’s training for a triathlon?

(Monday, 7/12) Day 20:

Today there was an Executive Update Webcast, where Dr. Goodnight spoke about where the company’s going. It was cool to hear him talk about social media and know I’m a part of it.

(Tuesday, 7/13) Day 21:

Went to a Marketing 2.0 Council meeting where we talked about blogs, and I learned about some social media platforms I’d never heard of. While I was in this meeting (in another building) there was apparently a fire drill in my building. Sort of glad I missed that excitement.

(Wednesday, 7/14) Day 22:

The student blog is coming along swimmingly. We have 5 posts up already, and there’s an ice cream social tomorrow where we’ve gotten clearance to document with video.

(Thursday, 7/15) Day 23:

Sent out about 15 emails to Field Marketers today to try and get some more information on Key Influencers in the industry topics for the portal. Some of them have already responded, and one already sent me all the information!

(Friday, 7/16) Day 24:

Had another meeting this week, where we talked about the upcoming Social Media Training day, and I met the SAS Americas Marketing and Support (SAMS) team. I love them. They’re fun.

Weekly Recap:

This week has had its ups and downs. At some point, I was frustrated with the directory and not being able to find some of the information I need. But then Dave called in reinforcements: Kristine Vick. She directed me to Field Marketing Specialists (FMS) on the SAMS team, who have been really great in helping me fill in the gaps.

Also, part of the curriculum is up on the portal! I’m so excited to see this because (even though it’s not fully up on the portal yet) I feel like something I’ve done this summer has finally made it to completion. I can look at it and say, “I did that. And it’s done.”

Other than that, I created some Twitter lists on the @SASsoftware account. So if you’re in need of Tweeters to follow in Business Analytics, Government, Education, etc., you can find them there. And on Thursday, two great things happened. The first is that the student blog made it to the front page news of the internal homepage, SAS Wide Web. The second is that we had a student ice cream social. Dave informed me that I had to go so he and Kelly didn’t look like shmucks without their intern. That’s when I informed him that I had a little surprise set up with a fellow intern working in video production. Nick Makansi, my accomplice, took video and conducted interviews of interns for a blog post—Dave congratulated me on commandeering an intern of my own. I get to sit in on the editing, which happens next week. Oh the things I’ll learn!

photo by kern.justin

My Summer at SAS: Week 4

I first wrote this post for the SAS blog Conversations and Connections. SAS has been awesome enough to let me repost it here.

Editor’s note: Our summer intern Stacey tells me there’s a good reason she illustrated this post with a picture of a BLT. I think she was just hungry.

Week of July 5, 2010

(Monday, 7/5) Holiday:

I didn’t work today. I celebrated my independence from the British.

(Tuesday, 7/6) Day 16:

I had a lunch date today with Meg (the girl in social media I met two weeks ago), her friend Kendra (who works in customer success stories), and Meghan (another social media intern that works for one of the SAS companies). It was good to hang out with people nearer my age and talk about careers in this field from the perspective of starting a career.

I also beefed up my LinkedIn profile. I have 3 connections now. Don’t worry, I won’t let my fame go to my head.

(Wednesday, 7/7) Day 17:

I attended a virtual conference today put on by MarketingProfs. It was awesome. Not only did they impart some useful information about email marketing, it was set up like a conference hall in a video game. There were different rooms you could go to (Networking, Seminars, Company and Info booths). It was a cool experience, and it was free—the beauty of online.

(Thursday, 7/8) Day 18:

I posted the first two entries to the internal student blog “My Summer at SAS.” I’m officially a blog editor. I feel more prestigious already.

Dave set up a lunch-n-learn for today so all the interns could learn about how to (and why they should) participate in social media. To learn more, see my post from yesterday. It made me feel like I need a smart phone. And maybe an iPad.

(Friday, 7/9) Day 19:

Today I had the pleasure of attending a video shoot with Dave for the welcome video that will go out to new SAS managers globally. All I did was hold extra cameras and give out the occasional suggestions (one of which ended up being the scene for the second video segment). Key grip. That’s what they called me. I still don’t think I know what it means. But I got to go around campus and watch funny things, so I give it an A+.

Weekly Recap:

That all sounds really fun, but are you doing anything besides making friends and learning stuff? Of course I am. This week, I’ve gotten more information for the Social Media Directory that will go on the portal in the form of dashboards. Where there are holes in the lists, I’ve been using the keywords to search for more resources on the main social media platforms. Then I threw the PR team for a loop, and sent out a second series of outlines requesting information. They were nice about it, and got it all to me pretty quickly. Thank you PR team! So the next stretch will be mostly about research, spreadsheet organization and tagging. I’m starting to have a relationship with Excel. We spend so much time together.

I also got a new project this week—that’s more research and organizing. I’m going to be creating Twitter lists for the SAS Twitter account categorized by industry topics. Now anybody looking for influential Twitterers in something like Analytics can just go to the @SASsoftware Twitter page and find a list they can start following. We are so helpful. You’re welcome, world. All in a day’s work.

Photo by abbyladybug

My Summer at SAS: Social media essentials for students and new grads

I first wrote this post for the SAS blog Conversations and Connections. SAS has been awesome enough to let me repost it here.

Have you ever wondered how to use resources such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging or LinkedIn to further your career? Well this is the presentation for you! This lunch-n-learn will focus on how to utilize social media as a tool to promote yourself professionally.

This is what I, and several other SAS interns, did at lunch today. A learning session about “Professional Branding using Social Media.” The main focus was to impress upon us just how important social media is in the business world today, then tell us how to leverage its power for our success.

First speaker up was our very own David B. Thomas. He started out with a video highlighting four minutes of mind-blowing facts about social media. Facts like: “If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 3rd largest.” (Just under China and India)

Then we went over the SAS Guidelines and Recommendations for using social media. Yes, SAS is one of the 46% of companies in the United States that don’t block their employees from using social media at work. Not only that, but we SAS employees have the added advantage of encouragement to use it. After all, “People are talking about SAS online whether we are there or not.” (Guiding Principle #1) As interns, we have the opportunity to get involved in social media under the guidance of people who really want us to learn and succeed. With places to practice—like the internal student blog. Because, even if we’re not going into careers with “Social Media” in the title, having experience with these platforms on our resumes is important for this new generation of business.

The second speaker, social media pro Wayne Sutton, set us all (or at least me) googly-eyed over the opportunities opened to him through his career in blogging. “Mr. Sutton, can you try out this car for us and blog about it?” “How would you like a free weekend getaway to an historic American destination? If you want to blog about it, that’s cool.” “You feel like going to the Oscars for free? Just take a picture of Steve Jobs and post it on Twitter.” If you’re wondering right now why you should care about social media, the answer is opportunity. Just ask Wayne.

But where do we start? The most important thing in social media is meeting people. Building relationships. People on the other end of these platforms want to connect with someone; hopefully you. And they want to know that they can trust you. That you’re going to give them something of value. That you’re accessible.

Creating your online presence, your brand, can be a daunting task when you’re starting out. So here are a few steps from Wayne to get you going:

• Set up accounts in the major platforms: Google, Facebook, LinkedIn (ask for recommendations), and Twitter.
• Purchase a domain name to be your “home base” where others can find all your social media endeavors in one stop.
• Start a blog there, or at WordPress.com and point your domain URL to it.
• Learn how to use video.
• Lock down your Facebook. (Decide if your profile is personal or business, and complete your privacy settings accordingly.)
• Guard your photos with your life. (Future—and current—employers have access to the Internet.)

Good luck!

My Summer at SAS: Week 3

I first wrote this post for the SAS blog Conversations and Connections. SAS has been awesome enough to let me repost it here.

Editor’s Note: This is Stacey’s third guest post as our summer social media intern.

Week of June 28, 2010

(Monday, 6/28) Day 11:

Interns around the world have been challenged by “The World’s Most Interesting Intern” who works for Cisco. If I had rapping skills, I’d try to prove him wrong. But I don’t think anybody wants to watch a video of me typing a blog or painting a picture for my office.

(Tuesday, 6/29) Day 12:

Today I created a LinkedIn account, and updated my profile on the SAS student social network StudentConnect. My profile isn’t all that impressive right now; I’ll need to mess around with it a little more. I’m hoping more interns will join StudentConnect so we can get some events going on. I also sent my evaluation of the Social Media Cookbook and the existing curriculum resources (Yay! I finally finished it) to Christine. Christine’s setting up the portal. Hopefully that information will be up for viewing pleasure soon.

(Wednesday, 6/30) Day 13:

The number of items in my project list with the word “done” beside them is growing. I feel so productive.

Unrelated side note: There were two slow cookers filled with hot dogs in the break room where the fruit usually is. I thought this was a weird switch, but an hour or so after my discovery there was a huge meeting right next door. It all makes sense now.

(Thursday, 7/1) Day 14:

Today I got my first results back. My first list of key influencers in not one, but two industry topics. Thanks Trent! Next step: search for more influencers in other platforms using the key words I got for those topics. Then I can start filling up my new Social Media Directory for the portal.

(Friday, 7/2) Day 15:

Tomorrow is the start of a 3-day weekend. Even though I don’t get paid for the holiday because I’m an intern, I’m still looking forward to the day off for extensive Independence Day festivities.

Weekly Recap:

Early in the week, I compared the Social Media Cookbook to what was already on the Social Media Portal to see what information was repeated and what needed to be added to the portal. Mostly stuff needed to be added, but it’s good to know we already have so much information to add. I also talked to my boss, Kelly, and we think we finally figured out the best way to organize the Industry topics list for the dashboards. It’s still waiting for Dave’s approval, but I’m going to go with it for now and see what he thinks when he comes back on Tuesday.

I feel like this week has been a bit of a waiting game. Waiting for meetings, waiting for email responses. But now I have some solid information to put down on paper (well, put in an Excel doc) instead of just researching. My big project right now is to create a new Social Media Directory that’s categorized to fit into the portal. I have a feeling parts of it will be easy squeeze and parts of it will resist. But I will win in the end.

This weekend is 4th of July. If you have some time, you need to watch this video where children reenact the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Happy Birthday America!

Photo by koalazymonkey