Catching Up and Making It Count

I know, I know - it's been nearly a year since I've updated this sucker. Truth is, girl's been busy! Good thing is, I'm happy. Career life, love life, friend life...all on the up and up!

Over a year ago, I made the transition from public relations to social media marketing. What an exciting time to be in this field! It's all so new and ever evolving; some days it feels like we're making it up as we go along and other days it feels like we're riding a wave and on the brink of something big.

I work with many amazing beauty and lifestyle brands that you probably love and use often, but we're always striving to do bigger and better social campaigns, to be like the Gatorades, the Coca Colas and the Nikes of the world. In our team meeting this week, my boss shared this Nike #MakeItCount branded video and I can't get it out of my head:



It makes me feel things - I want to make it count, get up and do something and appreciate life! And, as a nice bonus, it reminds me how much I love Nike. Granted, the company has its faults, but I look past that. I love Steve Prefontaine (do yourself a favor and watch the movie, Without Limits), the story of his coach Bill Bowerman creating the original Nikes, and I love their empowering brand philosophy. I continue to purchase their sneakers, despite being told that Asics are better for runners (pssh, whatever).

And this was exactly how Nike wanted viewers to feel with the #MakeItCount campaign. The song is stuck in my head, I have a renewed drive to travel and mind is dwelling on whether I really make each day count.

The brand personality is strung right through the video, without throwing images of sneakers in your face. Nike understands that their fans love their products, but that their fans have many interests and there are many ways to reach them and talk to them.

Acting as the voice of brands and developing the content you see everyday on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest accounts, I aspire to have this kind of effect on people and I'm learning that I can't do it by talking about makeup until I'm blue in the face (I work for many beauty brands).

Overall, I just love that I'm a part of a unique and cool social media movement, and proud to write for such well-known brands. I learn more everyday and can't wait to see what we come up with next...

Until then, I'm just going to work on making each day count. :)

Tretorn - Social Media done right

It started with a Facebook request. Will you please 'like' this picture of me with the Tretorn bear? I want to win a ski weekend!

It ended with a new customer. I'm now in love with my Tretorn Skerry Reslig Vinter rain boots. So much so that I wear them even when it's not raining.

There are so many ways to reach customers in today's world. Straight up sales, advertising, public relations, and now the newest tactic to join the party, social media. Working in a boutique PR agency, many start-ups and small businesses come to us curious about creating an online presence and building relationships with customers through email newsletter programs, blogging, Facebook, Twitter...the list goes on. I don't claim to be a bonafide expert on the subject - my clients have smaller budgets, so I'm typically researching ideas for wall posts, gaining followers and deciding which blogs to partner with for giveaways, not creating new i-pad applications or anything crazy. But I do find the topic really interesting. Social media is constantly evolving, and sometimes it works incredibly well, and other times it doesn't do much to bolster a company's image. There doesn't seem to be a direct formula for it.

As a publicist, I'm not supposed to fall for social media tactics (Unless it's my client! In that case, I push them on every single person I know...), but I fell right into Tretorn's lap, and their Swedish goodness worked its way right into my heart.

I had never heard of the company before my friend sent me a Gchat message directing me to 'like' Tretorn on Facebook, find her picture on their page posing with the bear mascot, and 'like' the image. Apparently, whoever got the most people to 'like' the page and their picture with the bear would win a ski weekend in VT/CO/somewhere equally mountainous and cool. I did as I was told (as long as she guaranteed that I was invited on said weekend). Suddenly I was getting updates from Tretorn, a Swedish line of outdoorsy gear in my daily Facebook newsfeed. I could've just 'unliked' them and stopped receiving updates after the contest ended (my friend did not win sadly), but I enjoyed the updates. Turned out they had some pretty cute rain boots and gear, and Natalie Portman was photographed wearing them, and the company drove a Wellie Wagon truck around San Francisco and sold boots on the street. Kind of awesome!

The rainbow colored collection of rain boots made rainy days seem bright and fun and the images of the Wellie Wagon all over SF gave me my daily hit of wanderlust. Soon I saw an announcement for a site wide SALE. Those 4 little letters really call out to me. It was on. I clicked through to the site and found an adorable pair of tall olive green rain boots that were lightly lined and perfect for the cold rainy days of late winter/early spring. They were just $35 on sale! Done and done. Who needs Hunter boots anyway?

My Skerry Reslig Vinter boots arrived about a month and a half ago, and I've already worn them at least a dozen times. Even if it's just cloudy and gray out, I find it acceptable to wear them. And there you have it - Tretorn gained a new fan and customer, all through a Facebook contest.

Social media hard at work.