Buzzworthy

Social Media Week New York 2012

Last week I had the pleasure of attending several speaking sessions and panels at Social Media Week in NYC. While many of the sessions I wanted to attend were full, I was able to catch a few good (and not as good) ones including:

While you can watch some of the sessions via livestream, I wanted to share a few bite-sized nuggets of wisdom from the sessions below. Read more…

Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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“Little Things” That Made McDonald’s a McFail

If you read my blog, you know I’m a fan of McDonald’s (especially their coffee) and have had positive experiences with the brand via social media. While I wouldn’t consider myself a mega fan, when a brand does right by me, I like to do right by the brand.

That’s why when I read about McDonald’s #McFail, my heart saddened a little.

My initial reaction was that it could have happened to any brand. Launching a marketing campaign on an open (and vocal) platform is always going to have the risk of attracting criticism and naysayers (or in marketing speak, “detractors”). Sure they could have handled things better, but sometimes that’s just the way the french fry gets fried. People eventually move on and forget about it.

But when I read about their ”Hail Mary” attempt to put a bandage over the failed #McDstories hashtag campaign with a NEW hashtag campaign, #littlethings, I started to see things differently.  Read more…

Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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2 Comments

Make It A Blue(key) Christmas This December

During the holiday season each year, my family tries to do something for those in need. One year, my grandma and I visited those in the hospital with terminal illness who had been abandoned by their friends and families. Another year, my mom and I went on a shopping spree of clothes, food and toiletries for a local resident who had lost all of his possessions in an apartment fire.

This year, I’m making it a blue Christmas. I’m not talking about playing the holiday tune by Elvis, but rather being involved in the Bluekey campaign from USA for UNHCR. Read more…

Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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2 Comments

Confessions of a Soon-To-Be 25 Year Old PR Pro

Confession: I’ve been dreading my 25th birthday for a few months now. I know what you’re thinking: it’s the whole “quarter-life crisis” thing. That may be partially true, but there’s one specific thing that’s been weighing on my mind as the hours count down: a list I created almost three years ago.

As a dutiful list-maker, I made a list of things I had hoped to accomplish by the time I was 25. And while I’ve accomplished a lot, I’m that annoying type that is never quite satisfied with my own success. Just ask my mom. Read more…

Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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McDonald’s Gets Social Media Right and I’m Lovin’ It

We all know big brands like McDonald’s have big budgets for marketing, so it’s not necessarily a surprise that they know what they’re doing when it comes to social media. But since there’s so many negative social media brand experiences out there, I wanted to share a recent positive experience I had with the golden arches.

Last week on one particularly early morning, I stopped by a McDonald’s for a little caffeinated rejuvenation. Even though I normally prefer indie coffee shops or home-brewed, Ronald’s home still tops Dunkin or even the iconic Starbucks among the main “fast” coffees. When I happened to include this particular nugget of information to my Twitter followers, I wasn’t looking for anything other than to amuse and stir the (coffee) pot among my coffee-loving friends. But to my surprise, one of my next incoming tweets was not only about coffee, but was McD’s giving me a free coffee! Read more…

Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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19 Comments

Could ConAgra Happen to You?

This post originally appeared on PR Breakfast Club.

By now everyone has heard about the ConAgra-Ketchum crisis and forwarded it along to their consumer clients as a cautionary tale.But if you’ve been living under a rock for the past week and missed the public smearing (NYT, HuffPo, Gawker, PRWeek, Business Insider, to name a few) here’s the nutshell version:Ketchum planned a bait and switch stunt with celebrity chef George Duran being the bait and Marie Callender’s frozen food line being the switch. Taking note from other major food brands like Pizza Hut and Domino’s and hoping for similar success, ConAgra thought the invited bloggers would be pleasantly surprised by the quality of their meals and the company hoped they would be able to use the footage for promotional videos on YouTube and its Web site.

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Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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Intel Museum of Me App Makes it About You

While some found Intel’s Museum of Me app as “creepy and unsettling” (some even likened it to a funeral parlor) or narcissism at its finest, I found it be an absolutely fascinating digital experience.

After giving your permission link to your Facebook account, Intel gathers information and images to create a virtual museum with several “art exhibits” based on your data. With virtual onlookers and soothing background music, the three-minute video takes you through exhibits such as pictures of you, pictures of your friends, words that you commonly use, your likes and more.

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Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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1 Comment

The BronxZoosCobra is Dead

This post was originally written for PR Breakfast Club.

Okay, not really. But even if the Bronx Zoo’s cobra isn’t actually dead, the buzz about her is.

If you work in the NYC area or read the news, chances are you’ve heard about of the escape and capture of the Bronx Zoo’s Cobra. If you have, it’s as likely that you’ve also heard her voice as @BronxZoosCobra when she slithered onto the social networks. Not only did the “snake who tweets” become a hot topic and easy news peg for major news sites such as The Wall Street Journal and NYTimes, but she sparked many a conversation about social media in our own circles, including raising the question of whether the person behind the reptile would make a good communications hire.

But is obtaining 240K Twitter followers in seven days a tell-tale sign of social media prowess?

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Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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Practicing Responsible SXSW

By Allison Ralston

As a SXSW virgin this year (I have the Foursquare badge to prove it!), I went to Austin thinking I was uber prepared, probably even too prepared.After about 10 minutes, I realized how grossly mistaken I was.

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Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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Best of the Interwebz, Friday Edition

Social Media Milestones

Flickr via vladeb

Two of our favorite social media platforms celebrated milestones this past week as Twitter marked its fifth birthday and Linked In surpassed 100 Million Users.

Ford Hired; Aflac Fired
Ford got a new edgy Spokespuppet to publicize the company’s 2012 Focus, while Aflac fired Gilbert Godfrey as the voice of the famous “AF-LAC” duck for a few offensive tweets.

And the dog ate his homework too..
Guy Who Tweeted Chrysler F-Bomb Blames Tweetdeck for his screwup. Too bad he can’t also blame it for not having a pair. Grow up, kid.

Even PR pros get bad pitches..
Arik Hanson gives a few tips about blogger outreach from his experience receiving  not-so-hot pitches.

How do you define PR?
My pal Jason Mollica debuts his first post on PR Breakfast Club by posing the question, “Is it really that hard to define PR?”

If you’re going to #FollowFriday, do it right
Kim addresses a one of my biggest pet peeves: #FollowFridays that look like spam. But never to fear, she also gives insight on how to #FF the right way.

Whoever said you didn’t do math in PR is a big, fat liar
Chuck Hemann gives tips on creating an index for successful social media measurement.

Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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What Part of ‘Bad Publicity’ Don’t You Get?

Two of my least favorite adages are “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” and “the only bad publicity is your own obituary.” What’s even worse, these catchphrases are too often associated with our profession.

This brings us to the recent Marie Claire writer who has been receiving an extraordinary amount of attention for displaying her feelings of disgust at a TV show featuring “two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other” and, shall I say it lightly, overall bigotry towards overweight people.

[IMHO Note: There’s a difference between opinions that are controversial and edgy and opinions that show intolerance and hate. Controversy has people on both sides of the fences, which usually gives way to a provocative debate. The issue typically has shades of grey, which is why it can be argued on either side (yes, I had a stint on the debate team in undergrad)]

AdAge muses whether this was a PR stunt by Marie Claire (don’t you love how PR pros get typecast?) or the writer’s own battle with personal demons. After all, AdAge says, Marie Claire is getting loads of attention: Marie Claire’s site traffic has skyrocketed, comments are pouring in, “Marie Claire” is trending on Twitter, media is drooling at what will be the “hot article of the week” and bloggers are frantically pushing pixels about the topic with link love to boot (like me :) ) But it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to guess that a large, LARGE majority of that attention is negative. The numbers may look good, but the tonality does not.

Read more…

Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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7 Comments

Shedding the College Cocoon

“Turn and face the strange,” sang the great David Bowie. And he’s right: we all change with time.

And like a butterfly sheds its cocoon, so have I, in both my professional and personal life, grown away from the scope of The PRepguide.

Having graduated this past May, I moved 800 miles out of my warm, fuzzy comfort zone in Michigan to pursue a career as a PR professional in New York City.

Now I’m living in the hot-spot of the world, working full-time at a top ranked hybrid PR agency and steadily rebuilding my network of friends and acquaintances in my new location. Not to mention keeping an eye out to avoid being attacked by these damn NYC pigeons. Read more…

Author name:
Mikinzie Stuart
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3 Comments