Peter Shankman of Shankman.com and founder of HARO (Help A Reporter Out - a social media PR and marketing company serving reporters, entrepreneurs and small businesses) announced the “dawn of a new HARO” today. The new and improved HARO now allows “Vertical HAROs” - a chance for subscribers to select what topic queries they want to receive. Other new features include advertising via the HARO site (versus directly to Peter) and reporter emails are now masked. Visit HARO and tell us and the HARO team what you think about the new changes.

Are you planning an event this year? Event Coup’s Samuel J. Smith lists 10 ways social media will transform events in 2010. He says, “As attendees become more comfortable with these new two-way communication experiences, they are going to start demanding similar experiences from their face-to-face events.”  Two of the ways he lists include: events will become communities that last for weeks and months rather than a few short days and attendees will want a voice in the discussion, learning and decision making process. Read the rest of the ways social media will transform events  and don’t forget to add your own input.

Meryl K. Evans shares how to make the most of your social media time. According to Meryl, “while social media is [her] primary marketing tool, plenty of others spend more hours social networking than [she] does and for different reasons.” Meryl spends her social media time comprised of a mix of social networking at the same time every day, posting tweets throughout the day using a scheduling application, joining the right Twitter chats, reviewing Facebook updates once a day, updating her LinkedIn status a few times a week, writing at least two blog post entries per week and reading other people’s blogs. How do you spend your social media time? Share your responses at Web Worker Daily.

Mobile applications are on fire, which is why more and more companies should think about mobile marketing. Christina “CK” Kerley of CK’s Blog provides a 10-step starter guide for integrating mobile into the B2b marketing mix slideshow. She says, “Why the marketing crusade? Because business professionals, which are B2Bs’ target audience, not only use mobile devices to stay connected, they rely on them to stay informed and make business decisions when not located at their place of business.” Check out Christina’s starter guide and don’t forget to add your insights about mobile marketing.

1 Good Reason - Social Marketing’s Chris Kieff discusses “Getting” Twitter. Chris explains why some people don’t “Get” Twitter. He attributes the reason to ‘a basic signal to noise ratio problem’. Signals provide useful and meaningful content while noise is useless and empty. Chris’s recommendation to fix this bad signal is for ‘all newbies to follow at least 200-250 people.’ He says, “But if you’re not “Getting Twitter” it’s not because of anything in you, or the people that you follow, it’s most likely just because you’re not following enough of them yet. So give it a shot and try to follow 200 and see what happens.” What do you think of Chris’s Twitter recommendation?

Michael Blankenship of PepperDigital asks, “How will you manage social media customer engagement in 2010?” He lists TweetDeck, Klout, HootSuite and FiltrBox as ‘four of the potential difference makers of 2010 that are worth considering by brand managers and PR agencies for customer communication and engagement’. What tools do you plan to use this year to manage your social media customer engagement?

Dave Fleet of davefleet.com shares his 2010 Social Media Marketing Ecosystem based on a post about the differences between owned media, paid media and earned media by Forrester Research and analyst Sean Corcoran. In his diagrams, Dave provides key elements of each type of media. He also notes “that the different elements work best when we succeed in breaking out of communications silos and integrating our communications strategies.” Read more about Dave’s marketing ecosystem and share your thoughts at his blog.

For the first time in 23 years football fans will not see TV spots of Pepsi during this year’s Super Bowl. Instead, the company decided to spend $20M on a social media program called Pepsi Refresh. Augie Ray lists some of the ramifications and non-ramifications of Pepsi’s new marketing decision including a fight for marketing dollars between traditional (aka TV) and social/interactive tactics. Read more about Pepsi Refresh and Augie’s assessment of the company’s marketing tactic on The Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals. What do you think this will mean for marketers in 2010?

Speaking of TV and social media, Tim Difford of The Next Web asks, “Will 2010 be the Year of Social TV?” According to Tim, “Social Media and TV fanatics are ahead of the game right now and bending the rules to their will.  It remains to be seen whether the broadcasters, perhaps spurred on by advertisers eyeing a potentially motivated and engaged audience, will be able to serve up an enticing interactive broadcast experience during the forthcoming year.” Read the examples Tim shares and don’t forget to answer whether or not you think 2010 will be the year of Social TV.

Brian Solis shares results from an updated annual study on the adoption of social media by the Inc. 500 companies. He says, “The essence of the report shares the tools that are carving the evolution of the fittest. At a minimum, Social Media is affecting and shaping the pillars of business.” Results show that 91 percent of companies reporting the incorporation of at least one social media service or tool in 2009. Other results show an impressive drop of 43 percent to 9 percent of Inc. 500 companies not using social media. Check out the rest of the results at Brian Solis.  What are your thoughts about the increase in social media usage by Inc. 500 companies?

Everyone had always told me there would be nothing more rewarding than having children.  I never fully understood what was meant by this until this summer when my first child was born.  Everything stopped and then it changed – in an incredible way that can’t be put into words.  If you’re a mom, you know what I mean. 

Part of the change included how I communicate with my family and friends.  I refer to them as my target audience.  They’re interested in everything my daughter does – from sleeping to eating and now sitting up, but there is no one channel of communication the entire group uses.  I have important information that I want to share with all of them and have to use many mediums to do so; nana iChats, grandma has a Blackberry, an aunt likes Facebook, great grandparents aren’t computer savvy, and the list goes on.  The same concept holds true for a brand trying to engage its group of target consumers. 

Even though it has become the norm to execute communications via multiple mediums, many clients are slow to jump in, especially to unknown territory.  They may not want to put time and budget behind an approach like social media that they feel isn’t proven, but it is our job as marketers to demonstrate why and how they should get their feet wet (or dive in for those that have started) because members of their key audience communicate and want to be communicated to in different ways.  Before becoming a mom, I had never used so many forms of communication.  Now if I don’t email pictures of my daughter, put them up on Facebook, instant message them with Blackberry Messenger and even send hard copies via snail mail, someone in my target audience would miss out.

Sharing the joy of my six month old is not marketing a product per say, but with so many smart and strategic ways to engage, I find it easier and more important than ever to spend a little extra time and possibly a little more money to reach my target audience.

Six Pixels of Separation’s Mitch Joel talks about the comments he received from a list he posted of 10 business books people should check out. According to Mitch, the comments stated that these books did not share anything new. Although some books have similar messages, it’s never too late to learn something new from these books. Mitch says, “This channel [social media] is new, and most books on the subject are giving their own unique perspective and, ultimately, what’s old to you in this space, is brand spanking new to the rest of the global population.” He also asks, “What do you think? Or has this conversation become old too?” Share your insights at Mitch’s blog.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul shares seven social media tactics for explosive results in your business. Tinu describes an explosive social media campaign as one that “has inherent viral exposure, inspires community driven communication, helps make the web a better place, and even brings joy to people, however fleeting.” Those seven tactics include: hot content, niched network nuances, simplify sharing, consistency, engagement, three-way connection and communication, and the question - what’s in it for all? Read more about the tactics in depth at Free Traffic Tips.

The integration of social media with marketing and communications is becoming common amongst companies. In turn, companies are looking for social media savvy employees.  Scot Herrick of Cube Rules presents five suggestions on how to be a star employee on social media.  Suggestions include finding and using the right social media tool for your work as well as adding to the conversations. Find out the three remaining tactics and add your own at Cube Rules.

Twitter added a new tool last week: Lists. According to Ari Melber, “The new lists enable people to curate and aggregate their own recommendations. Then other users can follow the entire group, or surf a list through a dedicated section of Twitter, which is accessible to people who never even signed up with the service.” Have you created your lists on Twitter? What do you think of this new tool? Share your thoughts on The Nation.

Econsultancy’s Chris Lake shares 35 social media interaction metrics/key performance indicators to help measure engagement. The important aspects of social media are to remember it’s all about engagement, giving the people the right tools and making interaction a game. A few of the 35 KPIs include favorites, groups, tagging and inviting/referring a friend. Read the full list and add to the mix!

With the holiday season quickly approaching, lots of stores, such as Kohls, are preparing to take their social media engagement up a notch.  Natalie Zmuda of AdAge.com reports that Kohls “plans to increase spending in digital and social media by 25% to support an expected 30% increase in online sales.” What other retailers do you know plan to use social media to increase sales for the shopping season?

David Armano provides a forecast of social media with his six trends for 2010. His predictions include social media to look less social, for corporations looking to scale, social business becoming a serious play, an enforcement of social media policy in companies, mobile turning into a social media ‘lifeline and ’sharing no longer means e-mail.’ Do you agree with David? Read more about the trends in depth at Conversation Starter.

Air New Zealand CEO, Rob Fyfe

Americans aren’t exactly known for their geographic prowess and as an Australian, I can attest to the frequent faux pas. I’m often commended on my command of English and have been questioned as to whether Australia is that tiny island just off Africa. Uh… no. That would be Madagascar.

And speaking of tiny islands, how confident would you be placing New Zealand on a map?! Working with Air New Zealand, our LA-based team has been challenged to establish brand awareness for a national airline, the origins of which the U.S. market can barely locate. While Air New Zealand is a household name in its native country, in North America the airline is a small carrier in a saturated market. The competition for the trans-Pacific route is high and the marketing budgets of large carriers even higher; creating a cluttered environment that demands stand-out programs in order to capture market share.

In May 2009, the airline launched a New Zealand-based domestic advertising campaign, featuring eight employees, including CEO Rob Fyfe, stripped down to body paint, providing a very authentic and public point that their airfares have “Nothing To Hide.” Air New Zealand approached CRT/tanaka to provide assistance with the viral dissemination of their advertising campaign in the United States. The goal? Increase YouTube views of the spot from 700,000 to 1.2 million within four days.

Given the tight lead-time, CRT/tanaka focused solely on generating coverage of the 45-second commercial through online and social media influentials, reaching out to the agency’s networks of travel, marketing and advertising, and pop culture contacts with customized social media-friendly pitches. Piggy-backing on the global malaise with airlines that charge fees for passengers to check a bag or have a drink, the agency also made limited, hilarious (if I do say so myself!) pay-per-click social media ad buys based on Facebook interests, and distributed two social media press releases.

Leveraging consumers’ frustration with large corporations’ business practices, CRT/tanaka convinced Air New Zealand’s CEO, Rob Fyfe to issue a challenge to other top executives - to strip down and prove their business practices have as little to hide as his - landing the spot airtime during the fourth hour of NBC’s Today Show.

Demonstrating the value of teamwork and exceptional social media savvy, the bi-coastal project team successfully increased YouTube views of the spot from 700,000 to 1.4 million within the four day period (48 hours of which were over the weekend), exceeding the client’s goal by 29 percent.

Air New Zealand followed this campaign with the release of an inflight safety video in a similar body-painted genre, for use on domestic 777 flights. CRT/tanaka was again enlisted to support the viral dissemination of the video, and the agency collaborated with the client to drive views from zero to four million within four weeks.

Social and traditional media outreach during this time included reference to the two body-painted videos, landing both in Advertising Age’s top viral video list for three consecutive weeks. The original advertising campaign now has 4.5 million views on YouTube, with the safety video generating an additional 4.7 million views.

To date, media impressions for both campaigns total 600 million, generating more than $1,000,000 USD in publicity value, including placements in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, America’s Nightly Scoreboard, FOX News, Bloomberg TV and a second run on the Today show

Now… where’s New Zealand again?!

Katja at Skimbaco Lifestyle helps Dr. Lindsey of Genesis Today and John Andrews of Collective Bias kick off the Great Idea social media contest, which offers a $10,000 social media consulting contract for the winner. The contest revolves around the idea of community as noted by Katja, “Those bloggers who realize that true concept of social capital and community will be the ones standing in the victory lane.” Read more about the contest at Skimbaco Lifestyle and at GenesisOfAGreatIdea.com.

Diva Marketing Blog’s Toby Bloomberg created a list of “divos” - aka men she’s interviewed, highlighted and/or podcasted on her blog. She says, “I realize recently I’ve never dedicated a post to the “divos” .. the men in my social media world who are just as generous in sharing their knowledge, expertise and support. The list includes Paul Chaney, Geoff Livingston, Shel Israel and more. Visit Toby’s blog for the complete list of social media divos.

Doug Stephen lists the three worst excuses for retailers not using social media. The excuses are companies do not want their employees slacking off or spending most of their day on social networking sites such as Twitter; retailers do not want to know or address negative comments; and most companies give the excuse of planning to engage in social media at a later date. What excuses have you heard from companies? Share your thoughts at Retail Prophet Consulting.

Interested in engaging more on different social media sites? Visit Deon Designs to see the top 100 social media sites by SeoMoz. Top five sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and Digg.

It’s official. I am a full-fledged, born-again social media convert.

 I’ve worked in the wine industry, mostly in wine and food PR, for my entire career. It was the best way to support my food and wine obsession, live in a bustling metropolis AND afford to pay my rent.

It was only really about a year ago, however, that I fully swallowed the idea of social media’s import to my vocation of choice. If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have dramatically rolled my eyes and said I favored old-fashioned relationships over what I viewed as cold cyberchatting on the world wide web. Not that I believe wine and food PR professionals should forsake the former for the latter, but the importance of integrating social media into our core communications strategy is abundantly clear.  

It seems many others in the wine industry have come to the same conclusion, as evidenced by one of the coolest ideas I have seen to combine wine lovers and social media to date. Enter Stage Left: Spit & Twit. As the City Winery website says:

City Winery, Manhattan’s first functioning winery in over 40 years teams up with WineTwits, Wired and Bottlerocket to create the first ever online fully interactive wine tasting. Focused on creating a twitter-powered community bringing together wine and tech enthusiasts in an immersive environment, Spit & Twit will require guests to have a Twitter account and mobile device in order to participate.

Spit & Twit will be the first event of its kind blending together the traditional world of wine tastings with new media and technology. The room will be set up like a traditional tasting, with stations featuring wines from around the globe, from Italy to Argentina, Napa to New York. Representatives from major wine labels will be on hand to educate and inform.

Whereas a typical tasting involves attendees busily scribbling in notebooks, Spit & Twit participants will be able to ‘tweet’ their tasting notes and thoughts as they walk around the room. The tweet-feed will be simultaneously broadcast locally to plasma screens around the room and globally to the online community utilizing the technology of our partner WineTwits.

I have organized countless wine tastings over the past decade, and can say this is truly the first unique concept to enter into play at what has become a commonplace marketing activity for wine PR professionals. This live Twitter feed could actually encourage social interaction between attendees, putting the social in social media. The most tweeted about wines will be considered for addition to City Winery’s offerings, giving this strategy actual bottom line value and a profit model. I know a few clients that would love this!

Kudos to City Winery (where we hosted an industry Vibrant Rioja Grand Tasting this year), Wired and WineTwits for this wonderful idea. I know it will be on my mind when planning future wine trade tastings for clients.