Rules of Engagement for Kids On-Line

Do you know what Facebook is? What about Twitter and Instagram? Well your kids do, even if other people in your house aren’t well versed on these communication phenomenons. Kids are way more technologically advanced than generations before. If you aren’t keeping yourself up to date and part of the conversation, you will lose important, teachable moments for your kids. Soon, your kids will be asking to set up accounts and their friends are probably already using them. Establishing guidelines or rules ahead of time can help avoid problems in the future. Below is a list of rules of engagement, that may seem like common sense, but can be easily missed:

• Get permission from you before setting up a profile on any social networking site.
•  Don’t talk to or accept any invitations from strangers to connect.
• Never post private information like phone numbers or addresses.
• Tell your kids to avoid questionnaires, giveaways or contests.
• Block anyone who is being mean or harassing. But don’t delete conversations; if things escalate, it’s important to be able to show everything to an adult.
• If you feel uncomfortable or bullied, talk to a parent or another trusted adult about the issue. (You can find more resources on bullying at StopBullying.gov and NCPC.org.)
• Never engage in bullying toward other people online.
• Always log out of your social media accounts when leaving a computer, especially a public or school computer
• Never give out passwords to anyone besides a parent.

As a parent, don’t forget behind the scenes monitoring that can give you piece of mind in allowing your kids some “independence” with social media.

• Check privacy settings on your computer and social media sites such as Facebook.
• Keep the computer in a central location like the family room or kitchen. It’s much easier to monitor what your child is doing on-line when they are in sight.
• Monitor what your child posts on-line from messages as well as pictures. Most kids don’t understand the permanence of negative posts and pictures of themselves that can have on their future.
• Use filtering software to monitor your child’s Internet usage. Some software even allows you to view exact keys typed, time spent on-line and all computer activity in general.

Finally, you should get to know the sites that are out there accessible to your children. They pick up technology fast so as parents we must stay ahead of or at least keep up with the other people wanting access to our children.

Should a jingle be in your future?

This time of year we are all listening to the familiar Christmas songs that make us all get into the holiday spirit. Somehow, even in West Texas where Christmas is more likely to be 75 degrees outside with a light dusting of brown dirt rather than a white, we can still dream through song. Does this same nostalgia work with jingles for goods and services? Let’s play guess that product….

1. Double your pleasure, double your fun…
2. My bologna has a first name …
3. You deserve a break today at..
4.  I’m a pepper you’re a pepper wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too…
5. Meow meow meow meow…
6. Give me a break….

These weren’t hard to recognize, were they? At one point McDonald’s had a jingle that kids were playing patty cake to and reciting their whole menu in the process. So the answer is YES jingles do work, and they are not just for national chains, but there are some critical things that make a jingle a success and stuck in your customers heads.

• They need to be easy to sing for the average Joe. No complicated tunes and high notes. Think children’s songs and that’s a good place to start.
• Easy lyrics. Repetitive easy lyrics will stick. A long song listing every product or service available will not work.
• Frequency, frequency, frequency. Can you learn a song if you’ve only heard it once? Neither can your customers!
• Jingles need to be consistently used throughout a comprehensive media plan. Most jingles come with several different options for use. This allows them to be used in radio and TV effortlessly.
• Give it time. Going back to popular Christmas carols, did you hear them one season and then never again? Jingles can and should be used for several campaigns. The theme of the campaign may change year to year, but the jingle should remain part of the package. Again recognition is the key. I know that every time I think of a carpet cleaner, I think 1-800-Steamer…I even have the number in my head to call. Wouldn’t you like that for your customers too?

We will be running a Jingle all the Way Special this week. Call us to get a fresh start on your 2013 marketing campaign. Call us today to learn more!

Is Anything I’m Doing Working??

If you manage a social media budget you quickly realize providing accurate measurements to show ROI isn’t always easily done, especially if you’re just beginning to build your brand. Logically, you begin tracking your new likes, followers & +1’s. It only seems obvious that is a great way to measure you success, right? Not only do you have to build this audience, you have to keep this audience, and that can be even more difficult

You can spend many complicated hours deciding what metrics will work for you, and depending on your company’s goals, you may need the complicated formulas. But, for a simple approach there are a few basics that must be part of any measurement process and these are what we’ll talk about today.

1. Volume is the “size of the conversation” about your brand or campaign. This is a great indicator of interest, and requires more than just counting tweets and wall posts. Measure the number of messages about your brand and people talking about your brand. Are there days or times when people are talking more about your brand? This is information you can use to focus more of your posts during these times. Did you seem to lose several after a specific post or tweet? Maybe after examining that content you’d find there are certain topics not interesting or too controversial for your audience.

2. Reach is the measure of potential audience size or how many friends or followers you have. Although this is an important number to watch, it misses a lot of important information in assessing your social media effectiveness. You may have 500 friends, but if you’re only reaching 100, you may want to rethink when your posting.

3. Engagement shows if and how people are engaged with your brand and participating in the conversation. This is when you look at our content and decide if you are “interesting” enough to keep your audience. If people aren’t engaged with our brand by likes, comments, shares or replies eventually your brand won’t show up in their Facebook news feed at all. Pay attention to what content generates interest and be sure to keep those types of topics in your posts.

4. Share of Voice: To really understand how you’re doing with your social media, you have to know how your conversations compare to your competitors. Visit their pages and watch what they and their audience are discussing.
Being consistent is essential to effective social media measurement. Measure monthly by the same formulas and tools. Tracking your numbers over a period of time and pay attention to how they change.