Marcie Taylor

Tag: social media

  • What does it mean to have influence?

    What does it mean to have influence?

    Not 5 years ago, the influencer landscape was different, it was when moms ruled the blogosphere and back then I had “klout.” The influence sort of just came along with blogging territory. Obviously, if people read, interacted and commented on your blog, surely you carried some influence with them. Right?

    To further the perception of influence, mom bloggers were all early adopters of social platforms – so they (we!) were the first to be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and much later, Instagram!

    The smart PR people realized this and built relationships, offered swag, goods, services in exchange for our “influence.” But unlike the way it is now, when a company or PR person “gave” you something, there wasn’t the expectation that you would make a sales pitch for them and endorse what they gave you. It wasn’t so much an expectation as it was a hope. Old school PR style – I’ll pitch ya a story and if you think it interests you, go write about it. If you write a review, make it an honest one.

    Then things started to change and mutual expectations began to rise – companies expected bloggers/influencers to churn out content, views and traffic; while bloggers/influencers started expecting compensation both in cash and kind.

    And then something curious happened, you didn’t even need a blog to be insta-famous anymore – you just needed followers. 

    And that’s where I got lost.

    These days I find myself on the other side of the table, preferring to work with clients. I am no longer considered an “influencer” with my small numbers.  Apparently, I am a “microinfluencer.” When “hosted” at an event or given “swag,” I have to remember to hashtag-ad #ad and no, #spon (short for sponsored) is not acceptable.

    One last thought – if everyone becomes an influencer, who are we influencing?

  • Craving Connection: New events, new website, my new creative agency

    Craving Connection: New events, new website, my new creative agency

    Have you noticed a wave of creative breakfast meetings, retreats and conferences? It’s like the bigger, more expensive trade show-type conferences have given way to more intimate, often free to attend, gatherings. It is almost as if, in this plugged in, digital world of ours, people are craving a more personal, IRL connection.

    Can you feel it?

    Recently, I attended a Connecting Things event in Irvine, which was a screening of the documentary “Love and Bananas.” I had attended another event of theirs over a year ago, when the guest speaker was filmmaker Bayan Joonam from Soul Pancake. There was not much interaction at that one. There was a big turnout and though you were encouraged to network, people mainly came to listen and learn. Everyone seemed friendly enough and oh yes, there was pizza, Pie-Not and Kombucha!

    By the way, “Love and Bananas: An Elephant Story” is a beautiful documentary about saving Asian elephants, but that’s an article for another time.

    Then there’s Creative Mornings, which I have yet to attend. It is a breakfast lecture series for the creative community and they hold them in cities around the world. I’ve also been seeing a surge in women-only events like Create Cultivate.

    So what does this have to with me? Well, I’ve been working on something but it’s still in its infancy. I want to announce it with a big bang, or maybe just slip into things quietly. I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll do both. Or maybe I’ll just blog about it here and share our progress.

    Alright, are you ready? Here we go.

    About half a year ago, I started hosting social media breakfasts as a way to meet fellow content creators. We shared tips and tricks with anyone who needed any social media and marketing help. We learned from each other. Some of my breakfast-mates I had already worked with and some I wanted to work with. Those were good times. When the social media breakfasts went on hiatus, my cohorts and I found ourselves missing each other, missing the exchange of ideas and really missing being able to collaborate.

    What collaboration looked like during that first meeting. Portola Coffee, Birdie Bowl, SOCO and the OC Mix flyers. Posted as an Instagram story by Suzanne Moshenko.

    Fast forward to today. Five of these brunch buddies and I have come together to form our own creative collective. We are writers, photographers, public relations professionals, and social media managers. In a word, we are storytellers. And we’ve formed a company that I call c3komunity which stands for “connect, create, and collaborate.”

    Like I said, we’re just starting out and I invite you to check out our website that I’ve been working on. Basically, you hire us to create content and we create a social media strategy for you and you can take it on yourself and use the content as you see fit. Explaining this process to a prospective client is our biggest challenge right now. But see it’s like this: Let’s say you have a product to launch, you’d hire a photographer, writer, social media person, and publicist separately paying $$$. Or you could go through a big agency and pay even more $$$$. The process would take months to come up with creatives, get approval and finally launch.
    Well, here’s where we come in. We’re a one-stop shop, all the creative and production work done by our c3komuniy, with a reasonably fast turnaround time too.
    Is that something you’d be interested in?

    Please visit the new website here and be sure to drop us a line!
    connect create collaborate collective // photographers, writers, social media

  • Creative Inspiration Abounds at Monthly Social Media Breakfast

    Creative Inspiration Abounds at Monthly Social Media Breakfast

    When thinking of ways to do community outreach, beyond digital means for my new client, SOCO and the OC Mix, I decided to put together two of my favorite things: Social Media and Breakfast. Thus was born the first SOCO Social Media Breakfast, a collaborative gathering of social media managers, influencers, creatives and SOCO super fans.

    The idea was to gather like-minded people to share tips and tricks about social media, bring questions to the table and network.

    What happened was so much more – it was a creative burst of energy. Not only were new personal connections made but also awesome collaborative photos!

    During our first meeting, Portola Coffee donated coffee to fuel our creativity. We also got a sneak preview of their partnership with Mr. Holmes Bakehouse.

    Mr. Holmes Bakehouse and Portola Coffee – a match in made in breakfast heaven. Photo by Kait McKay

     

    Collab upon collab! This photo was taken by Stephanie Lin, who had just opened the shop Kestan at SOCO and the OC Mix. Fashion blogger Ashley models a Kestan top AND a cup of Portola coffee.

    Kestan Portola SOCO and the OC Mix
    Fashion blogger wearing a Kestan jacket and bracelets while preparing to sip some Portola coffee. Photo by Stephanie Lin.

    Shortly after that November meeting, I scheduled a December breakfast, not even a month afterward since I knew the holidays would be hectic for everyone. While most of the original attendees did not make it, we had a new photographer join us and staffers from Travel Costa Mesa. December’s meeting was short and sweet and yet super productive. I just needed to get the group together to keep the momentum going.

    We even got Travel Costa Mesa’s Social Media Manager, a photographer herself, model for us!

    Not Vodka, promise! Water bottle available at Local Fare. Model: Mackenna Waterhouse at ModShop. Photo by Kait Mckay

    Naturally, she turned the cameras on one of our other photographers and captured the photo below. I always tell all attendees to come ready to be behind and in front of the camera! I’ve gotten some great headshots of myself from these collab sessions too.

    Ballerina and photographer Skye Schmidt holding a California Bear Mug available at Local Fare. Venue: Modshop Photo by Mackenna Waterhouse

    During the first two meetings, we produced some high-quality product shots, which we shared with the shops that lent us their items.  We provided quality content for different brands and also increased engagement for the photos used. But best of all, we made new connections and found kindred spirits in the photographers, bloggers, and social media managers, who have attended the events.

    What collaboration looked like during that first meeting. Portola Coffee, Birdie Bowl, SOCO and the OC Mix flyers. Posted as an Instagram story by Suzanne Moshenko.

    Collaboration. Photo by Jackie Lovato

    The social media breakfasts will continue into the new year. In fact, we already had a meeting this month! Watch the video. The attendees change sometimes and I am careful about who to invite. I feel that the group has to be just right with a mix of social, creativity and community. Besides practical ideas that each one can implement in their social media marketing efforts, we end with more than just content, we leave the social media breakfasts inspired to create more!

     

  • Increasing ticket sales for Taste of Huntington Beach with Social Media and Influencer Outreach

    Increasing ticket sales for Taste of Huntington Beach with Social Media and Influencer Outreach

    It seems like only yesterday when I wrote about How A Charity Event Leveraged Social Media to Increase Ticket Sales. Okay so it wasn’t yesterday but it was just last year and I was talking about the Taste of Huntington Beach. Well, the annual Taste of Huntington Beach #TasteHB took place again this year on April 24th and guess what – this year we increased sales by 20%! That would be a 40% total increase from two years ago. Attendance numbers were up and there was a buzz about the event unlike previous years. There were more restaurants, newer restaurants and wineries, and also a celebrity chef from the Food Network, Simon Majumdar, who lent the event some foodie cred.

    Simon Majumdar
    Author and Food Network Personality Simon Majumdar with an LA Raider who happened to be attending #TasteHB.

    Bottomline: Taste of HB Chairman Dan Page was able to report a record high donation of $42,000 to the 501 (c)(3) charity “Friends of the Children’s LIbrary of Huntington Beach” which solely benefits the Children’s Department of the Huntington Beach Public Library. According to an official press release,”This amount is a new benchmark and bests last year’s total by 20%. New records were also set for attendance, as well as VIP ticket sales and general admission ticket sales.”

    “The Taste is a wonderful example of the power of local volunteerism,” Page said, “We owe our success to Huntington Beach businesses and all our volunteer staff.”

    Wise Fool, Surf City Family and Friends at Taste of Huntington Beach

    I am proud to be a Taste of Huntington Beach and Friends of the Children’s Library volunteer of 6 years and counting. Like last year, I was in charge of PR and Social Media. Here are just some of the strategies we implemented to attain our main objective, which was to increase ticket sales.

      • Created video content.
        What I actually did was create video content on the fly. In some of these videos, I was just having a regular meal at a participating restaurant and created a short interesting montage that was meant as a tease for the Taste of Huntington Beach. It was also meant to be a piece of shareable content that the participating restaurant could share on their own social channels.

        • Here’s a video featuring Deli-licious.
        • Here’s a video featuring Slapfish.
        • This video featuring BLK was posted on their Facebook page.
      • Activated bloggers and community influencers to help spread the word before and after the event.
      • Utilized Facebook Live during the event

    • Monitored all hashtags not just the official one – The official hashtag is #TasteHB but I also followed the hashtags that people would naturally write including #tasteofhb and #tasteofhuntingtonbeach

    Slapfish

  • Travel Tuesday: I left my heart in San Francisco at Hotel Zephyr to be exact

    Travel Tuesday: I left my heart in San Francisco at Hotel Zephyr to be exact

    We had less than a day and one night to spend in San Francisco, so we wanted it to count! The best decision we made was to book a room at what is possibly the coolest hotel on Fisherman’s Wharf. Just one night at Hotel Zephyr not only provided a great home base from which to explore the city but it was also a destination in itself. You’ll have to watch the Periscope videos I made below to get a taste of what I mean.

    Hotel Zephyr SF Room
    Our room was not large but the interior design was so hip. There was even a magnetic dart board, which my kids loved.

    Hotel Zephyr SF
    My room with a view.
    Taken with my iPhone 6.

    Hotel Zephyr used to be the Radisson Fisherman’s Wharf and it spans over the entire block bound by Jefferson, Powell and Beach St. It has this totally hipster vibe with it’s maritime theme, one-of-a-king upcycled art pieces and the use of recycled corrugated metal and cargo containers as furniture. And yet, it was also super family-friendly, with a game room and a back patio with unique and welcoming fire pits and more.

    Here’s the Periscope video I shot not long after we arrived. Thanks to Katch.me I was able to save the live stream.

    Hotel Zephyr San Francisco features 361 guest rooms and stunning views of the San Francisco Bay and it’s right next to Pier 39! The decor is playful and quirky and the staff is so warm and friendly. The common spaces have such a “community” feel that makes it easy to relax and even make new friends!

    And speaking of new friends, I met Kevin “KT” Thomas, Senior Sales Manager of Hotel Zephyr San Francisco, the next morning for a tour of the hotel. I live streamed the hotel tour using Periscope and it was so entertaining to have Kevin there with me. He was a hilarious guest, we felt like we were on a live TV show.

    And as live programming goes, we did hit some snags (like the hotel key not working) but it made the video even more delightful.

    Kevin shared that there would be even more cool things coming up at the funky pet-friendly hotel. We cannot wait to return. You can check out some special hotel deals from Hotel Zephyr here. Be sure to follow them on social too @hotelzephyrsf on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

  • How A Charity Event Leveraged Social Media to Increase Ticket Sales

    How A Charity Event Leveraged Social Media to Increase Ticket Sales

    I have been a volunteer at the library for about 5 years. The library is like a second home to me and my family. I have been correspondence secretary, usher, and photographer for the Friends of the Children’s Library (FOTCL). They do great work for the community. From puppet shows and ballets to author visits and reading programs, the FOTCL does great work for the community. Their biggest project is the Annual Taste of Huntington Beach, a fundraising event held on the last Sunday of April at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex. The Taste of Huntington Beach gathers local restaurants, wineries and breweries for an incredible afternoon of food and fun!

    My responsibilities at the #TasteHB have ranged from runner to ticket taker. But perhaps my biggest most rewarding assignment has been helping out with media. Since last year, I’ve been the volunteer PR and Social Media person for the event. I wrote press releases and established the Taste’s social media channels. But it was only this year that the committee realized the importance of social media in the event. We took a more interactive and integrated approach to social media marketing. It was totally a team effort that paid off in the end.

    Over 2,200 people attended the 2015 Taste of Huntington Beach, raising $37,500 for the Children’s Department of the Huntington Beach Public Library. According to Taste of Huntington Beach Chairman Dan Page: “that figure is nearly a 20% increase from last year’s event.”

    Dan and HB Cops | Taste HB
    Taste of HB Chairman Dan Page with Huntington Beach Police Officers. The TasteHB is an event that brings the Surf City community together.

     

    Duke's Restaurant have been a part of the Taste of Huntington Beach for years.
    Duke’s Restaurant have been a part of the Taste of Huntington Beach for years.

    Looking back, here are some of the things we did right.

    Started Promoting the Event at the Right Time

    • Ideally, social media engagement for an annual event should continue throughout the year. However, sometimes promoting an event too far- in advance is not beneficial to the event. By ramping up social media posts four months before the event and not sooner, we were able to build the community and generate buzz about the Taste.

    Sample Facebook Post
    Sample Post with a graphic counting down to the event. This post was shared by followers of the #TasteHB Facebook page.

    Shared responsibilities

    • Since we were all volunteers, it was hard for one person to take on one job full-time. It was a brilliant move on the part of our co-chairperson (Hi Gail!) to realize this early on and decide to divide posting responsibilities. Three main people posted to Facebook, while I posted on Twitter and Instagram. On Facebook, one volunteer was in charge of interacting with vendors and sponsors – she visited their Facebook pages and interacted with them on their pages and ours. Another volunteer was in charge of replying to customer service questions such as cost of tickets, while I shared blog and press pickups and shared news from the community and Taste participants.

     

    Boosted posts on Facebook

    • With a very modest budget, selected Facebook posts were boosted to reach a targeted audience

    Reached out to community pages and the blogosphere

    • For the first time, the Taste of Huntington Beach partnered with local community pages with big social followings, like Visit Huntington Beach.
    • We reached out to a core group of bloggers and local influencers, most of whom had helped us in the past.They helped us promote the event at least a month before and also provided media coverage of the actual event.

    Visit Huntington Beach and Taste of Huntington Beach
    The Visitors Bureau, Visit Huntington Beach, ran a Taste of Huntington Beach ticket giveaway promotion. Their Facebook page has over 50,000 fans.

    These are just a few of the social media strategies we implemented to help spread the word about the Taste of Huntington Beach in an organic and authentic manner. We had a holistic approach to marketing the event, in which, different committee members had a part to play and each part of the process flowed into the next. A ticket booth event, for example, in Downtown Huntington Beach, was promoted through social media and amplified by our partner community pages and bloggers.  A media launch party involved not only the press but also vendors and volunteers. One element that made the whole endeavor succeed was TRUST. The trust of each committee member, the trust of the Huntington Beach community. The trust in social media, that when leveraged in the right way, would bring positive results.

     

  • Lost Facebook Likes

    Lost Facebook Likes

    It’s not you, it’s me. No, actually, it’s Facebook. You may have noticed a small drop in your Facebook Likes Count. You see, over the weekend, Facebook started removing two types of accounts from your fan count: memorialized accounts and voluntarily deactivated accounts. So basically the great Facebook purge is doing you a favor by deleting accounts that are dedicated to loved ones long gone and people who have left Facebook voluntarily by deactivating (not deleting) their profiles. Remember that this affects Pages not Personal Accounts. For Business Pages, this is supposed to be meaningful because it can help businesses truly understand what their followers care about.

    Changes in Facebook are part of the game. Sometimes they announce the changes, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they clarify things such as what you can or cannot post. You can visit the latest community standards here.

    In the larger scheme of things, what do the number of likes really mean? And what would happen if all that time and effort you put into posting content in order to gain likes, were suddenly to disappear? Here is what I always tell businesses and brands I work with, in the end, you do not own these social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube et al. What you do own is your message, your product, the original content you create. These platforms are but tools to help you distribute your message. They are a means to an end.

    I read this article by Rachel Rofe , who experienced being banned from Facebook, and what she did about it. That’s a tough lesson but that is one of the good things about this digital age – being able to learn from other people’s mistakes.

    Now if you’ve noticed a drop in your personal friends count, you can’t blame that on Facebook. People could be unfriending or unfollowing you for whatever reason. Check your posts and frequency of posts. Better yet, if you’ve lost a real-life friend on Facebook, perhaps it’s time you picked up the phone and gave them a call or met them for a real-life chat.

    Here is the official Facebook update: http://facebook.com/business/news/page-likes-update

  • Conversation with Actor-Artist Keegan Allen

    Conversation with Actor-Artist Keegan Allen

    “Everyone wants to fit in and be noticed. Everyone is searching for something, every day, every hour.” – Keegan Allen, life.love.beauty

    Keegan Allen is a young actor on the hit show “Pretty Little Liars (PLL).” He is also an artist and has quite the social media following Over 1 million followers on Twitter and 2.3 million on Instagram! What draws his fans is his creativity, and what keeps them connected is his authenticity.

    On the phone he seems serious and yet sweet. I am just one of many phone interviews he is conducting that day, but his answers were well thought out and sincere. I admit I am a fan.

    I’m guessing, he is probably twenty-something though he plays a character much younger on PLL. He tells me not to believe the age Wikipedia lists for him – “I don’t really like talking about my age,” he says. So I let the subject drop and I mention that through his book, and the art I’ve seen on his social media cannels (Instagram, Tumblr), I felt like he was an old soul. Keegan says he totally believes that, “I know I have lived before.” In his national bestselling book (according to Publishers Weekly) “life, love, beauty,” Keegan gives readers a glimpse into his soul. Through images and words, Keegan chronicles his life thus far.

    A photo posted by Marcie Taylor (@marcietaylor) on

    Born to an artist mom and actor dad, Keegan paints a picture of a happy childhood. This is my favorite part of his book, in which, he tells stories of growing up in Hollywood and how he developed his love for photography.

    Coney Island kiwi maddog 20/20

    A photo posted by Keegan Allen (@keeoone) on

    According to Keegan, he started chronicling his thoughts in a photo journal when he was 10 years old. “And I would share the journal with other people.” The book is a compilation of sorts, of all those, papers, photographs and composition notebooks. And now he gets to share “this visual aid of his feelings” with an even larger audience. He confesses that he hasn’t written things down in a journal, as much, but continues to share images, words, and songs; his feelings and thoughts; through social media. “It’s like an interactive party,” he mentions. He likes being able to see what things resonate with people. He is never without a camera. “Perspective and composition are very important,” he says. “Sometimes I take a snapshot, just to capture the moment,” he says, “And often, I like putting “secrets out there” too like Easter eggs – and you have to look deeper.”

    offpistepursuit.tumblr.com for more pictures. #LoveinNYC. For those who have it, lost it or want it.

    A photo posted by Keegan Allen (@keeoone) on

    Some friends have cautioned him about putting it all out there. “But,” Keegan says,”it’s okay to be a sensitive man. After all, we’re all in this together.”

     

    Neil Young “…when will I see you again?…”

     

    A video posted by Keegan Allen (@keeoone) on

    We talk about music and motorcycles, and James Franco and art. And it feels like I’m chatting with a friend. But our phone call ends too soon and Keegan’s off on another interview. I can’t wait to see what Keegan will come up with next. To be sure, “life.love.beauty” is just the first of many creative projects from this young man on the verge.

  • What It Means To be in Cision’s Top 50 List

    What It Means To be in Cision’s Top 50 List

    “Where PR and Media Connect,” is Cision’s tagline. Cision is a company that offers PR software and services. As a new media journalist, my name appears on Cision lists and that’s how I get press releases and pitches from various agencies. As a PR professional (working for Acorn Woods Communications, a PR and Marketing Firm Specializing in the Motorsports Industry), Cision helps connect me with journalists, publications and influencers relevant to my clients. From time to time, Cision names “Top 50 Somethings” from its vast database – top 50 U.S. Mom Blogger, top 50 Content Marketers to Follow etc.

    This is me with my fellow OC Family Mom Ambassadors, writers, taken during an Orange County Public Relations Society of America (OCPRSA) luncheon.
    http://instagram.com/p/ugpMa0E5SJ/?modal=true

    So I was pretty stoked about finding my name in “Cision’s Top 50 Rich Social Media Influencers to Follow On Twitter,” alongside some big deal influencers like Guy Kawasaki , Neal Schaffer and Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner. It’s kind of a bummer that my name starts with T and the list is alphabetical so you’d have to scroll down to find me, but it’s still something that I am proud of.

    A list, I made it to a list! The other reason that makes this listing special is because I feel that I’m being recognized for the work I’ve done on my favorite social media channel, Twitter. Yes, I said it. Twitter is still my fave, even if I know it may not be for everyone, and it’s still a mystery for marketers to crack. Twitter is my favorite because it retains the qualities of openness and authenticity from the early days of social media.

    According to Cision: “We’ve searched high and low for the top 50 media rich social influencers on Twitter by leveraging CisionPoint‘s Influencer Search and by receiving a high score in relevancy (the volume of on-topic tweets related to rich media), timeliness (recent tweets related to the topic), engagement (retweets, replies and mentions), and cone of influence (connection to other influencers in the space), to find the experts on rich media social networks that you NEED to follow.” Read the rest of the article and follow the list here.

    And to close, here’s a photo of me with some social media influencers (left) Neal Schaffer, Debbie Miller and Ted Nguyen, all of whom I connected with on Twitter before meeting in real life!

    http://instagram.com/p/fl9pAtk5Zb/?modal=true

  • Kababayan Today with G Tongi Part 2

    Kababayan Today with G Tongi Part 2

    Here are the next two segments of my guest television appearance on Filipino-American show, Kababayan Today, hosted by the beautiful G Tongi.

    After getting over my nerves, it was easy to talk about anything! Naturally talked turned to two things I am passionate about: blogging and social media.

    The segments are appropriately titled: Growing Trend of Blogs about Fil-Am Motherhood and Becoming Social Media Savvy.

    When asked for social media tips, I say that the “Thing to remember (about social media) is that… it is all about connecting with a person.” I caution young people to watch what they post and warn that even if your social channels are set to private, anything online is really PUBLIC. There are ways, after all, to find photos and text, that could damage your reputation and your future. That said, social media can be used for good. Watch this last segment and see how I respond to G’s question about a “selfie quota.”