As communications professionals, we’ve all heard the “Content is King” adage, and as I was recently reminded: not just any content will do. Segmenting your content by audience can make or break successful marketing campaigns. Although research on your target audiences may be a lengthy and costly step, it’s crucial in order to build credibility and turn consumers into loyal customers or brand advocates.

Jay Baer, notable social media and content strategist, presented the webinar “‘Sorta Interested’ to ‘Hell Yeah’: Using Focused Content to Convert Customers with Nuffer, Smith, Tucker’s fellow WORLDCOM Public Relations Group partner firm Off Madison Ave. Baer reminds us that “content doesn’t win just because it exists,” and offers the following ways of content segmentation:

1. Persona: Whom is your content for? Make sure you are creating content that directly pertains to your target audience.
2. Life Cycle: Where are these people in their life cycle or the buyer’s journey? Different ages, lifestyles and perceptions will require different calls to action.
3. Channel: Where – through what medium – will your content exist? And if you’re segmenting your content by audience life cycle, don’t forget to take into account how people consume content in different stages of their life.

It’s not just about creating content, according to Baer, but rather the right content, for the right person, at the right time, through the right channel.

That’s an intricate puzzle to effectively put together, but that’s part of the reason we enjoy our jobs so much, right?

With the growing demand to write in 140 characters or less, the use of good grammar and language is becoming extinct. It appears the good guys (or gals) are losing the battle, but as public relations professionals we need to continue to fight.

According to an article that ran last week in the The Wall Street Journal, managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say.

The article went on to say that in a survey conducted earlier this year, about 45 percent of 430 employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees’ grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP.

What employers know and younger generations have yet to realize is that in today’s competitive business landscape, being able to communicate effectively may actually give you the edge over less articulate competitors. Good grammar can ensure messages are delivered and received promptly, and helps to lessen confusion when sending an instant message to a client, co-worker or potential employer.

What are your thoughts on good grammar in the workplace? Do you think it will become extinct or are your willing to continue the fight alongside me?

A lot of companies place emphasis on ensuring their organization or brand “looks good” online – and that’s important – but they often focus only on the graphic, visual elements of a website or social media platform.  More importantly, who’s the voice of your brand online?  Who’s communicating with people via social media on your behalf?  Is there a consistent tone?

I recently sat through a Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) webinar that explained what things companies should want in an online community manager and helped paint a picture of what he/she should look like.  Below are seven qualities you should look for (or develop) in your online community manager:

1. Articulate:  An online community manager should be able to communicate effectively in a variety of media.  He/she should be capable of clearly expressing the organization’s messages in a language your community members like and understand.

2. Social:  He/she should be able to easily engage in authentic conversations online.  In other words, just because your I.T. guy knows about computers doesn’t mean he’s automatically the right fit – this person needs to be comfortable participating in online discussions and come across as natural.

3. Professional:  Having a personality is great, but coming across as professional is equally, if not more, important.  The person should act as a responsible ambassador for your organization and carry an appropriate, consistent tone across multiple mediums.

4. Adaptable:  An online community manager should be able to make decisions quickly during crisis situations.  This often involves knowing where to look for information, working across multiple departments, understanding the company’s values, and not getting frazzled easily.

5. Enthusiastic:  It’s easy to tell when the person “behind the post” actually cares about the brand and about helping or informing others.  Your online community manager should be energetic, passionate and engaged in relevant topics.

6. Connected:  Key members within your community can come to your defense and/or be your best ambassadors, so the person you choose as a community manager should have ties to the right people within the community, or at least be able to identify them.

7. Organized:  When managing a community, staying organized is key.  A community manager should be able to keep track of data, relationships, content calendars, and a variety of assets essential to maintaining your community.

WOMMA is a fantastic resource for social media newbies and experts, as it puts together case studies, ethics guidelines, and online and in-person educational seminars.  You can follow the organization on Twitter and keep checking back to the NST blog for more information on best practices, trends and updates related to social media.

You may have noticed some numbers appearing under each of your Facebook Page’s posts. Facebook now shares post metrics at the bottom of each status update, and for many brands, those numbers are low.

Coincidentally, (read: likely not coincidentally) Facebook recently announced the launch of Promoted Posts. Brand Pages can now pay to have posts seen by more fans.

To create a Promoted Post, write a status update. Then, select the Promote button at the bottom of the post to get a list of prices. Each price point has an associated estimated reach – the percentage of fans who will see your post.

Facebook's Promoted Posts

After you make your price selection and post your status update, Facebook also recommends you Pin the post to the top of your page to make it more visible and accessible.

Per Facebook, promoted posts will show in the news feeds of the people who like your Page. If the people who like your Page interact with the post, it can show in the news feeds of their friends. These posts will be labeled as “Sponsored” in the news feed. Unlike ads and sponsored stories, Promoted Posts will not be shown in the right-hand column of Facebook.

We have been told Facebook fans are more likely to purchase, consider and recommend brands to friends. But since Facebook has admitted using an algorithm to rank content based on the likely interest to a user to deliver the most relevant content – a non-paid status update may not reach a large number of your fans.

The new Promoted Posts – and the growing inability to organically interact with fans to grow your Brand Page – shouldn’t be a surprise. Once Facebook went public, it had to keep investors satisfied through significant and continued revenue growth, which means Facebook needs to focus on advertising dollars.  The article 5 Ways Facebook’s IPO Affects Brands from Mashable points out,

…with a greater focus on ads, it will become increasingly more challenging for brand managers to fuel organic growth. Valuable, engaging content will always be vital, but without content working hand-in-hand with Facebook advertising, your brand will be unable to keep up in the social space. The days of brands getting significant traction on Facebook organically are over.

What does this mean for you and your brand’s Facebook page? Pay attention to Facebook’s ad offerings. Read case studies about what’s working for companies on Facebook and what’s not, and keep up-to-date on the latest Facebook changes by regularly reading NST’s blog. Create engaging content and try some of the different ad platforms including Promoted Posts, but watch the analytics carefully to see what is increasing engagement. What works for one brand may not work for another.

Will you try Promoted Posts? What do you think about the future of Facebook advertising and what it means for brands?

At one point in time, the term “social media” didn’t exist, and now you can’t count the number of social media platforms in existence on your fingers – probably not even on your toes, too. There’s a constant stream of new opportunities developing in the online world and as a company, you need to find out where you fit in. One new medium has presented some brands with a unique opportunity to market themselves in a very visual way – Pinterest.

Pinterest is a visual pin board and is already setting records in the social media world – it hit 10 million monthly U.S. visitors faster than any independent site in history. Despite a rapid growth in users, for the most part, the verdict is still out on the ROI of Pinterest for brands. In terms of value, it’s not clear where it fits in with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but we’re keeping our eyes and ears open. If you’re interested in taking the Pinterest plunge, take the following stats into consideration:

• Pinterest is now the third largest social network.
• Pinterest generates more referral traffic to websites than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.
• There are nearly 12 million unique visitors to Pinterest each month.
• The vast majority of Pinterest users are women – as much as 97 percent – and the majority of Pinterest users are college graduates.
• The average time people look at a pin is 1.2 seconds.

Women are flocking to the site and top categories of content include design, crafts, food, fashion, and other topics often affiliated with females. Successful Pinterest brands mirror these themes. Whole Foods, a brand easily able to capitalize on the popularity of food-centric pins, was quick to the game and has amassed more than 37,000 followers its first year.

We’ll be on the look out for other stand-out performances by brands on Pinterest and note the opportunities for clients as the site continues to develop. What are your thoughts on the newest social media craze? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Negative, negative, positive, negative, half positive, half negative.

I had a frightening flashback to ninth grade algebra as I was reviewing the themes of campaign mailers I asked my colleagues to bring into the office leading up to the June 5 primary election in San Diego. But it served a distinct purpose of providing clarity to a political season that was being fiercely fought by its participants.

By the way, the negatives beat the positives in our little sample size of 34 mailers – 22-12.

At Monday staff meetings for the past few weeks I brought in my favorite mailers – one had a candidate’s face torqued awkwardly, many had text that was too small to read, and others had blurry statistics that made the eyes glaze over. Pictures were plentiful. Pertinent information? Not in every case. Animals, cartoons and buffoons – we laughed and scoffed at the variances.

We may poke fun at the design, but the price for a mailing is dead serious – $40,000 according to one political operative. KUSI has a telling video clip on the cost and abundance of political campaign mailers.

While the satire runs thick in many circles during the campaign season, the large quantities of mailers represent unique circumstances in San Diego politics this year. At stake are very powerful decision-making positions for our region. Millions of dollars are aggressively being raised and spent on a mayoral election for the country’s eighth largest city. For the first time in nearly two decades, a San Diego county supervisor’s seat is up for grabs, and two-fifths of San Diego’s congressional delegation could be comprised of freshmen when the 113th Congress convenes in January.

As a bonus, new territories have spawned from the once-a-decade redistricting process, presenting many candidates with new swaths of ground to cover to boost name recognition.

The Press-Enterprise suggested that questionable taxpayer-funded mailings were one strategy some candidates might use to pump up name recognition.

While many members of the voting public will place political campaign mailers in the circular file (a.k.a. trash can) or desperately reach for the remote to change the channel from a candidate’s commercial, I admire this biennial theater attraction that features heroes, villains, epic battles and, of course, winners and losers.

Don’t forget your popcorn.