It’s no secret public relations professionals aim to create content that elicits an action, especially through social media channels. It’s called “social media” for a reason – we want people talking about, engaging with and sharing our client’s content and messages.

Nuffer, Smith, Tucker co-hosted the “Content Marketing Insider Secrets” webinar last Tuesday with Social Fresh, a social media education company, that discussed content creation in-depth. The webinar gave attendees a glimpse of the dialogue that will take place at the Social Fresh WEST conference in San Diego on September 27-28, and featured conference presenters Anna Lingeris of Hershey’s and Zena Weist of Expion along with NST President Bill Trumpfheller.

The lively discussion focused on the importance of knowing your brand’s voice, prepping your content with appropriate research, and being an engaging participant and curator. Here’s a recap of some key points:

• Content shouldn’t repeat your traditional ad copy. Figure out what voice will resonate with your target audiences and tailor it accordingly per social media platform.
• Identifying a focused brand voice helps all employees within your company understand social media goals and activity. It also makes it easier for people to participate.
• Listen and respond to the needs of your audience.
• Create content, but also let others’ (your audience) voices and opinions come through.
• Metrics and data are available – use statistics and data to create a plan, and see what’s resonating with your audience.
• Cross-pollenating content per platform can increase the shelf life of your campaign.
• You want people to trust your brand – engagement helps build trust.
• Listen first; talk later.
• Create content that your audience can easily share on and offline.
• Engaging content must have a personal relevance. Find out what matters to your audience and create content that sparks a discussion around those topics.
• The top three types of engaging content are: personal questions, loyalty questions and call-to-actions with photos or links.
• Figure out how to make a local tie to your audience for increased interaction.
• Content marketing research is critically important and should be a large part of the resource pie.
• What experience are you trying to deliver? Use this to drive content creation, but realize in the end it, your content may not be all brand focused.
• Don’t succumb to “shiny object syndrome” each time a new platform emerges. Do your research before diving in.

Did you join “Content Marketing Insider Secrets?” What were your takeaways?

We are excited to announce several new additions to Nuffer, Smith, Tucker’s award-winning team.

Derek Danziger is joining NST as vice president. Derek brings more than 17 years experience in public relations, marketing and public affairs to the firm. He most recently served as vice president of marketing and communications for the Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC). At CCDC, Derek acted as the organization’s spokesperson and managed media relations, communications and community outreach programs relative to downtown San Diego’s redevelopment efforts. Prior to CCDC, Derek worked in the education and public relations departments at SeaWorld San Diego, and coordinated international media relations activities for the grand opening of LEGOLAND California. He also served as director of media and public relations for the Super Bowl XXXII Host Committee in 1997, working directly with the NFL, international media and the San Diego community to implement a variety of Super Bowl-related events and activities.

Derek received his bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, San Diego and served two terms as president of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) San Diego/Imperial Countries Chapter. He is Accredited in Public Relations (APR) and is also a LEAD San Diego graduate. In 2006, he was honored by PRSA San Diego as Public Relations Professional of the Year.

We have expanded our interactive team with the hiring of Sean Masterson as digital strategist. Most recently, Sean served as web and e-commerce manager for iProlog, Inc. Prior to that he was principal at SMB Studios, a San Diego-based web development and social media firm. He also previously served as global marketing coordinator for Prestige International, Inc. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University and has completed certificates in graphic design and web design from University of California, San Diego.

We also added Jazmine Allen to our account services team as an account coordinator. Jazmine graduated from San Diego State University last year and has been serving as an intern at NST. She has done a great job on behalf of many of our clients, and we are excited that she joined us full-time at the beginning of May.

In addition, many of you have probably heard that in January we added Mark Olson to our team as a government relations and public affairs specialist. Mark has been doing a great job managing government outreach programs for the California Citrus Research Board.

Prior to joining us, Mark worked as a press secretary on Capitol Hill, and most recently as a top policy advisor to San Diego County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from California State University, San Marcos, and a master’s degree in communications from San Diego State University.

Please join us in welcoming these new members to our team! We look forward to continuing to partner with our clients and other colleagues to provide exceptional service.

My transition from intern to full-time account coordinator at Nuffer, Smith, Tucker required much more effort than the average stealthy operation. While I failed to refill the candy dish my first week, I did take away a few important lessons in office warfare. First thing to note is there may be a secret preference in smartphone brands and also their color and what kind of phone cases the office considers as “cool” and “not so cool” like team mascots and battery packs, respectively. I also discovered that Saturday Night Live videos make for great conversation starters when seeking classified information and that I am definitely in for a tricky but hilarious challenge when the next team building retreat rolls around.

While all of these are equally important, my favorite lesson is one I think applies for most new graduates/agents. I realized that for most of us, soon after we are handed our diplomas we move straight into Mission: Find A Job (any job). While this is an admirable assignment, I discovered that the mission I was on had a special target. Not only was I on a search to find a job, I was on my way to finding a company with people who made me want to work harder, learn as much as I can and form relationships that moved beyond, “tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

Finding a job after graduation is very important, believe me, I know. However, finding a place to learn, grow and prosper was the reason we embarked on this mission in the first place. To all of my current covert agents infiltrating agencies and offices, keep going, work hard but remember your job needs to be just as good a fit for you as you are for it.

Good luck my friends,

Agent Jazmine Allen

P.S. Having the most recent AP Stylebook in the office makes you a prime ally.

Perpetually curious. Always questioning.  Thirsty for knowledge.  Unsatisfied with the status quo.  This is what being an “explorer” means to me. I believe it is a trait developed early on in life, perhaps even innately. On some level, you either got it or you don’t.  At Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, I’d like to think we all “got it.”

Earlier this year, we adopted a new value: Push ourselves, each other, our clients and our profession to explore.  While we finally put pen to paper on this one, the value is one that I believe has always been at the core of NST.

In a dynamic industry, success isn’t possible by resting on your laurels. What worked in the past, may not work in the future. Change is a word we must be comfortable with. More importantly, we must embrace and push for it by continual exploration.

I recently asked our team to tell me what “exploration” means to them. Here’s how they define exploration:

• Moving past the “guide book” to see what else is out there.  Is there a different route that we can take? Is there a new way of tackling a problem that has not been thought of before? Are there new tools we can use to go farther than we have been able to go before?  (Bill Trumpfheller)
• Taking chances and not worrying about outcome because all that matters is the experience/knowledge you will gain from having the courage to take that chance in the first place (Mary Correia-Moreno).
• Learning through experiences, having a desire to know and do more, and being present and aware no matter where we find ourselves (Jazmine Allen).
• Avoiding complacency and constantly innovating; no block-and-tackle tactics (Price Adams).
• Not only learning about the latest trends, technologies and ideas, but also learning (or even re-learning) the basics – including grammar and writing style – that ultimately create the sturdiest foundation on which to grow (Natalie Haack).
• Wondering. Searching … an ambitious drive to find the next great adventure (Michelle Livermore).
• Constantly investigating trends and what others are up to, searching for new techniques and ideas, helping clients see things in new ways, and creating campaigns that help them navigate through the noise (Greg Kershaw).
• It’s about movement. It’s about exploring what I’m not familiar with and using what I’ve discovered to grow and better myself. It’s about having that itch or desire to constantly be doing so and being propelled by the excitement of what exploration can deliver (Krystin Williamson).
• Constantly having your eyes on the horizon, looking forward at what’s to come, and actively planning for the future – even if it’s unknown (Katie Rowland).
• Trying to improve upon the method of solution that I’ve used before and always striving to improve upon my own work using the latest and greatest practices (Aaron Blomberg).
• Not letting the fear of failure prevent you from trying something new and taking a risk. This can apply to going after new business, pitching a new campaign idea to the client, etc. (Rebecca Howe Schmidt).

Reading these thoughts from our team reminds me – once again – what makes Nuffer, Smith, Tucker so special, and why on Monday mornings when others dread going to work, I don’t.  It’s this culture of exploration that unites and drives us.

NST's Young Influential Teresa Siles

She’s young. She’s influential. She’s NST’s very own Teresa Siles! Recently named a Young Influential by the San Diego Daily Transcript, Teresa was recognized for her knowledge in social media and her efforts to ensure our agency plays a leading role in the industry.

Teresa joined NST more than 10 years ago as an intern and worked her way up to become a vice president of the firm. In fact, she’s the youngest vice president in NST’s history! Through the years, Teresa has developed a well-deserved reputation of being a leader in public relations and social media. She is creative and is constantly pushing not only her clients, but also her colleagues, to try new things and stay on the edge of change.

In addition to managing client accounts, Teresa leads NST’s social media practice. In 2009, she created the San Diego Social Media Symposium, which is now an annual one-day conference that brings together leaders in public relations, marketing, academia and the business community from across Southern California to talk about social media and how it is impacting our respective industries. The most recent symposium was held March 1, 2012 and drew more than 200 attendees.

Teresa is also a two-time graduate of WOMM-U or “Word of Mouth Marketing University,” and received her bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University (SDSU).

In her spare time, Teresa also finds time to give back. She leads a monthly social media workshop for SCORE San Diego, and serves on the marketing committee for LEAD San Diego and the advisory committee for the Digital and Social Media Collaborative at SDSU. As if all this was not enough, Teresa has also recently returned to SDSU as a student in its Executive MBA Program.

Please join me in recognizing Teresa for all her hard work and dedication not only to the profession and her clients, but also to NST and her colleagues. She is a true influential leader.

Besides the Timeline’s obvious two-column feature that pulls in content chronologically from the left and then the right, there are a few new features to be aware of in regards to where a brand’s content now lives on Facebook’s revamped pages. Emphasis is now placed on communication within the Timeline wall. However, there are a few ways brands can highlight important posts. It is widely believed that Facebook made these changes in an attempt to keep brands’ communication with individual users as organic as possible.

Here are a few of the features:

• Static profile information. Upon scrolling down the page and leaving the cover photo and “above the fold” features, you’ll see a new profile bar pop up on the top of the screen. This bar will stay static and allow your page users to access different page content without having to scroll back up to the top of the page.

• Post box. The first box on the left column will feature the traditional features needed to post or comment on the page. This feature looks and acts the same as the old layout.

• Friends box. The first box on the right column will feature pictures of the users friends who also like the brand page. Although the friends box will stay static across the platform, its content will be personalized for each user.

• Recent posts by friends and others. The box immediately under the friends box on the right side of the page will feature posts concerning the brand made by the visitor’s friends. Immediately following will be a box showcasing the most recent posts regarding the brand by other users. Brands can choose to eliminate the “recent posts by others” box in the Timeline if they wish.

• Featured content vs. pinned posts. Brands now have the ability to identify posts that hold significant meaning and make them appear more prominent on the Timeline. By hovering over the top right corner of a post, an edit box appears. You can now “highlight” a post to stretch it to the full length of the Timeline, covering both the left and right columns. This post will be larger in size, but stay in chronological posting order. Or, “pin” a post to the top of the Timeline and the selected content will be moved to the top of the Timeline where it will be listed first and stay for seven days before returning to its place in chronological order.

• Direct messaging. Users can now send direct messages to brand page admins allowing organizations to handle customer service issues or other sensitive matters in private. Note that pages are not able to initiate private messages with fans or any other user – users must initiate the direct message. However, the page admin can suggest a fan contact them through direct messaging to take a conversation offline and provide further support.

Not sure what type of content your brand should highlight or pin? We’re happy to talk strategy with you to make sure your optimizing Facebook’s Timeline features, or even a larger social media strategy, in a way that makes sense for your brand.

This blog post is the second in a three-part series. The first blog looks at Facebook Timeline cover photos and above the fold features.

It’s the announcement that everyone in marketing has been on the edge of their seat waiting for – Facebook Timeline for brands. Recently, a few NSTers were able to sit in on some webinars about the new features.  We had so many notes on the new features that we’ve broken them out into a three-part blog series, starting below with “above the fold” features.

Although the changes affecting brand pages will require us to make a few tweaks to our clients’ pages, overall, we’re excited!  Some of the features are downright cool, like the new cover photo.  Here are a few of the new elements you should be aware of:

• Default landing pages are no more.  Visitors will automatically go to a brand’s wall, or Timeline.  This, along with some of Facebook’s other changes, highlights the importance of posting and engaging with fans regularly.
• Brand cover photo.  Brands now have an 851 x 315-pixel area at the top of the page for a cover photo, which will be public to everyone.  This can be a fun or artsy photo or design, but cannot include:

• Smaller profile pictures.  At 180 x 180 pixels, the profile photo overlaps with the cover photo.  There are some creative ways to have this work with your cover photo, as these brands show, but the profile picture is still a prominent feature when interacting with a brand, so it’s important to have it work by itself too.
• Application changes.  The applications that were previously listed as tabs on the left sidebar will now appear as boxes below the cover photo (see Coca-Cola’s four applications above: Photos, Likes, Home, Your Stories).  However, there are only four spots immediately visible and one will be taken up by photos, which is a static feature.  Therefore, you should design custom icons (110 x 74 pixels) for at least three other tabs that will be visible “above the fold” without clicking to see more.
• Once visitors click on those application boxes, the tabs they see will now also have a larger area (810 pixels wide).  Current tabs (at 520 pixels) will be centered, but you should consider filling the extra space.

What are your thoughts on losing the welcome page option and gaining the cover photo?  Leave us a comment with your thoughts and stay tuned for Part 2 in our 3-part series on the subject.

How many times have you heard “We’ve got to tell our story to the public. We need to make them understand our position. If they could only see the ‘big picture’”? The assumption is that if we can just get our target public to understand, they will do what we want them to do.

But there’s a big flaw in that assumption writes Kerry Tucker and Bill Trumpfheller in the recently released second edition of McGraw-Hill’s “The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communications,” edited by Clark Caywood of Northwestern University.

For the most part, people don’t care about an organization’s problems. They’ve got enough of their own. And simply communicating information to obtain a desired behavior rarely works. More than 30 years of research across a wide range of disciplines and issues have shown providing information alone on an issue, product or service will not significantly change the behaviors of a given public.

While people naturally resist change; communications strategies and messages (and tactics) can be organized to increase the odds of breaking through the information clutter we all face daily. They can do so by contrasting existing behavior, facilitating discomfort with existing behavior and offering help in adopting a new action.

Nuffer, Smith, Tucker’s proprietary framework to evaluate communications against behavioral principles is organized around four basic questions (internally, we call this “The Model”):

1. What is the need, concern or interest for the target audience?
2. Is the desired behavior clearly packaged as a credible solution to the need, concern or interest?
3. Have you presented the benefits of action and consequences of inaction to create discomfort for the current behavior?
4. Have you helped the target audience mentally rehearse the desired behavior? Have you included a call to action?

Public relations campaigns systematically strategized, packaged and delivered to target publics with specific, supportive behavioral outcomes stand a much better chance of breaking through today’s clutter and moving the proverbial needle, writes Tucker and Trumpfheller.

Order a copy of the book for your bookshelf.

What are you doing March 1, 2012? Joining the NST team at the San Diego Hall of Champions for the 2012 San Diego Social Media Symposium, of course!

After a sell-out event in 2011, we are excited to be again hosting the San Diego Social Media Symposium, a one-day event designed to bring together leaders in public relations, academia and the business community to talk about social media and how it is impacting our respective industries. Now in its third year, the San Diego Social Media Symposium is about more than social media tactics – it’s about social media strategy.  Check out the event website and be sure to get your tickets now to secure the early bird discount: http://sdsocialmediasymposium.com/

It is hard to believe 2011 has almost come to a close and we are about to ring in a brand new year. Take a look at some of the many things the NST team did this year (hint: for some of us it involved Disney, jumping out of a plane or “tying the knot”).

How NST Spent 2011 from NSTPR on Vimeo.