Forget you: What Are the Klout scores of Top Public Relations, Advertising & Digital firms?

I’ve written about Klout before, and it got me thinking about organizations, as opposed to individuals, that would seemingly benefit the most from having high numbers. I’m talking about marketing, branding, public relations, social media and advertising firms.

After all, a tweet from an elite influencer on Klout lives up to 67 times longer than does a tweet from an under-networked Twitterer.  And if these firms all purport to foster deeper engagement with key audiences, it stands to reason that, as we move into 2012, their respective Klout rankings might be become check-box items for prospects evaluating partners. Read more

The Power of Pinterest

Hi, my name is Sarah and I’m a Pinterest addict. [Hi, Sarah!]

I’ve been sucked into the social media site for more hours than I’d like to admit combing through images for fashion, home décor and style inspiration. And I’m not alone.

Experian Hitwise reports that Pinterest “received nearly 11 million total visits during the week ending December 17, 2011, almost 40 times the number of total visits versus just six months ago.”  To put that in perspective – it’s growing at the rate that Facebook was back in 2006.Haven’t tried Pinterest yet? It’s basically an interactive, shareable scrapbook.  Users can “pin” any images that they like to themed “boards” with a very brief description and a link back to the original source. With each pin users also have the option to share their find on Twitter and Facebook – thereby endorsing a product or brand to their entire social network.  The website is simple, beautifully designed and constantly changing – it’s crack for the visually-inclined.

So what does this have to do with your business? Even though Pinterest is still in its infancy, it has the potential to be an incredible marketing tool and in-the-know PR firms are already helping clients maximize the benefits.  Savvy brands are starting to use Pinterest to build their reputation by pinning and sharing not just their own products, but images related to their company identity.  Check out West Elm, Whole Foods and Real Simple Magazine to see great examples of brands using the website to engage with consumers.  It’s also great for SEO and link building. When someone pins an image from your website, both the image AND the link are pulled. That means every time a user repins that image, your link will be repined as well – building up a great amount of backlinks.

Ready to get started? Blueglass recently laid out five helpful tips for brands building a presence on Pinterest:

1. Follow, Repin & Like others As with any other social network, you need to share the love. This is also the best way to zero in on influencers and encourage them to follow you back and repin your pins by frequently sharing their pins.

2. Encourage employees to set up their own accounts Build clout as an industry authority by letting your staff showcase how passionate they are about your field. For example, this Kate Spade graphic designer has a few pins of her company’s products, but more importantly she demonstrates she’s a tuned in part of the fashion community by being active on this network.

3. Create boards BEYOND your products and your brand… …yet still related to your industry. For example, a home decor company could pin do-it-yourself books and a bakery could pin some favorite kitchen gadgets.

4. Add a Pinterest icon Let your audience know you’re here by adding a Pinterest icon to your other on-site social buttons.

5. Incorporate a “Pin It” button Even if you aren’t going to set up a profile on Pinterest, you can still get your brand involved by including a “pin it” button on your product pages or blog posts. You can also add the button to blog posts using the WordPress Pinterest plugin.

Happy pinning!

Primal Words. Primary Colors.

As 2011 winds down it can be either exhaustion or distraction, or both, that drives one to think about odd phenomena. After a busy and banner year for our boutique Portsmouth, NH public relations firm, I’ve been thinking about the Stroop effect. Clearly more distraction than exhaustion, since no one gets so tired they fret about the dominance of words over art.

Stroop describes the tendency of our minds to give more weight (technically “directed attention”) to words than to colors. For example, when we see the word ‘blue’ written in green ink, the anterior cingulate part of our brain kicks in and we quickly read ‘blue’ without stumbling. John Ridley Stroop reported this finding as part of a Ph.D. thesis in 1935 and his search of a region that lies between the right and left halves of the frontal portion of the brain. In college it helped us laser onto the word ‘beer’ despite unappetizing color palettes and gaudily cluttered downtown storefronts. Ultimately, humans are involuntary readers, constrained by evolution to put more and faster weight on meaning than presentation.

So why worry about this stuff as 2012 approaches? It’s a combination of business and politics – perennial year-end antagonists along with the Super Bowl. It’s a business focus for us because PR is a labor of words – meaning, context, syntax, and nuance. With successful clients across New England and the U.S. engaged in “clean coal,” “socially responsible development,” and “sustainable environmental practices” – not to mention a bevy of companies boasting products as “revolutionary,” “innovative,” and “value focused” – we’re strong proponents of the power of messaging. And we’re not surprised by Stroop; just challenged on behalf of Calypso’s graphic design and interactive marketing team to keep up.

Politics is another Stroop natural, with the presidential debates an example. Do red ties, flag pins, and starched white shirts gloss over drawled nonsense, memory lapses, or swirling confusion? Not likely. We heard what we heard, didn’t hear, or wanted to hear. This makes me wonder if the Stroop effect extends to reading and listening skills, and our ability to sort words from wrapping. Do words compete with each other when they’re the same color but assault the brain with moral conflict? If so, Stroop may be what helps most of us quickly sort out the non sequitur in “President Trump” or, to be bipartisan, “President Kucinich.”

Calypso has always believed that words always win and the message is key, so the Stroop task is welcome science. As 2011 closes and business and politics both struggle to keep our attention, don’t let the visual absence of snow or the gray sky backdrops of winter dampen your spirit.

Just read, “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry,” in any color, and follow your frontal lobes to seasonal cheer.

The difference between Branding, Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations

My mother doesn’t quite know what I do for a living, even though I’ve been at the public relations and marketing game for about 12 years (Boston, San Francisco and now Portsmouth, NH). She still asks me how my “customers” are doing, as if I’m running a bakery.

I’d seen the below graphic before (hat tip to Neutron, LLC). But I think it’s worth keeping handy whenever you’re looking for the simplest way to delineate between marketing, branding, advertising and public relations — even though, clearly, these worlds are merging more and more every day, particularly as it relates to social media.

If you haven’t see this, enjoy a moment of clarity:

Think they’ve got this right? Got a better analogy?

Social media for crisis management: PR’s Swiss Army Knife

The following article is the most recent installment of Calypso’s regular column in the Portsmouth Herald Business Monday section. It can also be viewed on Seacoast Online.

News last month about a public relations crisis at McDonald’s and the chain’s Twitter response suggests two unwavering truths.

1. Social media is a critical part of the communications arsenal for any business crisis.

2. It’s equally important to know when not to use it. Read more

New England Fertilizer Company Taps Calypso Communications’ Industry Expertise for Brand Identity Revitalization

Calypso Communications (www.calypsocom.com), a strategic marketing, corporate communications, and business development consultancy, today announces the recent launch of the new website www.nefcobiosolids.com for New England Fertilizer Company (NEFCO), a leading developer and operator of heat drying and pelletization facilities in the United States. NEFCO selected Calypso to design and develop the site as well as a new logo, messaging, tradeshow booth, and collateral materials as part of an integrated brand revitalization campaign to position the company competitively as it significantly expands its strategic business objectives.

“As we approach two decades of operation, we’re confident that Calypso’s marketing expertise will help solidify our brand persona and introduce new areas of focus, differentiating ourselves from the competition,” said Jim Sullivan, NEFCO’s general manager.

Bold, colorful design reflective of NEFCO’s new brand image merges the vitality of nature and the company’s role in sustaining the environment. Targeted key messaging and integrated search engine optimization (SEO) improve user experience through intuitive navigation and interactive elements. Calypso developed the site on open source software to facilitate integration with current online technologies, incorporating a robust control panel for easy in-house editing.

Serving Boston and 43 surrounding communities for the past 18 years, NEFCO currently operates one of the world’s premier biosolids dewatering, drying, and granulation facilities in Quincy, Massachusetts. Additional facilities are located in North Andover, Massachusetts; Shakopee, Minnesota; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Cumberland, Maryland.

“NEFCO is poised to become an industry leader in the next several years,” said Kevin Stickney, founder of Calypso Communications. “We’re delighted to be working with such an innovative pioneer in the biosolids industry, a company that is rapidly reshaping the way communities manage and renew their water and wastewater resources.”

Writing for Your Customers

The following article is the most recent installment of Calypso’s regular column in the Portsmouth Herald Business Monday section. It can also be viewed on Seacoast Online here.

We all believe that good writing will yield good business results — and that carefully crafted company messages and thoughtful scripts will generate positive changes. There are, of course, diverse opinions on how to define and measure these goals. Read more

Branding and Private Equity

I’m always surprised that more private equity and venture capital firms skip major conferences such as RETECH (this week, D.C.), especially when their portfolio investments in the sector – Read more