We're Hiring a Social Media Manager!

THIS  POSiTION HAS BEEN FILLED. Exciting news! We're looking for a skilled, enthusiastic Social Media Manager to join the MDPR Team immediately. If you think you are a good fit for the position and would like to apply, please email your resume and at least one writing sample to emily@monikadixonpr.com with the subject 'Social Media Manager'. Please include a brief cover letter in the body of the email explaining why you are a qualified applicant and why you would like to work at MDPR. We look forward to hearing from YOU soon!

Monika Dixon Public Relations creates integrated marketing communication programs using the client’s business objective as a foundation.

MDPR implements custom marketing and social media strategies specifically tailored to clients’ unique needs. Leveraging expertise in media relations, promotional event planning, strategic marketing, and experience in the lifestyle and retail industries, MDPR brings an extensive network into play to generate dynamic results in name recognition and brand awareness.

Monika Dixon Public Relations is seeking an experienced Social Media Manager (SMM). The SMM will develop, strategize, create and execute the social mediapresence for the MDPR company accounts as well as 6+ clients on multiple platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. This includes the creation of written content as well as accompanying graphics/images. All strategy, campaigns, contests, promotions, editorial calendars and daily content are the responsibility of the SMM to be approved by MDPR's CEO. The SMM will maintain and build the social presence of MDPR clients with engaging, relevant content as well as constant interaction with clients' social communities and potential customers. The SMM will be in constant contact with clients to discuss new social media pitches, strategies, etc, so candidate must be comfortable communicating ideas via email or face-to-face. Creativity is key, because the SMM works almost independently to constantly create fresh, engaging content for a range of clients in a range of fields on a daily basis. The SMM will also contribute to MDPR's blog and various client blogs and will be involved in various other MDPR projects, including event coordination and live posting from events. Passion for social media is a must!
Requirements:
-At least 6 months of professional social media experience
-Bachelors degree in communications, public relations or related field
-Strong writing and editing skills
-Ability to multitask, juggle many projects at one time and to handle unexpected work at moment's notice
-Very independent worker who is self-motivated
-Creative thinker who can execute ideas both through copy and graphics
-Graphic design experience (Photoshop is a plus)
-Must know the best practices for various social media networks and stay current with changing trends and technologies
-Willingness to work outside of office hours when needed and attend client events
-Extremely well-versed in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and other social media platforms
-Previous experience with email marketing tools like Constant Contact
-Versed in Blogger in order to contribute to MDPR blog and client blogs
-Effective communicator
-Experience analyzing and reporting social media metrics
-Previous experience within the lifestyle industry is a plus
-Familiar with Eventbrite.com and WordPress to update MDPR website
-Must be available to occasionally attend evening and weekend events

Handy Twitter Tools

Public relations is a mixture of social media, marketing, event planning and so much more.  With social media being such a huge part of day to day life, I wanted to share some helpful Twitter tips that won’t only make managing your personal account easier, but tips that will work wonders in dealing with managing your clients’ accounts, especially when staying on top of search terms and hashtags can seem like a full-time job!

Check out these sites that make tweeting, tracking and reporting as easy as a click of a button:

Click to Tweet: This twitter tool provides the press and media with content and also encourages them to tweet about your story quickly while maintaining your preferred message.  All you have to do is go to the site, compose the tweet and then embed the link in the press release or pitch.  How easy could it get!

Mobile Alerts:  One of the best features to Twitter is the mobile alert.  You are able to set up alerts that will be sent directly to your phone via text message for any brand or person you follow. 

To set up Twitter alerts, go onto the Twitter feed for the person/brand you would like alerts from, click on the little icon of the person’s head and the last option in the dropdown menu is “turn on mobile notifications.” Once you set up the first one with your phone number and the times you want to receive the texts, the rest are just a click of a button!

Twilert:  This website is super helpful because it is basically like Google Alerts for Twitter!  You can set up any search term or hashtag and you’ll get a daily email with all the tweets containing that search item.  This tool is really great if you’re keeping tabs on your clients because any news tweeted about them is sent directly to you!

Tweet Reach:  This tool is a great reporting system for tweets.  You choose any hashtag or link that you want to track and you are quickly able to pull a Tweet Reach report to measure the number of tweets, their reach and other cool stats.  It even includes pie charts and a printable PDF that you can send to your clients.

Tchat: This tool is for those who participate in Twitter chats.  If you’ve ever been a part of one, you know how confusing and annoying it is to constantly refresh the tweets with the desired hashtag.  Well Tchat is the saving grace to chats on Twitter.  The site allows you to input the conversation hashtag and then easily follow the chat by logging in; if you want to chime in, all you do is compose the tweet and the hashtag is already attached!  Brilliant.

Try out some of these Twitter tricks and I promise, tracking, researching and tweeting will become a million times easier.

Do you have any other tools that might make social media easier to manage?  Let us know by leaving a comment or by tweeting us at @MonikaDixonPR!

By Ashley Siech, MDPR Contributor 

Propel Forward By Writing Effective Emails

Email has overtaken the telephone as the primary communication tool in the business world. Whether we are looking for a job, trying to keep in contact with clients or simply trying to expand our network, we typically send a quick email. The only problem with sending emails is that a lot of people don’t know how to send a good one. If your email is something someone actually wants to read, you’ll get the response you desire more quickly.

Read on to gain some insight about sending an effective email and increasing your chance of receiving a positive response:

1. Be Concise
If you have to send an email that’s paragraphs long, it might be easier to pick up the phone. Not only are long emails unenjoyable to read, but people will most likely skim them and miss some important points. Try to limit your emails to 50 words or less. If you have to type a long email, try bullet points or bolding important parts.

2. Include a Clear Action Item
If the email you are sending does not have a clear action presented, there is no way for the person on the receiving end to reciprocate! If you are emailing simply to introduce yourself, make sure you have an action, like questions, in mind. You ultimately want to give that person a reason to respond and continue the conversation.

3. Do Your Research
Almost anyone will be willing to help you out if you have done something to help yourself out first.  The most important research you can do when sending an email is finding out the name of the person who will be receiving the email.  Don’t start your email with the generic “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Hello Blogger.”  Most emails that start with a generalized greeting will be sent straight to the trash.

4. Use Flattery
When using flattery, make sure it’s real, authentic flattery— we can all determine fake from real. Don’t be afraid to mention if you’re a huge fan, think this person is interesting or if a company is your dream employer. Not only does true flattery make the other person feel good, but it also shows that you are enthusiastic and an engaged person who goes after what you want. After all, you are writing emails in order to get where and what you want, so you might as well put in these simple efforts to make sure they get noticed!

Do you have any other tips for successful emails?  Share with us by leaving a comment on this post or by tweeting us at @MonikaDixonPR!

By Ashley Siech, MDPR Contributor

How to Fix and Avoid Dreaded PR Mishaps

There's a fine line between do’s and don’ts when a public relations disaster occurs. Within the past year there have been a handful of significant PR catastrophes that easily could have been avoided. Let's revisit them and then learn what should have been done to remedy the situation.

1. The Paula Deen Scandal: We’ve all heard about the incident with Paula Deen and her racially insensitive comments, but what made the situation worse was that it took her days to apologize. which should have been done immediately. 
2. The NRA’s Offensive Tweet on the Day of the Aurora, CO Shooting: On July 20, the same day that James Holmes open fired at a crowd in a movie theater in Aurora, CO, the NRA tweeted: “Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?” The tweet was taken down hours later and the NRA stated that it was tweeted by an individual who was unaware of the day's event.  
3. Abercrombie & Fitch CEO's Comments: A&F CEO, Mike Jeffries made the unnerving statement that “he doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people.”  Jeffries did not applogize and stood by his off-putting statement.

Now that we’ve revisited a few PR disasters, here are some tips to handle a mishap gracefully.

• Consumers want results, not excuses. Don’t wait too long to respond to the situation and respond by doing something visible to make it known that you are actively trying to solve what went wrong.

• Being sincere goes a long way. If you are trying to fix an issue, people will accept what happened and move on easier if you are genuinely sorry.

• When trying to resolve an issue, writing a boring press release won’t get you off the hook for your mess up. Connect with the public on all platforms and provide all the information needed to put the people at ease.

• Communication is key. Don’t ignore people because you are afraid of what they might ask. Answer all their questions, even if you don’t really know the answer; ignoring them will make it seem like you don’t care.

• Use social media appropriately. It's easy to send a quick tweet of your current, very honest thoughts. Make sure the content you put out there is thoughtful and appropriate from all points of view.

Look at things from an outsider’s point of view and always be smart about your actions. If something you’re doing doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. You don’t want to be on the list of Top PR Disasters!

Do you have any great tips on how to avoid or solve PR disasters? Let us know by tweeting us at @MonikaDixonPR!

By Ashley Siech, MDPR Contributer

The Latest Social Media Updates

One thing I especially love about social media is that the different platforms are constantly rolling out new updates that better (or, in some cases, worsen) their respective experiences. Social media is always changing, which is exciting. But those changes require constant researching, learning and adjusting. Just when you feel like you've mastered it, it goes and changes on you. To keep you in the loop and to hopefully ease the transition tension a bit, I've recapped the latest social media updates that you might want to know about. 

1. Pinterest - Now when you pin a story or article, in addition to the photo and link, the author's name, article title, brief description and a larger link will appear. This should encourage the pinning of more articles, as users do on Facebook and Twitter. 

2. Facebook - Made an error in your status update but noticed just after you clicked 'Share'? Delete no more. You can now simply click the arrow in the top right of the status window and select 'Edit.' It's about time!

3. Twitter - Photos embedded in tweets are now larger, creating a 'bold visual focus on the media.' This is great news for those who tend to put out very visual-heavy content.

4. Twitter - A new push notification sends recommendations when several people in your network either follow the same user or RT the same tweet. Use these recommendations as they are tailored specifically to you! This ensures you're as informed as possible about what's trending amongst your connections.

5. Instagram - If you have the new iOS 7 software and updated your Insta app, you may have noticed an aesthetically altered layout and feed. Photos and videos are larger and profile images now appear in the shape of a circle. 

6. Facebook - Only three days old, this new Facebook update is not yet accessible by all users. The revamped graph search will allow users to search for topics within status updates, posts and comments. Searching by time periods or locations is now possible as well. (Something along the lines of 'Posts by my friends from last week.') This update puts Facebook on a more competitive level of play when it comes to being conducive to real-time conversations. In other words, it's striving to compete with Twitter in this department. Whether or not it can remains to be seen.

I'll be back next week with some more social media related news for you to consume, but until then, if you have any news of your own, questions or tips, please feel free to tweet us at @MonikaDixonPR. Or Instagram...whichever you prefer. And please share this if you found it helpful!

By Emily Cleary, MDPR Social Media Director  

Hashtag Lingo & Social Media Updates

If you're left in a haze of confusion every time you see #ootd, #ff, #tbt and so on, chances are, you're probably not alone. Unless your friends with a hashtag savant, navigating your way through this daunting lingo is not easy. To get you up to speed, I've compiled a short list of hashtags you need to know in order to understand the language of social networking. #goodluck

#FF - Follow Friday {used on Fridays as a way for users to suggest new accounts to follow}

#tbt - Throwback Thursday {used on Thursdays when posting a picture from the past}

#fbf - Flashback Friday {used on Fridays when posting a picture from the past}

#yolo - You Only Live Once {used to indicate an activity that demonstrates living on the edge or taking a risk}

#oh - Overheard {used to share information that was overheard by the user}

#ootd - Outfit of the Day {used when showing an image of what your daily outfit}

Other headlines news you need to know!

-A Twitter update that was released Wednesday makes it much easier to keep up with Twitter conversations. Rather than having to click 'expand', Twitter users will now see up to three Tweets from a conversation in their newsfeed, all in chronological order and connected by a straight line.

-While it was announced that GIF files would be supported by Facebook, it was clarified today that this is not the case. Facebook does not support .gif files. Read all the drama behind the issue here.

-The rollout of a new Facebook 'shared albums' feature has begun. This update allows users to create albums and invite up to 50 people to contribute, and those 50 users can then each add up to 200 photos. Let the sharing begin!

-Facebook has loosened the rules regarding contests and giveaways on businesses pages. While previously having to conduct a giveaway through a third party application, businesses can hold giveaways straight from their pages and can encourage liking, commenting, sharing and messaging directly to their page as a contest requirement. Find all the details here.  

Speaking of giveaways...Wax On Wax Off Salon & Spa is holding a contest next week on Facebook and Twitter that you definitely don't want to miss!

Have any social media questions or need a hashtag translated? We're here to help! Comment below or tweet us at @MonikaDixonPR!

By Emily Cleary, MDPR Social Media Director