Renewal

Hello Blogosphere!

It's been some time since I've had words with you. In fact, it's been TOO much time. Since the last post (nearly two years ago), I've let this poor blog go and after this long period of neglect, I thought I was going to let it remain defunct. In the back of my mind, I always knew this was not the proper fate for this blog. I mean, what ever did it do to me that would justify me to leave it sitting there with only a handful of posts? It would not do it any justice if I fail to use it for what a blog was created to do: provide fresh content through regular updates. While mulling the fate of the blog around for a while, I was fortunate to come in contact with an accomplished and invaluable individual that I knew could offer the direction I needed. It's people like her that really care about others and I'm grateful to be one of those others. This ally gave me some great ideas and instilled the bit of confidence I needed to start blogging again.

This blog was originally created during PR independent study (overseen by the aforementioned ally) in which I reviewed companies that were sponsors during the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games and their uses of social media focused around the event. (Hence the title - The Business of Sponsorships: Social Media for the Gold!) It was an opportunity to break into the blogosphere while exploring the world of social media via a relevant topic at that time. It was interesting, fun, new and overall it was a wonderful learning experience. Once I completed the independent study, I dropped it like a bad habit. I somewhat wallowed around wondering what to do after graduating college and finally landed a PR internship at a local marketing agency and suddenly I was too 'busy' to update anymore. The internship turned into a job and before I knew it, I was advising clients on best marketing strategies, social media practices, branding and mixed-media campaigns. And what would you know, I was also educating some clients on blogging, why they would benefit from having a blog and the importance of creating new content for their audience as well as their site's SEO (a website visibility in search engines). In a nutshell, I created a blog with a concentration on social media uses, and now I'm teaching others about blogs and social media uses. This was quite an unforeseen, yet interesting and surprisingly great turn of events!

That being said, I'm back with a different purpose this time. I would like to share some of my experiences now that I've had the opportunity to roam around the marketing industry. Some posts may discuss marketing/social media/PR know-how and some may surprise you with the next amazing event to take place on and around the job i.e. we resolved the iOS versus Android argument. Stay tuned!

I'm very glad to be back. Now on to renaming and redressing the blog. What should I call it?

Imagination at Work

Forbes ranked General Electric Company, or GE, as the world's largest company which undoubtedly is a product of countless seriously working imaginations. The company is a Worldwide Partner and exclusive provider of products and services integral to the Games.

According to their website, GE works with the Organizing Committees as well as hosting cities that plays an integral role in producing successful Olympic Games. Their partnership was launched in January 2005 with GE providing infrastructure solutions including power, water treatment, transportation and security, and to supply hospitals with ultrasound and MRI equipment used to treat athletes.

The question that comes to mind is, can the world's largest company effectively use and manage social networking? Twitter research reveals there are many of what seems like random users posting and updating GE's news, but nothing that looks officially run by people at the company.

Their Facebook page offers a description on the company followed by an interesting section offering related posts that global Facebook users have written about the company. Posts range from individuals trying to sell their GE products to others posting news clips covering company products.  I find this is particularly exciting because unless they do some serious screening, it means they are not afraid of what people have to say about them, good or bad. Any feedback is helpful, positive or negative. Even the largest company in the world isn't squashing the public's thoughts or opinions, at least not on Facebook. Kudos GE!

Yes Ohno?

He is named after the Greek words "ap," meaning to "steer away from" and "lo," which means "look out, here he comes." If you haven't already heard, Apolo Ohno is an American short track speed skater and eight-time medalist in the Winter Olympics and if you watch any reality television, you may have seen him win Dancing with the Stars in 2007. Not too shabby for someone who's only 27!

Soon after the 2010 Winter Olympics began, I found Ohno on Twitter and began to follow him. It's most definitely really him and not someone working for him posting random facts and news updates. Side note: I discovered that account or no account, anyone can view public tweets! I think it's pretty smart to allow non-users to see what's going on.

As for Ohno's sponsorships, he's gotten them from Coca-Cola, Vick's, Omega, Alaska Airlines and the Washington State Potato Commission. I went to Vick's Web site (or "website" according to AP Style) and typed in "Apolo Ohno" in the search box and revealed no results! So I logged into Facebook and searched for "vicks' and found only a few fake sites under "Vick's NyQuil". And after further research I discovered they do not frequent social networking sites whatsoever! It's interesting they don't do something because if anyone else is like me, when I'm sick, I stay home and spend more time on the internet and social networking sites. Also, many people look up cold remedies and other sicknesses online and they could offer advice, news, etc. It almost makes me crazy thinking about the possibilities and opportunities they are passing up!

Social Media to the Side

While thinking about the ways businesses use social media, I began to wonder why many businesses do not use it. In a world where technology and the World Wide Web point toward the future, it seems that joining in on Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants would be the most commonsensical thing to do. From what I've gathered from research as well as an interview with one of these non-conforming companies, fear of negative feedback and uncertainty of employee reception seem to be the most common reasons businesses are not participating.

A Google.com search under "businesses that do not use social media" found many websites listing reasons why, how to use and other helpful ideas on the use of social media. Very few yielded negative results such as this one which gives reasons businesses should not use social media; however, it maintains social media can be positive if planned and maintained on a regular basis. While many listed websites were opinion-based, the benefits of using social media can be obvious, from the immediacy of getting information to target audiences to positive ideas being spread around the Net.

Twitter has over 100 million active users worldwide, Facebook currently has more than 400 million users and there are countless other websites out there dedicated to social networking. It seems like a no-brainer to find a way into social networking for businesses to create or build relationships with their publics.

You Could Need a Visa

Since I have already posted on Coca-Cola and McDonald's as the Olympics' official soft drink and restaurant, respectively, I decided to discuss Visa's involvement as the official credit card of the Olympic Games.

The TOP ("The Olympic Partner" program) sponsors pay a boatload for exclusive use of the Olympic rings in advertising and logos. Visa's Web site states they are America's Olympic Team Partner and provide direct funding, promotional support and life skills training to athletes. Through professional events, they also provide the opportunity for Olympic hopefuls to train, compete and earn prize money.

As for Visa's social media involvement, they have an impressive looking Facebook page dedicated to Team Visa Athletes complete with videos, photos and posts packed full of updates on the Olympics as well as the Paralympic Games. With over 105,000 fans, this is a great medium where fans can easily find updates and interact with one another through discussions on posts. I'd say they aced it on the Visa Go World Facebook page.

I was unable to find Visa on Twitter, but hey, it's not for everyone. However, Twitter is such a big deal these days that someone over there in communications should consider adding it to their social media list. I was able to find a list of Twitter users that also uses Visa. It's a small list not created by Visa and I think if an official Visa Twitter page came up, people would be likely to follow. I mean, don't "more people go with Visa"?

A Panasonic View

Panasonic Corporation, the Official Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Audio and Visual Equipment category for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games as well as the last 20 years, supplied some eye-popping visuals this year. Panasonic's high-definition camcorders and equipment were used to distribute the Winter Olympics footage. This was the first time the Winter games were filmed in HD.

As I typed in 'Panasonic' into the Twitter people search, a plethora of profiles popped up. They have created accounts for different countries and areas including Russia, Australia and United Arab Emirates. Their account dedicated to their Full HD 3D lists the same post in several different languages including English, Spanish, Chinese and Polish. Very cool to combine this all into one account; however, separate language accounts may be easier for users to navigate. I found myself just skipping over the languages I didn't understand and not involving myself into the posts I was able to read.

Panasonic's Facebook page included only three posts about the Games during the event. I would have posted much more but I did like how they posted about certain athletes and not just their product.

As I browsed through Panasonic's different posts, there was much to be desired. I did not feel very included into the Panasonic lifestyle, but just an outsider watching what new products they will be talking about next. They could really work on interacting with their followers on a more personal level. How about tweeting with questions to followers about their favorite products and how their products impact their daily lives? Just a thought.

McPartners

Official Restaurant of the Olympic Games, McDonald's can be found on many major social media Web sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace working to enhance their relationship with consumers. They have partnered with the Games for over 40 years and have developed and adapted their approach to reach consumers that are increasingly spending time on social media Web sites.

While a press release from McDonald's Web site said global activities for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games officially launched Feb. 11, 2010, I was surprised to see that their first tweet of the day did not mention the Games. Around midday their Twitter Team finally tweeted about the McDonald's Champion Kids for 2010. I noticed they tweet directly with followers which is great because some companies simply tweet their activities and do not respond to their followers! Kudos McDonald's.

As I browsed McDonald's Facebook fan page, I noticed more mention of the Olympics and links to promotions and information regarding their involvement in the Games. There they post a link to their main Web site, but why not a link to their Twitter or MySpace? Also there is a link from their Web site to Twitter, but not to their other accounts. Hmmm...

Ice-cold and Responsible

The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games opening ceremony was very entertaining and I truly appreciated the amount of dance involved. (I have been dancing since elementary school.) While the cultural storyline and insane projector effects were something I highly recommend you see if you missed it, the commercial breaks entertained my attention as well. One commercial in particular was Coca-Cola's snowball ad  featuring an all-out snowball fight between Olympic team members from several countries in which an icicle initiates said fight.

Coca-Cola's Twitter account named MyCocaCola tweets news about the company, keeping followers updated in real-time. Posts include links to Web articles for further information. Their account named CocaCola tweeted that Coca-Cola staff at the games is wearing uniforms made from recycled plastic bottles. An article from packagingnews.co.uk covers the story.

This is part of Coca-Cola's zero-waste approach to becoming a more sustainable business. What a way to promote your company as well as an environmentally responsible message.

The Olympics are here!

Besides the fact that the Olympics are being shown on NBC, I have noticed the signs that the winter Olympics in Vancouver are upon us. As I was cooking up dinner last week, I noticed the Tyson frozen chicken I was using officially sponsors USA's Olympics. This is just one example of the way a business has chosen to communicate to the public of their sponsorship in the Olympic games. I checked up on the Tyson Foods, Inc. Web site and found this in a press release:

"As the official chicken, beef and pork Sponsor for the U.S. Olympic Team, Tyson will serve as a vital protein source for America's Olympic hopefuls in Beijing and Vancouver. In addition to supplying product to all three U.S. Olympic Training Centers, Tyson protein will help fuel the athletes during the 30 days when the U.S. Olympic Team is in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games, including the 16 days of competition.

Their Web site features promotions such as "Eat to Compete" which lists recipes that promote healthy food choices as well as tips and recipes created by U.S. Olympic team chefs:

It's interesting to see how businesses contact their publics and make known what they support and how they go about promoting their interests!