Social Networks

16 Boring but Important Ways to Make Your Business More Social

by Shannon Paul on May 21, 2009

Social media engagement doesn’t always have to be fun, but it should be customer-centric. Rather than trying to be the life of every party on every social network, simply think about what customers and community stake-holders want from you and over deliver. Boring but Important Make sure your website is easy to navigate in a [...]

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Why blogs matter

by Shannon Paul on January 24, 2009

Amazingly enough, I can’t tell you how many glazed over looks I still receive when I tell people that social media is not about how many networks you can list, nor is it about throwing up a profile on a social network like you did with your website 12 years ago. It’s not necessarily about [...]

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Social media outreach is not a tool

by Shannon Paul on January 4, 2009

Since so many blogs have called for the death of everything from press releases to the PR industry-at-large and embargoes, I would like to jump on the bandwagon and begin 2009 by calling for the death of social media tools. Allow me to clarify: I am NOT calling for the death of social networks, or [...]

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Putting the "P" Back in PR

by Shannon Paul on November 19, 2008

It’s true, integrating social media into communication strategies puts the focus back on the public. It’s no longer just about the media. Last week I gave a presentation on social media to the Central Michigan chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (CMPRSA). I was the first speaker of the day, and I was [...]

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Leverage existing social networks or find an influencer to do it for you

by Shannon Paul on October 24, 2008

Influencers are usually pretty easy to spot, so why do so many companies still insist on building their own social networks? This month started off with a bit of a downer for social media evangelists everywhere when Gartner released the results of a study that indicated a 50 percent failure rate of all social networking [...]

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Clearing a path for newbies in the social media echo chamber

by Shannon Paul on October 18, 2008

Even though I am fairly immersed in all things social media, I still feel like a bit of an outsider. Only on extremely rare occasions do I find myself luxuriating in some fantastic conversation over coffee about promising new apps and blogs and the role of content marketing in PR, but I’m beginning to think [...]

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