Facebook: Then and Now

Source: Tyra Show

• Initiation of “Facebook Stalking”- Spending an exorbitant amount of time going through your friends’, and friends-of-friends’, pictures and profile contents. This was my first exposure to staying informed. I hope they highlight that in The Facebook Movie. Good luck, Mr. Sexy Back.
• Groups only in your college network- Groups were only within college networks. I’m still in b#$ch please, I’m from California! (BU Chapter).
  • Today, groups can be international and mobilize the target audience. For example: Election ‘08- One million strong for Barack Obama. His PR team deserves a thumbs-up, “I like.”
    

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By Katie Zeiser

As the newest witch of Eastwick I’m still learning about being a professional or, as my best friend and I call it, a “real person.” Because I am still learning about PR – or “real life”- I’m sticking to something surprisingly useful that I know through and through: Facebook.

Today, Facebook is a giant, it’s taught in college curriculum, it’s the focus of numerous webinars, and it’ll be part of PRSA –SF’s Young Professionals mixer hosted by Eastwick Communications on October 15^th at 6pm. (Shameless plug #1)

But, before all the “bling bling” – the apps, widgets and the fan pages, there was “thefacebook.com,” a social network solely for college students. In only five years, Facebook has changed the game of communications and penetrated the “real world.” It shaped my college experience, so I want to pour a little out for my homies and represent for the recently graduated. This is a throwback to Facebook circa 2005.

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William Safire

I was sad to hear of the passing of William Safire over the weekend.  I didn’t share his politics but I admired his love of language.   As he wrote in one of his columns, “I take my phrasedick assignments seriously.”

Here’s a snippet from one of my favorite columns, focused on the phrases “aha moment” and “senior moment.” In tracing the roots of the aha moment, he cites the Canterbury Tales and Mary Tyler Moore, almost in the same breath.

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We’ve never been on the bandwagon that has declared brands are dead but we do understand why the claims are being made.  There is now a lot more that goes into buying decisions by consumers and business buyers than just brand awareness.  But to claim that brands don’t matter is naïve.  I guess Yahoo agrees based on its latest search offering.

And yet the Yahoo search filter seems to suggest that, just possibly, the idea of the brand isn’t dead after all. With branded search filtering, Yahoo is acknowledging that many searchers don’t want results from just anywhere, regardless of how algorithmically relevant those results may be. Searchers want results (from trusted Web sites) — which is to say, from trusted online brands.

Source: c__

We’ll be talking a lot more about the need for looking at communications and marketing in an entirely new light–one where search, branding and word of mouth need to coexist for companies to really take advantage of all channels to create awareness and preference for their offerings.  I get a chuckle…and some times totally annoyed…when I see dramatic claims about PR being dead, social media being free and branding irrelevant.  Glad to see that others agree.

At a time when Obama’s healthcare reform plan is the topic of conversation across the country, Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States, spoke about technology’s critical role in helping our nation best address this and various other issues our country currently faces.

Tasked with the responsibility of setting the technology agenda for the United States, Mr. Chopra challenged “the academics, the private sector and government agencies to come back to me with game-changing ideas we can initiate now, in the next 90 days” during his speech at an exclusive TiE event earlier this week.

We all have some opinion of how we would like to utilize technology for the betterment of society…so we posed the question to several of the tech sector’s brightest and most progressive companies.  We asked them to think about what they would tell Mr. Chopra if they had 5 minutes to spend with him. Follow the jump to read what they had to say:

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We all know Content is King, but with marketing departments working on reduced workforce and budgets, who has time to draft long whitepapers, bylines, or create webinars?

I went in search of quick options to help clients quickly create content that is both engaging and easy to repurpose, and there are quite a few time and budget-friendly options out there. For one, good old recorded podcasts are getting a second look for the ability to be created with minimal effort and at a price that most budgets can support.

Ragan.com ran an article that suggests podcasts can be created for no more than $200 for ongoing corporate thought leadership interviews. These recordings only take around 20 or 30 minutes of a spokesperson’s time, and the result is a thought leadership interview that is much more engaging than a whitepaper, and much easier for listeners to digest – a quick listen over morning coffee is much more likely to get clicks than the old standby whitepaper.

An easy option that many of our clients have taken advantage of is BlogTalkRadio. A 15-minute phone call can turn into linkable content with RSS feeds into iTunes, Google reader and others. If that isn’t easy company content, I don’t know what is.

If you’re still not convinced, consider this: In a recent survey from the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), 69% of respondents go to company Web sites to assist in their reporting, 66% use blogs, 51% use Wikipedia, 48% go to online videos, 47% use Twitter or other microblogging services, 30% use instant messaging, and 25% use podcasts.

So by running your podcasts in your social media news room and outside feeds, you’re giving more journalists a chance to get the content they need from you right when they need it.

We couldn’t let tonight’s premiere of the new TV series “Eastwick” go by without a little fanfare.

For those of you who don’t know the story behind our name, here goes:

When Patrick Corman (former Regis McKenna colleague of Elaine Cummings and Nancy Blake, two of the three original founders of Eastwick) found out about our plans to start a new agency, he couldn’t help but comment: “Oh my, sounds like ‘The Witches of Eastwick.’ ”

Nancy Blake

Needless to say, the comment stuck and, lo and behold, Eastwick Communications was founded.  While it was clear that I was the Susan Sarandon character (redheads unite!) Elaine and Nancy always had to fight over who was Michelle Pfeiffer (both blondes) and who had to dye her hair for the Cher character.

In the early days, our clients endearingly called us “the witches.”  Here are five things that the current coven of witches and warlocks has in common with our TV counterparts:

1. We don’t always behave ourselves…meaning, we like to break the rules.
2. We’ve been known to turn some frogs into princes with the right spell.
3. We see a change coming and are looking forward to it!
4. In the words of the Houston Chronicle TV reviewer who recently reviewed the new show, we have the “potential to be great frothy fun.”
5. And in a similar review from The Detroit Free Press we can be “a charming and beguiling show(agency) that has enough estrogen and star power to keep viewers (clients) coming back for more!”

Life’s a “witch” and we love it!

Elaine & Barb on Halloween

Wow, what can I say…I’ve been an Eastwick Witch for 10 years now!!! Yes, I did say “witch” however some of you that know me may think I said something else. I can remember my interview, back in September 1999, like it was yesterday. After the interview I drove home thinking I had never felt such energy in an office like I did at Eastwick. The employees were so friendly and the Principals made me feel so at ease during my interview that I just had to work for this company! I was hired as Eastwick’s first staff accountant.

And now a walk down memory lane…I remember all the events, outings, games and parties through the years. Oh boy, memories and more memories come flowing to mind as I’m writing this post. Beer bashes on the patio, broomball, summer picnics, karaoke nights, the Eastwick music CD, Tina and Toni’s Wedding, Sporty’s, Wicked, dressing up for Halloween, volunteering at Ronald McDonald house, adopting families in December, concerts with the entire company, playing games at parties (yes…games are a big part of the Eastwick culture) and who could forget the scavenger hunt in downtown Palo Alto? I could go on and on and on…. I’ll tell you one thing, working for Eastwick Communications is a dream come true! I’ve raised two children while at Eastwick and I’m so grateful for everything they have done for me and my family. With that said, Eastwick is my “family” away from home. I care deeply for the company and its employees. During my years I have met some of the brightest people with brilliant minds. You know who you are…Witches and Warlocks.

I’m a pack rat and I can honestly tell you that I have collected lots over the past 10 years here. Heck, just looking around at my desk brings back great memories. Beanie babies given to me by previous employees, Golden Broomstick awards, witches hat, name plates from different buildings, my good “spells book”, fire chief’s hat and a whole bunch of other fun things.

One of my greatest memories was my first White Elephant gift exchange in December 1999. There was a gift that caught everyone’s eye — a baseball hat that had “Eastwick Rules” embroidered on it. It was a hot item and had already been stolen twice when all of the sudden it’s my turn and I asked to take a good look at the hat. The owner of the hat at the time was Elaine Cummings and she gives me the look of death and even threatens to fire me if I take the hat. Now, only being a witch for about 3 months, what would you have done? I thought I’d take my chances and I stole that hat! Needless to say, I didn’t get fired and it’s remained a joke during all of our White Elephant games to this day. And being that pack rat…I still have that hat at my desk!

Another memory I have is the time there was a fire next to our Redwood City office and we all had to evacuate the building. While the fire fighters were putting out the fire, the staff kept asking me where they were going to bill their time for the day. We were out there for hours before we could get back in the building and being a service company, all the employees needed to account for their time somewhere. I told everyone not to worry we would figure it out. Well the next morning when I got in, I created a timesheet code for everyone and called it “Oh Sh*t – The Building is on FIRE”. We used that code and it stayed on the list for many years and new hires would always ask what that code was about. It was a great way to tell a funny and true story.

I have truly enjoyed working for Eastwick Communications and would like to thank Barbara Bates and Elaine Cummings, the original Witches of Eastwick, for giving me this opportunity. Raise your glasses everyone and let’s toast another 10 years of magic and spells!

Congrats to Eastwick client StudentAid.com (www.studentaid.com) for launching its flagship product — a first-of-its-kind report to help students and families understand the true cost of college before they even apply.  Having been through the college routine a few times already with my step kids, I know that at best, the process is confusing and at worst, totally overwhelming.

Add to that, savings and investments are plummeting and many people are scrambling to figure out how they’ll pay for college.  The College Cost & Planning Report^TM comes at the right time - just as all those high school juniors and seniors are trying to figure out where they want to go and their parents are trying to figure out how to foot the bill.  Believe it or not, there is no other place a student or parent can find out what grants or aid will be available before the student applies.  The true cost of college only becomes apparent once the student is accepted and financial aid letters show up in mailboxes.  The folks at StudentAid.com are on a mission to change this picture with an affordable product (under $100) that will take the guesswork out of how to plan and pay for college.  And putting their money where their mouths are, they are also making the report available at no charge for the neediest students through their Access for All program.  With all the coverage that’s been coming out in the major media about the rising cost of college tuition, StudentAid.com is ready to jump into the conversation.  If you have a pre-college student or parent, I think you¹ll like what StudentAid.com has to say.

Check out of some of our favorite clips from VentureBeat and FOXBusiness!

The hoopla surrounding Kanye West’s latest “foot-in-mouth” moment (or should I say “mic-in-mouth”?) was yet another reminder of the speed and power of the social media machine. While I hate to perpetuate these discussions that give the man more air time than he deserves, the breadth of awareness on this singular incident makes for an interesting example of social media engagement.

Source: MTV

Companies, still reticent on putting integrated social media strategies in place, will soon realize that people are online and, whether you decide to engage or not, are talking about you. Case in point…as soon as Kanye self-righteously stepped on the glittering MTV stage and grabbed the mic out of young Taylor Swift’s hands the response was swift (pun intended)…and the bloggers, twitterati, video deejays, talk show hosts, etc. were weighing in.

While some leveraged morning talk shows or evening entertainment news programs, most took the fight online. And fight they did, with Kanye receiving a smackdown unseen since Perez Hilton’s faceoff with former Miss California Carrie Prejean. According to Trendrr, which tracks buzz on Twitter, there were a total of 293,024 tweets in the hour immediately following West’s outburst.

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