Mediaboss Marketing

Pinterest pinned Google vice president of legal Christine Flores as its new general counsel, succeeding Michael Yang, who announced last November that he was leaving the social network.

With this feature, broadcasters can share posts to their Channel Feeds, and these posts will automatically appear in the Pulse feeds of all of their friends and followers.

The visual search features Pinterest introduced last month are now available outside of the social network for the first time, via Pinterest browser extensions.

Creators of Twitter Moments now have a way to see how those Moments are performing with Tuesdays launch of Moments Analytics.

Facebook is marking International Womens Day Wednesday (March 8) with a 24-hour Facebook Live video.

Opinion: While Facebook presented a high-level, rosy summary of engagement when discussing results from the 2016 fiscal year, we felt that the overview it offered was incomplete. In an effort to help marketers understand how they can most effectively reach audiences in 2017, our team set out to shed more light on the current state of Facebook engagement.

Facebook introduced several new features for Messenger chat bots in Messenger Platform 1.4, released last week, including a menu of features offered by bots, more social sharing functionality and improvements to its customer matching feature.

OK, so its still not a dislike button, but Facebook is testing the addition of Reactions to its Messenger application, and a thumbs-down emoji is one of the offerings.

Putting tweets in print may seem like reverse-engineering, but thats exactly what The New York Times is doing as part of the redesign of its A2 and A3 print pages, introduced late last week.

To celebrate Women's History Month in March, the YouTube Kids application has been updated with a series of playlists allowing viewers to learn more about important women from history and today.

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Soylent's website introduces curious consumers to Trish. Credit: Courtesy of Soylent

Soylent, the meal-replacement brand designed to eliminate the hassles of regular eating, is getting a (fictional) artificially intelligent spokeswoman in its first work from Wieden & Kennedy's tech-focused Lodge group.

The character, Trish, will appear to run a virtual store on Soylent's website and play a part in a mix of broadcast, digital, social and other marketing as the brand sets out to broaden its consumer base, according to the company.

Still, the company is not abandoning its tech-savvy followers. Trish has a Bitcoin-based store, Soy Route, on the dark web, where Soylent aims to sell rare products including mystery-flavor Soylent, a beef-flavor kit and golden Soylent signed by the CEO. Trish is also set to make an appearance at the upcoming SXSW Conference.

Soylent, as the story goes, was started by CEO Rob Rhinehart and others who were frustrated with buying, preparing and eating not-so-healthy foods while busy working at startups. It began with crowdfunding in 2013 and started shipping products in 2014.

The Los Angeles-based company proclaims its mission is "to expand access to quality nutrition through food system innovation." So far, the biggest following it appears to have is among tech-savvy startup workers and others looking to streamline their daily grind. Drinking a pre-mixed bottle of Soylent drink, sipping Soylent coffiest or mixing Soylent powder with water frees up the time it takes to buy and prepare food or go out to eat.

Soylent hired W&K's Lodge in October after looking at multiple large and small agencies, Chief Marketing Officer Adam Grablick said via email.

"The W&K Lodge team's focus on emerging areas of tech and its ability to develop experiences that bring brands to life in unexpected ways appealed to our own team's innovative spirit and mission," said Mr. Grablick, who joined Soylent in 2016. "The type of work that the Lodge does is exactly what we need to attract this difficult to reach consumer."

Mr. Grablick was familiar with W&K, having worked with the agency during his tenure at Kraft, which he left in 2015.

Much of Soylent's marketing until now has centered around early adopters with experiential events, sampling, and social marketing, Mr. Grablick said. Now Soylent aims to broaden its appeal through a wider variety of channels.

Some may recall the name Soylent from the 1973 sci-fi movie "Soylent Green," in which a food replacement was made out of people. The brand name was selected based on the 1966 Harry Harrison sci-fi novel, "Make Room! Make Room!," on which "Soylent Green" was based.

Soylent intends to "significantly" ramp up its consumer-facing marketing, Mr. Grablick said, declining to be more specific about spending plans.

The Lodge will work with Soylent's in-house team on brand development, marketing strategy and product campaigns, including everything from website and package design to media planning and creative direction, Soylent said.

Last year, some people fell ill with stomach issues after consuming the brand's Soylent Bar and a certain version of its powder. The company's tests came back negative for food pathogens, toxins or outside contamination, but it decided to suspend sales of the bar anyway.

"Last fall's concerns had no effect on our overall marketing strategy," Mr. Grablick said.

Along with the Lodge, Soylent works with public relations, marketing and communications agency Autumn Communications on in-house communications and publicity, and with entertainment marketing agency Signal Entertainment Marketing on brand integration across film, television and digital content. Allied Integrated Marketing, an entertainment, culture and lifestyle agency, will work with Soylent on the activation at SXSW.

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Soylent Gets an AI Spokeswoman Courtesy of W&K's Lodge ... - AdAge.com

Social media has changed not only how we interact with friends and family, but also how we do business and interact with our customers. Companies of all sizes have joined in to see how social media can add value to their business and increase revenue.

Marketing experts believe social media helps grow business. However, it has been hard to quantify the direct effect on sales. In an infographic by Ad Week and Social Pro Daily titled Examining the current state of social marketing, written by Kimberlee Morrison, one challenge was linking social media campaigns to sales and revenue.

The report says that nearly half of top marketers could not demonstrate social media spendings effect on their business. Only 15 percent of marketing officers could demonstrate social medias quantitative effect on their business.

However, the evidence shows that social media marketing does work. Fifty-four percent of business-to-business marketers have generated leads from social media.

The conversion from Facebook likes to long-term customers has been hard to measure and track.

Social media credibility is the perceived image a customer gathers about a company based on what others are saying about it on social media.

This includes how the company listens, interacts and responds to customers requests and, above all, creates a buzz about its brand.

What does social media credibility do for you? While those who follow and like your social media page may not be your customers, they create a likability factor for your real customers to stay, interact and do business with you.

The real measure of your posts, likes and followers on social media is how they make new visitors feel about your brand. Today, before a company enters a contractual agreement with another company, its social media presence is one way of doing due diligence to take a social measurement of what people are saying about the company and how they are responding.

This gives a real-life profile of the company far better than any self-written corporate capability statement.

Social media credibility is what makes you want to go to the restaurant in a busy downtown, with a long line of customers waiting, while others with similar services have no customers. It is like a celebrity endorsement of a brand, but the celebrities are you and me, who used and experienced the brand. The endorsement is more credible since we are not being paid to endorse.

How do I measure my social media credibility? Here are some thoughts:

Professor Hari Sundaram at the University of Illinois is working on a study, using an app to study the behavior of people who want to adopt new habits, but somehow cannot seem to change. He gives an example on healthy eating: If you are about to go out for lunch and get an alert on your phone that seven out of 10 of your friends just ate salad, this may influence your food choice.

This will help motivate you to attain your desired behaviors by the choice of food your friends made. You are going to be influenced by actions (likes) that you saw or experienced, which will make you more likely to adopt a similar behavior.

We are influenced by decisions people make in the presence of social signals. Knowing what your friends or other people do will influence your choice.

In the context of social media, we are influenced by our perception of a product or brand by how others interact with it. We may end up buying an item even though the people who liked it on social media just liked it.

Akwasi Oppong is a digital marketing professional who helps small businesses develop their online brands and develop and automate their marketing processes. Akwasi is a SCORE Frederick certified mentor.

SCORE Frederick is part of a nationwide volunteer network of 310 chapters dedicated to the formation, growth and success of small businesses. SCORE Frederick provides free and confidential business advice and mentoring to start-up businesses and to established small businesses in Fredrick and Carroll counties. SCORE Frederick also offers business workshops for both start-ups and established businesses. For more information, go to http://www.scorefrederick.org. Once on the site, to register for mentoring, click on register for mentoring, fill in the request sheet and submit.

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SCORE Frederick: How social media credibility affects your marketing strategy - Frederick News Post (subscription)

When it comes to making our homes safe for those active babies and toddlers in our lives, we must think about childproofing furniture, electric outlets, small objects and more.

It can be easy to overlook something as simple as windows. But windows pose specific child hazards that are extremely important to address. Keep a few simple things in mind when it comes to windows and kiddos, and your little wild child will be safer.

Nearly one child per month dies from strangulation by cords attached to window treatments, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. These cords are one of the most overlooked hazards in the home. Take these simple steps to avoid this danger when childproofing, and consider these options when outfitting the windows in your home:

The safest choice you can make are window treatments without accessible cords, such as cordless cellular shades, spring tension roller shades, plantation shutters and drapes (without cords or ties). If youre looking for new or replacement window treatments, consider these the safest options.

If you already have window treatments with continuous cord loop lift systems, be sure that cords are properly anchored to the wall. If you do not have an anchor or tensioning device, contact the manufacturer to request one.

If you already have window treatments with exposed cords and are not able to switch to a safer option, keep cords out of reach at all times by wrapping them around cord cleats high in the window.

Keep cribs, baby beds and other furniture away from windows where cords are within reach of your baby or toddler, as these items can be used as step stools to reach cords.

Cordless window treatments (cellular shades, shutters and drapes) are most important in bedrooms or playrooms, where kids may be left unattended. However, the safest choice is to use window treatments without accessible cords throughout your home. Fortunately, safer window treatments are available in many styles and price points, so replacing window treatments can be a simple childproofing upgrade.

2. Window locks and latches:

Window safety goes beyond just the window dressings. After all, windows are made of glass and are essentially open holes in your home some of them high above the ground. Its important to make sure children are not able to open windows and push through window screens. Beyond just locking windows shut, you can also install window stops in the frame to regulate how far up the window can go just in case your crafty kiddo manages to get through any safety locks.

Of course, you probably dont want to leave your windows closed year-round, and you dont need to even in the name of safety. In addition to installing window stops, you can install stronger, sturdier metal window guards in windows on higher floors to safeguard against falling.

Katie Laird is the director of social marketing for Blinds.com, and a frequent public speaker on social media marketing, social customer care and profitable company culture. An active blogger and early social technology adopter, you can find her online as happykatie, sharing home dcor, yoga, parenting and vegetarian cooking tips. Laird wrote this blog for momaha.com. To learn more about the variety of shades and other window treatments like those highlighted in this article, visit the Blinds.com website.

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Must-know window safety tips for children - Omaha World-Herald

The Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game Division of Ecological Restoration is soliciting responses to pilot a Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) approach to reducing household outdoor water use in 2 communities in Northeast Massachusetts. This pilot project builds on research conducted in spring 2016 that identified barriers and benefits for community members to reduce outdoor water use in the summer.

The Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) is interested in testing a variety of water conservation approaches to encourage community members to reduce outdoor water use, specifically lawn watering. While Massachusetts is a relatively wet state, a number of streams and rivers regularly experience below-normal flow conditions in the summer, due in large part to water withdrawals and impervious cover.1 The Ipswich River Watershed in particular has experienced significant flow stress, and estimates suggest that outdoor water use volumes roughly match volumes needed in the river to provide adequate aquatic habitat in the summer.2 Massachusetts is a leader in water conservation in many ways. Many municipal water suppliers in this watershed and beyond use summertime water use restrictions to limit seasonal increases in water use; many also use campaigns such as Greenscapes (http://greenscapes.org/), and a few use seasonally-adjusted water rate structures.

In 2016, DER funded a Community-based Social Marketing Benefit and Barrier research study in 2 communities in the Ipswich River watershed to better understand the social norms that drive current outdoor residential water use practices and to find ways to reduce the barriers and raise the benefits for community members to limit their water use in the summertime.

Those study data measured the current penetration (number of residents already doing the action), impact on wa- ter usage, probability of residents taking action, and applicability to the local community of a long list of behav- iors. The results of that research identified four behaviors as potential target behaviors for a water conservation program including reducing or stopping watering lawns during summer months. The research than determined the barriers and benefits for each of the behaviors and provided initial outreach recommendations to address the barriers and highlight the benefits.

With this bid request, they seek an agency to further develop and refine some of these water conservation strate- gies and to implement and test some of the recommended tools from this study in late spring 2017.

DER seeks a contractor who will help design, implement, and evaluate a pilot study of several outdoor water conservation campaigns, as informed by the Community-based Social Marketing Benefit and Barrier Research, focused on reducing residential outdoor lawn irrigation. They are interested in a Social Norms/Behavioral Feedback campaign as well as a Commitment Campaign but are open to other suggestions as well. Campaigns may include a subset of approaches (e.g. water use comparison, water use comparison and educational material, just educational material) to determine the most effective method.

Conservation Campaigns

DER proposes the expected scope of work below;

Develop Study Design including select appropriate sample size, develop baseline and identify control group

Develop all messaging and materials for campaigns:

Implement campaigns

Evaluate reductions in water use

Recommendations for next steps

Proposal due by March 3rd, 2017 by 3pm to:

Department of Fish and Game 251 Causeway Street, Suite 400 Boston, MA 02114

Rasky Baerlein & Racepoint Global have major Boston PR operations.

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Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game Seeks Social Media Marketing Agency - Everything PR