Oreo’s Rainbow Risk Pays Off

Sunday night, Ian and I were vegging on the couch, watching TV and checking our phones. I was flipping through Facebook and came across a post from Oreo. It was a photo of an Oreo cookie with a rainbow filled center, in honor of Pride weekend, and with it was the caption: Proudly support love!

I showed Ian and mentioned how awesome it was. What I didn’t mention was how amazing it was not only from a standpoint of a brand supporting equality, but that the brand was willing to take such a risk.

As someone who strategizes and plans content for brands’ on Facebook, I can only imagine the time, energy, thoughtfulness, and resources that went into making this happen. It seems simple enough, but this was huge. And the impact of it has been absolutely fascinating to watch. It’s garnered a ton of publicity, buzz and people are sharing it like crazy (as of right now, that photo has generated 217,345 “Likes”, 35,415 comments and nearly 67,000 shares.

I also love that while reading through the comments, those who are now brand advocates and supporting Oreo as a result of this photo far outnumber the posts of boycotts and hatred. As one person shared, “A sea changing moment. An iconic product recognizes our humanity.”

So, Oreo, from a marketer, strategist, and human rights supporter, I applaud you!

32 (or 31, actually) and Pregnant

My friend and co-worker, Laurie, shared this with me…hilarious! Pretty much sums it up…

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes!

The aftermath of a successful finger painting session!

Whew. A lot has been going on. It’s been so busy, I’ve been bad at updating the site, but here’s the lowdown…Last month Sarah started a new and exciting job, and we welcomed Marie as our new nanny. We have grown to absolutely love Marie, which has made this next chapter all the more difficult. After looking into some preschool options for further down the road, an opening came up at Early Learning Foundations (E.L.F.) and we decided to take advantage of it and enroll Teddy. Our thinking was that A) it’d be great to get him into this new routine well before baby #2 arrives B) he’s ready for more socialized and structured routines and C) we’ve heard wonderful things about E.L.F. and didn’t want to pass up on the opening. But of course with this comes more change and transition. As I type, Teddy’s well into his second day, and so far it seems to be going well *knock on wood*. My cousin, Emily’s, son Malcolm also attends E.L.F. and that has helped as Teddy loves seeing his familiar face. I am anticipating that it will get a bit harder as the novelty of the new toys and routine wares off, but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

In any case, Teddy is amazing and doing so well. His language continues to crow as a crazy rate and the more he’s talking, the funner it’s getting! The next couple of steps we have coming up are transitioning him into his big-boy bed and then the ever-looming potty training. But we’ll get there. I feel like getting him started in the school was the biggest step/transition, and now that it’s underway, I can already feel a weight lifted.

As for baby #2, things are going well! Being pregnant in the summer is a MUCH different experience than it was the last go around, but so far, so good. This little guy is kicking, squirming and moving around, but all are good signs of healthy development and progress. We can’t wait to meet this little guy and for Teddy to fully embrace his role as big brother!

So that’s a quick Teddy update- so much going on, but it’s all still fun, and you know what? That’s all we can ask for!

My RWW Debut

One of the many blogs I read on a daily basis is Read Write Web. They consistently have their digital finger on the pulse of what’s happening, what’s coming up, and what’s shaping our industry. So I was flattered when they included me and my two-cents in this recent post about Facebook insights.

Here’s the article in full:

How Pro Marketers Use Facebook Insights

By Dave Copeland / May 31, 2012 03:30 PM
Facebook introduced five levels of administration to its brand pages Thursday. The added protection means more people are going to have access to (and have to learn how to use) Facebook Insights.

While there are plenty of how-to guides for beginners out there, we wanted to touch on the more advanced side of Insights. We asked three leading social media managers for their top tips on getting the most out of Insights.

More Than Just Likes and Unlikes

Catherine Merritt, an account supervisor in Olson PR’s social and emerging media department, uses Facebook Insights to figure out what is and is not working on the brand pages of her clients. She uses an Insights grid to track what types of posts work and do not work, and doesn’t get hung up on the number of people liking or unliking a page.

“Facebook insights and analytics are part of the puzzle, but in looking at them, it’s important to step back and see what they’re really showing. One of the most important takeaways I leverage from them is what they tell me about the content we’re putting out,” Merritt said. “What are the top five learnings I can gather and what does that mean to the page’s future? It’s not just about the number of Likes [and] Unlikes. It’s about what’s sticking to the wall and making sure you have a malleable page management and content process in place to quickly apply what each nugget is telling.”

Watch for Universal Trends

Tony Wright, the social media manager for Outside Line, manages brand pages for several clients and has used Insights to keep a running list of trends that seem to apply to most brand pages. Among Wright’s findings:

• Serious users should consider using a third-party service to store Insights data to avoid glitches that occasionally show up in Facebook’s system.
• Shorter, snappier posts are more likely to attract user interaction than longer posts.
• Niche brands often need extra attention to build and sustain user engagement.
• Wright is also starting to notice some drop-off in the effectiveness of posts ending with a question or with “a dozen exclamation marks.”

“As more brands join Facebook and start competing for exposure among users’ busy news feeds, we’re seeing lots of brands starting to talk in very similar ways, using quick win tactics to guarantee a good level of response,” Wright said. “While this often works in the short term, users could very well become fatigued.”

Use Insights on Your Domain

Alison Kimszal, a new media business analyst for DefinedLogic, said many users don’t realize they can use Facebook Insights on their domain as well as their Facebook brand page.

“While the Facebook Page Insights are great for gathering how much interaction your posts are getting, the Domain Insights provide you with valuable information on how many people are coming to your domain from Facebook and organically sharing links to your site,” Kimszal said. “Metrics on shares, likes, comments and demographic information for each domain and URL on your site can be measured via the Domain Insights. Domain Insights also collects data on Facebook Social Plugins such as the like button, the send button and the comments box.”