Sarah T. Communications

Strategic Communications Professional,SarahTCommunications.com 

[sarahtcommunications]

This book was very inspiring for the author who may be feeling like they're in a rut. Each chapter was concluded with a writing exercises to help you utilize the chapters lessons. There's nothing I love more than a practice exercise!

[sarahtcommunications]

This book was a really good reference book. It didn’t have a whole lot of huge blocks of text and instead had lots of illustrations, case studies, tables, and simple definitions that makes it a really easy read. They pretty much keep each spread to one topic, making it very easy to find the information that you’re looking for. 📚

[sarahtcommunications]

TL;DR: Does the Framing of Transparency Impact Trust? Differences Between Self-Benefit and Other-Benefit Message Frames

TL;DR: Other-benefit message frames and message frames that hint at the target audience’s ideal self are more effective than no framing or self-benefit message frames.

Summary:

With transparency becoming an increasingly hot topic for companies, this study explored the literature behind transparency and trust-building within organizations before testing their hypothesis on how best to frame these messages, when putting them out.

Their literature search discussed how it is important to be strategic in what information you share. It needs to be timely, accurate, relevant, and, like everything else in marketing, fit the customer’s needs. They also explored the previous literature on framing and found that people are likely to pick a frame that matches their self-image. The example given in the article is about people who want to appear more giving liking more altruistic framing. This seemed very similar to the symbolic consumption discussed in the next section of the literature review that said that people consume things that are in-line with their self-image or desired self-image. This is a branding concept that may often get left behind when we get to the details of our messaging.

To test their hypothesis, they designed two separate studies. In the first one tested whether or not self or other framed messaging worked best when they reviewed four transparency messages that were framed one way or the other. The control group viewed no messages, while all three groups viewed a series of 10 random product images. In the second study, they asked participants more in-depth questions about how they perceived the content they were being presented instead of just measuring the effectiveness of each potential message frame. Participants for both studies were recruited from Amazons MTurk group and were compensated for their time.

The three main things they found through their study was that transparency messages that mirror the target audience’s ideal self are the most effective. Unlike previous studies, their data indicated that people respond better to messaging that didn’t imply there would be rewards for that behavior. I imagine because this is self-framed messaging disguised as other-framed messaging. The last key point was that some message framing did better than no message framing.

Citation:

Jolene Fisher & Toby Hopp (2020) Does the Framing of Transparency Impact Trust? Differences Between Self-Benefit and Other-Benefit Message Frames, International Journal of Strategic Communication, DOI: 10.1080/1553118X.2020.1770767

[sarahtcommunications]

Tik Tok 📹 Tik Tok puts out Fire TV app, despite trouble from capitol hill

Graphic Design 🖍Social media image sizes in 2020

LinkedIn👨‍💼LinkedIn releases 32-page guide on their platform

Pinterest 📍You can now search Pinterest by skin tone

Pinterest 📍Vimeo partners with Pinterest to help create video pins

[adteachings-deactivated20220125]

The Skittles brand book is hilarious. Check it out here.

(H/T to Praveen Vaidyanathan!)

[sarahtcommunications]

Honestly, that’s fantastic content marketing and I felt compelled to spend more time on it than I had to give.

[sarahtcommunications]

TikTok 📹 Attack on Tik Tok continues with White House giving until September 15th to get out.

Instagram 📸 Instagram jumps in the hole that may be being left by Tik Tok by introducing Reels

Facebook 👍 Facebook pushes use of hashtags again

Twitter 🐦 Twitter usage rises in response to Covid-19

[sarahtcommunications]

Instagram 📷 Could Adding Instagram Filters Cause More Harm Than Good?

Strategy 📑 Short, Fact Based Video = More Customers

Instagram 📷 Instagram Stories Become More Interactive with New Features

Paid Social 💰 Tik Tok Ad Options

Facebook 👍 Facebook Releases December 2019 Topics to Watch

Snapchat 👻 Voice Filter, Yes. Contests, Yes. Frequent Snaps, Yes.

[helloyoucreatives]

2020 Creative Trends

See the year’s biggest design trends in @Shutterstock’s 2020 #CreativeTrends Report

[sarahtcommunications]

A Trip Through Google’s Digital Garage

Everyone knows that Google offers certifications in their widely-used AdWords and analytics programs, but not so many people are aware of Google's Digital Garage.  The Digital Garage program covers a lot of basic marketing concepts, including email marketing, content marketing, SEO, SEM, social media marketing, retargeting, display marketing as well as going international. 

Each video in this series is less than 10 minutes long and is followed up by a short quiz over what you just learned. You are quizzed again at the end of each section and are given a voluntary practical assignment to practice that particular project, unlike in some other certifications where you have to complete a simulation after the video. Lastly, you will take a 40-question-long test to receive certification.

If you are a PR or Marketing Professional, this probably isn’t worth your time, unless you are unfamiliar with any of the concepts listed in the first paragraph. However, even if, for example, you don’t know anything about SEO (I personally know very little about it). This course is only going to give you a brief overview of it. 

If you are a small business owner reading this, then this is the certification for you. It's a great jumping off point if you are wanting to learn more about marketing your business. As I told the PR peeps, it is just a brief overview, but it will show you what options are available so you can decide what is best for your business. 

It took me three days of somewhat leisurely working through the videos to finish the entire video, so it wasn’t overly time-consuming. If you are a PR person and are looking for a LinkedIn update then this wouldn’t be the worst use of your time, but if your looking to really learn something you don’t already know this won't be for you. If you are a small business owner and don’t know where to start, this is a perfect comprehensive first step from a trusted source.

Here is the link to Google's Digital Garage.

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Sensation: The Science of Physical Intelligence Book Review

Regardless of what your profession is this is one of those books that you just need to read. This book discusses the way our senses change our attitude. The book has 11 chapters which go over a variety of topics including temperature, texture, weight, color, contrast, distance, height and size, cleanliness, smell and how these affect your writing. 

The first big highlight was that people feel more positive in warm environments or when holding something warm. This means that getting someone to say “yes” can sometimes be as simple as buying them a cup of coffee to hold while you make your pitch. 

In the next chapter, it was revealed that touch related words help engage your audience more. If you spend a lot of time writing you can already see there is a plethora of uses for this nugget of information. It can be applied to everything from the social media posts I spend so much time crafting to fiction novels that I never write. There was even a whole chapter about how these affect our reaction to certain metaphors, but that chapter was a little too complicated for me to sum up in a couple sentences in a blog post. You’ll just have to buy the book if you want to learn more about that!

If you’ve ever wondered why you shouldn’t just print your resume on printer paper it’s because the heavier something is the more important it’s deemed to be. I’m sure the same principle also applies to business cards as well. The book uses an example of asking people to sign a petition on a heavy clipboard and a light clipboard. Even though the petition was the same, the heavy clipboard got more signatures.

In the second chapter, the author references studies that prove that people like smooth textures over rough ones. I’m sure this isn’t great news for the textured paper industry and it makes a really strong case for glossy paper, even though there is nothing I hate more than the god-awful squeak that glossy paper makes. A more practical application would be for anyone in sales that you might want to line your office with soft textures to help improve people's attitude. I just keep thinking about design, promotional materials, and whatnot since that’s kind of my field of expertise.

According to Inc. Magazine average height of Fortune 500 CEO’s is 6 ft. 2 in. This isn’t by accident as studies references in this book have shown that the taller something is the more important it seems. That sure helps you get ahead! I hate heels as much as the next person but this really inspired me to pull them out from time to time, at least when I need something.

Basically, this book is chock full of research and other interesting little goodies that can help you in a variety of situations. Maybe you’re trying to land a job or a date. Maybe you’re a marketer like myself and you can apply these lessons to the execution of your ideas. If you’re working in sales this is definitely a book that can help you land a couple more sales. No matter what you’re trying to achieve this is a book that can help you make it happen.

[sarahtcommunications]

Press Releases

A press release is simply a one-page document that is written in the same style as the newspaper that tells the reader the facts in a journalistic fashion. It begins with “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” (yes in all caps), then a title, the story and is wrapped up with ### (the old newswire way of saying that this is the end of the document). A press release should not be sent without some resemblance of a pitch. 

Pitch

A pitch is an email or phone call to a reporter that builds interest about your story. It is much shorter than a press release and does not necessarily have to conform to AP Style. While the purpose of the press release is to present the facts, the purpose of the pitch is to sell, not tell, the story and make a personal relationship with that reporter. A pitch can be sent by itself, unlike a press release. I send them together to help lube them up for reading the press release, but not everyone does the same. 

I hope this helps!

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[sarahtcommunications]

How Did THAT Work For 10 Years? A Nutrisystem Case Study

The Problem: 

 New Years is the peak time of year for companies selling diet products, as people are pumped up to lose weight after making their New Year’s Resolutions. After an unsuccessful New Year’s campaign Nutrisystem stock dropped 27%. 

The Campaign: 

Nutrisystem debuted their new Turbo 13 diet, a program which boasts its ability to help you lose 13 pounds in a month, for their important new year's resolution push. The campaign included a TV ad, social media, digital ads and print ads. The majority of ads feature former country star, Marie Osmond, who is a figure known to their target audience. The ads all follow the same format as their previous ads. It begins with a person saying “Hi, I’m (blank) and I lost (blank) pounds on Nutrisystem." Then an infomercial voice comes in and talks about how this great food could be delivered to your door, while the camera pans over their food.

Why it Didn’t Work: 

Things have come a long way since Nutrisystem first started. Even with the older crowd that I suspect they are targeting, the tired infomercial format would not continue to draw in profits the way it did before. I found a commercial with the exact same format as far back as 2007, that's 11 years of doing the same advertising.

This case study could also easily be titled “how the hell did that work for 11 years?” Nutrisystem should stick with testimonials but give it a modern make-over. Hell, even this 1992 commercial is better than today's commercials.

In Marketing it typically helps if you mention your product. Now, I'm a fan of a soft sell, however, you also need to sell hard enough you know it's there. While I was scrolling through social media I had no idea that it was New Year’s or that they were promoting a new product. On their Instagram feed, you can see that only one in 24 posts published around New Year’s had to do with that product. This could be attributed to unbalanced media use.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the product name didn't help much. Here in these United States, we have a bit of superstition around the number 13. I'm sure that subconsciously affected some people. 

There are two things they could have done better:

Leave the infomercial babble in 2007 and welcome the storytelling of 2018

Actually, like, show their product in a relevant context on social media

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