Author Archives: Engage121

Effective Customer Service is our Priority

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment
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At Engage121 we are determined to provide extensive support to our clients, by helping them achieve their social media goals through our software. In order to better refine our training techniques, we will be discontinuing the weekly scheduled training sessions and replacing them with intimate, hands-on training, driven by our client’s needs beginning this Monday, October 22.

As of Monday, Client Services will be conducting a client outreach campaign, in an effort to schedule training sessions with clients individually .These training sessions will be conducted in small groups, so clients can drive the “seminar” style training with questions and participation.

Clients can always email the Customer Service department whenever they would like to set up a personal training session or when they have a question regarding the Engage121 application. Emails are received and responded to immediately when sent to support@engage121.com.

We look forward to speaking with you and learning more about your Marketing initiatives, and how social media will continue to support them.

 

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Say hello to Penny, the newest addition to the Engage121 family

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Engage121| 1 Comment
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My name is Parthena Aprea, but everyone calls me Penny. I was born on a cold day in December and raised in East Norwalk, Connecticut on the Long Island Sound. Despite traveling extensively after college, I chose to stay in Connecticut because I find New England’s charm hard to resist. To me, nothing is more pleasant than fall becoming winter. New England’s rich history has also instilled me with a passion for antiques. One of my dreams is to restore a historical Victorian or Colonial home back to its original magnificence.
 
Aside from my interest in history, I thoroughly enjoy cooking because of the creativity involved. Some of my favorite meals to prepare are rural and rustic dishes from around the world. I like the concept of using every part of something to craft a deliciously balanced dish. My desire to be creative in all endeavors has inevitably led me into a career in the software industry.
 
I previously worked for a financial services software company in Greenwich, Connecticut.  I belonged to the implementation team which was responsible for overall project management of software conversions. Although I enjoyed working on the periphery of finance, the social media realm has always fascinated me. Social media is constantly evolving; providing boundless room for innovation. The immediate exchange of diverse ideas and opinions is a tremendously influential force to those who can wield its power. I am excited about joining the Engage121 team and look forward to empowering businesses to use social media efficiently and to their advantage. 

Penny joins our client service team, make sure to follow her on Twitter and say hi. 

College: UCONN, Storrs, BFA, Communication Design 
 
One thing you’d never guess about me: I am fluent in Modern Greek

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New FANlet Catalog, Speak and Support Tab

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment
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As we continue to improve the experience of Engage121 for our clients, we have introduced one more enhancement to help you leverage your application. As you enter speak today, you will be provided with the ability to preview the new speak. If you click on the “Preview the NEW SPEAK” link, you’ll be able to begin using the new home screen for Speak, and all of the existing functionality will remain… for now. The redesign was specifically built to accommodate a simpler experience for building posts and FANlets (Facebook Apps). Here are the highlights:

-New Post click stream built for easier use
-Quick Access to either post corporate messages or local
-FANlet catalog to quickly view all of the existing Fanlets in Engage121’s archive
-Quick Access to request customization of a FANlet you identify

 

In addition to the new Speak and FANlet features, we’ve also integrated a new “Support” tab on the top of your application. In here you will find several points of contact for Engage121, from email to phone and social channels to a question submission box, we want to hear from you, especially if you need our help! You will also find our FANlet catalog here as well and a download button for the Engage121 User Guide.

 

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Posted in Engage121 Product Features, Social Media Marketing, Software updates

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Use Case: Brand Promotion

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Engage121| 1 Comment
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dressbarn® With over 800 stores, across the country, dressbarn strives to maintain its distinctive position in the marketplace by providing its own private labels and contemporary fashions at great value in an environment that is friendly and trustworthy.

Use 1: dressbarn’s strategy is simple; Let’s talk to our customer wherever she is. Their customer is highly engaged and motivated by special opportunities, just for her. With this in mind, dressbarn used Engage121 to create a highly engaging Facebook Apps for their contests. They launched a Party Perfect campaign that lasted 5 days.

Campaign results where: 18,995 New “Likes”; Generating 24,714 Entries, of which 13,971 opted in for emails.

 

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Posted in Community Manager Tips, Engage121 Clients, Engage121 Product Features, Facebook, Social Media Marketing

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Use Case: Brand and Reputation Management

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment
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Wild Birds Unlimited® owners are their local communities’ backyard birdfeeding specialists and a premiere source for nature information, as well as quality products. But who we are goes far beyond the items we sell. Wild Birds Unlimited has more than 275 stores throughout the United States and Canada.

Use 1: Wild Birds mistakenly went down the path of trying to comment against a politically charged topic. (Rush Limbaugh) Instead of receiving the support they thought they would, it quickly turned into a pissing contest between both sides. WBU quickly jumped back into action with the use of Engage121 content publishing and apps to redirect the message back to their core competency, birds. By showcasing great picture content and bird education through various Engage121 assets and apps, WBU quieted the fire and returned WBU to their business.

Use 2: Wild Birds Unlimited through the sharing of their expertise has grown into an industry matter expert on subjects relating to birds through able long-term use of their account. They have slowly become a resource on Facebook for the hobby of all pertaining to birds, thus now a peer support resource. Their vast expertise and wise use of Engage121 to manage these efforts have driven meaningful relationships like Cornell as a resource partner.

Topic support questions include; Why you shouldn’t pick up and take a baby bird. A popular topic that has become a content point within their Engage121 library amongst other popular points that their franchisees have access to and reuse.

 

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Posted in Community Manager Tips, Engage121 Clients, Facebook, Social Media Management, Social Media Monitoring

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Meet the newest members of the Engage121 family

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Engage121| 1 Comment
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Mareena Maki
Client Service Coordinator
@MareenaMaki
Learn more about Mareena on Pinterest

Hello! My name is Mareena Maki and I am the new Client Service Coordinator for Engage121.  I’m from Denver,Colorado but moved to Connecticut in June 2012 to pursue the “East Coast” lifestyle (and of course, for my college sweetheart).  While growing up, I was the little girl running around with the neighborhood kids having water balloon fights, racing down the hill on wagons, and getting bumps and bruises along the way.

I learned to embrace adventure and the great outdoors. In 2010, I got my Bachelors degree in Economics from Colorado State Universityand had an amazing opportunity to work in the Colorado Governor’s Office as a PR/Communications Intern.  On my free time, I enjoy duck hunting, playing golf, and watching reality TV shows.  One thing you would never guess about me is that I love Step Aerobics; you may look silly but what a great workout.

There is never a dull moment in social media; which is why my goal at Engage121 is to keep up with marketing trends, learn about our clients, and enhance their experience through our services.  As social media continues to evolve, I want to add value and contribute my knowledge and skills to my Client Support team so we are up-to-date with the latest and greatest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah Engle
Client Support Specialist
@Fengles
learn more about Sarah on Pinterest

 

Hello, my name is Sarah. I was born and raised in Sunnyvale, CA located in the Bay Area. I have three accomplished siblings who I am very close to. One currently works in Africa for a non-profit and the other is a sophomore at MIT. While I played five sports in middle school, I cut down to two sports in high school (basketball and track) and eventually was recruited to Columbia University in the City of New York to pole vault for their Division I track and field team.

At Columbia I studied Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies with some classwork in computer programming. I graduated a few months ago in May 2012. While competing in track at Columbia, I broke both the indoor and outdoor pole vault records and helped lead my team to our first conference championship in school history.

I spend my free time studying Arabic, attempting to write a novel, training for a half marathon, and working to earn a black belt in Krav Maga.

During college I entered the world of business social media feet first, working as a campus representative for Muscle Milk and then as a marketing intern for Foot Locker, Inc, which led me to seek out a job at Engage121 as a Client Support Specialist.

One thing you’d never guess about me: I can’t smell skunk. I was almost on the tv show Wipeout (but then I had to go to college).

 

Join me in welcoming Mareena and Sarah to our team by leaving a comment below.

 

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Posted in Engage121, Uncategorized

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Have you noticed anything new in Engage121?

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment
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Your NEW Listen tab is here! Today we launched a new design of the Listen tab in Engage121, which has many new, more intuitive features integrated.  Here are the highlights:

-Ability to reply from any attached account in Twitter, not just the connection the post came in from.  Also, quickly view the replies to any tweet, regardless of whether they are a connection or not.

-Keep tabs on your conversations by seeing in-stream twitter conversations you and your followers are having. When available.

-Cases/Customer Care functionality is available in Listen, as well as Explore.  See Customer Care post for more information.

-Manage Facebook private messages.

-New Panels view provides a resizable expanded view of all of your filters. Especially cool for those of you with widescreen monitors.

-Email Alert settings/options for every listen filter. Create an alert for each filter or combine multiple filters into one alert.

-Additional filter options.

-When replying to a post on an outlet’s wall in Facebook, corporate can reply on behalf of an outlet’s account.

-Fan page post moderation: hide offensive posts made to your Facebook page or delete an unwanted post on YouTube.

For additional information on the New Listen Tab, please download this instructional PDF,  and watch this recorded webinar on all the new Listen Tab has to offer.

We are very excited about these new features, and as always, we look forward to hearing what you think. Sign in to your Engage121 account, take a look and then tweet us @engage121 or email us to share your feedback.

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Posted in Engage121 Clients, Engage121 Product Features, Facebook, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Monitoring, Twitter

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Use Case: Brand Promotion – Live Video Event through Facebook

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment
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SHAPE® Magazine With over 1,500,000 in circulation, SHAPE Magazine’s missions is to “To help women create better lives.”  Their fundamental message is, “You (women) have the power and strength to achieve what you want through positive change.” SHAPE’s goal is to; Deliver 100% actionable advice in an always-positive, uplifting tone, with a commitment to accurate, trustworthy information based on research from their Editorial Advisory Board of 25+ medical professionals and industry experts (established in 1981 — with the very first issue!)

 

 

Use 1: Live Video Promotional – SHAPE Magazine ran an hour-long live video event through the use of Engage121 and Facebook to generate awareness and build their fan base.  The results were astonishing:

  • 2/24 viewing had a total of 57,321 unique viewers throughout the stream

Facebook Stats:

  • During the hour the video was playing, there was a growth of roughly 6,000 fans.  Throughout the day there was a total fan addition of 7,146.  On any given day, Shape averages anywhere between 200-300 new fans
  • After the replay twice during the weekend- there was a total growth of 9,631 fans
  • The average “Talking about us” number is around 5,000 per day, on event day it was 16,000.

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Posted in Community Manager Tips, Engage121 Clients, Facebook, Social Media Marketing, Twitter

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Social Never Sleeps

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment
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As part of our continuing series, Top 8 Best Practices for Optimization, today we will focus on #4, thinking outside your time zone.. Catch up on previous posts here and here.

“More than 70% of tweets comes from outside the U.S.” -  Katie Stanton, Vice President of International Strategy, Twitter

It’s key to remember then that the sun doesn’t really set for social media. There’s always someone online somewhere and to stop publishing after work for instance, means you could be seriously missing out on your available audience.

For example, take a look at these sample audience oscillation graphs:

 

 

What does this tell us? Your audience activity level fluctuates and it’s not going to be the same exact fluctuation every day. Without real time data figuring into your publishing strategy, you will potentially miss a significant portion of your audience every time you post.

It’s not about manning social media 24/7, it’s about having enough information for your audience, when they are active and what they are talking about to publish effectively. With a platform like SocialFlow, you can optimize content with real-time data and an open time window so that content goes out at the best possible time – when the largest amount of active audience is available and your content is relevant to them. Using an application such as Engage121 lets you optimize your publishing through SocialFlow, as well as monitor your brand and engage with your followers all in one dashboard.

 

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Posted in Community Manager Tips, Engage121 Product Features, Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Twitter

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Use Case: Building Return on Engagement (ROE) on Facebook

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment
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Golden Corral® is well known as America’s #1 buffet and grill. Golden Corral’s legendary, endless buffet features an abundant variety of delicious familiar favorites and continuous new menu offerings for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The Golden Corral franchise currently has 485 Restaurants operating in 40 States.

Use of Engage121 is reported by Golden Corral’s agency, Twinbear.

Use 1: Here, Twinbear is using Engage121 to assess a large amount of data for Golden Corral, approximately, 114,000 conversations over a 9 week period, including multiple social channels. Tracking mentions and brand related conversations through various Engage121 filters. They engage with all having a measureable following, essentially driving brand messaging and sentiment.

Use 2: Golden Corral asked consumers via their social channels, where it should open the next restaurant. After running a poll through Engage121, a clear winner emerged as Oregon with New York and Colorado in close second positions.

Value of Sponsored Stories through Engage121 on Facebook:

Sponsored story ad campaign delivered, 530 likes in 4 days (4 ads with varying copy). They targeted 633,000 and reached 55480 (Social reach 1,179) as their Facebook fan base grew on average 100 fans (likes) per day. Total campaign cost: $250

 

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Posted in Community Manager Tips, Engage121 Clients, Facebook, Marketing, Social Media Marketing

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