Maybe you planted your garden or washed your windows. Maybe you put your snow boots and winter coat in storage. Hopefully you’ve filed taxes—six days left, people! But have you considered a spring cleaning for your social media presence?

Admit it. There’s a social network or an app—or two or three or ten—that you’ve been neglecting. We asked five Cision staffers (myself included) which platforms they’ve been managing poorly and what improvements—or deletions—would make for a successful spring cleaning. Here’s what they had to say about cutting, gutting and renovating their social wheelhouse.

Brandon Andersen, Global Product Development Manager

Networks you’re neglecting? Twitter and LinkedIn.  I check them on occasion and just kind of hope people will reach out to me (which obviously doesn’t work unless my name was Lady Gaga).

Room for improvement? The problem is that people who succeed on these networks usually invest quite a bit of time, which unfortunately I don’t have because I prioritize other things (sleep, sports, beer, etc.) over them.

Where do we start? I’d actually like to spring clean my Google+ account. I know what people say about Google+, but I’ve driven more traffic to my personal blog through that, Facebook and reddit than from anything else.  The Google+ communities are also really cool and I’d like to be more active in them. Read it all..

Notes from 2008 presentation by Amber Naslund at Cision.

The year was 2008. Barack Obama was named president, Apple launched its app store and Google announced Google Chrome.

Flash forward to today, when a memento from 2008 surfaced in my desk drawer: notes from Amber Naslund’s social media presentation at Cision. Her passion for social media is the reason I joined Twitter.

Let’s take a look at some of her advice and recommendations, and see how it compares to the social media scene four years later.

Books Amber recommended:

• The Cluetrain Manifesto
• Marketing in the Groundswell
• Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message

Popular Books Launched Since Then: 

• Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
• Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (& Other Social Networks)
• The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social
• Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends & Friends into Customers
• To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others
• Return on Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring and Influence Marketing

Advice, circa 2008, from Amber Naslund:
“Look where the audience is; follow them.”

“Package [information] for individuals, not groups.”

“Listen. Learn. Connect. Cultivate.”

Advice, 2013-style:
The above advice still applies to social media, which enforces that it is indeed about the message and not the medium. Here are a few more wise words that have been spoken since 2008:

“Your Customers Are Listening in Social Media. And So Are Search Engines.”
- Li Evans

“Quit counting fans, followers and blog subscribers like bottle caps. Think, instead, about what you’re hoping to achieve with and through the community that actually cares about what you’re doing.”
- Amber Naslund

“Creating content isn’t the last step. You have to promote your content to amplify it.”
- Heidi Sullivan

What differences have you noticed in social media since 2008?

Photo courtesy of geraldford on flickr

It’s almost time to celebrate the woman who raised you, supported your hopes and dreams, and gently pushed you on track when you veered. Sunday, May 12, is Mother’s Day and consumers are always looking for the perfect memento to gift on this day.

To help prepare you for this holiday, we used Cision PR software to compile a list of media outlets publishing Mother’s Day gift guides and features. See details, deadlines & more below! 

Read it all..

This is a guest post from Gina Joseph, social media community manager at Cision.

Courtesy of Kimberly Fisher

As a former model and actress, Kimberly Fisher has traveled the world and has developed a keen eye for fashion. She has taken those loves and channeled them into a blogging and freelance writing career, as author of the blog Jetsetera.net and writing for publications such as Just Luxe and NiteGuide Magazine. And she talks to us about her experiences, below!

Q: What inspired you to start blogging?

A: I started blogging in 2008 to document my own travels of the world and I have always had a love for writing. I have been to 52 countries and counting! Covering everything from beauty to fashion to lifestyle.  Read it all..

Who in  PR is doing everything right on Twitter?

@sree, @jasonfalls, @prtini, @shonali, @jaybaer, @peterhimler, @laermer  and @prsarahevans are some of the top social media, PR and journalism experts to follow on Twitter… but who do they follow?

Last week at a Cision “Behind the Story” breakfast panel, Sree Sreenivasan was discussing how PR pros and journalists interact on Twitter and said, “I find PR people (and journalists) are generally using Twitter poorly. Some of them use it very well and those are the ones that succeed.  The best PR people I work with are the ones who are connected, not because of Twitter, but because they read a lot, know the issues and have a great rolodex.”

He challenged the panelists to identify some great PR pros on Twitter, people who are “doing it right.” In addition to the panel’s recommendations (I’ve included Sree’s below), I asked some industry experts – and my personal favorites to follow on Twitter – who in PR they thought did it right on Twitter. See below why I follow them and who they recommend: Read it all..

Photo courtesy of Toshiba

The techie world brought out their best pranks for April Fools’ Day and we rounded up some of our favorites:

Twttr Prnks: Want to use vowels on Twitter? It will cost $5/month.

Scent-sational: Google announces smell search feature, Google Nose.

Oh, buoy!: Toshiba built an inflatable laptop, the TubeTop.

Ruff life: Sony unveiled Animalia, which includes feline-fitted headphones and a paw-friendly TV remote.

Some of these products and features don’t sound too far-fetched. Which do you think we’ll see beyond April 1?

Photo courtesy of victorcamilo via flickr

This guest post is by Internet media supervisor Stone Hansard and electronic media manager Beth Blanchard.

It’s been said that if you have a wi-fi connection, you don’t need a passport to see the world. Ok—your flat screen is no match for the majesty of Machu Picchu, but for those of us who haven’t chosen a life of permanent jet-setting, the daydream must suffice for now. Fortunately, with internet hotspots available the world over, a growing subset of travel bloggers have tapped into just about any vacation imaginable, whether you’re looking for a luxury resort in Fiji or a budget backpacking trip through Appalachia. To salute these globetrotting experts and enthusiasts, we’ve compiled the top 50 travel blogs in North America. The list was created using Cision’s PR Software and blogs are ranked based on our Cision Influence Rating. From here you can brainstorm your own vacation, or reach out to promote your own idea or brand. Bon voyage!

Read it all..

This is a guest post from Gina Joseph, social media community manager at Cision.

Photo courtesy of Kristine Ayala

Meet Kristine Ayala, beauty writer and founder of the blog Beauty in New York City! Being part of the Big Apple’s beauty industry has its perks as well as it’s challenges–so Kristine clues us in on everything from the thrill of covering New York Fashion Week to how she keeps organized on a daily basis.

Q: What made you decide to start beauty blogging?

A: I started beauty blogging as a way to channel my love for cosmetics. After working as a makeup artist in NYC and trying/testing the latest and best products, I knew it was the perfect time to start. Beauty is a topic that can be so educational and fun! It felt right to start my own website.  Read it all..

Photo courtesy of New Product Events

Two 90-minute events. With 18 paying participants. Trying to start a relationship with a five-minute pitch.

Welcome to Speed Pitching. It’s like speed dating, except PR professionals court the platonic attentions of magazine editors and TV morning show producers.

“We are the only company that does this,” says Nicole Vance of New Product Events, organizer of the trademarked Speed Pitching. The company had been putting on media events since 2007, but saw a need for a new approach. “It’s very hit-and-miss with the trade shows,” Vance says. “What our clients are really looking for is one-on-one time with the nationals.”

At a time when publications replace print versions with online components, bloggers have become increasingly influential, and getting a journalist on the phone can seem downright impossible, New Product Events is, in a way, reinventing the pitch. By providing in-person meetings with members of more-traditional media—“the clients still want to get into those print magazines, especially around holiday gift guide time,” says Vance—companies such as Hallmark, Hamilton Beech and LEGO can count on brief but uninterrupted opportunities to share products with Real Simple, Everyday Food, The Today Show and O, The Oprah Magazine. Read it all..

This is a guest post from Gina Joseph, social media community manager at Cision.

Those last few weeks of college are an exciting time. Seniors are finishing up their final classes, sleeping in as much as possible on weekdays and (hopefully) preparing to take on whatever is in store beyond the safe walls of campus life. This is the time when summer and post-grad internships are sought out, and job searches are in full swing. Therefore, many students are smartly using social media as an outlet to get a leg up.

Last night, the Public Relations Society of America‘s YPN Chicago—Chicago’s Young Professionals Network—hosted a Twitter chat featuring advice for public relations students on the transition to becoming PR professionals. Using the hashtag #ypnchat, both students and professionals had some great questions and answers, and we’ve posted some of them, below.

The chat kicked off asking about summer internships:

Read it all..