Archive for the ‘Trends’ Category

Facebook privacy overhaul: how does this affect you?

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 by Jenna

In response to user-generated feedback, Facebook announced last week that it has made massive sharing and privacy changes to the social media site.

 Here are four of the most notable changes: 

1.  Profile view and sharing options

Prior to these changes, privacy options were hidden within Facebook, but are now more visible. For example, “View Profile As,” where you type in a friend’s name in order to view how your profile looks to them (to ensure your privacy settings are up to par) is now easier to find and located at the top of your profile.

Additionally, in each status update, photo, or other content you share on your profile, you are able to customize the audience that will see the post – public, friends, or custom. In the future, this feature will become even more tailored to your audience by allowing you to share with smaller groups of people you’re associated with (i.e. co-workers) – very similar to Google+ Circles.

2.  Tagging features

When you’re tagged in a post or photo, you now have the ability to “accept” or “reject” the content before it‘s published on your profile. You have the same option when someone tries to add a tag to your posts and photos. All posts by non-friends that tag a user are placed in a “Pending Posts” tab accessible from the profile.

3.  Locations, no longer Facebook Places

Facebook Places is no more –now you can add your location to anything you post. The mobile Facebook Places feature is being phased out and as of now, it seems unclear if Facebook check-in deals will still exist or how they will work.

4.  Tagging Pages

With social media evolving into a major role in public relations, we are constantly monitoring client Facebook pages and thinking of new ways to create engagement. A downside to the privacy changes for Facebook pages is that fans are no longer required to “like” a page to tag it in a post or photo, taking away one of the incentives to “like” a company or brand.

As Facebook continues to evolve, companies need to continue putting efforts towards using the creative applications through contests, welcome pages, and content/news sharing to further engage fans and give them a reason to come back for more.

Read about all the changes in Facebook’s blog post, “making it easier to share with who you want.”

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Could Facebook hurt your career?

Monday, July 18th, 2011 by Leah

Social media allows users to express themselves and their views, share what’s on their mind and what’s going on in their lives, recommend, comment, debate, and maybe even complain about a company or two. Though, when communicating in such a way, social media users need to be abundantly aware of their online presence, what’s posted on their profile, pictures or posts they’re tagged in, and more.

Why?

Employers now have the opportunity to purchase a report of your online activity – anything and everything posted on social and professional networking sites, blogs, wikis, videos and picture sharing sites. And it’s retrievable for seven years.

A driving force behind the online activity reports and monitoring (including after being hired AND sending daily updates to HR) is a company launched in 2010 called Social Intelligence. Social Intelligence’s business model complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (which outlines how employers use background check or credit checks) by only including information that is legally allowable in the hiring process.

While potential employers have been searching candidates longer than ‘Googling’ has been a verb, Social Intelligence now adds a layer of legitimacy. If the employer rules out a candidate based on information found online, the HR manager is required to inform the applicant the reason why they did not get the job – such as an offensive or racist post, sexually explicit picture, or hints of illegal activity.

Anyone using social media or sharing images online, especially those on the market for a job, should be aware of how deep employers are looking and how sophisticated methods are for finding information.  

Now that social media is intertwined with our everyday activities, do you think social media users should be allowed to freely express themselves online without regard for professional consequences, or should employers have the right to consider all available information when hiring employees?

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A How-to on Social Media for Real Estate

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 by Leah

Bayview presented to the Florida Gulfcoast Commercial Association of Realtors (FGCAR) this week on Social Media for the Real Estate World. The presentation included how to implement Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging and e-newsletters into everyday commercial real estate business practices.

Download-able PDF of presentation is below

Here are a few of the questions we were asked, with our answers, which might be helpful for any company’s social media strategy.

Why is it important NOT to delete comments on a company’s Facebook page?

People “like” brands and companies on Facebook for many reasons, and they appreciate the two-way communication it allows through comments. With that said, negative comments are bound to happen. Instead of deleting a negative comment, managers of social media pages should address the comment in a respectable way and request the conversation be moved offline to a phone call or email. Deleting the comment will only increase the person’s frustration. Be sure your company has excellent  customer service capabilities if you decide to dive into social media. A plus is that when a comment is addressed effectively online, it’s very powerful.

If all the social media channels are implemented for a business, is it still important to have an actual website?

Absolutely. The first thing a potential customer will do to research a company is search online – and not finding a website can be very frustrating.  Although they may easily find your Facebook or LinkedIn profile, having a website allows for more information and is more professional than only utilizing social media.

If I start a blog, how do I get people to actually read it?

Feed your blog directly to Twitter and Facebook and consider repurposing the content for an e-newsletter. Use your existing database for your e-newsletter, and include the option to unsubscribe.

Download-able PDF of social media presentation

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Bayview’s becoming earth friendly

Friday, February 25th, 2011 by Leah

Being a public relations agency, one of our goals, and quite frankly a requirement, is to stay on top of the news and read as many newspapers and publications that we can get our hands on. With that being said, our office accumulates quite the pile of papers that eventually end up in the dumpster.

We started feeling guilty throwing them all away, but there wasn’t a recycling program offered in our building or at a convenient location nearby. This is when we came across Conex Recycling, a company providing recycling services to businesses in the Southeast. They brought us two trash-can sized bins to fill that are picked up weekly and so far we have no complaints. Even better, a few other tenants are jumping on Bayview’s green wagon.

We’ll keep you updated and let you know how many trees we end up saving.

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Building dream teams

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 by Missy

In reading the December issue of Fast Company, I realized two things. One – I am embarrassingly behind on reading some of my favorite publications. Two – Bayview Pubic Relations is ahead of the curve with our partnerships.

In “The Future of Advertising,” Danielle Sacks brilliantly captures what’s going on with the traditional agency model. In it, Angelique Krembs, marketing director of PepsiCo’s SoBe brand, explained why she opted to work with only shops that specialized in digital, PR, or promotional work, excluding all generalist firms. “…we were going beyond traditional…We realized it was unlikely we’d find everything we wanted in one place.”

As a trusted resource for our clients, we recommend or partner with creative agencies, digital firms and solo designers that match our (and our client’s) expectations and core values to create a comprehensive campaign or fulfill specific needs like brand marks, websites and collateral.

Basically, we work with select partners to create dream teams for our clients. Each member of the team brings a specific set of skills or knowledge in an industry, or fills another specific need. For example, USAmeriBank tapped Schifino Lee to build its website and create collateral materials, while Bayview serves a public relations role. Working with Mercury Productions and Thomason Creative, we’re able to help the City of Tampa Water Department develop educational outreach campaigns.

In some cases, we’ll partner with other public relations agencies or independent practitioners for specialized or additional resources for our clients. The client benefits by having the best and brightest team members working to get results rather than having one agency that is strong in one area, but is a less ideal fit in other areas.

Some chalk the new model up to a generational shift in marketing decision-makers with a digital background rather than so-called “classic marketing educations.” Others realize the old way of doing business no longer makes sense, and are finding new ways to thrive.

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10 tips for real estate marketing and PR

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 by Leah

It’s a whole new world in real estate, which means sellers simply have to alter their marketing and PR techniques to attract buyers.

Bayview president Kyle Parks recently spoke to approximately 100 attendees of the Urban Land Institute’s Real Estate Trends Conference, part of a panel that presented the audience with tips on how to “market in the new real estate market.”

Kyle speaking on "marketing to the new market" alongside Jennifer Lugar of Standard Pacific Homes and John Rymer of Rymer Strategies.

Credibility is job 1, and no marketing channel – whether it’s social media, traditional news media or advertising – will work if you can’t show that in a compelling way. To build credibility and support your buying proposition, marketing and PR need to show a buyer why they are getting a good value, instead of just telling them.

Here’s a list of marketing tips to think about for the new market.

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Solar model recognized as world’s first

Friday, January 21st, 2011 by Jesse

Bayview client, Regenesis Solar Power, is featured in this month’s edition of Sun & Wind Energy magazine, a leading international trade publication about trends and advances in renewable energy, published out of Germany.

This coverage, along with other trade and local coverage, validates our claim that the Regenesis business model, which offers consumers Solar Hot Water as a service through utility companies, is the first of its kind in the world.

Without start-up costs or maintenance worries, only a flat locked-in monthly fee, the Regenesis model represents perhaps the easiest and most economically viable way for an average household to not only adopt a form of clean and renewable energy, but to start saving money on electricity from day one.

Regenesis and Bayview are both psyched about the potential – we truly think that this model could help jumpstart widespread use of solar power in our country.

Information about the first program, in partnership with Lakeland Electric (Florida’s third largest public utility), is available at www.SolarLakeland.com. We expect to introduce the program in several other markets through 2011.

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Real estate conference looks at Marketing to the New Market

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 by Leah

For the Tampa Bay real estate industry, the Urban Land Institute’s annual Trends conference offers a look at what the coming year has in store.

As part of the 2011 conference, Bayview’s Kyle Parks will be part of a panel on “Marketing to the New Market,” where the discussion will center on how real estate marketers can succeed in this tough environment.

Also on the panel: John Rymer, president of real estate marketing research/sales training firm Rymer Strategies; Bruce Keene, who runs multifamily management at Tampa commercial real estate company Franklin Street; and Jennifer Lugar, Tampa Bay marketing coordinator for Standard Pacific Homes. The moderator will be Nancy Walker, president of Walker Brands.

The Trends conference is Thursday, Jan. 20 at the A La Carte Event Pavilion in Tampa. The keynote lunch speaker will be Dr. Sean Snaith, senior economist from the University of Central Florida, who is one of the leading experts on the state’s economy.

For more information on the event, see the ULI Tampa Bay website.

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Bayview real estate clients get attention for expertise

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 by Leah

Two Bayview PR clients were in the news last week, reflecting their status as leaders in the real estate industry.

John Rymer of Rymer Strategies, a national-level residential real estate expert, was quoted in a St. Petersburg Times story on how higher-end home sales are improving in the Tampa Bay area, while the Tampa Bay Business Journal featured Franklin Street, a fast-growing commercial real estate services company, in a Strategies section story.

We keep close track of the real estate market, tied to our involvement with the Urban Land Institute’s Tampa Bay District Council, where Kyle is the marketing/PR chair. Our work focuses on media relations, industry involvement, speaking engagements, and for our residential real estate client, The Strand, a condo under construction in Clearwater, aggressive Realtor outreach. An example of this was a mention in Charles Rutenberg Realty’s novel “News and Notes” video update, which told the brokerage’s 2,000-plus Realtors about The Strand last week.

In residential real estate, developers and builders who were smart or fortunate enough to keep cash through the crash are well-positioned, and there are signs that 2011 may show improvement in sales beyond foreclosures and short sales.

And in commercial real estate, though the market continues to suffer, there are plenty of opportunities, particularly in multifamily housing, where prices have fallen to an attractive level for buyers who can come in and quickly improve profitability by upgrading apartment management.

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ULI housing forum draws attention

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 by Kyle

The outlook for the Tampa Bay area’s housing industry continues to be tough, but there are a few bright spots for the developers and builders who still have cash and are smart enough to find opportunities.

That was the message at last week’s Urban Land Institute housing forum at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Tampa. Among the panel members: Andrew Wright, managing partner of Bayview client Franklin Street Financial Partners, a fast-growing Tampa-based commercial real estate company.

Andrew used a Warren Buffett line to describe how tough times can show who’s smart and who isn’t. “When the tide goes out, you see who’s been swimming naked,” he said.

The event was covered by both the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times, each included other thoughts by Andrew on the state of the market in their coverage.

St. Petersburg Times column by Robert Trigaux

Tampa Tribune story by Shannon Behnken

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