Help send our CEO to Explore and Engage 2011

Posted on January 7, 2011 in JuggleMedia Wichita, Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

#eeict, Engage and Explore, Start-Thinking, Wichita Social Media, YouTube

As a social marketing company in Wichita, it’s important to constantly learn what the larger, national brands are up to and see how to incorporate their success (and avoid their failures) into small businesses. On January 19th, Brian Solis, author of “Engage or die!” and Jason Falls runs popular blog Social Media Explorer. Two great minds to learn from, no doubt.

So here’s the deal, we would love your help sending Ryan E Cole, our Chief Engagement Officer to the conference so he can freshen up a bit, learn from these two brainiacs as well as the other folks in the room. In return, he will share the knowledge that specifically applies to smaller businesses right here in Wichita with a series of blog posts and action-steps for clients.

Here’s the steps to help.

1. Head over to Start-Thinking’s Facebook Page and look for Ryan’s video. (Click Here)

2. Click “like” below his and HIS ONLY . The one with the most “likes” wins.

Thank you so much!

Vail Resorts Connects Skiers with Amazing Social Network

Posted on September 28, 2010 in Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

Facebook, social media, Twitter, Vail Resorts Awesomeness, Wichita Social Media, YouTube

All you have to do it watch this:

Makes me miss Colorado all over again. This is truly amazing. I wish I was a part of it. This social network/application/awesomeness/altimeter/lift ticket will allow skiers (okay and you boarders too, blech) to stay connected on and off the mountain while monitoring a bunch of important info.

All I have to do now is pack.

[Link]- The Next 5 Years in Social Media

Posted on September 8, 2010 in Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

Facebook, Mashable, online marketing, Twitter, wichita ks, Wichita Social Media, YouTube

Social Media has no-doubt become on of the most popular buzz words in the last 5-years. Starting with services like Friendster and MySpace, social media sites have come and gone and to some, some speculation on whether this is a fad or a powerful tool.

Internet blog Mashable posted an article on what the future holds for social media. As Wichita’s social media company, it’s our job to tell you what these world-wide phenomenons mean to you and your business right here in Wichita. To read the article, click here.

Here’s some of the most notable thoughts for you to consider. First, the concept of social media is becoming  more and more ingrained into our everyday lives. Most websites now are starting to add Facebook “Like” buttons and Twitter “Tweet-This” buttons to make information easier to share. The further this technology reaches and entrenches into our everday lives, the harder and harder it is to list it as a fad.

Second, we are constantly asked “What’s the next thing?” There was Friendster, then MySpace and now Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We’d argue that there isn’t a “next thing” just that the largest networks are only going to get larger. Facebook, for example, has 500 Million ACTIVE users. These are people that log in and actively use the site, not just create an account and “play.” YouTube is also a monster, owned by Google and the second-larges search engine in the world.

PLUS- these larger social networks are very smart and have a lot of power. The barrier to enter the social marketplace is so large now. Facebook has a tremendous amount of power holding onto 1/12th of the world’s population personal information. Imagine the amount of money needed to get to that level starting from scratch. Facebook and similar companies won’t let that happen. They purchase these little start-ups and any network that gets attention and integrates the technology into their site. Very smart.

We will see social media become more and more mobile in the next five years. Devices like smart-phones and tablets like the iPad allow people to do business and be connected anywhere. Plus, mobile applications are a huge marketplace and business-specific applications are going to be a huge need in the coming years.

Finally, video will trump text. Sites like YouTube are making it very easy to upload videos and share information. As a society, text is becoming more and more boring. You need to keep a person’s attention and video communication tells more than just mundane text. Non-verbal communication ques will be more and more important as social technology grows. At least we hope so or we will all be impersonal robots.

So what does this mean for your business here in Wichita? Well, first you MUST be on social networks. Places like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are here and here to stay. Get on and start communicating effectively (we’ll show you how). Second, you MUST learn how to create a more open business structure. Yes, your competitors will be watching, but there are effective ways to discuss your business with audiences without giving away the secret recipe. It’s easy and we will show you how. Third, you MUST learn how to interact. Many, many, many, many businesses come to us AFTER they’ve started “communicating” on social networks because they’ve started but aren’t getting anywhere. They view it as a waste of time. Learning how to interact on these social channels is important and very vital to the long-term success one may experience in these social spaces.

At JuggleMedia, we help businesses start, understand and communicate effectively to audiences within these social channels. It’s a fun and rewarding process that takes time, knowledge and the proper start. Give us a call at 316-747-9266 and let’s see where you are and it we can help. You can visit us on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels if you’d like.

It’s WEDDING WEEK!

Posted on August 23, 2010 in Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

Facebook, JuggleMedia Wichita, MailChimp, Social Media Strategy, Twitter, Ustream, wedding, Wichita Social Media, YouTube

Usually, I try to keep the blog posting here on JuggleMedia.com about social media and how it pertains to companies in and around Wichita, Kansas. Today, however, I’m going completely off the reservation.

IT’S MY WEDDING WEEK!

Yep. It is. Boo-yah! I thought this day would never come!

So what does this mean to you, and more important, why am I writing about this here and not on my Facebook Page? Well, simply put there are some things that even businesses can learn about social media when it comes to the social channels we’ve set-up for our wedding

First, let’s start with our Wedding Website. If you go to ryanandkelsi.com, you’ll see it looks a lot like another site somewhere out there, say, oh, JuggleMedia. That’s because we use WordPress.org and the Mystique theme. Being that I know the Mystique theme pretty well, I didn’t want to spend hours and hours creating a site from scratch. WordPress gives you the tools to get online and pretty fast.

Instead of going for a “Save the Date” card, about 80% of our guests are on Facebook, so we opted for an event called “Ryan & Kelsi Save-The-Date.” We were going to call it Ryan & Kelsi Wedding, but we wanted our audience to know that this was something they were getting and it needs to be written down. That and Facebook Events offers some pretty sweet calendar export tools that allows our guest to click one button and they’ve got it down.

Now that the event is FINALLY here, we are using different channels to continue to promote how we’re doing. For example, our personal Facebook Pages have been an excellent place for our audience to interact with us. Also, we use our personal Twitter accounts to keep the wedding party up to date. We’ve even used GoogleDocs to capture our RSVPs and then we can send an email blast to all of our guest using MailChimp to update them on where they need to be and when. Finally, we’re still kicking around the idea of using my UStream channel to stream our wedding live to a few guests that can’t make it, like my cousin who is on the no-fly list because she is so pregnant she is about to pop. We’re still deciding for personal reasons if we want to do that. I’ll let you know.

All of these different channels connect a different segment of the audience that we need to communicate. It’s about overlap and not just picking one and saying that’s it. Not all of our guest are on Facebook (although that’s by far the largest portion) and not even there are they guarenteed to connect. Social Media is about using these channels together to get your message across while understanding your audience and who they are.

In business, it’s the same way. Setting up all of these different channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, UStream, GoogleDocs, MailChimp and the thousand other channels is important ONLY IF that’s where your audience hangs out. I still had to send my Grandma a paper invitation, but was able to talk to her over Skype about it. (Funny side-note- She did say that if she knew she was going to be on TV she would have put on more make-up. Pretty funny stuff!)

So when you are thinking about events, business meetings and marketing in general think about these different social channels and the audience. When you need help call me at JuggleMedia, Wichita’s Social Media Company after Labor Day. We help Wichita companies understand these channels, how to connect people and how to transfer the audience into actual customers. We have a proven track-record of successful campaigns and pages including one currently running that has gained an average of 40 new followers a day on Facebook. Enjoy your day!

Cancun, here we come!

Ryan