Jessie Holeva is a media personality and budget fashion expert. As the founder and blogger behind TrendHungry.com, Jessie excels on showcasing trends with the skinny budget in mind. Jessie can be heard weekly on her syndicated radio segment and can be seen on NBC10, 6ABC, Fox29 and WBRE. For the fashion 411 follow @trendhungryblog.

Everbody is on the Pinterest bandwagon – big businesses, baby bloggers, even your mom. If you haven’t yet, jump on board. It’s a fun, free ride and it’s a powerful platform.

Pictures speak a thousand words and we’re a visual society. No matter how witty you are in 140 characters or less, a picture is much more likely to be repined verses your clever slug retweeted.

Okay, let’s dumb it down a bit. After all, this site’s explosion is relatively new. Think of a bulletin board. You read a magazine and find a cool workout, a pretty lip color, a funny quote. You rip it out, pin it to your board and it’s there for inspiration. Pinterest is the virtual version that enables you to share your finds, see what your friends are pinning, share your cool finds, and even take these ideas with you via your smart phone. Pretty cool, right?

But that’s not why you should join the club. It’s huge for blog traffic. Add a Pinterest button to your blog (very easy to install for wordpress.org users), pin your pics from the blog and get ready for the repins to begin (people sharing what you posted) …and new blog visitors.

Why do you need the pin button? Because you simply uploading a pic doesn’t link it to the source (aka your site). We want more traffic and the easier you make this for potential readers, the better. They like that neon skirt on your site? Bam. They can pin it. Or they’re on your Pinterest and see mint green nail polish they have to have. They click, and what do ya know? They’re on your site!

It’s that simple. I know, I know, there are so many freakin’ social-media sites, it’s ridiculous. But Pinterest is a major game changer. National news is covering it. Jeanie Mai from the Style Network has one (and follows me!). It’s literally changing the way people search for the items they want. They like your pin. They repin and share with their network and visit your site. No matter now much someone likes what you posted on Facebook, it’s unlikely they’ll make it their status and all of their friends will make it their status. It just doesn’t work like that. Pinterest does!

And it’s compatible with Facebook and Twitter, so less work for you to share your finds and your content. Did I mention it’s free?

Jamie Garantziotis is a communication professional based in Melbourne, Australia, where he began his communication career with Southern Cross Austereo, and is the former Member Communication Chair for IABC Victoria. When not indulging his passion for media and communication, you’ll find him cycling in search of the perfect cup of specialty coffee. He also blogs at JamieGarantziotis.com and Waxing UnLyrical.

Late last year, two great posts prompted me to start a little Twitter experiment.

The first from Harrison Kratz talked about the fundamentals and basics in PR in the context of social media: writing, press releases and networking.

The second from Rachael Seda discusses her experience with Port City Brewery and the way in which they responded directly and in a timely manner to her praise for the brand on Twitter.

This second post prompted me to think about another fundamental for social media and business to add to the first – listening.

Inspired by Rachael’s anecdote, I set out to give a few shout-outs to my favorite brands over the holidays and test out their social media fundamentals.

The results?

Of nine businesses, three retweeted my praise for their followers to see, but only one retweeted and actually replied directly with thanks.

Now although this experiment was conducted over a small sample of nine businesses representative only of my interests and brand allegiance, I’m sure you’ll agree that one in nine isn’t an impressive figure.

To add to this experiment, I decided to tweet out after an unfortunate piece of non-customer service I received last week.

The result?

No response from the brand – only a return tweet from a follower criticizing their service and suggesting an alternative online supplier.

In both these cases I was left with an overwhelming sense of disappointment that the brands were happy to send out their own messages, but not willing to listen and respond to the dialogue from fans and customers.

The lesson for businesses and brands?

Consumers do want great content, and to hear about your latest products, developments and offerings. But we also want to be acknowledged and to hear back from you – especially if we pose a question or experience a problem.

In short, we want less of the megaphone and more of the telephone (metaphorically speaking).

Yes, the advent and ongoing development of paid, earned and owned content in social media has increased the opportunity for brands and companies to reach consumers through these channels more than ever before.

But are you prepared, and have you empowered those in your organization to respond to these messages?

I’ve often thought of it in terms of London’s Speakers’ Corner.

Having spent many hours there during my visits to Hyde Park I’ve noticed two types of communicators – those that speak to the crowd, and those that speak with the crowd.

The latter is able to communicate their messages, pay attention to the response of those listening and respond instantly in a public forum. They provide debate and value through discussion.

The former is happy to communicate their messages and their messages only – leaving those in the public arena often frustrated as their words are drowned out (literally) by the megaphone.

Which better represents your business, and which would you like it to represent?

There’s a ton happening at Bad Rhino, so a quick update is needed.  I’m not sure exactly where to begin here, so I’ll jump to it…

Bad Rhino on IWearYourShirt.com

If you’re not familiar with IWearYourShirt.com, you might want to head on over to check them out.  And yes it IS exactly like it sounds. One of their shirt wearers will be dressed up in a Bad Rhino T-shirt for the day.  They’ll be making a video about Bad Rhino, posting pictures of Bad Rhino online, tweeting about us, and even conducting a UStream live show.

We’ll be around all day to join in the conversations, spread their video awesomeness around, and see how great they look in our T-shirt.

Make sure to stop by their website tomorrow to see what they are saying about Bad Rhino.  Oh, and probably important to note that Mr. Sean Ely will be our shirt wearer, so check his portion of the website and follow him on Twitter @theseanwow.

Oh, and there’s more…

We’re Giving Away a Kindle Fire!

This is the 2nd image you'll see! If you already "like" Bad Rhino, you'll find this first

In conjunction with our IWearYourShirt.com day, we’re also giving away a Kindle Fire on our Facebook Page!  Head on over to the Facebook page at http://facebook.com/badrhinoinc.  This contest isn’t officially starting until tomorrow, but if you want to enter early, I’m not stopping you!  How to enter:

• Go to Facebook.com/BadRhinoInc.com
• Find the App/Tab that says “WIN KINDLE FIRE”
• To enter, you must “like” Bad Rhino first, so if you don’t already, then go ahead and “like” the page to get to the next step!
• The next image will have an arrow pointing down to the “enter” button.  Once you click enter, fill out your name and email.
• Then feel free to hit the “share” button to let your friends know of our awesome sweepstakes!

Winner will be selected on Thursday, March 22nd at 5PM EST.

Joe Vallee kind of fell into social media, but he liked what he saw and created Philly2Philly.com, Philadelphia’s most personalized web site which almost 2 million people have seen since its launch in 2009. In his spare time, Joe hosts ‘What’s With You?’ on Philly2Philly, lends his voice to several radio spots as well as Apple iPad broadcasts, and can usually be found at Citizens Bank Park watching and writing about the Phillies during baseball season. Check out Philly2Philly.com  and follow @philly2philly on Twitter.

Running a daily web site in the fourth biggest market in the country can be quite challenging at times. You get so caught up in your everyday activities just trying to maintain the quality of the site to the point where you can sometimes get stuck in a creative rut. It happens to the best of us, and the pressure to keep topping yourself in finding new ways to be innovative can take its toll.

Although Dennis (Philly2Philly co-founder Dennis Bakay) and I have started off strong creating Philly2Philly’s identity, we run this site from our homes, and we’ll be the first ones to tell you we don’t have all the answers. In fact, we tell everybody we don’t have all the answers, because it’s true!  We’re not the type of people to thumb our noses at the masses claiming we are ‘all knowing.’ I’ve seen that kind of behavior firsthand, and it never works.

For a lot of Philly2Philly’s content, we ask our hired help to put their two cents in. It’s not passing the buck or anything like that. The outside general public has a much better perception about our site than we do because we are running things. Furthermore, you are only as good as your help. Why do you think baseball managers or football coaches usually bring in their own staff when they get hired? Chances are they’ve had success with that particular group of personnel.  Dennis and I are the architects of our site, but our writers, interns, and friends are all helping us fly this plane. It’s almost like a record producer who doesn’t have a biased set of ears for the songs he is helping shape for a band’s album.

Whether it’s in a working office or on a basketball court, everyone wants their opinion to matter or feel involved. It creates good morale, keeps people interested in doing what they’re doing, and overall, they feel like they are part of something. Not being involved or being disregarded as just another number is not fun and you lose more people than you gain. It doesn’t even have to be an idea that somebody presents. It’s amazing how something so small like addressing an employee by their name, asking how their family is, or just telling them you appreciate their hard work can make a person’s day. Sure, you might not use every suggestion somebody provides, but weigh out every possibility before making a final decision. That is what successful business people do. Keeping an open mind is a must.

Of course, there are some choices that you have to make by yourself as business owners that don’t involve hired help, but if the opportunity presents itself, it’s not the worst thing in a given situation to get somebody’s alternative opinion. Granted, you don’t want some arrogant know-it- all who is ignorant of your company telling you that you’re doing everything wrong, but sometimes a breath of fresh air is needed to provide a whole new perspective on a situation. You may even find out that sometimes, their suggestions might even be better than yours.

Hey you never know, one little thing a person can mention to you in passing could trigger an idea that could inspire you to become very successful, or on a larger scale, help you change the world!

We’ve all done it.

That heart-wrenching moment when a social media channel manager realizes a tweet has gone awry.

Maybe it was a direct message accidentally sent in the public stream, an update cut short because of an erroneous send, or in the case of the Calgary Flames’ SM Manager — posting an editorial about a rival team from the wrong account.

On Friday, Feb. 24, an NHL rumor made news, stating that Edmonton Oilers forward Ales Hemsky would be receiving a hefty and arguably undeserved raise. Snarky and opinionated comments fluttered through the Twitterverse, including the Flames’ official and typically straight-laced Twitter account.

“$10 Million over two years for Hemsky is the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long, long time. I hope it happens. #whatajoke.”

The tweet, which was supposed to have been sent on a personal account of the SM Manager, went viral in the hockey world and was removed just minutes later, replaced with a note of understandable panic.

And they did.

In respectable and time-sensitive fashion, the Flames not only refused to ignore the issue or hide under the typical “hacker” excuse, they confronted it head on. The Flames’ official website, CalgaryFlames.com, posted an apology and documented the mistake from beginning to end. Even displaying screenshots!

“Earlier today an inappropriate tweet was sent from our @NHLFlames account by a staff member. The below tweet was meant to come from a personal account, which we do not condone either, but mistakenly made its way onto our timeline.

“The tweet was deemed inappropriate and immediately deleted; however we do acknowledge its existence. We quickly followed up on our account with the following tweet:

“It is an internal issue that will be dealt with and it does not reflect the thoughts and opinions of the Calgary Flames organization.”

Facing up to the mistake saved dignity for the Flames, who were clearly embarrassed by the tweet. And in the mean time, displayed a perfect example of troubleshooting live SM issues.

What should you do in a similar situation?

Don’t run from the issue, embrace it in a timely and honest fashion. The short attention world of Twitter will forget mistakes. Why not have them forgive you, too?

The social media groundswell that is Pinterest can officially be labeled the next big thing.

In going from near 200,000 unique visitors to over seven million in less than one year, the immense traffic-driver rivaling Twitter and Google + is connecting customers with products and businesses at an eye-popping pace.

But with a layout and function powered by visual products, many brands, including ones in the sports market, are slow to get on board and grab onto the site’s meteoric rise.

”Pinterest is a powerful platform for brands with visual products,” wrote Sivan Cohen & Ben Lang, guest posting on Tech Crunch. “So if you’re a fashion designer, foodie, artist, etc., it’s a great place to share your work. But that leaves out an enormous portion of brands, especially those in tech. Granted, it lets you show the personal side of a brand – you can pin pictures of your team or office, or the things you love — but it’s hard to convey the core business offering of your brand if it can’t be shown in pictures.”

While Lang and Cohen were discussing tech’s place on Pinterest, sports leagues and teams are in the same boat. How does a vast athletic organization, with a concentration on ticket sales and a live product, grasp a visual-based social network?

Just let the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA show you.

One of just a few professional teams in the four major sports with a Pinterest account and just one of a handful of accounts labeled “official,” the Bucks have taken hold of the program and done it the correct way.

For those unfamiliar, the user’s profile is broken into “pin boards” to which the user can pin visual objects found in the Pinterest network and the web as a whole onto designated boards.

In the case of the Bucks, they have broken their boards into merchandise for Him, Her and Kids, Game photos, Classic Bucks Clips, Team Promotions and fans sporting Bucks gear. They have a creative and unique user photo which also features a shot of fans and they make it clear in the bio that they are the official page of the Bucks.

The strategy of mixing sale items with fan-friendly content will keep the page from looking like a pure money grab, something professional teams like to avoid. However, by including clothing, the Bucks have tapped into Pinterest’s strength of directing users to root sites of where to shop.

The Seattle Seahawks of the NFL are another team utilizing Pinterest, although not to the extent of the Bucks. The Seahawks have merch and fan photos, but have added a board called “Great Seahawks Stories” where they display individuals with a unique connection to the team.

The Anaheim Ducks of the NHL pinned photos of team jerseys, fan-made signs and even screenshots of Tweets and other social media updates. The Boston Celtics of the NBA decided on photos of the team’s official dancers.

Although not labeled official, the Portland Winterhawks, a junior hockey team, added a board featuring just the photo headshots of rostered players. The Tampa Bay Lightning’s non-official Pinterest has added photos of actual lightning bolts and general Tampa Bay-themed pictures.

Despite the meek number of athletic franchises currently in the Pinterest network, these aforementioned teams have shown it can be done and done well. Now that the Pinterest road is being paved by these forward-thinking groups, expect to see many more “official” accounts spring up, especially as the social network grows.

The truth is, Pinterest has the potential to be a rabid traffic-driver for everyone with a product, not just boutiques and wedding dress shops. It just takes a little creativity.

Frozen Yogurt and I have always had a nice relationship, but lately, the delicious treat has become a much bigger part of my life.  Bad Rhino has recently landed a contract to manage social media for a Philadelphia Frozen Yogurt shop called So Fun! Frozen Yogurt.

For the most part, researching campaigns, strategies, and the actual client has been both interesting and tasty.  However, a few days ago I found myself frowning when conducting my FroYo research.  I had stumbled onto a Facebook page of an apparently lazy Southern FroYo shop.  A customer had asked the most basic and popular question that you’ll find on a FroYo Facebook page…

“What are your flavors?”

Maybe their answer won’t be as frown inducing for you as it was for me, but I’ll display the screen shot and let you be the judge.

Not completely sure why customer sent a thank you response considering they were basically brushed off.  Seriously, how lazy can you be?  A simple 3 second copy and paste isn’t asking much and the extra effort would leave the customer feeling love from their favorite  FroYo shop, which is  invaluable.  Sadly, this local shop just misses the mark and fails to provide smiles outside of their shop.

Posting flavors weekly or even bi-weekly is low hanging fruit for a business like this.  Not only is it EASY to post, but it’s the exact content that entices customers to visit the shop, spend money, and enjoy yogurt.  That’s the idea here, right?

Here are more social updates that are musts for yogurt shops:

• Nutritional facts about popular flavors
• Asking the community what their favorite flavor or topping is
• Posting pictures of of the inside of the shop
• Posting pictures of freshly made customer yogurt creations
• Staff picks of the day/week/month
• Daily contests for free or reduced yogurt
• Responding to EVERY comment or question from the community
• Updates when flavors run out or when new flavors arrive
• Messages during peak or dead times to entice community members to stop in and enjoy a treat

Joe Vallee kind of fell into social media, but he liked what he saw and created Philly2Philly.com, Philadelphia’s most personalized web site which almost 2 million people have seen since its launch in 2009. In his spare time, Joe hosts ‘What’s With You?’ on Philly2Philly, lends his voice to several radio spots as well as Apple iPad broadcasts, and can usually be found at Citizens Bank Park watching and writing about the Phillies during baseball season. Check out Philly2Philly.com  and follow @philly2philly on Twitter.

They often say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

On the other hand, some may interpret this as a ‘polite’ way of stealing.

While there is certainly a fine line, let’s face it: everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, borrows or is influenced by somebody or something in their line of work. Unless you’re living in a cave, it’s almost impossible not to be.

And in the field of social media, things are no different.

If you are one of those people, I’m here to tell you that it’s okay- but only to a certain extent. It all depends on the degree which you are influenced and how these ideas are incorporated into your business ventures.

With Philly2Philly, we made it a strict priority to not steal anybody’s ideas from other web sites in the Philadelphia area. We wanted to be original and pave our own way, and I think we succeeded in doing just that.

At the same time however, planning and launching a web site is one thing, but once you’re up and running, having staying power and keeping up with the ever-shifting trends is a whole other story. Technology is always changing, and you have to change with it. Let me put things in perspective for you: when we started planning Philly2Philly in 2008, Twitter wasn’t even fully developed yet, and look at it now!!

You will often hear the old cliche from athletes that they can’t worry about other teams and how they just have to do the best they can in the heat of the battle. That might be true, but they don’t call it scoreboard watching for nothing. They know exactly what their competition is doing. Whether this applies to competing car dealerships or rival funeral homes, you can’t be obsessed with how your opposition fares, but your peers might be doing something you aren’t, and you might be able to learn from them.

In my respective field (the internet), this could be something as simple as noticing where a competing site positions their Facebook icon or site register button so others can see it better. Maybe it’s the way a company uses their college interns and what they are doing to help bring more followers to their site. It could be the website platform on which their site is built on. Maybe they use Twitter with more regularity and retweet similar posts to theirs. It could even be how they put their advertising kit together, how they utilize their free ad space on their site, or what email carrier they use for their newsletters.

Don’t get me wrong, people who blatantly rip off others at their own expense should be reprimanded for it. In saying that, it’s not like any of these examples endorse stealing a novel concept (ie: ‘The Social Network’). These are harmless ways to take a page out of someone’s book that could possibly make a small or big difference within your company.  You don’t have all the answers, and neither do they. Be a sponge and soak everything in, but don’t take what rightfully is not yours. Chances are your competition was influenced by somebody when they were just starting out as well.

Who knows? Your companies might be able to help each other. And if you’re doing well yourself, they might take notice of you too!

Jessie Holeva is a media personality and budget fashion expert. As the founder and blogger behind TrendHungry.com, Jessie excels on showcasing trends with the skinny budget in mind. Jessie can be heard weekly on her syndicated radio segment and can be seen on NBC10, 6ABC, Fox29 and WBRE. For the fashion 411 follow @trendhungryblog.

Hi Social-Media Lovers!

I too, love social media, and it’s a good thing I do because this biz is all about instant communication and being cutting edge. Staying up on the latest trends doesn’t just mean clothes and shoes for this fashionista. It means hash tagging, Instagramming, and Bloglovin.

A huge part of blogging is checking out the competition. It’s not about stealing story ideas, but doing homework. Are all these other bloggers tweeting about their posts. Are social-media giveaways effective in the fashion blogosphere? Do I need a Chictopia account to level the playing field?

If this sound like foreign fashion, don’t fret. That’s why I’m here. I’m not quite the guru I plan to be, but blogging daily for over a year has been a crash course in PR, marketing, and strategic social media.

Plus, if this is your world then maybe you already know. There’s no fool-proof business plan yet for fashion blogging. Some bloggers are broke and post their latest manicure they DIYed while watching Pretty Little Liars. Others have four entries up daily, a staff of writers, and host Twitter parties like it’s their bachelorette party.

There’s no wrong way to blog, but first pick you focal point. Love shoes? Shoe blog! Love cat clothes? There’s probably a market for this so own it! Pick what you love, fine tune your idea, and get to writing. Is this just a hobby? Is this a monthly thing? Weekly? Daily? Consistency is one of the key blogging skills. It’s how you forge your way, make you name, and get readers coming back.

I’ll be here monthly giving out my blogging secrets and you had better be reading, because some of the bloggers out there aren’t keen on sharing. There’s no book out to aid their quest for blog domination, so why would they blog you a cheat sheet? I, however, will be sharing and hoping you weigh in on the subject matter. Afterall, aren’t we stronger in numbers?