Stephanie Liu

Facebook Places…hmm, I still like Foursquare

There’s a new feature on Facebook called “Places,” that allows you to share your location with your friends by checking-in at a location. You can even tag friends that are with you which frankly, is what I like most about this feature. Like other location-based platforms, you can see if your friends have checked in nearby – that’s happened to me on several occasions when checking in on Foursquare.

However, unlike Foursquare, Facebook Places doesn’t let you become the Mayor of a location which is really what I think makes Foursquare fun from a user’s perspective. You can win badges, oust the current Mayor, and if you’re lucky…take advantage of customer exclusive rewards like becoming the Mayor of your local Starbucks and getting a discount on your next cup of coffee.

I wonder what the future plans are for Facebook Places…Will it integrate with Facebook’s business pages? What’s their strategy against competitors like Foursquare and Yelp? I guess time will only tell.

For now, I’ll stick to my current guidelines:

  1. Default check-in: Foursquare
  2. If it’s a restaurant: Yelp
  3. If a friend is with me: Facebook Places

However, despite which platform I decide to use to check-in, the funny thing is, it’ll end up on Facebook anyway. 🙂

If you’re on Foursquare, be sure to add Heystephanie. Check you later!

Stephanie Liu

Ad 2 National Mid Year Retreat 2009

  • By Stephanie Liu
  • November 28, 2009
  • Events

Earlier this month, Ad 2 San Diego hosted the Ad 2 National Mid-Year Retreat at The Dana on Mission Bay. The event had over 40 Ad 2 members from chapters all over the US which was a great experience for a new member such as myself.

As the Social Media chair on the Communications Committee for Ad2SD, I was eager to meet other Ad 2 members that shared my position to exchange ideas on two specific areas: (1) how we could better promote our Ad 2 events and (2) encourage other professionals in our areas to join our events.

During our break out session, I learned that other chapters were taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter to promote their events like us. However,  I was suprised to learn that other chapter didn’t promote events on their site as often as  we did (i.e. Event Announcement, Event Summary, Photos, etc.) but after sharing our success stories with other members, I’m confident that that will change in the future.

Below are a few key take aways that I learned from the other Social Media chairs:

1. Leverage your Ad 2 newsletters and forward them to interested co-workers.

2. Edit your Facebook invites to invite members and fans that are local.

3. Twitter can help find local sponsors for your Ad 2 events (i.e. happy hours at bard, printing needs, etc.).

4. Stream events online if possible and post on video sites such as Ustream.tv, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

The key take aways listed above are definitely actions items that the Communications committee are going to roll out this year. Aside from learning new best practices for social media, I started realize that Ad 2 isn’t just for folks involved in online marketing — it’s for young professionals that are passionate about all avenues of advertising (i.e. print, television, online, etc.). Overall, mid year retreat was a great experience and I’m definitely looking forward to attending next year’s mid year retreat.

Before I head out, check out the Ustream video highlighting our Toga Catwalk.

Stephanie Liu

Social Media Breakfast San Diego Recap

  • By Stephanie Liu
  • September 27, 2009
  • Events

milanocoffee-29Aug2007113333925625
Getting involved in the social  media scene in San Diego is easy and fun thanks to Social Media Breakfast San Diego (SMBSD). The group meets once a month at the Milano Coffee  in Mission Valley to network and collaborate with other social media enthusiasts  and to share their experiences in recent  social media initiatives.

This month we got up close and personal with the social media team from Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. otherwise known as Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes. Erika DiProfio and Ginger Anderson are the masterminds behind the company’s social media strategy and shared with us how Garden Fresh utilized social media and how their fully integrated approach has proven to be successful.

Below is the presentation from the event. You can also check out the Ustream video to the right. I suggest fast forwarding the video 16  minutes because that’s when the actual Souplantation discussion begins.

Key Take Aways

  1. Erika & Ginger are responsible day to day execution of Souplantation’s social media strategy.
  2. Social media was not viewed as a single campaign but a way to integrate everything they do for promotions.
    1. Use social media to capture customer feedback and drive marketing initiatives.
  3. Their goals were to open the lines of communication and to increase brand loyalty.
  4. UGC contest on Facebook has included: Best Pucker Face & Best Salad Face.
  5. The company has over 5K employees. Downward communication has been vital to their success to date.
  6. Over 1.1MM Club Veg Members to date.
  7. CEO has supported the team’s social media initiatives.

[Image Source: DiscoverSD]

[Video Source: SMBSD]

Stephanie Liu

Ad 2 San Diego Cause Marketing Night Recap

  • By Stephanie Liu
  • September 6, 2009
  • Events

ntc

Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Ad 2 San Diego (Ad2SD) Cause Marketing Night at the stunning NTC Promenade. Each year, Ad2SD donates a complete advertising campaign to one non-profit organization in the San Diego area. The advertising campaign includes television, radio, print, outdoor and interactive advertising elements depending on the client’s goals and objectives. Other campaigns have also included a logo design, production of collateral materials, and public relations initiatives. With the help of committed Ad2SD members, Ad2SD designs and produces the campaign for the non-profit organization with little to no cost at all.

This year, three non-profit organizations competed for the coveted Ad2SD Public Service campaign which included the Challenged Athletes Foundation, California for Sustainable Energy, and Make a Wish Foundation. Each non-profit was given 10 minutes to present what the goal and objectives were for their organization and how they would be able to benefit from the public service campaign. For a full recap on event, check our Marco Barron’s summary here.

After the presentation and Q&A session, Ad2SD presented Christine Guardia, the Cause Cultivator of KooDooZ. Guardia discussed how partnerships are the fifth “P” in a marketing mix. Below is the presentation that she prepared that night.

For more information on Cause Marketing, be sure to follow Guardia on Twitter @Cause4Kdz. As for the winner of this year’s Ad 2 San Diego Public Service campaign, be sure to check out the Ad2SD site. They should be announcing the winner soon!

[Image source: NTC Promenade]

Stephanie Liu

Updated Publications Page

  • By Stephanie Liu
  • August 29, 2009
  • Blogging

publicationsInspired by Danny Brown’s 12for12k.org media page, I realized that my publications page had become dull and boring with barely any images and lots of text, text, and more text — it was definitely time for an upgrade. My goal was to create an interactive space  that featured video tutorials I uploaded to Viddler and SlideShare presentations. Using Danny’s media page as my inspiration, I  was able to organize my multimedia projects into a clean table with thumbnail images. So please check out my new Publications page and let me know what you think.

If you’ve created your own multimedia page in your blog, please feel free to share the link.

Stephanie Liu

Ad 2 San Diego presents Cause Marketing Night

  • By Stephanie Liu
  • August 11, 2009
  • Events

ad2sandiegoIf you’re a marketing professional under the age of 32 and looking for a professional organization where you can network with other members of the advertising, marketing, and communications field – you should check out your local Ad 2 chapter. And if you’re in San Diego, you should definitely check out Ad 2 San Diego (Ad2SD). Why you ask? Because Ad 2 is a great organization that helps create future advertising and marketing industry leaders through education, leadership development and networking programs.

Just recently, Ad2SD hosted the “Start Up or Shut Up” event where attendees got to get up close and personal with a panel of San Diego’s finest agency execs to learn what it takes to bring a start up to a reality.

The panel included:

Over 50 attendees attended the event (myself included) and were able to gain an intimate perspective on the pros and cons of running a new business such as how to hire the right team, when to accept investment capital, how to negotiate rates, and more. Overall, it was a great night with a huge turnout and I’m definitely excited for this month’s event.

On August 27, 2009 at 6PM, Ad2SD will be hosting their annual “Cause Marketing Night” where three non-profit organizations will get a chance to compete for the coveted Ad 2 Public Service Campaign.

According to Ad2SD, “Each year local chapters select a client, research the client’s needs and author a complete marketing plan. Then, based upon that information, AD 2 members create television, radio, print outdoor and interactive advertising elements. Some campaigns also include logo design, production of collateral materials and public relations initiatives.”

Each non-profit will be given 10 minutes to present to a panel of judges on why they deserve the campaign and after the presentations, the guest speaker (TBA) will share a presentation on Cause Marketing. Check out the TV spot that was created last year for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego County on the right panel. Awesome work don’t you think?

If you’re a non-profit in San Diego and want to compete for the coveted public service campaign, download your application here. If you’re interested in attending the event, you can register for the event now! Ad2 members get in for $10. Special discounts are also available for Students, Ad Club members, and YNPN members. To learn more about the event and the pricing details, go to Ad 2 SD Cause Marketing Night.

Hope to see you there!

[Image & Video Source: Ad 2 SD]

Stephanie Liu

SD Comic-Con 2009: Free WiFi and iPhone App

San Diego Comic-Con 2009San Diego weather and Comic-Con 2009 — enough said. 🙂 This year marks the 40th Anniversary and looks to be the biggest and best convention ever! With free WiFi available in all areas of the convention center except the Exhibit Hall courtesy of iGoogle, updating my status and sharing photos on Twitter and Facebook is going to be a piece of cake.

Comic-Con 2009 AppOn top of that, there’s an official Comic-Con app available for the iPhone and iPod Touch that provides access to the latest news, programs, exhibitors, special guest appearances,  and my favorite feature…maps!

I’ll be heading out shortly to Comic-Con so stay tuned for more updates and pics with folks that dress up.  I didn’t forget about Dexter from last year that came to the Con dressed up as MySpace, I can’t wait to see what his costume is this year.

Stephanie Liu

Have You Binged Today?

Microsoft’s new decision engine, Bing™, aims to help users make better and informed decisions by focusing on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business. ((http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/may09/05-28NewSearchPR.mspx)) The decision engine is expected to roll out over the next few days and fully deploy worldwide on Wednesday, June 3, 2009. As of today, you can access Bing in it’s ‘preview’ mode and take it for a spin – and that’s exactly what I did.

The Bing interface is clean and boasts new features such as categorized search and web groups which makes it easy to navigate. For example, in a search for mobile phones, Bing provided categories at the top left of the page

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(also known as the Explore Pane) for mobile brands, a buying guide, service providers etc. Once you click on a search category and hover over a listing, you’ll see a a short excerpt from that page. This quick preview can help you decide if that’s the right landing page that you’re looking for. Bing offers other features such as Related Searches, Search History, and Best Matches.

I’ll be trying Bing out for the rest of the week and see what other features will be rolled out by June 3, 2009. How about you? What are your thoughts on Microsoft’s new decision engine?

Stephanie Liu

New Google Profile Cards Arrived

google-profile-cards Earlier this month Google launched their profile pages and partnered with iPrint.com to offer free Google Profile business cards to the first 10,000 people to claim them. The promotion included 25 cards that feature the Google.com home page with your name in the search box and the address for your Google profile printed in green.

With a Google profile you can help people find the right information when they search for you on Google. You can check out my Google profile here. There’s still a lot of work to be done in the photo and bio section but I’m happy so far with the progress.

Thanks to Google and iPrint for the awesome promotion, I can’t wait to hand these out at Interactive Day San Diego next month on June 18, 2009. Discounts are also available for Ad2 members and students. You can register for the event here.

If you’ve already created your Google profile, feel free to post a link in the comments. I’m looking for some inspiration. 🙂