Marketing Melodie

Congratulations to the lovely Jennifer Mitchell of JMPR. She is the winner of Marketing Melodie’s Social Media Swag Bag!

If you’re wondering where I got my enthusiasm for hosting contests and giveaway here’s a little background. I began my career working in radio promotions. You will hear me say this over and over again but I’m so grateful I had an opportunity to work in the Radio industry. Successful contesting is one of the things I learned in Radio which is an industry known for hosting contests that receive the most hype and having the hottest giveaways in town! Working in radio gives you the keys to the city and access to all major events, concerts and funky swag meaning there’s a lot of fun stuff to give away! Read the rest of this entry »

Many people have been asking me for the link to my Twitter segment on AJ’s Playhouse last week on April 14th, 2009. Ask and you shall receive, here you go!

Melodie on the Radio: 1st segment
Melodie on the Radio 2nd segment

Thank you to everyone for your positive feedback! I sincerely appreciate it and am am grateful for those who have reached out to me for advice, partnerships and hiring me for Social Media strategy. Please don’t hesistate to comment on my blog or reach out to me in any of my other social networks at any time! Always happy to help!

In 2008 I posted the blog Traditional Media Companies It’s Time To Go Digital. I emphasized that if traditional media embraces social media and uses it strategically they now has a new opportunity to engage, interact and compel their audience. The time has come! The past few months Social Media and Twitter in particular have been all the hype through celebrities, news stations, radio and even newspapers.

San Diego’s Top 40 radio station, Channel 933 does a great job at having their on air personalities update and interact with listeners through Twitter. They realize as a radio station that represents pop culture they need to be at the forefront of what’s happening. As more people sign up for Twitter, more confusion is caused and it becomes difficult to understand what Twitter really is and how to benefit from it. I was invited by my friends on Channel 933’s morning show, AJ’s Playhouse to educate listeners on Twitter. If you’re finding my blog from the segment on April 14th then welcome! The invitation to the show inspired me to compile some Twitter tips for beginners.

Before I go into specific tips, lets get this main question out of the way: WHAT THE HECK IS TWITTER?! Twitter is a micro blog that allows users to communicate by providing real time information quickly and efficiently. The 140 character limit allows people to cut to the chase in their tweets. The following tips will define my answer. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m going to touch on a topic that’s very close to me: Traditional Media. I worked at a Traditional Media company for 4 years before making the transition to an Online Marketing Agency and over the past few years I’ve seen the evolution of Traditional Media as it attempts keep its audience during an age where the accelerated pace of Social Media is taking over.

In many cases, there is little or no attempt from traditional media to engage their audience through social media. Setting up a Twitter account for your radio station and having it sit there doesn’t count. Creating a Facebook group for your TV station and never updating doesn’t count. Attempting to put your newspaper online word for word without a Social Media Optimization campaign, also results in FAIL (aka: the famous internet term for something gone wrong!).

For as long as we remember people relied on Traditional Media as their main source for news and entertainment. That is until recently. In the last year, Social Media has trumped Traditional media in usage. People spend more time on Social Media than they do reading the newspaper, watching TV or listening to the radio combined. This not the end for traditional media. This the beginning of a new opportunity to engage, interact and compel your audience to continue viewing your media as a credible resource!

Radio on-air personality excited to announce their new Social Media Networks.

Traditional Media companies pride themselves in being at the forefront of what’s current so if you don’t have an effective Social Media campaign you’re contradicting yourself. Need some ideas?

Radio: On-air personalities should create a Twitter account to connect with listeners through microblogging. Promote your on-air contests, on-site events and online photos and videos in real time to keep your listeners engaged even when they aren’t tuned in.

Newspaper: Most newspapers have digitized their articles. But few have worked on community building. Allow forums so readers feel connected as they post on different news stories. Allow readers to easily share articles through social bookmarking.

TV: Have your personalities blog about their broadcasts to create a more authentic voice than reading off a teleprompter! Blog about the TV shows on your station to boost your traffic from an entertainment standpoint.

You know what they say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” What does this mean? Don’t get stigmatized as an old-school dying industry.TV stations, Newspapers, Radio Stations, Magazines, it’s time to hire an Online Marketing company to help you with an overall Social Media strategy that really shows your audience you get it!

For those who don’t already know I resigned from my position as a Marketing Consultant at Clear Channel Communications. I begin my new venture at with 3K Interactive on Monday Sept. 22nd. I am excited to move into Online Marketing. The Internet is growing exponentially and the opportunity is unlimited! I’ll be a true consultant, resource and connector for my clients.

The main question I get is “Why did you leave?” First I’d like to say that I absolutely loved working at Clear Channel. For almost 2 and 1/2 years I have felt nothing less than proud to represent the company. It was a difficult journey and succeeding there is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Long nights, stressful days, driving all over town, cancellations, internal battles etc, but my hard work at Clear Channel was well worth it! The things I learned about building client relationships, developing targeted campaigns, interpersonal relationships, having a strong work ethic and marketing in general are priceless! The perks of working in radio aren’t bad either!

After working there I am confident that I can take on any challenge and succeed. It was a stepping stone that opened up so many doors. I didn’t leave because I wasn’t doing well or I didn’t like the company. The more I grew in my position there, the more I wanted to offer more to my clients. By creating campaigns for people only within Clear Channel Properties I became extremely limited. I wasn’t creating targeted campaigns. I was reaching out to thousands of people with a commercial that probably only 1% of listeners actually cared about. Out of those 1% only another 1% actually remember to go home and look up info about the ad. Radio is the largest form of word of mouth and works great if you’re a huge corporation with a large marketing budget but for companies who can’t afford to spend as much as Coke or McDonalds the online presence is essential before considering any other medias. Thus my transition to online marketing.

I’m an Entrepreneur at heart. I’m always formulating new ventures, business ideas and plans to grow my career so the transition to online marketing is perfect because . I never sold a campaign that I didn’t believe would work but the more I learned about marketing, I realized that there is more that I can do to help businesses grow. I will now create campaigns where my clients will be found by consumers specifically searching for their product/service instead of trying to find consumers who probably don’t care. My campaigns will be permissive and the advertising will be sought after rather than interruptive like most TV and Radio Ads. I will help my clients build a community to really engage their customers. I will optimize websites to increase conversion rates and I’ll be able to track everything which will allow me to fine tune and customize the campaign as it progresses. I could go on and on about what I’m now able to offer with the online world! If you’d like to learn more about my new marketing resources please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

So there you have it! The real story about my transition and new business venture!