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New Digital Royalty University Class

Social media can be a company’s best defense when it comes to tackling PR issues or handling a company controversy and it’s important to have a strategy in place. Through relevant examples, case studies, demos and quizzes, this brand new Social Media Crisis & Policy class will arm you with the appropriate knowledge to handle any communication crisis situation. Additionally, this 44 minute class will also walk you through the process of developing and implementing social media policies and strategies to empower employees to become active within the social media space. To ensure you get the most out of this new strategic class, we recommend that you first take 8 Royal Rules of Social Media, Twitter 101 and Facebook 101.

For more information or to sign-up for this new class, visit Digital Royalty University. Remember, with each class you purchase – you help us give back a class to teachers with Teach For America.

Give the new class as spin and we’d love to hear your feedback!

First Social User-Generated Travel Community on YouTube

Post by: @erinnray

DoubleTree by Hilton is redefining the way you plan and share your travel stories. Today, the full-service hotel brand launched DTour, a first-of-its-kind YouTube channel for the hotel industry created in collaboration with Google that offers travelers a whole new way to plan and share their trips. DoubleTree by Hilton is focused on delivering the Golden Rule of social media, delivering value, when, where and how their guests want to experience it.

The YouTube channel integrates all major social media networks in one place, making it easy for travelers to share their memorable moments from their travel adventures all over the world directly from their social media accounts. From photos shared through Instagram or videos captured on their mobile phones and uploaded to the site, consumers are able to inspire others with their own experiences.

DTour is the first custom-built YouTube channel in the hotel industry where users can explore other travelers’ favorite photos, videos, tips and stories to get inspired for their next adventure.

In addition to travel inspiration, DoubleTree by Hilton is also encouraging fans/guests to share their travel stories for a chance to win a getaway to turn that dream vacation into a reality. So share some of your favorite travel stories through photos and videos: www.doubletree.com/dtour

And be sure to check out some of my travel stories and tips from Buenos Aires to Patagonia to Jackson Hole to Florence to Prague to Seattle and more. Just search these destinations by filtering the map. Warning: if you have the travel itch, it’s only going to intensify after you give this channel a whirl. Trust me.

Learning Made Social

Post by @julieyeats

If you’re anything like me, you spend a little bit of each day (or a lot of each day!) poking around online, catching up on news or searching for funny videos. While online, I always try to spend at least a few minutes reading articles about my industry and other things that interest me. Maybe it’s because my mom is a teacher (and I spent the better part of my childhood in the classroom), or maybe it’s because I am just a nerd at heart. Either way, I love to learn.

The Internet and social media have fundamentally changed the way we collaborate and absorb new information. We now have access to endless information with the simple push of a button. With that however, can come information overload. I used to bookmark my favorite articles and tried to keep my folders as organized as possible for future reference, but it became overwhelming and easily slipped into disarray. It wasn’t easy to refer back to articles and they were tough to share. Some articles got saved in my email, some I bookmarked in Chrome, some in Safari. Some got saved to Instapaper, Evernote, or Pocket. For lack of a better system, I had resigned myself to perpetual information chaos, until I made a great discovery: Learnist.

Learnist is like Pinterest, but instead of showing off your latest crafting projects or extensive recipe collection, you can showcase what you know and what you like learning about. It essentially acts as a visual repository of all your favorite articles, videos, ebooks, maps, surveys, blogs, podcasts, and images. Users create boards based on their interests and curate content around a chosen theme. Their website describes the idea as “a collaborative, multimedia and interactive e-book from the future.” Board topics range from “What is Creativity?” to “Travel Writing” to “Modern East Asian Politics.” There is literally something for everyone, no matter what your interests.

Your customized learning experience begins from the moment you sign in and create a profile, as the site prompts you to select your categories of interest and then select even more specific tags. For example, if you follow the “technology” category, you can further specify tags associated with technology, like “programming”, “web design” or “software.”

Your newsfeed will then populate with boards centered on topics you want to learn about. You can follow users who feature interesting content, follow only specific boards, or “like” individual articles. Each board is equipped with a comments section to encourage collaboration and each board (as well as individual article) has social buttons to allow for easy sharing across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, LinkedIn, etc.

Creating your own boards is a yet another way to use social media to build your personal brand, while at the same time showing what are you are knowledgeable and passionate about. For example, I happen to live in and love Downtown Las Vegas, so I created a board for others to learn about all the innovative and unique things happening here. If you see an article on the site that would fit perfectly on one of your boards, simply click the “re-add” button. You can also add content to your boards by adding a link, or uploading an image or file directly from your computer.

One of the most convenient features of the site is the web browser bookmarklet. It pulls in images and text directly from the site, which you can change or customize as you see fit. Once installed, you can easily curate content and post it to your boards as you surf the web. In addition, the site has a “mark done” button to the top right of every article, that way you can track your progress as you read your way through a board, and also avoid reading the same article twice. Also be sure and check out their iPhone and iPad app, if you like learning on the go!

Businesses can take advantage of this new platform as well. It’s a great place to showcase YouTube videos, press articles, featured products, and more. San Francisco-based jewelry company, Stella and Dot, is an example of a company using Learnist to build their brand and tell their story. From their first post, a YouTube video entitled “The Story of Stella and Dot,” they use their board to humanize their brand. Their board also features press clippings, and information about the company’s charitable efforts with the non-profit organization Autism Speaks.

The only caveat here is watch out for how much time you spend! It’s easy for innately curious people like me to get sucked in and allow hours to pass without realizing it. But after all, the time is spent learning. Life-long learning is a passion and core value for all of us here at Digital Royalty. So go on, indulge your inner nerd and show the world what you know.

Digital Royalty Turns 4

This month we celebrated Digital Royalty’s 4^th Birthday – and given social media years are like dog years, that makes us 28! When Digital Royalty was born, Instagram, Google+, Foursquare, and Pinterest didn’t even exist and Justin Bieber hadn’t yet been crowned the king of Twitter. Let’s just say, we’ve seen a thing or two. It’s been a year of big changes and milestones, and we’re excited to see where else this crazy social media journey takes us. See what makes our team members tick via our Instagram Spotlights.

Breaking News or Broken News?

Post by @natevegas

This week the AP twitter account was hacked and the Dow Industrials immediately dropped 72 points in a matter of seconds. Granted, it recovered in just a few minutes after discovering the tweet was a fake, but the damage was (sort of) done. The next morning, on CNBC’s Squawk Box, the ripple effect was evident. Basically, the financial pundits freaked out.

But honestly, I’m not sure the fake AP Tweet is the complex part of this situation. At least not to social-savvy users. Like any media source – old or new – a responsible reader fact-checks. If the White House explosions were, in fact, real – and the President of The United States was truly injured – don’t you think it would be spreading like wildfire and ALL news sources would be covering it? I do. I’d look for confirmation from CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, or USA Today just to name a few.

I’m not sure we’ll ever know 100% who was responsible for the hacked AP “Terror Attack Tweet” that sent Wall Street into a frenzy, but I think it’s important to know that we can all take measures to prevent this type of situation (and with all the recent media blunders we’ve seen in the past couple weeks, social media education is an important step):

1. Set reminders to change your social media passwords. Don’t think this is important? Ask the Social media manager of the Associated Press, 60 Minutes, CBSDenver, or any of the other recent victims of account hacks.

2. RT Responsibly. Read the link. Fact check. If you follow Amy Jo Martin’s first of Digital Royalty’s Free 8 Royal Rules of Social Media and truly want to “Be The Media,” you have a responsibility to act professionally. Don’t be afraid to ask for a source.

3. Follow several sources. Simply following one news source on Twitter isn’t an endorsement. Follow both Fox News and CNN for example, to make sure the information you’re getting is aligned.

4. Create & Follow Lists. You can follow major media lists on Twitter as well as create your own. This underutilized feature on Twitter is a very simple way to track breaking news, separate your interests, and get information from a variety of sources.

5. Don’t partake in mob mentality. See #2. If your gut tells you it’s BS, it probably is.

Social Crisis Management, the Sequel – Takeaways from the Boston Marathon

Post by @ChelseaHartling

This past week, our world was shaken when the first bomb went off during the Boston Marathon. There’s no doubt that it was a huge tragedy that changed and affected people all around the world. No matter where you get your information from, whether it’s online or televised, social media is a driving force for spreading breaking news. During the Boston bombing and the events that followed throughout the week, the Digital Royalty team not only had the television on constantly in the background, but we had our eyes glued to Twitter where some of the most urgent updates were spreading.

While the conversation surrounding Boston continued to dominate social conversations throughout the week, there were definitely some major Twitter faux pas that stood out (enter: the need for social media education.)

So how exactly should we all respond to something like the Boston Bombing on social?

Stop and Think

It’s simple, and it’s something we live by at Digital Royalty: be real, and use your best judgment. Also, think before you tweet. Be honest, does your best judgment tell you to continue sending out promotional tweets asking people to buy your product while a possible terrorist attack is happening? My gut says no. So if you have a promoted tweet campaign running on Twitter, our recommendation is to pause the campaign and free up the Twitter feed for news updates.

Stop Scheduled Tweets

“But Chelsea,” you say, “we didn’t know that tweet was going to go out because we scheduled it a month ago.” I understand that scheduling tweets is sometimes convenient and can be a time-saver. But as a general rule of social media thumb, don’t “set it and forget it.” You still need to be accountable for what you’re sending out, whether it’s scheduled or not. If you manage your social accounts by scheduling posts, then the first thing you need to do when you catch wind of a possible crisis situation is go into your scheduling software, put a halt on your posts, and re-schedule them for a different time.

Listen

Another best practice for using social (this is true in general and not just during a crisis situation) is to LISTEN to the conversation. If you log in to Twitter, make sure you listen to what people are talking about before you tweet. What’s trending right now? If you see the hashtag #MarathonBombing is the number one trending topic worldwide, you might want to look into what people are saying about that before you proceed with sending your tweet. Social media is not media; it’s communication. And it never stops. Twitter is a great resource for figuring out what people are talking about right now. Step outside your brand bubble for a second and evaluate if it’s the appropriate time to be sending that particular message out. The last thing you want is to be perceived as insensitive during a time like this.

The @Boston_Police Twitter account did an amazing job of listening throughout the entire situation and became a primary source of information during the week. They jumped in and used their voices to track and correct misinformation that was spreading, and also helped to promote safety to their frightened community. They listened to the questions many of us were asking and responded with as much information as possible to keep everyone up to speed on any advancement in the case. Huge hat tip to them for their incredible work.

Address It

Remember: you can’t un-post something. Once it’s out there, it’s likely been seen. So what happens if you reported on false information or retweeted information that you later found out wasn’t true? Handle it the same way you would handle any other social crisis situation – don’t hide from it. Address it. Don’t try to let it blow over a la CNN. Own up to it and move on. Your fans and followers will respect you for it.

On that note, if you’re a global brand with tons of fans and followers, keep in mind that people are constantly looking at you. In these types of situations, it’s ok to address what’s going on and issue a statement of sentiment, even if it doesn’t directly affect you. Again, your fans and followers will appreciate you and respect you for addressing it rather than pretending it’s not happening.

It’s also ok to act as a resource and use your influence on social to do good and share information. The Boston Celtics have over a million followers on Twitter, and they chose to use their huge influence to help reach as many people as possible by retweeting official information from sources like the Boston Police and the Massachusetts State Police.

Unfortunately, these types of catastrophes happen from time to time (and thankfully not more than they already do). From a social media perspective, it’s important to be prepared and know how to respond before crisis mode occurs. The best thing you can do is listen and think before you tweet.

Side note: The Digital Royalty team continues to keep the marathon runners, spectators, and citizens of Boston in our thoughts. #BostonStrong

Twitter #music Launches

Post by @erinneray

Excited to say, it’s official! Twitter has a new baby and it came out wearing beats. Welcome to the world #music

Twitter Music was acquired from startup We Are Hunted and is available as both a web platform and an iPhone app. It’s all about discovering new music based on what people you follow are listening to, plus artists and songs that are currently trending.

This new app pulls in music from iTunes, Spotify and Rdio, while using data from your Twitter follower graph to customize music for you. You can stream music from Spotify or Rdio by logging into your account within the new Twitter #music app. But you don’t need to have these listening platforms – you still have access to iTunes previews to discover what music is currently trending on Twitter. But, to play full tracks you’ll need to stream through your Spotify premium account or Rdio. The integration with Spotify and Rdio is pretty great, allowing these music streaming platforms to expand their already prominent audience within the Twitterverse.

The #music app is one of many efforts recently rolled out by Twitter – from the Twitter certified products program to Instagram-style photo filters to Vine.

#music features include:

Suggested: recommends musical artists and songs based on who you follow on Twitter as well as artists that people you follow are following. Caution: you may be guilty by association here, as it populates music suggestions based on who your followers follow. One Direction anyone?

#NowPlaying: plays music that is tweeted out by artists and people you follow using the hashtag #NowPlaying

Popular: music that is currently trending on Twitter

Emerging: displays new artists on the rise

As you discover new songs that you want to share with your followers on Twitter, just tap the spinning disc in the lower left corner, which opens the player. Tweet from there using the Tweet icon in the top right corner.

The app rolled out today across the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Sign up here: http://music.twitter.com or download from the app store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter-music/id625541612?ls=1&mt=8

Happy listening my #music loving friends. Share your favorite new gems with me @erinneray.

P.S. This Saturday, April 20^th, is National Record Store Day. So go support your local record store and buy some vinyl.

Social Accountability

Post by @AlanaGolob

Social media has no doubt played a large role in the recent Boston Marathon bombing, including delivering breaking news to crowdsourcing leads for officials and investigators.

An account that deserves some recognition is the @Boston_Police, not only for their fearlessness and heroism at the event on Monday, but also for how they approached the social media space. They delivered accurate and timely updates throughout the event. The hashtag they created, #TweetFromTheBeat received more than 25,000 mentions on Monday. Since the devastating event, they’ve more than doubled their Twitter following and now have more than 128,000 followers. But aside from the facts and figures, the Boston Police and everyone involved in the rescue/investigation efforts deserve a huge thank you for all that they do.

Up until today, the media has done a fairly good job at not jumping to conclusions and reporting false acquisitions and information on the events that took place during the Boston Marathon. Like I said, up until today. Throughout this week, CNN has been a go-to source of information for watching reports on the incident and finding out about new developments.

However, CNN jumped the gun today making claims that an arrest had been made, when in fact that was false. They’re not the only network to blame; other stations cut into their regular broadcasts this afternoon to report developments on how CNN had made false claims about the arrest. How does this make them a more valid source of information than CNN? My main criticism with the media is that from a viewer’s standpoint, they’re all in a race to announce breaking news first both online and in-broadcast. Regardless of what it takes and regardless of whether the information is 100% legit. But once it’s out there, it’s out there. You can’t un-tweet something, so what’s done is done.

The impact of situations like these could be minimized when company-wide social media training is implemented and a well thought-out social media crisis communication plan. A statement could be made, a tweet could be sent. Admitting they were wrong and engaging in the conversation is far better than trying to let the situation blow over. Without a doubt, the social community is going to hold you accountable.

To give some credit to the media, they are doing the best they can to deliver information as fast as they can while we all have our eyes glued to the TV wondering what’s going on. I’m not going to pretend that I’m a news media expert or that I know what it’s like to be in the position of delivering breaking news. However, what CNN should have done or could still do is own up to their error. They’ve already done that on air, but they haven’t yet online. As of 2:00pm PT, there were more than 57,000 mentions of “CNN” and “arrest” on Twitter.

The conversation is happening and the jokes are being made, but CNN is not participating in the conversation as they should.

CNN just reported that nobody is making CNN jokes on twitter.

— Morgan Murphy (@morgan_murphy) April 17, 2013

Another lesson learned in this situation is “think before you retweet.” The day of the Boston Marathon, thousands of people were retweeting a fake account that claimed for every retweet they got, they would donate $1 to the Boston Marathon victims. Today CNN’s breaking tweet about the alleged arrest was retweeted more than 1,200 times. Before we jump on the bandwagon of the media or an account that is claiming to support the cause, we need to take a moment to think and be cautious of the content we are sharing. It’s our responsibility to do so, just as it’s the responsibility of the media to report accurate information.

Pretty, Productive Pinning

Post by @ChelseaHartling

If you’re anything like me, you might find yourself wide awake on any given Tuesday night unable to shut your pesky mind off, tossing and turning while the outside world (and any normal human being) sleeps. So you grab your phone or your laptop and you bounce on over to something that’s sure to keep you visually stimulated until your mind decides it’s ready to snooze: Pinterest.

Maybe you start with “Home Décor” or “Health and Fitness” but soon one board turns into five and you find yourself awake at 4am having just pinned 785 new recipes you absolutely must try (but likely won’t) and planned out your entire imaginary wedding. We get it, and we love it too.

Call it “Productive Entertainment,” if you will. Humans by nature are visual creatures, which is why we are more apt to be creatively inspired, or try new things after we’ve seen it with our own eyes. This is what differentiates Pinterest from other social platforms (like LinkedIn) that don’t use as many visuals. I’ll be honest, I’ve spent hours at a time on Pinterest, but never more than a few minutes at a time on LinkedIn. Visuals matter. There’s no doubt that Pinterest is one of the best creativity-inspiring social platforms. Users have the unique opportunity to see something that resonates with them, save it to their profile, and try it out, whether it’s a new hairstyle or a DIY project for the home. It can also be used as a tool for planning things, like where you want to go on your next vacation or what you want your new apartment to look like.

So what do the new changes to Pinterest mean for us? The most important change is a cleaner interface and a more efficient way to spend your time browsing. The design changes show larger images, a cleaner layout, and more pins in less space.

But aside from the design tweaks, Pinterest has also added a bunch of new ways to discover content, including a smoother and easier drop-down menu for browsing topics. When you click on a pinned image or video, you’re now able to see pins from the same board on the right side of the page without ever having to leave the current page you’re browsing. And you can now see what “people who pinned this also pinned,” allowing for new ways to find and follow your favorite new pinners.

Taking the idea of “Productive Entertainment” to the next level, Pinterest is also stepping up their mobile game with some new features for their iPhone, iPad, and Android apps. You can now make edits to your profile on the go and see the “People who pinned this also pinned” feature. Airport layovers and awkward solo outings are much more fun when you can pull out your phone and pass the time by pinning shots of Europe to your dream vacation board.

Have you enabled the new look yet? Head over to Pinterest and look for the “Preview our new look” option in the upper left corner. New to Pinterest? Digital Royalty University has a class to help you get started and get those creative juices flowing.

Happy pinning!

Activism Goes Viral

Post by @leahroides

On Tuesday, March 26^th while the Supreme Court was overhearing two separate same sex marriage cases, nationwide individuals stepped up and owned their voice on social. The color red rapidly changed the face of Facebook when 2.7 million Facebook users regenerated the Human Rights Campaign logo by taking the original blue and yellow color scheme and swapping the colors with red and pink. Not only did the colors change, but Facebook users got creative by overlaying their photos over the logo or adding their own spin to show their support.

It’s easy for people to feel helpless in situations like this because the general population are not members of the Supreme Court overhearing these cases. We have to sit back and watch while a few select people get to decide the fate of individuals in this country. This has the ability to make us feel like we’re unable to participate. However, because social media is an equal opportunity space, it gives us just as much opportunity to voice our opinions on advocacy issues as it does for speaking out about something like our favorite foods. (To put it in perspective, 81% of Americans age 18-29 support marriage equality while only 72% believe with certainty that Chinese food is delicious. Progress!) This movement gave individuals a chance to show support for marriage equality by sharing their message on their social channels.

Social media has humanized and personalized this issue beyond a government vote. Influence has been created online and influence converts while impressions don’t always convert. Whether we realized it or not, signing into Facebook and seeing a sea of red profiles had an impact on others attitudes and behaviors. According to Scientific America this event was a practice of descriptive norms when individuals immediately posted profile images that depicted support and involvement. Those who became involved influenced others behaviors and opinions publicly though a highly populated social channel.

This social activist movement clearly depicts the shift in an advocacy topic that has received the cold shoulder up until now. The social momentum has just begun. Historically, when the people speak up socially and collectively, consensus is the true authority. Check out this example of how activation can be built through social media.

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