Everywhere Agency is a social media, content and influencer marketing firm. This is their news blog post archive for content revolving around industry or agency news.

FTC Guidelines for Influencer Marketing

There is a fair amount of panic these days about FTC guidelines, mostly driven by a handful of celebrities (like the Kardashians) who neglected to disclose the fact that they received financial compensation in exchange for social shares.

The FTC has even cracked down on major brands like Lord & Taylor for flagrantly defying the rules. To remind you, last year, the retailer paid 50 fashion influencers several thousand dollars each to post a picture, all wearing a flouncy paisley dress. It might have seemed random – but it wasn’t. They were compensated to post the picture, and as such, they should have let their followers know that this post was inspired by the love of money, rather than the love of paisley dresses.

Flouting of the rules gets negative media attention, including a recent front-page story in the New York Times, and causes major heartburn for legal teams at big brands – leaving them fretting over whether their influencer campaigns are compliant. So, how do you know if your influencer marketing team is following FTC Guidelines? Well, it helps if you understand both the ambiguities of said guidelines AND the explicit rules.

The philosophy behind the FTC guidelines is fairly straightforward. Any influencer who receives a product or compensation in exchange for a social share or blog post must disclose to their readers in a way that is clear, conspicuous, and unambiguous. Some marketers seem confused because there are no hard and fast rules. Mary K. Engle, the FTC’s associate director for advertising practices, explained to the New York Times, “We’re not prescriptive … but it has to be unambiguous.”

I understand the angst this causes rule-followers who want to have a hard and fast decree, so I’ll share a few more clues straight from the mouth of Mary Engle of the FTC, like this one: “The disclosure has to be placed in such a way that the consumer is not going to miss it.

Imagine the average reader scrolling through his or her Facebook newsfeed. What will stop them dead in their tracks and clearly and unambiguously alert them that this post is sponsored by a brand? The word “ad” seems pretty obvious to me. Put a hashtag in front of it, and you’ve officially joined the ranks of paid influencers.

Some social media stars try to get fancy and use all sorts of catchphrases and clues as a workaround to the guidelines. Favorites include #spon, #collab, and #Co. Spon sounds like something a fish does, and collab makes me think you’re just super collaborative. Co? What does that mean? You’re starting a company?

Mary Engle seems to agree, “We’re seeing disclosures that are ambiguous, given the context of the culture of these platforms,” she said in PRWeek, “…#Ad and #sponsored is fine, but not #Spon and #Sp or #Collab or #co.” So, there you have it, straight out of the mouth of the FTC, #Spon, #Sp, #Collab, and #Co don’t make the grade.

Any agency or brand running influencer campaigns needs to be well versed in the guidelines. If they find them to be ambiguous, I suggest heading over to the nonprofit, Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). WOMMA has been a devoted resource and the ethical guide to our industry since 2004. Here’s a link to their social media disclosure guidelines.

While the FTC may not provide a play-by-play for every scenario, it’s not that hard to stop and ask, “Is it clear? Is it unambiguous, and is the disclosure placed in such a way that the consumer is not going to miss it?”

Finally, when in doubt, always remember that #ad is ironclad!

National Dog Day Autotrader Event

Brands’ Best Friend: Pet Influencers Welcome

Everywhere Agency knows that one of the quickest ways to likeable social content is to “Put on a dog on it!” We are canine enthusiasts, bringing our fur buddies to work regularly, ugly crying over dog rescue videos, and supporting pet adoption. Being both social media experts and animal lovers we’ve been following the trend of pet influencers for quite some time, and even way back in 2014, The Telegraph reported that 1 in 4 cats and dogs had their very own social media accounts. As of last week, we took our puppy love and social savvy to the next level. We have officially welcomed our first four-legged member to Everywhere Society, our in-house influencer network. Meet Indy the Goldendoodle.

pet influencer indy the goldendoodleOur dive into dog talent was inspired by our client, Autotrader. Everywhere was engaged to help produce #ParkandBark, an event celebrating National Dog Day. Autotrader used the event to educate dog owners about the best pet-friendly cars and accessories. Hundreds of dog guests enjoyed free treats, received swag prizes, and played in the costume photo booth. Pet experts schooled the crowd in dog CPR, the art of doggy massage (Shi-A-Tzu… Get it?), and puppies in need were available for adoption.

Everywhere also took this opportunity to reach out to a few A-list Instagram influencers, including Indy the Goldendoodle and Sparkles the Diva.

So why are brands so eager to add some canine appeal? It could have something to do with the fact that this year pet owners are projected to spend $62 billion dollars on their furry friends, according to the American Pet Products Association. Not to mention the added bonus that brand reputations are rarely ruined by the actions of a Yorkshire Terrier. Dogs breed happiness, with pups like ChloeKardoggian slinging products for Clorox and Boo the Pomeranian working as a liaison for Virgin Airlines, it’s hard to think of a brand that wouldn’t benefit from pup-endorsement.

If you know a great pet influencer looking for amazing brands, be sure to tell them to apply to Everywhere Society. Also, we will be attending BarkWorld, the premiere pet blogging conference, this October. If you’ll be there too, give us a woof because when it comes to pets and brands - we think this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Everywhere Agency Welcomes Stephanie Proft

Hi, I’m Stephanie Proft and could not be more excited to join the fabulous Everywhere Agency team as an account manager!

With a background and college degree in journalism, I’m coming to Everywhere Agency fresh off a stint as copywriter and content strategist for a branding and marketing firm. While there, I contributed to a huge variety of projects and campaigns for clients representing everything from consumer goods and services, to industrial powerhouses.

I’m excited to fully exploring the power of social media to help consumers and brands interact in more authentic, meaningful ways.

Without further ado, here are 10 fun and perhaps unexpected facts about me:

  1. Despite requiring SPF 70 when in direct sunlight, my favorite natural environment is the beach.
  2. I’m a television junky and (in no particular order) count “Friday Night Lights,” “The Sopranos,” “Arrested Development” and “Seinfeld” among my all-time favorites.
  3. I’m a part-time vegetarian and love to cook new meatless dishes.
  4. I follow a shameful amount of puppy-related Instagram accounts.
  5. I was born in Germany and attended a German elementary school until fourth grade.
  6. Some of my friends treat me as a human thesaurus and/or Urban Dictionary.
  7. I have a very rational fear of robots.
  8. I’ve lived in Atlanta for seven years, which is the longest duration I’ve ever spent in one city.
  9. I am a huge hip-hop fan and am very passionate about “The Next Episode” by Dr. Dre being played at my funeral.
  10. Admittedly, I am a very bad driver.

I’m looking forward to growing with Everywhere and am ecstatic to see what lies ahead! Feel free to say hello to me on Twitter @sprofty.

Meerkat versus Periscope

Meerkat and Periscope: What’s the Hype?

Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock this past month has heard about Meerkat and Periscope, a competitor created by Twitter. As the “breakout app” of SXSW being used by Mashable’s Pete Cashmore on a selfie stick walking around Austin and Julia Louis Dreyfus during her VEEP panel, Meerkat was hard to ignore. Now Periscope pretty much does the same thing and has stolen all of Meerkat’s thunder. So what do these apps do actually?

Remember when Charlie Sheen went all crazy with #winning and strippers and held a Ustream of him ranting? I remember – I am ashamed to say that I watched. If Meerkat or Periscope were around back then, Charlie likely would have used that instead. It is the mobile version of Ustream, allowing its users to live stream on the go. So why then is it so ridiculously popular if there was already a similar service? Well, first off they’re integrated with Twitter (Periscope is obviously more so integrated). In a nutshell, when you start streaming, a Tweet goes out. With Periscope, you have the added ability to be able to see reactions to your stream from Twitter embedded in the app. Also, if you think about it, no one has really improved upon the ability to live stream until now. Improvement, you ask? Meerkat allows you to record and schedule your stream for a later time, while Periscope allows users to save videos to replay them later.

So what’s all the hype about? Well, if you’re an everyday person who isn’t a celebrity, politician, or reporter, you aren’t likely to have a big viewership with Meerkat or Periscope. No one really cares what you have to say in real time. If you do happen to fall into one of those popular people categories, it’s the compelling content that is going to keep followers coming back (or maybe not? Here’s a live stream of a fridge at the Washington Post that’s quite popular. Maybe it’s just the big brand that keeps people watching… or the novelty?).

A big challenge for both Meerkat and Periscope as I see it (if either or both stay alive), is that in order to succeed, they really have to encourage the top-level influencers to keep the everyday user tuned in. Periscope may be the present day cool-kid app (Sorry Meerkat), but it’s more time consuming than a simple tweet or Instagram. So if the influencers get bored and don’t use it, the everyday user is going to peace out.

While the live video concept of Meerkat and Periscope is compelling and dramatic, the apps can only continue if both the influencer continues to stream interesting content and the user is available to consume it.

My final thought that I just can’t get around when it comes to streaming-type apps like this is this – who has time to watch live programming anymore? Didn’t God invent the DVR to get around what these apps offer? Even if it’s programmed content (from Meerkat) or a stream that you can save to watch later (from Periscope), I’m still not compelled to tune in at a certain time to be able to view or save the content.

100 Good Deeds Bracelet #DeedADay

#DeedADay and the Democratization of Ideas

In 1992, Mary Fisher stood up at the Republican National Convention looking very much like the daughter of a prominent Republican family (which she was), and announced on national TV that she had AIDS. It was a hugely shocking moment for the crowd and for most of America. In 1992, the very word AIDS was shared in hushed tones and considered a scourge of just gay men and Haitians. At that time I worked in television production in NYC. I alternated between my job working at Saturday Night Live and freelancing at this hot production company, Peter Wallach Enterprises. My boss at the time there had AIDS, something he never overtly confessed to me, even though we were as close as school chums and all the symptoms indicated that he had the disease. My editor at the post-production house, where we cut the short films I produced for SNL, was grey, rail thin and hacked through our late night editing sessions. He said things like, “My immune system is shot,” yet he never publicly admitted he had AIDS. In 1992, I remember watching blonde, blue-eyed Mary on TV, standing there in her prim white dress and realizing that things were going to change for the better. Mary gave a voice to the voiceless.

Ron Edmonds/Associated Press

Flash forward in my career 20-odd years later and I find myself working in an industry, social media, which does just the same. I launched a career in this field over six years ago because I was excited by the power of this new medium to bring about change. What I saw very clearly was that social media was the ultimate democratization of ideas. Anyone could speak – we all had a megaphone in our blogs, our tweets, our Facebook status updates. If an idea was good enough, strong enough, it could be seen, absorbed and passed on to others. For a person like me who had devoted a quarter of a century to working with big media, big PR and big advertising, I was infatuated with the concept that good ideas could be distributed outside of an advertising campaign and without regard to any editors fickle preferences.

Last night I witnessed that democratization of ideas with the woman who stood on a stage and inspired us so long ago. We joined forces with Mary Fisher and her team to launch the #DeedADay movement. The movement is inspired by a bracelet Mary designed called the 100 Good Deeds bracelet. It’s made by vulnerable women in Haiti, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, India, and Bali. The bracelet is strung with 100 beads and wraps around your wrist. There is a small rubber ring among the 100 beads and the idea is you wear the bracelet both as an ethical fashion statement and as a reminder to do good deeds. Every time you do a good deed — going out of your way to do something kind for others — you move the ring over until you get to 100 beads.

I met Mary last year in Haiti and talked to her (a little too enthusiastically) about the power of social media to change the world. I guess she remembered our conversation because she asked me to do something connected to the theme of New Year’s resolutions. Sharing the message of doing good deeds felt bigger than me and my firm alone, so I called a few of my friends who run major blogging social media networks. I reached out to Stacey Ferguson of Blogalicious and the b-Link Marketing Network, Ana Flores of Latina Bloggers Connect, Jyl Johnson Pattee of MomItForward, Barbara Jones of the One2One Network, Cat Lincoln of Clever Girls Collective, Nadia Jones of the Niche Parent Network, and Kelby Carr of the Type A Parent network. They all agreed to join forces with me and ask their collective networks to share the #DeedADay movement on their blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Twitter channels. I hate to use the word viral, but there’s no other way to describe what happened. #DeedADay is everywhere on social media. With over 40 blog posts to date (what will ultimately be 80+ posts total), 6500 social posts and 1100+ individuals who’ve participated, we’re at 50+ million impressions.

Last night we teamed up with Jyl who runs the popular Twitter chat #GNO. We began talking to women across the country about how they think about good deeds. We hit a nerve and the Twitter stream lit up. In one short hour, we generated 25 million impressions. Women talked about ethical fashion, the importance of teaching their children to do good deeds and setting good deed resolutions in 2015. At one point, even Rosie O’Donnell, who’s known as simply @Rosie on Twitter joined the conversation.

A screenshot from the #GNO #DeedADay Twitter chat - Rosie shows off her 100 Good Deeds Bracelet.

As we head in to 2015, I’m heartened to know that initiatives like doing good deeds can build momentum in social media, the democratization is alive and strong, and the fact that one women’s voice can make a difference.

Untitled

Three Non-Profits Using Social Media in an “Out of the Box” Way

You’d have to have been living under a rock to have missed the ALS ice bucket challenge that’s swept the web. A few months before the ALS challenge, women were posting photos of their bare faces, free of make-up and hashtagging #NoMakeUpSelfie. Believe it or not, these efforts weren’t even planned by non-profits. But, with some strategic placement and interjections from groups like the ALS Association and Cancer Research UK, the results have been millions raised for both organizations. What follows are three non-profits using social media in “out of the box” ways that deserve notice. Or I should say, more notice.

 

1. WATERisLIFE

True hashtag hijackers, Water is Life mastered the idea of taking something with a negative reputation and turning it into something for a greater good. #FirstWorldProblems, a trending hashtag, highlights issues that – only those far more fortunate than others – could even deem ‘problems’. For instance, “My in-flight movie was longer than my flight” is a typical first world problem. Water for Life hijacked this hashtag and created a video featuring third world kids and adults in their natural environments (in front of a hut, bathing in dirty water) reading typical #FirstWorldProblems aloud to show just how outrageous our issues truly are. The results? Donations that totaled over a million days worth of clean water to those in need! (1)

 

2. Cancer Research UK

The #NoMakeUpSelfie trend wasn’t started by Cancer Research UK, but when a bunch of women began posting pictures online of themselves without make-up and encouraging their friends to donate to the cause, the non-profit very wisely jumped on board. The charity sent out a tweet saying:

Cancer Research UK Tweet

The campaign isn’t ours but every £ helps #beatcancersooner.” The results? They raised $13.3 Million USD in six days! (2) Why is this my favorite campaign so far? The honesty of Cancer Research UK created a transparent and honest relationship with participants. Also, as a woman proud of her face and body as they are, make-up or not, a campaign promoting women to bare their natural beauty gets an A+ in my book!

 

3. ALS ASSOCIATION

It’s the biggest viral trend today and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon. It’s the #IceBucket challenge. With this campaign, individuals have two options: pouring a bucket of ice cold water on themselves and making a small donation to the ALS Association, or making a much larger donation to the ALS Association but dodging the polar bear-esque plunge. Time limit? 24 hours! With the sharing capabilities of social media and the naturally occurring domino effect that comes with any contest that asks you to challenge others, the #IceBucket challenge has taken over social media. The results? $94.3 Million raised from July 29, 2014 to August 27, 2014. (3)

The use of social media for non-profits has proven to be successful time and time again. The results are in the numbers and as we all know, numbers don’t lie. One of the biggest draws for companies to use social media, is the rate at which a message can spread.

One thing is for sure, whether these non-profits raised money or not, they met their most important goal, awareness. When done right, the buzz around these non-profits and their purpose continues to rise with every share, post and call to action. The ice bucket challenge has not only raised millions of dollars, it has also proved a very important point. As Oscar Wilde once said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

 

*Sources

(1) http://www.nonprofithub.org/social-media/the-top-4-nonprofit-social-media-campaigns-of-2013-and-what-you-can-learn/

(2) http://guardianlv.com/2014/08/ice-bucket-challenge-better-than-the-no-makeup-selfies/

(3) http://www.alsa.org/news/media/press-releases/ice-bucket-challenge-082714.html

rosie the riveter

The Unequal Power of Imagery

By: Lexi Severini

This Tuesday marked the start of the Supreme Court’s hearings of same sex marriage and equality cases.

Amidst the outpouring of both disapproval and support came an overwhelming response from the online community as profile pictures and artistic cover photos were swiftly changed out for the HRC’s red equality logo.

What’s amazing about being a part of a digital society is that so much information can be translated without us writing anything at all. Instead, sentiments can be shared and exchanged through purposeful manipulation of universally recognized images like this one:

While some have taken to their computers to fabricate provocative interpretations, others have put their graphic design skills to a more light-hearted use repurposing iconic images.

Whatever the image, the intention is the same – to show support for the cause.

As the nation watches this develop, it will be interesting to see what other unique and creative imagery spawns. Which have been your favorites?

Here are some of the most entertaining ones we’ve seen so far:

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**3:01 pm - an update from Facebook shows a considerable spike among profile picture changes on Tuesday.

Thea Lewis Birth Announcement

Status Update: Baby on Board - Social Media Tips for New Parents

By: Danica Kombol

4 Tips for Announcing your Baby via Social Media

We have our first official Everywhere baby in Jacob Schmidt born to Liz our Digital PR and Research Manager, based in Portland. Understand that I’m a really old mom by my office’s standards. In fact, I had a kid who had to walk six miles to school every day! Well, not exactly but I do have a kid who just graduated from college.

When I had my first child, there were no texts to alert friends that a baby is coming, no Facebooks to update with photos of the baby fresh from the womb and no blogs to highlight young junior’s every exploit. In fact, when I gave birth to my daughter, Thea, I went into Bergdorf Goodman in New York City and ordered engraved birth announcements. I still have the engraved plate to prove it. In the end, I think I sent out about 100 announcements and I practically had to rob a bank to pay for them.

Each announcement had a deep red bow tied to the top and the envelopes were lined in a matching deep red color. Imagine the money I could have saved by posting a photo of her little squished up face on Facebook.

I’m glad our Liz, who lives and breathes social media is showing some restraint. After all, the baby has been on this planet for a good six hours and she still has not updated her status. Which got me to thinking, new parents might need some guidelines from old-school parents on the how-to of what to do on social sites when you give birth.

  • Facebook may be swell, but printed announcements are sweller. I’m no Emily Post but there is something really sweet about good old-fashioned announcements. I like the on-line vendor Tiny Prints http://www.tinyprints.com - they have chic, tasteful styles and you won’t have to rob a bank the way I did. Not to be greedy or anything, but a 3” x 5” piece of printed paper with your baby’s name and/or photo has a desirable effect: it spurs the gift-giving gene in family and friends.

 

  • Cut the umbilical cord before you post your status update. Birth is an intimate experience, you really should be in the room, in the moment, giving birth, not giving a blow-by-blow on Twitter and Facebook to family and friends. Oh and that umbilical cord? These are details and photos we don’t need to see. Show restraint and please don’t share bodily fluids, or stray body parts, period.

 

  • Yes your baby is adorable, but… Yes, your baby is the cutest wootest widdle thing on the planet and we want to know you gave birth, but we also want to make sure your brain did not go down the drain with the placenta. Adorable baby sharing is acceptable. Sharing about poop, guttural noises and baby’s latest drool is not. Show us you still have interest in the greater world. Don’t use Facebook as your EVERYTHING MY BABY EVER DID OR DROOLED ON photo album.

 

And last but not least.

  • Start a blog! Why? Because there simply aren’t enough mommy blogs in the world! Well, that’s not true. There are enough, but it’s still a brave new world and who knows, you may make it big. You could go to BlogHer! There’s still room. And brands might even send you cool stuff like baby bottles and strollers. Or not. But at least you’ll have a blog!

 

 

Why We Heart Spelbots

 

Whether traveling across the globe, across town or teaching a robot to dance, the Spelman SpelBots have made the robotics industry both interesting and fun. The SpelBots are an all-female, African-American robotics team at historically black Spelman College, in Atlanta, GA.

The SpelBots made history in 2009 when they became the first African-American all-female robotics team to qualify and win the international robotics soccer competition, RoboCup in Japan. I consider myself fortunate to have the privilege to work closely with an organization like the SpelBots who not only have made history globally, but have also made an even bigger impact on their community.

SpelBots provide hands-on robotics education and research for women and students in computer science. This is particularly important as women and African-Americans are a minority in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industries. These phenomenal women compete locally, nationally and internationally at robotics competitions while educating and helping to introduce grade-school students about the importance of math, science and engineering.

SpelBots on Facebook

SpelBots celebrate Black History Month on Facebook

Andrew B. Williams, Ph.D, is the founder and coach of the SpelBots as well as the Director of the Humanoid Engineering and Robot Systems (HERS) Lab at Spelman College. During the past two months, Everywhere worked with the SpelBots and Dr. Williams to increase their social and digital presence on local and national levels.

Celebrating SpelBots Black History Month Socially

In celebration of Black History Month, Everywhere collaborated with SpelBots to create a social campaign featuring a different African-American woman in computing and technology each day of February on their Twitter and Facebook pages.

Honoring SpelBots on a Local Level

Helping to promote SpelBots Black History Month on a local level, our team worked with Atlanta City Council representative Keisha Lance-Bottoms to honor the SpelBots with a proclamation from the City of Atlanta deeming February 6 as “Young Black Women In Computing and STEM Day”.

SpelBots proclamation from the City of Atlanta deeming February 6 as “Young Black Women In Computing and STEM Day”

Up next for the Spelbots

The SpelBots reflect the great strides that African-Americans and women take in computing and technology. While they travel the world, they never forget their community and the importance of serving as positive, passionate and intelligent role models introducing science and technology to the next generation.

The SpelBots will hopefully make history again as they travel to Mexico City in June to compete against 27 teams in RoboCup.

 

To follow the SpelBots’ trail of success follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook and visit their website.

 

BLOGGERS AND TWEETERS UNITE FOR COMMON CAUSE AND ATTEMPT AT GUINNESS WORLD RECORD

10.16.2009 – LAS VEGAS – Attendees of the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas will use their powerful roles as social networking pioneers for an historic Guinness World Record attempt — Most Widespread Social Network Message in 24 Hours. The attempt, which will urge those in attendance and hundreds of thousands of their followers across the globe to distribute the message #BeatCancer, will also raise money for non-profit cancer organizations. The attempt will begin Friday, October 16th at 9am PST and end on Saturday, October 17th at 9am PST. The BlogWorld & New Media Expo features keynotes and panels with some of the biggest names in social media. This is a mass effort to show how social media can be used for social good.

Attendees of the conference and people all over the Internet will be asked to send tweets, issue Facebook status updates and blog using #BeatCancer in their posts. These messages will then be tracked and registered by Radian6, the premier social media monitoring service.

“The team at BlogWorld is proud to be part of this record-setting social media event,” said Rick Calvert, CEO of BlogWorld/New Media Expo. “We’re especially excited that we can be the launch point for bringing people together to help fight cancer.”

“We’re always on the lookout for new and exciting ideas, and when approached about a mass social media experiment that plans to rally people to support the fight against cancer were happy to oblige in adjudicating this record attempt,” said Stuart Claxton, Guinness World Records® spokesperson. “This will be the largest social media record attempt to be considered by Guinness World Records and will set a benchmark for social media monitoring moving forward.”

The social media experience is being produced by EVERYWHERE , an Atlanta based social media communications and content company. EVERYWHERE came up with the idea in conversation with CNN anchor, Don Lemon and other members of the EVERYWHERE team. Lemon says “Social media takes the power of an idea to an entirely new level. One minute EVERYWHERE and I are casually mulling over the possibilities of setting a social media record, the next minute it’s a reality that could save lives. Social media for social good. Incredible!” James Andrews, Managing Partner of EVERYWHERE says, “We earn our living in social media, helping big brands be relevant in this space. Because of this, we realized that Twitter and Facebook have the capacity to create change, as we recently saw in Iran. We decided that BlogWorld was the perfect opportunity to launch an effort to get people all over the world to take on a cause that has affected every single family.”

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