In the next few months, I plan to interview several department directors at CMD to pick their brains about industry trends, research, and overall marketing experience. I’ll share with you what makes them tick, and what current trends are on the top of their minds.

Click below to hear a coffee conversation with Caryn Herder, director in the Strategies and Solutions Group at CMD.

Julie Ma interviews Caryn Herder

What country do you think is going to win this year?

My bet is on the USA (obviously), but judging from a few shout outs around the office sounds like many are for France, Spain and even Mexico.

CMD won a SoME in the Best Brand Awareness/User Engagement (under $25K) category for its work on Intel’s Game On promotion. Utilizing an online/offline strategy to engage 15,000 PAX East trade show attendees with prize promotions, Twitter contests, and in-person events, the innovative campaign dominated the share of conversation at the convention and created maximum buzz among the audience.

“Social media has been one of our core focuses for the past three years and our experience and knowledge in this growing medium has positioned us as a leader when it comes to producing high-level, integrated campaigns,” said Phil Reilly, president of CMD. “It’s great to be recognized for outstanding work by our marketing peers, plus add more social media awards to the film and video, advertising, public relations and website honors we’ve achieved over the years.”

CMD has previously been recognized for outstanding social media campaigns by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) on both the local and national levels.

The SoME Awards honor the top social media projects, programs and campaigns in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. This year’s judging panel consisted of social media marketing experts from Austin, Texas. For more information on the SoME Awards visit www.someawards.com.

About CMD
CMD, which uses synergistic marketing disciplines to generate demand for clients, is ranked among the nation’s top 50 interactive agencies and is among the top 20 independent agencies, according to Adweek and Advertising Age. The agency provides advertising, film and video, public relations/social media, media, digital and Web services, print design, strategic services, meetings and events management, direct and database marketing, training, and promotion marketing for a client list that includes McCormick & Schmick’s, Microsoft, Regence, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, NW Natural, ACDSee, Timber Products Company, Intel, Microsoft, Iberdrola Renewables, and Jeld-Wen, inc.

For more information, call 503-223-6794, visit www.cmdagency.com, Twitter @CMDPortland, LinkedIn http://is.gd/Ad5S, Facebook http://is.gd/sQwk, or blog http://blog.cmdagency.com.

Meihoff currently serves as managing director of CMD’s earned media team, which includes public relations and social media services. She has been with the agency since 2003, and during that time has helped establish CMD’s PR and social media practices. Under her leadership, the earned media department has grown to nine full-time employees, won numerous regional and international awards for excellence and has built its client base to encompass both consumer and high-tech accounts. The agency’s earned media team spearheads a number of social media programs utilizing the latest in digital strategies, techniques and tools for it’s clients, which include such industry-leading global brands as JELD-WEN, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco and others.

“Darcie and her team’s vision for initiating and developing CMD’s social media practice as a fundamental part of the agency’s core disciplines nearly three years ago has helped establish CMD as a leader in the digital communications space,” said Phil Reilly, president of CMD. “It has revolutionized our service offerings and positioned CMD and our clients on the forefront of where the industry is heading.”

With nearly 20 years of agency experience, Meihoff joined CMD after for seven years as Partner/Public Relations Director for Leopold Ketel & Partners, a boutique advertising and public relations agency in Portland. She has worked with clients in a variety of industries, including building and home improvement, technology, tourism, transportation, restaurant and hospitality, sports, retail and health-related fields and has earned national accreditation, achieving APR designation. Her industry and community involvement includes serving on the board of the Portland Metro Chapter of PRSA, of which she was president for the past 10 years. She also currently serves on the board of directors for Forest Park Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring Oregon’s largest urban park.

About CMD
CMD, which uses synergistic marketing disciplines to generate demand for clients, is ranked among the nation’s top 50 interactive agencies and is among the top 20 independent agencies, according to Adweek and Advertising Age. The agency provides advertising, film and video, earned media (public relations/social), media, digital and Web services, print design, strategic services, meetings and events management, direct and database marketing, training, and promotion marketing for a client list that includes McCormick & Schmick’s, Microsoft, Regence, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, NW Natural, ACDSee, Timber Products Company, Intel, Iberdrola Renewables, and JELD-WEN, inc.
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As director of the PRSA Portland Metro Chapter’s New Professionals Group this year, I’ve talked with a variety of young public relations and marketing pros about scoring that first job, and recognized that there are a few things that college doesn’t necessarily teach you, but they’re important to acknowledge. Think networking, keeping up with the news, getting your references in order and dressing professionally. Here are three thoughts that I’d like to share from some of the New Pros:

1. Schedule informational meetings before the school year ends. Hiring managers get a flood of interview requests from graduates in the spring.

2. Ask for feedback. Schedule time with several professors, or your school’s career center, and show them your resume and portfolio, and conduct mock interviews. No one else is going to tell you you’re saying, “Um, and um, and like…” if you don’t ask.

3. Manage your online reputation. Most everyone is on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter these days. Not only should you demonstrate your knowledge of these apps, but it’s time to clean up anything you wouldn’t want published on the front page of The New York Times. Remember, if it’s on the Internet, an employer will find it.

What’s the best piece of advice you received about finding a job? Hiring managers, what do you like to see from recent graduates? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Now with more than 400 million users and 500,000 active applications that users can connect with, it’s obvious that most of us are jumping on Facebook for reasons other than finding out what our best friend from 8th grade did this past weekend.

For many companies, having a simple fan/company page is no longer enough to communicate with its target audience about client information or recent news. Such interactive entertainment applications like Farmville, Birthday Cards, iLike, Top Friends, and Mafia Wars demonstrate that millions of consumers on this social platform are interested in playing games, interacting with their friends, sharing personal interests and forming teams for a great cause—key traits that any marketer can and should easily incorporate into real-life interactive campaigns.

With 70 percent of Facebook users engaging with some of these interactive applications every month, it’s time to find out more about this strategy. Consider the following for effective application implementation:

1. Allow team building to be a factor for success: participants enjoy coming together for a greater cause and making a large difference all together. On Facebook, sharing is very much caring. Example: Best Buy has online “Best Buy Communities” that help answer customer questions and assist in finding the best price possible for products.

2. Make it easy to interact with your company: one-click downloads, photo uploads, donations, and “forward to a friend” buttons will help spread your message quickly. Example: T-Mobile Blackberry has simple “download now” buttons for wallpapers, applications, and tips of the week.

3. Have a variety of communication tools available for use: Captivate people’s attention by offering videos, photos, music, ability to make wall posts, and direct chat. Example: American Red Cross posts live video updates from natural disasters.

4. Make your page visually appealing: Colors, shapes, fonts, and placement of accomplishments on personal profiles will spark the interests of consumers. Example: Target allows fans to flip through an online magazine and mix and match new product lines.

5. Offer a “game mentality”: It always feels good to reach a set goal. Set goals for participants and they will thrive on the instant gratification. Example: Chase Community Giving encourages its Facebook fans to vote for their favorite charity to receive money, then Chase makes the donation on their behalf.

Are you a fan of any interactive applications? If so, are they missing from my list? We want to hear about what you do on Facebook and what makes you choose to participate.

To help our clients keep up-to-date on Twitter best practices, the CMD Earned Media team has presented numerous Twitter how-to seminars over the past year, guiding and showing how to use the channel strategically and addressing the basics of getting started. (See our earlier blog post on our Twitter 101 session for local Portland media.) We recently held a seminar for our CMD colleagues to offer insight and best practices to those who wanted to learn more and get started. The session was spirited and full of interesting questions, including these five:

Q: I’ve set up a Twitter account, but really, why should I be on it?
A: We all use social media to communicate in various ways. Some people use it to keep in touch with family and friends. For business-savvy users, you can listen to what is being said about your clients, research your competition, find recent news pertaining to an industry and connect with media and people who share common interests. If you’re interested in what others are interested in, then Twitter is for you.

Q: What type of information should I list in my profile?
A: It’s important to note that all information on your Twitter profile is searchable, which means that what you tweet will show up in real-time search results based on keywords that you use. Make it easy for people to find you by listing the company you work for, your current location, occupation and interests. Now that Twitter search results show up on Google and general Web search, it’s more important than ever to ensure that what you’re twittering is relevant and interesting, and not just a space-filler, i.e. “I’m eating lunch.”

Q: How do I develop followers or find people to follow?
A: There are many ways to develop followers. For example: using Twitter’s search bar, doing a Google search, or using one of our favorite free tools, www.twellow.com. Twellow is like the Yellow Pages of Twitter – with over 12.5 million profiles listed, you can harness your following/followers by looking up your favorite hobby, the industry you work in, location and more.

Q: What if I accidently share something on Twitter that I did not want to?
A: As we like to remind our clients, once you send a tweet, it technically lives forever in the “twittersphere.” Sure, Twitter offers the ability to delete a tweet (when you hover over your update when viewing your home or profile page, you’ll see a trash can at the end of the update), but there is no way to prevent it from ever not turning up in search results. When in doubt, re-read what you’re about to tweet to make sure you’re comfortable with the message.

Q: Can I update multiple social media channels at once?
A: Yes. We are busy people, and managing different social media profiles takes time. If you are interested in integrating both your Facebook and Twitter profiles simultaneously, visit: http://www.ping.fm/ (another favorite tool of ours). Also, LinkedIn has recently been enabled for Twitter updates, so your tweets can appear in your network updates section.

Questions? Tweet us @CMDPortland. We’re here to help.