Morgan Freeman is known internationally for his authoritative speaking voice. I bet even with the mere mention of his name you could hear this blog narrated in his comforting voice. There are Facebook pages with millions of fans dedicated solely to Freeman’s voice. It is a huge part of his personal brand and identity.

With corporations popping up on social media sites daily, it would be easy to get caught up in an identity crisis. The evolution of social media is one factor that has led the general public to become more critical of the corporate voice. People want to feel like they are communicating with someone personally. They don’t want corporate marketing driven posts but rather a conversation.

To maintain a sense of consistency and brand awareness, companies need to find a voice. Many factors can go into deciding which style is right for a brand. A voice can range from humorous to formal, first person to third person or even personal to general. The audience should be a driving force in deciding which voice is right to use, but not the deciding factor. The voice must be authentic. Social media shouldn’t change an entire corporate culture. It would be painfully obvious to the public if a brand tries to sound like a different organization. Freeman himself has had problems with voice doubles or imitators.

Specifying and managing a voice will help lead to brand recognition and sharable content. The content itself will determine how successful a social media campaign will be (but we will leave that for another blog). Corporations have to keep in mind the possibility of losing their voice. If accounts are left to one employee, what is the back up plan? Is the account passed on to someone else? Do they let their social media connections know?

This is where the professionals come in. Agencies can take this burden off the corporation or give them the tools to create a backup plan necessary for situations such as these. Even Freeman has an agent to handle his gigs. Whether or not an agency handles the account, its important to be identifiable, authentic and have a plan.

This post was written by M3 intern and Michigan State University student Veronica Kieffer.

Rumors have been flying over a suspected launch of Google Circles, a new social network by Google. The speculation is driven in most part by what the program is thought to offer. It is believed to be organized in circles more closely related to “real life” social networking. Users would be able to maintain various online social circles and tailor available information and pictures to each one.

With social networking taking on a huge presence in the daily lives of its users, it has become apparent that it is lacking a connection to the dynamics of offline relationships. Users want the online world to respect the same boundaries as the offline world.

Facebook and Twitter deposit all of your online connections into one homogeneous group.  Offline, people maintain multiple social circles and censor everything from language to appearance accordingly. The conversations you have with Grandma, your old college buddy and your boss are going to be a noticeably different. Current social networks force users to interact with everyone, all at once. Hence, the untagging and pending requests begin to mount.

Status updates and tweets are usually aimed at sharing content, maintaining relationships or shaping the way others perceives us. The real question lies at our motivation. What is the motivation behind my status update or tweet? Who do I really want to see this? Most often, an update is only aimed at a specific group or circle of people. Users are begging to be able to focus their online persona without suffering through endless security settings.

As a college student, to hear professors and advisors go on and on about “cleaning up your social media” can be unsettling. The web becomes especially twisted as we are expected to be pillars of the Generation Y social media world when we leave college. Yet, the deactivation button is looking pretty good as new graduates enter the professional world.

While Google denies all speculation, it leaves social media users a glimmer of hope that one day we  will be able to manage online relationship dynamics the same as offline.

This post was written by M3 intern and Michigan State University student Veronica Kieffer.

On any college campus there is one accessory that stands out beyond all others. Its popularity is universal to all demographics. Not only this, but it is one of the largest headaches for universities in today’s wired world.

The MP3 Player!

Huh? … Well, MP3 players themselves are not the real issue, it’s the digital media they contain that causes problems. Illegal peer-to-peer file sharing has become such an issue at Michigan State University, where I am a student, that the university has even included anti-file sharing PSAs to its “SecureIT” safe computing campaign. Before the PSAs MSU was included on a list of top 10 campuses for illegal file downloads. Since the PSAs MSU is no longer one of the top 10, but illegal file sharing remains an issue.

Much of the problem stems from the message of the campaign not being a particularly popular one. Reactions to the PSAs have been mixed and Michigan State University Computing has decided to breathe some new life into the campaign by resorting to unconventional warfare.

How do you get inside the mind of students and try to change their behavior? How about by having a campaign created entirely by current MSU Advertising majors! MSU Computing has enlisted students in Dr. Bruce Vanden Bergh’s Advertising 486 Campaigns class for this task.

According to Dr. Vanden Bergh, “The students are the market, they have the insight into the problem and they should be able to come up with the most creative solutions.” His students have been spending the semester creating a complete campaign, from conducting research, to creative design and media buying.

MSU has turned this difficult issue into an opportunity to tap into its own students for fresh ideas. Not only this, but the students will be gaining experience in a challenging advertising campaign that they will see have a real impact on their own campus. Lemons into Lemonade!

This post was written by M3 intern and Michigan State University student Cole Bremer.

An elite force of public relations and marketing commandos, the Special PRops team (short for special PR opportunities) brings together four of M3’s best and brightest to help our clients win the war on public perception. With expertise in writing and journalism, social media and graphic design, we’re ready to take aim at your toughest obstacles!

What can Special PRops do for you? Having a team that specializes in focused, proactive PR offers your business:

• Awareness – With an entire team to back you up, increasing your business’ public awareness and building your brand is easy.
• Visibility – We’ll get you to the top of the search engines, involved in social media and quoted in major publications.
• Relationships – Creating strong ties with the community, current and potential customers, industry leaders and media will help your business grow.
• Innovation – Having an ideation specialist and a creatologist means that we’re constantly coming up with brand new ideas to implement.
• Perception – Good PR gives your business esteem in the community and positive worth to your customers.

Meet the Special PRops team:

Emily Caswell: The Ringleader (bottom) – No plan of attack is complete without a leader. Emily comes armed with a lineup of ideas that leave no stone unturned. Her PR motto is to destroy and conquer (in the most lovely way possible, of course).

Anna Daugherty: Heavy Weaponry (right) –Anna’s got a knack for targeting leads and attacking a press release. She uses everything in her armory and then some to get clients noticed.

Julie Becker: Demolitions (top) – Julie likes to make things look pretty (no one wants to read an ugly release). And she blows things up … who doesn’t love that? Time to disqualify the opposition.

Kelly Mazurkiewicz: Getaway Driver (left) – The getaway driver is often the lynchpin of the operation. While planning and operations can take you far, it’s all in vain without the quick-thinking (escape) artist to get the team out safe and sound.

Get the Special PRops team on your side by contacting M3 today!

“Hey You! Yea. You. Intern, what’s your name? You need write a blog for us. You need to have it done by … an hour ago.”

Okay, so that’s not exactly how it went, but being new and doing something I’ve never done before kind of feels like that. So, here’s how I go about starting (and we’ll see if I finish) something:

• I freak out.
• I start worrying about how I’m ever going to get this done.
• I think where am I supposed to come up with creative ideas?
• Am I doing this right?
• What am I even doing?
• What if it sucks?
• What if they hate it?
• What am I doing with my life?

Whoa, take a step back.

Inhale.

Exhale.

How can I know if I will succeed if I don’t even start?

Alright, now here’s how I really start coming up with ideas and creating.

I start by making lists. It might just be lists of words that go along with the assignment topic at first. Then I start with color and imagery ideas that could go along with it, whatever seems to fit. Pretty soon my mind is overflowing with thoughts and pages of ideas that I can use. I’m so excited now! I just have to remember to take it one step at a time and not become overwhelmed with creativity. Yea, overwhelmed by creativity, it’s a rough life.

Now, I might take a break and go for a walk. I make sure to take my notebook with me so that I can write down any ideas that come to me. I’ll sleep on it. When I rest and de-stress is when my most creative ideas start to flow. I keep my notebook by my bed to jot down late night inspiration.

The next day I come back to my workspace and realize I have an abundant amount of resources now to create something great. My mind is centered and I go to work. Before I know it I’m done and came up with something pretty cool. All along I knew I could do it. That’s the main thing I keep in my mind. I can do anything I set my mind to. Just have got to remember; one idea, one word, one day at a time.

This post was written by M3 intern and Michigan State University student Alyssa Arseneau

Because I am an advertising student, a great deal (almost 100 percent) of my course load is dedicated to learning about working in an advertising agency and creating campaigns for clients. I find it surprising that only one course I’ve taken at MSU is solely committed to learning about social media and the numerous resources and tactics that are available online to advertise one’s business. In today’s ever-changing, technologically advanced world, this aspect is important, if not essential, to marketing and keeping up with your consumers.

Now, I don’t have years of experience in the advertising industry nor am I an Internet genius, but I can say that I have used social media for all of the internships and jobs I’ve had (and currently have). The great thing about social media marketing is that you don’t have to be extremely web savvy to market your business online. Oh yeah, and it’s free (for the most part).

Everyone knows that Facebook, Twitter and blogging are huge when it comes to keeping your consumers informed and updated on your business and promotions. I think the most important aspect of these tools is that you are able to interact with your consumers. I manage the In Her Shoes Radio Facebook and I like to ask questions that fans will likely respond to. This builds a relationship and they are more likely to be involved with the program and future shows. Just a few weeks ago our theme for the show was “Puppy Love” and we had guests from Capital Area Humane Society and AnnaBelle’s Pet Station. I announced this on Facebook, but I also asked, “By the way, what’s your favorite dog breed?” And let me tell you, we had great responses! It is important to remember to post updates that your fans or followers are interested in and not just updates promoting your business, which can get repetitive and boring.

So what are people interested in? Traditional ways of getting consumer insight are surveys and focus groups, but there are many resources online that enable you to track what people are talking about on their social media sites. A great site to use is monitter.com, which tracks what people are talking about on their Twitter accounts. All you have to do is type in a key word and a flow of tweets will start showing up on the screen! This site also allows you to track three key words or phrases at a time. So say you want to know what people are saying about iPad, the Kindle and Nook book reader, which are all devices for electronic books. Type in these three key words/phrases and you can compare what people are saying about them! The great thing about tools like Monitter is that nobody is asking Twitter users for their input unlike conducting surveys and focus groups, so you know that what they are saying is real and genuine.

Some other sites that are good for tracking tweets are tweetfeel.com, which measures positive and negative sentiments of tweets, and technorati.com, which is a leading blog search engine.

This post was written by M3 intern and Michigan State University student Angela Fabris.

By multitasking, I don’t mean talking on my cell phone while eating a sandwich and fixing my makeup, all while I’m driving. I can barely drive, even with full concentration! Plus, that’s dangerous.

I suppose by multitasking I mean keeping up with the multiple projects I have going this semester. I am a full-time student in my last semester at Michigan State University. I intern three days a week with the lovely M3 group, I work part-time doing marketing for a printing shop and I am Vice President of a student advertising association. Oh, and I volunteer at the Michigan Humane Society… when I have time.  To say the least, I have to manage my time wisely to get anything done.

I decided to make a list of tips and advice to keep busy people on track, something I still struggle with because I love Facebook and trashy reality shows. Nonetheless, I always try to keep myself organized and my projects on schedule.

Here are some things I do that have worked in my favor:

1.      Check emails regularly. I don’t have a smart phone, so I have to use my computer constantly. I have five email accounts that I have to check regularly, so I compile my accounts into my MS Outlook program. This has helped me not forget to login into any of my accounts Whew!

2.      Keep projects and the papers for those projects in their designated folders. That way you aren’t looking in an overstuffed folder with everything. This means keeping your desk and office area tidy. No more searching everywhere for paperwork! I also have designated folders on my computer to store documents, spreadsheets and images so I don’t have hundreds of shortcuts on my desktop. Trust me; it’s worth the extra time to make a separate folder!

3.      Take good notes! Write everything down at meetings and make sure you understand your notes later on. I always write a more coherent To-Do list after I look over my notes so I know what I need to get done and when. It is also good to jot down this stuff in your planner as well (Yes, two To-Do Lists!) Another thing that might be obvious is to look at your To-Do list and planner regularly (I usually struggle with this on weekends).

4.      Take a nap! I used to try and stay up all day and night to get things done, but I found that I concentrate better and produce better work if I am rested. By taking a nap, I mean resting for an hour or two after work/school/etc. and not thinking about all the stuff you have to get done. This keeps me (somewhat) stress-free during the week.

I know these tips seem simple and obvious, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to just blow off (well, it might not be that much of a surprise).

So those are things that keep me in check; what are some things that keep you in check?

This post was written by M3 intern and Michigan State University student Angela Fabris.