Hammock Blog.

Customer Media Trends, Topics & Ideas

Associations Can Learn From Businesses Using Twitter

Posted on October 31, 2008 in Association media, Content Marketing, Digital Media, Social media, by Barbara Logan

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While many associations are beginning to see the value of how social networks and social media can help them, many still have reservations about Twitter. They might feel comfortable with writing for a blog or posting videos to YouTube, but they continue to question the purpose of a tweet. If associations will take a cue from the business world, they can harness the power of Twitter to meet some of their member communication goals.

Research from the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study shows that almost 60 percent of Americans interact with companies on social media sites. The survey findings also revealed:

It’s clear that the majority of Americans have an expectation and a desire to interact with companies through social media online, which helps explain why Twitter is one of the fastest growing social networking sites on the web. In only the last year its traffic has skyrocketed from 533,000 to 2.4 million visitors. To respond to this demand for communication from their customers, Ann Smarty, in her Search Engine Journal Blog, shares examples of how high-profile businesses are using Twitter:

  1. To provide deals and coupon codes (Dell and Starbucks)
  2. To offer another customer support option for customers (JetBlue, Comcast, The Home Depot)
  3. To solicit customer input and develop a closer relationship (Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods, HRBlock and Best Buy)
  4. To respond to customer feedback (Popeye’s)
  5. To post company news (Ford and Samsung)
  6. To promote a blog (Kodak)

Earlier this year at Hammock, Twitter played a pivotal role in an event website we created for the National Federation of Independent Business for its National Small Business Summit. The social media site included video postings, photo sharing, blogging and knowledge-sharing powered by Twitter. Using Twitter allowed organizers and attendees to post the latest updates and news from the event.

Wonder how you can use the power of Twitter to create a new avenue for communication with your members? Contact us for social media strategies you can benefit from today.

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Yes, There is Such a Thing as Elegant Web Typography

Posted on in Design, Digital Media, by Rex Hammock

Web design rockstar Khoi Vihn, design director at NYTimes.com, gave a ringing-endorsement point to a deck that accompanied a presentation by designer Jeff Croft.

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Pearl Award Finalists

Posted on in Awards, by Bill Hudgins

Hammock Inc. recently received word from the Custom Publishing Council that work we have done for the National Federation of Independent Business and for the Daughters of the American Revolution made the finals in the CPC’s 2008 Pearl Awards. The winners will be announced Nov. 13 at a ceremony at the legendary Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.
The CPC didn’t specify which entries were in the running. However, our entries in the contest included work on a special NFIB Web site and a department in NFIB’s member magazine MyBusiness, and editorial and design creative for the DAR member magazine American Spirit.

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Hammock Spotlights DAR Quilts in American Spirit

Posted on in Magazines, by Jamie Roberts

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Hammock is proud to be playing a role in the world’s largest quilting event, the International Quilt Festival, going on today and this weekend in Houston. More than 30,000 attendees to the prestigious festival will be receiving a copy of the September/October issue of American Spirit, the magazine we publish for the Daughters of the American Revolution. The issue features a preview of the DAR Museum‘s festival exhibit, “DAR Presents: Quilts of a Young Country.”
In addition to the cover story of the issue celebrating quilt art and spotlighting the 20 DAR quilts on display at the festival, Hammock also designed several ads for The Texas Society Daughters of the American Revolution (TSDAR) to run in the festival’s program.
“I’m excited because the DAR quilt exhibit promotes the preservation of a part of our American heritage that is very connected to our families and is connected generationally,” says Jill Brooks, exhibit co-chair for the TSDAR. “Perhaps because it’s tactile, there seems to be something special about quilting and the fact that it’s passed down through generations. There’s a comfort factor involved.”
Congrats to the TSDAR for its part in a “show that even Hurricane Ike couldn’t stop!” Here’s to a great festival!

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How We Use Social Media for Events

Posted on in Case study, Event media, Event sales, Social media, by Hammock Inc.

Hammock Inc. Case Study
The challenges:

  • Make an event come
    alive for members
    who can’t attend
  • Market the event back
    to all members to
    increase future attendance

The solution:
Hammock’s custom-designed,
social-media based
event coverage

Hammock has enjoyed working with the National Federation of Independent Business since the early 1990s. NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C, and all 50 state capitals. We work with them to create MyBusiness, their member magazine, and manage NFIB.com, their website.
Every two years, NFIB hosts a National Small Business Summit, a biannual event to explore important policy, business and economic issues facing small business. In the past, we worked with NFIB to create an event website for the Summit, which included news stories from the event. Good, but we wanted to do something more dynamic in 2008.

This year Hammock worked with NFIB to develop a site where small business owners who couldn’t come to Washington, D.C., for the Summit could still participate in the action online. We built and managed a social media site for the Summit with video posting and photo sharing, blogging and knowledge sharing from sessions. We continued the effort post-Summit by developing a digital magazine that is focused on building attendance for the next Summit.
While tools like Flickr, YouTube and Twitter each serve a unique purpose, we’ve found that pulling them together into one interface can often serve your audience best, particularly when you’re sharing information about a single event. While each individual feed is still available, if someone only wants to see the photo updates, for instance, but the event-focused website shows a complete picture of the event — photos, video and all. For many associations, online marketing is still website and email focused. Hammock’s approach is different. We take unique advantage of social media but still provide a central home for all event-related content. If you can’t attend, it’s the next best thing to being there.

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