This past Tuesday, another deadly attack struck Europe. Belgium was hit with two horrific explosions at the Brussels Airport and one bomb at the Maalbeek Metro Station, leaving 25 civilians dead and 136 severely injured. Despite the devastating incident that left the entire world shaken once again, the crisis communications effort that was implemented during these terrorist attacks were exceptional. This effort was largely due to the powerful impact of social media. Continue…

Hi there! My name is Kate Gothing, and I am the newest social media and marketing intern at HMG Creative. I am overly thrilled to join such an amazing team and learn from each and every one of the team members. Currently, I am entering my senior year as an advertising student at the University of Texas at Austin (wow–how time flies!). I was born and raised in a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts, but have always dreamed of moving to Texas. Unfortunately, I have not been in Texas for my entire college career. For my freshman year of college, I attended DePaul University in Chicago, as a marketing student. After the Polar Vortex of 2014, I decided it was time to move down south, and soak up some much needed sun. Since transferring to UT Austin my sophomore year, I have not regretted it. I mean who could, in such a great city with amazing queso, tacos and BBQ?

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Social media is an ever-changing outlet. Networking platforms have been going in and out of popularity as quickly as Kylie Jenner’s Lip Kits. Who remembers MySpace? I know I do. I would spend hours updating my MySpace layout, thinking I was cool because I knew which codes to put in to make my solid colored background into one that resembled a disco ball. Now that MySpace has phased out, the public has moved on to the more popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. I am now a senior in college, but I began using social media when I was thirteen. Middle school was all about who your top friends were on MySpace, high school was all about being “FB official” and posting funny posts on your BFF’s Facebook wall, and now in college Snapchat and Instagram are the best ways to show everyone from home how much better college is than high school.

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The madness of starting another school year is finally starting to slow down. People are beginning to get back into their normal routines, and whether we like it or not, it’s time to accept that summer is coming to a close. We, personally, are looking forward to a breather from the Texas heat! Aside from saying goodbye to summer, it’s also time to prep for a strong finish to the last quarter of 2015. From our experience, digital marketing strategies can and does play a huge role in determining your success from quarter to quarter, so it should not be left on the “back burner.”

To help you in your final push towards the new year, we wanted to offer up some of our insights into building an even stronger digital marketing plan for your business. Regardless of what your company objectives are, each of these can provide a great deal of value in distinguishing yourself from your competition, building relationships with your audience, and increasing your profits.

 1. Publish Content Regularly  

 Your goal should be to develop a content strategy that encompasses the products and services that your  company offers. Not only that, but you want to show your audience that you are the industry leader in the  market. Consider posting content that illustrates your experience on a particular issue for your clients, or  write a feature story on one of your products. Also, don’ t be afraid to recycle older content. Often times, you  can simply repost content that you created years ago. Unless it is irrelevant, this is a great way to generate a  ton of content that is already proven to be successful. For more information about developing quality content, check out our blog post on incorporating appropriate and relevant content.

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It’s really hard to believe that my time at HMG is already coming to an end. Time sure does fly by when you are learning as much as I am! Serving as an intern at HMG has proven to be a smart decision and a very valuable experience. Since I am pursuing a degree in public relations as UT Austin, I was looking to gain as much experience in the realm of communications and marketing as possible. Working as a social media and marketing intern has taught me a great deal of knowledge in the professional communications industry.

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Hi! I’m Jenna Meltzer, the 2016 Social Media and Marketing intern, and I am so excited to kick off the new year as the newest member of the HMG Creative team. I am currently a junior at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in public relations and pursuing a business certificate from the McCombs School of Business. Born and raised in a small suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I knew I wanted to get out of the tiny bubble in which I had lived my entire life, and experience a new culture during my college years. After visiting Austin for the first time, I immediately fell in love with the young vibe of the city, the amazing food, and of course, that southern hospitality that you don’t see as much in Philadelphia. Even though I had to adjust my ears to not cringe when I hear the word “y’all” instead of “youz guys,” I can wholeheartedly say that attending the University of Texas at Austin was one of the best decisions I have ever made. You must be crazy to not love the Live Music Capital of the World — am I right?

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We asked for it, and they responded– after more than a year of research, Facebook released a new update today that extends from the simple “like” button. The new reactions allows users to express their emotions by choosing between like, love, haha, wow, sad and angry emojis.

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Hello! My name is Tanner Hertzog and I am the new intern here at HMG Creative. I am about to begin my senior year at The University of Texas at Austin where I am studying Public Relations and Business. I have a huge passion for digital branding, and specifically interested in learning how to handle a crisis via social media. I am so excited to be here at HMG Creative. I think this will be a wonderful opportunity for me to learn even more skills on how to manage a brand online and how to connect with potential new clients. Aside from social media work, this is a great opportunity for me to learn the ins and outs of the marketing/business side of operations in the “real world.” I have learned so much in the classroom, but it’s a completely different situation when you are actually using what you have learned in the workplace.

Prior to beginning this internship, I was running all of the Moody College of Communication’s social media channels. I was responsible for overseeing all the distribution of content, as well as the promotion of our account to current and prospective students as well as alumni. This internship provided me with my first opportunity to manage a brand’s social media network, and I learned a great deal about how to effectively grow a brand online.

When I am not working, I enjoy spending my free time exploring all that Austin has to offer. I am a self-taught guitar player, and was a competitive swimmer for 17 years. I have the competitive attitude in everything that I do, especially in the classroom. I am also an avid fitness guru. I spend a great deal of time working out in the gym, and focusing on a healthy diet.

I am looking forward to providing you guys with some great insight into this industry, and hopefully we both grow together over the next 5-6 months. Please follow me on Twitter @tannerhertzog, and if you have any questions for me please feel free to reach out!

If you haven’t already, please take a minute to read our previous post discussing our current blog series and what all you can expect to read over the next few weeks!

Value of Social Media

Alright, to kick things off, let’s get to talking about the value of social media. Words like “follow us” and “like this” are buzzwords that virtually drive the entire online world these days. If you are redesigning your website, you should highly consider the value of integrating your social media channels with the site. Don’t have social media? While we recommend you reconsider your decision, fear not: you can utilize a blog! We can’t stress enough the importance of connecting with your audience on a personal level, and the best way to do so is through social media and blogging.

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WordPress, the most responsive web designers for your business, has been around since 2003 and is the most popular blogging software on the market. WordPress is the world’s most popular tool for creating and managing websites — any kind of website, from a simple blog to a full-featured business website. Here are our TOP 15 reasons why WordPress is so popular and why you should consider switching to a WordPress platform for your company’s website.

1. Less $$$ Spent on Maintenance

With WordPress, you will no longer need to call your web designer every time you want to make a change. With WordPress, you can make the edits yourself, whenever you want, and save the money you would’ve paid your designer for more important things by adding new pages on your own.

2. Your Site becomes 100% Customizable

It shouldn’t come as a surprise but it is wort highlighting that WordPress gives you 100% customization freedom. Do you want a big website? Small Website? Blog? Lot’s of images? Social media integration? All of those are up to you, and can be done with ease. Change your mind later on? Fear not, you can always make changes to the site layout/design whenever you want.

3. Generate A Conversation With Your Visitors

Because of things like comments, you are now able to actually talk back to people via your webiste. Sure, you can always have a “contact us” page on your traditional Web site, but blog comments allow for anonymous two-way discussion between you and your readers. And, every time someone makes a comment to one of your posts, the inclusion of their content full of keyword phrases helps you to build better search positioning. It’s like getting free SEO help from the general public!

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