Teaching Some Experts How To Be A Social Media Experts (Without Making It A Full Time Job)

A few weeks back I spoke at an epic old venue down by the river about the thoroughly modern subject of Social Media. (Obvs. I mean what else did you expect from me at this stage?)

I was speaking to a room full of experts, women who are spokespeople about their professional specialism. I was there to teach them about how to increase their profiles online – but as these are busy women, I focused my talk on how to fit building up a social media profile into your daily routine.

I love doing talks and public or private training sessions about building up a social media profile. If you’d like me to help out with a social media training session for you or your organisation, get in touch! jessica.m.riches@gmail.com

In a day and age where everyone is seen as a publisher because of social media, lots of people get very worried that committing to building up a social media following will involve having to create lots of their own, original content. This is obviously ideal if you have the time and genuinely have reams of wisdom to share – but it isn’t necessary, if you’re new to social media and just want to find a way to fit it into your life or working life. Continue reading →

Posted on 15/12/201417/11/2015 by Jessica Riches 0

Let’s Get Ethical

Short update – last week I took part in a small roundtable with the CIPR (Chartered Institute of PR for those not in-the-know – I wasn’t…) to advise them on their social media and technology ethics policy.

I’ll be honest – I think most people in the room had thought about this a lot more deeply than I had in the past, as they were mainly lawyers and academics. That said, it was a fascinating afternoon, and incredibly productive.

The main conclusion I personally drew was that social media doesn’t have the same need for an ethical conduct as other disciplines, because of it’s incredibly public, consumer-empowering nature. If a brand, individual or organisation does anything that breaches a ‘code of conduct’ – purposefully or otherwise – they are likely to be found out, sooner or later.

Thank God for accountability, right?!

Posted on 04/11/2014 by Jessica Riches 0

Oh Hi There Generation Z

Generation Y have come of age – even the youngest are in higher education or have jobs.

This means that there’s a new generation in town – the younger crowd who are coming into their own and becoming the new ‘cool kids’, trendsetters and taste-makers as their older counterparts venture into real life. Generation Z are under 17 and still at school, so trends, early adoption and collective behaviour can exhibit itself more clearly.

Unlike the generation before them, Generation Z aren’t approaching adulthood at a time of flux and development.

Generation Y remember that there ever was not an Internet, and were conscious and aware of the transition they were making into digital communication. It’s second nature for them. However, Generation Z cannot truly remember a time without the internet and social media.

Following on from my last look at Generation Y, I wrote this for OnePoll about the biggest differences between these generations.

Continue reading →

Posted on 19/09/201419/09/2014 by Jessica Riches 0

Writing About Young People and Social Media (obviously)

Quick one!

I’ve spent the last couple of months working with the SWNS Media Group, OnePoll and 72Point on innovating their digital offerings and helping them reach a new demographic – the kids. Big things are coming for Generation Y and Generation Z.

Anyway – I’ve also done some writing!

This blog for OnePoll is an introduction to the new Youth Engagement offering that we’ve been working on, complete with GIFs:

Five Ways We’ve Been Doing Youth Research Wrong Our Whole Lives (And What We Should Actually Be Doing)

And I jotted down some tips on how PR companies can keep their social media alive when the office is empty to contribute this 72Point post:

Why Summer Is The Time To Shine On Social Media

Read, learn and enjoy!

Posted on 19/08/2014 by Jessica Riches 0

A Love Letter To Selfies

Dear Selfies,

Yesterday I moved 100GB of crap off of my hard drive. Most of that was you. I found a folder of over 4,000 of you just from the first half of 2011. I laughed recalling my fondest memories with you – waking up with a mild hangover and little recollection of the 550 new additions to Photobooth from the night before.

I have loved you for a long time. Continue reading →

Posted on 13/08/201413/08/2014 by Jessica Riches 0

Politics Is Doing The Internet Right

Apologies for the lack of sentence construction in that title, but I really can’t think of another way to put it. I know it’s my job to think about political social media, and most people don’t care as much as I do. But seriously guys, politics really is doing the Internet right!

Obviously there have been some awesome uses of online tools and platforms for largescale political gain in the past, for good or for bad – I’ll namecheck Obama, Kony and the Occupy movement as a sample – the list goes on and on.

However, in terms of getting day-to-day messaging across, we’ve mostly* seen Twitter and other available online tools used as a new distribution service for otherwise unaltered PR materials – and nothing more. This completely ignores the potential for a wider reach than the usual political crowd that the Internet allows.

This year, something seems to have changed. We’ve seen political organisers, informers and campaigners step it up a notch with their digital strategy in a slightly different way in the past few months: Continue reading →

Posted on 17/03/201423/07/2014 by Jessica Riches 0

Social Media Agony Aunt Search Terms Part 1: Social Media Addiction

This blog gets an obscene amount of hits for a site so under-updated and so un-SEOed. I would say ‘God knows how’ – but WordPress knows how. (WordPress is God?)

Anyway, using this omniscient Internet capability, I can see the main search terms that get people here. And I can see that these search terms are a CRY FOR HELP. So I’m going to offer some help.

Welcome to Social Media Agony Aunt Search Terms Part 1. (Suggestions for catchier names welcome. And knowing me there won’t be a part 2.)

Continue reading →

Posted on 24/02/201423/07/2014 by Jessica Riches 0

This is what social media looks like right now

Bye guys, I’m giving up Facebook because of 17 reasons Only People With Really Big Facebook Habits Will Understand. The first 6 people to respost this get a puppy. You Won’t Believe How Awe-Inspiring I’m Being whilst I win the Internet. Seriously. Just Click Here.

Grammar aside, I’m pretty sure the Internet can’t be anything but a parody of itself right now.
Continue reading →

Posted on 12/02/201423/07/2014 by Jessica Riches 0

Twitter’s IPO, my live news debut & more of my #life

Last week Twitter announced that they would be floating on the stock market. Channel 4 News asked me to come on the show and talk about it, representing Twitter’s free spirit and general user base. Watch me talking to Jon Snow here.

(I’d just had a minor routine surgery if you think I’m sitting awkwardly.)

Also in recent weeks I’ve decided to put my real name on my Twitter account. Mainly because my ‘Tweet of the Week’ on Marketing Week decided that my insight on Snapchat and Chat Roulette (yes, really) should be attributed to “Jessica”. With speech marks. So I will always be @littlemisswilde, but I may sometimes go by Jessica Riches now.

And finally: it’s Social Media Week this week! #SMWLDN feels a lot like Fashion Week but there are less people taking pictures of your clothes. Say hi if you’re around; we can talk about ‘engagement’ and Instagram our coffees, because why shouldn’t we live up to the global ‘working in social media’ stereotype?

Peace, love & hashtags
@littlemisswilde / Jessica Riches

Posted on 23/09/201317/03/2014 by Jessica Riches 0

MY BOYFRIEND CAN’T SEE THIS: Why Social Media Will Kill My Relationship (part 1)

LEGAL STALKING

A few weeks ago, the ladies at Pamflet asked me to speak at the London launch of Emma Koenig’s FUCK! I’M IN MY TWENTIES. It’s amazing, buy it. Anyway, I used this as an opportunity to find out what the audience thought of my online behaviour towards my boyfriend. They thought I was less of a psycho than I’d anticipated so I thought ‘sod it’ and turned my talk into a series of blog posts. This is part 1. And my boyfriend has now seen this.

I freak out every time my boyfriend wants to use my MacBook for something. I usually smack his hand away before he even has a chance to move the mouse to Chrome. I’d definitely rather accidentally break his DJing hand or whatever than see the look on his face if he discovered the dark secret that lies in wait on my home page if I haven’t cleared my browsing history in the last forty five minutes. But I’m not having a raunchy affair conducted entirely through Facebook chat, I don’t have a shameful past that could be revealed by an unfortunate email at any moment and there is no addiction to obscure pornography that could be exposed with a simple mistyped URL. The truth is far worse: my most visited sites will undoubtedly always be his Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Continue reading →

Posted on 16/10/201225/03/2013 by Jessica Riches 0

I TWEET IN MY DREAMS…

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