Arc 3 Communications

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Founder
    • Our Approach
    • Our Values
  • Services
    • Content
    • Digital
    • Advocacy
  • Our Work
    • Content
    • Digital
    • Advocacy
  • Blog
    • Archive Page
  • Contact Us

Why Content Marketing Matters for Your Trade Association’s Future

May 15, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

content-marketingEvery industry is facing the digital disruption of their traditional marketing and communications. Trade Associations are no different and not immune to the winds of change that have occurred in consumer and business to business marketing. Trade associations’ marketing and communications efforts to membership, stakeholders, alliance groups and government audiences is changing and aligning with big brands’ transition to a content marketing model. The largest and most effective brands in the world such as Coca-Cola and IBM, use content marketing to build relationships and brand loyalty and make future sales.

Developing a content marketing program for your trade association is important to achieving your organization’s goals and objectives in the digital age of communications. What is content marketing? It is the creating and sharing of valuable, relevant and consistent content in order to build relationships with an audience to achieve an objective such as a membership sale. It is owning media, not renting it. By sharing your best ideas and experience, good content builds trust and relationships with people and encourages them to come back to you when they need your services or product.

The most popular forms of content marketing are articles, social media content, blog posts and e-newsletters. But case studies, white papers, e-books and webinars have also proven to be effective in reaching audiences. Although social media and digital formats have made content marketing affordable and effective for big and small organizations, it is not strictly confined to online. Print publications such as John Deere’s The Furrow Magazine and Lego’s Lego Club Magazine have been around for decades and are remarkably successful in building long lasting relationships for these respective brands.

Like the big brands, trade associations must come to the realization that traditional marketing with its heavy reliance on television, direct mail and print media is a losing strategy in retaining and growing membership and promoting advocacy and policy goals, especially among millennials. With the rapid decline in cable television subscribers, newspaper readers and the increase in junk mail into mailboxes, producing compelling content that engages your members and reaches them on the digital continent is vital. The most popular television channel for millenials isn’t even on TV; it is YouTube.

The future of trade associations and all those organizations that are engaged in civic life depends upon the sharing of content online that engages and forms relationships with audiences. In order to have millenials active in your association, you must reach them on the digital continent in which they live. Support for your association’s membership, legislative and advocacy efforts depend upon this large group upon which future board members and leadership will come.

Want to learn more about the principles and fundamentals of content marketing and how you can update your trade association’s communications and marketing efforts? Contact Patrick Burns at pburns@arc3communications.com. We can work with you on content marketing fundamentals such as a content audit, the creation of a content marketing plan, content calendars, a content management system and analytics. Arc 3 can reboot your trade association’s marketing efforts and implement a content marketing process in your organization that helps you achieve success.

Filed Under: Business Advocacy, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing Tagged With: Content Marketing, Content Marketing and Trade Associations, John Deere, Lego Club Magazine, YouTube

Happy Thanksgiving! 10 Things I Am Thankful For

November 27, 2014 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

ThanksgivingHappy Thanksgiving from Arc 3 Communications! As we celebrate the 3rd anniversary of our agency, it is good to reflect upon those things that I am thankful for.

1. I am thankful for our clients in the civic space that have entrusted us over the years to help with their content, digital marketing and social media needs. We have worked with clients ranging from government agencies to trade associations to political campaigns at the local, state and national levels. We have developed digital marketing and social media campaigns, new websites, content marketing plans and all types of amazing content to help them accomplish their legislative, policy, electoral and civic engagement goals.

2.  I am thankful for the talented team of creatives, digital marketing, social media, technical and public affairs experts at Arc 3. I am also thankful for our interns that have breathed life into our agency with new ideas and enthusiasm for our mission.

3.  I am thankful to our vendors who have become trusted partners in helping us to carry out our mission. These knowledgeable experts in accounting, the law, banking and technology are indispensable.

4. I am thankful to the awesome team at Strongbox West who provide us with an affordable, fun and innovative office space to work in that is filled with other startups in the creative, digital and technology space. The shared learning from other entrepreneurs has been immeasurable.

5. I am thankful to the many innovators in digital, social media and technology that have transformed marketing from a traditional marketing model to a world driven by content. This includes not only the creators of the well-known platforms such as WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tumblr; but the countless other innovators who developed lesser known digital and social media platforms that have helped to create a competitive marketplace that produces amazing channels for communication and sharing.

6. I am thankful to our agency competitors for new business in the content, digital marketing and civic space who by their efforts in the marketplace, push us to do better, innovate and strive to be our best.

7. I am thankful for the digital, social media, creative and start-up community of Atlanta in which we are constantly learning new things through shared knowledge and crowd sourced learning. I am most grateful to the Social Media Club of Atlanta, SouthWired (former Digital Atlanta) and the many Meetups around the city that are ongoing.

8. As Founder of an agency focused on the civic space, I am thankful for the many long-standing institutions in government, politics and civic life and the people and ideas that sustain them. The great civitas of our country depends upon engaged citizens, media, candidates, elected officials, trade association and non-profit executives and public servants in government at all levels.

9. I am thankful for the countless numbers of friends and former colleagues throughout my career in government and politics, academia and the agency world who have offered encouragement and referred business our way.

10. I am most thankful to my family for their constant love and support through my entrepreneurial journey. My family has shared this experience with me every step of the way. It is hard to express my gratitude and thanks to my four children and most especially my wife Mary. My wife’s selflessness, determination and love for me has been the rock upon which my success has been built.

Finally, I am most thankful to God to whom all thanks must be given. Without his love and my faith in him, my entrepreneurial journey would have never gotten off the ground 3 years ago.

What are you most thankful for this year? Please share with us!

Patrick L. Burns, Founder and President of Arc 3 Communications

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Civic Innovation/Gov. 2.0, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, News, Public Affairs, Social Media Audits and Listening analyses, Social Media Relations, Website Development Tagged With: Arc 3 Communications 3rd Anniversary, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving and Arc 3 Communications, LinkedIn, Meetup, social media, Social Media Club of Atlanta, SouthWired, StrongboxWest, Tumblr, Twitter, WordPress, YouTube

The Top Ten Most Social Media Savvy U.S. Politicians

January 11, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Social media played an important role in helping to secure the re-election of President Barack Obama in 2012.  President Obama’s utilization of social media also played a key role in his defeat of Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries and then Senator John McCain in the general election in 2008.  In 2012, President Obama essentially took up where he left off in the last Presidential election and developed a decisive advantage in the area of social media over Mitt Romney. The Obama-Biden campaign’s utilization of social media for get out the vote efforts and its analysis of social data for the prediction of voter behavior, targeting of messages and media buying was truly remarkable.

But who are the other success stories in social media amongst politicians besides President Obama? Through the analysis of Klout Scores, Facebook Likes and Twitter followers amongst politicans across the country, Arc 3 has compiled the top ten most social media savvy politicans. In order to qualify for the list you must either have held elected office or been a candidate for elected office within the last year.

1. Barack Obama (Klout Score  99): President Obama maintained a substantial lead in both Facebook likes and Twitter followers over Mitt Romney. By the end of the campaign, Obama had 22.7 million followers and 32.2 million likes, compared to Romney’s 1.8 million followers and 12.1 million likes. The Obama-Biden campaign’s posting of an image of Barack and Michelle Obama in an embrace, accompanied by the message, “Four more years” set two social media records, receiving more Twitter retweets (755,000) and Facebook likes (3.5 million) than any other post in history.

2. John McCain (Klout Score 92): The U.S. Senator from Arizona and former Republican Presidential candidate in 2008 shows considerable strength in social media, outscoring both Vice President Joe Biden and Mitt Romney. Senator McCain has 880,594 Facebook likes and 1.7 million Twitter followers. His independent streak and reputation for bluntness are highly suitable for the medium of social media.

3. Joe Biden (Klout Score 90): Vice President Biden’s social media presence benefited from being a part of a very gifted Obama-Biden campaign digital team. Vice President Biden had 555,571 Facebook likes and 116,900 Twitter followers. Biden is known to be prone to verbal gaffes in the real world, but his digital world is very disciplined and tame in comparison.

4. Mitt Romney (Klout Score 89): Throughout the Presidential campaign, Romney’s number of followers on Facebook and Twitter were greatly outpaced by President Obama. At the end of the campaign, Romney had 1.8 million followers on Twitter and 12.1 million Facebook likes. The President had 12 times more followers on Twitter and 2 times more followers on Facebook than Romney. It was not all bad news for Romney’s social efforts, as Romney’s Facebook strategies did at times have him leading President Obama in Facebook engagement with his “People Talking About This” numbers being higher.

5. Nancy Pelosi (Klout Score 89): The current Democratic leader in the House has a solid social media presence consistent with her wired constituents in her San Francisco Congressional District. Pelosi has 285, 926 Twitter followers and 67,776 Facebook likes.

6. Newt Gingrich  (Klout Score 88): The former Republican House Speaker and Presidential candidate had one of the strongest presences on social media out of the Republican candidates for President in 2012. Winner of the first Republican Presidential primary in the South, South Carolina, Speaker Gingrich has 292,262 Facebook likes and 1.4 million followers on Twitter.

7. Jerry Brown  (Klout Score 88): The current Governor of California, home of Silicon Valley, logically has a solid social media presence.  He is very strong on Twitter with some 1.05 million followers and has 136,190 Facebook likes. Governor Brown’s followers prefer Twitter almost seven times more than Facebook. A former Presidential candidate who earned the nickname “Moonbeam”, there is no shortage of content on his Twitter stream.

8. John Boehner (Klout Score 87): The current Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has strongly promoted social media over years amongst his GOP caucus members. Once issuing a press release entitled “PWNED: House GOP Dominates Twitter, YouTube, Social Media in Congress”, he has taken the lead and shown his members how to be social media savvy. (Note: PWNED is trash talk that means you “owned” your opponent). Boehner has 320,479 Facebook likes and 220,763 Twitter followers for his campaign accounts.

9. Ron Paul  (Klout Score 86): The former Congressman from Texas and Republican Presidential Candidate in 2012 has a considerable social media following reflective of the passion his candidacy generated among tech savvy millenials and libertarians.  Paul has over 1.1 million Facebook likes and over 200,300 Twitter followers.

10. Cory Booker (Klout Score 85): The Mayor of Newark, New Jersey utilizes Twitter as a way to hear constituent concerns. The Mayor’s twitter account has become a civic reporting system that has been a better platform for consituent’s voices to be heard than the actual telephone at City Hall.  Mayor Booker has over 1.3 million Twitter followers and 128,137 Facebook likes. Many constituents in Newark say if you want a pothole fixed you need to tweet to him about it.

At the start of 2013, these are the top ten most social media savvy U.S. politicians. Will they maintain their status or will new leaders emerge and enter into the top ten? Arc 3 will be following closely to see who comes out on top at the end of what is certain to be a year of innovation and enterprise in social media and politics.

 

 

Filed Under: Campaign Management, Campaigns and Elections, Coalition Building, Digital Marketing, Government, Public Affairs, Social Media Audits and Listening analyses, Social Media Relations Tagged With: BarackObama2012, Campaigns and Elections, Cory Booker, Election, Facebook, Hillary Clinton, Jerry Brown, Joe Biden, John Boehner, John McCain, Klout, Michelle Obama, Mitt Romney, MittRomney2012, Nancy Pelosi, Newt Gingrich, Presidential Election 2012, Ron Paul, social media, Social Media Data, Twitter, YouTube

Crisis Communications, Social Media and Pecha Kucha

October 18, 2012 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

In order to better protect the reputation of your organization, new crisis communications protocols that integrate social media strategies must be put in place to meet today’s new challenges. The following presentation by Patrick L. Burns, President of Arc 3 Communications, quickly highlights key strategies that are an important part of an updated crisis communications plan that incorporates social media. Presentation was originally presented to Social Media Club of Atlanta at their 2012 Pecha Kucha Night. Presentation is in pecha kucha format which is a simple, fast-paced style where the presenter shows 20 slides, each for either 15 or 20 seconds so that presentation is either 5 minutes long or  6 minutes 40 seconds long.

To view Patrick’s presentation to the Social Media Club of Atlanta, please click the following link:

What Happens In Vegas Goes on YouTube: Crisis Communications and Social Media

 

 

Filed Under: Social Media Audits and Listening analyses, Social Media Relations, Strategic Communications Planning Tagged With: Crisis Communications, media relations, Pecha Kucha, public relations, social media, Social Media Club Atlanta, YouTube

Newsletter

Want to receive the latest news in digital and public affairs? Sign up to receive our updates.

Recent Posts

  • Arc 3 Communications Celebrates 13-year Business Anniversary
  • Join Our Team! Public Affairs Internship Opportunity in Georgia
  • Announcing New Account Executive for Public Affairs, Christian Frankl
  • What is Public Affairs? (Infographic)
  • What is Public Affairs and Why It is Really Important

About Our Founder

Husband, Father of 5, Founder of Arc 3 Communications - a public affairs agency. Over 30 years in politics and public affairs. Follow me on twitter and instagram at @patricklburns. I live, work and play in the community I grew up in. Read More…

Our Location

We’re located in historic downtown Marietta just off of the Square.

145 Church Street, Suite 290 Marietta Georgia 30060

Let’s Work Together

How can we help? We’d love to hear about your next  project. Contact us here.

 

Connect with Us

Want to keep up with the latest public affairs trends? Follow us across our social networks.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Arc 3 Communications, LLC