Last Friday, our very own Alexandra Gibson was featured in an interview on Hugh Macken Live on Blog Talk Radio. She discussed social media and inbound marketing, with a focus on OttoPilot Media’s results-based approach. The meat of the interview consisted of determining the difference between measuring social media metrics and social media ROI, and what each means for your business. Social media metrics like reach and sentiment analytics are important, but businesses ultimately want more revenue and greater brand recognition to gain that revenue. With that said, OttoPilot focuses on things that actually bring results to a company. Hence, our [...]

  We’ve been talking a lot about creative blog ideas, images, and blog videos. It’s only fair that we show you just how creative we can get here at OttoPilot. A few weeks ago, Alexandra, myself, and fellow intern Jillian hit the streets of Charlottesville for a hilarious photoshoot. While this was certainly fun, the trip had a business purpose. We used paraphernelia fromHubspot and other marketers and plan to use the photos in various promotional campaigns. Before we get to the rest of the images, let’s go over just why blog images are so important With the advent of Pinterest and the growing use of Pinterest [...]

You should hear Amanda and Alexandra talk to the OttoPilot team about their upcoming road trip to the 2012 SXSW Interactive Festival: “And then we’re going to visit the Minister’s House—“ “—What?” “The World’s Biggest Treehouse.” “Oh… nice…” “And THEN we’re going to visit the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum…. And I didn’t even tell you the best part. We’re taking an RV.”   Silence.   Although judging from the dialogue you may think the two captains of OttoPilot Media are well into at LEAST their sixth decade, Amanda and Alexandra are young and fashionable—not the type you’d expect to get excited about rolling up [...]

Happy Friday from the Flight Deck!  I felt inspired today to take some photos of our office and give everyone a little behind the scenes look at our office. The OttoPilot Media offices are in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia right off of the Downtown Mall–a walking mall of shops, music venues, offices, restaurants, and bars.  We are on the first floor of a historic building called The Pink Warehouse (located right next to South Street Brewery). Dave Matthews played his first concert in the Pink Warehouse and also is said to have named his famous song, “Warehouse”, about our awesome building.  When DMB comes [...]

  Although we don’t like to brag, OttoPilot Media happens to be located in one of the most celebrated cities in the nation. Our home in Charlottesville, Virginia currently features beautiful fall foliage and temperate fall weather. But, that alone could not account for the dozens of awards Charlottesville has won over the years. We are exceptionally proud of how wonderful it is to be a business in Charlottesville. Currently, Forbes ranks Charlottesville as #27 in Job Growth and #31 in Best Small Places for Businesses and Careers. It also ranked #18 on CNN’s Best Places to Live and Launch 2008, and#19 on CNN’s Best Places to Launch [...]

We’ve created a free whitepaper that provides a practical guide (it is a deep subject) to determine whether social media is returning real results for your business.  We created this whitepaper in response to the predominant question asked across the industry and by our clients- “But how do I know if this social media stuff is really working?” Social media ROI is different than social media metrics.  Metrics may include the number of followers you have on Twitter, the number of Facebook “likes” that responded to a certain post, and the like. Determining social media ROI is about following your prospects’ paths from [...]

For those of you who live in Charlottesville, OttoPilot Media just launched a joint venture deal site with Monticello Media—parent company to several of the Charlottesville area stations like Hot 101.9 and Hitkicker 99.7—called RadioSocialLife. Like Groupon or LivingSocial, RadioSocialLife will feature a daily deal from a local business that offers 50-90% off.  However, the twist is that the daily deal is promoted via radio as well. That means that the business providing the deal for RadioSocialLife that day will be featured across 5 radio stations all day with a mixture of live and pre-recorded promotions.  This benefits the business [...]

“Freedom is not free.” The OttoPilot team thanks those men and women, and all those who came before them, who fight for our freedom and keep us safe at home.  We publicly thank you today but we think of your service and what it provides our great country every day.

Jam-packed with events and fun holidays, autumn is our favorite season to be outside and enjoy the color inspiration, fall fashion and crisp air. Here are a few of our favorite things to do: “The Fall is my absolute FAVORITE season.  In addition to the usual pumpkin carving and Halloween costume party traditions, one of my absolute favorite things to do every October is visit Markoff’s Haunted Forest with my friends.  This particular Haunted Forest beats ANY Haunted house/tour/forest/etc I have ever been to.  My friends and I love to go out each year, clutching to each other as we [...]

Today’s the day—we’ve taxied long enough so it’s time to takeoff in this bad boy of a social media plane.  For the past two years, our team has been working hard in the interior design industry through our parent company, Gibson Design Management. We’ve built custom Facebook pages and websites, we’ve consulted on implementing social media tools, we’ve promoted celebrity designers online, and we’ve had a lot of fun (I’m not linking the word “fun” for good reason). We must have done a good job because we got a lot of referrals outside of the design industry.  As a result, [...]