Pine-Richland Grad Launches Hook-Line Media Business That Focuses on Social Media

A 2007 Pine-Richland High School graduate with an entrepreneurial spirit launched a new business Thursday that centers on social media marketing.

Alyssa Choiniere is launching Hook-Line Media with a virtual launch party on Facebook at facebook.com/hooklinemedia that includes contests and prizes to promote the winning businesses and charities. 

"Hook-Line Media will make social media marketing accessible to small businesses, entertainers, nonprofit organizations, and charities alike," said Choiniere, founder and president of the company.

The company's website, hook-linemedia.com, refers to the Internet as "the new billboard."

Its home page is an image of a billboard—with birds flying around it and sitting on nearby power lines—that announces Hook-Line Media is "The New Way to Advertise."

"Traditional media is still around, but now you also have to navigate... 
Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Digg, event promotions, viral videos, search engine optimization, Google ads...and the list of new social media tools and social networks gets bigger every day!" the site states.

Under the heading, "Advertising used to be pretty simple," the website has a comical old-fashioned print ad showing a man, woman and child with the heading: "THEY'RE HAPPY Because they eat LARD."

Beside it is a video of the classic Wendy's TV ad from the 1980s in which an elderly woman looking at a great big bun and a little tiny burger keeps asking: "Where's the beef?"

Choiniere started Hook-Line Media as "The Hook" in 2008 to promote local bands. She said she worked as a freelance journalist, gaining local and international media contacts, and realized that her most fulfilling assignments were those that promoted a small business or gave voice to a cause.

Choiniere graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in December with a degree in journalism and decided in January to give "The Hook" a makeover and relaunch it as a full-time endeavor. 

"Social media marketing is typically priced too high for small businesses and nonprofits to access," she said in a press release. "But small business owners are often too busy to put the time required into marketing themselves.

"Social media is essentially an ongoing conversation with potential customers, so it must incorporate the unique nature of that company. It can be light-hearted, formal, educational or entertaining," Choiniere said. "Each campaign is developed case by case."

Hook-Line Media begins the process by analyzing a prospective client's needs, she said.

Then a campaign is developed that may include setting up or remodeling Facebook, Twitter, or Linked In accounts, setting up accounts on niche social media sites, blogging, public relations, copywriting, search-engine optimized web content, articles for social bookmarking sites, event planning, marketing email campaigns, promotions, and other special projects as needed, said Choiniere.

In Choiniere's view, "Hiring Hook-Line Media is like opening an entire communications department."