Keeping it Personal in a time of online everything

So last post, I talked about my adventures with online dating and how it was similar to search engine optimization of a press release. I told you that I worked on my profile to add in some good keywords, just like you do with optimizing your press release. So I know... you all want to know what happened. In a word -- nothing.

Now, you could say that this is where the similarities end, that the factors in online dating is so much more than just what you say. And, that the media picking up your release or getting lots of clicks is surely less commitment than even a wink or an email from a stranger.

But not so! I think the valuable lesson learned and can be applied to the PR world is this -- we can not exist fully online. We have to communicate to get what we want. Don't rely solely on putting your press releases online or emailing them out to get pick up. You have to communicate with journalists, bloggers, and even citizen journalists.

I mentioned to a friend the other day that she could easily find people in the right demographics through Meetup.com. If you're familiar with this site, you know that people join groups by their interests and hold occasional "meetups". They're very localized. She went online, found the perfect groups (based on interest)and began emailing each member. She was surprised when she got very little response. Lesson here: You can't dominate the conversation in social media -- you can only participate in social media. What she should have done was join the groups, participate in their board discussions, maybe post a few questions, get involved in their conversations. THEN, she would have been received as a member of the group, and not someone who joined simply to target the members with an offer.

Point from this blog: You have to keep it personal, participate and communicate. Continue to pitch to journalists, participate with online social media, and be personal. As for the online dating, eh, it's not social media...it's a billboard. But, we learned from that experience, huh?

How Online Dating is So Very Much Like Search Engine Optimizing your Press Release

So, I recently became single after a million years and found out, no one goes to bars anymore to meet each other! They sit at home on their computers and lay their entire life out on a profile page, complete with pictures of your favorite place, motorcycle and dog!

I'm cool with it. I'm a social media type of gal. Bring it on.

It hasn't been going so well. Sure, I may not be Heather Locklear, but I at least shower daily, comb my hair and make my own money (the last one alone is usually enough for most guys, I've found). Then, one day, I was told that I "didn't write much" in my profile. Now, come on! Any of you who knows me knows I talk up a storm and I'm a writer! How is it possible that I didn't write much??

I pull up my profile and it reads like an autobiography of Lincoln on Wikipedia. Yeah. It's dry and boring. I don't think he dated much either.

I add to it and then start attracting guys who like to camp, scuba, skydive, hike. That is so opposite me that I realize my vague copy isn't getting my point across. Plus, I hate bugs, sitting in a wet suit all day, I'm afraid of heights and I get leg cramps. (Before you judge me, I think Heather Locklear's the same way though!)

What to do? Ha! Let's use our PR Fundamentals and see what we can do about this profile! First, I did some RESEARCH -- you remember that word, right? It's the thing you NEVER do before you start a PR campaign cuz you just didn't have -- (fill in the blank) -- time, money, resources. Yeah, yeah. I've judged enough of your PR awards to know what you're going to say here. But I went online, and I looked at what others were saying. This is research!

I jotted down some key phrases and thoughts, which got me to thinking about SEO for press releases. When I write an optimized release, I start with a key focus and work out 3 keyword phrases that I work into my release. (Free tip -- write the release first with the focus in mind, then go back and edit in the keyword phrases). I started thinking: how is this profile of me any different from a press release? I'm trying to get the attention of an audience and I want to get some key points across. AHA! I work on determining my focus (golf partner wanted!); then my key phrases (golfing partner, golf fanatic) and I work them into my profile.

I want to tell you that the hits were so fantastic that I'm getting married on the 18th green next week but I just changed my profile 15 minutes before I started this article. You'll just have to stay tuned and see! If you're going to get into SEO for Press Releases, you might want to check out my webinar schedule, coming soon! See www.alliancecommunications.net/webinars.html. If it's not live yet, keep checking back or sign up for my emails on the home page.

Emergence of the Digital Consumer

IBM just released its Media Study and guess what? The emergence of the digital consumer is happening a lot faster than originally predicted. According to the survey, several trends have emerged:

1. Consumers are accelerating their adoption of new distribution formats. Participation on Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, etc. is soaring.

2. There's an obvious shift in advertising spending. Most marketers expect to increase interactive/online marketing spend while 65% expect to decrease traditional advertising.

3. Shift to “Brands-Actional” Advertising. Advertisers can focus on ROI-driven and brand marketing simultaneously.

4. Agencies Can’t Meet Demand. 80% of advertising industry participants interviewed for the study expect the industry to be at least five years away from being able to deliver true cross-platform advertising.

If you're a PR or Marketing professional, you MUST learn how to take advantage of social media and online opportunities because this is where the money will be in the very, very near future.

Where smart companies are spending their money today

I read this article this morning, Where do Marketers Spend their Money during a Downturn, and it states something readers of my blog are already aware of: Smart companies are cutting traditional media (advertising, tv, radio), and putting their money into infrastructure and technology to enable social media, email campaigns, online promotions, search engine marketing, and mobile marketing.

Why the move away from traditional advertising? Online marketing activities allow for customer behavior tracking and concrete metrics. We've even seen a shift in PR from clips to clicks -- what is your target audience reading, posting and blogging about you ONLINE??

What's in your marketing plan? If social media, search engine marketing and online activities aren't a major part of your plan, it's time to follow the leaders and reconstruct your marketing plan for a very different economy.

Death to the Yellow Pages

Let's talk about dentists and social media. What?? Yeah, keep reading. It gets better.

So, back in the old days, how'd you find a dentist? Why, you went to the only one in town! Times, changed, towns turned into cities, more dentists, how'd you know which one to go to? You looked in the phone book and/or checked your insurance book.

Times changed. There are thousands of listings for dentists in your area; you're not even sure if they are dentists; You no longer have dental insurance, etc. You turn to your co-workers and friends -- on Facebook.

Yep, I just witnessed the most awesome dental referral and social media yesterday. A friend of mine asked on Facebook if anyone knew of a good dentist in Lakeland. Several of her friends began responding. Within minutes, she had not only names but phone numbers and addresses for several dentists in the area, complete with cute stories ("I've known Dr. Brown since I was a toddler...").

You know how Facebook works... her friends responded, and being one of her friends, I could see the responses. When I responded, MY friends could see her post and actually, they too could have posted. What happens is all of the sudden, hundreds of people can "help out" via Facebook. Do you think she looked in the phonebook when all was said and done, or do you think she took her list of 9 dentists and sought more information for her particular needs? You got it... the latter.

How cool is social media? For a whole lot of dentists in Lakeland, pretty dang cool for the free pub they got yesterday!

Strategize your New Media

OMG! Can you believe I'm posting something to my blog two days in a row?? Is this a fad or have I turned over a new leaf??? Only time will tell!

After reflecting on the questions I received after yesterday's presentation on New Media for the contemporary PR professional, I thought I'd talk a bit about PLANNING your online strategy.

No longer is it enough of an online presence to have a website. Now, you have blogs to watch, participate in and host. You have RSS feeds to publish. You have message boards to host, monitor and respond to. You have social media to contend with too -- facebook and twitter. While it's cool to reach your target audiences online, couldn't you just spend endless hours on this stuff?

The way to make sure you are covering your online presence appropriately is through one word -- PLANNING. Yep, my PR friends, just like what you're supposed to do with your traditional PR campaigns -- make a plan first.

And guess what? It's not much different from your traditional PR planning -- think RPIE!! But before I dive into that, set your objectives. Why are you engaging in new media? What do you hope to gain from it? You shouldn't do it to do it... you need to have a measurable goal in mind.

Research -- where is your audience online? Are they on facebook? Myspace? Twitter? Blogs, message boards? Industry sites??? Find out.... Then, watch and listen. Decide Where is the best place to be online to reach my audience. Ask your known audience (clients/donors) about their online habits -- what keywords they used to find you, what sites they frequent (that are relative), etc. You want to find people just like them.

Planning -- Once you've done some research, decide which sites you are going to spend your time on. Then, make a plan for each (Update Twitter once a day; Update Facebook twice a day, etc.). Decide on some topics in advance of what you're going to focus on in these posts. You can always participate in and respond to topics your audience is bringing up but have a plan for when things are quiet. Is it national take your pet to work week and you sell pet food? Would be a good topic.... This phase should answer Who - What - Where - When - and How.... (we already know why)

Implementation -- get to it. This is the part where you will actually execute the strategies and tasks you identified.

Evaluation -- how are you going to know it works? Think about ways you will evaluate this plan. If you wrote out your objectives, you will know what you need to prove. If you can't prove it, better change your objective to be something you can measure!

Not sure you can do it? Call me and I'll write a strategy for you and then you can implement it in house. Yeah, I know, I don't come cheap but then again, is wasting your time cheap?

What good is a blog if you don't post anything?

So, I talked about blogs this morning in a speech to PR professionals at the FPRA Polk County chapter and it dawned on me, I violate all of the good rules of blogging!

First of all, and most importantly, you need to stay up to date. If you peruse my blog, you'll see, I haven't done that. In fact, I didn't post a single item in 2008. That's not cool and no one will think my blog is very important.

Speaking of which, the next rule of a good blog is relevance! SAY something important to at least someone, besides yourself of course. I'm thinking that as people go to download today's presentation, they'll look at this blog and shoot, I'd better have something relevant to say! Since we talked about new media this morning, why the heck not discuss it further in this blog?

Don't get me wrong -- I have plenty of things to say, and I say them. I like to write and I write a lot. I just can't remember the log in and password to this blog to get it all down for others to read!

Lastly, a good blog is short and to the point so I will end this blog with that!

Marketing Resolutions for Smart Businesses

The new year is time to get off on the right foot. So, here's a few resolutions that, if you follow, you will find yourself in a much better position come 2009.

1 - Take care of your existing customers.
Send them newsletters, direct mail, emails, special offers, etc. Why? Because it's easier to sell more to a current customer than it is to get a new customer. I know, you're nodding your head and saying OK but most companies ignore this rule and cry all year round that they need new customers. No, you need more sales and they can come from your existing customers. Seriously -- it's true. Resolve to follow this one. Make a plan for regular communication with your past/current customers and stick to it.

2 - Stop acting impulsively with every advertising offer that comes your way.
You know what I mean: the phone rings and some sales rep has remnant space in their magazine for half price... there's a new business directory coming out and you can advertise in it for a few hundred dollars ... the local cable station calls and has a great package, designed just for your business category... Please, please, please quit acting on these! Instead, make a plan -- determine your best target audience (from past customer history) and how to reach them. Then, stick to that plan. Grasping at every salesman's offer that comes your way is a surefire way to waste your marketing dollars.

3 - Put equal emphasis on branding as much as promotion.
You need to let your customers know you exist (branding) just as much as you need to give them an incentive to come to you (i.e., a sale). Many companies forget that branding is equally important. Send out a press release, enter an award, put up a billboard -- branding is important because it gives you some name recognition. Then, when you run your "sale" ad, your customers will know who you are.

4 - Don't confuse marketing with sales.
Marketing, advertising and public relations are all means to telling your corporate story -- to getting your message out to your publics, be it the media, your customers or your prospective customers. Sales is the actual transaction of money in exchange for your goods or services. While marketing, advertising and public relations efforts influence sales, they are not directly responsible for sales. There are many other factors involved along the way, including market demand, economic conditions, price point, competition, the skills of your salespeople, and so much more.

5 - Trust marketing professionals
I'm not suggesting that you hire an agency simply because I own one, but if your company is not in the business of providing marketing services, it's better to outsource your marketing efforts to professionals. For the cost of one person's salary ($36k - $50k), you can enlist an agency that has subject matter experts on staff to help you with planning and execution of a marketing, advertising and public relations plan. You can't possibly hire one person to do all of this. You'll benefit from the agency's experience with other similar companies, market expertise, industry knowledge, etc.

Take my advice and make 2008 the year that your marketing works for you!

Rules of Conference Calls

There should be a rule that if you're supposed to call someone at a specific time, and that person doesn't answer, that you just call them back in 30 seconds or a minute. Just a nice courtesy, I think. Today's voice mail systems get a little excited and pick up after just a few rings.

As good as it is, PR can't stand alone.

Whether it's PR or Advertising, clients think it's the magic pill that will have their cash registers ringing up new sales. Sorry to say this, but in most cases, neither can stand alone. You have to have a good mix of good ol' fashioned advertising with a strong PR plan if you want to see the sales chart rise higher. (Note: I said in MANY cases. And I'm talking to increase sales, here).

I have many clients who want us only to use PR techniques. While we get great success, they're wondering why their doors aren't breaking down. They expect daily/weekly press coverage from the same media and it's just not going to happen. If you want to be in the same media over and over, you need to buy advertising. Reporters will only repeatedly cover you if you have something substantial going on -- like a crisis -- or something that directly impacts the community. For most companies, this just isn't the case.

My advice to you is to think about what you are willing to dedicate to a PR and Advertising budget. Then, write a plan that makes sense. Use those dollars in a calculated way to meet your goals. If you throw money haphazardly at every advertising offer in sight, you won't get the results you want. Plan, plan, plan and then follow that plan! You will be much happier with the results.

J