PR and marketing

Last week I finally did my 24 hrs for B&T. I’m not sure if you know about this column in B&T magazine but it profiles the day of someone in the marketing industry. It has been on my list of things to do for, well.... a year. It’s been moved from my monthly list of things to do so many times I didn’t even notice it anymore.

Our clients’ PR always comes first, obviously. But one of my New Year resolutions was to make sure we focus on our PR to help the business grow but also to showcase our skills. So one of our clients is...us!

Alison is our consultant, and updates our action plan just as we do for our clients. I’m now the annoying client that never gets back to her! In an attempt to get me to do the 24 hrs column, she even printed out a blank document with ½ hour intervals on it, and a motivational quote at the top to encourage me to do it!

It worked. It’s done now and hopefully will be printed in the next couple of months. She has also booked me in to do more videos for our YouTube channel, which I’m told, I can’t cancel!

We are half way through the year and it might be time to reflect on how you are going with your New Year resolutions. Is it time to update them? Reflect on them? Or even ditch them and create fresh goals?

Speaking this month: I will be speaking at the Leichhardt & Annandale Business Chamber breakfast on 14 July and SheBusiness lunch in Balmain on 28 July. The breakfast is booked out, but there are places available for the lunch. 

WIN a ticket to Macquarie University's Women, Management and Work Conference:
Attend Social Media Women in July to automatically go into the draw to win a ticket worth $2,300 to the Women, Management and Work Conference on 28-29 July 2011 in Sydney. The conference will inspire and inform women who are looking for insights and key tips to develop their leadership skills. Read more at www.lmsf.mq.edu.au/womenandleadership.

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter.

________________________________________
Why 'how to' articles work
Writing articles is a fantastic way to gain publicity. There are specific types of articles that work well – the ‘how to’ article is one of them but there are specific ways to write them.

‘How to’ articles can not only position you as an industry expert, they can offer topical, helpful and interesting information to readers and are one of the easiest types of articles to write because they have a 'tried and tested' structure that works.

1. Know what you are writing about. When writing a ‘how to’ article make sure you do actually know how to do it. Your information needs to be backed up with real life experience and knowledge.
2. Stay on topic. The article should be objective and written in an informative and entertaining manner, but keep on topic. No editor will want to receive an article that goes off topic or becomes a promotional piece.
3. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Particularly if you are writing a ‘how to’ on something complex. Avoid jargon and write in short, clear sentences, using sub headings, dot points and bolding to communicate key points.
4. Proof read it. Once you are finished, proof read it and then give it to somebody else to read. It is very common for authors of articles to miss mistakes. Allowing another person to read over the article can help. Also, by doing this you can test if your 'how to' article is effective in communicating information to people who are not experts in the area. 

________________________________________
Should you BranchOut?
Most people who have joined Facebook have ‘friended’ everyone they know from people they went to school with 30 years ago to new friends.

Their pages are filled to bursting with both personal and professional information about themselves and yet, in order to network on a professional basis, you need to use LinkedIn and start that networking process all over again.

At least that’s how it used to be until BranchOut was launched.

The BranchOut application, created in July 2010, is Facebook’s largest professional networking service. In many ways it is quite similar to LinkedIn allowing users to create networks, search for jobs or people at specific companies to relay interest to and seek endorsement from previous clients or employees.

BranchOut seems to have one advantage that LinkedIn doesn’t. It uses your existing Facebook network so your contacts are already there, waiting for you to explore as soon as you create your account.

And while on the topic of learning something new, for all you social media savvy people who feel they are starting to get bored by the already existing list of social media platforms – brace yourselves.

Word is quickly spreading about a new social media platform that is yet to hit our Australian social media shores called Kohort. Users are already able to stake their claim by creating their own user account name; however you can’t enter the site yet.

Mysterious or what!?

________________________________________
Upcoming events
Here are some events coming up that we thought you might be interested in:

Social Media Women July: START UPS, Tips & Tools for Overcoming the Hurdles with Catherine Eibner
Starting any business can be challenging. Practical advice based on experience helps save time, energy and money and a free program that helps support a start-up is the cherry on the cake! Catherine Eibner will share her tips and advice for entrepreneurs on starting a business.
12 July 2011 – Sydney

Marketing Women Victoria social media event
‘Social media’ is on everyone’s lips and smart phones, but how many people and businesses actually get it right? The interactive session will be led by an impressive group of experts in the social media space: future leader of Haystac’s newly formed digital and social media unit, Kristen Boschma and fellow social media gurus Yvonne Adele, Eloise Zoppos and Trevor Young.
13 July 2011 – Melbourne

Chamber of Women in Business presents Sofia Majewski – director of Speak2us
Develop and strengthen your public speaking skills and become a confident and articulate public speaker with Sofia Majewski, Director of Speak2us. Learn about where and when you speak, who your audience is and how to manage nervousness and anxiety.
13 July 2011 – Canberra

Online Retail: Differentiating Online Businesses
This event, run by AIMIA, will help retail businesses entering the online space clearly understand how to differentiate their online offering and integrate with a multichannel retail business strategy. It features speakers from the e-tail multichannel space.
12 July 2011 – Sydney
14 July 2011 – Melbourne

Macquarie University’s Women, Management and Work Conference
Learn how to become an influential leader at Macquarie University’s 23rd annual Women, Management and Work Conference. This two day conference will inspire and inform women who are looking for insights and key tips to develop their leadership skills. Speakers include CEO of Medicare Lynelle Briggs Board Director of CoSolve, Anna Booth and Director in the Royal Australian Navy Captain Michele Miller.
28-29 July 2011 – Sydney

PR and Media Releases That Get Results with Catriona Pollard
Catriona Pollard will teach you how to construct a PR strategy that gets results. By the end of this workshop you will understand how to come up with a media angle, write a pitch, media release, article, case study and editorial. You will also learn how to strategically use these tools to maximise your chance of achieving your PR objectives.
11 August 2011 – Sydney

With so many social media platforms available, it can be hard to figure out which platform will deliver the best results for your company. However, there are a few things to consider before choosing a social media platform.

Firstly, you need to devote time to it. Maintaining your presence on a daily basis is a necessity and results can’t be generated without a long term commitment. Think of it like a relationship: without your time and dedication, your social media marriage will be sure to fail.

Secondly, what are your social media goals? More traffic? More sales? Are you attempting a viral marketing campaign? Or do you just want people to associate your brand as an expert in its chosen field? It is always beneficial to identify what goals you want to achieve so you have something to work towards.

Lastly, once you have created your social media pages, dedicate your time to creating quality content, getting involved in online discussions and communicating with your consumers by asking questions and answering theirs in return.

To help you choose the platforms that work for you, here are five of the top social media sites and how they can help your business.

• Facebook:  With more than 400 million users, it’s a great site to use for customer engagement, feedback and brand development for your products and services. However, it does not rank high with search engines, so if you are looking to increase traffic to your webpage Facebook is not the way to go. 
• Twitter: Can be used quite successfully to drive organic traffic to your website as the more followers you have the more people who see your tweets and click on your links. The challenge, however, is creating an interesting and quality tweet in only 140 characters. 
• YouTube: With over 100 million views a day, YouTube is a good way to get opinions and information about your business out into the public in a visual and creative way. However, if it’s only an increase in traffic to your website you want, then YouTube is not ideal.
• LinkedIn: A professional site that allows you to connect directly with potential customers. If you want to position yourself and your brand as an expert and authoritative voice in a specific industry – this is the site for you. Take the time to research and only join groups that are relevant to you and your potential clients.
• Blogging: Blogs are extremely easy to use. If your goals are to drive traffic to your website and position your business as an expert in its field then a blog is the number one place to do so. Using key words and phrases will give you better Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) which, in turn, will drive more traffic to your site.

In order to achieve certain goals you may have to adopt several forms of social media platforms. If you take the time to choose the right ones for you, and devote enough time to them, you will find that in the end the benefits and outcomes are worth it.

Is LinkedIn still a mystery for you? I still find it hard to figure out how to use it for lead generation so I asked Social Media Lead Generation expert, Tom Skotidas for his hot tips.

You have identified your target market on LinkedIn. You are ready to start inviting prospects and influencers, and expand your network. Yet you are not sure how you're going to approach complete strangers and ask them to connect with you. In fact, you are worried about being perceived as a networking "spammer" and harming your personal brand.

So how do you grow your network, in a safe and sound way?

My advice is simple: look for Human Connection Points.

Human Connection Points are the commonalities you find by reviewing your intended connection’s LinkedIn profile, Twitter posts, personal blog, and other online mentions. There are dozens of human connection points you can use, but here are some of the obvious ones:

• People you know in common (available on their LinkedIn profile)
• LinkedIn groups you share
• Their blog posts or published articles (i.e. the ones you have read and enjoyed so much, as to form an opinion)
• Schools you both attended

Once you have identified your human connection points, you are ready to write your LinkedIn invitation.

Be relevant. Make sure to address your invitee by their first name, and to clearly reference your connection points. Throughout your invitation, be genuine and respectful. Tell them how you found them, and why you want to connect. And make sure to pump up your credentials as well, via a strong LinkedIn profile.

If you follow this approach, you will experience a consistently high acceptance rate, and grow your LinkedIn network faster among your target market. You are now in a position to start marketing your company to a progressively larger audience, who will get to know you through your status updates and group participation.

Of course, not all will accept, but that’s ok. By following the principles mentioned above, and optimising as you go, you will find your acceptance rate (and LinkedIn network reach) continues to increase.

Tom is running a course on LinkedIn for Lead Generation on 7 December 2010 (which I am looking forward to attending!). For more information click here.