PR and marketing

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.

Last Thursday I walked into a room of over 240 people and felt an immense sense of pride. Back in May we won a pitch to develop a social media & PR strategy for Macquarie University’s annual Women, Management and Work Conference.

In past years, they had spent their entire marketing budget on advertising. This year they put their faith in our ability to build the profile of the conference online and in print to drive registrations.

And they are very happy they did!

Last year they had 140 people attend. They didn’t tell us that the conference, which has been running for 22 years, wouldn’t get more funding for next year if they didn’t get more that 140 again. So with 240 attendees, they are over the moon.

Our strategy?

Considering the history of the conference, and the role it plays in exploring women in leadership issues, we developed the concept of building a platform that extended beyond the dates of the conference.

We created “Women at Work Oz” - a long lasting online community of people interested in debating and sharing women’s issues. Of course, we also achieved amazing print, radio & TV media coverage. See our website for the case study on our strategy.

VOTE for CP Communications - We would love for you to vote for us in the 2010 Mosman Daily Business Achiever Awards. Voting closes on Friday 6 August.

SEMINAR - Want to learn how to get free publicity? I am running a one day seminar at the Sydney Writers’ Centre where you will learn the science behind an effective PR strategy including writing media releases that get results, how to approach journalists, how to write articles and case studies for the media as well as clever online tactics.  23 September. Book now! 

 

Why online coverage (often) beats print

While many businesses seem to be moving forward and embracing all things online including social media, when it comes to getting results through public relations, there is still a widely-held belief that print coverage is better than online coverage.

In reality, getting online coverage for your company can be much more effective than being published in tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping.

Online content is available forever
Thanks to search engines, the article your company is mentioned in can be dug up and re-read by a new audience, months and even years after it is first posted online. If you’re published in a magazine, you may take a media clipping for your files but once that publication is off the shelf, the story dies, never to be read again. Online offers a much longer ‘shelf-life’ and your exposure is limitless.

Search Engine Optimisation
When you include links to other websites within your article there is the opportunity for the operators of those sites to link back to your article. What this means is visitors to other sites that would have otherwise never have know about your article, can now click on the link and be directed to it giving you an even larger audience. By posting your articles on your website or blog, it also helps keep the content fresh and new helping you rank higher on search engines.

Random Google Searches
By placing an article online and selecting a few really good keywords your story can turn up on Google searches, even when you don’t expect it to! By using key words about the topic you are writing about, for instance if you were writing about Twitter you could use key words such as ‘social media’, ‘marketing’, ‘web 2.0’, ‘tweets’ and then when people do a Google search about Twitter, they could stumble across your article and be directed to your website.

The Internet is a BIG space
With so many websites, blogs and e-newsletters out there, there is an ongoing requirement for content. If you can provide interesting and helpful information that people want to read about and can learn from, you will find there is a never-ending need for articles.

Accessing stories online is easy
Gone are the days where you have to physically pick up and buy a magazine to read an article. It is so easy to type in the URL of your favourite online newspaper or magazine, scan the headlines and pick the stories that interest you. It’s also incredibly easy to share links to stories you find interesting through email and sites like Facebook and Twitter.

To read the full article go to our blog Public Relations Sydney. 

Social media: Tell people where you are
Once you set up your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, what do you do? Tell people about it! Shout it from the rooftops. It makes it so much easier for people to follow you on social media if you tell them your addresses, or even better, add links to your marketing material so they can easily follow you.

There are a number of ways you can promote where you are on social media externally. The most effective include your business cards, email signature, website and newsletter.

Newsletter
Your organisation’s newsletter is sent out to people who have subscribed to read what you or your team has to say on a regular basis. If they follow you via social media they can keep up with your latest news and ideas in real-time.

Use your newsletter to direct your subscribers to your Facebook page and keep them interested with updates of anything exciting happening on your social media.

For instance, when we run competitions on Twitter or Facebook, we use our newsletter to promote it to our subscribers. If you let people know they have a chance to win a prize by simply following your business on social media, there is more chance they’ll engage with you online.

Business cards
Your business card tells people who you are, where you are and how you can be contacted. This is the perfect way to let people know how to reach you on social media. Include your Twitter, Facebook, blog and LinkedIn addresses alongside the usual details that go on a business card.

Email signature
Think how big your social media following would be if every person you emailed followed you - give them the opportunity to. Include a link to all your social media locations in your email signature. With links to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn account that can simply be clicked on, it becomes easy for people to follow you.

Website
Websites are usually the first thing people look for when they search for your organisation online. Embed links into your website to all your social media locations. There are different logo buttons available for each social media outlet that you can include on your website making these links obvious and easy to find. Look for the blue letter T or little bird button for Twitter, they are popping up on websites everywhere.

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

Social Media Women August Event
Social Media Women’s August guest speaker, Valerie Khoo, will outline the key online strategies she used to build the Sydney Writers' Centre. This includes Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Google tools, SEO, pay-per-click and much more.
10 August 2010

Tech23
Tech23 is a celebration of innovation, bringing together innovative Australian ICT companies with industry leaders, media and over 400 attendees to support ICT growth and discover what innovations are just around the corner. Hear from panels of exceptional industry leaders including some of Australia's leading investors and entrepreneurs.
19 August 2010

PRINKS September Event
PRINKS is for anyone working in the advertising, PR, journo, events, marketing or digital realms. PRINKS’ September event will provide all communications professionals an opportunity to meet with fellow industry colleagues, share ideas and share a drink.
6 September 2010

Kickstart Your Business
Andrew Griffith's seminar, Kickstart Your Business, begins its Australian tour in Cairns on 21 August and finishes in Perth on 25 September 2010. Andrew, Australia's #1 business author, has run many small businesses, faced all the same challenges that most small business owners experience and time and time again, he has survived. This seminar will provide you with essential tips to increase the success of your business.
Sydney - 15 September 2010

Flying Solo LIVE!
Explore the incredible power of community to shape our businesses and lives. The event brings together some of Australia’s top small business specialists and friendliest solo and micro business owners.
15 September 2010

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The Let’s Talk Business seminars kicked off on Tuesday 15 June with a group of SME owners eager to absorb the panel’s best advice on digital marketing strategies.

With the speakers exploring marketing topics including social media, mobile and search marketing-the audience were able to take away concepts they could implement for their own businesses.

The panel on the night included:
Rob Hudson-National Digital Director, George Patterson Y&R
Sally Davies-Digital Capability Manager-Mobile, Sensis
Stuart McKeown-Product Director Search Marketing, Experian Hitwise

For those who were unable to make the first of the Let’s Talk Business seminars below are some of the key lessons business owners learnt on the night.

Social Marketing
Many big companies make the mistake of wanting to broadcast to their customers rather than have a conversation. Small businesses can learn early on that conversation starts by being a good listener and finding out what people are saying about you. Rob Hudson’s top five tips for social marketing include:

Top Tips
1) Don’t sell-nothing is less appealing in social media than someone trying to force a sale on you.
2) Ask questions- this will initiate conversation and help you find out what customers want.
3) Social media is happening all day, every day. Make sure you have the time, money and staff to use social media properly before jumping in. It may be worth outsourcing.
4) Honesty is the best policy. People will find out if you hide behind a mask or are not truthful.
5) Social media is about sparking an interest. Think about what will stimulate conversation and interest people. It doesn’t hurt to create a little bit of friction.

Mobile
Mobile marketing is relatively new and the first step for any SME is to figure out if mobile marketing is right for their business.

People don’t usually browse on a mobile, they use it to search for something they need at the time like a hairdresser, a restaurant, a plumber or even a shoe shop. Therefore a mobile website needs to be simple and to the point, providing the details they need.
 
Mobile needs to be part of an integrated marketing message, it does not work alone. It can link to your main website and be referred to by print as well.

Sally Davies explained that one of the key features of mobile marketing is the fact that we always have our mobile phones on us. A mobile can show the user’s location and this means a marketing message can target the audience based on their location, making the message much more relevant.

A business needs to think about what their customer needs and how they can help them.

Mobile can really bring print ads alive, use a call to action and provide incentives for people to engage with.  As mobile advertising provides such a relevant message, the conversion rate is generally very high.

What to consider before using mobile marketing:
• Is your business right for mobile?
• Who are your customers?
• Choose your call to action
• Choose your level of investment
• Integrate with the rest of your business
• Measure success

Search Marketing
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be confusing at first but is essential for building awareness of your brand and gaining exposure on search engines so potential customers can actually find your business when they are looking for the product or services you offer.

We’ve taken some of the best advice offered by Stuart McKeown and ‘translated’ it further for those who have very limited understanding of this important aspect of marketing.

• Include words in your content and title tags that relate to what people are looking for: eg Hairdresser, Randwick
• Backlinks (when someone else’s webpage has a link to your page) search engines use backlink information to decide that your website has authority.
• New websites that lack authority take longer to rank than older websites
• Search engines like good URL structures-avoid long, meaningless URLs
• If you want to change a URL but your page currently ranks well use the 301 redirect. This method keeps the search engine rankings of your old page but redirects people to your new site or page. Learn how to use the 301redirect method
• Search engines look at the ‘anchor text’ of a link to help understand what the website is about. Anchor text is the words used in a hyperlink to explain what the page is about (example 301 redirect above is anchor text) so avoid using ‘click here’ or ‘more’ as a hyperlink as it doesn’t tell the search engines what the page will be about.
• SEO doesn’t provide results immediately it can take a few years for a good ROI (return on investment
• SEO increases brand awareness with searches and allows you to target the right customers with the right keywords.

The City of Sydney Let’s Talk Business series has three more seminars coming up. It’s $50 a ticket and you can find out more information here http://www.letstalkbusiness.nsw.gov.au/

BUILD A BUSINESS ADVISORY TEAM - 6TH JULY 2010: 6-8.30pm
Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay, Sydney
How do you choose and manage your ideal accounting, mentoring and legal team? They could make or break your business. You need objective advice to achieve your goals and trusted advisors to make your business profitable.

WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS REALLY WORTH? - 3RD AUGUST 2010: 6-8.30pm
Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay, Sydney
What sets apart a high-value business, and how to set your business up to maximise profits and value. Learn what you need to do to maximise what your business is worth.

MEASURE YOUR MARKETING 31ST AUGUST 2010: 6-8.30pm
Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay, Sydney
When you measure your marketing, you can fine tune your efforts to ensure you get the best return on your investments of time and money. Discover the best methods to measure your online and offline marketing spend.

Virtually every piece of technology I have touched lately has broken. One of those was my Blackberry. My SMS icon completely disappeared. It’s a mystery!

As I was walking out of a talk on crowd sourcing, I asked Tony Hollingworth if he knew how to fix my phone. He said no, but he was following a Blackberry expert on Twitter @TferThomas. We exchanged tweets to solve the problem and he emailed me steps on how to reinstall the software. What a lovely person! And how funny that we implemented crowd sourcing principles at a crowd sourcing talk!

What is crowd sourcing? You probably do it without even knowing it. Have you purchased a photo from iStockphoto or used a freelancer from elance.com? Have you asked your Twitter community a question? Then you have crowd sourced. Simply, it’s outsourcing a task traditionally done by an employee or contractor to a crowd through outsourcing or bidding.

It’s revolutionising business as it gives you unlimited access to labour and ideas 24/7. If you could upload a logo design job to a crowd sourcing site and have the choice of 20 logos for a 10th of the price would you do it? We can now potentially tap into the intellectual property of anyone on the planet.

One of the principles of crowd sourcing is that good ideas come from anywhere. The global market is truly on our doorstop. Although how to fix my phone was provided to me by my online community, not everything can be crowd sourced. I still needed to pay my IT guy to come to my office and relink my Blackberry with my server. Sigh.

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter.

Inside story from Facebook's Paul Borrud
These days everyone is talking about Facebook and the frequent improvements and changes that are being implemented, but when the person talking is the head of Facebook in Australia, you tend to sit up and listen.

Presenting at a Business Connect event, Facebook’s Paul Borrud focused on interaction, engagement and relationships.

Traditional advertising methods tend not to be effective on Facebook.  Paul explained the concept of creating an interactive brand page or ad that engages the user and encourages them to ‘share’ the information they like with friends.

Engaging Advertisements
New advertising options on Facebook extend much further than click on a link. Users, who have been targeted as the desired demographic, are offered options such as engaging in a short poll, giving and receiving virtual gifts with friends, sharing the ad or page with friends and one of the most simple and yet effective actions, clicking ‘like’ on an ad or page.

Social Plugins
Relatively new in Australia but well and truly up and running in the US, is Facebook’s social plugins which will extend social engagement beyond Facebook. In a nutshell, you could be on any site and click that you ‘like’ it and this information will be shared on Facebook with your friends. This is just the next step in the world of Facebook and as its popularity continues to grow there are sure to be more advancements just around the corner.

Read the whole story at CP Communications. 

How to pitch to a blogger
We source information from blogs – recipes, opinions, news – but did you know you can pitch stories to bloggers just like you do to journalists?

The first thing to note when pitching an idea to a blogger is – they aren’t journalists. They have a very personalised medium where they interact with their readers through comments on their blog. So you need to make the contact with them personal.

Sending an irrelevant media release to them is obviously a big no-no but rather than pitching a general release, be sure to make your contact with the blogger a little more personal than you would with a journalist.

Read their blog first, make mention of posts that interested you and if possible make this friendly contact before sending a ‘pitch’ email. You can also start building a relationship with relevant bloggers by posting comments on their blog and engaging with them.

When a relationship has been built, a blogger will generally be more receptive to your ideas.

The pitch should be in the form of an email – which needs to be clear and to the point. Busy people do not read long emails, so in the first paragraph clearly outline your idea. Don’t email a media release. Take the time to detail the story idea and why their readers would be interested.

Obviously if you are asking them to review a product – send them the product but first ask them if they would like to receive it. Blindly sending products in the hope for a review is a waste of time.

Read top Australian blogger, Neerav Bhatt’s advice on the best way to pitch to a blogger on our blog Public Relations Sydney.

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

Social Media Women
The Business Productivity Genius aka Helen Crozier will discuss productivity tips and tools so you can learn how to maximise social media results in as little time as possible. Social Media Women is for women interested in media, networking, communications and exploring the new ways people are communicating.
Tonight! 8 June 2010

City of Sydney Let’s Talk Business Seminars
The first of four from the City of Sydney’s Let’s Talk Business seminars is Digital Marketing Strategies. Learn how to build your brand and customers in a highly networked, commercial world through case studies covering social media, mobile and search engine marketing. Listen to panellists from Sensis, George Patterson Y&R and Experien Hitwise Asia Pacific at this seminar.
15 June 2010

Learn to Write like Barack Obama
This workshop will explore the techniques and devices Obama uses to give his words such lyrical power. You will be given the opportunity to learn how to use these skills in your own writing to be able to create speeches that will convince, inspire and persuade, while gaining audience’s support.
16 June 2010

2010 Green Brands Forum
Sustainable Australian brand leaders will come together at this forum to explore and share their strategic wisdom in a collaborative and practical environment. The full gamut of issues around managing a sustainable brand will be explored.
17 June 2010

Crime and Legal Issues in Social Media
This forum will seek to advise and assist professionals on how to use social networking without fear of the risks. The forum will comprise of presentations on policies that can be implemented to help manage risk, the legal implications of using social media and the use of online communication by employees and customers.
28-29 June 2010

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Want to be a valued member of a fast growing, award-winning team?

We are a dynamic boutique agency who is seeking a talented PR consultant to work with a range of exciting clients.

You will manage clients with the guidance and support of the Director, a PR and social media expert.

Your day-to-day work would include:

* Developing PR strategies
* Media liaison – generating awareness about a client’s work on a national and regional level through effective media coverage
* Generating story ideas and opportunities for media coverage
* Developing online PR campaigns
* Assisting in social media campaigns
* Writing articles, stories for newsletters, brochures, advertising, websites etc

PR experience is essential for this position - it isn't a graduate position.

Read all about CP Communications at www.cpcommunications.com.au or our blog at www.PublicRelationsSydney.com.au

We have an exciting and happy work environment. We invest in the professional and personal development of our team members. We welcome candidates who would like to develop within CP Communications over the long term.

If this sounds like you, then we’d love to hear from you. Please send your CV & covering letter to info@cpcommunications.com.au or if you have any questions, please call Catriona Pollard on 9922 1063