Business owners can be the best PR managers. Using social media and the Internet as a distribution platform you can match the results of even the best PR agency. However, the amateur marketer can need a little help learning the short-cuts to early success.
Here are some easy steps to get these social media tools returning real PR and branding results:
1. Set-up your PR and Branding Platform. Start small and focused. This platform is going to be where you drive people to learn more about your business, products, and services. Pointing back to this central focal point with all of your PR and branding campaigns with assist lead generation.
If you are technically inclined a simple blog is a great place to start. However, it is not necessary--you can chose to make Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn your personal brand platform. Make sure a visitor is engaged with your strategy when they arrive.
2. Listen First. Once you have a good platform, a base station, you need to start listening to your market. Consumers are all over the Internet and making it easier and easier to survey their needs.
A great place to start listening is on Twitter--the premiere social networking and conversation tool. Search for key words associated with your market in the Twitter search engine, then sit back and see what they expect.
3. Participate. Listening is important, but participation builds trust, relationships, and targeted audiences. Ultimately, and online PR and branding strategy online is community building.
Community building means conversations and conversations build audiences. Audiences that will trust your recommendations, marketing, and services. Participation in your community will create sales leads for your business, if done appropriately.
4. Give Value First. Consumers are naturally skeptical, especially online. Nothing brings a sale faster than "giving first" and breaking that natural skepticism. Online publishing tools and platforms have made is a snap to leverage the Internet for big-time audience generation and distribution.
Creating valuable content targeted at solving problems for your ideal customer can make a big impact. This can be as simple as a blog post, eBook, or amateur video. This little effort and value given freely and distributed widely will bring enormous return.
5. Build Relationships. You have to care! Consumers and customers see this in a heartbeat--and they react. Quickly returning emails, phone calls, and even tweets show a passion for your business and the customers you serve.
Customers greeted with a sense of urgency can be the biggest advocates and promoters of your products and services.
6. Be Helpful. Consumers are using the Internet more and more to find information and solutions to their problems. Being helpful is one the most powerful marketing tactics. The psychological principle of reciprocity can produce incredible returns on a simple helpful tip, pointer, or referral.
If you know the answer to a question--help someone. There are lots of ways to help online and build your brand. Check out LinkedIn Answers or Yahoo!Answers.
7. Promote Others. Having a successful PR and branding strategy is not all about you. Promoting others builds your audience and reputation. This technique has two benefits: Getting the reciprocity of helping someone else with a campaign. Second, you get the attention and trust of those who follow your advice and gain value.
Promoting others is like doubling your product base and increasing your marketing reach.
7.5 Engage PR and Marketing Professionals. With so many social media tools available and free advice on the Internet it is easy to rush in without a plan. Doing PR and branding without clear objectives and concise messages can be an obvious train wreck to consumers--a lasting bad impression.
Professional advice and guidance from PR and marketing professionals can help you set firm footing and foundation under your idea. Then you can make do-it-yourself have real impact.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1912105
Showing posts with label do's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label do's. Show all posts
Monday, 5 August 2013
7 Social Media Tips to Get You Started on the Path to Success!
The number one question we get from beginners is; "How do I get started?"
There are so many social media websites out there, and we understand it can be very intimidating. The Social Media Square One objective is to reduce those stress levels, and make the online process not only profitable for you, but fun too! We would like to share with you 7 tips for getting started with your social media marketing plan.
Use Your Real Name - For some reason, buying a product or service from "HotMama352" does not seem very attractive. Make sure to use your real name when signing up for social accounts. If your name is taken, then it would be acceptable to add some numbers so that it is still recognizable. For example, if your name is a common one like John Smith, it would be OK to use JohnSmith950.
A Photo of You - When choosing an avatar (profile photo) make sure to pick a one that is fun and representative of your professional personality. People do not want to do business with a logo, cartoon, pet or eyeball. Let them see your beautiful face so they know who they are talking to. People are more responsive when they can put a face to a name.
Know Your Audience - Many small business owners are working hard to sell to anybody and everybody in order to increase revenue. While this has you working hard and achieving some amount of success, we know that identifying your target market is one of the most important things a business can do. With so many social networks out there, you want to find the ones that your customers and prospects are using. For example, you might hear that a site like Myspace is out of favor in the social media world, but for a musician, it is still a must. On the other hand, if you want to target the 13-17 year old demographic, LinkedIn might not be the best place to be spending your time. Our advice is to do some research, find out where your customers and prospects are spending their time, and get yourself set up on those social networks as soon as possible so that you can jump into the conversation and start generating leads!
Listen - Once you are a member of the social networks, take the time to listen to what the community is talking about. If you jump in and use the platform with a megaphone to sell your product or service, your credibility will be lost. There is nothing virtual about this online social world, these are real people having real conversations. So act in the same way you would at a live networking event in your hometown. If you would not bombard me with a sales pitch at a live event, don't do it inside of social media either.
Build Relationships - People want to do business with others they like, know and trust. Social media gives us an amazing platform to earn that trust by simply taking the time to build great relationships with them. Just like in real life, this takes time. You must share something about yourself. Don't be afraid to talk about your likes, interests and passions. Nobody wants to do business with a logo or pushy salesperson, so open up and start making friends. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing there is, and you have almost 500 million people out there with the potential to become brand ambassadors for your company. Let's make the most of it by caring about the people, creating value, and showing them that we are here to meet their needs.
Don't Worry About the Numbers - If you only have a couple of hundred people in your network, do not let that get you down. The key is to target your followers, and many times less can be more. We have seen people time and time again try to automate the process in order to increase their friend/followers, but most of the time it leads to a large number filled with bots, spammers, and vacant accounts that bring no value to you, your business, or the community.
Budget Your Time - Minutes can quickly turn into hours on social networks if you are not careful. Many people get caught up playing Facebook games like FarmVille, surfing YouTube for hours watching funny videos, or hitting the refresh button over and over waiting on responses from a post. Our advice is to log in with a set time goal and stick to it.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4687893
There are so many social media websites out there, and we understand it can be very intimidating. The Social Media Square One objective is to reduce those stress levels, and make the online process not only profitable for you, but fun too! We would like to share with you 7 tips for getting started with your social media marketing plan.
Use Your Real Name - For some reason, buying a product or service from "HotMama352" does not seem very attractive. Make sure to use your real name when signing up for social accounts. If your name is taken, then it would be acceptable to add some numbers so that it is still recognizable. For example, if your name is a common one like John Smith, it would be OK to use JohnSmith950.
A Photo of You - When choosing an avatar (profile photo) make sure to pick a one that is fun and representative of your professional personality. People do not want to do business with a logo, cartoon, pet or eyeball. Let them see your beautiful face so they know who they are talking to. People are more responsive when they can put a face to a name.
Know Your Audience - Many small business owners are working hard to sell to anybody and everybody in order to increase revenue. While this has you working hard and achieving some amount of success, we know that identifying your target market is one of the most important things a business can do. With so many social networks out there, you want to find the ones that your customers and prospects are using. For example, you might hear that a site like Myspace is out of favor in the social media world, but for a musician, it is still a must. On the other hand, if you want to target the 13-17 year old demographic, LinkedIn might not be the best place to be spending your time. Our advice is to do some research, find out where your customers and prospects are spending their time, and get yourself set up on those social networks as soon as possible so that you can jump into the conversation and start generating leads!
Listen - Once you are a member of the social networks, take the time to listen to what the community is talking about. If you jump in and use the platform with a megaphone to sell your product or service, your credibility will be lost. There is nothing virtual about this online social world, these are real people having real conversations. So act in the same way you would at a live networking event in your hometown. If you would not bombard me with a sales pitch at a live event, don't do it inside of social media either.
Build Relationships - People want to do business with others they like, know and trust. Social media gives us an amazing platform to earn that trust by simply taking the time to build great relationships with them. Just like in real life, this takes time. You must share something about yourself. Don't be afraid to talk about your likes, interests and passions. Nobody wants to do business with a logo or pushy salesperson, so open up and start making friends. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing there is, and you have almost 500 million people out there with the potential to become brand ambassadors for your company. Let's make the most of it by caring about the people, creating value, and showing them that we are here to meet their needs.
Don't Worry About the Numbers - If you only have a couple of hundred people in your network, do not let that get you down. The key is to target your followers, and many times less can be more. We have seen people time and time again try to automate the process in order to increase their friend/followers, but most of the time it leads to a large number filled with bots, spammers, and vacant accounts that bring no value to you, your business, or the community.
Budget Your Time - Minutes can quickly turn into hours on social networks if you are not careful. Many people get caught up playing Facebook games like FarmVille, surfing YouTube for hours watching funny videos, or hitting the refresh button over and over waiting on responses from a post. Our advice is to log in with a set time goal and stick to it.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4687893
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
DO's & DON'Ts for bloggers
We got the lowdown on all things blogging from some of the top industry experts in the blogosphere. If you’re wondering what you should and shouldn’t be doing when you’re blogging – check out our expert panel’s top tips.
Here’s what you SHOULD be doing:
"DO be tenacious - don't give up, regular and disciplined posting pays off eventually." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DO think about brands and how you can work with them." Vicki Fogwill – Social Media Manager for Next.
"DO make real world connections as well as online ones - the contacts you can make at events and seminars will be invaluable." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DO value your work and your own worth." Kat Williams – Rocknrollbride.com.
"DO become friends with other bloggers. Rival blogs in London have become my best friends – it becomes a family. You should see bloggers as friends rather than enemies. Networking is huge!" Emily Johnston – Fashionfoiegras.com.
"DO look for stories and be proactive." Pat McNulty – Wed Editor at Cosmopolitan.co.uk.
"DO collaborate. Invite other bloggers onto your blog or channel then do the same with them. Post or publish together, linking to each other’s posts - your traffic should benefit." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
Now take a read on what you SHOULDN’T be doing:
"DON’T blog/vlog thinking it’s a fast track to riches or even freebies. The audience and potential clients can tell and will run a mile. The pure passion and enthusiasm of your blog is what will make it successful." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DON’T just email asking for free stuff and invites to events." Vicki Fogwill – Social Media Manager for Next.
"DON’T write things and assume everyone is interested. You may not have an audience." Andreas Pouros – Greenlight Digital.
"DON’T be controversial for the sake of it." Kat Williams – Rocknrollbride.com.
"DON’T get frustrated. Stick with it – it’s not always a quick fix." Emily Johnston – Fashionfoiegras.com.
"DON’T make enemies of other bloggers or brands. If you have a non-constructive, negative opinion of someone or something, keep it to yourself or tell your Mum, just don't tweet or post about it." Dominic Smales - Gleam Digital.
"DON’T give away your rights or content. Your audience is valuable - so don't be afraid to constantly question, 'What's in it for me?'" Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
Read more: http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/blogs/cosmo-blog-awards-2013/Do's-and-don'ts-for-bloggers#ixzz2acJQTJRo
Here’s what you SHOULD be doing:
"DO be tenacious - don't give up, regular and disciplined posting pays off eventually." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DO think about brands and how you can work with them." Vicki Fogwill – Social Media Manager for Next.
"DO make real world connections as well as online ones - the contacts you can make at events and seminars will be invaluable." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DO value your work and your own worth." Kat Williams – Rocknrollbride.com.
"DO become friends with other bloggers. Rival blogs in London have become my best friends – it becomes a family. You should see bloggers as friends rather than enemies. Networking is huge!" Emily Johnston – Fashionfoiegras.com.
"DO look for stories and be proactive." Pat McNulty – Wed Editor at Cosmopolitan.co.uk.
"DO collaborate. Invite other bloggers onto your blog or channel then do the same with them. Post or publish together, linking to each other’s posts - your traffic should benefit." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
Now take a read on what you SHOULDN’T be doing:
"DON’T blog/vlog thinking it’s a fast track to riches or even freebies. The audience and potential clients can tell and will run a mile. The pure passion and enthusiasm of your blog is what will make it successful." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DON’T just email asking for free stuff and invites to events." Vicki Fogwill – Social Media Manager for Next.
"DON’T write things and assume everyone is interested. You may not have an audience." Andreas Pouros – Greenlight Digital.
"DON’T be controversial for the sake of it." Kat Williams – Rocknrollbride.com.
"DON’T get frustrated. Stick with it – it’s not always a quick fix." Emily Johnston – Fashionfoiegras.com.
"DON’T make enemies of other bloggers or brands. If you have a non-constructive, negative opinion of someone or something, keep it to yourself or tell your Mum, just don't tweet or post about it." Dominic Smales - Gleam Digital.
"DON’T give away your rights or content. Your audience is valuable - so don't be afraid to constantly question, 'What's in it for me?'" Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
Read more: http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/blogs/cosmo-blog-awards-2013/Do's-and-don'ts-for-bloggers#ixzz2acJQTJRo
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
YouTube Secrets Exposed: Do's And Don'ts of Building a Successful YouTube Channel
YouTube is a vital promotion tool, if you're a independent/obscure artist and you're not lucky enough to have your music uploaded by someone else to YouTube, don't just sit around waiting for someone to do it. You have two options, send uploaders your music or create your own channel. I recommend you do both, it's great for all artists to have their own YouTube channels, that way you control the music and how you want your self to be perceived.
What I will share with you today are just some simple tips to get your channel up and running and build a steady fan base. If your goal is to make a channel with 30k Subscribers and get partnership then look elsewhere, this advice is just for normal artists seeking to bring in the fans they already have.
First, set up a account in your artist name, get the page looking good and when it comes to uploading music have this in mind:
Google the most popular times in your country when YouTube has the most traffic and pick the best days (In my opinion Thursday and Sundays are perfect days).
Spread out your uploads, don't upload more then one thing at a time. The first upload will get less hits then the last upload as people will overlook it.
Tag your videos correctly and honestly! Don't put nothing like "car crash martian conspiracy", tag your music by genre, artist, year and maybe even a couple similar artists.
That is the easy stuff that most people will know as it's pretty common sense. The hard thing about YT is understanding that you are a needle in a huge haystack and getting your music/content heard and watched can be tricky.
Now if you are already an existing artist and your music is already on YT the first thing you need to do is: Harness your fans. You do this by collecting the usernames from people who have commented on tracks of yours that are already on YouTube. Collect those usernames up and put them in a notepad file and separate them by a comma.
Now it's easier to contact them and inform them that you have a new channel where you will uploading your music and content from now on; if they want to follow your new music then they can subscribe. Don't be pushy or beg for subscribers from these people, your preaching to the choir! These people are already fans of your music so your only goal is to notify them of your existence on YT if they won't to subscribe that's down to them.
Now bare in mind when it comes to contacting these people you can do it several ways, you can write on their channel walls or you can inbox them, if you inbox them you can batch message 25 people a time in a comma separate username ID list but you run the risk that people will ignore the message because they think its spam as it is a bulk message. Either way, you should notice an immediate response.
In my opinion there is no point in having a YT channel if you are not going to engage with your listeners, appreciate the feedback you get, ask for opinions...etc and if someone takes two minutes out of their life to send you a message saying "thank you for making blah blah I love that song, it changed my life" then take 2 minutes out of your day to acknowledge them.
If you are a new artist or a lesser known artist, how do you go about gaining new fans on YouTube? This is a tricky situation because unlike above you are not contacting people that already know you, so some people may view it as spam. But if you target the right people, they will thank you!
In this day and age it's hard to find new artists so when your messaged from a artist who you like it's a win/win situation! The hard part like I stated previously is finding those fans. If you make deep conscious hip-hop there is no point contacting people you find on a Lil Wayne video asking them to check out your music, if you do that do us all a favor and don't start to begin with. Instead find your target audience by narrowing down similar artists to yourself, people who you have a similar sound to. For example if you make music similar to say: Sage Francis you wouldn't just contact Sage Francis fans you would narrow it down more by including another artist you are similar to.
How? Use Google! Narrow down your search by searching:
Google > YouTube.com "channels" for example. Atmosphere or Sage Francis
By putting YouTube.com in the search field it means Google only searches that site and by putting brackets on "channels" it will bring up channels making it easier for you to contact these people. Now remember there is a thin line between promotion and spam, if you think you can just click subscribe on all these peoples channels and they will subscribe to yours, then that's a stupid idea. Contact ONLY the people who you truly believe will appreciate your music if any at all.
Target hip hop heads, people who are part of the hip hop community don't target everyday folk who use YouTube to watch make up tutorials but also who happen to like the same artists whom you believe your self to be similar with. There is a huge hip hop community on YouTube. Use the above advice at your own accord but don't spam or ruin YT for the rest of us or make it harder for other artists who are using those tactics properly, don't put a stain on fellow underground artists.
A couple Do's and Don'ts:
DO'S
Your own videos for songs be creative or if you don't have Album artwork..etc use good high res images.
Post your videos to other similar popular videos as a response.
Keep your channel active, spread our uploads out and keep people up to date.
Post all relative information in the video description: Downloads/FB Fan page...etc.
DON'TS
Buy "fake" views or subscribers. It's obvious and achieves nothing! If your main goal on YouTube is to get popular then ask yourself why! Your main goal should be to get and maintain a steady, dedicated loyal fan base.
Post comments on other videos telling people to check out your music, it's totally different from what I mentioned above and most people will just thumb you down anyway!
Get pissed off with people if they leave a negative comment, one of the best reasons for a artist to have YT is for fan feedback, if someone don't like your music that's life! Appreciate their opinion and don't get involved in petty internet arguments.
SPAM! I've said it already but you will gain nothing spamming people, you will probably just piss people off and they will just dislike your videos without even giving it a try.
And remember YouTube is a huge site, any of the advice will work, you just need to be dedicated and time will provide results.
What I will share with you today are just some simple tips to get your channel up and running and build a steady fan base. If your goal is to make a channel with 30k Subscribers and get partnership then look elsewhere, this advice is just for normal artists seeking to bring in the fans they already have.
First, set up a account in your artist name, get the page looking good and when it comes to uploading music have this in mind:
Google the most popular times in your country when YouTube has the most traffic and pick the best days (In my opinion Thursday and Sundays are perfect days).
Spread out your uploads, don't upload more then one thing at a time. The first upload will get less hits then the last upload as people will overlook it.
Tag your videos correctly and honestly! Don't put nothing like "car crash martian conspiracy", tag your music by genre, artist, year and maybe even a couple similar artists.
That is the easy stuff that most people will know as it's pretty common sense. The hard thing about YT is understanding that you are a needle in a huge haystack and getting your music/content heard and watched can be tricky.
Now if you are already an existing artist and your music is already on YT the first thing you need to do is: Harness your fans. You do this by collecting the usernames from people who have commented on tracks of yours that are already on YouTube. Collect those usernames up and put them in a notepad file and separate them by a comma.
Now it's easier to contact them and inform them that you have a new channel where you will uploading your music and content from now on; if they want to follow your new music then they can subscribe. Don't be pushy or beg for subscribers from these people, your preaching to the choir! These people are already fans of your music so your only goal is to notify them of your existence on YT if they won't to subscribe that's down to them.
Now bare in mind when it comes to contacting these people you can do it several ways, you can write on their channel walls or you can inbox them, if you inbox them you can batch message 25 people a time in a comma separate username ID list but you run the risk that people will ignore the message because they think its spam as it is a bulk message. Either way, you should notice an immediate response.
In my opinion there is no point in having a YT channel if you are not going to engage with your listeners, appreciate the feedback you get, ask for opinions...etc and if someone takes two minutes out of their life to send you a message saying "thank you for making blah blah I love that song, it changed my life" then take 2 minutes out of your day to acknowledge them.
If you are a new artist or a lesser known artist, how do you go about gaining new fans on YouTube? This is a tricky situation because unlike above you are not contacting people that already know you, so some people may view it as spam. But if you target the right people, they will thank you!
In this day and age it's hard to find new artists so when your messaged from a artist who you like it's a win/win situation! The hard part like I stated previously is finding those fans. If you make deep conscious hip-hop there is no point contacting people you find on a Lil Wayne video asking them to check out your music, if you do that do us all a favor and don't start to begin with. Instead find your target audience by narrowing down similar artists to yourself, people who you have a similar sound to. For example if you make music similar to say: Sage Francis you wouldn't just contact Sage Francis fans you would narrow it down more by including another artist you are similar to.
How? Use Google! Narrow down your search by searching:
Google > YouTube.com "channels" for example. Atmosphere or Sage Francis
By putting YouTube.com in the search field it means Google only searches that site and by putting brackets on "channels" it will bring up channels making it easier for you to contact these people. Now remember there is a thin line between promotion and spam, if you think you can just click subscribe on all these peoples channels and they will subscribe to yours, then that's a stupid idea. Contact ONLY the people who you truly believe will appreciate your music if any at all.
Target hip hop heads, people who are part of the hip hop community don't target everyday folk who use YouTube to watch make up tutorials but also who happen to like the same artists whom you believe your self to be similar with. There is a huge hip hop community on YouTube. Use the above advice at your own accord but don't spam or ruin YT for the rest of us or make it harder for other artists who are using those tactics properly, don't put a stain on fellow underground artists.
A couple Do's and Don'ts:
DO'S
Your own videos for songs be creative or if you don't have Album artwork..etc use good high res images.
Post your videos to other similar popular videos as a response.
Keep your channel active, spread our uploads out and keep people up to date.
Post all relative information in the video description: Downloads/FB Fan page...etc.
DON'TS
Buy "fake" views or subscribers. It's obvious and achieves nothing! If your main goal on YouTube is to get popular then ask yourself why! Your main goal should be to get and maintain a steady, dedicated loyal fan base.
Post comments on other videos telling people to check out your music, it's totally different from what I mentioned above and most people will just thumb you down anyway!
Get pissed off with people if they leave a negative comment, one of the best reasons for a artist to have YT is for fan feedback, if someone don't like your music that's life! Appreciate their opinion and don't get involved in petty internet arguments.
SPAM! I've said it already but you will gain nothing spamming people, you will probably just piss people off and they will just dislike your videos without even giving it a try.
And remember YouTube is a huge site, any of the advice will work, you just need to be dedicated and time will provide results.
- See more at: http://www.praverb.net/2012/05/youtube-secrets-exposed-dos-and-donts.html#sthash.qk6GdvXh.dpuf
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