Utah Public Relations Agency, Utah PR, Online PR, PR For Small Business, Utah Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing

Getting a retweet is like getting an invite to the cool kid’s house to swim in thier pool. Someone out there approves of you and what you have to say. And that’s a nice feeling. Ego aside, the retweet does much more for your business. You see, when someone retweets you, all their followers see your twitter name. They then have the chance to find out more about you. You were not even on their radar before and now, you definitely are and with the approval of their cool friend. But getting that retweet takes some work. You see, your tweets need to be such that it makes someone WANT to retweet them. So stop talking about the great parking space you just scored or how bored you are in a meeting and say something worth retweeting. There are at least seven (perhaps many more) ways to build your credibility and get a retweet.

1. Be informative. And I don’t mean just posting links to various sites or news organizations. Say something original and chock-full of good, useful info to others.

2. Be remarkable. Yep, show ‘em you say good, interesting things like “Here’s 20 ways to get on CNN today”. Stand out. Do something interesting that no one else is doing. Stuff like that.

3. Be funny. Perhaps humor is not your strong suit. Don’t use this one if you’re not funny (and hopefully you know if you are or aren’t). But if you are…post away! Makes us laugh. Makes us retweet your hilarity.

4. Be engaging. Have a conversation with other interesting people. retweet them, let them retweet you. Comment on their posts.

5. Share. It’s like they say “to have friends you need to be a friend” or something like that. So retweet others. Play nice. Don’t feed the bears.

6. Be opinionated. So nothing gets people going like religion and politics…just saying. You share an opinion and aren’t afraid to do it, you WILL get retweets. You will also definitely gain some followers and have a few heated conversations.

7. Be thought-provoking. Along with that opinion, get people THINKING. Guaranteed retweet material.

Companies are becoming more and more social, industry, agencies, and a new bumper-crop of college bound kids have known almost nothing else. Consider 22.7% of our time online is spent on social networks. Now consider how more and more companies are getting name recognition. It isn’t through traditional media.

“Consider where people are getting their news today. More and more, it’s not through direct sources like USA Today, The New York Times, or TV broadcasts, but through social networks.

“…In the future, every company, no matter how small or how big, will be influenced and impacted by social media internally or externally.” - Mashable

Not all CEO’s are tweeting or sending their laatest news through Facebook. In fact out of the top 100 in Fortune Magazines CEO’s who run global corporations, none of them have a social presence. But that is the old and we are fast approaching the new.

Recent studies show social media press releases are more effective at getting traditional press attention and that more people are likely to see your social media press release than will see it in the regular press outlets. Think about that.

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They say business is about location, location, location. Well, the latest trend in marketing is local, local, local. But to get good foot traffic, especially if you are new or relatively unknown, you gotta give people something they want. Let’s make a deal. You know, a discount? An amazing offer they can’t refuse?

But where do you send out this said amazing offer? The local paper is obviously no longer the place for this. It’s expensive and (surprise, surprise) no one will read it. Even if they are still reading that local weekly alternative rag, their eyes simply glaze over all the ads compounded together. Never fear, there’s a lot of places to choose from these days that don’t even involve any ink. The problem is there are so many.

Here I’ll walk you through a few to give you an idea on how they work:

Groupon.com - You don’t pay any advertising upfront with Groupon (small business owners rejoice!). You just call ‘em up and a sales rep determines if your deal is good enough for their subscribers. Then they write all the copy (that’s advertising speak for writing up the description of your deal-a-ma-jig). Then, if people buy, they Groupon takes a percentage. This is tricky because you want to make a profit, but also offer a good enough deal to get people to buy and come in your place of business. Just remember you may not make a profit on this one, but it will definitely get your unknown company name out there and that’s very important for a business that doesn’t have much traffic just yet.

Yelp, City Deals and City Search - Same thing as Groupon, but less popular right now.

Foursquare - This one only works if you are in one of the larger cities. Businesses have started making a habit of offering a free meal or a discount to the “mayor” of their place (that’s the person who has checked in to their place on Foursquare the most often). But only in bigger cities like New York or San Fran. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the F-sqaure is alive and well and wonderful here in Salt Lake (where I live). But the discount for being mayor idea has not really caught on. Not here, nor in other mid-sized cities. Although, if you were to do this that could give you an edge with Foursquare users as you’d be one of the few doing it.

Twitter - Hmmm, well, it works sometimes and sometimes the message is totally lost. Yep. But it’s free.

Those are the national brands. There are other, locally grown versions of these as well. Along the Wasatch Front we have KSL Deals as a similar rival to Groupon. And you know, KSL Deals is giving the national brand a run for the deal-making money. There are probably other versions in your city if you search for them as well.

So which one to choose? May I suggest the one with the most subscribers in your city? To find that out you will have to do some asking around to each of them about how many people get their “deal of the day”. You may also want to test each of them out to see if your deal does better one place or another. You’ll also want to change your deal from time to time to see if it’s the deal that’s making or breaking the foot traffic at your business location. Whatever you choose, all are great alternatives to dying, expensive newspaper ads. Now get out there and make a great deal. I might just be buying.

Want to see your name/company on major broadcast networks but just not getting anywhere with your pitches? Here are three easy ways to bypass the producers and get your story out there:

1) Several major network websites will actually let you post your story on their websites for free! One I love is CNN’s iReport page. You can post pictures, your story and comment on other’s stories. You can also post your story and then share with your Facebook and Twitter friends and followers.

Another broadcast site I highly recommend you take part in is NPR’s community pages. Hint: several of the NPR staff participate on their as well. You may even catch their ear this way.

2) Post to sites that post to Google News. You can’t post yourself unless your site is an approved news site. However, there are several sites out there that take articles and press releases from the public. If you are in Utah you can get your news on Google by submitting your press release through my sister company Utah News Source.

For those not local, or with news that pertains to more than just Utah you can also post on sites like PRLog or one of the press release wire distribution services for this.

Stats: According to the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, about 56% of American adults get their news online.

3) Use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter - for this you need to already have a relatively strong fan base (or at least a fan base with a lot of influencers in the mix). Post your story on Facebook and Twitter and then ask your followers/friends/fans to retweet and repost to their followers/friends/fans. Yes, you really can make headway through doing this the right way. There are literally thousands of examples of great results from doing this these days. Bonus - you may actually have a better chance getting the ear of news reporters this way. If you just watch a segment of a news show you’ll notice there is usually at least one mention of something found through one of these sites in any given day. The trick here is posting something that will get their attention. Get creative on this one. It could really do wonders in putting you and your company out there.

Need help with a creative PR or Social Media campaign? Big Star PR specializes in traditional television, print and magazine publicity as well as online public relations and social media. Call and ask about services today at 801-708-0958.

Want to see your name/company on major broadcast networks but just not getting anywhere with your pitches? Here are three easy ways to bypass the producers and get your story out there:

1) Several major network websites will actually let you post your story on their websites for free! One I love is CNN’s iReport page. You can post pictures, your story and comment on other’s stories. You can also post your story and then share with your Facebook and Twitter friends and followers.

Another broadcast site I highly recommend you take part in is NPR’s community pages. Hint: several of the NPR staff participate on their as well. You may even catch their ear this way.

2) Post to sites that post to Google News. You can’t post yourself unless your site is an approved news site. However, there are several sites out there that take articles and press releases from the public. If you are in Utah you can get your news on Google by submitting your press release through my sister company Utah News Source.

For those not local, or with news that pertains to more than just Utah you can also post on sites like PRLog or one of the press release wire distribution services for this.

Stats: According to the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, about 56% of American adults get their news online.

3) Use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter - for this you need to already have a relatively strong fan base (or at least a fan base with a lot of influencers in the mix). Post your story on Facebook and Twitter and then ask your followers/friends/fans to retweet and repost to their followers/friends/fans. Yes, you really can make headway through doing this the right way. There are literally thousands of examples of great results from doing this these days. Bonus - you may actually have a better chance getting the ear of news reporters this way. If you just watch a segment of a news show you’ll notice there is usually at least one mention of something found through one of these sites in any given day. The trick here is posting something that will get their attention. Get creative on this one. It could really do wonders in putting you and your company out there.

Need help with a creative PR or Social Media campaign? Big Star PR specializes in traditional television, print and magazine publicity as well as online public relations and social media. Call and ask about services today at 801-708-0958.

Remember how I told you it was worth it to keep on keepin’ on with Facebook, even with the uproar over their privacy policy? While the US Senate and end users try to decide on how to proceed, the marketplace is already to the rescue. Enter sites like ConnectInPrivate.com, developer of a comprehensive suite of anonymous surfing and Internet privacy tools. They’re slated to announce the launch of their new “Secure My Profile” application for Facebook in the near future. Stay posted to them and others like them. And other PR people tried to get you to just leave.

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There’s been a lot of buzz lately about Facebook’s privacy policy. In case YOU haven’t heard, it’s wide open and outta control. Translation-if you don’t want everyone on Facebook having access to your email and personal profile page, etc., you need to change your privacy settings.

For some reason the online PR and marketing community as of late has decided the solution to all this is to LEAVE Facebook. What??? Leave the fastest growing, most used by the most general public, easy to market to, study what your target audience is looking for and then give it to them audience on the internet (and in the marketing world in general)? Leave that? Really? Wow! Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.

How bout maybe educating and taking responsibility? How bout maybe just changing your privacy settings…or not putting your email and phone number on your profile? How bout that? People can still message you on there or get a hold of you with a little research on Google or Bing. No one is forcing you to keep your data public. How bout just taking responsibility and continuing to work with one of the greatest word of mouth buzz tools known to the modern world today?

Facebook has over 400 million unique and active users. The overall amount of time spent on the site is 8.3 BILLION hours a month. It’s the number two most used site on the web, after Google (and may soon eclipse the search behemoth). Also, women age 55+ are the fastest growing Facebook users (hello Mom, bet your checking my status right about now). Just think about all that and you’ll start to see Facebook is not a relationship to walk away from right now.