Public Relations in Salt Lake City, Online PR, PR For Small Business

Our favorite daytime talk show queen really is closing her doors for good in September 2011. But the upside is that’s a whole two years away. Still plenty of time to make a plan and get on.

Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, recommends these three things to give yourself a foot in the door:

–Pitch a topic that pushes Oprah’s hot buttons, like helping
children live better lives.

–Pitch an entire segment, not just yourself.

–Research her producers by reading their blogs at
http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090313-tows-producer-facebook-blogs

Getting on Oprah can really do wonders for your business. So make a plan of action today, do your homework and keep working on it!

Over two thirds of the 831 respondents in a recent survey by VerticalResponse, Inc say they plan on increasing their use of PR and social media in 2010.

Furthermore, the respondents (all small businesses with under 500 employees) ranked public relations as one of the most important tools they’ll need to succeed in 2010.

However, you may have noticed that the world of public relations is changing rapidly. The results are in and there are things that don’t work as well anymore, as well as some things to really focus on in your next publicity campaign. Here are four PR do’s and don’ts in 2010:

1. Don’t focus so much on media relations. Getting mentioned in the paper is not what it used to be. Think about it. When’s the last time you read the paper? When’s the last time you actually watched the 5 o’clock news?

2. Do focus on social media relations. Numerous studies have shown that people trust people they know over people on TV. Use social media tools more often to send your information to friends and family and get them to send your information on to their friends and family. You’ll need to come up with a clever campaign strategy for this. Think in terms of what motivates people to share.

3. Don’t worry so much about impressions. Impressions are measured by how many people view your blog, press release or online article. It’s important to have those numbers, yes, but it doesn’t necessarily spur anyone to action. What you want to look for is engagement. How many people are sharing what you wrote or what was written about you? How many people are starting to say they’ve heard about you or that they really like your shop, your cause, whatever so much they are telling all their friends about it? How many people are acting on the information they now have about you? It’s tricky to get that going without awareness of who you are so you do want to measure impressions, but a clever campaign can really spur them into doing something beyond just looking at who you are.

4. Do use the new model of measurement:

Exposure => Engagement => Influence => Action

Now get out there and get creative with your next PR punch. I’m looking forward to seeing your efforts in 2010.

LinkedIn announced a partnership with Twitter today. When you set your status on LinkedIn it will now also be forwarded to your Twitter account. The verdict is out on whether this is genius or just duplication. However, it will help bolster LinkedIn business networking. Twitter has caught on more with marketers, media and business owners than it has with the general public. It’s a logical combination.

Click here for the actual announcement from LinkedIn

Here’s what the NY Times has to say about it, too.

Twitter - Over 60% of Twitter users quit after the first month. Most say they just “didn’t get it” Yet big celebrities (think Ashton Kutcher, Oprah and even Rainn Wilson), big media (CNN, NPR, FOX) have realized what a power house this social media site can be for their brand. Yes, I know, you are not a celebrity or a major media outlet…and you don’t want to spend all day on Twitter, either.

You don’t have to be famous or develop a new addiction to make Twitter work for you. There are plenty of people on there who have 5,000-45,000 real, targeted Twitter followers who are not famous or a part of the media - and they don’t spend all day on line to get there.

How do they do it?

Tip 1: Follow users who have a large amount of followers AND follow others back. You can find this out by looking at the ratio of followers to those they follow.

Tip 2: Use services like Tweetlater to send out automated, value-added messages that link back to your site

Tip 3: Reply, Retweet, Repeat. You don’t have to come up with original or mundane details about your every moment of your own life. Find a few cool things other people have mentioned and retweet it for them. They’ll thank you, your subject will come up in the searches and you’ll have easily gained a new friend all in 5 seconds or less.

Trust me, these things do work. I went from 300 or so followers to about a thousand in just one week with them (and a few others I’d be happy to help you with).

For more great tips like these I recommend following the user I got them from @tweet_fu (or click this link http://twitter.com/tweet_fu and hit “follow”)

Did you know there are over 60 million page views on Wordpress blogs alone on mobile phones each and every month?

Did you know 39% of US consumers now own a smartphone capable of viewing blogs, web pages, news and social media sites? That means your blog, your webpage, your Twitter and Facebook profile. And that number of users is rapidly growing.

A recent study shows those with smartphones use them like they would any laptop, and report using them more often than their laptop or computer to search email, use social media applications and even to view websites or video content.

“I don’t even use a computer,” says aesthetics consultant Jennifer Bank, “I just look everything up on my iPhone.”

What can you do with this knowledge to promote your business? Simple, make your content mobile friendly.

Here are three ways to do this:

1. Avoid flowery writing. Don’t write so much that people have to scroll and scroll. People hate that and it may take a long time to upload. If they lose patience, you lose their business and it creates a negative public image for your company. Just get to the point and try to keep it all on one mobile page.

2. Write your HTML code like a mouse doesn’t exist. This may be a hard one to do, and takes some expert web design skills. When testing your site, or having your programmer test your site, test it without the mouse to see if it will go where you want it to take you.

3. Use the “alt” attribute. I’m no web design expert and chances are, neither are you, so get a good designer to help you with this one if need be. Sometimes images on a site are not displayed properly on a mobile screen. Your site needs the “alt” attribute (that’s part of the HTML code, FYI) to help images, tables, forms, etc to display and work properly on a mobile page.

Now as to how to turn a mobile screen into good word of mouth buzz and publicity? Like always, provide good content and apply the secret ninja online PR skills…or hire a PR pro like Big Star to help guide you.