How to Use Twitter to Build an Army of Adoring Journalists
April 19, 2011 by Elena
Filed under Social Media
Today’s post is written by Patrick Garmoe, a former reporter for newspapers in three midwest cities. He is a digital marketing specialist who loves helping businesses spread good ideas through social media and search engine optimization. Patrick also works with me as a senior associate at Cross Border Communications.
This post was originally published at Spinsucks.com.
I spent 10 years as a reporter in the BT (Before Twitter) era. Now as a social media strategist and public relations professional, I’ve found Twitter to be my primary and most successful method of building and maintaining relationships with reporters. It’s brought myself and clients I work with tens of thousands of dollars in free press coverage.
One public relations agency I work with even grew out of a connection made on Twitter. And that’s perhaps the main reason I advise every public relations professional to become a regular. Just like real life, you communicate with a large circle of professionals, but the bulk of the benefits come from just a handful of clients or connections you make over months and years.
I consider Twitter the tool that delivers tangible value in great gulps, so long as you commit to it for a year.
Skeptical? Here’s exactly how I use it. This will work both for one-person shops and advertising agencies trying to build a following to use for clients.
Read more
The 8 R’s of Twitter for Newbies
April 12, 2011 by Elena
Filed under Social Media
I had a friend call me the other day, to see if I could give her a quick Twitter tutorial. We talked about developing her strategy for Twitter. She’s a very smart marketer herself so I was surprised when she said after our conversation:
“Okay great, I’m going to be a voyeur for a few weeks and then I’ll start getting into it.”
To which I replied: “No, no, don’t wait, just start now! Find 10 people you want to get to know, and THAT will make Twitter more interesting for you.”
Almost everywhere I turn these days, people ask me how I got my followers, what do I say on Twitter and once you get through the sign up process and are staring at that blank update box:
Read more
How to Work with Your PR Partner
Last week, I wrote a post about choosing a PR partner, whether an individual consultant or a full-service PR agency. Today, I’d like to talk about how to make the most of working with the PR partner you’ve chosen.
Working with a PR partner can be an essential step in the growth of a business. A good PR consultant or agency will help you refine your core messages and make sure they reach your target markets. The best part is, you’ll accomplish all this without doing all the nitty-gritty work yourself. You can focus on growing your business instead.
However, your results will depend on how much you put into the relationship with your PR partner. Below are some of my tips for working with your PR agency or consultant.
Read more
Do You Know Your Reach On Social Media Or Are You Out Of Touch With Reality?
March 29, 2011 by Elena
Filed under Social Media
Today’s guest post is from Natalie Sisson, The Suitcase Entrepreneur and one of my senior associates at Cross Border Communications. She has spent years testing and investigating tools to help her run her business from anywhere in the world. Here, Natalie shares some of the best tools for managing and tracking your social media involvement.
How often do you actually get behind the scenes of all your social media activity to see if it’s really working? Do you know how to understand your influence, reach and engagement, or are too busy retweeting?
It’s all too easy to get caught up tweeting or posting status updates to Facebook, publishing blog posts and connecting on LinkedIn — without really knowing whether any of this is bringing you more business or exposure.
If you’re looking to build truly valuable relationships and turn them into potential joint ventures, future customers or clients then it’s essential to track and analyze what you do in social media.
Seems like too much work? Not if you use the right tools to streamline your efforts, manage multiple social media profiles and mine your activities for rich data and insight.
The good news is, many of these tools are free, help you to integrate your efforts, and save you time and money.
Let’s take a look at a few below.
Read more
How to Choose a PR Partner
At some point in your business’ life, you’re going to need the services of a PR professional. Perhaps you’ve got big goals that require getting your message out to a bigger audience — one you can’t reach if you tried to do your own PR, and one you don’t have the staff for.
Choosing a PR partner to help you accomplish your goals can leave you as confused as a kid in a candy store. With so many options and a limited budget, how do you get the most bang for your buck?
In this post, I’ll share with you the considerations you need to make to determine what you really need, and how to find the right PR expertise.
Before Hiring a PR Partner
Before you work with a PR partner, make sure to clarify your:
- Goals
What do you want to accomplish through PR? How do you want to position your company in the market? How do you want to be perceived?
- Expectations
Assess the newsworthiness of your products, services, and programs. Be realistic with what you expect from PR. It isn’t a magic wand that will make your products a bestseller.
- Budget
How much can you allocate for PR? Many companies think of PR as a one-off expense to launch a major product or service, but a sustained effort over at least six months is really what will build momentum. Figuring out an overall budget will determine which PR activities can be implemented, and which will have to wait.
Read more
5 Reasons the Media Is Ignoring You (And How to Get More Media Attention)
March 8, 2011 by Elena
Filed under What Is PR and How Do You Get It
When you’re not getting any media coverage, whose fault is it ?
Is it media’s? They’re preoccupied with other things, especially politics and show business — topics that probably don’t have anything to do with your product.
Is it the fault of your business? It’s just not interesting enough, or compelling enough to warrant media attention.
Or is it your fault? Are you doing something wrong?
To answer these questions, here are…
Read more
How to Create a Good Online Media Center
March 1, 2011 by Elena
Filed under What Is PR and How Do You Get It
One of the first things we do with new clients is look at their website to see if they have an online media center.
An online media center is a page on your website with all the important background information on your company or business. It should give an interested journalist the answers to the basic questions running in his or her head:
Who?
What?
Why?
How?
When?
So what?
Read more
10 Ways to Use Hootsuite Like a Pro
February 24, 2011 by Elena
Filed under Social Media
These days, no matter how great your product, service, or business is, if people can’t find you on the web, it’s like you don’t exist. Social media has helped level the playing field for smaller businesses and you can now access low or no cost tools to market your business. However, you still have to take the time to cultivate relationships, and as we all know time = money.
If your company is just getting started with social media, one tool that helps you “be everywhere all at once” and save your precious time and energy is Hootsuite.
Here’s how Hootsuite can help:
Read more
PR Packs a Multi-Million Dollar Punch
February 22, 2011 by Elena
Filed under PR Case Study
From time to time, we’ll be sharing with you some PR case studies. These case studies will help to identify the key elements to a successful PR campaign. Our hope is they will help you use PR to achieve your business goals. Today’s case study is from my Director of Client Services at Cross Border Communications, Jackie Peterson.
Since jumping into the PR game a few years ago, I have learned plenty about media and delivering messages effectively. I feel fortunate to have met people running businesses from all walks of life in many different realms.
The best part of PR is meeting the entrepreneurs. They are equal parts creative, passionate and life-loving, with a dash of wild and a pinch of crazy.
In other words, we get along swimmingly.
Helping them achieve their vision is most rewarding. Probably one of the most illustrative examples of the power of PR happened in 2010, when I worked with a company looking to raise money for a private fund.
Read more
A Blueprint for Success
February 17, 2011 by Elena
Filed under Entrepreneurs
In this guest post, Cameron Herold teaches us an easy, practical — yet effective — exercise for building the business we dream of. Cameron is a coach to CEOs in large corporations all around the world. After helping build multi-million dollar companies, Cameron is now a sought-after speaker, coach, and mentor.
Years after working with an Olympic coach, I realized that the process of visualization was a lot like building a dream home. If you can visualize what the dream house–or your designer kitchen–looks like, then you can talk to an architect and explain the vision you have in your mind. You can even tear photos out of magazines to help explain what you see in your mind. Once the architect can ‘see’ the same vision as you, he or she can create the blueprints for your dream home.
And more 
