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3 Ways to Promote Your Business

Guest Post: 3 Ways To Promote Your Business

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A Guest Post By Natasha Clark, Founder of Lioness Magazine.

3 Ways to Promote Your BusinessOne of the things I have always cherished about writing is the ability to convey a story or thought. Storytelling is a powerful tool to share and exchange ideas. It is also an art, when applied and mastered carefully, that we can use as female business owners to promote our businesses and social enterprises.

As founder of Lioness Magazine, there were a few things that I learned as we launched:

  • Content is key. We wanted to provide news to women to help them launch their startups or scale their enterprises.
  • Maintain the edge. We encourage women to unleash the Lioness within. Whether it’s sharp images or candid dialogue, we want to give that extra oomph.
  • Develop a community. I also knew that we wanted women to come to our website and leave with the feeling that they could conquer the world, master whatever they set their sights on. We needed to develop a community that was inspirational and empowering. To do that, we feature everyday women who are going after their dreams and women who have accomplished their dreams and are educating other women on how to do it, too.

 

Think of brands that have impacted you.

Was it a moving commercial? Was it a powerful image in an ad? One of the best album titles that always stuck with me was Maroon 5’s debut album titled Songs About Jane. How clever is that? I wanted to know, “Who’s Jane? What are these songs going to reveal about her?” And after I experienced the album I thought, “Whoa, Jane is amazing and complex.”

Now take that thought and ask yourself, “how can I relate that to promoting my business?” In my mind, Maroon 5 was a win-win. They lured me in with their catchy title and then once purchased, they delivered quality music. It’s all about user experience and the connection.

Today there are so many ways to reach out to your audience. You have radio, TV, video, social media, text, email, and even snail mail. The possibilities are endless. What isn’t limitless, though, is your first impression. There’s that old saying that people always remember the way you make them feel. What is the feeling that you want people to associate with your brand? That impression should be your jumping off point in the conversation. That’s how you begin to promote yourself.

Dove is a brand that gets it. They make women feel good. Dove does three things really well: Their ads feature real women so that women feel like they’re looking at themselves. Their commercials tell stories that engage the viewer. They ask women thought-provoking questions that spark dialogue (which leads to a lot of media coverage). As a result, women are forwarding these videos and commenting on news sites – they are engaged.

 

Target your promotion.

Promotion is not just about slapping your name and logo on a mug and assuming that it is going to translate into a sale. As consumers, we all know that so much more goes into our spending. Think about the aspects of a product that make you say yes to a purchase. For me, those purchases are often because it is something that I’ve been dying to try out or it’s a product or service that answers my current need. With that in mind, there are two things you need to think about when promoting your business:

1. Where is your customer?

Find out where they are and be there. Do they get coffee at a particular place? Maybe you should have a partnership with that coffee house and run a marketing campaign or giveaway.

Do they shop on certain websites? Consider advertising there. Are they talking on social media to one another using particular hashtags? Start using those hashtags and join in the conversation. Are they going to annual conferences or events to interact with their peers or what Seth Godin calls “tribes?” You might want to look into having a booth or being a speaker.

2. How is your customer spending?

We need to stop assuming that our products and services are for everyone. Once you’ve discovered your audience, you need to know how they are spending their cash. Are they best deals/bargain shoppers? Are they consumers who purchase gently used items on eBay or amazon.com?

Maybe your target demographic doesn’t care about price, only quality and prestige. Others could prefer to buy from people they trust. Those types of spenders often check for product reviews before they make final purchase decisions. In that case, reach out to blogs and ask for product reviews.

If your audience are trendsetters, they want the latest items before everyone else gets wind of it. That means you should be offering exclusivity. That can include offering VIP memberships and limited editions items. These people tend to spend on their wants, not their needs.

When you start answering these questions, it is easier to strategize about what makes the most sense in terms of promotion. For example, once you discover how your audience is interacting on Twitter, then you can focus on the best way to engage them in 140 characters instead of just tweeting random messages. If you find out your audience is on a particular website, don’t just slap up an ad. People don’t click away from their favorite website very often. They need a reason.What would be the reason? Is it to find out more about something they care about? Click by a certain deadline to get an incentive? Or maybe it’s to continue a popular discussion that is currently on this website over at your website. Think about creating an ad that aggregates eyeballs and has a call-to-action that entices them to click away.

 

Word of mouth never goes out of style.

If you begin to have a few superstar customers that rave to you about how much they love what you do, get their testimonial. Give them a reference giveaway. Give them an incentive that not only keeps them coming back, but also entices them to spread the word about your awesomeness.

Show your customer that you’ve taken the time to get to know them. Because it’s our business, we often only think about ourselves. But what we really need to be doing is focusing on them.

Around age eight Natasha Clark was told it was a woman’s job to take care of the home and since then she has built a career out of telling women they can do whatever the hell they want. Founder of Lioness, the leading digital magazine for female entrepreneurs, the former news reporter has created a platform to educate, elevate and support female entrepreneurs. In addition to publishing and hosting events for women, Natasha enjoys spending time with her teenage son, Shaun.

PRStudChat

PRStudChat & PR20Chat Kick off the Busy Season With a “Back to School #PRToolkit” Twitter Chat on Sept. 9th

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PRStudChatWhere did the summer go? It’s September, which, for most, marks the busy season. Vacation is over and our students, educators and pros are either back in the classroom or busy at work. On September 9th at 8:30 p.m. ET, the #PRStudChat and #PR20Chat communities will gather for a joint Twitter chat discussion on finding the most effective resources to include in a “Back to School #PRToolkit.”

We’re kicking off our special #PRToolkit (follow this hashtag) chat session to help students and professionals maximize their PR, marketing and social media initiatives in the fall and into 2015. We’ll be discussing everything from networking, relationship building and ethical communication to channel participation, new tools and productive apps.

A few of the questions our community members will answer, include:

– What resources can help with an internship or job search?

– How can you take advantage of social media in a search?

– What advice can our professional community members share on what they wished they knew as a student?

– Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, WordPress – oh my! Are there certain channels where students REALLY need to be active?

– Where can you learn more about ethical communications, especially in an age of public conversations?

– What platforms or apps help you to be more focused and productive?

– What bloggers, influencers and media outlets give the best recommendations on the latest technology and tools?

Don’t miss the Back to School #PRToolkit session to learn how you can advance your resources and add to your own toolkit, by chatting with peers. If you have any questions around the topic or thoughts you want to share, in advance of the session, feel free to DM us or post your questions in our LinkedIn Discussion Group.  We hope you’ll join us for a dynamic Twitter chat session on September 9th.  “See” you then! 

A Little More About PRStudChat:

It began with a simple question asked by Angela Hernandez, then President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). “Is PR Right for me?” A follow up blog post by PR 2.0 expert Deirdre Breakenridge inspired a series of direct messages on Twitter between Breakenridge and fellow PR industry pro, Valerie Simon. This was an important question and one that should be explored beyond one student or one blog post. Why not build a community to help students across the country, and even the globe, learn from the experience and perspective of industry professionals… A community where everyone can learn and grow together.

 

#Tumblr vs. #Facebook: Ask a Teen if You Want to Know the Difference

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Tumblr is certainly growing in popularity.  A recent Mashable article mentioned that according to ComScore, Tumblr scored 13.4 million unique visitors in the U.S. in July, increasing 218% from the same time last year. The “blog-meets-social-network service” is experiencing what most are calling explosive growth.   Tumblr has been on my radar for quite sometime having witnessed how our teens use it and rave about it.  However, that doesn’t mean that the younger generation is abandoning Facebook any time soon.  Now, they’re using both networks for similar yet different reasons.

I asked two teenagers (ages 16 & 17) about their passion for Tumblr and Facebook because I wanted insight into their fascination with both communities.  I thought it would help me to understand the difference from a teen’s point of view.  Here’s the interview with teens that were more than willing to offer their raw and youthful insight (unedited and uncensored content):

Q: What’s the difference between Tumblr and Facebook?

–       Tumblr is a blog and Facebook isn’t.

–       Facebook doesn’t allow you to blog.

–       Facebook is a place to connect with friends.

–       I think Tumblr is an anti-social social network.

–       Tumblr is less of a place to connect and is more an expression of myself.

Q: Which do you use more?

–       Tumblr, because it’s better than Facebook.

  • I don’t care what people think about what I say.
  • It’s easier to update your status on Facebook, but we just don’t care enough to do that all of the time.

–       On Tumblr you can say what you’re doing, but you don’t have too say what you’re doing.

  • I don’t want everyone to know what I’m doing.
  • On Tumblr, it’s more socially acceptable to not say what you’re doing.

Q: Would you stop interacting on one to spend all of your time on the other?

–       We don’t want to give up Facebook.

  • It’s necessary because it’s an easy way to find something out.
  • We get homework from classmates and we don’t have to text a best friend to see what she’s doing.

–       Facebook has a connection purpose, but Tumblr is about me!

–       On Tumblr I can relate to others more than I can on Facebook.

–       When you talk to people you don’t know on Tumblr it’s awesome, but you can’t do this on Facebook, it’s really creepy.

–       You can tell so much more about a person on Tumblr because it’s about the individual and not about connecting with other people.

Q: What do you like the most about Tumblr?

–       Personally, it gives me inspiration for the things I like…photography, art, cool images.

–       You can find a blog about anything you love.  I follow a bunch of Lady Gaga blogs … it all comes up on your dashboard and you can fill your dash with things you like.

–       On Facebook you see all the things you don’t like.

–       On Tumblr, you can catch up on the videos, memes and all the funny stuff.

–       We’re learning more on Tumblr about news, information and things about the Internet.  We found out that Osama Bin Laden was dead and all about Libya on Tumblr.

–       I even donated to a cancer cause through Tumblr.

Q: What do you like the most about Facebook?

–       You get to talk to friends, writing funny things on other people’s walls, look at friends’ photos and videos.

–       No games though…I use my phone for games or my iPod.

–       We also like to see when people are single or in a relationship (except when it’s someone you like).

–       There are a lot of people who like to have many friends, it’s not as important to us, but we know people who love the popularity of having a big network. When I had over 1,000 friends, I started to delete them.

–       I like the hide functionality on Facebook because I can hide people and they don’t know it.

–       I play around with the privacy settings so that some people can see certain things and others can’t.

Q: What is missing from either one of these networks (if you could sit in a room and tell Mark Zuckerberg or David Karp to add features, what would those features be)?

–       No changes right now to either network.

–       Both places are perfect for what they provide.

–       I may not ask them to change anything, but if I could sit in a room with David Karp, then I might just ask for him for a hug.

–       I might ask to visit Mark Zuckerberg’s new house 🙂

Q: Do you think you will stay on Tumblr and Facebook or if something better comes along you will jump ship?

–       I wouldn’t leave Tumblr … but I might leave Facebook.

–       We left MySpace, which was a crappy combination of both Facebook and Tumblr.

–       Now we just like that Tumblr and Facebook are two individual and separate networks that both make a lot of sense for us.

There you have it…the feelings of teens about their likes and dislikes when it comes to engagement preferences (or lack thereof).  The strongest opinion comes down to expression and individuality, and not necessarily connections. It should be interesting to see how Tumblr and Facebook continue to grow and what these communities offer to the teens that have very strong convictions about why they participate on two very different networks.

 

What’s the Connection Between Tumblr and Teenagers?

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My 16 year-old-daughter first introduced me to Tumblr when she told me that she wanted to start her own blog.  She used to spend countless hours on MySpace checking out bands, on YouTube sharing funny videos and she used her Facebook profile to keep in touch with many of her friends after we moved from North Jersey to Central Jersey a few years ago. I would say that YouTube and Facebook are still among her favorite social sites. However, Tumblr has come onto her radar and clearly captured her attention.  Based on her behavior, Tumblr is her new social media habit.

For those not familiar with Tumblr, it’s an easy platform to express your thoughts and share information through a variety of formats including text, photo, chat, links, audio and video.  Tumblr is recognized today as a platform somewhere in between a WordPress blog and Twitter stream, which lets you share media in short form or as “media snacks.”

I’ve been investigating Tumblr to see exactly what it is that makes the platform so special.  Here’s what my 16 year old has to say about Tumblr:

  • Tumblr is a place where you can express what you like and how you feel.
  • Tumblr is about yourself, above everything else … it can encompass all that you do and what you want.  Although, some people might criticize, there are so many more supporters; the community is generally supportive of what you post.
  • You can find a lot of people with similar interests. When someone reblogs a picture that I like, I look at their blog to find other things that interest me.
  • Tumblr is better than Facebook…anyone can have a Facebook, but with Tumblr it goes deeper into your personality.
  • I’m on Twitter too. Although my Tumblr is linked to my Twitter, I spend more time on my Tumblr dashboard.  It’s all right there for me, and it’s so much easier to use.
  • Tumblr is the more complex version of Twitter, yet, at the same time, it’s easier to use and manage.
  • Twitter is something you do when you’re out…”eating with my friend …” It’s what’s happening now and Tumblr is your online journal.
  • Twitter is like a memo pad and Tumblr is like a daily journal.
  • It’s the most addictive thing ever!

Here is a quick snapshot from Compete comparing Posterous (another short form blogging platform) to Tumblr, with respect to unique visitors and visits to the sites:

Unique Visitors:

Source: Compete.com

Monthly Visits:

Source: Compete.com

As you can see, there has been a significant increase in traffic and unique visits to Tumblr over the past year.  As communications professionals, it’s our job is to understand the market and to identify where various audiences congregate.  Tumblr is definitely a place of interest and focus for the Millennials.  Based on the information from February 2011 (see chart below), Tumblr is poised for growth as a simple microblogging platform.

Source: 1WD.CO

 

 

Socializing the Newsroom

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I was recently invited to participate in Online Newsroom Summit in September.  A great deal has changed over the years with respect to developing or “socializing” your newsroom.  Because companies are looking to accommodate social audiences, the newsroom is an area that has experienced a makeover.

When I first started working with companies to create their online newsrooms (although at the time we were calling them online pressrooms), these areas offered an excellent way to build relationships with journalists.  Newsrooms provided information and resources for their stories, making the company information gathering process extremely turnkey.  The idea was to have materials available, at any time, and, if necessary, without the assistance of a PR representative. Journalists would gather the resources they needed, when they needed it, having access to company’s information portal 24/7.

Today, as a result of social media, the newsroom has become an area for all of the company’s stakeholders, not just the media.  Bloggers, customers, prospects and partners searching for information, find an updated newsroom to be very useful.  As a matter of fact, many companies are renaming their newsrooms, opting for a “Media Center” or “News Center” as a repository for different groups to find all types of media.

It’s interesting to review how the newsroom has changed.  Back in early 2000, the best newsrooms included the following:

  • Company backgrounder
  • Facts sheet or company snapshot
  • Bios of executive or key team players
  • High resolution photos and logos
  • Executive presentations
  • Corporate videos and videos from company events
  • News releases (archived)
  • Links to past publicity
  • Links to helpful resources and industry partners

Ten plus years later, not only do we have the information listed above, but we also see a drastic change to the newsroom’s content and functionality, with the addition of the following new social features:

  • Blog communities with company executives or SMEs
  • Speaker and / or interview requests
  • Social media releases (SMRs)
  • Multimedia galleries
  • Podcasts for download
  • Optimization of content by tagging images and text for search engine relevancy
  • The ability to share newsroom content in a number of different social media communities
  • Icons to find, “Like” and/or follow the company in various social network communities
  • Tag clouds to see the most frequently tagged newsroom topics
  • Twitter feeds for products / services, and company conversations

Although all stakeholders find and use a company’s newsroom, we still organize information to suit the needs of journalists. It’s important to note that according the Bulldog / TekGroup International 2010 Online Journalist Survey on Media Relations Practices, “97% of journalists indicated that they use such sites in their work.”  The survey also revealed that nearly 45% of participants visit newsrooms more than once a week, with approximately 84% reporting that they visit at least once a month.

Here’s a list of a few really good examples of socialized newsrooms for you to review and consider, as you develop your own newsroom, media or news center for your website:

Starbucks

Ford

CIGNA

Microsoft

PRSA

Cisco

BASF

What are some of the best examples of socialized newsrooms that you’ve found? How are you changing the features and functionality of your company’s newsroom?

The Role of #PR in the Comment Response Chart

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In PR we’re used to preparing executives or company spokespeople for media interviews and press conferences. We’ve also put our crisis plans in place to be ready for unexpected emergencies.  Our position is to prepare and be ready for all types of public reaction to company communications.  And, with social media keeping our constituents actively engaged in our web communities, by now, we should have our social media comment response charts handy.  A comment response chart should be developed and included in a social media policy to address all types of conversations from general company inquiries to crisis escalation.

Whether your organization is just starting out in social media, or you’ve been actively engaging with audiences, it’s critical to develop a comment response chart so employees know how to participate in different types of situations.  Below is a checklist of questions and when answered, they will help you to develop your chart so that you can (1) recognize the different types of conversations, (2) pinpoint situations in social communities in terms of the level of crisis escalation, and (3) identify who in your organization needs to be involved in the discussion based on the level of escalation.

The more you can prepare the organization to understand the different types of conversations and create a best practices approach to address unexpected issues, the better the organization will fare to avert a crisis and keep a situation under control.  Here are several of the questions to help you frame out your chart:

  • What types of general questions can all groups or personnel within the organization address?
  • If it’s a positive, general comment should employees propagate the comment by sharing with the network, or retweeting on Twitter?
  • What types of specific questions need to be answered by an SME? Who are the individuals in the company designated to answer those questions?
  • Who in the organization should only answer specific questions regarding company policies or an official company position on an issue?
  • What types of questions will be handled by a specific department? For example, determine the questions that sales will answer vs. those answered by customer service.  What types of questions will be handled by PR?
  • Predetermine the types of questions that your organization does not need to answer, but rather should be answered by the community because it’s better to have a community member answer for credibility purposes.
  • Who takes care of the spam on a Facebook page or spam posted in a Facebook or LinkedIn Group?  Should the spam be deleted?
  • How do you handle abusive questions?  Is this person a troll that you monitor but don’t respond to and just delete the comment?  Or, was this person once a member of your community and has influence with other community members?  Do you just delete the comment and then handle the situation offline, if you have this person’s contact information?
  • Who in your company handles the dedicated complainer? How will you evaluate if this person is an influencer or a member of the media?  Who is in charge of correcting the situation and making sure the issue is resolved?
  • What do you do if a complaint is incorrect?  Who is in charge of gently explaining the correct facts?  And, if the situation is incorrect, who will apologize and provide the correct information.
  • Who in your organization will handle the bad experience complaints in social communities?  Will you designate certain personnel or departments based on issues in the past that may occur again due to the nature of your business?
  • How will you correct any misguided information in a community?  What does your policy say about correcting the information and who from your organization will be responsible for making the correction and monitoring the situation?
  • Have you identified the various levels of comment escalation, for example, how do you determine your level of response from general communication to full blown crisis escalation? What types of conversations are handled your social media manager and when you do involve your PIO and other members of the crisis team (especially if the crisis escalates into a media crisis as well)?

By answering these questions, you should be able to develop the framework for your comment response chart.  But, don’t stop there…as you do your planning every six months or each year, audit the types of conversations in the past and add to your chart to proactively prepare for new community conversations as they occur.

 

 

Is Influence a Bad Word?

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The more I chat with my peers, the more I receive strong feedback about the word, “influence.”  In a few conversations, it’s been pointed out that although we all want to know the secret of gaining influence, no one wants to talk about influence.  Of course, we would never walk around saying, “I’m an influencer.” Then, we’re really feeding into an ego system rather than a social ecosystem.

However, looking at influence from a different standpoint…don’t we want people to trust us?  Don’t we want to have the strongest relationships with community members and finally, don’t we want to help peers make decisions, because they believe in our honesty, integrity and value our opinions.  If influence was named something different, then would it be perceived differently? I wrote a post last August, “Social Media is Serious Business,” regarding the negative connotation around “Social Media.” I discussed removing the word “social,” to see if more companies would be on board sooner with their engagement. So, for example, rather than saying social media we’d call it strategic digital media.  Perhaps that would have changed the C-Suite mindset.

What would happen if we changed the word influence and named it something else? Would it still be seen as a bad word that carries a negative connotation?  Perhaps, we’d call it your trust factor or your characteristic rating.  Regardless of what we call influence, it is a powerful factor, well beyond what any number can capture.  In many cases, influence gets a bad rap. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I want to grow influence (both for my peers and personally) for the right reasons.  Because, when you grow influence, everyone wins; communities grow stronger, there’s more knowledge passed between members and more people benefit from the help they receive.

Now that you’ve heard both sides of the story, please weigh in to let me know how you feel about influence.  Do you think it’s a bad word with a negative connotation and something we should keep in check? Or, is influence something that should be a focus and we should nurture it to help one another?

Influence is NOT….

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It’s Friday, so let’s keep it light and fun, yet meaningful.  Today’s topic is influence. Because influence is often difficult to define, I wanted to take an opposite approach to discuss what influence is not.  So here goes…Influence is NOT:

  • About technology or an algorithm that captures a score; influence is about the people and your peers.
  • A measure of your ego; it is, however a measure of trust within your community or network of peers.
  • A right, it’s a privilege and as quickly as it’s awarded to a person, it can be taken away.
  • Control or authority over a peer’s behavior, yet influence, depending on the level, can certainly steer or guide behavior.
  • Just about the numbers, and can’t be completely defined by a metric; we rely on scores for reach, resonance and impact. But, remember there are personal ways that people affect us, and a number or score may not capture the meaning of the influence on a personal level.
  • A popularity contest; popularity is demonstrated with large numbers of followers and friends.  For influencers, the numbers range from one end of the spectrum to the other; it’s not the quantity, but the quality of your interactions.
  • A one-time award or something that you can sustain without constant maintenance.  Influencers must continue to captivate their communities and grow strong relationships with peers.
  • The power to push messages, you have to keep listening to provide valuable information to your community.
  • Static, it can change every day.
  • Influence is not made up of just one characteristic; it’s made up of many.
  • Influence is not exclusive to social media.  People have been influencing their peers for hundreds of years, yet we’re hearing more about influence through social media.
  • Influence is not the end game; it’s only the beginning. It’s not what you’ve done in the past; it’s how you continue to grow your relationships in the future.

Help me to define influence by telling me what it is NOT.  Please add to this list so that we can understand influence, and it becomes a part of growth and not something that’s out of reach.


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