I’m in Toronto Canada for a meeting with First Command Financial Planners. Since they plan for a living, they have every detail down ahead of time. Like that we’re going to Hawaii in two years. They’ll have everything tested and everything will be done on time and organized. If you take a bus tour with us we will never be late. Most likely we’ll be early. As I said last year, I’m impressed with the quality of this company. I didn’t even mention that they rented out the Atlanta aquarium last year.

I noticed that no one laughed at the joke one speaker told about cheating on your wife. Fidelity and loyalty is important professionally and personally. As a wife I appreciate that. I guess heard too many stories of infidelity when I was dating. I’m really interested in strong marriages. I don’t see how you can do one thing in your personal life and another professionally.

This year’s conference had more great speakers. Good food. The redneck band played again and it’s so far from the actual culture that it’s even more funny. They recognized everyone from the top performers to the head chef. Feels like family (except in my family no one drinks).

I’m frustrated that in the great city of Toronto I’ve had the worst luck at getting good food. As always we eat well at the meeting but when we explore we have had bad luck. Part of the problem is my husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and I’m an ethnic/healthy/spicy kind of eater. I was vegetarian for several years (in college). Our compromise could explain why I’ve gained 10-15 lbs in a year. That’s the most I’ve ever gained in a year besides when I had my son.

This is my 3rd trip to Canada and my first to Toronto. What an amazing city. Even though it’s the wettest and coldest July on record!

What I’m learning about Canada from visiting Toronto for 5 days:
- Because we’re on the lakefront, I feel like I’m always on water and am starting to feel dizzy (as in seasick) all of the time. Not horribly so but just a tad.
- The pop tastes different and no one seems to have Dr. Pepper – Coke products rule.
- There are a lot of strikes. Right now the trash collectors and some of the train operators. I thought this only happened in Europe!
- Any time there is a fire at least 2 fire trucks show up. I’ve seen more fire trucks here in 5 days than I have for years back home.
- I like the Canadian side of Niagra falls more than the US side.
- Canadians seem to compare themselves to the US a lot when I rarely read about Canada or hear about Canadian political or social affairs in the US.

Toronto is such a gentle city – compared to many large cities I’ve been to, it feels very safe. Next year is Washington DC. Thanks for a great year!

I just had someone contact me to do their SEO PR – or to write their next press release. If you’re looking for someone to help with your online PR – writing press releases that are search engine friendly – here are

5 reasons you should hire me to write your next press release:

1. I’m an internet marketer so I approach press releases from an SEO standpoint. In other words, I’m new school, not old school in my approach. My career has been about making information findable online – which includes your news.
2. I use keyword research and optimization to get backlinks and traffic to your web site.
3. I’m a writer and a marketer (my first book will be out this Fall). I write to attract people to your business. What is the best way to attract people? With good stories. Like the one I wrote a press release for Jeremy Shoemaker (Shoemoney). It got great press coverage. He wasn’t looking for online coverage he wanted media attention and he got it. People respond to EMOTION not just logic. Stories capture emotion and a good story is what makes a good press release.
4. My goal is to get search engines to find your news and people to take interest in it and/or share it.
5. I will get the best results for you on PRWeb. I’ve been using PRWeb for many years for many clients. I’ve attended their seminars and consistently try to learn everything I can about optimizing their system. When they gave editorial scores I got several 5s (perfect score). I also know other online distribution sites well. It just depends on your needs and your budget.  Most press releases get thousands of impressions and hundreds of clicks within the first few days of going live.

Why you shouldn’t hire me to write your next press release

There are also reasons you shouldn’t hire me. Here they are.

1. You have no news to share or nothing to say about your business. This happens. I can coach you through it but I’ve learned there are businesses for whom finding news is challenging. Since you need to send out news regularly this might be too painful for both of us.
2. You want only traditional media and want your press release written in traditional media style. I’m not good at all of the fancy language and convulted ways of writing. I try not to let a sentence get longer than 12 words.
3. You have to get press releases approved by several layers of people. If it takes entire departments and weeks to get through your approval process, don’t hire me. There are some industries (like the one my husband works in – financial planning) that are so regulated that I would not do the best possible job for you.
4. You only send one press release or maybe two a year. Not because you don’t have things to write about but because that’s your budget. You can hire me but my best clients are ones who get results (of course, because it makes us both look good). It’s tough to get good results with a sporadic effort. Better to do-it-yourself and read my book on best practices.
5. You want print or traditional media coverage only. My main focus is getting you in search engines and on major news web sites. You might get a call from a journalist but that is not usually my focus. The Shoemoney press release was unusual and I didn’t plan on it – I just tried to tell the story well and it had the raw ingredients to make a great story.

You might think I’m being a snob – but I’m being practical. I do all my own work. I’m not interested in being hiring other writers. I’ve tried it and it doesn’t work for me. I’m really interested in RESULTS. I hate it when I get a client and for various reasons they don’t see results.

The only other case that I can think of is your web site is so bad and has so little information on it that it’s not going to be effective to send people to your site. This is rare but happens.

I love press releases for the large distribution they can give far beyond what most people can get on their own blog or networks (you might be able to reach hundreds of people on your own while online distribution exposes you to thousands). The press release is not dead or dying but it has evolved. As long as businesses have announcments to make there will be press releases.

If my style fits what you’re looking for, I like to write your next press release. Just contact me. If you use this link to sign up for PRWeb then I’ll take $25 off your first  press release – just mention this post for the discount.

What is the biggest challenge for an internet marketer? It is “helping businesses understand and grasp the “big picture” of online marketing strategies (including social media and Twitter).” My friend Mat (I recently started blogging on his site) just wrote about this challenge.

I had a conversation a lot like the one he describes at a recent bbq. My neighbor works for a nationally known business. We talked about what we do and started talking about social media. I asked if they were on social media sites. His response? It’s too unpredictable (read: we can’t control it) and doesn’t lead to sales. It’s the ROI conversation. I hear this tune from businesses a lot.

SEO takes time. Building a strong reputation takes time.

I don’t blame businesses for wanting to increase sales. But like this post points out, it’s not about ROI it’s a shift in the way you do business. Social media isn’t about ROI it’s about changing your mind set.

This story from Seth Godin’s blog tells it well – online anyone can make a commercial on YouTube and compete with the big guns:

One commercial I know of caught fire and ended up with millions of views. The client then called the producer, screaming in anger. He wanted to be able to turn it off, to decide how it got used, who talked about it, etc. You can’t. Once it spreads, it belongs to the community, not to you.

The biggest shift is going to be that organizations that could never have afforded a national campaign will suddenly have one. The same way that there’s very little correlation between popular websites and big companies, we’ll see that the most popular commercials get done by little shops that have nothing to lose.

To me it’s really not about ROI. It’s about becoming irrelevant. It’s realizing that marketing has moved online and that it’s different. Listen to this interview of Seth Godin talking about how traditional ways of marketing are ineffective and disdained online. Or watch this video where he talks about these changes.

We (your customers) expect to talk about you any time in various ways online. We want to interact. Even if you don’t join us we’ll talk about you. If you don’t move online you will not reach us and we’ll reach (and buy from) your competitors who are accessible online instead.

Golden question: is your organization looking for success before committing to social media (more likely to succeed) or are you willing to commit before seeing success?

Have you ever written a guest post on someone’s blog and gotten no feedback? It’s not encouraging.

I’m writing for Small Business Trends and the American Express Open Forum in my position with OrangeSoda. Both of these are under the direction of Anita Campbell. I noticed that Anita is always the first to comment on my new posts. She gets the conversation started. She tweets and links to it too. I really appreciate that she does this!

Sometimes it’s intimidating to be the first one to make a comment on a blog post so when you do this for someone else you are going first. It encourages more people to comment.

When someone guest posts on your blog or writes on your forum, the owner or administrator should be one of the first people to comment on the post. You should tweet about it, put it on your Facebook Page, or otherwise promote it. It’s like being a good host and trying to help your guests feel welcome and comfortable. In real life a host greets everyone and introduces them to people – online the same principle applies.

Steal this idea!

Facebook Groups, Facebook Pages & Other Facebook Tips

I’ve taught Facebook marketing. I’ve blogged about it. I’ve helped businesses with their Facebook presence. I’ve bought ebooks, I’ve spent hours in the HELP! section and reading many blog posts but you know what? I should’ve just bought Joan Stewart’s Facebook product instead.

When I first started reading it I didn’t think that much. Then I went to the handouts at the end and that is exactly what I was looking for.

I’m printing it off and keeping it as a reference. Even the best teachers forget how to do things on Facebook. This will be my reference from now on. It’s up-to-date and helpful. Other people might know just as much but Joan has a way of making the information accessible.

I’ve bought other guides and read many blogs and this has more helpful, clear instructions than ANYWHERE ELSE I’ve looked.

Why?

Because it’s written in an easy conversational tone.

Because it’s easy to skim if you’re impatient like me and just want to get to the information you DON’T already know.

You learn how to do these things on Facebook:

• Announce on your profile that you created a Page and how to find and link to that Page.
• Keep up with what’s happening on Facebook – I should’ve thought of that!
• Facebook group or fan Page? and why
• How to find your pages once they’re set up (it’s confusing!)
• Delete “friends” without them knowing it (we’ve all wanted to do this!)
• Get good content for your Facebook Page
• Use the tagging feature
• Quickly learn how to do something you don’t remember or know how to do on Facebook
• Use events as a promotion tool for more than just events
• Avoid getting overwhelmed by Facebook

And…

What are “highlights” and how do they work?
Adding, deleting and customizing tabs.
How to get your URLs to promote off of Facebook (this can be tricky)
Facebook badges step by step
Examples of effective pages and how to set one up
How to use the “share” button
Promote other people’s fan pages (what goes around comes around – I’m sure you’d do this for me, wouldn’t you?)
Making your event invites look nice
Import your other social network sites onto Facebook

At the end she gives a lot of links to other internet marketing resources. Skip to the end first. It has the notes with screenshots.

Missed Opportunities – even if you know a lot this reinforces and reminds you of key parts of Facebook marketing.

My missed opportunity on Facebook?? Video! Did you know that when you update your wall, click the video link and you can record directly from your laptop webcam or upload a YouTube video.

So my post sounds like a sales page and yet I’m sincere when I say I recommend that you buy this right now, print it out and read it.

Oh, and if you’re a Utah blogger, please join my Utah blogger’s fan page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Utah-Bloggers/96701207442 or if you’re interested in my new book become a fan here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Online-PR-Book/113709178083

Get the Facebook Tips transcript or audio file here. Make sure to order the transcript for $10 more or just get the transcript. I’m having mine printed and spiral bound.

I don’t have any research to back this up (too lazy to find it), just experience watching others and with my own experiments. I can’t think of a single time that an ad in traditional media led to sales that covered or exceeded the cost of the ad campaign. Taking out an ad in a newsletter doesn’t seem as effective as writing an article for them or a blog post. Or, better yet building up your own community through your blog.

I’d rather have affiliates selling my product for a commission than paying for an ad. I’d rather work with someone who has a strong following online.

I hear the success of working with bloggers and it’s usually where I start when I trying to think of ways to market a business. I started a Facebook Page for Utah bloggers precisely so local businesses could pitch us, like this local chiropractor (but I hope they’ll get people who want to try the service and write about it with a keyword rather than an ad):

Hello! We are looking for Utah bloggers to advertise with. If you are looking for advertising please send us a message and we would love to check out your blog.

Best Wishes,
Alisyn Shepro
Marketing Director
Hansen Chiropractic
www.thebackdoctors.com

Smart!

Seth Godin said:

“Visa…spent a million or more dollars on a very expensive, complex and largely ineffective online promotion last month–not because it was likely to work, but because it was well sold by persistent and effective salespeople. They should have sponsored your blog and 400 others instead.“