Send out the press release! I was just featured on the lead article of Utah Pulse in a series called “Meet Utah New Media.” Head over to read it.

Who will be next? I’ll let you know.

Jeri Cartwright interviewed me for the story several weeks ago. She called today to let me know it was live. Utah Pulse also tweeted about it on Twitter which I appreciate. I’ve never had anyone call before. My publisher Mitchell Levy at Happy About also called me recently to tell me my book was live.

You know who else in Utah new media rocks? Jason Alba! He’s a power networker. We’re working on a series of videos to show concepts of online PR.

I really appreciate these thoughtful gestures from three very busy people. In a world of email it’s nice to hear a voice. I love working with people who care.

Do you like Newspapergrl? Then you’ll love my new online pr book!

I’ve talked about this journey of writing a book and today I feel that I have completed the journey. Now my words are being sent to a publisher and compacted into PDF format. My book will be available for purchase in about 2 months (end of October).

I have to document the journey

1. I wanted to write a book. Why? I’m a writer who has thrown her whole heart and soul into learning online marketing. I documented a lot of the journey on my blog when one of my blog cheerleaders asked me if I thought of writing a book. He said he’d buy it. So he was my first customer. But I wasn’t quite ready…

2. I had many starts/stops and I gave up.

3. One of those starts involved hiring a ghostwriter to write the book for me. I couldn’t bear to put my name on it. I used a few things from the research the author did but mostly I wasted my money and got my hopes up for nothing.

4. My business partner decided to write the book. He never finished.

5. My friend Jason Alba told me about the success of his LinkedIn book and about his publisher Happy About. This provided motivation. They drive the process, tell me the next steps, provide the formatting, get me an ISBN #, in Amazon and on Amazon Kindle.

6. I started to write the book, starting with the table of contents in December 2008. It morphed a lot along the way. I always want to re-write and edit and compile but having an editor helped keep me on track. I could tell I started to annoy them.

7. I found people who might be interested and started asking for endorsements. I found someone to write the foreword.

8. I approved the cover and chose a title – a long process.  The title especially. Since my book is part of a series it needed to have Now What?!? in the title. I didn’t realize that at first and tried to come up with my own. It was almost as difficult as writing the book.

9. Edits, edits edits!! And approvals. This seemed to never ever end.

10. My publisher put all the pieces together, added a table of contents, page numbers, formatting, etc. Today I saw it completed and I thought I might begin to cry. You will see it. It will look so simple. There are so many books in the world. But this is my first one and it’s a bit overwhelming that it’s done. When I actually see one it will probably be anti-climatic (or not).  Still, this is a huge milestone. My husband thought I started more projects than I finished and finishing feels great!

What isn’t finished is the marketing part.  It is just beginning. I have a new site with its own design coming soon. I had it programmed.

Also, I’m doing a series of videos that are more “how to” that I’m now more excited about than the book. Why? because I envision them as training resources for PR pros, firms, and business owners who want to really learn this. It’s even for PR pros whose customers can’t afford or choose not to hire them to write and distribute their press releases. There will be an affiliate program for both so you can make money by referring people to either resource.

I worried many times that I might actually embarrass myself. To put something in print is so final and I’m a blogger plus I write my mind in 140 characters almost every day on Twitter. Fears go through my mind: people are going to have opinions! They might not like my book. Or worse, they’ll ignore it!

But to me it’s a milestone and a triumph. Something that didn’t come easily and for which I’ve worked hard for. So today in celebration (how did Amazon know?) my new Kindle arrived. So today has become a celebration of books, including mine.

You can check it out here: I Need a Killer Press Release, Now What?!? A Guide to Online PR

I’m still answering the question how to best spend your time on social media marketing tasks. Choose one of these categories to start…

Social bookmarking: If you have existing content and need to promote it
1. Sign up for accounts depending on the information you have to share.
Sign up for Digg.com if your articles have to do with politics, tech or science and you have thick skin
Sign up for Delicious if you save a lot of web sites and want to target keywords
Sign up for Kirtsy if your stories appeal to women
Sign up for Stumble Upon for just about any content or web site (this is one of my favorites)
Sign up for Sphinn if you have social media and online marketing topics.
Use Google to find niche social bookmarking sites to target your content even more to a specific audience

2. Fill out the profiles/bios and add your picture.
Be sure to include bios and links to your web site (using keywords if possible) and other sites you’re on.

3. Build your network of friends, contacts, fans, etc (everyone calls them something different)
Find people whose articles you like and friend them or add them to your network.
Get to know the culture and learn the features. If you get stuck, search on Google for “how to” do what you are hoping to learn (i.e. “how to set up a Delicious account”)

4. Bookmark or vote for articles from people in your network.
Leave comments for them. Make friends. Later you’re going to ask them to promote your work by tweeting a DM to them, IMing them with a link to your blog, emailing them, etc. Some tools like StumbleUpon have notifications you can set for others asking them to review your link and vote for it if they like it. Don’t be selfish and only promote yourself and be careful of being a spammer. Make it about how you can help or how you add value, not how great you are (let them decide that).

5. Test article headlines and see what’s working. Note the type of stories that are doing best in your niche.

If you don’t have information to share, start building content
If you don’t have content but want to social bookmark, start blogging to build a base to start with. If you want to put content on other sites start writing articles to submit to places like ezinearticles.com If the link comes from a blog post it carries more weight. Don’t submit press releases, submit blog posts that talk about news and link to the press release.

Don’t start a blog if you have nothing to say just because someone tells you too. Instead, guest post on someone else’s blog and link to your content in the post. It looks bad to have nothing or outdated content on a blog and it’s a big commitment to keep it current and updated with the latest versions. Don’t start unless you want to do that.

Go ahead and create a Twitter account if you want. Fill out the bio, include keywords, put a link to your blog and a picture. Even if you don’t keep it up it’s a placeholder and can show up in search results. Same with social sites. I’m not a purist and I don’t think you have to participate in the community to have a profile, but of course you’ll get more out of it if you do.

Skim news articles and HARO emails to see what is hot and what people are writing about. Liberally steal ideas for headlines or stories but give it your spin or tailor it to your audience. Let these sites give you ideas and inspire you. If you’re in the arts, look at what stories are being printed in that section, etc.

If you don’t have a lot to say on your own, find a community and comment on other people’s work with a link or contact info.

Use Twitter search to see what questions people are asking (the advanced search has a checkbox to search for tweets with question marks). Then answer questions people ask. If you put your mouse to the right of a question you’ll get an arrow to reply to that person.

When there is something new, try it if you want and see how it helps or doesn’t affect your results.

If you don’t have news and aren’t creative that way perhaps sending out press releases isn’t a good fit.

Then, here’s my overall advice: do what is working. Find something that works for you and look for ways to find and join their networks. Ways you could partner, etc. Go deeper. If you’re not getting much traffic or the people who come to your site from certain sites leave quickly or you’re not getting leads or reaching your goal, stop that activity. Spend the time on what works instead.

Looking at the results I spend far more time on Twitter than it’s worth to me. I’d do better to tighten my focus or cut way back on the time I spend. It’s fun but it’s not really getting me anywhere. I could probably spend about 30 mins a day or less and get just as much benefit. Maybe instead of tweeting my links or tweets, I see if someone with a bigger audience than I have will tweet it out. I could schedule tweets out with TweetLater rather than spend time each day.

Don’t spend so much time reading and attending webinars (or just go to the ones that help you get quick practical advice on social media marketing – I like Joan Stewart’s – most are beginner to intermediate level). Once you learn enough to get started – spend more time DOING.

That’s my advice. Now I just need to follow it! If you have specific questions, please ask them in the comments. It might turn into another post – this one is already VERY long.

I’ve been blogging away on my new blog for my book — the Online PR Book blog. Please go and check it out and comment if you are interested in online PR topics. The blog is more focused. It’s still being designed but it has good information if you’re interested in how to use online news and social networks to grow your business.

Please join the Facebook Page for Online PR Book

and

Follow Online PR Book on Twitter

I have an exciting new partnership with Ponn Sabra who I’ve known for several years and respect greatly. Ponn and are both PRWeb fans and online press release evangelists. Ponn recently started American Muslim Mom – a new venture for her.

Ponn contributed to my book along with others I respect such as: David Meerman Scott , Mat Siltala, Joan Stewart (who wrote blurbs for the cover),  Anita Campbell (who wrote the forward), and others. So I’m in good company. I’ll announce more details as things develop.

I’m still looking for press releases that you’ll let me “remake” in exchange for letting me use them on my blog and other content.

A Bountiful, Utah steak restaurant called Mo’ Bettah Steaks has a simple web page but it has a lot of personality. Their web site is not fancy and it’s not search engine optimized. But front and center they invite you to become their friend on Facebook. And they encourage it at the restaurant too. This has paid off at a time when a lot of restaurants are hurting. They attribute 20-30% of their business to their Facebook presence. They’re planning to expand soon.

They have over 1,300 friends on Facebook which for a local business is great. They held a photo contest and gave away free food to the winners. That gave them a lot of photos to post. They also have two videos.

Another local restaurant Blue Lemon in Alpine made a group (don’t like the look as much) that has over 100 members. Local restaurants are natural fits for social media. Guru’s Cafe is on Twitter and Facebook but they don’t promote either on the home page of their web site. I haven’t been in for a while but it wasn’t mentioned at their restaurant that I could see.

When you do social media you need to integrate it into all of your marketing – and inside your store. The most successful marketing often is blending of many online and offline resources. There are so many tools (email, Twitter, Facebook, web site, blog, events, press releases, etc) to get the word out.

If you want to learn more about this, I’m part of Smart Media 2009 conference June 18-19 in Lindon, Utah. We’re looking for a Utah restaurant who wants to sponsor lunch for about 100 people. In return we’ll weave your restaurant into the training. That means we’ll create a Facebook Page for you (or a Twitter account) and show you how to market it. Contact me at grocerybike@gmail.com or the contact form on this blog if you’re interested.

I’m a social media junkie and love how press releases, blogs, and social media can combine to create some amazing PR campaigns and results. This campaign was to help business for a car web web site.

The site is basic – it highlights cars on eBay that go for under $1,000. So he (Chris Hedgecock – is that his real name??) doesn’t have his own product (which I like – I hate dealing with products). You too could start a business like this if you have some online savvy.

I thought it would be a great idea to buy a car for under $1,000 from the site and drive it coast to coast in an attempt to get some news coverage and visitors to the site. We were successful in appearing on a dozen news broadcasts and driving almost half a million visitors to the site in three weeks – all for free.

On the largest day we did over 110,000 uniques – all for free. Not to say it wasn’t a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun.

You’ve got to read about it on Shoemoney’s blog for the details. While he didn’t hire a PR firm, he did get friends involved (and he has good contacts who had the know-how). I wouldn’t say it was free but it was definately less than he could’ve spent running ads and much more effective.

Notice that he had:

• A personality and attitude – he likes meeting people (being social). He was willing to be creative and then do what it took to accomplish what he was after.
• Time. Notice he drove across the country and planned all of this – lots and lots of time. He wasn’t sitting in his office. He followed up A LOT and kept track of things. He took the time to make the story relevant to the local market he was in.
• Know-how. He learned or knew how to create a YouTube channel, video, blog, etc. If you don’t have this, you learn or you pay someone for consulting.
• Contacts. His real estate friend did a lot of legwork. He had someone write the press release (free?)
• He used News Power (the free trial?) who figured the news value was over $92,000!!!

Here are some posts from Drew Schulte:

Tips for social networking
and another list of niche social media web sites

Many times the trick is tracking results. He had web site analytics see to see how many people were coming to his site. He then used News Power to track how many stories resulted.

Thanks for sharing your experiences – a great example of creating your own news and running a campaign around it. I talk about this in my book. If you don’t have something newsworthy, then create something. These can be some of the best campaigns.

I recently participated in a social media campaign as a blogger and learned a lot from it. It took place in Utah but it has principles that could apply to your business. My friend Jyl did a great job working with the bloggers on this campaign and consulting with the client on what goes into a successful event.

Who: Goldsmith Jewelers in Provo, Utah
Goal: increase foot traffic to store (1 location)
How:

• Invite local bloggers to a special event commpelling enough to draw them in. You must provide a lot of value because they aren’t paid, they’re busy and they have lots of offers from brands. Make it worth their time (read: you’re going to need to spend some cash – but do it right and it will be more than worth it).
• Communicate with us regularly before and after the event.

Online Presence (Before): they don’t have a great web site, no blog, and before now had never done social media and had no presence on social networks.

Results (After): Facebook profile, many blog posts on popular blogs (example, example), Flickr feed, lots of foot traffic to the store. Google “Goldsmith Jewelers, Utah” and one of the blog posts is already #2 and this just happened last week. Since I’m a little competitive I’m hoping this post will show up on the first page As I love to suggest for events like this, use PitchEngine for a social media press release (could be updated with video and photos though).

Most helpful: Giving bloggers images, sample Twitter posts with a link and Facebook Wall suggestions. Being open about expectations after the evening.

Jyl worked with a PR firm and identified key women who blog or are active on social media (mom blogs).  It’s vital that you work with someone who “gets” the culture and can interface with bloggers and build credibility. You must be compelling enough that they will come and participate. You must frame it well. There’s also a LOT of planning/managing involved.

Bloggers were invited to a red carpet event. We literally walked on red carpet, had our pictures taken and ate great food. We each got gift bags including product information (images, etc), product catalog, and a strand of pearls. They cleaned our wedding rings (mine has not been this sparlkly since I got it). The best part though was to be among other bloggers and get to know some of the local big shots.

The jewelry store was debuting a new line they are carrying called Pandora. We each got a bracelet and a charm and could buy more at a discount. I got one called “happy little bird” in honor of Twitter.

In addition, there were prize drawings and everyone got coupons for a free strand of pearls to give away on their blogs. Others got gift certificates to use as a giveaway.

This was much different than my experience with tech bloggers. We couldn’t wait to see what each other writes and comment on each other’s blogs. We’re very interactive online. We talk a lot in real life but it’s a different tone. It’s more like what we’re doing professionally and new technology we’re using. Then catching up on local goings on with others in the group.

With the mom blog crowd it was more like talking to a group of girlfriends. We talk about everything. We are vocal about what works and what doesn’t. However, the posts are written for the readers and not for each other.

My advice

Goldsmith should have their best rep who really knows the new line preview it in detail for us. Create profiles for everyone (in writing). Take our wrist size and preferences. Show us everything. Helps us assemble a bracelet that we’d like, writing down all of the beads we would need. Then give us a copy and keep one on file (for gifts in the future – we could send our husbands in to pick up if we wanted to). THEN take us to pick out our bracelet and bead.

Don’t market to us overtly but let us know about the discount and make it quick to purchase anything we choose while we were there. This is a balance but I felt they could’ve been more open to some marketing.

I also would’ve put a stipulation on the strand of pearls – either put a minimum purchase on it ($25) or ask people to preview the line and give feedback – a quick 5 mins.)

I’m not a mom blogger and generally speaking I don’t have local reach on my blog. I do have a more local following on Facebook and I write a neighborhood blog (which I keep thinking of expanding to Utah in general).

Next: I hope Goldsmith will invest in a new web site or blog with a gift bag and links to individual products. Great example of PR 2.0!

PRNewswire has added a Digital Center to their social media press releases (they call MultiVu). Basically, it’s a CMS (content management system) to hold your video, audio and digital photo content for your news stories.

“As more organizations create digital content, there is an increasing need for multimedia portals to archive, manage and make that information available, 24/7, to anyone, anywhere in a format that is easy to download. With The Digital Center’s online platform, storing, sharing and distributing multimedia materials is a seamless process.”

Here’s what you can do:

1. Upload your video, photos and logos into one place to store and manage them.
2. Download content in multiple formats that cater to journalists in the US and Internationally.
3. Distribute an advisory to PR Newswire’s vast communications network reaching thousands of media points and Web sites, and to the tens of thousands of members of PR Newswire for Journalists each time new content is uploaded.
4. Make your information public or password-protected so you control the media, bloggers and websites that can access the digital assets.
5. Comment and rating system that enables consumer and media to provide feedback on videos and other promotional materials.
6. Reporting and tracking so you can see how many times a video is streamed and what is downloaded.

You can upload existing video “or enlist MultiVu to produce new video, audio or other multimedia assets.” I’m not really sure what they mean by this – if they will produce content for you or if they have a DIY system.

Recently PRNewswire added a package that lets you display photos on billboards in Times Square and Las Vegas. They also have direct-to-blogger distribution and SEO capabilities (though I’m not sure what they are specifically). What I like is that you can grab video (either singly or by RSS feed) to go along with a news story you want to blog about.

Example of a multimedia press release on MultiVu: I saw a story on MultiVu from Google.org about geothermal energy – something I’m really interested in after watching 60 Minutes last Sunday and being reminded of the mess we’re in because of global warming. If I click on the video title I can download or insert the video onto my blog. Pretty slick. It’s much easier for Google.org to store and manage those videos as well as control who gets them.

Here’s more information about pricing and services from PRNewswire: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/multivu/37897/docs/37897-PRN_Digital_Center_FINAL.pdf

This is a sponsored review.

Forgive the title – I want to address businesses who want to do SEO but have a tough time finding keywords that have much demand. Most businesses rank naturally in the top 10 for their branded terms. For example, I should rank highest for the term Newspapergrl. However, that doesn’t describe what I do and only reaches people who have already heard of me.

I’ve noticed some clients who have a name that doesn’t describe what they do and they provide a service that isn’t searched for online. This is the time to get creative.

Go to SpyFu and type in your URL to get an idea of what keywords you rank for. Here’s my list (this isn’t always accurate). This used to be better but as you can see it’s all over the map. As you can see I’m ranking for terms that aren’t very helpful – I’d rather rank for terms such as “Online PR” “online press releases” etc. It also shows my top competitors online. If they have nothing to do with what you do, you need to focus on relevant keywords in your writing.

I have focused on my blog design, getting my professional services page updated, and many things. Just writing regularly has been a challenge. Now that I’ve gotten past a lot of the most difficult parts I need to focus in on SEO more again. I also need to finish my online PR book and get a web site up about online PR.

According to SpyFu this is what I rank for (if you pay they’ll give more results). It’s far different than what I used to rank for.

14 jeremy palmer affiliate high performa…
27 innuity
32 email marketing guide
41 affiliate marketing article
42 www optimizemysite com
44 calling libya
45 replacesearch
49 corporation attorney

Back to the point about SEO for businesses where people aren’t actively searching out what you do online. One creative way to approach finding keywords is to think about problems you solve or the audience you want to reach. If your audience is small businesses you might search “for small businesses” and see what comes up. Use a keyword tool such as freekeywords.wordtracker.com or Google’s Keyword tool.

You also want to look at what your competition ranks for, or who you want my competition to be. Or even who you work with or want to work with. For example, I put PRWeb into Spyfu. Since I write optimized press releases that I distribute with PRWeb, they are a complementary business.

I notice PRWeb ranks on terms that have nothing to do with press releases. Obviously they are ranking for their actual press release content, not for what they do. They’re not ranking on “optimized press releases” or “online press releases.”  A blog is an excellent way to build your rankings for keywords and create your own content. Even though PRWeb is one of the most known online press release services, smaller online press release businesses are ranking for terms relating to their business.

Sometimes there just isn’t demand or it’s so small that you need to focus on other tactics after ranking for the obvious terms like your brand name. For most businesses that is easy. You may then turn to getting mentions in blog posts, leaving comments, being active in forums or social networks and other ways to build your visibility online. This is where relationship building is key. It’s vital to find out where your audience is spending time online and getting creative about how to reach them.

Rather than focus on SEO you will need to identify publications, associations, bloggers, groups and complimentary businesses and work on those relationships. See if you can offer content in exchange for a link and some publicity. Try advertising in newsletters, running contests, and finding other ways to engage with your audience. Most of all produce content that your audience will relate to. See who is ranking well for your audience and see if you can partner with or engage them.

These are ways that I found effective, but it’s something I’m always thinking about. Each business challenges me to think of new ways to market online. What creative ways have you found to market your business online when SEO and keywords aren’t a good fit?

Did you hear about how In-N-Out Burger drew a lot of down-and-out job applicants recently? They opened a new store in Las Vegas and needed to fill about 50 positions. What happened? 1,000 people showed up to apply.

Wow.

If you get the stories from applicants, these aren’t your usual teenagers looking for a minimum wage type of job. They were people behind on their mortgages, people who had stable job histories. The average American down on their luck.

I’d love to ask how the experience went for the applicants but it’s a heart-wrenching story. It’s also an incredible PR opportunity for In-N-Out that I’m afraid they’ve missed (but could still do).

Eventually these people will probably be employed, and In-N-Out can leave a good taste in their mouth right now so they’ll come back to eat there.

Here’s what I think they should’ve done….

• Given each applicant a coupon for a free lunch.
• Call the media and get camera crews to cover the event. Perhaps a plea to other employers to consider some of these applicants or let them know if they’re hiring so In-N-Out can spread the word (perhaps gather email addresses and send out posts).
• Make it into a bigger story about this trend. The local news station could look like heroes. They could do a segment saying here are some candidates looking for a job right now. Perhaps focus on one a day at the end of the newscast.
• Send out a press release about what In-N-Out Burger is doing to help Americans find jobs or beat hunger. Spread the word on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook.
• Donate to an organization that provides food or helps people find jobs or build job skills. Spread the word.
• Put all of this on their blog or web site (it has a flash intro! They need OrangeSoda to help with SEO issues on their site).

I think they passed an incredible opportunity to look like heroes in a sad situation. What do you think?