Kathy Dalton is my friend on Twitter and I’ve started getting to know her in real life too. She founded Little Stinker which makes natural skin care products for moms and babies.

Her blog is http://www.danishmama.com I asked her to share how she has gotten great PR results using HARO (helpareporter.com) and hiring a PR consultant.

You’ll see getting into the Associated Press got her a ton of additional coverage. I couldn’t find any press releases but she did post this one on her blog.

One tip I learned from her and that she always practices is to respond quickly to requests. She sent this the same day I asked. Hopefully we can get some review copies of her book and host my first giveaway on this blog!

Now for the interview:

Q: Do you have a specific method to finding relevant pitches on HARO?

A: I don’t have a specific method for finding relevant HARO posts. I just get the emails and read through them. I know some people set filters, but I haven’t done that. I actually like reading throughout them because more often than not I find something that can help out a friend.

Q: What kind of press coverage have you gotten for your business?

A: Associated Press: I announced we were expecting in an interview for the Babies documentary and was interviewed by the associated press.

It got picked up few more places:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10690048, http://wtop.com/?nid=114&sid=1960806

http://www.thestate.com/2010/05/19/1293890/parents-turning-babies-into-babys.html

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/19/2762270/parents-turning-babies-into-babys.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/19/1637322/parents-turning-babies-into-babys.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100519/ap_on_en_mo/us_fea_parenting_babies_movie_1

Parenting Magazine: Article on Sibling Rivalry http://www.parenting.com/article/dealing-sibling-rivalry

March Magazine: Page 22-23 http://marchmagazineonline.com/2011/05/01/mayjune-2011/

iVillage: http://www.ivillage.com/kids-favorite-stuffed-animals-toys-and-blankies/6-b-357535#357509

Parenting: April 2012

3. Who did you work with for your PR?
I hired Heather Allard for 6 months. She is an expert in the baby and toddler industry. She contacted all the major outlets and we got an editorial piece in American Baby Magazine (here’s a video of me opening magazine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMTAF3hBjZ4)

Q: What advice would you give small businesses?

A: Learn as much as you can. If you’re launching a business public relations can become your very best friend.

Q: What’s next?

A: I was just promoted to CEO for my hard work as CMO at Little Stinker USA. I’m in the process of writing a book “Word of Mom: How to get Moms Raving about your Brand” and consulting for Simply the Sweet Life Magazine.

Congrats to Kathy and thank you for taking the time to share your success story with us. Good luck on the new book!

It’s a big week in Utah for social media and the outdoor industry. There are 2 social media events and 2 social media conferences on Wed., January 18th. The Outdoor Retailer show is also going on.

I’m going to Shift Summit and going to try to also make it to the tail end of the SLC Social Media Club meeting.  (Gabrielle Blair of the amazing Design Mom blog is coming over from ALT to speak at Shift).

Here are the events taking place this week:

1. ALT  runs Jan. 18-21. It’s huge for design/mom/craft bloggers.
2. Then there’s Social Commerce on January 18th from 6:30 to 8:30.
3. The Social Media Club (SLCSEM) is meeting at the Leanardo on January 18th 6-9pm.

For the SLCSEM event Bing, Sundance, SEO.com, and SLCSEM.org are speaking about video search. It features speakers from Bing and Sundance.

Topics:

• Video search engine optimization

• Why search engines are changing to videos and images

When: Wed. Jan. 18 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Where: The Leonardo, 209 E. 500 South in Salt Lake City, Utah (the old Salt Lake City library building that has been turned into a museum of sorts)

I didn’t know this but Bing, (owned by Microsoft) controls about 30% of the search engine market and a major sponsor of Sundance.

More info and register for the Salt Lake City Social Media Club event here. Unfortunately it says to get on the waiting list. When I tried signing up last week the site wasn’t working and I finally gave up). Too bad because I just got the press release a few moments ago.

Hope to see you at both events!

One of my favorite business activities is hosting, attending, or studying great blogger events and campaigns.  I’m still fascinated with the power of blogs and what a revolution it is in the media world.

Tonight I had dinner at Cafe Zupas. They are a casual restaurant chain that serves gourmet soups, salads and sandwiches.

Zupas is great at blogging. The blog looks great (or at least it used to – not as crazy about the new look) and they enlisted several local food bloggers to write for them. They chose  bloggers are influencers who already have followings of their own. Since Zupas started in Utah, I know some of them.

The bloggers write about their post on their own blog (example) and draw in their readers. They are brand ambassadors for the restaurant. I’m hoping to interview their marketing department.

Tonight I noticed that they are now selling a simple but nice cookbook with the best recipes from their blog. In other words, they made it into a product. A product that promotes their brand. Smart. This could make an ideal giveaway for a brand to give away to Facebook fans (a PDF version for new likes), new newsletter subscribers, or as a download on your blog.

The great thing about the cookbook is it features a profile of each blogger. The bloggers get copies to give away on their blogs and are of course helping to promote it. Don’t tell my sister but I bought her one for Christmas.

Related articles

• Local Business Marketing – Host a Blogger Event (newspapergrl.com)
• Pitching to bloggers – the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching (buildabetterblog.com)

OrangeSoda will be presenting a free online marketing course next Friday. It will cover different online marketing techniques and how you can use them to increase traffic to your website. The course will cover social, mobile, search, maps, and pay-per-click campaigns.

Come learn from the pros! OrangeSoda is excellent at local business strategies.

Date: Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Price: FREE using discount code FIZZ
Location: Horizon Financial Event Center 9890 S 300 W Sandy, UT 84070

Two Sessions: 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. (pick your favorite). Each is 2 hours long.

BONUS: Receive a free website analysis and $200 in free advertising just for coming!

Register at: http://orangesoda.eventbrite.com/

Did you know you can see two tech superstars speak in Utah this month, FREE? Both in the same week.

Mark Zuckerberg and Orrin Hatch at BYU

First Mark Zuckerberg. Ever since you saw “The Social Network” you probably thought Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was not someone you could picture being friends with (unless you’re a true geek). He wasn’t exactly “likeable.” Well, now you can see how he comes across in real life. Not much as far as an intimate setting, but it’s free. He’s going to share the stage with US Senator Orrin Hatch. Odd couple for sure.

Supposedly this is Orrin Hatch’s last ditch effort to attract young Utah voters in his bid to be re-elected. So what if it works or not, we’re glad to welcome Mark to Utah. I hope it’s not ONLY a Q&A, but regardless I’ll be up and in line early. I only wish I had a Facebook tshirt to wear. Oh, and that they would designate a Utah bloggers reserved section (I’ll try to claim an area).

Details for Mark Zuckerberg event
Friday, March 25 at Brigham Young University’s Marriott Center in Provo, Utah at 11 a.m.

Impact 2011 featuring Robert Scoble

Robert Scoble, and other notables in tech are speaking at Impact 2011, which is put on by Kynetx. I know about the company because Phil Windley is the founder and CTO. This is their 3rd annual developers conference. I’m afraid I’m not geeky enough to understand half of what might be talked about (if Jeff Barr is any indication), but I like them and you might be more savvy. I have met Louis Gray but not Scoble who is a bit of a hero to me.

Note: Jeff Barr will always be a personal hero for finding and buying me a domain name for my birthday. Jeff, If I can ever help you out, don’t hesitate to ask.

Details: Tuesday and Wednesday, March 22-23, at Noah’s in South Jordan, 322 W. 11000 South $149 for a full access pass

Register for the event at http://impact.kynetx.com Tuesday night when all the keynotes and party are scheduled is free. If you want to go to the full event,  I’m going to give you some insider information. Use the code: “launchup” and get $50 off.

There you have it – a pretty impressive March for us. Utah has had a good run lately with tech and it’s great to get to hear from the legends.

<GUSH>Mark Zuckerberg is a genius in tech and business and someone who has a huge impact on the world. You see people in the streets around the world with signs and saying THANK YOU FACEBOOK. Facebook has enabled democracy and sparked revolutions. I am so inspired. And Mark is still in his 20s and already pledged to give away half his wealth to charity before he dies. So even if he wasn’t friendly I’d still hold the deepest respect for what he has accomplished.</GUSH>

Here are my favorite social media & tech stories for the week of February 14.

ADD summary: Newspapers want Apple to back off, ebook sales are up and wrecking havoc on book stores, two Utah businesses are getting millions from investors, and don’t make mom bloggers mad. Plus a bonus tip.

Newspaper publishers warn Apple over iTunes sales – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12391899
Several European Newspapers claim that Apple has banned them from offering free electronic editions to their print customers. In a statement, the ENPA said: “consumers may only have access to the newspaper of their choice via the iTunes store, where the transaction would be subject to commission.” Apple takes 30% share of revenue from apps and eBooks sales.

Speaking of ebooks…they are shaking up the book industry.

Increase in Ebook Sales Hurts Book Stores - http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/powells-books-announces-layoffs
Borders filed for bankruptcy this week and Powell’s Books, in Portland cites ebook competition and rising health care costs for the first layoffs layoffs in 10 years.

Congrats to Utah Businesses Who Got Millions $$$ in Funding
A Utah investment group is getting $6 million in funding to start Lendio and was featured on TechCrunch. Ominture founder Josh James is one of the investors in the group. They help line up funding for businesses.

Orabrush the tongue scraper to help eliminate bad breath, got $2.5M and made a funny video about it. They were also featured on TechCrunch.

Toyota Angers Mom Bloggers – http://dearcrissy.com/crazy-toyota-mommy-networks-mom-bloggers-story
They deny it but it looks like Toyota or some mysterious entity offered mom bloggers $10 Amazon gift cards to write positive reviews to offset all the negative press they have gotten. Cheap bribes. Understandably, it didn’t go across too well.

Update: It looks like in this case it wasn’t Toyota after all. The site is down but the owner of http://www.mommynetworks.org accepted responsibility and apologized. It looks like she was trying to help out but didn’t realize that what she was doing would blow up into a crisis. Very interesting. I’ll update when I can get to the site. Not sure why Dear Crissy didn’t make note of this on her blog or on Twitter (last I checked) because the apology post appears to be written BEFORE the post on Dear Crissy.

MomSpark’s List of Mom Bloggers Conferences in 2011 – http://momspark.net/2011-conferences-for-mom-bloggers/
I hope you’re planning to go to EVO in Utah. If you want to work with or understand the power of mom bloggers, attend one of these conferences. Learn how brands are interacting with this powerful group of women. I think Toyota should go. Don’t go to a large conference by yourself unless you have confidence of steal. Everyone seems to be in groups and if you want to feel like the unpopular kid in high school who eats alone…

Bonus: Facebook Ad Tip
Last of all, Utah blogger Nigel Swaby pointed out that new changes in Facebook ads mean you can direct people to a landing tab and target your ads so they only show to friends of your fans. Your friends already have a connection to you and Facebook ads help build social proof by connecting you with their friends. Be sure to test.

This is an interview with Jonathan, who built a web site to promote a local business. He is teaching his kids online marketing (if mine would only express even a hint of interest!) and earning a part time income by sending sales leads to a local lawn care company.

Setting up the web site and finding local businesses to work with takes the most work. However, it’s a lot easier to sell leads online than do the actual yard work.

I asked him to share some of his secrets.

Q: How did you get started doing online lead generation for a local business?

My kids and I have a yard care business we do in the summer.  We mow and trim yards for different people in our townhouse community. After doing this kind of work, I thought we might be able to bring it online. Now we have several different websites that target different lawn care keywords in Utah near where we live.  Our latest site is going after provo lawn care.  This is the biggest market in the county.

Instead of doing all the work, they found lawn care companies who would pay them to send new customers.

Q: What obstacles or lessons did you learn in the process?

I learned that Google Maps and SEO go hand in hand.  If you have a quality, optimized website with a lot of links, there is a good chance it is going to give a significant bump to your maps listing.

Please give us some tips to setting up a web site and driving traffic to it.

There are a few things you need to focus on for local SEO and Google Maps

- Make a Google Local Page with the correct information about your business.

- Put the name of the business, address, and phone number associated with that local listing in the footer of your website.

- Push citations in local directories to your website.  These essentially act as links for your local listing.

[Janet's note: At the bottom of your Google Places page you'll see a list of other websites which have mentioned your business. You cannot add these, Google adds them, but they get them from review web sites, articles, etc.]

- Have a quality, search engine optimized website

- Build links to your site using localized keywords as the anchor text.

After all of these efforts, you will have a maps listing and a website that rank fantastic for local keywords.  If you do a search for orem lawn care, you will see that my site, www.oremlawncare.com, has the top 3 spots in an organic Google search.  I got these results from following the pervious steps.

Q: How is the campaign performing for you?

The campaign is running fantastic.  We found a partner to sell all of the leads to so we don’t have to actually do the fulfillment.  We anticipate doing $1500 to $2000 next summer from just selling leads.

Q: Do you have any advice on finding or working with a local business?

Make sure you build your website on a quality platform.  I highly recommend using WordPress or Drupal.

What better way to see a movie about Facebook than with a few hundred of your Facebook friends?

This very fast social media campaign started with a question from my friend Sarah: want to go see The Social Network with me this weekend?  Then we decided to invite some of our other friends to join us.  This was the start of a successful PR and social media plan.

Here are the steps we took:

1. I Tweeted my idea.

We decided we should try to rent out a theater. Since theaters were posting their show times already so this had to happen fast. Megaplextheatres in Sandy, Utah saw my tweet and got me in touch with the right people, which is key because it’s tough to get through the showtime recordings.

I know people say Twitter doesn’t pay. The ROI of that tweet for that theater? About $2k.

2. Find a sponsor.

We needed a sponsor and pay for the theater. My first choice was OrangeSoda where I’m the social media specialist. They got exposure and good pr value with the local social media community. We got a theater.

3. Send out a press release.

We wrote and distributed a press release to local Utah media through Sarah’s web site Utah News Source. It focused on the story first – how we wanted to see this movie about Facebook with the social media community. Our friends. Then it talked about OrangeSoda the sponsor. Of course the company would like to see it be the other way around, but unfortunately it wasn’t a story about them or internet marketing. If you try to inject that story too much into the main one it will likely get edited out anyway. This caused some friction I later learned.

4. Social promote the event.

We tweeted about the movie and invited people to RSVP on Evite. We posted it as an event on Facebook. We emailed, blogged and otherwise got the word out. I DMed or @ messaged people on Twitter with local influence.

Note: Don’t use Evite again. No downloading of our list possible and one admin only.

4. Contact sponsors.

We got amazing support from sponsors like Megaplex and area businessses who donated gift cards, popcorn, gift certificates and more.  I donated some tshirts, books and CDs. OrangeSoda gave away a bike.

Spaghetti Mamas a restaurant right across the street from the theater hosted an after-show dinner. Note: They have a gluten-free portion of their menu and the chocolate brownie that is on that menu was the best part of the meal.

5. Put together a team and plan details.

The marketing team at OrangeSoda came through to help run the invite list and pre-show activities. We showed live tweets from the audience on the big screen with VisibleTweets and played a social media trivia game. Names for prizes were drawn from the tweets and by answering the questions. I missed this part entirely.

6. Assign someone to talk to the media.

We got great media coverage for this event. However, with some planning it could’ve been better. We could’ve had someone assigned to talk to the media and mapped out the key messages. However, you can’t control what the media asks, writes or shows.

Sarah owns Big Star Public Relations - so as the pro she spoke with the media beforehand and got me involved (a bit reluctantly) at the event itself. Fox 13 News in Salt Lake City covered the event on both live and taped TV.  Unfortunately the taped version which was best is not online. The recorded segment was on the 9 o’clock news and again the next morning.

We also got mentioned on KSL’s radio show and in a blog post by the Salt Lake Tribune’s film critic Sean Means the day before. The post had links to OrangeSoda’s web site and blog post about the showing.

I had a bad experience being on KSL (local TV show) and wanted to avoid being on TV again. Looking back I thought someone else would take over but no one did so I was on. I would’ve coached everyone to please say, “Local internet marketing company OrangeSoda” so that it wasn’t just “OrangeSoda” which to a new audience could be mistaken for a bottling company.

It’s also a good idea to have someone take pictures and someone to take video – that’s their only job. The pictures can then be put on Flickr and shared on the blog and other social sites. Video on YouTube. All this around a very hot topic (optimized with keywords). As far as I know this did not happen.

7. Have fun, evaluate results.

We had dozens of tweets (mentions) including from the president of the area Chamber of Commerce and Sean Means at the Tribune. OrangeSoda was mentioned several times in the media and got to reach new people in the local social media community. Not to mention the blog post, TV and radio visibility.

I compiled a report of the results which I believe were far greater than the spend. But I learned this is subjective based on what you wanted to get out of the event.

You cannot control what happens and you don’t even know to plan for some of it. Contrary to popular belief I’m not a PR person or even a media person. I’m an author, blogger and online marketer. I’m still learning what I write about when it comes to the PR part. Even though there is overlap, it’s not the same. I’m a student.

Most of all the campaign was fun, for me and for the people who came (though I didn’t get much sleep). And for the record, to me the most brilliant scenes of the movie was the story of Napster co-founder Sean Parker. With a glance at the screen he saw Facebook as a billion dollar idea. Then he inserted himself into the company as president and left with 7% of the company.

There’s the infamous words of Harvard president Larry Summers (head of the Dept. of Treasury under Clinton) who mocks the idea of Facebook making any money at all.

The worst is how the film made me hate Mark Zuckerberg and what a horrible friend he was who ultimately had no true friends. It was so detached and in his own head that he seemed like practically psychopathic.

Related articles

• Students looking forward to ‘The Social Network’ movie
• ‘The Social Network’ Tells Facebook’s Story in Theaters Today (jsyk.com)
• Laurel Papworth: Social Media Marketing Campaign course | Laurel Papworth | @SilkCharm (laurelpapworth.com)

If you know the right people you don’t need to send a press release. You just pick up the phone.

Forbes Magazine just did a story on my friend Scott Lazerson. Scott is friends with a lot of celebrities – and when I say “friends with” I mean they take his calls. And yet he still makes me feel like I’m one of his close friends. He just happens to have a lot of them!

Scott finds celebrities to sponsor humanitarian projects. Now he’s a one man PR firm – or as Forbes says – a professional friend.  This is new. He just started in August. He already got his new client Liberty Taxes on Fox News.

Media Tour.

Scott and his client flew to New York and met with a lot of producers. They got some killer PR in the process (and it looked like fun). I’m sure Liberty Tax was dying for that kind of access. You can’t buy it. I’d love to know the ROI on that trip!

I got Scott on Twitter just so I could keep up on his adventures and philanthropic work. He already talked in tweets so I thought it would be perfect medium for him.

Scott seems rich because of the company he keeps. He’s always at Sundance and the Emmy’s and all that. So it’s tough to believe until you see the car he drives (older model) and learn he makes $70k a year and he and his wife Heidi have 5 kids. I didn’t know that until I read the article.

Scott’s Facebook profile has pictures that look like People Magazine.

I particularly like this quote from one of the comments:

Scott is like a living, breathing Facebook or Linkedin.

Congratulations Scott – and I’m glad we’re friends! Oh, and Sundance is coming up in January…

Defenders of the status quo at newspapers, book publishers and the magazine industry are in a panic. All three industries are doomed (if doomed means that they will be unrecognizable in ten–probably three–years).
- Seth Godin

Whether you agree with the way the Deseret News has handled things thus far in the largest newspaper shakeup in Utah history, or not, you have to admire them for trying. Rather than waiting for a bitter end, Utah’s oldest newspaper made swift bold moves. Almost 80 reporters got laid off. Two years ago they laid off 25. There is more consolidation across tv, radio and print.

On the Web Marketing Weekly Show podcast I pointed out the tough realities for the people losing their jobs. My co-host Nigel (you must read his post about the Mormon Media Empire) seemed to shrug it off to progress, but these feel like my people. It is a story of lost livelihoods being played out around the country.

The Deseret News is being run by Mark Willis – who in 2000 admitted not really knowing how to monetize online (who did in the industry?). Here’s a reporter’s view on what happened at the LA Times when he took over. This time he has brought in a younger entrepreneur – Clark Gilbert. Clark is known as a disrupter and that seems like Mark’s kind of guy.

I had two interviews scheduled with Mark Gilbert but both were canceled at the last minute.  Even though it was frustrating I’m honored I was on the list when folks like the New York Times were calling. They surprised me by holding the first press conference about the changes on Twitter (even if it didn’t go so well it was a big step).

Rather than a revolution in the newspaper world, I believe the direction for the Deseret News is to build a faith-promoting media empire. Look at the people on the new board (they send their press releases on PR Newswire).

Their audience is a very targeted audience — church members. LDS-themed web sites like Meridian Magazine don’t seem to have a problem getting people to submit free content and I think that will be successful in that aspect (Meridian still struggles to be profitable).

The problem is, so far this is not a model that other newspapers will or can follow. They don’t have the large niche audience that the church does — an international audience  of believers.

I’m interested how they will utilize all the incredible talent they have on the internet marketing side. Recent hires include former SEO.com CEO Dave Bascom and Heritage Maker CEO Chris Lee. Dave has already built a profitable online company.

I’m interested to see how social media will be part of the plan. I don’t expect there to be a completely open dialog, judging from what I’ve seen so far. The LDS church has been hugely successful with their Mormon Moments ads on YouTube. They’re popular on Facebook too. It wasn’t too long ago that church-owned Deseret Book decided only to carry faith-promoting books and though there was pushback their audience welcomed the change. I suspect this will be welcomed too.

Here are some questions (I had an entirely different list when I had more confidence they’d be answered):

Will Twitter be part of the social media strategy for their audience or the media in the future? Will we see sponsored Twitter chats? How about a hosted general conference chat on their site? (every conference is huge on Twitter)

Will you integrate with Facebook and allow Facebook login for comments?

Will you create apps and review LDS apps (you could be an ITunes affiliate)?

Will there be a social couponing site for products that appeal to Mormons?

How about a Digg-style site where people can promote the news they like most to the home page?

What will the changes look like online and print and when will we start to see them?

What about hosting/reviewing LDS musicians or songs?

I’m curious to see some of the concrete changes ahead. Will there be real change? I doubt the print version will last but I subscribed for the first time so I could watch.

Related articles

• Deseret News Announces New Media Leadership Team (prnewswire.com)
• Deseret News Tries A Controlled Burn To Save Itself (paidcontent.org)
• Deseret News Slashing Newsroom In Half (huffingtonpost.com)