A prominent speaker and authority in search engine marketing is coming to Utah to speak next week.

Image by Danny Sullivan on Flickr via CrunchBase

It’s Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land. If you’re a small business or want to learn more about online marketing, you should attend.

Social networking is great for building brands and can lead to sales, but when you are at the top of search engines for key terms relating to your business you can capture people who are ready to buy. I believe both are important.

Danny is coming as part of SLCSEM a group of people in Salt Lake interested in search engine marketing. So far the events have been very high quality and worth attending. There’s an hour or so of networking and then the presentation. Last time the food rocked too.

State of Search Marketing with Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land
Day/Time: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM (MT)
Place: 209 E 500 S (the Leonardo – formerly the Salt Lake City main library, right next to the new library)
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Sign up here: http://slcsem-feb2012.eventbrite.com

Related: Make it a day of learning from the best. Alan Hall is speaking at a free event the same day called The Profit Experts Symposium.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here’s my story.

Since getting married I’ve had to switch my crushes from men to other things. Like ideas, bloggers, or web sites.

My biggest crush was first for WordPress, until they deleted my blog. Like most first loves it’s hard to recover from. I have never gotten over it, even though I still like Matt.

My next big crush was Twitter. It was so bad my friend Chris threatened to stop reading my blog if I didn’t stop writing about it.

Various crushes have come and gone but my new love is Pinterest. The visual search engine (sure that part needs some work but Pinterest is a baby). It’s not all gushy love though. There’s data to support my adoration. Pinterest is sending more traffic to web sites than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google Plus COMBINED.

Why do I love Pinterest?

I love Pinterest because it conveys emotion so quickly. And marketers know if you can get a person’s heart then they will likely buy from you. They are forever trying to get you to fall in love. Telling you beautiful stories and showing you gorgeous pictures.

Much like all social networks Pinterest has a personality, but the face you see is formed by who you choose to follow. Like the beginning of new social networks a lot of people don’t get the fascination. Until they see how it applies to them. Men will likely see it as a place for women. There is even a male version of Pinterest called Gentlemint (anyone who says men are more visual than women ought to compare the sites, it’s awful). This social network is fun and uncomplicated (like a summer fling).

Here’s what it’s like to rejected when you go to pin something on Pinterest – and really why you should make your blog posts and content pinnable. You’ll get this:

Pinterest is so easy. Even your mom who can’t figure out how to do Facebook is on it. All day. It’s going so mainstream that I overheard 2 twenty-something women at the gym talking about a swim suit they found on Pinterest (as they were sharing magazine photos). I clicked through and it’s sold out on Nordstrom.com.

Pinterest is both a marketer’s dream and a dreamer’s play land.

It’s so easy to get happily lost in it. Oh, and while you’re there, will you pin this blog post?

Related articles

• Pinterest’s Obvious Secret (forbes.com)
• Pinterest Tips for Web Marketers Infographic (webmarketingtherapy.com)
• The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Pinterest for Marketing (hubspot.com)

So you want to get some media coverage? Easy right?

Read on!

First, PR can cost. A lot. I love this quote:

“Executing on a PR push is time intensive, and demanding of finesse. It’s why PR firms demand upwards of $15,000/month, with no guarantee on output.” -SEOMoz

And just because you hire that big PR firm with a big name on the east coast doesn’t mean you’ll get great results. However, the exposure that can result from hiring the right PR firm for you can totally pay off, even if you do spend $15k a month.

They are not kidding about the time and finesse required. Finesse meaning creativity and thinking of angles and the right approach. But simply landing placement isn’t enough, it all depends on the type of business you have and your goals. You have to get the right fit. More businesses have wasted money on an expensive high-powered PR firm and gotten very little to show for it because they weren’t a good fit and their work got assigned to a junior staff member. Also, good PR is a partnership (in other words, even if you hire someone you have to be an active participant).

This weekend I was up until 3am to get a 5+ hour block of time to flesh out a 6-month PR plan.  That’s before landing the job or getting paid – that’s just to get the job. I loved the plan and so does the client, but I’m the work has just begun. So it goes that PR is one of the more stressful professions.

Unfortunately your best plans can go awry – you can’t control the media. Just like you can’t control a search engine. That’s why I steer towards online PR where there are not such hard deadlines, tight budgets and overworked/overstressed journalists. But I must admit it’s a bit more exciting to see your client on the front page of the newspaper or on TV than sitting at your computer typing!

If you really want to save money and in the beginning before you’re ready for the big guns, you’ll have to learn and do PR yourself. Some people are great at doing their own PR (I love this story) and they enjoy it. They are the exception.

Now to SEOMoz for 5 steps to bootstrapping your PR efforts. It’s a fun post with great advice even though I’m not used to reading about PR on SEOMoz. Thank you for writing it Andrew Dumont.

Related articles

• Never Hire a Bad Billionaire PR Client (theprcoach.com)
• Top 10 Myths about Publicity and Public Relations (redpenofdoom.com)

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!

I could subtitle this post: How to Learn Social Media Marketing.

The ecairn blog has a list of the top 150 social media blogs. The list was created by their tool that identifies influencers. I wish it were a graphic and I would pin it on Pinterest. Since it isn’t, go check it out.

Here’s a preview:

#1 is Chris Brogan

#2 is Seth Godin

MarketingProfs is #10.

Peter Shankman and others are on the list. It’s fun to note who I’ve met or heard speak. There are a few I haven’t heard of. I consider many on this list my marketing heroes and people I’ve admired and learned from for many years. I’ve invited or worked on campaigns to get them to speak locally.

At this point I mostly follow my favorites on Twitter. Recently I’ve subscribed to some on Facebook. I don’t spend as much time learning as I did in the beginning because I’m implementing what I’ve learned and come up with.

Many times people think that they can become an expert by attending conferences and reading but at some point you must practice. Once you learn the principles of social media marketing and get to know the tools a lot of the work is creative. You have to think. I wish there was a magic wand but there isn’t. While you can be inspired by seeing what other people do that is successful (I search Google and press releases because most of the time people write brag about what worked) you have to do it to really learn.

Just remember that even experts are still learning, thinking and trying out ideas.

Someone asked me recently how to learn social media marketing. Here’s my answer:

• Go through this list and add each blog to your reader (like Google Reader)
• Set aside consistent time to read posts they write. You’ll find who you like and learn from the most, so then just concentrate on their blog.
• Comment on the posts you love.
• Really get to know the bloggers you read. Find out when and where they are speaking and try to not only go hear them, but meet them. Get your picture taken with them.  This is very motivating and inspiring.
• Follow your favorites on Twitter, subscribe to them on Facebook and Google+ (depending on where you’re most active). Everyone shares slightly differently on each platform, find one or all ways to track your favorite bloggers.
• Look for webinars, recordings (search Google to see if they have podcasts), slides (slideshare) and YouTube videos by your favorite bloggers.
• Practice applying the principles you learn from reading and listening to the bloggers.

As mentioned in the blog post I’m referencing, BlogWorld is a great place to meet several of your social media blogging heroes in one place.

One last thing, there are people who do this as their job and that is all. I’ve never considered it work because I’m passionate about social media marketing. Even after a full day of work I want to come home (ok, most days I work from home as a consultant) and read more, learn more and try different ideas. If you have to make yourself learn this because it would be good for your career you might want to consider a different career. While knowing social media will help you in most careers there are many jobs that don’t require or even discourage it.

To me this is FUN. Not every second, but overall I love it.

“From what travel agents are telling me, that horrifying image (of the massive ship on its side) is going to turn the cruise industry on its side, too.”

-Mike Driscoll, editor-in-chief of Cruise Week Magazine, as quoted in USA TODAY

What a quote. It’s my favorite of the week. I’m pondering this as I read stories and see images of the Italian cruise ship that hit an obstacle and within minutes starting to fill with water and go down. How no one was prepared. How it was so unexpected. And how tragic it is because it was entirely avoidable. But most of all how the captain of the ship reacted.

Talk about a PR disaster! I can see the headline: Cruise Industry Sinking!

Not only is the cruise industry facing this but Italy also has a PR disaster because the captain of the ship walked off! Now he’s in jail. What a coward.

Contrast this to Sully who successfully landed a plane in the Hudson and carefully helped his passengers off in freezing water. We felt a surge of national pride.

What would you do if this were you, your industry or your country?

In a sense when bad news hits, it’s like an obstacle you didn’t see coming and after a point, couldn’t avoid hitting.

The story of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia sinking (here are some great photos of the cruise ship on Google +) in fair weather with clear skies is more than a PR disaster for the cruise industry though. It’s more than the story of people dying and the person in charge running off while everyone else suffers (bringing to mind the stories of Enron, Bernard Madoff, execs from major financial institutions).

It’s a story that reminds me of what happens to industries (newspapers, music, books), people, companies (Borders, Circuit City, WordPerfect, Hollywood video) and products (dvds, text books) all of the time.  I’m fascinated by what happens next after  you go through the shock and clean up the damage, what emerges.

This story is sad, true and it’s a powerful metaphor for business. What did it teach you?

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!

I saw a press release today from Dunkin’ Donuts that made me pause. Get this. Their new Twitter campaign is all about how to EAT HEALTHY and keep your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight. By going to Dunkin Donuts.

How clever marketing agency!

Sorry, anything with the word donuts in its name isn’t where I’m going to get healthy food, no matter how low calorie your other items might be.

For one week they are asking people to tweet weight loss tips using the hashtag #DDSMART. They are promoting their “better-for-you” menu (which is way too healthy to be a mid-level calorie choice). One winner per day gets a $50 gift card. And yes, if you are actually on a diet going into a doughnut shop to spend that $50 might not be that smart. Or are you going to pass up your favorite glazed with sprinkles for an egg white sandwich on multigrain bread? And the rest of the menu, well, it’s a landmine! You’re in the war zone, so don’t even tell me you’re going to eat healthy.

Here’s how your tweets will be judged (from their contest rules): A) 40% – Overall Appeal; B) 30% – Adherence To The Theme; and C) 30% – Originality/Creativity.

They got it all wrong. Well, not all wrong. They are capitalizing on a trend with a social media campaign (this would be perfect for my book). That’s good. People are coming out of the holiday fog/binge and want to lose weight. They are onto something there. But here’s what their Twitter campaign should’ve been.

Everyone makes and breaks New Year’s resolutions right now. Almost everyone decides to go on a diet. Almost half of us have fallen off the wagon within 6 months.

“Within the first week 25% of people break their resolutions. After half of the year, only 46% of people are still keeping their promises.”

People on diets dream of things like donuts all day until they go crazy and eat one. So why not help them out a little by suggesting they break their resolution with you? Or, if you’re like me and a lot of other people you have a cheat day (another trend, diets that have cheat days) that you dream of all week long.

Why not have people tweet what they plan to eat on their cheat day? And, oh, btw, if you want healthy, we have you covered. They can make some suggestions off their healthy menu item but focus on the large percentage of people who break their diets.

That’s how I’d do it. I don’t think I’m the only one either:

I’m very tempted to tweet snarky suggestions such as: Park as far away from the front door as possible then sprint to the front door. That way if you die of a heart attack, at least you can get a donut on your way out. But I’m too nice for that.

What can you learn from this? Capitalize on large trends like New Year’s resolutions in your social media campaigns. But don’t confuse customers with competing messages. Stick to something that will reinforce your brand image. Because donuts and diets just don’t go well together.

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)

I’m really getting into the marketing, I mean holiday season this year. Like some people like to see the decorations or Christmas tress go up,  I like seeing all the holiday social media marketing campaigns.

I’m a fan of gift guides and SmartBrief, one of my favorite social media email newsletters, has examples of many gift guides including their own. You could get inspired to create one of your own or find gifts for your friends.

AllFacebook has a post with great ideas for holiday posts (be they blog posts, wall posts, tweets or even the basis of social media campaigns).

I must end with gifts. It’s not from me, but I’m telling you about it. Get 30 mins. of free wifi on Delta flights that have wifi capability from December 12 through January 2. Here’s the press release. I’m going to Vegas, hopefully we get lucky.

If you’re looking for some holiday music, check out this indie Christmas music from Deer Child. I have it playing as I write this. When it comes to nostalgia and connecting with your fans a little music could help create the right mood. These are religious because I am but snag a local indie band to create something for the background in your video or as a gift to your fans.