Be Prepared for Publicity Successes

They say that you should be careful what you wish for and many small-business operations have learned the hard way when they seek media publicity without being adequately prepared. It simply makes no sense to crow about your potential, or how your operation could solve all the world’s ills, if you’re not prepared for a sudden onslaught of attention. You may well have tried to attract publicity before and failed and this tends to lead to a weathered opinion. You may start to go through the motions and publicize while not prepared for the consequences, certain to receive a wake-up call if you get feedback.

Many people believe that you need to engage in a comprehensive public relations campaign using press releases and other formats on a scattershot basis. It is far better to be highly targeted and to identify by organization and individual name the media outlets of most relevance to your business.

We have learned that in social media marketing and in Internet marketing as a whole, it is wise to try and establish yourself and your operation as expert in your niche. This subtle, below the radar approach to marketing always pays dividends if approached correctly within the online world. Use this approach to help you position yourself within the ranks of the media as well and establish yourself as an expert and go to person when needed.

Media entities are always looking for input. They cannot be experts in every conceivable subject and as there is such a thirst for information in such a variety of media outlets and options available, the media director is driven to find good input from authentic sources. Be proactive and look for those seeking this information. Do not do this at those pressure moments when a story is breaking relevant to your niche, but pre establish your authority and create a channel for future use.

You must create an infrastructure within your business, a machine which can be pushed into service as and when needed. Formulate a press kit containing all the information about your company, its history, its founders, its vision, together with audiovisual elements, local files and contact details. Designate a person, if not yourself, as the spokesperson for the operation and make sure that you are prepared to position your company creatively and successfully.

Focus on interacting with media outlets that can be of most benefit to your company. If you’re stated goal is to sell product X or service Y, make sure that you have adequate inventory or resources available to help you do so, at an increased pace, as and when you receive the publicity you are seeking. Keep in touch with trends on a daily basis and be ready to identify when things are moving in your direction.

Do you have any stories to tell us about scrambling to respond to media attention?

Matthew Toren

Online Marketing Trends for 2010

We’re often asked where we see trends emerging and especially at this time of year, with a virtual clean slate ahead of us. 2009 was certainly a revealing year and if nothing else, helped to show us how Internet marketing is here to stay, as the industry in general trended upward during the brutal recession. While many organizations may have reduced their total marketing spend, the ratio of funding allocated to online initiatives markedly increased.

While economists and other soothsayers predict that the business world will aim for solidity and cautious growth during 2010, it is worth keeping an eye on the emergence of certain trends to help you plan your online and Internet marketing endeavors through the months ahead.

Video is a very strong online medium and should be incorporated in your plans as soon as possible. While a picture tells 1000 words, a video can be even more powerful and if you portray the right message to the right people, you can end up with a significantly enhanced return on your video marketing investment. Don’t just create videos outlining what you do or why, but show real-world examples of how you can benefit the potential client and make sure that your creations are adequately marketed. It’s no good just showing these videos on your website home page, you should create a YouTube channel or go for more detailed video marketing, using one of the many great services available to you online.

Mobile marketing is certain to take significant steps forward in 2010. We have seen recent moves by Google to incorporate mobile advertising platforms and to help them increase their long reach into our smartphone fueled worlds. While it’s not necessarily time for you to run out and purchase your “dot mobi” domain name and associated web presence, keep an eye how your clients and potential customers interact with their mobile devices. This is without a doubt going to be a very dynamic environment this year.

Social media will continue to carve its own important niche in the marketing world and by the end of the year will have gained even more relevance. We hope that it will not be called “new media” by that time and that each of you will have a concerted, interactive presence and be clear about your objectives.

In the world of search engine optimization, micro-targeting is the next big thing. Search engine algorithms are becoming so smart, so dedicated to providing webmasters with workable results, that it will pay you well to ensure that your site, blogs and all online properties are highly optimized from a content perspective. More than ever, fresh content will be required and it must be good content, too.

While talking about trends, look at Google Trends frequently. At the time of writing, two of the top three hot trends are internet – related: the new Google Nexus One phone and the rumors swirling around the Apple iSlate tablets.

Matthew Toren

Is the iPhone or Blackberry Better for Business?

Before Apple burst onto the scene with the iPhone and changed mobile communications as we know it, Blackberry, as perfected by Research in Motion, RIM, dominated the business world. You simply had to have a Blackberry in hand if you wanted to be taken seriously as a business executive and the organization ably stood up to the job of producing its equipment for enterprise level performance.

History will show just how important the iPhone was in our communications world and it has certainly rewritten the rule book in many cases. Will it rewrite the unspoken law which says that enterprise business requires the use of Blackberry?

Blackberry is certainly way ahead when it comes to the number of available devices in use globally. Many organizations have thousands, if not tens of thousands of Blackberry devices interlinked and almost “wired” into the very way they do business. The company has certainly set the standard for reliability, uptime and functionality. Companies have found that they can scale the corporate use of the Blackberry and a certain number of applications have been specifically designed for the platform, enabling the device to be far more than just a phone or e-mail communications device. RIM has a bulletproof network operations center and relay facilities, ensuring that when there is any downtime, you hear about it right away on the national media.

Contrary to Blackberry, which has a well-deserved reputation as being a “business” phone, iPhone has emerged into the popular culture and is a must-have accessory if you are “with it.” You could argue that it is not designed for competent and regular e-mail use, possesses only a virtual keyboard, which has retained a share of criticism for its design, but overall, it’s a much more diverse product. This is where the key to its business future lies. We all know what an “app” is by now and there are tens of thousands of options available for iPhone users, growing by the day.

Forward thinking organizations have jumped in feet first and designed their own enterprise style applications specific to their business. This is one of the iPhone product’s greatest strengths, as the number of applications and thus the potential for productive interaction between layers of different business executives are unlimited. However, the iPhone network performance may not be as robust as its Blackberry opponent. Blackberry devices and services are available from more than 200 carriers around the world and specifically tailored for the enterprise operation. In the United States, iPhone users are currently restricted to one carrier. RIM works directly with technical people at enterprise level and designs services and products accordingly. iPhone, on the other hand, largely relies on an ecosystem of application vendors.

The fact that iPhone is able to reach much further into popular culture and is becoming that “must have” accessory for our personal lives, means that it will likely see much more widespread adoption at the corporate level, if nothing else due to the fact that people do not want to carry two phones – one for business and one for work. Issues related to support, security, capability and operating system strength must all be addressed. Apple is clearly investing more in enterprise support for iPhone and future generations will undoubtedly balance criticisms.

Are you for the Blackberry, or for the iPhone?

Matthew Toren

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

When you see some of the most creative infographics around today, it’s little wonder that they say that people skim through webpages, focusing on graphics, rather than getting themselves absorbed in all the text. This should tell us all a story, as while the written word is certainly always “king” as we know, if we jam too much of it into one particular visual screen, then the eyes of our dear viewers will tend to glaze over it. Always intersperse your text creatively with graphics and photos and don’t forget that captions can be very powerful, as the eyes will almost certainly focus on the explanation for the presented photograph on page.

Infographics represent intelligent and very creative ways to explain subjects that are, in some cases, rather difficult to get your mind around. We present some of the “cooler” ones here for your consumption.

Over at Digg Labs, the creative guys and gals there have come up with a colored wheel which allows you to interact and select a day, month and year, to be presented with the top 10 stories by category on any given day. Check it out, but be warned you could spend a lot of time here!

While we know that Twitter is hot stuff, did you know that only five of 100 community members can be classified as really active? Maybe this graphic and the information here will help you to visualize it better?

Still on the subject of Twitter, how does it stack up against the big daddy, Facebook?
This graphic sums it up very succinctly. For example, did you know that Facebook has almost as many members as there are people living in Indonesia?

If you maintain an active blog, as hopefully you do, you may have wondered where those blog posts actually go to and how pinging services interact with your post once you have created it. We found this great interactive graphic tutorial at wired.com, which should actually be required reading or viewing for all Internet marketers. It really helps you to get a handle on the lifecycle and might help you to prepare your blogging campaigns more successfully.

The Conversation Prism is an inspirational creation, designed to graphically depict the art of listening, learning and sharing. It is visually very attractive as you can see and is available to buy as a really neat wall poster should you wish. Each one of the leaves represents an element of communication and a social media resource, with the inner circles depicting the style of communication and method, all leading back to the central brand. A great creation by Brian Solis.

Explore the social media landscape at fredcavazza.net and see which sites are linked according to purpose or intent. A handy little graphic to remind you which social media tools or services would be most appropriate for your needs.

Have you spied any cool infographics? Let us know.

Adam Toren

Can Your Small Business Culture and Values Win You Sales?

In the United States, do we really value the culture of our people as much as we say we do? After all, this is supposed to be a country that was founded and based on a coming together of cultures, a veritable melting pot, as they say. Culture is something that we should all cherish as it makes us all stand out in one way or the other and allows us to create and diversify. As those sage spokesmen and women say again, it takes all sorts to make a world!

When it comes to marketing, why not go back to your roots and really focus on what makes you and your business different? Where do you hail from and are your standards, beliefs, approaches and values a core part of how you do business? If not, then maybe they should be. By pandering to your strengths in terms of how you essentially live and breathe each day, then you should be making yourself and your brand equity stronger and more vibrant as well.

Always remember that it is to tough to fundamentally change who or what you are and you should be very cautious if you think that you can portray layers and elements that do not really represent your true spirit. However, be free to really underline and take advantage of the things that make you tick.

Very often our small businesses are built on a solid foundation of reputation. If you are known as being a helpful and enthusiastic trigger and always go out of your way to make things happen, then capitalize on this “yes we can” popular culture and make your glass permanently half-full from a marketing perspective.

We know how important social interaction is and how people like to deal with a real, live human being, even though this is becoming more challenging in our increasingly virtual world. With customer service, make sure that your staff are all on the same page and treat the customer in a positive and happy way each day. You will be surprised how clients and prospects warm more to your organization if a genuine feeling of love is being exuded!

Pander to your strengths. If your organization is operating on the cutting edge of your particular niche and if you business is known for its ingenuity or innovation, make your marketing exciting and interesting as well. Don’t be afraid to use individual personalities if they fire when challenged and be careful before repressing any unusual or out-of-the-box ideas.

These days it is very populist to be “green” and any organization that puts the issue of sustainability ahead is sure to gain footing as we go forward. Climate related issues are not going away and as more scientific evidence becomes apparent, linking our lack of efficiency to environmental damage, an organization that operates via the culture of the environment will likely gain market share.

How do you use your culture to best effect?

Matthew Toren

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