August 2009 Biz Talk Articles

Feature Article:

How to Add Social Media to Your Press Release Strategy

Before the web came along, small businesses often had very little control over the publicity they could generate in the press, even when sending out press releases. They had to submit their news to a traditional press distribution or media wire service, which was often expensive and provided no guarantee that their news would ever be mentioned anywhere in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication. Reporters and editors were completely in charge of which press releases were deemed newsworthy enough to be published, and the rest were basically ignored.

Things improved greatly for small businesses with the development of online press outlets that allowed press release submissions from all types of companies, large and small. One main benefit of these sites was that even if your news wasn’t “picked up” by a major news outlet or site, at least it generated some new, high-quality inbound links back to your business web site, providing you with some additional exposure online and helping improve your search engine rankings.

Now with the explosive growth of social networking sites, small businesses have another great opportunity to gain extra publicity and online exposure by incorporating social media into their corporate press release strategy.

When thinking about a press release strategy for your small business, consider creating a comprehensive plan that includes your web site, online media outlets, and social media sites. For example:

Web Site:

• Be sure to have a “Press Room” or “In the News” section on your business web site. Include the latest press releases for your company, and also provide a link to a press release archive for older news releases.
• If you are a Chamber member, always submit your press release to your local Chamber of Commerce. These organizations love to promote news from their members, and Chamber publications are typically well-read by the membership and others in the community.
• Submit your press releases to any other organizations or professional groups to which you belong, or to other sites in your industry that accept news releases about your type of business.

Online Media Outlets:

• There are hundreds (or probably thousands) of web sites that are news-related or niche sites that publish news from press releases submitted to them. Many are free or very low cost, and will accept press releases from all types of businesses. Just do a Google search to find the online press release sites that fit your budget and your industry.
• Optimize your press release for the keywords that you also target on your web site. Use keywords in the title and subtitles of your release, as well as through out the body of the press release.
• Always provide links from your press release back to your web site. Better yet, provide links to specifically optimized landing pages that target the keywords or the subject of your press release (e.g., a new product announcement).

Social Media Sites:

• Include links from your press release to your social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This helps drive traffic to your social media sites, and may provide the spark needed for your release to go “viral”.
• Use Twitter to announce your press release, and link back to your web site’s Press Room or the landing page for the release.
• Put your optimized press release on your Facebook page, preferably in a custom tab where your optimized release can help boost your site in the search engine rankings (regular “wall” posts don’t help your rankings)
• If your social marketing profiles have been set up correctly, the press release can be published automatically to all your social media and bookmarking sites with one single action on your part (such as a blog post).

Press releases are an excellent way to publicize your company, build inbound links to your web site, improve search engine rankings, and promote news or events going on in your company. Because of the web, small businesses now have more access than ever before to get their news (and links) in front a huge audience without the approval of traditional news reporters and editors.

By adding social media to your press release strategy, you can create a comprehensive plan that not only takes advantage of your web site and online media outlets, but also uses social media sites to distribute your news further on the web, help keep it visible longer, and ultimately extend the reach and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Marketing Tips:

How Can Twitter Help Your Business?

Although Twitter continues to gain acceptance in the business community as a business communication and marketing tool, I’m still amazed at the number of small businesses that don’t see the value of using this micro-blogging service as a marketing tool for business.

Just in case you need a refresher, Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a unique micro-blogging tool that lets users communicate with their “followers” in quick text messages of 140 characters or less called “tweets.”

Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are typically most effective when they are appropriately integrated with each other and with a company’s existing marketing efforts, since each one provides distinct benefits and advantages in an integrated social marketing plan. But Twitter – even when used as a stand-alone social networking strategy – can be a powerful tool in any small business marketing toolbox.

Some of the benefits of using Twitter in your marketing mix include:

• Highly targeted audience: The people who choose to “follow” you on Twitter are already interested in hearing what you have to say, or they would not have followed you to begin with. This provides you with an audience of folks who have specifically opted-in to receive your messages and want to listen to what you have to say.
  
  
• Instantly reach your “followers”: When you post something to your Twitter account (referred to as “tweets”), the message is instantly sent to your followers in the way they have chosen to be contacted. This could be a text message sent to their cell phone, posted to their Twitter page on the web, RSS-fed to a Facebook page or profile, etc. Regardless of the method your followers have selected, your tweets appear within a few seconds.
  
  
• Generate traffic to your web site: By adding links in your tweets, you provide followers with direct access to your web site, to other social networking profiles, to your blog, etc. Again, if your social marketing has been properly integrated, all of this will lead back to your web site, generating more traffic and new visitors.
  
  
• Improve your search engine rankings: By optimizing your Twitter profile (and integrating your social marketing efforts), you can build valuable inbound links to your web site, which is key in improving your site’s position in the search engine rankings.
  
  
• Increase brand awareness and online visibility: Being active on Twitter gets your business name in front of customers as well as the general public everyday, which in turn helps build name recognition and improves brand awareness for your business.
  
  
• Enhance customer service: Many businesses have found that by using Twitter, they can respond to customer needs (or complaints) very quickly and efficiently, allowing them to improve their level of service while publicly demonstrating their responsiveness and commitment to customers.
  
  
• Manage your online reputation in real time: By monitoring Twitter for mentions of your business name, key personnel, product names, etc., you can keep track of what people are saying about your business and to respond or intervene quickly if necessary. There are also free tools available to help you monitor your reputation in Twitter (like Twilerts and Tweetdeck), which can make it very easy to monitor your reputation online.

These are just some of the ways in which Twitter can benefit your business, and as social networking continues to grow in popularity, there will surely be even more features, new uses, and business benefits to be gained by using Twitter.

Whether you are just thinking about using social marketing or have already started to use it, Twitter can be a great tool to integrate into your social marketing strategy as you go forward. And for small businesses that are serious about marketing, the value of Twitter is pretty clear.

Building Effective Web Sites:

5 Things You Should Know About SEO

The topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can certainly be a complex one, and for many small businesses it seems like talking about SEO is like speaking a completely foreign language – possibly a language from outer space. But there are some key concepts that, while not entirely simple, are vital to understanding the importance of SEO and what it takes to see a web site listed in the top search results.

Too often, small businesses think that by adding some meta data to a web page or using what they believe are good keywords is going to help them get noticed (and listed) in the search engine results. Unfortunately, those items alone will not make much of a difference to a small business web site’s rankings.

So to help you get a handle on what it takes to improve your web site’s search engine rankings, here are five key concepts that you really should know:

1. Like it or not, getting top listings in the search results will probably take some ongoing work on your part.
   
   Unfortunately, a web site is not something that can be on your “to-do” list, and then crossed off the list when the site goes live. If you leave your web site unattended and let it go stale, your visitors will stop visiting, and the search engines will have absolutely no reason to keep your site in their search results. Why would they? The web grows and changes everyday with new information, new resources, and new technology that people find incredibly useful. The search engines’ job is to give searchers the most useful, up-to-date results possible, and if your site isn’t growing, changing, and adding value, then it will be left behind.
   
   
2. Meta data is only part of the picture – even “keyword” meta data.
   
   Meta data is the behind-the-scenes code on a web page that tells the search engine spiders all sorts of useful stuff, including what the web page is supposed to be about. But the visible content on your page must support the information in your meta data, so the search engines can see that your page is really about what you say it is. It is important that the meta data and the page content match; however, it is only one of many factors taken into account by the search engines.
   
   
3. Keyword research is not optional.
   
   I cannot tell you how many times clients give us the keywords they think customers would use to search for their business, but when we run the testing, those terms don’t even show up as being searched on at all! In order to be found in a search, you must use the keywords that people actually type into the search engines when looking for your type of products and services. Why would you optimize your site for keywords that nobody ever types into a search engine? That’s why real-time keyword research is essential – let the data tell you what keywords customers are using in the search engines, don’t just guess!
   
   
4. Search engine algorithms rely heavily on inbound link scores.
   
   It’s true – search engines do rely heavily on inbound links as part of their criteria for ranking web sites; at least that’s how it works right now. When search engines first started out, they based rankings on meta data keywords. When scammers figured out how to cheat that system, search engines developed algorithms that gave value to inbound link counts, which is where we are today. No doubt this will again change as search engines continue to evolve. But for now, getting quality inbound links from reliable authority sites is one of the best things you can do for your search engine rankings. Although it is still only one of many factors taken into account when ranking a site, it is one of the biggest factors.
   
   
5. Track and measure your search engine results every month.
   
   Let’s assume you add a new FAQ to your web site every month. It’s great that you are taking the time to do this, but is it working? Does it drive more traffic to the site? Do people come back to that page every month to check out the new FAQ? Does that new FAQ ever show up in the search results? If you are not tracking and measuring, how will you know if it is a good idea to do this each month, or if you are just wasting your time?
   
   Or let’s imagine that your site falls from position number 6 to position number 106. Without regular tracking and measuring, you probably wouldn't know the site had slipped, and you would miss the opportunity to intervene and take the necessary action to get it back in the top 10 again.

While there are many, many factors that contribute to how a web site ranks in the search engine results, these five concepts are among the most important. When you understand these concepts it can be much easier to find direction and take action for your own web site. So even if SEO still seems like a foreign language to you, just think of these five concepts as a basic “translation.”

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