Social Media Archives | Jane Tabachnick & Co

Creating Thought Leadership on Linkedin

Linkedin is a platform for jobseekers, employees, ceos and entrepreneurs; they all can benefit from using Linkedin to create thought leadership. This can help you elevate your personal brand, grow your engagement and following, and attract new and better opportunities.

Some people think of Linkedin as a place to post a resume style profile. Others use it as a social media platform, posting content and engaging with their connections. However you are using Linked, it is an ideal place to develop and be seen as a thought leader.

From your profile to the articles, posts and newsletters you publish, there are a number of strategies and places in your Linkedin presence that can help you be seen as a thought leader. This applies to those who are job hunting, happy employees, or a business owners or consultant. Linkedin can be used to advance your career and business goals, as well as make new connections, and done right, position you as a thought leader.

Creating thought leadership on Linkedin- expert advice:

Viveca Von Rosen, Co-founder Vengreso.com

“The key to position yourself on LinkedIn as a Thought Leader and expert is not to concentrate on yourself – but on your buyer or audience. In the end, people just won’t care that much about you until they learn more about you. And the quickest way to get people interested in you, is talk about them and how you can help them. As John Jantsch says in his latest book (The Ultimate Marketing Machine), “..promise to solve your customer’s greatest need.”

Your profile, from the background image, to your headline, to the name pronunciation tool, to the video cover story to the content you feature to the About section, to the content you share in posts, should all focus on your customer or client’s greatest needs (or wants) and how you solve for them. Your profile should be buyer-centric – my ME-focused. It’s amazing, the more you talk a about them and give them solutions to their problems, the smarter YOU will appear to be! To see what I mean, just go to www.LinkedIn.com/in/LinkedInExpert

Karen Yankovich, CEO She’s LinkedUp

“The very first thing a thought leader should focus on in their LinkedIn profile is not tactical, it’s more energetic! It’s time to shift the energy of your profile from an online resume to a home for your personal brand. Sure, tell us about your past experience, but your resume is all about who you used to be. Your LinkedIn profile, positioned properly, should be shining a light on the person you’re becoming.

Specifically, shift the focus of your writing from a focus on your skills to a focus on the difference you make in the world.”

Beth Granger, CEO Beth Granger Consulting: Intrepid Social

“You want to be seen as a thought leader and LinkedIn is a great place to do that. On your profile, the best places to do that are your headline, About section, and the Featured section. The About section is where you can really tell your story. Of course, share content consistently that provides value and shows your expertise. Feature this content on your profile.

Finally, get recommendations from other people about your expertise. People are often uncomfortable asking for recommendations. The perfect time to ask is when someone is thanking you for something. That’s the time to say, “You’re welcome. Glad to help. Would you be comfortable saying that on my LinkedIn profile?”

Josh Turner, Founder and CEO of Connect365.io

“The most common mistake I see people make with regards to their LinkedIn profile is underutilizing their Headline. The headline is your digital billboard on LinkedIn. Whether you are making a comment, writing a message or InMail, or posting an article, LinkedIn will always display your Name, Your Profile Picture and Your Headline. Don’t make the mistake of leaving it at the standard ‘Job Title, Company Name’ approach. This is what most people do. Give them something more. Show your prospects that you help others just like them and how you do that.

Now beyond that, LinkedIn content is about consistency. LinkedIn’s feed isn’t as ‘viral’ as Facebook or Twitter may be. But the discussion and audience you can build there makes it worthwhile. Because of this, consistent and quality updates are critical. We tell our clients to aim for a daily LinkedIn update during the workweek. Your updates should provide content that is relevant to your prospects. What are the topics they care most about? Provide them value by sharing related content to those topics.

We sometimes describe this as the ‘Oprah’ Effect. Back when Oprah was getting started, she was a great host. But she wasn’t necessarily an expert or specialist in one area. She built her credibility and authority by the guests she brought on. This goodwill built up by introducing her community to information and education led to her becoming not only one of the biggest talk show hosts in the country, but also one of the most trusted authorities in our society.

The goal with your LinkedIn content sharing and posting should be similar. Bring value to your prospects on the topics and interests they have. Don’t ONLY share your branded sales collateral. If you can do that, you’ll build more authority, more trust, and more engagement with your community.”

Joe Apfelbaum, CEO Ajax Union

“Your LinkedIn profile is now more important that your own website because Google will often rank your profile first when people search for your name. Try it yourself, search your name and see if your LinkedIn profile comes up.

Here is a quick tip: Make sure your headline speaks to your target audience. Look at my headline to see how I craft mine on LinkedIn- www.joelinkedin.com to see my profile. Also, you must make it easy for people to reach out, do that by adding a call to action in your ABOUT section. Finally include some examples of you work here like tamilinkedin.com does under roles.”

Todd Herschberg, CEO and Founder Veriscouts – one of the most connected people on Linkedin

“You’ll likely see quite a bit about some traditional approaches to LinkedIn thought leadership: post on a regular basis, share links to content by other thought leaders, be topical, etc. I’ll let you in on a little non-traditional approach: start a group.

Groups are a somewhat underutilized method for establishing yourself as a LinkedIn thought leader. For example, I’m a bit of a foodie, so I started a Foodies group. This gives me an opportunity to post recipes, food reviews, etc on a regular basis to an audience that is specifically interested in exactly the sort of content I create. LinkedIn also allows group owners to “Recommend” one post per week which increases the visibility of that post by notifying all of the 22,000+ group members. In my case, I usually will recommend any reviews that I have written (particularly if they are products produced by group members). This helps amplify the visibility and engagement on not only my content, but also on the group members’ products. This, in turn, encourages other group members to request my review of *their* products – further building my reputation as a thought leader.”

Wendy Maynard, Creator LinkedIn Lead Mastery

The LinkedIn Profile gives entrepreneurs a tremendous opportunity to establish ourselves as a thought leader. The key is to stop thinking about it like an employee and treating it as a CV. Instead, we can use it as a page that spotlights our personal brand, demonstrates our expertise, and shows our audience all the offers we have for them to solve their problems.

Julbert Abraham, Founder of AGM, LinkedIn Training

Nowadays, everyone wants to be seen as an expert on Social Media. If you are in the B2B space, you may want to be seen as an expert or thought leader in your industry on LinkedIn.

The process to create a LinkedIn profile that positions you as a thought leader can be accomplished with these three tips:

Tip 1 – Develop your LinkedIn marketing plan and strategy. Before you do anything else, you want to make sure that you have clarity on what thought leadership on LinkedIn means to you. How will it benefit your audience? And how you should position your profile to add value to all the traffic you will be receiving on LinkedIn.

Tip 2 – Do a full LinkedIn profile analysis. One of the best ways to do that is to find your Social Selling Index Score (SSI). If you have never heard this term before, it is a free tool that LinkedIn provides that help you analyze 4 key pillars of your LinkedIn account. These 4 pillars add up to a total score of 0-100. This will help you identify where you are on the spectrum. If you are between 0-50, there are a few changes you have to make to your profile. If you are above 50, there may be a few changes you have to make in your overall activities on LinkedIn.

Tip 3 – Update your LinkedIn profile accordingly. This is where you really have to think about how you can add value to your audience. Your profile is not about you, it’s about what value you can add to your audience. It’s your marketing tool, not a resume holder.

With these 3 tips you are able to build your thought leadership profile on LinkedIn, while adding value to your audience.

Combining LinkedIn and PR can get you more press

This post is based on my interview with Karen Yankovich,
LinkedIn expert on the Good Girls Get Rich podcast –
How to Use LinkedIn and PR Together

Karen: There’s a lot of focus on how to use LinkedIn and PR to get more visibility, because that gives you more credibility. I think that that is something that is so powerful and so overlooked. I’m really excited about having a chance to dive deeper into that today with you Jane.

You and your next-door neighbor competitor may be apples to apples across the board, but when you are the one that’s ‘as seen in’, it takes you to the top. That is completely creatable by you. And, probably, Oprah’s not going to come knocking on your door. You’ve got to go after it. You’ve got to look for the opportunities and I love that that’s what you’re helping people. when you are doing what you love to be doing, I want to shine a light on it so the whole world knows.

Jane: I’m so glad you mentioned that the media don’t come knocking on your door. Sometimes people think, “Oh, she’s lucky. She’s getting press.” Yes, there is always a certain element of luck, synchronicity, timing, but really luck is what happens in my opinion, or publicity happens, when preparation meets opportunity. The people who are on stages, who are getting publicity, who are in Oprah or any other publication, are out there pitching, or they’ve got someone helping them with the pitching. It doesn’t just magically happen.

Look Worthy of Press

Karen: You have to have a great LinkedIn profile and be connecting with people on that level. So energetically, you’ve got to be showing up like an influencer, somebody worthy when they’re checking you out and of being in their publications. And then building relationships from that point. You have to look worthy of press.

Jane: So true. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. People are going to judge you on your photo, on your profile and on the comments you make. Everything until they know you, and then they may give you a little bit more leeway. You want to be on brand, on message and really coming across as professionally as possible. I know you teach this and we certainly go through a lot of this with our clients on giving that professional appearance and looking like you are media ready. That way if the media want to feature you in a story, they know that any of their audience who goes to check you out is not going to think, “Whoa, who’s this person, how did this happen?”

Karen: Take the time upfront to create a LinkedIn profile that makes you look worthy of their time. You’re making it easier for them to want to be connected to you. If you do all of this, with a LinkedIn profile that has dust bunnies on it, you have no credibility. They’re going to love that you did it, but chances are, they’re not going to be going out of their way to continue to build that relationship.

Build Relationships – Human to Human

Karen: Working with clients on a PR plan, what does that look like?

Jane: Very much like the way you teach your clients to use LinkedIn, PR is really about relationships. Having a great profile is a start. The LinkedIn platform is great for building relationships, I’m not saying to connect and immediately start pitching someone but connect with the media to start a relationship.

I teach my clients to do something we call hug an influencer. When I say influencer, it can be someone who is a thought leader in your industry, someone you respect, or a journalist. It can be an Instagram influencer or anyone in that category. Follow them, share their content and be authentic. Don’t just do this to get in their good graces, but let them know if you like something they wrote- comment, share it and tag them.

The tagging is a really great thing to do. A lot of people don’t do this because some of the tools don’t make it easy. Take the time to find out their social handle and include that. This does a couple of things. It sends them an alert and lets them know you’re sharing their content, which is great. It gives them credit and the recognition which they deserve. Today, as many more media professionals are freelancing, they need to get this visibility. It also helps put you in front of their audience because when you tag someone, it’ll get shared to their network. So, you’re increasing your visibility along with theirs. It’s really a win-win-win.

Karen: What you just described, is really a simple thing to do.

Jane: Exactly. It’s so simple, and it can help you stand out because, so few people take the time to do this.

Karen: So, it’s about paying attention to not just the content, but the person that published the content.

Jane: Exactly. As you know, it’s so frustrating and sometimes a little bit unsettling when you put content out there and no one comments. So be that person that comments and shares and acknowledges someone else’s content.

When you start getting out of your head and responding to people on social media, you build relationships authentically and easily. You just told me something great. I’m human, I have to respond.

Karen: It’s often human to human and which, by the way, is where the money is. That’s where the profit is. People buy a $50 something off of a funnel and a web thing. But nobody’s buying your $5,000 or $10,000 stuff without a human-to-human conversation.

How to Connect With and Pitch the Media on Linkedin

Karen: Now that I’ve identified some journalists one LinkedIn and I’m doing all the good stuff [optimizing my profile…commenting…]. Do I pitch them? What do I do?

Jane: You can start following them. You can comment on their posts. You can send them a connection request without a pitch. Just say, “I’ve read your content.” It’s always good if you’re specific. Instead of, “Hey, I’ve read your content,” which could be a cut and paste message, instead say, “I just read your article on the new LinkedIn Stories. And I love that you explained how to do X, Y, Z in great detail. It let me get into action right away.” Something so specific it lets them know that you had to have taken the time and read the story. You’re actually speaking personally to them, not sending a blast and just changing the first name.

Karen: You’re building the relationships so that when an opportunity may come down the road where you’ve got something interesting, you can maybe reach out then and say, “I’ve got this idea and I thought of you,” and pitch them.

Jane: Yes, now that you have built up some social currency, you can pitch them your idea or you can offer additional value by offering access to your contacts. “I’ve got a good network here on LinkedIn. You’re welcome to look through my contacts if you need an intro or a source. Or if there’s someone specific you’re looking for, I’m happy to try and make a connection for you.” Be of service and try to give before you ask.

How PR Grows Your Business

Karen: How does this PR help us grow our business?

Jane: The thing about PR, which makes it really the most valuable form of content, is that it gives you third-party credibility. They featured you in the media, rather than your so-called competition or somebody else. That positions you as the expert and it’s as if the media endorsed you, although technically it’s not an endorsement.

How do you use it? You share your press on LinkedIn and you thank the person who wrote the story by tagging them. You tag the publication and again, let them know. Not only does this acknowledge and thank them, but it also puts you in front of their network, so you get even more visibility.

Share it more than once, which is good for you, good for the publication and the journalist. This is a step a lot of people miss and therefore lose out on more visibility. Think about it like this… that old adage, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it…. you know the rest.” How this relates to PR is that if you’re in The New York Times today, and I haven’t picked up The Times today, for me, it didn’t happen, unless you tell me it happened, right?

It’s important to let your audience know about press you get, because we’re all bombarded with so much information and may not have seen it. When it comes to the publicity you get, it’s not a one and done; you can put your press into your scheduler. Six weeks later, pull out one line, a sound bite from the article or interview and mention it again on socials. Also, add it to your media room. You can add the media logo to your, “as seen in”, or “as seen on” bar, which gives you additional credibility on your website and social media.

Their First Impression of You is Your Digital Footprint

Karen: We’ve learned a lot in the past year of being virtual. And I think a lot of it really is, what is your digital footprint? We learned about how the first impression is what we’re learning about people digitally.

Jane: Yes. If you start now doing one simple thing each day, which could be five minutes of commenting or connecting. By the end of the year, I’m not going to do the math, but you can have hundreds of comments and connections. Amazing things can happen that you weren’t expecting. So, you have to be in it [the pr game] for that to start happening.

Karen: It’s exactly right and you can take control of this by doing yourself. You can control your digital footprint by building these kinds of relationships. Understand how powerful publicity could be for you, no matter what the stage of your businesses is.

Resources:

► Listen to the full podcast interview of Good Girls Get Rich – How to Use Linkedin and PR Together – with Jane Tabachnick

► Take our Visiblity Assessment

How to Connect with Journalists on Social Media to Get Publicity

Journalists are social.

Here is how to Connect with Journalists on Social Media to Get Publicity

I use a 4-step formula I call I.S.E.P. It’s really so simple, you may be surprised to find out that you already know how to do this. Just in case, though I am going to walk you through exactly how to connect with and pitch a journalist on social media.

Step 1: Identify [I]

Identify a journalist who covers your topic, niche and or geographic area. Find out what social network they are on.

This is very important. In the case of PR, less is more. A shotgun approach will not work. You need to make sure you are targeting, and eventually pitching the right journalist, one who has stated they cover your topic/niche/geographic area. [More about this in the box below]

Step 2: Socialize [S]

Connect with the journalist on social media.

You know how to do this. Follow them on Twitter, add them to a Google + circle; join a group they are in on LinkedIn…

Step 3: Engage [E]

Create some engagement with the journalist. Start by retweeting or commenting on an article of theirs. You will, of course, want to read some of their work first! Don’t go crazy. You want this to look natural, not like you are their new cyberstalker who is watching and commenting on their every move. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither are relationships – offline or online.

Your ultimate goal is to build a relationship and have the journalist acknowledge that they know who you are and appreciate that you are following them and appreciating their work. It could be a one-on-one cyber conversation or just a mention from them.

Now that you have engagement, you are ready to pitch. Whoa, not instantly after they acknowledge you. Let a few days or a week go by. Then you can go to step 4.

Step 4: Pitch [P]

This step can be best accomplished with a Tweet. Keep it short, simple and to the point. Write your pitch like a tweet – state the entire pitch in 140 characters or less. You don’t need to tell your whole story in your pitch, just enough to intrigue the journalist to want to know more.

The challenge for many is the pitch. I often hear that it’s hard to know what to pitch or how to come up with a story idea. 2 questions that you may find helpful in coming up with a pitch are: What would be of interest to their audience? Why should their audience care about your topic?

Here are a few other things to keep in mind when pitching.

Let the journalist know why you think it is something their audience would be interested in.
Provide a 1 to 2 sentence bio that shows why you are qualified to speak on your proposed topic.
Provide them your best contact info [your mobile phone, Skype address and your time zone are ideal], in the event that they have to follow up questions or would like to speak to you.

Congratulations! You now know the 4 Step I.S.E.P. process to pitch a journalist

How to Get Publicity Using Social Media

How ti get Media Coverage Using Your Existing Social Network

If you are looking for media coverage, you can start by using social media. Chances are there is a journalist in your existing social network. Or just one connection or friend away.

This is great news. It’s never been easier to connect with a journalist, one who can write about you and your company and give you the media coverage and visibility you deserve. And this may surprise you to hear, but you probably already know exactly how to connect with a journalist using social media. You are probably using these skills, perhaps just not in connection with a journalist. Please read on, as I am about to explain.

I speak to a lot of entrepreneurs, authors, coaches and business owners who find the idea of doing public relations or promotion, daunting.

I remember the first time I was considering doing some publicity for my fashion company. I was scared, overwhelmed and intimidated.

That was just before the digital age. No Internet to look up how to write a press release. No online press distribution services. No online directories of journalists, and no social networks.

I needed some information and insight as to how to do my own publicity, so I did the only thing I could think of – I sought out a mentor and asked a lot of questions.

My first attempt at public relations, I probably did at least 10 things wrong and yet I still got some great media coverage! And you know what, it turns out that getting publicity really isn’t hard, if you know a few simple rules of the road. And I am about to share them with you in this post.

Today, you have the distinct advantage of the Internet for information, templates, training and video tutorials. Just do a search on YouTube and you will find a plethora of training on virtually any topic including how to do your own public relations. You also have online social networks that make connecting easy and sometimes instant.

Here is your best news: Journalists are very social

A recent study from the Indiana University School of journalism looks at how U.S. journalists use social media to report the news. Here are a few specific ways journalists are using social platforms:

59.8% find ideas for stories
54.1 % find sources
20% interview sources

Journalists also see social media as a vehicle for self-promotion; 80% state that it helped them share their work and two-thirds say they are more engaged with their audiences thanks to social sites.

As you can see from the study, more and more journalists use social media to promote as well as to facilitate their work, including finding story ideas, finding sources and interviewing subjects. That is where you come in! You can be a source for journalists in any or all of those aspects of their job!

On social media, journalists are more accessible to everyone whether they are PR professionals or folks like you. Therefore, it has never been easier to connect with journalists.

book promotion pitching the media PR Strategy public relations Social Media

10 Ways to Use Interviews in Your Marketing

One of the strategies in your marketing toolkit today should be the interview process. The interview, or a simple question and answer session, can be very effective in facilitating the creation of a variety of valuable customer facing content such as blog posts or profile articles, to content that is strictly for internal company use.

The beauty of the interview process is that you can simply hold a conversation that you record and have transcribed into text. Speech to text software is now built into computers and smart phones, or you can use a transcription service. You now have both text and audio versions of your content. Both versions can be re purposed into additional formats including video and Power Points. You can get additional mileage by extracting short quotes or sound bites to use as social posts and tweets.

What works so well about this format is that most people are comfortable speaking about their business, product or service, than they are writing about it. Most people also prefer being directed and prompted. A blank white page with free range, can be very daunting.

Ask a client to write a testimonial for your business. They’ll wonder what to write about and put it off. Sending them 3 questions to answer about your business is a much easier and more comfortable way for them to respond, taking the guesswork out of it for them.

The beauty of the interview process is that it is a strategically designed set of questions that can help you elicit the story that you would like to tell. Whether you are interviewing a customer a strategic partner or one of your staff, by strategically designing the questions you get to shape the outcome, and can reap the benefits of 3rd party credibility – someone else telling your story and singing your praises.

Download our handy Interview Resource List

Here are my Top 10 Interview Types:

1. Customer Input
Many companies do not take advantage of this simple and obvious activity. Your client will be more than happy to tell you what their biggest challenges are and what they would like help with; then when you offer that solution they’re sure to buy.

2. Testimonials
Clients are usually happy to give you a testimonial however many businesses don’t even ask. Create an easy format with questions that prompt the client’s response, and your clients will thank you. They are often uncomfortable not knowing what to write, so when you remove the guesswork it is easy for them to just get it done.

3. Case studies
This is an underutilized form of content for your business. Case studies are so valuable because they show prospects how you solved another company’s problem, which gives prospects the ability to see themselves in your existing client, and basically try your solution on for size. It is also a form of third-party credibility, which carries more weight than a description of that very same service does in your company brochure or website.

4. Product Research
Interview customers to find out what they like about your products, as well as features they would like to see added. Everyone loves to be consulted and offer his or her opinion. Your customers probably use your products more than your own staff does and have probably already thought of things that could be improved or features that will make your product better. Make this an ongoing each aspect of your marketing and product development and research

6. Industry Insight
Interview a partner or vendor about different aspects of your industry. This can create a thought leadership piece and help inform your customers and your prospects about your industry trends, inner workings and the state of affairs.

7. Interview a Recognized Expert or Thought leader
By interviewing a thought leader, you are giving people access to someone they know and respect, as well as getting the benefit of greater exposure due to your expert’s popularity. This also positions you as a top expert and a peer of the thought leader.

8. Interview Staff

A staff interview can create content that introduces your staff and the role that they play in your business. This personalizes your business, provides insight into who a customer or vendor will be working with, and helps deepen engagement with your brand. This helps create greater consumer confidence, as people buy when they feel they ‘know, like and trust’ the company.

9. Interview Yourself
The interview format works very well to generate content more quickly, so why not use it yourself, wearing both the interviewer and subject hats. If you decide to keep your finished piece in an interview format, no one needs to know who the interviewer was, however you can also turn the interview content into a general article.

10. Interview to create a book
This one is possibly my favorite. Use an interview format to create a book. Many professionals, entrepreneurs and the public in general are interested in writing a book, yet it’s a daunting project that often gets put off repeatedly for that very reason. Using a strategically designed set of questions, it’s easy to create the content for your book through an interview. Your book can be published keeping the interview format, as I do with the books that I publish for my clients, or you can turn your answers into prose. Either way, it helps you get your book written much more quickly and efficiently so you can reap the benefits of being a published author.

The interview format is incredibly versatile and can be included in your marketing and content toolkit to help you create the variety of content that are required in today’s marketplace. Using interviews in your marketing can help grow all aspects of your business. The value of the interview format can be clarity. Simple questions, answered directly. I recently interviewed a colleague who runs a unique marketing service, for a profile in an online magazine. After reading the published interview, one of her prospects commented,

“Now I really understand what you do and the value of your service.”

That is the power of asking the right questions. Ready to put interviews to work for your business?

Note- this article was written using an interview format [I interviewed myself using a speech to text software] then edited the text for the final article.

Download our handy Interview Resource List

This post first appeared in Business2Community

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Why Your Business Needs Earned Media and 5 Easy Ways to Get It

In the race to market your business and produce content, it’s important to make sure your time is well spent. With the competition for people’s attention growing every day, you need to be very strategic and make sure the media you are focused on provides the best ROI. To do so, you want to make sure that you are promoting your content across owned, earned and paid media, as well as encouraging shared media.

Exactly what are owned, earned, paid and shared media. In a sense, they are exactly what they sound like:

Owned media is any channel that a brand owns. For example, a website, a mobile site, a blog, or a twitter account.

Earned media is essentially word of mouth marketing, also known as viral marketing or buzz. Examples include customers talking about your brand, media mentions and publicity.

Paid media is what was thought of as traditional advertising. This includes print and online ads, sponsorships, or paid search that a brand uses to promote their channels and content.

While all these types of media are channels for your content, they aren’t all created equal. At a minimum, you need owned media. Paid media can still be a valuable compliment to other initiatives. Earned media is far and away the most valuable.

It’s a Review Economy – Social Proof Matters

The world has moved away from relying solely on advertising [paid media]. According to the Nielson Trust in Advertising Survey, consumer trust in advertising has been on a steady decline for years. Consumers do however trust recommendations and reviews from friends and family, online reviews, and the media – in that order. In other words, they trust earned media. Why? Because earned media is social proof. It’s proof your business means something to someone, and that others are willing to stand behind you, talk about your brand in a positive way as well as recommend you. They trust you.

Let’s take a look at exactly what earned media can do for your business and some really easy ways to get more of it.

What Can Earned Media Do For Me?

Earned media is someone else singing your praises. It can be a recommendation, the media writing about you, a positive review, or a tweet about your business. It leverages marketing tactics like word-of-mouth, social media and online reviews to really boost your business. It has the highest value because it is someone else talking about you, providing third party credibility…. Because no one cares or trusts, what you say about you, it’s what ‘they say about you’ that matters.

But it’s what earned media can do for your business that’s pretty great. It can:

Help you build up your brand. I’ll be honest, if someone I trust recommends a business, I’m very likely to check it out. The more mentions, comments and reviews your business gets, the more others will start to see just how great your business is. Which leads us to …

Establish your business as an industry leader. Having your name mentioned across the web and on various media outlets pretty much solidifies you as an industry leader. And who doesn’t want their business to be looked up to and respected?

Help you build relationships with other leaders in your niche. Everyone wants to work with the best, the top people. You’ll begin to attract other top experts and leaders, who will see all the mentions you are getting and want to find out who you are. This creates conversations, relationships and alliances that all parties can benefit from. The more you reciprocate, the more you get back.

Bring you more website traffic. More mentions means more visibility; think backlinks and social media shares. Earned media takes advantage of others’ established audiences and puts you in front of them. It also directs them all back to your site for free.

5 Easy Ways to Get Started – It’s All About Relationships

Earned media can come in many forms, but here are 5 of my favorite types. Each of these are easy to do and incredibly effective.

#1 Recommendations

We’ve touched on this a little already, but it’s so important that we have to discuss it in depth.

Consumers trust personal recommendations. People like to do business with people they ‘know, like and trust’. In fact, according to this study, 84% of consumers stated that they trust recommendations from someone they know. 74% of consumers claim that word of mouth is their key influencer for making purchasing decisions in this study.

And the beauty of this method is that you are tapping into your biggest raving fans and promoters: your current customers!

To get more recommendations from them, try:

Creating a simple, repeatable process to request recommendations. Make it easy for people to do so.

Asking. I know, sounds so simple. Because it is. Right after a customer has completed a transaction or project (and is obviously happy) is the best time to ask. A simple “If you know anyone who could use our services/products, we’d appreciate a recommendation” works. Satisfied customers are always likely to refer you if they know someone.

Incentivizing and offering stuff. If a business I love is offering a great deal, I’ll talk them up to others. Alternatively, you can offer your current customers a discount or incentive for every referral they send.

Being thankful. This should be obvious, but if you get recommended, thank the person who did it. It encourages them to continue recommending you.

#2 Online Reviews

Did you know that over 85% of consumers read up to 10 online reviews before deciding on a business or purchase? And that 72% of those consumers claim that positive reviews actually influence them to trust a business?

Online reviews are more common, and more influential than ever. Like recommendations from friends and colleagues, it doesn’t hurt to ask for these reviews. Make it easy for customers to review your business by:

Setting up your profiles. Get on multiple sites like Yelp, Google Local and Trip Advisor. Add your contact information and images to complete your profile.

Letting customers know you are on these sites. Post a sign in your office or a banner on your website that lets customers know you are on these review sites.

Setting up a review page on your site. That makes it easy to submit reviews, which once submitted can be showcased on your testimonials or about us page.

#3 The Media

Media coverage and public relations aren’t dead. In fact, according to a recent study from Ogilvy PR, “the more the (traditional) media covers a brand, the more credible the brand appears.”

You may be wondering how to get attention in the media. There are many ways, including press releases, pitching stories and through building relationships with reporters and publications, you can promote your business without being pushy.

Some tips to get started:

Have a plan. Even a simple one-page PR plan will help keep you focused and taking action.

Check online resources. Free sites like Help a Reporter Out (HARO) connect journalists with sources. Sign up to get daily listings of reporters looking for business like yours to contribute to their stories.

Read publications and identify the journalists that write about your topic. Start building a list of publications you would like to be featured in. Then start to build relationships with them.

Set up Google Alerts – see my quick tutorial on this – these can help you identify publications and journalists, as well as track media mentions for you, your company, your competitors…. Reverse engineer successful competitors to see where they are getting media coverage.

Journalists are social. It’s never been easier to connect with journalists on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter. Follow journalists, share their stories and comment on them. Value their work and get on their radar. When you are ready to pitch them your name will be familiar, and they will be more receptive.

#4 Social Media Shares

We couldn’t have a list of earned media methods without mentioning social media. This is where many people go to get their news and recommendations.

You don’t have to be on all social networks. Instead, focus your efforts on the site most popular with your target audience. Tips to make the most of social media include:

Make sure your business profiles are consistent, complete and optimized. Fill out all your contact information and use keywords to help you get found. Share useful information, blog posts and business updates.

Follow others. Follow industry leaders and influencers. By following them and sharing their updates, they’ll notice you, probably start to build a relationship, and there’s a chance they will reciprocate.

Demonstrate great customer service and appreciation. Social media, especially Face book and Twitter, is where many people go to rave about businesses. Make it easy for them by having excellent customer service. Acknowledge people by name who mention you or share your content.

Make it easy to share your content. Tools like Social Warfare and strategically placed share buttons on your website and blog can facilitate one click sharing, allowing your visitor to easily post your content out to their networks when they are inspired to.

#5 Blogger Outreach

Today’s bloggers have reached celebrity status, become recognized as media outlets, and become highly influential. By forming relationships with influential bloggers, you increase the chances of being able to share their great content, as well as your business being mentioned in their posts and social networks.

Get started by:

Researching prominent blogs in your industry. You may already follow a few. To find new ones, turn to Google, social media or use BuzzStream to help you find sites faster.

Reaching out to bloggers. Before sending that email to pitch them to, take the time to read their blog to get a better idea of who they are and what they write about. Also think of what you have to offer them. Bloggers are much more like to do you a favor if you have something to offer in return.

Showing some love first. Comment, share and retweet a blogger’s content. We all appreciate those who show their appreciation for our work and brand. Bloggers are no different, even if their blog is already very popular.

Earned media works. By building relationships with your prospects, customers, partners bloggers and the media, you are helping grow your brand in the most positive way. By inspiring others to talk about your business you are gaining exposure and 3rd party credibility. As we have seen, user-generated content – earned media, is the most trusted form of flattery and promotion we can have today. Try any of these 5 methods and watch your business increase dramatically.

How Not to Be One of the 45% of HARO Media Pitches That Suck

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Inspiration From Successful Entrepreneurs

I’m still inspired a week later……..and can’t wait to share with you some truly great things… A week ago I was attending the Entrepreneur Magazine 360 Conference here in New York City, getting inspiration from successful entrepreneurs.

It was a very energizing day hearing from a variety of entrepreneurs ranging from:

Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas to Daniel Lubetsky founder of Kind Bars, Olympic Skier/NFL player/Philanthropist/Entrepreneur Jeremy Bloom, to Reddit founder Alexis Ohanion.

I was inspired, impressed, validated and educated- I still am, here are some of the highlights and takeaways from the event:

Are you a Visionary or an Operator?

Les McKeon gave a great presentation on the journey a business goes through. He demonstrated why:

“You are either a Visionary or an Operator – you can’t be both.”

Will.i.am was intelligent, innovative, inspired, visionary, awesome…. He hardly spoke about music, and spoke more about his company i.am+ which is going to compete directly with Apple with its wearable tech.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Entrepreneurial ideas come frm fusion = Mixing + inspiration + needs + community.@iamwill ” quote=”Entrepreneurial ideas come from fusion = Mixing + melding inspiration + needs + community.”]

In 2015, everything is going to be wearable and functional. Maybe a jacket instead of a phone.

<<< >>>>

Sometimes you miss major success by 1 Inch

Jeremy Bloom- Olympic skier, NFL football player, philanthropist and entrepreneurs founder of a 100 million dollar company, had a 22 second shot at making Olympic Gold… yet missed by 1 inch. It’s what he did after missing that was so inspiring!

You may have heard the expression Fail Fast. Jeremy gave himself 48 hours to have a pity party. To replay in his mind all the things he could have/should have done differently and then he moved on with his life.

<<< >>>>

Daniel Lubetsky, founder of Kind bars, proves you can be successful and be kind [pun intended]

When you move from a skeptic to an evangelist, nobody can stop you.

There were so many wonderful ideas, inspirations and insights! I hope these examples have inspired you as well.

One more thing… all these entrepreneurs have one major accomplishment in common. Can you guess what it is? Please place your guess in the comments below. The first person to post the answer wins a special prize!

Whenever you have the opportunity to be around and get inspiration from successful entrepreneurs, grab it. As Daniel Lubetsky said, “Entrepreneurs are probably the most fun at a party.”

What all the entrepreneurs who spoke at the Entrepreneur 360 Conference have in common is that they are all authors.

To your publicity success!

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5 Ways to Promote Yourself That Don’t Feel Icky

Mom used to tell me it’s not polite to brag.

And no one likes a braggart!

The funny thing is that people often assume that some who brags a lot is very confident and outgoing, the fact of the matter is that they may actually be insecure and seeking outside reinforcement.

Ok. So you don’t want to be seen as a braggart.

If you don’t share your company’s offerings, your accomplishments, successes and milestones, how will your prospects and clients know about them? How will you share your gifts and service with more of the people who need them?

If a tree falls in the forest…

You do need to get the word out and promote yourself and your services on a regular basis. The great news is that there are ways to do it that won’t make you feel icky or a braggart.

5 easy ways to toot your own horn that won’t make you feel uncomfortable:

Talk about your business in the third person – a simple mindset shift
This is a common problem for soloprenuers. A simple trick to remove feeling uncomfortable about promoting yourself is to think of yourself or your business as another entity, a third party. Think about how much easier it is to share a friend’s accomplishment with others. Treating your business like that friend, makes it easy to talk about your business without holding back or feeling discomfort.

Make the customer the hero of your story
Focus your marketing and content on your client’s success stories [with their permission]. You solved their problem successfully. They are now raving fans. Create a case study, blog post or press release. If you focus on the client, the content you create will feel less like you are being self-promotional. It will also be something that the client will naturally want to share with their audience, garnering your even more mileage and visibility!

Be a customer educator and advocate
Offer great tips and information that will help your audience – both prospects and clients succeed. This will naturally position you as a knowledgeable resource, which will attract people who need your services. Don’t be afraid to give away your best content.

Just calling yourself the expert isn’t going to do it these days. Positioning yourself as an educator and an advocate for your customers success should be your major focus. When a prospect feels you are the source of valuable information, and they know you truly care about their results, then they will be the ones calling you the expert. – Jack Mize

Let others sing your praises – it carries more weight
It’s not what you say about you, it’s what they say about you. Prospects trust recommendations from friends and family, online reviews and the media; these sources directly influence purchasing decisions. Have an active plan for gathering testimonials, getting media mentions…and display them prominently on your website, marketing materials…

When someone asks what you do, you can quote a customer…For example, “Clients say we solve their ___ problems quickly and affordably”

Make it easy for others to talk about you
There are many great plug ins and tools that make it easy to share content from your website or blog. If the share buttons are always available next to your content, your audience is more likely to help spread the word, as it’s almost effortless. I love the Social Warfare plug in as it gives you many options to help people share your content including customized social media images, pre-populated tweets and posts.

Focus on the great work you do, and how you can solve problems and provide solutions. There are folks out there who really need your help and you are doing them a disservice by not letting them know about your services and solutions

Related Content:

How to Use HARO to Get Press

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Your Customer Experience Equals PR

Customer experience is a part of your PR. A very important component.

Studies have shown that there are two types of customers who talk about your brand and your business – ones that are raving fans and love you and those who are very unhappy with you or the experience they’ve had with your company.

What is the experience people have with your company?

Your customer experience equals PR for your brand

A few examples – Let’s start with the happy experience

Fat Witch Brownies, make the yummiest brownies I know. I like to send a box of their brownies as a gifts to help celebrate happy occasions and to thank business colleagues for referrals or other generous actions.

I had recently ordered a gift box of brownies to thank a business colleague for his help on a project, when they didn’t arrive at the recipient’s office, I found out that I had used the wrong address.

I called the Fat Witch and asked if there’s a way to check on where they had delivered my order to, and if there was a way to get them rerouted. I fessed up that I had made a mistake with the address. They said no, unfortunately they couldn’t trace the package, however they would gladly send the brownies again and only charge me the shipping. This had been my mistake, and yet they were willing to share some of the cost to resend my package.

Customers who encounter positive social customer care experiences are nearly 3 times more likely to recommend a brand. Source: HBR

The bad customer experience

I went online to use Haiku Deck, a presentation software that I had been using for awhile. After spending over an hour creating a new presentation I saved it and went to export it. A window popped up telling me that to export it into Powerpoint, I would have to upgrade to the paid version for $9.95. This was a new requirement, but I was fine with paying to use their service – that is until I completed payment and returned to my work area on Haiku Deck only to find that my hours worth of work hadn’t been saved.

Yes, technology is great when it works.

I was extremely frustrated, first about the the loss of time, but also that I had just paid and was now left with nothing. I contacted customer service whose response was that I had done something wrong. They had tested the software therefore I had done something wrong.

95% of dissatisfied customers tell others about their bad experience. Source : Dimensional Research.

Time lost in creating the presentation. Time lost talking to customer service. Not a happy camper. Now the mere mention or thought of Haiku Deck brings up the unpleasant experience, which is now imprinted on my brain.

71% of customers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide good service. Source: Forrester

Now back to how customer experience, and particularly customer service is part of your PR.

Public relations by definition is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public.

Consumers trust recommendations from friends and family, online reviews, and the media – in that order. Consumers make buying decisions based on recommendations online reviews and companies they read about in the media.

If your if your customers are going online and writing about you, posting on social media, or making recommendations to friends and family, what are they saying?

Remember, like me your customers remember the excellent and exceptional experiences and the terrible ones, and that’s what they will talk about.

I know which experience I want my customers to have and what I want my customers to be talking about.

The Fat Witch, has a made me even more of a raving fan. I just had to go and tell a few friends on social media to show my appreciation.

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The #1 Skill to Master for Successful Publicity and Content Marketing

I started to write this post about the importance of creating a great pitch or headline for your press release, and I realized a its just as critical to be able to craft a compelling concise email subject line or blog post title.

As Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit”

A great pitch or headline can also make all the difference in your business. Consider this. In our age of information overload, we scan article headlines and email subject lines and decide in the flash of a nanosecond it takes to scan the letters and words making up our opener, if we are going to open it right away, or perhaps not at all.

The #1 skill to master for successful publicity and content marketing, is the ability to craft a great and concise pitch.

As you can see, while great pitches, compelling press release headlines, and email subject lines are key to getting media coverage, this goes beyond Publicity. It impacts pitches to new prospects, partners, investors, journalists and potential partners.

When a journalist, or you yourself, scan your in box, it’s the subject line and possibly the first line of copy that gets seen in the preview window. It’s got to be attention grabbing or it gets deleted. It’s that simple.

In addition to being attention grabbing and compelling people to want to know more, it has to be short and communicate your message in as few words as possible. I know, no easy task.

Your existing email newsletter subscribers and blog readers already know and love you, and yet, they too may be ignoring you – only because of a less than compelling headline amongst a sea of headlines or subject lines in their inbox.

You can think of your headline or subject line as a tough gatekeeper – that can keep you from being in direct communication with your dear/cherished audience. It’s your job to charm the gatekeeper.

How Twitter [X] Can Teach You to Pitch Better

X, formerly known as Twitter, with its 140-character constraint, is a great way to hone your writing skills. You have to say what you need to say within the proscribed character limit or be cut off mid-thought, which is not a good option and can look unprofessional.

Sometimes, getting the words to fit into your tweet is trial and error. Sometimes, a bit of compromise. It can be done successfully, as there are over 400 million tweets sent daily, as well as people who have built massive followings by honing the art of communicating well within the word limit.

Google cuts off news headlines and articles, at 70 characters, so your press releases, blog posts and article titles display best within that even smaller number.

Ready to master the art of concise headlines and pitches?

First of course, you need a story idea. Then, to tell it within 70 or 140 characters, you sometimes need just a bit of help coming up with other words – synonyms or alternate ways to say the same concept or idea.

My favorite tools are the excellent old Thesaurus and the more updated version – Visual Thesaurus– which is actually an online interactive thesaurus and dictionary in one. It’s pretty, fun to use and very useful.

Other tools I find helpful are:

Wikipedia – under any given topic, they have related topics or ideas. This works as a brain jumpstart for me, sometimes giving me just the new word I need.

Photo libraries – sometimes the images that come up for a keyword search provide new ideas and ways I hadn’t yet thought of to voice my idea.

You may have to try a few to find what works best for you.

There are some other cool headline tools out there – watch for my list of them in the next week.

In the meantime, remember – a pitch or a headline is meant to be an irresistible invitation to read more. Its not intended to tell the entire story. In this instance, being a tease is a good thing!

In case you were wondering – My subject line for this post is 52 characters so that it would work well on Google, As an email Pitch, A press release headline, or on X!

It also has another success factor in it. Do you know what that is? Post your answer below. I’ll be giving a prize to the first person to get it correct!

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