Combining Public Relations with Technology to Create Profitable Websites, Blogs and Social Media Marketing.
Unlike a “social” network, LinkedIn is a “business network” that I like to refer to as an online resume.
LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.
LinkedIn is just like any other marketing tool - you have to have a goal and a strategy to get there. It can be used to make new business connections and potential leads, to apply for job positions and to build business relationships in your target geography.
Here are some tips on using LinkedIn effectively:
1. Create a strong profile. Make sure you fill in all the fields.
2. Make connections to people you already know. The more connections you have, the more credible you look.
3. Get References (give referrals to get referrals!).
2. Set a goal for your LinkedIn. What do you want to accomplish from using it? What types of people would you like to make connections with and what do you want from those connections? Maybe you need to make 5 new sales in the next 30 days from small business owners. Make that your goal!
3. Target specific companies or people. Once you set your goal you should know who you need to target. Check out your connections’ connections! See who your 2nd and 3rd degree connections are and request an introduction.
Other Helpful Resources
I’ve gotten this question for several business owners in the last couple weeks. I guess its ad renewal time for Verizon and the Yellowbook…
Which phonebook is more valuable? Which book should I advertise in? Should I advertise in all of them? Should I advertise in them AT ALL… or should I just be listed?
These are all great questions and ones that everyone should consider. As a public relations expert in technology this is what I know:
Unless you are tracking the phone calls you get from the phone book, nobody can really tell you how effective it is has been. And unless you can tell the future, nobody can know how effective it is going to be.
Phonebooks are going to become obsolete in the future… we all know this… but just how near in the future?
So, we tend to go off of other people’s experiences in making our decisions. And that is precisely what I have been telling people. I have heard good things about Verizon, OK things about Yellowbook, and horrible things about My Community Phonebook. So… there you have it.
We can adapt to the new technologies and use the internet! The internet is a giant phone book in itself. Make sure you are listed in:
All of these websites allow for you to have your phone number and address - some of them even give you the opportunity to put up a map and get customer reviews.
Search Engine Optimization, that is. If you own or update a blog or website, then you need to know the basics of optimizing a page for search engines to find.
Most people think that the index (or home) page of your website is the most important. Well, I won’t argue with that completely - but when it comes to using your website as a marketing piece, it needs to be more than a business card. By optimizing each article or page on your website individually, you will help Google list your website in organic search results when people are looking for YOU.
1. Your website or blog is built with clean code. Pretend YOU are a search engine spider. What do you look for on a website? Do you want the content to be easy to find and easy to read? So do search spiders! Search engines want your website code to be clean enough that they can find the content within the jargon.
2. Do your search engine research. Without giving away all the goods, I would say start with Google Suggest and Google Insight, and see what some popular trends and topics are. Then go into your search engine key word tool and find the exact phrases that will key Google to display your website.
3. Use your keywords in the correct formula to get Google to notice you. Its easy. Use the key phrase in the title of your page, in the first paragraph, and the last paragraph. There are lots of other rules that will help you out, but that will get you started.
Tomorrow is Lynchburg’s first ever Blog Competition at 9am @ The Muse Coffee in Wyndhurst. Our judges are each offering a small token of gratitude for participation to the winner with the most blog points! Here are the prizes:
SEO Assessment & Consultation from Phil Tucker, Tucker Consultancy
FIVE Tickets to a ‘Night Out with ShoutOut!’ from Andrew Potter, ShoutOut LLC
Blog Usability Coaching and Training from Jennifer Bailey, Marketing-helper.com
Social Media Training from Nannette Saunders, NannetteSaunders.com
For the Central Virginia blog owners who are submitting a blog to Friday 2.0’s first ever “Blog-Off” Competition (to win a great prize OR to get free feedback) - here is our next set of criteria:
Our judge for Blog Sexiness (Look and Feel) will be Andrew Potter of ShoutOut Marketing.
Andrew will be judging on a combination of your blog’s aesthetics and also it’s content, asking the question: is your site “sticky” (does it make people stay?).
1. Does your blog have a good color combination?
Following conventional rules of good design, your colors should be both complimentary but also contrasting. If you don’t know what good color combinations are, look it up in Google!
2. Does your blog use attractive and complimentary fonts?
Beginners should start with 1 font, playing with the sizes and the different font styles like Bold and Italics. Ideally, however, you should have two font types: one serif font and one sans serif font (look em up if you don’t know what they mean). Again,they should compliment but also contrast.
3. Does your blog have bells and whistles?
In other words, does it use nice pictures, videos and other forms of media?
4. Does your blog have good content?
Make sure your blog’s content is separated in a hierarchy of important information, using bolds and font sizes to break up the text. Also your text should be relevant to your target market. Is your content properly edited?
5. Is your blog sticky?
Does it make people want to stay? Does it make people want to come back?
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Our judge for Blog Usability will be Jennifer Bailey of Marketing-Helper.com (that’s me!).
I will be judging on the visitor’s ability to understand, comprehend and interact with the website without frustration or anxiety.
1. User’s ability to find the site’s main purpose upon first glance
Most websites only have 3 seconds to introduce themselves to a visitor before they click the “back” button. Is your logo is visible, usually upper left hand corner at all times? Do you have a slogan or website title that is visible with a short and to the point description of the site’s purpose? Do you have a description of purpose or services on home page and easily visible on the navigation bar?
2. Does the information flows in such a way that you can find what you are looking for without having to think about it?
Do you use H1 to H3 tags, bold, different color contrast, etc?
3. Is the navigation consistent, simple and visible?
Is it conventional? (Across the top of the site). Does it go more than 3 levels deep?
Does it stay the same on every page? Can you click on the logo to get back to the homepage?
4. Website accomplishes functional goals
What is your end goal for the user? What information do you want to take away, what action do you want them to take at the end? Do the applications work?
5. Newsletter Signup, contact, or other Convergence method
Do they work and are they easy to find and use?
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You can enter the Blog-Off competition here >
Friday 2.0 is hosting the first ‘Blog-Off’ Competition for blog owners in Central Virginia and Roanoke.
77% of active internet users read blogs. 900,000 is the average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period, according to Business Week.
LYNCHBURG, Virginia. - May 5, 2009 - A ‘Blog-Off” competition will be held on May 22nd at The Muse Coffee in Wyndhurst at 9:00 in the morning. Local business networking group, Friday 2.0, has put together a panel of four judges to evaluate the main criteria that makes an effective blog. Submission deadline is May 15th.
Lynchburg Blog-Off
The purpose of the event is to evaluate the effectiveness of local bloggers, while educating local business owners that those who fail to embrace social media technologies for business will be left behind. Through the month of May each judge will get a chance to share their criteria for blog sexiness, usability, search engine optimization and community engagement.
In a Coleman-Parkes Research study, companies currently using Social Media reported the following:
The panel of judges include ShoutOut LLC’s director of marketing, Andrew Potter, Marketing-Helper.com’s Jennifer Bailey, BrowseLynchburg.com’s Phil Tucker, and Nannette Saunders from RE/Max.
“More and more companies are using social media and blogging to position themselves as industry leaders in their fields,” said Marketing-Helper.com owner Jennifer Bailey. “A lot of companies are afraid of this thing called social media, but the truth is that if we can learn how to adapt in an effective way then we can not only cut our marketing costs but increase sales leads.”
Those interested in learning more about the competition can visit The Blog-Off Fact Sheet >
About Friday 2.0
Friday 2.0 is a local Virginia networking group who meets on Friday mornings at 9:00 a.m. at The Muse coffee shop in Wyndhurst. Friday 2.0’s goal is to get educated about social media tools and opportunities. The most passionate and curious professionals attend this un-meeting as a way to connect with like-minded individuals and discuss the topics and trends relevant to technology, social media and the future of social media. Everyone from the freshly-minted twitter-er, to the tech-advanced executive managing 500 people are encouraged to attend and participate. All voices are equal and welcome at Friday 2.0! Join our Facebook Friday 2.0 Group.
Other Resources:
Coleman-Parkes Research Findings
Definitions of Social Media
I just finished putting up a site for speaker and coach David W. Mills. 
Goals:
1. Gain site traffic from churches who want to grow
2. Sell some Needs Assessment Kits
3. Get speaking and coaching engagements
How to Designed the Site to Meet our Goals:
For those Central Virginia blog owners who want to participate in Friday 2.0’s first ever “Blog-Off” Competition (to win a great prize OR to get free feedback) - here is our first set of criteria.
Our judge for Search Engine Optimization will be Phil Tucker of Tucker Consultancy.
Criteria for SEO… do you have good:
1. Content … is king! Not only is this where you plugin solid and useful content that make people want to read, but it is where search engines are fed and how they rate you on relevance and popularity.
2. Incoming Links. The more links you have the more often Google is going to visit.
“The easiest way to gain quality links from other sites is to link to sites to let them know your site is there and hope for a reciprocal link.” - Phil Tucker
3. Website Title. Is your website topic going to be understood by Google? What are the key words used in your title and domain name and are they relevant?
4. Heading Tags. Are your headings in H1 tags? What does this mean?! Hmm, maybe you should do some research on basic HTML and heading tag structures.
5. Internal Linking. Of course, you want to use relevant content throughout your site… but if you are using relevant content, it should be easy to link to other relevant content within your site.
Read what Phil Tucker has to say about his ‘Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tips” >
Lynchburg ladies filled the Liberty room at the Hilton Garden Inn this last Wednesday for our first ever Women, Influence and Social Media luncheon. Cheryl Smith and I tried to empower women on ‘How to Make a Frikin Difference’ and how to use the social media tools to take relationships to a higher level.
Check out Cheryl Smith’s report and our powerpoint slides here >
What: Blog Competition
Who: Central Virginia residents who own and operate a weblog!
Deadline for Submissions: May 15th, 2009
Blog-Off Date: Friday, May 22nd @ 9 a.m.
Where: The Muse coffee shop in Wyndhurst
Why: To evaluate the effectiveness of local bloggers!
What is Friday 2.0?
Friday 2.0 is a local Virginia networking group who meets on Friday mornings at 9 a.m. at The Muse coffee shop in Wyndhurst. Friday 2.0’s goal is to get educated about social media tools and opportunities. The most passionate and curious professionals attend this un-meeting as a way to connect with like-minded individuals and discuss the topics and trends relevant to technology, social media and the future of social media. Everyone from the freshly-minted twitter-er, to the tech-advanced executive managing 500 people are encouraged to attend and participate. All voices are equal and welcome at Friday 2.0! Join our Facebook Friday 2.0 Group.
Battle of the Blogs!
Friday 2.0 meets every week to talk about the effectiveness of blogging. Each week leading up to our ‘Blog-Off’ our panel of judges will be presenting the criteria by which they will be judging!
By submitting your blog to our panel of four judges, you will be entered into our first ever ‘Blog-Off’. Your blog will be evaluated for:
Instructions on Submitting Your Blog to the ‘Blog-Off’:
To submit your blog you need to…
The Grand Prize:
Winner of the ‘Blog-Off’ will receive something so incredible, so amazing, that we can’t tell you what it is just yet.
My passion is in creating solutions where improvement is needed. Through web strategies, coaching and education, I walk alongside my customers to effectively meet brick and mortar goals. I can help you cut costs while increasing sales!
