While many of us rattle chains and boast the birth of new media and new public relations methods, there are still many ways in which the most traditional public relations and marketing principles can be applied to new technology and current social media marketing trends.   No part of content marketing and PR should ever be intimidating and to help ensure success here are 4 useful tips that can make even the most inexperience business owner feel comfortable about jumping into the world of content marketing and public relations.

Public Relations & Content Marketing Tip #1 – Leverage the Fundamentals

Research, planning, implementation and evaluation still exist.  What many business owners don’t realize is these have a place even in the new way of doing things.  You have to avoid being tempted by the deceptive simplicity of social media, as it will inevitably swallow your business and your brand image.  This has happened to a number of businesses that dove in without first understanding the beast.

Not all social media sites serve the same purpose and many more are very specific to a certain industry.  If you want to benefit from social media and improve public relations then you need to find a venture that is a strategic fit.  And never abandon the wisdom of defining goals and coolly calculating your plan.

Public Relations & Content Marketing Tip #2 – The Blog

No post you produce has to be long, fancy or uber-professional.  Your customers are looking for specific topic and insights.  They recognize that they can’t get the answers all in one place but they’re willing to look around to find some direction.  To make a successful business blog to improve public relations you simply need to understand your market and subject matter then give your followers what they want – information.

At its basic core, the blog is simply a tool to keep customers coming back.  You’re not writing scientific formula, you’re not reinventing the wheel, you’re just sharing a solution… or a path to a solution.

Public Relations & Content Marketing Tip #3 – The power of Video

If the pen is mightier than the sword the video is like a tactical nuke that can wipe out everything.  People love video – we have since the dawn of moving pictures so many years ago.  Research has proven that huge audiences are watching videos online, within sites like YouTube.  You need leverage that same system to improve your public relations and consumer outreach.

How to videos, testimonials, promotional videos, interviews, commercials, etc.  There are dozens of opportunities to improve your position within your audience.

Public Relations & Content Marketing Tip #4 – Be Prepared

You can’t enter a social setting with consistent interaction and not expect there to be misunderstandings, negative feedback and more (or worse).  Part of your social media and public relations strategy should be some plan in place to deal with less than favorable issues in social media.  Being prepared ahead of time is the best way to handle a crisis, rather than trying to fumble through a public relations nightmare.



If you want your content marketing to gain traction you have to start with your website.  Everything you do in terms of marketing points back to those landing pages;  articles, blogs, paid search marketing, organic traffic from discussions, etc.  If you use content marketing to funnel people back to your website – and that website isn’t prepared for the traffic – you might as well be burning your ad budget.

There are two things to think about when it comes to your site content; optimization and conversions.  Your site copy needs to have both of these in line before you start any kind of offsite SEO or content marketing campaigns.  If you want your website in order so you can start rocking the sales with all of your content marketing then follow these tips to write compelling and optimized website content:

Strong Site Content for Better Content Marketing – “What’s in it for Me?”

Have you noticed that people tend to listen more intently and pay closer attention to you when you include them in a story, and when a topic really appeals to them?  This works in sales as well as people tend to pay much closer attention when you start talking about how your product or service benefits them.  Not only can this tactic be used within your content marketing but your site should certainly include benefit statements that will – without a doubt – improve conversions.

Strong Site Content for Better Content Marketing – Who is your Ideal Prospect?

One of the most common mistakes made by many small business owners (and even larger businesses) is believing that their target audience is “everyone”.  While you might think that everyone wants to save money, and your loan service helps them do that, you still don’t have “everyone”.  More than likely you have a very specific type of demographic that’s your ideal customer and your targeted buyer persona.  The others will fill in the gaps in smaller portions.  Your content marketing should target the big group and your site content should be written in a way that it appeals to their needs, wants and problems.

Strong Site Content for Better Content Marketing – Finding the Right Key Phrases

Make sure you choose the right keywords for your site content, and use slightly different variations or different keywords for each page.  These give you a wider spread in terms of market share and buy cycle, they bring in much higher targeted traffic, they resonate with readers, they give you a much higher relevancy in the search engines for those keywords and can reduce the cost of your PPC campaigns.  You should take time to generate a targeted keyword report before you start content marketing.

Strong Site Content for Better Content Marketing – Using the Right Key Phrases

You can’t stuff your content full of keywords.  Not only does it look unnatural but it’s difficult to read and the search algorithm is likely to dock you points for being spammy.  People won’t stick around to read trash copy and your conversions will suffer.  The best tactic to optimizing your on site content is to write for people first, and let it flow naturally.  Once completed, review and see if you can improve the keyword relevancy throughout the copy without taking away from the tone.  Work to weave keywords into your benefit statements to create truly compelling copy.

It is entirely possible for a small business owner to skip the need for hiring a website copywriting agency and simply produce their own copy.  We’re kind of geeky about it and insist that once you start doing it, it’s actually quite entertaining.  The reward of course comes when you launch content marketing that starts to bring in loads of quality traffic ready to convert.



Google is making an aggressive jump into social with the new plus-one voting system they’re embedding in search results and while this isn’t the first time that Google has tried hard to get their share of the social web, this is the first time that they have added a social signal directly into the search results.

We know that Google has been moving in this direction with recent updates as they tried to find ways to include social sharing and buzz into the ranking algorithm but this is a step in a new direction.  Where we were once inundated by nothing but text and blue links within search results, Google has continued to prove to its audience that they’re changing the landscape for search to ensure that people get the most relevant content.

The Changing Landscape of Search with Social Media Buzz

Google got smart and realized that people don’t share crap, and they won’t share crap with trusted networks.  Thus it makes sense to trust the majority of ‘likes’ and social sharing that takes place across social media on the web.  Many of us saw this coming a long time ago which is why SYNND has such a successful system already in place for social buzz building and social proof.  As the primary social networks continue to grow as well as secondary social media networks and social bookmarking sites, the parts they play in determine content relevancy and search rank will only continue to grow.

So where does the new Plus One from Google come in to play?

Google Aims to Suck Less at Social Media with the Plus One

And there stands the truth behind it all – Google, while carrying the torch for search around the world, sucks terribly at social media.  The downfall of Google Buzz showed that it’s extremely difficult to compete in a market being dominated by Twitter and Facebook but Google is aiming to get their share of the market with the new Plus One.

They’ve even told current employees that their paychecks and jobs in 2011 depend on Google becoming a major player in social media.  But can Google go head to head with the Facebook like button?

When Can You Ask for Too Much in Social Media

It’s obvious that the Plus One system that Google is putting in place is going to have some effect on rank.  Popular sites are going to see a major boost because of this ranking factor and social media is indeed important but we have to question when you get to a point where you’re asking too much of people.  Will all the “buttons” that we add within, around and in the entry to content saturate surfers to the point that they start to tune them out?

Based on the weight that Google is putting on social sharing and their own investment into the one-click thumbs up, it doesn’t look like they think so.  At the very least we can see that Google is making an aggressive push in order to take their spot in social media.  They’ve got a bit of a head start on this one since they’re running the search engine show and users don’t have to do anything other than a single click within search to take advantage of the Plus One – a play cleverly stolen from the Facebook Playbook.  Another is the ability to Plus One (+1) the ads that exist within search.

The only questions now is when will Google will roll out the social media plugin for websites as one more ranking factor for the actual on-page content within a domain.

There are a few things that come to mind when we start thinking about Friday – Probably Rebecca Black if you’re viral-savvy and like to watch the trending stuff on the web.  You’re also probably gigging on words and phrases like “Woot” and “#FF” when the day rolls around.

Friday is definitely a popular day of the week, but it’s also the day where people seem to be spending the most time on social media engagement.  From a personal stance I know that Monday seems to be the most popular but that’s mainly because at the beginning of the week I’m looking for any excuse to prolong the start of work day…  social media and sites like Mashable offer the perfect distraction.

Social Media Engagement – Checking out Mentally and Digitally

It’s not distraction they’re after on Friday though.  Buddy Media found through a study that social media engagement was up 18% on Thursdays and Fridays – data compiled by analyzing more than 200 of their clients’ Facebook pages over a 2 week period.  Twitter users are also more engaged on Fridays and this likely has a lot to do with the FollowFriday convo’s, responses and thanks.

But it’s also something that’s more obvious – people are heading into the weekend and they’re trying to get their mind into “plan and relax” mode.  They’re thinking about other things besides work, including what they want to do over the weekend.  They are digitally “checking out early” and transitioning to the weekend through social media.  Social media engagement gives them the ability to reach out and plan ahead, connect with people and decide what it is they’re going to do.

Post Count Down with Social Media Engagement Up

What’s interesting across the board is that people are on the downward descent for the number of posts they share.  The hustle and bustle of the work week is coming to a close but even with fewer posts overall there tends to be more click through’s and heightened social media engagement among those posts that are made.

It doesn’t look like many companies and marketers are picking up on this idea yet – as their corporate posts fall off just like user posts once it’s “after hours” time.  They could likely foster more social media engagement and get some more activity within their own communities if they extended their outreach into off hours.

Does this apply to all businesses?  Not necessarily.  I imagine that the business to business crowd would be the hardest to target and least likely to respond on the weekend days – they’ve been checked out mentally since Thursday or Friday morning.  Those that deal with a business to consumer audience however can really benefit from this reveal of social media engagement, particularly media and entertainment businesses that want to draw the crowds on the weekends.

When you’re trying to support your business or your marketing efforts through content marketing and content syndication it’s easy to get burnt out pretty fast.  Many marketers and business owners feel like they need to create content on a daily basis or at least several times a week.  The idea is great and kudos for your efforts to deliver quality content to your audience… but what do you do when you’re faced with serious burn out writing for yourself?

It may not be that you’re burnt out on writing completely – you just need to change up your routine a little bit and seek alternative methods to source some traffic and visibility for your brand.  When you locate guest posting opportunities you can start to see how you can mix up your content marketing strategy.

Guest Posting Opportunities – Writing for the Web

It’s true that you’re writing for yourself when you’re blogging and creating articles online for content syndication.  You’re working hard to build traffic to your site but you should know that there are a lot of opportunities out there – opportunities to write for the web.

That’s where your focus should be because when you turn your focus away from your own brand visibility and instead focus on writing for your followers not only will you start to create better content but you’ll find a variety of places where you can post that content.  Writing for other blogs allows you to widen the reach of your marketing and tap into an entirely new pool of people.

If you’re hitting a wall with your own blogging then it’s time to branch out

Why Guest Posting Works

We already know that content marketing in any form – with quality content – helps to promote you as a thought leader.  Guest posting opportunities get your name out to a wider audience.  In most cases, the guest post is unpaid but you’re “reimbursed” by having a byline or a link to your website.  As people find the content they are compelled to click through into your website where they can continue to sample your own content marketing and enter your sales funnel.

Guest Posting Opportunities – Start with What You Read

A good blogger stays tuned into their market, whether you’re involved in your own marketing or you’re a business owner.  The most dedicated bloggers are also avid followers of industry blogs and more than likely you have a few that you tune into.  Check your favorite blogs and find out if they accept guest posts.  If you’re a frequent commenter and you have an established relationship with the site owner you can try a direct email query as well.

Guest Posting Opportunities – Join a Guest Blogging Community

There’s a community for everything now so you can rest assured that there are sites that cater to bloggers – because blogging is such a huge part of social media.  There is an ever-growing call for guest bloggers as marketers and business owners need to fill space among their sites.  Sites like MyBlogGuest provide a forum for bloggers to find guest posting opportunities – and when you need some content for your own blog you can return to these communities and seek a guest writer.

Guest Posting Opportunities – Leveraging Twitter Search

Search.twitter.com is a search engine that bloggers like you can use to find content within the Twitterverse.  Once you submit a search query this live search engine will continue to feed results to you as they happen giving you up to the minute insight on guest posting opportunities as they happen.  With millions of people on Twitter every day,  and many more using the social site as a marketing & outreach tool, you’re bound to find some writing opportunities to help increase your exposure.

Twitter uses that short micro-blog format though, so people write in a very tight but casual manner so it pays to know what terms they use to reach out.  Here are some good suggestions:

• Need guest post
• Writers needed
• Need writers
• Guest bloggers wanted
• Guest bloggers
• Write for us
• Blog for us
• Guest Writers

Note that Twitter allows the use of operators so you can enclose the phrases in quotes for exact match or without for broad match.

It’s good to get out, stretch your legs, leave your blog behind and write somewhere new.  It’s not hard to find a place to share your content and post.  There are plenty of blogs on the net that fall within your area of expertise.  Do a little hunting and you’ll find some great guest posting opportunities to continue building your brand visibility online.

The social web has grown into a deeply engaging place.  It’s like a revamped, remodeling and shiny downtown district full of social clubs (Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, etc.) fit for every type of person.  Around this downtown district however there is a world full of  content and websites that are turning into ghost-towns – like deserted neighborhoods.

And this isn’t about content mills – it’s your website.

Despite the technology we have today and all the methods for outreach that have come to fruition in the last 10 years, there are far too many corporate websites with lazy content.  What’s worse is that even in 2011 these sites aren’t leveraging the web x.0 content such as blogs and community forums.  These things just end up getting shuffled to the back of some “community” drop down with very little engagement from the company.

Instead, the new corporate social media strategy is fire off all the engagement possible at the social media sites.  They invest in those social sites and – quite frankly – that’s just plain wrong.  While their support is creating a glorious “downtown district”, there’s a whole neighborhood made up of vendor websites that are falling into disarray.  When people inadvertently wander in they’re quick to leave because they want nothing to do with it.

Modify the Corporate Social Media Strategy to Bring the Traffic Home

External social websites like Facebook, Twitter, and other vertical communities are certainly ideal to generate a low-barrier and very personal exchange with a brand.  This type of corporate social media strategy can be seen as the equivalent to a window display that gets people to pause mid-step in front of a store to check out what’s on sale.  The most interested people need to be (and will be) funneled over to the brand website where they can engage with like-minded people, learn more about the company, product or service and ultimately convert.

Unfortunately that won’t happen with the state of many corporate websites.  They have to clean up the neighborhood if it’s going to offer the same experience as many social media sites.

A New Take on Corporate Social Media Strategy

What’s been “working” for years is not going to work anymore.  A ‘Community’ section on the backend of a website simply won’t cut it anymore.  Your entire website needs to become the community.  Editorial content and informative pieces are still necessary but consider the power and potential of a site that features user generated content on the home page as well as photos, videos, blogs, reviews and comments throughout the site.  We have the technology to make that happen – it’s just a matter of embracing it and investing in your own neighborhood.

Having a corporate social media strategy is a smart move, and bravo for reaching out to your target audience through social media. If you’re seeing results then even more kudos to you.  Now you need make a change because your business doesn’t exist in the backyard of someone else.  Turn your own site into the community that your users are looking for and make your own neighborhood the heart and focus of your corporate social media strategy.

You could swim in a sea of buzz words that get passed around the marketing world these days.  These buzz words have become so prevalent that we’re now creating anti-buzz word lists just to please with people to put them down.  Businesses often rely on these buzz words for the purposes of reputation management in hopes that they will impress the prospect or customer and glean just a little more loyalty.

• Authentic
• Genuine
• Transparent
• Engaging

Sound familiar?  More than likely because everyone is talking about making sure you hit those points to resonate with your target audience (buzz word central today).  Take away the marketing angle on any of it and what does it come down to?

Personality.

It takes real personality for good reputation management but it also takes an ability to get along with a variety of personalities while also appealing to them.  Blogging is a prime location where many companies get their reputation management all wrong.  It hits some companies hard when customers or prospects come looking for more information and find that content is boring, academic or even didactic in tone.

It’s only made worse when your content grows to be long-winded.  That doesn’t sponsor engagement – that makes your ideal customer snore.  They get a very skewed opinion of you and your company and they’re not likely to come seeking information again.  Even worse, they’ll remember that experience when they think about your brand, products, etc.  This could be marketing and reputation management suicide if you’re trying to appeal to an upbeat, social audience ripe with personality (younger generation for example).

Authenticity in Reputation Management

Your personality is the visible aspect of your character as it impresses others and in terms of your company it’s the distinctive character that makes the brand socially attractive.  Your reputation management is all about authentic personality.

Marketing used to be done on a very personal level and it was often handled by sales teams – whether indoors or field sales reps.  These folks were all about personality because they knew that personality is the foundation of trust and credibility.  Unfortunately the selling styles of past days was more about blowing smoke than actually being authentic.  That doesn’t fly anymore – you have to be authentic.. genuine…

There’s those words again…

Solidify Your Reputation Management with Personality

Always remember that you have as much control over your reputation management as customers and other business owners do.  It’s your personality that will greatly affect how your brand and reputation grows and it matters little whether you’re involved in B2B, B2C, government or one of many non-profit organizations.  You still need to connect with people in order to start new relationships, grow existing ones, and cultivate trust.

What personality traits do you think are the most important for your own marketing and reputation management?

So with making your content sharable through syndication, you’re setting yourself up for success.  But.. is your content accessible?

It would stand to reason that if your content is easily shared then it’s easily accessed but that’s rarely the case.  You can actually lose a portion of your target audience just from accessibility issues.

Every day your audience (and other members on the web) interact with content on a variety of devices, screens and with various browsers or programs.  It’s critical that your content – to give you the greatest potential reach – is accessible on virtually every platform (hardware and software).

This wasn’t an issue a few years ago – most people had a desktop with an MS based operating system and Internet Explorer.  Apple has now continued to gain popularity, a variety of browsers have sprung up offering different user experiences and now websites are being viewed more often on web-enabled phones.

One of the easiest ways to ensure your content is accessible for viewing and sharing is to try it on your own across various platforms.  If you don’t have access to all then query regular customers as well as friends to verify the state of your content.

A great reason for testing content and building/distributing with accessibility in mind is the fact that Apple announced it will not be supporting Adobe flash.  That means that any content containing flash won’t be viewable on apple products including the new iPad, iPhones and other “i” devices.

iToldyouso.

Lastly, accessibility means also making the decision as to whether or not you’re going to lock your content behind a registration page.  You may want to tackle registrations for the purpose of creating a marketing list but also consider the benefit of how easy content is shared when an opt-in is not required.  Likewise, content that is not locked up in a dragon-guarded tower is easily indexed by search engines which can help drop interested prospects right into your sales funnel.

Ultimately, the decision on registration is a matter of a preference so it’s up to you how much of your content you want to share and how easy you want the sharing process to be.  Even with a strong system like SYNND for content syndication you can still be stifled by accessibility issues.

Plan ahead to make your content accessible as well as sharable.

It’s true that a public relations agency can be expensive but there are plenty that are built on the concept of structured PR and marketing without breaking a clients budget.  They’re designed for small business owners.  Likewise, there are plenty of PR activities that you can do as a business owner to improve your customer relationship management and PR on a personal level to bypass working with an agency or supplement what they’re doing to reduce your overhead cost.

The important thing is that you should do something – and that something doesn’t have to be budget or time consuming.

Still at a loss?  Here are some things that you can personally do to improve your visibility and brand within your local community

Hold an Event or Seminar

The people you do business with are only going to envision you as a leader in your market if you position yourself as such.  A seminar, held either for free or for a small ticket price, is a great way to build immediate visibility for your target audience.  Through a seminar you can educate prospects on various topics and offer simple solutions, answers to frequently asked questions, etc.  Overall, provide something of value that they can take away.  In the end they see you as a topical expert and will consider your business the next time the need arises – for some that’s immediately.

Reach Into the Community

There are numerous ways that your business can take part in the community and you can do more than just sponsor a local baseball team.  Numerous organizations (especially non-profits) operate under the radar because they don’t have the funding to market like you do.  Partner with these organizations to improve their visibility among your target audience.  You can run joint offers that promote the non-profit.  The benefit to your business is that people see your outreach and support of charitable organizations, improving the overall opinion of your business and those who run it.  You’re also giving back a little which provides a long term economic benefit within your community.

Team Up with Business Owners

Many areas have business groups and referral networks that work together to improve business for local companies.  They share referrals to one another as customers look for relevant services.  This is great PR if you can align yourself with other well-known businesses.  By getting a recommendation from a trusted company in the area you’re more likely to gain visibility from word of mouth.

Engage

You can gain the most visibility by directly engaging your target audience.  If you want good public relations and boosts on public opinion then find your customers and prospects online within social media and other communities – then start talking.  Just don’t try to sell them on anything.  You’re there to make conversation and share what you know.  Give them some value to take away and people will start to remember your contribution.

All of these methods don’t require a great deal of time or investment – you just need to apply a few hours where you can spare them.  For any time you put in though, the return on your investment will almost always cover what you put in.  Do things right and the investment could be much greater.

Let Passion Inspire You

There’s likely something about what you do that you absolutely love.  When someone gets you started on this particular topic you can’t stop talking because you want to share everything you know.  Let your passion be the guiding light to get you rolling on the content marketing.  Once you start brainstorming topics around your passion you’ll be able to build a nice deep seed list of article or blog possibilities.

Find What People Are Searching For

A keyword utility such as the Google Keyword Tool stores user search data so you can start plugging in keywords and phrases related to your industry, products or services.  This gives you insight into what people are looking for and most interested in – a great way to develop targeted topics that are sure to attract readers within your market.

Your Customers are in Social Media

With more than 600 million users on Facebook alone, there’s a good chance that some of your customers and prospects are lingering around the social networks and discussing their problems, ideas and more.  Get involved in social networks, groups and communities where you can join the conversation.  With direct engagement you can monitor what these folks are discussing in real time.  If a particular topic is trending then you’ve got fuel for the content marketing fire.

Leverage Non-Industry Related Content

Trade journals and fellow experts are great sources of information but there are hundreds of other popular topics within the media that can be used an angle for your content.  Solar flares?  How do they effect solar panel installation and use or new brand electronics.  Political debates and issues in the area? Discuss how your target audience might be affected  The Superbowl might not have a lot to do with your business but you can find ways to relate to the seasonal game (and other types of local or world events).

Dig out the Camera

If you have a digital camera or a flip camera then you have an opportunity to skip the writing and load up on pictures or video for your readers.  Go behind the scenes and how them how your office works, introduce the people behind the scenes, show the distribution process, photos or video of the warehouse, interviews with big wigs and more.  Content marketing is about more than just writing – mix up your media.

Reach out for User Generated Content

You don’t have to produce all the content, especially for a blog.  Companies likes SlapWatch.com feature content and reviews from customers who love the product so much they send in testimonials or blog about it.  You can also invite your customers or readers to share information about your product or service, talk about the market or other topics relevant to your business.

These are just a few ways to get the content train rolling when you’re trying to improve your brand and spur on the customer relationship building and management.  Don’t just try to create content on the fly though because you’ll stall your efforts.  Take these suggestions and start brainstorming content – you’ll be shocked with how much you come up with.  Put together an editorial calendar that lays out when you want to produce the content and what topics you’ll cover.  This way, when the day comes up to put something on the site, you’ve got a topic ready to go.

At the end of the day, remember that the point of your content is to look human.  Being a thought leader means showing yourself off as an expert but it doesn’t mean being perfect.  It’s ok if your content doesn’t cover every angle, doesn’t provide all the answers and doesn’t look like it was written by a college professor.  Leaving things open and a little untidy leaves space for your target audience to step in and join the conversation.