Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category

I just came across a great piece on the power of the word and how key it is to avoid “puffery” in our business and personal communications written by Michael Port, Contributing Editor for Entrepreneur, featured on the American Express OPEN Forum.

Here are just some of his observations from that article that apply to virtually any sales, staff, or client meeting as well as advertising and personal connections: “Most of the actions or activities people engage in, both personally and professionally, are carried out through conversation, so our use of language is a powerful tool for building or breaking trust. If you can’t back up your puffery or prove the generalizations you make, it’ll be difficult to engender much trust.” As Port cites in his post, “All generalities are false, including this one.”

You can keep reading here: http://bit.ly/bddrX4

I recently registered for the Michael Stelzner/SocialMediaExaminer.com Social Media Success Summit 2010 after having participated in an incredible lead-in introduction Webinar for the summit. (Michael is the guy who really did write the book on white papers!) I was blown away by how much information the participating summit experts shared and realized how powerful this online/summit conference is going to be and did not hesitate to enroll. I’ve already discussed this with some of you and was asked to provide more information when I got it as this is bound to be of great interest to many others. This post includes LOTS of info because this is a lot to share plus I’ve included a special link for the special $297 price (a 50% discount!) that is good just through April 15, 2010.

The Michael Stelzner summit I was part of in late 2008 FAR exceeded my expectations, and this one promises to be bigger and better and it’s on a subject that is changing almost daily: social media. It is anticipated to be the world’s biggest online event designed to empower marketers and small business owners to master social media marketing. And the great news is that it’s a live, online conference with these experts that you can attend from your home or office—and even catch up on the Web if you need to miss a session.

This summit offers all of us an ideal opportunity to maximize the benefits from all of the combinations and permutations of the social-media mix (including some elements and tactics that may be entirely new to many of us) whether you are on the agency side or the client side. Even though one of the services I provide is helping clients with social media strategy and execution, I really feel that almost everyone should have the information contained in this summit to help realize the potential and implement their plans.

Michael Stelzner and his team have been working for months to bring the best minds in social media marketing together in an event called Social Media Success Summit that features 24 of the world’s leading social media superstars as summit instructors with the legendary Guy Kawasaki as the keynote speaker.

The summit features Guy Kawasaki (author, Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (author, Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (author, ProBlogger), Mari Smith (author, Facebook Marketing), experts from Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, FoursquareGroupon; Steve Rubel (Edelman), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Greg Jarboe (author, YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (author, Mobile Marketing Handbook), Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer), Jay Baer (Convince & Convert), and Ramon De Leon (Chicago Domino’s Pizza)—just to mention some. Together, this team of “who’s who” in social media will help you succeed using practical tactics.

Last year, nearly 1,000 marketers and small business owners from around the world attended the 2009 summit, and it was a smash hit. Businesses were transformed. In fact, 97% of attendees said they’d attend again.

Click here to visit the site now…

This year’s focus is to empower you to build social media marketing plans, track your social media results and learn from other successful businesses. You’ll also discover how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare, and Groupon to attract high-caliber customers and grow your business during this economic slump.

PROOF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING WORKS…

A few months ago, Michael Stelzner founded a site called Social Media Examiner. He relied 100% on social media tactics to drive traffic to his site.

In less than five months, he was declared the #1 small business blog in the world by Technorati, added more than 13,000 email subscribers, brought nearly 100,000 people a month to his site and is ranked as one of the top 4,700 Web sites in all of America by Alexa.

He didn’t advertise, didn’t rely on the press and almost none of his traffic is coming from search engines. Nearly overnight, his site has become a top destination for businesses.

This all took place via social media. He simply leveraged the power of sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to deliver the kind of results that would’ve cost him a fortune in the past. He didn’t spend a dime on marketing—just his time.

Not only can you gain amazing exposure for your business with social media marketing, you’ll also generate traffic, increase sales, gain qualified leads, and build new partnerships.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

First, you don’t need to be a techno-geek or twenty-something to use and benefit from social media. You might be surprised to learn that most social media marketers are aged 30 to 60 and have only been using social media for a few months. In fact, even traditional businesses like Ford Motor Company, Clorox, and State Farm Insurance are heavily focused on social media.

Social Media Success Summit 2010 will help you discover the best ways to market your business using social media. You’ll also learn how successful social media campaigns were executed and how you can achieve similar results using no-cost social media tactics.

One thing I found valuable after I participated in the 2008 Stelzner summit was that participants were able to join an online community of like-minded women and men at no additional cost. Many of them freely shared their sometimes-remarkable experiences and wisdom with each other with a pay-it-forward type of mentality–and there will be a counterpart to that online community for those who participate in this summit.

Here’s the link to learn more and enroll: Social Media Success Summit 2010

I am looking forward to this–and I think you will, too, once you’ve had a chance to check out the agenda and the possibilities! All of the sessions, dates, and times are detailed as are the payment options, etc., by clicking through one of the links above.

P.S. As a way of saying “thanks” for checking out the summit, they’ve included a gift just for marketers called “How to Grow and Engage an Audience on Twitter” (valued at $42). It, too, is waiting for you here

A show that promises to be great for foodies and restaurateurs with a focus on local food and food rivalries premieres tonight, March 9, on the Travel Channel: Food Wars @food_wars on Twitter. This may be ideal for local restaurateurs to create a fun, healthy sense of competition in their markets in their areas of specialty! http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Food_Wars

It’s described as follows: “There’s a debate brewing across the
country, and it’s taking place in Everytown, USA, with legions of loyal
fans passionately defending… the local eateries and the iconic dishes
that make their towns famous. From Detroit’s hot dog war — Lafayette’s
vs. American Coney Island’s — to one of the most famous battles in the
country — the Philly cheesesteak war between Pat’s and Geno’s — it’s
time to end these rivalries once and for all as Travel Channel presents
Food Wars.

Host Camille Ford, travel enthusiast and lover of all things food, sets
out to find the country’s most celebrated dishes — foods that define
destinations and create local rivalries spanning generations. From
family feuds to stolen recipes to secret ingredients, Food Wars pits
the nation’s most famous culinary rivals against one another for a
final showdown, where a blind taste test will settle the debate: Who
makes the Best Dish in Town?”

While it may sound a bit comical to some, National Grammar Day and other events and sites promoting the importance of good grammar actually do mean something worth noting.

Check out Facebook and you might be surprised to see how many groups exist that are dedicated just to the promotion of using the language properly and making it clear that more people notice typos, poor style, and bad punctuation than you may think. Here are a few of these Facebook groups… and there are legions of others elsewhere on the Web:

• Good Grammar Is Hot
• Martha Brockenbrough, National Grammar Day founder and founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG)
• I judge you when you use poor grammar
• I know the difference between “there”, “their” and “they’re”. (now that one has punctuation issues as commas should go INSIDE the closing quote mark, but THEIR hearts are in the right place!)

The host of this year’s National Grammar Day, the bright and clever Mignon Fogarty—Grammar Girl herself–has posted the following on her site:

<snip>As National Grammar Day’s Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It’s not only a date, it’s an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same! <end snip>

It’s a good day to reflect on the caliber of your written communications, including e-mails, blog posts, Tweets, brochures, trade-show collateral, and all of the rest, including your business cards, which don’t have a lot of real estate but are critical to messaging who you are. Hiring a professional to do your graphic and Web design is key, as well—but the messaging that goes with it can make or break how you are perceived. I have built strategic partnerships/alliances with some amazing, professional, and truly creative designers specifically to ensure that the messaging and look and functionality of any communication are all working in concert with each other without any of those elements disabling the impression you make.

The National Grammar Day site, http://nationalgrammarday.com/, even has games and other celebratory events…My suggestion? Have fun with it while not disregarding its importance.

There’s a great article at http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/1437/pretense-alert/?adref=NmiT4B9 on how it can backfire when speakers and writers try to use words that are more complicated than needed in an effort to sound smart.

The article also provides the following Marketing Inspiration: “If you choose words because you think they sound smarter, there’s a good possibility they’re having the opposite effect.”

This also applies when you hire someone to write an article, speech, Web content, or collateral materials for you… it’s the art of properly capturing who you are and how you speak! There’s a proper balance to strike between being correct and not lazy with how you use the language and trying to “talk up” or sound more erudite than is needed.