So, let’s say you’re planning your Facebook Live event. The first thing you want to do, is plan out a promotional campaign. We’ve been experimenting with this and we like the two weeks out rule. So, again figure out who your audiences are and where they are on social. Create graphics and encourage everybody in your organization to share and post everything you’re posting related to the Facebook Live event. As part of that, the next thing is you want to solicit questions before and…
Read MoreYou really want to start integrating social even before the event, to promote the event. So, think about who your audiences are and where they are, and then put together a content plan to promote the event — at least a couple of weeks out on social — and get the word out of, not only what you’re doing, what opportunities they have, but also which hashtags they can use of the event to promote the event and interact during the event. Then, obviously, during…
Read MoreIn the past, folks — companies, organizations — were not inclined to use social channels during times of crisis, because of the commentary and questions that they would get on those social platforms. Now, however, companies and organizations are more used to using those social platforms in a way that they used to use their websites. In the past, when there was a crisis, companies would put out a statement. They invariably would put those statements on their websites and they drive all of the…
Read MoreIt’s great to get that earned media hit online, or in print, or on television. The question we’ve always had after we get that hit is, “what do we do with it?” We now have the advantage of having social platforms as a way to communicate to all our different audiences. So, of course you want to take that print hit, or the online version, or that video hit, and post it on all your social channels. You want to encourage all of the people…
Read MoreThis is a question that we’re debating in house right now. It depends what your goals are. In our case, our goal really is to drive traffic to our website, to our blog. The reason why we want to do that is because our experience is, once people go to our blog, they then bounce around the rest of the website, and we get more visits and more interest in the rest of the things we’re doing. Even though it’s great to post it directly…
Read MoreYes, Virginia, video is very much still a thing. As a matter of fact it’s probably the thing right now. But, the key thing is to balance yourself. You don’t want to go all video and blog all the time. People are used to the written word, but, by the same token, they may be too used to the written word. The reason why we’re doing this vlog is to sprinkle in a good, solid, short video snippets into our blogging. We have gotten more…
Read MoreYour current content program is working when it is generating the traffic or the leads that you set it out to do from the beginning. So, if your goal was more traffic to your website, or to certain pages on your website like your blog, and you’re seeing an increase in traffic, then it’s working. If your goal was to drive traffic to a specific offer, like a white paper, that people would download in exchange for names and email addresses, and that’s working, then…
Read MoreInfluencer marketing is sort of the cool shiny object these days. We liken it to traditional media relations. The only difference is, in a lot of cases instead of pitching it to a traditional media outlet, you’re pitching your idea, your product, your thing, to someone who’s developed their own audiences, primarily through social media.
Read MoreThere are two very important things that you should take some time and do before you pick up any communication strategy, whether it be earned, owned or paid. The first is figure out what you want to say. What are the three to five things that you want to say over and over again to cement those messages into the minds of your targets. And then the second thing is figure out who those targets are. You know, you think you know who they are,…
Read MoreThe right tone really needs to be something that is educational, something that shows your expertise. You really want to balance that against every bone in your body wanting to sell. People don’t really respond well to sales right off the bat. So what you want to do is educate them and again show your expertise as a way to start a relationship with them, and then look for opportunities to sell maybe a little bit further down the line. Whether it’s through specific offers…
Read MoreToday’s truth: I’ve never hired a public relations firm. So who am I to be giving advice to someone who is looking to hire one? I’ve always been the guy on the other side of the table trying to convince the prospect to hire my agency or even me. So what expertise can I bring to the table on this subject? Well, a lot actually. In those conversations (and there have been hundreds of them over the years), I’ve seen the struggle, hesitancy, and confusion…
Read MoreIn my world having three unrelated conversations about the same thing is the signal of a trend. Within the last week I’ve had three unrelated and unsolicited conversations about content. More specifically the conversations were about who owns the content in an organization. In each case, it was clear to me that silos still exist that are stopping these organizations from communicating effectively with their audiences. As a PR person by trade, I’m biased. In our recently released eBook (shameless plug: you can download the…
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