Can’t Afford PR? New Org. Offers National Network of Pro Bono Pros

Several months ago I saw a listing on LinkedIn for public relations pros, like myself, who are interested in giving back by offering their skills and services to organizations that can’t afford PR at no cost.  The organization is I Should Be In The News and I must confess that I am such a believer in this organization that I sit on its board of directors.

Nevertheless, I want to make people aware that there is a way for you to generate some PR and have the opportunity to work with a professional!  ISBITN has a national network of pros and can very easily set you up with someone in your area or an expert in your industry.  If you are a nonprofit or very small organization that can’t afford PR, ISBITN is definitely worth looking in to!

Jennifer Fortney
Cascade Communications
Twitter @SmallBizPRXpert and @MyStorySource

How Social Media Impacts PR Success

I was talking with a girlfriend of mine, and fellow business owner, last week and she began asking me several questions about social media.  She seemed completely and utterly overwhelmed about our conversation.  Then I told her: “This is part of our future and here to stay.  Even if you have an assistant manage social media for your business, you really should have a good understanding of it and how it can work to promote your business!”

She is not unlike many small business owners out there who are busy running their business and really don’t have time to take on anything new.

Here’s the deal:  You have to make time!

The Internet is changing the way we connect, network, work, sell, start businesses a how we market them, and it really is here to stay.

In the PR world, we are seeing the positive impact that “smart” social media participation can have on small businesses and nonprofits.  It really is rather exciting.  However, many in my industry are lagging behind as they fear it will put an end to the traditional way that they approach public relations.  The truth is that it’s a new and exciting element that we use to boost credibility and increase awareness for our clients, and you can do the same for your business.  In fact you should be doing the same for your business.

Why you need to jump on the bandwagon now:
Everyday the Internet brings new offerings and ways for us to interact and achieve professional success.  That means it’s evolving up everyday and every day that you don’t jump on the social media bandwagon is one more day that you’re behind.  Like anything, you have to start at the very beginning and work through the more complicated.  I have a feeling that things are going to start increasing in this category pretty quick, so spend a day now learning all you can so that you are not left behind!

Social media and PR:
As a PR professional I am very excited about the impact social media can have not just for my clients but on my business, and other endeavors.  So far, we’ve been able to utilize it to introduce clients to media outlets, relative organizations, help them build business partnerships and drive followers to the physical store or online store.  Moreover, it’s a great tool for positioning experts by offering daily tips and advice, something we do for our own business on a regular basis.  So, if you don’t think it can make a difference and give a boost to your PR strategy, I dare tell you that you’re very wrong.

Success relies on content:
If you’re new to social media then you must know one thing: Success with social media is reliant on strong, interesting content.

So what does this mean?  It means that if you’re going to Twit something, blog, or post a video it better be interesting; something people will find interesting and may even forward on to their followers and users.  This is where social media becomes viral.

Our success in using social media as part of our PR strategy comes from positioning our clients as experts, providing strong content that isn’t 100% self-serving but instead has a goal of helping people; informing them and making a positive impact in their lives.  Then there is the interaction with people who comment, follow and more on the various SM outlets.

At the end of the day we’re positioning clients as credible, reliable experts and building relationships that increase sales, interest and awareness, get them  in front of bloggers and relative media in a fresh way (not just a pitch email), and brought them business opportunities and partnerships they wouldn’t have achieved before.

So, you ask why you need to know social media…..well, this is just one side of how social media can impact your business, marketing strategy and bottom line.  You better get on the bandwagon to find out just how much it might really be able to do.

If you do use social media, tell me what positive outcomes have developed!!

Jennifer Fortney
Small Business PR Experts
Cascade Communications
Follow me on Twitter @SmallBizPRXpert and @MyStorySource

How to Buy Technology: 3 Tips for SMBs

Thanks to one of  my Twitter friends, I came across a great article written by Nick Saalfeld of the True Business blog titled “How to buy technology”.  Nick is both a journalist and a small business owner and manages to succinctly summarise in one article what I, and many of my colleagues, have been advising to small and medium business owners for years.  And that is:  To be successful in your small business, you must adopt technology strategically to drive innovation and create a competitive advantage.

Technology is now ubiquitous – every business has access to core technologies due to the increase in affordability and availability over the past decade.  Just having the technology gives you little advantage or return on investment.  It’s how you leverage the technology – how you apply it strategically to your business – that sets you up for success.

Nick’s article wonderfully summarises this through three key points:

• Buying IT is no longer a single decision
• Committing to technology demands a strategy
• Technology is an investment

Read the article for Nick’s insight and further explanation.

And don’t forget, you can now subscribe to Small Business Daily by email!

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

Free Learning Tools to Make Your Business More Tech Savvy

It’s astounding how many fantastic free resources are made available by some of the big technology vendors out there.  It’s even more astounding to discover how many people fail to utilise, or even know about, these resources!
So in this post, let me introduce you to a couple of resources you never knew about.  These tools are so useful you’ll want to keep them a secret from others so you can “skill up” on the sly and become a genius!

HP Learning Centre – Free online classes, 24/7! 

This site is like a mini online university.  It offers everything from quick “how-to” videos to comprehensive instructor-led online courses.  Yes, that’s right; instructor led, for FREE.  Click on the “See all classes” tab and you’ll find a long list of classes covering a broad range of topics.  Try out “Create and print your own high-quality marketing materials” under home office, or “The other 90 percent: unlock your vast untapped potential” in business basics, or for the weekend, “Beyond basics: fundamental photography techniques” in the digital photography category.

Microsoft Business Resource Centre

An excellent resource for small businesses, courtesy of Microsoft, that offers personalised self-help, support, community connections, training and articles based on a simple profile created on sign up.  So a small business owner with 10 employees in the finance industry will see content relevant to her, whereas a Creative Director in a 200 staff advertising agency will see different content more relevant to him.  Note that this site is still in beta so it’s subject to changes and content may be a little light-on currently.

Jump on and sign up now – just do it! 

These are only two of close to ten tech learning resources in my internet favourites – what do you think, should I reveal some others in another post?  Would you like to see more?

And don’t forget, you can now subscribe to Small Business Daily by email!

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

We’re Looking for a Few Good Contributors

Are you a small business expert in taxes/finance, franchising, hiring and managing employees, copyright/trademark and other law-related issues and more? We’re looking to add more long-term contributors to Small Business Daily, including guest posts, so contact us!

Jennifer Fortney
smallbizexperts@live.com

Why Video is Key to Your PR Campaign

Thanks to YouTube video has become an integral part of our everyday world online.  In fact, I wasn’t all too surprised that my former corporate video class in college has been morphed into an online video/news class.  That means that tomorrow’s PR pros and journalists are focusing their efforts to creating video and telling stories online.  So why wait until tomorrow?  You need to look at building a video campaign now.

My clients often ask me what the importance of online video is to their business or organization.  Think of it this way, when you go to a restaurant and the chef comes out or the owner of the shop helps you personally you feel great!  Why?  Because these people are perceived as individuals that we want to know.  They make us feel important.  One of the first things I see people do is tell all of their friends how the restaurant owner came out to talk to them and maybe even offered them a complimentary dessert.  What happens?  You’re going to go back.  They’re building relationships with you to promote return business.

The same goes for today’s hottest CEOs.  Anyone can go online and suddenly have the CEO of Sprint, Sun Microsystems and the like in your own home.   it makes it persona to you the customer and makes CEOs appear “touchable”, human.  Everyday people perceive that they are building an intimate relationship with top corporate leaders.  Now, small business has the opportunity to do the same.  Here’s a great example.

Here’s why you need to add a video component to your PR/marketing campaign:

1. Engage and connect with customers: Video allows people to “meet” you and in turn they’ll feel they know you.
2. Because customers feel they “know” you they are more apt to be loyal to your business: customers want to have a relationship with you.  Give them a positive experience and they will become long-term, loyal customers
3. It’s a great way to make announcements: Then utilize social media to push the video and drive traffic (best with online offers/promotions)
4. It helps build credibility: sure public relations can boost credibility but video gives individuals a chance to see and hear you in your own words.  If you appear credible they’re more likely to purchase your product or service.
5. Media love it: For people who want to be seen as an expert source for media, adding video to your website and online press room gives them an idea of how you will perform in an interview.  So, share your tips and advice via video to increase your odds of getting PR.
6. News is moving online: It’s not just television stations that are utilizing news video on their websites but newspapers, magazines and radio and they’re looking for content.  Not to mention the “news sites” that rely solely on user generated content!  Offering them a b-roll (or raw video) package on your online press room (along with a press release) allows them to edit the story and produce their own voice over for allowing for a customized story for their site.
7. Good video becomes viral: Think of all the businesses out there that have gotten creative with their marketing by producing a fun, interesting video that became an immediate online hit.  Small business have a real opportunity to use video to boost brand awareness and sales.  Many of these have become national news stories and then aired.  So, get creative!
8. Video improves search: If you read this blog regularly you know the importance of search to your businesses success.  Remember: People don’t know they’re looking for you until they find you!  That’s why adding a component like video and can further increase the odds that your customers will find you!

Producing a good video is easier today than ever before with high-quality webcams and digital cameras.  If you want to produce a more “newsy” package for your site’s online press room I suggest finding a local partner who is affordable and skilled to do it for you.  Give them credit and it may give a boost to both of your businesses!

Jennifer Fortney
Cascade Communications and SmallBizPRMadeEasy.com
Follow me on Twitter for Daily SMB PR Tips @SmallBizPRXpert

When Good Enough Will Do: The “MP3 Effect”

I read a very interesting article in this month’s Wired magazine (which can also be found online) about the “MP3 effect”; i.e. the current trend towards cheap and simple being good enough.

It’s been coined the “MP3 effect” because MP3s are a classic example of the principle in practice: Digital music files have become popular to the point where traditional studios have had to rethink how they distribute music or risk declining sales, even though CDs offer a far superior sound quality to MP3s.  As the article says, “we now favor flexibility over high fidelity”.

It seems being superior doesn’t matter so much anymore – in the tech world anyway.  What consumers want – what you and I want – is simplicity; accessibility; flexibility.  We want to be able to use things here and now, quickly and easily.

I think this “good enough revolution” is an exciting prospect to apply to your business.  I chat to business owners who are hesitant to adopt changes (usually technology driven changes in my case) in the way they do business with their customers, or in the tools they provide their staff, for fear of the new solution not being world-beating.  But best-in-class needn’t be the goal here.

Perhaps it’s unrealistic to think you can afford a top-of-the-line CRM system with built in e-marketing features, but you could utilise a free blogging site with email subscription facilities to deliver simple communications directly to your customers – it might just be good enough, yet more than what your competitors do in terms of customer service efforts.

Can’t justify giving laptops to your sales force to work on presentation when at home?  Consider utilising a free product like Windows Sharepoint Services, or a very affordable hosted solution like Microsoft Sharepoint Online, which gives staff access to office files by logging in from their own PCs at home. Another good enough solution your staff may come to love because it’s simple, accessible and flexible.

Technology solutions don’t have to be big complex beasts that rattle cages and gnaw away at budgets.  Take note of what the bigger players out there in your market might be doing and think about how you could offer similar experiences that might take advantage of the good enough principle.

Have you seen the “MP3 effect” in practice in your line of business?

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

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Just click on the link under the heading “Subscribe by email” on the right hand sidebar, enter your email address and validate your subscription when you receive the confirmation email.

But hey, don’t forget to keep dropping by the website to see what we’re up to, add comments and suggestions or just to say “g’day”.

Keep Track of Projects and Improve Customer Service in Your Small Business

Over the past few months I’ve written several posts about enhancing customer experience and managing customer information.  I recently came across this great article by Andrew Brook-Holmes of Microsoft UK which follows the same theme.  His article gives some great practical advice on using technology available to most small businesses in response to this question from a small business owner: 

“In order to be as paperless as possible, our five employees use Office Outlook as our customer information folder. Alongside customer contact details, we enter all the details of projects sent to us in the form of PDFs by our main supplier of work. We then add our spreadsheets, call logs, photos, copies of communications, scanned reports such as electrical certificates, and so forth. Can you advise us if this method is capable of holding all this information long-term, or will it one day overload and stop working?”

Sound like a familiar scenario?  Check out Andrew’s advice here.

Clayton Moulynox – Evolve IT Australia
We fix business problems, not computer problems -  Develop, Solve, Evolve.
Follow me on Twitter: @claytonhm

How Do I Get People To Read My Online Newsletter?

As I now approach two years of writing newsletters, I’m finding that about 43% of the people I send them to, on average, open and read them. And, about 25% of those who read them, click the links that I occasionally put in them as well. With that said, those that know me well, know that I always want to teach and help others. Must be something to do with that whole teach at the college thing for 12+ years.  

So without further ado, here’s Chris’s Top 6 list for how to get people to read your newsletters.  

Number 6. Don’t sell anything! Give away some knowledge. Please don’t mistake knowledge for “how your “product or service” can make you this or that.” Or, a teaser paragraph or two, then a pitch for a seminar where I can learn everything. That’s just a hidden sales pitch and eventually I’ll stop reading your emails.

Number 5. I know in advance if it’s a sales pitch just by reading the subject line. So you trick me, and put in a snappy/cute subject line. But the body is a sales message. Fool me once you will, but not a second or third time. Make the subject snappy/cute, but follow rule number 6 too!
 

Number 4. Have a conversation with me, don’t just throw a bunch of paragraphs of information at me. Talk to me when you’re giving me what you want to give me. We probably know each other already, so it’s ok if you miss a comma.

 

Number 3. Put some pictures in your newsletter. Bold and italicize some text now and then. Reading on the computer is so much more difficult on the eyes than reading a piece of paper. White space is a “good” thing. (Repeat after me… White space is a good thing, white space is a good thing.

 

Number 2. Kind of like number 4. Make me laugh! On occassion, put a tasteful/relevant cartoon in there. We don’t laugh enough now-a-days.

 

Number 1. (Say number 1 with an echo or a David Letterman accent) The number 1 thing you can do to get people to read your newsletter is “Keep It Short…….”

 

That’s it, I’m done. Hope this advice helps with your newsletter open and click through rates.

 

Ohhhh, wait. Last thing….. SEND YOUR NEWSLETTERS!!! Don’t put them off because you don’t have time.

 

Thanks,

Chris Nastav, KC Web Specialists, LLC. http://www.kcwebspecialists.com
Experts in how business gets done on the Internet (913) 908.5642

10 Must Have Elements for A Great Press Release

It doesn’t often surprise me that individuals doing their own PR struggle with one thing -writing the press release. Think about it…I had an entire class, three credits, one semester long devoted to writing press releases, and DIYers are left to figure it out for themselves.

First things first, though….You must determine what your story is!

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, it seems, has their own way of writing a press release.  They come in all shapes and sizes; long, short, double-spaced, dull and un-informational and of course there are the good ones that seem to grab hold of the reader and compel journalists to tell the story.  Take a guess at which ones peak the interest of editors and drives PR for a business?  It’s not hard.  The reality is that some are better story tellers than others, better writers, but as owners of your business if you can’t find a professional who’s really good, than you are the next BEST person to tell your story.

Time and again clients come to me with their version of a press release – because there doesn’t seem to be one decent format out there to follow – and I have to edit, rewrite and re-format to get it up to snuff.  Their number one issue?

They don’t know how to tell their story in a compelling and interesting way.

Another mistake DIYers make is not writing a press release but a two-page sales sheet, which editors will immediately throw in the garbage.

So, how does a DIYer learn to write a good, eye-catching, attention-getting press release?  Well, you could join those who are learning through our SmallBizMadeEasy.com weekly course, that goes into real depth beyond what  this post offers; you could hire me as a consultant to assist or I can take a moment to share a few of the top elements every press release must include for success.

For me, personally, it usually starts with a great headline, something I can see as a newspaper article and I write the story from there.

Here are 10 Elements every press release should include:

1. Contact information (no kidding, some people actually forget contact information!): This includes name, phone, cell if you’re always on the go and email.  You want to be immediately reachable by any media person.

2. Release date: This is different than the date you put at the start of the lead paragraph, which is typically only month and year.  This date tells media exactly when the story was released and how timely it is.

3. A Powerful, Eye-Catching, Teasing Headline: The point of the headline of a press release is the same as a newspaper, to draw the reader in.  If you fail to capture their interest they won’t read beyond the headline.

4. Sub-headline: The purpose of this is to give a little more detail on what the press release is about.  Here’s a great example:

“ONE ORGANIZATION BETS ON AMERICAN YOUTH TO HELP CHILDREN IN AFRICA

Kids Caring 4 Kids Encourages Kids and Young People to Say “i care 2” and Make a Difference for Children in Africa”

5. Strong lead paragraph: This is the first paragraph of the release and while it should tell the facts of what your business is doing, it also needs to be compelling.  This is the second place you can lose editors.

6. A Story-like body: Tell the story

7. Quotes: A chance to show expert positioning and create human interest

7. Links to websites: Press releases today are alive.  This means that media can immediate click live links in your release to go to websites for more information, video and more.  (Preferably there would be a link to your online press room)

8. How to: a key part of the story that you no doubt want journalists to include.  How to buy; How to join; How to contact; How much it costs; How it will change their life, etc.

9. The Why: Why does your story matter; Why is your product/service relevant; Why should they buy; Why will it change their lives, etc. (8&9 are often times also referred to as “a call to action”)

10. A boilerplate: a one general description of your business that appears at the end of the release

There it is!  And I can guarantee that no one else is going to be so specific and open with you on how to write your press release!  One can argue that at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if the release itself is actually in AP Style format, but that it’s the quality of the story written that will get attention.  I still believe both are true, but that’s probably because it was beat into me in Journalism school!

If you want to see what AP Style format looks like, visit our site!

Jennifer Fortney
Cascade Communications and SmallBizPRMadeEasy.com
Follow me on Twitter @SmallBizPRXpert