What Would Google Do and Gung Ho – Book Reviews

May 30, 2009 By 7 Comments

Today’s reviews are one about a company that everyone wants to know more about, Google, and the other about igniting the people in your company to do great things.  First up is What Google Would Do? by Jeff Jarvis which I really enjoyed.  Jeff broke the book up in a neat way and I really liked when he applied Google’s success and theories to a litany of various industries.  The second book is Gung Ho! by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.  You might recognize the two authors from their best-seller Raving Fans which you should’ve already read (and if you haven’t, then buy it immediately!)

I definitely recommend picking up each of these books as I think both of them were exceptional reads and gave me a lot to think about…

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Evolution of Comments and Growth – Lunch with the Pirates – Episode 2

April 18, 2009 By 5 Comments
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Episode #2 – Wednesday, April 15, 2009
(Episode Length: 19 minutes, 39 seconds)

Intro

  • You can join us live every Wednesday at 12p ET (9a PT) over at New Marketing TV which gets hijacked and changed to Pirates TV.
  • To interact with us, you can catch up with us on Twitter: @justinlevy or @crbrowning.  Also, make sure to tag your questions, comments or feedback with #piratestv.

Pirate Marketing Moves

  • BackType Comments - The introduction of the BackType Comments WordPress plug-in continues the trend in the next evolution of comments.  This was first tested by Mashable using a combination of Disqus and UberVU back in March.  Colin and Justin provide a couple different views on social media mentions as comments on blog posts.  What are your thoughts?

What’s in the Spyglass?

  • Skype going public, possibly – eBay announces plans to IPO Skype in 2010.  This is a pretty interesting announcement especially in a down economy when many technology companies are struggling.  But, Skype continues to post incredible profits reporting $551 million in revenue during 2008 which represented a 44% growth over 2007.
  • Troubles with TwitPic? – Many users were experiencing problems with TwitPic.  Compete.com reports show that TwitPic has grown to 2.3 million unique visitors per month and over 1 million users.  Is this a problem across the board as these small 3rd party apps grow?  What happens if Twitter disappears tomorrow?  What would happen to the 2,000+ apps that have been written for the platform?
  • MySpace Lite – Users have reported seeing a “Lite” feature in the top navigation bar which will strip out the customization and media which has become such an ingrained part of MySpace.  MySpace sites the reason for this move is for users who do not have a broadband connection since the customizations and media can cause a connection to lag.  Could it also be that MySpace sees the success of social networks, such as Facebook and FriendFeed, that don’t have allow for the same level of customization?  Sites

Note: We had problems with the live UStream.tv feed during Wednesday’s broadcast.  We apologize for this issue and look forward to seeing you again this coming Wednesday at 12p ET.

As always, we want to know what you like, hate or want to see different.  How can we continue to improve upon?  Please let us know in the comments below…

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Creating a Web Presence for Your Company

October 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment

We will continue with Day 3 of our Pixelated Conference Series tomorrow.  In the meantime, you can check out our two previous conferences on productivity and personal branding.  But, today we have a guest post from Susan Payton.  Susan Payton is the Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, as well as the blogger behind The Marketing Eggspert. She enjoys helping businesses develop an effective marketing strategy, using Marketing 2.0, email campaigns, and social media.

If you’ve turned on your computer at all in the last five years, you know the Internet is the future for marketing your business. While you may not be a techspert, you can still use the Internet to establish your business’ place in your industry.The key is being in as many places online as you are comfortable being. Some examples:

· Company website
· Blog
· Press releases
· Mention on other websites
· Comments on blogs/forums

Having a website for your company is non-negotiable. Many people only do business with companies who have a website. It shows you understand the value of being online and that you have invested the time and money it takes to develop a professional site.

A blog is a valuable tool that can help you establish yourself or your company as an expert in your field. Many top companies have blogs today, including Southwest Air, Dell.

Press releases are great for building web presence and SEO. While you may or may not end up on Oprah as a result, you will diversify the places your press release (and also your URL) end up on the web. Your release will be distributed on major news channels, like Google News, as well as industry sites, and bloggers in your niche will pick it up as well.

This will lead to mention on other sites. The very nature of PR today is that it is viral. What starts in one place will quickly spread faster than you can blink. And that’s a good thing.

By leaving comments on blogs and forums, you’re leaving a breadcrumb trail. Just be sure to include the URL to your site in your signature. And only post relevant conversations, because the purpose is to communicate, not blatantly push your company’s agenda.

So how are you getting exposure online for your business?

Ways to Establish You or Your Business as THE Expert in Your Field

1.    Put out regular press releases. Keeping a steady momentum will increase your placement on search engines.
2.    Participate in conversations online. In forums, on blogs, in social media platforms.
3.    Start a blog about what you know best.
4.    Attend conferences.
5.    Get speaking engagements.
6.    Write a book or ebook.
7.    Get interviews.

Make Search Engines Love Your Brand

Search engines love press releases. When you write regular press releases and have them distributed online, more reporters, bloggers and future customers can find you. Before you know it, you’ll be sifting through a pile of interview opportunities and orders for your product!

[Disclosure: That's Great PR! utilizes Egg Marketing & Public Relations for some of our email marketing services.]

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Pixelated Conference Series – Personal Branding

October 7, 2008 By 2 Comments

For Day 2 of our Pixelated Conference Series (you can read more about what this is from Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel and Bryan Eisenberg), I thought we’d explore personal branding.  While yesterday’s focus on productivity was more of a full-day conference packed with tons of reading recommendations, I thought I’d make today’s sessions shorter…more like a breakfast seminar.  I don’t know about everyone else but Tuesdays are meeting day for me so therefore it’s hard for me to dedicate a full day to a conference but I do attend a lot of events/meetings at breakfast and lunch so I thought this might be appropriate.

Today we have 3 speakers lined up for you: Jim Kukral, Dan Schawbel and Gary Vaynerchuk as well as a few extras for you to take with you after breakfast.

Breakfast Seminar

We start today again with an interesting video to make sure you’re awake.  If you’ve never seen this series before, make sure you check out a few of them!

YouTube Preview Image

First up is web marketing strategist, Jim Kukral who is going to speak about his thoughts on Tim Russert and personal branding.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2316464943086224526

Next is personal branding expert, Dan Schawbel who is going to talk about developing your digital personal brand.

YouTube Preview Image

For our keynote today, we have the always entertaining Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV who discusses building personal branding through social media as well as what it takes to be successful at developing your brand.

YouTube Preview Image

Some of my favorite posts (the short list)

Great Sites to Check Out (again, the short list)

eBook:

Ok folks, that wraps it up for our breakfast seminar on personal branding.  Be sure to tune in tomorrow for Day 3 of our 5 day Pixelated Conference Series.  I hope you enjoyed and I encourage you to share your thoughts on personal branding in the comments below.

Now it’s time for me to run to a few meetings but while I’m away from my laptop I’d love to hear how you develop your personal brands.

[Disclosure: I am a featured columnist for Dan Schawbel's Personal Branding Magazine]

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Old School vs New School PR in a Web 2.0 World

July 16, 2008 By 7 Comments

It amazes me how many companies still do not harness all that the Web 2.0 world has to offer when distributing press releases and creating industry buzz.  Let’s take a look at the old school vs new school approaches to distributing press releases.

The old way of marketing – Traditionally marketing teams would put together a press release and send it to a handful of newspapers, magazines and radio stations.  The press release might be mentioned/written about and those audiences who subscribe to the newspaper/magazine or who listen to that radio station would be exposed to the content of the PR.  If the company hires a reputable marketing firm, they may guarantee that their PR will receive more exposure due to the reputation and network of that firm.  But, how would they reach all of the other possible interested folks who weren’t part of one of those groups mentioned above? Simply put: they wouldn’t.  This translates to lost opportunities for the company in developing prospective customers and helping the company to push their brand to a mass-audience.

The new way of marketing – Nowadays companies who embrace Web 2.0 have so many other available tools besides the traditional vehicles for reaching prospective customers.  Now companies can have a website, blog, social networking pages such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and also reach audiences into the millions with their PR campaign – if they know how to properly target that PR for the internet.

Besides becoming diversified on the World Wide Web, companies have to debunk the old myth that you only publish press releases when you have BIG news such as a new product release, corporate merger or acquisition, etc.  Companies should publish press releases about anything that they have going on.  The more press releases you get distributed, the more your company (and brand) will stay at the tops of the major search engines when prospective customers search for your company and/or products.

David Meerman Scott, in his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR suggests writing a PR about anything from your CEO speaking at a conference to winning an award or publishing a white paper.  Whatever the subject, the goal is to keep your company in front of prospective and current customers.

Resources on becoming a new school PR expert:

  • I highly recommend purchasing The New Rules of Marketing & PR.
  • While waiting for the book to arrive, download and read the condensed ebook which focuses on web-based press releases with suggestions on how to properly optimize your PRs for the web.
  • Brian Solis’ PR Tips for Startups is an excellent resource for an overview on the history of PR and where we are today in the Web (PR) 2.0 world.  Solis provides thought-provoking and actionable tips for the reader to implement.
  • Another resource from David Meerman Scott is his Gobbledygook Manifesto which will help you to analyze your corporate marketing and PR materials, remove meaningless catch-phrases, and communicate with your prospective and current customers in way which they will understand.

Becoming proficient at maximizing social media, web-based PR and marketing, and understanding all of the available tools to you will not happen overnight.  It will take time to build these networks and is a space that is ever-changing to meet the speed of technology.  But, don’t be afraid of it, embrace it and utilize these resources to help you start understanding the Web (PR) 2.0 world.

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