Interaction Builds Business Communities

As I discussed in The Future of Public Relations, blogs, social networking, and podcasts have changed the way people get ideas, share information, communicate, and respond. The web’s interactive communication style has changed how people want to learn, connect, and build relationships. Conversations are crucial to growth and the development of innovative ideas.

There are a couple of easy ways you can provide interaction on your website without having to invest in, build and maintain a forum or membership site.

Create and Maintain a Blog

Blogging forces you to analyze and organize your ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and how they are relevant to your business and market. Researching topics and developing relevant posts gives you the opportunity to evaluate current trends and design solutions for your customers.

Hosting a blog allows clients to pose questions about business topics, provide input on developing issues and engage others in conversation. Clients and prospects have the opportunity to hear new ideas not only from you, but also from others who are involved in the blogging community.

Comment sections are critical to a blog’s success and are a feature that not only allows, but encourages people to post their own ideas and replies. If you reply to everyone who comments, visitors will be more likely to leave new comments or continue the conversation. Analyze your most popular topics and pay attention to statistics that show you where people are coming from, and factor all of it into your marketing planning.

It can be hard to sustain a conversation, especially on a blog, when you don’t have anything interesting to say. If you find you are getting stuck and are groping for something to write, it may be a signal that you need to draw ideas from other industries, or ask others to post their own ideas to your blog. Consider asking some of your clients to post their own topics. Not only will this give them some free publicity, but it may entice their own readers to visit your blog as well.

Develop Free Teleseminars or Webinars

If you don’t have the desire to post regularly to a company blog, you may want to consider hosting remote seminars.

Organizing and running regular interactive seminars for clients and prospects enables you to learn what is on your clients’ minds and demonstrate that you are concerned about recent industry issues. You can host and direct each session yourself, or you can invite other  industry experts and speakers to come and discuss important issues that will add value for your clients.

You can start the sessions by posing what-if questions that challenge people’s assumptions, and let the conversation develop and take on their own direction. To promote real discussions, use themes that center around “Why?” and “Why Not?” questions. Encourage debates centered around new ways of understanding client issues.

Wrap up by asking your clients if they think you should spend time developing one or more of the ideas that emerged from the session. Ask whether that would be of value to them. Consider recording each session and offering the audio files as an incentive for joining your community.

If your participants know that they are involved in developing solutions they are more likely to become loyal members of your community.

The Point: Add More Value

Nothing builds relationships better than regular, meaningful conversations. Initiating and deepening relationships is more important than conventional marketing’s goals of pushing “awareness” and generating “sales leads.”

To have these interesting, meaningful conversations, you must have something to say. Develop fresh points of view and create new metaphors and language to express them. The message itself is only the beginning. Its value exists only if you dedicate yourself to initiating conversations with clients and prospects.

The Future of Public Relations?

Last week, Jason Falls sparked a debate about the future of Public Relations in his post Social Media is the Responsibility of Public Relations.

Falls points out, many companies don’t have the resources to employ Social Media specialists and must rely on internal resources to create and maintain consumer and business relationships online. He suggests that social networking must become a function of Public Relations.

In my mind, social media is essentially public relations in the online world. Divide the category up by component — blogs, social networks, microblogging, podcasts/Web TV, wikis/collaborative software — they each ladder in some way to a component of public relations — writing, corporate communications, community relations, media relations, event management.

I agree.  As people demand more from brands and service providers, Social Media is enabling us to connect with our prospects and customers in very meaningful ways. Blogs, forums and social networking are changing the way companies interact with customers. Our communications are becoming more targeted and personal. We can expand out market coverage and create the opportunity to interact directly with the people who purchase our products. Moreover, companies that make the effort to adopt current technologies will gain an advantage over their competitors.

Solutions for Small Business

So what is the solution for the small business that does not have a Public Relations, Marketing or Social Media department?

Companies incapable of meeting the ever-increasing demands of Public Relations will need to outsource most of their Social Networking functions. In the future, Social Media Specialists will be in high demand as more companies realize the importance of these activities. For those of us willing to learn new technologies and participate, we have the ability to create manageable internal social networking strategies. If we want them to be effective, we will need to acquire the appropriate skills and dedicate ourselves to the ongoing process.

As media outlets become smaller, we need to find new ways to gain publicity and get people talking about our companies. We can’t always rely on media contacts to relay our positive image. We need to create continuous strategies we can monitor and alter depending on our observed results. Through direct contact, we have an opportunity to discover what our customer wants, gather relevant ideas and present a solution to their immediate problems.  If we create valuable connections, and refrain from using Social Media as another medium for our sales pitch, we have the opportunity to use these interactions to create a positive public image and develop desirable product.

Falls predicts:

Social Media will evolve into components of a sophisticated public relations effort.

Businesses that have clearly developed Social Media strategies, and use both Marketing and Public Relations resources, will be further ahead than companies that ignore online networking, or misuse it as a form of advertising and promotion. The main purpose of social networking is to create ongoing conversations. Companies that do not participate in the conversation, or use it solely as a means to push products in the faces of potential buyers will fail.

As more and more of our potential customers are using social networks to evaluate businesses and brands, we need to learn how to start conversations, build relationships and grow communities.

What do you think?

Pamela Weir is a Marketing Copywriter. If you are looking for a sales writer with experience creating website content, press releases, media one-sheets, and warm letters, please visit her Copywriting Services page for information.

Start-up Business Advice from ‘Knocked-Up’

I know. What does ‘Knocked-Up’ have to do with business, right?

The most important thing I learned from this movie: If you don’t plan and launch your business fast, someone with a similar idea will.

That wasn’t the point of the movie. I understand that.

I actually learned many things from that movie, such as:

• If you’re going to sleep with random strangers, always be in charge of contraceptive devices.
• Don’t tell your spouse you’re working when you’re really playing on a fantasy baseball league.
• Small children should NOT use Google unattended.

My Point:

As a small business owner, I was struck by the familiarity of the subplot. One of the main characters, Ben, who is broke and expecting a new baby, plans to launch an online business with his friends (Flesh of the Stars). They are destined for failure because Ben and his business partners didn’t spend any time researching their niche or keeping track of possible competitors. While they were busy, doing nothing, another website with the exact same idea launched earlier, tested and became extremely popular before they could even determine a clear launch date.

And to top it off, Ben didn’t have a back-up plan. Essentially their business idea grew old while they spent too much time gathering information and content to fill their site, and they didn’t plan beyond these stages.

I know it’s a comedy, and their cluelessness was absolutely perfect, but just think of how many times this happens to real Small Business owners. Many of Ben’s business problems did arise from lack of focus, laziness and other hilariously exaggerated factors, but the point is, if you doubt, lose focus, nit-pick and over-think your plan, someone is going to take advantage of your hesitation and become smashingly successful.

Start with a business plan. Research your niche, customers and competition, and always be prepared to launch as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more successful someone else will become.

So, don’t wait until your site or business idea is perfect. It never will be.  Just launch, test, adapt, test again, and adapt.

That’s all we can do.

Just launch.

Pamela Weir is a Marketing Copywriter. If you are looking for a sales writer with experience creating website content, press releases, business plans, and marketing strategies, please visit her Copywriting Services page for more information.

Eliminate Gobbledygook with Press Release Grader

Yay! 100%!

Hubspot, the innovative company behind the creation of The Website Grader, has recently released a new tool: Press Release Grader. And I have to say, this is an incredibly valuable tool.

The images I have included in this post are screenshots of the instant report that Hubspot generated for my latest Press Release submission. Hubspot provides products, reports and advice to help small businesses with Inbound Marketing. The Website Grader is a great tool for business start-ups that need help analyzing their sites for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

I’m a big advocate of Social Media Releases (SMRs) and changing the way people read and write Press Releases. I really enjoy writing releases that help interesting people share great stories with their readers. I can’t wait to scavenge the details, find an angle, and develop a compelling story. I’ve had great success with many of my submissions.

Here is a general overview of the core features of the tool:

Section 1: General Statistics

This section features a short analysis of the word count, sentences, number of links and readability of your release. The readability section is important, and comparable to a word processor’s Flesch Kincaid Grade Level. I would suggest adjusting your copy and writing your press releases specifically for your market. Don’t create releases based solely on industry standards and submission guidelines. Always ask yourself, “who is my target, and what will they respond to?”

Section 2: Content Suggestions

This section includes analysis of basic sections that are included in every press release such as Contact Information, the About the Company paragraph, and the End of Content Markers (###). All Press Release templates include these sections and give the audience general information about the company.

The Content Suggestion section also features my favorite tool: Goobledygook Words. Hubspot has specifically designed this tool to compare your press release against the words that have been designated as Gobbledygook in David Meerman Scott’s e-book Change This: The Gobbledygook Manifesto.

In the Manifesto, David explains how a small number of words are vastly overused in distributed releases:

The news release wires collectively distributed just over 388,000 news releases in the nine-month period, and just over 74,000 of them mentioned at least one of the Gobbledygook phrases. The winner was “next generation,” with 9,895 uses. there were over 5,000 uses of each of the following words and phrases: “flexible,” “robust,” “world class,” “scalable,” and “easy to use.” Other notably overused phrases with between 2,000 and 5,000 uses included “cutting edge,” “mission critical,” “market leading,” “industry standard,” “turnkey,” and “groundbreaking.” Oh and don’t forget “interoperable,” “best of breed,” and “user friendly,” each with over 1,000 uses in news releases.

If you have not read this short ebook, I suggest that you visit the David’s site and download a copy. It can help you avoid using unnecessary words and bring clarity to all of your copywriting.

In case you were wondering, my Press Release received a score of zero for Gobbledygook words.

Section 3: Link Analysis

I really like this section as well. I almost managed to get a perfect 33%, 66%, 99% score, but my first link was included in the text a little too early.

I think it’s important to include links throughout your Press Releases. Having three, as Hubspot suggests, provides your readers an opportunity to visit your site at the exact moment they begin making a buying decision. Why wait until the end, after the About the Company section, to direct them to the sales page or website? Capture them at the height of the story, immediately after a compelling headline, summary or incredible quote.

Overall Impression

I highly recommend Hubspot’s new offering. It’s certainly worth trying before you submit your next release. I encourage you to explore their site and try of all of their free tools.

If you’re interested in more free information, Hubspot is presenting a Free Webinar – Doing a Website Redesign with an Internet Marketing Strategy in Mind on Wed. July 9, 2PM EST.

I’ll definitely be tuning in.

If you want to find out more about the Press Release Grader, follow this link to Hubspot’s Video on You Tube, which highlights all of the features that I have mentioned above.

If you don’t think you have a story worthy of a Press Release, take advantage of my Free 30 Minute Consultation. I will help you figure out how to write a compelling press release that drives traffic to your site.