Archive for the ‘Publicity’ Category

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Kerry’s Network: strategy is important when acquiring fame.

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

What are five qualities that famous people possess that business people don’t, that are preventing them from being “famous” in their industry or profession? How can a business owner acquire fame? If you could offer only one piece of advice to an “aspiring famous” what would it be and why? What if business owners lacks funds, what are some ways that they can build their brand without breaking their bank account?

Why is a strategy so important when acquiring fame?

These are just some of the questions that Kerry Heaps asked me today on her talk-radio blog. (more…)

Posted in Marketing, Publicity, Social Media | No Comments »

Tourism sites talking to individual buyers.

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Here’s a note from Irv Hamilton…

Our most recent blog quotes a marketing expert as saying that with digital marketing “. . . we are talking to the individual buyers directly.”

That quote caught my attention because next week I’ll be hosting a workshop on heritage tourism at the California Preservation Foundation’s annual conference in Grass Valley.

We’ll be talking about heritage tourism, and ways that smaller communities can attract visitors with historic and cultural attractions.

I agree with the quote that in today’s marketing environment we’re talking with individual travelers, not  just the tens of thousands of readers or viewers that make up the total audience of a publication or television program. (more…)

Posted in Marketing, Publicity, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Why you need a mobile version of your website.

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

McRoskey Mattress realized that an increasing number of visitors were accessing McRoskey.com using a mobile device.

This is particularly true for visitors clicking through from McRoskey’s monthly email. When accessing McRoskey.com on their mobile phones,visitors saw small type and hard-to-read navigation (see image to the right).

To fix the problem, Placemaking Group added a mobile page to link to the featured promotion in McRoskey’s monthly email. iPhone users are automatically routed to the mobile version. Navigation is easy to see and with a quick scroll down, they can view photos and get pertinent details.

A mobile version was also made for the Contact Us page.

Read more about McRoskey Mattress Company.

Consider these 4 tips when adding mobile functionality to your website:

1. By 2013 more people will access the Internet via a mobile device than their computer. During Christmas 2009, 51% of consumers made buying decisions from mobile devices.

2. Check your website statistics. If more than 10% of your visitors are using a mobile device to access your site, determine what they are looking for and set up a mobile page that covers that information.

3. Mobile is different. Customizing content for the mobile user is more than just shrinking a website page. Mobile users want something different than computer users. They want something immediately actionable: a phone number, email address or a website search area. They don’t want to read a lot about the company or product. Keep it simple, both in content and design.

4. What works best in mobile? Special offers, coupons, a special event, new product announcement, a contact page or a search page.

To discuss adding mobile capabilities to your website, just email us.

Further reading about web development on our blog:

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Posted in Marketing, Publicity, Social Media, Web sites | 13 Comments »

LinkedIn is Social Media.

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

“Can LinkedIn be considered Social Media?” Bogdan Enache, Project Manager at TELUS, asked this question.  “I know when people throw the social media term into discussions they usually refer to Tweeter and Facebook but LinkedIn with its groups and Q&As can be somewhat considered more than just a database of resumes, perhaps … the Facebook for professionals.”

LinkedIn is one of many social media tools. You have to know what you are trying to accomplish, what your goals are and who do you want to influence. Until you have those pieces of your marketing puzzle in place you can’t start implementing a plan.

LinkedIn is the social media tool for professionals who are trying to influence colleagues or prospects in a business environment. With our clients, once we know the answers to the questions listed above, if LinkedIn is an appropriate marketing tool we make sure they have a clear resume posted. That way someone who is reading your LinkedIn profile can easily understand what you do and what you’ve accomplished. Next we tell them to join groups in their field. An important additional piece of the puzzle is to answer questions in your field. That helps to establish credibility. Adding to one’s connections is also an important part of the plan. And, yes, Bogdan, it’s good to ask questions. That get’s your name out, as well!

I’ve included a few links about how to use social media from our blog. I hope this helps you!

Laura Good effectively uses social media for the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance.

How much time you should spend on Social Media.

Social Media…A Two Way Conversation.

Posted in Marketing, Publicity, Social Media | 15 Comments »

Laura Good effectively uses social media for the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance.

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Is social media working? “We have new people coming to events all the time, people who are not members or on any of our mailing lists. All of our sectors are growing as is SARTA’s membership. We are expanding beyond the Sacramento region,” says Laura Good, director of operations for the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA).

One of Laura’s favorite stories illustrates her point. She recently tweeted about telemedicine. A CEO of a telemedicine start-up in Utah tweeted back. She and he began e-mailing. Laura introduced him to an angel investor. The angel investor put the CEO in touch with a telemedicine company in Sacramento and the two companies are now collaborating.

Laura Good is a textbook example of how to engage your company in social media. I needed to find out about SARTA. Finding SARTA’s website was no problem, but understanding the organization and its benefits to me was another matter. So I joined SARTA’s Facebook fan page and connected to SARTA on LinkedIn and Twitter. Within weeks, I became a member of SARTA, have attended numerous events, and made great connections. All because of  Laura Good.

Laura’s first involvement in social media was many years ago with MySpace, connecting with classmates for a high school reunion. Then came Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Like all nonprofits, SARTA has limited funds … which meant no staff or budget for marketing. So Laura decided to see what she could do. Many status updates, posts, discussions, connections and tweets later, Laura is an expert in this arena, keeping members (the medical, technology, business and venture capital community) engaged, and SARTA’s website refreshed and up-to-date. How much time does she spend? Laura said she tried a lot of strategies, and what works best is devoting a half hour a day to social media.

There you have it: the textbook explanation of how to engage in social media. Thanks to Placemaking Group’s Sacramento PR  Vice President, Jan Burch for this post.

Posted in Marketing, Publicity, Social Media, Web sites | 6 Comments »

Cities need to start planning on promoting themselves.

Monday, April 5th, 2010

How inviting is your town or city to attracting new businesses to move in? And how about keeping the businesses that are already located here?  As I talk with government officials, it is becoming very clear that financially-stressed municipalities have two choices for dealing with the future.

One is to cut back on services with the intent of bringing the cost of running the community down to a point where revenue will cover the cost of services.  That sounds like a fiscally valid approach.  But when they reduce the number of police on the force, cut back on firefighters and paramedics, discontinue after-school programs, and terminate senior activities, what does that do to the qualify of life?

The other approach is to actively attract business with the intent of attracting new businesses, as well as retaining the ones already there.  Doing so brings new jobs to the community.  It generates revenue from a variety of sources.  And it creates an aura of success rather than failure.

But how can you attract new business when the economy is in such terrible shape?  The first step is always to define the product.  What do you have to sell? Transportation access?  A trained workforce?  Close ties to the local community college?  Affordable housing.  Great weather?  Recreation and sports facilities?

The key is positive momentum.  Don’t wait until the economy improves.

There are always positive stories to be told.  Tell them.  Build positive images for your community now.  Generate positive stories, even if they seem insignificant.  In difficult times people respond to good news.

Take advantage of that opportunity. Thanks to Irv Hamilton, Placemaking Group’s Senior Vice President for this blog post.

Posted in Issues Management, Publicity | 14 Comments »

Don’t just redesign your website, design a new experience.

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

The Avogadro Group wanted to improve its image and also improve the usability of its site by staff, prospects and others in the industry. The objective was to have a professional website that engaged visitors and also provided some real tools to associates and industry peers.

avo_home

avog_blog

Read more on our Avogadro Case Study.

Website Functionality Ideas. Consider adding these tools to your website with your next redesign. (more…)

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Publicity, Social Media, Web sites | 10 Comments »

Brand or Marketing Related Blogs.

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

What are your favorite blogs about branding and marketing?

“Looking for blogs that do a good job (and have personality and are authentic) on branding and marketing. “ from Scott K. Wilder, SVP and Social Media Architect at Edelman Digital. “I was so heads down at Intuit,” he said, “that I didn’t think a lot about other blogs, but now I want to research how companies use Blogs to share their vision and reinforce their brand attributes.

OMG! What a marvelous question. Not only do I like writing my blog, but I really enjoy reading good blogs. Blogs can stimulate great ideas and good thinking. So, I’m going to let you know about a few of the brand and marketing blogs that I like to read. (more…)

Posted in Marketing, Publicity, Social Media, Web sites | 2 Comments »

Social Media…A Two Way Conversation.

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

What is the main point of social media?… To create a two-way conversation. Whether you are using; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social media tool it is important to remember you are always working at creating a two-way conversation.

PR and marketing have come a long way from shouting a message at consumers, and that is the first step at being successful at using social media. Meghan Overby, Jan Burch and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to share our observations and ideas about marketing in general and social media in particular yesterday morning with a wonderful group of people at the Green California Summit and Expo in Sacramento.  There are so many markets niches out there looking to jump into social media and Green is one of them.

It is important to understand the basics of social media and know that it is only one tool to reaching your audience. Also each social media tool is used differently and can achieve different results.  We spent a few hours running over the basics and used this Powerpoint (4mb PDF). Some of the key points we covered included:

  1. Make sure EVERYTHING is routed to and from your web site.
  2. Treat social media as a two-way conversation; be sure to be a good listener!
  3. Social Media is only ONE tool, it is not the one answer to everything.

We wrote a Social Media White Paper, too. If you want it, then just click here!

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Publicity, Social Media, Web sites | 5 Comments »

Social Media and Online Marketing for Book Publicity Campaigns

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

We are  working on book publicity and marketing for  Dr. Catherine Athans, who has two motivational, inspirational books: Make Your Dreams Come True Now! and Just Imagine.

book_imagine

Some of the marketing communication tools that we are using to publicize and promote Dr. Athans include:

Websites: Dr. Athans has a website that promotes her latest books. The site serves as a home base with essential information including bio, testimonials, information about her books, appearances and more.  They help to enhance awareness of the author’s brand.

On her site, Dr. Athans’ video shows the work she does transforming the lives of the many people she works with (http://www.catherineathans.com).

Blogs: A blog is an essential way to be found and to build a network and fan base. Google feeds off new content with the use of strong key words added to a blog’s tags. (more…)

Posted in Marketing, Publicity, Social Media, Web sites | 4 Comments »

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