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Network With Randall
The Dawn of the “New and Improved” Press Release
Even when most people know their content has to be engaging and readable for others to care about it, press releases are still getting neglected.
Over at PR 2.0 there’s a very nice (and long) blog post about how press releases need to change, and the first step is accepting that PR is changing in a very real, user/reader driven way.
My favorite quote from this post is
No matter how tricked-out your press release is with “extras,” if it is still full of garbage, then we’re only placing our trash in a fancier container.
I think the same holds true for many things on the Internet: Social Networking sites that are basically “phoning it in” - websites - even print media with bright colors and no message.
But press releases have so much potential power, it’s imperative that we all start thinking differently about how we deliver information to media outlets.
Beware the free AdWords Advice!
Be careful with the Google AdWords.
If you don’t know what you’re doing it’s going to feel a lot like gambling…you’ll lose a lot of money in a short amount of time. You won’t even be sure what you did to make that happen.
This is usually the point where people start asking their friends and networking groups for advice.
Will your search engine ranking drop if you don’t keep paying the SEO people?
There’s a great question over at the HighRankings.com forum - it was actually in the newsletter, not on the forum itself.
A gentleman named Andy asks if a search enging ranking will go down if a company stops paying the SEO company to keep it up high in the search results!
Read the blog post and the response HERE (go on, it will only take a minute!)
Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to help out!
Chicagoland Business Owners Podcast
So I’ve got this awesome idea.
I’d like to do a podcast featuring women business owners in the Chicagoland area. (If you’re a guy you can still get interviewed.) I’d like to talk about your marketing plan, and maybe we can come up with one really good specific suggestion for how we can make your online marketing plan better.
Or if you don’t have one, where to start!
If you’re in the south suburbs of Chicago (or not) send me an email and we’ll talk about scheduling a time that’s good for both of us!
You can, of course, have a copy of your interview in mp3 format for whatever purpose you desire. I’ll use the interview on this page, and I’ll create a special dedicated page on this site for the podcast.
I think I’ll be using Blog Talk Radio to do the show, so we can have call ins and nifty fun things like that. Then we’ll add your product, service, or company link to the blog as well as have it on the page.
Just a thought in process…well…I’m going to do the radio show…the only part that’s in process is the website portion of the program!
SEO and PR - It’s not quite like chocolate and peanut butter
Oh. My. Gosh.
There’s a great little truth revealed over at Media Orchard (go there, they even have a picture!) about how people are combining PR and SEO in order to get traffic from Google News.
I’ve always been of the opinion that PR and SEO and Web Optimization are hairs on the same head…but this is an example of how a ludicrous idea actually worked. I’m not saying it worked well…but hey, everyone wants to be on the front page of Google, right?
Marketing with New Web Tools
BusinessWeek Small Biz Editor Nick Leiber talks to Greg Verdino, marketing blogger and chief strategy officer at marketing firm Crayon, about how small-business owners can use new, low-cost Web tools to market their products and services. Click the image above to watch the video on the BusinessWeek website. (hey…i’m no video poacher!)
I’m not sure why marketing companies consistently need to come up with assinine names for themselves. Crayon? I mean, at that point why not call yourself “All the Colors of the Wind” - well that would violate Disney’s hold on that particular phrase…but seriously….a bunch of guys with business acumen and (I assume) degrees in marketing came up with Crayon?
My two and a half year old daughter would have told me to name my company “Apple” if that were the case. Oh, wait….that’s already been done.
Nothing against companies like Crayon and Naked (another marketing company) - but seriously. Say what you do. Simplicity is a better long term sales technique than a catchy-name-of-the-moment.
It probably wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t agree with most everything he said about small businesses marketing online.
Enjoy the video! Let me know your thoughts on the piece. Also feel free to leave any questions you have in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer them.
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