Twitter Your Way to New Clients, Part One
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Jul 22
Leila Chirayath Janah, founder and CEO of Samasource, a California-based non-profit that partners with small, talented, tech companies in poor and rural communities to find them clients, will be our special guest on a special live edition of Hugh Macken, Live!
Samasource partners must meet stringent Continue reading »
Jul 22
This is an oldie but a goodie. The writer gives a few very convincing examples of how an effective media campaign can do wonders for your real estate business. The key, of course, is ensuring that it is effective, especially now with the growing importance of social media which has diluted the offline impact of traditional print media. That’s where expert counsel comes into play. – Hugh Macken
From: How effective PR builds real estate business.(Focus On: Marketing & Networking) by Zlokower, Harry
Source: Real Estate Weekly, 7/16/1997.
Via: 
HighBeam™ Research
COPYRIGHT 2009 Hagedorn Publication
Jul 17
Take a look at : 5 Ways Startups Can Use Social Media to Build its Public Relations
Jul 17
Twittering your Way to Sales Growth
Author: Hugh Macken
June 19, 2009
MARSHFIELD, WI – If you’ve heard of Twitter, but haven’t seen a need for your business to take it very seriously, allow me to urge you to give it a second, more careful, look.
But before you dive in blindly, allow me to introduce you to a global technology phenomenon that individuals and small businesses, probably just like yours, are already embracing in surprising numbers.
The reason?
They recognize that marketing and communications, like everything else in business these days, has evolved. Dramatically.
And micro-blogging platforms like Twitter are central to that evolution.
So meet Twitter, not a person, but a free social and professional networking platform that allows individuals and companies (“Tweeters”) to send 140-character messages, (“Tweets”) to anyone who cares to receive them (“Followers”) multiple times a day.
There is good reason why that probably sounds like the most clever waste of valuable time that one could possibly conceive. The reason is that it can be a complete waste of time.
But only if you fail to realize that the twitter.com website itself makes a terrible first impression and is not terribly useful on its own.
However, used with the right third-party applications, like TweetDeck.com (which is free), your Twitter account can be one of the best marketing investments you can make.
But don’t just take my word for it. Leading analysts are beginning to take note.
None other than The Nielsen Company’s Michelle McGiboney recently opined, Twitter “…offers a variety of ways for marketers to reach their customers, and it’s a tool that businesses will have to learn how to utilize to their best advantage.”
Ms. McGiboney is right on target. Sadly, though, some small businesses have already written off Twitter as a transient fad unworthy of their time, thus never learning how to use it to their company’s advantage.
But its rising popularity among all age groups is, I believe, likely to entice skeptics to at least give it a try. Many are already doing exactly that.
Data recently released by internet analytics firm Compete.com, claims unique visitors to Twitter increased a whopping 1043%, year-over-year, from 1,725,977 users in May of 2008 to 19,728,619 in May of 2009.”
That’s a bit of a spike to say the least, and a spike whose source may surprise you. While it is true that the 18-25 year old segment has signed on in large numbers, according to Compete, their usage intensity pales in comparison to Twitters’ most loyal age group of – are you ready? – 35-49 year-olds who, incidentally, also comprised roughly 40% of the site’s audience as of February of this year.
Although not every age group has embraced Twitter with equal enthusiasm, Twitter’s broad penetration within the US has been impressive, with many staking their place on the global stage for conversation that Twitter provides. From President Obama in the White House (whose Twitter username is @barackobama) to Christa’s Bistro & Deli (@christasat126), closer to your house, chances are someone you may least expect is already tweeting away on Twitter.
The prospect of a large and diverse US audience is ideal for big business and government, but for small businesses on Main Street looking to find customers, usually the right audience is every bit as important as a large one. Being a small business itself of only about fifty employees, I suspect Twitter is keenly aware of this. So are savvy small business owners who have already found clever ways to nail the hyper-local dimension of the network.
One well-known example is CoffeeGroundz Café (@coffeegroundz) a small coffee House in Houston Their website, coffeegroundz.net, is worth checking out. They claim to be one of the first companies to have taken a to-go order using Twitter. Now clients not only place orders for pick-up, some customers at the café actually place orders from the comfort of their seat in the café. CoffeeGroundz’s Operations Manager J.R. Cohen, has also successfully hosted charity Tweetups (social gatherings promoted via Twitter) to raise money for worthy causes.
Another case study comes by way of Namecheap (@namecheap), an internet company that claims to rely heavily on word of mouth marketing, a strategy similar, at least in that respect, to many businesses on Main Street. Namecheap marketing specialist, Michelle Greer, has used trivia contests every hour on the hour (she used the free app from TweetLater.com to schedule the tweets) with the first replies winning a one-year domain registration. As a result of a dramatic increase in Twitter followers, Namecheap’s traffic increased by 30% when they ran a promotion in earlier this year. Growing and engaging a solid Twitter following has become so central to their sales growth that they were willing to shell out more than $15,000 worth of prizes during their most recent trivia contest, which ended yesterday.
There are countless other examples like these where small businesses needing to find new ways connect with their customers in an ailing economy discovered Twitter was just what the doctor ordered.
To be sure, Twitter is not a panacea to cure all that ails Main Street, but for the price it is definitely worth giving a fair shot.
Before you do, though, recall what I alluded to above and what Time magazine writer Steven Johnson wryly observes as well: Twitter “makes a terrible first impression…[but] it turns out to have unsuspected depth.”
Copyright © 2009 VMR Communications, LLC
About the Author:
New York native Hugh Macken is an internet and virtual assistant analyst with Marshfield, WI-based VMR Communications, LLC. He welcomes your comments at hugh@i.am or on Twitter at @hughmacken.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Twittering your Way to Sales Growth
Jul 15
Jul 15
Jul 01
Virtual Assistants Excel in the Publicity and Marketing Niche
Author: Diana Ennen
We all realize how Virtual Assistants have revolutionized the way we work today. Most businesses now count on their Virtual Assistant the same as they used to count on their secretaries, only so much more. VAs are a prized and respected part of their client’s team, and unlike secretaries, who often were taken for granted, Virtual Assistants are praised for their professionalism and skills. Most businesses today can’t imagine where they would be without their VA. And as the potential for success in a virtual assistant business continues to explode, so does the need for good Virtual Assistants.
Today’s Virtual Assistants need to take pride in their business and also to learn as much as they can about their niche, which is the specialty they have chosen to specialize in. One niche that I highly recommend is to offer publicity and marketing services to clients. This is an area that is growing in leaps and bounds as more and more authors, businesses, and other professionals realize the need to market their business to get good publicity. A business can expand tremendously when hiring a Virtual Assistant to help them spread the word about their products or services. Also, authors today aren’t aware that once they write a book, that’s when the real work begins. They need to get the word out about their book in order for it to be successful. That’s where a good Publicity Virtual Assistant comes in.
Publicity and marketing is thrilling to say the least. There’s such a great rush when your client gets recognized in national magazines, or a TV station wants to do a segment on them and you helped them achieve this success. Or better yet, when your efforts start resulting in substantial increased sales for them. Clients will not only keep using your services, but also tell others about this new positive addition they have to their business. And best yet, you too get to feel that satisfaction as you are helping them achieve their goals.
One of my most successful tips is learning how to effectively use any publicity that a client receives. When clients get national attention in a magazine, newspaper, or TV Segment, or even on a popular website, it’s important to make sure that everyone is aware of this. A press release should immediately go out to announce their accomplishment. This release should be added to their website and also should go to all their local papers, radio stations, and TV networks. Media loves to highlight a success story of their locals, so make sure you get this out there as soon as you can. And you don’t have to wait for the publicity to happen. If your client lands a major TV segment, you can start sending this press out beforehand in order to get more media for when the event happens. You just want to make sure that the client is fairly confident the segment will air. Also, don’t worry if the segment gets bumped back, that often happens as breaking news takes priority. This can almost be a blessing, as then you get to do more publicity before the airdate.
It’s also important to follow-up with the reporters and let them know how much you appreciate the acceptance of your quotes for an article. When you go the extra step to show them your appreciation, they remember you when the next article comes up and they need help with more expert advice. Many reporters work for multiple magazines so one good ally can lead to lots of media exposure. Always keep your PR hat on. Learn to take any situation and turn it into good press for your clients and your business as well. Stay on top of current events and see if you have anything to offer. Whenever a story hits the press that any of my clients would have a connection to, I’ll send it right away. Having press releases already prepared for clients on their business is always a great help. How do you know about these events? Sign up for Google Alerts under the topics of interest and then whenever a story is written, you can follow-up with your press release or article to the reporter. It works! I also use ProfNet from PRNewswire, which allows me to get daily leads from major news outlets. You can also consider PRLeads.
It’s also important to learn how to write a good press release and article and also where to send those. Make sure that your press releases and articles are newsworthy and also something that interests the readers. When I write a release, I always think would I read this release? Would it interest me? If not, I doubt your target audience would be reading it either. Plus, be careful to sound too promotional. You can easily get your message across without sounding like an ad.
A good publicity virtual assistant can make a big difference in a business so learn as much as you can to be the best Publicity VA.
About the Author:
Diana Ennen is the author of Virtual Assistant – The Series, Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA and accompanying Workbook; and Words From Home, Start, Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business. President of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and http://www.virtualassistantstartups.com . Stop by our site for free booklets and reports on business startups.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Virtual Assistants Excel in the Publicity and Marketing Niche
