Mediaboss Marketing

In 2006, I set out to brand myself.I had an idea that I shared with the owner of the small company at which I was employed.I called it Publish or Perish, and despite the lack of originality,the idea was simple, but purposeful: We needed to elevate the name recognition of our company -- quickly.

The company had made a fortune working with a niche client, but unwisely, it chose to fly under the competitions radar. In other words, itdid the opposite of marketing for fear that if competitors knew how much money it was making from this niche client, itwould face stiffer competition. So naturally,after years of this guerilla obfuscation, the niche client business dried up and now left the little-firm-that-couldnt struggling to sell its wares to prospects who knew nothing of our work, history andvalues, or even if we could deliver on our promises.Rapid marketing needed to be done.

With publish or perish, I argued, our team of very talented organizational designers, trainersand safety professionals would publish articles and thus get our name out there toget it associated with expertise in our industry.Well, my idea fell flat.A mousey woman with no actual marketing experience, educationor aptitude had the top dogs ear and whispered sweet gibberish into it.Print publication was dead, she said, so were trade shows. The answer was social media.We needed a Facebook page, but most importantly we needed to blog.

Related:Why Your Small Business Must Start a Blog

I resisted, of course.I had no interest in blogging, which I still hold is, in the majority of cases, self-important dreck and a platform for those whose writing just isnt good enough for publication. (I feel even less beneficenttoward self-published books; if it isnt eligible for academic and literary citation, I dont see any value to it, but hey thats just me.) At this point I mightthrow out a conciliatory there are some top-shelf blogs out thereblah blah blah, but thats not my style. Good bloggers know when their work is good and dont need my validation. As for the rest of you, well if you read my statement about most blogs being dreck and thought I was talking about you, I probably was. Deal with it.

Despite my protestations I was ordered to blog.I fought and threw a tantrum to no avail, so I finally acquiesced, on one condition: I would write what I wanted without anyone else having a say-so.I also managed to convince my leaders to allow me to submit abstracts and begin a public speaking campaign.I soon learned how to become famous for nothing by using social media, key words, the Google Search algorithmand press releases. Quickly I became the Brook Shields of Safety -- shes always been famous andhas big bushy eyebrows, and no one can account for either -- I was famous for no apparent reason.

I quickly learned that the true power of public speaking is the press before the event, promotion during the eventand press after the event.At the time most of the major print magazines were scrambling for online content and had robots or interns using key word searches to get it.The Google algorithm leaned heavily on how many links a given post had (reasoning that the wider the distribution the more reliable and important the content).

By using a free press release site anda handful of key words carefully and artfully woven in -- words like aerospace automotive industry andwell, false modesty prevents me from giving away allmy secrets. Anyway, this site would blast my press release to publications looking for those key words and soon my press releases were on scores of pages, unread and unvetted. I was able to get my press releases, which had usually been run as articles,into minor and major business publications which I wont name because they are competitors of Entrepreneur (which by the way, never fell for this Machiavellian scheme of mine).

Related:4 Simple Steps to Creating Powerful Press Releases

Even today there are news outlets that arent as judicious as they had ought to be.Fox News routinely posted my Entrepreneur articles, assuming that I was a conservative business writer, until someone eventually got around to actually reading my work, and it was unceremoniously removed from the site.

The PR serviceallowed me to Tweet the press release, share it on Facebookand post it to LinkedIn.I used to post the links separately to LinkedIn because that way I could post it as a discussion topic in all 50 groups to which I belonged. For some reason,I keep getting thrown out of the groups on LinkedIn because many are run by the adult equivalent of the uptight high school girl who reached the pinnacle of her life and career by being voted third-runner-up for homecoming queen and alternate on student council. Such peopleain't buying what Im selling.

It wasnt long before I was an annual speaker at the National Safety Council, until I pointed out that in my obnoxious estimation several of their perennial speakers were nothing but snake oil salesmen, an embarrassment to the profession. I dont burn my bridges, I dynamite them and pelt the repaircrew with hot stones as they try to rebuild.

It wasnt long before my blog following grew: Ive always said Im a bit like watching an abandoned warehouse fire. Youre not glad that its burning, but it's fun to watch the spectacle and nobody really gets hurt -- or, if they do get hurt they should have known better than to have been inside itto begin with. I got a notice from http://www.wordpress.com that today is the seventh anniversary of my blog. Its actually olderthan that, but I put it on ice for a while when the owner of my company finally got around to reading it and insisted that I get it approved before publishing. As is my wont, I recommendedhe engage in congress with himself and offered interesting and inventive suggestions of where he might consider sticking his approval. This did not look good on my review.

On WordPress,I have posted in the neighborhood of 364,000 words, plus I have spoken at over a 100 international and local venues,including an address toan International Safety Conference on Mining in the Andes, in Lima, Peru. Thisdespite my only knowledge of mining safety at the time was to stay the hell out of one. I have 167 works in print, and I was named by the largest safety magazine to both its list of The Most Influential People Working in Safetyand The Young (or Relatively Young) Up and Comers in Safety. This despite the factIm not young. (I am often mistaken for being younger than I actually am because of my full head of hair, youthful skinand gross immaturity.)

Related:9 Practices for Achieving Emotional Maturity

The point I am yet again meandering aroundis that people try desperately and pathetically to use just one social network to build their personal brands when the true secret is to use allsocial media outlets as tools to get theirbrand out there, by using them holistically.Oh, and it helps if you can write, if your message and style are distinctive, and if your brand is of interest.Remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him think.

Phil LaDuke is is a Safety Transformation Architect atEnvironmental Resources Management. An author, he writes about business, worker safety and organizational change topics on hisblog. An avid user of social media for business...

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I Used Social Media and Blogging to Become Famous for Nothing - Entrepreneur

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) cannot be effective without well-executed content. And thats where social media marketing kicks in. SEO and SMM (Social Media Marketing) go together like peas and carrots.

Social Media Marketing helps you to get your content seen, which in turn can substantially increase your number of brand mentions on the web. Today marketers today are calling it top of mind. Which is the new way to say, brand awareness.

The better you promote your content across marketing channels, the more referring domains you will receive.

Social media marketing can be tricky because you have to understand your audience, and the level of their sophistication, and familiarity with a channel before you can decide to market yourself on it.

For example the older generation, that is becoming my generation, are more familiar with Facebook and Twitter than we are with Snapchat. Therefore, if youre trying to reach generation X then you probably want to be on Facebook.

Understanding how to use that channel properly to reach your audience is also paramount. Facebook is very difficult for brands today to reach their audience because of the amount of money you now have to spend on advertisement. Twitter is a microblog and so every few seconds a new tweet goes out for something by someone, somewhere. You can see the stats on this at this link. Understanding the heartbeat of every channel and how to reach your audience is going to be very important otherwise your post will just end up in the ether.

One of the things about social media marketing is it has the ability to take a series of pictures and tie them together into a slideshow in order to craft and weave a story together for your audience.

Webcast, January 24th: The Science of Attention and Growth Marketing

Other platforms are adopting this as well such as Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. Video is becoming very popular and now we see live video becoming a trend.

The one caveat about all of this is using these tools well, versus just using them by the seat of your pants (ask us sometime about a cold cuts video). Strategy is a must when using video, or stringing pictures together to create a story. All this requires preplanning in order to actually become engaging and effective.

Protip: Consider the environment that youre in how you hold the phone as youre using it for live video and make sure youre always moving and showing people what is around you.

Protip: Dont use a hashtag (#) just for the sake of using a hashtag. Be purposeful about what you do. Also use images that are original as you tie things together to weave your narrative.

If theres an event thats exciting make sure that you have a smile. Its surprising how many people do videos, but forget this. So make sure that your face looks friendly and the people around you are having a good time.

No one wants to watch a video where everybody is sad and crying and sitting Shiva.

Invite people to come out to your event and let them know where it is. Also make sure you pan around to let them see who is there and what is going on and dont forget to tell them the exact address and time. Even though the videos can be done live, they can be replayed over and over again. And for now it seems the platforms are doing a very good job of letting people know that this is a pre-recorded video, but some people still mistake it for happening at the moment.

Again it goes back to your audience and how savvy they are with the technology. I find that Facebook and YouTube seem to be the primary places that you can actually go out and reach people if you make them aware of the channel that you were on.

Getting people to not only like you on Facebook but to follow you will help them be able to keep up with updates as you release them. However on YouTube things work a little differently.

On YouTube you can monetize your channel if you have enough subscribers that come to it on a regular basis. But most people dont do that and it is very hard to get those subscribers. You cant just create content and release it out on any channel and expect people to enjoy it watch it and it to go viral. The rate of content that is produced on the Internet today by one person is huge (see link below).

If you go on YouTube its going to be about the equipment you need. Good microphones, cameras, tripods and a good set up for a studio are required. And when it comes to sound its just not as simple as having a microphone you have to deal with echoes. Inevitability youll have to clean up audio and video mistakes, so good software, and skill, is needed.

For those of us that love movies and analyze them we can see the story arcs and how they occur theres always a beginning a climax and the ending. If youre interested you can hop over to our Nerd Brand podcast and listen to Brandon, the owner of Element 502, Bill Reynolds and me as we discuss it. Brandon brings in the structures of stories and how they are told. Such as plots of stories that are told like the journey and overcoming the monster. Bill and I point out in real life examples we love.

If youre using pictures make sure you lined them up correctly and it aligns to the store youre trying to tell. More importantly make sure your story is relevant to your audience youre telling to. Aligning your story to your audiences values can keep them connected to it, especially if its a story that is local.

Protip: The formula we use is Hook, Look, Took. Create a hook to draw them in (Once Upon A Time), then get them to look by further reading (or watching) and last, the took, or take-away. What is the value of this and how can I use it.

Which brings us to not forget your proposition value. This is the value of your story to your audience and how it can help who youre trying to reach. Or as marketers use to give a statement on the value of why customers should use a particular service or company.

If youd like to see stats on everything that is happening online from blog posts written, comments, Facebook users and more, head over to Internet Live Stats at the link below and enjoy the metrics!

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Why Social Media Marketing Is Still Important - Business 2 Community

If you manage a tourism business, the second most valuable piece of real estate you own is your website. Successful tourism marketing requires an understanding of how to make effective use of ones website and its connections on the social web.

Planeta.coms role as an online facilitator/clearinghouse for travel features that spotlight ecotourism, responsible travel, conscious travel and sustainable tourism is combined with directory listings and online conferencesthat provide numerous examples of how stakeholderscollaborate successfully.

Travelers tell me they want the names of local guides and hotels that strive to be eco-friendly. Travel agencies and journalists ask for reliable contacts. Simply put, those promoting travel and who do NOT use the web are at a serious disadvantage.

Contacting travel agencies, hotels and guides is easier than ever thanks to the Web. No expensive, long distance phone calls. No phone tag. Thats the good news.

The bad news is that many of entrepreneurs have yet to learn how to make effective use of the web.

Potential travelers want to know what kind of tours, accommodations, services are available. The internet provides direct contact to services that are off the beaten track. If its easy enough, travelers will use the web to make reservations. They may choose not to commit to a specific tour until they arrive, so they comb the web for updated phone numbers and addresses to be used during their trip. Theyre checking Facebook and Twitter on the fly looking for tips on the fly.

Travel agencies may say they dont have time to answer individual requests, but if I call them up, I can get specific answers on the phone. Why are Facebook or email queries different? What it comes down to is that if a business cannot provide a timely and informative response, can they be counted on for their service?

During the research of my book, Mexico: Adventures in Nature, I asked a hotel that was touting its environmental programs if they could be more specific. Look at our website. I did and after five minutes, I couldnt find any details about how this hotel is eco friendly.

Another time a travel agency in Oaxaca said it offered trips to coffee farms. The site was so graphics-heavy, I got bored after a few minutes. Such poor website design is responsible for the criticism of the web as the World Wide Wait!

The adventure should be the journey not the quest for information used to plan the trip.

Via the web we see people making connections, regardless of distance. Likewise, ecotourisms success lies with its cooperation among chief players travelers, travel agencies, conservation groups and government offices. In many ways, the web and ecotourism are evolving together providing information and ways of active participation to people around the globe.

Communication needs to be improved, among conservationists and tourism leaders within regional and international spheres. Ecotourism is not just a niche or a fad, but a model of where all tourism must progress. The chief question how do we get there?

I cant say whether its because were beginning a new century, or because global communication has expanded exponentially in the last generation, or whether environmental awareness has matured, but what is emerging tends toward a union of common interests.

Via the web, we relate to each other by affinity as well asvicinity. And when we do travel across town or to the ends of the world we simply need the right information at the right time to make our journeys successful.

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Marketing Travel on the Social Web - Planeta.com

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In response to overwhelming demand for strategic and creative digital services, Orange Label has launched Orange Social, a two-pronged marketing service that tackles both social media strategy and implementation. Catering to a breadth of industries, Orange Social ensures digital marketing plans stay relevant and profitable with an ever-evolving list of services. Orange Social is our social media brand strategy and execution program designed to achieve key marketing goals. The program is a result of the industrys evolution to a more digital savvy space and in response to what our clients are demanding, said Orange Label Account Strategist Michelle Regrut.

Orange Social is comprised of two components Strategy Development and Implementation. Strategy Development is an extensive research and development process that allows Orange Label to close the gap between where brands are and where they want to be. Strategy Development provides insight into a brands positioning in its respective markets, its current social footprint and the digital competitive landscape, resulting in an immediately actionable social media plan based on the brands organizational goals. The Strategy Development portion of Orange Social is fully customizable, depending on the clients needs. Packages include services such as social brand voice and personality development, content creation and competitive analyses.

Once the Strategic Development plan has been determined, clients move into the next phase of Orange Social Implementation. Designed to make social media management as effective and efficient as possible, Implementation accounts for real-time monitoring of customer responses and engagement, and ongoing content development for various platforms.

To learn more about Orange Social and Orange Labels full list of capabilities, visit http://www.orangelabeladvertising.com.

ABOUT ORANGE LABEL

As a full-service strategic marketing agency, Orange Label provides support for all clients by focusing on brand, strategy, design, and media. Founded in 1972, the agency currently represents clients from across the United States, in a broad range of specialties, including B2B, Healthcare, Education and Retail. Key current clients include Chapman University, Greenwell Farms and Kahoots Feed and Pet Stores. The agency principals are Wes Phillips, Rochelle Reiter and Debbie Nagel. Key Orange Label differentiators include its Orange Exploration fact-finding approach, powerful View from the Field research technique and The Juice, a different-and-better client branding method. For more information about Orange Label, visit http://www.orangelabeladvertising.com.

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Orange Label Launches Orange Social | Business Wire - Business Wire (press release)

There are no universal solutions for marketing. Each business, regardless of its scale, needs to find a solution that best fits its needs and strategy. However, keeping watch on other enterprises and trendscan give help lead you in the right direction. A study from all-in-one online marketing platform GetResponseexamines the direction that small and midsized businesses plan to take this year.

The GetResponse study of 200 U.S.-based SMB decision-makers was conducted at the end of 2016 and provides insight into both the trends that lead the marketing industry as a whole and the specifics for SMBs.

Overall, 70 percent of the study participants said their digital and web-based marketing budgets will increase this year, and of that group, 30 percent are increasing their budgets considerably. Nearly 60 percent of those increasing their budgets plan to expand their social marketing spending, 50 percent plan to increase spend on mobile marketing and 42 percent plan to increase spend on the ever-reliable email marketing.

WhileSMBs might have smaller budgets than the big brands, they still need to be prepared to invest in the same methods and techniques and go where the audiences are. GetResponse founder and CEOSimon Grabowskiurges SMBs to focus on mobile especially:

Mobile marketing is increasingly important given the surging content consumption numbers across smartphones and tablets. And social media usage has only grown in tandem with mobile consumption, as the most popular platforms are mobile-first. Email, too, has become a mobile-driven activity. Ultimately, mobile is the reason why these areas will drive spend in the new year.

Some marketers are gearing up for the shifting marketplace, with 28 percent planning to invest in video production, 26 percent to invest in content creation and management and 16 percent wanting to create better commerce experiences.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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SMBs Plan to Increase Digital Marketing Budgets (Report) - SocialTimes