This morning I had the pleasure of giving a presentation to an engaged group of people involved with early childhood education and family services at the Augusta Civic Center. Called “Engaged Communities, Growing Small Children,” the conference focused around a book called “The Charismatic Organization, 8 Ways to Grow a Nonprofit,” by Shirley Sagawa. I tied my presentation in to Shirley’s book by talking about how organizations can engage themselves better with their communities through effective communications if they share their stories and newsworthy events on an ongoing basis. Continue Reading »

Today we launched a new website for our client, Saddleback Maine. This is the third website we have created for Saddleback and I believe they keep getting better. We worked hard to show big beautiful images of the beautiful scenery, while also including optimized copy.  Thanks to the NMC team as well as the Saddleback team for their hard work on this site.  Since we at Nancy Marshall Communications do both the PR and the internet marketing for Saddleback, we have the opportunity to merge the two things we love to do most: create beautiful websites then leverage their exposure on the internet through great public relations. Check out the EStore which we are really proud of:  here you can buy concert tickets, seasons’ passes and Saddleback souvenirs through this online store featuring the latest and greatest in eCommerce functionality. Very exciting technology for NMC, for Saddleback, and for the Great State of Maine!

Speaking of optimized copy, I read a really good blog post today called Nip and Tuck, Three Secrets of Great Web Copy. The message echoes exactly what I wrote about last week with regard to writing naturally as opposed to loading up your web copy with your key words. I encourage you to check it out and to write naturally, as opposed to writing copy that is merely a list of your key words repeated over and over and over…..

Here’s an article by Sarah Fuller, who is an account executive at my agency, Nancy Marshall Communications. It was first published in “The NMC Report” which is our free bi-weekly enewsletter. Go to www.marshallpr.com to sign up to receive it by email every other week. It is loaded with articles and information on the intersection of social media and PR.

Twitter has become social media’s equivalent of the classic elevator pitch. It’s a well-known technique – if you had a prospective client, CEO or other prospect in an elevator for 30 seconds, how would you describe what your company does in an interesting and to-the-point manner? Twitter is the modern, online and mobile version of this. Continue Reading »

Thanks to Sam Brace at the Caliber Group in Tucson, Arizona, for this blog post on social media. The Caliber Group is a member of the agency network that my agency belongs to:  The Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies.

Social Media Sways the Conversation, by Sam Brace, The Caliber Group

Social media’s multimillion person reach influences our daily conversation.

We have known for several years that participation on social media platforms are growing by the numbers. Social media is also growing in terms of influence, according to the May 10 issue of Time magazine. Continue Reading »

I wrote this article for my bi-weekly e-newsletter, “The NMC Report.”  If you haven’t already, I would encourage you to go to www.marshallpr.com and sign up to receive it by e-mail every other Tuesday.  Continue Reading »

There’s a blog at http://www.copyblogger.com that I receive by RSS every day. I find the information to be really useful and interesting. Today’s post analyzes a landing page created for a Cost Per Click Ad Campaign for www.babynapswell.com. The information provided by copyblogger is really specific and detailed on how this landing page could be improved to increase the click-through rate from the ad to the landing page.  I encourage you to read this post if you currently engage in CPC advertising, or if you plan to dip your toe in the water.

Thanks to Rich Brooks of Flyte New Media  and to Nicole Ouellette of Breaking Even Communications for this article that was published on Fast Company’s blog about making the social media choices that are  right for you. Some of my clients have asked me recently which social media they should engage in. There is no one clear answer. You need to engage in the online communities where your targeted audience can be found (the expression is to ‘fish where the fsh are,’) and you shouldn’t over-extend yourself. Only get invovled with as many online networks as you can keep up with.  If your goal is to drive traffic to your Web site, then you need to measure how many visitors are going to your site from each online community or network, then measure the effectiveness of your efforts. 

Of course some people engage in social media because it’s fun!  I love to go on to Facebook because it’s an extension of my normal socializing. I don’t really expect to achieve anything from it other than happiness.  If  happiness is your goal, that’s O.K.!

My agency, Nancy Marshall Communications, puts out an e-newsletter every other week with useful information on Web marketing, Internet marketing and public relations.  It’s called The NMC Report.  I’d love to have you go to my Web site and sign up for it!

I’m going to give you a sneak peek of an article that will be coming out in tomorrow’s edition. It’s by Anna McDermott who is one of my agency’s account executives and an expert on social media.

Internet Marketing: What Really Works

by Anna McDermott, Nancy Marshall Communications

In the last issue of the NMC Report, I focused on how to use SEO and social media to market your company’s products or services online. Those are obviously both important and useful marketing tools, but there is more to the world of Internet marketing. Another favorite Internet marketing strategy is the use of email marketing. Continue Reading »

I have had several clients ask me recently if I have some ‘young people’ in my shop who can handle their social media.

OUCH.

I have a problem with this on several levels. Continue Reading »

Thanks to Ragan’s PR Daily Newsfeed for bringing this story to my attention. Usually I would not advocate saying “no comment” to a TV news reporter but it would have been better to say that than to tell a reporter that your electric company’s rate are getting higher because of the time it’s taking to research answers to the reporter’s questions.  Karen Ryan, the PR Manager for Lee County Electric Cooperative in Florida, must be feeling the stress. Watch this video for a classic case study on what ‘not to do’ when a TV reporter comes knocking at your door. 

What should Karen have done to manage this situation properly? Continue Reading »