Social Media Boot Camps April 4
In this era of rapid change in the way we communicate both personally and professionally, it is important to learn new skills and techniques every day.
To encourage social media engagement, we are hosting two Social Media Boot Camps on Wednesday, April 4 at the Senator Inn & Spa in Augusta for businesses and organizations looking to increase their social media presence.
There will be two boot camps designed for different levels of expertise.
1.) The beginners’ session from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. is intended for people with a general social media understanding and who are currently using one or more social media networks.
2.) Those attending the advanced session from 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. must have a thorough knowledge of Facebook and have already created an active presence on one or more other social media websites.
Both sessions’ attendees are invited for a complimentary lunch from 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. at the Senator.
Pre-registration is required by Friday, March 23.
To register, visit bootcamp.marshallpr.com/register. Each session is limited to 30 attendees on a first come, first served basis.
In the spirit of capitalizing on social media as a tool to engage and share, I encourage you to use the event’s Twitter hashtag #NMCsmbc to discuss the boot camps before, during, and after April 4.
This Social Media Boot Camp will help keep you on the cutting edge!
Search Engine Optimization is an Investment in Marketing Success
Nancy Marshall Communications is part of a national alliance of agencies known as the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies. One of our partner agencies is Parlee Stumpf of Doylestown, PA.
Todd Parlee wrote this article on SEO and agreed ever so graciously to allow me to share his article on my blog. As Todd points out in this article, whatever efforts you put into search will come back to you many fold, so it is a good idea to make sure your website is optimized for the search engine spiders, those little critters that crawl through it every so often looking for those coveted key words.
By Todd Parlee, from the Parlee Stumpf e-newsletter
I am constantly reminded of the beauty of “Search.” This week a prospective client approached us. After getting various details from them I asked the all-important question, “How did you hear about us?” Once again the reply, “I found your website using Google search.” That’s music to my ears. It should be music to your ears as well, dear reader.
Needless to say, we walk the walk. We have implemented the same Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Programs on our site as we do for our clients. Countless times we have proven that our SEO programs not only work for us but our clients too.
The Multiple Personalities of Coffee
By NMC Interactive Marketing Manager Matthew Rideout– Happy Wednesday! When offering a product or a service, knowing what your customers want is key. It can be easy to stray from your customer wants and needs by getting too involved in your own internal thought process. That is why it is important to develop personas.
Personas allow one to categorize and visualize their customer base. Each customer category may have different purchase motivators. Getting this all out on paper allows one to continuously keep these personas in mind when making business decisions without getting lost in one’s own motivations.
It is important to develop personas based on sound research, and that involves actually talking to and interviewing your customers.
Let’s say you own a coffee shop and want to figure out which types of customers like which types of coffee. Once you know this information, you’ll be able to better serve each group of people by offering each of them more options that play to their motivations.
By interviewing a group of 100 or more customers you can start to categorize their lifestyles and motivators into groups by drawing on common themes and similarities between people.
For instance, one might find that they are catering to a large group of stressed business people who want an assortment of bold flavors with extra-large servings; perhaps this is 60% of their customer base.
This business may also have another customer base of elderly or stimulant sensitive people who want an extra-large assortment of decaffeinated flavors; this may only be 20% of their customers, but still represents a significant customer base the business does not want to lose.
There may also be a significant customer base of teenagers who visit mostly for caffeinated ice-coffee or frozen coffee drinks.
Developing Personas to Help with Targeting
Happy Wednesday! During my workshop at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism, I spoke about creating personas to better target your markets. This is a fun exercise and I encourage you to do it.
Break down your customers or guests into three or four categories. Then create a fictitious person or couple to represent each customer group.
For example, if you own a seaside resort in Maine, you might have the following personas:
1. Eleanor and Harry: They come from Marblehead, Massachusetts and they used to own a Hinckley Yacht. They now live in a retirement community for active adults.
Since they can’t manage their yacht on their own anymore, they sold it, but they still like to look at sailboats as they cruise by the lawn of your resort.
They drive a Mercedes Benz and they are enjoying a comfortable retirement. Harry worked as a physician and Eleanor was a stay-at-home mom who took care of their four children who are all married now and have two children each of their own.
They read Smithsonian Magazine and listen to National Public Radio.
Are You Pinterested?
Happy Wednesday! NMC Account Coordinator Whitney Moreau shares today’s Witty Wisdom about a visually based social network that has everyone sharing:
Every day it seems like we are inundated with the constantly-morphing world of social media. While I keep up with the latest hype and social babble as a part of my career in PR, in my personal life I stick to the “basics” and primarily use Facebook.
Until recently. What is this new wave of social media that has me hooked while I could be dwindling my internet surfing time elsewhere, you ask? Pinterest.
Described as a social catalog and online pinboard, Pinterest is a collection of powerful visual stimuli. From the time you visit the homepage until the time you reluctantly leave, you will see vibrant images ranging from lavish bedrooms with cathedral ceilings to crocheted winter hat patterns for tiny tots.
View the “pins” displayed randomly or search by category. My favorites? Do-It-Yourself & Crafts, Food & Drink, Home Décor andWeddings & Events.
If you’re “pinterested,” request an invite. A few days later you will receive a link allowing you to set up an account, start your own “boards” arranged by chosen categories and start pinning your likes, inspirations, ideas and motivations.
Despite common belief this social site emerged recently, Pinterest was created in December of 2009 and as of late has taken off and become much more than just an eye-popping phenomenon.
Even Our United States Senator Loves Facebook for Business
Happy Wednesday! We have been touting the value of using Facebook for business for a long time. Lately, we have been doing Facebook advertising campaigns for our clients, which have been highly effective in helping clients get the word out about their products and services.
Yesterday, U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe held a workshop at the Augusta Civic Center to promote the value of Facebook for business.
Senator Snowe extolled the value of Facebook for building a community around your brand.
Here is a link to the article in the Kennebec Journal about the workshop.
We figure if our esteemed U.S. Senator is promoting Facebook for business, we must be on to something big.
“Most Wanted Media List”
Happy Wednesday! Just as salespeople create a list sometimes called “The Dream 100″ of their top prospects for new clients or customers, you can create a “Most Wanted Media List” that targets the media outlets where you’d like to receive coverage for your company, product or service.
When we work with clients on public relations campaigns, we come up with a “Most Wanted List.” We systematically go through each publication or broadcast outlet to identify the types of stories they cover and the personalities who make the decisions and do the reporting.
Then we target our pitching to each publication or outlet according to the audience of that publication or outlet.
Would these make your "Most Wanted List?"
If everything lines up, you will be doing a targeted pitch to the right person with a relevant story that perfectly aligns their audience with your audience.
For example, if you sell a service that is relevant to owners of small businesses, “Fast Company” might be on your “Most Wanted Media List.”
You would buy several copies of the magazine, or subscribe to it, and study the stories, study the masthead for the names of the people making editorial decisions, study the names of the writers, and try to link with them on LinkedIn or see if they have Facebook Pages so you can friend them.
This is a time- consuming process but it’s the most effective way to generate highly targeted media results.
Most PR people just send out hundreds of press releases and hope something will stick, but creating your “Most Wanted List” and really getting to know the people and their audiences is the best way to do PR.
Good luck and let me know if you have any success with this technique.
Tell Your Story To Build Your Brand
Happy Wednesday! I met with a prospective client yesterday who is selling land in an industrial park, or perhaps I should say ‘trying’ to sell land in an industrial park.
Sales have been slow and competition is fierce from other business parks in Maine and around New England. He showed me the flyer he plans to use to promote the land. It had an aerial photo of the park, with some bullet points about the advantages of locating a business there.
The problem is, there was nothing to differentiate that plot of land from another plot in an industrial park. He needs to differentiate his business park from all the others; he needs to tell its unique story.
There’s something called a “Brand Manifesto” that can imbue a place or a product with a story that brings a brand to life and conveys its unique selling proposition.
I recommend that you look at your brand and develop a Brand Manifesto. We create a Brand Manifesto for our clients every time we create one of our “Marshall Plans,” which are marketing communications plans including a detailed road map to reach your marketing goals. The key is to think about the story you’d like people to tell one another at a cocktail party, a community event or at a football game, that describes your business and elevates it from a commodity to a product, organization or place with a rich story behind it.
Minding Your Business
Happy Wednesday! It comes as no surprise that the more you know about something, the easier it is to tell others about it. This deep understanding is a cornerstone to good PR.
NMC Account Coordinator Nikki Busmanis shares today’s Witty Wisdom about how NMC’s deep involvement with our clients enhances our ability to provide them with even better PR.
In order to successfully share the key messages of our clients, we as PR professionals need to understand the inner workings of the companies or organizations that we are representing. Good communicators are familiar with the daily life of the businesses that they represent, ensuring better and more detailed marketing for clients. By knowing our clients as well as we do, we are able to leverage opportunities as they arise.
We must know our clients well enough to identify what is newsworthy and relevant to share. No matter what type of business you work with, having intimate knowledge of a client is invaluable whether you are writing a press release, calling donors, or sharing posts via social media.
At Nancy Marshall Communications, we take this concept seriously. We leave the office, roll up our sleeves, and dive into whatever our clients are doing in order to represent them accurately and successfully. This type of involvement with our clients has been a hallmark of NMC since its founding 20 years ago.
The Benefits of Facebook Advertising
Happy Wednesday! As the year draws to a close, you may be thinking it’s time for a change and in the New Year you want to try something different for your business. NMC Account Executive Anna McDermott shares today’s Witty Wisdom about the many benefits of Facebook advertising for your business.
NMC Account Executive Anna McDermott and her beautiful daughter Cadence enjoying some Thanksgiving turkey
Did you know that you can target Facebook ads for you company? Facebook ads are the ones you see on the right-hand column and are actually targeted specifically at you.
Well, “you” to the extent of what Facebook knows about you: how old you are, your gender, what state you live in, your interests, who your friends are and their interests and perhaps even where you work and where you went to school. That’s pretty specific targeting information and can be used to your businesses advantage.
Facebook ads are a great way to harness the power of social media for your company. You can gain new Facebook fans or direct people to a page on your website and know you have an audience whose attention you want and not just whoever is reading the local paper or driving past your billboard.
With Facebook ad campaigns, you can carefully track ROI and measure results. If your ads aren’t performing the way you want, it’s fast and easy to change them. You can even set the limit on how you want to spend on each ad – the Cost Per Click (CPC). And the best part? You don’t spend a cent if no one clicks on your ad – so if your first try is a bust, you don’t lose your shirt.
A successful Facebook campaign can make an impressive difference for your company. At NMC, our clients have been amazed at the results from their Facebook ad campaigns and the ability to target a captive audience is a rewarding way to advertise.
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