In today’s competitive environment, it is imperative to frequently reach your current customers (to keep them sold) and prospective customers (to encourage them to consider your products and services). To do so, public relations is a good no or low cost method to do so. Services such as Business Wire, PR Newswire PR WEB are good resources to distribute your content. These services offer on-line “how to’s” so you can do it yourself. Knowing the effectiveness and return on your investment of your Public Relations campaign is important. These services track how many people read your release, where it was picked up, and where your prospects
learned about your business in detailed reports.

Utilizing sites like Linkedin and Facebook are other good methods to distribute your news. Your blogs is also an effective way to share your news.

E-mailing your releases, or e-newsletters, to your customer base, prospective customers, employees, agents, distributors, suppliers, strategic alliances, service providers (e.g. – your CPA and lawyer), board members, and investors is recommended to keep them up to date. Don’t forget to notify appropriate members of the press. Constant Contact is one resource to support your e-mail and e-newsletter programs. Encourage all to respond with their comments and suggestions.

Each release should focus on one topic each, so you do not dilute the effect. You can plan a series of releases over time. To be most effective, no less than one release per month is suggested. Typical release topics feature 1) a new product or service, 2)personnel news; e.g. – someone was promoted or hired, and 3) company news, e.g. – a new office was opened in Europe or a new distributor is now representing your company.

Through these efforts, traffic to your website will increase.

About Mike:

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

Just recently, I, along with some really good people, have started to push Symbiocracy forward to a new level, beyond my consulting, workshops and blog. I am really excited that I will now be able to help clients to get further along in their whole internet strategy. An integral component will be a partnership with a well-known and respected technology team, who can deliver the products that businesses need to compete with the global marketplace.

One of the first steps is an updated site that speaks more to our business direction and  capabilities. As a preview of things to come, once the partnerships are finalized our services will include all of the following:

• Strategic social enterprise business plans
• Website branding
• Website architecture
• Website user interface
• Website monetization strategies
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Basic and high-level website creation
• Social media strategy and development
• Social media application creation
• Social media implementation coaching
• Email marketing strategy, development and deployment
• Logos and corporate identity
• Display advertisement design
• Contextual advertisement strategy
• iPhone and iPad applications
• Cause marketing strategy
• Brainstorming

Photo by Michael Grunow

Wall Posts
When asking questions, for which you are expecting a response, write a message. Do not ask the question on the person’s wall.

Comments
Use comments to participate in a conversation about a particular wall post. Do not talk about anything else, for two reasons: First, the person who made the initial post did not intend for it to initiate other topics of conversation, and they may find it difficult to politely redirect the conversation back to the original topic. Second, all of the other people who are participating in this particular conversation about this particular comment will receive a notice about your comment, something they may not be interested in.

If you like a post, click the like button, and if you have something constructive to say about it, leave a comment. Otherwise, the person posting will feel like they are talking to him or herself.

Application Requests
Only send application requests (Mafia Wars, FarmVille, etc.) to all of your friends once. Beyond that, only send the requests to people who actually participate in the application. (Most applications indicate which of your friends use the application.)

Group and Page Invitations
When you are inviting people to your group or page, consider that there is a difference between people who support the topic and people who want to get involved in the topic. Some people will feel obligated to join your group or be a fan of your page just because they like you and/or they support what you are doing. Do not, then, annoy those people with incessant messages that they have to delete from their inbox. If you would like to engage both groups, it may require you to create two different groups, for the different levels of involvement.

Messages to Fans
If you control a fan page, do not bombard your fans with messages. Only use messages to communicate very important information. All other information should be communicated in wall posts.

Friend Requests
Only ask people you know personally to be your friend. If you are receiving too many friend requests from people you don’t know, it might be time to create a fan page. And, if this is the reason you are creating a fan page, nobody will think your creating one is arrogant.

Do not take it personally when people don’t accept your friend request. Some people only use Facebook for their close friends and family. There is nothing wrong with this decision.

Photos
If you post an unflattering photo of your friend on Facebook, do not tag them.

General
All offline ettiquette still applies. If you shouldn’t do it in the real world, don’t do it on Facebook either.

Thinking of starting a social media platform to steal a piece of the pie from Facebook and Twitter? Not so fast. Consider the following before you do:

1. Don’t force it.  A one-sided conversation can be forced, but a real conversation will only happen organically.
2. Consider why people will participate in your particular niche. Not all topics deserve conversation.
3. People will conduct online conversations where it makes the most sense to them. Some of the most popular platforms don’t even advertise; they are promoted only through word-of-mouth (and I don’t mean radio ads).
4. Consider why the potential users of your social media platform will use your social media platform instead of one that already exists.
5. Be creative when you open the platform up to the public. Only so many people will initiate conversations to empty space.

Who benefits from well-planned social media platforms?

• The platform – strategic companies earn much more revenue when they really understand the value of their product.
• The users – people appreciate the value of interacting with others, learning from those who know more than them and teaching others about something in which they have expertise.
• Related companies – companies love to sell directly to their target audience.

According to a recent nielsen wire article, “Twitter’s Tweet Smell of Success,” written by Michelle McGiboney, Twitter has grown 1,382% from February of 2008 to February of 2009, “making it the fastest growing site in the member communities category for the month.” In February 2009, it had over 7 million unique visitors. And over 40% of its visitors are age 35 to 49, and almost 85% are over 25 years old.  In other words, Twitter is used by a large number of adults, and that number is growing every day.

Plenty of businesses have joined the bandwagon too, hoping to reach potential customers through this medium, and if the statistics haven’t sold you on the idea, here are my 5 reasons for brands to jump on the Twitter wagon:

1.    Opens Communication with Influencers: Twitter not only allows one to reach a large percentage of the public, many of these Tweeters are influencers among their network. These people pride themselves on having something to say, and their network is listening to them. This type of person is much more likely to voice their opinions of products than the average customer, making them the perfect people to introduce to your product; if they like it, they’ll tell everyone about it.

2.    Customer Service: Not only will these people share what they like, they will also share what they don’t like. But instead of this conversation going on behind the company’s back, companies can be involved in the conversation. If a complaint is made on Twitter, the company can address the problem and solve it within minutes. With Twitter, companies don’t have to wait until someone is angry enough to write a letter.

3.    Immediate Updates: Many companies don’t have the resources to send out regular press releases, and even if they do, a large percentage of their customers and potential customers will never read them. Twitter is the best way to keep these people informed of projects, improvements and anything else that you think they would like to know. According to the above article, many of these people (735,000 in January) access Twitter from their phones, giving the Tweeter direct access to people who want to read what they have to say. And, if nothing else, it keeps your brand on their minds.

4.    Initiates Ongoing Education: Successful Tweeters share interesting and current information. These people read articles, listen to other Tweeters and do whatever they can to be knowledgeable in their field. For most corporate Tweeters, this means they need to conduct their own ongoing education, which, in turn, makes them better at their business. Successful Tweeters have no choice in the matter: they must become more knowledgeable in their field.

5.    Increases Credibility: Also, by being one of these successful brand Tweeters, one not only proves that the company keeps up with trends and new technology, he also proves the company’s expertise among its competitors, which increases the brand’s credibility.

So, do some research, learn how to Tweet like a pro, lurk for a bit and jump in. The water’s fine.

Note: Photo is from FreeDigitalPhotos.net.