We're constantly on the lookout for new ways to monitor and evaluate media relations and social media work to enhance the "PR and Social Media Marketing Course" we run for small businesses.
There are an increasing number of really good free services, so here's a few for you to have a go at.
http://www.pickanews.com – this is a free online monitoring tool that picks up any print coverage you win. You can search it using key terms or even set up email alerts. It’s got its limitations because you can’t drag PDFs of your coverage off the site – but at least you know when you’ve featured in the “Heckmondwike Herald”, and it’s free!
http://www.socialmention.com – this is a great tool as it picks up online coverage, but also any mentions you might get on social media sites too. It’s like Google Alerts for social media!
http://www.twoolr.com – This is one for those of you that are seriously into twitter. It’s a monitoring tool that allows you to see who retweets you most frequently, amongst other things.
If you discover any new tools yourself, let us know! And if you're considering using social media as part of your business' marketing, why not give us a call on 01282 878 301 to find out about the PR and Social Media Marketing courses we run in East Lancashire? If your business is based in the North West we can help you to get your place fully funded!
Saturday, 17 July 2010
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
August PR & Social Media Marketing Course
We've just confirmed dates for our August PR and Social Media Marketing course. Why not get in touch with us to see how you can get your place fully funded? Call us on 01282 878 301.
The course will run from 10am until 4pm on consecutive Tuesdays - the 3rd and 10th of August. It costs £500 per attendee, but if you're a North West based business with 5 or more employees, we should be able to help you get the course fully funded.
The course will enable you to:-
- establish your key messages
- write a compelling "media ready" press release
- formulate an easy to manage marketing communications plan
- understand how to measure and monitor your work for free
- get to grips with marketing you business via social media
You will:-
- experience a q/a session with a journalist
- get publication/journalist data to distribute your press release
- win positive media coverage (!!!) to build awareness of your business, its offerings and values
- generate more leads
Don't just take our word for it - here's what some recent attendees have to say...
"The atmosphere on the course was relaxed and friendly. I learned how to write and distribute strong press releases - and monitor coverage. Since the course we’ve had stories in the Nelson Leader, Lancashire Telegraph, Bolton Evening News - plus online coverage. The social media elements have helped with lead generation, so we’ve seen a real return. Overall was thrilled with the course and better still it was fully funded by Business Link!"
Victoria Evans - Office Manager, Uno Coffee, Nelson
“Great course, can’t wait to put it all into practice”
Tracey Taylforth - Marketing Manager, Hillendale Group, Nelson
“Brandspankin’s training has helped us get to grips with PR and social media. We got our first item of coverage before the course had even finished”
Tracey Humphries - Practitioner, Vitality+, Ramsbottom
“Thanks to BrandSpankin’, we’ve now won coverage in business and
regional media – and we’ve been in The Daily Telegraph”
Andy Gott - MD, MobileBroadbandSupermarket.co.uk, Manchester
The course will run from 10am until 4pm on consecutive Tuesdays - the 3rd and 10th of August. It costs £500 per attendee, but if you're a North West based business with 5 or more employees, we should be able to help you get the course fully funded.
The course will enable you to:-
- establish your key messages
- write a compelling "media ready" press release
- formulate an easy to manage marketing communications plan
- understand how to measure and monitor your work for free
- get to grips with marketing you business via social media
You will:-
- experience a q/a session with a journalist
- get publication/journalist data to distribute your press release
- win positive media coverage (!!!) to build awareness of your business, its offerings and values
- generate more leads
Don't just take our word for it - here's what some recent attendees have to say...
"The atmosphere on the course was relaxed and friendly. I learned how to write and distribute strong press releases - and monitor coverage. Since the course we’ve had stories in the Nelson Leader, Lancashire Telegraph, Bolton Evening News - plus online coverage. The social media elements have helped with lead generation, so we’ve seen a real return. Overall was thrilled with the course and better still it was fully funded by Business Link!"
Victoria Evans - Office Manager, Uno Coffee, Nelson
“Great course, can’t wait to put it all into practice”
Tracey Taylforth - Marketing Manager, Hillendale Group, Nelson
“Brandspankin’s training has helped us get to grips with PR and social media. We got our first item of coverage before the course had even finished”
Tracey Humphries - Practitioner, Vitality+, Ramsbottom
“Thanks to BrandSpankin’, we’ve now won coverage in business and
regional media – and we’ve been in The Daily Telegraph”
Andy Gott - MD, MobileBroadbandSupermarket.co.uk, Manchester
Friday, 25 June 2010
ReclaimedBricks.com pays for itself in a fortnight!
Two weeks ago we launched a new website for our client ReclaimedBricks.com. The website generated its first leads within the first hour of going live and within 48 hours had generated a significant order. Today it’s pulled in an order that’s paid for the site!
At BrandSpankin’ our remit is to help our clients build awareness, generate leads and make more money – and what better example of our philosophy in action than the success of ReclaimedBricks.com.
Besides the fact that the ReclaimedBricks.com website looks great, we’ve done quite a bit of search engine optimisation work (SEO), so the website already features highly on Google for searches such as “Reclaimed Bricks”, ”Victorian Bricks” and ”Old Bricks”. Our aim is to build on this good start and use PR and social media marketing to keep building awareness and generating those valuable inbound links!
That way, our client will see a very significant return on their investment and we’ll have built a website that is more than just an electronic brochure – it’s a highly profitable sales channel!
At BrandSpankin’ our remit is to help our clients build awareness, generate leads and make more money – and what better example of our philosophy in action than the success of ReclaimedBricks.com.
Besides the fact that the ReclaimedBricks.com website looks great, we’ve done quite a bit of search engine optimisation work (SEO), so the website already features highly on Google for searches such as “Reclaimed Bricks”, ”Victorian Bricks” and ”Old Bricks”. Our aim is to build on this good start and use PR and social media marketing to keep building awareness and generating those valuable inbound links!
That way, our client will see a very significant return on their investment and we’ll have built a website that is more than just an electronic brochure – it’s a highly profitable sales channel!
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
ReclaimedBricks.com
We went live last week with the new site we've just completed for Reclaimed Bricks and we're delighted with the results.
The site looks great - high quality photography always helps - but more to the point, it is performing really well. It's number one in Google for the search query "reclaimed bricks" as you'd expect, but it's already above the scroll on page one for "old bricks" and "Victorian Bricks". "Handmade bricks" is on page two at the moment but we'll keep tweaking to get that up there too.
The site's traffic has been excellent so far - it was generating enquiries within an hour of going live and it closed its first piece of business (an order for £1,700) on Friday.
ReclaimedBricks.com typifies our approach to web design and build. The site has got to work hard to get the right traffic, it's got to have compelling copy and visuals - and it's got to give the viewer an intuitive journey that makes a sale a likelihood. The outcome has to be a site that acts as a sales channel and delivers a handsome return on investment for the client.
http://www.reclaimedbricks.com
The site looks great - high quality photography always helps - but more to the point, it is performing really well. It's number one in Google for the search query "reclaimed bricks" as you'd expect, but it's already above the scroll on page one for "old bricks" and "Victorian Bricks". "Handmade bricks" is on page two at the moment but we'll keep tweaking to get that up there too.
The site's traffic has been excellent so far - it was generating enquiries within an hour of going live and it closed its first piece of business (an order for £1,700) on Friday.
ReclaimedBricks.com typifies our approach to web design and build. The site has got to work hard to get the right traffic, it's got to have compelling copy and visuals - and it's got to give the viewer an intuitive journey that makes a sale a likelihood. The outcome has to be a site that acts as a sales channel and delivers a handsome return on investment for the client.
http://www.reclaimedbricks.com
Thursday, 3 June 2010
The power of Google Alerts!
More and more businesses are Twittering, Facebooking, Blogging and generally getting out there in cyberspace. Promoting your business in this way is highly relevant, it hits people in an appropriate context and it's absolutely free!
However, are you monitoring how many mentions you're getting online? This will help you understand the effectiveness of your online marketing. In short, are you awake to the benefits of keeping in the know? Google alerts will help you achieve just that!
Right first of all, how do you set up a Google alert? Start off by going to the following link http://www.google.com/alerts
It is really simple; just enter the key terms you want tracking. Then choose how often you want to receive the alerts and how many alerts you want to receive. After that, you'll get alerts via email covering news and developments as they happen. Being first to know, is a strong position to occupy!
You should follow news on a series of key terms that are of interest to your business, it's prospects and customer. This way you'll have some interesting market intelligence, you can keep track of your competitors and you can track any mentions of your own business. You'll ensure that you're up-to-date with the latest news, techniques and developments. In such a fast moving world it is important to be on the ball, it also means that you can react to news, tweet it, Facebook it or post it on LinkedIn.
Once you start reacting to relevant news and offering an interesting commentary, people will start to see you and your business as a valuable contact on social media sites. You will also ensure that your business is front of mind’ when they come to buy products; they will see you as an expert in your field.
So all in all wake up and get alert with Google.
However, are you monitoring how many mentions you're getting online? This will help you understand the effectiveness of your online marketing. In short, are you awake to the benefits of keeping in the know? Google alerts will help you achieve just that!
Right first of all, how do you set up a Google alert? Start off by going to the following link http://www.google.com/alerts
It is really simple; just enter the key terms you want tracking. Then choose how often you want to receive the alerts and how many alerts you want to receive. After that, you'll get alerts via email covering news and developments as they happen. Being first to know, is a strong position to occupy!
You should follow news on a series of key terms that are of interest to your business, it's prospects and customer. This way you'll have some interesting market intelligence, you can keep track of your competitors and you can track any mentions of your own business. You'll ensure that you're up-to-date with the latest news, techniques and developments. In such a fast moving world it is important to be on the ball, it also means that you can react to news, tweet it, Facebook it or post it on LinkedIn.
Once you start reacting to relevant news and offering an interesting commentary, people will start to see you and your business as a valuable contact on social media sites. You will also ensure that your business is front of mind’ when they come to buy products; they will see you as an expert in your field.
So all in all wake up and get alert with Google.
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Valley at Work
I'm speaking this evening at "Valley at Work", the networking group set up by PEER in Rossendale.
I'm speaking on 'Low-cost marketing and social media marketing for small businesses' at the Russian Tea Rooms in Bacup. I'm looking forward to it for several reasons, but not least because Valley at Work is something I'd like to see replicated in Pendle - I think it's potentially very powerful to have a community enterprise board working closely with a business networking group.
I chair "Enterprising Pendle" - PEER's sister organisation - and it's a model I'm very keen for us to adopt in Pendle.
Tonight I'll be talking about the social media landscape, it's pitfalls and opportunities - but most of all I'll be reiterating the message - measure, monitor, analyse and adjust. This help you to ensure that your marketing spend is doing it's job. It's all about return-on-investment - which requires people to not put the medium before the message.
I'm speaking on 'Low-cost marketing and social media marketing for small businesses' at the Russian Tea Rooms in Bacup. I'm looking forward to it for several reasons, but not least because Valley at Work is something I'd like to see replicated in Pendle - I think it's potentially very powerful to have a community enterprise board working closely with a business networking group.
I chair "Enterprising Pendle" - PEER's sister organisation - and it's a model I'm very keen for us to adopt in Pendle.
Tonight I'll be talking about the social media landscape, it's pitfalls and opportunities - but most of all I'll be reiterating the message - measure, monitor, analyse and adjust. This help you to ensure that your marketing spend is doing it's job. It's all about return-on-investment - which requires people to not put the medium before the message.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
How to gain followers on Twitter
We’ve been doing a lot of work with clients around social media recently and those who are new to Twitter frequently ask us how to generate followers. Well, here’s a few steps to consider:-
1. Check out who your friends, contacts, customers and competitors are following and follow them yourself. The rule of thumb is that about half will follow you back.
2. Compelling content will get you followers! So remember, the message comes before the medium, so don’t just tweet any old nonsense. One way to get good material to tweet is to use Google alerts (www.google.com/alerts) to prompt you about stories featuring subject matter you’re interested in and which will interest potential followers. Position yourself as a resourceful contact.
3. Tweet using keywords as it will help you to be found when people search. Equally, you should put the right keywords on your homepage biography.
4. Retweet interesting tweets by people you follow. They may well do the same for you and carry your message to a wider audience and attract you new followers.
You might find after a week or two that some of the people you have followed haven’t followed you back and you might want to unfollow them. You can do this manually, but there are a number of tools that you can use to manage twitter accounts that will do this for you in an automated fashion (such as Huitter).
Be careful when using these not to rid yourself of more than a couple of hundred followers at a time, as it may flag up your account with Twitter. Automated activity sometimes implies spammer activity – and this is usually sufficient for Twitter to suspend accounts - permanently. After all, they’re sitting on a multi-billion dollar intellectual property – they don’t want it to be compromised!
A couple of other tools to consider using are bit.ly and monitter.com.
Bit.ly allows you to shorten URLs that you post (useful, as tweets are limited to 140 characters), but also gives you some really interesting metrics like number of clickthroughs and retweets.
Monitter allows you to follow what people are tweeting in real time around specified keywords and within a geographic radius. So you could follow what people are saying in your area and on key subjects. You can then be first to respond.
We’ll be posting more social media, marketing and public relations tips in coming weeks, so be sure to follow the blog and be first to know!
1. Check out who your friends, contacts, customers and competitors are following and follow them yourself. The rule of thumb is that about half will follow you back.
2. Compelling content will get you followers! So remember, the message comes before the medium, so don’t just tweet any old nonsense. One way to get good material to tweet is to use Google alerts (www.google.com/alerts) to prompt you about stories featuring subject matter you’re interested in and which will interest potential followers. Position yourself as a resourceful contact.
3. Tweet using keywords as it will help you to be found when people search. Equally, you should put the right keywords on your homepage biography.
4. Retweet interesting tweets by people you follow. They may well do the same for you and carry your message to a wider audience and attract you new followers.
You might find after a week or two that some of the people you have followed haven’t followed you back and you might want to unfollow them. You can do this manually, but there are a number of tools that you can use to manage twitter accounts that will do this for you in an automated fashion (such as Huitter).
Be careful when using these not to rid yourself of more than a couple of hundred followers at a time, as it may flag up your account with Twitter. Automated activity sometimes implies spammer activity – and this is usually sufficient for Twitter to suspend accounts - permanently. After all, they’re sitting on a multi-billion dollar intellectual property – they don’t want it to be compromised!
A couple of other tools to consider using are bit.ly and monitter.com.
Bit.ly allows you to shorten URLs that you post (useful, as tweets are limited to 140 characters), but also gives you some really interesting metrics like number of clickthroughs and retweets.
Monitter allows you to follow what people are tweeting in real time around specified keywords and within a geographic radius. So you could follow what people are saying in your area and on key subjects. You can then be first to respond.
We’ll be posting more social media, marketing and public relations tips in coming weeks, so be sure to follow the blog and be first to know!
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