by KarenYankovich | Oct 24, 2016 | Social Media and PR
Social Media, the ultimate goal is to be seen, right? Being seen consistently, strategically, is the path to consistently growing your business.
This week we’re going to talk a bit about injecting some PR into that path.
Here’s the definition of PR from PRSA (Public Relations Society of Ameria)
“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”
A few months ago the PRSA North East region chapter had a conference, and I was a speaker at the conference. I got to see first hand how people were leveraging PR and Social Media together. Christina Daves and I have known that for years, we’ve interviewed dozens of people for our Get Seen Be Heard YouTube channel! But it was great to hear all kinds of angles on making this work most profitably. And I realized I have NEVER talked about this on my blog!
So here it is, my top 5 ways to use Social Media and PR together, profitably.
Connect with journalists who cover your industry. Make sure you’re connected on Twitter and LinkedIn primarily. Create a Twitter list for these journalists and be sure to retweet and converse with them regularly! Please don’t pitch them, be of service, save the pitches for the exact right time.
Use LinkedIn Inmail. If you’re following me, you KNOW you need to have a great profile (need help? Start here) (link to first three things page). Once you’ve been connected for awhile and you’ve been sharing their content and being of service, it’s time to take the next step. An InMail is a great way to stand out from the crowd. Maybe you’re just asking permission to pitch them in the future, and asking them how they prefer to be contacted.
Snail Mail rules. Remember the days when your mailbox was overflowing with bills and crap? Now, your email box is, and mail stand out. Send a nice note, include something that has your social media accounts listed so they know how to follow you. They will remember this, I promise.
Read your content – to the journalist and in general – out loud. Make sure it Blog sounds like YOU. If not, rework it. Please don’t sound like a robot or use all kinds of corporate jargon. Be real. It works every time.
Monitor relevant hashtags. Primarily on Instagram and Twitter. You’ll see who’s talking about your topics, and you can jump into those conversations. These conversations can help you develop your next pitch.
That’s it! Pretty simple when you put a process to it. Wondering where to start? I put together this FREE video series showing some simple ways to use social media and PR to get more customers. Check it out! www.gmctips.com
by KarenYankovich | Oct 17, 2016 | Social Media, Social Media and PR
We’ve all heard – it’s easier to sell to existing customers than it is to gain new customers.
So, how do we do that? How do we improve our customer loyalty?
You know what’s coming next, right? Social Media!
Listen. Listen to your existing customers. Listen to social media, do research on local hashtags; what are people in your town talking about? What products or services are being talked about in your industry? Where do your customers congregate online?
Now respond. Start conversations around what you learned in step one and get engaged with your local customers!
Contests and rewards programs keep your customer base coming back. Incentives drive customers to come back to your business and as long as you provide what they need, they’ll think to YOU first. Use Social Media and PR to get visibility for those programs.
Are you following your customers on social media and supporting their online efforts? Following and friending a customer boosts morale and makes them feel appreciated. Interact with social pages by giving a retweet or a like now and then from a happy customer!
Think like a customer. Identify their pain points and make sure you can solve them. Being a business is all about providing a solution to a customers need, so be able to identify that and provide a simple and attractive solution.
Provide ROCK SOLID customer service on social media. People love to share their experiences with products and services online. Be aware of positive and negative presence on social media and be able to build up a customer when they are pleased, and fix a problem and offer a solution when they are not.
HAVE A PLAN! It is not just enough to casually monitor your social media. Being engaged consistently is key to staying in contact with your customers and to catch any immediate posts that need your attention. Timeliness in responses and updates show a customer that you care. And showing you care is the key to keep your customers coming back!
Ready to get engaged and connect with your customer base? Visit www.gmctips.com to view more of these tips and get your first video FREE!
by KarenYankovich | Aug 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
If you’ve attended any of my webinars, you may have seen this chart already.
No, I’m not trying to make you crazy with this stuff. I know you’re looking at Twitter and thinking to yourself “has she lost her mind?”
What I want is for you to use these social media platforms for PROFIT. I want you to use them in a way that will keep your name top of mind with your followers. To do that, you need to be consistent, you need to have a plan and work that plan.
This chart is the place to start.
I’m not saying you need to be in all of these places. What I’m saying that if you ARE going to post in a platform, use it wisely. Use it to get the most bang for your buck. Pick one or two and do it right.
Much of this can be pre-scheduled. For example, for every blog post I write, I throw three tweets for it into a queue of content that goes out to Twitter on a rotating basis. Hey, I took the time to write it, why not share it over and over ? The content is still valuable to my followers for many months or even years ahead.
Need help figuring out what to post on each of these platforms? Join my LinkedIn group where I and other interested entrepreneurs are always brainstorming new content ideas!
by KarenYankovich | Jul 11, 2016 | Social Media and PR
We hear a lot about social media, the great equalizer, shrinking the world, allowing us to do business with people across the globe. That’s representative of MY business! I’ve got clients on continents I’ve never been to (yet!), that I will likely never meet. But what if you have a location based business? A business that has no marketing need to reach people across the pond?
Social media isn’t just for international businesses anymore! It can be a powerful tool for driving local customers to your mom-and-pop shop on Main Street or pizza parlor in the town center. Building a social media presence for your local business can help you:
- Become a more integral part of the community – Share local news, support and interact with other local businesses, and post content relevant to events going on in the area. People will start to see your business as a hometown favorite!
- Make customers feel more connected to your business – Interact with customers before they even set foot in your shop, and continue the conversation after they make a purchase to keep them coming back!
- Target your ideal customer – Are you focused on a niche market? Do you only deliver to certain zip codes? Strategically using tools like targeted Facebook ads and location-based hashtags will help you attract customers based on their niche interests or proximity to your business.
- Amplify word-of-mouth – Word-of-mouth is a major driver of customers for most small businesses. Social media provides an easy way for happy customers to share experiences and allows the positive impression you made on them to spill over to all of your local fans.
Utilizing social media marketing has become the norm for small businesses. With a solid strategy and the right content, social media can help you reach local customers and increase profits.
Not sure where to start? Head over to socialmediaandpr.com for some insider secrets that will give you a jumpstart to get local exposure fast!
by KarenYankovich | Jun 13, 2016 | Uncategorized
LinkedIn is a very different social media site than most and there are plenty of practices used on Facebook and Twitter that don’t come across so well on a professional site like LinkedIn. Here’s six tips on what not to do on LinkedIn and how you can take the extra step to stand out on the site:
1. Don’t send the standard connection request, always personalize. When you’re on LinkedIn on your desktop, you’re given the option to send a personalized connection request when you add a connection. Utilize that feature! If you’re connecting to someone that you maybe saw speak at a conference or even someone you went to highschool with, let them know how you know who they are.
2. Don’t spam your groups. Make sure you’re providing value, commenting on other people’s posts, engaging in discussions. It’s a great way to share the different blogs and sales you have but you’ll get way more of a response from people if you have also been commenting on their posts. Then, when you post about your business or the different things that you do, people will see your name, remember it, and be way more interested in what you have to say. About 70% of the time you spend in those groups should be adding value to others’ posts, not just about you!
3. Don’t selfie. Your LinkedIn profile picture has such a different standard than any other social media site holds. Set aside your selfies, pictures of your cat or your kids, and nature photos for Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. LinkedIn is about your business and you as a professional, so you really want to come across that way. Maybe it’s time to get together with a group of your friends and have a headshot party! They can be SO much fun and you will acquire a photo much more suitable for your LinkedIn! This is your personal brand that you’re selling, make it count 🙂
[Tweet “There are plenty of practices used on Facebook and Twitter that don’t come across so well on a professional site like LinkedIn”]
4. Don’t skip over the summary! This is where you can tell your story, where you can intrigue your followers, where you can share a call to action. All these words you use in your summary are searchable by google. Make sure you are throwing in some keywords that really summarize you and your business so that when people search it, you’re the first to come up! This is a way for your LinkedIn to work for you while you’re sleeping, it’s way too simple to skip over it. Keep it clean, relatively short, and feel free to keep a lot of white space in your summary so it’s easily read and skimmed.
5. Don’t forget to check your privacy settings! This is such a simple fix that can easily slip by you. If your profile is private, that is not helping you be seen by the masses. Make sure you set your profile to public. Go right now and just double check, this is another incredibly simple way to increase the traffic on your page!
6. Don’t ignore recommendations! Of course it’s great to write a review for your hairdresser or your personal trainer, but don’t be afraid to write recommendations for people who can write one back for you! So if you collaborated with someone and you think that partnership went really well, write them a LinkedIn recommendation and more than likely they will write one back for you. Recommendations are gold on LinkedIn and they really make you stand out from your competition. Customers are much more likely to trust a professional that has been recommended by plenty of people that they have worked for or with. If I speak at an event and someone running it comes up and says “Hey, thank you so much you really did a great job and everyone seemed to love it!” I’ll come right back and say “Of course! Thank you and would you mind writing me a recommendation on LinkedIn?” and 9 out of 10 times it I come out with not only another speaking gig under my belt but a glowing LinkedIn recommendation as well.
And that’s about it! Six easy tips that I swear by that can totally turn around your LinkedIn game. Do you have any other LinkedIn tips you swear by? Let us know! I’d love to hear your thoughts!!
Want more tips? Join my LinkedIn group!
