AZPRC | Arizona Public Relations Club

How Twitter Positively Changed My Life

Though I’ve only been active on Twitter for about a year and a half, the microblogging website has changed my life. I’ve found that even 140-character conversations can make a difference in the long run. So just how has Twitter affected me? Definitely in more ways than one. (WARNING: The following post will make me seem like a huge social media dork, which is pretty much true.)

Job search. I graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Mass Communication and Journalism at ASU in May. Luckily, I had an internship lined up at the Internet marketing company Vertical Measures, which turned into a full-time job about a month later. How did I find the internship? By following Content Strategist Elise Redlin-Cook on Twitter. She tweeted about a scholarship contest Vertical Measures was hosting. I entered and I won! A few months later Elise tweeted about an available internship position at the company. I surely would not have known about the opportunity if it weren’t for Twitter.

As a journalist and blogger. I have been blogging on the AZPRC site for a few months now. Also, as a journalism student, I wrote for ASU’s paper The State Press, AZCentral.com and other Valley publications. Since graduation I have continued blogging and have also began freelance writing for Green Living AZ, a sustainable living magazine. Lately when I am looking for a source to interview, I will send a tweet asking my followers for contacts. It has worked out great so far!

Professional relationships. I’ve connected with so many people in the Internet marketing industry through Twitter. Through these connections, I have gained a great deal of knowledge about industry trends and also made friends with some Internet marketing greats. Additionally, these connections have led me to opportunities such as guest blogging and becoming a member of the AZIMA Marketing Committee.

Personal relationships. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably know that one of my favorite bands is Phish. I tweet about the band at least once a day and sometimes much, much more than that, mainly because the band has a large Twitter following. Most Phish fans on Twitter have joined the Phish Twibe. A “twibe” is just another name for a group, but the Phish Twibe is so much more than that. I converse with twibe members daily and have met quite a few of them in person! I have formed lasting friendships with many of them and I know that wherever I am around the country at any given time, I will have a friend in a twibe member. It may sound silly, but these people have become great friends.

Some of the #Twibe at a Tweet-Up

What about you? How, if at all, has Twitter affected your life?

Abby Gilmore

Friday, September 3rd, 2010 Tags: abby gilmore, Phish, social media, Twibe, Twitter
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Website Changes for a More Social AZPRC

If you haven’t noticed already, we’ve made a few changes here at AZPRC.com. With the addition of a social bar, Facebook ‘Like’ button on each post, updates to our Members Page, About Page, and the addition of an AAWL and Phoenix Events Calendar Page, we’re hoping the AZPRC.com site is more social for our site visitors.

Keeping with the social theme, September’s AZPRC event will be all about social media marketing. You’ll find more information about our next event on our Phoenix Events Calendar, as well as other events throughout the valley. Don’t forget, Social Media AZ is coming up the second week of September. Register today, and learn all there is to know about social media marketing.

And last, but certainly not least, I wanted to share some information about a blogging contest I just entered, (read my post: “Is it Time to Rethink Where You Have Your Social Time Invested?“). Bloggers could have a chance to win one of the below prizes from below sponsors. Enter your post today, contest ends SEPTEMBER 2nd!!

$200. Prize Sponsors

Daniel McGonagle Link Building

BestTravelWebsites.com Best Travel Sites

ArrangeYourVacation.com Vacation Rentals

$150 Prize Sponsors

Candy Store

$100 Prize Sponsors

Alisa Bowman Marriage Advice

Internet Marketing Services

SEO Software

SEO Ottawa

Virtual Assistants

Hesham Zebida Thesis Skins

Gerald Weber Houston SEO

Toni J Young Network Marketing Training

Quillcards Distinctive Ecards by Quillcards

Ghostwriter Dad Ghostwriting services

$50 Prize Sponsors

Whitney Segura Whitney Segura’s Internet Marketing Blog

James Brown James Brown

Raxa Design Houston web design

Eric Brantner Freelance Copywriter

The Servant Media Houston Business Development

Ana Hoffman, Traffic Generation Cafe Increasing Targeted Website Traffic

The Lane Real Estate Team Kennewick Homes

Other prizes: Non-Cash Sponsors

Hostgator.com 1 year Business Hosting plan. Includes toll free phone number and SSL $179.40 value Business Web Hosting

David Harry A full years membership at SEO Dojo, a value of $250.SEO Training Dojo

Link-Assistant.Com SEO PowerSuite Enterprise (max. functionality license) $599 worth with a life-time Live! Plan subscription. SEO tools

Special thanks to the contest media partner: My Blog Guest. MyBlogGuest.com is the free guest post exchange community where users meet to exchange guest posts and network.

kailastrong

Sunday, August 29th, 2010 Posted in Blogging | No Comments »

Top SEO Mistakes and How to Fix Them

This is a guest post by Steve Lazuka, owner of Interact Media, a website content marketing firm based in Ohio. He is an expert in SEO, content marketing, and also writes on his company blog to provide useful information to others in the marketing industry.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single website in search of good visitors must be aware of search engine optimization.

Had Jane Austen been around today, she may well have suggested a good dose of sense and sensibility when it comes to thinking about the contents of a business’s website. No matter how great the product or service is on offer, making one of the top SEO mistakes can result in a huge shortfall on potential visitor numbers.

Avoiding these top three common pitfalls can keep search engine crawlers coming back to your site, and serving up traffic on a silver platter.

Pride and Prejudice

Don’t fall into the mistake of thinking that your product or service is so good that customers will come flocking to your site without any help. Remember pride comes before a fall, so put some effort into attracting customers. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think what they will use as a search term. If you are selling rare antiquated manuscripts, don’t just think “old books” is a good enough search term. Your stock will change, so when you get your hands on that first edition Austen, utilize a keyword that will bring anyone searching for your newly acquired tome directly to your site. Likewise, if you sell e-books for portable devises, think about the e-books you’re supplying and set up keywords appropriately.

Try your hand at a bit of keyword research: try out Adwords Keyword Tool, read this awesome post by Lisa Barone “Five Steps to Effective Keyword Research”, or check out tools like WordTracker.

Mansfield Park

Or put another way, seeing the forest through the trees. Less is often more in the world of SEO. Of course, you need to utilize keywords appropriately; but any good site should indulge in some good old-fashioned market research.

Have a look at the sites for businesses in the same sector that are succeeding and see what they are doing. There’s no copyright in ideas so use the best of these and adapt them to your own purposes, just make sure you’re adapting and not copying. Remember your unique selling point and focus around this – after all, customers need a reason to take their business in your direction, so help them out. Use tools like Google Insight, Twitter Search (and trending topics), Google Hot Trends, Google blog search (hot queries), or even sites like Sency can help you identify trends in your sector. Remember to keep an eye on the seasons of your business and change your site to reflect this.

Persuasion

Potential customers need a little gentle persuasion to visit a site, so don’t fall into the trap of thinking once your site is up and running you can sit back and watch the money flood in. The single best way to avoid this mistake is to create great content. The key word here is “create” – an all too common mistake is to copy content wholesale from another site. Not only is this dishonest (and can land you in hot water), but it is unprofessional and plain stupid, something that customers are not.

If they are looking for a product or service in your sector, the chances are they will have looked at a number of sites. If they see the same content on more than one site, they will soon figure out something is amiss and promptly move on. The same can be said for search engines. So, the easiest way to avoid this is simply by creating original, interesting, and no-nonsense content.

It’s not as difficult as many people seem to think. Just look at the service or product your company is offering and then write why you feel it is so worthy of a customer’s time and money. Personalize your copy and this will give your website a much more intimate feel. It is also a great way to get some unique keywords integrated into your content.

guestpost

Thursday, August 26th, 2010 Tags: content creation, content marketing, keyword research, SEO
Posted in Blog | No Comments »

Blogging 101 Recap

Abby, explaining "Blogging 101"

This edition was meant to be a wrap up of Abby Gilmore’s (@abbygilmore follow her!) Blogging 101 presentation given at our most recent meeting this week. (The full presentation is available for viewing here). It’s got a smidgen of advice seasoned in as well…

Assuming you’re working with people who are familiar with blogging, you know that sometimes a little nudge is needed for them to see the true value in it. Perhaps you yourself don’t know where to start or what you bring to the table in creating your own blog to share with the world. So why bother to do it at all? Here’s 5 reasons why:

1. Personal or Company Branding

2. Increase Traffic

3. Connect with people

4. Position yourself as a thought leader, or expert

5. Create content worth linking back to (for other bloggers, which in turns leads back to #1-5)

Bottom line, using a blog is a direct way to demonstrate who you are, your personal brand. By sharing the unique perspective that only you can provide on a certain subject creates content that connects you to like-minded people, or people who have something to gain from your expertise or passion.

Blogging also creates a higher profile for you, your company on the web. By keeping fresh, updated content and using valuable keywords, you drive traffic to find you/your website. More eyeballs on you means more potential for the growth of your business. And that in itself is priceless.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is built in to blogging platforms such as WordPress (check out these 20 WordPress plugins to help enhance your SEO). It’s paramount to not skip a single step that precedes publishing and taking your blog live. It might take a little bit of time and effort to learn the back end of WordPress, but once you do, it becomes muscle memory moving forward.

A very valuable lesson you should take with you from the get go is including KEYWORDS relevant to your topic in the title and content of your blog. Should someone Google search for your topic in particular, you want the strongest keywords (check keyword rankings on AdWords) to appear in the beginning of your title. Google only displays the first 40-60 characters of a subject line, so you need to make those words count and grab your target readers right away.

Some helpful tips for do it yourself SEO:

1. Keep your content fresh and new

2. Write with your keywords in mind

3. Build links to your blog post (comment on other’s blogs and they will lead back to you)

4. Link to internal pages

5. Think KEYWORDS when creating your title

6. Do your homework, learn what all of these mean and USE them: title tag, alt image text, headline tag, meta description, meta keywords

7. Submit your stories to Google news!

Once you’re comfortable and blogging is second nature, spread your elbows out a bit and offer to guest blog for others. There are a number of reasons to do this. It gives you the opportunity to create new relationships within your niche while creating another platform to demonstrate your brand – to show what makes you tick. The readership of the blogs of others will likely become your readers when they’ve recognized your reputation as a thought leader in your field, thus increasing your traffic. Linking back to your blog creates further exposure never hurt anyone either…

Some pearls of wisdom from the most recent AZPRC meeting attendees:

Michael from VallyoftheSuns.com: “Write about what you’re passionate about. Find your niche, familiarize yourself with all aspects of it. Reach out build relationships with others within your niche.”

Elise (@RedlinCook) : “Content doesn’t stop with the written word. If you don’t have something to say, you might have something to show.” (i.e.: a PPT presentation, etc.).

Members of AZPRC share the passion for learning and sharing ideas to better ourselves professionally. We blog with this in mind. It is a mistake professionally to assume you have nothing to teach or nothing to learn from your peers. Our goal is to reach new potential members in the community of communicators in Phoenix, specifically PR/SEO. Our meetings are free and the doors are always open! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter (@AZPRC).

JennMcPhee

Friday, August 20th, 2010 Tags: abby gilmore, azprc, Blogging
Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments »

Why You Need Social Media AND PR

We’d like to welcome our first, of hopefully many, guest bloggers. The below post is by Vernon Marker. Vernon is an expert on many subjects including SEO and social media. He uses his expertise and knowledge to answer questions on a Q&A site. Follow him on Twitter, @VernMarker.

Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. Social media sites are all the rage these days. And it’s not just individuals who are signing up and letting the world know what they are up to. Companies and businesses are using social media sites, especially Twitter and Facebook, to spread the word about what they have to offer. Social media is a cheap and easy wayto market what your company has to offer. But should it replace traditional PR methods? Absolutely not. Any strong marketing strategy should incorporate both social media and PR. Why? Because while the two are marketing strategies, their approach is different and so is their target audiences.

Social media is a great way to connect with your customers on a more personal basis. You actually get to interact with people and hear directly what they like and dislikeabout your product or service. It’s also a great way to give you a more visible image, when it is done right. The thing about social media is that it is very interactive. If you have a Twitter or Facebook account for your company or a company department, you need to make sure that you are talking and responding to your customers when you can. If you simple list or “tweet” your services, people won’t pay a whole lot of attention. The key is to make it casual and not seem like you are using it as a marketing tool. Talk to people. Mention stuff that is outside of the company from time to time. If people believe that there is actually a person behind the account they will be more open to communicating and actually reading what you post.

But don’t think that just because you tweet you should bypass a more traditional PR campaign. There are certain things that a PR company can do and offer that you can’t get through social media. Sure, PR may be seen as the older, stuffy sibling to social media, but keep in mind that older quite often means wiser. A great PR campaign is more than press releases and product descriptions: the right PR company can offer you a custom made campaign that can target your core customer base. PR firms also have a direct line to more traditional forms of media, such as print media. And people do still read magazines and newspapers. A PR campaign coupled with a strong social media presence can ensure that your marketing campaign has all the bases covered. And there is nothing that says that the two can’t work together and overlay somewhat. Use your Twitter account to not only promote any PR campaigns that your company may have in place, but also gage what larger scale PR may work.

And, not all of your potential customers use social media sites. So, if you opt out of traditional PR, then you will be doing a great disservice to your business. If you are unhappy with your PR or you think that it is too old school, don’t discard it, but rather re-evaluate it. PR firms are constantly changing and adapting. It may not be that PR isn’t going to work for your business, but that you need to take your PR in a different direction.

Social media has moved beyond simply being a tool for individuals to stay in touch. For most companies it’s an essential part of their marketing strategy. And it should be. It’s a great way to talk to your customers and really find out how they feel about your business. But don’t throw your PR plan out for the hipper social media sites. Used together, social media and PR can ensure that you have every marketing angle covered.

guestpost

Thursday, August 19th, 2010 Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, PR, social media, social media strategy, Twitter
Posted in Blog | 2 Comments »

Social Media AZ September Event

Have you had the chance to go to a social media conference here in Phoenix? If not, check this one out!

On September 9^th attendees of the third SMAZ conference will learn applied social media practices, and many presenters will be showing how successful strategies have worked for their businesses or clients. If you are looking for a more hands on, information filled, practical conference then make sure to register for this one!

Speakers at SMAZ include:

Greg Chapman – President of Sitewire
Laurie G Buczek – Enterprise 2.0 Program Manager, Intel Corporation
Matt O’Brien – President, Mint Social
Michael Roberts – President, SpyFu.com
Sheila Kloefkorn – Founder & President, KEO Marketing
Arnie Kuenn – President, Vertical Measures
Mike Corak – VP of Strategy & Interactive Services, Tallwave
Bret Giles – President, AgencySide
Fred von Graf – President, Web3Mavens, LLC
Tiffany Winman – Social Media Strategist, IBM
Jeff Moriarty – Director Social Media, Sitewire
Bart Steiner – CEO and Founder, Bulbstorm, Inc.
Fionn Downhill – President, Elixir Interactive
Linda Vandevrede – Public Relations Consultant & Author
Evo Terra – Digital Business Strategist, Sitewire
Dean Wright – VP Marketing, Tripware.com

Here are a few more details about the event:

Register for tickets: All Day Tickets available, special pricing for students or previous attendees (buy one get 2^nd 50% off!). Register here.

Twitter: Check out all the peeps already tweeting about the event (you might even find a coupon code or two!). #SMAZ

Location: MadCap Theater – 730 S. Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ 85281 on September 9^th, 2010 (view map here).

Parking Info: There will be free and discounted parking available. Once you register you’ll get more details.

If interested, attendees of SMAZ can get to the conference early for a 2 hour workshop by the Online Marketing Institute (OMI). This 2 hour workshop is $79 (save 30% if attending SMAZ by using code OMISMAZ30, register here).

Will you be attending? If so, look for a few of the AZPRC peeps like Sarah Geiger, Abby Gilmore, Kaila Strong, and Alex Stein.

kailastrong

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 Tags: madcap theater, social media az, social media event
Posted in Events | 1 Comment »

Don’t Forget About Local Search & Review Sites

The August AZIMA (Arizona Interactive Marketing Association) social event focused on local search and review sites like Yelp and Foursquare. In my opinion, these sites don’t get enough credit! Thanks to presenters Chuck Reynolds and Matt Siltala, I learned even more than I expected about local search and review websites.

Foursquare is a program where you “check-in” to different places you’re at, like the grocery store, the movie theater, or even your place of employment. You can then post it to social media profiles like Twitter or Facebook. If you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, you must live under a rock. But seriously – if you own a business and you haven’t heard of Foursquare, you’re totally missing out. With more than more th an 15.5 million check-ins and half a million users, if you haven’t “claimed” your business on Foursquare, you definitely need to.

Businesses owners can claim their business on Foursquare by verifying certain information with the on the site. Then, you can see your analytics through your Foursquare profile. Analytics include check-ins (in real time), so if you check your account at your business, you can actually see who is there. Foursquare can be used in a business to promote sales or specials. Also, people are going to talk about your business through Foursquare whether you join the conversation or not, so you’re better off joining to see what people are saying about your establishment.

Another search and review site discussed at AZIMA was Yelp. Yelp is a site where people review their experiences at restaurants, stores, services and events. Many people have the misconception that Yelp is just for restaurant reviews, but that is hardly the case. With more than 12 million reviews posted world wide, Yelp is a force to be reckoned with if you’re a business owner.

Yelp lets you contact users who write reviews about your business, which can be seen as a positive and a negative. If you’re from Phoenix, you’ve probably heard of the #crazyamy situation, where a local business owner publicly called out someone on Yelp who left a bad review about her restaurant. She called him names and insulted him, and in the end, “defending herself” completely backfired. But, if you want to reach out to someone who had a bad experience at your restaurant or business and perhaps, apologize, this feature on Yelp is great.

Though Foursquare and Yelp are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to local search and review sites, business could use these sites as a starting point since they are so widely used. More sites to think about include Urbanspoon, CitySearch, Google Places and Gowalla.

To learn more, check out Matt Siltala’s slides from the presentation.

What do you think about Foursquare and Yelp? What about other local review sites?

Abby Gilmore

Friday, August 13th, 2010 Tags: azima, chuck reynolds, foursquare, local search and review sites, matt siltala, yelp
Posted in Blog | 5 Comments »

Learn About Blogging 101 at AZPRC’s Next Meeting: August 17th

This month’s AZPRC meeting is scheduled for August 17th at 6PM. We’ll be meeting at the usual spot, Echo Coffee, on Thomas and 68th Street. As many of you know, we’ve switched up our format a little bit and have decided to have members present on topics that they’re experts in. This month the always charming Abby Gilmore will be presenting on the basics of Blogging. Whether you’re an avid blogger yourself, want to get started, or consider yourself an expert, please attend! We’d love to hear your input, help answer questions, and work as a group to examine the basics of blogging with Abby’s guidance.

Make sure to bring your questions to our August 17th event, and any new and fun ideas for blog posts, networking events, industry news, etc. HELP us get the word out! Tell your friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter about the next #AZPRC August 17th event (click the link to tweet).

**If you are interested in having a bite to eat at Echo Coffee give em a call and pre-order your dinner: 480-422-4081. The owner of Echo Coffee confirmed that they can make sandwiches fresh like the Turkey and Brie anytime of day, but some of the other hot sandwiches take time. Great food, check out the menu!

kailastrong

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 Tags: abby gilmore, azprc, blogging 101, monthly meeting
Posted in Announcements | 1 Comment »

Social Media Snafu

One of my favorite things about the emergence of social media is the ‘word-of-mouth’ authenticity it brings my clients.

Consumers want more than a beautiful advertisement touting the accolades of a particular place or product. They want the dirt… the low-down… the skinny… comprende? Blame it on our tabloid loving society or justified mistrust of corporate America, but we want to know the truth from people just like us, i.e. the social media society.

But can we handle the truth? Not always. Unfortunately this can result in a public relations nightmare for professionals that fail to keep their cool under pressure.

Enter 2 recent situations where social media acted as a conduit for more than the truth, but a bit of a backlash as well…

Nestlé: had a recent run-in with Greenpeace supporters over a parody video on YouTube implying that the production palm oil, a listed ingredient in Nestle’s KitKat candy bar, is contributing to the destruction of rainforests.

A few snarky comments later and the comment/posting fiasco reached a fevered pitch, going global in a matter of hours. Irreparable damage, all because of a few choice words on a very public stage.

Amy’s Baking Company: Aug.2, 2010 a day that will live in infamy…. for the Phoenix foodie realm. Upon receiving a less than stellar review on Yelp from local food blogger, Joel La Tondress (known as azhotdish to twitterphiles) Amy of Amy’s Baking Company launched into a diatribe of hateful word vomit.

The incident , outed by Michele Laudig on Chow Bella, caused an uproar because of the blatant rudeness and stinging sarcasm that encased each and every scathing response to not only a paying customer, but a respected food journalist.

Lesson Learned? We hope so!

1. It’s not personal, it’s business. Take criticism seriously and learn from it. Nestlé and Amy failed to separate themselves from their business. Don’t make it about you, it’s always about your brand.

2. Treat social media enthusiasts like bona-fide journalists. Anyone with an idea and an internet connection can make or break you, always be aware.

mollymaguth

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 Posted in Blog | 3 Comments »

Older Entries »

Website Changes for a More Social AZPRC

Top SEO Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Blogging 101 Recap

Don’t Forget About Local Search & Review Sites

Learn About Blogging 101 at AZPRC’s Next Meeting: August 17th

Social Media Snafu

@AZPRC's Recent Tweets

#AZPRC

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