Tag Archives: pr client

Keeping up with Social Media

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I am constantly being asked to give more information about this growing Internet media called “social media”. To help further understand the power this new media offers you need to read my other articles on social media and also this article. Then maybe you will get a better perspective why your pr client needs to become active in social media. If nothing else happens with your pr marketing strategy campaign, make sure you consider adding a blog or other social media network to the program.social media networking

To begin, it is important to know exactly what is Social Media: Defined by Wikipedia (a type of Social Media site) defines it as “the online technologies and practices that people use to share content, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media themselves. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. The social media sites typically use tools like message boards, forums, podcasts, bookmarks, communities, wikis, blogs etc.” This quote was in a white paper from More Visibility.

Notice how it describes the different types, and forms this media takes. Such as message boards and forums. If you recall, the web originated from old BBSes (Bulletin Board Systems) and Chat Rooms. In a sense, social media is a more advanced network of chat rooms. But today, anyone can create a post, write a blog– from teens to mature adults in their 80’s and make comments. Unlike chat rooms that were by invitations to friends. Yes, some social media like Facebook, and MySpace keep outsiders out if you don’t know them.

How many different types of Social media web sites exist? A lot. For starters there are:

Social Network Sites. Mainly web sites that are becoming a community with the intent to create a social involvement.

Picture Sites are another. You may already be using them. These are pictures you post online to share with others, family and friends.

Video site. Same as pictures, but use videos. The most popular is YouTube. But many other new sites are emerging daily.

Blogs. Most popular among the youth, now is part of a business network. Companies are blogging faster than ever to get the name out.

Many other types are happening like music sharing sites, podcasting (the next big growth area) and gaming sites as well.

Knowing just this information should help pr clients develop stronger pr marketing strategies for their campaign. If you are a pr client and your publicity agency is not getting you to the social media front, call George Carson at Carson Marketing, Inc. He will get you in front of the line.

Podcasting. The next best Marketing Strategy.

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The Internet is constantly moving fast forward, and your pr marketing strategies need to keep the pace.

If you are an aggressive pr client, or publicity professional, then you are probably a savvy Internet person that knows the power it offers. But are you aware of social media? Do youpodcasting marketing understand how to use this media? Are you prepared to get into the hottest next media? If you answered yes, then Podcasting needs to be part of your pr marketing strategy. The word podcast is made from two words, “iPod” and “broadcast“.

Not all web sites are created equal. Those that know web marketing, like Carson Marketing Inc, understand the power a blog site has and when you add podcasting, it brings a new dimension to the Internet. If you are a pr client and your ad agency or public relations service agency doesn’t recommend your company to have a blog site, then it’s time to look for another marketing agency. Why? Becasue you are then missing out on increasing your company’s position in the market. In order to increase sales, you need to get more visible. You need to tell the story about the company, its services and products. The most cost effective way to do this is with a blog site and podcasting. Unlike ads in a publication, or press releases, blogs can be controlled and changed daily. This keeps the information fresh and current to perspective customers.

Isn’t it time your company sets the pace in your industry? If you want to be the leader, then start a professional blog site that is well supported with qualified marketers who can get you noticed. Call George Carson at 949-477-9400.

Protect your web site investment. Avoid making SE mistakes.

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Search Engine Marketing is both an art and full time business. Knowing what makes them angry can help any pr client avoid being tossed off the list.

If you are a pr client, or an ad agency, or better yet, a web design company, make sure you know the rules of good web development and understand what makes SE’s (search engines)search engine marketing mad. You may already recognize a few of these “don’t do” rules, but I am sure you will find some that you did not know and should avoid.

Remember, if you engage in any of these “don’t do rules” your web site can be banned or dropped from their rankings. That can have serious effects on your web site traffic, and ruin a pr marketing strategy campaign that might have included keywords, optimizing, banner ads, reciprocal links, just to mention a few. These are a few of the things to avoid.

1- Re-Directs. Sometimes called cloaking. This could include hidden text or showing different content to se’s than what your actual site displays.

2- Doorway pages. This is a familiar term and was once accepted as a marketing tool for web designers. No longer is this accepted.

3- Linking to poor sites. Sometimes referred to as “bad neighborhood” sites. These sites have broken links, are usually part of a link farm for thousands of other sites linked together.

4- Broken links on your own site. Getting a “404 errors” is not good. Fix any broken links or pages that cannot load properly.

Many other don’ts exist, these are a few to help you learn what not to do. We have other articles that address similar helpful tips, such as “Build Web Links With Publicity“. Other good reading articles you should read are: “Web Site Marketing in Orange County“, Social Networking is changing how we search“, and finally “Web Site Marketing and Publicity“.

Browse through many of the other articles on local publicity, pr marketing strategies, and email campaigns. I am sure you will find something that can improve the publicity and marketing campaign for your pr client.

How to increase brand awareness. Create an Event.

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Be sure the pr marketing strategies for your company includes promotional events. It can be an excellent media for building a company’s brand.

You can develop a local publicity event that can be as effective as a national campaign.

Our pr client, Extreme Karting, held their first promotional event at K-1 Speed in Irvine, California. It was an indoor racing go-karting event. The turnout was great and the fungo kart event promotion was at an all-time high. Drivers ranged from dad’s to son’s who participated. As usual, the younger group showed the dads their skills by outperforming them. The event gave an opportunity for new customers to experience go-karting while getting to know our pr client. This was a great pr marketing strategy that worked.

We completely handled the publicity with K-1, developed and created the special eMail invitation to the event, and coordinated the activity including taking photos. In addition to the promotional event, Extreme Karting has a shifter GP go-kart on display for all to see. The kart was set between a formula race car and an off-road race vehicle, making the display area more exciting. Potential customers took handouts from the go-kart display giving more branding exposure to Extreme Karting.k-1 speed indoor racing

Branding for Extreme Karting was lifted several more levels as many of that company’s customers and potential customers became familiar with the Extreme name and products. We are planning other promotional events as part of our overall pr marketing strategies for this year and next. We enjoy seeing our pr clients get results.

If your company needs to uplift its branding image, then it’s time to contact Carson Marketing Inc. Ask for George Carson. He can create a special event to make you smile from the results.

How To Create A Media List

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Build a solid database for reporters and other media

Do you have a customized media list to distribute your press releases? Are you using a public relations agency, or do you submit your press releases through a PR distribution service?

It doesn’t matter what method you use, what matters is yourmedia list publicity release or article reaches the reporters or editors that relate best to your industry. You need to target the right media. Using a general, catch-all list will not help your publicity campaign move forward. So what is the solution to reaching the right media?

I read an article called “Guide to Creating a Media List for Your PR” that has many of the answers.

If you don’t get a chance to read the article, I’ll give you a short review of what that author suggests.

1- Purchase a list.  There are companies that provide media lists for sale. You can start looking at Bulldog Reporter’s Media Base, or PR Essentials Company. Another well-known name in publicity services is BurrellesLuce.

2- Distribution Service. Several companies provide distribution of press releases. A few of them are: PRWeb, although a free service, to get full distribution, you will need to subscribe or upgrade from free to fee. eReleases and Advanced-PR are two other companies to consider. Each charges a fee. Another public relations service for distribution is 24-7 Press Release. They also have a fee.

3- Create your own custom list. This is good for pr clients or small pr firms that need to distribute locally, or in limited industries. Try NewsDirectory.com, or Yahoo! News Directory.

If you want to really get noticed, then you need to do more than just send out a press release or two. It requires an on-going effort. It requires hiring a public relations service company who can develop, write and distribute a full campaign. Did I mention that’s what we do? We are here to help you meet your publicity goals. Call George Carson today. He’ll get you noticed!

How To Get Local Publicity

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The goals for any pr client is to get local publicity first, then get as much pr attention as you can later. Why is that important? Because without achieving local recognition, you allow any competitor to take control of your back yard. So what are the secrets to getting local publicity? For example, if you are a pr client in Orange County, you want to begin by getting involved with community programs, or local events.local publication newspaper Orange County

If you are working with a local publicity agency, such as CarsonPR, or one of our divisions (Carson and Company or Carson Marketing, Inc.), make sure you notify the pr agency of any activities, events, community programs that your company becomes involved in. In turn, think about getting more visible by lecturing at different events, or sponsoring small programs, such as the YMCA.

Other ideas to get noticed are: Press releases. These are always a good suggestion. When your company hires an executive person, or contracts with a new client, or moves to different offices, it is always newsworthy. It might not get complete publishing in all the local newspapers, or local magazines, but your name becomes familiar with the media. The next step is to hold a press conference. This isn’t as easy, but when you have something of value to your industry, or the community, get the press to know about it. Another great publicity method to get noticed is to submit articles. These can be company related. In other words, don’t sell yourself or the company, but write an article about the industry you are in and provide information, or suggestions on how to improve that industry. Publishers, editors like these types of articles. It attracts readers to their media, and you might just become an expert in you market that the media will turn to for information.

There are many other easy publicity techniques to get noticed. If you still need more suggestions, give us a call. We’ll be pleased to show you how to get your publicity campaign noticed locally, then nationally.

PR Marketing Strategy– New or Old Idea?

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I saw an article in Brandweek, as well as in other major newspapers that pitched the greatness of Chrysler offering “Lifetime” warranty for their power train to their vehicles. This sounds great, doesn’t it? Or is this a PR Marketing Strategy or a PR Promotion so that the lagging manufacturer can show consumers they are building better cars than their competitors. Well, one thing for sure, why now after all these years and overnight, can a manufacturer offer such great products?

Actually it has been going on for years. This marketing campaign and ad campaign for this PR Client isn’t new in the auto industry. Several years ago, about 17, Ford Motor Company had a similar campaign. They would give a lifetime warranty to any part that was installed in your car. This was not with the new cars, it was for any used Ford vehicle you had a part repaired. For example, if you owned a 1968 Mustang, and the alternator had to be replaced, the dealer/manufacturer would install another one with a lifetime warranty for as long as YOU owned the car. If you had the car for 20 years and it went bad again, it would be replaced for free. The problem was that FordPR Marketing Strategy never did any serious marketing with this great concept. Then one day we were called. Our agency was chosen at that time to develop the creative and publicity for this division. We won the campaign against many of the nationally known agencies. After finalizing the TV and print campaign, we received the bad news.

After a few years of the division being quiet about this concept, Ford canceled the entire PR Marketing Strategyprogram. I wonder if those people who had bought parts during that time are still covered?

So did Chrysler come up with a brilliant idea? Maybe not, but at least they are trying to get the word out. It might not bring thousands of people to the showrooms, but it will build a better brand loyalty and brand awareness to the name. Creating a brand is one thing, keeping that brand awareness is an on-going task. You should never feel that your marketing campaign is safe without any branding included. Keep your company’s brand awareness high with a smart PR Marketing Campaign.

Marketing Strategies for Web Sites

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If you are reading this blog, then you probably have a web site. Whether you are a pr client, a pr agency, a local public relations agency in Orange County or a national company, you need to know these marketing strategies.

All companies want visitors to their site, but how many are converted to sales, buying products, or subscribing to your service? If the percentage is less than 4 or 5%, you may need to evaluate how you are using the pr marketing strategies. You have probably heard about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how it can generate traffic. Done correctly, this can improve sales. Done poorly, it is then money and time wasted.

web marketing strategySEO is one part of a comprehensive pr marketing strategy for web sites. You need to constantly update the sites pages. This can be done moderately, not complete re-designs. Next, re-evaluate the keywords, phrases and update those. Another tip is to make sure all the out bound links are still valid and are with higher page ranking sites.

Here are a few more tips for pr marketing strategies for web sites. Linking is still one of the best ways to gain a high positioning and ranking with Yahoo, Google and other search engines.

Listing your web site on the proper directories and with the major search engines is also important. These should be done by a person (webmaster), not software.

Finally, the last part of these tips is to have a business blog. Not just any blog, but one that actually speaks to your audience. Business blogging is more important today than it was just five months ago. It can be easily set-up and monitored. Writing the daily blogs might be a task for some companies, but there are professional blog writers available to help with your writing.

These are just a few suggestions. If you need professional help with your web traffic and are on a limited budget, then give us a call. We want you to be successful, let us show you how.

Azzurro Wheels goes with Carson PR

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Publicity in Orange County doesn’t really get as much recognition for those pr agencies, pr clients as it should. For example, we recently were awarded the complete publicity, marketing and advertising for Azzurro Wheels based in St Charles, Illinois. The company, not being a major consumer product, makes Publicity in Orange County for our company limited to only pr clients that are national in the sense of name recognition, not national in scope.

The new client, which sells to the go-kart industry, manufactures different racing wheels for indoor and outside tracks for go-karts. Not a big impact for the general awareness, but big enough in the karting industry.

go-kart wheel manufacturerWe began the campaign by developing a theme “Simply The Finest. Period.” with a new fractional page ad. This is being enhanced with a web marketing plan to get more customers to visit the web site. We also created the company’s web site. In addition, we will be doing press releases, publicity press kits, negotiate pr articles, and will be responsible for all the marketing and advertising materials for the company.

When someone mentions the words “Publicity in Orange County” you think of only a few companies. That’s even true with Ad Agencies. Why? Those few get press becasue they may work with a larger, nationally known branded company.  Yet, many successful publicity and advertising agencies are in Orange County. There are different organizations and clubs that pr clients, pr agencies, and ad agencies can join. One for example is the OC Ad Club. Another, for those in publicity in Orange County you can join the Orange County Public Relations Society of America (OCPRSA).

Web Site Marketing Lesson #12

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Publicity is Everywhere series

As we enter the end of this year, I want to make sure that many of you are taking advantage of the web site your company, or pr client has. If you haven’t checked your site lately, within the past 6 weeks, then it’s time to take another look.Web Marketing and page ranking

This time you need to look at where your site is ranked. How is it positioned with the search engines? Does the site appear when you type the different keywords…near the top, or way down past the 100 other companies listed? Do you even show up? How many layers of keywords do you need to type before your company appears?

If your site is not getting high rankings, don’t call your pr agency, or the IT department, or the web designer. The search engines are again re-structuring how they rank and search a site. It’s time to get smarter on how you market your pr client’s web site.

That is why I continually recommend pr clients and web-marketing companies to re-visit their web sites at least every 6 to 8 weeks and do updates to re-fresh the site. Many times this re-fresh will require some additional optimizing to meet the new demands set upon sites by the SEO’s. It is a good idea to take advantage of checking your pressroom, contact info and make sure your products and services are current.

If you want us to check how valid your links are, how valid your site is with the search engines, just give us a call. The service is FREE! Yes, free. No strings attached. It is our holiday gift to you.

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