This was going to require a sizable term to really put Scoop.it through its paces.  The obvious test phrase… what else could be bigger than ‘Alaska Tourism’ … check out my curated results after just one day!

The key moving forward is to keep things fresh especially on Facebook and Twitter, content is king after all right? Using the dashboard the client can go to one site and easily see what trends conversations are taking and then post their thoughts on the appropriate channels.

The new website address is JustATMsUSA.com

You can find them on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Last but certainly not least is the conversation tracking dashboard currently tracking mentions of ATM Machines and the brands of ATMs that Just ATMs USA sells and services.

I’ve developed a workshop that covers three basic topics:

What To Do and What Not To Do When Reaching Out to Bloggers

How not to annoy a blogger and become part of their inner circle. We’ll look at ways you can do a better job of reaching out to these important influencers.

How to Research, Write, Co-edit and Publish High-Quality Blog Posts

What are the tools you can use to find great material for a blog post? How can you craft a blog post that does not take hours to craft? The session covers research methods, efficient writing practices and co-editing techniques to assure your posts are of high quality.

Developing an Editorial Vision and Editorial Calendar

We’ll go through a process that identifies the opportunities for your blog. We’ll develop a framework for enhancing your community. And we’ll create an editorial calendar that details post frequency, topics and milestones for page views, comments and links.

Please contact me for more information:

Alex Williams
alexhwilliams@gmail.com
Twitter: @alexwilliams
Mobile: 503-473-6237

To help PR people better reach out to bloggers, I put together a list of the top 10 examples of what to do and what not to do when reaching out to bloggers.

Introductions

Do: Before making a pitch, send an email that says who you are and why you are contacting me. Introduce yourself and provide context about why you are getting in touch. When I first started writing about the enterprise, a PR professional contacted me by email. He introduced himself and asked if I would like to talk to some clients or executives for their views about the market. That was a lot of help. I had three conversations with CEOs who gave their perspectives. It helped me get a handle on the issues and what role the client companies played in the market.

Don’t: Never cold call me. I am often on deadline and too busy to talk over the phone unless it is a briefing. Some people call me out of the blue. My wife hears about that. After it happens three or four times in a morning I think I am going stark raving mad.

Get my name and publication correct

Do: Talk about ReadWriteWeb and our coverage.

Example:

“Dear Alex: We follow ReadWriteWeb on a daily basis. It’s so encouraging to see your consistent coverage about cloud computing. We especially liked your post about the top 10 most common mistakes made by API providers. But what about the mistakes that developers make? Our company has dealt often with developer who have problems that could easily be avoided. Would you be interested in hearing about some of the mistakes we are seeing?

Don’t: Get it all wrong.

Example:

“Dear Steve, how we would love to be in Mashable.”

Read my posts

Do: Send me an email that shows you read my work. I love it when a public relations person will email and mention posts that they have read. It may not mean I pick up your story but it does mean your name will register better the next time you make a pitch.

Don’t: It’s not smart to contact me if you have never read my work. I know pretty quickly if the person is not informed just by the kind of pitch they are making. For example, I received a pitch from someone who asked if I would write about the client’s reseller strategy. We are a technology blog, not a business blog. We shy away from posts that get into the nitty gritty of channel marketing and sales.

Gestures

Do: Comment on a blog post, reply to my tweets. “Like,” a post on Facebook. I have some people who tweet about many, but not all of the posts I write. They take the time to read it before giving it their endorsement. I remember those people. I follow them, too.

Don’t: Invisibility is a curse in this business. Give yourself an identity. If I don’t see you online then I will not know you.

Sourcing

Do: Be a source. I love the inside story. It can be off the record. It can be about another client. Send me resources, information I would find pertinent to my beat. You will become part of my inside circle.

Don’t: Using a blogger or a journalist is a sure way to alienate yourself. I can tell when I am getting bad information. Last fall, a spokesperson for a well-known technology company provided bogus data about a competitor. I had little trust for them before they did that. I have even less now.

Skype

Do: Reach me via Skype. After you have introduced yourself, it’s okay every once in a while to contact me over Skype to say hello. Hint: you will have to ask my permission before we chat. Reaching bloggers over alternative channels may be the best way to reach them .

Don’t: Please do not call me via Skype unless we have pre-arranged it or it is very important, which means almost never.

Pitches

Do: Tell a story about the client. Tie it to ReadWriteWeb and why it would be a good post for ReadWriteCloud or ReadWriteEnterprise. Give it context to the overall market.

A good pitch:

“Your blog does a lot of “how to,” and “top ten,” posts. Would you be interested in learning how AcmeCloud customers use their service? Our CEO wrote a blog post recently on the topic. One of our customers also wrote gust post.

Don’t: Never write a pitch that makes assumptions. We will occasionally get a pitch from someone that assumes we will talk to their executives and cover the story. For example:

A bad pitch:

“I look forward to you talking with Mr. Bigwig and your coverage of this new feature that will change civilization, bring peace to mankind and save billions just because we say so.”

Meet Me in Person

Do: Know where I am going to be and make sure your client meets me. It does not have to be a briefing. It can be at a reception or otherwise. Invite me to a blogger event or tech briefing.

Don’t: Become over reliant on briefings. Everyone is trying to get a briefing at a conference or an event. It’s like a cattle call.

Community

Do: Send me an RSS feed of your client’s blog. Marshall Kirkpatrick first made this recommendation. It’s smart but no one does it. Send me links to the places where your clients post Twitter feeds, Facebook, etc.

Don’t: Not a good idea to send me a blog that does not get updated. It’s a real pet peeve. Unfortunately, most companies do a lousy job in this respect. They forget that I may look at more than 20 sources of information for any one story. I swear I would read more company blogs if they just had some information.

Follow Up

Do: Provide me feedback about a post. Let me know you read it.

Don’t: Moving on without following up is a missed opportunity. It’s rare to hear from PR people after a story is posted.It only helps your customers. Dropping the post-story follow up is like cutting the thread to a conversation. Why would you do that?

Bloggers really want to talk to your clients. They want stories that are smart and interesting. Think about the relationship as an ongoing conversation about work and the world. Do that and I guarantee your relationship with bloggers will improve and your customers will see better results.

Note: This has nothing to do with Geo-Caching which is something that really exists but I have only heard about on Law & Order.

WordPress Caching: What’s the best Caching Plugin? | RS Web Solutions.

Overall the best out of the box cache plugin configuration in my opinion is: Hyper Cache + DB Cache Reloaded. Despite the allure of W3 Total Cache’s professionalism and only slightly less admired performance, I prefer to retain some manual control over my blog. For those on a medium priced shared server or if you like the idea of installing and forgetting, the W3 Total Cache plugin will be your ideal choice. A lot of people still use WP-Cache and WP Super Cache. They are still respectable WordPress caching plugins but consider trading up for Hyper Cache or W3 Total Cache. These newer caching plugins prove better performance and install/config much easier and cleaner. Also the development communities around these newer plugins are much more active and attentive to their users. I hope I’ve helped you in choosing the best caching solution for your WordPress blog but this is only the beginning. There are so many more techniques to improve the performance of your blog. Caching is a great first step in preventing your blog from crashing during a flood of traffic.

Kyle Robinson Young is a freelance web programmer and designer with over a decade in the industry. He bridges the elusive link between art and code with simple and smart solutions. Visit Kyle Robinson's Website | Twitter Profile

Press Hits

Our core tool is the “Press Hits,” blog, which we create for clients to document, in a blog, the customer’s media mentions. The posts cascade down the page, images popping out, to showcase the customer’s landings in the blogosphere and the media that are relevant to the customer’s marketing and sales efforts. It serves as a report and a sales tool. We recently heard from a client who used the Press Hits blog we developed to land a distribution deal with one of the largest sporting apparel companies in the U.S. market.

Brand Tracking

To create the Press Hits blogs, you need to first discover mentions of the company in the blogosphere, in the news and in print publications as well. We program aggregators that search across the Web for mentions of the customer. Those results come back into an auto-updated page that we mine for links. We then search for language to use with tags and additional research. The optimization process is done through our research, which tunes the network and gives the application long-term benefits for better serving customers.

Update Workflows

Posting to multiple social network accounts is a chore. Update Workflows automates sending images to Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Tumbr and multiple other services. We build these services to automate the update workflow that you need when updating social networks with images. It’s designed for executives, athletes and popular personalities but can also be integrated into more complex workflows where updating with images plays a functional role.

The tools we develop leverage the social Web. We continually are developing new ways to use the social Web for our clients.