I have to admit that I’ve caught the Pinterest fever! It’s a dream for this wannabe Martha Stewart – all my favorite things in one place, neatly organized, and easily shared. Nirvana!

So, what is this new nirvana I’m drooling over? Pinterest is a relatively new site (a little under 2 years old) that is self-described as a ‘virtual pinboard’. Others describe it as a social bookmarking site that focuses on images.

In a nutshell, Pinterest allows you to organize and share things that interest you with your friends. Called a “pin” (much like a tag) the user posts something they find online or “repins” something that a friend has shared on their “pinboards”. Think of a pinboard as a corkboard that you have at home, which has tons of torn pictures or articles stuck to it for inspiration or as gentle reminders. You can create pinboards for any category that interests you: food, crafts, organization, fashion, interior design, inspirational sayings, etc…

For a very visually stimulated person like myself, this can become addictive.

At this point, I am sure you are thinking “Great- another time suck. How will this benefit me and my business?”

From a marketing and branding standpoint, the possibilities are endless.

A recent Ad Age article touts that the magazine Real Simple – probably one of the most perfect Pinterest audiences – receives more referrals from Pinterest than they do Facebook. Shannon King, GM of digital for Real Simple magazine, says that, “It speaks to the power of engaged audience members. We view it as an important part of our social media strategy.”

In the same Ad Age article, it notes that major retailers like Etsy, Nordstrom and Lands’ End are also jumping onto the Pinterest bandwagon and becoming early adopters of this new social platform. These retailers realize the potential to share info, but also to learn about their community and see what trends and styles they like, and what their purchasing cycles are.

Blogger Holly Hanna of The Work at Home Woman, recently wrote about ways that Pinterest can help small businesses. According to Hanna, product producers, online retailers and direct sellers are obvious candidates. Create pinboards with creative descriptions of your products and don’t forget to use your SEO keywords!

Hanna notes that graphic designers, artists and photographers are also obvious users.

But what about a service based business, such as a small restaurant or food product? What about a hair stylist or event planner? Think of Pinterest as a way to showcase your work (another portfolio area). Isn’t seeing a plate of gorgeous food one of the most wonderful things around?! And doesn’t that help you to decide whether to try a new restaurant? And what if you are searching for a new hair stylist? Wouldn’t you prefer to see their work first? Or see that they stay on top of new trends?

As with any social platform, do not forget that this is a conversation – a give and take. Use this opportunity to show consumers that you have good taste and style by repinning complimentary products. How about pinning a lovely wine that pairs well with your new dinner special? Or an amazing clip to accessorize your new “do”?

Pinterest is still a ‘by invitation only’ group – but getting an invite to join is easy. Just request an invite from Pinterest or ask a friend to invite you.

If you would like an invite to join – just leave me a comment below. And in the meantime, check out my pinboards!

Do You Really Know Who You Are?

Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to see several savvy, well-connected speakers talk about a the all-too-often referred to ‘elevator pitch’. Each person left me with a different set of ideas and expectations about the succinctly-orchestrated introduction that we use at least a few times every week.

To say that business is about ‘relationships’ is not an earth shattering, one-of-a-kind insight. We all know by now that in order to build a business from the ground up, we need to be careful to develop meaningful relationships at every level. I like to call this ‘bottoms up’; no matter the persons ‘status’, leaving everyone we meet with a favorable impression is key in building a successful business –  in any field.

So how do you answer the all-to-often asked question “What do you do?” We all know that what we ‘do’ in business does not wholly define us. But the question is used to begin a conversation, to give the other person a chance to say something about themselves that helps the listener gain perspective.

Some of us, including me, cringe at the question because it’s so – well – DONE. Yet we often find ourselves asking it of others in spite of ourselves.

Introductions 101

So imagine yourself in an elevator with another person whom you’ve never met. They are dressed casually, are attractive, and seem deep in thought. Do you bother to interrupt their reflection? If so, what is your purpose?

Greta Muller of C3 in New York City makes a valuable point in her 7-part blog about ‘elevator pitches’.  “Make it your intention to start a conversation, build on a relationship, earn trust, show personality.” Remember, elevator rides are quick – so needs to be your introduction. Say something about yourself that’s interesting, funny, or unusual so that the conversation doesn’t fall flat.

Steve Harper of Ripple Central drives home the importance of relationship maintenance, and completely dismisses the idea of ‘elevator pitching’. Harper believes that allowing people a glimpse into your personal life is the way to begin a business relationship; not the opposite.

Patti DeNucci of Austin wrote an entire book on how to be intentional when meeting new people. She points out that setting out to ‘network’ without a real meaning or plan behind your purpose is a waste of valuable time and connections. Hence, an ‘elevator pitch’ is a good thing to have in your arsenal.

And finally, Carla Thompson of Sharp Skirts, a female-centric organization that helps empower women in business,reminds us to be interesting, even surprising, when meeting prospective clients.

Don’t Be Shy

I know a lot of this seems obvious on its face. There’s nothing new or unusual about the idea of presenting yourself clearly when meeting someone new. However, it’s genuinely something that takes time, thought and practice on our parts, before we make the final dive.  Practice in the mirror, or with your best friend or your cat. Do you have a trick to form the best introduction in 30 seconds or less that you’d be willing to share with our readers? We’d love to hear about it, and about you!

This post is part of PR Soup’s “Guest Blogger Series” featuring insights from Austin-area entrepreneurs and business leaders in areas complementary to PR (including marketing, sales, graphic design, web development and more).

While I was reading this weekend about what other journalists were saying about how to get your story in the paper, I found myself scoffing at a blog post that read, “There is a proven method to get your story in the paper.”

Then I read on and actually agreed with the author (somewhat)— “The proven method is effective communication.” While an editor always has the upper hand in saying whether or not a story will run and where, the chances of that story running are better if a reporter has great information on an interesting story. This is where you come in to help.

There are more than several different methods to find someone these days (Email, Twitter, Facebook and that old thing called the telephone), there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to find the right person to pitch your story, and to follow up with them. A clear, concise message will save everyone time. After reporting for the Austin American-Statesman for five years, I’ve determined the following are Do’s and Don’ts when pitching a story.

Do’s When Pitching a Story:

1.) Find the right reporters and their editors.   If a press release is sent my way that has nothing to do with my beat, I may have taken the time to send it to the right reporter, but chances are, there wasn’t enough time. Most news organizations have a list of their staff, their beats and their editors  available. If you don’t know who to call, find the specific beat or desk (business, news, editorial, sports, etc.) and an editorial assistant may be able to help you find the right person.

2 .) Keep it simple and send ahead.  Whether you are sending a press release or an email pitch, keep the information concise and engaging. Include all contact information in your pitch, as well as any background information or web sites that a reporter might find useful. This will help give the reporter a better idea of what the story is about and why it would be a good subject to write. If the pitch is about an event, send the information at least a week in advance, a day before and the day of the event. (Yes, we need a lot of reminders.)

3.) Set up a photo opportunity.  While this isn’t necessary for a story to run, it betters the chance of it running as a centerpiece in the newspaper. Editors are always looking for good “art” to run with a story. Most newspapers prefer their own photographs.

4.) Pick up the phone and follow up. If it’s been a few days since you’ve sent the release and you haven’t heard back, pick up the phone (another reason why researching the correct reporter/editor comes in handy). Remind them about the email you sent and don’t be surprised or judgmental if they haven’t looked at your email. In our defense, we literally get hundreds of emails in one day. Plus, it’s difficult to dodge you once you get us on the phone. Don’t be afraid to use Social Media to find us as well. Twitter and Facebook are great to catch reporters–most of us have our phones synced with our accounts, so we will get notification of your message immediately. It doesn’t have to be anything lengthy or preachy—just a quick note to ask if they’ve seen the release/email and offer to resend if they have not.

5.) Know your story.  Be prepared with answers to basic questions about your story. If a reporter calls you for more information, you want to be able to quickly and accurately tell them what they want to know. And a word of caution: be prepared for them to tell the OTHER side of the story. If that is something you don’t want explored or made public, don’t pitch it.

Don’ts When Pitching a Story:

1.) Pitch a story the same day.  I know this can’t be avoided in some cases, but I’d say most news organizations need at least 24 hours to prepare for a story.

2.) Send mass emails.  If an email is sent to everyone in the newsroom, chances are a lot of people are going to overlook it. Or worse, it is sent directly into the spam filter.

3.) Bog down messages. Since reporters are always working on deadline, don’t send every bit of information you have in one shot. This could bog down the great details of your pitch and the reporter may not take the time to read it through.

Isadora Vail is a Freelance Journalist, who was formerly with the Austin American-Statesman. Isadora lives in Austin, Texas and is a lover of crime reporting. Seriously.

PR Soup thanks Isadora for these great tips. If they sound scary or if you have any further questions, it might be a good sign that you should reach out to a PR pro. Leave us a comment and we’ll be sure to answer your questions!

As a PR pro, I make my living telling stories. But I’m also a visual learner: visuals are important to me when I’m making informed decisions.

It turns out, I’m not the only who learns this way: About 65 percent of the US population is made up of visual learners. That’s a big percentage of your audience who may not be “getting” what you’re trying to tell them.

Enter the infographic trend.

An infographic is a visual representation of data, designed to present a “snapshot” of an idea. More than a static chart or graph, infographics are custom designed to help illustrate data or even promote a certain feeling surrounding the point that’s being made, which is why the “art” enters the realm of PR. These days, infographics are often digitally interactive as well, opening up a whole new level of possibilities.

Here’s an example:

A marketing company could try to convince you—with words—that the US and Brazil are the top “tweeters” right now, in this moment. But what’s the value of “seeing it” for yourself? Enter Frog Design’s Real-time Twitter Heat Map:

Fascinating, right? Take a step back and think about the information you’re trying to convey in your website, media pitches, presentations, and customer-facing marketing materials. Are you trying to dole out data that would “speak” better on a visual level? Are you trying to show the gravity of a situation or the correlation between two moving parts?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, an infographic may be in order.

Please note: you, the business owner, will not do an infographic justice. Even seasoned, talented graphic designers may not be right for an infographic project. Take a look at this example from Smashing Magazine, and tell me: Which graph “speaks” better?

Read Smashing’s article “The Do’s and Don’ts of Infographic  Design” to find out how you can go about being an informed client yourself.

(Main image by The Christensen Law Firm)

Aaaahhhh – Fall is in the air! Even here in Austin, we are starting to see some cooler temps (and we couldn’t be happier about that). It’s time to dust off the PR cobwebs and think about how you can craft some story ideas (pitches) for your business around the Fall season.

Story ideas are just that: a basic concept for an article or TV segment that piques the interest of the editor or reporter that you want coverage from. You will provide them with just enough information to get started, along with names and contact information of people within your organization who will act as spokespeople. They will do the rest of the work to craft the full story.

It’s best to set aside some good strategy time and plan a 6-month, or even 12-month, calendar of ideas. Different publications require different lead times, with national publications often working 4 to 6 months in advance. To get the juices flowing, look on websites such as Holiday Insights for listings of the major holidays and unique days as well.

So let’s get you started with some story ideas.

October
1.) National Bosses Day (10/16): Does your company provide a unique service or product that a group of employees could present to their boss on this day?

2.) Yom Kippur (10/8): We are past the deadline for this year’s holiday, but start planning now for 2012. Perhaps you have an employee who is making a pilgrimage to Israel to celebrate this High Holy holiday. Or an employee who is a Soldier celebrating in a foreign county.

3.) Halloween: Probably the biggest pull for October and a great time to get a product into a gift guide, talk about children’s safety issues, showcase a new recipe for a food product, highlight a community service effort, etc.

4.) October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Cookie Month (Big smiles!) and National Popcorn Popping Month. Some serious, some silly – we know…. However, use these opportunities to create unique, fun, and interest-piquing ideas that the media will delight in using.

November
1.) November is Child Safety Month, National Adoption Awareness Month, National Novel Writing Month and Peanut Butter Month. Did you know that the word goober is southern slang for peanut? Now there’s a piece of trivia for you. But seriously, as I mentioned above, use these designated, albeit sometimes comic, recognitions to your advantage!

2.) Veteran’s Day (11/11): Do you have an employee who is a veteran? What can you do to tell his/her story? Will you do a special community service project this day?

3.) Great American Smokeout (third Thursday in November): Another great opportunity to showcase your community service efforts.

4.) Thanksgiving: Again, the obvious. Get your pitches in early and be the first to grab that reporter’s eye!

I hope that got your wheels turning! We want to know what story ideas you thought of or are working on now – leave us a comment with your ideas. And, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to shoot us an email. Happy Fall y’all!

Thank you to Whitney Casey Productions for their latest vlog post on PR Soup. In this video, Erica Harpold weighs in on the Forbes Insights article, “Video In The C-Suite”.

• Video has evolved from a novelty to a mainstream method for executives to get business information.
• 65% of senior executives have visited a vendor’s website after watching a video and 53% have conducted a search to locate more information.
• More than half of executives under 50 have made a purchase after watching a video.

Link to Forbes Insights article: http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/video_in_the_csuite/index.html

Whitney Casey Productions is an online video branding company that creates original, entertaining and informative online video content for businesses.

It may seem obvious, but there’s a ‘free’ PR opportunity you as an employer may be overlooking every day.

The work environment you create for your employees is directly correlated to the image your company projects to the community. It’s the little things that you do for your staff – whether it be a staff of 2 or a staff of 22 – that resonate with everyone that comes in contact with your business. Customers, clients, visitors, various members of the community at large all play a part in your ‘public relations’ efforts. You don’t need a PR person to tell you this. Or do you?

1 – Do your employees feel a sense of ownership in the hive?

Do your employees hold stock options, however small, in your business? Do they receive bonuses, either in cash or gift cards, when producing exceptionally or helping you land an important account or sale? Do you occasionally buy lunch, or have a monthly ‘dine out for lunch’ where everyone goes somewhere fun for a longer than usual lunch and doesn’t talk ‘shop’?

2 – Do you walk the walk and buzz the buzz?

When you say you value your employees, what does that really mean to you? You should know the basics about their family life, their family of origin, and their hobbies or interests. It makes for a kinder, gentler work environment when there is some empathy around how people’s personal lives are going. (This doesn’t mean prying about personal things. There’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed, of course.) Are you empathic and supportive during personal or family crisis? Do you respect an employee’s need to take time off when necessary?

3 – Do you encourage your employees to present themselves in accordance with your beez-niss brand?

If you own a motorcycle shop, your brand is entirely different than if you are a restaurant owner or a print shop. Every business has a ‘brand image’ and your employees should be encouraged to respect and reflect that image. Even ‘off the clock’ it’s good to hire people that understand and truly support the importance of your brand image; and it’s important for you to encourage such.

4- Does your employee feel his work is meaningful?

Last but most certainly not least; everyone wants to feel that their work is contributing something to the ‘hive’. Employees need to feel supported and that there is someone to help them with struggles, whether on a project, with another employee, or with the brand itself. In the end, it’s the ‘little’ things that mean the most.

A recent NY Times article points out that “Gallup estimates the cost of America’s disengagement crisis at a staggering $300 billion in lost productivity annually. When people don’t care about their jobs or their employers, they don’t show up consistently, they produce less, or their work quality suffers.” This may seem elementary to you, but have you really given it enough thought lately. What are your employees saying to the general public about their job’s brand?

Are you your own best employee relations representative?  And do you believe that those ‘relations’ bleed into how your ‘public’ sees and relates to you, to your employees, and your brand?

Don’t make your PR person’s job harder. Do your part! Think of your employees as happy worker bees, cross-pollinating throughout the community. Nurture the bee hive in your own backyard, and watch the honey start pouring out!

This post is part of The PR Channel’s “Guest Blogger Series” featuring insights from Austin-area entrepreneurs and business leaders in areas complementary to PR (including marketing, sales, graphic design, web development and more).

In today’s online driven world, everyone in the marketing profession should understand search engine optimization (SEO) basics. Public Relations is no different. I would argue that only website strategists have more at stake before the mighty sword of Google.

Why SEO for PR?

There are many reasons to apply SEO best practices for PR. The top three benefits are:

• Support content strategy for your website in a keyword-rich fashion
• Drive additional “free” traffic back to your website
• Optimize your approach to link-building via PR efforts

All of these can help support overall SEO objectives, if managed properly.

How to Apply SEO to PR

Many PR practitioners shudder at the thought of reading about search engine optimization in depth, but there are a few techniques you can quickly and easily apply to help your content spread more online.

Know your Keywords

Whatever industry you are in, be sure you have a good starting list of relevant keywords to use. If keyword research is out of your realm of skills (or interest areas), get your SEO or Web Manager involved early. Be sure to get a good list of general industry terms and specific or long-tail keywords.

Use Keywords Judiciously

If you have been in the marketing game for more than a half-decade, you have likely heard the term keyword density, which is a loose measure of how many times a word appears on a web page in relation to the total word count. There is no golden ratio you should pursue, but there are good rules of thumb.

1. Be sure a keyword appears in the body content enough to indicate that it is a prime keyword for the page.
2. Never use it so many times that the content becomes less natural sounding.

So use the keyword, but don’t overdo it. Believe it or not, the algorithm is sophisticated enough to know when you are stuffing the content with keywords to manipulate rankings.

Put Keywords in the Right Places

This is the most important part of all. It is not enough to use a keyword; you need to let Google know that it is a very important keyword without overusing it in the content. To best optimize for Google, the main keyword for each page / press release should appear:

1. In the Title of the page or press release, located as early in the title as possible. Google only indexes 65 characters, so get the keywords on there before your company name appears.
2. In the byline / description area just beneath the title. Include it in the first 100-120 characters if at all possible.
3. At least once in a header (H1, H2, H3) other than the main title of the page. In the hierarchy of importance, Google’s formula makes note of what you put in the headers. You should be breaking up the content into sections with headers anyway for ease of reading.
4. Bolded on first use in the body content. Google uses special text treatment such as bolding or italics next when deciding topic of relevance.

There are many other factors to keep in mind when placing keywords on the page, but don’t despair. When you are just getting started, these four tips will help you make a big difference quickly.

Dictate the Anchor Text

Every press release, media release, or other document you plan to send to external services or websites should include a minimum of one backlink to your website. Aside from helping you build backlinks from high quality news sites, which is a goal of all good SEO strategies, it allows you to control the anchor text.

Anchor text is the phrase that is actually hyperlinked to another website. All of the search engines also use anchor text as a guide to understand the topic of the page being linked to. Think of it as a “Vote” for what that page means from an unbiased third party website. That’s what it means to Google.

Conclusion

There are many facets to SEO, just as there are with PR and other marketing disciplines. But a few simple tips can make a big difference if implemented correctly. Take a little time to understand on-page SEO at a minimum. The more you use it, the better off your website and your business will be in the long run.

This guest post is by Tommy Landry of Return On Now. Operating out of Austin, TX, Return On Now offers consulting for and advanced analysis of online marketing topics such as SEO, Social Media, Content Strategy, PPC/SEM, Usability, Website Strategy, and Online Conversion / Landing Page Optimization.

“Mommy, I don’t like you. You’re not my friend.”

I get this from my fickle 5 year old on a regular basis. My snarky reply is usually, “Good. I’m your parent, not your friend. You’re not supposed to like me.”

CEOs and business owners struggle with a similar issue on a regular basis: with employees, partners, vendors, and sometimes even customers. And here’s some interesting news: In a recent study highlighted by NPR and The Wall Street Journal, men who were rated as “highly disagreeable” on personality tests were paid an average of $9,700 more annually than men rated as “most agreeable.”

So how important is likeability (a factor that I consider one of the most fundamental in public relations, despite the study)? How much do people need to “like” you to do business with you?

Who better to start this discussion off than the king of business charisma: Dale Carnegie? If you don’t have an old highlighted and coffee-stained copy of Carnegie’s 1936 classic How to Win Friends and Influence People on your bookshelf, then I guarantee you’re not nearly as likeable as you could be.

At face value, his advice seems so simple that you could react with, “Well, puleeese. Like I don’t know that already.” But then you’ll realize that you’re not actually adhering the advice like you should. It’s filled with simple reminders like “Smile,” and poetic advice such as “The unvarnished truth is that almost all the people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and a sure way to their hearts is to let them realize in some subtle way that you recognize their importance, and recognize it sincerely.” Reminders that will cause you to realize that you’re not always as consciously likeable as you could be.

Tough truth.

Tim Sanders, business expert and author of multiple books including The Likeability Factor, points out, “A Columbia University study by Melinda Tamkins shows that success in the workplace is guaranteed not by what or whom you know but by your popularity. In her study, Tamkins found that ‘popular workers were seen as trustworthy, motivated, serious, decisive and hardworking’…Their less-liked colleagues were perceived as arrogant, conniving and manipulative.”

For more advice on likeability, I recommend you take a look at Enchantment by Alltop.com Co-founder Guy Kawasaki and Delivering Happiness by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. Both men are truly likeable business leaders who attribute much of their success to simply being nice.

I’d love your feedback on the importance of likeability. Who do you think “gets it right”? And where in business have you seen proof that “mean” leaders never win? …Or vice versa?

We are excited to have our first ever Vlog on PR Soup as part of our “Guest Blogger Series”! Erica Harpold, executive producer of Whitney Casey Productions shares her tips for using online video for your business.

Erica Harpold is the executive producer of Whitney Casey Productions. WCP is an online video branding company that creates short, informative, entertaining videos for businesses. With a background in TV news, they produce organic stories with the real people behind the business. You can learn more about WCP at www.WhitneyCaseyProductions.com