Photos & Graphics

Create animated graphics for PR with free generator

8/9/2011 By Joan 9 Comments

Did you ever land at a blog, and spend more time staring at the clever graphic than you did reading the post?

I have. The same way you landed here and stared at the one above, wondering, “How did she do that?”

Easy. It’s one of the 10 free generators, most of them animated, at foday.com .

Here are some ideas for using these cool graphics in a publicity or marketing campaign.

The Talking Tomato

If you work in the food industry, use the Talking Tomato at your website. Let’s say you teach kids about healthy food. You can explain the nutritional benefits of tomatoes.

The Talking Cat

Humane societies and pet shops will love the talking cat. Simply insert the HTML code at your website. And then sponsor a contest to see who can come up with the most clever sayings for the cat. Award fun prizes.

Keep it fresh. Sponsor the contest again every few months.

The Newspaper

Bloggers, I’ll bet this newspaper generator will come in handy when you’re writing about a topic and can’t find a photo anywhere to accompany it. It isn’t animated. But you can create your own headline and write your own story:

The Cigarette Pack

Does your product or service help people to quit smoking?

Create your own cigarette pack and come up with a clever saying. You can use the graphic in your online press room and even offer it to journalists. I love the saying on the sample SMOKEME cigarette pack at their website:

Other Options

You can also choose from the Ninja (the one you were staring at at the top of this blog post), a clapper board perfect for people in the movie industry, talking squirrels, animated wizard text, talking flowers and talking owls.

Don’t forget Flickr, the social media site for uploading photos and videos. See 9 ways to use Flickr to promote your business.

OK, Hounds. It’s your turn. Use the generator to create a graphic that you could use in a publicity or marketing campaign. Post it in the comments section below. Or if it’s at your website or blog, link to it.

If for some reason it won’t show up correctly in the comments section, open a Notepad document, paste in the HTML code and send it to me as an attachment. Do not put it in the body of the email. If I get enough clever ones, I’ll feature some of them next week.

P.S. Comments at this blog are moderated, which means they won’t appear here until I approve them. What tools do you use that are similar to these? Did you find the free generator as easy to use as I did?

More Tools to Help You:

Photofunia, another fun graphics tool, lets you place your photo on a bus shelter, on a billboard, in Times Square and in art museums, or give it all kinds of really neat artsy-fartsy treatments.
Free generators are only one of 55 free things to offer you can offer to generate publicity or capture people’s email addresses.

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Flickr, Photos & Graphics Tagged With: animated wizard text, cigarette pack, clapper board, graphics generator, humane society, ninja, talking cat, talking flower, talking owl, talking squirrels

9 ways to use Flickr to promote your business

7/7/2011 By Joan 2 Comments

This guest post was written by David Murton. David has been helping companies build and maintain their online relationships with customers since 2006. He is also a professional writer and webmaster, with a particular interest in the open source Drupal platform. On a more personal note, David is an avid piano and accordion player, drawn especially to music of the classical and romantic periods.

By David Murton

Flickr is a popular but often overlooked social media website that offers image and video hosting as well as a dynamic online community.

It’s often used by bloggers to promote products or businesses, because all of their related images are in one convenient place on the web. This makes it much easier for blog readers or customers to see many images that have been uploaded by the blogger by clicking on one link.

Many types of businesses can benefit from using Flickr as a promotional tool because customers who search for the company’s name on a search engine such as Google will be directed to both the company’s website or blog and their Flickr page. Many customers want to look at images of a company’s products and may choose to look at a Flickr page before buying anything.

Here are nine ways to promote your business using Flickr.

1. Make Thumbnails Interesting

Thumbnails are the first images any client sees on a Flickr account before they click on any of the images. It’s important that these photos accurately represent the company they’re promoting.

If you place the best photo in a group at the beginning of the photo list, it will automatically become the thumbnail image for that group on Flickr. Photo settings allow the user to choose which part of a photo they will use as a thumbnail image.

2. Upload Photos of Products and Services

Any photos listed on a Flickr account should represent your business and its products.

Many companies use php5, a scripting language that’s designed to handle dynamic web pages, to manage the pictures they post on Flickr. This is especially helpful for companies that post many photos. It’s important to remember that Flickr doesn’t allow marketing and promotion of products or services, so businesses must market indirectly and not post obvious ads.

Posting pictures of employees at industry functions is likely to make customers feel more connected to the business.

Pictures of successful products and happy customers are a great tool. Just make sure to get permission from anyone who appears in the photos. Most people don’t mind having their picture posted and may even invite their friends and family to look at your company’s photos.

Use captions on every photo because they can describe products or introduce important people in your company. It isn’t necessary to include the name and title of everyone in a large group picture. But pictures of at least four people should be marked with the name and title of each person, as well as other information that you want to share with potential customers.

3. Complete the Business Profile

Use the profile space to share information about your business and promote it, but don’t overdo it.

Using your company logo as the Flickr “buddy icon” is a great way to promote your business without directly advertising. Include your URL and other contact information as well as a short description as part of your Flickr profile.

4. Use an Easy-to-Remember Screen Name

Use your company name or URL as your screen name. If you use the URL, each photo will be shown with the screen name in the corner. Flickr users are likely to visit a company’s website when they have repeatedly seen the URL while viewing the photos they have uploaded.

Users who are searching for a particular company or website on Flickr will have a much easier time finding it if the screen name is the same as the company name. For example, it’s easy to find famous photos from The Library of Congress because that’s their easily recognizable screen name.

5. Post Images Quickly

Many people search for photos of current events and current seasons and holidays. That’s why you should post pictures quickly.

People want to be the first to share information and photos with their friends on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Configuring the company’s blog to work with Flickr by linking related Flickr images in each blog post helps to draw attention to the photos and the blog. It also lets blog readers see more images from the same company on Flickr.

6. Tag Photos Properly

Tagging photos is tedious, but photo tags are the best way to drive new users to see your photos. Pay attention to which keywords people are using the most when they search, and use those keywords if they apply.

Using keywords that don’t fit your company’s images is frustrating for Flickr users and may result in Flickr deactivating your account.

Geotagging is another great tool if you use Flickr to promote. It allows you to tag your photos with keywords that include cities, states, a country, etc. Even if your business isn’t identified with a certain location, it helps people know where the photos they are looking at were taken.

7. Allow Photo Use

It’s very common for people to ask permission to use Flickr photos. Promptly approving these requests will encourage others to share your photos and let more people see them.

Make sure that anyone who uses the photos gives proper credit to your company, usually through linkbacks. Flickr statistics are available in the settings column of each profile so that the profile creator can see which images people are viewing the most.

8. Join Groups

Joining groups that are related to your business is a great way to gain exposure for your images and company.

Commenting on the photos of others shows that your business is making an effort to be part of the community. The people whose photos you have commented on will likely want to view your photos and make comments of their own.

9. Organize

Most Flickr users won’t look at photos that are disorganized, especially if they are unfamiliar with the business that has posted the images. Each photo album is called a set and the sets can be organized into collections that are related.

Cross linking between the company’s website and Flickr page will likely result in increased traffic at both places. Make sure that all image collections reflect the target audience of your company and don’t forget to link the Flickr page with all newsletters and social media sites where you have a presence.

Flickr says that about 3,000 pictures are uploaded by users every minute. There are more than 5 billion images posted on the site, so companies should make sure that the images they upload are well organized and appropriate for the audience they are trying to reach.

What tips can you share about posting photos to Flickr? Have other people used your photos? If so, how? Has Flickr helped pull traffic to your website? What other ways do you use Flickr in your PR or publicity campaign?

Filed Under: Blogs, Flickr, Photos & Graphics Tagged With: company photos, employee photographcs, Flickr, geotagging, php5, PR photos, product photos

Install Google’s +1 button at your website and blog

6/14/2011 By Joan 7 Comments

When Google, the King of Search, gives Publicity Hounds an easy way to let our websites and blogs stand out, we need to embrace it with all four paws.

The newest tool is the +1 button, shorthand for “this is pretty cool” or “you should check this out.”

You’ll start seeing it popping up on websites and blogs.

Here’s how it works.

When you install the code that makes the button visible on your own site, people who like your content can click on it and tell Google and others that they’re recommending it. It’s Google’s equivalent of Facebook’s Like button.

But here’s the really powerful part. When you recommend somebody else’s content, your photo shows up when that person’s website is listed in Google’s search results. But your photo will show up only if you already have a Google Profile. Here’s an example:

Do these four things today:

If you don’t have a Google Profile, create one.
Read more about the Google +1 button. Here are Google’s FAQs. You can find a video and a helpful tutorial from Francisco Rosales at the SocialMouths blog.
Install the button at your website and blog. Or save yourself the headache and have your webmaster do it for you.
Start recommending content you see elsewhere by clicking on the +1 button.

It’s too early to tell how successful the button will be, and whether it will go to the Google graveyard like the failed Buzz experiment, but you’d be crazy not to at least try it.

Do you think this button will catch on?

Filed Under: Facebook, Photos & Graphics, Publicity on the Internet, Publicity Resources, Search engine optimization, Social media marketing Tagged With: +1 button, facebook like button, google, search results

9 ways to use Hubspot’s free marketing charts & graphs

5/25/2011 By Joan 4 Comments

If you want to learn more about marketing, social media, search engine optimization and blogging, you’ll love Hubspot’s newest freebie: a collection of 100 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts & Graphs.

It’s based on original research and data from a variety of sources, including analysis of Hubspot’s 4,500 business customers, surveys with hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses, and dozens of well-respected publications like MarketingSherpa, eMarketer, Pew Research and McKinsey.

You can click through the slide show presentation at their website, or download the PDF file for your own use.

You’ll find stats, graphs and charts on inbound vs. outbound marketing, SEO, social media, blogging, Facebook and Twitter.

Here are a few examples:

Link-sharing among blog readers peaks around 7 am

Here are nine ways Publicity Hounds can use this presentation:

To re-evaluate your own marketing strategies and decide if you’re spending money and other resources in the most effective marketing channels.
Social media and marketing consultants can use the stats when meeting with prospective clients.
Speakers, include them in your handouts and Power Point slides.
Authors, use the stats in books you’re writing about these topics. (I asked Hubspot if this OK, and they said yes, as long as you attribute the info to them.)
Share the slideshow on Twitter and Facebook and in your LinkedIn groups. (See advanced strategies for writing a killer LinkedIn profile, cashing in on groups and using LinkedIn Company Pages as a giant, free billboard.
Blog about the freebie, like I am here.
Write a blog post elaborating on just one of the stats, graphs or charts, and feature the slide.
Use the stats or graphics in a video on a marketing or SEO topic.
Include the stats in a press release. (Take my free email course on 89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.)

What other ways can you think of to use this?

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Photos & Graphics, PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Twitter, Video Tagged With: Facebook, marketing, marketing charts, marketing graphs, marketing stats, SEO, social media, Twitter

Need local publicity? 6 tips for pitching Patch.com

5/20/2011 By Joan 7 Comments

If you need local publicity, and you live in one of 19 states in the United States, or the District of Columbia, Patch.com is almost begging for your pitch.

A memo from Patch editor-in-chief Brian Farnham outlines a plan to increase traffic by increasing article production.

Patch currently requires every site to post a minimum of four times per day, but many are not. Hence, the memo.

Patch covers California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

It loves news about new businesses, community events, local government, crime, items for the events calendar, columns from local residents and government officials, news tips, and the all-important and often overlooked photos and videos.

This is the perfect time to pitch Patch for another reason. AOL Inc, which owns Patch, is launching 33 sites in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, key states that play an early role in the U.S. presidential election.

How to Pitch Patch

Build a relationship with Patch writers and editors. Spend time at the Patch site for your community, and identify who is responsible for your local news. The editor’s name and email address is under the logo at the top of the page.
Email the editor and ask questions. I’ve found Patch writers to be incredibly helpful and friendly.
Many Patch writers are former journalists. And all journalists love to report news first. Keep Patch in mind when hear a newsy item about something in your community.
Add Patch to your media database. Every time you write a press release, ask if the content is something that Patch would like.
Is your business doing something new? It’s much easier to get business stories onto Patch than it is to get your story told in your local business journal, which usually requires multiple sources.
Don’t forget about stand-alone photos with captions, and video. (See How to Use Photos & Graphics in a Publicity Campaign)

One of the other reasons Patch is such a super tool in a publicity campaign is because people can sign up for the Patch newsletter in their community, and receive email alerts. I’ll often stop what I’m doing when I see the Port Washington/Saukville (Wisconsin) newsletter arrive in my Inbox.

What kind of publicity have you gotten from Patch? Do you have any pitching tips to add to my list?