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21 ways to promote your webinars and teleseminars

8/12/2010 By Joan 1 Comment

online education for webinar promotion in block letters

If you’re new to hosting webinars, the team at SocialBrite.org has a very helpful summary of 10 steps for planning a successful webinar.

It includes nine ways to promote your webinar. I took their list and added to it. Most of these ideas will also work when promoting teleseminars. Here’s their list of suggestions on how to promote:

1. At your website.

2. On online event calendars such as Upcoming.com

3. Relevant listservs

4. In print and online newsletters

5. On Twitter channels

6. In Facebook groups

7. As a local event for nonprofits (SocialBrite.org specializes in teaching social media to nonprofits).

8. On Web pages that promote webinars in your industry.

9. At the end of current webinars.


Here are my own ideas

I added to their list and came up with 12 of my own ideas:

10. On Craigslist, but only on the list for the city that’s closest to where you live. (See How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool.)

11. In the events or calendar sections in traditional media, including newspapers, magazines, trade journals and business journals.

12. In an online press release. (See Keywords: The Magic Magnets That Pull Consumers & Journalists to Your Press Releases.)

13.  On the websites of local newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations.

14. In videos, where you can excerpt tips and lead viewers to the sign-up page. Upload the video to video sharing-sharing sites.

15. At your guest experts’ blogs, at their websites, in their newsletters, and on their social media sites.

16. Create an Event on Facebook, and share with your Friends and Fans. (See 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook)

17. In an email blast to your opt-in list, and the lists of your guest experts.

18. In a podcast.

19. At the end of a quiz you create around the topic of the webinar.

20. In targeted ads on Facebook and LinkedIn.

21. If you have an affiliate program, encourage your affiliates to promote the event, using their affiliate links.


Add to this list

Did I miss any? How do you promote your webinars and teleseminars, and which are the most effective?

What about paid ads? Have you used them,
and are they effective?


My Next Webinar: How to Use Twitter Lists

Joan Stewart's Twitter lists of PR peopleI’m presenting “How to Use Twitter Lists to Generate Publicity & Build Your Brand” at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Aug. 26.   This one-hour webinar is perfect for anyone who hasn’t yet started using Twitter lists, or for Twitter users who aren’t sure how to get the most out of their lists.

Everyone who attends will also receive a bonus special report I wrote on “How to Use Twitter for Business to Network, Promote, Sell, Recruit & Profit,” a $10 value, as well as slides of the PowerPoint presentation I’m using for the video, a link for the streaming video and the video download, and the MP3 recording.  So if the time is inconvenient for you, register anyway and you can watch it afterward at a time most convenient for you.

Register here.

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Facebook, LinkedIn, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Nonprofits, Press Releases/News Releases, Publicity on the Internet, Special Events, TV Publicity, Twitter, Video, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , ,

Everything you do online—good and bad—is publicity

7/31/2010 By Joan 4 Comments
Everything you say online reflects on your reputation.

By Phyllis Zimbler Miller
Guest Blogger

Everything you do online, from writing a book review on Amazon to leaving a comment on someone’s blog post, is publicity for you, your brand and your business.
   
If you manage this online publicity well, you should be receiving positive exposure.  But if you ignore the importance of your online activities, you may be unwittingly creating bad publicity for yourself.
     
    
The basics: Correct spelling and good grammar
     
 Yes, on Twitter I’ve been known to use 4 to mean “for” when I don’t have enough characters for what I want to say.  But I always strive to spell correctly every real word I use.

And while some people might say “What’s the big deal?” about incorrectly spelled words, some people who read your tweets might think you’re careless with other things too, such as their business needs if they were your clients.
     
    
Off-limits: Swear words, off-color comments and slang 

I personally was taken aback when a person for whom I was about to write a guest post called me “mate” in an email.  In my perception, “mate” has a very particular meaning, and it’s not that positive.  I nicely pointed out to him that I was rather surprised by the use of the term.

He replied that in India the word was used to mean “friend.”  And he then added that he wouldn’t again use the word with people outside India so as to be sure not to offend others.
     
    
It’s not only what you write online – it’s also what you say online
   
Let’s say you’re on a teleseminar and you ask a question in which you unnecessarily disparage someone or something.  Then that teleseminar recording is made available to the people on the teleseminar as well as others.  It’s possible that what you said could get you in deep water for a very long time.  And how do you apologize to a recording?
     
    
What if you disagree with something that someone has said?
     
Again, it’s important to consider how to disagree before you blast your opinion throughout the Internet.  I faced this issue when someone responded to a LinkedIn question with what I believed was totally inaccurate information.  I didn’t want to say the answer was wrong but I didn’t want to leave the person asking the question with the opinion that the given answer was correct.
    
I posed my dilemma as a blog post on my site, and I received a very wise response.  I was advised to say:  “There are differing opinions on this subject.”  And then I was to give my opinion without referring to the other person’s answer.

I thought this an extremely reasonable strategy.  I did not “put down” the other person’s answer, but I did share my own opinion with the person who asked the question.

The above advice covers every single thing you do online, including how you write your Twitter bio (please note that plural words in English are NOT made by adding an apostrophe before the s) to any responses you give on password-protected forums.

And this advice definitely includes the photos you post.  For example, whether you believe in Facebook’s privacy settings (which are changed, it seems, almost on a daily basis), do NOT post a picture of yourself holding a bottle of beer in each hand and looking the worse for wear.  Of course, this advice is even more so for videos on YouTube.

Regardless of whether you think such photos or videos are in “good fun,” your brand or business does not need to take hits from such missteps on your part.

In a viral age where news can flash around the world in a second or two, guard your reputation as a precious object.  You’ve worked too long and hard on establishing your credibility to risk it with bad publicity from one ill-advised comment or photo.
     
The Internet world is global by definition, and because we can’t know the sensibilities of everyone who might read our tweets, blog comments, etc., we need to be sensitive to the words we use.
    
  
Phyllis Zimbler MillerPhyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.  The company has a monthly mentorship program that focuses on social media marketing, WordPress websites/blogs and email marketing.

Filed Under: Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Video, YouTube Tagged With: , , ,

Why holding a press conference can backfire

7/13/2010 By Joan 1 Comment

empty seats in a roomYou win an industry award and you’re so tickled that you can hardly wait to call a press conference.

Problem is, you’re only one that’s excited.  Your publicist, in fact, is reluctant, because she thinks a press conference sounds, well, so old-fashioned.

That’s what happened this week to a publicist who’s one my readers. Her client, whose organization got high ratings, told her to arrange a press conference to announce the good news. She turned to me for advice.
     
    
No one will come

Here’s my response:

“I suggest you NOT hold a press conference because I can virtually guarantee you that if you do, nobody from the media will show up, and you will look bad in the client’s eyes.  (“How come you couldn’t get anyone from the media to show up?”)

“If somebody from the media DOES show up, they will be angry when they find out your client wasted their time and that they could have gotten the same information in a press release, especially if they battled rush-hour traffic to get there on time. And they could blackball you.

“Clients have huge egos, especially when they have good news to share.  You must explain to the client why useless press conferences about topics like this can damage their reputation with the media forever.”
     
    
Better ways to spread the word

I suggested that she convince her client to:

—Write a press release and distribute it through PR Web.  Dan Janal has a fabulous deal where where the client’s press release is guaranteed to make it onto more than 50 big websites like Forbes, Reuters, etc. I wrote about this in my publicity tips newsletter a few weeks ago.  The client will be much happier about achieving this kind of exposure vs. spending all the time coordinating a press conference and then delivering the news in an empty room.

—Create a video (two and a half minutes) explaining what the company did to achieve the high rating. Feature clients talking about what they like about the service they received. Upload it to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.  It will pull traffic to their website.

—Tweet about this and put this on their Facebook Fan Page.

—Take photos that illustrate why the company got the high rating and upload them to Flickr.

—Also do a special mailing to their email list sharing the good news.

—There are many creative alternatives to boring press conferences, like events that are open to the public, or even publicity stunts that are done well. A new florist association, for example, delivered 50,000 roses and carnations to new moms in area hospitals, generating fabulous media attention and word-of-mouth publicity.

The next time you or your PR is tempted to call a press conference, consider the disadvantages. Then think of a better way to spread the good news.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Facebook, PR Consultants/Publicists, Press Releases/News Releases, Social media marketing, Twitter, Video Tagged With: , , ,

Online visibility: 13 ways to build a following

6/7/2010 By Joan 4 Comments

This month’s guest blog post was written byJames Nissen. Last week, I shared James’ pitch and wrote about How a guest blogger pitched me and made me say ‘yes’

*     *     *      

james nissen, guest bloggerBy James Nissen
    
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius
   
One of the greatest things about promoting a brand online today is how low the cost really is.  I have helped to market SecretintheDirt.com over the past two years, and it has grown from a single ebook to a thriving golf community.  Over 8,000 golfers have now joined our community at Secret in the Dirt, despite having launched only two months ago.  
    
Granted, we did have a strong buzz before the launch of the site, but the great part about this adventure was the fact that it cost us almost nothing to build the brand up to what it is today.  Allow me to use a cliché metaphor, but one that I think applies to building your brand.  
    
I want you imagine that before you have a “brand,” your idea is just a bunch of car parts.  Everything you do to promote your idea is like adding a new part to the car.  At some point, you will have built the body of the car, the engine, put on the tires, added the interior, and checked all the wiring.  There is nothing left to do; the car is ready to run.  You will have maintenance from time to time, but the hardest part is over.  
   
At this point, your brand can go places it never could go before when it was just a bunch of parts waiting to be used.  Your brand will never get that way if you expect it to run when you’re only halfway complete with the job.  So start building the car today.  Here are 13 cost-effective resources we used in building our brand online.
    
  
Our greatest asset in the beginning was a set of golf videos that Mike Maves aka “Sevam1″ put together on YouTube.  A friend of his asked for some advice on golf, and he put the videos together simply to help his friend’s game improve.  The videos ending up attracting over 500,000 views in a short time and people began to talk about them.  
   
Find a way to talk about your product or service in the form of a video, and put up as many videos as you can.  Other great videos sites include DailyMotion, Vimeo, Viddler and Twitvid.
    
2. Bloggers.

Many people have blogs, but how focused are they?  How big of a following do they have?  How often do they update the blog?
  
I’ll never forget a quote I read by Jeremy Schoemaker from the very successful site ShoeMoney.com that said he would continue to update his blog even if nobody read it.  You obviously want your followers to read it, but there is a tremendous power in that kind of mentality.  Other blogging services include WordPress and Tumblr.
    
3. Twitter.
    
Twitter has not brought the highest amount of traffic to our site of any source, but I still believe it should be part of the online arsenal.
  
Sites like Twitpic and Twitvid allow you to share pictures and videos with your Twitter followers, and it makes it easy to start conversations online with people who want to learn more about your brand.  You can even hold contests for your Twitter followers and keep them up to date on important changes to your website or business.
   
4. Niche Forums
  
One of the biggest sources of buzz for the Secret in the Dirt ebook came from Golfwrx.com, a forum devoted to talking about golf-related products and topics.  Mike posted in the forum constantly, answering questions about the YouTube videos and the golf swing.  I have seen forums in every conceivable niche, and if you can find one or two big ones relating to your company, posting to the forum regularly will go a long way in building up your credibility.
    
    
Seth Godin hit the nail on the head when he helped to create this site.  It allows anyone to create a mini-site (called a “lens”) about any conceivable topic in a very short amount of time.  We used this site as an opportunity to create sites about golf and golf history, which in turn brings traffic back to our site.  Another site similar to Squidoo is HubPages.
   
These pages are great because they are indexed by Google, and people may find them just by doing searches about your topic.  They don’t allow for as much customization as a normal web page or blog, but with over 300 million users on Facebook, you can be sure there are many people who will be interested in the products and services you offer.  They offer a great way to keep in touch with your loyal followers.
  
7. Simple Scripts
   
At some point, you will have to invest in hosting for your website.  If you don’t hage hosting yet, I recommend a hosting service that uses Simple Scripts.  
   
It’s a user interface that comes installed when you by hosting from Bluehost, Hostgator, and a few others.  The great thing about Simple Scripts is that with just a few clicks (literally), you can have your blog or website up and running, without having to worry about installing it yourself the hard way.  It makes it a lot less scary if you are new to the web.  You can also point as many domain names as you want to the same hosting plan (it’s around $100 a year).
   
   
This service allows authors to submit articles on every topic imaginable, and is great for establishing credibility in your niche and getting your thoughts clear about your topic. We have seen thousands of people view our articles, and all of that traffic is free.  Other great services include ArticlesBase and ArticleDashboard.
    
    
If your niche involves art or pictures of some type, consider using Flickr.  It’s a great service that allows you to create photo albums that you can share with others for free.  
  
Even if your niche does not involve photography, posting photos from industry events and appearances is often great material to share with your loyal fans.  Another great photo site to use is Twitpic, which links up with your twitter account.
   
   
I can’t speak highly enough of Google Analytics.  This is a free service that takes minutes to install onto your website or blog.  You can see where your traffic is coming from, how much traffic you had, how effective your affiliates are, what countries your visitors are coming from, how long they stay on each page, and a lot more.  Testing is critical to refining your website.
    
11. Cold-Emailing
   
I was surprised to see how many bloggers, radio talk show hosts and newspapers are hungry for good content.  Don’t be afraid to contact successful people in your niche and ask if you can write a guest post for their blog.
   
 BlogTalkRadio lets you create your own radio shows for free, and these talk show hosts always need new guests and experts to have on their show.
  
Last but not least, don’t forget the almighty newspaper.  Contact the smaller ones in your town or neighborhood first, because they like to highlight “local stories” and things going on in that part of town.  If you’re giving a free seminar or making an appearance somewhere, odds are one of the writers would love to spotlight it.
   
12. Karma
   
Aside from the fact that people enjoy getting things for free, it never hurts to have karma on your side.  When we launched the Secret in the Dirt E-Book, we gave away several chapters for free as a bonus for signing up to our email newsletter.  
    
Posting videos and blogging regularly has the same effect.  Give people a chance to get to know you on a personal level, and make it a habit to answer questions emailed to you about your topic.  Give them some real value.  If what you say gets them hooked, they will be back for more.
   
   
When we ever ran into a problem that we could not solve ourselves, we used Elance. They have professionals who can help you out with logo design, banner ad design, web programming, blog layouts, troubleshooting, writing, video editing, and a lot more.  The turnaround time is pretty quick, and since professionals bid for jobs, you are sure to get the best price.
  
Even though you now have the right tools, when you make a habit of using them day in and day out, you will start to see success.  It will feel like a slow climb at first, but that’s part of the journey, right?  
   
Take what applies to your business and throw the rest out.  Focus on one tool at a time, and build upon that.  Get creative, think outside of the box, take action, and add parts to your car.  It will be up and running before you know it.
    
    
James Nissen, head of marketing for SecretintheDirt.com, loves golf, espresso, and the outdoors. He also may be found reading the occasional book or playing guitar.  He is a graduate of the University of Redlands with a degree in accounting.

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Facebook, Newspaper Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet, Social media marketing, Social networking, Twitter, Video, Writing Articles, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why a press release and not just a blog post?

3/8/2010 By Joan 1 Comment

If you’re releasing a report on the state of your industry, what’s the purpose of writing a press release? Why not just post the information to your blog?

In fact, why even bother with press releases? Can’t blog posts serve the same function?

That’s what law firm marketing expert Kevin O’Keefe asked at Real Lawyers Have Blogs.

He will be releasing a report later this week on the use of blogs by large American law firms, and he asked:

“My question is who do I send the press release to? Don’t I accomplish the same thing by posting a blog post with the report as I always have? As a courtesy to reporters and editors, couldn’t I just email them a link to my blog post? How does a press release help them?

“Some law firms and companies use press release services such as PR Newswire or PRWeb for press releases, many in large part for Search Engine Optimization.  Getting links from such sites to your company website or blog using keywords describing your offering causes your website or blog to rank higher on such keyword searches.  But that feels a bit like a sham and I’m not looking for SEO.”
   

Write a release and a blog post

Do both.

Press releases are written much like a newspaper article would be written with “just the facts.” And, of course, you can link directly to the report and anything else you wish.

One of the big advantages of press releases is that journalists, bloggers and others can simply cut and paste from the press release and add what you’ve written to their own copy.  Blogs, on the other hand, are written in a more informal, personal style that make wholesale copying difficult.
  
A blog also serves as a great platform to comment on various aspects of the report, in one or more blog posts. So while that press releases is pulling traffic at PRWeb, your post is pulling traffic at your blog. 
         
  
How to publicize an industry report

I gave Kevin seven ideas for publicizing his report:

  1. Write a press release and post it to PRWeb.  Journalists and others can also search the PRWeb site by topic.  I found eight RSS feeds at PRWeb just for legal news. So if the only place that somebody can find info on the report is at Kevin’s blog, they’ll miss it if they’re at the PRWeb site.
        
  2. Let your Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections know about the release. Just give an enticing headline and link to it at PRWeb. (See 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook.)
        
  3. Write a blog post that ties into the press release.  Why was the report written? Are the results surprising? Can you offer a behind-the-scenes look at the benefit of blogging for big law firms, something the press release doesn’t explain?
        
  4. Post the same press release at your website, in your online press room.  You want to do this so that people who come to your website can find recent information about what you’re doing.
        
  5. If you wish, you can now pitch the story to a select group of journalists and bloggers.  These can be people whose names you have collected and put into a database.  I’d create individual pitches for each journalists or blogger, customized for their audience, and then include a link where they can see the press release.
        
  6. What about people on Twitter who “tweet” about law-related topics?  Don’t forget about them.  Sometimes you can get far more traction on Twitter than you can in traditional media, simply because of the retweets.
        
  7. How do you find people who would be interested in the report and are most likely to retweet?  Go to Search.Twitter.com and search for #law, #lawyers, #legal and other related words, using hash tags.  Twitter will return a list of tweets written by people who have used those keywords in their posts.  You can then go to each person’s Twitter page and decide if they’re worth following.  If so, follow them.  They might follow you back.  You can then send them a direct message and let them know about your report, and link to the press release on PRWeb.
        
  8. Finally, how about creating a short video, about two and a half minutes, discussing the report?  You can do this with an inexpensive Flip video camera and upload the video to YouTube, which can pull more traffic to your blog or website.

Kevin might also consider a subscription to Expertclick, the Online Yearbook of Experts. A subscription puts you in their experts directory and lets you post up to 52 press releases per year.  You can then link to these releases from your blog or the online press room at your website. That’s what I do.  Learn more at Expertclick.com.

How do you use press releases in conjunction with your blog?

Filed Under: Blogs, LinkedIn, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets, Social media marketing, Twitter, Video, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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