YouTube

YouTube secrets push your video to top of search results; learn ‘em all during free webinar Wednesday, May 18

5/10/2011 By Joan 8 Comments

Online video is the most powerful tool on the Internet for driving traffic to your websites and services.

That’s why I have my own YouTube channel.

Search engines are focusing on online video to deliver the content their customers are looking for and have even changed their search parameters to push video to the top of the search results.

What does this mean for you? Your business can get quick, effective search engine results that could take your websites months or even years to achieve, all for next to nothing to produce.

There are secret tactics that successful marketers and smart Publicity Hounds are using on free hosting sites such as YouTube that are bringing an avalanche of traffic to their websites.

My friends, Colin Martin, who edits my video, and Marc Bullard are offering a free one-hour webinar to show you how easy it is to pull traffic for specific keywords that your customers are typing into the search engines. ““YouTube Super Secrets: Getting Views, Subscibers and Branding Your Business” will be from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 18.

Here’s What You’ll Learn

One of the biggest mistakes most people make (OK, I’m guilty as charged) is creating the video first. And then, when it’s time to upload the video to YouTube, they’re scrambling to come up with enough keywords to pull traffic.

If they’re in a hurry, they sit and guess which words their customers will be searching for, because there’s no time to do keyword research. Collin and Marc will show you how to do the critical keyword research you need BEFORE you start shooting.

You’ll also learn:

How to properly fill out your video titles and descriptions for maximum search engine placement.
How to find subscribers and friends for your channel.
How to brand your channel to effectively promote your business.
How to use comments wisely to drive traffic to your channel.
How to share your YouTube video on all of your other social profiles.
How to script your video to get the most traffic to your website.
How to decipher YouTube’s statistics program to create better videos.

A Super Bonus

They’re also offering a killer bonus on how to add duplicate video content to your channel without it being rejected. Smart Internet marketers know that the search engines frown on duplicate content. But this trick is so sneaky—and so effective—that YouTube doesn’t want you to know about it.

Who should attend the webinar?

Authors, coaches, consultants, public speakers, musicians, small business owners, and publicists who want to incorporate video into their clients’ PR campaigns.

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Business Promotion, PR Consultants/Publicists, Publicity on the Internet, YouTube Tagged With: colin martin, keyword research, marc bullard, market with video, video script, youtube channel, youtube statistics, youtube videos

13 ways to cross-promote on social media sites

4/6/2011 By Joan 12 Comments

If you’re like me, you sometimes spend so much time and effort trying to understand the minutiae on a site like Facebook, that you forget to let your regular customers know where to find you there.

Here are 13 ways to create a trail of digital bread crumbs that will let your friends, followers and fans follow you from one social media site to another.

1. Link to social media sites from the homepage of your website.

This sounds like a no-brainer, right?

But a recent study by social media expert BL Ochman showed that only 44 percent of the Fortune 50′s homepages had ANY social media icons that link to the company’s social media pages. Amazing.

This is the graphic that’s on the right side of my homepage and in the margin of my ezine, The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week:

2. Link from your blog.

This is often an afterthought. But with all that traffic coming in from the search engines, a blog can be one of the most valuable pieces of real estate where you should display social media buttons. I include buttons, like this, at my blog:

3. Link to your social media profiles from your Google profile.

If you don’t have a Google profile, create one right now.

Your profile lets you decide what the world sees when it searches for you. It makes it easy for visitors to get to know you and find you. Google lets you include within your profile a long list of links to external sites. Here’s the list I created on my profile:

If you created your profile a year or two ago, revisit it. Include links to your profiles on sites like Quora.com that you might have created recently. (I just noticed all of these profiles need to be updated to include my Quora profile page.)

4. Link from your YouTube channel.

Linking to the channel is easy. But too often, we forget to link from it. On my YouTube channel, I include links to several social media sites from the sub-head that says “About Me”:

5. On LinkedIn, when accepting invitations to connect, let people know where else they can find you.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a simple tactic that has resulted in a nice little bump in the numbers for my Facebook Fans and Twitter followers. When I accept someone’s invitation to connect on LinkedIn, I don’t just hit the “Accept” button and move on. I always reply. I customize the first sentence or two, like this:

“Helen, I can’t believe it’s been three years since we met! Great connecting with you here!”

Now here’s the best part. The next two paragraphs are cut and paste. I use Shortkeys, a macro program that, with just a few keystrokes, pastes this into the bottom of the message:

“You might want to follow me on Twitter at @PublicityHound and on Facebook, where I share PR and social media tips almost daily. You can “Like” my Facebook fan page at http://www.Facebook.com/publicitytips.

“Let me know where I can follow you.

“Let’s stay in touch. Be well.”

I’ve actually had new connections reply and comment, “Thanks so much! I’ve wondered where you are on Twitter” or “I just Liked your Facebook page and commented.”

6. On LinkedIn, you can link to three websites from your profile.

Choose them wisely. Read what I wrote about how to get more Google juice from your LinkedIn profile.

7. On LinkedIn, link to a social media site when you answer question.

Every time you answer a question, you can include the URLs of three websites where people can find more information. Only one of those links should be to a site you own, or a social media page.

Don’t be stingy! Share the link love, and point out two other experts or resources that aren’t affiliated with you.

8. On LinkedIn, let members of Groups in which you participate know where they can find you on other sites.

I do this only if it ties into the discussion at hand. Make sure this doesn’t violate the rules of that particular Group.

LinkedIn expert Wayne Breitbarth, who was my guest expert during the webinar on “Your LinkedIn Power Formula: How to Make Killer Contacts, Pull Crowds to Events, be a Star in Your Industry and Track Down Leads Like a Bloodhound,” says you should be a member of no fewer than 50 LinkedIn Groups because Group membership has so many advantages.

9. On Facebook, use social media apps.

Add the apps for YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn so they appear as navigational buttons under your photo on your fan page.

I also link to Twitter from the blue bird photo in my photo ribbon at the top of my fan page:

I give detailed instructions on how to manipulate these photos in the replay of the webinar 12 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook.

10. Let people on your email list know where to find you.

Write an enticing question in your Facebook fan page status update. Send the question to your email list and include the link to the status update.

To find a status update link, click on the timestamp:

After you click, go to the browser window, and cut and paste the link.

11. Don’t forget photo-sharing sites.

Link from other social media sites to sites like Flickr and SlideShare. On Flickr, you can post photos to other sites like Facebook, Twitter, your favorite blogs and more. Just set up a connection between Flickr and your favorite services, and voila!

12. And social bookmarking sites, too.

On StumbleUpon, for example, you can automatically share your favorites with Facebook.

13. On Twitter, link from your profile.

I’m starting to see a lot of people promoting their expertise by including links to their Quora profiles from their Twitter profiles.

This is just a start. I know you can think of more. Share your ideas below.

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Facebook, LinkedIn, Photos & Graphics, Social media marketing, Twitter, YouTube Tagged With: facebook timestamp, fortune 50, linkedin power formula, quora, shortkeys, status update, youtube channel

Girls: You could be the next Milk Mustache star

3/6/2011 By Joan 2 Comments

Actress Julianne Hough is teaming up with the national “got milk?” campaign and Seventeen magazine to find nine girls throughout the United States to become the next Milk Mustache stars.

The “Power of 9″ campaign emphasizes the power of milk’s nine essential nutrients and encourages girls to celebrate the power of looking and feeling their best, which can inspire confidence and help girls reach their goals.

The campaign is looking for girls who “are not afraid to speak up; who are confident; respected, quirky and smart; and know that lowfat milk is an important ingredient for a well-balanced life. ”

Watch the video:

How to Enter

Teens can log onto the site and submit a short video that shows who they are, what inspires them, and why milk is an important ingredient in their lives. The website also includes Hough’s tips for making a winning entry, plus other sample submissions from teens.

Hough and a panel of judges will choose the top entries, and teens across the U.S. will have a chance to vote on their favorite nine.

Winners will be flown to Los Angeles where they’ll meet their fellow winners before posing together for a Milk Mustache ad, to be featured as a special two-page spread in the pages of Seventeen magazine this fall. They will also be able to write at the Power of 9 blog on Seventeen.com.

This is a terrific opportunity for any girl who wants publicity.

My Ideas on How to Use This Contest

PR people, your clients’ daughters might want to know about this.
Nonprofits, if your cause or issue ties into the topic of healthy eating, or girls, this contest is a natural for you.
Schools, let your students know.
Girls Scouts, 4-H and Campfire Girls, tell your members.
If you blog about these kinds of topics, and your audience would want to know, share this with your readers.
Spread the news on Twitter and Facebook.

Drink up! And start shooting.

Filed Under: Advertising, Celebrity tie-ins, Contests, Facebook, Magazine Publicity, PR Consultants/Publicists, YouTube Tagged With: got milk?, julianne hough, milk mustache, power of 9, seventeen magazine

9 ways to spy on your competitors online

10/16/2010 By Joan 9 Comments

Writer Ed Davis asked me to pass along tips on how coffee shops can do competitive intelligence online, for an article in Specialty Coffee Retailer Magazine.

These tips work just as well for any retailer selling online or offline, or anyone who wants to spy on their competitors, or any Publicity Hound who wants more publicity than the competition:

1. Start at your competitor’s website.

They might have an RSS feed (subscribe to the feed) or links to their social media profiles or a blog.

While you’re there, be on the lookout for any customer service type things you see that make it easy for customers to contact or interact with them. Example: A phone number placed prominently on the homepage. If you see something you like—an introductory video, a “contact us” form, etc.—steal the idea and add it to your own website (but don’t plagiarize).

2. Create Google Alerts.

Create separate Google Alerts for every major competitor’s business name and website URL. Google will deliver to your email inbox, as often as you wish, information it finds on the web about your competitors or their website.

When creating the Alert, choose “Everything,” “Once a day” and “Only the best results.” Be sure to set up Google Alerts for your own name and business, too, so you know instantly what people are saying about you online.

3. Look for their blog.

Are they blogging? If so, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Check to see how many comments they’re getting. Are the comments positive or negative or both? Do they seem to have a loyal following? Join the conversation if you wish, but do not post a snarky comment at their blog under your own name or a fake name. Often, it’s more valuable to just sit on the sidelines and watch.

4. Look on Facebook.

Do they have a Facebook profile or Fan Page? If so, become a friend and a fan and watch closely to see what they’re sharing with their followers. Read comments from their friends and followers. Are they offering discounts, coupons or anything special for their fans? (See 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook)

5. Look on Twitter.

If they have an account, follow them. Their tweets might tip you off to new products and services they’ll be offering, events they’re hosting, etc.

Have they created Twitter lists? If so, review them. You might see lists that include marketers or coaches who they’re learning from, or others who are passing along valuable information that you, too, can learn from. (See How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Generate Publicity & Build Your Brand.)

6. Use SocialMention.com.

This is just like Google Alerts, but for social media. Receive free daily email alerts of your brand or your competitor’s brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, etc. Social Mention monitors more than 80 social media properties including Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google, etc.

7. Use Grader.com.

This website has a nice selection of tools that help you measure and analyze your marketing efforts, or those of your competitor. You’ll find tools for measuring on FourSquare, Twitter, Facebook, a blog, and more.

8. Search for their videos.

Have they created videos that are pulling in traffic to their website? Go to YouTube and search under their name. Or, do a Google search for their name and then click on ”Videos” in the upper left corner.

9. Check their search engine ranking.

How well do they rank on Google’s organic search list? Let’s say you’re a coffee shop in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where I live. Search ”coffee shop + Port Washington, Wi.” and compare how each of you rank.

There are dozens more tools for keeping track of what your competitors are doing, but these are the best and easiest places to start. What tools do you use to spy?

Filed Under: Blogs, Facebook, Search engine optimization, Twitter, YouTube Tagged With: competitive intelligence, foursquare, google alerts, grader.com, Internet marketing, social mention, spy on competitors

Make event promotion/PR easy: 27 questions spark ideas

10/6/2010 By Joan 7 Comments

When you’re brainstorming ideas to promote your next special event, use this shortcut: My list of 27 questions designed to get you thinking creatively about how to generate publicity.

The answers will help you identify juicy angles, compelling pitches and other content the media and bloggers will want to know about.

I’ll share several dozen more ideas when I host the webinar “50 Places Online to Promote Your Live and Virtual Events to Reach Your Target Market & Pull Sell-out Crowds” from 3 to 4:15 Eastern Time on Tuesday, Oct. 19. (If you can’t attend live, register anyway because you’ll get the video replay, MP3, PowerPoint slides I used, and handouts.)

Until then, whether you’re doing your own promotion or you’re part of a committee, here are 27 questions to ask while planning your event:

What’s the most unusual or interesting angle to this year’s event?
What trends are we expecting to see this year among attendees, and are they coming to our event to learn more about those trends?
How will a recent news event affect our live event? (Example: Is a major bridge near your event closed and undergoing repairs? Has your organization come under fire recently?)
Who is the most interesting behind-the-scenes person or volunteer working on the event? (That person might make an interesting profile story.)
Can we sponsor a clever or funny contest in the weeks leading up to the event, on a topic that ties into our event?
Can we take a poll or survey that ties into our event, and then announce the results at the event?
Have we created a Facebook Fan Page devoted specifically to our event and what can we offer our fans to attract their attention? (See 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook)
What kind of intertesting, short videos can we create and upload to sites like YouTube to drive traffic to the sign-up page?
What are good topics for tips sheets we can write for pre-event publicity? (Example: “9 ways to keep employees from bolting to your competitor’s company” would tie into an HR conference.)
What kinds of how-to articles can we write and upload to article directory sites, or offer to bloggers who write specifically for our target market?
Who within our organization can write a guest blog post on a topic that ties into the event, and to whom can we offer it?
How are we using technology to draw more visitors?
What are we doing to attract attendees in an unconventional age bracket or demographic?
How are we making the event safer?
If it’s a virtual event like a teleseminar or webinar, what are we doing to make the event of significant value to attendees? (Are you soliciting questions beforehand and promising to answer them during the call or afterward? Will you answer their questions during the session even though they aren’t there? Are you offering bonuses like audio and video replay links?)
What can we plan at the event to guarantee great visuals for television, preferably something that will attract the TV cameras beforehand?
What major changes are we planning this year? Is it because of a mistake made last year? (Don’t be afraid to talk about your mistakes and what you learned from them!)
Are we celebrating a significant anniversary like a 10th, 20th 50th that we can tie into the event? If so, can we make old photos, documents and other historical memorabilia available to the media as part of pre-event publicity?
Does our event tie into a major or minor holiday? And if so, how can we piggyback onto that holiday?
What are we doing to pull more people to our event when the economy is bad and people don’t want to spend money?
Who attended our event last year and might agree to be interviewed by the media about what they saw/learned/ate/heard/experienced?
Is there a follow-up story from last year’s event that we can pitch this time around?
What is the most significant or interesting “preparation” that goes into our event?
Is there something related to our event in which we can invite a reporter to participate? (A cardboard boat regatta can invite a reporter to ride along in one of the cardboard boats and report on the competition. Fun!)
What interesting photos, graphics or logos can we offer to the media and bloggers to accompany a simple calendar listing?
What sites like Meetup.com can we use to promote our event and which of the above angles can we use to get them to our event?
Can we offer the media quiz that ties into our event?