Mike’s Points

Cold-calling stinks. It’s a numbers game, and the nos don’t matter.

After graduating from college, I was fortunate to be brought on board with an Ithaca, Mich., personal finance advising firm. From hearing of the lavish company trips, the job offered great rewards. But, the bulk of the day was sitting in a phone bank room, calling people out of the phone book with script telling them how Social Security was changing and how I could help.

It wasn’t for me (though, I did set up two appointments before quitting after a few days).

If enough of your targeted audience is on social media platforms like blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn, you can use search to eliminate cold calling and develop a connection to open the door for a possible sales or marketing contact. As I’ve posted before, social media is about the Three Cs: Connecting, Contributing, Community.

And, search is a great connecting tool. Starting today and continuing Tuesday and Wednesday, let’s look at three ways to use search to improve your social media marketing or business efforts.

Blogger outreach

Say you have a new diaper that is super absorbent, does no harm to any baby and decomposes within five days of being tossed out in the garden. Cool, eh? And, you want to do some sampling to mommy bloggers.

But there are so many — do you contact just the most popular? Or, the ones that only do product reviews?

No, you conduct a search — with a free service like Google Alerts or a comprehensive social media monitoring tool — with terms like:

• “cloth diapers”: Chances are these moms want to be green and don’t want too have disposables clogging up landfills. There’s a connection.
• “disposable diapers”: If your new diapers have a small price differential vs regular diapers, most people would switch to being green if the effort doesn’t cost more. There’s a connection.
• “composting” or “gardening” with “mom” or “family”: You’re looking for moms who also have an interest in gardening or composting. They may not have kids in diapers, but they may have readers who do — and your product would be of interest. There’s a connection.

Of course, you may have to adjust your terms depending on if your first set of results achieves enough possible bloggers: That is, moms who already are blogging about subjects centered around your product.

Once you find these moms, do your research into their popularity to find the ones that have a sizable audience. Use services like Quantcast, Compete and Sitemeter (if they use it).

Also determine if they do product reviews.

From that list you develop based on the above two filters, read and become familiar with them before contacting them.

With the knowledge of their past related posts and your familiarity with them, you can establish a connection.

Next, I’ll take a look at how to use Twitter for sales efforts.

-Mike

Sales pitch: I’ve conducted numerous blogger outreach using the above method. If you’re interested in me talking to your organization about social media marketing, or in us possibly working together, contact me.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Okay, if you’re an individual, naked launches are okay. I mean, just go already and do it. No planning really required.

But, if you’re a business or a similar organization, naked launches are not needed. Planning and work are required.

I define naked launches as a business or organization starting/publishing a blog, Facebook Page, YouTube channel, Twitter profile, etc., in name only. No or very little content, or solid thought as to what the heck to do with it.

I’ve seen many companies and organizations publish Facebook Pages with little more than their name, URL and logo.

Before moving on, let me say that I understand the need of businesses to protect from name squatters. Okay, save your name even if you have no plans for it — but then state your corporate ID/brand protection intentions so it is clear, and visitors know that it’s not a dead account or that you don’t know what to do with it.

So, what can you do to prevent naked launches? Here’s some help with select popular social media tools:

Twitter: First, be sure your audience (customers, prospects, influencers, etc.) are using Twitter or that you expect they will in the soon enough future.  Because Twitter is so fluid, you don’t need a detailed plan. You do need to have a plan for the types of information you will tweet. Sure, some will be broadcast, but most should be informational — adding value to the legions you hope full follow you.

Also, track key terms around your product, industry, audience, etc., so you can respond to those who have a similar interest. This will help grow your followers and help you find new people to follow. Also, be sure to fully fill out your Twitter profile. See Ford for a solid corporate example. The Toledo Museum of Art has a solid one, too.

Corp/Organizational blog: A lot of planning needs to go into a corporate or organizational blog: Decide why you should, and who you want to reach; who will blog; design (so that it mirrors your corporate look); your blogroll; and objectives to measure to gauge effectiveness.

Also, prior to launch have a couple posts done and published — one an introduction to state why you started the blog, and then a first real one. You must also have an editorial calendar or schedule of posts for the next upcoming time period. If you plan to blog daily, have the first two weeks planned and posts pretty much done; if you plan twice-a-week posts, have the first 3-4 weeks of posts in mind and started; if weekly, have the first month’s worth or more planned. And, then keep up the schedule so content stays regular.

Facebook Page*: Before publishing a Facebook Page for your organization, be sure you complete the pertinent tabs: Information on your company others will want to know; Photos of interest — and more than just your logo; Links to not only your organization but also that your fans would find helpful and of interest; and details on any Events you may have coming in the near term. For Discussions, you don’t have to start any off the bat — though it’d be nice — you should prepare a list of topics to initiate in the coming weeks and months. This is similar to the planning you should do for a blog. Having regular discussion topics will help keep the Page fresh and engage your Fans. If there are no or very few replies, switch to another form of engagement on the Page.

AND, please refrain or control your organization, communications agency and others with a vested interest from fanning your page right off the bat. Those are tainted and don’t come off as being real fans. Most other fans may not know it, but those who do will look sadly upon you. I’m not saying employees and your agency’s personnel should never do it, but when they do at first and months later, they still make up a sizeable portion of your Page, it doesn’t look favorable upon the company.

YouTube: Yes, most companies will simply upload commercials. Guess that’s okay. IF you can do other videos — like from a news conference, how-to, a commnunity volunteer effort you’re involved in, etc., — please do. YouTube offers a lot of customization for your channel to ensure it matches your corporate colors and look. Take advantage of it — before launch. When you do launch, have at least a couple videos ready. Also, keep on the look out for other channels to subscrbe to — could be customers, vendors, prospects, other organizations of interest and that could provide value to your own subscribers. A couple good examples of YT profiles include Pickens Plan (good tie to branding, but would like to see some comments — or haven’t there been any?) and Domino’s (not as strong in corp branding but plenty of positive and negative comments allowed and many non-corp favorites).

If you have other social media tools that should not be naked upon corporate launch, please share your ideas in the comments.

Take care, and thank you for reading.
-Mike

*In most business cases, you’ll want a Facebook Page, not a Group. To decide the best for you, see a post a Mashable and at Inside Facebook. AND, if you’re an organization, business, etc., DO NOT create a Facebook Profile — it’s not allowed. See the 4th question in the FB Help Section.

Maybe it’s because of my journalism roots, but I never did like rags. In my POV, rags are newspapers and magazines that run every news release you’d send them, mostly verbatim.

Yeah, sure they were easy “hits” and helped make me look good to clients (not that I needed help — hardee har-har ).

But, I figured they did not provide quality coverage, and their circulation numbers were not really “real” (though I did include them in client reports).

Solid media coverage comes from media outlets that take their journalism* responsibility seriously. They don’t publish everything you send — and you don’t send them everything you have.

A real PR pro has solid news judgment, knows his employer or clients’ objectives, knows or can find the appropriate media outlets needed to meet those objectives, and knows those media outlets.

That goes whether you’re talking traditional offline media, online media or social media.

So, I was thrilled to read about MomDot’s call for for mommy bloggers to get back to their roots for one week in August:

MomDot is challenging bloggers to participate for one week in August in a PR BLACKOUT challenge where you do not blog ANY giveaways, ANY reviews, and Zero press releases. In fact, we dont want you to talk to PR at ALL that whole week.  We want to see your blog naked, raw, and back to basics. Talk about your kids, your marriage, your college, your hopes, your dreams, your house and whatever you can come up with for one week.

I’ve been involved in numerous blogger outreach efforts, including some sampling outreach where I’ve sought permission to send products to and sought feedback from bloggers on those products. In any type of outreach a PR pro does — whether with traditional or social media — there has to be value for both parties.

The PR pro has to give content, access, information, etc., — something that the blogger finds of value for his or her readers. Yes, in sampling, the blogger receives a product that he/she likely won’t return, but that’s fine. That’s not payola and should not dramatically influence the objective, pure blog post PR pros and their clients or employer should seek.

I’ve never paid — NOR WILL I EVER PAY — a blogger to post about a client’s product. If you do, that’s fine. That’s an ad. That IS NOT PR.

I will never tell a blogger what to write — or that he/she should even write at all.

I will never get upset if a blogger expresses interest in and says he/she will write a post, but doesn’t. Most bloggers still have jobs, lives, family, etc. You’re a PR pro. Bloggers very likely are not professional bloggers.

Now, I also realize that power moms — including mom bloggers — are hot. I definitely don’t begrudge a blogger — whether the person’s a mom or not — to earn a living and get some type of compensation to post on his or her blog. If the blogger has the talent and following, great. Get benefit from it.

But as a word of caution, as Trisha at MomDot seemed to say in her post, don’t forget your roots and the qualities that made you so darn popular. There are plenty of commercialized old and new media entities.

So,to all of you sought-after bloggers — as well as traditional media — please don’t loose your purity.

-Mike

Image of Rosie the Riveter. Also see Google search.

*I realize that, with few exceptions, bloggers are not journalists, and I don’t view them that way. Still, they do “report,” and usually it’s their opinion. That’s fine. Blogs are still media.

I’ve been involved in social media since reading my first PR blogs in spring 2005.

Of the social media marketing activities I’ve been involved with, I’ve probably been involved with blogger outreach the most, starting back in late 2005. Doing blogger outreach came up during a recent email conversation with a friend, during which it was inquired and I relayed how I do blogger outreach. By the time I finished, I thought, “Hey. That could make a good blog post.”

So, below is my take on how to do blogger outreach right. Please have a look. I definitely welcome your comments, criticisms and questions. Note that, the below assumes that you are working with bloggers that you do not already read and have no prior connection with. You’re working in a new market, new niche, new client or employer.

Conduct a search using Google BlogSearch, Technorati, Techrigy (which is the service I mostly use), etc. to discover those blogs talking about your topic: your issues, company, industry, etc. — whatever you want to reach out about. You can also find possible blogs of interest by looking at the blog roll of those you initially find in the search.

As you find blogs that could be of interest, read the post(s) that lead you to them to ensure they’re on target with your topic. Also, at least scan the blog and search for related posts, look for information on the blogger(s) to see if your topic fits in with the blog’s focus, if the blogger is open to pitches, and how you can tie your topic to his/her readers. You’ll also need to determine the blog’s reach and visibility (traffic stats).

While reading the blog, you’ll likely get a feel for this, but also check the blog on sites like Quantcast.com, Compete.com, Technorati.com and Sitemeter (if the blog uses it) to see what traffic and visibility it has.

Ideally, you want a combination of a blogger who posts about your topic, is open to suggestions and gets a lot of traffic.

Of course, if you are doing on-going social media monitoring and outreach, you should have a regular list of blogs to read and comment on.

Once you have your target list and as you become familiar with the blogger, look for something to tie your topic into. Like, if the blogger has posted about it before, or even if you can make a personal connection about what he/she has blogged about. You need something first thing in the email that establishes a valued connection — something that will want him/her to read more and consider your topic.

One of the highest professional compliments I ever received was from a blogger who rejected my pitch:

Hi Mike - Thanks for the email/info, and while you are right that I probably wouldn’t cover something like this on my food blog, I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with your email. I’m sure you know that we get a sh*tload of PR emails every day, and it’s actually nice to hear from someone who doesn’t incorrectly claim to LOVE MY BLOG! and proceed to tell me how his or her product will be great for my readers (because they are assuming I blog about cooking and food) when, IF they had read even ONE paragraph of my blog, it wouldn’t apply at all. I have no idea whether or not you’ve actually read any part of my blog, but at least you didn’t fake like you did