Author: Montrie Rucker Adams

Branding: Share Your Story
By Categories: Blog Tags: , ,

Every business started out as a dream or vision. After careful planning (for some, maybe not), it became a business.

What’s your story?

For example, there’s Sara Blakely. Who is she? Blakely is the founder of SPANXS, a company that specializes is women’s and men’s body shaping undergarments. The bodysuit shapewear is designed to give the wearer a slim and shapely appearance. (1 – source – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanx). Blakely came up with her business idea while getting dressed for an event. She realized she didn’t have a particular undergarment that would wear nicely under white pants. You can read about her interesting “story” here – http://www.spanx.com/corp/index.jsp?page=sarasStory and by watching an interview with EntrepreneurOnline.com.

http://youtu.be/zs2-8uHBHOM

People love to read “success” stories. They become inspired to possibly begin their dream or vision. Not only will you encourage others, your story can help to market yourself and to sell your products and services.

Consider sharing your story on your website, in marketing materials, and possibly in a do-it-yourself video. Share the how, who, what and where of your company’s “birth.” Include images of your journey… even if it’s your kitchen, basement or garage.

Many businesses began first in the mind and then in the home. You have a story – share yours. You’re not just selling a product or service, you are selling your story. That story may be the beginning of someone else’s story.

When sharing, add an area on the home page of your website so it is seen immediately. And don’t forget to share it on social media!

You didn’t put in all that hard work to keep it to yourself. When you share, you not only help yourself by becoming “more visible,” but you help others as well.

What’s your story? Share it with me.

Brand Journalism: Companies Doing It Right – Part Seven
By Categories: Blog Tags: , ,

Though the term Brand Journalism is new, there are companies that have been practicing it for many years.

In the last of the Brand Journalism seven-part series, Mark Ragan and Jim Ylisela continue their discussion. They share three innovative companies that are doing brand journalism right.

Nuts About Southwest is Southwest Airline’s website where 30 employees discuss everything positive about their employer.  Sophos, an IT company, has a website called Naked Security in which computer hacking is discussed. The financial company HSBC has two sites that provide useful content.

The motive for these extra websites?  Whenever you need any of the services or products we provide,  hopefully you will call us.

Click here to learn more about the final series – 3 Companies Doing Brand Journalism Well:

Six SlideShare Tips to Make You More Visible
By Categories: Blog Tags: , , ,

In April, I wrote a blog entitled, “SlideShare Helps to Brand Your Business“. If you are new to Slideshare or maybe an overall beginner to creating presentations (both print and online), this new blog by SlideShare will help you. SlideShare blogger, Marissa Wong, shares six tips for SlideShare beginners.

  1. Make it Clickable
  2. Big Visuals, Minimal Text
  3. Don’t Rely on Templates
  4. Maximize Your Channel
  5. Integrate with LinkedIn
  6. Activate Lead Capture

Read the details of each of her tips here.

She hit the nail on the head! When you develop your content for your presentation, make sure that each page has content that will make the visitor want to “click through” to continue reading it. No one wants to be bored, so make it worth continuing.

Use relevant images, charts and graphs. Don’t overwhelm your viewers with too much text. The point to all of this is to keep it simple.

Be creative in your design. People don’t want to see things they’ve already seen. Use your logo, your tagline, and other interesting colors and even textures for your template – but stay away from dark colors. Dark is boring!

Integrating with LinkedIn is a great suggestion (because SlideShare is a LinkedIn product). However, integrating with all of your social media accounts is even better! Exposure. Exposure. Exposure.

Lastly, make sure you have a way to capture your leads – get their contact information so you can reach your visitors.

It takes planning to put together a great SlideShare presentation that is worth sharing, so take your time and get it right the first time!
Share it with me. I’d love to see it.

Be More Visible: Use SnapGuide!
By Categories: Blog Tags: ,

The other day I came across a great sharing tool. It’s called SnapGuide.

Their website describes SnapGuide as, “a free iOS app and web service for those that want to create and share step-by-step how to guides.” Different people and businesses can use SnapGuide to offer easy-to-understand instructions on a variety of topics that include do-it-yourself projects, fashion tips, repairs, crafts, cooking, gardening, and more.

The process is easy. Use your phone to “snap” pictures and videos of your project. Then share your photos with the SnapGuide community. Why would anyone need to have a show on the Food Network, HGTV or even the Travel Channel when you can create your own show using SnapGuide!

If you are a new or expanding business in any of these areas, this is a great product to share what you do and show people how they can do it too!

Try it and share it with me! I’d love to see it.

 

Brand Journalism: Driving Traffic to Your Site – Part Six
By Categories: Blog Tags: , ,

In the sixth installment of this seven-part series, Mark Ragan and Jim Ylisela continue their conversation on Brand Journalism. This time, the topic turns to answering the question, “If you build it, will they come?

Now.  How can they if they don’t know about it?

You have the sell it. Their suggestions: Use daily news feeds, social media and your employees.  Employees are often over looked, but they can be the best people to loudly toot your horn.

Don’t forget the traditional means of selling your goods and services – direct mailings, advertising and publications.

Click here to hear more:

Brand Journalism: Displaying the Site – Part Five
By Categories: Blog Tags: , ,

A big question that’s often asked: Should we create a separate site? The advantage of having a separate site is to make ensuring its individuality. On this site, you will offer news feature stories, blogs and videos – not the usual company information that’s typically on the “mother” site.

Mark Ragan and Jim Yliisela from Ragan Communications have so far offered four previous videos on Brand Journalism. They advise to make the site easy to find (no one wants to hunt), offer different content from the “mother” site and make social media the pipeline.

Want to know more? Click the link to continue on your path to Brand Journalism.

Look! Three Great Blogging Tools!
By Categories: Blog Tags: ,

If you blog regularly and are looking for other ways to be seen, share and share everywhere – here are three tools to help. Each one has its own unique way of sharing your information.

  1. BestoftheWeb – http://bestoftheweb.com. BestoftheWeb offers a series of helpful web directories.  It is a comprehensive directory of categorized, content-rich, well designed websites . It’s the Internet’s oldest search directory. For website owners, you can get your site in front of millions of people every month; drive targeted traffic to your site; and increase your visibility online.
  2. Blog Catalog – http://blogcatalog.com. Blog Catalog is the premiere social blog directory on the Internet. You can promote your own blog, find blogs on various topics, or connect with other bloggers.
  3. WeFollow – http://wefollow.com. Wefollow is a directory of prominent people organized by interests. Wefollow started as a Twitter directory in 2009 and has since grown to a community of over 1.3 million users. You can search for people by interest and sort them by what we call their Prominence Score. This ranking system lets you quickly discover, follow and learn from the most prominent people around the world.

If you join one or more of these, drop us a line so we can take a look, and maybe even follow you.

Twitter Cards – More than 140 Characters!
By Categories: Blog Tags: ,

Sometime 140 characters just isn’t enough!

With Twitter cards, it’s possible to attach media experiences to tweets which link to your content. Simply add a few lines of HTML to your web pages, and users who tweet links to your content will have a “card” added to the Tweet that’s visible to all of their followers.

Well… they say it’s done in three easy steps:

  • Choose a card type! Try them out or read more about them.
  • Once you find one you like, add the required meta tags to your page.
  • To apply for the card you want, validate your meta tags.

Sometimes, one man’s “easy” is another man’s “torture.” If you aren’t very web savvy these so-called “three easy steps” could take quite some time to actually implement.

There are seven card types that can be attached to tweets, each of which has a beautiful consumption experience built for Twitter’s web and mobile clients:

  • Summary Card: Default card, including a title, description, thumbnail, and Twitter account attribution.
  • Summary Card with Large Image: Similar to a Summary Card, but offers the ability to prominently feature an image.
  • Photo Card: A tweet sized photo card.
  • Gallery Card: A tweet card geared toward highlighting a collection of photos.
  • App Card: A tweet card for providing a profile of an application.
  • Player Card: A tweet sized video/audio/media player card.
  • Product Card: A tweet card that better represents product content.

So…what are you waiting for? Hop on over to the Twitter Cards Development page and get started on your cards.

At least you get a chance to share in more than 140 characters.

September: Ethics Awareness Month
By Categories: Blog Tags: , , , , , ,

Most people don’t understand exactly what a public relations professional does. It’s all across the board with “getting people in the media,” “writing press releases,” “cleaning up messes,” and other marketing type responsibilities.

However, what is required of a public relations practitioner is to honor the Code of Ethics.  What does it mean? It means we advocate for our client, we’re honest, are experts in our field, we’re fair, loyal and are accountable for our actions.

The following from the Public Relations Society of Awareness’ site, further desribes the public relations professional:

ADVOCACY

We serve the public interest by acting as responsible advocates for those we represent. We provide a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid informed public debate.

HONESTY

We adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those we represent and in communicating with the public.

EXPERTISE

We acquire and responsibly use specialized knowledge and experience. We advance the profession through continued professional development, research, and education. We build mutual understanding, credibility, and relationships among a wide array of institutions and audiences.

INDEPENDENCE

We provide objective counsel to those we represent. We are accountable for our actions.

LOYALTY

We are faithful to those we represent, while honoring our obligation to serve the public interest.

FAIRNESS

We deal fairly with clients, employers, competitors, peers, vendors, the media, and the general public. We respect all opinions and support the right of free expression.

When you’re looking for someone, or are working with a public relations professional, make sure s/he adheres to their professional code of ethics.

Brand Journalism: Do You Have the Skills? Part Four
By Categories: Blog Tags: , ,

To move your company toward brand journalism, you have to be a reporter and a good writer. If you are not, find someone in your company who is, or hire a company like Visibility Marketing Inc., to do the work for you.

Remember, you must change the way you gather information. Cranking out press releases does not work. You have to tell a good story and get great quotes.

For more on the required skills to convert your communications department, click here to hear Mark Ragan and Jim Ylisela speak more on the topic.