Internet Press Release Distribution – A Primer

It Used to Be Simpler

Those of us in the PR game a decade ago remember when internet press release distribution was a paid service offered mostly by PR industry dominant media services.  Bacon’s & Burelle’s  (renamed Cision and Burelles Luce respectively).  These industry biggies offer PR professionals and companies full-service  media research, lists, & clipping & monitoring for blogs, print and TV.  In the past couple of years, excellent upstart Vocus joined the battle for our hearts and minds.

These major media services all have annual subscription fees that although not inexpensive (read thousands), to their credit and favor, have all designed affordable packages for small businesses that are serious about their PR.  They’re worth your time to learn about.

Dominant Internet-Only Distribution Services

Like Cision and Burelle’s above, PRNewswire and PR Web were pioneers of the internet press release.  They offer a variety of enhanced services that assist less experienced news release writers in creating and distributing news releases as well as additional packages of distribution you probably wouldn’t be able to access otherwise.  Again, well worth the value until you get to know more about optimizing your news releases.  Their cost varies from $80-$400 per release.  At last check, PRNewswire had an annual membership fee.  PR Web had no membership fee.

Two Benefits of Internet Distributed News Releases

  1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search engines ‘like’ optimized press releases.  Well written, they are good subject matter and, well designed, have the right SEO ingredients to become ‘backlinks’ to your website.  You’ve experienced the result when you do a web search and find multiple links (from the same domains) with your search term in the title.  If it’s a good headline (Title) and ‘Description’ (first paragraph) , searchers click through to have a peek and you end up with a website visitor.
  2. Journalists doing story research use the web extensively looking for research information, subject matter experts and fact checking. For the same reasons as in #1, they might grab your news.  Here’s where your content really becomes critical.  Fluffy copy, puffery and overly descriptive adjectives need not apply.  You can find good press release writing tips at Bill Stoller’s website.  Smart Guy Bill.

A Plethora of Free

In the Supernova of internet access in the last decade, literally hundreds of free press release distribution services have surfaced (maybe thousands?).  Which ones to use?

Here’s a little help.  We’ve gathered the following sites that should meet your needs nicely.  Invariably we’ve missed some ‘newer-gooder’ ones, so drop a comment below and we’ll update this list.

Free Press Release Websites

We’re not plowing new turf gathering this kind of information so here’s some good homework with a top 50 list assembled by Avangate who has Google Page Rank ordered them.

Our Own Current List:

Pitchengine.com – A Suggestion

With a tsunami of social media washing over the world, it wasn’t surprising to find an enterprising young person (Jason Kintzler) creating a website to help both bloggers and press release writers gather their related material (photos,  videos, print material and other media, into one convenient resource and link(s) offering helpful, organized and ‘enforced’ SEO guidance. That’s pitchengine.

You get to post your ‘stuff’ for 30 days for free or you can pay $35 a month to keep an unlimited amount of your material for as long as you continue your subscription.  We recommend it.  Our Pitchengine links always pop to the top of the charts.

Writing a Good SEO Optimized News Release

Whoa!  A subject for another day.  We’ll start in working on that one for you this weekend and link it to this post when finished.  We think you’ve got enough to keep you busy for days.

Share Your Information

If you discover valuable new resources everyone should know about, comment below and we’ll update our list for everyone’s benefit.

What Results Have You Had From Your On-Line News Submissions?

Photo credit: trevarthan

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Out with the Old, In with the New

You Recommend Clients Change their Look, Don’t You?

“It is not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory.”
William Edwards Deming (1900–1993)

Every hairdresser you know loves to be in the ‘news’ and to find a measure of fame … Why not?  It’s a noble goal … and very doable for those willing to plan for, invest in, and put the sweat equity into obtaining it.

You need a few basic ingredients of course … talent and skill, a personality, and a decent work ethic.  Of course that does sound like a whole lot of hairdressers you know who aren’t getting very ‘noticed’.  So there must be something else we haven’t mentioned yet.

No, we’re not talking about hiring PR and marketing gurus.  Of course it helps to have someone who knows the ropes, but that has more to do with ‘making a fuss’… more about that in a moment.  First you have to think ‘newsworthy’.

What’s News?

It’s not remarkable that if you drop the ‘s’ from the word ‘News’ you have the word ‘new’…  a discovery, something unique, something no one has heard or seen before, a ‘light’ people haven’t  seen you in previously …  something newsworthy.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve been ‘in the news’ and ‘famous’ before, although it does help during the ‘fuss’ process.

But, even if you’re previously famous, unless you’re doing something ‘new’, you aren’t ‘newsworthy’.  Unless you innovate, remake, redesign, reform, or re-something, you’re a retread.  You can’t repeat the same act to the same audience and expect them to be re-thrilled for long, no matter how famous you are.  Once they’ve seen your act, you’re pretty much done.

Photo by Phil Hawksworth

Change and Innovation are Mandatory

The world is pulling out ahead of all of us, all the time.  Innovation comes fast and furiously all around us.  ‘New’ concepts and technologies are emerging everywhere.  So what do we have to do to become ‘newsworthy’?

Find one thing that pulls you out ahead in some way, somehow, if only for a moment … and while you have the lead, then make a big fuss so everyone around you notices.  Do that repeatedly every time you pull ahead for a moment and you begin to grow the circle of those paying attention to you.  You achieve ‘fame’ in an ever-widening circle.  It’s a process, not a rocket ride … BUT FIRST YOU MUST INNOVATE.

The Fuss

The fuss we keep referring to is the PR, advertising, and promotional processes … the mechanics of writing a good news release, telling a good story well, making phone calls to targeted local and/or national media, taking out ads, mailing promotional material, and in general doing whatever you can afford to do to share your story with as many people as you can reach every time you pull ahead for that moment.  Yes, of course it helps to have public relations and marketing people to help you make a fuss, but don’t expect them to be very successful retelling your ‘old’ story … that’s old news … save your money.

Bottom line

What you DO is the secret.  How you INNOVATE and REINVENT is paramount.  So before you spend your time and money making a fuss, decide what you are going to DO this year that is worth paying attention to.  If you’re going to spend money, spend it on someone that can help you see and do things differently.  Worst case … Just do one new thing in 2010.

It All Begins with a List and a Plan

  • What do I need in 2010?
  • What do I want in 2010?
  • What worked for me last year?  What didn’t work for me?
  • What is my plan FOR 2010?
  • Who can I hire to help me innovate?
  • What is my budget to innovate?
  • What is my timeline?

These are tough questions.  That’s why most people don’t make the effort. Those that do …  and at least try … have a chance at succeeding

Have a great 2010 everyone!

Alex and Sharon

P.S. You can also read this post ( privileged to be included) with some truly brilliant content  in the January/February issue of Vivienne Mackinder’s MOD Magazine

What’s new with you?  Share your comments.

If you feel this blog post worthy, please share it with a friend using the Share icon below. That’s how we grow.

Out with the Old … In with the New

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”
William Edwards Deming (1900–1993)

Every hairdresser you know loves to be in the ‘news’ and to find a measure of fame … Why not? It’s a noble goal … and very doable for those willing to plan for, invest in, and put the sweat equity into obtaining it.

You need a few basic ingredients of course … talent and skill, a personality, and a decent work ethic. Of course that does sound like a whole lot of hairdressers you know who aren’t getting very ‘noticed’. So there must be something else we haven’t mentioned yet.

No, we’re not talking about hiring PR and marketing gurus. Of course it helps to have someone who knows the ropes, but that has more to do with ‘making a fuss’… more about that in a moment. First you have to think ‘newsworthy’.

What’s News?

It’s not remarkable that if you drop the ‘s’ from the word ‘News’ you have the word ‘new’… a discovery, something unique, something no one has heard or seen before, a ‘light’ people haven’t seen you in previously … something newsworthy. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been ‘in the news’ and ‘famous’ before, although it does help during the ‘fuss’ process.

But, even if you’re previously famous, unless you’re doing something ‘new’, you aren’t ‘newsworthy’. Unless you innovate, remake, redesign, reform, or re-something, you’re a retread. You can’t repeat the same act to the same audience and expect them to be re-thrilled for long, no matter how famous you are. Once they’ve seen your act, you’re pretty much done.

Change and Innovation are Mandatory

The world is pulling out ahead of all of us, all the time. Innovation comes fast and furiously all around us. ‘New’ concepts and technologies are emerging everywhere. So what do we have to do to become ‘newsworthy’?

Find one thing that pulls you out ahead in some way, somehow, if only for a moment … and while you have the lead, then make a big fuss so everyone around you notices. Do that repeatedly every time you pull ahead for a moment and you begin to grow the circle of those paying attention to you. You achieve ‘fame’ in an ever-widening circle. It’s a process, not a rocket ride … BUT FIRST YOU MUST INNOVATE.

The Fuss

The fuss we keep referring to is the PR, advertising and promotional processes … the mechanics of writing a good news release, telling a good story well, making phone calls to targeted local and/or national media, taking out ads, mailing promotional material, and in general doing whatever you can afford to do to share your story with as many people as you can reach every time you pull ahead for that moment. Yes, of course it helps to have public relations and marketing people to help you make a fuss, but don’t expect them to be very successful retelling your ‘old’ story … that’s old news … save your money.

Bottom line

What you DO is the secret. How you INNOVATE and REINVENT is paramount. So before you spend your time and money making a fuss, decide what you are going to DO this year that is worth paying attention to. If you’re going to spend money, spend it on someone that can help you see and do things differently. Worst case … Just do one new thing in 2010.

It All Begins with a List and a Plan

  • What do I need in 2010?
  • What do I want in 2010?
  • What worked for me last year? What didn’t work for me?
  • What is my plan FOR 2010?
  • Who can I hire to help me innovate?
  • What is my budget to innovate?
  • What is my timeline?

These are tough questions. That’s why most people don’t make the effort. Those that do … and at least try have a chance at succeeding

Have a great 2010 everyone.

Alex and Sharon

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Here is One for the Road

Our friend Jerry Tyler has an amazing attitude toward life, his career, his industry and his family. Sharon and I are proud to call Jerry a friend and applaud his many contributions over his 35 + years in the industry to the lives of so many professionals in the industry, from students to wizened old pros. Thank you Jerry for your friendship, inspiration, and view of life in the world of beauty we all live and play in.

Reprinted with permission from The Stylist & Salon Newspapers, this post is Jerry’s December column in the magazine. You can read more of Jerry’s columns here

Photo courtesy of Alaska Dude

Road less travelled - Alaska DudeThe Road Less Traveled

As the year comes to a close I am prone to stop and take stock of what I have gained, learned and lost on life’s “Blue Highways.”

So here is one for the road.

The first thing I learned is the awesome power we have to create opportunity in times of adversity.

The real key here is not to give attention to what we are challenged with, but to keep a clear focus on our dreams and desires with unwavering faith they are ours to have. There is always a choice between what we are confronted with and how we act on it. We are only bound by our own self doubts and fears that keep us from moving forward.

If all we see ahead are barriers and constraining boundaries we will always be confined to the landscape of that vision. Conversely if we see boundless abundance and unlimited potential, then the Law of Attraction will move people, places and events on our behalf. Our dreams and aspirations will be our assured reality.

In challenging times, moving our spheres of influence and personal power outward can create room to grow financially, professionally and personally. This power lies in all of us.

As an educator, I notice an example every time I place a pair of shears in a student’s hands on their first day of beauty school; I get their look of momentary fear of the unknown. “I don’t know if I can.” or “What if I make a mistake?” I look in their eyes and tell them: “Your future is now, it starts right here, there is no someday.”

The greatest responsibility I have learned is to always affirm the inner beauty and future mastery of evolving new professionals. Guide them and be the good example of what they can aspire to be and hopefully grow beyond.

The secret is when we attend to this task, we get better. We become more inspired by being inspiring, we radiate inner beauty and grace because we are nurturing those attributes in our emerging professionals in a quest to grow our industry from the inside out. We become mentored while mentoring, as we remind ourselves of what it is to be true to the path we need to create for them to follow. It is the balance between nourishing and nurturing.

Another truth is the challenge to embrace change, to be in the now, and accept the new. To live in the past is to stay there, while the ever-changing world moves on without us.

Resisting change is like fighting to restrain a freight train that is already leaving the station. The more it picks up speed the more energy is needed to get it to stop. Creating positive change is also like a freight train. It hardly seems to be moving at all. This is where tenacity and perseverance comes into play.

If you don’t give constant attention to moving the train forward it will stop and the journey won’t continue. At first the train may seem to barely moving, but once it catches speed you can’t stop it. Are you on board the train or back in the station? Don’t let life leave without you.

No matter how focused we are on the destination our journey is taking us, life sometimes throws curve balls. Often we don’t see it coming. Sometimes, all we can do is dive and not get hit. Then what? The natural reaction is to lose or trade in our joy for anger and frustration at things beyond our momentary control. Often these circumstances are a wake up call to bring us where we need to be. We may have lost our sense of direction and don’t even realize it.

One of the unrealized blessings from these reality checks is to be grateful for the long term benefits these departures and detours provide us. No matter what is placed in our way, either by design or default, how we let it affect us is our choice. Nothing truly happens by chance. If we are going to succeed or fail, we have everything to do with it.

In the end it’s facing challenges, providing meaningful solutions, and awaiting success that make this all worthwhile. No matter what, it is all because we did it on purpose. I know I won the race because I am tired from the effort. I know I fell short of my desired success because I tripped. I have to get up, dust myself off, refocus and persevere toward my intended goal.

Those who stand on life’s sidelines may applaud those who won the race, but the difference is, they will never know the thrill of victory or the temporary pain of defeat. They were not part of it, they didn’t enter the race, they weren’t present in the game of life. True abundance in life is not a spectator sport. One of my mentors once told me that this is all we get in this go around, so just go for it. This is not a dress rehearsal for the next life. Now go produce a standing ovation with standing room only to a sold out house!

As I roam the Blue Highways on the road less traveled, I will always be grateful for the gift to share with my industry partners. This has been for me, as I hope it was for you, an amazing year full of promise for new horizons. I wish you all a happy and festive holiday season and prosperous New Year.

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Do You Have OPSCOCC?

Thia Breen - President, North America, Estee Lauder Companies

Thia Breen - President, North America, Estee Lauder Companies

I love meeting amazing and straightforward people like Thia Breen.  She lifts me up with her own phenomenal career success story but stops me cold with forehead-slapping simple solutions  to ‘OPSCOCC’ – other people’s self-created overly-complicated career challenges! (my term, not hers <g>) How does Thia know about all that? She was one of those ‘other people’ once! I recently inhaled (along with 300 others) every word that Thia shared as guest speaker at the Beverly Hilton for the Cosmetic Executive Women. It was all part of CEW’s ‘West Coast Women In Beauty’ Series addressing “Building Beauty, Brands and Careers”. I have to admit to you that Thia won me over at the phrase…

… ‘bloggers are the new beauty editors’.

Remember that as you increase awareness of  ‘your’ brands: You, Your Salon and Your Services.

I figure that if anyone can keep any of us from catching OPSCOCC’, it’s the person who oversees 29 of The Estee Lauder Companies’ brands for their North American operations (including our salon world giants Bumble & Bumble and Aveda). Surely, stress and hard work are no strangers to this role-model beauty industry career pro in the retail world and now professional side of beauty. We would all do well to pick up a few career-building tips from her no matter who we are and what our level of experience within the beauty field. New stylist … salon or spa owner… seasoned colorist … aspiring student … corporate exec or publicist/writer like me … we can never forget that at those times when our career feels like we’re running in place but going nowhere fast, it’s probably ‘little ole me’ who is standing in my own way and self-sabotaging my advancement.

Thia_BreenNow in her later 50’s, Thia Breen remains a knowledge ‘sponge’ and a passionate powerhouse every day at work, be it at the office or most often, on the road and in department stores.  She inspires others to work smart – not harder, be organized and above all, ‘get a life’. Carving out quality, nurturing personal time is key to performing great on the job and getting ahead.

We all know we can get to feeling ‘sluggish’ at times and can easily drift toward blaming other people and things for our own ‘ho-hum status quo’ career.  I have no time. I can’t work any harder than I do. My boss doesn’t notice my good work. Or the flip-side classic: I know my boss sees what I do and will promote me soon.

These statements are all what I’ll call the ‘self sabotagers’ But after listening to my newest ‘fav’ role model, phrases like these are officially ‘shunned’ from my vocabulary and brain waves from this blog forward!

Allow me to share how Thia got through to me…and maybe you, too (if you’re open to what the President of 29 amazingly successful companies has to say <g>). Let’s start getting out of our own way and unleash  that career path!  As Thia quipped to us that night: “The beauty business is a great business to be in. Just think of what you looked like this morning – and now, how you look tonight.”

Top 10 Tips For Greater Beauty Career Success:  Inspirations from Estee Lauder’s Thia Breen

  1. Compartmentalize:  -  Thia keeps her amazing focus on many different things during the day by ‘leaving work in her mind’ at night. She loves being home and turning off her Blackberry at 8pm to just relax and ‘be’. At 8am the next morning, the Blackberry is back on again and Thia is back at work and focused 100% on the work at hand.  (Thia admits that early on in her career, she was th essence of “all work and no balance”.
  2. Make Something Happen: Thia encourages us all to not be afraid to make decisions. She says ‘Be Fearless!’
  3. Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes: You don’t want to move too fast or quickly but just look around the corner, anticipate what’s coming, and MOVE.
  4. Be Sensitive To Other People’s Feelings: It’s great to be an achiever and successful, but avoid that ‘killer instinct’ and the desire to be #1 at someone else’s personal expense. You don’t have to be ruthless or hurtful to get ahead. Be very aware of other people’s feelings!
  5. Be Aware Of How Your Customer Is Responding: Thia reminds us that the consumer or client today has been changed forever by a number of things…technology, the economy, media, etc. She/he is thinking differently about everything. Some consumers just want information when she wants it and doesn’t want to be ‘sold’. Others love the element of ‘service’ like the ‘beauty advisor’ at the department store counter (and certainly the professional in the salon and spa!). Everyone today loves ‘value’ – and many love ‘options’ (like having choices of smaller-size products to try  before committing to the big size of something).
  6. Manage Yourself, Too – Avoid the ‘24/7 Mentality’: You need down time! From the management perspective, Thia wants her team to have ‘non-work’ on their schedules to really look forward to. In my business, those who are working that 24/7 schedule are just plain working too hard. “They ‘crash and burn’ when I really need them…like over the holidays when things really get busy, etc.  I tell them: “Your jobs aren’t that hard!”  A good manager has to manage herself, too. You just get duller and duller with a 24/7 work mentality.
  7. Give Feedback To Others: Thia shared that a good manager has to give consistent feedback to be effective. According to this ‘ultimate manager’, good feedback means saying things ‘whether people like it or not’.
  8. Get A Mentor: If you don’t have a career mentor, then get one. Thia reminds us that very often, you need mentors to advise you along your career path.  Says Thia: I had mentors…and remember one in particular early on in my career  who really believed in me…who took a chance on me. It made a big difference.
  9. Make Your Own Career:  Sad but true…there are a lot more bosses that are ‘not great’ than bosses who are.  Don’t assume they are always going to recognize your talents and pave the way for your career promotions. Thia remembers learning a critical lesson in her first days working in a small-town drug store in Benson, MN. – “I learned the hard way that I am totally responsible for my own success.  Up until that time (that I first got fired’), I kept expecting – believing — that there would always be someone else there to take charge of my career. I also learned that it is entirely up to you, and you alone, to ask for what you need.”
  10. Customer Service Reigns Supreme:  I couldn’t agree more with Thia…and what she says is as true of our professional side of the beauty biz as it is of her retail beauty world and brands.  “The only thing that really matters is customers coming to the beauty counter,” she says. “If someone gets great service, that’s the reflection of the brand.”

What was your biggest career success blunder?

What did you learn from the experience?

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The Most Powerful PR in the World – Bad Word of Mouth

At Lightning Speed in Today’s World.

angryWe just got our October issue of Beauty Industry Report (BIR) and immediately noticed Editor Mike Nave wrote the ‘Guest Columnist’ column himself this month.  That’s unusual.  Obviously, he had something important to say.

Mike’s topic was about bad PR.  He was annoyed.  Annoyed enough to need to share it.  I reprint it (with his permission) in this post because there is no link to his ’subscription-only’ newsletter on the web.

This is an excellent lesson in ’silent’ bad PR.  Mike isn’t making public the name of person who was the straw that broke the camel’s back that kicked his pen into gear, but when asked, he was willing to share it … with a friend … off the record.

The Lesson?

It’s what you do, not what you say, that is your best, and worst, PR.  And, just because your name or company doesn’t appear, doesn’t mean people aren’t talking about you. Good … or Bad.

Mike Nave publishes The Beauty Industry Report (BIR).  It is the only executive newsletter serving the professional beauty industry, including manufacturers, reps, distributors, associations, chain salons, day spas and top independent salons, with behind-the-scenes information about the people, products and companies meaningful to its readers.

Mike is also a 40 year veteran consultant in beauty industry marketing, sales, distribution and industry communications including e-commerce related activities.  You can contact Mike at www.beautyindustryreport.com.

Although Mike’s newsletter is not written to salon owners, stylists, colorists, nail techs and estheticians, it is without a doubt the best source of ‘insider information’ you can find for ‘who is doing what (and to whom)’ in the professional beauty industry.  You would be wise to consider subscribing.

Here’s the editorial …

Please Return My Call!

I hope it’s not a sign of old age, but my patience level is lower and my time has become more valuable, as I have less and less of it.  As a result, I feel compelled to write about appropriate good business practices or just plain common courtesies related to responding to phone calls and email.  Not responding either to a phone or an email message is bad business in any economy; in today’s climate, it’s suicidal!

I am sure you, like me, get some emails and voice messages to which it’s clear there is no value in responding—an email from Nigeria saying you’ve inherited millions of dollars or a message from someone pitching Genie Garage Doors. However, it’s mind-boggling to me how a number of beauty industry executives simply do not respond to any form of communications.

There have been a number of times I have called a company to request specific information and received no response.  I have no problem with responses, such as, “I am not interested,” “This is the not the right time,” “I am not the right person to answer that,” that are straight communications.  I’m talking NO response at all.

When email was invented, I thought one of the big advantages was the ease with which it provided the recipient to respond quickly, and I dove in head first. In retrospect, I made a mistake in assuming that this “improved” method of communication would eliminate the past phone calls that were not returned. It hasn’t, and the heart of the issue is low tech and basic—it’s all about courtesy.

I shared my thoughts with Greg Sheperd, PhD, the dean of College of Communication at Ohio University, who made the following observation, “I think some folks believe that technology so changes the character of communication that the rules of politeness we know so well, and follow in face-to-face interactions so naturally, somehow no longer apply. But they do.  Just because the social encounter is now initiated through email, it doesn’t mean those rules can be violated. A non-reply still suggests you and your wants don’t matter to this person. And you are, as a result, almost sure to be ticked off. No matter the manner of communication, ticked off people typically don’t become good customers, make good employees or remain good friends.”

If you find yourself being bombarded with emails and, out of frustration, find yourself just ignoring or deleting them before you even read them to get them out of your inbox, you might find that my approach is helpful to you. Under the ‘all mail’ folder section in my Inbox area of Outlook, I set up three separate folders: Hot Emails (respond in 24 hours or less); Warm emails (respond within 72 hours); Cold Emails (answer whenever or delete). With this system, I can quickly manage my email list without feeling overwhelmed.

I close with this quotation:

“Even if I am busy when I come to my office and there is a note that says somebody has called, even if I have five minutes to spare, I call back,” says Vladimir Putin, former president and current prime minister of Russia. I cannot believe there is anyone in the professional beauty business who is busier than he is.

How do you feel about people who do that?

Please Return My Call!
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10 Deadly Sins Against Positive PR Perception

How Are You Perceived?

sistine-adam-and-evePublic relations helps to shape and cultivate how others perceive you.  But before you can focus your ‘public relations’ on others you need to shape and cultivate your story for yourself and be able to tell it effectively.  That means you need to envision ‘yourself’ clearly. Then, and only then, can you place it before others.

Since public relations shapes ‘perception’ (which covers a lot of ground — way beyond writing the better press release) — we have several suggestions on how to start building your own best perception of yourself.  Later come the press releases and media interviews.

To help your journey towards being more effective at your public relations, we’ve prepared this list of Ten Deadly Sins of Positive PR Projection (what we see too many out there doing that are less than helpful).  These things stand in your way of getting noticed – or they get you noticed, but in a less than positive way.  In the end, they are a turn-off to all … media included.

  1. The ‘little voice’ stylist … They are shy and speak in a ’small’ and un-authoritative voice.  They don’t project.  They often don’t smile enough.  They’re wonderful people and you like them a lot, but it’s not likely you’re going to follow them anywhere.  (The cure?  Look into Toastmasters or the many other organizations that help make you more effective in front of a group.  You need to practice making an impression.  It is a learned skill and very few come to it naturally.)
  2. The ‘critical’ stylist … You know them well.  They are often publicly critical of others who are successful or in positions of authority.  They would rather tear someone or something down than find the positives and focus on those.  (Cure: Start complimenting others and their successes.  Be supportive of their achievements publicly.  And while you are at it, start copying what they are doing right).
  3. The ‘all about me’ stylist … They’re the ones who don’t know how to ask questions of their conversation-mates.  If they do ask a question, it’s really only to open the door for them to tell you their answer to that same question.  If you tested them on what you said first, they’d fail.  (Cure:  Get out of talking about yourself and get into setting the stage for others to talk.  Pretend you are a media interviewer conducting an interview to learn more about the person you are interviewing.  You’ll be amazed at the results)
  4. The ‘all talk’ stylist … They talk about what they are going to do and never do it.  The photo shoot they never schedule, the class they never take, the places they never go.  A real credibility loser.  The result: you speak and people mentally say to themselves … ‘yeah, right.  (Cure: Easy. Don’t do that.  Do what you say you are going to do – duh!)
  5. The ‘overnight success’ stylist … Given new-found PR success or notoriety and they develop a false sense of importance and expectation.  They start believing their own press.  (Cure: Stand in the shoes of the industry’s ‘real’ greats.  Do just one, or some of the things they’ve done.  All of us in the industry would rather work with someone without attitude.  Lose the attitude).
  6. The ’stay-at-home’ stylist … You can’t be interesting to your clients or editors if you never go somewhere different and do something unusual.  People like to listen to the experiences of, and knowledge gained by, those who have been places they have not.  (Cure: Get out of the neighborhood!  Go to the collections in Europe or New York.  Go to industry events in faraway places.  Take classes with industry ‘greats’.  Learn new stuff.   You’ll have a heck of a lot more to talk about.
  7. The ‘lost in the sauce’ stylist … They blend in, work quietly, and don’t have much to say.  They come and go without making a ripple.  (Cure: See all of the cures above).
  8. The ‘Oh, I forgot my cards’ stylist … There’s nothing more important than networking to your PR progress and your pocketbook.  Lightening often strikes when you least expect it.  Your business cards are your link to someone being able to follow-up with you?  Scrawled names and numbers on scrap paper don’t cut it.  (Cure: DON’T LEAVE HOME WITH YOUR BUSINESS CARDS!)
  9. The ‘clueless to social media’ stylist … Social media is not just fun, it is serious communication.  It is a way to reach and connect with your clients and your industry friends.  Learn how to use it.  It will grow your network, bring your clients closer to you, and put money in your pocket.  (Cure: Start by digging around this blog for some of the helpful posts of the past.  Follow the posts of these blogs: Problogger, Seth Godin, Skillfoo, Twitip (Twitter).
  10. The ‘let George do it’ stylist … One sure-fire way to gain more recognition in the industry and in your own neighborhood/community is by getting involved in something greater than yourself.  It’s called volunteerism.  (Cure: Get involved in charitable volunteer work. It’s great for PR but even better for you and your friends and fellow staffers.  Make it more than the usual ‘ho-hum, humdrum’  one-time cut-a-thon.  Find out what’s important to your clients; ask your staff what’s important to them.)

Well, there you have it.  What not to do.

What Other Deadly Sins Did We Miss?

10 Deadly Sins Against Positive PR Perception

Public relations helps to shape and cultivate how others perceive you. But before you can focus your ‘public relations’ on others you need to shape and cultivate your story for yourself and be able to tell it effectively. That means you need to envision ‘yourself’ clearly. Then, and only then, can you place it before others.

Since public relations shapes ‘perception’ (which covers a lot of ground — way beyond writing the better press release) — we have several suggestions on how to start building your own best perception of yourself. Later come the press releases and media interviews.

To help your journey towards being more effective at your public relations, we’ve prepared this list of Ten Deadly Sins of Positive PR Projection (what we see too many out there doing that are less than helpful). These things stand in your way of getting noticed – or they get you noticed, but in a less than positive way. In the end, they are a turn-off to all … media included.

  1. The ‘little voice’ stylist … They are shy and speak in a ’small’ and un-authoritative voice. They don’t project. They often don’t smile enough. They’re wonderful people and you like them a lot, but it’s not likely you’re going to follow them anywhere. (The cure? Look into Toastmasters or the many other organizations that help make you more effective in front of a group. You need to practice making an impression. It is a learned skill and very few come to it naturally.)
  2. The ‘critical’ stylist … You know them well. They are often publicly critical of others who are successful or in positions of authority. They would rather tear someone or something down than find the positives and focus on those. (Cure: Start complimenting others and their successes. Be supportive of their achievements publicly. And while you are at it, start copying what they are doing right).
  3. The ‘all about me’ stylist … They’re the ones who don’t know how to ask questions of their conversation-mates. If they do ask a question, it’s really only to open the door for them to tell you their answer to that same question. If you tested them on what you said first, they’d fail. (Cure: Get out of talking about yourself and get into setting the stage for others to talk. Pretend you are a media interviewer conducting an interview to learn more about the person you are interviewing. You’ll be amazed at the results)
  4. The ‘all talk’ stylist … They talk about what they are going to do and never do it. The photo shoot they never schedule, the class they never take, the places they never go. A real credibility loser. The result: you speak and people mentally say to themselves … ‘yeah, right. (Cure: Easy. Don’t do that. Do what you say you are going to do – duh!)
  5. The ‘overnight success’ stylist … Given new-found PR success or notoriety and they develop a false sense of importance and expectation. They start believing their own press. (Cure: Stand in the shoes of the industry’s ‘real’ greats. Do just one, or some of the things they’ve done. All of us in the industry would rather work with someone without attitude. Lose the attitude).
  6. The ’stay-at-home’ stylist … You can’t be interesting to your clients or editors if you never go somewhere different and do something unusual. People like to listen to the experiences of, and knowledge gained by, those who have been places they have not. (Cure: Get out of the neighborhood! Go to the collections in Europe or New York. Go to industry events in faraway places. Take classes with industry ‘greats’. Learn new stuff. You’ll have a heck of a lot more to talk about.
  7. The ‘lost in the sauce’ stylist … They blend in, work quietly, and don’t have much to say. They come and go without making a ripple. (Cure: See all of the cures above).
  8. The ‘Oh, I forgot my cards’ stylist … There’s nothing more important than networking to your PR progress and your pocketbook. Lightening often strikes when you least expect it. Your business cards are your link to someone being able to follow-up with you? Scrawled names and numbers on scrap paper don’t cut it. (Cure: DON’T LEAVE HOME WITH YOUR BUSINESS CARDS!)
  9. The ‘clueless to social media’ stylist … Social media is not just fun, it is serious communication. It is a way to reach and connect with your clients and your industry friends. Learn how to use it. It will grow your network, bring your clients closer to you, and put money in your pocket. (Cure: Start by digging around this blog for some of the helpful posts of the past. Follow the posts of these blogs: Problogger, Seth Godin, Skillfoo, Twitip (Twitter).
  10. The ‘let George do it’ stylist … One sure-fire way to gain more recognition in the industry and in your own neighborhood/community is by getting involved in something greater than yourself. It’s called volunteerism. (Cure: Get involved in charitable volunteer work. It’s great for PR but even better for you and your friends and fellow staffers. Make it more than the usual ‘ho-hum, humdrum’ one-time cut-a-thon. Find out what’s important to your clients; ask your staff what’s important to them.)

Well, there you have it. What not to do.

What Other Deadly Sins Did We Miss?

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PR at its Best: Simple and Old-Fashioned

personal_notecardToday was unusual.

We got a hand-written card in the mail.

It stood out in the pile like a sore thumb.  Hand-written, imagine that.  Different … That took time.

We went back into the house where we usually toss the mail on the kitchen table for opening later, but not today.  We stayed together and opened that piece.  We looked at the return address.  How ‘old-fashioned’.  We left all the other mail for later.

It was short, sweet, and thoughtful.  We commented on it and discussed that person and (I assume both) thought  to ourselves, ” Gee, they found this lovely card, sat down, thought of something original to write,  addressed it by hand, put a stamp on it, and took it to the post office.  Imagine that!  They spent time doing that for me.”

Good PR is Like That Because Editors are Real People

Short, sweet and personal.  No one likes to feel they’ve been ‘mass’ mailed.  Avoid what is known as ’spray and pray’.  Each piece of news you send out should have a brief cover note written to that editor or producer, helping them understand how your news applies to their reader or viewer.  This approach to spreading news is always well received.

Perhaps your news doesn’t get used this time.  That’s OK.  You made an impression and will be a welcome guest in their mail box in future.  It’s clear you know what they write about, and that they are not just another email address on your (ugh) ‘media list’.  Remember, editors and writers save stuff for when they can use it.  So pick your target publications or TV/Radio programs, and go after them repeatedly over time with good information, well written, useful, helpful and of course … with your own personal touch.

Speaking of Thank You

Remember that thank you card?  Do you have any idea how many people don’t say thank you to the writer, editor, or producer who made a story happen?

When something editorial happens for you, or your salon, spa or product, for heaven’s sake … don’t forget to say thank you.  Believe it or not, you will be in the minority.  Acknowledgement done in a ’special’ way, like that hand-written thank you note, separates you from the pack.  Time well spent.

Beyond a thank you note, what other editorial ‘thank you’ ideas have you used for someone who has gone the extra mile and done a story for you?

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Your Website is Your Best Long-Term PR-Part 2

SSAPart 2 of a 3 Part Series on Website Design

This guest post is by Bruce Rigney, owner of Rigney Graphics, a full-service marketing communication design and branding firm, established in 1982, and located in Old Pasadena, California. Sharon and I have had several occasions to work together with them on behalf of our clients. Rigney Graphics’ portfolio and more information about the company may be viewed on their website at www.rigneygraphics.com

Part 1 of this series is here.
 

Beyond Your Homepage – Which Way Did They Go?

After viewing your website’s homepage, your visitor has to decide where to go next. Given you’ve captured their interest, they now want to know more about you, your product, or your service. Your website design must guide them to:

  • Contact you.
  • Make an appointment.
  • Buy your product(s).
  • Give you their contact information.

If your homepage navigation is well designed, your visitor should easily find their next area of interest and click on it. That interest is definitely influenced by your website’s design and structure. The use of ‘clickable’ features to bring them directly to special offers or benefit helps your visitor swiftly find their way to your contact or purchase pages.

lanadil_web

The homepage for www.lanadil.com has a “See the Magic” clickable feature

on the right along with several clickable features along the bottom of the page

Short and to the Point

A web page is not a blog … term paper … or an essay, graded on how many words you can string together to make a short story long. You drive away visitors and stifle interest with long-winded company missions, credentials, product descriptions, and lengthy news stories about the company or product.

Too many websites look like strange hybrids of information source, advertisement, and brochure all wrapped up in a video game. Your visitor wants information, and they want it ‘NOW’. When you write for a web page, think “short attention span.” As with any advertising medium, you have 1/4 second to get their attention.

As an example, magazine articles are most often ’scanned’ … viewed rapidly by the reader as they glance at a headline, a photo, read a caption or sub-head, and perhaps an enlarged “pull quote” before speeding on to the next article or ad. Your web page should afford the same ‘instant’ messaging to its visitors.

Photo by redactie ikvader.nl

Photo by redactie ikvader.nl

What They Read … Is What They Get

When your visitor arrives at a page of your website and is confronted with a large gray mass of text, you have lost them. Break up blocks of text to help your visitors immediately locate their area of interest on the page.

  • Subheads: These are usually in a different color from the text and help to define the text below them. The visitor can use the subhead as a guide to locate that part of the text that is of interest and will not be put off by thinking that all the text on the page will have to be read to get the information needed.
  • Bulleted Items: A paragraph which contains a list (of benefits, uses, services offered, credentials, clients, etc.) should be broken apart into bulleted listings which enable the visitor to immediately locate relevant items. No longer a blur of text, information will ‘pop off the page’ for the visitor.
  • Secondary Navigation: When you have a list of services or types of products, you can employ a secondary navigation element to the page, often on the side of the page. This allows the visitor to narrow his or her search quickly and get right to what they are looking for. As an example, on a services page for a beauty salon, rather than display a long page with a continuous listing of services, the services page could have a general statement about the services of the salon. Then, on the side of the page, a boxed area or sidebar can list each of the individual services where the visitor can click on a listed item to link directly to data about the specific service.

clearcorrect_web

Our site design for www.clearcorrect.com displays secondary

navigation links on the right side of many of its pages.

Eliminate the Negative – Reverse Type

Avoid blocks of copy in reversed type. White on black or on any other color, is almost impossible to read in quantity on a website. A statement, headline or sub-headline is fine, but be brief, and of sufficient size to be immediately recognizable. If you want to hide or obscure your message, reverse the text.

Visitor Drop-Off – Lines Too Long

Two-thirds of the way across the line of type your visitor ‘drops off’ and loses track of what they are reading. Reader drop-off rate is relative to the length of the line of text and the size of the type. If you must run text the full width of the page, you must increase the type size to balance the length of the line.

Drop-off is a significant design factor for the new wider website standard for the larger monitors now in general use. Designers must artfully balance artwork, sidebars, navigation columns and the use of shorter columns to avoid a layout that requires the reader to scan a full length wider web page.

Call to Action

Your website should contain “calls to action”. Places where you ask your visitor to contact you, or purchase a product. These can be placed on the homepage, or on any pages where it is probable that the visitor might be receptive to being guided toward that action. These calls to action are usually presented as prominently displayed links which direct the visitor to “Buy Now” or “Call Today” or “Contact Us.”

Remember, your site was not only built to inspire confidence in your products or services, but as a lead-generating or income-generating tool to grow your business. Here’s a good example:

lilash_web

This page from www.lilash.com has five calls to action: A “Purchase Lilash” navigation bar

on the left, a “Shop Online” bar at the top right, and text links at the end of three of the paragraphs.

Who is Your Visitor? – Capture Their Contact Info.

Many salon/spa sites are not set up for online sales. The main goal is to generate enough interest to get a visitor to make an appointment or respond to an offer. If they’ve gotten to your website, they are already a ‘warm’ lead and you want to capture their contact information to re-contact them if you miss them this time around.

Ideally, what you want is your visitor’s name, address, phone number and email address, but most of us are reluctant to divulge all that on our first contact. Since our goal is to be able to continue to communicate to them, obtaining an email address only is a victory.

Once their contact info has been captured in any form, you are able to continue to stimulate their interest via email. Such items as:

  • News stories about your business
  • Customer successes or endorsements
  • New product and/or service offerings

All of these encourage a potential client to try your product or service and eventually become part of your ever-expanding clientele.

Get Help

If your website is not measuring up to expectations and generating solid leads to new clients, you need help from a professional design group with proven success in upgrading website effectiveness.

Part 3 of this series (coming up) addresses what to look for in the selection of a website design firm.

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A Twitter Guide for Salon Industry Professionals and Businesses – Part 2

twitter_shirt

Part 2 of a 3 part series

Followers & Following

In Part 1, Twitter ─ your ‘Aha’ Moment we looked at how to Twitter with a salon industry focus.  This part 2 is about who to follow and how to find the people you want to follow on Twitter.

Who Do You Follow?

Who you follow (and who you want to follow you) depends on why you are on Twitter in the first place.  Let’s begin by making sure we all understand the definitions of ‘following’ and ‘followers’.

What is Following?

Following someone on Twitter means getting their updates in your personal timeline.  If you follow someone, you’ll get their updates on your homepage when you log in.  You can see who gets your updates by looking on your followers page. You can make changes to who you follow on your following page.

What are Followers?

Followers are people who elect to receive other peoples’ Twitter updates. When you post an update to your Twitter account, your followers will get it on their home page and/or phone.  You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you, and unless an account is private, you can follow and un-follow whoever you want without them following back.  Mutual followers can send each other private messages (DMs), and you can choose to get notified by email when someone new follows you or sends you a private message.  Your follower/following stats are listed on your profile page.

Know Your Reasons for Twittering?

There are only three reasons I can think of to twitter:

  • Business

    • Make other salon professionals and beauty industry businesses aware of you/your business.
    • Speak directly to consumers/client prospects for personal or company branding.
    • Develop new client/customer outreach channel (service, promotion).
  • Recreation

    • Learn new things.
    • Have fun?
    • Learn more about social media.
  • Get Lots of Followers.

    • Not a lot of good reasons here.  Gathering thousands of followers is not that hard.  There are lots of people out there that care about that.  To do that will overwhelm you with tweets and you’ll be one of those people with the most marketing & social media ‘mavens’, IT people, and media/journalism/PR experts’ on the block.  That is the largest population of active Twitter users on the planet. The social media mavens are dying for you to follow them.  My advice? Don’t follow every Tom, Dick or Harry.  Remember your goals.  Volume doesn’t count, especially when you are targeting specific audiences.  For me it’s about quality.

Deciding your priorities determines your strategy for following.  You might even choose to have more than one Twitter identity.  (More on that later).

Building Salon Industry Followers

I’m assuming you want to find other salon industry people and businesses on Twitter and connect with them as you do on Facebook or LinkedIn.  Twitter is a great place to ‘fish around’ to meet other salon industry people and businesses you haven’t met yet.  You do that by being interesting & personal, with the goal of bringing people closer to you and giving you and your business a personality … your personality.  Your goal is to be who you are.  Hopefully, that is someone people enjoy hearing from :-) .

I say ‘ fish around’ because Twitter is where you can pique people’s curiousity (get a nibble) and be interesting enough for people to want to learn more about you (i.e. ‘landing’ them on to your website or other place of your choosing).

Twitter is not a great place for traditional marketing thinking.  It’s not about ads and selling and promoting your products and services in the usual ways.  People turn you off like a TV commercial.  They either stop following or stop reading your tweets.  You turn them on by being interesting & helpful, by engaging in conversation, and communicating on topics of interest to your followers.  It’s a very different form of outreach for most business and people to get used to.

Rule of thumb:  Spend 90-95% of your Twitter dialog on topics of interest to your followers.  You can use the other 5-10% for creative self-promotion.

Where do you find the followers you want?

  • You hunt for them one at a time.
  • You ’search’ for them on Twitter.
  • Yes, it is time-consuming.
  • Yes, it is worth it.

How to Hunt on Twitter

Geographically, salon and spa pros are all over the world so you probably want to cast a wide net.  Here is a process you can use:

  1. Search for someone (or a business) in the biz on Twitter.  If you already know someone you like and respect, start with them and jump ahead to step #3.
  2. Here are a few suggestions for searching:
    • Twitter Search – Finds keywords in all twitter names and tweets (e.g. keywords ’salon’, ’spa’, etc.)
    • Twibs – Finds keywords in ‘businesses’ on Twitter.  (e.g. ‘beauty’, ‘beauty pr’ [ahem], etc.)
    • Twellow – Finds categorized Twitter accounts
    • Twellowhood – Finds Twitter Accounts geographically (You have to be registered with Twellow to use it.)
  3. Click on the photos/avatars of their follows and followers one at a time and learn about them.
    • Read their tweets and bio information.
    • If there’s a link to their website, check it out.
  4. If you decide they look like someone you are interested in, click to follow them.
  5. They will be notified (by email) you are following them and probably will ‘check you out’ just as you just did  to decide if they want to follow you back.

Get Followers Using Traditional Marketing Tools

This part is much easier for traditionalists.  Let everyone in the industry around you, including your customers, know you are on Twitter and ask them to follow you:

  • Put “Follow me on Twitter” reminders on all your marketing material (website, emails, ads, flyers, signage, biz cards, etc).  Motivate them to do so. Here are some good Twitter graphics.
  • Email your contact list(s) a link to follow you on Twitter.  (Here’s the email service we use).
  • Include your Twitter URL in your email signature.
  • You know the rest.

Tweet for Your Salon Industry Business

The nature of your salon industry business determines your Twitter follow strategy.  Three options here:

  • You are a salon (spa) owner or independent contractor looking to grow your client roster.
  • You are a distributor looking to reach your customer’s clients to help pull your manufacturer’s products through and support your salon industry customers.
  • You are a salon industry manufacturer looking to brand your company and bring your products to the attention of the consumer.

The Primary Search Difference?  Geography.

  • Salon owners and independents seeking to grow their client base are going to be interested in finding followers within a defined geographic area.  The tools to locate ‘Tweeple’ (See the Twitter dictionary) geographically are listed above under ‘Hunting on Twitter’.
  • Distributors will be interested in a geographic area that matches their territory. That will include their industry customers (salon professionals).  They may also be interested in reaching consumers in their territory.  Here is where the two identities I mentioned might come in.  You can have a Twitter identity (e.g. AcmeBeautyPro) that serves the needs of your customers (for branding, customer service, and value awareness) and another (AcmeBeauty) for outreach to your customer’s customers to help promote your product lines to consumers (your salon customers will like that).
  • Manufacturers want to reach everyone at every level of the distribution chain.  Their customers (distributors and beauty stores); Their customer’s customers (salon owners and independent contractors); Their customer’s customer’s customer (consumers);  All with branding, promotional support for pull-through, and customer service Twitter activity.

No matter which category you fall into, the tools mentioned above in “Hunting on Twitter” will serve you in locating people on Twitter.  In many of the links in this post you will find myriad other Twitter tools to search with as well.

For all of you, you now have the magic formula (90/10) for being a good Twitizen.  Now, here’s some last minute advice in a recent post on Twitip.com on the proper way to pitch on Twitter.

Twitter For Recreation

Beyond its business applications, Twitter is simply a lot of fun.  It’s a great way to learn, get the hottest news, find interesting places to go on the web, discover things you would never think of yourself, meet new friends, and much more.  There’s no shortage of writings on the internet on the topic of Twitter so have fun playing, learning and growing.

Twitter Etiquette

You’ll definitely want to learn more about the etiquette of Twitter. That is easily done here, here and here.

Two Bits of Last Minute Advice

Don’t over follow – Only select 10-30 (at most) people at a time to follow.  Let a day go by while you watch many of them follow you back.  Continue to tweet things of interest to your prospective followers.

Don’t follow every Tom, Dick or Harry.  Remember your goals.  Volume doesn’t count. Quality matters.  You simply won’t believe how many people will want you to follow them once you start tweeting.

Excellent Twitter Resources

How to Attract and Influence People on Twitter

How to Get More Followers on Twitter

Mashable Twitter Guide Book

Twitter’s Own Guide

That’s it for Part 2

  • Part 1 – Getting Started on Twitter
  • Part 2 – Followers & Following
  • Part 3 – Twitter Tools Make Life with Twitter Easier (future post)

What Good Advice Do You Have for a Twitter Newbie?  Leave a  Comment.

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A Twitter Guide for Salon Industry Professionals and Businesses – Part 1

Aha-MomentPart 1 of a 3 part series

Twitter – Your ‘Aha!’ moment?

OK gang. Many of you have confessed to being Twitter ‘challenged’.  In our travels (and in the research) we’ve seen many who begin to twitter, then stop … their twitter names lying fallow with no tweets for months.  No surprise. Twitter itself has not been that helpful to newbies and most people many don’t have the motivation or time to scrounge for Twitter knowledge.  Yet, despite its own shortcomings of Spartan web interface and less than helpful user info, Twitter has exploded.  Both individuals and businesses are making good use of it.

I hear, “I really don’t ‘get’ Twitter”, “How do you follow all the messages from all those people?”, and “Who should I follow?”“How do I ensure I don’t miss tweets sent to me in that huge pile of tweets?” … the list goes on and on.  You would think something so Spartan and arcane wouldn’t catch on like it has, but it certainly has, and by the millions.  But, don’t take my word for it.

twitter_birdBite-Sized Twitter Help

We’re going to break down the topic of Twitter into a series several writings over the next few weeks. If you are a stylist or colorist, esthetician, nail technician, salon owner or independent contractor, distributor or manufacturer, hopefully, this series will help you ‘get’ Twitter, and begin putting it to work for you … and your business.

If you dig in just a bit here in part 1, you’ll have your ‘Aha!’ moment.  You’ll also be collecting valuable resources you can to use to get out there and use Twitter for the power it has to reach the people you want to reach, and you’ll know where to go to get answers and help to continue your journey.

Don’t miss the entire series. If you’re not subscribed here yet, please do so now.  I’ll wait :-)

Give a Man a Fish …

Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.

Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime “.

Along the way we will be linking you to the writings of many individuals. But, there are two individuals who have led the way for us to becoming  more knowledgeable about social media in general, and specifically in blogging and Twittering.

You couldn’t do better than a free subscription to those three blogs (No $ affiliation here).

There is a wealth of information clearly written by many other good minds and I don’t plan on paraphrasing anyone’s writings, but will link you directly to them.  Our job is to deal primarily with beauty industry specific information and recommendations.  If you have questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section of this post, or call us.

What is Twitter?

Wikipedia defines it thus, “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service enabling users to send and read messages known as tweets.  Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.  Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website or external applications.”

In short, Twitter handles three basic types of messages:

  • A ‘public’ message typed into the “What are you doing?” box at the top will be seen by all your ‘followers’.  (e.g. “Reading: Weird Frog Facts http://bit.ly/x13Kj“)
  • A ‘public reply or message’ to a specific follower (@twittername). Using the ‘@twittername’ at the beginning of your tweet ensures your tweet will most likely not be missed by the recipient.  (e.g. “@sharonandalex I’ll meet you in the hotel lobby – Tuesday at 11am”). Your reply message will also be seen by all your followers.
  • A ‘private reply’ or private message (‘DM twittername’ orD twittername’), is seen only by the follower you have sent it to.  (e.g. “DM twittername  My checking account number 777-4444-22″)

That’s what Twitter does …  I knew you could handle it.  :-)

Setting up your Twitter account

OK.  You’re ready.  Here are two tutorial posts for the mechanics of setting yourself up.

  1. From Twitip.com
  2. From AgentGenius.com

I’ll wait here till you get back.

Pretty straightforward.   But here are a few things to keep in mind while you’re setting up.

About Your Profile

Your ‘profile’ is an important ingredient of how people perceive you on Twitter. People want to know something about you to help them decide if they want to follow you or not.  What you put into your profile settings helps us discover you, and why you are on Twitter.

For the record, before I decide to follow someone I do two things:

  1. I scan their last 20 + tweets.  Are they interesting and/or helpful or are they time-wasters?  (“Enjoying a hamburger watching American Idol” or “Want 1,000 of followers in 10 days? Link here” – uh, thanks, I’ll pass)  (“Reading about NAHA winners: http://www.probeauty.org/naha/finalists/” – that’s more like it).
  2. Next I click their web reference link (here’s ours).  What is their motivation for being on Twitter?  What does it tell me about them?  Given those two pieces, I elect to either follow them or ignore them by not following them in return.  95% of the time they’ll stop following you in a day or two when you don’t follow back. More later on followers and following later.

When I get my email notification from Twitter that I have a new follower, follow the link and see their profile has: no photo, no bio info, is full of self-serving or silly tweets, or nothing but sales messages …  goodbye.   Many are automated social media guru follower ‘hunters’ chasing down potential prospects.  Good for them?  Not good for me.  I want people following (and who I follow) who are real. I want people who bring value to me (and I to them) and with whom I can have a ‘conversation’.

Your Profile Details

Your Twitter ‘User Name’

This is what people use to direct a message to you.  Your ‘handle’ is very important.  What does your Twitter name convey about you?  Keep in mind that Twitter is about people and companies.  Names are always a safest, clearest, and best bet.  You will be judged by the handle you choose.

  • ‘@getrichquick’ – You tell me :-)
  • ‘@sharonandalex’ – Gee, they sound like nice guys.
  • ‘@yourbizname’ – I know exactly who they are.

Important Note: Choose your name wisely.  Once selected, that’s it.  You are locked in.  Change the name?  Lose your followers.

Your Photo (Avatar)

The power of the avatar is large.  How do you want people to see you?  Are you friendly-looking?  What image of you does your picture convey?  Family man/woman?  Smiling wamth?  Silly sense of humor?  Goofball?  Unlike your name, you can always change your photo/avatar.

Your ‘One Line Bio’

A very short (160 characters) summary of who you are and what you are all about.  (Check out a few examples: @pozasalon, @beautyscientist, @BecciRenfro).

Your ‘More Info URL’ (web location)

A link to a website, Google Profile or someplace on the web where people can learn more about you.

Your location

This is info that helps people know where you are geographically.

Protect Your Tweets?

I understand caution on the web, but protecting your tweets is a roadblock where people cannot follow you until you have approved them.  Personally, I most often bypass folks who protect their tweets.  Too much extra effort and too little time.  I’d rather have folks follow me easily.  I always evaluate them before following them back anyway so why block possible opportunities.  I can always unfollow and/or block.  It’s always my option … always your choice.

Creating your own Twitter Background  (Not mandatory.)

This is a ‘nice to have’, not a must do. When you get to our Twitter page you see our own background creation, not one of the standard pages provided by Twitter. Like I said, not mandatory, but an opportunity for you to share even more about who you are and what you do with your Twitter visitor. If you have time to spare and want to create your own, try these web resources..

Who Should I Follow?

Our next post in this Twitter series will delve into this topic at greater length, but let’s start you out with some ‘quality’ follows right now.  Here is a ’starter’ list of some interesting people & businesses, a few generic , and an assortment of beauty industry related ‘tweeple’ who are good examples of good Twitter citizens.

Note: For the moment, don’t bother following every Tom, Dick, or Harry social media ‘expert’ just to build followers, unless all you care about is having lots of followers.  You won’t believe how many ‘experts’ wants your eyeballs and your money. When you’re through these first couple of posts and have spent time poking around Twitter on your own, you’ll know who’s who.

Non-Beauty Industry Follow Suggestions

  • @chrisbrogan  (Good social media info and more).
  • @problogger (Good social media info [Also has the best Twitter blog I know at www.twitip.com).
  • @copyblogger (Good writing info).
  • @microgeist (Interesting stuff, sorta techy, but not too).

Beauty Industry Follow Suggestions

  • @beautyjunkies
  • @beautyscientist
  • @BecciRenfro.
  • @becomegorgeous
  • @BSDiva
  • @dwightmiller
  • @everydayhair
  • @haironthebrain
  • @HairsHowMag
  • @hairstyle_tweet
  • @HelloBeauty
  • @imagosalon
  • @misssalon_usa
  • @modernsalon
  • @newbeauty
  • @pozasalon
  • @rebekah_king
  • @RobinGribbin
  • @salontoday,
  • @sharonandalex
  • @thebeautybrains

Tweetdeck Alert

Even though Twitter tools is part 3 in the series, I can't. leave you now without suggesting that you download and begin to use Tweetdeck to help manage your Twitter time. For me, it is one of the easiest way to work with Twitter. There are many other options to come later. You will need to download and install Adobe Air first though. Just follow the instructions on the Tweetdeck website. Well worth the effort.

Update to Post:Excellent Video from Darren Rouse

It’s 40 minutes and quite complete. Grab a drink and relax. Worth it.

That’s it for Part 1.

How Are You Using Twitter?  Share with Us in a Comment.

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Twitter Tips for Beginners [VIDEO]

Twitter Tips for Beginners [VIDEO]

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