This e-book will provide you with an overview of the most hands-on tools and technologies that any marketer and PR-specialist needs to know in this digital age. This is an introductory level e-book that will describe basic concepts and give concrete advices on doing PR. The content is divided for you into four sections. You don’t need to follow the suggested order of sections and can go straightly to the chapter you find the most crucial for your business right now.
Video making 01. Psychological aspects of effective PR video.
Social media 02. How to promote business in blogosphere. 03. How to promote business in Facebook.
Marketing and PR 04. Discover strengths of internal PR. 05. Effective event-management to boost your profits.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
1. An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR VU Brought to you by
Virtual University VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 1
Virtual University
2. Whats in this e-book for me? This e-book will provide you
with an overview of the most hands-on tools and technologies that
any marketer and PR-specialist needs to know in this digital age.
This is an introductory level e-book that will describe basic
concepts and give concrete advices on doing PR. The content is
divided for you into four sections. You dont need to follow the
suggested order of sections and can go straightly to the chapter
you find the most crucial for your business right now. Video making
social media 01. Psychological aspects of effective PR video. 02.
How to promote business in blogosphere. 03. How to promote business
in Facebook. Marketing and PR Content management 04. Discover
strengths of internal PR. 05. Effective event-management to boost
your profits. 06. Web content strategy. 07. Design cheap n chick
e-newsletters. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 2 Virtual
University
3. Video making 01. The elements of a good video. VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 3 Virtual University
4. video making 01. The elements of a good video Tolegen
Bekmukhamedov Today, there are billions of videos in the Internet.
Everyone watches them and this trend will not come to an end.
However everyone if bored will stop the video and better watch
another one. Everyone likes good video clips. However, not everyone
knows why people like them. On this question why I will give an
answer in this chapter. For marketers, knowing the answer is
crucial and very important, because nowadays one good video clip
can boost up sales dramatically. If you add online video to your
sites it would be a way for you to provide a better look at the
products. According to the etailing groups 13th Annual Mystery
Shopping Study, usage of online video on product pages among 100
leading retailers studied increased by 18 percentage points between
Q4 2009 and Q4 2010 (How Retailers Can Make Video Efforts More
Effective). According to Cisco, video currently accounts for 51
percent of internet trafficand its on its way to 90 percent by 2014
(Four Rules of Effective Video). South Korean rap star Psy's music
video Gangnam Style reached the unprecedented one billion views
mark on YouTube, some six months after first posting on July 15,
2012. For anyone who has seen the hook of the song and easily
mimicked dance, the fact that it grew to reach such a monumental
benchmark came as no surprise. According to the Associated Press,
the worth of Gangnam Styles success is $8.1 million in 2012 alone
not too shabby for a virtual unknown whose personal mantra for
success is "dress classy and dance cheesy." Psys video generated
Psy, Gangnam Style, 2012 VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 4
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5. video making 01. Rihanna, California King Bed, 2010
countless parodies and became a media sensation. We want such
effect as well! Now when you are persuaded that video is very
powerful and good video is the most powerful thing that you can put
up to the World Wide Web, I will tell you about the features of the
latter. There are very different types of videos. But no matter
whether its a video explanation of the product or a music video, if
these videos are successful that means that they have the following
elements in common: 1. Actions will let your audience feel energy.
2. Goods will attract eyes. 3. Colors will make a video enjoyable
and pleasant. 4. Music will deepen emotions. 5. Dramatic
Composition will deepen emotions even deeper. 6. Timing will not
make your audience sleep. 7. Good Looking Persons if they are
women, the video will attract the army of men, if they are men, the
video will attract the army of women. The concept of each element
that is given above is just to tell you the basics of the purpose
of using of them. Broadened explanations of each element and
answers to the question why we like them you will find in the
following couple of pages. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR
5 Virtual University
6. video making 01. Dramatic Composition Any good video should
have a story inside. Thats why we should learn the rules of drama.
We start from dramatic composition, because its the core element
that is connected with the other six ones. And if you structured
(that means wrote a scenario of) dramatic composition in the right
way that means you have already got the ideas for actions, goods,
colors, music, timing and beautiful creatures in your video. To
embrace a stranger as one's own. Shangri-La hotel chains 2011
commercial Drama is the world of ideas. Every scenario pushes
forward dozens ideas, while the basis of each film are hundreds
ideas. But in each case, there are some common fundamental ideas
that lie in the basis of everything. This applies to the drama as
well. And even if you dont want to produce a full-length movie, but
a nice short video instead, you should still know the fundamental
ideas of drama. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 6 Virtual
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7. video making 01. The drama should report something that
continuously increases audiences interest, so that in the final it
achieves peak. Then the audience is happy. The story that we tell
should have the power to energize an audience. In a well-told story
energy is born and transmitted to viewers. If youre lucky, in the
climax they forget about everything. But we cannot rely on luck or
intuition. We need the structure and the calculation of the energy
involved. The structure of a good drama makes the audience to ask
questions while we drop the answers. Each response contains a new
question. So, controlling the information, we can keep the
attention of viewers. A question an answer. Then comes a new
question and a new answer... Audiences like to get the whole
picture by pieces. Curiosity makes us all look how to open
something that is closed. There are some simple rules how to kindle
interest of the audience by telling a story: 1. Provide information
in small portions. 2. Each time tell less than the audience wants
to know. As long as you control the information you are in a master
position. 3. Withhold the most delicious pieces of information
until the end. 4. Make the characters fight for every piece of
information. The more work will be invested in the search for
information the more valuable they are to the audience. The main
elements of drama include strong characters, dramatic situation,
dramatic ups and downs, conflict, event, gap, barrier and detail.
All of them radiate energy around them. Our purpose is to take a
control over this energy. What is a dramatic situation? This is the
position of a hero, when the pressure of surrounding circumstances
is stronger than the possible nature of the character. Desperate
situation happens now and here. This is called the dramatic
situation. What are dramatic ups and downs? The Ancient Greeks
noticed amazing effect of empathy toward the man who, while
fighting for happiness, falls into misfortune. This motion from
happiness to misfortune, from despair to hope the Greeks called The
ups and downs. It is the key of the poetics of Aristotle. So far,
humanity has not invented anything better for the audience
excitement in the drama. Im sure you know what conflict is.
Conflict is a key word of drama. Drama is only concerned with the
actions of people towards each other, so the conflict is always at
the center of our attention. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge
PR 7 Virtual University
8. video making 01. Event is also a part of the story. It is a
really noticeable change of a situation. For a dramatic story to
look as if it develops naturally, though being induced by invisible
intentions of the author and the conflict of characters, it should
consist of a chain of events. In this case, the story grows in line
with our plan, but a motor of the conflict of the characters
untwists its energy. Moving from one event to another event, we can
create supreme tension in the story development. Gap is an abyss
between you and your goal. Gap makes you do an ethical choice and
opens the characters. Bridging the gap reinforces the belief in a
victory of the hero. Gap makes you do the effort. For instance,
reading the whole chapter of this book is the effort you should do
to bridge the gap and become a more enlightened marketing person.
Barrier is what the character has to overcome, achieving goals.
Barriers are inseparable from gaps. But the gap shows us the
obstacles to the hero, and the barrier gives the hero a chance to
win the audiences love by actions. What is a detail? Detail is a
part of the whole. Eye is a detail of the face. Lips, ears are all
these parts, as shown in the screen in close-ups. But the detail is
also a part for the whole. We show an arm or a leg, and the
audience understands what the character is doing or who he/she is.
Detail is an object: pen, eyeglass, revolver, keys, anything!
Millions of viewers inspect the quality and credibility of details.
It is useful to take a closer look. It is an overall and short
explanation. The subject of drama is much bigger. If you want to
become a real professional in the video market you should read a
lot more about drama. My goal is to give you a direction.
Hopefully, now your sight is directed to the right side and we can
discuss the elements. Actions and Goods Now, when you already have
some idea of drama, you can understand what kind of actions and
goods you want to have in your video to catch the audiences
attention. Your video should consist of the chain of actions that
ends up in the most unpredictable VU An ultimate guide to
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9. video making 01. way. It would guarantee that viewers would
watch the whole video. And if everything is well done you will get
the result you want. Nowadays, people are bored by the overflow of
information, so you should not show them boring actions. Try to
involve in the scenario of your video some interesting actions.
Something that not everybody can do or somewhere where the action
is not supposed to be done. Main idea is to show something that
people havent seen yet. Here your fantasy is your only limit. The
same principle is applied to the goods. Now, I hope you understand
what I meant by goods that will attract eyes. Goods are details,
small and big ones, parts of the whole, from which the whole is
constructed. They should be interesting to the viewer. Show
something unreal, combine simple things into something fresh. Your
viewer should feel the freshness and it would make them watch your
video till the end. Goods should look beautiful or exotic,
exciting, thrilling, or supernatural. The idea is to surprise your
viewer and once more, your imagination is your only limitation.
Colors and Music The World Is Just Awesome. Discovery Channels
commercial VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 9 Virtual
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10. video making 01. Colors and music of your video are much
simpler subjects than the previous ones. Colors should correspond
to the idea of your video. However, if you are already tired of the
concepts, there is one kind of color that will work effectively in
any situation. Color should be vivid, rich and juicy. And thats
all. Music is a very powerful thing in the video. Music directly
transmits to us some mood. It can be lyrical and the viewer will
feel pleasant sadness. If it is joyful, the viewer will feel
happiness. Important note: your music should match the mood of your
characters, or the overall directionality of your video. Both these
elements of a good video seem to be not very important in
comparison with the drama thing. However, if you would apply vivid
color and tuned music to the complete drama video, the effect of
drama will be multiplied by 100 times. Timing and Good Looking
Persons The simplest things are timing and GLP elements. Your video
should not have unreasoned seconds. Its desirable to have in your
videos some good-looking persons the sex of them should be dictated
by the sex of viewers that you want to attract. Timing is essential
and GLP is desirable. Summary To sum up, the list of the elements
of a good video ranked by priority look like this: 1. Drama 2.
Actions and Goods 3. Colors and Music 4. Timing and Good Looking
Persons You may think that if they are organized by priority, some
elements that listed in the bottom are not important. However, its
not true. The idea is that before you come to the last elements the
first ones should be already done. Every element is important.
Every element gives to your viewer some portion of inner joy. If
you have all elements in your video interconnected with each other,
your viewer will be fully satisfied and he or she will definitely
share it. Why do you think he or she did so? VU An ultimate guide
to cutting-edge PR 10 Virtual University
11. social media 02. How to drive traffic using social media.
03. How to promote business in Facebook. VU An ultimate guide to
cutting-edge PR 11 Virtual University
12. social media 02. How to promote business in blogosphere
Ainur Kaldygulova The most helpful and effective advertising is
blogging based on marketing. Blog is a tool which can be used as
the cheapest tool for searching target audience and potential
clients. What makes advertising in bogs so effective? Firstly
blogger should be a charismatic person who is able to write
advertising posts in an informal style. The main advantage which
makes advertising in blogs so effective is an opportunity to
receive a number of favorable comments. It means that after posting
your readers can leave their comments. Comments work because
visitors of a blog page pay attention to numerous comments, likes
and shares. It depends on the talent and creativity of a blogger.
Everyone can become a blogger, and no special education is needed.
What can you advertise in blogs? The answer is anything whether
these are books, tourism destinations or services. The main thing
is that the advertising material must be interesting to visitors of
a resource. But which blogs are appreciated by readers and what
attracts an audience? The main indicator of the quality of any blog
is a number of visitors and views, and a number of followers and
comments. It allows you to write on the hottest issues right away
and post information live. If a post results in people discussing
it, the success is guaranteed. The more visitors of the blog you
have, the more VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 12 Virtual
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13. social media 02. potential clients can work with you. The
main goal of any advertisement is to inform the largest number of
potential clients about your service. Now there is a huge variety
of blogs to read. It means that you have a huge number of
competitors. Bloggers analyze the latest news in business, economy,
politics and culture. They offer interesting topics for
discussions, write reviews on services and products. Therefore
visitors have problems with a choice of a good platform. They
choose platforms which offer not only advertising of services and
goods but informative ones, with a good analysis and research.
Visitors must trust a blog page: it should be reliable with facts
and statistics provided. Followers constitute that group of readers
who give the blog a sense of credibility. Besides, they are those
who will promote the blog and encourage others to read it.
Moreover, while writing in a blog you can know what needs of your
target audience are, what they talk about, why they complain. Its a
good tool for marketing research. It is an excellent and
inexpensive way of advancement. As was mentioned before, comments
under a blog post sometimes make on readers much bigger influence,
than advertising itself. Discussing unique service offered by you a
power unit for a computer or software commentators will provide the
most important thing, namely, the interest in your product or
service. Many visitors of blogs pass the content and go directly to
read comments, and only after that they read articles. And it
should be considered! So I finished why blogs are important in
business. Therefore we can start a topic how to manage personal or
corporate blogs. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 13 Virtual
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14. social media 02. How to manage blogs? First rule, bloggers
should try to avoid personal stories. You have to write for
potential clients, and leave your bad mood or complaints about your
family and friends to colleagues. You can add a little personal
touch in articles and news: comments personally from you about
goods and services, but not about your dreams, wishes or desires.
Remember that you must be friendly, open and kindly, but
professional. Second rule is not to touch upon too disputable
subjects. Disputes on which of the latest updates to install, or
how a new algorithm can affect a website appearance in search
engines are okay for discussions. The policy, minorities or
religion these subjects are better to lay aside, you can risk
losing an audience and potential clients. However, if you decide to
discuss one of those topics have in stock enough arguments to prove
the point of view to the opponents. Otherwise, visitors will never
come any more to your blog. The blog advances business, and not in
reverse. Over time you can forget what for you established a
website and start placing there references to third-party
resources, opinions on competing products and goods. You should
always remember that at the end of an article, a reader has to know
firmly that you sell or offer something. Otherwise, it will be
again possible to call it a personal blog. Don't give everything
for free. If youre an expert in any area, especially, in education
or information, you need to write a lot of useful articles and
provide a valuable advice to all audiences. But theres a problem in
here. You won't earn any money if you offer free information. Give
a part of it for free, so that get people interested and later pay
for fullfledged goods or service. A good example: Supermarkets
often allow tasting something, for example, tea or candies. They
give you not a block or a box, but a small slice. If it is
pleasant, buy the whole packing. Write in a business blog
regularly. To have as much clients as possible write daily. Its
mandatory to write regularly. Readers and potential buyers have to
get used to see new useful information on your blog every day. It
is clear, that spending some hours on writing articles is
difficult, but you can divide this task by days of the week: Monday
news, Tuesday new goods, Wednesday article, and so on. We finished
part about how to manage your blog and now we transfer to the topic
how to attract visitors. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 14
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15. social media 02. SEO, or search engine optimization The
majority of beginning authors writing for network magazines forget
about the most obvious and most effective method of free promotion
of a virtual project search engines. By the way, need for search
engine registration of a blog like Yandex and Rambler concerns even
owners of the resources placed on so demanded servers as a
LiveJournal. So what is SEO and do we really need it? According to
SEO specialist Murat Rahimov, SEO is a package of measures that
focuses on positions of a website. It is directed on raising the
website in results of delivery of search engines in response to
certain queries. Competent use of search optimization can strongly
affect the number of visits of your site. The matter is that,
statistically, the essential share of audience clicks only on links
in organic delivery of a search engine. These links also are the
main object of optimization. Today search optimization, or SEO is
one of the main tools of Internet advertising, the instrument which
allows increasing sales. The cost of transition to a site from
delivery of a search engine is 3-6 times cheaper, than transition
cost from a contextual advertising. If you as a business owner for
any reasons refuse from using SEO, youll receive less profit.
Catalogs, ratings. Certainly, the basic at the moment is the rating
of blogs provided by Yandex. It isn't necessary to refuse to count
visitors and attendance. Original idea. One of the most effective
methods of promoting the blog is to create an original idea and
attract an audience. Your blog should be different from others.
Posts should make visitors coming back to page again and again,
studying new materials and recommending the project to friends. It
is the main reason why a blogger must be ready to give interesting
information. He must be a professional in his field. Updates.
Bloggers must be ready to create content of a page and work on
articles. Visitors wont be interested in old information. It is
especially often recommended to update content daily: one-two
articles in a day. By the way, the frequency of updating depends on
blog subject. Attractive headlines. A headline defines whether a
visitor will want to read the source or pass away. Headlines of
posts must be attractive and interesting. They should make people
curious. But you shouldn't be fond of a creative component of
giving the headline is obliged to correspond to the content, in
other case a reader will be disappointed. VU An ultimate guide to
cutting-edge PR 15 Virtual University
16. social media 02. Key phrases. The tag of any record has to
contain the greatest possible quantity of keywords, it describes.
Then visitors will find a material through search in record. Lets
discuss how to choose blogging software. When we talk about blogs
we mean how to create them. There are different packages to choose
from. However, we should understand the advantages and
disadvantages of each package. Most of them are similar, but one
difference they have is their service hosts. They must be very
flexible and comfortable for using and working. So we have hosted
blogging at Wordpress. Its really easy for using and comfortable
for working. It is easy to learn and allows you to get started
within minutes. Wordpress is flexible and useful because it
supports different communities. It means that you can join to
different groups and inform about your blog. It provides solid
exporting functions, so if you want to change to a different
platform in the future, you can take your work with you. The next
topic is how to avoid mistakes when you work with social media and
blogs. Recommendations from Kazakhstani PR specialists Social
networks can't be moderated rigidly. People express any opinions,
including negative, and rigid moderation frequently does only
worse. It is impossible to predict in advance how a campaign will
work. The main thing is to react quickly, to speak openly and be
able to direct discussion. In certain cases the simple explanation
of an expert is enough. You shouldn't begin if you don't know what
specifically you want from work in a social network. It is
necessary to understand, why you do it and to realize that you
subscribe for a long time. Blogs need to be supported constantly
and you need to react instantly. Even if someone wrote a post at
two o'clock in the morning, it is very important to answer, even
with a delay. Dont start if you are not sure. On social networks it
is rather easy to promote services banking, insurance, tourism. Now
we can transfer to social media marketing, or SMM. SMM involves
optimizing social media campaigns on blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
What you need to know before implementing an SMM campaign. Firstly
you need to estimate your target audience. It is necessary to
understand who your audience is. There is no need to blow all
social media at once choose for a start only one VU An ultimate
guide to cutting-edge PR 16 Virtual University
17. social media 02. where your users prevail. Moreover you
need to earn your followers and readers. Dont wait that right from
the time you start a blog readers will visit your page. It takes
time. Number of followers is an indicator of brand users approval.
So earn it publish an interesting content, start an advertising
campaign, place a social network widget on a website. Readers will
stay with you if you have a good content and useful information.
Planning is mandatory. If you dont plan your time and ways how to
manage community you risk losing audience. Many companies come to
social networks with a set of ideas, enthusiasm and burning eyes.
However, they dont plan their campaign and after a week they are
not able to create the content for a page. Therefore it is
necessary to make the detailed, clear and feasible plan of activity
for half a year or one year and to adhere to it. Also you need to
be ready to stimulate communication. You need to show your audience
that their opinion is important for you. Therefore questions and
discussions are vital. One of the most important rules is network
etiquette. As a rule, users wait instant answers to the questions
so don't tighten with response. If business concerns negative
comments then speed has paramount value. The delay with an answer
increases conflict and harm of brand reputation. Moreover dont
annoy audience with unnecessary information. Don't try to give out
at once all the content available for you. Adhere to the rule: one
publication at a time. Advices of SMM specialists of different
companies Viveka Von Rosen, expert in LinkedIn: The company page in
LinkedIn is not only an excellent way for branding, but also a good
platform for the target market coverage. Using targeting settings,
you can broadcast messages to audiences from different branches
(medicine, the financial sphere or law). You can create a clickable
banner to induce users to visit your site, the target page or pages
in other social networks. Ric Dragon, CEO DragonSearch: The purpose
of any business is to reach desirable results. There are 5 main
approaches to social media which lead to different results: 1.
Brand service: monitor all channels and answer, when necessary. 2.
Community forming: reveal lawyers of a brand, fans who like yours
product/service, VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 17 Virtual
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18. social media 02. develop community. 3. Influence expansion:
you find influential people in your branch and make them by the
conductor of your ideas. 4. Management of reputation and project
development 5. Surge in interest: big creative campaign which will
draw attention to a brand for a certain quantity of time. Build
strategy, based on these five approaches. Marcus Sheridan, co-owner
of River Pools and Spas, founder of PoolSchool.us: If we can find
information which is necessary to us on a site, we will come back
there again and again. For this reason one of the best strategies
for the company to become the expert in the branch. Follow the
rule: they ask, we answer. In other words, if the consumer ever
asked a question connected with your field of activity, you have to
answer it on the site. Considering that potential clients have
thousands questions, lack of a content doesn't threaten you. Neal
Schaffer, president of Windmills Marketing: The blog is an ideal
place to declare itself as the expert of branch, to set a topic of
conversation on social networks and to attract users on a site.
Blogging is also a contribution to search optimization. Key to
successful blogging creation of a content which others would like
to share. Create the plan of publications on the basis of your
marketing plans and write posts of times a week on the declared
categories. Stephanie Sammons, founder and SEO Wired Advisor: For
success you have to use system approach. Coherence in marketing is
important. Developing system approach, you will get used to the
schedule and you will manage to reach efficiency. Your strategy
have to include the following components: time of creation and the
publication of a unique content for a month; time of participation
in discussions in social networks; time of building of community;
time for the analysis of that works and that it is necessary to
improve. If you draw up the plan and you will assume obligations,
you will achieve results. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR
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19. social media 03. How to promote business in Facebook Assel
Altaigulova Many people dont understand the true genius of
Facebook. They think and consider Facebook as a tool for having
fun, posting pictures and chatting with friends. But not many
people know that Facebook is a perfect place for creating an ideal
business platform, developing interesting marketing campaigns,
finding right target market and getting potential customers be
informed. According to DigitalBuzzBlog, more than 500 million
people in the world have Facebook accounts. It means that every
entrepreneur who understands the real value of Facebook and have
already started running business through Facebook deals with the
biggest audience in the world. Many entrepreneurs think that
running marketing campaigns on Facebook is just creating an account
and making friends. But this thought would be wrong because running
business on Facebook requires deep research, smart strategy and
effective operations management. Get the audience Fans! The more
people like your page in Facebook the more possibilities it has to
be noticed. Dont forget that you may have 500 fans and every 500 of
your fans have more than 100 friends, and when 500 of them put like
to your page, their 100 friends see that, some of them get
interested and some of them also put like on that. Leads! Dont
forget that since that 500 people liked your page they
automatically become leads. You or a company marketer send them
information about the company, tell where your company is located
and what kind of products your company offers. Customers! Just
small percentage of leads described above might be interested by
your page and become a potential customer. VU An ultimate guide to
cutting-edge PR 19 Virtual University
20. social media 03. TARGET AUDIENCE Segmentation If you are
recruiting company selling snowboards it is unlikely that
housewives or people over 50 will be interested by your page.
Sometimes companies make same mistakes by trying to attract
attention of inappropriate segments. It leads to waste of time and
ineffective usage of money. Gender Education Occupation Location
Age Interests According to Hubspot.com, in process of defining the
target market you should consider several aspects. The good thing
about Facebook is that you can learn about your audience: who likes
your page and divide them into different segments. Choose the right
time It is always important to choose the right time to run an ad
on your Facebook page. According to the e-book How to attract
customers with Facebook, the best time to run an ad are weekends.
In any case this information should be monitored and researched.
Appropriate time can be dependant on things such as country,
culture and mentality where you are going to promote your business.
In Kazakhstan appropriate time would be Monday morning, when people
come to their work places, check their mailboxes, Facebook accounts
and read news. As usual, at this time of the day they are open for
different information. Identify the problem and give your customer
what he/she wants By understanding the decision process of your
customer and his needs you can find out about the character, needs
and wants of your customer. It will give an opportunity to create a
right advertisement and positioning of your product. Need
Recognition Research Evaluation of Alternatives According to
Hubspot.com, every organization should promote itself as an
alternative solution of a customers problem. In order to do that,
organization should identify customers needs and wants.
Organizations should do a research and find the best way of
approaching the customer and offer the best way of solving his
problem. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 20 Virtual
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21. social media 03. Listed below are several questions that
organization should think about: What are the problems customers
are trying to solve? What kind of alternatives are they looking
for? Why is your product better than the product of competitors?
After getting an answer to these questions organization will truly
understand the system. Moreover, organizations should create a
credible source to make potential customers trust them. To do so,
an organization should place full information about them, starting
from history, social responsibility principles and how to order a
product and pay for it. Implementation According to
Socialmaximizer.com, posting interesting marketing content is the
best way of developing your business through Facebook. Hubspot.com
also supports this idea and claims that all the marketing
activities have to have a calls-to-action. Enterpreneur.com claims
that information on a Facebook page should be constantly renewed.
Organizations always should post interesting staff that can catch
the attention of potential customers. It might be unrelated to
business but the main trick here is to show potential customers
that you care about them and are always there for them with good
advices and actions. What to post? Publish external and industry
news. Post about what is happening on the market, create tests
between two products and compare pros and cons, give advices. It
will give the feeling that you care about your customers and wish
them the best. Provide new product information. Daily or weekly
organizations should post the information about new product or
special offer. Promote events: make posts and notifications about
coming events. For example, if you work as a distributor of Apple
products you can post the news about coming presentation of iPad
mini. Blogs and communication with fans. Organizations often create
something from the entertainment section, posting funny videos or
pictures, and encourage their friends and VU An ultimate guide to
cutting-edge PR 21 Virtual University
22. social media 03. fans to discuss the given topic. Usually,
it helps develop the relationships between buyer and seller and
improve level of trust of customers towards the supplier. So after
defining the audience and understanding the division of your
segments you can automatically send mails, messages, bulletins and
just announcements about coming events or special offers.
Advertisement on Facebook Now you got a well-organized Facebook
page. So now is the time to think about advertisements. There are
two effective ways of advertising on Facebook. Sponsored stories.
What is good about sponsored stories is that it gives you
opportunity to reach friends of your friends who liked this story.
So, immediately it gives a great chance to reach the audience who
didnt know about you before. If your sponsored story is catchy and
have interesting content it can bring you additional followers.
Ads. Advertisements are also good tool in attracting audience
attention. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 22 Virtual
University
23. social media 03. Facebook Ad Manager Glossary Ad Manager
Glossary gives you data about how many people clicked to visit your
page, at what time and day. Overall, it helps you to count what
percentage of your target market you have reached. Here are the
terms that help entrepreneurs to measure their business on
Facebook. Campaign reach How many people have seen your ad.
Frequency How many times each person saw your ad or sponsored story
in their newsfeed or on the sidebar of their profile. Social reach
How many friends of your fans have seen a sponsored story. Clicks
The number of people clicked on your ad that went to your page,
external page, or event. Actions This is the number of actions from
people within 24 hours after seeing your ad. Control post click
operation Try to reduce confusion Always try to make your page
maximally understandable for your friend or reader. Take care about
the pages that your reader land in after clicking at your ad.
Remember that users get annoyed quickly if they see something is
wrong and confusing and hurry to leave the page. In order to avoid
this situation, create everything simple and organized. Customer
service After creating an attractive fan page and writing fancy
text about the service, care about providing really good service.
Remember that audience will be critical to new products, so if they
notice even a minor problem they better switch to another service
provider. Control the whole operation: Do you have enough
specialists to answer incoming questions? Are they really informed
about products? Are they kind and pleasant with a potential
customer? Be open to new findings Five years ago we could not
imagine that internet and social networking will take such a big
role in education, entertainment and business. Tendencies are
changing dynamically, always step together with time and new
tendencies. Think about new entertainment tools on your page, open
something that your competitors wouldnt manage to create. VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 23 Virtual University
24. marketing & PR 04. Discover strength of internal PR.
05. Effective event-management to boost your profits. VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 24 Virtual University
25. marketing & PR 04. Discover strength of internal PR
Azamat Zeinolla Internal PR is the function responsible for
effective communication among employees within an organization.
Effective internal PR is as important as your external PR because
it promotes motivation and loyalty of employees, staff cohesion,
productivity, and prevents the outflow of skilled personnel.
Internal PR provides a comfortable communicative environment at all
levels of corporate hierarchy. It bonds the organization together.
The company's employees are its main customers. They represent the
organization and create a public opinion about the organization.
Today, its not necessary to convince anyone that the chief value of
business is the company's staff. According to British marketing
company MORI, in 2003 67% of executives believed that the main
competitive advantage of the company is its staff. And most
managers recognize the need to build the best, mutually beneficial
and respectful relationship with the companys main asset. Smart
employers realize that in the environment where employees are able
to move from one employer to another with relative ease, it is in
the companys best interest to retain the smarter and more
productive employees. Companies do all their best to communicate
with employees, inform, influence and enter into some sort of
psychological contract with them. You will never convince anyone
about the competence, viability and usefulness of your
organization, until it doesnt trust the majority of its employees.
This is the main conclusion, which should make any organization
aiming at success. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 25
Virtual University
26. marketing & PR 04. Anyway, today's worker is not a
"mercenary force." The effectiveness of the modern company depends
on the cohesion of staff, trust and interest between management and
staff. Investing in external PR and without paying attention to
internal communications is waste of money. Managements attempts to
impose corporate views onto employees, as a rule, are not
successful. Eventually they even cause resistance and rejection of
employees who perform, in this case, only the role of mechanical
performers. It is proved that the loss of the companies from
disloyal attitude of the staff is on average three times higher
than that of competitors' activities and hostile media. Conducting
research in several large organizations, the American consultant
David Kirk found that 91% of the factors shaping the loyalty of
employees and 99.5% of the factors that influence job satisfaction
are directly related to effective communication. Thus, the internal
public relations is a part of personnel management policies,
designed to increase the loyalty and motivation of employees and to
improve team spirit. Internal PR uses the same mechanisms as the
external PR. There are, however, a few special features. As the
audience of the internal PR is employees, whose lives and
well-being depend significantly on the success of the company,
their need for information is much higher than of any outside
group. Technology of "silence," "permutation of emphasis" and
"shift the focus of attention," taken in the external PR, are
ungrateful techniques. The lack of official information is sure to
be replaced by rumors and gossip, which can lead to a serious
crisis. Objectives and instruments of internal PR Really working
internal PR is a complex activity where a variety of tools can be
used. The main thing here is to meet the goals that your company
wants to achieve by building a system of relationships with its
domestic audience. Internal PR aims to enhance the loyalty and
motivation of staff, and thus its effectiveness. In addition, this
brings elaboration of a positive image of the company in the eyes
of employees affected by the companys image in the outside world,
as staff is one of the channels for transmitting information. The
main goals of internal PR are: The alignment of corporate
communications; Establishing and strengthening the corporate
culture; Strengthening of staff loyalty. VU An ultimate guide to
cutting-edge PR 26 Virtual University
27. marketing & PR 04. The main objectives of this
initiative include: Creating a common information space; Mutual
understanding; Feedback from the staff of the company;
Demonstration of the openness of management; Clarification of
corporate policy in the field of training and staff development;
Establishing uniform standards of conduct in accordance with the
corporate code of ethics and the company. Over the years there have
evolved various ways of communicating internally. It all started
with informal and formal one-to-one and one-to-many meetings, where
the boss would communicate with his employees in a strict top-down
fashion. Of course, the employees would then informally discuss
with each other their views and opinions, out of earshot of the
boss. Communication then evolved to include printed materials for
formal, top-down message transmission newsletters, annual reports,
memos, and so on. The advent of digital technology, particularly
the internet, introduced e-mail to the business setting. That was
the starting point when the nature of communication radically
changed. No longer did communication take a little while to
produce, allowing for a period of reflection and consideration. Now
anyone could bang off an email at a moments notice, often without
consideration of the impact of the message. Those who were
unskilled and untrained in the art and impact of communication
suddenly found themselves causing more angst than they realized.
Training took place amongst senior managers in the more enlightened
organizations to show them the effects of poor communication
habits. Today, digital technology has evolved to the point where
not only can employees and employers freely e-mail each other,
forward messages without any editing (showing the whole
conversational trail), and forward those messages outside of the
corporate walls, but also employees and employers can use these
emails to bring about grievance procedures, litigation and
dismissal. Equally, employers now find themselves at the mercy of
employees who may e-mail VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 27
Virtual University
28. marketing & PR 04. each other with libelous comments
about competitors or fellow employees. Deleting these e-mails from
personal inboxes has proven to be no defense against litigation and
investigation by external regulators and legal agencies. Nowadays
there are lots of techniques and tools to communicate, both up/down
and side-to-side within an organization: One-on-one meetings,
staff/team meetings Emails, voice mails Video broadcasts Web-site,
Social Media, Intranets Audio files Staff-to-staff news letters,
corporate newsletters, posters, leaflets, reports, surveys...
orporate events, sport events, seminars, corporate training,
adaptive training, professional competitions Where to start? If we
say that all activities of the company's employees should be
directed to gain extra profit, you need to engage actively with PR.
How can a PR specialist earn (or save) your money? Very simply by
improving the efficiency of your staff, reducing staff turnover and
implementing a unified corporate business standards. Corporate
culture, in this case, understands the company's goals, common to
all employees, and promotes the willingness to work towards its
adoption in ways of doing business. Thus, PR specialist should
start his work with the formation and consolidation of the
corporate culture and common standards of behavior. Internal PR
activity should start with monitoring the relationship of employees
to the VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 28 Virtual
University
29. marketing & PR 04. company policy, its values and
corporate standards. It is necessary to identify the basic values
that exist in the company's corporate culture and to compare them
with the perfect picture. Identify existing standards and values
prevailing in the corporate culture. For that you need description
of the ideal corporate culture that meets your business objectives
and plans for its development. Then try to identify any
contradictions and form descriptions of missing rules and/or
standards. So, bridging the gap between the ideal model and rules
and standards existing in reality is a ground for specialists in
internal PR. When to start? In order to understand it, answer
yourself a few questions. Does your staff know the company's
strategy and future plans for its development? Do your employees
know what is done in the next department? Have you conducted
diagnosis of staffs attitude to the policy of the company and its
management in the last year? Was your last corporate event (if any)
successful? Is the staff turnover low in your company? Does your
company trust the rumors and they do not have a noticeable impact
on the work of the employees? If you answered "no" to most of the
questions, it's time for your organization to implement internal
PR. The basic steps Here is a sample list of activities carried out
in the framework of the internal PR. VU An ultimate guide to
cutting-edge PR 29 Virtual University
30. marketing & PR 04. STEP ONE Diagnostic Diagnose the
corporate culture and internal communications. Define basic values
and standards that exist in the company. Compare them with the
standards and values that are necessary to achieve the business
goals of the organization. Fill the gap in the communication flow.
STEP TWO Unified info space formation Create/improve corporate
media (magazine, hall of Fame, bulletin boards, posters, letters,
greetings, electronic newsletters, website, Intranet, e-mailing,
radio, points, etc.). Identify hot topics. Practice shows that
employees are most interested in the following: wages and social
benefits, training opportunities and career development,
organizational changes in the company, resignations and
appointments, corporate events, the companys development plans.
Involve the staff in the corporate media. Work on gaps in the
communication flow. Get feedback from employees. STEP THREE
Corporate rules and standards creation Work on contradictions and
gaps between real and ideal corporate values. Describe the companys
objectives and rules in the form of corporate codes. Develop an
official copy of the Corporate Code. Bring to life the rules of the
code. Use the code for adaptation of new employees, and training of
the current staff. Critical point: Code execution by
top-management. Work systematically on new communication channels.
Get feedback. Deliver companys management speeches to employees. VU
An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 30 Virtual University
31. marketing & PR 04. STEP FOUR Reinforce staff loyalty
STEP FIVE Monitoring & new task development Monitor corporate
culture and relationships within the team. Get feedback. Evaluate
and compare the actions undertaken with the tasks. Develop
objectives for the new cycle. Work to promote staff development and
social protection. Adaptive learning. Implement the system of
professional development. Implement internship between divisions
(branches). Organization of training (exchanges) between the
branches is highly efficient for transferring successful experience
and create strong community among employees. Organize corporate
events (holidays, corporate competition, sport events, etc.).
Develop corporate media. Get feedback. As mentioned above, the
sequence and significance of the above actions is determined in
accordance to the real problems faced by a company at every stage
of its development, and may include both of the above mentioned,
and other activities in the field of personnel management and
public relations. It is important to remember, communication with
your employees must be ongoing. And this is the key to success of
your business. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 31 Virtual
University
32. marketing & PR 05. Effective event-management to boost
your profits For many of us preparing for an event is an awful
headache. All these plans, to do lists, guest lists, budget
planning, etc. is really exhausting. But what if I say that it can
be easy, fast and absolutely not boring? Anybody who has faced the
event-management problem understands that it is the laborious
process. Frequently, mistakes that we did are very stupid. Its very
easy to avoid these typical mistakes. All you need is to follow few
advises, which will help you step by step manage your event. Types
Of course the most important part of preparing for your future
event is choosing the type of it. Because it is the main point
which will influence the whole preparing process. The guest list,
the place, the content: everything depends on it. There are many
different types, which you can use: business event, PR event,
social event, sporting event, cultural event, etc. Be careful when
you are choosing the type. You should pay attention to two points:
1. What is your purpose? 2. Which results do you want to achieve
with this event? On the assumption of these two points, choose the
most useful type for you. For example, you need to collect money
for a project. For this you can use a cultural event like charity
performance. But of course, it is a classical way to do it. Be
creative and invent new ways! Maybe, you will hold an auction and
put children pictures or some handicraft up for it. Make your event
remarkable. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 32 Virtual
University
33. marketing & PR 05. Guests Now, you should decide who
your potential customer is. Find out the exact group of people who
is interested in the theme of your event. Take into account six
main points, which you should pay attention to: 1. Age 2. Gender 3.
Religion 4. Social status 5. Political views 6. Interests Topic of
your event must be attractable for all of them. For example, you
wont invite children to a political event, as you cant invite old
grannies to a sport one. However, sometimes an offbeat approach to
working out a guest list can play into your hand. Even the friendly
football match between grannies within the scope of a charity event
for the nursing homes can be a brilliant idea. But be very careful,
because here an overly original way can be a failing way. Also do
not forget about media. Invite some representative from newspapers,
magazines or television. Place and Time Next important step is to
find and prepare a place for your event and choose the best time
for it. Best choice of these two properties will bring you the 40%
of success in your holding your event. First of all, think about
the place. As I have previously mentioned, everything depends on
the type of your event. If it is a sport event you should be
looking for a stadium, sports ground or just an open air area. Also
take into account your guests needs. Place for your event VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 33 Virtual University
34. marketing & PR 05. should seat necessary amount of
people you want to invite. Here must be the restrooms and other
premises which your guests will need. If your event involves some
performance, find a place with a stage. Moreover, you should
prepare it for the performance. Find equipment: illumination,
microphones, acoustic systems, amplifiers and so on. Always make a
sound check before the event to avoid any technical problems. Be
sure that people can easily reach this place by public transport or
taxi. If this place is hard to find, make for your guests a special
brochures with a route plan. Next step is to choose the time. The
time should be comfortable not only for coordinators but mostly for
the audience. Never start the event early in the morning or too
late at night. If it is an open-air event do not forget to check a
weather forecast: even the light rain can destroy all your plans.
Try not to hold an event at the same time with other big event.
This way you can lose your guests and as a result your event will
fail. Promotion Now, when you already decided what is the type of
your event, which people you want to attract to it, when and where
it will be, and which is the content of your future event; you must
advertise your event. A classical way of doing it is sending e-mail
messages or personal invitation cards to all your guests. But this
way is not for us. We need to attract as much amount of people as
possible; but not only the people from the guest list. To achieve
this goal, you should experience how the information about your
event can easily reach your prospective audience. So, find a place
where they can fast learn everything about your event. VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 34 Virtual University
35. marketing & PR 05. Of course, there are many different
places and ways. However, the most beneficial for you is the use of
social networks. Why? Because nowadays its the biggest information
source for people. In the social networks like Facebook, My Space,
Twitter or any else there are many tools which you can use for
event promotion. Facebook is the most opportune in this way. Here
you can create a group which will cover your event. Add all the
necessary information about your event. Except a short info piece
about time, place and content of your event, you can also add
materials about your event subject area, its history and other
additional information. It can be everything you wish: video
materials, articles, even the audio can be used. Add here the
people, whom you want to see on your event. The biggest advantage
of this type of advertising is that people whom you already added
into your group can invite their friends or acquaintances who can
be interested in your event. This way you can increase the number
of guests by three or even four times. Another advantage is an
opportunity to moderate your group. You can find interesting points
about how to make your event more interesting and remarkable for
the audience. Just read what they write in your group: comments and
likes will help you. But be sure that youve prepared it early
enough. Make it two or three month before the exact event. It
shouldnt be a spontaneous chaotic heap of information which you
post in the group. Content One of the most important parts of your
event is the content. Remember that it should be: 1.Interesting
2.Informative 3.Demonstrable VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge
PR 35 Virtual University
36. marketing & PR 05. Your audience expects from your
event a lot of information. For example, you are presenting your
product. Give your future customers all what they need:
description, characteristics, price, quality, places where they can
find and buy it. Make a slide show or video record to represent
your product for an audience. It is easier to explain and tell
about your product and at the same time show it. Also it will be
good to make some banners with pictures of your product and name
and logo of your company. Do not forget about entertainment. It
should not be a bare listing of facts and information. You can make
a little break for tea or include into your event some performances
like dances or songs. It can have a small lottery or competition.
Of course it all depends on your goals and audiences. Holding the
Event Always be ready to start on time. If your event should start
at 3 p.m. start it at this exact time. Of course you can wait for
the guests who will be late, but not for a long time. Try to follow
the scenario or the plan of your event. Just make a minute by
minute plan, where you write down every component of your event. Do
not forget to include here all the speakers, performances,
presentations or any other thing you want to show during your
event. Choose the best host, because a professional host can
improve your event. Sometimes it happens that speakers take too
much time or a performance delays for some technical reasons. In
these situations an experienced presenter can save the situation.
Do not forget about snacks and drinks. It can bring you a huge
advantage. Of course, it is very hard to please the tastes of your
guests, but at least the simplest snacks should be there. The same
deals with drinks. Water should be placed on each table. Take into
consideration the event type and place: if it is a sport event, or
an open-air event in a sunny day you need to prepare enough fresh
water. Prepare booklets with all important information and
contacts. It reminds your guests about everything they saw or hears
during your event. So, if you follow these easy but important
rules, your event will be organized on the highest level. Just do
not forget, that the earnest of success is a good plan, creativity
and hard work. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 36 Virtual
University
37. Content management 06. Web content strategy. 07. Design
cheap n chick e-newsletters. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge
PR 37 Virtual University
38. content management 06. Web content strategy Regina
Akhmetova The single most important thing most websites can offer
to their users is content that those users will find valuable.
Websites achieve their business objectives through web contents and
functions. There are four main business objectives of the websites.
Companies may change their websites business objectives over time.
1. General awareness and publicity is perhaps the most popular
business objective of websites. Companies can enhance their
reputation and attractiveness by promoting companys information,
logos, images, products, and services on the websites. 2. Customer
service is another important business objective of websites. Web
technologies allow customers to contact companies by different
tools: online forms, chats, and frequently asked questions (FAQ).
3. Online information exchange is the third business objective of
websites. Online information exchange is fast, accurate and less
costly. Many companies use websites for better communication with
their suppliers and customers. 4. Online sales is the fourth
business objective of a website. Online stores allow customers to
find the products, add them, choose payment and shipping
information, and receive the product. Companies benet from online
shopping by increasing sales, awareness, better targeting the
customers, and decreasing the costs. Organizations are just now
beginning to understand that. Along with the products and services
that they offer, one of their core products is information. Web
contents refer to all the digital subject matter presented on a
website, including text, images, audio, and video, and other
content tactics. Content Tactics Blog Blog brings your brand to
life. It can entertain and inspire readers in an easy way. VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 38 Virtual University
39. content management 06. Blogs with RSS-options and comments
can be a useful CEO tool. They help to establish customer relations
with your audience. It is better to blog every day, so your readers
will not forget you, also participate in other blogs. Increase
involvement of your audience, encourage conversations, answer all
comments, even the negative ones. This is an opportunity for
developing good customer relations. E-newsletter A permission-based
means of regular communication with current and future customers,
usually distributed monthly or weekly. Available electronically,
via text-based or HTML pages, they can include complete articles or
brief descriptions with links to articles on your Website. You
should always have a permission of you client, that he or she wants
to receive your e-newsletter. ou can use e-newsletter in order to
promote your other website tools: webinars, Y e-books, white
papers, blog, etc. Read more in the next chapter. White Paper White
papers are usually 8-12 pages long to demonstrate leadership of
your company. They are usually written on technical issues and can
be also called: conference paper, research report, or technical
report. Positions a company as a thought-leader and can generate
leads. Can be in a print form, PDF- or digital magazine formats.
Article A flexible tool that can have different formats, your
article can address issues, trends, discussions, and topics that
are interesting to your audience. You can also use your articles in
print media and on your own website. It is better to have series of
articles and divide them by different topics. Your article should
be interesting to a reader. It also should contain valuable or new
information. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 39 Virtual
University
40. content management 06. eBook An article in any digital
reading format, usually 10-50 pages long, that gives profound
content that is informative, visually attractive, reader-friendly,
entertaining, and easy to read. Use visual tools thoughtfully: use
of bullets, graphs, pictures, etc. Have strong call for action, how
the readers will receive your e-book, you can also ask client to
fill in the form for your database. Case study This is a successful
story based on real-life events about the company, brand, or
person, takes usually 1-2 pages. It can build credibility and
trust. You can use it also in press kits, sales materials, etc. It
should have: challenge, solution, results, and conclusion Use
direct quotes to reinforce the story, and statistics when
describing the results. Testimonials Trustworthy source,
recommendation of your clients, it can help potential clients to
overcome purchasing hesitation and make a decision. Should be
specific about kind of product or service, its quality, etc. Always
ask you clients for testimonials after completing the deal. You can
also combine this tool with a questionnaire for your customer.
Webinar/Webcas Webinars make an excellent call-to-action or follow
up offer to other forms of content, such as e-books, white papers,
e-newsletters. You benefit twice: first, from the live event, then
from the people who download the archived event. You should promote
your webinar through additional tools, as your website, blog,
e-newsletters, SMM (social media marketing) channels to make it
successful. Video Sites like YouTube and Vimeo make uploading and
sharing the Video easy and fun. You can use SMM tools for
interacting with your audience. You can use inexpensive editing
tools like iMovie or Final Cut to make your video professional
looking. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 40 Virtual
University
41. content management 06. Consider series of video, use
playlists that will increase interest and help your content go
viral. Online Press Release Nowadays press releases can be written
not for press only. With online press releases you can reach your
buyers directly. By using the release services effectively, you can
appeal directly to your buyers, and have more widespread
distribution. Dont write only about big news, you should always
have interesting reason to communicate with your customers. Have
SMM tags so that your press releases will be adapted to your
customers to respond to your press releases faster. Social
Community site This is a place where your customers can communicate
with you, but mostly with each other. You can have a forum, and
other forms of content, created by the users themselves, so that
they could share their stories, comments, photos, and videos. Think
about reward system for most active participants. Moderation is
very important: establish a person who will answer the questions,
moderate the website, and also protect the website from negative
comments and SPAM. ou can use your Community site to promote the
other tools and activities. Y Digital Magazine Electronic form of
the magazine to increase web presence of your content, can be in
PDF format and have a print version. The main difference from other
tools: it should be published periodically, monthly or quarterly.
Consider adding other interactive tools, as video or audio podcasts
to your digital magazine content. On web site www.nxtbookmedia.com
you can find different digital magazines all over the world. VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 41 Virtual University
42. content management 06. Executive Roundtable This is a tool
that can be used by an industry leader or those who plan to become
a leader. A gathering of executives who are the experts in their
industry, who share their ideas, concepts, give presentations and
interact with other participants. Consider interesting executives,
whose personalities are appealing to people. Ask roundtable to
participate in your website, through guest blog, column in your
digital magazine, or video presentation. se the results of
Executive roundtable in other interactive tools: blog, article,
online U press release, SMM or an e-book. Virtual Trade show
Internet-based virtual trade assembles leaders, drive ideas,
generate revenue, improve communications with potential customers.
To use as content consider a series of seminars, presentations,
webinars than can be launched. So, the content is always about what
the reader needs or wants, not about the company itself. The web
content starts with giving something valuable to your customers,
that cant be just your products and services. VU An ultimate guide
to cutting-edge PR 42 Virtual University
43. content management 07. Design cheap n chick e-newsletters
Yulia An U.S. Internet users prefer getting promotional messages by
e-mail. Among 1,500 U.S. online consumers surveyed by ExactTarget
77% say their preferred channel for promotional materials is
e-mail. This gives great opportunities to companys e-newsletters as
tools for corporate promotion. Beyond that e-newsletters take the
third place as the most trustworthy and the least annoying media
after the press and TV, while having unquestionable benefits
against the first two mediums. First, it may cost you almost
nothing, since some e-mail marketing services allow sending out
e-mails to up to 2,000 subscribers for free. And second, you just
avoid enormous media and advertising clutter and go with your offer
straightly to your consumers mailbox. Remember: consumers receiving
e-newsletters spend 83% more, order 28% more often and have these
orders 44% larger when shopping, iContact says. But theres also the
third point we need to note: tons of fancy e-newsletters end up in
Spam or Trash, or just remain unread in a better case. As the data
from Pamorama says, 91% of e-mail users have unsubscribed from the
list of the company that they had previously signed up for. VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 43 Virtual University
44. content management 07. Moreover, benefits of using
electronic newsletters seriously outreach ones of traditional
printed newsletters in terms of results measurable. In traditional
newsletters companies write full-length articles and hardly know
which topics interested the audience most, which headlines were the
most attractive. How many customers after reading the articles
decided to call your organization or visit a website? And how many
of those unique visitors of your website were driven by a paper
newsletter and not excellent search-engine-optimization (SEO)
strategy? With printed newsletters you get tons of wasted paper,
and in the end of the day you can hardly even know the
return-on-investment (ROI) rate. While according to iContact, the
average ROI of e-mail marketing equals to $44.25 for every dollar
spent. I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.
Rudyard Kipling, The Elephants Child E-newsletters are great tools
for driving your website traffic and getting measurable results.
Putting a catchy subject line and headline, an interesting lead and
a link to your blogpost can significantly boost your website
traffic. Just think about it. Even your devoted readers may miss
the content youve published. Give them a hint. And dont forget to
follow statistics: e-mail open and click-through rate, new e-mail
subscriber behavior, number of spam complaints, and e-mail open and
click-through peaks by time of day. How to manage the content: Five
Ws As in writing journalism articles, five Ws and one H are the key
questions you need to address while both preparing your
e-newsletter content strategy and by writing your e-newsletter
posts. Who is your target audience? While creating your
e-newsletters you should always keep in mind the people on the
other side of the screen who will be eventually reading your
content. Who are they? What are they interested in? If youre a
public relations agency eager to offer its services to small
business enterprises in your area, just think about the needs and
wants of your potential clients. Think what they need to do to
improve their external communications and provide them a piece of
great advice. Bombard your potential customers with highly targeted
messages. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 44 Virtual
University
45. content management 07. Segment your audience. Create
distinctive e-mail lists that will be categorized by customer
geographic, demographic, psychographic or behavioral
specifications. This means, you can sort the clients by state, age,
lifestyle patterns, or even by how often they use your products or
services. For example, you can divide your customers into three
e-mail lists by number of their employees: big businesses, small
businesses, and individual entrepreneurs. Or if youre a B2C company
you can even create lists based on unique customer profiles, e.g.
young mothers, business folks, and indie kids. Target the segments.
After youve sorted your customers into distinctive e-mail lists,
think about the best-fitting message to each group. Send multiple
newsletters matching interests of each group. For instance, youre a
PR agency serving customers in the hospitality industry. After the
segmentation stage youve come up with two segments: restaurants and
bars, and hotels. Customize your subject lines, article headlines
and articles selection in accordance with what will most interest
the two customer groups. An excellent subject line for a newsletter
to your restaurants-and-bars segment might be: Ten free tools to
promote your restaurant in social media. For a hotels-segmented
newsletter write a different subject line: Why do backpackers
choose motels to stay with? Five unexpected reasons. According to
MailChimp 2009 statistics, e-mail campaigns that used list
segmentation got 14.444% better open rate and 14.994% better
click-through rate than the list average. Why should a reader open
your newsletter? Think about a unique selling proposition (USP) of
your company. What can you say in your newsletter that will be so
different from a whole bunch of other similar companies? Choose
distinctive benefits that your company can give to customers, not
just features of your products and services. And dont just speak
about all those benefits. Deliver them directly to your clients
mailbox. Provide the value in a form of hands-on information, free
consultations, whitepapers and giveaway announcements straight away
in your newsletter. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 45
Virtual University
46. content management 07. Where do your potential customers
read your e-newsletters? Many studies show a significant growth in
the mobile internet usage. As written in the unbounce infographic
about B2B generation lead, 64% of decision-makers use mobile
devices to read their e-mail. However, still a very small share of
marketers use responsive e-mail design in their newsletters. Most
of e-mails coming to customers inboxes are still not responsive in
design. When do you send out the newsletter? And how often? The
time of your e-newsletter delivery can significantly influence the
open and click-through rates. Around 19% of subscribers open
e-mails sent through MailChimp open them on Wednesday and Thursday.
While the opens peak by time of day is between 2 and 5 p.m. The
frequency of your e-mail marketing, in its turn, can influence the
number of unsubscribed users. Over a half of respondents of litmus
(litmus.com) agencys survey said they unsubscribed because e-mails
of companies came too frequently. What is the content? Content+
says 70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via its
articles rather than advertisements. This means that writing good
content must become your strategic goal. How to write an article
that will be read by subscribers? Here are few hints that might
help you find your own path. VU An ultimate guide to cutting-edge
PR 46 Virtual University
47. content management 07. According to Bredin Business
Information, in 2007 the most wanted e-newsletter topics of 26% of
small businesses executives were strategy and leadership. Specific
words and terms used in subject lines can also increase the
click-to-open rates. Words issue (8.5%) and top stories (5.9%)
perform above average in click-to-opens, while research, interview,
and video score above average for opens, but below average for
clicks and click-to-opens, says the recent July 2012 Adestra
Report. Even the number of words per link can influence the click
rate. The highest rate, in MailChimp e-mail marketing base, have
texts with 8 or 12 words per link. And dont forget about visual
content. Images can increase articles views by 94%. But dont go too
far. Having one to two images for one link can lower the click rate
to fewer than 5%. Video starts taking dominant positions too. Video
e-mails and video newsletters can boost your productivity by large.
Read about how to produce effective videos in this chapter. VU An
ultimate guide to cutting-edge PR 47 Virtual University
48. VU Virtual University About Virtual University Virtual
University (V-U) is a non-profit institution that offers a
revolutionary new model for education, including online, multimedia
textbooks; Web conferencing for live online seminars and workshops;
and work-study internships and apprenticeships around the world.
Our current partners/customers base includes over 2,500
communications and public relations agencies in the United States.
Virtual University employs highly skilled professionals with
profound over-30-year experience in mass communications, public
relations and advertising. More Information Visit the Virtual
University website for more creative ideas on cutting-edge public
relations. To learn about Virtual University e-mail Executive
Director Jonathan Pixler at [email protected] or
[email protected] for details. Photo credit on cover by
Cyril Berthault-Jacquier.