Register for our New Keystone Business Development™ Webinar
When we talk to clients in the IT and Biotechnology industries, the most common question we are asked is “Can you help our company get to the next level?” What they are really asking is: “How can we boost our Business Development efforts?”
We have a great deal of expertise in creating Web2.0 PR campaigns that support Business Development initiatives. We build integrating campaigns that incorporate social networking for prospect list development, targeted emails, PPC campaigns, natural search engine optimization, content development, media relations, special landing pages and blogs, inbound linking, and webinars.
We have created a new one-hour webinar called Keystone Business Development™ that presents innovations in the application of Web2.0 PR to produce revenue momentum.
If you are interested in signing up for the webinar, then please provide your email address in the above Email Address box. You will receive an email with instructions on how to view and participate in the webinar.
I will be presenting this new interactive workshop at Federated Press's 6th Annual Power of Branding conference, which will take place October 10, 11 & 12, 2007 in Toronto. If you are scheduling an executive planning meeting in the coming months you might want to put this workshop on your schedule. I'd also be happy to share my research and planning tools with you in an webinar.
Leveraging New Interactive Web Technologies (Web 2.0) in Your Branding Strategy Howard Oliver, Principal, What If What Next™
In the past, when marketing campaigns took place on TV, radio, billboards and print media, companies would establish their brand through reach and frequency alone. As long as your brand promise was consistent and frequently communicated, it was thought, your customer was bound to succumb and provide brand loyalty in return. In today’s web-savvy age, branding is forced to take on a new role to stay viable. Indeed, behind Web 2.0 is the idea that the web is an organic mash-up of peoples and technologies that are and can be highly disruptive to long-held traditional methods of communicating brand value. This interactive workshop will examine how Web 2.0.’s capabilities may be applied in your branding strategy to keep it current:
· A pragmatic look at Web 2.0: moving beyond the hype · Maximizing your web presence o Sending a strong message to consumers about your company's personality o Improving your user’s experience o Web site behaviour to impact customer perceptions and your bottom line o Web analytics to monitor site usage, translating clicks into business o Making it personal: designing "my" web o Modifying content to improve search engine optimization o Designing content for usability o Landing pages and blogs o Optimization and automation to maximize lead generation and conversion · Technologies: AJAX, WebServices, Blogs/Vlogs/Boards, Wikis · Building online branding campaigns: banner ads, RSS feeds, paid search ads (e.g. Google AdWords), contextual ads, natural (organic) search listings, text link ads, microsites, and podcasts, contextual, behavioural and local advertising · Using emerging PR tools: RSS, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks, social tags, search engines · Low-cost, high-impact NSO (Natural Search Optimization) testing strategies · Social networking and community building tools and technologies · Software as a service: understanding hosted web content management solutions · Budgeting and budget allocation
The Federated Press event is intended to brief and provide planning tools to Presidents, Vice-Presidents & Directors of Marketing, Communications, Corporate Brand & Identity, Advertising & Brand Management, Research & New Product Development Executives, Corporate Planners from various sectors and industries.
About the Presenter: Howard Oliver is the founder of What If What Next™ a firm that specializes in Web2.0 PR. With Howard’s thought leadership, great writing, media relations, project management skills and vast knowledge of Web2.0 PR processes using rich internet applications, What If What Next™ prides itself on delivering strong results in brand recognition, media coverage and growing web foot-print. For more than 25 years, he has been an entrepreneur, writer, thought leader, PR Guru, business development strategist, technology evangelist, manager and consultant for numerous service, industrial and high technology companies. Clients in technology and other industries recognize him as a driven, highly creative and disciplined thinker. He is a passionate advocate of Web 2.0 PR, social networking and citizen journalism in the "Business Blogsphere". In his current client project work, writings (http://prmeasure@blogware.com) and speaking, he is charting new ground in these rapidly evolving fields that are making news daily. He has created groundbreaking Weblogs that influence the media, open new client dialogue, uncover revenue opportunities, allow for knowledge sharing and build communities of interest. He is also an expert in PR measurement and effectiveness with a focus on micro-persuasion. Howard is an "in demand" speaker at a variety of PR, marketing and technology conferences every year. He holds an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University.
Over an early morning coffee in my garden this fine summer morning, I drafted this note on Online Reputation Management. Please do take a quick scan and add your comments or questions.
Just for quick reference I can be reached at holiver at whatifwhatnext.com.
Sailing is scheduled for later this morning! Note the wonderful weather described below.
Online Reputation Management combines marketing and PR with search engine marketing. It seeks visibility, high rankings and indexing in the search engine for all positive websites and corporate communications.
Goals:
Proactively manage your company's online footprint
Increase the overall web presence for your company, its products and services
Push bad publicity down beyond the first two pages of search engine results - where the general public rarely goes
Measures:
Organic web positions
Pay-Per-Click tracking of brand terms
Snapshot of top 10 search engine results
Brand news
Competitor brand news
Media mentions
Customer and partner interactions
The process has three phases:
Monitor:
Build a daily monitoring system for your brand on: Google and Yahoo Alerts, Feedster and Technorati for the blogsphere, social networks, forums and RSS readers.
Track for brand, company and product names, key employees and key words and phrases.
Monitor industry related portals and relevant newspapers.
Analysis and Planning:
Capture all relevant sites in a usable data gathering tool (xls or data base):
Include your sites and the sites you directly can influence
Rank these relevant sites as to PageRank, links
Flag sites of interest
Engage key stakeholders and influencers in dialogues
Write SWOT analysis and communication plan
Create a specific Online Reputation Management plan for opportunities both good and bad
Ensure that the plan is integrated with a broader communication plans
Engage:
Develop new material and mount online: corporate site, sister sites, new micro sites, corporate blogs, employee blogs, partner sites, landing pages, 2ndry pages on your home sites
Optimize your site(s) for effective key words and phrases
Use traditional PR tools: media kits, media releases, media relations campaigns
Purchase paid advertising as required
Purchase paid listings as required
Build an expanded cloud of interlinked, relevant, strategically important inbound and outbound links
For fun, here is the local marine weather:
Environment Canada Weather Forecast Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 3.00 AM EDT Sunday 29 July 2007 for the period ending at 3.00 AM Monday with an outlook for the following 24 hours.
Synopsis: Synopsis. At 3.00 AM today..Broad northeast to southwest ridge average pressure 1014 MB through central Great Lakes. 1008 MB low over Far Northern Ontario with cold frontal trough average pressure 1012 MB extending southwestward from low. By 3.00 AM Monday.. 1018 MB high over northeastern Iowa with west to east ridge average pressure 1016 MB through southern Lake Huron. Northeast to southwest cold frontal trough average pressure 1008 MB extending from northwestern Québec to eastern Lake Superior. Forecast: Wind light northeast becoming variable this afternoon. Mist and fog patches dissipating this morning then fair. Waves less than 1 metre. Outlook..Light and variable becoming northeasterlies.
Environment Canada Weather Forecast Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 3.00 AM EDT Sunday 29 July 2007 for the period ending at 3.00 AM Monday with an outlook for the following 24 hours.
Synopsis: Synopsis. At 3.00 AM today..Broad northeast to southwest ridge average pressure 1014 MB through central Great Lakes. 1008 MB low over Far Northern Ontario with cold frontal trough average pressure 1012 MB extending southwestward from low. By 3.00 AM Monday.. 1018 MB high over northeastern Iowa with west to east ridge average pressure 1016 MB through southern Lake Huron. Northeast to southwest cold frontal trough average pressure 1008 MB extending from northwestern Québec to eastern Lake Superior. Forecast: Wind light northeast becoming variable this afternoon. Mist and fog patches dissipating this morning then fair. Waves less than 1 metre. Outlook..Light and variable becoming northeasterlies.
Go one-one-one with our founder and resident guru, Howard Oliver. Using his highly rated Master Class on Web 2.0 PR, you will look at the latest tools and draft an innovative, self-financing, three-month program to achieve your strategically important marketing objectives:
- Getting the new Buzz
- Consumer Behavior in the Web2.0 world - Web2.0 Media - Blogs, Social Software, Wickis, Digital Media, Tagging
- Mind Mapping and Concept Charting for innovative thinking - Scenarios to shorten sales cycles - Rapid program planning - Blogging to support vertical market development
Howard has given this two-hour master class at conferences, webinars, marketing planning meetings and one-on-one with clients. Take a look at the slides and call us to book a time with him.
I spent a few hours in my lovely back yard garden this Sunday morning building up a good list of sites devoted the value of Linking to Viral Marketing and Natural Search Engine Optimization. See http://del.icio.us/HowardPR/WebRealEstate for the fruits of my labors.
This afternoon I'm going sailing; so no more plinking away at my laptop. But, I will let all this information sink and write a list of key ideas consolidated into a useable strategy.
Do scan the information yourself. I'd be keen on hearing from you what pops out as particularly usable.
By the way, my American wife ways” keen” is not a word that is used in US. Is that true?
One of the comments on the Viral article we have been discussing struck home:
Viral success isn't about "influencers" or "big seed marketing". It is about nailing two core variables; relevancy and reward. First, the content or message has to be relevant to the received. Second, I have to want to pass it along -- which means there has to be something in it for me -- not in a monetary way but an emotional, internal payoff. Nail that and the message will go viral.
Here is the central hypothesis to ponder. If you can get 500 voices in a community, both online and via other media and interpersonal communications advancing an idea or solution, then economic value will be created for the company.
Bill Tancer writes in Time Online about message boards reacting to John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods misuse of anonomously posted messages about his company .
We're now in an era where MySpace usage is growing at a phenomenal rate, Wikipedia has over five million entries and users are posting their video commentary along with exploding Diet Coke/Mentos videos. Yet message boards devoted to financial information, as well as a myriad of other topics, continue to thrive — even in a time when most mainstream online participation is user reviews and blog commentary. And as we've seen with many Web 2.0 applications, anonymity, a key feature of message board postings, can call into question the veracity and motive of the boards' content.
When used properly message boards are one of many tools to communicate true and insightful information.
We have been retained by Susan Schaab to help promote her new novel "Wearing the Spider" with our Web2.0 PR services.
Here is a description of her book from her site:
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America. It occurs in some form every 79 seconds. And nefarious minds are dedicated to the discovery of new methods for its commission. The same technological advances that make communication easy and instant have torn our identities from us and turned them into “objects” that can be stolen and misused.
What if a male law firm partner hijacked the identity of a female associate? What if he used email impersonation and electronic forgery to set her up as the mastermind of an illegal scheme? And what if she was ultimately framed for murder as a result of his actions?
Wearing the Spider, a debut legal thriller by Susan Schaab, explores these possibilities.
Our friend and client Irene Becker, Chief Success Officer of Just Coach It wrote a wonderful piece about Ed Mirvish. It is worth sharing.
Following In the Footsteps of Giants
This week, a beloved figure in Toronto, a business mogul, philanthropist, and a forward thinker who changed the landscape of retail business, the urban core, and the entertainment and culture in Canada’s largest city, died at the age of 92.
Ed Mirvish leaves a legacy that is the footstep of a giant.A legacy we can all be proud of because Mr. Mirvish not only achieved great success and prosperity, innovated positive change, infused Toronto with economic, social and cultural vitality; he also retained that powerful spark of humility, humanity, and a love for his fellow man that is clearly the footstep of a giant.
Maybe it is time for those of us who have achieved the prosperity that creates financial freedom, and those who have not, to ask ourselves what kind of foot print we want to leave behind.
The footprint of a giant is not measured by the size of his bank account, nor by the trophies, awards or material accoutrements of success.The footprint of a giant is measured by his or her ability to leave a legacy that continues to touch the hearts and minds of others.
A legacy that speaks of servant leadership, a legacy that reflects the ability to make a positive difference in the world in which we live, and in the lives of the people we lead, love and serve.Building the footprint of a giant is the work of a life time, it cannot be built solely upon our unprecedented access to knowledge, information, technology, or the skills and competencies we have developed.The footprint of a giant is born of the faith, hope, courage, humility and relentless moral strength and timeless values that create the passionate purpose, desire and ability to make a positive different in the lives of others.
Faith gives one the spiritual power that guides our best thoughts and actions. Hope allows us to embrace gratitude and to build resiliency.Courage gives us the ability to live in alignment with our highest values.Humility allows us to realize that life is a gift, and that minimizing the human dignity or potential of another human being does not give us power, rather it makes us powerless to realize the true purpose of our creed.
In a world of increasing chaos, discord, violence and upheaval it is the men and women from the C suite to the warehouse, from the most revered professions to the humblest of occupations who can decide that they want to make their foot print, the foot print of a giant, or to support the giants among us.Both are equally important, both are critical.
We cannot all become the change we seek, but we can be inspired and motivated by the footprints of giants like Ed Mirvish.We can be inspired to help build and sustain the footprints of the visible and less visible giants whose faith, courage, hope, humility, leadership can help us embrace an evolution of self that will take us past what is, so that we can create what can be in our lives, our communities, our workplaces, our society and our world.
By: Irene Becker, Chief Success Officer, Just Coach It, www.justcoachit.com,
Irene is an amazingly talented executive coach who specialized in crisis management for senior management. She is the person to call if you have fives wolves at five doors all of whom are ready to ready to destroy your senior career.
Since the term "viral marketing" snuck into vogue in the mid-1990s, the ad business has been sold on sickness as the way to describe how information, ideas and influence spread through populations of consumers. But now a long-taken-for-granted central principle of viral marketing -- that large-scale changes in behavior can begin like disease epidemics, with just a few highly connected people -- is facing its toughest challenge yet. At the center of a growing fray is an unlikely figure: an Australian-born sociology professor at Columbia University named Duncan Watts, who comes armed with mathematical models that, he believes, unsettle much of what you think you know about viral marketing.
I left the following comment:
To gain some clarity, I would like to limit the discussion to PR for technology and industrial products. Let us differentiate between viruses and pandemics. A virus is spread at the office. One person sneezes and the whole company becomes infected. Pandemics, like the Black Plague, spread across the world. I think the author was really saying that pandemics are not so easy to start. Nasty imagery but it gets to the truth of the matter
For the markets we address, we believe in the power of targeted, viral events or micro-pandemics. Our universes are smaller and mostly, well defined. You can influence specific networks of people virally in order to add economic value.
Our firm uses integrated campaigns that have elements of mass and viral marketing. We define key message points that reflect the brand and push strategic imperatives. We use a variety of business and trade media, both traditional and online, to get the message out. Experts and customers are engaged to prove claims. Case histories are written. Social networks are built using a variety of Web 2.0 tools. We go to the correct shows and work to gain good media coverage and help attract and land trophy accounts.
What a great application for blogging - a great example of what can be done to dramatically push the boundaries of blogging into social networking. The functionality and richness of information is super!
Here is the link to their recent media release and the blog itself.
"For more than half a century, Toronto's best-loved entrepreneur did bear watching. Indeed, Ed Mirvish invited scrutiny – begged for it, actually, as a merchant, theatre impresario and restaurateur. Mirvish thrived on free publicity."
"Mirvish used a mix of traditional advertising and publicity stunts to draw in customers. "You didn't need an education to figure out that it was cheaper and more interesting to have news articles written about our events than paying for them," said Ed Mirvish,
