Guest post by Dave Mathews

Since startups and small businesses have limited financial budget, their reliance on a well thought-out marketing plan is a rarity. But the point that a marketing plan makes or breaks a business cannot be emphasized enough.

It has been reported by Forrester Research in their research that from all over the world, more than $200 billion were spent online in 2011 by the Americans alone, with an estimation of the total jacking up to $327 billion in 2016. This proves Bill Gates statement that, “the Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.”

It is a reported practice by some of the companies that they stress on sales before actually coming up with, or implementing, a marketing plan. This usually turns disadvantageous because, understandably, a potential client will be hesitant to buy a product/service he is not familiar with.

But this can be avoided by taking advantage of mediums that allow for a business to create its online presence. A startup can spread its word to a targeted audience by using social media, and resultantly creating a reliable and strong clientage and customer relationship. This article aims to get you acquainted with ways you can market your startup online.

The first step to creating a successful marketing strategy is to have a logo that gives your startup or small business a distinctively idiosyncratic edge.  A logo of your business is like a receptionist. It is be the first thing about your business that potential customers see, and as they say, first impression is the last impression. So put up your best face!

Social media is being increasingly used by businesses because of the advantages it carries and adopting   a few smart social media marketing strategies will have your business on its way to success.

LinkedIn has consistently proved itself as a network of professionals that helps in gaining business leads for your startup and expanding your professional circle. Read more.

Twitter has proved itself as a force to reckon with as far as allowing businesses to market themselves is concerned. (Learn how)

PInterest is, albeit new, but has seen success in the statistical count of people joining it. It allows businesses to share pictures of their products and services. (Learn how)

Create a blog to share useful content related to your business with the readers. This helps in diverting traffic on your website, besides acting as a marketing tool for your startup. Here’s how you can set up a blog on WordPress, but make sure it is then listed in web directories like the one of Google (learn how) because millions of people search blogs through them.

Initiate a video blog because it is reported by comScore that users watch approximately 186 videos a month, testifying for their success in reaching millions of viewers across the globe. Amongst the mediums used for video blogging, Youtube has seen tremendous success and playbacks reaching as much as 700 billion in 2011.

Co-market your business with other businesses that share their products/services with you. This is a great way for startups to save money that would otherwise be spent on implementing solo marketing plans.

Build credibility by joining Step by Step and writing on topics that relate to your target market.  Whether it is a retail outlet in London or a business providing services in Montreal, the titles can be endless to get your name in the list of experts.

A marketing plan should have all the ingredients to morph your business from a startup into a success story, and applying all of these techniques for online marketing is sure to give your business the push it needs towards the road of triumph.

About the author

This post is contributed by Dave Mathews, looking after PR activities of Stepbystep.com. Public Relations and Social Media Marketing are Dave’s areas of expertise.

Guest post by Mihaela Lica Butler

One of the most important components of your PR strategy has to be reputation management. Your business and personal success depend by and large on public perception. Reputation is the essence of who or what a business or person is.

Unfortunately for the SME or even some corporate decision makers, not much information exists in simplistic form, there are no real “simple guides to reputation management.” But, the infographic below, provided by KBDS Digital Marketing , does a nice job outlining some do and don’t practices and possible remedies for negatives. An old Chinese proverb roughly states:

“Don’t consider your reputation and you may do anything you like.”

Graphic Courtesy of KBSD Digital Agency

Maybe the most valuable lesson that can be “re-learned” from this graphic is how companies and individuals can get a “so called” exterior vision. Judging for yourself the quantitative view of your reputation may lead to a filtered view. Seeking the advice and feedback of others in your network, even expanding your network for the purpose, can help your reputation in the short and long term. No matter what methods you employ though, it is crucial to listen and respond when customers speak. The social revolution just empowered billions, but it can empower you too.

About the author
Mihaela Lica Butler is an experienced PR professional, senior partner and founder of Pamil Visions PR. She writes about the latest in the PR field at Everything PR and is a widely cited authority on search engine optimization and public relations issues (BBC News, Force for Good, Reuters, Al Jazeera and others). She also occasionally writes for SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, and other online publications. To stay in touch with her latest work, follow her on Twitter.

Dale Carnege’s influential 1936 self-help book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, proudly sits on many PR professional’s bookshelves and in the Kindle queue’s of the digital library of many SEO services. The copy is usually in pristine and proper condition – because it has never been opened or touched since purchase. While playing a great prop in the professional business arsenal, it gets read as often as The Prince by politicians or The Art of War by generals.

If you are curious as to how the book applies to the current social media landscape, there are six guidelines the book gives to make people like you. Here they are with the proper social media advice to accompany them for our modern, networked times:

Become Genuinely Interested in Other People

While most people view social networking as a selfish, indulgent, and sometimes vain experience, you can get to know people intimately by following their posts. Get to know their personality by actively engaging them in content they post and not straying off of their interests when sending them messages

Smile

Too often people post about what is going wrong in their lives. The fact is that no one wants to get dragged down when checking out Facebook and Twitter. Make sure to keep your posts positive so you don’t lose followers, friends, subscribers, and friends.

Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language

Fake aliases are far too common on social networking sites. If you are going by an obscure, inside-joke ridden nickname and want to effectively network, you should consider changing your Twitter handle or Facebook profile back to what’s on your driver’s license.

Be a Good Listener

You shouldn’t use social media platforms to monopolize conversations. If you are littering the   Facebook News Feed with pointless posts, people are going to grow weary and either not follow you or not take anything you say seriously.

Talk in Terms of the Other Person’s Interests

If you are commenting on someone’s content post, do not try to veer the subject towards another topic. They posted for genuine discussion and by delivering you will score rep points.

Make the Other Person Feel Important

Instead of waiting for people to post or send you messages, actively go out and do it yourself. There is no bigger endorphin releaser than seeing a new notification, receiving a Twitter mention, or getting a DM.

By following Dale Carnege’s classic steps and just tweaking them ever so slightly, you will be on your way to winning more friends and influencing more people. This will ultimately lead to more business, better social networks, and a more fulfilling life full of variety and conversation.

About the author
Guest post by Nick Jameson. He is a freelance writer specializing in business and marketing

The Sony PlayStation network hack and the millions of customer whose private information might have been accessed is one of the prominent headlines this week. So was TJX and their security breach at its time, being considered the largest data breach in history as over 40 million credit cards had been stolen throughout their stores in the US and Canada. So was every big financial data breach.

For those of you who don’t know, one of Mirror Communications’ clients, CoSoSys, develops endpoint security and data loss prevention solutions. Since I fist started to work with them, more than three years ago, I have been reading about data breaches every single day. I cannot remember the number of hospitals exposing patient data, financial institutions having client details stolen by employees, laptops and flash drives with important databases being lost or stolen, or the number of instances where military units (in the US or other countries) where either broken into and having data stolen or lost because they either weren’t paying attention, or because they did not care to properly dispose of it.

What lacks more than the obvious protection against such security breaches is knowing how to deal with the PR crisis that follows the data loss or theft. So after personally reviewing so many PR fails when it comes to data breaches, here’s a quick guide made up of useful tips to help you better deal with the consequences:

1. Don’t waste time and make the security breach known

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard of data breaches being revealed months after happening. The press sometimes gets hold of the news before the customers, creating panic and distrust. The moment you know something happened, let customers know and let the press know. Being the source of information prevents distortions and assumptions.

2. Own it!

It is your fault it happened. Not the hacker’s, not the air-headed employee’s who thought leaving company property in a car in a random parking lot was OK, not the IT guy’s who you fired that put all that project details on the Internet, not the thief’s you let into your company network so easily. You are to blame, it is your fault and the sooner you admit it the better. Employees can be trained, security can be tightened, data can be protected. If anyone can prevent something like this, it is the company in question through their policies and practices.

3. Apologize for it the right way

Yes, it’s good for your customers to know you value their privacy and wouldn’t want them exposed to data theft, fraud and other such individual disasters. But their data has been stolen, lost, or just temporarily made available to anyone with a malicious intent. So while you cared about it, you certainly did not value it enough. You screwed up and you have to apologize. Fast and properly.

4. Explain what happened, but don’t make excuses

Understanding what happened is important for your customers, and seeing you are willing to reveal the details might save some of their shattered trust. While letting them know which circumstances led to the breach, make sure it does not sound like you’re making excuses. They have entrusted their data to you, so you are responsible for what happened to it. Remember, it’s your fault, don’t go looking for escape goats in your version of how it all went down.

5. Be very clear about what you are going to do

Your next actions are extremely important and you have to be clear about new measures being taken. The fact that you’re offering free credit monitoring and investigating the issue is not enough. Your customers need to know that you will invest in improved security solutions and practices, in personnel training and overall business process monitoring. Your goal is not only to solve the current PR nightmare, your main goal should be to do everything you can to prevent a similar event from happening.

6. Keep your customers informed

The press will go on and on about it if this is a high profile case. If the malicious hackers or thieves are caught and go to trial, they will cover it. They will cover any move you make that has to do with the breach. Therefore, it is better to send updates to your customers and present your progress and your point of view. Remember the assumptions and distortions you want to keep under control!

7. If there is a class action suit, don’t start a witch hunt against customers

Some might feel free credit card monitoring and an apology is not enough. If their bank account was wiped clean or some very sensitive information has been revealed, their position is understandable. Don’t start bashing plaintiffs, they are former customers and how you treat them will take its tool on how your remaining customers see your brand and your company.

The truth is, in most cases, companies affected by breaches try to settle lawsuits fast and cut their brand image losses. That is the right way to go. Even if you pay less at the end of a long court battle, it will definitely cost you more to counter the negativity that will surround your brand afterwards.

This is just a quick guide to get you through the immediate PR crisis yielded by the data breach. After handling the immediate consequences, you will have to invest PR and marketing dollars into repairing long term effects, such as losing part of your customers, a general distrust from potential ones and getting enough positive stories out to balance all the data breach coverage.

You might think that if you are a smaller company and less people worry about your security breach means you’re better off. The truth is the press might not give you that much attention, but losing half of your customer base is a bigger blow than it is for a big corporation. Also, when you’ll want to make your positive messages known, you will deal with the same attitude from the press – lack of interest.

The best way to deal with data breaches and the PR disasters they cause is… to prevent them, of course. But allthough they happen more often than we even want to know, companies still have the wrong attitude - it only happens to others, it cannot really happen to me. So they postpone their investment in proper network protection, endpoint security and data loss prevention. They never get around to that training for their staff. They only remember it when the data breach hits the news or their customers and they’re flooded with angry messages.

There are moments when a certain story simply takes over the world. Or a country, or a city or a small town. The scale really does not matter, the effect is the same: every media outlet will cover that major event. It’s a journalistic rule you learn in the first year of journalism school. If something is really big, it takes over and becomes the most important piece of news, regardless of anything else.

Such events are the royal wedding we’ve just had, big elections, the earthquake in Japan, or Osama being killed. For a longer or shorter stretch of time, they have the spotlight and no one can compete. And it’s not just lifestyle magazines or political newspapers that cover them! Tech blogs and magazines will talk about the Twitter user who live tweeted the attack on Osama, financial newspapers will analyze the cost of the royal wedding or analyze the impact on foreign markets a natural disaster has. Travel outlets will talk about the travelers taking over London or the travel warnings issued after the Osama bin Laden death. 

Sure, all these outlets will still need other stories to publish, you cannot fill an entire edition with one story and the related ones you can think of! But will the other stories matter as much? Will anyone notice them? Those who are interested in the main event will overlook everything else, those who’ve had it with it will simply log off for the day. Therefore, at times like these, the best approach is to postpone your pitch unless it is directly related with the main event and strong enough to make it through the clutter. For example, if you’re the company providing the wedding flowers or designing the dress, you could pitch your story and actually get tons of attention. If you’re a small restaurant that decided to celebrate the wedding and are throwing a party with a longer than usual happy hour, the BBC will probably not publish your press release!

So instead of fighting for 5 seconds in a day where it means 5 seconds of being ignored, but on the air, it’s better to postpone your announcement. Plus, in case of major disasters, if you also have the bad luck of them occurring in your country or city, you and your client might be perceived as heartless. Unless you have a big event planned for months ahead, with press conference, partner meetings and people expecting you to show up, just put it off for a while!

You might see it as a hassle, but it’s not all bad. From each event, there is something to be learned. Don’t believe me? Have you read or heard President Obama’s speech on bin Laden being killed? If not, read it now, and also read this article by the Bad Pitch Blog providing valuable insight on what events like these can teach you.

A while back I was discussing how the ability of driving traffic to stories is nothing new for PR professionals. Actually, I strongly believe being able to generate buzz and traffic around a story published in the media about a client is something journalists should consider when covering a topic. In the current background, it seems that this ability of PRs will prove to be worth quite a bit in the business world.

We all know that blogs and online news outlets usually give bonuses to their writers based on traffic, engagement or shares that help spread the word. It’s not unusual for a writer to make more just because his or her story gets tons of retweets or Facebook shares or because it brings in thousands of visits.

What’s even more interesting is that this trend will soon move to media outlets that made a name in print and have online editions. Rumor has it USA Today is considering giving traffic bonuses to writers. As public relations professionals pitch stories to the very same journalists who will earn more based on traffic, how good the PR expert is at helping out on this matter will count.

And it should count! All news outlets are businesses. The numbers matter to them as the matter to other types of websites. I don’t see this as a new trick to pull to get some coverage. The way I see PR and journalism is as a collaboration, mutual help. The journalist gets a good topic to cover and information helping him get a broad picture, plus the traffic required by their supervisors, the PR pro gets coverage for a client, which translated into traffic and hopefully sales for them and an ongoing contract for the PR consultant.

The million dollar question for PRs right now is can you drive traffic to stories? If not, are you planning on learning how to soon? Now it’s the time to do it!

Research reports and survey results are always a great way to get some attention for your company and for the products and services you sell. A report on new threats from an antivirus company, a survey on how much spam companies get from a mail server developer partnering with an Anti-spam application, a report on how online users share news through social media from a news outlet, survey results on how journalists and bloggers want to be approach and through which channels from a PR or marketing company, these are all great ideas to help you plunge into an in-depth analysis and get some valuable data to spread through the industry and beyond.

While the interest in your company as a trend setter or key source when it comes to market analysis is a goal worth following, coming up with valuable information from your research and surveys is not always very easy. It takes time, quite some planning, reaching out to customers, peers, other industry analysts, wrapping up results in an informative, easy to digest text and then promoting it through all major outlets.

Yet data that concerns all is always more newsworthy than a new service or product or an enhancement to an old one. It’s something of far greater impact, not only useful to those in your field, but also a effective tool to help potential customers find out what problems they are actually dealing with and why they’d need what you’re selling. Plus, seeing major news and industry outlets mentioning your name along with your research paper or survey data does wonders to brand awareness.

Have you tried using research and surveys to increase brand recognition and to gain more customers and business partners? Which were the results and what resources have you invested to get the final product?

How often do you come across people hired to promote a company or their products? I’m referring to those spreading coupons, those showcasing products at stands placed in malls, at those looking nice and interesting at trade events and promoting contests for visitors. How many times were they either too pushy or completely unable to help you?

The person you pay to spread out flyers of all kinds, to present your products or just look hot near a car you’re launching, is a company representative in the eyes of your customer. Customers generally don’t care it’s a temporary gig for them, that you had no time to train them or that maybe they’re just having a bad day. Potential buyers either want answers fast or not to be bothered by pushy people.

First of all, when you choose people to represent you, make sure they fit the profile of your potential customers. Don’t send a funky 16-year-old that knows nothing of business notebooks to present a high tech product that addresses, you guessed it, business customers. I for one need to know details like how much time I have to work when on battery, processor details, the graphic card and technology behind the screen and how much the product costs when I need to buy it. I also need contact details form a sales person. If the kid is fun but clueless and presenting a Lenovo notebook, I’ll just walk away with valuable time wasted.

On the other hand, if you’re targeting teenagers and young people that love having fun and smiling a lot, send out a fun person that likes chatting with them, giving them a bunch of cool details and has a genuine smile. Don’t send out an older company rep that has forgotten how it’s like to engage kids and is too technical for them.

After selecting who to use, make sure you train them, even if it’s for 15 minutes. Tell them not to be pushy, tell them to smile and try not to look like fate is punishing them in every second of their lives, tell them a bit about your company and the product or service they’re advertising. It would also be great to supervise them and make sure you are there to help when they are faced with a situation they were not told about and to give them on-the-fly advice about how to approach customers.

If you tend to forget it, write this on a piece of paper and post it somewhere visible – the people you employ represent your company in the eyes of your target audience. Customers identify them with your brand, your products, services and company value. If they disappoint, potential buyers won’t be disappointed by a random individual, they will be disappointed by your company!

As you arleady know, a while ago I debuted on Everything PR and have since become one of their regular writers. It’s been fun and challenging and I’d like to keep you updated with what I’m posting there. So I decided the best way was a monthly roundup (along with the tweets and Facebook shares that annouce my new articles). Here’s what I’ve been up to this month, hope you enjoy it!

Coca Cola’s New Social Media Model: Going for the Kill
Coca Cola has revealed its new social media model. It is called the 4P model, namely reviewing, responding, recording and redirecting. There’s nothing quite revolutionary behind the fancy naming, but it is a tested, well documented, experiment and success backed model to help them accomplish marketing and sales goals.

Vocus Launches New Social Media Monitoring Tool
Vocus has released a new and improved version of its social media monitoring software, the Summer ‘10 Edition. The new application focuses on monitoring and analyzing the massive amounts of online information spread across blogs, forums, Twitter, LinkedIn and other online communities, identify and help engage key influencers.

Vocus acquired free PR service Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
Following a recent release of their social media monitoring software, Vocus announced they had acquired Help a Reporter Out (HARO), a free service connecting bloggers and journalists with their sources, mostly small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Norton Offers Online Protection to Parents and Children from Around the World
Security expert Symantec has expanded its Norton Online Family web service to cover 25 languages and thus offers parents from around the world the possibility to set browsing rules for their children, provide them a secure online experience and teach them about Internet safety.

Google News Creator Says Journalism Is Here to Stay
Google News creator says journalism is here to stay and identified key changes bound to occur in the next five years or so. Journalistic organizations will have to adapt to new trends and channles to stay relevant to their audiences.

Small Business, Great Dedication and an Even Bigger Heart
Meet Rachelle Lucas, innkeeper, blogger in love with breakfast recipes, cooking and travel, marathon runner and fund raiser for a center researching and treating cancer in children. A powerful inspirationand a great business managing and promoting lesson to follow.

PRFrame – New PR Tool for Mozilla Firefox
A new PR addon for Mozilla Firefox has just been released by BeFrame. PRFrame is said to be a useful tool for PR experts, beginners and all those generally curious about public relations. While the actual features are not clearly defined in the release annoucements, the browser tool might show some potential.

Toy Story 3’s big hit and the adult hijack of animation movies
The weekend brought a huge success to animation movie Toy Story 3 of hit maker Pixar, with big bucks being spent on seeing it. Adults, not children, were those most happy to see the new film, coming in larger numbers than children, the intended audiece of such productions.

CNN and Larry King Announce Telethon to Help Victims of BP Oil Spill
CNN’s Larry King Live to host telethon to raise money for victims of the BP oil spill. Numerous A-listers such as Justin Bieber, Ted Danson, Cameron Diaz, Randy Jackson, Robert Redford and many more will join the Disaster in the Gulf: How You Can Help special edition. Larry King joins the lines of stars helping out or blaming BP which include Kevin Costner, James Cameron, Lady Gaga and Corn to name only a few.

Kindle and Nook start price war on e-reader market
Kindle and Nook start cutting prices and the competition gets tougher on the e-reader market. E-reader makers, the much hyped about iPad and other gadgets with e-book reading functionalities want a piece of the sales.

Google rumored to launch music service
Google is rumored to be getting ready to launch a music downloading service that will be available online and on the Android OS. Revenge at Apple for making it blocking AdMob on iPhones or just a smart business move?

Bethenny Frankel – When Personal Brands Grow Stronger than the Real Housewives shows
Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel is said to be leaving the show due to the drama surrounding the current cast and star her own, Skinny & The City, produced Real Housewives brand owner Bravo. Following a similar trend, Kate Gosseling is moving past her divorce and ex hit show ‘Jon and Kate plus 8′ to be the center of two new shows.

Malware City – Fighting the Villains of the Online World
BitDefender’s MalwareCity.com is a quite unusual business blog, mixing anime and comic strips with IT security post and news, online freebies and the fun side of the social world. It is a rather effective method to use fun to raise awareness about real threats of the virtual world and to sell their products.

PRWeb getting ready to launch new website in July
Online news distribution service PRWeb will release a new website in July featuring a fresh look and feel and new PR tools and resources to help users get more visibility and leads.

Bing Entertainment – Less Time Searching, More Enjoying
Microsoft launched a new targeted search website, Bing Entertainment, focusing on finding and enjoying everything entertainment, from music and movies to video games and TV series. Bing Entertainment focuses on gaining new users and keeping them longer on their site, while also getting more market share from rival Google.

Smart Phones Apps Drive Increase in Map usage on the US Mobile Market
Digital data measurement expert comScore released a study showing phone apps drive maps adoption and usage on the US mobile market. With a 14% share of the entire mobile market, phone maps are accessed by 33.5 million people, mostly via apps and while driving their cars.

Kellogg’s explains massive cereal recall
A couple of days after the massive recall of 28 million cereal boxes, Kellogg’s issued a press statement explaining the withdrawn products did not meet quality standards, but did not contain health threatening substances. While some consumers did experience nausea, vomiting and other such symptoms, they were caused by the off taste and smell of the cerials, not by potentially harmful components in the product or its packaging.

New Harry Potter Trailer Announces the End of Our Favorite Wizarding Adventures (Video)
A thrilling, entertaining and dark trailer to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows announces the last part of one of the most famous wizardry stories that we have been following closely for years. The final JK Rowling book of the Harry Potter series will power two movies to be released this year and in 2011.

Yes, common sense! What we should really take for granted is becoming as rare as miracles. People are so hasty in pushing their own agenda that there’s no time for courtesy, for being nice instead of completely selfish and oblivious of the fact you’re addressing a human being.

Never mind the poor texts sent through email, blog comments and all other channels. Never mind the “what’s in it for me part”! That’s a whole other level of refinement. I really mean the basics of social interaction. Like saying hello, using someone’s name, saying thank you and goodbye. Yes, I am talking about making that other person feel a bit more valuable than just a blog name and an email address you’ve just ticked on a long xls file.

This is becoming so rare, it scares me. OK, you have no time to look for my name, although you can see it on every post I publish. I get the pressure of long to-do lists. But use a ” Hello” or a “Hi” or just “Good morning”! Thank me for allotting 5 minutes of my time to your email or message, then drop a copy/paste line such as “Best regards” or “Have a great afternoon!”.

Either PR people lack all common courtesy skills, or they think bloggers are vane, sub-human creatures that don’t need hellos, but need their ego-boosting pat on the back. Something like saying you chose them because they rank well on some fairly popular site. By the way, try to use a site they actually show up as top dogs on!

I tend to believe it’s the first theory, because such thoughtless messages are also sent to journalists, business partners, customers and whoever else they might come in contact with, not just to bloggers! I understand the fast-paced, Internet-bound world we’re living in has turned us into creatures talking in text message and instant messaging slang. But even on Twitter and messenger we stop to say hello!

Let’s return to the basics! Let’s be nice and thoughtful, act like human beings and have a tidbit of common sense! It’s good PR