Guest post by Susan Daniels

When most people think of blogging, they don’t conjure up images of brand blogging. However, even Coca-cola has a blog to further empower its brand. Brand blogging helps your business out in two ways: it gives your customers a sense of community and it allows you to gain greater online visibility.

But starting a brand blog doesn’t simply mean writing an article every couple of days or so. To make your brand’s blog successful you need to incorporate the following into your every day posting:

Media

A brand’s blog should never be text only. Images and videos including the brand should be integrated throughout the blog to make it more appealing to readers, and you don’t need to hire a creative agency to create these for you. You can easily take and create them yourself; however, if you aren’t competent with your video editing, hiring a professional may be beneficial. Including images and videos also give you a greater chance of a post going viral which can greatly increase your PageRank – and thus, your overall online visibility.

Relevancy

One of the most important aspects of blogging is content relevancy. If a soda product is your brand, then you don’t want to be writing about dog food. Instead you want to be writing about anything and everything that pertains to your brand – the people behind the brand, different flavors being released, projects you may be involved in, and any other interesting tidbits.

Hype

When you have a blog that is focusing on a certain brand, you want to make sure that you are able to create hype through your posts. If you are improving a brand or making changes to products and services, you want to give your brand loyalists little insights into doing so. Not only will this get them excited and coming back for more, but this will also keep them from panicking when an updated product or service is released that may be slightly different from the old ones.

Creating an image of a company is hard, and trying to get as high as you can in the search engines is no easy feat. However, blogging can greatly help you attain new customers, engage the old, and manage your online reputation – all of which are needed if you wish to remain successful.

About the author
Susan Daniels is a freelancer writer that specializes in business and technology.

As taste, needs and standards differ from one person to the next, having everyone appreciate a company or product or person is impossible. At a point or another, negative comments are about to emerge, via email, via the phone or publicly as comments to web sites, blogs and articles about a certain business or business person published on outlets allowing readers to post their opinions. Some are caused by something we did, others just come from differences of opinion.

There are many ways to address negative comments, depending on what triggers them, who and where posts them and each and every company’s strategy. But regardless of how we respond to negative comments – explaining a situation or its circumstances, challenging the person who authored the comment, apologizing or trying to change the subject, knowing when to just let go, be the bigger person and move on is also very important.

I personally believe that negative comments should only be ignored when they are a lie or exaggeration from a source that no one would trust and on a relatively invisible website or blog. Even then it is risky, as no one knows when a certain web page might become an Internet hot spot, boosting the credibility of the negative comment. The general rule is that you should not suddenly validate negative opinions that most people would ignore. Otherwise you risk turning a passing rumor into a viral debate.

But if comments are easy to find and would make your potential customers consider the stand and the arguments, they should also hear your side of the story. Responding is important, but sometimes a certain negative remark takes over the conversation. It all revolves around the author of that less than positive opinion and the company representative, with several exchanges that make the issue bigger than it is.

Other people wanting to express their opinion might be put off by this long debate, which might not even be on the core issue currently discussed. Moreover, by posting reply after reply to one person’s thoughts and negative comments boost their relevance and credibility. If you give it so much time and effort, maybe there is something to their arguments.

A rule of thumb of mine is that a company’s take on a matter can be explained in one or maximum two replies unless other game changing information is introduced or other persons join the initial debate. People can turn a simple issue into a two-day conversation with comments longer than the initial article, piece of news, blog post, video or photo. But most of the times it’s the same arguments and examples in new clothes, so it’s really wasted effort and time. And it’s not only your time, it’s that of other readers and potential buyers.

Of course, the temptation of making the final, undebatable argument is sometimes very powerful, even for seasoned communicators. But you have to remember: it’s OK to disagree. Also, you should review your reply through the eyes of smart and relatively objective readers, not submit it to the train of thoughts and arguments of the initial commenter.

How have you dealt with negative comments? After how many replies did you put an end to the conversation?

I have recently ran across some articles about the cost of press releases. While the authors were throwing numbers and averages, no one took the time to also explain what you actually pay for. A press release costs X amount is a limited way of putting it. What does that price refer to in the end? Here are a few things you should consider when analyzing the price of a press release:

You pay for press release writing

The actual press release has to be written by someone. Unless you already have the text, you pay for the service of having a public relations professional writing it for you. Or editing and rewriting it if you have a rough draft of what you want to say.

The price of press release writing services vary. Who writes it and their expertise matters, how much material you provide and how many hours of research they invest in it adds to the price, how soon you want it might shift the price in one direction or the other. It’s one thing to need a press release where the person or agency you hire will need to support with basic research and have a two weeks deadline, and a completely different thing to require the PR pro to spend a full day researching your business and industry and also need to have it all done in two or three days.

You pay for press release distribution

After having the press release written, you might want more from it than see it posted on your website.You might prefer it to reach journalists, potential customers, business partners and other audiences. In this case you will need distribution added to your press release. There are free online distribution sites that you can try, or you can go for more advanced options. You could pick the top tier press release distribution service from PRWeb for about 400 US dollars or try other less expensive or more costly options.

There is also the possibility of the public relations pro or agency you hire building a custom media list for you, adding the news outlets, blogs and online magazines that would best fit your company and contacting them individually to pitch your story. This is of course one of the most expensive solutions, especially if mixed with a distribution service.

You pay for press release monitoring and reports

Someone has to see who picks your news release, where they publish it and what impact their actions have. Are people discussing your release on social networks? What are they saying? Compiling all this data takes time and interpreting it requires skill.

Here it is, a division of included services in the general cost of a press release. The quality of work, the expertise backing a certain PR pro, the speed at which they can deliver the service, these all should matter in your choice. But first and foremost you should know what to expect and moreover, what to ask for when buying a press release.

Today, a very cold and icy day, I met my friend Loredana Pascal at a down town cafe I usually like a lot. Mostly because of the menu, not their service. I was so happy to finally see her as work, life and other minor details meddled in our plans and it had been a while. I got there first and as I was pretty much frozen, so my first thought way hot chocolate!

Hot chocolate, the right choice! Only I love white hot chocolate and not all cafes or coffee shops have it. The cafe in question has it most of the times, one of the reasons for me choosing them So I ordered it! By the time Loredana arrived, a couple of minutes later, I had drunk half of it. She wanted the same thing and ordered it. The waitress told her, not before giving me a look that said “You’re a total freak for drinking that!”, how the traditional hot chocolate is much better!  Loredana still went for the white one…

So, in less then a minute and one sentence the waitress implied that we had bad taste and their cafe sold bad hot drinks to their customers! Awesome technique to win us over and make us spend more money! As Loredana explained in her earlier post in Romanian, we all love getting recommendations from those who know more about the menu then we do. We also love it when they recommend against something that’s really not tasty on a given day and point out something much better. But this is far from saying what a customer explicitly picked is basically the worst choice ever. Especially when the second customer goes for the same thing…

The line between saying those you’re attending have bad tastes and making a nice recommendation is not that fine. It’s actually quite easy to spot! If you don’t, it’s bad for business! And no, intentions don’t matter! Remember the saying about the road to hell?

Also, it’s only fair to notice two marketing and PR girls are a tough crowd!

How about you? Have you been in a similar situation where you felt the waiter or waitress was offending you instead of making a useful recommendation?

Guest post by Selena Narayanasamy

Writing a catchy jingle can be fun, but it’s not easy. Knowing how to make that one 30 second song that engages an audience to commit it to memory is more science than art form.

The most popular jingles have tricks that make their song one that gets hummed around the office. Let’s examine 6 iconic jingles, and the secrets of their success.

1. Fanta “Wanta Fanta?”

Lesson: Repetition

Those lovely Fantana ladies have the right idea. A good jingle makes sure the audience knows the name of the product. The Fanta commercial mentions the product name constantly. If the audience doesn’t know the name, something is wrong.

2. McDonalds “Big Mac Song”

Lesson: Knowing Your Product

Never has a commercial been so straightforward and effective. The Big Mac Song simply lists the ingredients. A good jingle can just be about the benefits of a product. Of course McDonalds won’t mention the high cholesterol, or high risk for obesity with the commercial. Special sauce sells burgers, not heart attacks.

3. Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum “Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun”

Lesson: Stick to the Slogan

Sometimes the best place to get a jingle from is the slogan itself. If it’s good enough to plaster on billboards and print ads all over the world, it’s good enough to set to music. The Doublemint commercial took what already worked and expanded on it. It didn’t hurt to have a set of attractive twins to use as pitch women. That’s always a secret to success.

4. Kars4Kids “1-8-77-Kars-4-Kids”

Lesson: Use your Phone Number

We’ve seen other companies successfully do this as well. Using your phone number in your jingle is probably the catchiest and easiest way to instill a call to action into your viewers. Empire did the same thing (800-588-2300-EMPIRE)… or at least, I think that’s the jingle off hand.

They also allowed users to enter their own Kars4Kids jingle in a recent contest as a fun exercise in engagement.

5. Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs”

Lesson: Be Melodic

While this little ditty explores a number of lessons, what it excels at is being melodic. People all over the country tried (and failed miserably) to recreate this melodic tune with their co-workers, friends, family, or slightly drunk softball teams at the local bar. While they failed, everyone knew where to go for baby back ribs.

They also had a jingle contest. – thought I’m not sure if any of these will ever replace the original!

6. McDonalds “I’m loving it.”

Lesson: Keep It Brief

No one can tell you how long the original ad was that contained McDonalds now famous “I’m lovin’ it” slogan. All they remember is they walked away humming a little hip-hop melody and dreaming of quarter pounders. A good jingle should be to the point. If the point is the slogan, then make the slogan memorable by keeping it brief enough to commit to memory.

7. Coke “I’d Like to Buy The World A Coke”

Lesson: Be Memorable

There is no commercial more iconic than Coke’s “I’d Like To Buy The World a Coke.” Maybe it’s the commercial, set in the sun, filled with a bunch lovey dovey hippies in a field, conjuring up thoughts like “why are they singing in a field?” Or maybe the song was that good.

At the end of the day you don’t need catchy gimmicks or tricks, if the song is brilliant. Many couldn’t recite the whole song, but it was so memorable that the New Seekers re-recorded the song into a full length version.

Be great. That’s all a jingle really needs to work.

About the author

Selena Narayanasamy loves everything having to do with technology, social media, internet marketing and blogging. You can find her quirky ramblings on Twitter, or her personal site Esvienne.

Guest post by Jayson Jones

Of the many blogs that pop into existence (at the rate, in fact, of one blog per second), the vast majority are a form of “personal space.” These intentionally personal blogs are a sort of online journal, more about having a sense of territory than of really developing a following. However, for those who care about having a truly successful blog, the focus must shift to accommodate one group, and one group only: the users.

There are plenty of things you can do to make your site better for visitors; you can get an online web design degree, look up everything you can find on successful blog designing, or better yet follow these five simple tips that will help improve user experience on your blog.

1. Streamline Everything

On most blogs, there are links, pictures, design elements, advertisements, and just about everything else you could imagine, all littering the site haphazardly. Not only is this unattractive, but it’s nearly impossible to navigate through.

Streamline everything you can. Make navigation clear and simple to read, eliminate unclear or unnecessary elements, pull advertisements out of places where they interfere with navigation, and otherwise streamline the site. At the end of the day, users should be able to look at your page and know where everything is without a second glance.

2. Make It Easy on the Eyes

While making your site clean and streamlined will give some benefit here, it’s also important that it’s attractive overall. However, the term “easy on the eyes” is being used intentionally. You shouldn’t improve your design at the expense of readability or ease of use, so always avoid big design elements above the fold and black backgrounds with light text for your main content.

3. Use Widgets

There are blog widgets that do just about everything, ranging from speeding up your blog’s load times to making it easier to leave comments. While you shouldn’t over-pack your site, there’s almost no blog that can’t benefit from at least a widget or two.

4. Be Useful

People come to blogs for the sake of one person: themselves. Help them by creating useful content, such as tips and tricks. Additionally, in “standard” content, be sure to link to appropriate sites when relevant, cite sources when they’re mentioned, and otherwise make further exploration easy.

5. Ask Your Visitors

If you really want to know the nit-picky details that would make your visitors feel more at home, ask them yourself. You can do this by posting questions on your blog, but remember that many people still won’t respond. One of your best solutions is to invest in online survey software. However, this option is also very tricky; a survey request that’s too brazen will irritate visitors to no end, while one that’s too subtle will be missed entirely. This is a wise investment in learning your audience, but be sure to approach with care.

By making your site attractive and easy to navigate, simple to use, filled with rich content, and adapted to the needs of your visitors, you’re sure to improve the overall user experience. This is no footnote on optional quality, either. Remember, a loyal user base is the foundation to any truly successful blog.

About the author

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

It’s been a rich week in the online world in what usefull business, PR and Marketing tips are involved. Here are a few must reads for you to kick start the week with:

Lip-sticking blog’s guest writer Chloe Spencer explains Why Teens Are Addicted to Facebook.

A scandal raising once again well known issues – is the media biased? how far should you go when a journalist has published something partially true about yourself? are journalists in the business of half-truths? Oracle CEO to Fortune Reporter: ‘Hey Jerk…your job is telling half-truths’ via PR Newswire.

Thinking of turning your blog into a book? Then you should read about Barbara Swafford’s experience on Blogging without a Blog.

5 Not-So-Easy Steps to Manage Your Brand Online, an insightful post from Brian Solis on listening, engaging social media users and managing online brands.

Fair warning from Ben Yoskovitz (Instigator Blog): Scratching Your Own Itch May be Detrimental to Your Startup’s Health!

A great question coming from Amber Naslund – Are You Sure You Want That Social Media Job?

Shouldn’t social media be about the people boosting its power? Yet most social media platforms are in the bad habit of hunting down power users (who act as evangelits, driving hordes of traffic and attentions). Alex Cristache debates it in Social Media’s new creed: Power from the people.

Weekly Roundup on Travel Tweeks

Ed Stafford, First Man to Hike the Full Length of the Amazon River
This is a story about dedication, endurance and love for hiking and the wild outdoors. It took Ed Stafford a little over two years to complete the 4,000 mile hike along the Amazon River, from its source to its mouth,making him the first man in the entire world to succeed in such a challenging travel plan. He started his hike in Peru, back in April 2008 and finished it yesterday at Maruda Beach, Brazil.
More

Roatan Island, Honduras: Scuba Diving Paradise
Welcome to the astonishing Roatan Island, Honduras, the largest of all Bay Islands and dream destination for scuba divers across the world.
More

My articles on Everything PR

Absolutely Public Relations’ big fail in the challenging world of social media

Mia Farrow States Naomi Campbell’s Uncut Diamond Story Is Inaccurate

Carole White Agrees with Mia Farrow: Naomi Campbell lied

Apple Exec Mark Papermaster Leaves because of iPhone Antennagate

Tropical Storms Mess up BP Oil Well Sealing Plans yet again

New Jackie Evancho YouTube Viral Boosts America’s Got Talent Popularity [video]

comScore Twitter Worldwide Report: Indonesia, Brazil and Venezuela Score Top Growth

US PR Spending Rebounds, Set to hit USD 4.4 billion by 2014

Small Business Owners Continue Education to Expand Skill Set

2010 PRWeek Awards, Recognizing Excellence in Public Relations

Oprah Winfrey Hires Rosy O’Donnell on Her Soon to Come Cable TV Channel

Obama’s New PR Strategy: Send More Illegal Immigrants Home

Levi Johnston, from Dating Sarah Palin’s Daugther to Getting TV Reality Show

Scott Pilgrim vs The World Under-performs this Weekend, Proving Reviewers Wrong

Have an awesome week and see you all next Monday!

People have the habit of complaining about products and services online. When the complaints are relevant and an apology is needed, company representatives often post them on the blog where the initial problem was revealed. While some are great and solve the problem while both gaining the support and admiration of the blogger in question, others fail. After looking into a few of these apologies and trying to understand where people most commonly go wrong, I have rediscovered the art of writing effective replies to people’s problems.

But before I start, if you’re wondering why you should apologize in the first place, it’s because news travels fast online, if the problem is significant, there are great chances more people will complain and all that negativity will pop up when potential customers look you up online. You shouldn’t apologize for nonsense and give credibility to shady bloggers and nonexistant issues, but when the problem is real, you need to solve it, apologize for the inconvenience and let people know it has all been taken care of.

Here are a few tips for writing apologies that will help your company and not worsen the situation instead:

1. Recognize the problem and give it due consideration

Some apologies fail because while they say the “I’m sorry”, they fail to focus on the problem and the discomfort experienced by the customer. Instead, they rush through the apology and the unpleasant situation and focus on what the customer should have done, the proper channels to report the problem and how they can solve future problems. This is all wrong because if you’re replying, it’s clear the online piece of posting has reached its goal of making the issue known. Writing an apology that says this is not the right way and you won’t do much about it makes you look bad!

Instead, show sympathy for what they went through and recognize there was a problem on your side. Don’t try to cover it up with procedure mambo-jumbo.

2. Carefully explain what’s being done to solve the problem

Make sure your reply statement focuses on what you’re doing, not what should have happened when the customer noticed the issue. You may say it’s an unusual behavior, but focus on how you’re going to fix it, not how this is not typical for your company. The person in question won’t care, and those reading or following them won’t either. They will sit quietly and wait to see how you handle it and what you plan on doing.

3. If there’s a better way to report issues, express it while showing empathy

Don’t rush into listing 5 ways in which the customer should have reported the problem. Yes, it’s important for them to know they could have solved things faster, but make this part a side note and ask them nicely to follow your procedure in the future, never try to force it on them. They need to see why they should go through the trouble of doing as you ask rather than publish an angry status on Facebook, for example. Focus on the benefits of complaining to you directly and not to the world – quicker replies, professional assistance etc.

4. If you’re offering free stuff, don’t make it look like a bribe

Some freebies might seem like a good idea for a quick getaway. But if it looks like you’re trying to buy them, it will backfire. Make it sound like what it really is: compensation for the trouble they’ve been through, for the time they’ve wasted, etc. It has to be clear that this isn’t just a way to make the problem disappear, you will still deal with it, solve it and make sure it won’t happen again.

And here comes the most important part:

5. Write it like you mean it!

You might follow all my prior suggestions and you might still fail because you can’t make the person you’re addressing feel like you really mean what you say. They need to feel you really are sorry, you realize they are pumping money into your company and that you need them, while they can choose someone else, and that you actually are going to look into the issue and get it all sorted out. The apology needs to sound personal and genuine, not a cold piece of corporate writing that gets posted as a reply to all online complaints.

Have you written or received apologies? What’s your take on the subject and which are the tips and tricks you’ve discovered?

If there is one thing I’ve learned about PR is that there’s always something new to learn. And you find lessons in all possible places, such as learning about word of mouth from stray dogs. One of the best resources for new things to learn are your clients. While working with them, you’ll discover PR mistakes and PR goldmines. You will brainstorm and get to implement ideas that you’d never considered possible.

But while this is obvious, the link to knowledge run deeper. When you work with a client for a longer period, you get to know their partners and their clients. You learn about their issues, the mistakes they made and what they did that worked as a charm. If they come from different parts of the world, you will be receiving extremely valuable tips on intercultural communication.

So when you’re getting ready for your next meeting with your client, their customers or their partners, remember to keep your eyes and years open. I for one have learned a lot about crisis management from clients who’ve never been through a crisis, but whose target market was prone to PR disasters

What valuable PR and marketing lessons have you learned from your clients, your partners or from people you’ve worked with?

While browsing through my LinkedIn account, I just noticed this question about apps that allow you to schedule tweets. Some of the answers stated no one should ever schedule tweets, as it is spammy. Automation is bad, don’t do it. And I started wondering. Is it really spam? Or is it just a way to make work easier and give your followers a break? And the answer is, like always, it depends

I should first say I manage a few Twitter accounts. On some I schedule tweets, on others I don’t. On those who are there to provide news on a certain topic, I do schedule tweets. I usually find the news all at once and just sending them all out at the same time is actually more spammy to some users than scheduling them throughout the day. That does not mean I ignore the conversation. I check the stream every couple of hours, check what others are saying, retweet, reply, thank people for their comments and retweets.

When it comes to blog posts, a lot of what I write is scheduled. And when I set the publishing time and date, I also set the tweet. Basically because I tend to get caught up and I might forget. I do check it, I do interact, as I said before. And I really don’t think programming tweets is a form of spam.

When all your tweets are programmed and you are never there to talk, reply or answer questions, it is definitely spam. You are there to broadcast more or less forcefully whatever you please and you really don’t care what your followers have to say. But from that to saying any form of automation and of rendering your work fast and effective is spam is a long road to be traveled.

What about you? Do you schedule tweets? Do you think it’s spam when others do it? Should we ban all automation, good or bad from social media? I say not, yet it all needs to be approached with great care. And over to you…