Today social media travels at light speed on the Internet. The most popular sites for businesses remain Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, with YouTube and Google+ gaining regular usage and popularity. A social media presence is critical to business growth, yet if you’re unfamiliar with each site’s advantages, you’ll waste precious time and not produce the outcomes you seek.

These tips help you get the most productivity from the time you invest in social media marketing:

1. Do your homework. Become familiar with all of the major social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+) and who is on them. Not all sites are appropriate for all businesses. Go where your demographic is. Seek out the best two or three sites for your business and goals. Where are similar industries or professionals most visible?
2. Strike a balance. Of course, you want potential customers to find your business through social media marketing, but aggressive advertising is a turn off. We recommend an 80/20 split: 80% industry related information, news and education, 20% self-promotion.
3. Have good writing/content. Make it interesting, consistent and focused on your primary target audience.
4. Be consistent. These are Three Girls Media’s recommendations for minimum posting requirements to raise brand awareness and name recognition:

• Twitter: 1-3 quick “tweets” per day. Be punchy and you have no choice but to be concise with a 140 character maximum. If appropriate, offer downloadable coupons or special deals via “tweet.”
• Facebook: 3-5 posts per week. Share something informational and entertaining (“infotainment”). Have fun and encourage fans to engage. Use tools like “questions” to learn valuable info from your customers. Here’s an example of a possible Facebook campaign: Post 3-4 times per week, making the first post about your business, including a link to an informative blog, or run a poll about something related to your industry. In post #2, highlight a positive experience with another business. With post #3, recommend someone’s related industry (perhaps a power partner); in #4, offer a helpful tip or share a news item. Repeating these steps consistently builds trust, longevity, name recognition and a loyal following.
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is great for meeting power partners and other professionals, and finding discussion groups or events relevant to your industry or market. Set up a personal page and a page for your business, and post 3-5 times per week sharing news relevant to your industry. Join groups that make sense for your business and participate in them regularly both starting, and responding to, discussions.  Aim to stay in the “Top Influencers” sidebar in each group you join by frequent participation (this will also raise your visibility with other professionals you haven’t met yet). Ensure your profile stays up to date by checking it regularly.
• YouTube: Pictures often communicate better than written words, so post short, informative videos on topics relevant to your industry on a consistent basis (once a week, once a month or even once a quarter). Bottom Line: Whatever you post, at whatever frequency, make sure that it’s relevant, informative or entertaining and useful.

Keeping up with today’s social media marketing takes time, attention to detail and consistency. It can be a do-it-yourself endeavor if you’ve done good research and scheduled time to stick to it. Three Girls Media helps businesses structure consistent and well-messaged social media marketing campaigns that raise brand awareness and name recognition. Email today for a free, no obligation social media assessment. Happy posting!

Photo Credit: Asthma Helper

In today’s quickly changing media landscape, integrating social media into your marketing and PR efforts is crucial. Three Girls understands that small and emerging businesses often lack the time or manpower to post as often as needed to make sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter effective. We’ll take the time to research your company and industry, finding great facts, news and updates to share with your followers, providing compelling ‘infotainment’ that will endear them to your brand.  If necessary, Three Girls will set-up accounts on your behalf, too! Cost: $50 and up per month (Price varies based on number of social channels being managed and how frequently they will be updated).

For more information about this Al La Carte PR option, or for other services available, give us a call at 408-871-0377 or send us an email.

Photo Credit: Asthma Helper

So how do you use HootSuite to manage your social media? Here are a few basic tips:

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Once it’s installed on the backend of your blog, Scribe’s program is very easy to use and highlights exactly what you can fix to make your post stronger. The tool even offers suggestions for making your keywords even more apparent.

So how do you use Scribe SEO? Once it’s installed, using the program is very simple! First, put your article together the same way you do now: write the article; add any links and pictures; add categories, keywords, tags and a meta-description; and make sure the post looks the way you want. Then:

Feel free to make changes in your post and then re-analyze to raise the content score. In WordPress, the results are color coded – green, yellow and red – so you know how effective your post is. Obviously 100% is best, but as long as you can keep it in the green, you can rest assured your post is SEO friendly.

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Is your email signature as strong as it could be?

Look at your email signature. What information is included? Your signature is an easy way to remind people of your contact information and reflect your brand. In fact, it’s a lot like an electronic business card stapled onto every email you send.

So how can you make your email signature as powerful as possible? Here’s what you want to include:

• Company Name and Website
• Your Title
• Your Phone Number
• Mailing Address
• Fax Number
• Social Networks with which you’d like people to connect with you (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

Even though email signatures are often ignored, you want to make it as concise as possible so if someone is looking for the information they can find it quickly and easily.

Some people also add graphics and change the font size/color to attract more information. Personally, I just use basic formatting as large pictures and strange sizes/colors don’t always show up the way you intend. As an example, here’s my signature:

Emily Sidley / Senior Director of Publicity
Three Girls Media and Marketing Inc.
Phone: (408) 871-0377, FAX: (866) 875-7847
Twitter: @ThreeGirlsMedia, Facebook: Three Girls Media
Mailing Address: 453 Sobrato Drive, Campbell, CA 95008
Three Girls Website: www.ThreeGirlsMedia.com

What tips would you suggest for creating a powerful email signature?

Photo Credit: Fletcher Prince

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These 5 tools can help you run your business even more efficiently.

Small business owners are busy. Since they don’t always have the time to research handy tools, here are 5 that I find especially convenient and use all the time:

Tool: Google Calendars
What I like: In addition to keeping my meetings in one place, Google Calendars allows you to create and share multiple calendars (Three Girls has one for each client that we each have access to), set email and pop-up reminders, organize tasks and integrate with your smart phone. Google Calendars is also a free tool you can use with your Gmail email account.

Tool: Hootsuite
What I like: This tool allows you to post and update ALL of your social media in one place. You can post updates on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, blog and other social sites all at once, or schedule them to go out at predetermined times in the future. Hootsuite also provides basic measuring – such as showing you how many people click on your links or retweet your posts.

Tool: Email Filters
What I like: Email filters are a standard tool with all email providers I know of; they’re a fantastic way to help you manage incoming messages. If you get a lot of emails that can wait for you to get to, such as e-newsletters or Google Alerts, filters are an easy way to get them out of your inbox so you can deal with them later. Instead of dealing with them as they come in, dedicate 20 minutes a week to going through these messages as a method of time management.

Tool: ScribeSEO
What I like: ScribeSEO is a tool that helps you make sure your blog posts are optimized for search engines by checking your keywords, links, word count, etc. Once it’s installed on the backend of your blog, it’s very easy to use and highlights exactly what you can fix to make your post stronger. ScribeSEO even offers suggestions for making your keywords even more apparent.

Tool: Free Conference Call
What I like: This free tool makes it easy to hold conference calls with anyone in the country; it provides a phone number and access code that you can share with anyone you want to talk to. Once it’s assigned, that number is yours and you can use it at any time. Every time the number is used, Free Conference Call sends an email at the close so you can see who called in when, making it easy to know exactly how long each person was on the call just in case you need to track such things.

See additional tools on Three Girls’ Free PR Resources page.

Never stop progressing, evolving and learning; a Guide to Online Schools will connect you to the best match for your interests and schedule.

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These 6 articles will tell you what your body language is saying, how to jump into social media and more.

Is your body language getting your message across? How should you start using social media for your company? Here are 6 articles to help you with those topics and more:

1. 10 Words That Don’t Mean What You May Think They Do http://ow.ly/4WVQf – English changes little by little over time. This post shares 10 words that mean something different than you may think.
2. 10 common body language traps for women in the workplace http://ow.ly/4TnFa – Is your body language saying something different than you intend? This article shares common ways women in the workplace miscommunicate their message based on how they stand, tilt their head, etc. A quick study of psychology might have some big payoffs.  Check out 50 Mind-Bending Psychology Blogs.  It provides some great advice to further understand your reader.  Never stop learning.
3. Do you run your business or work from a home office? Here are 7 steps to help you achieve work-life balance http://ow.ly/4VYhi – A lot of small business owners work from home. This article shares helpful tips for managin work-life balance.
4. How to jump into the social media pool without drowning http://ow.ly/4YLUI – This is a great resource for business owners jumping into social media. It includes advice regarding which types of media to use and activities you don’t want to forget.
5. Are you an educated business blogger? 12 things every business blogger should know how to do http://ow.ly/544tX – There’s a LOT of advice out there for business bloggers. This post shares a good list of things you don’t want to miss.
6. Life Without Twitter – An Infographic http://ow.ly/4VYi8 – This is a fun infographic of what life might be like without Twitter.

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How well do your business cards represent your company?

What do your business cards look like? Erika recently came back from an event with a stack, and it got me thinking about what makes business cards effective.

Your business card is a reminder of you and your brand. You want the overall design to reflect what you do, in addition to providing your contact information. If nothing else, be sure you include:

• Your name
• Your phone number
• Your email address
• Your website
• Your logo and tagline
• Any additional ways you’d like to connect with you, such as your Facebook page URL, Twitter handle, etc.
• Your mailing address and fax number for convenience, too.

Get creative when you design your business cards. A lot of business cards are mostly white, so feel free to use different colors – just make sure everything is still easy to read. You can also explore textures, holograms, round the corners, make it vertical, etc.

There are all sorts of websites that provide tips for making your card stand out – such as changing the shape, making them out of chocolate, etc. Feel free to explore different options and, if it’s cost effective and fits with your brand, give it a try. Personally, I prefer the standard size and shape, though. Here’s why:

• I like to take notes on business cards I receive. It’s hard to write a note on non-traditional business cards like CDs or coins, though.
• I have a business card holder to keep the cards I collect. Non-traditional cards won’t fit in the holder so I actually end up losing them instead of knowing where to look when I’ve got someone in mind.

Here are a few more tips for creating your business cards:

• Keep it simple. Don’t use too many fonts or include too much information as it can be confusing and convoluted.
• Triple check for typos. Use spell check and make sure your contact information is correct.
• Always have a few business cards with you. You never know when you’re going to run into someone that might be a valuable business connection.

Do you have any additional suggestions?

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Here are 5 must-read posts we’ve found around the Web recently.

Do you want to know how to write killer headlines? Or be happier at work? Here are 5 must-read posts we’ve found around the Web recently.

1. 21 things PR is NOT http://ow.ly/4D0Mx – Public Relations is a lot of things, but it is also NOT a lot of stereotypes people assume go along with the industry. This is a great list from Proper Propaganda of what PR isn’t.
2. 10 everyday decisions for social media success http://ow.ly/4jbp5 – Here are 10 decisions and choices you make daily that will impact your social media relationships, activities, and business results.
3. What makes people happy at work? http://ow.ly/4HFdY – Are you happy at work? This study gives practical ways to be happy at work, from having a flexible schedule to a pleasant physical workspace.
4. The 8 R’s of Twitter for Newbies http://ow.ly/4BwJy – Great advice from PR In Your Pajamas for those just getting started on Twitter.
5. 4 tips for writing killer headlines—from Gawker http://ow.ly/4jbsQ – This post provides 4 tips to help you write better headlines for your blog, Twitter, etc.

Photo Credit: SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget

Make sure you read these 5 articles

Do you want more Twitter followers? What about better relationships with influencers? Here are 5 articles that can help you achieve those goals, in addition to assisting you along the road to social media success, the press release and PR management.

1. How to get more Twitter followers – the definitive list? http://ow.ly/4hEFN – Do you want more Twitter followers? This blog post provides a lot of good suggestions, such as find people that work in your field that are interesting, follow them and try to engage them in conversation.
2. 7 gripes about the press release—from someone who writes them http://ow.ly/4cPoj – There are a lot of problems with the press release. This article discusses seven of the blogger’s gripes.
3. 10 everyday decisions for social media success http://ow.ly/4jbp5 – What decisions and choices can you make daily that will impact your social media relationships, activities, and business results? This post provides 10 decisions you can make that will help.
4. 4 tips to help PR managers manage http://ow.ly/4hEFf – From minimizing multi-tasking to learning about new tools, these tips are great for everyone – from PR Managers to Small Business Owners.
5. 5 steps to a better relationship with an influencer http://ow.ly/4hEGo – This article provides specific steps for pitching influential people in your industry like “Leave comments on blog posts” and “Send customized mass-mailed emails.”

Photo Credit: Morten Liebach

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