Author Archives: krista

Location Marketing: Smartphone Social Media

It’s no secret that online marketing is driving traffic into offline stores, so it’s no surprise that I am about to tell you that you MUST go online to get more business offline. There you have it – I just said that you need to go online to get more business offline. It’s no secret that online marketing helps offline businesses. Savvy businesses have been doing it for years (well, over a decade), but this new era – the era of mobile devices and GPS geolocation featuring business locations and sharing that you liked or didn’t like or recommend or don’t recommend a company is changing things once again.

My point is… everyone has a smartphone.

If you have a smartphone you can use one of a couple dozen apps to find a place to shop, eat, drink or be merry. There are communities forming to see who can post the most up to date location, places they have eaten, places they have played and more. These communities reward users for their input, which typically means if they love you or hate you, they are going to post about it. The next person that uses their phone to find you will read what they have to say.

You may be wondering how your business location got on those apps. There are three ways this happens:

1. Google or other yellow page type directories submits your info.

2. Users enter your location, address and other information.

3. You enter your information.

Now, it can be impossible to

Aqua Dogs Lands Major Press after TMG Work

Trendy Media Group has a history of being quite about our successes, but in the coming months we will begin spotlighting some of our work. This month we want to talk about Aqua Dogs, a local dock diving organization that recently held an event. The event titled Paws in The Pool was held at the Aqua Dogs facility in Lancaster, Ohio. As a new organization (less than three months old) word needed to get out about the event, it’s charitable cause and all of the scheduled special events and guests. Trendy Media Group went to work and devised a plan that included a media blitz, event distribution and other tactics to get the word out about the event. We timed the PR distribution for 5 days before the event. We launched on a Tuesday and by Wednesday the event was picking up major media. On Saturday the event launched having had two spots on major local radio, two spots on major local television and the front page of the local paper (and website edition). They also had a major Columbus news station show up at the event with their cameras.

The event was a major success with over 650 people attending.

The video below is of our client, Terry Cook, with Gail Hogan of a major Columbus news station.

You can get your custom quote for your local or national event PR by using our contact form.

Why Facebook, Twitter and Local Marketing Must be in Your Budget

I have watched a trend over the last few months as clients come to me and request “social media campaigns” … almost all of them have no idea how to have a successful campaign, most of them see social media as a waste of marketing dollars and nearly all of them will choose Facebook over Twitter if they don’t have the budget to pay for a professional to manage both.

Successful Campaign

Now, there are thousands of people out there saying they are “Social Media Managers” but the problem is that social media is more about psychology than it is marketing. Yes, anyone can post something on a social media account daily, but only someone trained in marketing (and yes, marketing gurus know a little about psychology) can think through a campaign and see what the customers will see, understand how the consumer mind will perceive it and change the campaign to get the targeted response. You won’t get that from an inexperienced social media manager and you won’t get that from someone who has never studied marketing.

There is more to social media than posting every day. It’s about strategy. It’s about engaging the viewer and it’s about building a following of hard core fans.

Waste of Marketing Dollars… Bah!

So many businesses are still wrapped up in traditional media that they overlook or limit the budget of their new media campaigns to the point that they set them up to fail. The fact of the matter is that more of your target market is hanging out on Facebook and Twitter than are reading anything in print. All of those phones you see in peoples hands instantly become a mobile marketing device. People are finding places to eat, reading friends check-ins and posts regarding your service and more. If you aren’t there to communicate with them, how will you grow your business? The answer is simple. You won’t.

Facebook, but not Twitter and Forget Local Search Marketing? Seriously?

Conversations with clients on social media or new media marketing always seem to go like this….

Me:

“So you want to begin promoting your business with Facebook and Twitter”

Them:

“Yes, what kind of fee are we looking at?”

Me:

“Let’s talk about your campaign and we’ll be able to determine what kind of price you are looking at…”

Them:

“Yikes! I don’t have that in my budget. We are running a newspaper ad this week (YIKES!) and….”

they continue….

“How much for just Facebook?”

See what I mean here… they don’t even consider that people are using their smartphones to stay connected. They look at the price and don’t see it as a marketing tool. Most businesses don’t realize that many potential customers or clients will search for your business on facebook and twitter before they ever do business with you and the facts are pointing to one truth: no updates = no business.

Now, consider how much a business pays for PPC advertising. If you are a local business such as a restaurant or doctors office you understand what it means to show up first for “Newark Dentist” or “Columbus Restaurant”. People are searching for these terms everyday and if you don’t even show up, your competition that is working on showing up just took  your business.

When it comes to facebook and twitter is it possible to use these social accounts to help you rank for these keywords. You will also see that when someone searches for “Company XYZ” (that’s you) , that your social media accounts will come up on the first page of google.

The same goes with local search marketing. If you don’t have someone helping your promote your business with local search marketing, you are losing out on a swarm of potential clients. Did you know that there are geolocation apps for Droids and iPhones that will tell potential customers how close they are to you and show your average rating? If you aren’t searchable or marketing using these tools you will be overlooked every time.

Sadly, most of my clients seem to choose just Facebook and forget Twitter and local search.

For those of you that do pay for advertising on traditional or pay per click advertising, how much do you pay per impression… per person looking at your ad?

I know that newspapers and other social media companies are showing you numbers hoping you won’t understand what you are seeing, so here’s my latest stats from a twitter party I hosted last week.

See that 1.6 million number? Yeah… those 195,000 people actually viewed our conversation 1.6 million times. The rule in marketing is that you need to have your brand seen 7x before people will remember it. How about 8.55 times? That’s right people. Effective marketing at it’s finest!

I will post more this week about new and social media, feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

TMG CEO Named to Pregnancy Awareness Month Advisory Board

Trendy Media Group’s CEO Krista Conway was named to Pregnancy Awareness Month’s Advisory board along with Ricki Lake, Dr. Greene, Lisa Druxman and others. She is the newest member of the team.

Pregnancy Awareness Month began four years ago and has grown to include several thousand Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Each May Pregnancy Awareness Month celebrates with an event held in California.

For more information on Pregnancy Awareness Month, please visit www.PregnancyAwarenessMonth.com.

To view the complete advisory board, please visit http://pregnancyawareness.com/about/pam-advisory-board/

Online Press Release Distribution Site List

Here is the amazing list of sites where we will submit your press releases. Cool Aye?

1. www.prbd.net
2. www.free-press-release.com
3. www.1888pressrelease.com
4. www.sanepr.com
5. www.prlog.org
6. www.pressreleasepoint.com
7. www.24-7pressrelease.com
8. www.free-press-release-center.info
9. www.pressmethod.com
10. www.ideamarketers.com
11. www.live-pr.com
12. www.afly.com
13. www.prcompass.com
14. www.pr.com
15. www.malebits.com
16. www.media-newswire.com
17. www.pressreleasespider.com
18. www.information-online.com
19. www.newdesignworld.com
20. www.oylinki.com
21. www.freepressreleases.co.uk
22. www.prfocus.com
23. www.i-newswire.com
24. www.pressreleases.kcstar.com
25. www.ezpress.info
26. www.prurgent.com
27. www.myfreepr.com
28. www.PrArticle.com
29. www.mediasyndicate.com
30. www.postafreepressrelease.com
31. www.seenation.com
32. www.nationalprwire.com
33. www.speedypr.com
34. www.transworldnews.com
35. www.pressrelease001.com
36. www.newsblaster.com
37. www.newsalbum.com
38. www.clickpress.com
39. www.ukprwire.com
40. www.usprwire.com
41. www.openpr.com
42. www.pressbox.co.uk
43. www.pressexposure.com
44. www.theopenpress.com
45. www.businessportal24.com
46. www.exactrelease.com
47. www.freepressindex.com
48. www.pressreleasecirculation.com
49. www.pressreleasecollection.blogspot.com
50. www.prwindow.com
51. www.localnews.biz
52. www.prfriend.com
53. www.freepressrelease.co.cc
54. www.news.eboomwebsolutions.com
55. www.freightnet.com
56. www.pressrelease.com.np
57. www.pressmediawire.com
58. www.fstribune.com
59. www.epicpr.com
60. www.pressreleasemonkey.com
61. www.prfree.com
62. www.siouxcityjournal.com
63. www.loraincounty.com
64. www.publicrelations.uk.com
65. www.npr.org
66. www.michiganbusiness.us
67. www.cincinnati.com
68. www.journal-courier.net
69. www.delawareonline.com
70. www.earthtoys.com
71. www.dailyrecord.com
72. www.user-groups.net
73. www.secure.townnews.com
74. www.joplinglobeonline.com
75. www.parking.org
76. www.imcasweb.com
77. www.sixsigmazone.com
78. www2.ljworld.com
79. www.hrotoday.com
80. www.allcapecod.com
81. www.epscene.com
82. www.worldacd.com
83. www.zrelease.com
84. www.todayslocalnews.com
85. www.pressrelease4all.com
86. www.24by7pressrelease.com
87. www.pressreleaseleap.com
88. www.prcarrier.com
89. www.nextpressrelease.com
90. www.circulatepr.com
91. www.pressreleasepedia.com
92. www.pralley.com
93. www.prmarker.com
94. www.way2pressrelease.com
95. www.prtake.com
96. www.pressreleaseset.com
97. www.pressreleaseunit.com
98. www.clipreleases.com
99. www.pressrelize.com
100. www.pressonwire.com

Free Marketing Analysis Tools You Need

So, I have spent most of my day snooping around and was fortunate enough to run into some really cool tools that are:

1. free (yay) and,

2. easy to use.

So, here they are on the site. Enjoy!

KEYWORD CHECKER – Find out the keyword density of your site. The larger the word, the more densely it is used.

Keyword Tool .. . This tool provides you keyword suggestions and reports on their monthly search estimates.

Finally… the backlink tool. OMG you have to use this! Now! I mean it!
This tools searches for websites of the theme you specify that contain keyphrases like “Add link”, “Add site”, “Add URL”, “Add URL”, “Submit URL”, “Add Article” etc. Most of the results could be quality potential backlinks.

PPC vs. SEM vs. SEO and Your Marketing Budget

So, you have some money to market your business. What are you going to do with it?

Chances are you run right for the google adwords, yahoo advertising or facebook ads pages and place your bets with the PPC gods, right? Well, okay, some of you do and I’m not here to say that it is an all-and-all bad thing. PPC has a time and a place. With that said, here are a few times you should use PPC for your business:

1. When you first open your business.
2. If you have a special offer.
3. If you want fresh leads.

That’s it people. That is it.

You want to make your money WORK for you… not the other way around. So, although you may not see a huge spike in sales in the beginning, the work goes towards the greater good of your business if you:

1. Write and distribute articles.
2. Write and distribute press releases.
3. Get listed on Yelp, Yahoo and Dmoz, etc….
4. Build backlinks to your site
5. Post on your blog.
6. Publish videos.

Okay, you get the idea. You see where I am going. That $0.97 you spent on ONE CLICK just went bye-bye. After 10 clicks you could have purchased an article over at www.ArticlesThatRock.com (I know the owner and the writing team behind this site, actually, I built the team so I know they are the best). That one article can be published and spread like wildfire throughout the internet and guess what… IT’S NOT GONE AFTER ONE CLICK! I have seen articles go viral, articles with thousands of views. Articles, articles, articles EVERYWHERE! They increase page rank, SEM, SEO and more. As do press releases and more. Also, videos increase traffic to your site.

HERE’S THE POINT.

If you have to PAY each time someone gets directed to your website… STOP IT RIGHT NOW! Okay, so don’t stop it if you meet the criteria listed before, but do stop it if you have the money to pay someone to write content for you. It just makes sense to be working on a marketing strategy that will work LONG TERM for your business.

Get to it!

Facebook Like Button on Websites

If you’re a Facebook user you’ve probably already noticed that some websites are starting to incorporate a “Like” button on website that resembles the Facebook “like” button.

Well, that’s because it IS the Facebook Like button!

Yes, that’s right! It’s one in the same.

The controversy has already started to stir. Some people have said that the like button appearing on websites is the Facebook way of being able to track where you’ve been. But, if you are a website owner, the Like button is like gold. You may have already noticed that we’ve incorporated one on our website.

Your next question may be WHY would we want to assist Facebook in knowing where our readers/users are browsing.

Well, firstly, our readers, just as your readers, can choose whether they want to click the button or not. Secondly, if they DO click the like button it sends a link to their Facebook profile that tells their friends that they like our site and also generates a backlink from the internets most popular website back to our site. Duh. We are going to have a like button.

So, does that mean you should have a like button on your site?

It’s really up to you, but you need to understand that you, along with everyone else using Facebook, have an opportunity to cease a moment. Take a look and see if your competitors are using the Like button. Be the first to use it…. watch your traffic increase. It really is going to be that simple. Most sites, like ours, have the social buttons that allow people to share the site, but Liking the site is a whole new ball game. Get in on it.

Has Google Smacked Your Websit…

Has Google Smacked Your Website with a Ban? Find out.. http://trendymediagroup.com/has-google-banned-you http://bit.ly/cTby1H

Has Google Banned You?

Has Google Banned Your Website?

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