The Buyer Group PR + SEO News

Search Marketing Conferences
PubCon – The search-marketing event of the year that fuels a surge of new energy and ideas for The Buyer Group each year. Looking forward to the PubCon in Austin, Texas.
Search Engine Strategies (SES) – A yearlong schedule of search marketing and commerce events for our online fix. Next stop SES New York March 23-26, 2009.

2008 was great in the world of conferences, where Lisa Buyer held a spot in the speaker’s lounge. Lisa shared the latest trends in online PR on session panels at both PubCon and SES along side the top the movers and shakers in search.

People in Search
Joe Laratro – one of the first 100 Google AdWords certified professional, SFIMA President and Pub-Con Advisor Board Member, this year Joe Laratro worked with The Buyer Group in merging online public relations with the SEO world.
Dana Todd – From SEMPO Chair to SES favorite speaker to Newsforce dynamo, Dana Todd is the personality and brains behind search marketing and was responsible for Lisa’s SES speaking debut.

When it comes to personalities in search marketing, Joe and Dana take the cake. Each were influential in helping shape The Buyer Group’s online public relations and branding position in the marketplace.

Blogs
Top Rank Blog– The intersection of digital PR, social and search engine marketing, Lee Odden’s blog is our 2008 all time fave to follow. We like Lee’s mix and his ability to be at every search conference on the planet.
SEOMOZ – Slightly more techie, but still on our Google home page is Rand Fishkin’s SEOMoz blog. We like his style and his social media conference presentations inspire us.
Scene in the Tropics by Lesley Abravanel – Looking for where to see and be scene on South Beach? Ask Lesley. She is the best celebrity and trend blogger for those who want to know.

Online PR Wire Services
MarketWire – Recently winning over The Buyer Group for its high ranking news search placement and SEO option
PRWeb – Always a favorite of The Buyer Group for its user-friendly interface and video option
Newsforce – The best and easiest PR optimizer on the planet along with the perfect way to get clients instant national headline news.

Research Web Sites
Google – Need we say more? We love Google Alerts to track brands, keywords and our online PR campaigns.
Wikipedia – The year of the wiki, 2008, when The Buyer Group posted its first wiki page

Inventions
Retail DNA Tests– 2008 invention of the year, as scene in Time Magazine

New Business
Shop to Earn/Shop to Earth – The Buyer Group’s newest online venture and client. This hybrid MLM and affiliate marketing business model is destined to be the largest shopping portal on the planet and will bring the average shopper a way to earn money back while also being eco-friendly.
Oppenheim Pilelsky Law – Family of entrepreneurs at it’s finest. Read on about The OppGuide and please take the time to vote.

Books
“Groundswell” by Charlene Li – New and improved Buyer Group Bible of 2008 underlines why social media is a natural with online public relations strategies.
“Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness” – Suzanne Somers’ latest book that listed Buyer Group client as a source

Brands
Apple – Apple computers, iPods, iPhones and more.
W Hotels – “What is your wish?” the W Concierge asks

The Buyer Group is an online PR firm that prefers designer computers and boutique hotels, with an edge. Apple branded products help us work smart and be creative – so we have time to play at the W Hotels.

Best Use of Social Media
Change.gov – Obama’s presidential campaign couldn’t have been more successful as he rode the social media wave to victory.

Social Media Sites
Twitter – 2008’s Micro-blogging, social media site of champions. Familiar with the book, “Twitter Revolution” by Warren Whitlock? If not, pick it up for everything you need to know about communicating on twitter.
Facebook – Sent a martini to your friends Facebook yet? This social site is our 2008-networking favorite; it doubles as a corporate communication site as well.  Many of our clients have networking groups and fan pages on Facebook.
LinkedIn – Where professionals convene, drop recommendations, and share business contacts with each other.

Tweeters of the Year
Shannon Anderson – founder and president of babiesonline.com @queenofgeek
Tony Hsieh – CEO of online shoe giant Zappos.com @zappos

Escapes
Me Day Spa – The best mani/pedi on South Beach. Our monthly favorite escape.
Yoga South – Lunchtime workout? A must-have for The Buyer Group. Ohm.

Investment Banking
Infusion Capital’s Kelly McCarthy – Celebration, FL at its finest.

Online Tool
Google Analytics – The question of the century made to PR firms: How do you measure the success of your PR campaigns?  Easy Answer: The advent of Google Analytics let’s us measure the success of optimized press releases stats, social media facts and more.

Online PR Company Gifting Policy… meaningful more than monetary

Choosing client gifts can be tricky. Do you go with something professional like a paperweight, online public relations book, or logo business card holder? Or do you give something more personal like a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant?

The Buyer Group goes with meaning.

Gift giving for client birthdays and holidays is an important part of relationship building and maintenance.

Jeff Zbar, noted South Florida media writer and blogger, took note of the strategy behind The Buyer Group’s gift giving.

“Lisa Buyer with online marketing firm The Buyer Group has purchased her clients art (simple stuff, nothing from Sotheby’s), CDs, and one year, a copy of The Richest Man in Babylon”

Rather than typical “throw-away” gifts given by some agencies to clients, we like to gifts to send a message other than, here is our logo on something you might throw away.

Top of the list of The Buyer Group client gifts is the book Groundswell by Charline Li. This book helps to educate clients on the wave of social media, especially those that are intimidated or not participating in social networks.

Happy Gifting!

Word of Mouth PR Replaces Old School Ads

According to The Buyer Group’s online pr team, the old adage of spending money to make money isn’t necessarily true. How is this possible you ask? Well, the New York Times has the answer, and they’re called Yelpers. (Yel * Perz: n. def: an individual who uses www.yelp.com to create product and service reviews, to spread the word about quality businesses.)

In a recent article, NY Times business writer Dan Frost profiles several business owners who have increased their profits and decreased their ad spending simply by utilizing Yelp and other social media sites.  The Buyer Group can attest to the increase in online visibility that our clients receive with the simple addition of social media networking to their business model.

When participating in Yelp, business owners can also join in on the conversation by responding to user reviews and encouraging patrons to review them on Yelp in their physical business locations.

Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with Forrester Research contributes to the article with this important fact: 83 percent of consumers trust the opinion of their peers when making product and service choices. Yelp allows consumers to reign supreme over advertisements, as they should.

To read the article in full about how Yelp can be a valuable interactive public relations tool click here.

By Sarah Van Elzen

The thought of branding and formatting a creative HTML email or electronic newsletter with links and graphics can be overwhelming. However, knowing the importance of frequent, branded email communication kept me front row at the latest Constant Contact seminar.

After all, direct mail is becoming a thing of the past.

As industry trend watchers and online gurus, The Buyer Group team has found the next best thing: do-it-yourself email marketing.

After only a few minutes of the Constant Contact meeting, I questioned the performance and delivery of pre-tech-age corporate communication – not to mention its efficiency.

Constant Contact is a powerful, cost effective email marketing solution that allows you to send content-specific, customer oriented emails to your entire database in a matter of seconds. Options such as double opt-in forms, customizable sign up pages, spam filers, and most importantly reporting functions allow even the most novice user to find their way around the program easily.

The reporting function is the most beneficial of the program.  It delivers the following information:

•    How many emails were sent and delivered
•    What percentage of your contacts opened the message
•    The click through rate percentage
•    Which links had the most click-throughs and by what percentage
•    How many contacts opted-in or opted-out
•    How many contacts forwarded email messages to a friend
•    Identify emails that “bounced back” and why
•    Compare results from your three most recent email marketing campaigns

In addition to reporting, using Constant Contact makes it easy to build and customize your email messages with an email wizard that walks you through the templates step-by-step. You even have the option to customize each template to complement the look and feel of your business.

For more information on The Buyer Group’s Interactive PR email marketing programs email Lisa Buyer: lbuyer@thebuyergroup.com

By Sarah Van Elzen

Using email as a PR tool is done everyday on personal and business emails. All interactive public relations strategies should include today’s most universal mode of communication…email.

Your overflowing inbox stands as proof that the majority of today’s communication activity happens through online conversation and email. From a business standpoint, email marketing can be successful and beneficial if the right tactics are used.

On the other hand, when strong email marketing strategies are not employed, your message can stir negative associations with your brand.

To ensure positive brand recognition, ensure all of the elements of successful email campaigns are in place.  If not, do some more editing until the checklist is complete.  Here’s why:

1.    The subject line of your email determines if it will actually be opened. This has an impact on your company’s brand equity. In fact, 30 percent of consumers in a recent study by DoubleClick say the subject line most often determines whether they open an email or delete it.
2.    Your email may end up in the spam filter if your links are not set up properly or you have a poor reputation
3.    Special offers in email work best when they support the brand or industry you are sending to.  You can get more than three times the lift in response if the offer is relevant to the message, so recognize the importance of content/subject line relation.
4.    If you leave out the option to control the email subscription (opting in or out) you loose credibility and risk reputation issues.

We recommend sending all online communication by ways of best practice email marketing. If you are interested in taking the work out of your hands, The Buyer Group offers interactive pr programs that include email marketing. Email Lisa Buyer (lbuyer@thebuyergroup.com) to learn how to integrate email marketing into your online pr strategy and check back in the next few days for more pr tools and email marketing tips.

All Eyes Online

Best PR Strategies for More Visibility and Qualified Leads

By Lisa Buyer

What do you say when your customers ask “How come your company doesn’t come up in Google?”

Does your public relations strategy consider your buyer’s online ‘search’ habits? Are you coming up in key word searches related to your brand name, product or service? Are you participating in the online conversations and getting search engine visibility in Google News, YouTube, Yahoo News and reaching out to influential bloggers?

The answers should all be yes, without question, and if there was any hesitation in coming up with the answer, your public relations direction is very “yesterday”…impacting your bottom line tomorrow, if not today.

The public relations world is in a major transition offering more opportunity for sales and lead generation than ever.

Yesterday’s traditional PR agency focused on generating editorial coverage in the likes of print and broadcast media. Landing a story in USA Today or CNN was a measurement of success. Clipping books were the proof points. Print coverage does still have its place; the return on investment for online media coverage is the best bet.

Consider these statistics:
• A PEW/Internet and American Life study reports that the place Americans turn to most for answers is the Internet.
• Health is one of the topics that online Americans turn to the Internet for most, but also area in which searchers are most concerned about accuracy and privacy.
• Over three quarters of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue
• News search engines are the major source for online news
• Press releases have topped trade publications as the top source for online news
• 80% of home buyers begin their search online and Real estate professionals say that search engines are the most popular venue for marketing
• Nearly 70 percent of all reporters check a blog list on a regular basis
• 44% of US consumers will use social networking such as LinkedIn, Facebook or My Space at least once a month in 2008.
• YouTube attracts the most online traffic and is consistently rated the favorite social media site by US Internet users, some say it will predict the election
• One in four reporters (27.7%) have their own blog and about one in five (16.3%) have their own social networking page
• Over half said that blogs were having a significant impact on the “tone” (61.8%) and “editorial direction” (51.1%) of news reporting
• Nearly half of all journalists report visiting a corporate website or online newsroom at least once a week.” *
• More than 85% report visiting a corporate website or online newsroom at least once a month

Most companies are adjusting and evolving based on this momentous shift in the industry and experts predict more will change in the next five years than have transpired in the past 50 years for media.

News is no longer delivered to the front porch and print ads are quickly losing the luster.

People are customizing the news they are looking for on personalized home pages with specific keywords and brand names subscribing to iGoogle or MyYahoo. They are following niche-oriented bloggers who are talking about topics and trends of interest. They are having online conversations and socializing in LinkedIn, Facebook and Twiiter. They are sharing experiences, stories, and photos, creating their own content, and acting as their own publishers.

So if PR is no longer merely the sources of content for the media and bloggers are out there publishing their take on the news, not to mention determining the news… what can you do to adjust your online PR strategy?

Companies today need to have a public relations plan that includes an Internet strategy. Without it, companies will quickly loose marketshare, exposure and opportunities to generate leads and retain business.

Online conversations are happening and businesses can choose to participate in those online conversations and take a proactive approach or they can sit on the sidelines and do nothing.

More now than ever, PR is redefined with the opportunity to communicate and interact directly with targeted audiences. Whether these audiences find their information at multimedia forums, such as YouTube and FlickR or they subscribe to a specific blog that feeds to their Google home page, online public relations is one of the most influential components of communications.

In April of ‘07 IProspect.com did a social network user behavior study which is still highly relevant today.

One finding…
"Social networking sites are influencing the purchasing decisions of a meaningful percentage of the Internet users who visit them, requiring marketers to identify the sites where the level of influence is high, and to devise ways to positively engage with the visitors of those sites (“communities”)." To download the full white paper from IProspect Click Here .

Online PR Musts
1. Optimized content – Optimized press releases and web content using SEO (search engine optimization) best practices such as strategic keyword phrases will help improve online visibility and can drive measurable traffic and sales.
2. Distribution – channels to push and distribute content include newswire services such as PRWeb, BusinessWire and PRNewswire, Flickr, Technorati, YouTube, Blogs and Search Engine News.
3. Social Media Relations – It’s matchmaking for business. Targeting and connecting to your target market is becoming easier as networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn add millions of new users each week. If you’re not on it, join it. Facebook actually has a group called Power Social Media Strategies that is a very useful resource.
4. Measure the Results – Online public relations is measurable with analytics programs that tell where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site. Analytics tools from sources such as Google Analytics, Wire service reports and blog monitoring services can tell you a wealth of information from key word related results to map overlays and visitor trends.
5. Blogs – If you don’t have your own blog, start following the bloggers who are talking about your industry, interests or trends. If you want to follow more about search engine marketing and public relations, check out some of these SEO/PR Blogs http://www.thebuyergroup.com/blog , http://www.seomoz.org/blog/ , http://www.toprankblog.com/
6. Local Search: Hone in on the local market and get better results in a more efficient manner with avenues like Google Local Search and Local.com.
7. Online Reputations: Monitoring and interacting with reviews on sites like Yelp can drive traffic to your Web site and generate sales – pay attention to online conversations.
8. Learn from the Search Rock Stars – If you feel like you need to learn more, you should attend a professional search engine marketing conference and get ahead of your competition. Best bets include Search Engine Strategies , PubCon
and most recently, the leader is Search Marketing Expo

With today’s online public relations opportunities, the key word is measurement…and the measurement is in the key word.

About Lisa Buyer
Writer, publicist, brand junkie and SEO geek, Lisa Buyer is president and CEO of The Buyer Group, an interactive public relations and branding agency specializing in search engine savvy consulting catering to real estate, health, beauty and technology companies. A University of Florida graduate, Lisa has owned a PR agency for more than 15 years and regularly attends professional search engine strategy and Internet conferences to continue to deliver best practices.

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lisabuyer
Find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com
Connect me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lisabuyer

by Lisa Buyer
president and ceo of
The Buyer Group, an interactive public relations and branding agency

After attending OMMA, the global online media, marketing and advertising conference, I came back a new person, literally. Besides being privy to the forecasts of online media, I now officially have my own personalized WeeWorld avatar. As you read this, you may think what a techie geek. Well, there are 21 million of us and growing along with the social media space.

Online Media Keynotes

The Internet has already surpassed television based on one significant statistic–the number of gross advertising impressions served, concluded keynote speaker Gian Fulgoni, executive chairman and co-founder of comScore. He also noted the latency effect of search, which measures the long-term brand and sales effects of online advertising and search campaigns.

•    16 percent is a direct response online
•    21 percent overtime response online
•    63 percent caused consumers to do something offline overtime

So think like this, take the money you are spending online “x amount” each month and measuring how many direct leads are converting – well 63 percent of those dollars spent will eventually result in some offline sales and marketing effect in the future…

Know your user and make better content. That was the message from Patrick Keane, now chief marketing officer for CBS Interactive after spending four plus years at Google.

Keane talked about the math and science of online marketing. More video grit than I really cared about. But a few amazing stats: Facebook is almost as big as Google with page views…Meanwhile, YouTube has surpassed search and wins the popularity contests against Google with more page views!

So what’s the big deal with video and why is it the next big thing? People are lazy and video is easy. Searching and reading text is a lot more work than searching and watching a video about, let’s say, the house or computer you want to buy.

The history of the Internet goes like this:
‘90s – we used the Internet for email and communications
‘00-05 – the rise of search content
Today – communication and content are converging with email, instant messaging and blogging. Think tweets on Twitter.

On the creative side of search, there was good news. “Good stories don’t come from machines," said Chuck Porter, co-chairman of Crispin Porter. "If you’re creative and good at it, you probably don’t need to worry about machines." Porter emphasized the importance of story telling and used examples of his agency character stories with a viral effect such as Burger King’s subservient chicken
and Whopper Freak-out
He says the game has not changed from offline media to online media, it just got faster.

OMMA Session Highlights –

I sat through sessions for two days, some good, some I felt I could have done a better job.
Here are the highlights from my favorite OMMA sessions

Paid versus organic?

The question is whether it is better to be number one in paid results or number one in organic results. The answer is – be number one in both.

In a recent SEMPO survey, nine out of 10 advertisers say they compete in SEO natural search results, 70 percent on SEM – paid search campaigns.

The disconnect? The amount of money poured into online advertising dwarfs the amount invested in search engine optimization. It seems we are greedy, we want the immediate gratification of paid advertising but we say we want the results of natural search without the investment. The overall time and resources invested is natural search is nominal across the boards with most companies. Pay to play is easier than participating in the relationship of search. Organic search is kind of like a relationship. If you say you want to be in it, spend the time nurturing and cultivating it. 

What can you do?
•    Get your web team focused on natural search strategies
•    Use your digital assets on the Internet – videos, press releases
•    SEO and SEM work in tandem, analyze the traffic together
•    Test out different landing pages with SEM and then apply to SEO
•    Find keywords working on SEO, transition to SEM
•    Get as much shelf space on the search results page as possible

Search and perception. Research also tells us consumers don’t care if they find you through a paid or natural search result, they only care about relevancy. But there is a slight perception factor. Being at the top of natural search results is perceived as leadership, being at the top of paid searched means you have deep pockets.

One final note on search – paid or natural – consumers are becoming smart searchers and searching with longer more detailed keyword phrases (long tail keywords).

Social Media – Jump in headfirst or toe in the water?

Chat rooms, blogs, forums, social networks, social bookmarking and virtually any site that allows conversational interaction is a prime venue for the rapidly growing field of social media marketing – an essential tool in every PR/SEO campaign that is often misunderstood or just plain ignored.

The social media stats today:
43 percent of online users will use a social media site this year
5.7 percent of media dollars will be spent on social media sites

So  there is an obvious divide between adoption of users and adoption of marketers.

Let’s go back to the history lesson again
The evolution of the Internet and behavior shift
90’s users looking for content
2000 users were hunting, sharing mp3 music downloads
2008 – doing – interact with each other

The good news on social media marketing, if we can figure out how to do it right and monetize, there has never been a more targeted way to interact with users. For example, a yoga studio owner in Boca Raton can market direct to all yoga enthusiasts on the Palm Beach network of Facebook. The author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” can announce to a targeted group of readers when her next book is coming out.

The day I turned into an avatar.

Last but not least, my favorite social media speaker was Lauren Bigelow, senior vice president of marketing for WeeWorld, A SOCIAL NETWORK turned virtual world and home of the popular WeeMee avatars. At first, I thought…how relevant could this be to my interactive PR and branding agency? Little did I know I would be obsessively creating a Lisa Buyer-mini-me avatar and changing outfits 10 times and decorating my online office for my avatar to be productive and cozy in. I’m happy with my outfit … even though I couldn’t find a pair of True Religion jeans or a Prada purse from my WeeMee closet, but I am sure to expect designer labels available soon. A Starbucks coffee would also be nice.

Considering there are 21 million avatars in the world and I am one of them, there is something to be taken seriously here. The WeeWorld company has grown 614 percent in the past year and that number is probably bigger in just the past week since the stat was reported. “When it comes to social media and interacting with users, it’s all about self-expression, creativity and entertainment,” says Bigelow.

Bigelow shared the Fours I’s of social media engagement as:
•    Involvement
•    Interaction
•    Influence
•    Intimacy

The email marketing session was also top of my list, but I will be dedicating a whole story to that in my next week’s blog. But I will tell you this much, I am now analyzing every subject line more than ever. 

By Cindy Metzler
 
With many businesses feeling the economic pinch, now more than ever it’s important to get your brand out there and stretch the value of each and every marketing dollar. That’s why it’s back to basics: When the going gets tough, the tough get their marketing strategy going strong!
 
Here are some quick and easy ABC’s to keep you and your business in the forefront with your client:
 
Ask – Many successful businesses are built on mastering the art of communication . Ask lots of questions. ASK your customer how you did. It’s a great way of letting your clients know that they matter. Customers appreciate when you care about what they think and are typically more apt to stick with businesses that do. If you’ve done a great job, you should be happy to get the praise, and if not, it’s an opportunity to rectify a mistake. ASK for referrals from existing clients. Most clients are happy and flattered to share their good experiences with others. ASK your existing clients for their email addresses. Be sure to include email addresses in your customer database. Email is another form of communication, and best of all it’s FREE! Email saves time and money. You can use email and stay in touch with customers, while reminding them to do business with you. If you are not sending out an e-newsletter or e-mail to clients regularly, you are missing another opportunity of doing more business. If you don’t ask, you’ll never get the answers you need.  
 
Brand
– Your first impression may be your last with a future client if you don’t get it right – so there’s no room for error. Your brand
is a reflection of everything about your business. Every marketing component of your business from your handshake to your annual report should be reflective of your brand. We’ve all heard the old adage ‘Dress for Success’, yes, it’s marketing 101, yet you’d be surprised how many businesses don’t last because they are not putting their best foot forward with polished and cohesive business collateral. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a first-class brochure, logo or web site created. 
 
Consistency – Don’t underestimate how important your company’s image
is and how it should be a reflection of your marketing style throughout everything you do – that includes everything from your business card, to your web site. Be consistent with every component of your marketing. Make sure your business card has a similar style as your web site, your brochures, even your logo has a look and feel that clients will be sure to recognize as your own, your ‘package’, your identity. Consistency matters… Perform an internal focus group or branding ‘audit’  to see if you and your brand are consistent and measure up.
 
Using these ABC’s can be the difference between you getting the business, or your competitor.