The World According to Michelle

PR/Market Research Intern (Virtual) - Houston - internship - Barefoot Student

2011-07-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

PR/Market Research Intern (Virtual) - Houston - internship - Barefoot Student

Revamping my Blog!

2011-06-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been about 2 years since I've really blogged! Well, I'm back but instead of giving you

How to Write a Press Release

2008-12-16T19:09:00.000-08:00

You want to get your news to the media but don't know how to write a press release? These tips should help...

Decide why you are writing a press release and determine your focus.
Keep it short and to the point. Usually, press releases are no more than one page.
Print the words "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" in the top left-hand margin in all caps. Follow this line with relevant contact information: name, title, address, phone number, email address.
Create a headline and center it in bold type just above the first line of the body of the press release. Headlines typically highlight the most important, significant or shocking fact in the release.
Create a dateline - the first line of the body of your press release - that includes the city where the release is generated and the date (i.e. HOUSTON, TX. - January 1, 2009).
Make certain the first paragraph includes all the vital information: the WHO, WHAT, WHEN , WHERE and HOW.
Include some tantalizing peripheral details or facts to spark curiosity in following paragraphs. A good press release not only informs but also teases.
Wrap up the last paragraph with a "for additional information" line, a place to find more details. A web site can be great sources of information.
Center these marks, " # # #" or "-30-", at the bottom of the page to indicate the end of your release.
If you want to get it into the hands of the editors, reporters...CALL ME!

How do you prefer to get your news?

2008-12-16T18:21:00.000-08:00

As a publicist and advertising consultant, I am curious to know how you get your news? Do you read the newspaper (the actual hard copy) or do your read your news online on sites such as CNN, MSN, Yahoo!, or is it a combination of both? Or do you prefer to get your news second hand via blogs or podcasts? How long before newspaper advertising will be a thing of the past....if it isn't already?

31 Social Media Networking Communities For Women

2008-12-13T18:09:00.000-08:00

1.Multi-Tasking Women - Kyle Young created a community that empowers women to embrace and celebrate ALL the facets of their lives as a unique whole.
2. WECAI.org - Heidi Richards Mooney's focus is helping women do business online.
3. Ask Patty - Jody DeVere created the first community to help women learn about cars.
4. Diva Tribe - Jennifer Thompson launched this community to encourage women to work together to better themselves and live to their full potentials through reading, writing, and creativity.
4.More.ca - Canadian community celebrating women over 40.
5.Wowowow - site for women founded by a team of celebrity friends Joni Evans, Liz Smith. Mary Wells,Peggy Noonan and Lesley Stahl.
6. AOL Living - AOL's version of community for women.
7.iVillage - A division of NBC Universal iVillage was established in 1995 and is positioned as the #1 online destination for women.
9. Hitched! - Founded in May 2003, by Jacquelyn Corbett Cyr this community's focus is on the women of Canada.
10. Kirsty - social media "sharing/voting" platform.
11. Savvy Auntie - Auntie Melanie Notkin created the first community for Aunts to exchange ideas, get advice, find gifts and connect with other Savvy Aunties.
12. Alpha Women - The "coffee shop" of the internet is a blogging community launched by Freda Mooncotch.
13. Divapreneur - Supporting women who own small businesses to network and learn together.
14. Boudica - Lorna Harris had an idea of a social news site for women. Community members are encourged to submit news stories, information and web sites.
15. HerProBlog - Mona Weathers launched her community to help women bloggers from all walks of life, all levels of blog publishing understanding, and desired income earning goals to create and maintain professional blogs.
16. BlogHer - Founders Elisa Camahort, Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardin focus is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment.
17. Single Minded Women - A community devoted to the needs of single women of all ages; founded by Allison O???Connor.
18. Jane Out of The Box - Michele DeKinder-Smith has developed a community created exclusively for women entrepreneurs.
19. EmpowHER - Michelle King Robson is the founder of a community where women ask, share and connect to enhance each other's health.
20. WESeed - Jennifer Openshaw developed this social-networking site to help people get into the stock market.
21. Built On A Woman - A blogging community that positions as a source of practical information; posted by women, for women; founded by Shelle.
22. Solo Lady - Lea Lane launched this community for single women of all ages.
23. Ophra's Oprah's - online community.
24, Divine Caroline - Women are encouraged to publish their posts and articles on this community founded by Kate Everett Thorp.
25. Damsels In Success - A blogging site for professional women founded by Harleen Kahlon.
26. Women in Bloom - Allison Allen created this community to inspire and support women to ???bloom??? in mid-life.
27. Black Women Connect - Social community for professional Black women developed by Connect Platform.
29. Tango Diva - Teresa Rodriguez Williamson and Patti Mangan built this community for women to share solo travel experiences, ideas and questions.
30. Femme Fan - Ivette Ricco, decided the time was right to provide the female fan a place on the web that covered sports from the female's unique perspective.
31. First Wives World - Debbie Nigro, founder of First Wives World has created a support group for women in different phases of life who are moving "beyond divorce."

What are you thoughts on the economic crisis?

2008-12-13T18:01:00.001-08:00

How Social Media has helped grow my business...

2008-12-13T17:55:00.001-08:00

I am really into social media communication such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. I have found it to be very successful with getting new clients and promoting my existing clients. It has been so successful that I am going to take classes to become a Social Media Consultant, which will be another service that I can provide to my clients. I will keep you posted on my progress! Let me know your thoughts and your experience with social media.

Check me out on InHouston

2008-12-11T03:00:00.001-08:00

StartUp.Biz

2008-12-10T05:37:00.001-08:00

Social Media Marketing 101

2008-11-16T22:00:00.000-08:00

I just recently attended a Social Media Marketing (SMM) seminar. I thought I already knew everything there was to know as I already have a blog, a LinkedIn page, and am a member of probably a hundred online community groups. Well, I was wrong. I will share with you some things that I learned.

What is it?
“Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of internet marketing which seeks to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media networks”. Social Media is a shorter top level term that describes the space overall, and covers the activities around social interaction, content, videos, images and audio exposure.

Where to start?
Many of us are so excited about the technology and web that we forget key pieces to success: definition of business goals, objectives and overall process for execution. While you need to create the roadmap for your online business - you must certainly decide on what goals and resulting metrics you want to attain.

Social media marketing can help you increase the activity around these top goals:
Website traffic and user behavior
Conversion and sales tracking
Page views, ad exposure
Growing brand awareness
Creating a positive brand association and keeping it there
Business development and a broader customer reach

Your Top Social Media Starter Resources (not necessarily in order of importance):
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
Del.icio.us
StumbleUpon
LinkedIn
Flickr
Digg
Reddit
Technorati
Secondlife
Meneame
Newsvine

Some tips for effective social media marketing:
Tip #1 - Assistance: Limit talking about yourself. Provide ways to help others instead. This is probably the most important tip in the social media workplace. Say you are building your new del.icio.us profile, make sure to bookmark other useful resources. It’s about “them”, not “you”. Don’t forget this important rule!
Tip #2 - Process: Don’t become a “me too” - establish a process and goals for how to get there. Too many companies dive in too fast, with no real plan and end up with poor results or no results.
Tip #3 - Contribute: Be the one to create quality content. Studies show that people are reading much online, but a much smaller group is contributing content. This can mean good opportunities for you.
Tip #4 - Connect: Reach out to the influencers in your niche, be polite, honest, sincere, and you’d be amazed what brand advocates can do for you.
Tip #5 - Position: Position yourself in front of consumer's passions. It can and will create a powerful outcome for your brand.
Tip #6 - Blog: Make sure you have setup a blog. I use my blog to promote myself, my website, my services and my clients and would advise you to do the same.
Tip #7 - Links: Don’t be afraid to link out to other blogs and websites in general. Links are what search engines and users make good use of - and search engines would not survive without them.
Tip #8 - Videos: Video consumption is growing fast. Create a “how to…” or “top tips…” videos and submit to YouTube. It has wide reach, and you could have millions of people see it. For even wider distribution, you should try tubemogul.com or vidmetrix.com, tools to help automate. In generating all content, make sure to keep #1 rule in check. It’s fine to brand with a URL at the end of the video, but no direct selling. Humor, controversy and weird stuff works very well, keep that in mind - don’t be afraid to test.
Tip #9 - Technorati:You said you have a blog, right? Claim your blog at Technorati. This will ensure you are indexed in their search engines for blogs and updates are broadcast across the network, along with your own blog network updates. This happens behind the scenes from automatic “pings”.
Tip #10 - Analytics: Open an account from list below, use your brand name as identifier. This will establish your brand or company name, and not let anybody else assume or steal your personality so easily. Then, work with one or two from the list below to start, and don’t go too fast. Look at your web analytics and track referring domains and review traffic movements daily, weekly.
Tip #11 - Feeds/Research:Subscribe to feeds, and use iGoogle, My Yahoo Web or other favorite RSS readers. Watch for changes (use Google.com/alerts also), and be the first to comment and engage in your topic. First commenters often get more visibility and traction.
Tip #12 - MicroCommunities:Locate and join microcommunities - they are social communities that are relevant to your business. Some examples are education.com, nowpublic.com, travbuddy.com, gardenweb.com, shoetube.com, yelp.com and care2.com (non profits). Those are the perfect places for the “big fish in a small pond” rule. Create highly relevant and linkworthy content, research what others are writing about, and connect with the top players and influencers.
Tip #13 - Submit: Review the resources below, and consider building out profiles over time. If you submit content, make sure it’s useful, unique and that the title of your post stands out. Pick one or two resources to start, and don’t overextend yourself. Some of the top social marketers in the industry spend 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Make sure to ask friends to vote or comment on your postings, befriend others, but no spam. Make intelligent posts and do not have your company employees post from the same location (IP Address). The submissions will most likely be rejected, and worst case, your account blocked or suspended.
Tip #14 - Hosting: Have a good hosting provider to avoid any potential technical issues.
Tip #15 - Monitoring: If you want to save time monitoring across many resources within the social networks, try the new Yahoo Pipes, it’s a social monitoring desktop in a browser.
Tip #16 - Advertising:If you are an advertiser, you might want to check out socialspark.com and socialmedia.com.

Top 10 Public Relations Mistakes

2008-11-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

The goal of public relations is to portray your business in the best possible manner. Unlike advertising, your goal is not to pay for space in the media but to persuade the media to take an interest in your business and to write or report on your business activities. Below are some of the common pitfalls to watch out for when handling public relations.

1. Poor timing. Timing is crucial and too often the individuals who handle public relations do not get a head start on their tasks. You need to consider lead time for magazines, newspapers, and other media. You can do this by finding out each medium's editorial calendar and deadlines.

2. Poorly written press releases. Errors, omissions, poorly worded sentences, lengthy copy, and poor structure are all pitfalls that land press releases in the trash. You need to grab the reader's attention, get quickly to the point, and follow up with information about the event or activity. Keep it concise and include all pertinent details--WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and HOW

3. Poor choice of language. Jargon and buzzwords do not impress editors who have little time to read all of the press releases that flow across their desks. Get to the point in plain and simple language. I would recommend investing in the AP Style Guide for media writing. You can get it at any local bookstore or at amazon.com.

4. Poor follow-up. If you want to be heard, be prepared when someone calls with follow-up questions. Many businesses lose stories because they are not prepared to close the deal. This is where a publicist comes in handy.

5. Too much hype. You want to be positive, but superlatives get tedious and can arouse suspicion in readers. Remember: You're appealing to the news media, so supply them with supported facts, and avoid generalizations and exaggerations.

6. Press releases without purpose. Like the boy who cried wolf, if you send out press releases every time there is a minor development in your business, people will stop listening. And when something really important occurs, editors will already be in the habit of hitting delete when they see a press release from your business. Do not try to make stories where they do not exist. Some publicists actually do this to look busy and justify their billing but that is not something that I would recommend. You can promote some of your events via your website, blog, etc.

7. No newspaper knowledge. Too many people attempt a public relations campaign in a vacuum. Reading the papers (print or online) keeps you abreast of what is going on in the world. This benefits you in two ways. First, you can use local and even world events as tie-ins to your news. Secondly, you can avoid poorly timed media releases.

8. Lack of a plan. You cannot do public relations by winging it. It is hard to know what to do next if you have no plan of action. You need to determine where, when, and how you are going to proceed. You also need to be flexible and have backup plans should all else fail.

9. No help. Many businesses spend too much money on high priced PR agencies that they do not need. Conversely, other companies try to do everything themselves. It's important to find a happy medium.

10. Staying inside the box. A lot of businesses stick with the same newspaper and radio plugs. There are many other means to reach out and generate attention. In fact, some publicists, including myself, now use pitch letters to suggest stories, rather than sending the overused press and media release.

YES WE DID!

2008-11-09T19:24:00.000-08:00

OMG! Obama is the first Black President of the United States! I am so proud.

Yes, I finally started blogging! Below are some tips on how blogging can be used as a great PR tool!

2008-09-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Being a public relations professional, I decided to start a blog to give PR tips as well as to inform readers about upcoming events, what's going on in our community,post my press releases and whatever else I feel like discussing. It's just another outlet to have my opinion heard as well as the opinion of my readers.
So, feel free to make comments! I look forward to hearing from you!

"Why Blog?" you ask....
1. Easy and FREE way to market yourself and/or your product.
Blogging is a great tool to promote your products and services or just to let people know who you are.

2. It's a way to connect with people.
Blogging helps you to stay in touch with friends, family, business associates, etc., and to meet new people who have like-interests.

3. To establish yourself as an expert.
Blogs are wonderful tools to help bloggers establish themselves as experts in a field or topic. For example, if you're trying to get a job in a specific field or hoping to publish a book on a specific topic, blogging can help legitimize your expertise and expand your online presence and platform.

4. It's a way to express yourself and have your voice heard.
Got an opinion on the presidential debate? Want to complain about high gas prices? Speak your mind!

5. To Stay Active or Knowledgeable in a Field or Topic
Since successful blogging is partially dependent on posting frequency and providing updated, fresh information, it's a perfect way to help a blogger stay abreast of the events in a specific field or topic.

6. To Make Money
It's important to point out that most bloggers don't make a lot of money blogging, but the potential does exist to generate revenue from your blog with hard work and commitment. There are many bloggers who bring in big bucks. With patience and practice, you can make money through advertising and other income-generating activities on your blog.