Social media websites like Twitter and Facebook have become key players in the business environment. If you don’t have a facebook or twitter, your business could be losing out on a lot of potential customers. Because of these social media sites, with online pr becoming more prevalent than both written and broadcast pr, the landscape for public relations is dramatically changing. The question for business owners and marketing managers now is, which is better, twitter or facebook?

Key Features of Twitter and Facebook

Facebook is a site meant to reconnect you with old friends and family members or find new friends online. Facebook is made up of many familiar features, such as instant messaging, photo albums, video sharing, and e-mail. In addition, facebook allows you to easily search for friends and includes other tools such as “recommended friends” to help users find almost everybody they know. Facebook users can keep the ones closest to them updated with their lives with the click of a button.

Twitter, on the other hand, lacks many of the familiar functions that facebook has. As a result, it may be harder for you to get your arms around it at first. Twitter circles around constant “tweets,” where users let others know what they’re up to at any given moment. Twitter is great for online pr because it encourages customers to follow what a business is doing at any given time in byte sized chunks. As a result, a business can easily update its status to announce its one-day promotion to hundreds, maybe even thousands to see with a simple click of a button.

Why Facebook?

Facebook appeals more to people in a non-business sense. Facebook is more for people who need to stay connected with old friends. On the other hand, facebook can also be leveraged as a tool to help strangers develop a relationship. Adding someone on facebook and saying “Hi, how are you?” on their wall is a casual, easy way to set up conversations in the future. Therefore, although facebook may not have an obvious function for a business, it does help to stay connected with friends and acquaintances and helps nurture relationships.

In addition, Facebook prefers to combine the entire social portal model vs. having to log into AIM, Yahoo, Flickr, YouTube, Myspace, etc. individually. Facebook has redefined social media and online pr by giving users a number of applications with one device.

Facebook is currently building a number of applications specifically for businesses. It is important not to ignore this social media tool despite its not-so-obvious functions. Remember, facebook controls 78% of all social media sites. To make a facebook for your business, it is wise to actually make a page for yourself first. In general, people don’t like to add businesses as friends out of fear their inboxes will soon be filled with spam. As a result, make yourself a page and promote your business through that, as to sustain and leverage the already developed, trusting relationship you have.

Why Twitter?

Twitter has more immediate responses than facebook, as it allows you to interact with people that aren’t necessarily your friends in real life. Twitter seems to live between the worlds of email, instant messaging, and blogging. Twitter also encourages people to use links to other website, acting as another tool for people to find others and information over the net. It easily allows the tweeter to target only groups with common interests or localities.

Twitter’s success was almost immediate, as a loyal following was built especially among the technically adept. These people included bloggers, online marketers, evangelists, etc. In short, basically anyone who had something to promote could use twitter. Online pr can be done in a matter of seconds using Twitter and businesses can get answers to questions in an instant. Twitter is especially useful for people who love having the opinions of others and can be useful to business owners when opinions need to be gathered to make an operational or marketing decision.

Due to Twitter’s quick tweets, it is important for businesses to update their status as if they only have three seconds on stage. Tweets need to be short and must encourage call to actions.

So Who Wins?

Unfortunately, there is no clear winner in this situation. Both Facebook and Twitter serve different purposes and both are necessary for a business to have and actively use to gain exposure through online pr.  Porter Public Relations, however, can help you master these tools. Please contact us at http://www.porterpr.com for more details on how we can help get your business going using social media.

Today’s recession continues to hit businesses hard with escalating unemployment and high-energy rates. Not to mention a declining housing market. With the new economy, it goes without saying, companies spend less with each passing day. So how do business owners like yourself survive?

The Dangers of Impulsive Decisions

The anxiety and fear that is inherent in a down economy is causing  many business owners to back off on their PR services as a way to save money. Unfortunately, as we have learned from following past marketing trends, this proves to be a catastrophic mistake.
Many savvy business owners, on the other hand, see this as a time to take the lead. Rather than focusing on saving money, business owners with this mindset understand that this is the perfect storm to increase their public relations. Now more than ever is a time where communication with new and old customers, shareholders, and the media should prevail.

Take Advantage of the Recession with Cost Effective PR Services

So, how does a company increase their PR services on a lesser budget? Simply change strategies. Take advantage of this lull in the economy to further define your market and the most cost effective way to reach them. Make good use of the Internet. Internet marketing can wake up your audience to the services and products you have to sell and there are so many ways to market online that are free. Send out press releases that go to Twitter and Facebook groups of people who are interested in what you have to say. Write comments on blogs that have the same interests. Then, top it off by branding your message into the minds of a select market and add radio advertising to your mix by purchasing at wholesale prices. Think about this: there are many companies that don’t advertise until they place their ad to sell their business. Be smart. Don’t stop your PR services. Just make sure you are getting an effective campaign for your dollar by changing your strategies to fit your budget.
For those on a budget, we highly recommend taking advantage of single-item Internet public relations services before investing in other forms of marketing. Of these Internet PR services, online press releases and blogging are the most powerful, yet cost effective tools available to you.

PR Services Remain Strong

Even with the current recession, PR remains a growing industry for one simple reason—public relations works! According to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a private equity firm, PR spending grew by 5% in 2008 and nearly another 3% in 2009. In addition, spending on online PR in 2009 increased by more than 10%. I can’t say this enough. To keep your business going during the recession, don’t cut down on services that keep it going, just change strategies.

Porter PR has developed new PR strategies to accommodate your budget during the recession. Please visit our website www.porterpr.com/free-consultation/ for a free consultation today. Don’t let this opportunity to take the lead slip away. Contact us so we can develop strategies that will make your company stand out from your competition and position you where you want to be when the recession is over.

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Do you need PR? Five questions to ask yourself.

Public Relations is all about reputation. What you say and what others say about you plays a significant role in your company’s success. It is a way to communicate with your target market and gain trust between your company and the public. It is also about identifying, developing and promoting your brand. Does your company need PR?

1.    Could my company use more clients?

With the recession, you could need PR if you’ve seen a recent drop in clients, increase traffic to your website or need to boost sales. Good PR influences customers to want to seek out your company. To reach your target audiences, public relations uses a number of tools such as:

• Internet press releases
• Press releases targeted to specific media including magazines, newspapers and broadcast news, and TV shows
• Special events
• Social media marketing

2. We still need PR, but our budget’s been cut. Can we still continue with the same public relations campaign?

You need PR if you want the most effective, cost efficient way to gain recognition of your company. Good PR can come at an affordable price, with much larger potential benefits than advertising alone. A modestly priced Internet press release formatted and optimized to be search engine friendly, can make up to 50,000 Internet impressions the first day of its release. With good word-of-mouth, viral marketing through YouTube marketing and social media, thousands more will learn about your company. The greatest thing is that many components of a  PR campaign can go viral if done right.

3.    Is my business plan missing something?

From the start, companies should have public relations included in their business plan, If not, it could be a huge detriment to your company. Every company needs PR, even if it’s a minimum campaign. You may have a great product, however, without PR, how will anyone hear about it? How will your product stand out without proper press? How will you maintain relationships and position yourself correctly?

4.     Has anything bad been said about my company that needs to be fixed?

Unfortunately, no matter how hard you work, someone will always have something bad to say about your company, product, or service. Public relations experts can help remedy the issue and many times, turn negative press into something positive and beneficial. It’s the job of the PR firm to rebuild that trust once again.

5.    Do I need PR from an outside agency or can I do it myself?

Of course, just like any situation, you can do it yourself. We just know that your company constantly needs PR initially and, in most circumstances, continually. This reinforces your brand and creates awareness. Public relations allows you to carve your own message. Most business owners are too busy with managing the company to do their own PR. By using an outside PR agency, you are permitting specialists to focus on your needs and carry through with your company’s PR needs. It is the job of the PR firm to raise business-to-consumer or business-to-business awareness, while gaining more exposure to existing and new customers. If you don’t have enough time or energy to get the exposure yourself, hire a PR firm.
Every company needs PR. The degree of how much public relations effort you put in will always be associated with the degree of success your company is experiencing. Everyone knows the power of public relations. Please browse through our website www.porterpr.com and see if there is any way we can help you with your PR needs.

Today we will focus on the press release…the who, what, when, where, why and sometimes how of what you want the world to know.

Much of today's news is found online. If you want your company to be noticed, you Internet PR is a must!

It used to be that a press release was was written in a way that capture the attention of the media in hopes of a reporter writing a story about you or your company. It had to have a great news angle, be timely and you typically had less than one minute to pitch your story to your media contact. The public relations specialist would spend half a day, at least, trying to figure out who the right media contact was.

Today, thanks to the Internet, we can get exceptional media coverage simply via Internet public relations just by writing an online press release that is formatted and optimized to increase the chance of being picked up by major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. What does formatted and optimized mean? If a release is optimized properly, the keywords (the words that people use to find you online) will be positioned towards the top of the release and dispersed throughout. They can be in any format. For instance, if we want our press release to have the key phrase “need pr” then we would make sure that phrase is at the top of the release. We could later use variations of it such as “pr needed.” If the press release is formatted properly, then the release has links back to specific landing pages on your site that you want the readers to see. You have to have just the right amount of link backs or the page will be confusing to the reader.

Above all, make sure your release is well written. Don’t overuse your keywords or key phrases. Once written, you need to include visuals. What makes an Internet press release special is, you can get thousands of viewers a day to read it without the approval of the traditional media. However, the true media is still the most powerful medium for getting your company known. If indeed, you can get your company in a major newspaper or prestigious trade publication, by all means, go all out. This is the truest form of getting media coverage. Then use that press coverage as a jumping board to get even more Internet coverage. Major metro newspapers will always be at the top of Porter Public Relation’s priority list. Make sure the traditional media is part of your marketing mix to serve as a primary source for branding your company and one-up your competitors.

As far as how to distribute the release, there are many sites that will distribute an online press release. Some are free, but most cost and it’s not cheap. But whether you pay or not, you want your efforts to prove successful.

Is it Newsworthy?

An effective press release has to be timely and newsworthy. Before writing your press release, think outside of what’s in it for your company and ask yourself “Why would anyone care?” If you have a good answer, then continue.

What to Include

Your press release needs to include the following:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Sometimes how

One of the biggest mistakes in writing a release is making it sound like an ad, so please write it as you would a newspaper article using only the facts and no unnecessary or flowery verbage. Nix the adverbs and adjectives.

Example:
Strong: EBay Alternative, Main Street Fair, Raises $30 Million for America’s Schools

Weak: Main Street Fair, the Ebay Alternative, Raises Large Sums of Money for Schools

Headline

Your headline must be strong or the reader will not bother with the body of the press release.

Example:
Strong: Apple to Give Away Free IPADs to Main Street Fair Sellers

Weak: To Support Schools, Apple will Donate a Free IPAD to Random Main Street Fair Sellers

Lead Sentence

This is the first paragraph of your press release. Readers need to wantto continue to the next graph. Make sure the lead paragraph tells the reader what you are about to tell them. The rest of the release should focus on defining your lead graph, detail, history, supportive facts. It must be clear and concise.

Example:
Strong: Main Street Fair today announced the launch of a new marketing program to help authors increase book sells. The online auctions site dedicated to helping its sellers, has hired Porter Public Relations to write press releases on newly-released books listed for sale on Main Street Fair. Featured authors are expected to see a significant increase in book sells.

Weak: Main Street Fair is working to help its sellers. The company has a new program that helps authors market their books. To accomplish this, Main Street Fair has hired Porter Public Relations to write press releases on books that are listed for sale on Main Street Fair. This program will give authors a huge marketing boost.

Please check back with us soon for Part II of how to write an effective press release.

Do you have a release you want us to take a quick look? Simply click on the Contact Us page and we’ll be glad to help.