Mark Evans asks on the Sysomos blog whether social media equals social sales. He explains that brands aren’t transparent about why they use social media and perhaps it’s time to readjust the return on social investment. 

Speaking of social media, we’ve all read and shared fun infographics but what makes for a good infographic? The Small Business Blog’s Karen Geier explains what to include and exclude when creating an infographic. Marketwire’s Director of Marketing Lisa Davis highlights three companies who successfully use infographics in their content marketing.

Angelica Moreno continues her 4P series with a look at Price.

People either love Twitter or hate it. Those who love it cite the contacts, the outreach and the contacts. Those who don’t call it a waste of time. So how should you treat Twitter? Mark Evans offers a few tips on how to get the best out of the microblogging platform.

If you’re not ready for the holidays just yet, entrepreneur Brett Markinson discusses fear can lead to “entrepreneuritis” while Mark Evans takes us through the Cloud and the tools that can help your business.

On the Sysomos blog, Mark Evans shows how Reddit can help you market your product.

Of course, don’t forget to read our MOvember article to see what people are saying about facial fuzz.

Update: Sheldon Levine updates us on the latest MOvember  news.

Your press release is not an ad. Don’t write it like one.

You’re probably guilty of doing this. If so, don’t feel bad. Most people try to write a news release, but end up writing an ad with a dateline. Thousands of them hit the wire every day. Most of them are promptly ignored by newsrooms, writers and social influencers who can see right through them.

“Some writers think that they are writing a sly feature to subtly advertise a product or service but are actually writing a blatant ad. Journalists will not be interested in publishing an advertisement just because it is structured like a feature release,” says Chris Killoran, Editorial Supervisor/Trainer at Marketwire.

Your press release is supposed to garner you some earned media, which means you have to earn it. You need to offer something beyond information about your organization. Give them more than quotes from you, about you.

To combat this, try positioning yourself as a subject matter expert, or a problem solver. Don’t say you’re an industry expert, offer some expertise.

“The distinction is, ‘Tired of a Rusty Car? We Have the Perfect Product for You’ (a blatant ad), and ‘Five Ways to Keep the Rust Off Your Car.’ Most articles seem to get more traction if they focus on genuine concerns and helpful, general solutions rather than their product,” says Killoran.

It’s also important to keep your language plain and not too “salesy.” Using terms like “Groundbreaking new product” or “exciting industry leader” is a good way to get your content flagged as an ad disguised in a press release costume.

Press release writing is different than any type of marketing copywriting you will ever do—and needs to be treated that way. If the same verbiage appears in your sales ad and your press release, it’s time to change one of them.

It’s been a busy week on the Small Business and Sysomos blogs.

Tannette Johnson-Elie took a look at how mentors can help small business entrepreneurs while Kelli Korducki wondered how companies can establish a corporate dress code.

Bad names happen all the time but a kids’ store named after an overblown, overwrought book about imprisonment and death? If you’re of a certain demographic, you may have read Flowers in the Attic. Angelica Moreno shows us why you really need to do some market research.

Entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den Arlene Dickinson launched Arlene Dickinson Enterprises this week for entrepreneurs.

On the Sysomos blog, Sheldon Levine looks at baseball’s 2012 World Series. If you’re not into sports but love politics, take a look at who won the three presidential debates and what Canadians think of the US elections (a lot).

Plus there’s all the great content on this blog. Like we said, it’s been a busy week!

There are a million reasons that your press release can succeed and only a few things that can hold it back. However, 90% of all press releases contain at least one of these mistakes and quickly makes the content easily forgettable and dismissible.

Here are five quick questions you can ask yourself as you write your release or while you’re reading it over.

1.            Who cares?

Before you worry about a hook or headline, you need to ask this simple question. Most companies have a hard time stepping away from their own perspective. They write their content without knowing why this story would matter to anyone outside their organization.

Ask yourself “who cares.” If you can’t answer that question, you need to revisit how you’re framing your release.

2.            Is my headline optimized for search engines and human beings?

A generation ago, a news release’s headline had to catch an editor or reporter’s attention. Now you need to earn the search engine’s attention too.

Headlines are now a delicate balance of using your SEO keywords, while still writing a captivating headline.

3.            Is my first paragraph also optimized for search engines and human beings?

Just like your headline, your lead needs to draw the reader in, while still containing SEO keywords.

To please your human audience, keep your release top-heavy. Write a strong lead and keep your key points and facts as close to the top as possible.

Some people fill their lead paragraph with preamble that they feel is “building up to something.” Never do this. This is a press release, not a Hitchcock film. You have a short window to grab your audience’s attention, don’t waste it.

SEO rules are subjective and always changing, but it’s usually a good idea to include your keywords within the first 100 words of your news release. This shouldn’t be hard. You probably would have done this without meaning to.

4.            Am I using multimedia?

Again, this catches the attention of search engines, as well as editors and reporters.

Always add videos and images to bring your story to life. Also, try to name these files with SEO-friendly names, and add keywords to your photo captions.

5.            Is it the right time to send this?

Is this release promoting an award your company won 2 months ago? Or is this promoting a product that might be in higher demand over the holidays? Poor timing can sink the discoverability of any news release.

If your company has been putting off sending a release for any length of time, remember, its relevance may fade with each passing day.

At the same time, maybe your news release will play well now, but would do even better during Oscar season, or over the summer months.

Be strategic about the timing of your release. Don’t just send it, “when it’s done.”

If you were online today, chances are pretty good you came across an infographic.  You might have liked it enough to tweet it, and maybe you emailed it to a friend.  Heck, you might even be ‘old school’ enough to have printed it and pinned it to the wall of your office cubicle. There’s no doubt that infographics are everywhere.  B2B and B2C companies are producing them by the thousands to communicate information as diverse as oral hygiene and uranium production.  They are posting them to their websites and Facebook pages and building them into their product launches, marketing campaigns and survey results.  But why?

Infographics are mash-ups of big data and big ideas.  They present complex information quickly and clearly and like other multimedia they can be an incredibly powerful way to tell a story.  It’s clear that audiences are craving infographics, too.  Author and blogger Jeff Bullas says that between 2010 and 2012, infographic search volumes have increased by over 800 per cent, and since 2007, infographics on Digg have increased by 250 fold.

In his post, Awesome Reasons to Use Infographics in your Content Marketing, Bullas says companies can benefit from incorporating them into their communication efforts, using them to increase brand awareness, subject matter expertise and improve SEO.  Marketers in particular like infographics because they are easily consumable, shareable and embeddable.

If you think infographics are only for enterprise brands and digital boutiques, think again.   Here are three great examples of how Marketwire clients are using pictures to tell their stories.

Manta, the largest online community dedicated entirely to small business, revealed insights in its SMB survey from more than 600 small business owners about how they make connections and network to grow their business.

With their ‘That’s a Mouthful’ infographic, the makers of LISTERINE® mouthwash visually represent new survey data revealing what Canadians put in their mouths and brushing’s limited effect on cleaning mouths.

Canadian-based resource company Strathmore Minerals Corp. used an infographic called “The Power of Uranium” to help support CEO David Miller’s presentation at an executive forum.

It’s clear that more companies are discovering new ways to tell stories, share information and connect with audiences that matter to them by using infographics to match facts, figures and trends with attention-grabbing graphics.  Do you have any to share with us?

Angelica Moreno, who has managed the well-known household brands Becel, Hellmann’s and Sensodyne, takes us through the 4Ps of marketing – the first in a series looking at how to correctly market your product.

Karen Geier, the co-founder of Shyndyg.com and  a digital marketing executive, walks us through the steps to establishing your brand’s identity.

Jeff and Mark gave business bloggers a host of great ideas to improve their blogging success at our recent webinar: “The Changing World of Business Blogging: How to Make Your Blog Pay Off in 2012.” Registrants also received our new 30-page social media white paper “7 Expert Perspectives on Using Social Media to Move the Business Needle in 2012.” (Get your complimentary copy by clicking on the icon above.)

Here are ten tips to help you better your business blogging:

Blog Tip #1: Consider why someone would want to read your blog.   Before blogging another word, remind yourself of your organization’s unique perspective. Why should someone add your blog to his or her reading habits? Think about what that “someone” might be interested in talking about today. Competition for online attention is fierce; make sure your blog has unique appeal.

Blog Tip #2: Don’t forget to have fun.  Your blog should be more fun than your website. Create content with a personable voice. Consider including images, videos, polls and contests. Invite user submissions. And don’t take yourself too seriously. Let your personality show through.

Blog Tip #3: Turn your blog into a social-sharing content hub.  Push great blog content beyond your corporate site to social sharing sites such as Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn. Today’s successful blogs are not standalone entities but are part of the social media spectrum.

Blog Tip #4: Make sure your blog is easy to find.  Search engines need to know who you are, so keep your blog tied to your company’s website. You are not myblog.blogster.com or myblog.com. You are either mycompany.com/blog or blog.mycompany.com. And make sure that it’s easy to navigate between your blog and your home page.

Blog Tip #5: Spark a conversation.  A good post results in dialog. Make sure that you always give readers something worth responding to and include a “call to respond” at the end of the post. And incorporate comment fields. Reader comments inspire content ideas, get people involved and nurture relationships. They’re often what turns interested readers into customers and strengthens existing customer relationships.

Blog Tip #6: Attend to looks and accuracy, but matchy-matchy… not so much.  Go out of your way to make your blog readable and well-designed. Don’t use walls of copy; break it up into bite-sized chunks instead. Use graphics, charts and photos and don’t forget comment design. Ensure correct grammar and spelling – errors lower your credibility. Finally, reflect your company’s branding, but try not to match your website too perfectly. 

Blog Tip #7: Keep the idea fountain flowing.  Nothing’s more of a turn-off than a blog that hasn’t been updated for months. You lose readers and miss out on search engines’ ongoing quest for fresh content. For ideas, monitor what’s being discussed on social networks and subscribe to content aggregators. Another idea: solicit ideas from people representing all functional areas and levels of your organization.

Blog Tip #8: Put on your thinking cap – titles matter. Often blog post titles are after-thoughts. But you should give them at least as much thought as you do your post. The main reason is SEO. Search engines index keywords, so your title should reflect your blog’s content. In addition, a captivating blog post title captures the spotlight, shows your personality and gets people involved.

Blog Tip #9: Give your internal processes a tune-up.  Is your organization able to consistently publish on-target content? Find out what frequency means to your audiences and determine how their needs change over time. Create an editorial calendar that spells out what and how often you should publish, who writes the posts, who edits and approves them, who answers comments and who monitors posts for out-of-date content.

Blog Tip #10: Toot your own horn.  You devote a lot of time and effort to creating interesting posts, but if no one reads them, your work is for nothing. Social media offers many options for spreading the word. Depending on your audience you may choose Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit (for more technical types) or Pinterest (if your content is image-based). Emailed newsletters are also an effective way to alert folks to blog posts of interest.

Related posts:

• 3 ways to get started with content marketing
• How to use earned media to boost your brand
• Ask the Expert: 5 great tips on how to create content and conversations, courtesy of Rebecca Lieb

You can watch the full video by clicking here, or on the embedded video below:

Read our Sysomos case studies and discover how we help some of the world’s leading brands, from The Canadian Red Cross to BBC.com, use social media monitoring and analytics to strengthen their brands, build better relationships with their customers and drive revenue.

Here are highlights from some recent Sysomos case studies:

BBC.com Assesses New Market Acceptance. BBC.com is an enormously popular and important news portal for audiences around the world. ComScore calls it the largest international news website of its kind in Asia. So when BBC.com decided to delve deeper into local issues and launch an Asia edition, it used Sysomos MAP and Heartbeat to assess market acceptance. Challenges included the need to filter out non-relevant BBC.com chatter and monitor that buzz in multiple countries in multiple languages. Sysomos feedback offered BBC.com the reassurance it needed that its new Asia edition launch did, in fact, meet with success. BBC.com continues to use MAP and Heartbeat to evaluate long-term success and guide development efforts. 

Valtech Captures Untapped Business Leads. We learned that Valtech, an international digital agency, set up a Sysomos monitoring lab in its Copenhagen location to capture and analyze conversations impacting its clients’ businesses. Powered by Sysomos Heartbeat, this wall-mounted, six-screen “rapid response center” is staffed by a team of social media analysts, content creators and community managers. According to Valtech, it’s the ideal base to focus on opportunities to sell, support, engage and create content in an environment dedicated 100% to extracting the value out of social media. So when a potential customer tweets “Can anyone recommend…?,” Valtech’s clients don’t miss the opportunity and can convert it to concrete business value.

The Canadian Red Cross Matches Donors with Those in Need. The Canadian Red Cross is a great example of a non-profit organization that uses Sysomos Heartbeat to further its objectives, which are to give help and get help – and to empower people to be helped or to help the Canadian Red Cross. These objectives were highlighted during last year’s earthquake in Japan. By 9:00 a.m. on that tragic day, the Canadian Red Cross’ social media channels were inundated with inquiries and offers of help. Heartbeat revealed that in the first two weeks after the earthquake hit, people tweeted about the Canadian Red Cross nearly 7,000 times and its text to donate was shared on Twitter nearly 10,000 times, generating 22.3 million impressions.

MEA Digital Builds Share of Voice. MEA Digital, a US-based digital agency, recently used Sysomos Heartbeat to build a larger, more engaged social media fan base for one of its clients, and in the process, take share of voice away from larger, more well-known industry competitors. It embarked on a social media campaign targeting ad industry thought leaders and frequent contributors in the space. Heartbeat gave the agency the ability to quickly identify and engage with influencers buzzing about its client’s product, increasing the viral nature of shared content. The three-month campaign generated over 2.1M earned media impressions. Share of voice increased from 9% to 27%, and negative sentiment declined from 11% to 4%.

Check out all of our Sysomos case studies. You might glean some new ideas for using social media monitoring to boost your own success.

Related posts: 

• The secrets to successful B2B social media
• 5 ways B2B companies can benefit by listening to social media conversations
• 10 leading socially engaged nonprofits