Tips to Make Those Press Releases Stand Out

Here are a few questions to ask yourself or your communication team before issuing your next press release.

1. Is it newsworthy?

2. Does the headline tell a story?

3. Have we shared it across our social media channels?

4. Are there any opportunities to pitch the news as part of a larger news story or trend?

5. Did we track our results or hits and promote those?

Women’s Mentoring Event April 24

The Start with Strengths and Level Up Mentoring Workshop is a one-day event for women designed to inspire.

Thursday, April 24th, 2014
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Gatehouse
Lafayette, Colorado

Whether you are looking to jump-start or change your career, re-enter the work force or identify what can turn an ordinary job into a passion, you won’t want to miss this event. Highlights include:

  • Hear inspiring stories from female guest panelists who have realized their talents and passions and made the most of their career choices.
  • Learn your top 5 strengths and see how they could be key to reaching your personal and professional goals.
  • Share ideas with other women about what success means and how to attain it regardless of your age, career or current job situation.
  • Develop an action plan and work with accountability partners to move your ideas forward to enhance your personal and professional path.

Speakers include: Loree Toedman, Regional Vice President at Travelers Insurance; Sharon Matusik is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and the Academic Director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado and Mary Kaiser, business coach, consultant and Owner of Start with Strengths.

Click here for more info or to register.

What’s the Best Time to Blast Out Your Email Marketing?

Email remains a key component of many businesses marketing campaigns — and is a  primary way companies stay in touch with their clients.  But, what’s the best time to reach people? According to email software provider GetResponse,

  • 23.63% of all emails are opened within the first hour; that number drops off precipitously as the hours tick by
  • Most click-thrus are between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., and 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
  • Most opens are between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., and 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Read more.

Fabulous Facebook Posts – 8 Simple Steps for the New Year

Start the New Year off with a bang by re-invigorating your social media efforts.  Here is a great article with 8 quick tips on crafting Facebook posts from Ragan.com.

“Most of us see quite a few posts on Facebook each day, whether they’re messages from friends or brands.

Some Facebook posts register with us (adorable photos of kids doing hilarious things) and some simply pass us by (your friend’s 36th wedding update).

Why?

What makes a well-crafted Facebook post stand out?

When analyzing what makes a well-crafted Facebook post versus what makes a message that gets buried in a user’s newsfeed, we must first consider Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm.

The newsfeed algorithm determines what content shows up where in a user’s newsfeed.

A post’s placement in the newsfeed more or less depends on three things:

Engagement levels

Relevance to the user (Has the user interacted with this brand or person before? How frequently?)

The timeframe between when a person posts two posts.

There is no way to trick the system. However, you can follow a few best practices to provide easily consumable content to engage your followers.

Here are a few guidelines for a well-crafted Facebook post:

1. Stay in line with your strategy and brand identity.

You should have a good mix of fun posts and promotional messages that are in line with your overall objectives for your brand. Try to remember the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of the content you post should be entertaining or of value, while twenty percent should be promotional.

2. Post quality content.

Don’t post just to post. Be real. Only post updates that provide value to your followers.

Will this post entertain, educate or offer something else of value to your followers? Also keep in mind that over-posting and flooding your followers’ newsfeeds can actually hurt you.

Check out this well-crafted Facebook post by California Home & Design. Notice the photo, shortened link, call to action and, in turn, engagement levels. Though this post went live13 hours before I wrote this article, at the time I was writing it was pretty high up in my newsfeed.

3. Use photos.

It is widely accepted that photos get more engagement and are more appealing to Facebook users. The ideal photo size for a Facebook timeline is 403 pixels by 403 pixels.

If your photo is not the ideal size, make sure you use the “reposition photo” option after you post the photo to rearrange how Facebook displays it on your timeline.

Even if you are sharing an article, use a photo that visually represents the article, and include a link in the copy.

4. Use shortened links.

When you share a link, either delete the link in the text copy or use a shortened link. To delete a link but still get the article to show, (which you shouldn’t be doing if you are abiding by tip No. 3) just paste the link in the post copy and wait for it to populate. Once it shows up you can delete the link from the text copy.

If you are abiding by tip No. 3-using a photo but still including a link-use a link shortener like bitly.com.

5. Include a call to action.

Examples:

“Click here.”

“Like this.”

“Share!”

“What do you think?”

Whatever the objective of the post-get higher levels of engagement or direct traffic to another website-make sure you include a call to action for that objective.

6. Use hashtags and @mentions.

Use relevant hashtags to categorize your posts. Use @mentions to provide a live link to the company or news website you are referencing. (Type the @ symbol and then start typing that company’s Facebook page name.)

Using hashtags and @mentions will help others interested in similar content find your post.

7. Keep the copy short.

There is a direct correlation between post copy and engagement levels on Facebook. Posts with zero to 70 characters get much higher levels of engagement. I suggest you don’t post more than 140 characters of copy.

8. Analyze.

Test different times of day, and days of the week. Facebook’s engagement reports offer valuable data. Don’t ignore it! Check it out from time to time to see if a certain post did better than another and why.

All of these tips are best practices for creating a well-crafted Facebook post. However, the most important piece of advice I can give is to simply create good content for your target audience.”

Guest Blog by Mary Kaiser — Tips to identify and leverage your strengths

Put the right person in the right seat

Tips to identify and leverage strengths

By Mary Kaiser

I work with companies across the U.S., including many in Colorado – helping to grow and develop individuals and teams. What I find fascinating in my line of work is that most business owners and executives have a very limited understanding of their own strengths and/or the strengths of others within their organization. And they have even less of an understanding of what those skills mean and how to embrace them.

We are inundated by articles, reports and experts telling us that human talent is critical for business success. So why the lack of understanding and focus on our own talents and those of our co-workers, employees or partners? Read more.

Peacock Parfumerie Launches!

Check out Peacock Parfumerie, an new artisian perfume jewelry house with a full line of products, including perfume pendant necklaces, perfume oils and scented candles inspired by art nouveau glamour and bohemian romance.  The company’s signature product is a perfume pendant necklace filled with perfume oil — a modern twist on a classic tradition of worn by women throughout the centuries. Products are available online at www.peacockparfumerie.com and at select retailers nationwide, such as Anthropologie.

We are thrilled to be providing marketing and PR services for Peacock Parfumerie.

How Color Impacts Your Marketing

What does your company’s color palette say about your brand and is it sending the right message to customers?

According to the University of Loyola in Maryland, color increases brand recognition by a whopping 80 percent. Pick the right color for your business and you’ll maximize your revenue potential. A recent article shares a few secrets on the importance of color selection.

For example, in the West and particularly in the United States:

Blue is associated with strength, trustworthiness and loyalty. IBM, Lowe’s, American Express and Hewlett-Packard use blue logos and color schemes.

Orange is associated with fun, excitement, action, warmth and passion. Nickelodeon, Amazon, Fanta Soda and Firefox focus on orange.

Red stands for energy and power. It’s youthful and bold. Check out the red logos and color schemes of Coca-Cola, Virgin, Target and Netflix.

Green is the color of wealth, and many financial services firms, including Fidelity, H&R Block and TD Ameritrade, embrace it. It’s also the color of nature—think Animal Planet, Greenpeace and Whole Foods—and can represent natural strength. Think Starbucks, Tropicana and Monster Energy.

Yellow conveys happiness, optimism and friendliness while grabbing attention. Among the logos that use yellow are those of McDonald’s, Hertz, Nikon, Best Buy and IKEA.

Pink is stereotypically seen as romantic and feminine, representing love and warmth. Pink logos include PINK by Victoria’s Secret, Baskin Robbins and Barbie.

So, ask yourself again: Is your brand’s color selection sending the right message to customers?

Read more.