By forcing dirty politicians to come to the table and to answer questions on-camera, you can help put them in a corner that the corrupt ones cannot get out of. Simply help tell as many people, as possible, about this site.
Pass the word. Get your friends to share this info with their friends. Use your social media to its fullest extent.
Here are some ideas how:
The following post is a joint collaboration between Elish Bul-Godley (@elishbulgodley) and Neil
Sisson (@neilsisson).
Definition of Guerilla Media Outreach
Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing site simply puts it as “The achievement of conventional
goals (e.g. Profit) using unconventional methods such as investing energy and ideas instead of money.”
Here is a great blog outlining the tactical thinking and mindset that can help you win the war.
Guerrilla versus Gorilla – Small Companies Can Win .
50 Offline Guerilla Tips to help you win the war
Guerrilla marketing behaviour delivers publicity via local unconventional marketing activity that
makes people sit up and notice..think “Shock & Awe”.
Public Relations and Publicity
1. The oldest guerrilla trick is old fashion PR so keep at it. Pick up the phone and give local journalists
what they need most; great news content – its all about spinning your activity to make it a human
interest story. The Guerrilla marketing tactics below are your means to this end.
32Treat Your Premises like A Billboard
2. Give a Graffiti artist some free drawing space by letting him use his artistry on your shutters or paint
a mural on the side of your Building e.g Homeless Charity Simon Community building.
In this picture the premises were used as a billboard with a very witty recruitment ad:
33343. Create in-house exhibitions in vacant display space on your premises to make it more trendy,
appealing and noticeable. E.g. Flaghship Department store Brown thomas use art installations
from 17 local Artists.
Edgy Window Displays
Your Window Display is your Billboard. Get their attention with a head turning window display even if
it comprises stuff you may not eventually sell and chances are, passers-by can be turned into passing
trade. You may be mentioned by word of mouth and profiled in the media. Some ideas:
4. Get a live display real human beings like your staff work in your windows.
5. Create a Smashed window effect as seen in this Apple Store just using window paint.
6. Put up a controversial Political slogan to get noticed.
In the picture below homeless charity ‘The Simon Community’ put out a slogan lobbying for Mental
health on their premises:
35Occupy & Pop-up
If you need to trial a regional market or neighbourhood or need to sell on a seasonal basis, use vacant
or slack premises that are unused and help regenerate the city in the process.
7. Local municipal councils are a great source of vacant units as they need to regenerate old
neighbourhoods. Approach the landlord of a vacant block by offering to spruce up their
neighbourhood and entice long term tenants through your pop-up activity. There are agencies that help
you find them or start a pop up space too.
Here’s an example from a Pub using the vacant hoarding nearby to highlight its location:
36Urban Art, Reverse-Graffiti & Street Propaganda
Great for evoking curiosity and planting brand awareness in specific geographical points in your city.
Clever if its used on a route like a bridge with high footfall, allowing you to target specific locations or
neighbourhoods.
In this picture, local electricity board ESB worked with the municipal authorities to revitalise the
cultural quarter in Dublin by using a Street artist to work on the theme of Electricity on an old
Building they own in the district:
37Here is a great example from Ikea:
Ikea Follows Banksy and Turns to Graffitti Street Art
Caveat: Be careful when engaging in street tactics as you are encroaching on public space – people
38usually forgive you for imposing your image or promotion on a public space only if it is entertaining,
temporary, and an improvement to the environment or aesthetic.
8. Use floor stencilling on vacant urban spaces e.g. the Movie Troll-hunter was marketed using a
stencil on Bridges in the city saying “Troll Below” sparking off curiosity.
9. Use 3d Floor artist to do something mind-boggling outside your premises front door
10. Chalk it up :write your website in chalk outside a major event related to what you do say in the
carpark or registration driveway
11. Use Reverse Graffiti : Street artists use soap instead of a spray can and a stencil to scrub out an
image in public space.
Check out some great examples of Street Propaganda
12. Sustainable design blog, Inhabitat posts some in “Clean Green Street Art hits San Francisco!”
13. “20 Cool and Creative Street Ads” by Bored Panda. Here is an example from their blog:
Here is an example of a clever street ad from their blog:
39Urban Hacktivism
14. Play with outdoor installations: turn an outdoor sign or piece of public works into something new
and entertaining.
15. Yarn bombing is a good example of people decorating the urban environment & using a product in
an unexpected but decoratively visible way – an arts and craft supplier for example could supply free
yarn to a knitting Circle and encourage Guerrilla Yarn bombing in the locality. Catch some enjoyable
examples in Time Magazine’s photogallery on “The Fine Art of Yarn Bombing”
16. Create Projections onto a blank wall at night and it becomes a natural billboard/ cinema screen e.g.
Nokia Snake Game.
17. Another great example : LeCool and Dublin city council used open-sourced collaboration on
Dublin Park(ing) Day. The message : re-using parking spaces by turning them into landscaped
gardens as a way reclaim city space. If I was a garden centre i would jump on a campaign like this with
product placement.
Get Inked
18. Body art as Advertising: using temporary body art / tattoos on your staff as they man events,
exhibitions or hand-out flyers in the street. Brand them with your suppliers logo, your logo barcodes or
QR code even.
Hack your Product
Use your products in a way you never did before
19. If you are in electronics, hardware or engineering set up a hacker group workshop or offer your
products to a hackerspace in your premises and challenge people e.g. engineering students to find new
ways to use your products as part of their thesis.
In House, and Community Events
Tap into the people in your neighbourhood who use your business by providing them with meaningful
events in-store or on your premises:
20. Service your existing customers with social events that allow them to make a positive association
e.g. a book club in a book store after hours, storytelling evenings in a cafe, coffee mornings with toys
for Mums to socialise in a nursery goods store.
Here a Street Feast is organised by local Publishers for Lecool Magazine drawing in their writers,
readers and stakeholders in the city centre they work in:
4021. Offer free exhibition space on your premises to new edgy performance artists, a nearby visual
merchandising school looking for practice or Design students. You will be getting some amazing visual
merchandising for free that may spread via word of mouth.
22. Trade marketing events Get your suppliers to offer a workshop or educational lecture to your clients
or customers for free thus getting their collaboration. a DIY store could hold free DIY or upcycling
classes using suppliers sponsorship or in-house expertise.
Demonstrations
23. Conversely if you supply into retail: do free in-house events via demonstrations of your product
with Q & A sessions and tips on how to use your products in radical new ways.
41Old Fashioned Door to Door Selling
24. Need I say more?
Flash mobbing and Crowd sourcing as advertising
25. Use your own staff as Cast or your own customers as a captive audience : Finnair used their
hostesses to flash mob passenger with a Bollywood routine to tap into the Indian Market
26. If you are selling hospitality, or are in catering organize a Community Street feast or urban Picnic
in a vacant lot and or on your high street with neighbouring businesses.
27. My favourite example of using grassroots communities to promote an event:: the Haka Flash
mobs that took place during the NZ Rugby World Cup
Offline Gamification
Playful and Entertaining promotions engage people, tap into their competitive streak and can target
sales.
28. The most basic application is a loyalty points system on your reward card e.g. Starbucks allows
you to collect stars with every purchase. Or award a badge for targeted buying activity and let
customers qualify for the next level of rewards.
29. Gamify the In-store experience: e.g. encourage customers to buy a special basket or combination
of goods and reward with a prize, Or the classic “be the 100th customer today and win a free prize” and
so on..
30. Other games challenge the public to look out for the product and keep it in the public’s
consciousness e,g, a Treasure hunt: find the hidden prize in the packaging and you win a year’s supply,
get the golden ticket in our next Flyer mailout, spot our Product on the street .. and so on.
31. The key is to blend this offline activity with online tools in this blog: 5 brands with Winning
Gamification Strategies .
Find a Champion
32. Social enterprises and Charities use this all the time: find an important influencer in your sector or
celebrity personality that buys or uses their product and use their fame, endorsement and connections to
get noticed. It usually helps if you tie this in with charitable activity.
Collaboration
33. Sell your business face to face via Free Business Networking events / Business Speed Dating.
34. Shared Services & Collective bargaining– learn from Cooperatives: collaborate with your
business network to pool marketing resources, procurement and engage in collective bargaining.
4235. Barter Products and Services within your business network or set up a system of your own
between local stakeholders, e.g. Clonakilty Favour Exchange : A skills and labour system set up to
service a local business community.
36. Secret Tours get together with other businesses in your high street, local business network or town
and organise a secret tour around a theme:for example if you are in hospitality : a secret food trail
showcasing the best culinary experiences for tourists and locals e.g. Fabulous Food & Tasting Trails in
Dublin
Random Acts of Kindness
37. Do something to raise a smile and bring Goodwill. For example, if you are a in the business of
providing e.g. Give Free hugs in a busy high street area outside your premises.
38. Pay it forward: be a parking fairy pay for someone’s parking outside a key establishment like
Google perhaps and stick your business card in with the parking receipt on their windscreen.
Give it away
39. In the “Nicked” viral campaign from from Ben Sherman, Display shirts were stuck on the Outside
of their flagship window and cameras captured passers bys as word of mouth spread that the products
were free : take a look at the Ben Sherman Nicked Window display viral
Product placement
40. Offer your display products as Props to local visual Merchandisers, Theatre or film producers, not
the big names of course as they will charge you.
41. Support Local community events like family days or parish fairs by offering your products for
use – e.g. Beanbag company sponsors a chillout zone at local festival proving the durability of its
products.
Here the local network of Bicycle related businesses supported a Bike Themed Festival in conjunction
with the Municipal authorities:
4342. The Inspiration Room a space for viewing creative content from all forms of media around the
world
43. Lecool has published a compilation of 111 City projects around Europe ranging from popup events,
urban farming to sustainable design via their book: “Smart Guide to Utopia“ Cool Hunting
44. Design Trends and Ideas blog The Pop-Up City have great examples of urban hacktivism and
outdoor guerrilla campaigns
45. The Trendhunter.com community features micro trends, and cutting edge ideas
4446. For spontaneous raw trend information you can also checkout Trendline online magazine
47. Robert Lum of shares creative and unconventional marketing strategies in his blog:
“Top 7 Guerrilla Marketing agencies to Watch”
48. Here’s 50 more ideas! Short snappy ones from “Bootstrapping blog “a great site for startups
needing cost effective strategies:
50 Guerrilla Marketing Tactics you should be using
49. Luke Abbott Social media professional in paddypower.com rounds up:
“10 Low Budget Guerrilla Marketing examples”
50. Amy-Mae Elliot has a cool roundup of videos in Mashable in:
“ 10 Excellent Examples of Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns”
In Short: Offline Guerrilla Marketing is about using your Marketing Mix in an unexpected way in
unexpected places with unexpected tools: shock, raise eyebrows, titillate and pull at your public’s
emotional strings at street level. Or do something altruistic and service your community thus buying
you a positive human interest story spin and goodwill in the press.
Key takeaway: Keep it Local: It’s got to be high concept, appealing and relevant to your local
community and target audience.
What Next? Go Global: These real world tactics are extremely effective in themselves for getting your
brand and business noticed out there. But combine these marketing tactics with the power of the
Internet, social media and the various online tools available today, and hey Presto! You’ve just
generated food for viral online content.
50 Effective Online Guerilla Disclosure Outreach Ideas
Online tactics can broadcast and amplify the local Guerrilla Marketing activities you’ve executed
offline, but they can also help you build an online following, raise your brand’s awareness, connect to
prospects and customers you would never have previously been able to reach, and transform all of your
efforts into a comprehensive, strategic, global dominating marketing plan.
But how to get started on the Intraweb? Below are 50 idea’s for you to turn into Guerilla Marketing
weapons.
Start with the basics:
Social media presents a huge opportunity for Guerilla Marketing and increasing your revenue and
customer loyalty.
Below are a number of steps you can take that will allow you to maximise the possibility of traffic and
45connecting with new customers. Think of having these social media accounts as setting up an online
platform (HQ) for you to conduct your guerilla marketing campaigns from.
51. Spend a little bit of time setting up a Facebook business page and configure your timeline
view for best results. Add lots of content in the about section and be personable so that people can
connect with you as a person and not just your brand.
Facebook is free, and your customers (and a lot of new prospects) are more than likely already using it,
so it can be a great source of direct traffic.
52. Find other pages where your customers and prospects hang out already and post there as your
page. Other people viewing those pages will see your posts and if what you’ve said is interesting (or if
your logo is interesting) they will click over to your page to check you out. Add value to the
conversations and avoid (at all costs) putting out promotional updates for your products/services on
other people’s fan pages.
53. Make it as easy as possible to get more likes for your Facebook page
54. Setup a Google+ business page. Google+ is probably the best single thing you can do at the
moment to boost the organic placement of your website in Google’s search results.
55. Setup a Twitter Account. Twitter can be an incredibly powerful tool for finding new customers for
your business and its important to have an account so that you can secure your brand name on Twitter if
possible.
When setting up the profile make sure to be personable in your profile box and customise
46the background. Put your brand name in the background if possible and the URL to your website in
both the background and more importantly in the profile section.
56. Connect all of your social media accounts so that you only need to post to one place for all accounts
to be updated. This free tool will allow you to distribute your Facebook posts to Twitter, Google+ and
LinkedIn. Now you will be able to focus on being really active on just one social network; whichever
you feel has the largest number of your target demographic of customer.
57. Write blog posts
If you don’t already have a blog, perhaps its time to start one? You can start a free blog on
WordPress.com or Tumblr.com, if your current website doesn’t have blog functionality built in and you
don’t have the budget to get one added. Just make sure that you put a clickable URL back to your main
site on your new free blog. Also use your brand name as the account name when setting the blog up.
Think about whether you have the time to commit to a blog before starting it however, as it will be a
waste of time if you don’t post at least twice a week over an extended period of time.
58. You could write guest posts on other blogs where your target market read. This is a great way of
getting yourself in front of potential future customers and making them aware of your existence and
your knowledge of your industry.
There is a hidden bonus with these posts. Not only will you potentially get direct traffic when prospects
read your post and click through to your website, but you will also get an SEO boost from the link to
your website at the bottom of your post.
59. Write how-to articles for article directories and how-to blogs. For example, perhaps you own a
building company. You could write DIY how to articles showing people how to hang pictures, paint a
room correctly, fix taps in the bathroom. These could be published on your own blog or on an article
directory like ezine
4760. Sign up for a Dlvr.it account. Dlvr It is a free service which will facilitate you publishing an RSS
feed to your social media accounts. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a quite
straightforward to setup. If you have a blog, it will have an RSS feed that you can easily copy and paste
in to Dlvr.it which will automate posting about your blog update on social media.
61. Create videos and post them to YouTube. YouTube is a completely free resource and the 2nd
largest search engine in the world. It is a great place to get direct traffic to your website and also to get
an SEO benefit as video’s regularly show up in the first page of search results (SERPs) on Google. You
can also publish the video’s to your Facebook stream and your Google+ account.
All you need is a good smart phone or a digicam and you are all set to make a video starring your
gorgeous self, or something else related to your industry. For example if you are a Veterinarian perhaps
you could take some video of the animals in your practice doing something cute.
62. Post your video’s on your blog and add a bit of descriptive text around them to activate interest
and conversation in the comments section of your blog. Ask questions at the end of the piece.
63. Does your business involve something that you could take photo’s of? Perhaps you are on the road
a lot and could take pictures as you drive around of scenery? Or maybe you do something creative (nail
artwork, tatoos or graphic design)? Why not take your completed designs or photographs and post them
to Pinterest, your Facebook timeline and Google+ stream.
64. After a month take all your photo’s and pictures and create a photo collage video and upload it to
YouTube for extra traffic and an SEO boost.
65. Amplify your offline graffiti art campaign by videoing the whole thing. Film meeting up with your
graffiti artist, travelling to the venue, the preparation of the work and everything that happens until the
end. Think of a few questions to ask the artist and yourself. Turn the result into a cool viral video for
YouTube and Facebook.
66. Amplify your everyday activities. Do you or your staff do something during the normal course of
your working day that people would find interesting? Why not film it and create a viral video of the
daily activities in your premises?
67. For ideas, online PR & Social Marketing firm Simply Zesty sends the latest Virals
Check out the Simply Zesty viral video archives.
68. Run online/offline promotions
Does your business service the public in some way? Maybe you could give away a freebie like this pop
up eatery < http://www.cheapeats.ie/2011/02/18/crackbird-pop-up-restaurant-starts-next-week/ >
did in exchange for having prospects & customers tweet about your business.
69. Put a QR code in the window of your premises and connect it to a mobile page on your website
with the details of your business and a list of the benefits of using your firm versus your competition.
4870. Run a QR street campaign
Simon on the streets used QR codes very creatively to raise funds for homeless people last Christmas <
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/simon-on-the-streets-qr-codes/ >
71. A funny word of caution – How not to use QR codes:
72. Hire a cool sounding voiceover guy to speak over a video you create from images or powerpoint
slides to showcase your business
73. Create a mobile landing page for your QR code that will increase the number of likes to your page.
74. Get a bunch of people who live near interesting places to hold up signs with part of a message you
want to transmit on them. Compile the videos into a promotional clip
75. Have Ozzy the dog draw a picture or create a marketing message for your product or services
76. Can’t afford a graphic designer but you want a professional Timeline cove r image for your
Facebook company page? Lydia will do it for $5
77. If you are comfortable editing your website, Marcus will create an SEO report and email it to you
4978. Maybe you could use something like this in the intro part of a company video.
79. A good selection of guerilla marketing options can be found here
80. Perhaps you need a catchy jingle or other original and whacky music to accompany your video?
Check this out
81. Need a script written? Check this out: Script Writing
82. A cautionary tip: on Fiverr.com you will find a lot of people that will be will be happy to increase
the number of fans, followers and connections in the various social networks. You will also find offers
promising to tweet a massive following with your marketing message. These services are a waste of
your money because the fans/followers you will receive will not be targetted and as such will be low
quality.
83. Post a link to your latest blog posts on Digg, Reddit and Delicious. Well you’ve written the
content, why leave it to gather dust?
84. Start a discussion about your latest blog post topic. Use big forums like boards.ie or whatever your
regional hub of activity to start a discussion around the topic you’ve blogged about. You can usually
paste a link to your post in on most forums as long as you are genuinely trying to have a conversation
about the topic, and as long as its not your first post on the forum.
85. Give your exact target market something fun to do online. @betfairpoker do this really well.
86. Join some community forum’s where your target market would typically hang out. Put a link to
your website in your forum profile signature and then join the conversations happening on the website.
Say valuable things and make a contribution that is helpful.
87. Search on Google+ for people who would enjoy or find value in your product/service. Particularly
those who are very active in your niche. Add them to a special circle and message them asking for their
feedback on what you are doing.
88. Have you got something to say? Why not host your own Radio Show?? Don’t just drone on about
your products and services, talk about issues relating to your niche and give tonnes of value away for
free.
89. Interview someone your target audience would find interesting. Blog about it, or have them on your
Blog Talk Radio show. Or have them on your Podcast. Or even better do all three, and then bundle the
MP3 and a transcription as a downloadable reward for joining the email list on your website.
90. Setup an email newsletter. Even if you are just emailing special offers out once a month its better
to have on your website than nothing. You can use Mailchimp who are free and will keep you
compliant! This will be huge for bringing traffic back to your site.
91. Create an on-line community specific to the primary related area of interest of your target market.
50For example say you have a clothes shop for babies. Perhaps you could setup a Facebook page or
group, designed to help mum’s with issues they’re experiencing with their newly born babies.
92. Record a weekly podcast, and publish it to a page on your blog and to iTunes. This free software
and some time is all you need!
93. Team up with another business owner in a related but non competing business and do a Joint
Marketing Venture online. Your JMV should involve the creation of content (any form) designed to
attract the perfect target market for both of your businesses.
94. Setup a LinkedIn group for your niche. Social Media Ireland is a very successful example of this
run by Niall Devitt.
95. Setup a LinkedIn group for your target market. For example, if the decision maker who decides to
buy your products/services is the CFO or Financial Director of a company, why not setup a group
called Chief Financial Officers Ireland?
96. Setup or join a meetup group where you can make industry or customer connections. For
example I run the user group for WordPress in Dublin, because my company builds primarily
WordPress web solutions and because I love WordPress and want to connect with other users.
97. Host a weekly webcast. At the moment this awesome new tool is free. CynoCast will allow you to
offer a new level of interactive webcast experience to an almost unlimited number of attendees.
98. Run a multi-platform competition to generate interest in your brand and products. If you give
something you sell as the prize you’ll ensure you attract your exact target market.
99. Showcase your expertise by answering questions in LinkedIn’s Answers section.
100. Finally, and this isn’t exclusively an online tip but more of a general one, wherever possible show
people the passion you have for what you do.
_
The Author: Neil Sisson
Neil is passionate about Inbound Marketing, Social Media, SEO and good Website Design. He works
with businesses and organisations all over the world to help them be more effective online. Neil is the
51Managing Director of Lime Canvas a website design and inbound marketing agency and he organises
the Dublin WordPress meetup group. Connect with Neil: LinkedIn – @neilsisson – Google+ –
Facebook http://www.LimeCanvas.com
48 Guerrilla PR Tips from Top PR Pros
Linsey Knerl – Senior Writer, WiseBread.com / Freelancer, Wise Bread
Your business is feeling the crunch this year — and your marketing budget is dwindling
as a result. We’ve asked some of the most experienced public relations professionals to
share their secrets on how to market a company on a small budget. Here are some of the
best ways to use social media and word-of-mouth marketing to gain a competitive
advantage in this tough economy.
1. Claudia Goffan, Target Latino — @TargetLatino
52Form relationships with other local businesses that cater to your customers. Ask them to
offer a discount to their customers if they mention coming from their store when they
purchase from you. Feel free to reciprocate.
2. Shannon Cortina, Springboard Public Relations — @scortina
Make a realistic list of the top five targets (news/media outlets, blogs, or social media)
that you feel your business would benefit most from being mentioned or featured on.
Research and get to know each of these targets and their influencers by reading their
articles, following them on Twitter, watching their segments, etc. Use a relevant article
or blog post of theirs to reach out to them to introduce yourself via the comments section
or through email. Taking the time to understand their coverage area, as it relates to your
business, can help you position yourself as an expert resource for their next piece.
3. Molly Lynch, Lynch Communications Group — @mollylynch
The key to Twitter is thinking of it as a dinner date, rather than an opportunity to
promote your product. A dinner date (or at least a good date) means a dialogue between
two people, who share thoughts, ideas, and interests. Twitter is not a monologue or a
place to simply post thoughts. Networking, engagement, and responses are required.
While promoting your product or company is important, successful Tweeters do not
simply post sales or information. Talk with your followers, engage them, and learn from
them. Then, they’re more likely to take an interest in your brand. Make it a two way
street and make it a great Twitter-date!
4. Amy Mannarino, TheWalters Art Museum — @walters_museum
We have found that having multiple staff members “co-tweet” about our organization
has increased our audience diversity on Twitter. Each person highlights different aspects
of the museum. For example, a marketing professional might tweet factoids about an
upcoming exhibition while a curator may add an artwork to Flickr and tweet about its
meaning.
5. Kwesi Robertson, MM2 Public Relations — @kwesirobertson
Use Twitter as a Social Media Newsroom. Twitter allows a brand to quickly release
multimedia news or information about their company. To create more unified stories, I
use a free-service called Pitchengine to create social media news releases that I upload
53via my/clients twitter account(s). Pitchengine allows me to track how many views my
article has received.
6. Sarah Wilson, Sarah Wilson Business Communications — @SWBizCom
One of the primary complaints about social media is that it’s time intensive, however,
there’s really no need for that. By using tools such as TweetDeck, it’s easy to take Twitter
remarks that are appropriate for your Facebook and/or LinkedIn audiences and
simultaneously post to those accounts as well, while omitting remarks that may not be a
fit.
7. Paige Phelps, North Texas Food Bank — @ntfb
We use games. Currently we’re rolling out a Haiku contest for students and teachers.
Our newest metaphor in use here at NTFB is that the number of hungry children in our
13-county, North Texas region would fill the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium two-and-a-
half times. Using that, we’re engaging our contacts at local public and private schools to
get teachers on board with the theme “Haikus for Hunger.” We are using that as our hash
tag too (#haikusforhunger). We think it’s a fun way to open up the discussion of hunger
in the community, teach kids a little something about poetry, and have fun. The numbers
aren’t in yet, but meme games like these are always a ton of fun to play, no matter the
age.
8. Niccolinas Soto, Public Relations Depot — @MamaPR
My advice for marketing strategies: use it all, use it consistently, and use it properly.
Don’t just join Twitter or Facebook and only post about your products. Be a part of the
online communities and really participate. Reply, comment, and give back…don’t just
take. Also, it’s clear all you’re doing is marketing when you join a site and only post
your business info, and no profile photo as well as not a single blog written or comment
given — this is the fastest way to be forgotten or bypassed by visitors. Fill out profiles
completely, and post up some helpful blog posts.
9. Ronnie Manning, Mynt Public Relations — @RManning_Mynt and @MyntPR
Become a voice in your area of expertise, and utilize the comment posting sections of
blogs and online publications. These comment boxes can allow you to link directly to
your web site and boost traffic. Follow those writers who cover you space and offer
54opinion, personal experience, and complementary comments relative to their stories. Be
transparent with who you are, put your name/title/business/website after your comment
which will help get you and your business name out there. (However, it’s very important
that you do not do a straight product or services pitch, as these types of comments will
often be removed by moderators as being too marketing-oriented.)
10. Rebecca Goldberg, DMD Insight — @RebeccaGoldberg and @DMDInsight
Small businesses have an advantage over big businesses: a unique voice. That voice is
the result of a tight-knit culture and typically one of a visionary leader who has an
inherit brand strategy because her or she is the brand. To me, that’s attractive. I think that
small businesses should capitalize on who they are and what makes them special by
letting the dreamers and do-ers share what’s going on behind the scenes.
11. Kendra Schultz, PRIME 3 — @kendraschultz
One huge marketing tactic that attains a lot of followers on Twitter or fans on Facebook,
are giveaways. Whether it’s for a free cupcake, free web-hosting for a year, free Mac
book (or whatever product/service your company provides), creating a contest where
fans/followers must tweet about your company in order for a chance to win something
free not only expands your brand awareness via hundreds-thousands of people’s Twitter
or Facebook accounts to their fans/followers, but it also keeps these followers listening
to what you have to say moving forward.
12. Marisa Puthoff, Edelman — @MarisaGPuthoff
Become familiar with Google Place Pages for local businesses. Google now provides in-
depth information when available for local businesses and places, offering information
from customer reviews, to menus and selection notes, to basic information like store
hours and an image of the location. You can visit the local business center page to make
sure your business is represented with up-to-date information and to receive insights for
how local users are finding your business’ listing. Other sites like Yellowpages.com and
Superpages.com allow businesses to post free listings under industry headings that are
searchable to consumers. You can also promote your listings on these free sites through
your social media tools.
13. Brenda Christensen, Stellar Public Relations — @brendachrist
55Be a name dropper — find out the most INFLUENTIAL influencer in your arena and
impress them with your brand. Once you’ve won them over, shout it from the Twitter
rooftops — employ Twitter lists and tweet like mad. It takes a human machine, but the
branding will put you over the top.
14. Nick Lawhead, Desautel Hege Communications — @nlawhead
Internet users are already talking about your product, service or industry with their social
networks on Twitter. An active role in this conversation positions your company as an
expert on the topic — whether you’re selling vacuums or writing services. Twitter
allows small business and consumer to connect and interact directly. Use
www.search.twitter.com to find conversations about your industry or product using key
words — then answer the questions your consumers have! Resolve the issues! Retweet
the glowing reviews! All of this adds up to you participating in the social conversation.
15. Sally Falkow, PRESSfeed — @sallyfalkow
Use our free news optimizing toolbar to help you to make your content more visible and
get it found in search engines and social sites. It has instructions and tools you can use to
improve your online visibility. http://www.press-feed.com/toolbar .
16. Menachem Wecker, George Washington Today — @GWToday
Social media tools are created for gregariouscommunity-building, and nobody likes the
self-infatuated person at the bar who cannot stop talking about her/himself. Social media
users should have to affirm a Hippocratic cyber-oath; first and foremost listen and
understand the needs and pulse of the community, and only then start to think about how
you can be of use to fellow members, and how they can be helpful to you. (And in case
there is any confusion, turning your Twitter feed into an RSS feed of your news releases
violates “do no harm.”)
17. Katie Elliott, Quinn and Co — @Quinnandco
Create a list of staff, clients, client-related people, and journalists on Twitter. This helps
with generating #Follow Fridays and keeping up to speed on client efforts. Send
personalized direct messages to people when they follow you. It’s rare, and it helps you
stand out from the crowd. We currently send an automated DM to all followers, but I
follow up with a personalized message later.
5618. Jessica Nunez, Nunez PR Group — @NunezPR
Create brand ambassadors by hosting free events and providing special coupons and
offers especially for your Facebook fans or the readers of your blog. This a fun way to
show customer appreciation and show customers the value for them to interact with your
brand online. When a customer posts positive comments to your Facebook page, blog or
other social networking site, send them a coupon, discount, or even something as simple
as a branded tchotchke. Consumers like to know that companies are listening to them
and they love to be acknowledged for it.
19. Carin Galletta, Ink Foundry — @InkFoundry
One of the items that we find missing from most small business marketing plans is
analytics. A free tool for tracking site traffic isGoogle Analytics. Before any business can
access a guerrilla marketing tactic they need to understand their baseline to gauge
whether or not the effort is working. Analytics is free and easy – there is a great tutorial
on the Google site and a bunch of YouTube “how to” videos that can help a small
business owner understand how to use it.
20. Duane B. Thomas, EdYouCation — @Edyoucation
You can gain great value from volunteering your small business for a University class as
a “working-study.”
21. Katja Presnal, Collective Bias — @katjapresnal
Always remember to engage your retail location customers in the conversation also on
Twitter by displaying your twitter account proudly in your location — as simple as
“Follow us on Twitter” and your Twitter handle printed in a piece of paper will do the
trick. Same goes for online businesses; remember to make your Twitter account visible
for your customers.
22. Chris Brown, Marketing Resources & Results — @chrisbrown330
A twitter handle or screen name is one of the most important aspects and something that
is in short supply. Get yours now!
23. Marisa Puthoff, Edelman — @MarisaGPuthoff
Post local events on MeetUp.com. If your business is hosting an event or summit, post
57the information publicly on MeetUp, where users can browse for local meet-ups in a
number of categories, both formal and just-for-fun.
24. Marie Domingo, PR Professional — @MarieDomingo
Anything you share on Twitter must be authentic and should sound like your voice as
opposed to and advertisement. The best Tweets have a call to action, or a link that
includes an interesting Twitpic (photo), website (content). The objective is to have
engaging conversations, not to drive more followers. Followers follow interesting
dialogs.
25. Andrea Rizk, Rizk Public Relations — @andreahrizk
Do not follow more people than are following you on Twitter. Have a bio that is
informational but shows personality.
26. Jennifer Batchelor, brpr — @brprmiami
We use Twitter to allow “backstage access” and a behind-the-scenes view to show, rather
than tell, our followers and prospective clients what it is that we do so well and how it is
that we put it all together for our branding efforts. This includes everything from photo
shoots and runway shows, to exclusive interviews with our designers, editors, and
publishers. We take it one step further by re-tweeting interesting articles as they relate to
our industries, which in itself gives great tips to our readers, and also positions us as
experts in our concentrations; however, we very rarely use our Twitter feed to directly
promote our clients. They each have their own Twitter accounts (created and managed
by us) which we use to shout each other out from time to time, and otherwise operate
independently of each other.
27. Kent Lewis, Anvil Media, Inc. — @kentjlewis
I manage a host of profiles, so I can more accurately and effectively target audiences
based on interest or point of initial contact. I syndicate my primary profiles to Facebook
and my professional profile to LinkedIn, to extend the reach and value of my tweets. I
utilize HootSuite, TweetDeck, TweetBeep and Ping.FM to streamline research,
monitoring and tracking. From Twitter, I’ve been able to generate prospective clients,
partnerships, volunteers, sponsors and speaking engagements.
28. C. Renzi Stone, Saxum PR — @renzistone33
58Think before you post — only post what you would say at a cocktail party in front of a
room of strangers. Ask yourself before posting, is this relevant? Sell thought leadership,
not services or products.
29. Dee Stewart, DeeGospel PR — @DeeGospel
Use words in your profile that will attract your ideal client to you. Treat each tweet
received and given as if they’re love notes. Use Ping.fm to cross promote your tweets
through all your other SMS platforms (Facebook, Brightkite, etc,) and have DMs sync to
your Smartphone so that you’ll be available to nurture your relationships and respond as
soon as they need you.
30. Marisa Puthoff, Edelman — @MarisaGPuthoff
Look out for opportunities to “trend” locally on Twitter. Twitter just launched an initial
version of local trends, which will allow local brands the opportunity to run coupons
through Twitter, or other campaigns that can drive discussion on Twitter and “trend” for
that area.
31. Jonnice Slaughter, Chatterbox Publicity — @chatterboxpr
One of the most unique ways that I’ve benefited from Twitter in recent months is by
saving my clients money. I scheduled an editorial visit for one of my clients to host a
lunch and to do a presentation at a popular national magazine. To cut the cost, I sent out
a tweet to other professionals who represented a local restaurant that might be interested
in co-sponsoring the lunch. I used several key hash tags, retweeted a few times, and
within 2 business days, I received a bite from a family-owned Italian restaurant. They
agreed to comp half the value of their catering for the opportunity. My client was thrilled
that I was able to save them money and found a credible restaurant willing to deliver
more than pizza, sodas and sandwiches.
32. Trip Kucera, LogMeIn, Inc. — @LogMeInNews
We first started using Twitter early last year when we noticed that many of our users
were posting unsolicited “Tweets” about LogMeIn. They would post things like “I love
LogMeIn” or “LogMeIn saved my bacon today”. We knew we had to start engaging
with our users, and the results have been great so far. Today we use the Twitter channel
to really keep our users in the know by Tweeting exclusive product sales, answering
59product questions and sharing news as well as best practices and helpful tips for remote
working.
33. Samantha McGarry, Gomez — @Gomez_Inc
Follow key reporters on Twitter to get a better sense of their personality and interests.
Don’t be afraid to pitch reporters — as long as your pitch is timely and on topic. Ask
questions and get real-time feedback. Share useful information (plus your own
perspective/personality.) Be an active part of the dialogue.
34. Lisa Bongiovanni, Webroot Software, Inc. — @webroot
Through Twitter, we realized that many of the conversations about us were complaints
about customer service wait times or issues with the product. We began reaching out to
these people and changed their negative tweets into positive product affirmations.
Recently, we created a second Twitter account solely for customer service. This provides
our users an alternative to waiting on the phone, especially when they have easy to
answer questions. By using Twitter to interact with customers, we have inserted our
brand into the conversation and help shape customer attitudes towards our company and
products rather than just sitting by and observing the conversation surrounding our
brand.
35. Kwesi Robertson, MM2 Public Relations — @kwesirobertson
When monitoring a particular brand or client — Twitter’s search feature allows me to
scan real-time feedback. Some innovative Twitter-supplemental services like Topsy have
made the experience even more innovative.
36. Dick Knapinski, Experimental Aircraft Association — @eaaupdate
We use Twitter tips to discuss government issues to which our 160,000 EAA members
can react, such as the FAA requesting comments to an aviation rule change; Aviation
community building, such as a link to EAA members doing something cool or some new
innovation in the flying world; and to generally build excitement for our association and
its activities and programs. Use Twitter to respond to issues that are important to your
followers!
37. Carin Galletta, Ink Foundry — @InkFoundry
If you plan to distribute offers via Twitter and send out informational tweets, set up two
60accounts. And define what each account will be doing in the profile and through periodic
tweets: One will only send offers and the other will provide category information,
general “behind the scenes” info on your company, etc. You can use the second account,
however, to drive traffic/interest to the offer account — but do it sparingly. Many people
don’t want relentless sales offers coming through. For the “offer” account, create offers
that are specific just for the channel you are distributing them on. If you have a link back
to a page, make sure the page addresses the offer immediately, don’t make people search
through your site for it. Make it special — only offer it to your Twitter followers,
Facebook Fans, etc. This will increase conversions!
38. Kwesi Robertson, MM2 Public Relations — @kwesirobertson
When targeting selected media or bloggers with a pitch letter or press release, be
creative and find them on Twitter. Instead of a traditional letter or press release, create a
social media news release/media advisory that gives a more vibrant perspective of your
company’s story and personally address them on Twitter.
39. Marisa Puthoff, Edelman — @MarisaGPuthoff
Look to “linkshare” with other local businesses. Work to build partnerships with other
local businesses, who would agree to post a link to your site in exchange for promotion
on your own.
40. Cindy Kurman, Kurman Communications, Inc. — @kurmanstaff
I’ve secured business via Twitter. It’s been an awesome tool in reaching out. Recently,
we saw a tweet from probably the most followed pr person on Twitter, and she was
looking for someone to help her with a new product launch. It was an industry in which
we are well known for: restaurant/food/hospitality. I responded, she responded. We
tweeted. We talked. She hired us! We are also getting business through Facebook. All of
our social networking sites are networked so my tweets appear multiple places.
41. McKenzie Coco, FSC Inter@ctive — @fscNOLA
Test your messaging. Social media and online marketing is the PERFECT place to test
your outreach plan to observe the impact. Online is measurable. Is it A, B or C that
people respond to and is the response what you wanted? Before moving into a big PR or
marketing push with a huge expense, test the waters in a free space.
6142. Merredith Branscombe, The Hoffman Agency — @Merredith
Offer real value. I have hunted down and offered sources and links/articles for
journalists even when it doesn’t immediately benefit my clients.
43. Aaron Endré Quiñones, Bhava Communications — @AaronEndre
From our personal accounts, our employees retweet agency and client tweets and add
further value — and personality — by offering reactions, personal opinions, anecdotes
and humor.
44. Katie Elliott, Quinn and Co — @Quinnandco
The most important way for small business owners to market their products and services
for free is to track, monitor, and engage in conversations about your product or area of
expertise on Twitter. For example, if your business makes wedding cakes in Wisconsin,
you can monitor tweets from brides, wedding planners and other vendors in that area.
You can set up alerts for people who include the words “engaged” or “wedding
planning” in their tweets, and@reply with a “congratulations!” This is most effective
when you engage and are genuine with people, as opposed to sending a generic message
marketing your product.
45. Elisa Lippincott,TippingPoint — @tippingpoint1
The easiest way to monitor for Tweets related to our business is by using TweetDeck to
set up search terms based on your business. If your business has a Facebook page or
account, you can also set that up as a column, so that you can see if anyone posts to your
page. We’ve secured several sales leads based on Tweets we’ve seen from setting up
various search terms. Someone once Tweeted that their network was infected with a
virus and they needed help. We were able to look at the person’s profile, figure out who
they were and get our appropriate sales person on it. TweetDeck is free, and there’s even
an iPhone version
46. Merredith Branscombe, The Hoffman Agency — @Merredith
Keep your Twitter lists clean. I periodically use TwitCleaner to weed out feeds and
MLMers in disguise, so that I know I have real people.
47. Jenn Riggle, CRT/Tanaka — @Riggrl
62On using Twitter for the first time: Like exercise, walking your dog and drinking water,
it takes time to add anything new to your already busy schedule. That’s why it’s
important to make a concerted effort to tweet at least three times a day during the week.
Add extra value to your tweets by using hashtags (a word preceded by a #). It’s a little
bit like using a zip code because it directs your tweet to people who are interested in a
particular topic.
48. McKenzie Coco, FSC Inter@ctive — @fscNOLA
Online marketing and social media is real — no frills. Take the budget from a direct mail
piece or TV spot with the media and put it back in your pocket. Or maybe you didn’t
have a budget to begin with — develop a plan and strategy (very important) and try
going “au natural” with a flip cam video posted to You Tube, linking to Facebook, and
then Tweet out the link. Then do it every week for 16 weeks and measure responses,
traffic to the website, and whatever your actionable goal was to be accomplished.
Make noise.
As Barbara Streisand (see Wikipedia re: “The Streisand Effect”), Kim Kardashian, Lindsey Lohan and
Donald Trump have proven: “If it ain’t outrageous, it don’t get traction”
The internet takes a few weeks to “percolate”. Don’t expect overnight results. Let it simmer and
fertilize the soil of the internet every few hours.
Democrat owned Google will hide anything bad about Democrats. Republican owned Fox will hide
anything bad about Republicans. Pravda and RT will hide anything bad about Putin, etc. Know your
work-arounds.
Your goal is to have the entire world know about this issue.