Designated Editor’s Perspective

Leveraging LinkedIn: Free tips to prospect and engage

January 25, 2012 Leave a Comment

Leveraging linked in newport county chamber of commerce talk by suzanne mcdonald

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Leveraging LinkedIn presented to the Newport County Chamber of Commerce

This presentation was coupled with live demos and lots of Q&A from the packed room at the Newport County Chamber of Commerce. LinkedIn demo included:

How to optimize your profile

Make sure your photo shows you professionally and recognizably
Be sure it’s recent

Use plug-ins to enhance your profile

TripIt
SlideShare
Blog Link
Reading List

Engage via Groups

Share articles of interest
Connect to people in your Groups who you find interesting
If you’d like to connect with someone you don’t know, try engaging via Groups

LinkedIn posting tips

Post at least once per week.

One way to stay active on LinkedIn is to post articles you’ve read and commented on to LinkedIn (can also select to share with Twitter) and share with Groups and Individuals. Please note: LinkedIn is not like Twitter, and people are more likely to become over-saturated with your posts if you’re contributing multiple times per day.

Thanks to the Newport County Chamber of Commerce for hosting and don’t miss a Facebook Seminar at the Chamber on Feb. 9, 2012.

Filed Under: Designated Editor's perspective, LinkedIn Tagged With: Blog Link, Designated Editor, Engagement, Interactive, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Answers, LinkedIn demo, LinkedIn Events, LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn posting tips, Newport County Chamber of Commerce, Newport RI, optimize profile, Reading List, Rhode Island, SlideShare, Social media, Suzanne McDonald, TripIt

New media tips to land your first customer presented by Suzanne McDonald

January 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Landing your first customer with new media presented by suzanne mc donald, designated editor

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How to use new media to land your first customer, a Designated Editor presentation at Boston ENET: The IEEE Entrepreneurs’ Network

Landing your first few customers, as Boston ENET: The IEEE Entrepreneurs’ Network, accurately articulates “is often one of the biggest hurdles startups face.”

Check out the slides for insights on how to “leverage digital media and traditional marketing techniques to land those first customers–without breaking the bank. Suzanne will explore customer acquisition with an emphasis on using the marketing tools of the 21st century.”

Boston ENET events gather many previously successful entrepreneurs who are venturing on new projects, as well as some freshly minted entrepreneurs. A highly engaged crowd with fantastic questions, and a fantastic venue at SwissNex Boston, along with gracious hosts: the SwissNex Boston team and Christina Inge of Boston ENET. Don’t miss future ENET events.

Christina Inge

Tweet highlight from Christina Inge of Boston ENET

“The hard part when you’re beginning is you’re in an echo chamber-talking, but not yet hearing from customer #enet”

Let’s continue the conversation

What did I miss?
How did you get your first customer?

Filed Under: Boston, Designated Editor's perspective Tagged With: acute pain point, audience, best practices, blog, blogger relations, blogs, Boston, boston entrepreneurs network, brand loyalists, Brands, content strategist, credibility, Designated Editor, evangalists, F-commerce, Facebook, first customer, google analytics, identify audiences, Interactive, keywords, landing page optimization, LinkedIn, Low-cost tools, market research, media relations, new media, PR, public relations, refine audience, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, shape your website and social media outreach, social, Social media, social media outreach, tips, Twitter, UGC, user generated content, user-generated content, using new media to land your first customer: low-c, website messaging, YouTube

Book review: ‘Social Media Playbook for Business’

January 5, 2012 Leave a Comment

Tom Funk’s Social Media Playbook for Business

Tom Funk’s “Social Media Playbook for Business: Reaching Your Online Community with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and More” covers various aspects of social media, from strategy to platforms, plus “next level,” successes, fails, and the future of social media.

Funk’s Strategy chapter covers everything from:

Listening
Ownership
Legal
Establishing mission
Publishing a plan
Goals
Tracking
ROI
Is my company right for Social Media?

Managers who are not directly involved with day-to-day social media may find Funk’s explanations most helpful. He covers:

Social media platforms
Competitive analysis
Monitoring blogs and social platforms

Unfortunately Funk is not as in-depth as some other books I’ve reviewed when discussing what to expect when hiring consultants.

Funk does discuss the importance of writing a social media business plan, however. He explains formulating a social media plan like a business plan, translating how social media can benefit businesses in a language more oriented to MBAs than marketing/communications specialists.

A social media business plan, like a business plan would include:

Competitive analysis
Operations plan
Goals
Objectives
ROI

Funk does a great job in explaining earned vs paid media. Also, the Future chapter digs into:

Social shopping
Neuro-linguistic programming
How social media is likely to integrate with our everyday expectations
How social becomes the new “normal”

Published February 2011, Tom Funk’s Social Media Playbook for Business will assist business owners and managers with creating a social media plan for businesses to evolve and leverage Social Media. The Social Media Playbook is available on Amazon.com and or other booksellers.

The Social Media Playbook for Business: Reaching Your Online Community with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and More

By: Tom Funk
Published: Feb. 2, 2011
Best for: Larger businesses, higher-level managers who may not be handling day-to-day social media firsthand.

Filed Under: Designated Editor's perspective, Social Media, Social Media Book Reviews Tagged With: blog, blogging, blogs, book review, Brands, Brief review, business, campaign, Chief Content Strategist, company, Content, Designated Editor, Engagement, Facebook, goals, Integrated Strategy, Interactive, LinkedIn, managers, media, objectives, operation, Owners, plan, platform, Playbook, Professor, programming, ROI, Share, social, Social Media Business, social media strategies, strategy, Suzanne McDonald, targeting, tips, Tom Funk, tools, tracking, Twitter, University of Rhode Island, YouTube

Journalists’ new outlet: Repurposing our skills to meet today’s demand

May 27, 2009 Leave a Comment

By Suzanne McDonald
Designated Editor

Purists will cross their eyes at the notion of journalists becoming corporate advocates. Hey, we gotta eat, right? There’s a place for us, it’s just unfamiliar.

Never before has written communication played a greater role in everyday decision-making. Few decisions, especially major ones, are made without research. Journalists should pay heed.

Companies, meanwhile, should also listen up. Research does not constitute poring through mass infusions of blatant self-promotion.

Here we have: Peanut butter and jelly. Throw in a high regard for ethics, and everyone wins:

Journalists, after retiring that title, will get to eat;
Organizations/Corporations will be heard, and most importantly will have the opportunity to listen;
Best of all, buyers win overall: They’re heard; they buy; they get what they want.

Isn’t that the mission of journalists: to educate in an unbiased manner?

Blogging and community-building, hosted by corporations and nonprofits, is our new medium.

Filed Under: Designated Editor's perspective

Why press releases are irrelevant and blogs are a better option

February 6, 2009 4 Comments

When you’re sending out a press release, what are you trying to achieve? How often is it successful?

Having spent most of my career in newsrooms, I’ve seen radical changes. Of course, there are the ones we all hear about – reduced staffing, smaller news hole. But what the average sender of press releases doesn’t realize:

Newsrooms are flooded with press releases everyday.
Often, the employees opening them are coops who have the least experience.
Additionally, if the press releases make it past the gatekeepers, a smaller staff is still chasing the big stories.

Does yours really qualify? Maybe to you, but to the majority of the readership?

Just skip it; really, now there’s a more efficient, more effective way that even offers you greater control. No troubles with harried reporters getting the facts muddled; you control the message.

And a firm such as Designated Editor can ensure your message is and on-target relevant. Just like a news editor, we evaluate and relay your news in a meaningful way to your target audience. Best of all, you’re the publisher!

But before you get all Citizen Kane, this tool must be managed effectively. Just as a blessing quickly becomes a curse, you would do well to obey the laws of this new media.

First: Make sure your community of readers, prospects, clients, and even physical neighbors feel welcome.