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If you had to choose one or the other, which would you choose: a blog or press releases?

Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, says a blog is more powerful.  Her comments appear during a Q&A interview in the February issue of PR Week.

The magazine asked if PR pros were reaching out to offer rebuttals to opinions at her website, “or are they not reaching out as much?” Her response:

“We absolutely get a lot of response from PR pros.  I think a lot of them are recognizing that it is more effective now to blog about something, to have the principals blog about something, rather than send press releases.  The world of the press release is dramatically changing.”

I agree.  Here’s why:

Blogs do a far better job establishing you as an expert in your field.

They give readers a chance to comment, and you can continue the conversation by replying to their comments.

Blogs are the new website.  Many companies no longer have to pay several thousand dollars or more for a website.  You can even run an Internet marketing business from a free WordPress blog, using a good shopping cart.

Not blogging yet?  Get going!

Social media is more than just collecting Facebook fans, sending tweets and joining the conversation.  It’s also about making all that hard work pay off.

Here are five great social media marketing ideas, courtesy of DP Dialogue, a social media marketing agency in Australia.  All of them are free.  Pick and choose which ones are best for you:

–Start a Twitter account and give people incentives to follow you.  Read their blog post to see how Domino’s Pizza did this at http://budurl.com/8flq

–Use Google’s keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal to find whatever keywords related to your business are being searched for the most.  Blog about them and make videos about them.

–Become an expert and start blogging or podcasting.  (Read the excellent Expertise Imperative White Paper that explains how to become an expert at http://www.PublicityHound.com/expertise.pdf It was written specifically for professional speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds.  Use it as a starting point to grow your own expertise.)

–Start a Facebook group that people will want to join and subtly sponsor it.  If you sell candles, start a Facebook group for people who are afraid of the dark.  (See “11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook” at http://budurl.com/wcxb

–Figure out who the key influencers are for whatever it is you’re selling.

You can find some of the best tips by reading comments at blogs.

For example, if you’re curious about how to use Twitter to publicize local events, you’ll find a slew of tips in the comments at http://budurl.com/uymm

They include:

–Use Twitter Grader at http://twitter.grader.com/  After entering your Twitter username and getting your grade, click on your city, state or country.  A list of local tweeters will appear.  If you find them of like mind, you could choose to follow them.  Then tweet about your event so they’ll see it.

–Download and install Tweetdeck, a browser that will let you organize your tweets and see everything all at once.  Then set up search columns based on your local area.  You’ll then “see” people talking about that area.  Chances are that if they are talking about it, they either live there, or visit regularly, so follow them.  Chances are also good they’ll follow you, too.

–Follow the premiere local tweeters in your area, including bars, hotels, clubs and local businesses whose target customers are the people you want to attract.  Retweet events and posts they tweet.  This will tell them you’re interested in promoting what they’re doing and, in turn, they may follow you and promote your event.

–Two good tools for finding Twitterers in your area are http://TwitterHawk.com and http://Twellowhood.com

Most press release writers fail to use the right keywords, or any keywords, in their online releases, which renders the releases impotent.

People who know a little about keywords go overboard and stuff too many into their releases, making it all too obvious that they’re trying to trick the search engines.

Keywords are like magnets.  Let’s say somebody wants to buy boots online.  The buyer types “patent leather boots” into the Google search box.

Google goes looking for that phrase.  It sifts through billions of pieces of content.  Within a second or two, it delivers a long list of articles, videos, blog posts and press releases that have the same keywords.  If you sell patent leather boots and have written a press release about them, but you haven’t used the correct keywords within your release, it won’t be on Google’s list.

But if you HAVE used keywords correctly, your release could end up on the first page of Google, bringing a rush of traffic to the release, and eventually to your sales page.

Too many people spend too much time sweating the right headline, a clever news hook, or a killer quote.  But all those are useless without keywords.  What good is a press release if nobody can find it?

If you’re weary of cranking out quality content for your blog, consider recruiting an occasional guest blogger.

Guest bloggers expose your readers to new opinions, topics and perspectives.

They give you a break.  And they give other writers and experts exposure to your audience.

Here’s the best part.  They don’t even have to have their own blog.  If they can write well, they can guest blog.

Here are five ways to find guest bloggers:

–Invite bloggers whose opinions you admire.  Ask them to write original content, because the search engines don’t look favorably on duplicate content.  Stress that they’ll have the chance to be in front of a new audience and that you’ll give them a link back to their website or blog.

–Invite some of the most frequent commenters at your own blog– writers whose opinions and writing you admire.

–Consider inviting publishers or editors of some of your favorite ezines, as long as their topic is related to the topics you write about.

–If you’re on LinkedIn, pay attention to the question-and-answer feature.  I found a great answer to a question, and asked the writer if I could print her answer as a guest blog post.  She said yes.

–Ask your readers to contribute their best posts–again, original content.  It’s best that readers pitch an idea for your approval, just like they’d pitch a story to journalists.

Facebook users are still howling about recent changes to the homepage.  If you’re one of them, there’s a quick fix to change it back to the way it used to be.

A few months ago, with no warning, Facebook eliminated with the Twitter-like feed of every real-time status update.  Now, instead of displaying everything from all your friends, Facebook uses a secret algorithm to display only the posts and status updates that are generating a lot of comments and responses.  So you never know what you’re missing.

If you hate the change, here’s a three-step process to revert back to the old feed:

–Log into Facebook.  On your homepage, on the top of the left column, you’ll see “News Feed.” Go to the bottom of that column and click on “More.”

–Find the “Status Updates.” Click and drag it to the very top of that column.

–Click “Status Updates” to load that view.  Now, Facebook will deliver your feeds just like it did before.

The News Feed option is still on the left.  If you click on it, you’ll see the new view.  And if you decide later that reading your Facebook feed is like drinking from a fire hose, you can always revert back to the smaller feed.

So says Gary Vaynerchuk, aka Gary V, one of the hottest stars in
the social media world.  The thirtysomething son of Russian
immigrants hosts weekday podcasts about wine at
TV.WineLibrary.com.

His brash style and unpretentious approach to wine appreciation
have attracted an average 40,000 viewers to each podcast, more
than 85,000 followers on Twitter, and more than $60 million a
year in sales at the Wine Library, the New Jersey wine store he
co-owns with his father.

Here are 5 of Gary V’s 5 commandments for social media, as listed
in the Wall Street Journal:

–Treat it like a cocktail party.  Don’t pitch as soon as you meet
someone.

–Don’t draw lines in the sand and call sites like Twitter
“stupid” just because you don’t know how to use them.

–Humanize yourself and your brand with personal information, but
only 2 percent of the time.

–Understand the authenticity and the incredible power of social
media sites and the voices of consumers to make or break
companies.

–Interacting with potential clients and becoming part of the
community is a real job.  Listen before you talk.

Read the entire interview with him at http://budurl.com/lmru

If you’re pitching a story idea to a Spanish-language radio station, remember that the Hispanic market is diverse.

If you’re planning to treat all stations the same, and deliver the same one-size-fits-all pitch, you’re doomed even before you begin.

Dean Thompson, media relations associate at News Generation, a PR firm that specializes in radio media tours, offers these pitching tips:

–Provide information relevant to the geographic region and the demographics that a station reaches.

–Audio news releases, public service announcements and interviews must be written and positioned for specific audiences.

–Don’t send the same pitch to a South Florida station serving mostly Cuban or South American audiences as well as to a southwest Texas radio station serving a largely Mexican population.

–When pitching, include a specific reason for pitching an Hispanic audience.
 
Here’s my related tip: When pitching an idea, you get extra points for supplying contact information of somebody within that radio market who agrees to be interviewed.  Radio talk show hosts and producers love it when you offer additional guests because it saves them time searching themselves.

Other tips for those doing radio interviews:
–Learn to talk in sound bites, and keep your answers short. Start babbling, and the host will cut you off.
 
–Before the show, work out details with the host on how he or she will promote your book or other product. Don’t take it upon yourself to pitch it.
 
–After the show, ask the host, “Who else do you know who might be interested in having me on their show as a guest?” Broadcasters often have friends in other markets and might be happy to pass along your name and contact information.    

What do you do when you see your assistant uploading a photo of him and his drunken buddies to his Facebook page?

What about another employee who works for you and tweets about all things Gothic and, occasionally, slips the name of your company into his weird tweets?

Or your business partner who thinks social media is a waste of time?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a social media policy right at your fingertips to avoid problems like those? Sure it would. But writing one could be a nightmare.

So relax.  I found several dozen samples you can refer to when writing your own policy.
When I was preparing a presentation on social media recently for managers in Executive Agenda, a professional development group for senior executives in Wisconsin, I needed a sample social media policy. To save time, I went over to LinkedIn and asked if anyone had a sample they’d be willing to share.

Eleven people responded.  I struck gold!  You can, too:

Marketing communications strategist Alan Stamm shares this list of more than 30 social media policies, compiled by Barry Hurd at 123 Social Media in Seattle.  It includes policies for Harvard University, the U.S. Air Force, HP, Intel, Cisco, GM and ESPN.  Alan also linked to blogger Filberto Selvas who comments on what he found within policies from those organizations.

Ari Adler, who wrote about corporate social media policies for Ragan.com, shared a particularly helpful Top 10 Guidelines for Social Media. It’s copyright-free and can be used with or without attribution to Shift Communications, which helped a client write it.
 
Answering questions is also a great way to promote your expertise on LinkedIn. See my free article Use LinkedIn to Promote these 7 Ways.

One way to stay on top of what’s happening at your favorite social media site is to read the site’s corporate blog.

That’s often the first place where you’ll learn about major changes, minor tweaks, improved customer service issues and important topics like security issues and additional features. 

Facebook announced recently that it was releasing a feature that allows administrators of Facebook Pages to publish their Facebook updates to their Twitter accounts automatically.

I saw lots of bloggers discussing it, but the official details are at the Facebook blog. So are several hundred comments from Facebook users who love or hate the change. Reading the comments can often help you see quickly whether that site’s community gives thumbs-up or thumbs- down to a new feature or application. You’ll also glean lots of other helpful tips from those comments.

If the people who read that blog are ideal customers for your products or services, post your own comment. Just make sure it isn’t promotional. The best comments share helpful information, tips and advice.
 
Two other blogs worth noting:

- -If you’re on LinkedIn, don’t miss their blog. The first page includes tips on how to win new clients by optimizing your LinkedIn profile, how LinkedIn helps an entrepreneur close deals, and how to organize networking events for free using your LinkedIn network.

- -Google, the granddaddy of search engines, has an entire line-up of blogs in its blog directory.  It includes search tips, how to use Google tools and applications, and a nifty blog called Citizentube that gives lots of examples on how video is changing the world.

If you have a favorite social site, check to see if it has a blog worth following, and subscribe to the RSS feed.