After this Diamond Jubilee Long weekend, I have had a few thoughts over past posts and felt the need to remind everyone to stop using Twitter for Self Promotion! We are all guilty of it, yes, me too – but we (that will be the Royal we) must remind ourselves to use Twitter in the correct way. We know the importance of promoting your brand and awareness to your customers, friends and family; however, if it is pure promotion, then it would turn people off. People just don’t wan

OPT offers you top 5 tips that your competitors will already know! read on… It is fair to say that online pr is NOT the same as offline pr. The differences are significant.  And it is important to learn that both are pitched differently.  This is something successful marketeers have learnt over time and you can learn this from them. Online PR is a varied mixture of brand reputation monitoring and management activities and it’s main goal to influence media, communities and au

What marketing is your fellow industry colleagues using? Can you suggest tips for those behind you? Work out who your power players are. The big boys. The ones that you look up to, the next level. Follow them closely, observe what tricks they use in their marketing, use google alerts to track their progress over a period of time. Get involved with them, and support their goals and achievements. Become a giver and watch the kind of responses you get in return. Follow Online ma

Collaboration is they key.  As a musician I spent slot of my time alone writing music, through school and my 20s. It seemed an isolated career until I started to collaborate with other writers. I learnt from them, they (hopefully) learnt from me and an altogether fun and beneficial time was had by all! The same goes for business. Until the turn of the century, collaboration was an unknown entity and I still believe that businesses could benefit from working with others. Soci

So yesterday we spoke about your business allies therefore we have an idea of what their uses of Twitter and Facebook are.  Another avenue to research is which networks and groups do these companies belong to? Have they any of their own? It seems obvious, but instead of picking up the latest best seller before you visit the land of nod, mooch around the groups of your comrades and interact. Introduce yourself as if you just walked into a room and offer helpful comments and a

I hate the word competitor. Although technically correct, I prefer using the term fellow industry worker or the like, much less abrasive and again endorses the overall philosophy of sharing and becoming better, together. Take our peers for example, the business’s that are on the next level and above to you.  And the ones that aren’t as good as you, that are striving to be where you are.  This is where the business karma will have a resounding effect. What you can do for those

At last! An app that allows you to manage your Facebook pages from your iphone. (Requiring iOS 4.2 or later and no Android yet) We’ve been waiting for this for ages and although in its infancy – I’m sure that when developed a little more, it shall make life a lot easier for us marketers! Now, I am not saying that it is as good as sitting at your lappy and sorting your pages out, don’t expect and all singing all dancing app, as you will be extremely disappointed – BUT at least

It will go a long way to boost awareness and create your reputation that eventually clients will trust. So here are OPT’s last minute tips on building an online presence and brand. Take note! 1. Research your audience and know whom you are selling to. Utilize Google’s many tools and resources to get facts and figures. 2. Based on your research, give you brand a voice. Whether it is someone in the company of note, or yourself, this will become the foundation and ‘human touch’

What does the future hold for branding online? We are in the cardinal age of utilising the digital branding concept. Ok, the big boys have been doing it far longer, but it has now reached ‘the streets’ and anyone can play. As it continues to evolve, it will be made easier with the tools available online to assess and develop a more sophisticated process.  What we think will stay the same is the humane aspect of your brand.  The listening, interacting and the ‘relationship’ wi

One Giant Leap into Social Media Marketing is the debut offering from Andrea Britton. Author of Online Pr Tips ( @onlineprtips ). A Book filled with up-to-the-minute content ideas and tips on how to best use social media platforms in 2012. “From tweets to writing content to filming content to posting on your Facebook wall there is always something to push out to the rest of the world and the more creative you are, the better.  You need to think about timing, relevance and acc

We know that we have the internet in front of us, which connects us to the rest of the globe, BUT never forget that once your presence is set in stone, your brand is working, part of building it’s success, with relationships and ambassadors is connecting with people.  Not just via the net but face to face and even better, on a one to one. Think local! (if possible with your business). Are there any events being held in your local city that you could get involved with? sponsor

Exactly. Just start with a ‘Please’ or “Thank You!’. They go a long, long way. INTERACTING with people and becoming your own living brand ambassador is the only way forward. You represent what you are selling/promoting etc and within your social media circles, you can start telling the story of what your brand is and where it is going.  Take a look at your favourite children’s book… No – I’m serious! – Why did you like it? Did it have characters you particularly favoured?  Ho

Easier said than done right?  Wrong! Your company, your ideas, your vision! Simple! Ok – maybe you’re working for someone else’s company and brand, but you will think of it as your own if you have that job, right?! First of all I would advise you work our where you are at right now.  An audit, if you will.  Take an inventory or your online presence as is and see what other people are saying about you.  There are plenty of social media monitoring services our there for you to

As we have already mentioned, the art of promoting oneself or ones business is entirely up to you. Are you a great party guest? Do you get inundated with Christmas cards? Do people come to you for advice often? If you answered yes to these questions then you will have a head start on marketing your product, brand or service. Chances are you won’t go steaming in and introduce yourself and what you are selling immediately, you will take into consideration the advice on the OPT

Writing an effective online press release is most definitely a learning curve but a well-written offering will continue to rank well in search engine results because folk will share something they actually wanted to read! The best way to hone this skill is by reading other releases online and remember its a news story not a sales pitch.  Read Wiki’s definition before you start! It really helps put things into perspective! Following are OPT tips to get you started but I think

How about beginning a audio or video tutorial for your niche? Do you think that your audience will benefit from you offering them a mentoring service? Tips and Tricks for your specialist service? Whether your skills lie in being a creative or an expert in your niche (you could be a great golfer or know how and when to pot certain plants a musician, or a retail manager, etc) Think of the qualities you could share with other businesses in your field or your online clientele. Re

The basic tasks to benefit from the old ‘American Dream’ is over. The USA’s ethos for keeping your head down, doing what your told, avoid being late, and working hard to be rewarded has quite quickly been replaced by a whole new set of rules. Be amazing, create, be generous, make good decisions, connect people together and share ideas. and as one of my favourite books tells us to take ‘ The Road Less Travelled ‘, think creatively and make a difference. When I talk about creat

We’ve covered the types of social media available to us. We’ve covered the basic uses of these social media outlets. We will continue to revisit these avenues with current updates and ideas in this blog. This week I want to talk about self promotion and social media. I’ve come from a performer background and although self promotion come easily to most in my field, it didn’t to me. I was from the ilk ‘to tell people what you do and talk yourself up was uncool and made you sou

OK, So you’ve got your twitter page looking hot, you’ve written your 3-month campaign and have a decent strategy in place. Then comes the networking right? Imagine you have been invited to one of those work events, you’ve got your name badge and you are fully equipped with a head full of mind numbing questions that you really don’t need to know the answers to, wine in hand – off you go. GULP. One of the upsides of twitter is that you can do all this in your PJs from the comf

Sometimes, real life, meeting people, talking to people, finding out what they like, what they don’t like and what they want is invaluable. Invaluable to a business that is learning about its customers. Completely necessary for a product or service to be the best it can possibly be. So, actually getting up and out of the office, or your comfy office chair and shaking someone’s hand is gold dust! Too often we get stuck behind our computer screens, making friends and winning pe