“PR is how you tell your company’s story. It could, and should be, the basis of your entire marketing program.”

So why is PR important to your company? PR is your on-going brand message. If you think about your social media efforts – like blogging – it can’t exist without stories! Your editorial calendar originates with your PR, and content is key! You don’t have to have a PR agency to start some simple PR efforts on your own, but there are some places where having an experienced PR agency or writer will make a big difference, and we’ll give you some of those pros and cons in just a bit. The key to having a successful PR campaign – either on your own, or with an agency – is that you have to be committed to it, just as much as you would be committed to your advertising campaign.

Carol shared with me that she gets approached by potential clients saying that they’d like to give it “one month to try it out”. Having a successful PR effort won’t happen in a month. To garner real results from PR efforts, you need to be open to using PR for 4-6 months. Public relations is an on-going effort.

Oh, the forgotten about “written word”. Carol says, “you can’t forget the power of the press release!” Print PR is much more measurable now because of the online community. You can easily measure results and tracking by having your releases turn up in online venues.

The Flip Video Camera

Hello there, it’s Kristen Weaver, your Roving Reporter back on duty!

School is back in session, and I was fired up for this morning’s Social Media seminar “Flip over the Flip and YouTube”, presented by Meredith and sponsored by WOAMTEC.

We started off the morning just getting everyone logged in and fed (because what’s a good day at school without a hearty breakfast?). I grabbed a blueberry bagel, banana and Orange Joice. Breakfast of champions, no?

Meredith begins our session talking about all the ways that using YouTube will help with your organic search optimization. So fascinating to me. I’ve used YouTube before, but only for videos of my cat (who wobbles). I was very excited to get it started for my photography business and open a new “channel” – but I had no idea how much it can help your ranking! Basically, Google owns YouTube, which means that when you tag your videos, Google will start to search and rank them as part of your business. We also got to hear a great testimonial of how this worked for a local company! I’m sooo on this!

By Roving Social Media Reporter: Kristen Weaver

I can’t tell you the last time I was actually awake at 6am…. but this morning I woke up bright and early to get ready for Meredith Oliver’s new seminar as part of the WOAMTEC Social Media Bootcamp! Today’s session is on LinkedIn, and I’m looking forward to learning more about this powerful business networking tool.

My drive across town was an eclectic mix of old school Janet Jackson (Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty), The Ting Tings and Iron Maiden. Fashionably arriving about 40 minutes early (in true Kristen Weaver style), grabbed a blueberry bagel (from Via Panera), a banana and some orange juice – I’m set up, logged in and ready to learn about LinkedIn!

Meredith’s boot camps are really great because she does so much hands-on training. We all were able to bring our personal laptops to plug in and follow along. Because honestly, hands-on is one of the best ways to learn and become familiar with these new tools.

Ahh, Allen has arrived and decided to harass me about my upcoming housewarming party. If you don’t know Allen, he’s Meredith’s husband (aka Partner in Crime) and super-dad to Brady and Molly Oliver (Molly is the fabulous facebooking dog and infamous, in her own right).

8:30 am – Meredith just kicked off the lesson! Everyone is so attentive! She’s opening by asking everyone what new ideas they took with them following last week’s Facebook session and how they’ve used them. Lots of great accomplishments! Everyone’s been working on their Fan pages, linking and “being wild” – ok, well some of them got the message