The Environment, SEO and the Eco-Friendly Internet

It seems like lately we have been getting business opportunities in the area of eco-friendly, or environmental issues, several of which I can talk about now, and two more that are not yet announced.

Oil and the environment are on everyone's minds these days. With gas prices in LA closer to $3.00 this week, it's no wonder. My friend Patrick dropped by yesterday and he showed me a website called http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ - a rather dismal view of what's happening with oil.

As social media marketers -- we now have an opportunity to use the Internet to help peoople understand the seriousness of the problem, to help raise awareness and begin to mitigate the problem before say the year 2050, when there may be close to nine billion people on earth.

Author and futurist James Canton, Ph.D., already predicted that the "Clean Tech" market will emerge, which happened, and now we are in an era where people are promoting social responsibility and profit. In his recent book The Extreme Future (Dutton, 2006) he is asking, "What does it mean to global growth and productivity if we do not discover new energy sources as oil supplies are dwindling?"

One of my colleagues, Riggs Eckelberry, has been working on a new project known as OriginOil - a very interesting concept. Think ocean, algae, and oil. Oil and water never seem to mix well. But in this case, Origin Oil is breakthrough technology that will transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum.

Another client, T.S. Wiley, author of "Lights Out," and developer of The Wiley Protocol, who is using biodegradable eco-friendly plastic in her product targeted to the women who opt in to bio identical hormone replacement therapy.

I did a search for the most influencial bloggers using the key word environment, and as of today, Technorati's directory delivered 11,225 blog posts about environment; 4933 blogs about the environment; 2002 blogs using the key word environmental; 323 blogs about eco-friendly; 29 using the key word oil crisis; and 2,137 blogs about global warming.

Key words like these are beginning to land on web pages everywhere, making it essential for marketers to get on board and begin to market their products and services in this arena with the right search engine optimization and social media techniques, just to stay ahead of the fray.

In the next few days, MarCom Broadband will be featuring more about its most recent eco clients in our newsletter, which can be accessed at www.marcombroadband.com.

Showstoppers Webinar on Social Media, Blogging and Podcasting

Yesterday's ShowStoppers Webinar, "How to Engage Bloggers & Podcasters to Boost Buzz and Generate Coverage" was a success with over 159 signed up, and more than 90 attendees. Maybe some folks got stuck in traffic as it started at 11AM EST, but 8AM on the West coast. Our host was a long time colleague, Steve Leon, cofounder, partner and producer of the fabulous ShowStoppers press events.

There are always lessons learned when woking with new technologies. This was one of my first webinars. I really enjoyed the process, and look forward to even better future sessions. We used GoToMeeting (http://www.citrixonline.com/) and had several dress rehearsals. This was key, because the first time, I learned that the entire webinar needed to be very conversational. We had a PowerPoint as a guideline for the participants, but the goal became not to read from it. This gave us plenty of time in advance to come up with questions for Steve our host, and to set up the function for participants to email in questions. Lena West, one of the speakers, was a great guide as she has set up many shadowblogs and crisis PR blogs for major clients.

Here's another tip ... It's really important to silence all of your telephones prior to doing a webinar. I use Vonage, so I went online and disconnected the call waiting function, and voicemails. I put a do not disturb sign on my door, and closed all windows. Don't use a mobile telephone, or the speaker function on your direct land line. This is important in our case, as the webinar was recorded, thanks Lena West, who is a columnist and blogger for Entrepreneur Magazine and an Infoworld blogger. She is also CEO of XynoMedia, a New York-based social media strategy firm, serving high-growth companies and PR firms.

Let's go back to the basics here and review the inportance of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing. SEO is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. A site’s ranking in a search is essential for directing more traffic to the site. SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.

Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives. It requires:
•Participation
•Openness, transparency and disclosure
•Conversation
•Community Driven
•Facilitation (facilitating conversations that are already happening online)

That said, our webinar focused on just a couple of the tools that are used in social media marketing -- blogging and podcasting. Lena had some great tips for PR professionals insofar as pitching bloggers -- lessons I too have learned in a recent blog and podcast tour for a diet book. KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. One paragraph, links to the press releases, or website info. Lena made the point, fiercely... if she wants more info, and is interested in covering your pitch, she will contact you. Period. Do not send attachments, long press releases, or long anything, for that matter. Bloggers and podcasters are really busy. And as my associate Mike Keesling said, who used to work at a news station in Hawaii, he got hundreds of pitches per day and only had time to read the headline (subject in email) and a couple of concise sentenses. So if you cannot consolidate your email pitches into a couiple of sentences, then you are hosed.

If you want to read more tips, I strongly suggest that you download Lena's little eBook of invaluable info on pitching bloggers and podcasters without ticking them off. Go to
http://www.xynoMedia.com/showstoppers to download your copy of The Blogosphere Cluebook: How PR Agents & Publicists Can Effectively Engage Blogosphere Influencers Instead of Ticking Them Off by Lena West.

Enjoy.

Sources:
PowerPoint: http://www.showstoppers.com/webinar/bloggersandpodcasters.ppt
The Webinar: http://www.showstoppers.com/webinar/bandp.mp3

The Value of Podcasts

More and more, we are seeing opportunities for online radio, otherwise known as podcasts. Just this evening, my client - author T.S. Wiley - did a podcast on Dr. Fitness and The Fat Guy -- a popular online radio show about fitness and weight loss.

Another client, Acutrack, Inc. based in Livermore, CA, has been doing podcasts successfully for quite awhile. The interesting thing is that in electronic media such as radio or TV, and now podcasts, we hear from people who talk in a comfortable first person one-to-one manner. The podcast is available 24/7 on the Internet, and when someone searches via key words on a specific topic, they will locate podcasts, and can listen and or watch at their own will.

Here are some interesting facts:

• The online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives.
• More than 70% of Americans ages 15-34 actively use online social networks – e.g. Wikipedia, My Space, You Tube, Flickr, Second Life, MiniClip, Digg, Facebook, Match, etc.
• 58% Americans aged 50-64 – fastest growth in the Internet Source: TRU, TNS, Marketing Evolution.

Podcasts are simply part of the new world of public relations know as Social Media Marketing, which requires participation, openness, transparency and disclosure, conversation, community, and facilitation (facilitating conversations that are already happening online). These are non-commercial messages (unless there is a compelling reason for you to look at it, read it, listen to it, watch it, like it, interact with it, and ultimately buy it!) This is what bloggers and podcasters excel at…

To learn more, please join us for a Showstoppers® sponsored Webinar on Sept. 18th entitled, "How to Engage Bloggers & Podcasters to Boost Buzz and Generate Coverage." Featured speakers will include me, Kristin Gabriel, and Lena L. West, columnist and blogger for Entrepreneur Magazine and an Infoworld blogger.

Go to http://www.xynoMedia.com/showstoppers to download your copy of 21+ Ways to Get a Blogosphere Clue: How PR Agents & Publicists Can Effectively Engage Blogosphere Influencers Instead of Ticking Them Off.

To sign up for the Showstoppers Webinar:
Time: 11 a.m. to noon ET (8-9 a.m. PT)
Place: Your telephone and web browser
Cost: Free
To register: Click here, https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/677428751