Below the Line

OMG! Can only young people do social media? The Levi's Guy thinks so.

At today's Social Media Week panel on "Ushering Your Brand into the Social Era", attitudes towards age were revealed.

The panel included Gareth Hornberger, 23 (according to his Twitter bio and ankle-revealing jeans), who started as a contractor at Levi's two years ago.

Now Levi's Social Media Marketing Manager, a.k.a. The Levi's Guy, he advocated "putting young people at the center" as the solution to the challenges brands face in meeting the competing demands of customer care, marketing, PR and other departments. His advice was to "inject digital natives (who he'd already referred to as 'young people') at the core of the process".

Joanne Wan, a Senior Digital Strategist from Ogilvy Public Relations, added that most people who understand social media are younger. 

Though it can be hard finding the right people for the team, the best predictor of success is the candidate's own social footprint, she contended. While I agree that to understand the social media you have to be active in the space, what about the candidate's experience or achievements on behalf of their clients? Successfully promoting your band on Twitter does not necessarily translate into the ability to develop a stategy to communicate effectively on behalf of a global brand.

Joanne also said that the right personality was required - someone who is willing to say "Hey guy who's 10 years older than me, do you need some help with that?".

Looks like The Levi's Guy is just the right fit then - when the moderator inadvertantly referred to him as Blake Cahill, a fellow panelist and Principal at Banyan Branch, he quickly corrected her, pointing out that there was "about 10 years difference" between the two. I'm sure Blake took it as a compliment; based on his LinkedIn profile The Levi's Guy was off by another 8 or 9 years.

What do you think? Do all brands need a twenty-something at the heart of their social media activity?

Use me, please! Twitter and Foursquare attempt to stimulate usage

Sites like Twitter and Foursquare know that the number of registered users is not nearly as important as the number of active users. So, it's important for these companies to communicate with users to ensure they stay relevant.

Twitter now has 200 million users, but how many are active? One year ago, RJ Metrics reported that only 20% of Twitter's users were active (then 15 million out of 75 million users). Twitter sends emails to users infrequently, so it's surprising that this one was rather uninspiring. First, it's a "Happy New Year" message that was sent on February 1 - did this email spend three weeks getting internal approvals?

(Click to enlarge)

Bing paying Google to advertise free music service

Spotted on the LA Times website: Bing is paying Google to advertise its free music service? I think my eyes are going to spotify.

 

Media agencies face a struggle to stay relevant

Do clients still need a media agency? 

How long before all agency media teams are replaced with trading desks and robotic tool sets that replace all of the grunt work?

That's the question the San Francisco Bay Area Interactive Group attempted to answer at this morning's "Robotic Media: The Launch Of The Automated Agency" event.

There are a range of tools available to help clients automate their media buying and dynamically develop their display ad creative. But media agencies still think they have a place. Here are a few of the reasons put forward by the panel, along with my thoughts.

"Commodity ad stock is driving awareness but does not drive sales"
This is a warning call to clients. Why? Clients expect sales; particularly from their online ad buys. Beware the media agency that simply measures the effectiveness of your campaign by "impressions".

Commodity ad buys will not prevail in the "last click wins" battle. Therefore it's important for clients to consider their objectives when buying these ads.

If awareness is the objective, then metrics should be put in place to measure the effectiveness of the ad. This should go beyond the number of impressions - after all, how many banner ads have you ignored today?

If generating sales is the objective, then don't pay per impression. Pay per click, or better yet pay per sale.

"It's too overwhelming for clients to get up to speed"
This is true, too a point. The industry is changing rapidly, and clients should be focused on their core business, not trying to keep up with the explosion of tools from an ever-growing list of technology vendors. However, two things could happen. The pace of change could slow, enabling time-pressed clients to catch up. Or, they could simply hire someone with the expertise to bring the media buying capabilities in house.

"Automated creative can be powerful but it can't tell a story"
As the social contract with brands evolves, customers are expecting more dialogue and fewer monologues. Brands with a powerful story and those who effectively act as curators of content are proving that "content is (still) king". However, I don't see media agencies as being equipped to be the story tellers.

Clients need their agencies to be connected to their brand story, to be knowledgeable about their customers and to be able to tell their story in a way that cuts through the clutter while honoring their social contract with their customers. In my experience, traditional ad agencies and digital agencies are much better at doing this than media agencies.

There was some discussion about how difficult it is to find people who have the skills to pull insights and opportunities from data. Direct marketers have been doing this for decades. Now it's time for the media (and digital) folks to play catch up and help their brands make use of the immense amount of data that's available to them.

Adapt or die

As the changes in the marketplace necessitate changes to clients' marketing departments, agencies will have to adapt to stay relevant.

Many years ago, DM agencies used to manage the print buying process for clients (i.e. commodity buying). This was a service to clients - it meant the agency could handle the campaign from end to end. But clients began having to answer to procurement departments. Was the agency really adding value by being a commodity buyer? Now clients generally have a list of preferred print suppliers who they have negotiated with directly. Will the same thing happen with buying ad space? Media agencies will have to make sure they are bringing more to the table to ensure their survival.

It's the time of year for friends and family...email offers

Dear Bloomingdale's: I am not your friend. None of my friends or family members work for Bloomingdale's. So why did I receive six emails in seven days about your "invite only" friends and family offer?

(click to enlarge)

The email Bloomingdale's sent was pretty generic looking, but not as generic as the promo code "GIFT" which only confirms that this is not an exclusive invite-only offer.

Macy's thinks they are my friend as well.

Six examples of Facebook "like" landing pages

Many brands are asking "how can I get more people to like me on Facebook"? Did you know that you can create a custom tab and use that as the default landing page for anyone who is not already a fan (e.g. anyone who does not "like" your page yet)?

Here are six examples of brands who have used custom Facebook tabs as their landing page to encourage more people to "like" them.

Red Bull: this is a clever and straightforward page and in keeping with their brand in terms of look and feel. I like how it creates some movement on the page while still featuring the product prominently.

Scanning for trends: QR codes

QR codes are being used by an increasing number of brands - from airlines to banks to retail. QR codes are two-dimensional barcodes which can be read by select smart phones. Users can scan the QR code to display a web page within their mobile browser, display text or access contact information. 

The benefit for marketers is to be able to provide relevant information to users who are at a specific place, or who have your physical product in their hands. It also gives advertisers useful metrics to understand who is interacting with their ads and where.

Here's how it works:

The brand publicizes the QR code. In this case, it was on a print ad for Hearts of Fire diamonds.

Here's a close-up of the code:

The user then opens a QR code app on a smart phone to scan the QR code:

A customized web page opens in the user's smart phone web browser:

While it may seem like QR codes will only appeal to the tech savvy crowd, I think practical applications such as mobile boarding passes and bicycle registration will drive adoption.

In addition, Google sent out 100,000 QR code decals to businesses in December 2009, so expect to see an increasing number of these in store windows and point of purchase displays in the future.

QR codes are already being adopted by fashionable brands such as Missoni, Clinique and Calvin Klein. 

In Japan, Louis Vuitton even used a designer QR code in one of their campaigns.

QR codes could be used in businesses with physical locations to encourage people to sign up for your email list, "like" you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. Brands can use QR codes to create campaigns with hidden content or other game-like elements. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies can use QR codes to provide additional content about their product and drive people to their website for further engagement. QR codes are not complex and the cost is relatively low. The timing is right to start considering how QR codes can fit into your overall marketing mix.

Apple's advertising focus: is it a waist?

It might be too early to call it a trend, but I've noticed a lot of ads lately that are lacking a certain something...heads.

It makes sense for products like Levi's where the key benefit is below the waist:

...and maybe even for a company like Coach, selling handbags:

But why is Apple focusing on their users' torsos? Their latest 30-second TV spot features 6 torsos and not one head:

...and their outdoor campaign is a series of billboards with more headless bodies cradling their iPads in their crotches.

Is this supposed to leave the viewer with the subliminal message "your head here"?

Maybe that's why Apple felt so comfortable telling users that the recent issue with their iPhone 4 "is all in your head".

I just hope they don't use their headless body concept in ambient media, like this Resident Evil campaign in Madrid.

 

Related posts:
The same ideas keep popping up  (ref: iPhone speech bubbles)
Built to last - a recession marketing trend? (iPods are only built to last for 3 years)

 

A new bra-o-meter of the economy?

Sex appeal has taken a back seat to practicality in the latest advertising trend.

When it comes to bras in advertisements, selling sex has long been the go-to with adds like this Wonderbra ad from 1994:

...or this 2007 campaign for Agent Provocateur:

Now brands want to give women a reason to buy a new bra that has nothing to do with sex. Whether it's to replace an old bra:

...to deal with the very unsexy issue of under-the-breast sweat:

  

...or just to provide a better fit:

Even Victoria's Secret is emphasizing function over form with this in-store display with quotes liked "I love the self-adjusting straps" and "supports all the way around". Ooh, sexy!

So, when will these brands get their sexy back? My prediction is that when the economy perks back up, sex will be at the front and center of bra advertisements once again.

 

Airline loyalty: buy your perks

Airlines are starting to use the fact that they've cut passenger benefits to their advantage by using them strategically to drive customer behavior.

Delta sent out an e-mail today offering customers who sign up for the Delta Amex card their first checked bag for free. (To read the whole e-mail from Delta, scroll down to the bottom of this post.)

While it might be annoying to earn back this perk that customers once took for granted, for anyone considering flying Delta, there is clear value in accepting this offer. 

   

Note that this is not a win-back promotion; the offer is valid to first-time credit card customers only. Very clever, Delta.

United now lets customers buy some of the elite program benefits previously reserved for those who "earned" them by obtaining Premier status.

 

Now you can buy priority security access, Premier check-in line access, etc. Personally, I just wear my "I'm kind of a big deal" t-shirt and hope they'll recognize my celebrity status. 

 

Let's see if RyanAir can turn going to the toilet into a loyalty perk. I pity the creative team tasked with that one.

A Conversation with TypePad

Last night I had the opportunity to go to the TypePad headquarters for a Meetup event. It was great meeting some of the TypePad team members and other bloggers in a small group setting. 

They talked about some of the new TypePad features. For instance, they've now made it easy for TypePad users to integrate Facebook's "Like" feature in their blogs. The new Like functionality is something all brands should be adding to their sites - it basically does what RSS should have done all along, which is make it "really simple" to subscribe to content.

They've also created a new search widget which bloggers can add to their sites - it will search comments, tags and photos as well as posts, which is extremely useful.

However, the most interesting development for brands is TypePad Conversations. Sparked by the insight that blog posts that end with questions get more comments, TypePad Conversations is "a social media question and answer tool designed to spark engaging conversations around interesting topics which bloggers are actively writing about."

 

The TypePad team writes the questions, which select brands/partners can sponsor, and a cadre of bloggers can post the questions on their blogs, thereby engaging their readers in discussions on relevant topics. TypePad aggregates the answers, so you can essentially get input and engagement from across the web in one place. This solves two problems: it is a way for brands to get their names in front of blog readers without using banner ads, and it saves brands from having to rely on their PR team's database of bloggers or troll the blogosphere to find relevant blogs.

In addition to user engagement, TypePad Conversations has the potential to become a useful market research tool.

 

TypePad Product ManagersMatt Jacobs and Kimmie Nguyen, caught totally by surprise. That's Hubert Nguyen (no relation) from Ubergizmo.com in the background.

The purpose of the TypePad Meetup was not to get marketing people to blog about them - in fact there was only one other marketing person there. However, we did get free pizza and Francis Ford Coppola Wine. The other bloggers ranged from a funny lawyer to a bicycling gourmand.If you want to start a blog with TypePad, please use this link or click on the logo above - I might get a few cents towards my next slice of pizza.

Strategic thinking on PR, IR and media relations in the conversational age

This post about has been stuck in my drafts for ages, but with the benefit of hindsight, I've edited it down to only the parts that are still relevant. I did tweet live at the event, so follow me on Twitter (@ddudgeon) if you're into that sort of thing.

BusinessWire hosted a panel event on PR-driven social media, with panelists from Think Communications, AMD, MH Group, SEGA and Ogilvy 360. Here are some highlights.

Why should brands use social media?

• "Social media helps humanize the brand...Social media gives SEGA a more human face. We're not constantly pushing products at you." - Kellie Parker, SEGA

How should brands incorporate social media into the rest of their communications?

• "Social media can’t live in a vacuum. It needs to be integrated into the rest of your advertising and messaging. Every component should be tied in to the same ROI and strategy to be effective. You can’t just sprinkle it in." - Rachel Polish, Ogilvy 360
• Clients may show resistance to adopting social media. No surprise there, but I was surprised to hear Courtney Barnes, VP at MH Group, dishing on her client United Airlines.* She talked about United's social media steering committee which includes reps from sales, customer support and marketing and complained about needing "17 signoffs". She also mentioned the infamous "United Breaks Guitars" videos and said "Usually it takes a crisis to get big companies to engage".

How do brands manage social media internally?

• SEGA has a “community team”. - Parker
• "People can be trained in advance and still communicate in a way that can be engaging. The richest social media programs have different people/perspectives telling their story." - Polish
• "Empower people with tools – carefully and in context of their brand and corporate culture." - Barnes

What social media guidelines should brands use?

• AMD gives out a social media “license” to employees so they know who can blog about what.They incorporate a traffic light system on blog topics. Red topics = don’t blog, amber = check with social media council, investor relations or legal. The license system made people feel more responsible and employees get a bit of training. - Ruth Cotter, AMD
• "The policy should be mapped towards the corporate culture." - Barnes
• Social media guidelines are publicly available from: IBM, Coast Guard, Intel, Cisco. - Polish
• "SEGA doesn't have a social media policy. Our policy is 'don't do it'. Only the social media team should be using social channels." - Parker

Some quick tips:

• Plan for the worst in advance.Go through scenarios.Plan for recalls. - Polish
• On secrecy: Think before you post, think again, and then go ask someone. - Parker
• On damage control: Maximum exposure, minimum delay to move the conversation along. - Polish
• On using Twitter for customer service: Customer service complaints go top of Twitter search results. Take conversations offline. - Barnes

Parker also shared SEGA's success story on Twitter. Every Friday, they have a giveaway on Twitter which started "just to get rid of old swag." Now the giveaway is part of their plan; they award six prizes per week. As a result, they get more followers on Fridays than any other day of the week - about 1,000 new followers every Friday.

*Full disclosure: United is a former client.

The same ideas keep popping up

Speech bubbles are popping up everywhere. I feel like I'm in a live-action version of VH1's pop-up video.

Charles Schwab is using speech bubbles in their multi-media "Talk to Chuck" campaign. I've seen this used on TV ads, billboards and even this digital display outside their San Francisco office: 

 

Meanwhile, Bravo is using speech bubbles to encourage users to "join the conversation" on their website. They have even incorporated a speech bubble into their logo. 

The new Bloomberg Business Week is using a speech bubble throughout their pages, but strangely with no clear link to conversation or communication.

I can only guess that the art directors for these brands have spent a lot of time text messaging each other on their iPhones.

I would not be surprised to find another agency trying to replicate The Bubble Project in the near future.

iPhone image credit: LeggoMyCraigo.com

Amex targets Latin market with Lorem Ipsum

Based on a centuries-old practice in the printing industry, advertisers often fill their creative with Latin text, AKA dummy copy, so they can show the client how the design of the web page, advertisement or direct mail piece will look once the copy is finalized.

Unfortunately, Amex forgot to replace the Latin text on their new Take Part web site. Click on the image below and see if you can spot the Latin text.

 

Some people call the Lorem Ipsum placeholder copy "Greek copy". If your colleagues make this mistake, tell them to disce aut discede.

P.S. Don't forget to QA your web sites.

Pink wash

I've already discussed the trend for stylized Mad Men-inspired typography. But what's an agency creative to do if the target audience is women? Oh I know - paint it pink.

Avon:

Bare Escentuals:

Direct marketing in the digital age

Direct marketing: the foundation for digital marketing.

Where have all the Mad Men gone?

If, like many people in marketing and advertising, you are a fan of Mad Men, you may bemoan the fact that season four won't start until around July. Perhaps this has been playing on the subconscious of agency creatives, who can't seem to get enough of that Mad Men typography.

Here is the Mad Men logo and an intro to one of their online video clips:

This tagline from Kentucky Fried Chicken looks awfully similar:

 

Here is CNN's take on the trend:

Post my weight to Twitter? Fat chance!

Is this the ultimate overshare? You can now do more than chew the fat on Twitter, thanks to a new Wi-Fi scale that reports your weight to the world.

I predicted back in 2007 that marketers would use this sort of data on Twitter to sell related services (although admittedly, I thought it would happen a lot sooner).

All any health, nutrition, fitness or weight loss company would need to do would be to set up an RSS feed for "i weigh in public", "iwip" and/or "http://withings.com", then start engaging with those customers. I'd expect a healthy dose of Twitter spam to appear, too.

Related posts:
Twitter: Being a Couch Potato
How to market your product/service using cutting-edge social media
4 ways to get Twitter followers

Starbucks rewards UK customers with money-off coupons

Last autumn, Starbucks heated up the UK coffee wars with free Wi-Fi. They've now started rewarding their UK customers through their loyalty program.

Coupon usage in the UK isn't as rampant as it is in the U.S., but it is on the rise as people look for ways to save money during the recession. The direct mail package includes a booklet which has a month's worth of coupons - each good for one day only. Surely by the time their customers use each coupon, they will have established a new daily ritual (not to mention a serious caffeine addiction).

Social media "rock star" becomes actual rock star

Seth Silverton, a self-proclaimed social media guru who blogs about how to become a social media guru has topped the Billboard Download Charts with his number one single "Top 10 Tips for Social Media Rockstars".

Silverton said his hit single started as as a blog post that was "link bait" designed to improve his search engine ranking. His link bait attracted the attention of blogger/personal branding expert/disc jockey DJ BlogzALot who quickly saw the potential of Silverton's post.

BlogzALot and Silverton then crowdsourced the melody and commissioned musicians to record the tune with the promise of "publicity and blog traffic".

"People really seemed to connect with the song," said Silverton. "Especially the part where we break into a rap about OPB: Other People's Blogs."

"Who know after blogging about this song incessantly for six months, sending thousands of tweets, directly engaging with our Twitter followers by sending '@ messages' with links to download the song, setting up our own Facebook Fan Page and sending scores of micro-targeted social media press releases that we'd have a hit single."

Font face-off: Italian farm vs AT&T

I received two direct mail solicitations on the same day using "handwritten" fonts -- a tried and true direct marketing tactic. Who do you think used the tactic better, AT&T or a small Italian farm that most people have never heard of?

AT&T's offer arrived in a plain-looking legal-sized envelope (a.k.a. "DL" envelope). The font they selected could pass as actually handwritten, but the non-personalized address to "Valued California Resident" surely tips off most recipients that it was a marketing solicitation rather than a letter from a friend.

Inside is a flyer that simulates a bad photocopy with "handwritten" notes in blue from the unknown sender who states "Why wait? I'm calling today!". On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate this DM piece as pathetic.

The other DM piece I received came from Frattoria La Vialla as an insert in Management Today magazine. There's no mistaking this four-color piece as actually handwritten, but the use of the font perfectly fits the piece. (Note: the image quality has unfortunately been reduced by my scanner.)

Books etc.'s lame attempt at converting Borders customers

If the below e-mail is anything to go by, Amazon need not worry about losing any ground to BOOKS etc. in the UK. I received the below e-mail from BOOKS etc. apparently because I was on the mailing list for Borders UK. It seems they sold their mailing list to an investment group.

There's really not much they did right in this e-mail, besides not attaching a virus to it. It's just a lame excuse for a privacy e-mail so they can continue to use the customer data.

• "We are sure that you were very disappointed..." Really? How can you be sure? A better approach would have been for the company to state that THEY were disappointed, but that they look forward to continuing to serve customers through their online store. (Although, I guess the investors weren't disappointed at all.)
• "The website will be re-opening soon under new owners." Anonymous new owners. That's inspiring.
• "The website will offer the same products and special offers that you were used to seeing at BOOKS etc." Interesting, but I never used the BOOKS etc. web site.
• "...if you don't want to remain on this priority list..." Exactly who or what am I getting priority over? There aren't any offline customers, and I can only assume that everyone on the list received the same e-mail.
• "Kind regards, Tom" Tom who? What is Tom's title? Does Tom work for the anonymous new owners? Is Tom an intern who doesn't know how to write copy? Or maybe it's Tom from MySpace.

(Click to enlarge.)

Related post:
You're invited - brands using "invite" e-mails

Toodledo and tailored, too*

I've started using Toodledo and I thought it was worth at least a mention as a useful account management and project management tool.

Toodledo is an online task manager which enables users to keep track of tasks and assign tasks to other team members. In terms of agency life, the useful features include:

• A timer feature which can help your team when it comes time to fill out timesheets or draft invoices
• The ability to estimate how long the task will take (read: no timesheet padding)
• A scheduling feature, so that team members can find the most appropriate tasks to work on based on the task priority, estimated time to complete the task and how long they have available to work on a task (e.g. "I am free for the next two hours - what should I work on?")

There is also an iPhone app which syncs with the data stored on the web so you can assign tasks or update their status on the go.

If used consistently by the entire team, this could significantly reduce the amount of time that the account management and/or project management team spend on updating status reports.It could also be a useful bug-tracking tool for web builds (though it's certainly not the most robust tool out there for this application).

In terms of "cons", I was originally interested in syncing the tasks with my Outlook task list, but Toodledo's web site says that there have been some problems with these tasks disappearing and that they cannot be responsible for third-party applications misbehaving. As I can't risk my tasks going MIA, I'm not able to use this feature.

Toodledo does have its limitations, but you can set up job folders and tailor the way the tasks appear on the screen. All in all, if you are looking for a way to consolidate tasks across your team, Toodledo is a worthwhile tool.

A pro subscription costs $14.95 per person per year and the iPhone app is currently $2.99.

For a comparison of Toodledo with Remember the Milk, another online task manager, check out this post at Web2andMore.net.

*Bonus points if you can figure out the famous U.S. campaign song to which this blog post title refers. (Hint: It established the power of signing as a campaign device.) Leave a comment if you know it and I'll give you a shout out on Twitter.

Marketers: it's time to check in with Foursquare

Okay, I get it.

I've been trying to avoid joining Foursquare, the location-based social networking service which asks users to "check in" at various locations in order to connect with friends, gain points, get recommendations on nearby places and access special offers.

My hesitation in signing up was twofold: I don't think it's a good idea to publicize on the world wide web that my home is empty and, well, let's just say that anyone who has ever had an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend turn up somewhere "coincidentally" can probably think of a reason not to post their whereabouts in real time. However, Foursquare just would not go away, so I succumbed. It turns out their privacy settings enable users to choose how public their whereabouts will be.

The points element of Foursquare (e.g. +1 point for checking in, +5 point the first time you check in at a new venue, +2 points for checking in at two locations in the same day, etc.) adds a gaming component which is mildly addictive, even if you don't have any friends on Foursquare. (In contrast, it's not much fun tweeting alone, which leads many people to abandon Twitter.)

Yesterday, I "checked in" when I was having lunch and up popped an offer for $1 off a frozen yogurt at Froots. All I had to do was show the cashier the coupon on my iPhone to receive the discount, which I could get on my first visit and every fifth visit. Although I didn't buy the frozen yogurt, I seriously considered it, but this may be due in part to my mild coupon addiction.

If you have a bricks-and-mortar business, it's worth being an early mover on Foursquare. I would suggest piggybacking this with a PR effort about your company's use of new media. This was one of the main benefits for companies who were the first to establish a presence on Second Life, garnering them mentions in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and Business Week. Double bang for the buck. No one cared who joined Second Life after that first wave. For the record, I recommended getting into Second Life early or not at all.

I think Foursquare has staying power, although there are already similar services vying for share of market, e.g. Gowalla and Yelp, which has just added check-ins to its iPhone app.

If you're a Foursquare, Gowalla or Yelp user, please leave a comment and let me know what you think of the service.

Related posts:

Marketing your local business with little or no budget

How to Market Your Product/Service Using Cutting Edge Social Media

DIY online marketing and PR

Marketing your local business with little or no budget

Here are some quick tips on marketing a local business with little or no budget:

Let your customers speak for you.

Ask your customers to post honest reviews on high-traffic sites like Yelp.com. Be sure to respond to any unfavorable reviews.

Post customer testimonials on your web site.

Ask your customers for referrals.

Ask complimentary businesses to link to your web site; for instance, if you are a wedding photographer, ask a wedding florist to link to you.

Use Google.

Google offers a number of services that can help – post your business on Google Local Business, create a Google Profile for your company’s key executives and link to your web site, consider spending some money on Google AdWords.

Use social networking sites.

Set up a Facebook fan page, start connecting with prospects on Twitter and join groups on LinkedIn. You can also set up your company profile on LinkedIn (rather than only using your personal profile).

Send out an online press release.

There are a number of free online press release distribution services. See this previous post for an analysis.

If you have any other tips, please leave a comment below.

Related post:

DIY online marketing and PR