Sometimes it seems as though social media changes every day. That can be great, for instance, when a networking site makes access easier. Heck, you don’t even need a computer anymore to check your friends’ news on Google+, or to see the trending topics on Twitter.

But others are downright aggravating. Just a year ago, Facebook was one of our favorite networking sites here at EMSI – and, of course, around the world. But since going public, it’s constantly seeking new ways to make money, which makes it more difficult to get your message out for free, whether you’re trying to share vacation photos or to promote your business, product or book.
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Just yesterday, Better Homes and Gardens interviewed one of our clients after learning about her from our invitation to review her new book. We were pleased – the 91-year-old magazine is an American institution with 7.6 million readers!

That wasn’t the first great media placement for this client, a psychologist specializing in the emotional health of cancer patients and their loved ones. Less than four weeks into her print campaign, she had more than 35 placements, including five with circulations or views per month in the millions – that doesn’t include Better Homes and Gardens, which hasn’t yet published. It also includes a dozen publications with circulations of more than 100,000.
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Every morning, the team and I at EMSI check the news and compare notes – it’s important to know what’s being reported if you hope to get publicity from the traditional media.

On Tuesday morning, most of us were already aware of the astonishing recovery of three young women kidnapped a decade ago and held captive in a Cleveland home. But not everyone in the office had seen the colorful interview given by rescuer Charles Ramsey who kicked in a door – “cheap door,” he said – to WEWS-TV.
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If there’s a season for reading, it’s summer — a time for family vacations, for afternoons at the beach, for weekends in the backyard hammock. We Americans love to get outside in the summer, and many of us grab a book as we head out the door.

In fact, 50 percent of book lovers change their reading habits over the summer, according to a survey by TFW, a lifestyle magazine for professional women.

That’s why so many publications, along with radio and TV shows, create summer reading lists. While some of these showcase classics, most are designed to introduce people to new books and new authors.
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A client came to us recently for help building her social media connections. She already had a few thousand followers – a nice number! – that she’d gotten with the help of another firm.

But she’d become suspicious of their strategies and canceled her contract.

Two weeks after she came to us, more than 1,600 of her followers disappeared between breakfast and lunch one day. A couple weeks later, nearly 900 vanished overnight.
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If you’re using social media for marketing, what should you say following a tragedy like the deadly blasts at the Boston Marathon on Monday?

The horrific elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn.?

The October storm that took lives and devastated communities across the Northeast?

Sometimes, nothing at all.
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Smart Ideas from a Former Ad Exec
What can a small business or author with little or no budget for marketing learn from a former top ad exec for the likes of Apple and Nike?

As it turns out – plenty!
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I’ve gotten back into hosting a talk radio show and giving interviews, and the experience takes me back – way back! – to how I started EMSI Public Relations in the first place.

I was, and still am, a huge talk radio listener. It’s educational, entertaining, and the most open of the mainstream media to any and all topics. Pair a great show host with an informative guest (tips on that coming up) and I’m rapt. That’s why, when I started EMSI 23 years ago, I focused on booking clients on talk radio shows.
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I was never a fan of the cocktail party-variety networking scene. I will never be one to dart around a room shoving business cards into people’s hands. I prefer meaningful conversations with people, getting to know them and vice versa.

But social media networking? That’s something different altogether. Done right, it’s never a hit-and-run. Rather, it consists of building relationships over months and even years by sharing information – both professional and personal – through posts, comments and responding to questions in various online communities.
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Why Your Family Business Makes for Great Marketing
I discovered an interesting statistic recently – 90 percent of all small businesses in the United States are family-owned. That got me thinking about the positive impact working with family can have on everything from marketing to sales to customer service.

It certainly leads to lots of questions when people call our office to inquire about our service. The other day, my son Damon shared a conversation he’d just had with a prospective client. It went something like this.
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