1. Make your site a mini-magazine issue of thought-leadership. Look at your site as though it’s a real publication for both your peers and the media to source for news. Build an editorial calendar for all your online tools including Twitter, Linkedin.com (status updates), Facebook and make sure you’re congruent in your content and your expertise.

2. Make sure you’re linking outside your blog to other news sources and stories by journalists. As a recovering technology journalist (1996-2004) I can tell you that all journalists love to have their names or links to stories, surface in Google alerts and they really love to show those to their editor as well.  You’re also giving them new sources of experts to look at when you write about stories they’ve covered and what your take is on the story.

3. Build a set of Google alerts on topics you’re most interested in and let those Google alerts give you ideas for new pieces of content on your blog, your Twitter and your Facebook pages. Don’t just stop at  posting those story links, go and comment on the stories at the sites they’re on and that will help you with building link-love to your site.

4. Don’t purposely be contrarian to the news. Be the person who lends a new angle or insight to a story.

5. Make sure you’re reading the online and offline magazines in your vertical and studying how their stories are created, who they source and where you can contribute bylines.

6. Have a website that encompasses a Web 2.0 press ready page. This includes your TwitterID, Facebook, Linkedin.com, YouTube channel and one pager about your expertise.

7. Put Google alerts on journalists’ names so you can build a clip file of what they’re covering and who they write for. More and more the online media is made up of freelance writers so don’t leave them out of the mix.

Related posts:

1. Ten Free Tools To Kick Your Social Media Cynicism to the Ground “If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a...
2. You Don’t Have to Pay a PR Firm to Tell You… Journalists are curious and under very tight deadlines. You can...
3. If I Were An Author I Would… 1. Spend most of my time researching blogs and online...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The first is “Social Media in Plain English,” and the second is “Twitter in Plain English,” you can hit both and get a good basic idea of how social media works and how to use Twitter.

Also, it’s the first week of December which means you should be actively coming up with a tips-focused article, blog post or press release that gives your top five tips for the New Year in your business arena. If you’re a book author and you’ve penned a book on networking, then why not do a release on PRWeb.com or Marketwire.com titled, “Five Ways to Boost Your Networking for the New Year.”

Related posts:

1. You Can Save Yourself from Buying Social Media “Guru” Products by… MYTH: You’re only going to find out the real deal...
2. Social media is not speed dating… Social media is not speed dating......
3. 7 Ways To Succeed In Social Media 1. Build your personalized Google profile today so you are...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Here’s an excerpt from the article, “Anna Patterson’s last Internet search engine was so impressive that industry leader Google Inc. bought the technology in 2004 to upgrade its own system.

Patterson instead intends to upstage Google, which she quit in 2006 to develop a more comprehensive and efficient way to scour the Internet.”

I had to laugh at the quote from a Gartner analyst, “Search has become as much about branding as anything else,” Weiner said. “I doubt [Cuil] will be keeping anyone at Google awake at night.”

While search is about branding, it’s also about users wanting improved search capabilities, and if Cuil ends up giving users a better way to search and retrieve then it might just keep those Google guys up a night too.

Anna worked for Google so it will really be exciting to see long-term how this plays out.

I tried it this morning and I like how it presents the searches in more of a magazine/newspaper layout as noted by the article as well.

Related posts:

1. Going from Naked Stick Figure to Fabulous Which came first the website or the blog? While it’s...
2. Your Mom Called and She’s Googling You Six Ways To Help Her Find you Faster… 1. Stop...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Related posts:

1. Checking your Grade on Twitter… As everyone who reads this blog knows, I’m a giant...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

In books and publishing right now there is so much focus on Web 2.0 but I think it’s very important for authors to understand that you need to balance your investment in both time and money in terms of Web 2.0. Don’t spend thousands on only Web 2.0 initiatives to get your book out. You need to really focus on both traditional methods of marketing/pr as well. (And this is coming from someone who makes their primarily living being an online publicist, so I hope you will really take the advice to heart.)

While it’s good to invest in Web 2.0, have a blog (if you can keep up with it), have a website etc., it’s also good to invest due diligence on the offline side. It’s very important to maintain both.

And it will be very interesting to see how some of these Web 2.0 initiatives fare long-term as big players like Microsoft tweak what they are investing in online as well.

Related posts:

1. Bloggers Want to Hear About Your Books Don't let any publicists convince you that you absolutely NEED...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Google made a big announcement today in regard to search -

“Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
today announced its critical first steps toward a universal search
model that will offer users a more integrated and comprehensive way to
search for and view information online. The company also introduced an
updated homepage design and several new navigation features that make
it faster and easier for users to find the information they are
looking for.

“Our focus has always been making our users’ search experience as
simple and straightforward as possible,” said Marissa Mayer, vice
president of search products and user experience at Google. “The
ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of
information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer
every time a user enters a query. While we still have a long way to
go, today’s announcements are a big step in that direction.”

Google’s vision for universal search is to ultimately search across
all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real
time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that
offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the
company will incorporate information from a variety of previously
separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and
websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search
results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types
of content integrated into their search results as the company
advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.

For example, a user searching for information on the Star Wars
character Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information
related to the character and the actor – not just web pages that
mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended
search results that include a humorous parody of the movie, images of
the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as
well as websites focused on the actor James Earl Jones – all ranked in
order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several
different Google search properties to find such a wide array of
information on the topic.”

here’s a link to the full release at Google’s site .

My husband will be thrilled that out of all things they used a Star Wars example to explain and so will all the other thousands of men who Google’s PR team knew would “read on” if they used Star Wars. Very cool!

I think this is good news on the search side and saw Marissa Mayer speak last week in Florida and Google has lots more up their Google-sleeves in coming months!

Related posts:

1. Kiss Your Publicist Goodbye (and still be loved by media online and offline) 7 Ways to Kiss Your Publicist Goodbye 1. Make your...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.