Since we are starting a fresh New Year, I came across TWO exceptional articles from my friend and PR Expert, Marsha Friedman that shares two vital parts to marketing you, your books, and Brand! We can never have too much advice from a Public Relations firm that Marsha runs and is the founder of. Let’s make 2018 our “Year To Shine!”

“2018 Is Your Time To Shine!”

Marsha Friedman+ by | Jan 3, 2018.| General Marketing, PR Education

The start of a New Year is always a great time to focus on creating a “new you” – or at least an improved version of the old you.

Sometimes we do that through resolutions about dieting and exercise that, sadly, we don’t always keep. Sometimes we enter January vowing that in the next 12 months we will travel more, read more or spend more time with the family.

As you look ahead to all the possibilities that a New Year brings, let me suggest that if you’ve been letting your personal brand languish, 2018 can be your time to shine! It can be the year you rise from obscurity to fame – or at least to recognition as a voice of authority and go-to expert in your field. You just need to be willing and determined to make it happen!

You can bet that if you don’t, someone else – possibly a direct competitor – is going to step into the limelight that you neglected. They will be the ones polishing up their personal brands and, as a result, speaking with journalists, chatting with radio and TV show hosts, and linking to their media success stories on their websites.

Several years ago when I wrote my book Celebritize Yourself, personal branding hadn’t become quite as widespread as it is today. Certainly, some people – Zig Ziglar, Suze Orman and Bob Greene, just to name a few – had become extraordinarily successful at it, but at that time there weren’t always as many ways for people to promote themselves as there are now.

Most of the social media platforms that we have come to take for granted were either in their formative years or were dismissed as being irrelevant or unimportant. How quickly that changed! Now it’s so easy for anyone to create a Facebook, Twitter or other social media account and introduce themselves to the world.

Meanwhile, the old-school ways of promoting yourself via earned media in print, on radio and TV are still around, too. With so many opportunities out there, let me suggest just a few things you can do in 2018 to make this the year you take your personal brand to a new level:

• Maintain a digital presence. Over just the last few years, I’ve seen more and more people who seem to – finally – get this. They understand the need for a website. They know the value of being featured in online publications and showing up in Google searches. They realize they need to be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or other social media sites, spreading their message in the places where millions of people check in daily. Still, on occasion, I encounter people who have no digital presence or haven’t posted anything on their social media platforms in months or even years. But in this day and age, an active digital presence is a must!
• Continue to build your credibility. You want to be viewed as someone who provides insight on what’s happening in your field, and who offers helpful tips and interesting observations to people who follow you on social media. You can do that through a blog and through your regular social media posts, as well as through any interviews you can land with the media. By building your credibility you will come to be seen as an authority on your topic.
• Make sure you deliver your best work. If you promote your personal brand, but don’t deliver an excellent service or product, eventually it will catch up with you and all the work you put into creating your personal brand will be meaningless. On the other hand, when your work shows the caring you have for your clients, it reinforces that shine you worked so hard to achieve.

So make a vow that 2018 will be your year! Although it may seem a daunting task, this really can be the year you create a truly authentic personal brand that will positively sparkle by the time 2019 arrives.

That’s a resolution definitely worth keeping…Shine on!

Yes, this is me shining on!! Now to our next article!

Make Video An Integral Part of Your 2018 Marketing Plan!

“As many of you know, I love brainstorming with my team to distill ideas and tips that not only can be useful in working on behalf of our clients, but also to share with you in the PR Insider.”

This week my creative team and I were in the middle of just such a session when Jay York, our senior social media strategist, intrigued me with his thoughts about current trends in video marketing.

Let’s face it. With today’s technology, combined with the vast reach of social media, it’s easier than ever to create your own video segments that can become an integral part of your overall marketing strategy. You don’t even need a studio worthy of “Good Morning, America” or special effects that would make you the envy of George Lucas. In fact, the less formal the production is the better.

And once you arrive at your finished product, you can put your video on Youtube, share it on other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and post a link to it from your website.

Frankly, you can get a lot of marketing mileage out of just one video – but you shouldn’t stop there because there are so many approaches you can take. You might create a series of short messages filled with insights into your area of expertise.

You might want to show your company culture with glimpses of team-building outings for example. It can show you’re a fun company to work with, or that you’re philosophically aligned and share commonalities with potential clients. These can be deciding factors when choosing a company to work with. At EMSI, we often use videos for those peeks inside the company, sharing them on Instagram!

So, with an assist from Jay, let me offer a few tips on what you should do to get started and get the most out of your video marketing this year:

• Round up the equipment. This shouldn’t take long. After all, you won’t need the 124 cameras that ESPN reportedly used for the college national championship football game. One lone cell phone should serve your needs, although a tripod would be nice in case the person who does the taping lacks a steady hand. You’ll also want to decide on an appropriate setting. This simply could be your office or a backdrop of bookshelves. On occasion, you might even opt for an outdoors shot. Some of this will depend on the type of message you’re sending and just how serious – or light-hearted – your approach is.
• Prepare your message. You don’t want to wing it, so know what you want to say and how you want to say it. In terms of length, although succinct is often better, Jay tells me the game has changed a little on that count. The typical recommendation used to be one to two minutes, but if you’re offering valuable information and are engaging, you can keep an audience interested longer than that, up to perhaps 12 minutes. And if you are making a speech or presentation before a group, don’t be reluctant to tape the whole thing – even if that means 30 minutes to an hour.
• Keep it conversational. It’s best to look into the camera and speak as if you are having a conversation with a friend. The last thing you want to do is keep your head down and read in a monotone from a prepared text.
• Consider going live. Now that you’re no longer jittery about a video (I’m going ahead and taking that leap here!) the next step is to consider going live. How? One opportunity is on Facebook, where there are advantages to a live video presentation. For one thing, Facebook gives precedence to live video so you will pop up at the top of your followers’ feeds. In addition, the live video will be interactive, so viewers can send you questions that you will see on your screen. You can respond immediately or use some of the questions as ideas for future video presentations.

A video is going to be more relevant in marketing in 2018 than ever before, which means you need to give serious consideration to incorporating it into your overall strategy.

Granted, not everyone enjoys going in front of a camera. I get that! But I also know the importance of video, so I’m going to suggest you overcome any camera fright and, if you haven’t already done so, take the video plunge! And yours in high definition!

About Marsha Friedman
Marsha Friedman launched EMS Incorporated in 1990. Her firm represents corporations and experts in a wide array of fields such as business, health, food, lifestyle, politics, finance, law, sports, and entertainment. She consults individuals and businesses on a daily basis and is frequently asked to speak at conferences about how to harness the power of publicity.

Facebook  • Twitter • Linkedin • Google •