Effective Writing for Online Marketing and Branding – Traditional writing styles don’t always work well on the Internet. Tweets use only 140 characters. You’re supposed to get key words into your tweets, Facebook updates, website and blog. In this salon you’ll learn the best ways to write for all aspects of online branding and marketing–effective tweets, online press releases with subject headers that stand out, using words that get noticed, and more. You’ll leave with a better understanding of how to get as much mileage out of your online words as possible.

2. Topics
— The
Scale
of
it
all
— Op/miza/on
— Ge4ng
Started
— Website
Copy
— Press
Release
— Blogging
— Facebook
— TwiCer
2

3. The
Numbers
Rock!
— Facebook:
1,000,000,000
ac/ve
users
— TwiCer:
175,000,000
ac/ve
users
— LinkedIn:
150,000,000
registered
users
— Pinterest:
8,000,000
ac/ve
users
— Blogs:
346,000,000
people
read
blogs
every
day
— YouTube:
800,000,000
unique
visitors
last
month
3

4. Demographics
-­‐
Facebook
— 86%
of
Facebook
users
are
age
25
and
older
— 81%
have
some
college
educa/on
or
bachelors/graduate
degree
— 58%
earn
$50,000
or
more
4 4

5. Demographics
-­‐
TwiCer
— 81%
of
people
on
TwiCer
are
age
25
and
older
— 83%
have
some
college
educa/on
or
bachelors/graduate
degree
— 47%
earn
$50,000
or
more
5 5

6. SEO
+
SMO
=
Amplified
“Findability”
— Social
Media
Op/miza/on
(SMO)
is
the
distribu/on
of
social
objects
(videos,
blog
posts,
tweets,
Facebook
updates)
so
that
they’re
op/mized
to
rise
to
the
top
of
any
related
search
query,
where
and
when
it
is
performed.
— Search
Engine
Op/miza/on
(SEO)
is
the
process
of
improving
the
visibility
of
a
web
site
in
search
engines
via
the
“organic”
search
results.
— SMO
and
SEO
are
two
halves
of
a
whole.
6

7. Ge4ng
started
–
do
your
research
7

8. 8

9. 9

10. 10

11. 11

12. Listening
to
What’s
Already
Being
Said
— Set-­‐up
Google
Alerts
for
all
your
keywords,
your
compe/tors,
your
own
company
name,
your
personal
name,
etc.
— Use
Social
Men/on
to
search
social
media
for
men/ons
of
your
organiza/on
/
compe//on
— Use
Google
Search
and
Google
Blog
Search
to
find
bloggers
and
other
content
creators
in
your
space
— Use
Muck
Rack
to
find
journalists
12

13. Website
Copy
–
It’s
an
Art
and
Science
— Structure
is
important
— Page
/tles
— Slugs
— Meta
descrip/ons
— H1,
H2
Tags
— Image
names
and
image
alt
tags
— Bold
keywords
–
Google
understands
emphasis
— Internal
linking
13

14. 14

15. 15

16. 16 16

17. Website
Copy
–
Best
Prac/ces
— Ensure
quality
with
proofreading
— Focus
on
the
most
important
info
up
front
— Avoid
big
blocks
of
copy
–
break
it
up
with
bullets,
images,
etc.
— Write
paragraphs
of
no
more
than
6-­‐7
lines
— Consider
your
target
market
when
wri/ng
content
–
consider
age
group,
region,
etc.
Avoid
jargon.
— Don’t
just
focus
on
the
specifica/ons
of
the
product
or
service
–
talk
about
what
it
means
to
real
clients
— Have
a
call
to
ac/on
to
web
visitor
can
have
a
next
step
17

18. 18

19. 19

20. Davd Meerman Scott
20

21. Press
Releases
— Today’s
journalists,
etc.,
consume
content
digitally
— They
find
it,
share
it
and
interact
with
it
differently
— Social
networks
enable
people
to
find
and
share
content,
opening
up
new
opportuni/es
for
brands
to
communicate
directly
with
their
audiences
— Search
engines
are
using
social
signals
in
their
ranking
algorithms,
meaning
that
social
sharing
can
have
a
las/ng
effect
on
the
online
visibility
of
a
message
21

22. Press
Releases
-­‐
Headlines
— Length
–
Headlines
should
be
between
90-­‐120
characters.
(Characters,
including
spaces)
— Length
is
perfect
for
sharing
via
TwiCer
-­‐
write
“tweetable”
headlines.
— Keywords
–
Put
your
most
important
keyword
at
the
beginning
of
the
headline
–
within
the
first
65
characters.
— Headlines
inform
search
engines
about
on-­‐page
content
and
they
put
more
weight
on
the
content
that
appears
at
the
top
of
the
page
22

23. Press
Release
-­‐
Headlines
— Include
numerals
in
the
headline.
Readers
like
data
points.
— Releases
with
numerals
in
the
headline
perform
beCer
than
releases
that
don’t.
— “Ten
top
xxx
facts/ideas/steps,
etc.”
tell
your
readers
about
that
in
the
headline
— U/lize
a
subhead
to
add
more
detail
— 90-­‐120
character
headline
length
is
preCy
restric/ve
— Spli4ng
long
headlines
into
shorter
headlines
and
subheads
makes
it
easier
for
readers
to
scan
the
copy
23

24. Press
Releases
–
Best
Prac/ces
— Crap
a
hook
–
tell
a
story
— Research
before
you
write
on
releases
and
content
form
industry
compe/tors
— Avoid
jargon
— Minimize
technical
or
industry
jargon
— Provide
resources
— Add
value
to
by
including
photos,
videos,
links
to
source
material
and
any
other
in-­‐depth
resources
— Keep
your
audience
in
mind
when
crea/ng
your
message
24

25. 25

26. 26

27. Blogging
Best
Prac/ces
— Answer
industry
ques/ons
— Comment
on
industry
news
— Provide
how-­‐to
based
content
— Encourage
readers
to
comment
— Post
consistently
–
3
to
5
/mes
per
week
27

28. Blogging
Best
Prac/ces
— Pose
Engaging
Ques/ons
-­‐
At
the
end
of
a
post,
pose
a
brain-­‐
s/mula/ng
ques/on.
—
Get
readers
to
offer
/ps
-­‐
It
could
be
a
problem
that
you’re
facing,
or
something
your
customer
is
facing.
Make
it
a
contest;
publicly
credit
the
reader
with
the
best
/ps
on
your
blog
so
that
everyone
can
see.
— Start
With
An
Engaging
Opener
–
Your
opening
should
engage
the
reader
from
the
word
go,
something
that’ll
ignite
their
curiosity,
mo/vate
their
thought
process
and
get
them
engaged.
Make
your
opener
funny,
insighsul,
wiCy
and
outrageous
if
need
be.
—
28

29. Blogging
Best
Prac/ces
— Make
the
content
graphically
vivid
-­‐
Paint
a
picture
with
your
words,
and
draw
people
into
the
scene
you’re
pain/ng.
— Write
in
your
speaking
voice,
as
though
you’re
cha4ng
with
friends.
— Provide
A
Conclusion
–
sum
up
the
essence
of
your
ar/cle
in
a
short
conclusion.
Your
conclusion
should
ideally
/e
up
your
points
together
and
provide
a
short
glimpse
of
what
the
ar/cle
is
all
about.
29

30. 30

31. 31

32. 32

33. 33

34. ‹#› 34

35. Where
does
FB
Fit
in?
— Increase
visibility
— Connect
with
customers
— Increase
engagement
— Promote
your
brand
— Create
a
community
— Promote
and
manage
events
— Give
back
to
loyal
customers
through
special
offers
and
discounts
35

36. Facebook
Best
Prac/ces
— Write
interes/ng
and
relevant
posts
will
encourage
followers
to
engage
with
your
posts
— Liking,
commen/ng
and
sharing
are
important
— Facebook
uses
the
level
of
engagement
to
determine
how
many
people
see
your
posts
— Reveal
the
human
side
of
a
company,
give
it
personality
— Provide
useful
informa/on
that
people
won’t
get
elsewhere
(or
at
least
not
as
quickly)
— Respond
to
comments,
complaints,
requests
real-­‐/me
— Have
a
plasorm
for
announcing
news,
promo/ons,
events
36

37. 37

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

41. 41

42. 42

43. 43

44. 44

45. 45

46. 46

47. TwiCer
— An
informa/onal
tool
–
provides
informa/on
to
others
— A
conversa/onal
tool
–
respond
to
other
people’s
tweets
and
engage
in
dialogue
— Great
way
to
network
and
communicate
with
new
and
old
contacts
— You
choose
the
message,
not
the
recipient
47

48. Anatomy
of
a
Tweet
48

49. TwiCer
Best
Prac/ces
— Listen!
— Set
up
simple
searches
that
allow
you
to
hear
men/ons
of
your
company
— TwiCer
is
a
real-­‐/me
opportunity
to
listen
in
on
the
conversa/ons
of
200
million
users
— Serve
as
a
resource
— Provide
informa/on
that
helps
your
target
audience
in
a
quick,
easy-­‐to-­‐use
format
49

50. TwiCer
Best
Prac/ces
— Use
your
own
style
when
engaging
with
others
— Ask
relevant
ques/ons
on
TwiCer
and
consumers
are
happy
to
share
opinions
— People
like
being
asked
to
provide
input
on
topics
of
interest
— Thinking
of
offering
a
new
service?
Ask
for
input
beforehand
— Take
advantage
of
the
online
community
to
gain
feedback
and
generate
new
ideas
that
will
result
connect
with
the
audience
served
by
your
business
50

51. 51

52. 52

53. 53

54. The
Content
Landscape
54

55. Website
‹#› 55

56. ‹#› 56

57. ‹#› 57

58. ‹#› 58

59. ‹#› 59

60. Thank
You!
Bridget
Gibbons
bridget@gibbonsdigital.com
Gibbonsdigital.com
@gibbonsdigital
v.com/gibbonsdigital
60