How can you use media relations to build your businesses’ brand and help increase sales? You don’t necessarily need to hire a publicist, but it is going to take some time and patience.

To read my six steps for using the power of media relations to grow your business, click here.

@ArikHanson I “met” Arik when he wrote a great blog post on the seven most intriguing people in PR. There were a couple of people on the list who fly under the radar, but that I agree should be on the top of lists. I commended him for a great list and we began to get to know one another on Twitter. He is one half of the brain behind “Help A PR Pro Out” and we’re working closely together to pull that off next Friday. He’s smart, he’s creative, he’s innovative, and he’s someone you will learn from daily.

@TedRubin Ted is the chief marketing officer at e.l.f. For you men, you likely don’t know the company, but women, you know what I’m talking about. It’s a make-up company that sells everything for less than $5. My sister introduced me to them seeral years ago, when she put some fun items in my Christmas stocking. He is the social media champion for the company and my co-speaker for @SarahRobinson’s Gamechangers Roundtable. Earlier this week, BrandWeek did a story on Ted and the e.l.f. story. It’s worth the read.

@GRIPCOMMPR I met Greg on Twitter because he’s in PR and in franchising. As we got to know one another, we realized we know a lot of the same people, even though I’m in Chicago and he’s in New York. Most of you know my philosophy about “competitors.” I think there is room for all of us and it’s more likely we change the industry if we collaborate than if we compete. I’m DYING to find a reason to work with Greg. Follow him and you’ll see why I think he’s smart and savvy.

@RickBakas I think I’ve done a #FollowFriday on Rick before, but he’s worth another mention. I met him in Denver about a year ago when he showed up at a TweetUp. We talked about food and wine and I learned, at the time, he was in the finalist round for a wine social media job. He ended up moving to Napa and working for St. Supery, where it looks like they trust him to do what he does well. Last night he hosted #CaliCabs on Twitter, where people from around the world had a glass of California cabernet and tweeted about the experience. Don’t be scared by the number of followers he has…he pays attention to you and will engage.

@ChicagoDiane I met Diane in real life, when her college roommate, Kasey Crabtree was in Chicago for a few days. I met Kasey on Twitter and she said Diane was a must…and she was right. I actually prefer seeing Diane for drinks or brunch because she is so flipping funny. She has great stories, tells them well, and (if you’re lucky), @ChicagoJulia will come along and that’s a special treat. I also love Diane because she’s engaging and fun on Twitter, but she doesn’t let it rule her life. She is an executive who travels the world and she’s worth a follow to learn from her.

And here is a compilation of all of the previous recommendations:

Feb. 5

January 29

December 11

December 4

November 6

October 16

October 2

September 25

September 4

August 28

August 21

August 7

July 24

July 17

July 10

July 3 (which is a culmination of the previous five weeks)

For those of you who’ve been laid off, you likely don’t care what your boss went through before he or she made the decision to let you go, so I won’t belabor the point, but it’s not an easy thing to do.

I am much too emotionally involved with my colleagues. My Vistage group always tells me it’s business, not personal, and I have to distance myself so I can make the hard decisions without emotion. That’s like them telling me I can’t eat gelato anymore because it’s bad for me (so what if it is – it’s good!). It’s not in my DNA to not get emotionally attached so I make decisions that affect people much later than I should.

That’s why, when Arik and Valerie asked if I wanted to help with Help A PR Pro Out, or HAPPO, I jumped at the opportunity. Now I can help some of those I had to lay off last year, the pros I’ve met online who need jobs, and even strangers.

If you’ve missed the hub-bub around HAPPO, click on the link above, or visit last Friday’s FADS post about it. You can also fan HAPPO on Facebook and/or follow on Twitter.

I have heard from A LOT of companies and agencies already and I’ve heard from some of you who are looking for jobs, or looking to move to Chicago.

Let’s keep the momentum going.

* If you have job openings, comment here with a way for me to reach you before next Friday.

* If you are looking for a job, write a creative blog post about why you should be hired and post the link in the comments section here.

* If you are neither but want to spread the message, please let your communities know about this blog post, the HAPPO blog, and the champions below so we can all help.

* If you work for a company that provides services to communication professionals (i.e. Cision, Vocus, PCC, IABC, PRSA, Radian6, Alterian, Spiral16, MatchPoint, etc.) and you want to donate something to the cause, comment below and let me know how I can reach you in the next week.

* And, if you’re not in the Midwest, make sure to connect with a HAPPO champion in your area…or let me know if you’d like an introduction:

• Jeremy Porter (Atlanta)
• Kellye Crane (Atlanta)
• Doug Haslam (Boston)
• Jennifer Wilbur (Southern CA)
• Lauren Fernandez (Dallas/Fort Worth)
• Richie Escovedo (Dallas/Fort Worth)
• Justin Goldsborough (Kansas City)
• Arik Hanson (Minneapolis/ St. Paul)
• PR Cog (New York Metro)
• Deidre Breakenridge (New York Metro)
• Valerie Simon (New York Metro)
• Heather Whaling (Ohio)
• Adrienne Biggs (San Francisco)
• Danny Brown (Toronto)
• Mike Schaffer (Washington, DC)

The big idea:

On Friday, February 19, from 10 am – 2 pm CT, PR bloggers, agency leaders, and PR professionals from across the country will donate their time and talents to help fellow PR pros connect with employers as part of the first-ever “Help a PR Pro Out” day.

• Are you a job seeker? Prepare a creative blog post, pitching yourself to prospective employers and share it via Twitter during the event on Feb. 19 using the hashtag #HAPPO. The HAPPO “market champions” (see below) will help by retweeting and connecting you with potential employers in your specific market (or markets you’re willing to relocated to).
• Are you an employer looking for talent? Follow the hashtag #HAPPO on Friday, Feb. 19 and share your openings. Market champions will do their best to connect you with talent they think matches your specific needs.
• Are you a PR blogger/Twitter addict? Yes? Then share the #HAPPO tweets with your personal networks and lend your support to those in need. Help your market champion identify job seekers and pair them with potential employers. This is your chance to make a difference!

During the next two weeks, I will be working with agencies and companies in and around Chicago and in the Midwest to create a list of jobs available. I’ll also be working PR pros to create a list of those available for work.

If you know anyone who fits either side of this coin, please help me help them by posting a comment here.

For more information, check out Arik’s blog post.

Following are a couple of our favorites. But they are totally unprofessional, which is why we need your help.

* Arment Dietrich. Better Than Sex.

* Arment Dietrich. The Only Thing We Spin Is Our Bike.

The winner not only gains fame, but will have the tagline (with credit) on our home page. Heck, we might even have a t-shirt or mug to give the winner.

Before we changed the business model our tagline was “Service. Results. Spirit.” Boring, right?

But with the new Web site and our new business model (don’t know about the new business model? Read more here), we figure it’s a good time to get rid of the boring and introduce something really good.

So…I leave it in your hands. What tagline do you think best represents Arment Dietrich?

This happens often, especially because of all of the speaking that I do, and I always thank the person for the invite and suggest, instead, they become fans of Arment Dietrich, where I spend a lot of time engaging with clients, prospects, potential candidates, and our employees. I know some people are put off by this because it sounds like I’m promoting the company. And, I guess I am. But it’s less to promote the company and more to engage with people I don’t know in a place that feels safe to me.

But for some reason, yesterday’s request is bothering me. I think it’s because his  response was, “thanks anyway”, which makes me believe I left a bad taste in his mouth.

If you know me well, you know I want to be liked by everyone. And you also know I have trouble saying no. So when I perceive I’ve hurt someone’s feelings or left a bad taste in their mouth, I wonder how I could have handled the situation differently. At the same time, I am (in my wise old age) finally learning I need to have some boundaries.

Right now, my boundaries are as follows:

* On my personal Facebook page, I have to know you in real life (which is why, Dave Van de Walle, I don’t have very many friends there).

* On the Arment Dietrich Facebook fan page, I will talk to anyone there, even if it’s negative. This is where we’re building our culture and building relationships with people we might like to work with in the future (as well as people we work with now).

* On Twitter, as long as you don’t look like a spammer, I will follow you back and I will get to know you. My friend Nancy Lyons always teases me because I will talk to anyone on Twitter. It’s true. I will. I love Twitter and the relationships I’m able to develop using that tool.

* On LinkedIn, I will accept your connection IF you tell me how we know one another. The “I’d like to add you to my personal network” invite doesn’t work for me, unless I truly do know you. I never click “I don’t know this user,” but I do often just hit “archive” instead of “accept.”

What are your boundaries? How would you have handled the friend request I mention above?

*Photo courtesy of GeekSugar

One thing, however, we didn’t discuss is how to promote and publicize your blog posts, after they’ve been published, in order to attract readers who don’t yet know about you.

This is the process I follow every time I hit publish:

1. Go to Delicious and create an account, if you don’t already have one.

Save your blog post, with the original link (not a shortened link), as a bookmark. I have our Delicious page set up to automatically feed my FriendFeed and Twitter accounts after it’s been posted. To learn how to do that, Scott Hepburn has an easy-to-follow blog post on the topic here. He even goes so far as to suggest you do this with Google Reader. I don’t do that because I want to have read the content I tweet before I actually distribute it.

It takes a couple of hours for Delicious to feed to FriendFeed and Twitter, so I do this late at night (after 9 p.m.) in order to hit the people up, and on Twitter, around midnight.

2. Go to su.pr and create an account, if you don’t already have one.

I love this URL shortener because it:

* Adds your content to StumbleUpon (which helps with SEO AND attracting new readers);

* Gives you times of each day that your tribe retweets you most often on Twitter (so you know when to post);

* Shows you all of the retweets each post has received and who did the retweeting; and

* Gives you pretty accurate traffic information you can then overlay with your Google analytics.

I don’t, however, like to use the timed feature in su.pr because it tends to act wonky at least once a week and it sometimes “loses” your links. So I go there only to shorten the link so I can use it in other places.

3. Go to SocialOomph and create an account, if you don’t already have one.

I like using this service to time my tweets (I do one an hour from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. CST) Mondays through Thursdays (I don’t tweet news on Fridays because of #FollowFriday).

Based on what su.pr tells me, I schedule our blog post (using the su.pr shortened link) to tweet three times the following day. For instance, I know on Tuesdays, 9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m., are the times I’m retweeted the most. So I set up our blog post to be tweeted at those times every Tuesday.

For every other tweet during the day, I set up news, articles, and blogs I read that support my thinking, but aren’t self-serving (i.e. not information coming from Arment Dietrich).

Keep in mind that you can not use the same copy for the multiple scheduled tweets. They must be different copy or Twitter will consider it spam.

So this is what my scheduled tweets looked like yesterday:

4. Go to Facebook and, using the original blog link (not the shortened one), I let our fans know what they can read about on the blog.

5. Go to LinkedIn and, again, using the original blog link, update my status to drive my connections to the post.

6. Answer all comments you get on your blog. I typically answer on the blog, but also send an email to the commenter thanking them. This not only makes people feel good, but sometimes creates an offline conversation that builds my relationship with that person.

Rinse and repeat each day. I know this sounds like a lot, but I timed it when I wrote this post. It took me eight minutes.

Are there things you do to publicize your blog posts that are not listed here?

I was in Atlanta last week. I rented a nice little Nissan Altima. It was a hybrid car. I liked it. But I’m having a problem with the car keys and I can’t get past it.

The car doesn’t have a place for you to hang your keys. You tap the on/off button with the tip of the key, put your foot on the brake, and push the button. The car starts. And you throw your keys in the cupholder.

First time I thought, “Okay. I can deal with this. If I have to use the keys to turn off the car, I won’t leave them in the cupholder.”

WRONG!

You don’t have to tap the button to turn off the car. You just push the button and off it goes! Yes, you do have to have the keys in order to lock the doors, but most human beings (at some point) will get out of the car in a hurry and rush off without realizing they don’t have their keys and didn’t lock their door.

Are automakers trying to get us to change our habits, in an effort to become more secure? Or am I totally missing the point?

The do’s and don’ts of social media, according to Gini Dietrich.

DO

* Target your market to follow the right people.

* Offer actionable advice.

* Use your time wisely.

* Have an offer and call to action.

* Define your goals.

* Track results.

* Be respectful.

* Submit original content.

* Participate actively.

* Be open-minded about other points of view.

* Be honest.

* Be authentic.

* Be transparent.

* Be human.

* Be consistent.

* Use pictures, videos, and music.

* Scratch other people’s backs.

* Build a community.

* Listen!

DON’T

* Be too sales-y.

* Be too anxious.

* Be afraid to offer information, knowledge, and wisdom.

* Be self-serving.

* Post news releases.

* Shy away from connecting and engaging.

* Get your feelings hurt when people unfollow you.

* Spam.

* Stalk people.

* Accept friend requests from people you don’t know or barely know.

* Be negative.

* Engage in dubious behavior.

* Try to maintain more than one profile for your brand (either personal or company).

What advice do you give when talking about the social media do’s and don’ts?

You know comments like that just get me fired up and I picked on him a good bit during the workshop. I love taking the cynicism and fear of a room and turning it into motivation and excitement. And that’s precisely what happened.

But that’s not the point of this post. The point is that some great ideas came out of our three hour workshop and I want to relay them to you here.

They were sitting at tables of 10 so, after the intro on social media, I had them work to come up with terms they could use for Google alerts.

I know, I know. Everyone has Google alerts, right? Um. No. They don’t. It’s step one in listening, which is the foundation to a great social media program, so we always start there…in understanding why they’re important and what to search in order to make yourself most efficient at listening to the online chatter.

Some of their ideas included:

1. Their name.
2. The company name plus the city in which they live.
3. Top producers in their city (I especially love this one because they work with real estate agents and this is a great way to target new prospects).
4. Local competitors.
5. The company name plus the word “sucks” (I’m reading “What Would Google Do” and Jeff Jarvis suggests all of us should be searching for our companies with the word “sucks” in it; i.e. Arment Dietrich sucks. No, there’s nothing in that search, but believe me, it’s an alert I have set up!).
6. Services they offer.
7. Local organizations they either currently support or want to support.
8. The names of the people at their competitor’s offices, not just the company names.
9. How-to or advice on keeping your home up-to-par so it’s ready for an inspection when you sell it.
10. Products that typically fail in homes.
11. Companies that sell products that typically fail in homes.
12. Industry organizations.
13. State regulations around home inspections.

Though some of these ideas are specific to their industry, they can be tailored to use for any company.

Be honest. Do you have Google alerts set up? Are they this detailed? What would you add to the list?