This first ran on Dec. 28, but we didn’t want you to miss it with the holiday time off. And it’s written for the hospitality industry, but we think the tips work well for any industry.

Guest post by Didi Lutz, an award-winning public relations professional specializing in the travel and hospitality industry.

I believe social media can help the hospitality industry through the Great Recession and give it a much needed communications makeover in the process.

The hospitality industry adopts late on most things new – especially technology. However, throughout 2010, we have seen a tremendous increase in hotels, both brand chains and independent properties, that have, at the very least, built Facebook and Twitter pages. Other hotels have chosen to join Foursquare and other rich media that make sense to them.

The publishing shakeout during the past couple of years that was fueled by the rise of social media provided hoteliers the opportunity to identify new areas where key messages can be shared and discussed in real time. From a PR perspective, the feedback gained from guests is priceless, but like any other communications vehicle, social media’s power must be harnessed to yield the most effective results.

Following are some tips for hotels to keep in mind in 2011 for social media PR: Continue Reading »

Guest post by Maya Wasserman, a senior account executive at Bailey Gardiner.

The continued proliferation of social media has changed how the PR industry interacts with and pitches the media. These days, the media are flocking to Twitter in droves, and the platform presents a new opportunity for PR pros to connect with journalists and bloggers. However, pitching there has its own set of rules and best practices. Following are my tips on how to successfully pitch media on Twitter.

Continue Reading »

Guest post by Matthew Royse, author of Knowledge Enthusiast.

In today’s ultra-competitive PR world you need to find ways to stand out. Following are 10 things that continue to help me become a more successful PR pro. I hope they help you, too.

Do your homework. A mass pitch never amasses a lot of coverage. Before you pitch a journalist or blogger, know what they cover. Research their past stories and fine tune your pitch to appeal to their audience. Continue Reading »

Guest post by Jason Verhoosky, creative director/owner of Old Beauty Design & Media.

As the father of a two-year-old, I am constantly reminded that it is not always necessary to tell the long story to get your point across. In fact, my loving wife reminds me on a daily basis that my daughter tunes me out after the first four to six words.

I share this little look into my life because it runs parallel to the way I think about writing blog posts and online communication in general.

We all know that time is a scarce commodity and that more and more demands are placed on our time every day. With the desire to stay in the loop, receive information in direct, digestible sound bites, and to maintain your readers’ attention, I submit the following five tips to a better blog post. Continue Reading »

I was catching up on my Google reader and subscribed blogs and came across Jeff Bullas, a blogger in Sydney. His blog, JeffBullas.com, discusses ideas and tips for better Internet marketing, including using the social networks as part of your overall strategy.

The blog post that caught my eye, however, is one that has 30 tips for making your blog rock. As I started to comment, I realized I had 10 additional ideas, which I share with you here (but make sure you also read his blog post…then you’ll have 40 ideas).

1. Ask your readers what they want you to write about

2. Let your readers pimp their own blogs in your comments section

3. Ask questions

4. Create contests (which goes along with the poll/survey idea)

5. Install the SEO All In One pack on your WordPress blog

6. Use StumbleUpon and AllTop to increase your readership

7. Create content for Associated Content by republishing your blog posts there (it helps with readership and news outlets will republish your content on their sites)

8. Comment on other blogs and news articles to show your thinking/expertise, but also link people back to your blog

9. Make sure, when you use Twitter to promote your blog post, that you’re tweeting about it more than once a day

10. Subscribe to SmartBrief newsletters, RSS feeds, and Google alerts in order to find ideas for new content

What do you do to make your blogs rock?

I spend a lot of time of time on the road speaking to Vistage groups, doing keynotes, providing workshops, and sitting on panels. The topic?  Social media for executives. The one thing all of my audiences have in common is they all are business leaders and they don’t understand how to translate social media to their companies. Continue Reading »

Before the holidays, we spent some time here talking about blogs – how to create them,  how to attract readers, and how to optimize your content.

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 wrote this for a client today and thought it would be valuable for you.

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?

Based on the feedback from “Tips for Starting a Blog,” it sounds like you’re ready to attract readers. So let’s get started!

My friend Jeff Lipschultz commented on Monday that he was going to be brash and suggest quality is key to attracting readers. And he is 100 percent correct!

Quality, value, and “what’s in it for me” are what attract readers. If you followed the steps I suggested on Monday and asked your network – your friends – to read your blog and pass along to their friends (assuming they liked what they read), then you already have a base of readers. Don’t worry about the number of readers you have on your blog. Worry about providing great content and your friends will be happy to send your blog URL to their friends. And their friends will send to their friends. And pretty soon you have lots of readers who keep coming back for the great value you’re providing.

So how do I provide great content?

I said this on Monday, but it’s worth repeating. IF YOU BLOG, DO IT CONSISTENTLY. A few argued this point in the comments section and that’s okay. My point here is not that you have a blog. My point is that you become a blogger. And to become a blogger you must post at least three times a week.

A few tricks of the trade that make it easy to provide great content and write multiple times every week:

* Make the copy scannable, which means create lists, use bullet points, insert pictures, use headings and subheads and write about only one topic.

* Write short posts. Research states the average blog reader only stays on the same story for 96 seconds so write for that person.

* The copy only needs to prove the point in a very comprehensive manner. Give readers a reason to comment and, if you have extra points to discuss, do it in response to comments.

* Write a title that is both catchy and has search engine optimization (the blog post you can find here on Thursday will discuss how to do this so check back). Your blogs will last for eternity online and you never know when someone, even two years from now, may want information on your topic. Think about how they might search if they’re doing research on your top

* Link to other blogs and news articles that support your thinking. If you do this, find bloggers who aren’t typically quoted or linked to – share the love so the A-listers aren’t the only ones always quoted.

* If you’re passionate about something that is hot in the media right now, wait a week to write the post. It’s hard to gain awareness when you’re in a sea of others writing about the same topic. For instance, if you have value you can add to the Tiger Woods discussion, do it via your blog… and now (two weeks later) is a good time to do it.

* Avoid jargon. Remember the rule of life: Keep it simple, stupid.

* Make yourself uncomfortable. If you’re not making someone mad with every blog post, you’re not doing it right. Get out of your comfort box. Write controversially. But do it professionally.

* Ask for guest bloggers. My friend Harry Brumleve is going to write Thursday’s post on SEO for me. That’s one less post I have to write, but it provides value to him because you now are aware of him and it provides value to you because he’s an expert on the topic.

* Ask questions. People love to provide their thinking and insight. And through their comments, you learn more and become that much more wise.

Always, always remember: This is about your readers. This is not about you. Do not be self-serving or promotional. You are providing your thinking. You are providing your intellectual capital. You are providing your passion. And you are providing all of it for free. If people find value in your thinking, they will come back for more.

For those of you who already are bloggers, what would you add to this to create value in order to attract readers?

When I speak across the country, I have a lot of people tell me they want to start a blog and they want to know how to get started. I always caution that blogs aren’t for everyone and that, once you get started, you can’t stop. It’s a pretty big time commitment and it takes some effort to not only attract readers, but also engage them and keep them coming back for more.

My friend Rieva Lesonsky has a great article at AllBusiness.com about the pros and cons of having a blog. I also love Gary Vaynerchuk’s philosophy that first comes your passion. Your passion may be monkeys and you think no one will want to visit a blog about monkeys. He argues, in “Crush It!”, that no matter what your passion, if people can tell you really care about it they’ll keep coming back. And you won’t mind the time commitment because it’s what you love more than anything else. He also argues that you don’t necessarily need to write a blog. This is important thought – there also are video blogs (called vlgos) and audio blogs (called podcasts).

If, after reading Rieva’s article and figuring out whether or not you can write/video/speak about your passion, you still want a blog, following are some tips for getting started.

1. Go to WordPress or Blogger and set up an account. I like WordPress because it’s more professional and it has lots of really great templates for you to choose from so you can create something really nice in a couple of hours. Blogger is really easy to use, but it looks more homemade.
2. Write a list of 30 topics you can write about – just headlines. For instance, I write about social media, the PR industry, and what it’s like to grow a company. Under those three topics, I have 30 bullet points of different headlines. Under social media, I know tomorrow I’m going to write about how to attract readers to your blog, because it follows today’s topic.
3. Write (or video or speak) five to 10 posts and save them as drafts in your blog. Do not publish them yet.
4. Schedule an hour a day on your calendar to write your blog post, answer reader’s comments, and comment on other’s blogs about your topic
5. Publish your first draft on a Monday.
6. Send an email to your friends, clients, colleagues, peers, family, vendors, and partners and ask them to read your blog post. Ask them to check back on Wednesday and again on Friday. Ask them, if they like what they read, to send the link to their network.
7. Make friends with 10-20 people who already have strong social networks and ask them to help you spread the word. People will do this IF it’s a topic they’re also interested in and know their networks also will like to read. If your blog is about monkeys and I’ve been attacked by a chimp, you won’t want to ask me. Know your audience.
8. Be prepared to publish at least three times each week. And keep your drafts full – have five to 10 ready to publish at any time. This is hard to do, but trust me when I say that it makes life A LOT easier when you’re overly busy and something else has taken over your hour to blog.

I’m always willing to introduce bloggers to my network if they are consistent, have an interesting topic, and make me think. Think about that as you begin to write (or video or speak) and why someone like me would want to help you (other than I’m nice and help everyone). Then ask!  You’ll be surprised at how willing people are to help.

Tomorrow I’ll blog about how to attract readers, beyond your network and your 10-20 friends who already have communities built on the social networks. In the meantime, if you blog, do you have anything to add for people just starting out?