Sam Dunsiger (@samdunsiger) and I go head to head in this IABC Toronto Newsletter article. Our bout begins on page 6. Click here to read it, and enjoy!

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This won’t be ideal for many of you, but one way that I’ve found, and it works like a charm, is through TweetDeck (the Chrome app, or the .com site). If you click on any handle, including your own, in TweetDeck, it brings up a screen like the one you see below:

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Then you just have a gander to the right side of this pop-up screen, and voila! You can see how many lists you’re on!

Do you have any tips for seeing how many lists you’re on? Let me know in the comments!

I’ve never actually tried it, though I had been slanting toward the side of “yes, this could be very effective” – especially for pitching a journalist who uses Twitter frequently and as more than a story distribution channel.

While this may not be frowned on, per se, I got the answer from a journalist who is very engaging on Twitter – and that answer, in short, was “no”.

Matt Hartley, AKA @TheHartley, FP Tech Desk Editor at the National Post, spoke on a panel hosted by Business Wire on October 25 – “National Post Editorial Briefing Session – Press Release Optimization for Newspapers.” He, along with Hollie Shaw, AKA@FPhollisha, Marketing Editor and Retailing Reporter, Financial Post, and Grant Ellis, Managing Editor, National Post, provided some great insight on how to grab their attention and get your story covered, in an age where they are bombarded with literally hundreds of pitches in their inboxes and on their answering machines every day. How to stand out from the pack, if you will. You can view the session here, and if you are looking to hone your pitching skills it is a very worthwhile watch.

At the end of the panel session, there was some time for Q&A, so I jumped on the opportunity to ask Matt how he felt about being pitched over Twitter. My question was posed simply as “Matt, you mentioned getting pitches through Twitter – I was just wondering, how do you feel about that? Is it effective at all?”

During the panel he had mentioned that he receives pitches through a wide variety of mediums, from LinkedIn to Twitter, to even the odd Facebook message – so getting pitched through Twitter is clearly something he has experience with.

His answer, put simply, was that Twitter is a great way to connect with him – start, build, and maintain a relationship with him – which, in my mind, could very well help when it comes to pitching him using more traditional methods. However, he is not a fan of receiving pitches through Twitter as it puts him in a bit of an awkward position where he either has to publicly reply telling the person he’s not interested, or ignore the tweet, which he is even less a fan of.

Here’s Matt in his own words:
“Twitter’s a really good place to reach me sort of first off; I don’t tend to conduct a lot of business over Twitter is what I tend to say. I hate when people send me something in the public on Twitter and say ‘hey, let’s meet up for a coffee, I’d love to tell you about my company’, because then if I write back and say no, everyone can read it and I look like a jerk. So, I always try to tell people to email me if they can. My email is at the bottom of every story that I write, and it’s also on the website – it’s really easy to find…”

He goes on to say:
“Twitter is usually a good place to sort of get introduced to me – it’s also a good place to see what interests me because we obviously tweet every story that we write, so it has a good feed of everything from the Tech Desk…”

So, the moral of the story is: Twitter can be a great way to connect with journalists and foster a relationship with them, but when it comes to sending pitches, email is your best option. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and my advice would be to simply ask a journalist you’re pitching what their preference is for receiving pitches. I’ve found that asking a journalist simple things like that can go a long way in getting on their good side .

You can view the entire Business Wire briefing session here (note: you will have to enter some basic information to get in, but it takes seconds, literally). There is some great information to be pulled from it so it’s worth the watch if you’re looking to hone your media relations skills and hear what’s what right from the editors themselves.

Have you ever used Twitter to effectively pitch a story? What other ways do you use Twitter in your media relations efforts? Please share in the comments!

Welcome back to our online influencer series! If you missed part one, be sure to read it first here.

Where we left off
Now that we’ve pulled together a solid list of potential influencers as outlined in part one, we can begin to determine which influencers will become a part of our outreach and rank them based on a number of variants.

The first thing we must do before we can really even begin to judge whether someone is influential or not, however, will be to look at some of the top-level data that is readily available to us. The first thing I always do is look at a few things that are easy to locate:

• Number of Twitter followers
• Number of times they are listed on Twitter by other users
• Number of “Likes” on their Facebook fan page
• Number of inbound links to their site. This can be found by searching “link:sitename.com” in Google (see image below). The number of results returned will give you the number of inbound links for that site

Building your target influencer list
Using the simple methods listed above, you can start to eliminate bloggers from your list that don’t boast reasonable numbers (what is considered reasonable is, ultimately, up to you to decide). You will figure out what is average, and what is considered “good” after doing this with a few of your potential influencers. Take it from there…

In the chart below, I would immediately remove “The Tech Blog” from this list. I would also likely remove “TechABC” as well, though I would need to find data for a larger list of potential influencers before I would make that decision (to determine just how good or bad TechABC’s numbers actually are). Chances are that TechABC would be cut from the list as well.

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Use the steps below to ensure that your influencer list includes only those that are actually influential:

• What kind of content is the person creating and sharing (quality, focus/niche, credible and sourced, etc.)?
• Of the lists that Twitter users have added them to, is there a common theme/niche? For example, have they been added to several lists focused on technology? If so, they are likely influential about technology, which is why people listed them in the first place.
• How does the content they create relate to what you are planning to achieve? The most effective blogs are often tailored to a very niche audience – is their blog attracting the group of people you want to reach?
• What kind of engagement does their blog receive – comments? Discussions between readers through the comments?
• Are people sharing the content through their own networks? (Through Google +1, Facebook “Likes”, Twitter, etc. – this can most often be seen by a counter next to its respective button)
• Is their content ever picked up, or linked to by other bloggers or even major news outlets?
• Perhaps most importantly, are they seen as credible? (A look at the tone of the comments and the kinds of comments the blog receives should give an indication of this. People won’t be afraid to speak their mind if they think the writer is full of it).

If you follow all of the steps outlined in this article and do your research, you should be well on your way to a strategically targeted online influencer outreach campaign. It is very important, however, that you recognize that checking online influence and building lists is an ongoing process, and it should be revisited regularly.

It is also important to note that some people who may not be overly active online can have a lot of influence offline. These people should not be overlooked! They can be found on LinkedIn, or through traditional news stories (among many other, more traditional methods – that’s for another post all together, though) and can play a major role in your online efforts, even though they are mostly influential offline-only.

Have you already completed an online influencer campaign in the past? If so, how did you determine influencers? Please add your thoughts and tips in the comments!

There is little debate about the power of inbound social media marketing. Major brands are benefitting from massive online audiences that not only find them on their own, but are attentive in listening to the brand’s messaging. What’s more, much like ambassadors, many of these “audience” members often share brand messages with their own networks – spreading these messages even further, while adding a little third-party credibility, too.

I think we can all agree, online marketing programs can, and often do, deliver massive results that generate leads and result in business.

A common misconception, however, is that these programs must reach large numbers of people to be considered successful. Ford Motor Company has been very successful in its online initiatives, and indeed has some impressive numbers to back that statement up. Social media site Mashable did a small case study on one of Ford’s most recent campaigns which was aimed at raising awareness and buzz around the 2012 Focus – check out the case study; the numbers speak for themselves.

Does this tell us then that businesses need to attract millions of viewers to their YouTube channel, or thousands of visitors daily to their blog to be successful? In my opinion, the answer is no.

Organizations that deal in things with less mass appeal than things like cars, or technology, for example, are seeing huge increases in business leads, with a fraction of the online audience that big brands like Ford have.  The key for them isn’t the size of their audience, but rather who is actively watching/reading/listening. Niche market businesses can, in fact, see great success through inbound marketing, if done right. Good content and an SEO strategy are the main ingredients, but that’s another topic entirely.

If I asked you if a small fencing company in the town of Littleton, MA would benefit from a blog would you answer yes?

Louis E. Page is a small, family owned and operated fencing company that has had a great deal of success through its blog – experiencing an increase in sales leads of 850 percent since its launch. Yes, 850 percent!  This example is a bit old now (from 2009), but it’s still a great example of how a niche market, small business can benefit from an online marketing strategy, without attracting hundreds of thousands of readers to its blog and viewers to its videos. If anything, this is even truer now in 2011 as more people get online and turn to blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the likes for information.

Do you know of a niche-market business that has benefitted from an online marketing strategy? If so, please share in the comments!

Before you can dive in to an online influencer outreach program you obviously need to figure out who is influential and where they hang out online. Customers and potential customers read blogs and take part in discussions online every day, and online influencers are writing those blogs, and leading those conversations. If you can find out which blogs, and where these discussions are happening, you can begin to seek out, and build a list of online influencers.

For now, we will focus on finding potential online influencers and compiling a list.

Step 1 – identify keywords:
Since customers and potential customers will be actively seeking information, they will be searching for content based on keywords that are related to what they want to find. For example, your company produces and sells tablet computers – people who are interested in buying a tablet, or learning more about tablets will search the internet for more information. They will search for things such as “tablet computers 2011”, for example.

To determine which keywords related to your product type are the most commonly used, you can use a tool like the Google AdWords “Get keywords ideas” Tool. Once you’ve populated a list of popular search terms that are related, you can make a note of the most commonly used ones (between 5 and 7 should be plenty), which will come in handy in the following steps.

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Step 2 – locate bloggers:
Now that you have identified the keywords that your customers and potential customers are using to find their information, you can search for blogs that contain those keywords and begin building a list.

A handy, accurate tool for doing this is also a Google property (oh how I love Google), called Google Blog Search. It works much the same way as any other Google search, but focuses on blog results only. You can search for both blogs and blog posts, or just one or the other. The advanced search function allows you to really narrow things down, if a broad search is turning up too many results.

Technorati is also a great tool for finding blogs, so be sure to check there as well to make sure you don’t overlook any major players.

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Step 3 – find discussions already taking place
Forums are great for finding influencers as many of them will take part in online discussions as a means of driving traffic to their blog. Yet another Google tool (are you surprised?), you can use the same keywords identified in step 1 to search Google, then simply click on the “Discussions” tab on the left sidebar of the results screen.

Another place that hosts a ton of discussion that can in-turn lead you to influencers isTwitter. Try using Twitter Search with those same keywords to see if any discussion is taking place there. Though this will involve more digging than any of the other steps thus far, it can pay off large if you find one or two big influencers there.

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Building your potential influencer list
Throughout steps 2 and 3, you should be compiling a list. I use Excel for this, but any charting tool or contact database you are comfortable with will be just fine. One thing to note with regards to your list is which information you should capture. Below is a basic example of the type of info I usually capture in a potential influencer list:

Once you’ve pulled together a solid list of potential influencers you can begin to determine which will become a part of your outreach and rank them based on a number of variants. Next post will get further in to that, and teach you exactly just how to rank them and make educated decisions, maximizing efficiency.  Your final list will host even more detail on each of the influencers and their online spaces than what is shown in the chart above – stay tuned!

Some other resources for locating influencers online:

Blog search engines you can use to help identify your influencers:

• Google blog search
• Technorati
• Ice rocket
• Blogdigger

Other places to look for influencers:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Foursquare
• LinkedIn
• Flick’r

A few tools that can help locate and grade influencers, but as I’ve mentioned before, these should be used with caution:

• Klout
• Edelman’s TweetLevel 2.0 and BlogLevel
• Peer Index
• Twittergrader.com
• Google Pagerank
• Infochimps

A great way to add some personality to your corporate blog is to have multiple people writing and sharing stories – through their own points-of-view.

Start by figuring out who the “thought leaders” (yea I know, it’s an aging term) are in your organization – these are the people that readers will care most to hear from (aside from the corporate heads, of course). A thought leader may be a manager of a certain division within your company – someone who has worked in their sector for 10+ years, and ideally is already known and respected within their industry.

Of course, your organization’s thought leaders aren’t the only people that you should have contributing to your corporate blog. Your junior staff may very well have some leading-edge, game changing ideas too, so be sure to give them a chance to write and share their thoughts as well.

Once you’ve determined who you would like to have contributing to the blog, present them with the opportunity to write a weekly, monthly, bi-annual (whatever the case may be that best suits your needs) blog post. Allow them to write in their own words, and editing must only be for grammatical and spelling errors – do not alter their message.

If your blog features regular posts from various members of your staff, personality will automatically be “injected” through the different ideas and points-of-view that each of them present. If done right, your blog may even become a resource for people interested in learning more about your industry, and can lead to new business opportunities. It will drive traffic to your website, that I can guarantee.

It will also help retain readers and keep them coming back to your blog, as people will enjoy learning from multiple writers. So go ahead and pass the pen!

Thank you for reading and be sure to add your own blogging tips for businesses and other thoughts in the comments!

The Friendship Algorithm, as seen on “The Big Bang Theory”

It seems that more and more people are relying on numbers to determine online influence lately. They’re interested in Klout scores, numbers of followers, how often things are shared or retweeted, and don’t seem to be looking too far beyond that.

Since there is no definitive algorithm behind measuring online influence, and never will be, we need to do away with this trend in our way of thinking.

No matter how you analyze the numbers (followers, retweets, etc.), you simply can’t determine influence this way. Even if you’re a mathematical genius, there is no formula that can be built on any variation of these numbers to accurately determine influence.

Just because someone has a lot of followers on Twitter, or a high score on Klout, doesn’t mean they are influential.

Case in point

To use David Armano’s (@Armano) example from the Mesh 11 panel with Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge) and Mark Evans (@MarkEvans) titled “How do you (or can you) measure online influence”: Charlie Sheen has over 4 million followers on Twitter, yet has little influence over his following (“Sheen’s Cadres” aside), as far as affecting their actions.

If you are following Charlie on Twitter, it’s most likely because you, like most people in western society, can’t help but get a front row seat to watch as yet another celeb spirals out of control. Does he have influence over your actions though? Not likely… If he does, you may want to see a psychiatrist.

So, what exactly is influence anyway?

This seems obvious, but if it were then this blog post probably wouldn’t be needed. According to Merriam-Webster, influence is:

1. to affect or alter by indirect or intangible means
2. to have an effect on the condition or development of

For the purpose of our topic today, it simply means to affect someone else’s actions, by way of a tweet, Facebook update, or blog post (for a few examples).

Pete Cashmore VS. Charlie Sheen

Let’s take a look at two Twitter accounts with very different numbers.

For those who are unfamiliar, Pete Cashmore is the CEO and founder of Social Media site Mashable – one of the most read and shared social media content sites in the world, and the 3^rd ranked blog on Technorati’s top 100 blogs list.

Compared to Charlie Sheen’s 4+ million followers, 19+ thousand seems miniscule. Yet Pete has a knack for driving action (aka influencing people) – here are just a couple of recent examples:

Pete mentions a game for the iPad – people check it out.

Pete tweets about the Syrian Revolt and not only does it get retweeted by a number of people, but Alyssa Milano gets on board to show her support too!

Pete is so well respected online that Entrepreneur Magazine turns to him for answers to questions like “who should you be following on Twitter?” Most importantly, people who read the list will follow Pete’s recommendations.

And then there’s Charlie:

This tweet received over 100 retweets, but only two replies… here they are:

Here’s how Pete and Charlie stack up on Klout:

While Charlie’s tweets do often get retweeted by A LOT of people, they don’t typically lead to any form of action. Seeing how he has over 4 million followers, he needs only a small percentage of his following to retweet his messages to appear influential to a tool that calculates influence based on the numbers.

According to Klout, Charlie is more influential than Pete – who do you think is more influential? Does Charlie drive action through his tweets?

How SHOULD we measure influence online?

By digging! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it will take effort. You have to get in there and research the potential influencer thoroughly before you can really even begin to judge whether they’re influential or not. You have to look far beyond Klout score, or how many followers a person has – these numbers unfortunately aren’t directly indicative of influence. Are tools like Klout useful as a starting point in finding those who may be influential? Absolutely, but that’s a whole other discussion entirely.

When it comes to ranking, you can create a system and put people on a scale of say 1-10 yourself, but not without first digging to see the side of the story that numbers can’t tell on their own.

Here are some of the ways you can look beyond the obvious numbers:

• What kind of content is the person creating and sharing (quality, focus/niche, credible and sourced, etc.)?
• How does the content they create relate to what you are planning to achieve? The most effective blogs are often tailored to a very niche audience – is their blog attracting the group of people you want to reach?
• What kind of engagement does their blog receive – comments? Discussions between readers through the comments?
• Are people sharing the content through their own networks? (Through Google +1, Facebook “Likes”, Twitter, etc. – this can most often be seen by a counter next to its respective button)
• Is their content ever picked up, or linked to by other bloggers or even major news outlets?
• Perhaps most importantly, are they seen as credible? (A look at the tone of the comments and the kinds of comments the blog receives should give an indication of this. People won’t be afraid to speak their mind if they think the writer is full of it).

These are the kinds of things that will help determine just how influential someone really is, in my opinion at least.

How do you determine online influence? Do you have any other tips to add? What are your thoughts on tools like Klout and their importance in determining influence? Please share in the comments!

Nobody ever questions the value of a news article published in the print version of a major daily. Print coverage has been the bee’s knees of exposure in North America since sometime around the early 1700’s. And much to my chagrin, for many that hasn’t changed one bit.

If there’s one thing that everyone in an organization understands it’s that neutral or positive coverage in the Toronto Star or the Globe and Mail, for example, is a good thing. Seeing mention, especially positive, of the company in a major paper will surely get everyone in the organization dancing the happy dance. But what if that exact same article was published online only? Would it get the CEO out of their chair? Surprisingly, it may not.

I have faced the challenge of convincing people that there is great value in an online-only piece on more than one occasion. An advocate of all media types from broadcast to print, I will be the last person to put down an article in a print newspaper. However, I would argue that an online-only article on a major outlet’s website could very well be more valuable than the same story in a print-only version – here’s just a few reasons why:

Sharing: if you wanted to share an interesting story you read in your copy of a print paper with someone you would have to physically bring it to them and show them. With online news you can share it with the world with the click of a button. What’s more, if the story is compelling, people in the sharer’s network may also decide to share the article with their network, further spreading your messages. I can’t personally think of a better way to maximize your “audience” than through word-of-mouth and sharing.

Search engine friendly: an article published online will be indexed by all of the major search tools, like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc. This means that people could come across the article and learn about your business, even if they’ve never heard of you before. For example, let’s say your company sells home security systems. Someone searching for info on security systems may come across your article just in their search – this could easily prompt them to get in touch to learn more.

Shelf life: unlike a print newspaper, which is generally tossed in the recycling bin the same day it’s delivered, an online story lives on and remains searchable for years to come (perhaps indefinitely). Of course if you would like you can always head to your library and visit the archives for old print stories, so don’t get me wrong, I understand that they too live on in some form.

Discussion: like it or not, people have opinions about your company/industry. Though there are a number of “trolls”out there filling comment threads with garbage, there are also a ton of smart, insightful people joining the conversations. Want to know what people think – read the comments on your article.

Instantaneous: talk about effective crisis communications! Crises happen to the best of us. When they do you obviously want to douse the flames as fast as possible before you have a wildfire on your hands. With major media being online you can now have your side of the story seen by the world within hours of the crisis breaking.

Not just for crisis situations, many readers like to stay on top of news as it breaks regardless. I’ve always been a big fan of sitting with my morning paper and a coffee, scanning through the headlines. However, the more I read online the more often the headlines in the paper are “old news” to me. Most of what I find in the paper I already read about the day prior.

Reach potential: this may not be applicable for some, but with online news you can reach far beyond the borders of your city or nation. A print paper is distributed regionally/nationally and doesn’t typically make it to readers beyond those areas. Your story online has the potential to be seen by readers as far away as Australia, and everywhere in between.

It’s the future! According to the Newspaper Audience Databank (NAD bank), over the past 10 years “Weekly readership of printed editions has declined as technology has provided Canadians with access to contentthroughout the day presented by their favourite newspapers on the Internet using computers and hand-held devices. Anyone can be up-to-date with the latest news or sports scores with the touch of a button; not only local news, but news from around the world.” Source: http://goo.gl/nqMZG . And this won’t change any time soon – the trend will only continue to see more and more people heading online for their news as devices like the iPad make it easier than ever to consume the latest.

In a perfect world your stories would find themselves in both the print and online versions, and when they do it is a major win, for sure. Just please don’t underestimate the value of your story being published online-only!

Thank you for reading and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments!

As you’ve probably figured out already, a corporate blog can have several benefits to your company. Before we dive into the article and how to add personality to your blog through conversational writing, let’s take a moment to reflect on a few of those great benefits. If done right, a corporate blog will:

• Give your company a boost in search engine rank
• Help position you and your business/brand as a thought-leader in your particular industry
• Provide a channel for communicating in a crisis situation – and instantly
• Give you valuable insight into what people think about you and your brand
• Help engage with clients/customers and build better relationships with them
• Give your clients/customers another avenue to find information about your business
• Give personality to your brand

Most important of all of the points listed above, a corporate blog will give your brand a personality – if you do it right, that is. Not only is personality a benefit to you, but it’s also key to your blog’s success. It’s a major factor in attracting readers, getting them to comment, and keeping them engaged!

After all, if they wanted to hear from the same ol’ talking head they would check out your corporate website, read your quotes in the paper, or turn on their TV news to see your interview – that’s not what blogging is about.

The focus of your corporate blog should no doubt be business and the industry that you operate in – that’s a given. But please, for the love of the Internet Gods, don’t be a talking head on your blog!

So, how do you inject a little personality in to your corporate blog? There are a number of ways, but today we will focus on one way that is easy and proven…

Write in a conversational style

Everything you write on your blog should be written in a conversational style. Yes, everything, whether it be an opinion piece, or a tid-bit of company news. It should read as if it were written off the cuff – grammar and spelling are still key, though, so be sure to edit it with a fine-toothed comb before publishing! If it comes across as scripted and over-thought it will surely bore your readers and lose them within the first paragraph.

Some tips for writing in a conversational style:

• Use contractions – it’s human and will come across that way. There’s no harm in saying “there’s” instead of “there is”. After all, we all use contractions when we’re talking, right?
• No fluff! –Keep your sentences succinct and to the point, and avoid fluff words and filler.
• K.I.S.S. – I’m sure you can write a mean essay, but your blog isn’t strictly for the educated elite – it’s for everyone – Keep it Simple! Avoid words that confuse your readers such as “blandiloquent” (which apparently means to speak in a flattering manner – I just looked it up) and stick to the basics of the English language.
• Use the active voice – after all, this is how we speak most of the time, in conversation. Instead of “a partnership was formed”, use “we formed a partnership”.
• Write in the first person – “today I was in a meeting that…”, and refer to your readers as “you” – “as youmay have noticed…” This will give your readers the sense that you are speaking directly with them, as opposed to talking at them. It will also help create the story, which will keep your readers attentive.

If you start by writing everything in a conversational style you will be well on your way to giving your blog, and therefore brand, a personality. Check back in the coming weeks for other tips on giving your blog personality.

Thank you for reading and be sure to add your own blogging tips for businesses and other thoughts in the comments!