Sounds good to me. If you would also like to pay me… let’s say, $10,000, for one hour of social media consulting per month, on a three month retainer, I am definitely happy to serve you. I will throw in a bucket of KFC, some NHL hockey tickets and my very own coffee table if that sweetens the deal for you.

However, if you’d like to have social media consulting for my usual rate because you don’t necessarily have the same marketing budget as Coca Cola, that’s cool, too. I like working with new clients.

Marketing in it’s purest form is not about selling, it is simply a form of communication and as such is a neutral concept that can be used for good or for evil.

I’ve had newsletter subscribers tell me that even though they are not in business or marketing, they read my newsletters cover to cover and always find something that helps them. From the librarian who wants kids to know about the many fun, educational programs they can become involved in, to the kindergarten teacher who needs parents on board with her classroom policies, they find ideas on improving communication and getting better buy-in whatever their valuable, beneficial message.

Have you used a “marketing” tool or idea in a non-marketing context? I’d love to know about your experience. Leave a comment.

Want to meet up for a consultation at a cafe somewhere in Vancouver? Coffee (or tea) is on me.

Here are some of my favorite cafes to meet people for consultations about websites, social media strategy and other business communications projects (no offense to the ones not listed, but I chose them mainly for proximity to my home office):

• Kafka’s Coffee and Tea near the corner of Main and Broadway. It’s classy and the coffee is super-strong. Love it.
• Waves Coffee at the corner of 10th Avenue and Broadway at 2588 Main Street. Now every place has free wi-fi, but I got into the habit of coming here back when they were just about the only cafe to offer that service. The habit stuck.
• Trees Organic at 450 Granville Street in the heart of Vancouver’s downtown. I like the smell of the fresh-roasted beans here.
• Waves Coffee at 492 West Hastings Street on the corner of Hastings and Richards. Mainly, I like the high-up chairs for people-watching.

I don’t do all of my consultations in cafes. If you’re in Vancouver and would prefer that I come down to your office, that’s cool. Or if you would prefer to just handle the consultation over the phone or by Skype (My username is jnarvey) that’s just fine, too.

Talk to an expert copywriter and get a free coffee. Contact WRITEIMAGE to schedule a consultation

It’s not complicated. Think of your website as the hub. All of your social media activity on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or whatever else brings visitors back to the hub, where you can try to convert them into customers.

I was at a gathering of social media experts in downtown Vancouver this week. We had an informal discussion about building a social media following. A few interesting bits that came out of it (though I’m certain I’ve got the order of the comments mixed up — it’s been a few days and I wasn’t taking notes):

1) Tod Maffin notes that everyone is fixated on metrics for social media campaigns, but in the end, there’s only one metric that really counts: how many transactions are happening through the website.

I agree with this. I’ve seen companies spend significant resources trying to come up with new ways to track who is following them on Twitter or Facebook and categorizing the ones coming through their sales funnel. Yes, it’s great to have that information. And of course, you want targeted visitors. But don’t lose sight of the number of hours you’re throwing at Analytics if it’s cutting into other aspects of your marketing strategy. There’s nothing wrong with just throwing something out there on your website, newsletter or social networks and trying to get a mass (and undifferentiated following). If you get 1,000 new followers from an activity that are not really targeted versus 10 highly targeted new followers, it’s hard to say in many cases which result is better… except, of course, by checking the one metric that matters: sales.

2) Is SEO website copywriting all that different from plain old pre-web copywriting? I don’t think so. As I noted in my last blog post:

Basically, SEO is all about keywords. “Keyword” basically means “important words” – as in, the ones that tell people what your website is about and are likely to be the ones people type into an online search. The process of coming up with keywords and figuring out how to include them in content has gotten more refined for web publishing, but it’s not that different from the process copywriters used before the Internet existed.

3) Kemp Edmonds had a neat case study about the social media following-garnering efforts of Delhi 2 Dublin. To gain a mass following quicker, they offered free songs for download once reaching advertised milestones in numbers of Facebook followers. They now have 11,236 Facebook fan page fans. I’m sure plenty of that has to do with their music and appeal, but I’m told the campaign worked to supercharge their following and gain them some decent PR.

4) LinkedIn is awesome for tracking down contact info for company team members who may not have that info listed on a main Contact page. On that note, if you want people to find you on LinkedIn, make sure your own profile information is up-to-date and contains targeted keywords, the same as for a company website.

5) If you want to buy 100 Facebook followers for a fan page, it’s cheap. Sure, they might not be targeted. But sometimes targeted followers won’t join unless there’s a bunch of people already there. Of course, if you’re going to lead people to a fan page, make sure there’s some decent content there that people would want to read.

6) Kemp Edmonds noted that fan pages for causes which are created by organizations often have more followers than the main fan page for the business. Debate ensued over whether this really mattered (ie. Even if someone isn’t one of 100 fans on your fan page, you still can benefit if they’re one of 10,000 fans on your “Save The Pandas” page — just so long as that fan page is branded so people know who developed it.

7) Following up from that last point, Kemp disdained the use of stock images on social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, whatever) as a lost branding opportunity. The counter-point was that it may be easier to get people to click “Like” if you’ve got a picture of a cute, cuddly kitten playing with a ball of string… which takes us back to the discussion over what the real value of all these followers is in the first place.

Finally, thanks to Guacira Naves of the Online Strategy House for getting me into the event!

Online Strategy House does search engine optimization, social media plans, email campaigns, pay-per-click, affiliate marketing — and Guacira has 19 years of experience with the Internet and 13 years of experience with online marketing. I’ve worked with OSH on recent projects and If you need to get that SEO analysis done before getting an SEO web copywriter like myself to develop or update your own online presence, Online Strategy House can get the job done.

A few points I wanted to make sure my audience came away with:

1) Don’t leave money on the table. A lot of the business owners and managers who showed up last week work for types of businesses that mainly get their clients through referrals and word of mouth. I got the impression that many hadn’t yet seen significant results from their blog, sales letters or whatever. But if your referral networks are already solid and presumably, you don’t want to put an upper limit on your total sales, doesn’t it make sense to invest a bit more time, effort and resources into your marketing and communications? Work on building that stream of revenue. Otherwise, you’re letting other businesses eat your lunch.

2) Your website, blog, newsletters, white papers, case studies and sales letters are basically business tools ultimately for driving sales. You don’t need to use all of them, but your communications strategy should use some of them. And you will want to adapt that mix of collateral over time. Test, analyze, adapt, repeat.

3) Having a cool blog is not the end goal. Having a cool, SEO-optimized blog integrated into your website helps bring in customers who might otherwise not find you online. While they’re reading your interesting articles, they will be tempted to click on your “Services” or “Contact Us” pages to connect with you on a higher level.

4) Success takes time and multiple connections. By sending out communications on multiple fronts (blog posts, case studies, sales letters, etc) you remain in the customer’s mind. When they need your service, they’ll remember you and they’ll call.

I’m presenting on this topic at the Lower Mainland’s Better Business Bureau’s Seminar Series in downtown Vancouver on Thursday, February 17. Hope to see you there! Here’s a quick synopsis:

How does your company get the word out? From websites and blogs to newsletters, brochures, direct mail sales letters, case studies, white papers and press releases, you’ve got plenty of tools. But different tools are used for different purposes. Learn how to use them to reach different target audiences effectively.

UPDATE: The event now appears to be sold out! Thanks to those who registered. For those who couldn’t make it, I’ll let you know when a new seminar is on the way. Of course, if you’d prefer some one-on-one business communications consulting, feel free to contact me directly

Check it out. Here’s the synopsis:

How does your company get the word out? From websites and blogs to newsletters, brochures, direct mail sales letters, case studies, white papers and press releases, you’ve got plenty of tools. But different tools are used for different purposes. Learn how to use them to reach different target audiences effectively.

Presenter: Jonathon Narvey, President of WRITEIMAGE, Website Copywriting Professional

Cost: BBB Accredited Business $25, Non BBB Accredited Business $35 (includes light lunch)

Register online: www.eplyevents.com/BBBSeminarFeb

Most marketing plans work on reaching directly to your customer base. In contrast, press releases are read by the media sector, including reporters, editors, as well as bloggers. They are always looking to find new stories to increase their viewership and thus their advertising revenues.

This unique dynamic can be used to your benefit with a cleverly-crafted press release. Capture the media’s attention and they will actively seek out your participation in their stories. Being “in the news” offers two great advantages:

• Authority. The media must provide their audience with reliable and useful information, otherwise they will lose their market. A positive or even neutral write-up by a respected reporter or writer carries far more weight in the public’s mind. More importantly, it avoids stimulating the audience’s sales resistance.
• Economy. Ads can cost a lot of money. Whipping off a press release and distributing it costs comparatively little.

With relatively little investment and creativity, you can be reaching a wider audience and getting the same kind of publicity as Fortune 500 corporations.

Start generating some buzz. Call us to take care of your press release writing needs

(Contributed by Vancouver copywriter Michael Yamashita)