Want to be on TV talking about your business?

Join 14-year news anchor and reporter Tom Jordan and his team on May 24th at the Sacramento Hyatt, where you will learn:

How to get the news media to pay attention to your business, organization or cause
How to answer every reporter’s question with confidence and clarity
How to counter the reporter’s arsenal
The do’s/don’ts of media relations
Message development: learn the skills to develop newsworthy messages
The most effective social media marketing strategy
How to get the headlines you want
How to never be taken out-of-context
How to speak in sound bytes
How to handle a media crisis

The class is May 24th at the Hyatt Regency and is presented by Tom Jordan, ax experienced tv news anchor from San Diego. For media training info, click here.

I’m working on an email to send out to Sacramento, Folsom, Roseville and El Dorado businesses about my upcoming classes and I noticed something horrible.

Many businesses, especially restaurants and wineries, spent big bucks to a web designer four or five years ago for a Flash website. Maybe they don’t know that Flash is incompatible with Apple products. It’s estimated that nearly 40% of smart phone users are using an iphone. It’s crazy to shut your business off from those users.

Perhaps you think I’m being alarmist. But here’s a website that I looked at today on my phone.
Be sure to look at your website on all kinds of different devices. Big monitors, small monitors. Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer browsers. Iphones and android. If they don’t look right, call me at 916-265-2521 and we can figure out a solution.

Over 100 Sacramento business people have come to my Foursquare training classes – so they’re not making these mistakes. Next class is April 24th – I hope you’ll come to learn this and more!

Why Foursquare? Why not Yelp? or Facebook Check-ins?

I recently analyzed the social media reputation of one of our popular Sacramento restaurant on Foursquare and Yelp. On Foursquare, she had 1274 check-ins from 674 people. They left 20 photos and 19 of those people offered tips. Eighteen of the tips were extremely positive, mentioning favorites and must orders. One was mediocre – saying the food was OK.

Contrast that with the 168 reviews on Yelp. The highest number of people ranked this restaurant 4 star and had great things to say about it. But with 45 three stars, 21 two stars and 20 one stars, their overall rating was a three star. One Yelp elite user apparently prefers Subway Sandwiches, because she gave them 3 stars and this restaurant one. To make matters worse, on the restaurants Yelp profile page, they list 5 other similar restaurants that had a higher Yelp rank.

And Facebook check-ins are fine, but they are not indexed in the public search engines. A potential customer will not see them and decide to come and try your food.

So, my advice to you, Sacramento business owners, is to do everything you can to promote Foursquare participation – offer specials and recognition. Foursquare users are better customers and can help you spread the good word about your business.

My next class is April 24th – I’d love to see you there!

And here’s a link to the top five Foursquare mistakes.

For those who know me, you know I’ve become somewhat of a Pinterest addict. Rarely do you find something that makes marketing your business so much fun.

If you’re in a business that has beautiful products, or if you can illustrate your business beautifully or in an interesting way, you can find success on Pinterest.

Sacramento Pinterest Marketing Class
Tuesday, May 8
10:00am – 11:00am

On Pinterest, people follow you by interests, just like in real life. If you’re interested in jazz music or golf, you can follow those boards, but if you’re interested in marketing, social media, search engine optimization and you love infographics, you should follow my Get on the Map pinboard. A thousand other people already do!

And if you need a Pinterest invite, write a comment with your email address. I moderate comments and will not publish it, I’ll just send you an invite ;^D

All you Sacramentans know Ron Hyde, former Sports Anchor at KCRA TV. Look at this lovely testimonial he tweeted about me. I’m honored!

@JulieGallaher no one is better at social media than @JulieGallaher. Whether you’re in norcal, socal or anywhere, she’s IT!

— Ron Hyde GolfLifeMag (@N2Golf) February 22, 2012

Here’s a quick tip for Pinterest marketers … If you want your photos, infographics etc. shared on Facebook, make sure your original graphic is 520px or less. If not, the link will show but your fantastic visual will just be a link.

If you haven’t yet joined Pinterest, you’re missing what I believe will be the biggest social media story of 2012. Pinterest is the sharing of online dream boards. If ever you were a magazineaholic, tore recipes out of newspapers for things to try at some future date, or got duplicate copies of your photographs made so you could give people copies, you will love, love, love Pinterest.

But if you’re a marketer, you’ll love it even more. If you promote a post on Twitter or Facebook, timing is everything, because your audience will start to ignore your post within 3 hours.

I noticed one of my friends “re-pinning” something this morning that I’d posted 2 weeks ago. I did a little research. This recipe photograph was initially posted by Molly Harthgather 4 weeks ago. She has 498 followers, but this photo has generated 27 comments, 772 likes and 4,405 repins. It will continue to bring attention to the recipe blog where she found it for months or even potentially years.

And the icing on the cake for marketers? Every pin, re-pin, share and embed includes a link to the original source material. In the last month, Pinterest has generated over 200 backlinks to my travel website Things You Should Do.

I’ve started a Pinterest Networking Group on LinkedIn and am teaching a Pinterest Marketing class on March 27th in Sacramento. I’d love to see you either place.

Pinterest is in beta and you need an invite to join. If you’d like one, make a comment and I’d be happy to send you one.

You’ve looked online and seen comments about your business that you didn’t like. What are you prepared to do?

Reputation Risk is ranked First among all risks for company managers
84% of hiring managers in the U.S. think it’s appropriate to consider personal and professional data posted online when assessing a candidate.
One negative review on a site like Twitter, Facebook or Youtube can cost a company as many as 30 customers.
83% of companies will face a reputation management crisis in the next 5 years that will affect their share price.

Next Class – March 20th

In this one hour workshop, you will learn to analyze the current state of your reputation, create content that shares your good news and create a plan to make sure the good news gets seen.
Instructor – Julie Gallaher of Get on the Map Local Search Marketing

Everyone’s busy at Christmastime (or Chanukah, Kwanza, Festivus, New Year’s Eve) but as business people, we don’t want to miss an opportunity to thank our customers for their support all year long. Here are a few ideas for you to try.

I’m attaching my favorite holiday video. I hope your Christmas is Merry and Bright. See you in the New Year!