Creating a PR Strategy For Your Small Business
Welcome to Follow Through Friday![00:00:00] Oh, hello, my friends. How are you doing today? I am excited to be back with you. This is the simple and smart SEO show podcast. I'm your host, Crystal Waddell, and this is your favorite episode of the week.
[00:00:10] Follow through Friday's coming to you a few days after Friday, but Hey, we don't talk about that.
[00:00:14] My thought process is it's not so much when you follow through, it's just that you follow through.
Celebrating SEO Success and the Power of Press[00:00:19] Today we are following up on the interview that I recently had with Nicole Lewis.
[00:00:24] Who was here to talk to us about getting press. small business. And so I came up with five things that I wanted to follow up on and talk about really quick.
[00:00:33] And I also wanted to give a shout out... to me.
[00:00:38] Oh, I hate doing that. It sounds awkward.
[00:00:39] If you don't celebrate yourself, who is?
[00:00:41] A writer from rent. com found me via search.
[00:00:44] About creating, the perfect nursery for a baby.
[00:00:47] And then she saw the pictures of the nursery wall lettering that we've done in the past at collageandwood.Com.
[00:00:54] So I'm super excited because I picked up a backlink from a 66 domain authority site. So I just wanted to share that with you and also share how the whole SEO circle, closed its own loop. And I thought that was really neat.
[00:01:07] So anyway, back to follow up Fridays, we're talking about getting press for a small business.
[00:01:12] And I'm thinking about the two small businesses that I have.
[00:01:15] First, the podcast second, my e commerce store, collageandwood.com.
[00:01:19] So.
Leveraging Photography and Collaborations for Business Growth[00:01:20] Nicole's first tip number one. Was about product and service photography.
[00:01:24] My photography is pretty strong over at collagenwood. com because I've partnered with different senior photographers over the years.
[00:01:31] But photography and video for the podcast, I really don't have a lot.
[00:01:36] Speaking at events or, in front of a group.
[00:01:39] I have, me speaking directly to camera.
[00:01:42] And I realized that's a gap.
[00:01:43] Missing some of that B roll footage and footage of me with groups of people.
[00:01:48] And so my plan is to get video and photo from the presentations that I'm giving in July at a conference.
[00:01:54] And then I'll be able to use those both on the Simple and Smart SEO podcast website. And my personal brand website, crystalwaddell.com.
[00:02:04] From the maker perspective, I definitely could shoot more B roll like while I'm packaging up different items.
[00:02:10] Or, when Tom comes to drop off the wooden letters that he's cut out.
[00:02:13] Or, when my husband John goes to get the wood from Lowe's.
[00:02:16] There's lots of different B roll that we could be shooting.
[00:02:20] And so I'm also going to work on compiling that for our e commerce website.
[00:02:24] The other thing we have is like screenshots of client testimonials.
[00:02:27] So there's tons of testimonial opportunities straight from and then I have emails and screenshots.
[00:02:34] That I've already actually taken from people within the SEO squad, my membership community.
[00:02:39] And those are things that I should be highlighting, but yet I'm not.
[00:02:42] They're collecting digital dust and I don't know why.
[00:02:45] Number one, product and service photography and just really using those photos so that it gets attention and when the media comes, they can see that, we have all the social proof, all of the assets that they need to contribute to an article.
[00:02:56] Tip number two from Nicole was collaborations. So with collaborations, obviously the product photography for collagewood. com with the senior photo props, those have been great.
[00:03:06] The user generated content or UGC, that is also great.
[00:03:11] But then when it comes to podcasting and collaborating in that way, obviously I have this podcast.
[00:03:16] But I haven't made a huge effort to go out on other people's podcasts. And so that has been one of my goals for 2024.
[00:03:23] That I guest on another podcast once a month.
[00:03:27] So hopefully by the end of 2024, I'll have been on 12 other podcasts.
[00:03:32] So right now, so far, so good. I'm three for three so far. But yeah, collaborations, that's always going to be the key.
[00:03:38] Like just trying to connect with people where we can have a mutually beneficial relationship.
Mastering Media Relations and Networking[00:03:43] Tip number three is having a media page.
[00:03:46] So I took Nicole's advice and updated my media pages.
[00:03:49] Particularly on Collage and Wood. I just made sure that, my media kit was accessible from every page on my website.
[00:03:55] It's in the footer, but then I also have an about page and a contact us page and I wanted to make sure that all of the media information was right there as well.
[00:04:03] Depending on what someone's preferences, how they're searching that they would find me.
[00:04:06] And something tells me that this was helpful for the writer who asked me to contribute to the nursery decor article.
[00:04:13] So big shout out to Nicole for getting me ready for that.
[00:04:16] Number four.
[00:04:18] Nicole's tip was to connect with writers who write about things related to like our businesses or our services.
[00:04:25] And so, I looked up entrepreneur and solopreneur SEO.
[00:04:29] And honestly, in my notes right here, it says, holy solopreneur SEO!
[00:04:33] Because there was page after page of things that have been written fairly recently about solopreneur and entrepreneur SEO.
[00:04:40] And what's really funny is my Instagram handle used to be the social solopreneur.
[00:04:46] But I felt like no one got it. And now I think I was just a little bit ahead of my time.
[00:04:49] I was able to find a few authors that really resonated with what I talk about.
[00:04:54] And I felt you know what, these would be good people to follow and build relationships with.
[00:04:58] The first online publication I found was entrepreneur.
[00:05:01] And I found an author that has written quite a bit about SEO and entrepreneur SEO.
[00:05:06] And I followed him on LinkedIn and Twitter and it, come to find out we actually have quite a few connections in common.
[00:05:13] So I'm hoping that, I've come across this feed and then when I finally do reach out, he'll be a little bit more familiar with me.
[00:05:20] But one one interesting thing that I saw about entrepreneur though, is that you can apply to be a part of like their expert program.
[00:05:28] And they don't accept everybody, but when they do accept you, you have to pay a 3, 000 fee to be a part of their expert crew.
[00:05:37] Or whatever, but then you get these backlinks.
[00:05:40] So I thought that was interesting and kind of something that. I don't know how I feel about it, like I told my friend, I was like, look, if I had 3, 000 to spend on that, I might do it just for the backlinks.
[00:05:50] But right now, definitely not a priority.
[00:05:52] So the second publication I found that would be a good fit is Startup Grind.
[00:05:57] And so there was one particular writer who was really focusing on SEO .And I noticed that he also likes affiliate links. So I'm not sure I have an affiliate match for him.
[00:06:09] But it was something that I wanted to note because Nicole pointed out like, Hey, look, if these people are using affiliate links and this is how they're monetizing their page.
[00:06:17] Then, you want to Support that, and bring content to them.
[00:06:20] That's going to help them in that way So I followed him over on Twitter or X.
[00:06:25] And then the last one was an author over on CNBC make it.
[00:06:28] And this was another suggestion that Nicole had and this particular author writes a lot about side hustles.
[00:06:34] And After I went through the articles I realized that CNBC make it is actually launching a course about side hustles.
[00:06:42] So I'm not sure that my content will necessarily be the best fit.
[00:06:47] But I'm hoping that, building relationship with this person will reveal an opportunity.
[00:06:51] So I feel really good that I found three solid people that I feel like I could collaborate with in the future.
[00:06:57]
Strategic Planning for Future PR and SEO Efforts[00:06:57] The last thing was just to make a list of timely topics. And thankfully for me, Nicole started it off with Tik TOK.
[00:07:04] And whether or not it's going to be banned.
[00:07:06] Like, how does that impact SEO? And how could I reframe it, for entrepreneurs?
[00:07:11] And the importance of SEO and that type of thing.
[00:07:13] So that was one angle that, Nicole kind of shared with me. And then there's also generative search experience, GSE.
[00:07:20] And one thing I forget is not everybody has access.
[00:07:23] For instance, I was just on a podcast. It's based out of Manchester, England.
[00:07:27] And they do not have generative search experience yet.
[00:07:31] Whereas I see it, inconsistently, but I'd see it.
[00:07:34] And I've seen it for a while.
[00:07:35] My take on GSE is that it's actually going to benefit e commerce. And I talk about that in the podcast, but I thought, you know what?
[00:07:41] That's a perspective that is probably a fresh one and one that I could pitch to these magazines and these publications.
[00:07:49] So. I've got a couple of different ideas for pitches. I've got the people that I'm following, got my media page updated.
[00:07:56] And I've got a plan to update my photography and B roll video. So now that's done, I'd love to know like what you're doing to up your PR game.
[00:08:06] To get your name out there about your business and your products and your services. So please feel free to shoot me an email and let me know what you're implementing.
[00:08:14] And you can find me at hello at simple and smart seo. com.
[00:08:18] And that is it for this follow through Friday episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And remember, don't let all of it overwhelm you.
[00:08:25] Just take one thing at a time, pick one thing that you can do.
[00:08:28] Put everything else on the never ending to do list.
[00:08:30] You're doing a great job. Keep moving forward.