In November, BroadBased worked with Gate Gas Stations on a quick and successful Facebook sweepstakes campaign to increase its fanbase.

“Gate’s overall goal was to increase interaction with customers by doubling its 432 Facebook fans in three weeks,” says Despina Pappas, BroadBased’s public relations and marketing coordinator.  “We administered a sweepstakes offering in which the winner received two UF vs. FSU football tickets and a $100 Gate Gift Card.”

At the end of the campaign Gate had far surpassed its goal, finishing with 1,921 “Likes.”

To be eligible to win, a sweepstakes entry was required on a custom-designed Facebook landing page. The sweepstakes was promoted in stores, on Gate Station social media and with three weeks of regional Facebook advertising. Social media support by the University of Florida rounded out the awareness strategy.

That’s what we call a winning effort!

Posted in Social Media Planning

In a blog announcement in January, Google announced some changes to the way “organic” search is referred to your website.

The big change is this: When individuals are logged into one of their Google accounts while performing a search query (Google accounts include Gmail, Google Docs, Reader, Calendar, Google+, or even YouTube), the keywords they use to get to your website are stripped out of your website analytics. This results in a keyword “not provided” line item (see above). This change only affects “organic” searches, not paid Google ad campaigns. Paid campaigns continue to receive all keyword data.

While the change is good news for individuals whose searches were increasingly personalized with identifying data that clearly isn’t anonymous, the impact for marketers and business owners is that Google campaigns could be less accurate.

Google’s blog posting on the subject asks us to “keep in mind that the change will affect only a minority of your traffic,” but in our recent findings we’ve seen up to a third of our clients’ referral data stripped. “These changes undoubtedly make it more difficult for business owners to identify keyword performance or do SEO. Without informed keyword data, it would be hard to figure out what content is driving traffic to your site,” wrote KISSmetrics in a recent blog post.

In general, we applaud Google’s commitment to provide additional security for its users, but this particular change may damage the search giant’s effectiveness for SEO analytics purposes. We hope Google returns us to business as usual in the near future.

For more information, please visit KISSmetrics’ “I Got 99 Problems But Google Ain’t One” blog post.

Posted in Web/Interactive Development

As marketers and public relations pros, we are often asked to develop strategies designed to improve a person’s or a company’s online reputation. Online reputations are important because consumers’ purchasing decisions are very much influenced by online perceptions. And while there are many ways to monitor an online reputation, there are very few ethical ways to increase or impact it.

The communications and marketing teams at BroadBased can create a transparent, ethical program to increase online presence and boost awareness. Here’s a recent example of how we helped First Watch Restaurants increase name awareness, online reviews and traffic to both of its newly opened First Coast locations.

First Watch, a Florida-based breakfast, brunch and lunch café, recently opened two restaurants in Jacksonville. The PR team at Fry Hammond and Barr in Tampa partnered with BroadBased to introduce the concept to our community. One of the many strategic efforts BroadBased recommended and implemented was an invitation-only, after-hours dinner for food bloggers, restaurant reporters and influential social media users.

We selected 50 attendees who had an online presence, were active Tweeters or bloggers, and had a love of food. We also looked for online influencers with a minimum Klout score of 50. The invitations encouraged the participants to use any of their social media profiles during and after the event to share candid impressions of the restaurant, from service to food quality to cleanliness and beyond.

The Results

The evening event welcomed 55 participants who checked in, took photos, shared reviews and later blogged in detail about the evening breakfast event. The results included 230 Tweets (under Hashtag: #firstwatchjax), six blog posts, three Facebook photo albums, 22 check-ins on Foursquare, and two reviews on online rating sites (Yelp! and UrbanSpoon). The Mandarin location benefited from an immediate increase in online buzz that equated to an increase in traffic to the restaurant.

Behind the raw numbers are two powerful benefits of an event like this. First, all of the reviews and feedback were honest and organic; they weren’t “paid for” directly or created by unethical means such as having restaurant employees review locations. Second, they came in a buzz-generating burst, rather than trickling in over time.

The same concept can be applied to VIP “sneak peek” events that engage consumers at a variety of businesses and locations. Sneak peeks are perfect for increasing traffic to retailer locations, special events, event venues, special attractions, and events and weekend or annual festivals. Call Maria at BroadBased to brainstorm ways to increase your company’s online reputation.

Posted in Brand Development, Public/Media Relations

To make the season even sweeter, we’ve compiled some of our favorite holiday recipes for your enjoyment. Please view the online flipbook, or click here to start an immediate PDF download here.

Posted in BroadBased

Make sure to obtain sign-off of the document from everyone in the chain of approval before starting your project.

At a recent meeting of marketing professionals, we were surprised to hear about the number of corporate marketing department staffers who don’t, can’t or aren’t allowed to execute creative briefs with their internal customers. We found that very surprising and thought we would offer up some of the benefits of using a creative brief.

A creative brief is a document used by marketing firms and advertising agencies to detail project goals and other essential details prior to starting a project. At BroadBased, we consider it an essential document that defines guiding principles for each project. The document is shared with all strategists, writers and designers working on a project so everyone has the same understanding and goals in mind. We believe a client-approved creative brief facilitates the smooth execution of a marketing project and greatly helps to limit change in direction mid-way through a project.

Some of the questions on the BroadBased creative brief include:

• What is your marketing/advertising objective?
• Who are your audiences?
• What are the benefits/features to the customers?
• What is your key selling point?
• What action do you want your prospect to take?
• How will we evaluate success?
• Who is the competition?

Creative brief templates are available on the Internet, or you can create your own. Whatever format you choose, be sure to obtain sign-off of the document from everyone in the chain of approval before starting your project.

Posted in Brand Development, Capabilities

BroadBased recently completed the sixth issue of Coastal Law Magazine, the alumni, faculty and student publication for the Florida Coastal School of Law. The magazine, in its third year, has been honored several times since inception with design awards from The Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

A key feature of the magazine is the custom photography and illustration that is heavily featured each issue. Brooks Terry, director of marketing and communications at Coastal Law, takes the lead in selecting artists, using both local and out-of-town talent. “In addition to photography, we’ve featured photo-collage, watercolor, pen and ink and, in this latest issue, we worked with a local screen printer to create a one-of-a-kind piece for the cover story. He incorporated found art from antique text books,” said Terry. “I prefer using illustration because of its creative range and ability to draw the reader’s attention to something innovative and original. Not to mention that you won’t see it anywhere else.”

“Custom illustration is a very effective way to present stories that may be a less ‘tangible’ topic,” said Robert Hedges, BroadBased’s senior art director. “Illustration can capture a concept and be tailored to work perfectly with a headline. Photography is not always as flexible,” he said.

Regardless what your image needs are, remember there is an alternative to the ubiquitous stock image websites, and BroadBased can help you.

Posted in Brand Development, Capabilities

Although not all news releases will be picked up and covered by journalists, the content can be great for your company’s or organization’s website.

Much has been said about the dying art of the news release, including that it’s outdated and unnecessary. However, if content is king, then a more perfect news release can go a long way to support your SEO strategies and goals.

Although not all news releases will be picked up and covered by journalists, the content can be great for your company’s or organization’s website, thus giving you more content for social media sites. And if you’re creating content, shouldn’t it be perfect content that supports your SEO?

How does the perfect release support SEO?

The most powerful search engine-optimized news release should incorporate the keywords you’ve researched and rely on for search engines to find and rank your organization’s website. Including these keywords gives you another powerful piece of new content on the web. News releases often allow more space, longer forms of the keywords, and repetitive usage.

SEO releases should also include links to the most important content in your website. This requires your meta-tags and page URLs to fit with your keyword and SEO strategies. So instead of just sending readers to your website, we want to increase the clicks to certain pages. For example, if you’re launching a new product, you’ll want the release to include links to the specific product pages of the website.

Where does an SEO release help the most?

Hosting a regularly updated news section of your organization’s website is a great place for releases like this. Also, if you’re pushing out a release to a wire service like PR Newswire or BusinessWire, you will want your news release to be search engine optimized, as these types of releases tend to get posted online in various sites. If content is king, then inbound links are the prince.

Here’s a great article about how PR can help startups grow: 10 Essential PR Tips for Startups

Posted in Public/Media Relations, Web/Interactive Development

In an October 2011 marketing article for 904 Magazine, Jan Korb, BroadBased’s CEO, writes about how to set a marketing budget. In the article entitled “Think Strategically” on page 24, Korb differentiates between a marketing plan and a marketing budget, and offers strategies to identify benchmark budget numbers in your own industry.

Posted in BroadBased

Briefly, news releases are tools PR pros use to entice someone into taking a larger interest in a story.

A conversation we often have with new or prospective public relations clients concerns the role of a news release. While PR consultants still rely on news releases to help achieve client communication goals, a release is one small piece of a public relations strategy.

Briefly, news releases are tools PR pros use to entice someone into taking a larger interest in a story. They are not designed to capture emotion or the “story behind the story.” A news release should put forth facts about an event in the manner preferred by news media. They should be kept to one page and be written in the style of an inverted pyramid (news writing standard), succinctly, factually and in AP Style. Stray from this format and your carefully crafted news release might go straight into the trash.

If your goal is to promote a new employee, an industry award or charitable donation, a news release sent to a media outlet might earn you a mention. If you need to post news on your website, a news release is an acceptable tool. But if you are looking to promote a larger story about your company, that’s where a PR pro earns her keep: with the story pitch. She puts the facts together in the manner that editors and producers like to receive them and becomes your passionate storyteller. The thoughtful strategy behind a story pitch is what usually earns feature articles or profiles.

If you think you might have a story that is appropriate for larger media coverage, ask yourself the following questions. If you can provide a persuasive argument as to why your news is compelling to a broad audience, your idea might be pitch-worthy.

• Timeliness: Did the event happen recently?
• Proximity: Did the event happen near the target media?
• Impact: Who and how many does this affect?
• Prominence: How important is this? Who’s involved?
• Conflict: Is it controversial?
• Novelty: Is it the first, only, newest, best, etc.?

If the answers to these questions lead you to think you have a compelling, newsworthy story, the next step is to reach out to a public relations pro to help develop and plan your strategy.

Posted in Public/Media Relations

…the Police Athletic League of Jacksonville (PAL)! BroadBased is excited to announce PAL of Jacksonville has been chosen to receive our 2012 non-profit partner award, which includes a $25,000 donation of marketing, design and public relations support.

“It was a competitive process,” said Jan Korb, BroadBased’s owner and CEO. “Our entire staff is very much looking forward to working with the team at PAL. We decided a couple of years ago we could make a more significant impact in the non-profit community by dedicating our resources to one organization a year instead of donating bits and pieces to many.”

The Police Athletic League is a non-profit 501(c)(3) youth-serving organization working with the cooperative effort of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. PAL, in an effort to reduce juvenile crime and instill positive values, character and leadership skills, provides safe activities for Jacksonville youth. Its athletic and educational programs emphasize positive interaction with law enforcement officers and other adult role models.

Reneé Naughton, Managing Director of PAL, said, “PAL is so honored and grateful to be selected for this award. This generous donation clearly shows what a caring company BroadBased is. The true beneficiaries of this community partnership will be the 2,800 at-risk children served by the Police Athletic League.”

Learn more about PAL at JaxPal.com.

Posted in BroadBased