Web Based PR: Communicating Your Expertise to Your Market Via the Web

Blog Comments Go to the Next (Web 2.0++) Level!!

As regular visitors to both of my blogs know, I am a huge proponent of leaving information-packed, compelling comments on other people’s blogs, as a way of marketing your own expertise. As I have written before (here and here, for example), my comments have brought lots of recognition to my medical advocacy blog, www.HonestMedicine.com, including:

• Articles and blog postings that have been written about HonestMedicine

• Winning an award from the wonderful folks at Health Central

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• Being quoted in an article that was syndicated nationwide. (Only the abstract of the article itself may be found on the Chicago Tribune website -- see previous link). But, a few examples of how the article appeared in syndication are here, here and here.)

Recently, a comment I left on the Wall Street Journal's small business blog, Independent Street, brought a wonderful, very new kind of response! Brent Leary, the business consultant who was featured in the WSJ posting, titled "What's Your Google Quotient?," gave my comment (and me –- and by extension, my blogs) special recognition in two places:

• In an article Brent wrote ("Win Friends and Influence People, Version 2.0") for BlackEnterprise.com

But, for me, this is the truly exciting part:

• Brent showcased my comment in his regular radio show, “Technology for Business Sake,” a weekly radio program heard on 1160am in Atlanta, as well as on BusinessTechnologyRadio.com.

First, you may read Brent’s article (the link is above), in which he wrote that my comment exemplified Dale Carnegie’s maxim, "Make The Other Person Feel Important and Do It Sincerely":

Here is what Brent wrote about my comment:

"I was recently featured in a short post on The Wall Street Journal’s blog where I talked about a few ways to raise your "Google Quotient." It was nice to have my opinions featured like that, but the real pleasure for me was provided by Julia Schopick. I had never met, e-mailed, or spoken with Julia, but that didn’t stop her from thanking the WSJ folks for writing about me. Apparently after reading that post she Googled my name, found my blog, and learned of a service I wrote about that helped her provide better service to her clients. She didn’t have to do that as I am a complete stranger to her, but her doing so really made me feel great. And I let her know so by leaving a comment on her blog."

I was SO touched!

And here is what Brent said about my comment on his radio show. (Brent, I hope you won’t mind that I edited your very kind comment about me from the larger audio file! But I do encourage people to listen to your entire show online at the above link.)

Thanks, Brent, for taking the beauty of leaving blog comments to a new – Web 2.0 level!

♣ To learn more about Web 2.0, read this article by Tim O’Reilly, the person who coined the phrase in 2005.

♣ Other Articles About Leaving Comments on Other People’s Blogs: 

♦ Honest Medicine on the Blogs

♦ Why Communicate With Your Market Via the Web?

♦ What Makes a Blog Comment Great?

♦ Is the Timing of Your Blog Comments REALLY So Important?

♣ Brent's Company Website: CRM-Essentials.com

♣ Brent's Company Blog

This Month, WebBasedPR Is Proud to Feature SIX of Its Most Popular Articles and Interviews:

1) NEW!! Is the TIMING of Your Blog Comments Really So Important? - Lots of people are finally starting to realize the value of commenting on other people’s blogs. But unfortunately, they overemphasize the importance of being the first to comment, often at the expense of leaving comments of real value. Lots more.

2) NEW!! What Makes a Blog Comment Great? - If you want the comments you leave on other people’s blogs to be really great, they must have certain characteristics; the most important is that they must ADD significantly to the conversation.

3) Julia Schopick a Featured Speaker for Office Depot’s Online Web Café - I had the honor of being featured as the guest expert on a recent Office Depot online Web Café, Showcasing Your Expertise Via the Web, where I was interviewed by the wonderful Nancy Michaels of Nancy Direct. Learn more about this Web Café and listen to it online.

4) Experts’ Blogs and Websites – What Makes an “Expert’s Website”? - If you’re an expert, what features should your website or blog have? Read this article to find out.

5) Why Communicate With Your Market Via the Web? – Be ahead of the curve by learning about cutting edge techniques for reaching your target market(s) through online conversation.

6) Who Is Your Target Market? The Most Important Question for the Expert to Answer Before Beginning Promotional Efforts – How to know who your ideal customers and clients are BEFORE you start your marketing efforts!

Is the TIMING of Your Blog Comments Really So Important?

In a previous post, “What Makes a Blog Comment Great?”, I outlined the ingredients that go into writing really compelling blog comments that will:

(a) give readers new information
(b) bring them to your blog or website
(c) keep them coming back to your site, so that they will hopefully become regular visitors, so that
(d) they’ll continue to learn new things

In that posting, I also provided a link to an article, “HonestMedicine on the Blogs,” posted on my medical advocacy blog, so you could actually read some recent examples of my blog comments that have gotten lots of attention. I hope you will think the comments themselves are worth reading, and that you will get lots of ideas about writing your own blog comments, so that more people will come to your site or blog, and that they will feel they have gotten valuable information there.

Now, I’d like to discuss one characteristic of commenting on other people’s blogs that I did NOT discuss in my earlier post:

The Timing of Your Blog Comments

It is always best if your comments appear among the first ten or so, because people often stop reading after a certain point. Writing a well-crafted, information-packed comment early on would be the best possible situation -- “in the best of all possible worlds.”

So, why didn’t I include this point in my earlier posting? Because I am very concerned that timing NOT be your primary concern when leaving comments. I was worried that people would start RUSHING to post their comments, and that, as a result, there would be lots of half-baked, typo-filled comments that would simply not represent you, your expertise, OR your blog or website in the best way possible.

BUT, when you do have the good fortune of being able to leave a blog comment that is well thought out, thought-provoking, well-written, well-expressed and written EARLY (“the best of all possible worlds” again!), the results can be astoundingly wonderful.

Recently, I had this kind of good fortune on the New York Times Well Blog, one of my very favorites. I love this blog because its moderator, Tara Parker-Pope (also a writer for the Times’ Tuesday Science Section), in addition to being an excellent writer and very “up” on the current health concerns, is extremely bright, open and curious. She goes out of her way to make everyone feel welcome on this blog, and even adds her own comments at opportune times -- without making anyone feel embarrassed or silly for their opinions. (I wonder if Ms. Parker-Pope was ever a teacher. I think she would have been a darned good one!)

On Friday, January 11th (2008), Ms. Parker-Pope posted, “Medical Googlers, Part 2”, a terrific follow-up to an earlier (November 19, 2007) posting on the topic, “A Doctor’s Disdain for Medical ‘Googlers’”. I don’t want to share too many details here, since I think that both postings AND the original Time.com and Salon.com articles on which they are based, are really fascinating, and well worth reading. I urge you to do so! (Ms. Parker-Pope has included the links to both these articles, as well.)

As a person who feels that my medical Googling literally added a good 10 years to my husband Tim’s life, after his brain tumor diagnosis in 1990, I was naturally offended by the original doctor who started all this fuss. (You’ll have to read the blog postings to learn his name. I don’t want to give him the publicity!) He called his googling patient all sorts of names and was, in general, very insulting.

So, I spent several hours writing a comment that I felt proud of. Sadly, it was #249. Frankly, I wish that I had finished it earlier, but I didn’t. And I thought that, since my aim is to help people with my expertise, of course, I posted it anyway. AND, the wonderful thing is that several people read it. How do I know this? Because lots of people linked to my blog from it. (Some are still linking from it.) And you can really bet that those who did link –- don’t forget, they read through at least 249 comments! –- really cared about the topic of googling, and liked the things I said in that comment. And I will bet -– at least, I hope! -- that lots of them are still regular visitors to HonestMedicine.com, where I hope they are still finding interesting information! (Another thing I love about this “Well” blog is that Parker-Pope leaves her postings open for comments for a long time. This one is still open. I just checked, and as of yesterday, there were 335 comments. I’ll have to go back and read the more recent ones!)

But when "Medical Googlers, Part 2" was published, for some reason, not so many people commented at first. In fact, I would almost call it a “sleeper,” since only eight people, I among them, responded on the Friday it was posted. I call the posting a “sleeper,” because people are still commenting today –- four days later. Now, there now are 60 comments –- so far! (And on February 11th, one month after the publication of this posting, there were 92 comments!)

But this time, my comment was #5. And people have been coming to check out my blog in droves. I’m delighted.

But the most important thing is that I feel that I added something important to the conversation, and that I feel proud of the information I added.

The great thing about taking the time to write blog comments that you feel proud of (and passionate about), and leaving them on blogs that you feel are quality blogs, is that you are reaching people who have a genuine interest in the topics you are writing about. And, here is something that most people don’t even think about: If you have left quality comments that people are interested in reading (and get something from), you may have an opportunity to reuse portions of what you wrote somewhere else -- perhaps way down the road -- in blog postings of your own, or in magazine or ezine articles. Or perhaps, someday, even in a book!

WHAT MAKES A BLOG COMMENT GREAT??

More and more people are beginning to see leaving comments on other people's blogs as a great marketing opportunity. I recommend it highly and credit it with building my medical advocacy blog HonestMedicine’s visibility and name recognition. As I have pointed out before, my blog comments have brought the site lots of attention, including articles about it (here and here, to show you just a few), and recognition for being a “healthcare hero.” (You can’t imagine how happy that made me!)

Soon I was being interviewed about my success with promoting HonestMedicine this way, and was asked to teach a class on the topic. As more people learned about my success with this promotional method, they would often ask me HOW, exactly, to write blog comments that get great results.

The truth is, lots of people have written about this marketing technique. But most of these bloggers write about blog comments solely as a way to bring traffic to one’s site.

I am essentially advocating the same thing: My blog comments also bring traffic to my site -- and to my clients’ sites. BUT THERE IS ONE BIG DIFFERENCE. Most online marketing experts consider getting people to visit your site to be the MAIN goal of commenting, while I concentrate on teaching you how to impress those who read your comments with the CALIBER OF THE INFORMATION you are providing in your comments – e.g., your expertise.

In other words, I am saying that blog comments, professionally and carefully written, can bring people to your site in the frame of mind to expect to LEARN SOMETHING IMPORTANT there. There will be other benefits, too: For example, if you're an author, you may find lots more people are buying your book!

I’m going give you my rules for leaving blog comments. Most of these are widely agreed-upon rules that you can find on many blog marketing sites. However, here I will also include information on how to make your comments unique, so that people will visit your site often and write about it, as well.

MY SEVEN RULES

1) The most important rule: Make sure your blog comments add to the conversation and are NOT SPAM. You NEVER want to be accused of spamming. Spam is a way to get people to visit your site for absolutely no reason at all. An example of spam is: “Great posting. Visit my site at www.spammerssite.com.” Don’t ever do this. It will just reflect badly on YOU. (NOTE: Spammerssite.com is NOT a real website!)

But your comments must also ADD something to the conversation. Here is where I think my way is significantly different from most marketers. I have written an article, posted on HonestMedicine.com, that features some of my recent blog comments that I have left on the New York Times health blog, and Salon.com. I hope you’ll want to read it.

2) Make sure your comments are professional and polished. Spend lots of time writing them. You will be able to use portions of these comments -- revised and tailored -- again and again, both as part of articles you’ll write, and as future blog comments. If there is a “preview” button, use it. If not, print out your comments and edit them over and over again. Remember, NO typos. Also, this is your opportunity to get seen. So, don’t blow it.

3) Always link back to your site in the signature line, and also, in the body of your comment, if possible. The best use of this technique is to link to AN IMPORTANT ARTICLE YOU’VE WRITTEN ON YOUR SITE that explains or backs up the point you are making in your comment.

One great example of this is my 3-part HonestMedicine article, “The JAMA Controversy,” in which I exposed the fact that The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) had used Video News Releases (VNRs, or “fake news”) to promote some articles that turned out to be controversial because their authors had serious financial links to pharmaceutical companies.

So, when I had the opportunity (several opportunities, actually) to comment on other people’s blogs about pharmaceutical company shennanegans, I was able to link to my article ON MY SITE. My “JAMA Controversy” article truly added to the conversation. (You may read examples of these comments here.)

4) Always sign your real name. (It is silly to leave a fake name, if you are trying to establish yourself as an expert!) I don’t know why, but many people spend lots of time on their really great blog comments, only to sign them “Janie” or “Hounddog” or “JH.” I still don’t get it.

5) Link to other people’s articles -- but only if they appear on reputable sites. (The more reputable the sites or blogs you link to, the better.) I’ve had several great opportunities to leave comment praising my blogger colleagues. See one example here, where I recommended Mary Shomon's review of "An Uncertain Inheritance."

6) Be controversial, ONLY WHEN APPROPRIATE. (Never be controversial just to start a fight. You’ll regret it!!) Being controversial is an art. Do it sparingly. And if in doubt, don’t.

7) And finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

When and how to leave controversial comments will be the subject of a future posting.
♣ Read my article, "Honest Medicine on the Blogs," featuring some of my recent blog comments on Tara Parker-Pope’s great New York Times health blog, and on Salon.com.

WebBasedPR's Julia Schopick to Teach PR Class About Showcasing Your Expertise Online, November 7th, in Chicago

If you're an expert who wants to learn how to showcase your expertise online, join WebBasedPR's Julia Schopick for a class at the Latin School of Chicago’s Live and Learn program. This one-session class, “Web-Based PR: Communicate Your Expertise to Your Market Via the Internet,” will take place on Wednesday, November 7th from 6:30 to 9:00 pm at the Latin Upper School, 59 W. North Boulevard. The course fee is $40.

Ms. Schopick points out: “So many people who are real experts -– including authors, professionals of all kinds, and private practitioners -- have important messages that they want the public to know about. Unfortunately, they concentrate mainly on the mainstream media, and often ignore some very wonderful and effective online promotional methods -- simply because they don’t know how to use them.”

In this hands-on, interactive class, attendees will learn exciting new ways to promote themselves as experts online, including:

• How to create an expert’s blog or website with lots of good information

• How to identify blogs that their potential customers, readers and clients will visit

• When and how to leave well-crafted, attention-grabbing comments on those blogs that will establish them as experts

• How to conduct audio interviews for their websites that will establish them as experts

Says Ms. Schopick, “These online promotional methods have been very effective in promoting my own blogs, as well as my clients’ websites. I am delighted to be sharing these techniques with other experts.”

WebBasedPR's Julia Schopick has been a public relations consultant in the Chicago area for 20 years. During that time, her clients have included experts of all kinds, including physicians, holistic health practitioners and authors. Her articles have appeared in numerous professional publications and she has been a featured speaker for Office Depot's Web Cafe.

You may listen to her audio interviews here, here, here and here.

Ms. Schopick's online promotional efforts have made her medical advocacy blog, Honest Medicine, an award-winning website, that has been written about and linked to by many extremely well-known blogs.

You may register for this class online, or by calling Live and Learn at (312) 582-6035.

May, 2007: WebBasedPR’s Featured Articles and Interviews

This month, WebBasedPR is proud to feature 4 of its most popular articles and interviews:

1) Julia Schopick a Featured Speaker for Office Depot’s Online Web Café – I had the honor of being featured as the guest expert on a recent Office Depot online Web Café, Showcasing Your Expertise Via the Web, where I was interviewed by the wonderful Nancy Michaels of Nancy Direct. Learn more about this Web Café and listen to it online.

2) Why Communicate With Your Market Via the Web? – Be ahead of the curve by learning about cutting edge techniques for reaching your target market(s) through online conversation.

3) Who Is Your Target Market? The Most Important Question for the Expert to Answer Before Beginning Promotional Efforts – How to know who your ideal customers and clients are BEFORE you start your marketing efforts!

4) Experts’ Blogs and Websites – What Makes an “Expert’s Website”? What features should it have? Read this article to find out.

Julia Schopick a Featured Speaker for Office Depot’s Online Web Café

I had the honor of being featured as the guest speaker on a recent Office Depot online Web Café, Showcasing Your Expertise Via the Web, where I was interviewed by the wonderful Nancy Michaels of Nancy Direct.

Among the Topics We Covered:

• Why online public relations is one of the best ways to showcase your expertise to your market

• How to utilize Web-based PR techniques effectively -- on websites and blogs

•  Actual Web-based PR techniques, including interviews with experts, and comments left on blogs

• Differences and similarities between websites and blogs

• What kind of website or blog should an expert have?

• Why leaving comments on other people’s blogs is so powerful

• How to decide which blogs are the right ones for leaving your comments

• What is SPAM? -- and how to avoid spamming

AND MORE!!

Listen to the audio and watch the slides

Read the highlights of the presentation

ENJOY!

Web Based PR Featured in Audio Interview By Nancy Direct

I was recently interviewed by the the wonderful Nancy Michaels, for her Nancy Direct Program, on the topic of Web Based Public Relations. For almost an hour, Nancy and I talked about how experts can showcase their expertise to their clients and potential clients via the Internet.

Of special interest, we discussed new ways of promoting yourself as an expert by leaving comments on other people's blogs, and by interviewing other experts for your own blog or website.

CLICK HERE to listen to the interview.

CLICK HERE to read the Questions and Answers. But please note that Nancy and I did NOT stick to this script, and that there's lots more information in the actual audio!

I hope this audio will give you lots of tips about all of the untapped and underutilized online avenues available to you for letting others know that you're an expert!

Enjoy!

Consulting

Welcome to my new website for  “Web-Based Public Relations.” As many of you know, for the past 20 years, I have made my living as a PR consultant for private practitioners and other professionals – experts, all. As I wrote in my first posting to this site, through PR for Professionals, I help my clients to promote their practices by getting them:

• Targeted placements before their potential clients, patients and customers

• Speaking engagements before community and professional groups their target markets attend

• TV and radio appearances their potential clients and customers are likely listen to and watch

• Articles both by and about them in publications that will likely be read by their potential clients and customers

For 15 of these years, my husband Tim was struggling with the side effects and complications from the several surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation he underwent as a consequence of a very serious brain tumor. (You may read about our struggles in two articles here and here.)

As Tim’s advocate, I soon learned how to do online research. I also became increasingly aware of the shortcomings of the Medical System, and became passionate about educating people about the dangers of this flawed system.

After Tim died in November of 2005, I set up my first website, HonestMedicine.

HonestMedicine has become a website that I’m proud of. After a few months, I began to feel strongly that the information on my site needed to reach the public. But I had never really marketed a website before. The marketing of my clients’ sites had always been handled by someone else, or by a combination of experts – usually a webmaster, who often subcontracted with an expert in search engine optimization.

I was definitely not an expert in web-based marketing – yet.

But, with my own site, I felt strongly that these “mass market” promotional approaches would NOT be effective at getting my information out there – and getting me known as an expert.

I decided to experiment with promoting my own site through my own, very new, brand of marketing – which I would come to call “Web-Based PR.”

I found that I was right: Marketing an information-packed site was, indeed, very different from marketing a “salesy” one. I decided to try some innovative techniques to market HonestMedicine -- and hopefully, my own expertise, as well.

One technique I used was to go on other people’s blogs and leave well-written, well-thought-out, information-packed comments.

The other was to interview leading experts in the fields of Integrative Medicine and Medical Advocacy, and to post the audios on my site. I then promote the interviews, of course, by leaving comments about their content on other people's blogs. (You may listen to two of my interviews here and here.)

Both methods turned out to be excellent ways to promote my site -- and my expertise. In fact, leaving comments on other people’s blogs has led to several sites linking to mine, and to some site owners writing articles about HonestMedicine. These efforts also led to my being quoted in a Chicago Tribune article, which was, in turn, syndicated all over the country. For more examples of these successes, please see my article, “Why Communicate With Your Market Via the Web?” on this site.

Struck by how effective this kind of marketing was turning out to be for me, I started doing it for one of my clients. I don’t feel comfortable sharing the “trade secrets” I used to promote her website, but I can tell you that, because of my new-found web-based promotional skills – including leaving comments and conducting audio interviews -- her site is now being linked to by one of the top environmental websites.

However, I do feel comfortable sharing my own “trade secrets,” -- i.e., the kinds of things I am doing to build HonestMedicine -- and have set up this site to do that.

My intention is to work as a consultant to help other experts whose missions I believe in, to reach more people through their own, individualized web-based PR. (As you can see from my masthead, I now refer to Web-Based PR as “taking PR for Professionals to a new level.”)

I hope you will enjoy your visits to this site. Please take a look at the articles, as well as the links I have provided on the left-hand side. In the future, I will be posting other articles, adding more links, and sharing new case studies with you.

If you would like to talk with me about how I might be able to help you promote your own expertise via the web, please email me at JuliaS1573@aol.com, and I will be very happy to offer you a free initial consultation.

Experts’ Blogs and Websites

The first thing you’ll want to do in order to become known as an expert on the web is to have a website or blog that proclaims your expertise.

Some of you will be surprised to learn that I strongly believe that most people who are looking for real information online will not be as impressed by a site’s snappy design – complete with lots of bells, whistles and moving objects -- as much as they will be impressed by the caliber of the information your site provides.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• Is my site newsworthy? Does it contain good, solid information?

• Are my articles well-written?

• Are my links not only informative, but inspired? (In other words, does my site contain links to important information that I had to dig for – i.e., that only a real expert would know about?)

Ironically, the size of the site’s organization is often NOT indicative of the caliber of the information the site provides. In fact, I have found that often, a large organization – probably because there are so many people who must approve all the information that ends up being posted – will not always have the level of information contained on a site owned and maintained by one or two experts!

Some Examples of Experts' Websites

For instance, one of my favorite expert websites is The Annie Appleseed Project, owned by the indefatigable Ann Fonfa, who calls herself – very accurately, I might add - “a woman with breast cancer and an attitude.” Ann is an over-14-year survivor of breast cancer, who has kept herself alive (she would rather say “thriving”) through almost constant research on available treatments, both alternative and conventional. She is passionate about sharing all this information with her site’s visitors. And she is proud of the fact that nearly 6000 groups, companies and organizations link to the site.

Take a look at Ann's site, and you’ll see why. There is so much information, neatly categorized for easy use, that it’s no wonder she has a national reputation – all because of the work she has put in to this un-fancy, but excellent, website.

Ditto, Vera Sharav’s wonderful Alliance for Human Research Protection website and blog, started and maintained by a woman with a wealth of knowledge in another health-related field: the protection of human medical research subjects. One look at both her information-filled site and blog, which contain much of the same information, will reveal WHY she is so well known as an advocate. (She has been quoted in many publications, including the Wall Street Journal.)

Vera’s blog, by the way, is partially maintained by another extremely important expert, Dr. Aubrey Blumsohn, whose own blog, the Scientific Misconduct Blog, is another example of sharing very important (and in Aubrey’s case, very personal) information with the public.

So, remember, information first. Design, bells, whistles and moving objects later (if at all). But your web presence must confidently proclaim that you are an expert.