Jayme Soulati, Author at soulati.com

13 Social Business Tips To Be Like Amazon

08/12/2013 By Jayme Soulati

It was inevitable. The Apple has finally fallen from the tree. In its place is Amazon, the astonishingly innovative company with sales of $61 billion that continues to bulldoze through industries with acquisitions of consumer-products companies, online sites, e-stores, clothing and accessories, beauty products, and just about everything under the kitchen sink including The Washington Post.

Yes, Jeff Bezos last week announced his purchase of The Washington Post for$250 million for the purpose of ______ insert best guess.

As Fast Company states in its September, 2013 issue, “Amazon has done a lot more than become a stellar retailer. It has reinvented, disrupted, redefined, and renovated the global marketplace.”

Apple built its empire under a force to be reckoned with who is no longer of this plane. It focused on new technologies and really smart devices that spawned mobility for the technology savvy and millennials.

And then we learned last week that it’s a new day, Android has assumed control of the mobile phone market. Another previously secure realm wrested from Apple’s grip.
Back to Amazon. As the powerhouses in mobile cellular technology and tablet duked it out for an ever larger decreasing slice of the pie, Amazon steadily grew its empire as an answer to the every man.

Amazon realized the consumer is in control; the consumer has the power.

Consumer is King.

As you well know, we’re in the post-social media adoption era. Consumers are on board and have built mini-empires of their own on Facebook and blogs. There is mass consumption of content.

What’s more, consumers now have the simple ability to complain, and influence purchases. When the pocketbook is no longer free flowing for the latest novel gadget and gizmo by Apple, then consumers turn to online shopping for the best deals.

How did Amazon do it? Through blood, sweat and tears; through ample quarters of no gains, and by recognizing consumer is king.

13 Social Business Tips For Your Company

Scale these 13 tips from the Amazon playbook to your business:
1. Innovate or die.
2. Insulate against irrelevance.
3. Embrace change.
4. Be creative and be human.
5. Serve your customers everywhere.
6. Become a social business.
7. Engage leadership in social media and earned media.
8. Make your consumer king.
9. Breed loyal followers.
10. Always look into the future; carpe diem.
11. Track, analyze, test, learn, execute; repeat.
12. Be smart and thoughtfully smarter.
13. Build a solid and efficient infrastructure.

Amazon is ripping up retail like the roadrunner, and the big box retailers are shoring up their defenses. The shopping mall as we know it is dead. Get out while you still can.

The Happy Friday Series: Taekwondo Humbled

08/09/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Tonight was the culmination of seven weeks of training as a white belt in taekwondo, the South Korean martial art consisting of forms, sparring, self-defense and breaking.

During the first week, I fast learned I was not cut out for something so disciplined and exact, for I am an out-of-the-box creative throwing abstract thought into my free-form approach to life.

At the same time I trained in grueling workouts and sprint races competing against my daughter and six-year-old kids, I was publishing my first book, Writing with Verve on the Blogging Journey. I didn’t have time to memorize three forms of 20 moves each, five self-defense moves, and a litany of South Korean vocabulary.

In the second week, I was humbled as the entire class of about 30 students with five adults and children waited for me to stumble through the most basic of forms, the lowly Gicho Ilbu. As everyone else held their last move of the form, I struggled with three instructors loudly directing me to move this foot and that hand. I hung my head in shame and tears stung my cheeks. My three partners in crime (adults also crazy enough to try this art form with their kids) patted me on the back. The instructor, a third-degree black belt, said to me, “Miss Jayme, this is not life or death, this is just taekwondo.”

It was then that I knew this was the most humbling adult experience I’ve challenged myself with ever.

Challenge Yourself!

Then I got to thinking…how do we challenge ourselves as adults?

When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone to try something new and experience humility?

Exactly.

In spite of my perfectionist brown-belt daughter (an advanced belt) attempting to teach me overnight how to be exact with my posture and the angles of my blocks and punches, I persevered. In fact, she informed me several times I was not allowed to quit.

This experience no longer had me in the alpha position as a parent and leader to my child, it put me squarely in a place of discomfort unable to learn the forms as quickly as the kids with an inability to devote practice time because there was none.

I could not hide the fact that I truly sucked at taekwondo and wanted desperately to quit.

I didn’t.

Embrace What You Hate

I embraced what I hated and kept on. I owe thanks to my peers for coming early to class to work with me as we all helped each other build confidence.

Tonight, May 30, 2013, I graduated to yellow belt.

I broke a board on the first try with a loud snap using my foot; I sucked at the self-defense; my forms were decent; and, I took a kick on the calf in non-contact sparring. My grade was A-.

What raised my happiness quotient, however, was the very end of testing when the instructor awarded me a huge trophy, the Spirit Award. He shared a story, and it went like this:

“This young lady is an inspiration. She struggled, and she could have quit many times, yet she didn’t.”

And, the tears came with the smiles; the humble mixed with the happy.

My sense of achievement, not accomplishment, launched my very personal journey about challenges as an adult and about the growth of self. It’s really a big deal, and I wanted to share.

PR Is NOT Press Release

08/08/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Hello, my SEO colleagues and internet marketers. For several years now I have cringed when I hear the word “PRs” emanating from your neck of the wood over to mine. Upon the first hearing, I wasn’t sure my ears had picked up correctly, must be that invisible hearing aid.

PR Is Public Relations

For, the abbreviation PR has always been for one thing and one thing only – public relations, my discipline, my profession, and my world for many decades – yes, I’m ancient.

Your continual delivery of PR as “press release” is confusing because people in PR, the practice of public relations, are migrating over to the word news release. And, I’ve share why on many an occasion.

When SEO folks get a turn at a “press release” to optimize it and push links, it’s not a press release at all; it’s merely a communication tool we can call a news release IF there is news within it. The point I’m trying to make to save anyone from having to go hunting down a rabbit hole is this:

Back in the day, the press corps was everywhere following folks and the press conference was a gathering of journos listening to a spokesperson shoving mics in his face (yes, it was always a he back then).

Today? Not so much.

Press Corps

There really isn’t a mass grouping of press, the print media, covering companies like groupies. The press corps is relegated to U.S. federal government officials, like POTUS and the secretary of state.

So, when the term press release is used, I switch it out for news release because that’s the goal of the communication tool – to be a vehicle of news.

When an SEO professional uses “PR” for press release and not public relations, I will kindly correct your vernacular and inform you to kindly remove that abbreviation from your vocabulary and call it a news release.

Wouldn’t you agree the word “news release” is so much more powerful than a “press release” anyway?

Note: Jayme Soulati is a veteran public relations practitioner of 30 years; she has a right to defend the purity of her profession.

Tennis Balls And Twitter Peeps!

08/06/2013 By Jayme Soulati

A Tennis ball Author: User:Fcb981 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Along the top of Brian Vickery’s blog’s navigation menu is a list of clickable links to blog posts about sports. For all but one, I have a quick note:

In high school, I was probably the worst basketball player ever.
I played in the all-star co-ed 12″ softball game and ripped the webbing between pointer and ring man on my right hand playing second base.
I currently play USTA 4.0 tennis.
I just got my yellow belt in taekwondo (watch for my reaction to that evening in an upcoming Happy Friday Series post).
I played flag football in Chicago rec leagues and LOVED the adrenaline rush.
I coached kidlet’s rec soccer for five seasons.
I work out, but should do more.

What’s that all got to do with anything?

The cool part is it gives me seven good reasons why I can write for Brian Vickery and belong…besides the fact that he made one of the first guest appearances for my Soulati Media On The Street series, and I’ve had the privilege of meeting him IRL twice.

Far-Fetched Sports Analogy

Whew, now that we have our bonding straight, let’s dive in and cover off on one really far-fetched sports analogy with social media.

As I play tennis about six hours weekly, I also pick up several hundred tennis balls using a hopper, that metal ball picker upper. If you try to jam three balls in between the grooves, you struggle. If you grab two balls at a time, there’s no problem. If there are oodles of balls collected in the corner, you kneel and use your hands; it’s faster.

There are so many was to pick up tennis balls:

Do you first grab the errant singles spread around the service line?
Do you start in the corner of the court by the tarp and work toward the center?
Do you find the half-way mark and move right or left toward the corner?
Do you pick up the fewest balls and leave the most to others?

You absolutely get my drift. I wrote about tennis balls and business strategy once, but today, I’m just writing about tennis balls and social media. There is no right way to pick up tennis balls; they all get picked up regardless, but it’s sure fun thinking about it (work with me).

Twitter Peeps Are Tennis Balls

Now, think of each person you interact with on Twitter as a tennis ball. I’ll give you a minute to visualize all the peeps who tweet as a tennis ball.

They could be Wilson, Prince or Dunlop. They could have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 numbers. They could be Pro balls, training balls with dots or different colors.

All those balls in the corners, collecting? That’s your live stream of all the followers tweeting all day long. On occasion, you take a look and pick through a few for a good retweet; just like picking out the best balls to serve with.

How about the balls that are your favorite brand? I always liked playing with Dunlop best, perhaps it’s because it makes tires. Wilson balls always stink; they seem to lose their bounce fastest. Prince balls are decent, reliable; no complaints.

In your Twitter stream are there Dunlops you’ve favorited into a list to track what they say? How about the Wilsons who seem to be less bouncy with little energy? Do you unfollow or ignore? And, I love those Princes who aren’t really royalty, but they’re certainly loyal.

We’re not going into racquets for this piece, as this tennis ball analogy is as far fetched and grasping at straws as I can get. Eh, Brian?

So, the next time you hit your HootSuite dashboard and see the left-most column of hundreds and hundreds of tweets streaming in, take a peek in that corner to find the best ball and serve it up to your stream as a courtesy.

When you see a peep having a downer day, and perhaps he’s a Wilson, give him a volley with a bit of snap to share some energy for a healthy rally.

For those Princes you rely on as your doubles partner? Keep their feet moving with fancy content so the team wins the match.

But, remember this…every ball, regardless of whether it’s flat or bouncy finds its way into the hopper. That goes the same for your stream of peeps, too…treat each like a tennis ball and everyone gets picked up.

This post originally appeared July 1, 2013 on Brian Vickery’s Social Media Sports Analogies Blog

Google’s New SEO Rules For News Releases

08/05/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Back in the day, when there was a press corps in addition to those who travel with and follow the secretary of state or the president of the U.S.A., we in public relations communicated to the press with a press release.

Today, it’s customary to call that document a news release.
A news release is a tool public relations professionals use to communicate to any audience; it used to be primarily and first and foremost for the media (thus a “press release”). Times have changed; news releases are written that may or may not be shared with media and thus my preferred label.

Over the years, I’ve worked with internet marketers who call what I write “PRs.” Every time I hear this term from someone untrained in my profession, I cringe. PR is short for public relations and to an internet marketer who drives SEO via links and key words, PRs are short for press releases.
Herein is the issue.

New Google Webmaster Guidelines

The folks who have adopted the news release as an SEO link-building tool complete with optimized urls and anchor text throughout just got a comeuppance from Google.

In the last three weeks, Google issued new webmaster guidelines that eliminate optimized anchor text for link building within online news releases. More and more, suspect news release distribution services have popped up across the internet, and Google is reining in the practice of littering online news releases with optimized links.

No more will its search engine crawl the news release and boost SERP as a result; however, users can still click on the links in a news release and head on over to a website or landing page. It’s all part of the Panda and Penguin updates and SEO professionals will know what this means.

Sarah Skerik, @SarahSkerik, vice president of content marketing at PR Newswire, wrote a really good blog post about what’s going on and for sure you ought to read it.

A point she makes I’d like to share is that a news release is for raising awareness and the sharing of messages.

Indeed.

A news release was always and still is intended to inform an audience and complement blended marketing strategy. Either way, I’m still going to recommend a news release as part of the overall public relations strategy for my clients. I share recent samples of how you write a news release here.

If there’s something you should take away from this article, it is the following considerations:
1. To inform audiences, you need a cohesive, well-thought and well-written news release.
2. Your website should have a news center that is home to the archive of news releases your company issues.
3. Use a news release to draw attention to your product, service or to make a company announcement.
4. Your target audience needs to hear from you, and a news release makes it official.
5. A news release is owned media; you control the message and using this vehicle, you earn media.

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