As a business owner, it’s always a proud moment when a company wants to announce that it has chosen you as its service provider of choice. For the Bolt PR team, TownZilla.com not only selected us as its PR, copywriting and social media management agency, but the local search engine company also wanted to announce it to the world. (Thanks TownZilla.com!)
So if you haven’t heard about TownZilla.com before, here’s the skinny: It’s a local search engine for the Orange County, Inland Empire and San Diego communities. As a business owner in San Diego, if I want to find a San Diego CPA, I search on TownZilla.com and the results displayed will only be San Diego CPAs… not Orange County, San Francisco or Las Vegas CPAs. Just local CPAs in my local area. Now as a new Orange County resident, when I want to find a local restaurant, I can use TownZilla.com for that, too. And when I search for Orange County restaurants, TownZilla.com will only display OC restaurants. No amount of money can “buy” a business a place in this search engine where it doesn’t belong.
That’s because TownZilla.com’s sole purpose is to support local businesses by connecting potential buyers with them. A few of the fantastic features of TownZilla.com include:
- Local search specific to Orange County, San Diego and the Inland Empire
- Free business listings for all businesses in the TownZilla.com coverage areas
- Updated event blog with all the latest happenings in Southern California
- Local job postings relevant to job seekers’ specific area of residence through a partnership with Jobing.com
- Travel search for local residents to find flights, hotels, cars, vacations and cruises
- Premium, non-invasive advertising for local businesses and events
- Local mortgage rate finder and real estate information
- Continuous traffic reports for anywhere in Orange County, San Diego and the Inland Empire
- Local restaurant, hotel and art gallery listings specific to each of the counties in Southern California
So check it out and start supporting YOUR local business: http://www.townzilla.com/.
Posted by: Caroline Callaway, caroline@boltpr.com
Monday, March 23, 2009
What is Squidoo?
Squidoo, Seth Godin’s brainchild, is an online social encyclopedia made up of lenses (user-generated pages). Lenses are little authority sites, much like Wikipedia and About.com. Anyone can create a lens for free on any topic of choice and the creators are called “lensmasters.”
Unlike most Web 2.0 creations, Squidoo is about what you know, rather than who you know.
Why should you create lenses?
By: Anne Carr, anne@boltpr.com
Unlike most Web 2.0 creations, Squidoo is about what you know, rather than who you know.
Why should you create lenses?
- You are an expert on something. Why not share the knowledge?
- Traffic! You can include backlinks to your website. One way to use Squidoo to increase your blog traffic is by using the RSS feed tool. You simply load the RSS feed from your blog and the Squidoo lens will update automatically as you update your blog.
- Google loves Squidoo. The lenses often rank very high in search engines. Each page gives crawlers another opportunity to find you.
- Money. You have the option to donate 50% the money Squidoo makes from ads and affiliate links on your page to charity. Or you can keep it. Of the other 50%, 45% of it “covers overhead and stuff” and the other 5% automatically goes to charity.
- It is free.
By: Anne Carr, anne@boltpr.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Are you wearing green today?
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I did a little digging to find out just who St. Patrick is and why he’s important enough to have a holiday in his name. Here is what I found:
Who is St. Patrick?
Patrick lived during the 5th century and is given credit for bringing Christianity to Ireland. He was born in Ireland and lived there until he was kidnapped at age sixteen by pirates and sold into slavery. During his six years of captivity, he learned to find strength in his faith. (Although, he worked as a shepherd, so his captivity doesn’t sound too rough). Patrick finally escaped and lived in France, where he became a priest and then a bishop.
Oddly, he waited until he was 60 years old to move back to Ireland and spread the gospel of Christianity. While teaching about the Trinity, he used the shamrock as a metaphor to illustrate the concept.
St. Patrick is also legendary for driving snakes out of Ireland. While it is true, according to all accounts I could find, that there are no snakes in Ireland, critics believe that there probably never were any there in the first place because the island separated from the rest of the continent during the ice age before snakes existed. He is most likely credited with this because serpent symbols were common and worshiped by many supposedly pagan religions. Driving out the snakes may be symbolic for the end of these practices.
St. Patrick died a hero in Ireland on March 17th around 460 A.D. He described himself as a most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God."
What is St. Patrick’s Day?
Prior to the 20th century, St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated only as a religious holiday. It became a public holiday in 1903 by the Black Holiday Act, introduced to Parliament by Irish Prime Minister James O’Mara. In Ireland, the holiday is still a religious observance. Businesses, besides restaurants and pubs, close down. People attend mass where it is a time of spiritual renewal and offer prayers for missionaries around the world. Then, they celebrate!
The first accounts of American celebration date back to 1737. Now St. Patrick’s day is a day to wear green and celebrate everything Irish. For San Diego St. Patrick’s day events, visit the San Diego Weekly Reader.
Meanwhile we, the Bolt team, will continue helping small businesses expand their pots of gold through credible exposure, both on- and off-line.
By: Anne Carr, anne@boltpr.com
Who is St. Patrick?
Patrick lived during the 5th century and is given credit for bringing Christianity to Ireland. He was born in Ireland and lived there until he was kidnapped at age sixteen by pirates and sold into slavery. During his six years of captivity, he learned to find strength in his faith. (Although, he worked as a shepherd, so his captivity doesn’t sound too rough). Patrick finally escaped and lived in France, where he became a priest and then a bishop.
Oddly, he waited until he was 60 years old to move back to Ireland and spread the gospel of Christianity. While teaching about the Trinity, he used the shamrock as a metaphor to illustrate the concept.
St. Patrick is also legendary for driving snakes out of Ireland. While it is true, according to all accounts I could find, that there are no snakes in Ireland, critics believe that there probably never were any there in the first place because the island separated from the rest of the continent during the ice age before snakes existed. He is most likely credited with this because serpent symbols were common and worshiped by many supposedly pagan religions. Driving out the snakes may be symbolic for the end of these practices.
St. Patrick died a hero in Ireland on March 17th around 460 A.D. He described himself as a most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God."
What is St. Patrick’s Day?
Prior to the 20th century, St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated only as a religious holiday. It became a public holiday in 1903 by the Black Holiday Act, introduced to Parliament by Irish Prime Minister James O’Mara. In Ireland, the holiday is still a religious observance. Businesses, besides restaurants and pubs, close down. People attend mass where it is a time of spiritual renewal and offer prayers for missionaries around the world. Then, they celebrate!
The first accounts of American celebration date back to 1737. Now St. Patrick’s day is a day to wear green and celebrate everything Irish. For San Diego St. Patrick’s day events, visit the San Diego Weekly Reader.
Meanwhile we, the Bolt team, will continue helping small businesses expand their pots of gold through credible exposure, both on- and off-line.
By: Anne Carr, anne@boltpr.com
Monday, March 9, 2009
Increase Sales with Social Media Seminar: Quick Recap, Day 2
Last week I attended Increase Sales with Social Media seminar at the Marriott in Newport Beach. As I described in my previous post, I walked away from the event with a wealth of social networking ideas to incorporate into Bolt PR’s social media efforts for our business and our clients’ organizations.
Here is a condensed version of day 2:
8:00 am – Keynote speaker David Carleton kicked off the morning with a presentation on Linkbait marketing and how to capture more leads
Biggest takeaway: host a webinar or a giveaway on your website for linkbait
9:30 am – Mike Koenigs stressed the effectiveness of using video sites to increase traffic
Biggest takeaway: purchase a Flip camera to record video for easy uploading
11:00 am – Shama Hyder provided 3 steps to rock Facebook
Biggest takeaway: think of Facebook like a coffee shop and act accordingly
12:30 pm – Lunch at P.F. Changs
Biggest takeaway: you can never go wrong with lettuce wraps
1:30 pm – Viva Visibility founder, Nancy Marmolejo, unveiled how to establish yourself as an expert through social media
Biggest takeaway: not claiming your expertise is costing you money
3:15 pm – Bill Wardell, a lens master, introduced the power of Squidoo
Biggest takeaway: Google loves Squidoo
5:00 pm – The conference ended and I made a stop at Pinkberry before driving home
Biggest takeaway: we need a Pinkberry in North San Diego County
Biggest disappointment of the seminar? I did not win any of the raffle prizes.
To see how Bolt Public Relations doe social networking, connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Fast Pitch Networking and JellyFish (just to name a few).
By: Anne Carr, anne@boltpr.com
Here is a condensed version of day 2:
8:00 am – Keynote speaker David Carleton kicked off the morning with a presentation on Linkbait marketing and how to capture more leads
Biggest takeaway: host a webinar or a giveaway on your website for linkbait
9:30 am – Mike Koenigs stressed the effectiveness of using video sites to increase traffic
Biggest takeaway: purchase a Flip camera to record video for easy uploading
11:00 am – Shama Hyder provided 3 steps to rock Facebook
Biggest takeaway: think of Facebook like a coffee shop and act accordingly
12:30 pm – Lunch at P.F. Changs
Biggest takeaway: you can never go wrong with lettuce wraps
1:30 pm – Viva Visibility founder, Nancy Marmolejo, unveiled how to establish yourself as an expert through social media
Biggest takeaway: not claiming your expertise is costing you money
3:15 pm – Bill Wardell, a lens master, introduced the power of Squidoo
Biggest takeaway: Google loves Squidoo
5:00 pm – The conference ended and I made a stop at Pinkberry before driving home
Biggest takeaway: we need a Pinkberry in North San Diego County
Biggest disappointment of the seminar? I did not win any of the raffle prizes.
To see how Bolt Public Relations doe social networking, connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Fast Pitch Networking and JellyFish (just to name a few).
By: Anne Carr, anne@boltpr.com
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Increase Sales with Social Media Seminar: Quick Recap, Day 1
This weekend I attended the Increase Sales with Social Media seminar at the beautiful Marriott in Newport Beach. After listening to several entertaining speakers, I left the event feeling an information overload – in a good way! The seminar included two days of presentations by Social Networking experts who shared tips and promoted their products.
Here is a condensed version of day 1:
7:45 am – arrived at Marriott Hotel in Newport Beach. Note: the hotel parking lot informs you of the $18 parking fee once you are practically committed to entering the lot.
7:50 am – Checked in and was relieved to have $10 off of my parking for attending the seminar. I entered the large room and sat next to Jason Brett with Trinacle, Inc
8:00 am – Event organizer David Carleton welcomed us
8:15 am – Twenius Dan Hollings explained how to use Twitter effectively
Biggest take-away: Download mytwittertoolbar.com.
10:00 am – Matt Bacak unveiled how to get rich using social media
Biggest take-away: Create a ‘swipe file’ to save marketing ideas, both on and offline
11:30 am – Lunch at California Pizza Kitchen
Biggest take-away: The ‘half’ salad portion is too big for one person (and I love the Bar-b-q Chicken Salad)!
12:30 pm – Chip Lampert spoke about how to increase offline sales using LinkedIn
Biggest take-away: Take full advantage of personal network and request referrals
2:00 pm – Dr. Ron Capps gave an overview of social bookmarking
Biggest take-away: Use Ping.fm or Firefox application to simplify bookmarking
3:45 pm – Paul Colligan presented a way to make a profit through podcasts and Web 2.0
Biggest take-away: The phrase, “I’ll Grab That!”
Stay tuned for the condensed version of day two.
To see how Bolt PR does social networking, connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Fast Pitch Networking and JellyFish (just to name a few).
By: Anne Carr, anne@boltpr.com
Here is a condensed version of day 1:
7:45 am – arrived at Marriott Hotel in Newport Beach. Note: the hotel parking lot informs you of the $18 parking fee once you are practically committed to entering the lot.
7:50 am – Checked in and was relieved to have $10 off of my parking for attending the seminar. I entered the large room and sat next to Jason Brett with Trinacle, Inc
8:00 am – Event organizer David Carleton welcomed us
8:15 am – Twenius Dan Hollings explained how to use Twitter effectively
Biggest take-away: Download mytwittertoolbar.com.
10:00 am – Matt Bacak unveiled how to get rich using social media
Biggest take-away: Create a ‘swipe file’ to save marketing ideas, both on and offline
11:30 am – Lunch at California Pizza Kitchen
Biggest take-away: The ‘half’ salad portion is too big for one person (and I love the Bar-b-q Chicken Salad)!
12:30 pm – Chip Lampert spoke about how to increase offline sales using LinkedIn
Biggest take-away: Take full advantage of personal network and request referrals
2:00 pm – Dr. Ron Capps gave an overview of social bookmarking
Biggest take-away: Use Ping.fm or Firefox application to simplify bookmarking
3:45 pm – Paul Colligan presented a way to make a profit through podcasts and Web 2.0
Biggest take-away: The phrase, “I’ll Grab That!”
Stay tuned for the condensed version of day two.
To see how Bolt PR does social networking, connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Fast Pitch Networking and JellyFish (just to name a few).
By: Anne Carr, anne@boltpr.com
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