1. Do you feel compelled to respond to Tweets, LinkedIn invitations and comments on your blog as soon as they land?
2. Do you let a single day pass without engaging in some form of social media activity – whether for work or for play?
3. Do you spend more time in the virtual – as opposed to the real world?

If the answer is yes, it reflects the evidence emerging that time spent on social media rocketed by almost 50 per cent in one year and that social networking now eats up twice as much of our online time as any other activity.

How much time should I invest in social media each week? is a question we at Quest are frequently asked by SMEs and MDs of owner managed businesses at our social media strategy seminar.

At Quest we plan and allocate a set number of hours – establishing key performance indicators and targets in much the same way as we plan and manage our clients social media campaigns. Most of which we fuse with traditional PR programmes to position them as thought leaders.

And, because social media can be so addictive, setting your plan – and sticking rigidly to your set hours – is crucial.

With planning, we find the following formula effective – and always take into account that everyone’s social media strategies may differ as they dovetail into the strategic plan and turbo-charge the marketing campaign.

Break your time into 3 chunks:

• 25 per cent for listening and intelligence gathering
• 50 per cent for commenting/communicating/crowd sourcing
• 25 per cent for creating great content

We’d love to hear how you allocate your time. In the meantime, happy planning!

• Are you getting closer to your hot prospects by inviting them to submit guest posts?
• Are you maximising the power of influencers by filming and interviewing them for a storming guest vlog?
• Are you linking up with your peers by positioning your blog as a ‘sharing and learning’ platform for them to get involved?

At Quest we love to celebrate the expertise of guest bloggers such as Gini Dietrich, Mickie Kennedy and Jon Buscall.

It’s also fantastic to be invited to spark debates on your peers’ blogs and meet more great people.

So get your guest bloggers planned into your blogging and vlogging calendars and enjoy the ‘win-win’ of:

1. Giving them a great opportunity to boost their profile
2. Giving yourself an opportunity to show them how awesome (and fun) it is to work with you
3. Enhancing your relationships with clients, prospects, peers and influencers
4. Boosting your SEO
5. Watching your blog become a magnet for generating ‘buzz’
6. Giving yourself a breather from your calendar to keep creating great content

Before you take off down this route – here’s a couple of excellent tips on what to do before you invite your guests. As More Google Traffic says ensure your blog is worthy of your visitors by having a respectable ranking and that it well prepared for them by looking good.

After all you wouldn’t invite anyone to dinner without getting dressed, setting the table and getting the shopping in – would you?!

For more information on how Quest PR can help you to build your profile through the power of blogging contact Sharon Cain on sharon@quest-pr.com or through Twitter @sharoncain or on LinkedIn.

The press release can be used as one of the most effective tools in your SEO campaign, but most people try and stick to the standard one page format. I’m here to argue that the standard format should be stricken when writing your search-engine-optimized, keyword-filled linkbait!

Why SEO?

If done correctly, search engine optimized press releases can launch your campaign into the stratosphere. Obviously, the first rule is to make sure your press release is a well-written, professional document, one that otherwise would make it into newspapers and “how to” books worldwide.

The importance of the keywords in a SEO press release is easy to perceive. Google “women’s recovery retreats” and check out the first page of results. Four results are from the same press release. That press release was released well over three YEARS ago

Four results. Three years. One press release. Easy math.

Two Pages?

Yes. You’re not bound by any restrictions when you’re writing for the Internet. If the idea is to get your page rank to #1, stuffing a one page press release full of keywords probably won’t cut it if you’re also trying to tell a legitimate story. Expanding your SEO press release to two or more pages ensures you can achieve both of these goals.

You may not make it into your local newspaper with a longer format, but if the press release is well done you could score some distribution through website databases. If the press release then makes it on to the first page of results, then you could easily enjoy years of incredible return. Off of one press release!

Is it serendipity that just a week after we blogged about how to compile storming award submissions and then made a vlog on how to shout about your awards’ success – that our MD Sharon Cain is shortlisted for The Women in Enterprise category of The Press Business Awards. The news is twice as exciting following hot of the heels of another short listing success in the Yorkshire Women of Achievement Awards.

We’d like to congratulate all those shortlisted and look forward to meeting the various businesses at the sparking awards ceremony later this year.

Finalists at a glance

Business Personality of the Year
Lewis Hull, of Noverre Ltd, Bishopthorpe
Kevin Hollinrake, managing director, Hunters Property Group Ltd, York
Carolyn Van Outersterp of Jollydays Luxury Camping Ltd, Scrayingham, York

Women In Enterprise
Louise Smith, The Jug & Bottle, Bubwith
Sharon Cain, managing director Quest PR, Harrogate
Angela Langton, director of Bellezza Academy Ltd, Bridlington

There’s no doubt that winning awards reflects your success and expertise.

Success is a great motivator and everyone, especially the Quest team, loves a reason to celebrate them!

Our previous post featured some great tips on award submissions – including the importance of research and supporting material.

Fast forward and visualise that you’ve scooped that fabulous industry and/or business award – and you’re over the moon.

Now over to Carol and Sharon on how to shout your success from the rafters!

Quest and Primeast shout about their awards success

• Are you frustrated when competitors win awards yet your business performs better?
• Do you get so close to the submissions that you can’t see the wood for the trees?
• Do you lack the writing and associated skills required to compile storming entries?   

We love to celebrate our own and our clients’ awards success at Quest PR  where we’ve won eight industry and business awards, four shortlistings – and reap the benefits of the media profiling that comes with them.      

As ex journos with great writing skills and business acumen, we’ve written dozens of award submissions which have won our clients prestigious accolades including The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For, Orange Business Awards, Institute of Director Awards – and many more.

Everyone loves working with winners and we were over the moon when Gini Dietrich and the Arment Dietrich team  scooped  a brilliant and well deserved blog award.          

Follow our 10 top tips to maximise your award entries:               

1. Take the time to research awards that most reflect your expertise
2. If available, read previous winning entries – study the content and format