• Were you as successful as you had hoped? Why or why not?
• What are your competitors doing that you are not?
• How is your online presence?
• Do you have a solidified, constant message that you are communicating to current and prospective clients?  
• Are you dedicating enough time to marketing your company?

As public relations professionals, our job is to help you answer the above questions and so much more. With decades of success in helping financial services companies as well as a variety of other clients in other industries, KCD PR offers a range of services including public relations, social media marketing, content development, web site design and development and marketing assistance.

Our team combines unparalleled quality with cost-effective service to create a consulting firm experience with competitive advantages. We’re results-oriented and boast a healthy stable of happy clients who have appreciated our outsourced solutions.

Click here to learn more about how we can help your company thrive in 2012.

The original article can be found here, but we thought it was worth sharing some of the latest facts that are out there.

“Over the last 5 years -

• There are 200,000,000 registered Twitter users 
• Almost 88% of people have awareness of Twitter and its existence
• There are 450,000 new Twitter accounts created everyday
• Meaning there are 5.2 accounts created every second of everyday 

So we can longer claim that’s it unknown – there is a huge audience out there, right at your fingertips. That is a lot of people in a short space of time that have been convinced by its power.

• There are one billion tweets posted every week
• 180,000,000 everyday
• 138,888 every minute
• Over 1,650 every second
• Just 5% of Twitter users create 75% of the content tweeted 
• There are 1.6 billion search queries everyday
• Meaning that there are 18,000 search queries every second

Still worried that you’re too old to be using it or that your brand or company is the wrong sort to be using twitter? Take a look at the numbers then…

• 46% of Twitter users are female
• 54% are male – very equal demographics
• 53% don’t have children
• 47% do have children – time doesn’t seem to be an issue
• The majority of twitter users are aged between 30 and 49  – perfect age group
• 43% of people follow a brand on Twitter for special deals/offers
• 75% of users are more likely to purchase from a brand they follow – good head-start
• 67% of users are likely to recommend a brand they follow to other users

Ok….but maybe you’re still worried about the freedom of speech that users have. The fact that anyone can write anything about you, your brand, your services or your skills…

• 1,000,000 people view tweets about customer service each week
• 80% of those tweets are negative and critical
• As much as 75% of traffic comes from sources outside Twitter

We’ll let you in on a secret – whether you have a twitter account or not people can write whatever they want, whenever they want – they will get heard and it will get commented on and it will get passed on. Surely it’s better to be listening in on those criticisms, dealing with them and changing things for the better. Let people know you’re listening. Or maybe you don’t have the time to be on twitter in the middle of the day and therefore think you would miss out on most activity anyway….

5pm is the best time to be re-tweeted.”

On top of those statistics, do you realize that the majority of media outlets are now using twitter to break news? Anytime a major story breaks, you can be sure that news outlets are covering it on twitter. Why? Because they know they have an active audience who are paying attention and will share.

So what does this mean for you? One great way that you can take advantage of Twitter is by connecting with media. On top of breaking news through Twitter, many reporters reach out to their connections and look for sources. You can position yourself as an expert of your field by responding to the reporter’s tweet and sharing your knowledge on news coverage. You can use Twitter to reach out to media in your local markets and even national reporters. The key is to be active and engaged with your connections.

Now that you have this plethora of information on Twitter, do you think you will start using it more?

“They’re just getting out there and socializing and when someone needs advice they might come to me because they know my name” is the quote from Daisy Maxey in the last ten seconds of the video and that is a mantra we have been preaching to our clients all along. You can use social media to build a presence online and make it easier for clients and prospects to interact with you. Another ironic twist is that the video in itself serves as proof of another  way for financial advisors to connect with the national media. Case in point, Daisy Maxey obtained her sources for her article from advisors who are using social media!

This past month, Google re-entered the social media game with its launch of Google+ (Google Buzz still exists but has fizzled). Though the thought of yet another social media site may seem overwhelming to PR experts at first, there is plenty of potential. There are a few basic concepts to master with Google+, but doing so will put you ahead of the curve and add another effective marketing tool for you and your business.

An overview of Google+:

Circles: Facebook has groups, Twitter has lists and Google+ has circles. Circles allow you to organize your friends and contacts into groups so you can share certain information with one circle while sharing separate information with another. For example, you may have a business event planned for clients, and circles allow you to share information about that event with them without having to share it with all of your contacts.

Sparks: Sparks pulls information from your personal Internet-browsing habits and gives you suggestions for videos and articles that it thinks may be of interest to you. Using sparks is a good way to entertain yourself, but it can also be a tool to discover new ideas you may have missed, giving you more to discuss and share with those in your circles.

Hanging Out: Perhaps the most revolutionary function of Google+, Hanging Out mirrors hanging out in the real world. Being logged on is like waiting in the lobby, and anyone else from your circles that logs on is also entered into the lobby, and you have the option to participate in a video chat with each other. While video chats can be effective for holding meetings, perhaps even more important is that Hanging Out allows you to maintain contacts with those in your circles, keeping them up to speed on what is going on with you and your business.

The KCD PR take: Google+ looks to be a slick, formidable foe to Facebook and others. With its huge reach and search engine domination, we expect Google+ to be another social media marketing weapon in 2011 and beyond. Is your head spinning yet? If all this talk of social media has you wondering where to start, check out the KCD PR Social Media NOW! service. Email us for more information.