How To Best Market A Great Interview I Got? Options

[RisaBB]

Hello,

I just launched a new e-commerce site last month. I got an interview with someone who is pretty well known in this niche. I think this interview has tremendous potential to get traffic to my site if I market it correctly - but I'm not really sure of the best way to do this.

I've never done anything with any social media sites. I just read Eric Enge's article, Finding Success in Social Media. Should I be creating a profile in all these social media sites and sit on this interview for a few months, and then publish it? I'm not sure why I'm intimidated by getting involved in social media sites - maybe I just don't want to be so social, or that I don't have the time, or that I don't know much about it.

I don't have a blog, and right now, I'm hard pressed to come up with a steady flow of ideas (or any ideas). Should I take Copyblogger's advice in Blueprint for a Brilliant Blog Launch, start a blog, and sit on this interview for a few months and then post it on my blog ?

I have an "Articles" section of my website. Is an interview posted on a blog better than putting it on the website?

Should I issue a press release announcing my new business and the interview?

Should I contact the traditional media, online and offline, and tell them about me, my new site, and the interview?

Or should I do all, or a combination? I'm really not inclined to do nothing til a blog or social media involvement takes off.

I feel like I was handed an opportunity, and I don't want to blow it, so I want to market it right.

Thanks for any advice.

Risa

[Black_Knight]

Should I be creating a profile in all these social media sites and sit on this interview for a few months, and then publish it?

No.

That would hae been the best approach a month or so ago - before getting the interview - as part of the preparation. Now that you have the hot interview, you need to get it launched before someone else interviews him/her and steals the thunder.

But if you are going to do many more of these interviews, you should get on with creating a social profile now, before they are ready, so that you are prepared to launch them.

This time around, you should look for people you may know, or at least know of, who already have the right social media connections, and woo them into mentioning or promoting the interview for you. Call in favours, flatter people, and don't be afraid to beg (with dignity), to get people who already have the attention to shine a little light on your interview.

If the interview is really gold, then it doesn't take much of a push-start to get the momentum rolling, and as few as one or two mentions by the right people can do it.

[cre8pc]

Ammon is right on with calling in favors, etc.

The angle of the interview can help determine the best way to peddle it about too. If it focuses on starting up a business, that is a great target angle. If it's on the actual products, or a niche (which your products on that site are), you seek out related topics to the niche.

Start with the folks you know. Those with blogs look for ideas to write about (I do!), and if you've impressed someone, they may link to the article.

Obviously having your own blog helps to promote your company but that's a huge commitment.

Link to it on your About Us page. It's important history.

SearchEngineGuide has their small biz forums and Jen Laycock has a huge readership of small businesses. She may be a good resource to inquire with. She's also a powerhouse for promoting new businesses.

Congratulations on your new site, Risa!

[bwelford]

Congratulations, RisaBB. You obviously have created a great online asset. Now is the time to make that asset work.

As others have said, if you already had a blog going that would be the ideal way. In your shoes at this point in time, I would add the interview as an article on my website. I would then create a RSS news feed of recent articles in reverse time order. In other words the interview would be the first item in this news feed. Once you have the newsfeed you can then Ping all the newsfeed aggregators (using Ping-o-matic or Pingoat) and also register it in Technorati. In a way you are turning your series of articles into a mini-blog within your website. You can find more details on this approach in one of my articles.

[Ruud]

Every niche has a few powerful information providers who cover the area. For productivity it's the delicious Lifehacker.

Such sites thrive on being provided with information so they can post about it. Not posting about something solid is too big of a risk for them.

Identify key influencers in the niche and tip them on your published interview.

[RisaBB]

Thanks for all the advice, everybody!

So, as Ruud said, to identify these key influencers, am I doing a blog search and news search for my topic in Google? Maybe I'm not doing my blog searches well, because it seems like every blog that shows up is pretty lame, or I just can't weed out the influencers from the mob.

Thanks, Bwelford, I hadn't thought about creating an RSS feed - and this will give me an opportunity to learn how to do something new.

Ammon, I think I'll (reluctantly) start creating profiles on these social media sites, because I do plan on trying to get more interviews, and I have a good feeling that whoever I ask, will agree to be interviewed. Is timeliness important? - like should I be contacting all my contacts that I come up with at one time to advise them of the interview - or can I contact a few a day or a few every week. My guess is that I contact everybody at the same time.

Thanks for the advice, Kim. I'd love to find my groove for a blog. I'll try contacting Jennifer. I've been following her articles and reading her free guide.

OK - I'm excited about the possibilities!

Risa

This post has been edited by RisaBB: Jun 21 2007, 11:11 AM

[kulpreet_singh]

Risa,

If the site you're referring to is the Basics Body Care in your signature, it is beautiful

I love the fact that your soaps have all natural ingredients. The page with your son's soap buildings are cute. My mom uses Mal's E-commerce as well for her e-business. They have been great.

According to Wikipedia, the top 10 social networking sites are MySpace, Windows LiveSpaces, orkut, Hi5, Xanga, Classmates.com, Bebo, Facebook, Friendster, and Reunion.com

Obviously a few of those are probably irrelevent like Classmates.com and Reunion.com, while LinkedIn is not in the top 10 but is relevant.

Social bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, etc. are also easy to sign up with. However, building a profile so that anybody notices what you post takes longer. That's why you should still sign up (and signing up for all of these sites will take less than a day in total) but for this interview it is better to move faster and get exposure by calling in favours and using whatever connections you have (as Ammon said above).

Re: your quesiton about influencers in your industry - maybe you can search on Technorati, Alexa, and social bookmarking sites to see how popular the blogs are?

I would strongly suggest you to put the interview on your website, and set up the page with the interview in a way that it will drive visitors to want to learn more about you after they've seen the interview. The articles section is a great place to put it if you don't currently have a blog.

Wish you peace and prosperity,

-k.s.

This post has been edited by kulpreet_singh: Jun 23 2007, 03:48 AM

[RisaBB]

Thanks for the advice, Kulpreet.

No, this is not for my soap site. I started another e-commerce venture that I'm even more passionate about.

Risa