Today’s UVEF event turned into a “tweet fest” with more than 75 tweets at the time of this article. As the UVEF event chair, I was thrilled with the standing room only crowd of somewhere near 150.

Keynote speaker and serial entrepreneur, John Pestana made a great case today at UVEF’s Top 25 Under 5 awards luncheon for “bootstrap” financing for a new company, letting the first company’s revenues finance growth, rather than more  investors. His formula for making that happen…”sell, sell, sell.” Don’t wait on the product developers for a perfect product. Perfect it as you go and get the revenue flowing to finance growth.

On the BYU directory John Pestana lists his expertise as e-Business, e-Commerce, & model trains. I also know he is an accomplished musician and prolific song writer. John is also the Co-Founder of Omniture, once cited in Forbes magazine as “the juggernaut of Web analytics.”

The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF) today announced winners of its 2011 “Top 25 Under Five” Award, spotlighting outstanding Utah entrepreneurs and start-up companies. Award ceremonies were held at Utah Valley University with Adobe, Silicon Slopes and InnoVentures sponsoring the event. UVEF recognized OrangeSoda, an online marketing company with a unique blend of intelligent service and simple technology, as the number one performer among nominees. Today’s winners collectively created 800 jobs and $189 million in 2010 revenue.

“The national Chamber of Commerce recently joined the list of those recognizing Utah as a top five spot to grow an entrepreneurial startup,” said UVEF 2011 chairman Cary Snowden. “Today’s UVEF winners demonstrate that Utah’s business climate is geared to launch world leaders in diverse industries from internet marketing to medical technology to cleantech.   This bodes well for our state’s great economy.”

Serial entrepreneur and mentor John Pestana emceed today’s event. Pestana is most noted for co-founding Omniture, which sold to Adobe for $1.8 billion. However, his tireless efforts support budding entrepreneurs through Utah schools as well as organizations such at BoomStartup and Utah Student 25.

“Utah is prime real estate for growing scalable new business ventures,” Pestana said. “I’m so pleased to associate with these entrepreneurs who take great personal risk in their quest for the American dream.”

This year’s other award recipients are Simply Mac, Qivana, CampusBookRentals.com, SEO.com, Experience Dental Studio, Fifty Films, mediaFORGE, KT TAPE, BizVision, CFOwise, The Sweet Tooth Fairy, iApplicants, Orabrush, Professional Cable, LLC, DrivingSales, ClearCenter, Avantar, Omnia Alliance, Bluehouse Ski Co., Launch Leads, Zylun, Izatt International, BambooHR, and EcoScraps.

This is UVEF’s twelfth Top 25 Under Five competition. UVEF has highlighted more than 200 companies through this competition, including Utah success stories like Omniture, Skullcandy and Xango, among many others.

Deseret News coverage of the event

Daily Herald coverage of the event

Salt Lake Tribune coverage of the event

It’s a dirty trick in the SEO world: posting multiple “news stories” on a site with nothing but SEO keywords and/or content ripped from other articles. Google refers to them as “content farms,” and is changing its famous search algorithms to make sure they don’t rise above legitimate sites.

On January 1st, Google’s Principal Engineer, Matt Cutts, wrote the following on the Google Blog:

To respond to that challenge, we recently launched a redesigned document-level classifier that makes it harder for spammy on-page content to rank highly. The new classifier is better at detecting spam on individual web pages, e.g., repeated spammy words — the sort of phrases you tend to see in junky, automated, self-promoting blog comments. We’ve also radically improved our ability to detect hacked sites, which were a major source of spam in 2010. And we’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content.

What does that mean for you?

If you work with PilmerPR, or another credible SEO firm, this is good news. It means your sites will rank higher and not be pushed down by spammy results. However, if your SEO firm relies on self-publishing websites, frequent half-baked news articles, or questionable “guarenteed results” methods, you may be in trouble.

The average web surfer will get more targeted results. Will your company still be there?

Get SEO Help Now!

As the economy recovers, entrepreneurs are launching their next great venture. But finances are still tight. By the time entrepreneurs like you pay for a web developer, SEO service, ad agency, media monitoring service, a handful of social media services,  and a PR firm, there is little left for the business itself. PilmerPR is helping solve the problem by introducing our comprehensive “Lean Startup PR and Marketing” service.

Lean Startup PR and Marketing combines the following services with a single point-of-contact:

• Fortune 100 Senior Level PR/Marketing Coaching
• Messaging Foundation
• Press Coverage [online, print, broadcast]
• Social Media & Blog Strategy that works
• Video Strategy that drive web traffic—on a budget!
• SEO Press Releases that get noticed
• Conversion Rate Optimized (CRO) web strategy
• Website Design
• Online Ad Strategies

We cut out the “fat” of multiple overhead costs, and put them all on one bill that meets your long-term budget.

Why choose PilmerPR?

PilmerPR is in the entrepreneurship business. We have helped launch multiple companies, from Mozy to ElectraTherm, and taken four companies to the Inc 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America. We also work closely with local entrepreneurial organizations and economic development centers to find profitable solutions. We look forward to helping your business do the same.

Contact us today for a free Lean Startup PR and Marketing consultation and start your “90-days to success.”

Get help launching your business!

My assumption is that corporate executives understand that delivering unified key messages to target markets is vital for success. Do you think most business people get that? I hope so.  That said, take a look at some facts:

Sixty-five percent* of corporate information in mainstream media (U.S.) conveys key messages once “in print.” Executives understand this risk, and use every ethical means to make sure their spokespersons and information maximizes the percent of publications that get it right.

Contrast this with the social media of blogging. Fully 76%* of outbound company blog entries fail to include key messaging. Three quarters of blogged content misses the messaging mark! SSSSSsssss! Sounds like an company energy leak to me.

With October as National Strategic Planning Month, perhaps corporate leaders are  wise to consider having a more senior level person or firm direct their social media efforts so they stop or prevent corporate energy leaks.

Let me know if you need a patch kit for that social media energy leak.

Read my full article on the Utah Business Blog.
Source: eMarketer.com

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Four Steps for harnessing the power of the Social Media as a component of a well conceived public relations strategy:

1) “Listen Up” To The Conversation

2) “Join In” The Conversation

3) “Power” The Conversation

4) “Orchestrate” The Road Signs

In this video,  I discuss why focus on Social Media is imperative to avoid energy leaks from your company.

Ask the Expert

Ellen McCarthy, talented writer for the Washington Post, recently published an article that got my attention big time. It discussed the power of Pop in today’s new media world. This article offers application for  strategic public relations. In this video, John discusses the power of PR Pop, especially in the world of Social Media.

Ask an Expert

Allan Grafman of All Media Ventures was the featured speaker at today’s joint event sponsored by Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF); Wayne Brown Institute; Utah Technology Council (UTC), and Mountain West Capital Network (MWCN). Held in the Garden Room at Thanksgiving Point, 200+ entrepreneurs and business leaders paid close attention as our skilled presenter spoke on the elusive subject of “Exits, Monetizations & New Media.”

In preface to Allan’s remarks I was able to put in a plug for UVEF to the group. I mentioned that despite our economy, it’s a great time for entrepreneurs. I referenced Hewlett Packard, Howard Johnson, and Boeing as entrepreneurial startups during the Great Depression. I expressed my enthusiasm for today’s speaker as our Public Relations business and all services carrying the “message” to target markets must master social media as yet another terrrific tool for getting the word out and engaging with target audiences.

Allan spoke candidly about the negative ROI being experienced by most investors in 2010. He also pointed to Online Gaming, Virtual Goods, Advertising, and Content providers as near term winners in monetization of social media. He cautioned startups against slowing their time to market to “get it perfect,” saying that an early beta launch can build viral support while gleaning invaluable feedback from which to improve the offering.

One key point that resonated with PilmerPR’s client counsel in the new “PR 2010″ is that EVERY company is now a media company. Those companies which offer the best and fastest content stack the deck in their favor.

Hard to believe by now, but it was only at the end of 2008 that the internet overtook newspapers to become the #2 source of news in America. We predict it will soon overtake television news to become the #1 source, as both ABC and CBS have dramatically cut their news staff, and more broadcast segments are posted online.

Bloggers are replacing traditional journalists, Google News is replacing USA Today, and “gatekeepers” that stand between you and your audience is becoming just a matter of SEO.

Welcome to the Online Media Revolution.

In Part 3 of 10 of PilmerPR’s “PR 101″ webinar, John Pilmer discusses this revolution, and concisely breaks down what businesses need to know.

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There’s a war in the communications world, right now, between the terms “press release” and “news release.”

Though the former phrase is still common, and may accurately describe the release’s purpose, others argue it is a relic of the pre-internet era. The Web has made releases instantly available to the world, and not just press. Many times, PilmerPR team members have browsed news online, and found that the top results for their searches are “press” releases.

So how can your small business capitalize on this? How can the releases you are already producing reach your target audience, directly?

In this second parts of PilmerPR’s 10-part “PR 101″ series, John Pilmer will discuss what it means to “think web first,” and how to get your news to your targets with or without media gatekeepers.

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When “blogging” became a term a decade ago, many probably saw it as a short-living fad.  It was a hobby, not a credible business tool.

Times have changed, and many top businesses are seeing a positive return on investment by blogging.

Forty-five percent of the 2009 Inc 500 now maintain a corporate blog. That’s up from 39 percent in 2008, and 19 percent in 2007, according to research by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

“[It appears] that blogs and social media profiles are becoming the new ‘home pages,’” John Pilmer recently told Utah Business magazine.

Utah Business, the top magazine for the Utah professional community, interviewed John about this blog, and why he feels its important to invest in one.

Pilmer says blogs are especially effective when immediate two-way communication is the goal, as updates can be posted without needing a Webmaster, and readers can easily give feedback. “Unlike social network updates, blogs have a longer shelf life, and are much more search-engine friendly,” he says.

He also addressed the return on investment, and how almost any company can have similar results if they’re willing to pay the price.

Pilmer suggests that businesses commit to starting a blog if they want to see results. “Most businesses can benefit from a blog if they are prepared to invest the needed time for a long period of time,” he says. “Even if a company doesn’t have frequent news to tell its audience, it can still use a blog to establish itself as an industry thought-leader, build community and attract new talent.”

In addition to the PilmerPR blog, John regularly contributes to the Utah Business Blog. PilmerPR has also helped launch blogs for companies like Certiport and RecruitHire.

If your company would like to start a blog, but does not yet have the experience or resources to make it successful, PilmerPR can help.

Read the full article from Utah Business.

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