You know how sometimes you encounter some smart, practical and very savvy people. Their advice is right on, and you value it.

In 2010, I found Elena Verlee, a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur who runs a company called PR In Your Pajamas. Yes that is Elena's firm name, and her experience and advice are very serious and extremely valuable.

I especially enjoyed this Fall 2010 post about the 15 types of stories that get you free publicity.

Elena has broken them out into two categories called time sensitive and non-time sensitive stories. I found these to be particularly helpful.

I also was inspired by Golf Digest and Golf World equipment editor Michael Johnson's year in review to provide examples supporting Elena's ideas.

Time sensitive stories

1. Tie into breaking news as it breaks – – monitor the news as it happens and be ready to include your product in the story. SunMountain rainsuits' performance.

2. Raise controversy will issue or tie into one – – who is an expert on getting a lot of publicity that you disagree with? You can go back to that same reporter who wrote about them and say, "Actually this is my opinion…" Grooves and Ping Wedges. 

3. Picture yourself as part of a trend — is there something that's increasing or decreasing in your field right now that you can comment on? Is there a niche popping up in is there some way for yourself to be tied into that trend? White putters.

Non-time sensitive stories

1. Target a certain demographic, race or religion or other niche – – many people mass this as a story idea. Having an ultra-specific niche can make a good story. What niche are you targeting and why? Women who play golf.

2. Help people solve a problem – – you're in business because you help people solve problems, right? How you help people solve problems is a news story idea. Fred Couples, Ecce shoes.

3. Promote your personal (or brand personality) story  — this is where you and your brand are the main story, it revolves around you. It could be a profile, a review of your product or service or your book. Ryan Moore's equipment.

There are many more great pieces of advice in Elena's post. I encourage you to read it.

And please let me know what other angles, new hooks or ideas you use to generate publicity.
I'll will send you a Starbucks gift gift card for the best ideas. Now is that an incentive or what?

Thanks Elena for some great ideas.

When is the best time to post your news and information?

It varies by day of the week, time of day and by platform that you use, according to a study by social media research expert Dan Zarrella.

1. Blog posts – – re-tweets are more common during the day than night and tend to peak around 4 PM EDT and later in the week, especially Fridays. This may vary by niche, but can be good for golfers, planning weekend golf activities, including purchases.  

2. Facebook posts– – Saturdays and Sundays seem to be the best time for sharing articles on Facebook. One reason for this seems to be that about 50% of US companies block Facebook at work, according to Wired.

3. Facebook sharing– – articles published in the morning around 9 AM EDT tend to be more shared on Facebook. Dan admits this may be contradictory to above thoughts, and suggests you experiment by publishing articles later in the week and by publishing posts early in the day. And retweeting later in the day.

4. Blog reading – – morning is the most popular time of the day decreasing in popularity by the rest of the day (better get this post on quickly this morning and parentheses.

5. Frequency of blog posts – – it was found that the most popular blogs published multiple times per day, so Dan suggests rather than focusing on one perfect day or time that we should aim to publish many times on many days.

Of course, there may be variations based on your business, news and information. However, this research offers great insights on the best time to publish posts.

What posting practices have you found successful?

We all know that few brands or organizations are on the sidelines with social media.

This recent report shows that 80% of US businesses with at least 100 employees will use social media marketing in 2011. And that's an increase of 42% as recently as 2008.

Much of this can be attributed to companies building their social media marketing infrastructure as well as their comfort and a use of Facebook and Twitter.

This usage also is rooted in several trends including increasing consumer social media usage, Facebook’s building of truly mass audience and the promotional power companies and brands have seen in action on social sites.

Beyond usage, social media marketing is ranked third as the area that's marketers plan to focus on in their online marketing budget in 2011. This follows search and their own website.

I expect this commitment to continue for two reasons: 1) fear and 2) faith. New younger employees believe in social media and are pushing brands to use social media and are overcoming management's fears about ROI.

Can you really measure the effectiveness of an offline sales call? Can you evaluate engagement at a trade show? In communities and on social network sites, brands are seeing value, ask True Temper golf shafts.     

I appreciate these remarks by Deborah Aho Williamson of Emarketer and author of the new report Social Media and The Marketing Mix: Budgeting for 2011.

"As spending increases other marketing channels may lose budgets. Total marketing budgets in general are not increasing, so social media spending must come from other types of marketing. Early indications are that off-line and promotions may be first.”

E marketer also feels that while the spending is bright, future increases will be tied to ROI and there will be a very important need for strong ROI in 2011.

Agree?

How do you pick the best social network for your brand?

Lisa Barone reveals excellent ideas in this post. What I value the most is that she advocates the rifle shot rather than a shotgun approach.

And the best questions by far are 1) does your community use that social network and 2) do they use social networks at all?

Start there and you'll likely succeed.

What do you think? Any other great questions?

This is a follow-up to an earlier post about what clients value in a professional services relationship. On the flip side, this is about eight things that really frustrate clients.

These are based on my experience on both the agency and client side. Let me also attribute some of these to professional services smart guys and mentors David Maister, David Baker and David Winford (maybe I should change my name).

Following these frustrations are actual comments I've heard or thoughts that exemplify the points:

1. Generalism –– simply put, it's the "we can do anything" firm. They may know how to create a strategy but will it work in the golf business? Sure, it seems basic, but like any industry, golf does have its special knowledge needs."Now where you grip the golf club handle?"

2. Off-target thinking – – inappropriate ideas that don't resonate with media, customers or influencers, and are not strategic, practical or even realistic. "We'll just go to the Masters and stage an event at the club."

3. Order-taking versus consulting – – no one succeeds with a "yes" man. He will follow anyone off the cliff, and usually take your brand with him. You want strong, smart, educated and courageous advisers who will say "no" when it reflects their experience, expertise and success as well as ensures your success and especially avoid failure. "Oh sure we can do that. But if you like, we can do this. I don't think it really matters."

4. Untrustworthy service – – this usually centers on the issue of over-promising and under-delivering. You can't go to your boss and colleagues with nothing, right? "Yes, we will get that revised news release to you in 15 minutes and get it on the front page of the Journal this week."

5. Lack of communication and responsiveness – – you never hear from your agency team, and they never return calls or e-mails on a timely basis. And on top of that, they produce reports you don't need or read. "I was just about to return your call from last week."

6. Bad stewards of the money – – invoices don't make sense and even more annoying is they exceed the budget and really end up indicating low perceived value or ROI. "Well, it seems like that original estimate had some mistakes. And we spent your money."

7. No results and no results-driven culture – – really inexcusable right? And yet, you can hire a leader or team that produces few results and offers many excuses. "We had hoped for success, but things changed on us."

8. Communications that don't connect – – releases, post and blogs that don't motivate even the media or influencers, much less your trade or customers."Well, writing compelling copy is not one of our core capabilities."

Yikes! I hope you haven't experienced these frustrations. If you do or have, what do you do?