Title: How to Make Your Brand Stand Out Online

Sarah Evans – She runs Sevans Strategy out of her home

Telling a story about the Chicago earthquake a year or so ago… she was able to be a citizen reporter, and ended up on national news (and got 5 solid client leads from it, too).

First – know what you want to accomplish

9 ways to stand out online

1. Find an opportunity to showcase what you do best

2. Hijack a conversation – gave a example of using the sxsw crowd and speakers to host another simultaneous event

3. Meet a need in an innovative way. She identified a larger need. Asked permission to be in charge of the #journchat thing. Innovate – do something different. It evolves. One pitch – she lets them do one pitch at the end – she gives them something quick to share. We’re a community.

4. Generate a LOT of quality content. Think multimedia.

5. Do it for a good cause. The #beatcancer hash tag as an example. And #crisisovernight as another example.

6. Give freely, give often. Share, acknowledge, give tips and tricks for your industry, trade secrets, etc. Retweet, like, comment post engage. Read your feeds, respond, etc.

7. Think like those you’re trying to reach. Use the tools they use. She checks out people’s twitter feeds before she contacts them to pitch them something and brings something from the feed up in her initial contact. It makes it more personal.

8. Get sourced … A lot. Sign up for helpareporter.com, follow journalists. Online, identify story opportunities where you are the best source and pitch them. Focus on media, bloggers, and online influencers bonus – use Pitchengine for your releases. Write for the consumer and the media…

9. What else? We had audience participation here.

Prtini? A pr blogger. …

How do we manage our message? You. Don’t. You start it, but your community takes it somewhere else.

It cant be a good sign when you have more twitter followers Han t he subscribers to your local newspaper.

@prsarahevans