Social Media, SEO, Yoga, & Life on Planet PR: Lisa Buyer Q&A

Lisa Buyer is a peach. Not only that, she’s seriously smart about the mashup between PR and social media, steeped in both ends of the spectrum. So much so that she’s the founder and CEO of a respected interactive public relations agency, The Buyer Group, based in sunny South Florida. With clients ranging from real estate to health and beauty companies, her experience spans quite a gamut. 

Lisa’s for sure a familiar face on the conference circuit, including special guest appearances at AIMCLEAR‘s own Facebook Marketing Intensive Workshop, where she’s shared insightful tips, tactics, and takeaways with many a brainchow-craving marketer. Later this month, she’ll storm the stage at SES San Francisco, dishing up wallet-friendly advice on the Social Media Optimization that Won’t Break the Bank panel. AIMCLEAR shared a friendly chit-chat with Lisa prior to the event to learn a little more about what makes her tick. Read on for the goods.

| aC: Lisa Buyer, welcome! Tell us a little about yourself. Where do you come from, how did you end up in online marketing?

Lisa Buyer: In the online marketing universe, I come from the planet Public Relations and I also live part-time on the planet social media and planet SEO. 🙂

I’ve owned three media agencies; the first two primarily focused on corporate communications including branding, PR and media buying for the technology, real estate and health/wellness industries. Right when things were getting a little BORING on planet PR, the dot-com #boom happened  and my agency was electrified with a new breed of Internet business innovators from Silicon Valley. This digital gateway gave us ways to re-invent the PR process, even before Google was a verb, we were figuring out ways to gain online visibility via news groups, keywords and stock symbols etc. I started attending Search Engine Strategies in 2007 to learn more on how I could A) help my public relations clients use the Internet to get more news visibility but also B) help clients navigate through the ins and outs of communicating/working/translating/finding the right SEO and SEM teams.

I like to laugh and say: I went from being a total search marketing conference groupie geek to being part of the band. After attending several SES and PubCon conferences (sitting front and center), I was asked in 2008 to speak on the News Search SEO panel at SES San Jose alongside Lee Odden, Greg Jarboe and Dana Todd – a complete honor! Since then, the rest is history. I’ve been evangelizing the hot link between PR, Search, and Social with some of the coolest and smartest people in the industry. This year my Social PR speaking gigs included MediaPost Search Insider Summit, AllFacebook conference and of course SES San Fran but my faves have been AIMCLEAR‘s Facebook Marketing Workshops and the 2012 boutique Zenith conferences in Duluth.

Today’s PR is Social PR; it’s about getting inside the social media news – that news can be traditional news, Google news, Facebook’s newsfeed or LinkedIn updates. Everyone wants to be on the cover/home page of the Wall Street Journal, but also the first page of Google and the top of Facebook’s newsfeed, right? Facebook is almost like the new Oprah! Clients used to say I want to be on Oprah, now it’s I want to be on Facebook.

My agency today, The Buyer Group,  focuses on a mix of Social PR consulting, educating, evangelizing and special projects. We help businesses and also work with agencies behind the scenes to integrate social media and SEO into the public relations fold. There is a still a lot to learn as new technologies unfold. I don’t claim to know it all, I believe we are in a constant state of learning.

Originally from Chicago, I am a transplant to Florida with offices based in Celebration, Florida. My blog SocialPRChat and Twitter feed @lisabuyer covers trending news in the colliding worlds of Social/SEO/PR with some yoga influence.

| aC: Fascinating stuff! What are your 3 favorite ways to amplify PR with social media?

LB: 1) Facebook posts with sponsored stories. 2) Images, if are relying solely on text based, you might as well be asleep at the wheel. 3) Online newsrooms can be a HUGE plus to an online content marketing program.

| aC: Tell us about your favorite newly discovered tools.

LB: Buffer – I use it in all sorts of ways to spread the Social PR news. Newsie – this is how I track my friends in the news and help spread the good word. Tracky – this is one of those game changer platforms that is more than a tool.

| aC: We’ll be sure to check those out. Next – skeptics out there want to know… what’s the ROI of social PR?

LB: Some say the press release is dead. Well if you are still relying writing it in Word, double spaced, posting it as a PDF on your website and emailing it as an attachment to journalists, you probably need a PR makeover. If you are using a press release for SEO and stuffing it with keywords and links, you might want to subscribe to Matt Cutts blog.

Social PR’s ROI should be measured (easily) in Google Analytics. How much quality traffic comes from Social PR campaigns? How many new leads came from that last promotion on facebook? Did you monetize the Facebook prom into sales? Did the reporter from Ad Age find you because of your sleuth-like PR campaign on LinkedIN? That USA Today writer was doing a Search in Google for “Green construction home strategies” and your press release came up on page one of Google.

| aC: Right on. You’re an accomplished writer across the blogosphere. What’s your absolute most favorite topic to blog about?

LB: I love covering new trends happening in social media and SEO that can help  companies gain publicity and I also love tying those trends back to traditional marketing visionaries such as Steve Jobs, Stephen Covey, Dale Carnegie and Anthony Robbins; a  reminder that what is new is really just something reinvented. If someone can relate a business practice to real life, it is easier to digest.

| aC: At SES San Francisco, you’ll be presenting on Social Media Optimization that Won’t Break the Bank. Can we get a sneak peek at the money-saving tactics you’ll dish out to the audience?

LB: If you want to know what’s IN and what’s OUT for social media, come to my session. Social media is FREE right? Yes this is a trick question. Well we all know what a time sucker social media can be so I will cover is how we can use social collaboration tools, social media apps and community building platforms to help optimize the social media process, curate content, be more productive, distribute content to the right influencers and generate massive engagement.

| aC: If you were stranded on a desert island, what are 3 things (not work-related) you’d absolutely NEED to have with you, and why?!

LB: I would like the W Hotel -style Wonderful Tent with Wifi, my Macbook Air to write my book, and a Yoga mat.

| aC: Right on 🙂 Thanks for your time today, Lisa! Catch you on the West coast 🙂

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