2010 WINNERS - PRINTABLE CERTIFICATES
http://www.topsintexas.net/WINNERS2010.html

Steve Kyles of the Kyles Team Mortgage Company is sponsoring the Top Realtor Contest...
Every Realtor and every voter who comes to the page is exposed to Steve's message with a link to his website...  So, you can sponsor a contest...  Top High School Drill Team will get 10's of thousands of votes... 

2. NOMINATIONS
Other mortgage companies may simply nominate Realtors they want business from. When they do, the Realtor gets an email saying, "Congratulations, XYZ Mortgages has nominated you for Top Realtor in Texas." The Realtors generally are thankful and at the very least, another dimension is added to the relationship. At the best, it leads directly to business, which it often does. That too is free. Who do you want to do business with? Nominate them for Tops in Texas. Don't see their category? We'll add it.


3. DRIVE VOTES
Nominees and sponsors now have something more meaningful to say via social media. "I'm at Starbucks" is replaced with "Please vote for me for Top Realtor in Texas" + a link to do so. OR... "I'm in second place..." or "I want to win and I'm currently in 10th place... pass to all your friends..."

   
Did you see Social Network?
An incredible film.
The part that is appropriate to you is the part of the movie where Zuckerberg said, "It's not who will see it... it's who will they pass it to..."

That's the first level of Tops In Texas.  By doing this you change how people are allowed to think about you. You give them a reason to refer you few others have, "He was nominated Tops..." Or, "She was voted Top Mortgage Banker in Texas..."

 
4. Then you have what you can do either during the year as a nominee or after the contest is over as a nominee or winner, either one.

This is something we have to charge for but it's only $550.00... and we'd do it for free if we could, because we both win on this...

We send out a P.R. release...

FOR EXAMPLE: Winners were just announced and the first winner from 2010 to take advantage of the P.R. opportunity is Houston Piano Company.

They won Top Piano Company in Texas.
 

So we announced this through P.R. to the media.

The problem with P.R. is this... You can spend $550 (in this case) and get no coverage whatsoever, so it's a bit of a risk.

However, our P.R. team has handled the P.R. for some fairly well known businesses/people and we're fairly adept at how to make this work.

Even for $550.

The Houston Piano Company Release went out announcing their victory.

Believe us when we say, it works just as well for nominees...

But, in this case, it's announcing a victory.

Houston Piano Company Voted Top Piano Company in Texas...

Within 24 hours the release had made a number of websites around the world...

 
MSNBC.com http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41416874/ns/business-press_releases/

HOUSTON CHRONICLE http://markets.chron.com/chron/news/read?GUID=16987612

DALLAS MORNING NEWS
http://www.thepressreleasewire.com/client/dallas_morning_news/release.jsp?actionFor=1390612

!!!! NOTICE ON THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS how a link is posted to Houston Piano Company as well as back to the 2011 CONTEST PAGE...

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUS15908+04-Feb-2011+MW20110204?feedType=RSS&feedName=companyNewsAndPR

ABC13 HOUSTON
http://finance.abc13.com/abclocal.ktrk/news/read?GUID=16987612

The release has also landed on the following sites, among hundreds of others...

Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Search

Google News

Bing

Lycos

Topix.net

Investors.com

ABC12 Saginaw Michigan

Boston.com

CBS 4 in Denver

Cincinnati.com

Fort Worth Star Telegram

CBS 2 in Chicago

CBS 5 in San Francisco

The Denver Post

The Idaho Statesman

The Salt Lake Tribune

Blog Pulse... which feeds 100's of 1000's of blogs...

ABC6 in Philadelphia

Black Enterprise

CBS3 in Philadelphia

CBS 13 in Sacramento

CBS 2 in Pittsburgh

Contra Costa Times

We Are Austin.com

ABC7 in Chicago

ABC7 in New York City...

5.  NOW WHAT?
If Houston Piano Company wants more out of this, they'll post a link on their website to a new page on their website... that says, 'Houston Piano Company Making News from New York to L.A."

They'll build a page with the logos of all the news media with links to all the news media websites...

And we'll help them do it!!!

6. SOCIAL MEDIA TIME... Again...
They should start right now Tweeting and Facebook posting one to two times a day... a link to one of the stories...

The Post should read something like:

"Houston Piano Company makes news in New York City on ABC Channel 7 site:

SEE IT HERE: http://finance.7online.com/abclocal.wabc/news/read?GUID=16987612
A separate tweet and facebook post for each story posted... over several weeks...

What does this do for their brand? 
Does it make it easier for people to remember them? To think of them a little better than before? To refer them?

Of course it does...

7. EMAIL MARKETING
THEN... Houston Piano Company should send out an email blast to their database saying,

"We've been making a lot of news from New York to L.A. Go Here to see the links to the stories!"
They put the link to their site with ALL THE LINKS TO ALL THE POSTINGS...

WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR THE PEOPLE THAT KNOW THEM ALREADY?

DOES IT MAKE IT EASIER TO REFER THEM?

RESULTS...
They've taken a contest that they participated in, and in this case... won... And turned it, through a $550 investment into much more than that in advertising for their company...

The key to social media is having something to say...

We give all nominees and winners a voice for the new media reality...