All good relationships take time and effort, and that holds especially true with PR. Here are some pointers from the public relations experts at MyPRGenie for establishing fruitful relationships with journalists.

1. Know your target:

Read up on what the journalist you’re targeting has written to find out what he or she covers, and what is interesting to the journalist’s audience. Don’t waste time pitching on a topic unrelated to their beat.

2. Know your client:

Before you start reaching out, become a resident expert on your client and the issues that you’ll be discussing. The more knowledgeable you are, the better your chances of establishing strong connections with journalists.

3. Get to the point:

Your first questions on your initial call to a journalist, always: Are you on deadline? Do you have a minute to talk? If they do have time, explain why your client may be of interest to them, quickly and succinctly.

4. Who are you?

Get to know your journalists--take notes and keep a file on each person. What do they value? Information? Insight? News tips? Story ideas? Press releases, or exclusives only? Do they prefer face-to-face meetings, e-mail or phone? What are their deadline pressures?

5. Altruism helps:

Put that knowledge of their likes and dislikes to use. Call with a story tip you’ve heard about, even if it’s not about your client. Suggest story angles they may not have considered. Send an interesting link. Compliment them on their big stories.

6. Deliver the goods:

When a journalist is seeking information or an interview, do everything in your power to get them what they need, and quickly. Failing to respond to a journalist on deadline is inexcusable.

7. Cast a wide net:

Always be on the lookout for new journalists to contact by tracking the media coverage of your client’s industry.

8. Keep after it:

Once your research has established that a particular journalist should be interested in your client, be persistent, but not annoying. Following up at least weekly shouldn’t be too intrusive. There will come a time when he or she needs a story idea, or an expert, or some source information, and you’ll be there. Journalists usually prefer to go to companies that they have a beneficial relationship with rather than hunting for stories on press release distribution platforms.

Businesses spend millions of dollars to attract new clients, but retaining them is just as essential for long-term success. Here are 5 tips on how, from the public relations experts at MyPRGenie.com

1. Do your homework:

Learning about your clients and their needs is crucial, and studying a client’s business can develop new opportunities for your own business. Find out their goals and their needs; attend planning sessions with them. Ask what they specifically want from your business relationship.

2. Focus on their needs:

Focus your time and resources on better serving your existing clients. Go deeper instead of wider. Make your existing customers the top priority. Nurture your customer relationships by consistently treating all customers with respect and honesty.

3. Provide superior service:

Customer service should be considered an investment, not an expense. A reputation for outstanding customer service will pay off over the long term, because it is cheaper to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one. Give special attention to the complaints and compliments of your existing clients, and use them to fine-tune your customer relationships and to foster long-lasting loyalty.

4. Develop loyalty programs:

Customer loyalty programs—providing gifts, services or discounts to long-term clients—can add an impressive boost to customer retention. Providing your most profitable customers with a dedicated support phone line can also be a good investment.

5. Get feedback:

Client feedback provides an excellent learning opportunity, and companies should actively seek out that feedback. If a client complains, ensure that they receive top priority. Troubleshoot the issue and try to reach a satisfactory agreement for everyone. Utilize the company’s website, blog, social media sites and e-mail for avenues of feedback. Make the customer feel valued by involving them with every step, and by thoughtfully considering their input. A customer, who feels strongly, even in complaining, may prove more valuable to your efforts to improving your service than the contented customer.

Got a new website for your business and want to drive traffic to it? MyPRGenie.com has 5 tips on how to do it.

1. Blog early and often:

Setting up a blog is easy, and posting to it regularly with quality material can be your biggest traffic generator. Write about your industry; show off your expertise; promote your business. Also, go to other related blogs to leave your comments with links back to your blog or website.

2. Use SEO:

Ranking high on the top search engine rankings, like Google, Yahoo, AOL and Bing, can generate high traffic to your website. SEO, or search engine optimization, boosts your search rankings. SEO is helped by posting original content, linking to popular websites and by focusing on keywords and key phrases that you are promoting. See other posts on our blog for specific SEO tips: http://blog.myprgenie.com/#awp:

3. Power of the press release:

A press release about a new product, a free service or sales campaign is a powerful tool for generating traffic for your site. Always include your company’s basic information along with your website address. Seeking advice from an online press release distribution platform, such as MyPRGenie.com, can be another key for success.

4. Use social media:

Set up an account on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; make interesting posts regularly; and link your followers back to your website. Build your own network and join communities on sites such as LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website and blogs. Be active in social media groups related to your website so you’ll be seen as an expert in your field.

5. Write articles:

Write articles with original and unique content, and distribute them online by posting to your company’s website or submitting to directories. Always include a few lines about your company, and a link back to your website. Remember to include the keywords and key phrases that your SEO efforts are targeting. Focus on quality rather than quantity to encourage links with highly ranked websites.

With more and more people getting addicted to websites like Facebook, you can now tap into a larger percentage of your target market, online through social media. Here are a some reasons why video should be a key component of your social media marketing efforts, supplied courtesy of the experts at MyPRGenie.com.

1. Adaptability

Social media websites are adapting every day to make marketing easier. For example: Facebook supports fan pages, and the daily activity of your fan pages can be viewed by you and your friends through their news feeds. This is fertile ground for viral marketing. All you need is to do is 'sow the virus,' and video helps you do that.

2. Cheap and easy

Videos are easy to make, cheap, and an effective way to get the attention of potential customers. Videos are visually stimulating and get your message across. In the hands of an expert, videos can prove to be a very effective tool for viral marketing campaigns.

3. Value of entertainment

It is always easier to catch someone's attention using a video than to ask someone to read a promotional piece. Social media websites are nothing more than a source of entertainment, and videos that have entertainment value are something that people are willing to share amongst friends. So if a video has a catchy caption and seems interesting, people will watch it.

4. Share at a click

Social media websites like Facebook allow you to share videos with your friends at a click of a mouse. This is ideal for starting a viral campaign. The easier it is to share, the better it is for a marketer.

5. The YouTube effect

YouTube is an attractive proposition for product promotion. With one of the highest traffic rankings in the world, YouTube can help you get the message across to a wide audience. Promoting products through YouTube is easy: all you need is a video. Upload your video to YouTube, give it a catchy caption and wait for people to find the video.

SEO or search engine optimization, tells search engines that your website is relevant to certain keywords or phrases. Here are some helpful tips from MyPRGenie.com to keep in mind about using SEO for your own website.

How SEO works

You use SEO to boost the standing of your website in search engine rankings, which drives more viewers to your site. You can't buy yourself a position at the top of the search results; you have to work your way up.

Each search engine has its own algorithm for ranking websites and recognizing which ones are relevant. Google, for example, believes that if a website has links to other reliable websites related to a keyword, then that site should be ranked higher.

Use keyword density, not keyword stuffing

The content on your website should mention the keyword or phrase a few times. Some experts claim that keyword density for a website—the percentage of a certain keyword among all the others words on the site–should be between 4% and 12%. Anything higher will probably be defined as keyword stuffing, search engines will penalize websites for this practice.

Build the back links

A good back-linking strategy is very important for boosting your search engine rankings. A search engine tries to identify the quality of the site by looking at how many ‘authoritative,’ or high-traffic,’ sites it links to. So make sure your website is mentioned on high-traffic websites.

Take authority

The best way to go about getting your very own ‘authoritative’ links is to link your website to social media websites like Facebook. Start by creating a fan page on Facebook, and invite people to join.

Next: Have another website write a paid piece for your site, and to post it on their own website.

Another strategy: Get in touch with the blogging community and post blog entries about your website and products. Blogging regularly will help improve your rankings, as well as drive traffic to your website.

Be patient

These tips should help you improve your search engine rankings, but remember: You won’t see results overnight. It might take a month or two to observe actual changes in ranking.