103: MobileMonkey Founder Larry Kim Chats on Digital PR Hacks

In this new episode of the Social PR Podcast, host Lisa Buyer sits down with entrepreneur and marketing legend Larry Kim. Larry is the CEO of Mobile Monkey, the world’s best chatbot software. Messaging is a way to cultivate a group of superfans to curate a smaller, more engaged user list you can mobilize at a moment’s notice. Larry is also the founder of WordStream, the world’s largest PPC marketing company, managing billions of dollars of ad spend and doubling as an agency. Larry’s venture is the ultimate success story. He started WordStream as an agency, by himself and doubled it in size for nine years before selling it for 150 million dollars to USA Today. Listen to find out how you can get PR and coverage for your digital agency.

It’s Easier Than You Think

According to Larry, getting coverage for your agency is easier than you think. All digital agencies are busy doing client work and don’t have any time to do any marketing work for themselves. So if you spend time and effort on it, you’ll find it relatively easy. Larry explains there’s a ton of interesting ideas you can market, even to the general public.

To him, the key is to come up with original opinions and ideas backed by data. Any agency has access to unique data through the accounts they manage. Insert that in national storylines and you’ve got yourself viral content! Larry’s most successful story, back in 2012 was simple research comparing clickthrough rate, cost per click, and conversation rates for Facebook versus Google ads. He launched and promoted the data right before Facebook’s IPO launch. Because of that, every journalist in the world was writing about Facebook. No data about how effective their ads were was available so his little infographic was picked up more than 10,000 times in 24 hours. Larry says, “any agency could have done it.” 

Larry Kim’s Digital PR Hacks

By running such successful businesses, Larry has accumulated his fair share of PR hacks. Here are some of them:

💡  Take advantage of LinkedIn’s simple algorithm 

You might not know this, but LinkedIn runs on a basic algorithm, only counting likes and comments. By simply asking your friends to comment or like on your posts, you will dramatically increase your reach. 

💡  Don’t post links to your LinkedIn page

LinkedIn privileges posts that lead users to stay on their website, so avoid posting links to your own. Instead, summarize the content you want to share in a video or long-form posts.

💡  Create your own Facebook group

The engagement rate within Facebook groups is significantly higher than on Facebook pages. When creating one, you need to gather a decent amount of group members. Larry advises going with a generic topic instead of a branded name. Additionally, he says you should invest in group moderation to avoid the group turning into a spam dumping ground. Lastly, start weekly live streams to increase engagement and branding. 

On Becoming a Contributor 

It’s no secret that one of the best ways to build yourself a reputation is to become a contributor to an esteemed publication. However, Larry says, most media are now suspicious of entrepreneurs wanting to write for them. The best way to get around that is to show evidence of success elsewhere first. Alternatively, you can get introduced by another contributor you might know and can vouch for you.

A great way to get clips is to publish content on Medium. Larry’s hack? Understand that Medium does not require original content. So just recycle your own blog posts by changing the title. You can even repost old Medium articles that have performed well in the past. 

“When looking for publicity, you’re really just looking for links from valuable domains.” – Larry Kim

Some topics discussed in this episode include:

• Ad words
• SEO
• PR for agencies 
• Going viral 
• Facebook groups

Contact Larry Kim:

• Larry’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/larrykim?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
• Larry’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrykim

References and Links Mentioned

• Mobile Monkey: https://mobilemonkey.com/
• WordStream: https://www.wordstream.com/
• Larry’s viral ad word data: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/06/06/best-ads
• Facebook ads vs Google ads: https://www.wordstream.com/facebook-vs-google