Conquering the Web: Lyn Mettler

After successfully starting one company, Lyn Mettler’s entrepreneurial drive prompted her to tackle a second company.

With her public relations firm, Mettler Public Relations, established, Mettler saw the potential for another company in a similar vein, but with an online component.

She wanted to tap into the bevy of technological strategies, such as blogging, micro-blogging and social networking, to boost brand awareness.

“I started recommending these Web tools to clients but got stuck because they didn’t know how to use the tools,” Mettler said.

So in October, she partnered with Bud Di Maggio and Simon Ashton of the SIMS Agency to create Step Ahead Web Strategies. They now are able to take clients from start to finish using Web tools, and they can maintain them if needed.

Mettler personalizes a Web PR plan for each of her clients and includes tools such as blogs, social networking sites, Twitter and podcasts. She emphasizes how clients can strategically use these tools to increase the company’s Web presence.

One of her recent clients was Golf Island, a partnership between the Hilton Head Island Chamber of Commerce and a Hilton Head Island-based association of golf courses. The association wants to bring golf tourism to Hilton Head Island, so Mettler created Facebook and MySpace pages for it and makes sure the content stays fresh. She also ensures continued communication between users and the company.

For example, if someone writes in with a question for a golf pro, Mettler makes sure it gets answered and posted.

“Once people make contact, it’s important to keep up that communication,” she said.

It’s basic public relations: Manage and monitor the company’s reputation and see what customers are saying.

“The wonderful part is that most of this is free, but you have to factor in the value of time,” she said.

Online sites are great, Mettler said, because they’re like “online watercoolers” where you can see what people are saying about your company. And seeing negative feedback can be useful, she said, because companies can address issues if necessary or clarify concerns on their blogs.

Mettler approaches this new online venue for public relations and marketing with a solid background. In 2001, before the advent of Web 2.0 brought even more functionality and integration to the Internet, she earned a certificate in Web design from Purdue University.

It’s a subject she’s taken an interest in, especially relating to her PR world.

“I saw the winds of change coming in,” she said.

To stay current with the ever-changing virtual arena, she immerses herself in these technologies and reads up on the new tools and trends. In realizing that technology is more specialized than ever, and one size does not fit all, she tailors plans for her clients.

For the downtown restaurant Circa 1886, she created video podcasts of the chef cooking dishes and posted them on video-sharing Web sites such as YouTube. As a result, people would come into the restaurant after seeing the video and ask for whatever dish was featured in it.

Mettler has taken her own advice and used social networking to get into The Wall Street Journal.

After she read an article about small businesses using online strategies for marketing, Mettler wanted to let the reporter know what she felt had been left out of the story. Eschewing e-mail as overcrowded, she sent the reporter a message via Facebook introducing herself and pitching her idea about social networking tools as marketing devices. The reporter messaged her back, and Mettler was quoted in the article that followed.

“I practice what I preach,” she said.