Archive for February, 2010
The benefits of a digital age on press releases
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I was contacted by www.prmoment.com, which analyzes UK coverage of the world’s leading brands, to offer my perspective on the effects and impact of the digital age on press releases.
I believe that its impact has been mostly positive. Press releases in particular are now shorter, full of interesting multimedia components, and much easier to disseminate to segmented audiences. My prediction is that press releases will evolve in the next five years and will be called something else, and the traditional format we love to hate will finally dissolve. The combined brevity and complexity of such social media tools as twitter will continue to force PR professionals to craft more highly condensed pieces of information in an ever-widening array of formats to please individual audiences.
You can read the full article here, and find out what other highly regarded pundits are predicting.
Many social media books are just re-hashing Alvin Toffler’s 1970 theme, and that’s good
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Does this sound familiar? “…a time phenomenon, a product of the greatly accelerated rate of change in society. It arises from the superimposition of a new culture on an old one. It is culture shock in one’s own society. But its impact is far worse.”
This is the theme of many new social media books on the market now – the disruption of society, the inability to adapt, the loss of the industrial age as replaced by the information age as replaced by an even faster information age.
Yet, Alvin Toffler wrote these words as long ago as 1970, when his groundbreaking work “Future Shock” was published. He points out that “for most Peace Corps men (a bit dated gender reference there!), in fact most travelers, have the comforting knowledge that the culture they left behind will be there to return to. The victim of future shock does not.” Read More→
Use Twitter to help break a story
Posted by: | CommentsDon’t forget that social media tools such as Twitter are helpful for reaching the circles of influence on your target demographic. Search Engine Marketing Specialist Anthony Kirlew has the guest post today about his experience helping a friend see the journalistic benefit of Twitter:
Anthony Kirlew
Recently, I was speaking with a friend who is looking to launch a new website for his business. He is extremely sharp when it comes to business but he is not fully dialed into the Web or social media. His new business is an RV Park, so he immediately told me that he did not think that his audience would be on Twitter, due to the demographics. I assured him that having a presence on Twitter may be more valuable to him than he might initially expect.
First, I told him that I could do some searches for him to find out if (and what) people were tweeting about RVs and RV Parks in the area he is looking to launch, and if so, what they were saying. I also mentioned that lots of journalists are on Twitter and Read More→
Where do you stand on accuracy in PR 2.0?
Posted by: | CommentsAs more and more “citizen journalists” go online via Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other social media, there is greater likelihood of typos and misspellings. In the online world as opposed to traditional media, there are no formal editors to proofread work. Where do you stand on accuracy in PR 2.0?
Peter Faur
My friend Peter Faur of Phoenix-based “Right Point Communications” and I are of like mind. In his blog, RightPoint, he writes about communications and includes a helpful grammar tip at the end of every post. I asked him to provide his input on grammar and spelling, and he shared with me this guest post:
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“The Miami Herald’s ombudsman, or reader’s advocate, recently asked a veteran teacher to review the Jan. 18 edition of the newspaper for grammatical errors. He was shocked that Elaine Kenzel found 133 errors. Read More→
Blaming the luger not such a good PR strategy
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Photo found at www.boston.com
Henry Blodgett has an interesting post on the Olympic committee’s take on the unfortunate death of the Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. After an investigation, they are laying the blame on Nodar. As Blodgett puts it:
“In other words, Nodar’s death had nothing to do with the fact that, because of the track design, he was going 90 miles per hour (15 mph faster than older tracks), had only a few milliseconds to “make correct entrance into curve 16″ after exiting Curve 15 (which the lugers have dubbed the 50-50 curve on account of your odds of exiting it without crashing), and then flew out of a track that, with a small nod to safety, could easily have been covered with netting, Plexiglas, or higher walls and not flanked by immovable steel poles.” Read More→
Blogging to Drive Business: Book Review
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Here’s a good overview for anyone in business who wants to learn more about how to use a blog to create a relevant audience and drive more business. As the authors point out, there are three parts to blogging: 1) the specific technical instructions to set up your blog and add information to it, 2) what you need to know to get eyeballs looking at it, and 3) how to leverage your blog with other marketing efforts.
Even though I have been blogging for Valley PR Blog for 2 years, I found this book helpful and more practical than some other blogging books I’ve read. There are plenty of factoids in the book to persuade even the most reluctant blogger, such as the news that online media is the only area of media currently growing. Blogging helps people communicate with large numbers of people quickly and publicly. Blogs have grown from 5 million in 2005 to 133 million in 2008. If one of your competitors is continually blogging about your industry and you aren’t, search engines will find your competitor’s blog and place it, not yours, high on the list of search results when someone searches for one or more terms in your industry. Read More→
Podcasting can provide compelling content
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Farrell Kramer
Our guest blogger today is Farrell Kramer, founder and president of the PR firm Farrell Kramer Communications. We first met a couple of years ago when he conducted a podcast about my book, Press Releases are not a PR Strategy. He has been podcasting for himself and for clients since early 2006. You can find him on Twitter as @farrellkramer.
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The explosion in Twitter and Facebook by communicators of all types has created a desperate need for compelling content. In today’s world, you’re only as exciting as your last tweet or status update. But a steady diet Read More→
Search engine optimization and social media in 2010
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Sheila Koefkorn, President of KEO Marketing
At the recent #SMAZ conference in Phoenix, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel of experts that included Sheila Kloefkorn. She is president of KEO Marketing, a firm in Phoenix, Arizona that provides online marketing strategy and execution, including SEO, search engine marketing and social media. Her clients are in the U.S. and more than 100 countries around the world.
I asked her for some SEO tips for this coming year. Above all, she says, focus first on the content and the message, and don’t get so wrapped around the axle thinking about the social media vehicle.
“You’ve probably heard it said that there is nothing certain but change. Well that is certainly true of Search Engine Optimization and Social Media in 2010. Google is launching a new architecture for the back end of its search engine, code named Google Caffeine, in early Q1. While the details are kept private by Google, we do know that the algorithm, or mathematical formula, of how Google determines first page ranking for search queries, will favor ‘new, fresh, relevant content.’
This is great news if you have a content strategy that is focused on frequently updated useful information and if you are leveraging social media to get that word out and develop community.
Facebook news feeds on public company and fan pages, twitter streams and LinkedIn status updates are indexed by Google, Bing and some other engines in what is nearing real time. Blog posts are frequently showing up in search results within minutes and hours of being posted. Product reviews and comments on local search listings and sites like Yelp and Merchant Circle are also showing up quickly.
Today, effective search engine optimization and social media means having a content and engagement strategy that includes not only your website but all of the sites where your customers and prospects hang out online.
If you listen, you are authentic and helpful, and make your content compelling and easy to consume, you will reap dividends in both B2C and B2B marketing in 2010.”
Beware the “big bang” theory in PR
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A college class I took on medieval imagery (ah, the freedom of a liberal arts education!) introduced me to Boethius’ consolation of philosophy. if you’ve never read it, it’s an interesting view of the wheel of Fortune and how fate can turn on a dime.
When I watch some of the “big bang” PR tactics of tech companies, whether it’s a big sudden splash through print/broadcast advertising, an opulent holiday party, or a self-serving charitable donation to a national crisis, I think of Boethius. Those big, splashy PR moves are a harbinger of lean days to come. How much better it is to grow slowly and methodically, and wait for your natural turn on the wheel of Fortune. And to remember that what goes up must come down.
For more info on the imagery, check out this Brown University website.
How to use social media to promote your invention
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You can’t meet Peter Kertz without feeling some of his enthusiasm about his invention, The Sonic Seal. It’s a waterproof cover for electric toothbrushes, and he has been using social media successfully to get the word out.
- - Tell me a little bit about how you got the idea for sonic seal?
That clean feel of a Sonicare toothbrush has been a staple in my everyday routine, just like 10’s of millions of others around the world. One morning I was using my beloved Sonicare and noticed a very peculiar taste in my mouth. Peeking down my nose to the handle of the brush I noticed a brownish liquid coming out from under the replacement head. Immediately unscrewing the head, I saw a mess of bacteria and mold inside and it had been leaking into my mouth. The Sonic Seal waterproof cover was born. Read More→
