Category: Digital Marketing and Social Media

Social Media Experts or Hammer Gurus?

  

 

Self-described Social Media Experts beware!

 

If you call yourself a social media expert, the rest of us will soon see that you’re saying nothing.

 

 

Social media is just…media…channels…tools. It’s a means to deliver your message to your audience. This is true whether you’re a PR person for a coffee shop, a salesperson for an office supply chain, or a fund-raiser for a local charity.
 

Carpenters are carpenters, not Hammer Gurus. Cowboys are cowboys, not rope & fence kings. Drummers are drummers, not drumstick and cymbal experts. Sure, they know a lot about those tools of their trade, but tool expertise alone won’t make get them hired or help their client. The quality of the work they produce with those tools will.

  

Thanks to Albert Maruggi and Kevin Dugan for listening to my rant earlier this week on this topic! 

 

Local Media Tips – Guest Blog by Hope Salley

 
This week, my friend Hope Salley of eNR Services is providing a recap local media pitching tips from a PRSA event in Connecticut. The event was hosted by the PRSA -Westchester County and Fairfield County Chapter. The guest speakers were Allan Drury, business reporter/editor with the Journal News (Gannett-Westchester and Rockland Counties), and Jim Zebora, business editor with Hearst CT Newspapers (Connecticut Post, Advocate). Thanks for the tips Hope! – Jack

 

 

First and foremost, Allan Drury said that the most important thing a person pitching to the media should do is – do their homework! As quoted by Drury, “Know your reporter. Look at the past six months to see what kind of articles that reporter likes covering. Don’t look at just the past week.” This solidifies why the MatchPoint application is so important to our clients. Drury said it is very important to target the right media.

 

Below are a few dos and don’ts explained both by Allan Drury and Jim Zebora:

 

Dos

  • Keep headlines short and concise. Reporters want to see what the news is right away.
  • The best time of day to reach a reporter is in the morning or anytime between noon and 2 p.m. The afternoon hours are usually a “sprint to the finish” time for most reporters and editors.
  • The best way to reach most reporters is via email.
  • After sending a press release, follow up with a phone call to the reporter a few days later.

 

Don’ts

  • Don’t harass reporters. Continuing to call them or emailing them is a sure turn-off.
  • Don’t send irrelevant stories. Only pitch stories that have merit and offer legitimate news.  

Drury said it is important to include statistical information and research in press releases that offer substantiality to the story. This data backs up the focus of the release, and makes it a lot easier for the journalist (less work they have to do). Drury said press releases without data tend to be “fluffy features.” When it comes to business stories, Zebora conveyed that the reporters at the Hearst CT Newspapers look at mom-and-pop businesses the same as national businesses, meaning small businesses have pertinent, legitimate news just as much as larger corporations. In fact, it is the local businesses – affecting the local community – that journalists are more interested in covering.

 

 

Is PR Recession-Proof? A farm boy asks…

For horse owners, spring means expanding your network of resources to hay suppliers, stables, and farmers who still have hay stocked up and are willing to part with it. Last Saturday, we were fortunate enough to find a farmer in Northern Illinois with plenty to sell. The guy’s son would even help load the truck.

Profit, the horse who sparked the conversation
Profit, the horse who sparked the conversation

  

As we were loading bails of hay, the kid asked me if I worked with horses for a living. “No,” I said, “just one day a week, I guess. On the other six days, I’m in public relations in Chicago.”
 
I had expected the typical questions like “What does that mean?” or “Do you know anyone famous?” Instead he asked, “Is public relations recession-proof?”

 

This shocked me. Why was that his first and only question about PR? He was thinking about career choices and the most important thing to him is an industry’s position in the current economic climate. The source of this thought could have been TV network and cable news. But wait, this was a high school guy and they don’t watch TV news. My conclusion is that on whatever social media sites this kid tapped in to, the recession is being discussed along with PS3 games.

 

I gave him my standard answer: “Is anything really recession-proof?” He answered, “Yeah, I guess not, except for certain aspects of the entertainment industry and the mob.” Okay, so this kid knows his Sopranos quotes too.
 

I told him “despite the recession, we’re doing all right. In fact, it’s going to be a great year for PR. More companies will need to use PR to get their messages to consumers. When they see the costs of PR and the results they get compared to advertising, it’s a no-brainer.”

 

He seemed to get it! He even asked more about the return on investment of PR versus traditional advertising! Maybe this kid will be interested in a PR career. Though he might want to consider following his Dad into the hay business…demand is high, prices are up 25% over last year, and no one is Tweeting about lay-offs.

 

 

 

Fundamental Change at Media Outlets

  

Here is a very interesting trend pointed out by the development team at MatchPoint:

 

 

PR pros should be aware of a fundamental change in the media. In the current economic debacle, fewer and fewer journalists are employed be a specific media outlet.
 
It appears that the media have responded to the current business conditions, in part, by outsourcing editorial functions. The overwhelming minority of bylined journalists in MatchPoint are staff journalists. Most content is now produced by freelancers and syndicators.
 
For example, an analysis of MatchPoint’s Benton Evening News content, circulation approximately 4,000, produced the following results during a recent sample month:
 

  • 301 bylined articles.
  • 171 unique bylined journalists
  • 30 journalists produced > 5 articles

 
However, the Benton Evening News maintains a staff of only 2!
 
“Contributors,” including both freelancers and syndicators, are rapidly becoming the new mainstream.

 

 

For more information on MatchPoint, visit: MatchPoint

 

Or check out MatchPoint’s Facebook page

 

 

Media Outreach via Twitter

 

In March 2008, the Dow was over 12,000 and just a handful of early-adapting journalists and PR folks were using Twitter on a regular basis. What a difference 12 months make! The growth of Twitter has created an amazing and somewhat frightening channel to PR pro’s to converse with the media.

 

I would like to hear your stories and comments about experiences connecting with journalists in recent months.

 

  

  • How has your media outreach via Twitter been received?

 

  • Any negative feedback from journalists?

 

  • Overall, has Tweeting journalists been effective for you?

 

  • What would help improve this method of engagement?

  

Please comment below or send your tales to me at jmonson@enr-corp.com

 

 

Tips for Driving Business via Local PR from Webinar

 

On Tuesday, February 10th, I had the pleasure of moderating a webinar discussing “How to Drive Business Though Local PR.”

 

Our participants, Nicole Rivard, Editor of the Norwalk Citizen-News and Matt Gentile, Director of PR and Brand Communications at Century 21, offered tips from both sides of the news release for successfully reaching targeted audiences in community publications.

 

Nicole Rivard first discussed the types of stories of most interest to an editor at a weekly community newspaper. These included news about local companies (or more likely, national brands with local branches, outlets, or franchisees) with the following content:

 

  • Giving back to the community
  • Participating with local schools
  • Opening a new business, location
  • Reaching a milestone
  • Growing the business

 

Matt Gentile spoke about Century 21’s efforts in reaching consumers and potential franchisees via news on the local level. Some of the most successful releases have positioned local agents and brokers as industry experts to whom the local media can turn for trend-related stories.

 

Century 21 not only targets various local markets from corporate headquarters, but also empowers regional offices and up to 4,000 brokers with a tool to easily and quickly send press releases to their own local media. The application they use, PR Studio, was developed by Grassroots PR.

 

Here is an overview of things to remember when pitching local media:

 

ü ONLY pitch stories that have a true local connection, such as a physical presence in the market, connection to a local businessperson, or event taking place

    

ü READ content from the publication prior to engaging to see if your story is a good fit for what is happening locally
 

ü BE AWARE of deadlines and printing schedules for weekly publications

 

ü EMAIL releases directly to journalists as opposed to relying on wires, social media, or other methods better suited toward national outreach

 

 

 

MatchPoint Launches

We’ve all played the target & hope game of using a media database:
1. Target journalist in database

2. Hope he or she still works at that outlet, covers that same beat, and has any interest in your topic

 

This week, MatchPoint is changing the game. MatchPoint is offering a 10 Day Free Trial to check out this innovative new way to match your press release or other pitching materials with relevant journalists and bloggers.

 

Here’s a link to the free trial sign-up:

 

http://www.prmatchpoint.com/register.asp

 

   

 

Healthcare Business Pitching Tips

 

The Chicago PRSA chapter’s January monthly luncheon meeting featured a panel of journalists focusing on the business of healthcare. Guests included Tom Burton of The Wall Street Journal, Diane Eastabrook of PBS’s Nightly Business Report, and Mike Colias of Crane’s Chicago Business.

 

Here are some tips the panel gave for pitching Healthcare Business:

 

ü DON’T pitch healthcare business reporters “medical miracle” stories that have no impact on business, the industry, or competition

    

ü DO have interview subjects available if you’re pitching TV

    

ü DO be helpful with details on medical data or have ready access to someone with details

    

ü KNOW what the media outlet does
 

ü KNOW what your organization does that would be of particular interest

  

  

Here are the types of enterprise areas that the panel would like to know more about in 2009:

 

  1. Healthcare Cost Containment
  2. Conflicts of Interest
  3. Industry consolidation and how it affects consumers

  

My compliments to PRSA Chicago and Steven Davidow for putting together such an interesting panel!

 

 

Communicating Renewables Summit Announced

 

Joanna Schroeder of 4R Communications has organized an interesting communications and PR conference focused on alternative energy.

The Communicating Renewables Summit will take place in April in Minneapolis.  Check out the topics and speakers:
http://www.communicatingrenewables.com/

Local Media Is Alive and Being Read

 

The media is dying! Wait, not so fast…

 

Changing? Yes.

Evolving? Certainly.

But dying? Not even close.

I haven’t gone one day in the past three months without seeing numerous blog postings from those who are lined up to be the next person to point out that many media outlets are in trouble. There is a frenzy of public relations pro’s, media “experts”, and marketers who can’t wait to Tweet and re-Tweet about the latest layoffs at various newspapers or TV stations.

 

It amazes me that many in Public Relations want to promote the collapse of the industry vital to their own work.

 

Of course The NY Times is broke. The LA Times and the Chicago Tribune are under water. Most major papers are feeling similar pain. But the story that no one seems to be following is the stability of smaller local media outlets.

 

PRWeek recently reported on a survey by the University of Missouri School of Journalism that shows 86% of adults read a local community newspaper each week.

http://www.prweekus.com/Local-outlets-remain-stable-in-downturn/article/122662/

As small papers continue to put more of their content online, this number will surely grow.

 

Instead of PR and marketing professionals panicking because major outlets are downsizing, perhaps they should reexamine their target audiences and tactics. They should counsel their clients about the value of local media impressions in the markets where a client has a presence. Reaching out to local community outlets may not have the same sizzle as getting a placement in The Times or on a national evening news program, but the impact of these combined local impressions may be more beneficial in reaching the client’s goals.