Tag: public relations

5 Awesome PR Innovations – PRWeek Awards

PRWeek Awards

The PRWeek Awards winners will be announced tomorrow in New York including PR Innovation of the Year. 
I have been working on the development of MatchPoint for the past year and want to congratulate everyone on the team for the nomination.  

  
All Nominees for PR Innovation of the Year:

Edelman and American Thoracic Society The TB Advocacy Toolkit  

Ketchum The Ketchum Media Optimizer: Adding Discipline to the PR Discipline  

Ketchum Virtual Meeting Mashups – Reinventing Online Events
 
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide What’s on Your Mind? Now Anyone Can Decipher Twitter Discussion with the Help of twendz!  

eNR Services, Inc. and MatchPoint MatchPoint for PR  
 

Best of luck to everyone and I look forward to speaking with you at the Awards!

The Most Engaging Part of MatchPoint That You Haven’t Used…Yet

 
Using MatchPoint searches to uncover influencers who are writing stories similar to yours is just part of the power of the MatchPoint application.
  
Many MatchPoint users are finding time efficiencies and increased pitching success by using the ENGAGE button attached to each journalist, writer, or influencer.
  

Engaging in MatchPoint
The Engage Button in MatchPoint

The engage button will open an email pitch note from you to the selected writer. You may also include any previously saved campaign elements embedded into the body of this html email. These elements can include:

  • Links to videos
  • Photos
  • A Press Release
  • Attributable Quotes
  • Bulleted News Facts
  • Boilerplate

 
Journalists have raved about receiving these embedded elements as opposed to attachments which often get filtered, ignored, or deleted.
 
When sending your pitch note through MatchPoint instead of via traditional email, you can also track who has opened your pitch!

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Apple’s Ongoing Brilliance in Driving Demand

 

In anticipation of the next big Apple media event this Wednesday, everyone is guessing that the big announcement is the launch of Apple’s Tablet.

Well, it’s no longer really guessing due to Apple’s well-planned PR “leaks”. Check out the latest on Mashable.  So, surely the Tablets are on the agenda. But I’m hoping for these two announcements:

 

 
1. Ending of exclusivity with AT&T

2. Change of name for the iPhone. Seriously! Is anyone using the phone anymore?!?

My suggested new name is the “iText-iSearch-iUseApps”. No? Yeah, too clunky.  Okay, let’s stick with iPhone.

I’m hoping there is a Verizon or other carrier deal announcement coming soon. Because with AT&T’s coverage in several places I need to go, it’s an iPaperweight.

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PR Farmville

 


PR Pros: Are you playing Farmville? C’mon…admit it!

Farmville has taken over many Facebook users’ Facebook time and has spread throughout my friend list, my firm, and my house.    

I have had a hard time understanding the appeal.  To me, a requirement of a good video game is that I get to annihilate Nazis, aliens, or Brett Favre. But I’m obviously missing out on something as several people who I think are sane and intelligent have gotten neck deep in it. So now I’m fascinated with this phenomenon. 

I would like to ask for feedback about Farmville particularly from PR pros, journalists, bloggers, and any anyone working in or around the media.

Note: this is purely academic and for my own interest. I am not working for Farmville or any competitor. 

  • What do you like about Farmville?
  • What keeps you coming back?

Please comment here or if you prefer to do so privately, please email me your thoughts at jmonson@enr-corp.com or DM me at @jackmonson

Thanks PR Farmers!

MatchPoint: Finalist for PR Innovation of the Year at PRWeek Awards

 

I am pleased to pass along the good news that MatchPoint has been nominated for The PRWeek PR Innovation of the Year Award!

Full disclosure: I’m a member of the development team for MatchPoint.  Additional disclosure: I am freakin’ thrilled about this!

 
A tip of the hat to all nominees:

Edelman and American Thoracic Society The TB Advocacy Toolkit

Ketchum The Ketchum Media Optimizer: Adding Discipline to the PR Discipline

Ketchum Virtual Meeting Mashups – Reinventing Online Events

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide What’s on Your Mind? Now Anyone Can Decipher Twitter Discussion with the Help of twendz!

eNR Services, Inc. and MatchPoint MatchPoint for PR

 
Saying it’s an honor just to be nominated along with these top global PR agencies is not just an old cliché in this case. I cannot think of a previous year where any non-agency PR application, software, or service was nominated for PR Innovation of the Year.  

See you at the PRWeek Awards  on March 11 in NYC!

I’m So Busy! Oh, Shut Up.

The PR and Media Relations industry is made up of people who are chronically busy. But…are they really?
 
We all have those people in our lives who take every occasion to tell you how busy they are. These are same individuals who can’t make a deadline or return a call promptly. But, they have plenty of time to update their Facebook status with how busy they are, how they are longing for the weekend, or what they’re having for lunch.  Lunch?!?  Hmmm, I thought you were really busy…   
 

If you’re one of these offenders: Stop! Do yourself a favor and stop!
 
When you tell people – especially business associates – that you’re “so busy,” you’re really telling them that:

•You are a poor time manager
•You cannot handle your current workload, and therefore…
•You could not take on more tasks and so could not be of much help to anyone else
 
Face it, you’re no more busy, stressed, or under pressure than ANY of your peers, co-workers, or clients. If you truly believe you are, then it’s time for a change! The New Year is a perfect time to make that change – or suck it up.

I’ve seen many lists over the past two weeks of buzz words for PR pros to avoid in 2010. Let’s make “busy” one of them!

Pitching Bloggers

I’ve been working on a research project for the past few weeks regarding the pitching of bloggers. I’m reaching out to thousands of bloggers on behalf of the MatchPoint application for PR pros to gauge their interest in receiving pitches, news, notes, and social media news releases from MatchPoint’s clients.

The team that developed MatchPoint decided (thankfully!) to make it an Opt-In service and ask bloggers’ permission to provide the bloggers’ email addresses to MatchPoint’s clients. Many bloggers have been rightfully outing PR people for spamming when they use old school databases that mass-blast PR Spam from their media lists.

 
Of those bloggers with whom I spoke:

•12% expressed not wanting to have their email address visible to PR people nor wanted to receive pitches via email

•52% said they would be open to emails from PR, BUT ONLY if the pitch was exactly on point, relevant to their blog, or from a PR person who has obviously read their blog posts

•36% said they would opt in to receive PR emails and in fact rarely get any PR pitches
 
I think that last point is most significant. There are many bloggers who have a huge appetite for your news content! It’s notable that this is not an obscure group of bloggers; all were in the top 100,000 blogs by traffic. Most likely, that last group of bloggers is not in most PR Spam databases.

So go get ’em! Just be sure you know each blogger’s preferred method of receiving pitches whether it’s email, via their blog, DM, or carrier pigeon. Also make sure your content is relevant to what they typically write.

PRSA 2009 Conference in San Diego – Packing List

Heading to The PRSA 2009 Conference this weekend? 2009internationalLogo
Here are a few things to remember to bring:

 

 

•Hand sanitizer. Seriously. It should be a new conference and trade show rule that everyone has to carry a bottle.  The only thing I want to bring home is some new ideas.

•Business cards – whatever number you were planning to bring, double it.

•You don’t have your @twitter handle printed on your cards yet? Take 20 minutes this week and write it on the back of  a couple of dozen. Because at the show, no, I don’t have a pen!

 

Remember, if you can’t make it to the conference, please check back here throughout the week. I’ll be blogging throughout each day with conference notes, updates, interviews, and photos.

 

PRSA 2009 Conference in San Diego

2009internationalLogo

Are you registered for the PRSA 2009 International Conference? If not, do so today and join the conversation!

November 7 – 10marinaHotelview
San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina
333 West Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA
Register here: http://www.prsa.org/ic2009/register.html

 
If you can’t make to the PRSA conference, please check back here.  I’ll be blogging throughout the day each day with conference notes, updates, interviews, photos.

My colleague Jeff Tidyman and I will be speaking about MatchPoint, the Associated Press Planner, and other tools and tactics our clients are using to tell the right story at the right time. We’re setting up attendees with free access to the MatchPoint application – readers of this blog are also welcome to access MatchPoint for FREE for a limited time to check it out: http://www.prmatchpoint.com/

See you in San Diego!

100 PR People Worth Following on Twitter

Two weeks ago I was surprised to find myself on Conversation Agent’s list of 100 PR People to Follow On Twitter.
Conv Agent

First of all, I appreciate the massive time Valeria Maltoni devoted to reading hundreds of website pages and blogs in order to make decisions.  

I am very pleased and honored to be a part of this collective. I won’t feign false humility or act like I’m too cool to be excited about this – I’m thrilled!

I’m excited about the new followers and friends with whom I have  conversed since  this list was published. I’m even more excited to find 99 others with the same or greater passion for our industry. Here’s a link to the full list. 

And here’s a convenient link Neville Hobson created so you can easily follow the Tweeps on the list: TweepML.