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As PR continues to transform from traditional to new media, the height of this transformation discussion seems to be around reaching out to bloggers vs. reaching out to traditional media contacts. This change requires many of the old techniques to be re-mixed, re-learned and re-thought. News Releases become Social Media Releases, Media Advisories become Tweets and Facebook Statuses, and Media Lists become….history?
A beautiful thing is happening here. Long gone are the days spending an hour pulling a media list using Cision to decide to which outlets you should pitch your clients announcement. Now, PR pros are back to doing what we were made to do- creating relationships with media in order to truly understand what they like to cover and bringing exclusives to their doorstep that they feel honored to publicize. With the unconventional style most bloggers exude, it would be very, very unwise to send a mass-email to a chunk of mommy bloggers. It was unwise before too, with traditional media- but many PR pros got lazy.
That said, if you’re looking to start pitching bloggers, there are a few things that you can do:
-Start reading blogs that cover your client’s industry
-Use websites such as Technorati, Google Blog Search and Bloglines to point you in the right direction
-Once you find a blog that you like, use their Blogroll to point you in the direction of other quality blogs
-Have Bloggers come to you, like PR Couture did on Twitter:
Tweet from @pr_couture
Also, remember that there’s nothing that can replace forming a 2.0 media list with your own hands. Be wary of using software like Cision, even though it has a option for Blog Contacts. From my own experience, I have found these lists to be very limited. No doubt they are scrambling to catch-up in this area, but right now- you’re better off getting your hands dirty and doing some digging on your own.
What are your own thoughts on this? Have you found any tools that you find particularly useful- or is it even about the tools anymore?
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Last week, during informal banter before an interview between President Barack Obama and CNBC’s John Howard, Obama shared some candid thoughts about Kanye West’s actions at the MTV Music awards; comments that were not intended to be shared with the general public.
However, some ABC employees overheard the president’s comments; and at least three network employees took to Twitter to spread the news.
ABC News says it was wrong for its employees to tweet that Obama had called West a “jackass” for the rapper’s treatment of country singer Taylor Swift. The network apologized to the White House and CNBC.
The aftermath of these events are provoking a debate over standards of journalism in the Twitter age. If this kind of thing can happen with the president, think about the implications for you and the organization(s) that you represent.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech; but today more than ever, people need to be aware that comments shared online and offline are no longer private. Know your audience. Keep comments that can be taken out of context limited to those in your circle of trust.
Even more importantly, think about the number of different channels that information is distributed. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) no longer means coordinating your public relations and media efforts. Each employee within your organization has a different perception on the company. Does your organization have an “elevator speech?” Is the message that you’re sending internally consistent with the message that your employees are sharing with their networks? If you answered no, take risk mitigation steps to make sure that alignment is occurring across all of your channels.
Finally, when it comes to your social media sites, do you have more than one person monitoring your social media network? Do you know how to login and change information posted to your company’s profiles (on Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter)? When your employees leave your organization, make sure that you take steps to protect the company’s online profile(s) so that in the event of a disgruntled employee, they can not slander the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build. Often, clients find that it’s easy to set these profiles up, but the management requires full-time support.
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Trust has become the factor for brands, large and small. In this ever-changing economy and marketplace, trust is what brands are built on. Without the trust of its audiences – vendors, customers, distributors/dealers, partners, etc. – companies will fail. Business Week just ran an article called, The Great Trust Offensive, talking about three big brands and how they are working to establish greater trust with their customers. I would go one further and say that all your audiences must trust you and that trust is absolutely necessary to succeed. You may have a short-lived success with a new, catchy widget or service but if you can’t live up to expectations, you kill that trust with your audiences.
Trust can be built through each interaction that a brand has with its audiences. From ads to lead nurturing to SEM to delivery of products/services to customer service to social networks, a brand has many touchpoints with its audiences and thereby, many opportunities to establish trust. Here are six simple rules to follow in all your communications/conversations around your brand:
1. Be true to your brand. Create a brand that stands for something and stick to it.
2. Set expectations and make sure that you can live up to them.
3. Live up to them.
4. Engage your audiences to find out if you are living up to them and to get input.
5. Act on that input. This may require a change in product or how you do business or it may involve taking what you started with and expanding on it. Regardless, you have received valuable input and now you can build trust by responding to it and acting on it.
6. Continue to do all of the above. This is an ongoing process and conversation, not just a one-time occurrence. It is the ongoing trust relationship that you are building that will keep your audiences coming back to you time and again.
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