I received a question from a college friend via LinkedIn asking me if I use Twitter and what it’s all about. My reply, “Of course, I use Twitter!” Even though there are over one million Twitter users, it is still not widely known. Twitter is micro-blogging, using only 140 characters in each post. To help you get started, check out Sarah Morgan’s Twitter Primer.

For PR professionals, Twitter can provide many applications.

• Keeping in touch with colleagues or friends. The Digital 360º team at Ogilvy PR uses it to let each other know where they are and what they are doing. They don’t all have to be on the same instant messaging program, and they feel tweeting is part of their jobs. The Digital 360º team has also created some great Twitter Tools and Best Practices.
• “Listening” to what is going on. During this year’s presidential campaign, I was able to quickly know who was writing interesting articles about the campaign. I also follow several PR people on Twitter, alerting me to new trends and ideas.
• Taking part in the conversation. When I find a tweet useful or interesting, I can quickly make a comment or reply. It’s also easy to add additional thoughts or information.
• Promote your latest blog post, newsletter or article. When this blog entry is posted, I will post a link to it on Twitter. I have Twitter feeding into Friendfeed, which posts my tweets to Facebook and Plaxo. There are other programs available, like Twirl and Ping, to help you post your tweets to the social media platforms you use.
• Connect to reporters. You can follow some of your favorite reporters on Twitter, which will help you understand the reporter’s interests. MicroPR has an ongoing list of media on Twitter.  Help A Reporter Out (HARO), aka Peter Shankman, is also on Twitter. I recently forwarded a HARO posting for an interview opportunity to one of my clients. Shankman tends to put the most urgent and latest opportunities on Twitter.
• Customer service. Many companies, such as Dell, Sun Microsystems, and Marriott are using Twitter to connect to their clients and provide customer service. I recommend a recent PR Week’s article, Tweeting Your Way to the Top for additional ideas.

How are you using Twitter? I’d love to hear other creative ideas.

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Yesterday I was preparing some marketing materials to help promote the launch of a newly designed interface for BurrellesLuce Media Contacts - our online media database and news distribution service. To my surprise, this is one of the edits I was asked to make:

“Your Media Contacts subscription comes with e­mail ^and fax^ distribution of your press releases.”

My response was, “Enough reporters still want faxed rather than emailed press releases so I would need to insert the word ‘fax’? I actually should itemize the fax as a stated distribution preference?” As it turns out, the answer to both those questions is “yes.”  

According Tressa Robbins of our Media Contacts team, some journalists turn their backs on email announcements due to delivery issues and inbox overload. Tressa has noticed that while distribution preferences are highly individualized, reporters in smaller markets writing for weekly publications opt for fax more frequently than do journalists at large publications.

For me, the surprising ongoing viability of the fax has become this week’s theme. A few days ago, I read the Wired story, Burning Question: Why Are Faxes Still Around? The reporter, Eric Hagerman, asserts that fax remains a practical and speedy way to send an exact copy of a document: “Fax machines are everywhere: doctors’ offices, delicatessens, brokerage firms, even souvenir shops in the developing world (for verifying tourists’ credit cards).” 

(Eric’s story is worth reading just for its brief history of the fax.)

On a personal note: In addition to attorneys, doctors, and journalists, add advertising salespeople to the list of the fax-dependent. The online ad, print ad, and event insertion orders (IOs) sent by organizations such as PR News, Bulldog Reporter Daily ‘Dog, PR Week, and O’Dwyers often instruct me to return the signed contracts via fax. But I choose another route whenever it’s acceptable, such as signing a PDF version using my digital signature.

No doubt, some of the preference for fax is generational, not merely functional. My colleague Johna Burke explores the need for sensitivity and accommodation in her presentation, Four Generations of Media, Four Generations of Audience, as well as in this Bulldog Reporter ‘Daily Dog by-liner.

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One of the most frequent concerns I hear from clients is, “How can I keep costs down, without sacrificing service?” In an economic environment characterized by lower consumer spending, rising unemployment, tightening credit, and inflation pressures that hit both businesses and customers, this question has never been more important. While keeping costs down is essential to maintaining a healthy business, demonstrating PR effectiveness is equally vital.

I urge clients to take some time to evaluate and share their goals, before we step back and attempt to audit their current process. The reason: Business needs change, and the manner in which you service these needs must change as well. BurrellesLuce has been around for over 120 years, and one of my biggest challenges is educating clients who’ve been loyal and happy customers for decades to take advantage of some of the new, more cost effective solutions we offer for monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of their media coverage.

Here are a few simple tips for getting the most out of your media monitoring in 2009:

1. Stop wasting your time counting or sorting through clips! We now provide basic analysis of your coverage FREE on our portal, BurrellesLuce 2.0. Admittedly, this is nothing fancy - just some simple excel spreadsheets, charts and graphs to help you get a better understanding of the effectiveness of your campaign over time. Our online searching and clip book creation is ideal for quickly compiling the coverage you would like to review and is also available at no additional charge to all clients who are receiving their content online.
2. Consider how to allocate your media monitoring budget. Don’t waste your time or money searching through erroneous clips. We have editors who carefully sift through large and complex searches, assuring that you are only charged for those stories you actually need. On the other hand, if you have a narrow search, a self-search option may be the more cost effective route. Our new iMonitor service is an extremely economical way to perform ad hoc searches or track competitive information you may not otherwise be able to afford to monitor. Your sales rep can help you identify the best type or combination of services.
3. Get rewarded for your loyalty. In an effort to thank and support our longtime clients, we are now offering a discount with an annual contract. We still offer month-to-month options. (I personally take a lot of pride in the fact that we never attempt to “lock” clients into a long-term contract. It is both humbling and exciting to know that our clients continue to choose us each month). However, this is a great opportunity for us to thank those clients who are true long term partners.
4. If you are not already doing so, get your clips online. We understand that you still want to see the articles as they appear in the hard copy sources, but a scanned PDF will allow you to see the article as it appeared in print while managing the information and distribution in a more efficient manner.

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After years of using whatever free phone Verizon Wireless gave me (funny what happens when a phone falls out of your pocket when riding a motorcycle), I recently got an iPhone and made the switch over to AT&T.  I couldn’t be more elated with my decision to move into the 21^st century, and apparently so are millions of other consumers as they scoop up the iPhone and the newest version of Blackberries, notably the Storm.   

Mobile computing is certainly the wave of the future.  A few months back I attended a luncheon at the Paley Center for Media where the CEO of Nokia spoke, and he mentioned an astounding fact: there are three times as many users who access the Internet worldwide from a mobile device than there are those who use a computer and broadband Internet access, and the number of mobile internet users is simply exploding.

No doubt, clients of BurrellesLuce are part of this throng, and they are going to want to view their clips on these devices.  Fortunately, I’m glad to report that both the iPhone and the Storm do a fantastic job of displaying our print clips. Headlines, photos and graphics all display crystal clear and the PDF format we send them in are easy to manipulate on either device. I’m glad that both Apple and Research in Motion have made it easy for BurellesLuce 2.0 portal users to showcase their hard-won coverage to their C-Suite and/or clients as it really ran, rather than sending along plain text, or a link that may have expired, or coverage that’s inaccessible, requiring a subscription or archive.

Surely we’ll see the use, power and capability of mobile devices expand. You’ll be able to conduct more of your PR workflow - including media measurement - from your favorite mobile device. On the downside, some of our clients sometimes bemoan the  further expansion of possible times and circumstances for knowledge work made possible by the PDA. What do you think? How much do you use mobile device, and for what? Which of these uses are a godsend, and when do you curse Apple for inventing that first PDA (the ill-fated Newton, circa 1993)?

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As you reflect on your 2008 news coverage, you need to ask yourself, are you getting the coverage you deserve? For those of you actively measuring your results and translating your news coverage into qualitative results you already know your effectiveness and where you need to improve. For those of you still relying on quantitative results to tell your story New Year is your time to fine tune your PR efforts and demonstrate PR effectiveness based on your 2009 news coverage. As Tony Robbins says “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

Success Tips for Effective News Coverage in 2009:

1. Measure to manage - Set up parameters to benchmark and evaluate qualitative results of news coverage including, but not limited to: editorial tone, strategic messaging, story type, marketing power, prominence and position of story.
2. Have a message manager - Someone who provides quality assurance guidance over your written word to avoid everything from typos to assuring there is strategic alliance for your message and the appropriate medium.
3. Have trained spokespersons who effectively deliver your message - Provide your team with the training and resources to build rapport and ensure stories reflect at least one strategic message in a positive tone.
4. Be a journalist friend - Never bury the lead. Clearly and concisely communicate with journalists so they don’t have to guess about your message.

Provide Journalism 101 support by clearly communicating:

• Who will benefit from the news of your product/service? Do your due diligence and properly target publications and journalists appropriate for your story.
• What are you pitching or talking about? Make your story easy to understand. If you must use jargon make sure it is appropriate to your audience. If your release has so much jargon a reporter needs a Rosetta Stone to translate the likelihood of your message being communicated at all is significantly reduced.
• When will this release, change or update take effect? If this is an upgrade include information about the original release.
• Where will this release impact constituents? If it is an event clearly define the location, if it is a release of product identify where it is produced and distributed so a reporter can easily pull in multiple angles of your story.
• Why is this newsworthy? Beyond your initiative to “get the corporate message out” make sure you are pitching the right story at the right time to the right medium. Only say your “widget” is the first in the Industry if it is.

Use these success tips in 2009 to improve PR Effectiveness and to avoid a feature on “The Bad Pitch Blog”.

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