Social media is boring, so let’s find a way to influence the physical world, says Peter Corbett, CEO of iStrategyLabs, when highlighting his latest projects during the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit on April 20. The full-day event, sponsored by the Capitol Communicator and Potomac Tech Wire, was held at Gannett headquarters and included insights from marketing, communications, advertising and public relations experts.
With many folks overwhelmed by the number of social media platforms available, one panel attempted to put the social networkings into perspective. Moderated by Geoff Livingston, vice president of strategic partnerships at Razoo, the panelists looked at several options beyond Facebook and Twitter and shared what worked for their organizations. All the panelists encouraged participants to find out what platforms their core audience use.
Commenting on Google+ users, Kevin Dando, director of digital marketing and communications at PBS, says the site is just a place for men to talk about being on Google+. However, you shouldn’t discount Google+ because it will help your website’s page rank. Additionally, Google+ and YouTube are becoming closer and will soon have shared search. On the other side of the spectrum, Pinterest has mostly female users and can be very effective for visual campaigns.
PBS, like other TV networks, needs to be on GetGlue, a platform that allows users to check into TV shows and other entertainment media. Dando says shows with live Twitter events have ratings one percent higher than those without. He commented Tumblr doesn’t drive a lot of traffic, but it does have a lot of engagement.
The role of chief marketer has become chief storyteller, says Debra Lavoy, director of product marketing at OpenText. You should use the story to pull the team together and that content marketing should be renamed substance marketing.
If his marketing budget was increased, Vocus’s Jason Jue says he would wish for more storytellers. (Download this PR Storytelling tip sheet from BurrellesLuce). Speaking of storytellers, when I asked the Beyond Facebook and Twitter panel if they could review Storify, they said they were all fans, especially for events. At SXSW, they said they barely left a session before someone would post all the tweets from the event to a new Storify.
Examples of brands using marketing and social media for good and helping causes were also abundant. For example, Terry Macko, senior vice president of communications and marketing for the World Wildlife Fund, discussed WWLF teaming with Coke to raise awareness about the environment. Despite backlash and confusion over the white cans, the campaign raised over two million dollars.
The summit inspired several great blog posts, including:
3/13/12 Know your subject, know the outlet you are trying to pitch and its audience, and have some “news” sense—that was the message from four of Washington’s top editors to over 100 public relations professionals attending PRSA-NCC’s “Meet the Assignment Editors” workshop at the Navy Memorial. Shown in picture are Lois Dyer, CBS News; moderator Danny Selnick, Business Wire; Vandana Sinha, Washington Business Journal; Steven Ginsberg, Washington Post; and Lisa Matthews, Associated Press.
Keep it simple and to the point and avoid jargon. This sage advice from Washington, DC assignment editors should not come as a shock to most seasoned PR pros, but listening to the panel at the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA-NCC) March 13 event, you might be surprised.
Email: All of the panelists agreed email is the best format for pitching them. They suggested using a short subject line that highlights the story. They do not like it when the main subject is hidden and hate pitches that start with “A great story idea for you.”
Voicemail: Ginsberg does not check his voicemail, but Dyer does. Most said they would respond to your email or voicemail if they were interested (and sometimes if they were not), so the follow-up “Did you get my email?” call is often not needed. If you don’t hear from them, a call with a fresh reminder of the subject in a day or two is acceptable.
Twitter: Twitter can be an effective way to pitch your story according to Ginsberg. He said all the Post reporters are on Twitter most-of-the-time, and you can learn about their needs from their tweets. You should consider becoming an expert on Twitter for the subject(s) you pitch most often.
Multi-Channels: All panelists reminded the audience they have multiple platforms to fill with content. For example, the Washington Post is not just the print paper, but several websites and apps. Matthews says all the AP reporters write and shoot their own stories for various sites and platforms.
Top Pitching Tips: The PRSA-NCC audience actively shared many tips and highlights of the event. I’ve created a Storify of some of the top tweets and posts.
Do
Know your audience (the media outlet’s audience) – Sinha stressed the Washington Business Journal covers only local business news. They do not care about national stories.
Respect deadlines – Sinha also hates pitches coming in right before her Wednesday afternoon deadline for the print edition. Early Friday afternoon is an ideal time to pitch her.
Know what you are pitching and have answers for questions.
Give the editor or reporter access to your client (spokesperson). Offer experts who can speak around issues of breaking news
Include current contact information on the release.
Think about and pitch stories for future happenings or trends.
Understand the need and provide visuals which can enhance the story – Both Matthews and Dyer confirmed outside video content is only used in extreme cases, where there is no other place to get the footage.
Do Not
Send pitches to someone else in the newsroom if you are turned-down by the editor.
Send multiple separate emails.(However, it is OK to copy relevant reporters on a pitch).
Say you just got coverage in a competitor’s publication
Sound like a commercial, you can bet your pitch or press release will be deleted.
Just in case you have been out of commission and haven’t heard of Pinterest, according to its About Page, “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web […] Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”
The site was (soft) launched less than two years ago and is still by-invitation-only, but has exploded in popularity in the past few months. According to ZDNet, Pinterest received nearly 11 million total visits in the week ending December 1, 2011. That’s 4,000 percent growth on visits during a single week in just six months, points out CNET, bumping it into the top 10 social sites among the more than 6,000 properties that Hitwise tracks.
We all see cool stuff online that we’d like to share or save (aka “pin”) – I have some Facebook friends that I wish would use Pinterest instead of filling my stream with kitten images and quotation graphics, but that’s for another post. Snark aside, it is no surprise that people are finding use for this online pinboard. Friends and colleagues that are engaged are pinning wedding themed items, foodie friends are pinning recipes, fashion junkies are pinning wish-list items, etc.
So, I get the individual use, but what, if anything, can this do for companies or organizations? (more…)
It was followed by a roundtable Q&A moderated by Jason Winocour, social and digital media practice leader at Hunter Public Relations.
Recipe for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Marketing and communications professionals often talk about the need for engagement and the desire for their videos to go viral. Who wouldn’t want millions of people viewing their videos and spreading them across the web seemingly overnight?
While it’s not impossible to fulfill that goal, the success of a video is quite relative. It won’t matter how great or potentially “viral” your video is, if no one can find it online…
Jack Finkelstein, president of Method Savvy, had these tips to share on effective SEO and improving the searchable quality of your video: (more…)
It was followed by a roundtable Q&A moderated by Jason Winocour, social and digital media practice leader at Hunter Public Relations.
Why Digital Video Fifty-nine percent of Americans get their news every day from online and a mix of broadcast, radio and print sources. In fact, it is predicted that “by 2015, the demand for online video is expected to grow by 81 percent.”
Eric Wright, senior VP of marketing and business development, DS Simon Productions, Inc., offered additional insight on why digital video matters to the media.
AOL Newsroom is now bigger than the New York Times.
Journalist are using online video on their website.
79 percent will use more online video in their messages.
Interestingly enough, over 50 percent of journalists say that video is vital to their jobs and that HD is the most important format.
For these reasons, among others, it is imperative that public relations professionals use video to engage and build relationships with stakeholders, the media, and the community. However, PR folks have lots of homework before integrating online video in their campaigns. (more…)
