Tag Archives: News release

Facilitating Conversations: Talking the Talk – Part 2 of my glimpse into Putting PUBLIC Back in PR

Crank up the conversation
Crank up the conversation

Want to join the discussion of “How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging PR Business”?

I did yesterday when I began the day writing my take-aways from Part 1: “The True Value of New PR” — Putting the Public Back in PR by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge — and ended the day engaging in an online chat with the Social Media Book Club discussing Part 2 of the book.

The five chapters in PPBPR’s second section covered these areas:

Ch 6  The language of New P’R – suggesting that terms like “user” and “audience” are out-dated.

Ch 7 Blogger Relations – for which Brian has published an entire Ebook, and the main point is that PR people, and anyone who wants to get a blogger’s attention, needs to read the blog BEFORE making contact.

Ch 8  Social Media Release [SNR] 2.0 – includes an actual template for a recommended format.

Ch 9 Video News Release [VNR] 2.0 – features strategies for creating successful video programs.

Ch 10  Corporate Blogging – my favorite portion of this section because of the tips and links to more resources for planning blogging strategies for companies.

My first experience with Tweetchat and the Social Media Book Club

Not ever having participated in an online chat before [I can’t believe I’m admitting that], I was surprised to see how easy it was to (a) sign up at Tweetchat through my Twitter account, (b) write in the hashtag #smbookclub, and (c) VOILA, I was in and waiting to begin.

Lara McCulloch, an event planner from Ontario, moderated the discussion for the seven or so Tweeple dropping in. The key points discussed included the following:

  • For effective blogger relations, PR people need to read and understand what a blogger writes about BEFORE contacting him or her.
  • If bloggers have a large following, then the comment section can be as valuable as the blog post itself.
  • Gobblygook [i.e, meaningless jargon and cliche expressions] does not belong in press releases.
  • Many companies are finding the news releases, distributed by wire services, may only be necessary for huge product launches.
  • PR is all about relationships, and if you want someone to write about you, you need to establish a relationship.
  • The problem with most traditional releases is that they are designed for a mass audience — and that’s no longer effective, either for the media person or the end consumer.
  • Marketers and PR people need to stop thinking about sending messages, but rather tell stories, i.e. telling rather than selling.
  • Social News releases focus on the facts clearly stated in an easy-to-read format as in the template offered in the book.
  • Newswriting — and the teaching of newswriting — is a different ballgame these days.
  • Print media is looking for community engagement and is doing more stories on local residents.
  • VNRs are time-consuming and expensive, but they are very effective.
  • Video logs, or Vlogs, are not as common as their likability would suggest because they are more time-consuming to create, and they are not as searchable as text-based blogs.
  • Corporate types find it difficult to get into the dialogues that ought to be achieved through company blogging.

The final task of the discussion was to list some quotes that resonated with us:

“We earn the relationship we deserve.”

“To be an effective marketer, you must think like the consumer.”

“”The true influencers are the peers of your customers.”

“Blogs are little First Amendment machines.”

“The game is changing: It is no longer about survival of the fittest, but also the most capable and sincere.”

Don’t forget that you can join next week’s discussion of Part 3 to share your ideas on “Participating in Social Media” – Tuesday, Sept 15 at 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT. Log into Tweetchat and put in the hashtag #smbookclub.

If you missed this week’s chat, but want to add to the conversation, please write your comments below.

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Old Hat press releases will no longer cut it

Part II: My notes on PRWeb Social News Release show

Images are now expected: photo by my friend Susan Ambrosini
Images are now expected: photo by my friend Susan Ambrosini

For a long time I’ve been telling my students the “dirty little secret” that the term PRESS RELEASE is passè — and people-in-the-know have been referring to these outreach communiquès as NEWS RELEASES.

However in the New Media World, we now have the SOCIAL NEWS RELEASE with entirely new rules and capabilities. Naturally I was excited by the prospect of sharing the tips for online news releases offered in the PRWeb/Vocus webinar.

SNR’s — VITAL SEO TOOL

Here are three of the broad-based benefits of Social News Releases:

  • Their incorporated “links” build Google juice
  • They provide content for both news aggregators and bloggers
  • They can create viral exposure through social networks

The Webinar listed five steps for a Great Online News Release:

  1. Focus on two or three relevant key phrases — and get one of those in the headline and the other in the first sentence.
  2. Content is Key: Make certain that your story has news value and is not just a veiled sales pitch.
  3. Distribute the release to all social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
  4. Optimize with key words and videos or images.
  5. Use targeted anchor tags [URLs with recognizable labels].

It’s All About BACKLINKS

Go to slide #26++ on Optimized Press Releases for examples of  SEO-enhanced social news releases. Notice the embedded video, social bookmarking, live search tracking, and embedded hyperlinks. Multimedia has become an expectation.

Here are two organizational points from the webinar transcript:

  • The Process has changed: new way of working, new approval procedures, new metrics
  • Leadership must discuss and adopt a new way of defining success for Public Relations

You can use this template for a Social News Release provided on the Web by Todd Defren, widely respected PR/Social Media expert whose blog PR-Squared debuted the recommended format. For more information check out this Fact Sheet on Todd and the relevance of Social News Releases.

Next post: SFSU alum John Gumas was one of the SF marketing pro’s “responsible” for sparking my passion for All Things Social Media

Yes, Thomas, we do have to throw out those OLD RULES of PR

Old Rules of PR - May they RIP
Old Rules of PR - May they RIP

When one of my new PR students read last week’s post listing David Meerman Scott’s NEW RULES for PR & Marketing, he suggested that the old rules were still useful.

Perhaps some “old rules” may be, but not the ones DMS pointed out. Here below is my response to Thomas’ comment:

Thomas, have you ever heard the old cliche, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater”? That expression was the first thing that came to mind when I read your comment. In other words, when you are “cleaning up,” make certain that you don’t throw out EVERYTHING.

So I thought I’d reexamine those OLD RULES and decide if any were really worth saving:

1. The only way to get ink was through the media.

Of course, with social media, we are all publishers and do not require the mainstream media to tell our stories.

2. Companies communicated to journalists via press releases.

Organizations of all types — profit, nonprofit, government, etc. — can bypass journalists by posting releases on their own sites as well as using many different platforms to communicate with buyers, employees, community members, shareholders, and any other stakeholders they wish to reach.

3. Nobody saw the actual press release except a handful of reporters and editors.

That’s just not true anymore. People searching for our companies and/or the products we carry and/or services we provide can find releases and news and information on our websites as well as more dynamic platforms like our blogs and Twitter accounts.

4. Companies had to have significant news before they were allowed to write a press release.

DMS tells us over and over that the more we communicate directly with our buyers, the better relationships we can build — and that means sharing lots of newsworthy items, not simply “significant events.”

5. Jargon was okay because the journalists all understood it.

Jargon doesn’t work. You want your audiences to understand everything — about your company and you. Jargon does not figure at all in an Authentic World where Transparency is Key.

6. You weren’t supposed to send a release unless it included quotes from third parties, such as customers, analysts, and experts.

Now these 3rd party quotes easily find their way to the people through tweets, blogs, and updates. People do want to hear from their friends — and social media makes those recommendations so easy.

7. The only way buyers would learn about the press release content was if the media wrote a story about it.

With the opportunity to publish your releases on your own internet platforms — as well as the availability of both free and fee-based wire services, you no longer need to depend entirely on the mainstream media. However, if your messages “go viral,” you can be guaranteed that the media will find you and reinforce your message even more.

8. The only way to measure the effectiveness of press releases was through “clip books,” which noted each time the media deigned to pick up a company’s release.

Measuring ROI has a host of new tools including Google Analytics as well as blog comments and social media update — all of which are easily accessible through tools and search. Of course, for many businesses the true measurement of effectiveness has nothing to do with “clips” and everything to do with sales.

9. PR and marketing were separate disciplines run by different people with separate goals, strategies, and measurement techniques.

It seems safe to conclude that marketing is going to have to be ALL about getting out the brand reputation and the brand message to various audiences — and that is what Public Relations has ALWAYS  been about.

So one remaining question could be: What OLD RULES do you think we ought to keep?

Next post: My new Road Map for becoming an ACE: Active Contributor & Engager