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Less is More

Monday, August 30th, 2010

The more friends/followers the better, right?

The amount of Twitter followers and the amount of people you are following brings up the old battle between quantity vs. quality. Can you have too many Twitter followers? Apparently, yes you can. According to Josh Lyons blog, “Trailblaze Social Media with Josh,” the quality of Twitter followers or the quality of people you are following is far more important than the amount. In fact, according to Lyons, following too many people on Twitter can make the account look like a spammer. Twitter efforts will be more effective if messages are tailored accordingly and reaching the actual audience they are intended for. Lyons offers a couple tips to consider before going on your next Twitter following binge:

  • Keep the follower/following ratio close. Not more than a 10% difference
  • Go to Twellow and follow your target audience. Follow 50-100 people a day

For the blog and more information visit http://joshuajlyons.wordpress.com/.

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New Survey Finds Most Advertising/Marketing Executives Find Keeping Current on New Social Media Trends Demanding

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Social media provides new channels to marketers but staying current on developments takes some legwork, a new survey by The Creative Group confirms.  Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of advertising and marketing executives interviewed said it’s at least somewhat challenging to keep up with social media trends.  According to 23 percent of respondents, the best resource for staying up to speed on this topic is conferences or seminars. Attending networking events or industry association meetings was the second most common response, cited by 18 percent of those polled.

The national study was developed by The Creative Group and conducted by an independent research firm. It is based on more than 500 telephone interviews — approximately 375 with marketing executives randomly selected from companies with 100 or more employees and 125 with advertising executives randomly selected from agencies with 20 or more employees..

Advertising and marketing executives were asked, “How challenging is it for you to stay current on social media trends?” Their responses:
Very challenging 9%
Somewhat challenging 56%
Not challenging 35%

Advertising and marketing executives also were asked, “What do you consider the single best resource for staying current on social media trends?”  Their top responses included:

Conferences or seminars 23%
Networking events or industry associations
meetings 18%
Webinars or online training 17%
Trade publications 15%
Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn posts 14%
Blogs 7%

So what do you think?  Are conferences and events really the best way to stay current or do you have other tried and true methods?

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Reporters Forced to Blog

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

The media is constantly transforming.  The popularity of online publications has left traditional print publications scrambling to adapt to new trends.  From the PR perspective, we are all left wondering – what’s next?

Forbes Magazine has announced that all reporters will now be required to maintain an active blog as part of their completely refurbished blog section of their Web site. Forbes is showing the industry exactly what’s next – traditional and online media becoming more interchangeable than ever.

The forced change makes sense. The best way for traditional media to reenergize is to adapt to the industry trends. Writers should be writing no matter what the medium, and any opportunity for writers to connect with readers is sure to be beneficial for business.

So what’s next?  Are more publications to follow?

To check out Forbes’ blogs visit http://bfn.forbes.com/.

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Are You One of 2010’s Top Tech Communicators?

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

PrintPRSourceCode’s fifth annual Top Tech Communicators awards are here!  The survey is now open and asks tech journalists to vote for their top tech agency, corporate PR department, and individual. PR pros if you want to be a winner, ask your journalists to vote for you! 

The survey’s quick — takes just five minutes — and as a thank you for their time, each journalist who completes the survey will receive a $20 Amazon.com gift card.

Voting is for journalists only,  so PR pros — send the link to your top journalists now. Votes from this survey directly influence the 2010 Top Tech Communicator awards winners, to be announced this fall.

Journalists can vote at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AXQ8M6RX9?S=[D].

**Please note:  only legit responses from verified publications/journalist e-mail addresses will be represented in the results.  Non-journalists are not eligible for the Amazon.com gift card

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PR on Facebook

Friday, July 30th, 2010

“Like, friend, un-friend, fan-page, tag, status up-date, poke -” we all know the lingo;  Facebook has made its mark.  The largest social media site has impacted many aspects of daily life, but also revolutionized the PR industry. Facebook and all of social media have become key components of PR. Last week the social media-PR relationship was integrated even further with the launching of Facebook for PR, a fan-page dedicated to  “Best practices and conversations around using Facebook for PR.”  Obviously Facebook has done something right and now they’re willing to share. The page has posts about:

Facebook for PR’s fan count is over 6,500 fans and growing by the second. The page will be used to share what they have learned about creating social content, promoting events, optimizing pages, and integrating with tools off of Facebook.  Now, PR professionals have a new resource for innovative social media advice from the people who have clearly mastered it.

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A Step Towards PR Measurement Standards – The Barcelona Principles

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

When it comes to PR measurement, the only thing that’s currently clear is the lack of standardization. However, it seems that PR is taking a step forward in determining standards and methods as a whole.

Most recently, Weber Shandwick  announced its endorsement of the “Barcelona Principles” for effective public relations measurement.  The seven fundamental principles were formally published last week after being adopted in mid-June by 200 delegates from 33 countries at the 2nd annual European Summit on Measurement.  The Institute for PR, the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communications (AMEC), the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO), and the Global Alliance all support the common standards.

The seven fundamental principles include:

· Importance of Goal Setting and Measurement

· Measuring the Effect on Outcomes is Preferred to Measuring Outputs

· The Effect on Business Results Can and Should Be Measured Where Possible

· Media Measurement Requires Quantity and Quality

· Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) is not the Value of Public Relations

· Social Media Can and Should be Measured

· Transparency and Replicability are Paramount to Sound Measurement

So if there still isn’t standardized measurement, what does this all mean? It’s all open to interpretation, but at the moment it seems to be a step in the right direction.  Now it’s about further defining each principle and assigning designated actions and practices.

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Ever Wonder If Your Clients Are Using Social Media?

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Ever wonder which of your clients/prospects use social media – and how? As marketers and PR pros become more strategic, this social media insight will become even more valuable. So how to get this intel?

John Jantschs recently wrote an article for Open Forum, “Top 10 Social Media Tools to Find Your Referral Champions,” that discusses tools for finding your clients and/or prospects involvement in social media. A few of our favorites from the list include:

BatchBook - The social media monitoring tool allows users to enter e-mail addresses and provides links to contact’s Flikr, LinkedIn and Twitter pages. It’s instant access to records of all contacts’ social networking activity

Rapportive – This Gmail application displays icons associated with contacts’ e-mail address. Rapportive provides access to the greatest amount of outside sites associated with the contact

Twitter Export – Enter a Twitter account and instantly there is an organized list of either followers or friends with contact information and links to respective Web sites

Check out the full list by clicking here

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New PRSourceCode Study Ranks Top Tech Publications and Journalists: Tech PR Pros Offer New Insight on Evolution of Tech PR Priorities, Methods and Results Measurement

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Ever wonder which publications are most in demand by tech PR pros?  Want to know how your outlet priorities, outreach methods, and social measurement tactics stack up to that of other PR pros?

A new PRSourceCode study reveals the top tech print and online publications, blogs, and individual journalists of 2010, as voted by the tech PR community.  The “2010 Top Tech Publications” study also examines which outlets are most important to the tech PR community, how PR pros are reaching out to journalists by medium, how social media coverage is being counted, and more.

Some of the study’s key findings include:

  • There is an 80 percent overlap between the top print and top online publications
  • Of participating tech PR pros, 86 percent say that online publications are extremely important to their 2010 PR efforts – compared to 75 percent in 2009
  • The most widely employed method for measuring impact includes counting followers/friends as the base for outlet reach – however even this method is used by only 59 percent of respondents
  • Ninety-six percent of PR pros use e-mail to communicate with journalists, regardless of medium

To view the full study results, click here.

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U.S. business journalists express confidence in journalism’s future

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Almost two-thirds of business journalists report the amount of business coverage at their organization has stayed the same or increased in the past five years, according to a new survey commissioned by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. | Business Journalists Study 2010.

The Business Journalists Study 2010 is a groundbreaking survey of 473 business reporters and editors.

“We talked with hundreds of print, online, wire, broadcast and freelance business journalists, and they expressed optimism about the future of journalism,” said Andrew Leckey, Reynolds Center president and Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism at Arizona State University.

“I am convinced the Reynolds study is a seminal piece of work that should make the obituary writers for journalism pause and seriously reflect,” said professor Tim McGuire, former editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. McGuire is Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at ASU’s Cronkite School.

Specifically, McGuire was surprised that almost a third reported an increase in pay over the past two years and that seven out of 10 business journalists say they are more or just as satisfied with their jobs as they were five years ago.  Almost three-fourths plan to stay in journalism.

“What’s striking in the results is how much more negatively print journalists have been impacted compared with those from other media,” said Linda Austin, executive director of the Reynolds Center.

Respondents averaged 20 years in journalism and 12.8 years as business journalists.  Also:

  • Six out of 10 are doing more or about the same level of investigative journalism
  • Nine out of 10 have learned new skills
  • About half blog, file first for online, cover more beats

For the full study results, please visit http://businessjournalism.org/2010/06/22/business-journalists-express-confidence-in-journalism-future/.

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What PR Pros Need to Know About Foursquare

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

We found a great piece about how Foursquare can (and can’t) be applicable to PR and marketing pros.

My personal Foursquare assessment?  On my initial attempt, it took me a good 15 minutes just to figure out how to “check in” — call me slow.  Be it a lack of social competitiveness — or perhaps a lack of dedication to checking in via my phone every time I go somewhere, I’ve yet to fully understand and commit to the beauty of Foursquare for personal use.  On the business front, though, there are several ways marketers are using it to their advantage:

  • New way to connect directly to their audience
  • Reinforce brand loyalty
  • Mobile and geo-location technologies are the future
  • Location-based services are a natural fit for tourism and travel-related brands
  • Event marketers use Foursquare to drive participation

For detail, please visit Lindsay’s blog.  As for [many of] us tech PR pros, will Foursquare stay rooted to consumer brands, or is there an opportunity here for B2B?

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