THINKing

Why PR?

PR – not advertising – should be the foundation upon which all other marketing communications tactics are built.

Now, it is true that you have more control over your initial advertising message than you do over your public relations generated messages. You pay for that luxury and that is the problem.

Your audience knows that you paid for the message delivery and immediately discounts it because it is from you. Also, your advertising message has a very limited shelf-life, although that is changing. With the advent of sites like YouTube TV ads can be archived forever.

Enter PR. You lose some control over the message once you set it free, but the message has legs.

People are more likely to believe a PR message because there is an implied third-party endorsement. It is not perceived to be self-serving, or at least not as self-serving as an ad.

Additionally, PR messages have a long shelf life. Once PR messages make their way into the news conduit, you can see them pop up in other stories for years.

The best companies have newsrooms on their websites (you do, don’t you?). There you can archive your news releases and past media coverage forever. Also, once a release is digitally distributed and syndicated, your news is in an online searchable database.

Where advertising tends to build skepticism in our cynical age, PR builds awareness, loyalty, trust and credibility. PR brings your brand and story to life. PR broadens your reach. PR establishes you as an expert.

Now, get started building your foundation with PR.

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Links 3/30/2008

Photo By PPDIGITAL (Flickr)

Newspaper Revenue Plummets

Social Media For B2B Marketing

Twitter Is My Social Computer

20 Types Of Pages Every Blogger Should Consider

48 Reasons To Use WordPress To Power Your Online Strategy

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Get The Flock Onto Your Computer

Flock has supplanted Firefox as my favorite browser. It is powered by Mozilla, the same engine that supports Firefox, however it has so many more features designed for our new social, digital world. There is a nice demo of Flock by Candy With A Why, so I won’t recreate the wheel.

Here’s what I like about it. It is a nice tool for handling all your RSS feeds. Sometime back I said that we needed an Outlook type platform to make RSS as ubiquitous as email. Flock is close. It also makes it simple to handle all of my accounts: del.icio.us, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, you name it. Finally, it has a feature that allows you to track your friends on all their accounts. Get it and use it.

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Connections Revisited

I asked what social networks you are a part of and several of you have waded in. Let’s see what’s working for our readers:

Ashleigh Hunter of Bank of America wrote:

I am a part of linkedin and facebook actively. I have an account on jigsaw but have not figured out how to effectively use it. I typically end up X-raying linkedin for the right folks as opposed to going through my network. This is the one I find the most useful.

Your PR Guy Blogger Rodger Johnson wrote:

I’m in 5 social networks: Facebook, Linkedin, MyRagan, Smaller Indiana, and Twitter. I’m finding that Facebook is meeting my business objectives the least — but connecting with other professionals has been more fruitful in MyRagan, SMIN, Linkedin and Twitter. I must say, however, Twitter is still new to me.

WebMarketCentral Blogger Tom Pick wrote:

About 40. For standard websites: StumbleUpon (by far – better than all others combined). Then, in order best to least, Bibsonomy, Mister Wong, BeeTooBee.com, Ma.gnolia, del.icio.us and Netvous. For blogs: Technorati (again, by far — as valuable as the next four combined). Then, in descending order, StumbleUpon, Searchles, Facebook, Digg, del.icio.us, Zimbio, IceRocket, BeeTooBee.com, Clipmarks and Sphinn

Social Media Explorer Blogger Jason Falls wrote.

I’m involved in too many to name, but because I’m supposed to know and understand them for my job. (Advising people on how to use them.) But I’m primarily active on the following, all of which have business implications: SocialMediaExplorer.com – My own blog and mini community, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Groups, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us.
A number of niche forums/message boards and communities connected to my clients (like RobbysUprising.com, a Ning community for fans of Robby Gordon, Jim Beam’s NASCAR driver.)

Blogger Joe Pulizzi wrote:

LinkedIn is most effective (outside of Junta42 of course). Other network I’m involved in is Facebook. I’ve tried others as experiments, but they are so unimportant at this point that I can’t remember the names.

Sandy Vasseur of Little Architecture wrote:
LinkedIn gives me the best opener a person can have, regardless of whether or not I am personally acquainted with someone. I can say, “We’re linked in via John Doe.” Or, “I’m two-times removed from you on LinkedIn.” Most of us are online for the same purpose, and those opening lines always get me a response.

Blogger Carter Langston, ABC wrote:
I incorporate LinkedIn as one element of my larger email database for my ‘connected’ networking. While I think I understand what you mean by ‘social,’ my offline social networking is much more extensive and diverse. Some very important people in my sphere of influence just aren’t part of the Internet Social Revolution, so my networking takes place online, offline, face-to-face, etc.  Within the greater LinkedIn population, there are sub-groups that I find personally beneficial. For instance, there is the ExecuNet Group, IABC Group, CEO Exchange and more that refine the target audience a bit.  In terms of business objectives: Have I received business directly from those in my network? No. But I interact with people, share information, help other professionals address their issues and concerns. In the process, I learn from others, sharpen my own counsel, build relationships and earn referrals.  In terms of sales objectives: There is nothing more effective than face-to-face networking and talking to people about meeting thei tangible business needs.

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The Value Of Connections

As we have discussed before, the value of connections in business cannot be underestimated. I’m talking primarily about tight connections that you use ruthlessly to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. Friend and business coach Brent Dees of Focus Four tells us that you if want a $1 million business, you should have 40 contacts (your Focus 40) each of whom can bring you $25,000 in business. Your job is to help each of these contacts achieve their goals and they, in turn, will help you reach yours. This is a spin on the method that made Andrew Carnegie a millionaire many times over.

Now, Brent says that you can’t support more than 40 contacts like this. I agree. However, with the advent of social networks like LinkedIn (feel free to connect with me), you can have access to hundreds of contact to help you connect with others who may be able to help you.

Now, here’s the point of this story. I’ve begun building my LinkedIn network over the past few days and I sent invitations to all my contacts. I get one angry missive back from a female newspaper ad sales representative telling me take her off my email list immediately. OK, no problem.

But let me ask you: if you were an ad salesperson wouldn’t you want to be connected to the owner of an ad agency? Do you think I’ll ever deal with her – or her newspaper – again?

What are your thoughts on using LinkedIn and other social networking sites?

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THINKing Essentials – Media Relations

Photo By laffy4k (Flickr)

There has been a lot of good content here in THINKing, and you may have missed some of it. So, this is the first in a series to bring some of that content out of the dusty archives and back into the light of day. Today, let’s revisit some previous posts on media relations.

46 Essential PR Links

Top 17 Media Relations Links

Media Relations How-To

Printed Press Kits: A Contrarian View

Six Tips For Perfect Email Media Pitches

Top 8 Media Relations Links

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Sending Out An RSS

Photo By photopia (Flickr)

RSS is a friend of mine. Subscribing to feeds helps me keep current on a wide variety of blogs and topics. So, today I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on using RSS.

Now, I have a number of blogs I keep up with, like those of my digital colleagues Jason Falls (RSS feed) and Rodger Johnson (RSS feed), to mention a couple. Instead of visiting their sites ever day, I subscribe to their feeds and have the information come to me. Feel free to subscribe to this blog’s feed.

I’ve started using the new browser from Flock and have found it an excellent tool for keeping up with key feeds. It’s Firefox on steroids. But that is a topic for another day.

Now, another tactic is to use Google’s blog search for terms or phrases you follow. For instance, I follow the phrase “stumbleupon marketing“. So, type in your term under Google’s blog search. When the results come up, you’ll see in the left hand column about halfway down is the word “Subscribe”. Below that is the word “RSS” hyperlinked. Click on that and you’ll be subscribed to the search. Anytime it changes, you’ll be automatically updated.

How are you using RSS?

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Think Keyphrase, Not Keyword

Are you still thinking in terms of keywords? If so, it is time to shift the paradigm. Keywords are so 20th century. People looking for my company, me or the types of services I offer are searching differently. One and two-word searches were once common but I’m seeing a trend toward more specific search terms when I review my Google Analytics. Here are some recent searches that drove traffic to my site:

- advertising presentation for a leading bank

- corporate pr flash animation

- creative advertising white paper

- creative logo development team

- pr that works charlotte, nc

- creative advertising agency

- advertising agencies in huntersville, nc

- surveys on consumer behavior and media

- 5 key elements to creative thinking

As you can see, marketers are becoming more savvy in their searching. So, we must become more savvy in our copywriting and keyword and keyphrase development. Have you noticed this trend in your keywords? Wade into the conversation.

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Spam: Consumer Perception Is All That Counts

Photo By uberculture (Flickr)

Q Interactive and MarketingSherpa just completed a study to reveal consumers’ perceptions of what they consider to be spam. According to the survey,

the definition of Spam has changed from the permission-based regulatory definition of “unsolicited commercial email” to a subjective, perception-based definition centered on consumer dissatisfaction.  An overwhelming number of consumers misuse and misunderstand the definition of spam, ultimately hurting legitimate marketers–but also consumers themselves who are seeking the messages they want, but instead are automatically being unsubscribed, said Arend Henderson, Q Interactive’s chief analytics officer.

Q Interactive is calling for ISPs, marketers, advertisers and publishers to come together with industry associations such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau to agree on a solution that is beneficial to consumers and all interested parties. In essence, Q Interactive is saying consumers are too stupid to recognize what is spam and what isn’t.

Marketers need to understand that consumers are in the driver’s seat. If they think what marketers are sending is spam, then it is spam.

Note to marketers: how about sending worthwhile information to consumers, and then they won’t report you for spamming?

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A Vote For Me Is A Vote For Me

Photo By ldcross (Flickr)

Election season has me in its grip, so I am shamelessly campaigning for votes. Now, you will have to register to vote for me, just as you should to vote in any campaign. Here are the links for you to visit to vote:

Best Marketing Blog (we’re leading in this Bloggers’ Choice category. Keep us there!)

Junta42 Top Content Marketing Blogs (we’re number 38 currently)

Technorati Favorite

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