THINKing

Links – 8/29/2008

From Cision’s Navigator enewsletter Media Update Column:
General News Category
Lifestyle/Entertainment Category
Business/Financial Category

Summer Blues For News

The Secret To WOM Marketing

The Future Of Social Media

From THINKing’s Dusty Archives:
Tell Me A Story
Tell Me A Story About Me
Brand Euthanasia

100 Reporters Were Sitting At A Bar…

We’ve talked here often about the use of digital tools like Twitter for PR and media relations purposes. Digital colleague Joan Stewart alerted me about a post on PR and Social Media at Ronn Torossian’s blog,

Tell Me A Story About Me

Marketers know that a story is a good way to engage prospects. But too often the marketer wants to tell a self-serving story about the company instead of about how the company helps the prospect or customer. Chest-thumping puffery does not sell. Tell me about how you can make me more money, save me some time, provide me work/life balance and I’m listening and more likely to ring the register. Otherwise, save your time and money because I just tuned out.

Tell Me A Story

Since the dawn of time mankind has been a sucker for a story. We may be wearing synthetics now instead of skins, but that one truth has not changed. Whether you are communicating with employees, customers or the media, a story has the most power.

Brand Euthanasia

Was just reading an interesting piece at MediaPost about Kellogg trying to resuscitate a brand – Hydrox – that long had been on life support. Hydrox – developed by Sunshine Bakeries – was the original creme filled cookie. Oreo is the knock-off. But like IBM, whose mantra used to be “second with power”, Oreo out-marketed the cookie pioneer. Mergers and acquisitions turned Sunshine to Keebler and Keebler to Kellogg. Hydrox was shelved.

Links 8/22/2008

Online
Magazine Web Traffic: Surge or Embarrassment

Magazine Web Traffic: The Other Side Of The Story

Local Online Ads Moving Consumers

Toothpaste & Word-of-Mouth Seem To Go Together

PR
Getting PR For A Start-Up

Five Ways To Make Pitching More Productive

PitchEngine: A PR Tool For Savvy Practitioners

Editor’s Note: Today’s post comes from guest blogger, Jason Kintzler of PitchEngine. This is a terrific service that every PR practitioner should be using. So, get over there and sign up.

Starbucks – And Now For The Good News

Tim Manners of Reveries has completed a survey about Starbucks that contains much food for thought. Before we get to the results, let’s explore the brand known as Starbucks.

Links 8/20/2008

The Future Of Twitter
Twitter’s business model is starting to show. An early sign came in April, when the popular microblogging service launched in Japan and the home page for every Japanese user included a big banner ad in the top right corner.

Business Ethics: An Oxymoron?

Why do I believe good PR and business ethics are inextricably linked? It comes down to definitions. Ethics is learning what is right and what is wrong and then doing the “right thing.” PR involves providing counsel on the “right thing” to do and then helping the organization get credit for it.