By Jill Pyle
In preparation for the presentation that Francis and I will be giving at BarCamp on Saturday, November 17, I’ve decided to shed some light on what goes on behind the scenes at inmedialog.com. I won’t be getting into too much detail here; we’ll share more about editorial strategy, implementation and early results on Saturday. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak. All feedback is welcome.
Design
We wanted our blog to have a professional design that stayed true to the inmedia brand and mirrored the look of our web site. To accomplish this, we worked closely with Blogging Squared to develop a custom WordPress template that incorporated our logo and colours. We’ve received nothing but positive comments on our blog’s design and found the WordPress platform very easy to use.
Editorial
Going into this, we knew we need an editorial strategy that would allow us to consistently offer up quality content. As the blog editor, I tortured my colleagues with a few different processes that didn’t quite work before we settled into our current routine. Though we are continuing to make tweaks, our current editorial schedule is quite simple. inmedia’s participating consultants are required to write one unique feature per week, as well as three or more “rewrite department” posts that direct readers to interesting technology stories. The third stream to our editorial content is guest contributions. So far, Linda Moran and Eliot Burdett have been featured as guest bloggers. If you have an idea for a piece, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Publishing
As the blog editor, I’m responsible for preparing blog posts for publishing. My colleagues can send me their content by email or save drafts in WordPress, whatever works best for them. I then proof the content, insert pictures, select appropriate categories, add Technorati tags, take care of any weird formatting issues and link appropriate publications, news items and blog posts. I also adjust headlines from time to time, making sure they include relevant keywords. We’ve found this process allows contributors to focus on developing quality content rather than worrying about technicalities with which they may not be familiar.
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By Jill Pyle
BarCampOttawa4 is scheduled for Saturday, November 17. The event will be held at BitHeads, 1309 Carling Ave, from 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM. Francis and I will be hosting the “Where does the blogosphere fit in a PR strategy?” session. You can join us in the Room 2 (Social Media Stream) from 3:30 -4:15 PM.
To register, visit the BarCampOttawa4 wiki.
By Jill Pyle
A few weeks ago, my colleague Linda wrote a blog entry about how difficult it is for her to imagine what pre-Internet public relations would have been like. After going through the exercise of building an international media list for the launch of the Touch Bionics i-LIMB Hand, I can’t imagine how such a list could have been compiled in any reasonable period of time without the help of Google and the ability to access online content from print and broadcast media outlets. Notice, I don’t mention any branded media contact database as my savior. That’s because we don’t rely on them.
I’m willing to bet that more than a few PR firms, or at least their newly hired interns, would think we’re crazy for not using one of the available media databases to grab all seemingly relevant contacts, export email address and blast out news releases.
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By Jill Pyle
While many of us are thinking about how the rise of the Canadian dollar will help us save some money when shopping online for holiday gifts, many business owners are trying to find ways to deal with the challenges it presents. Today, Computerworld Canada takes a look at what the rise in currency might mean for the IT sector. To read the article, click here.
By Jill Pyle
At inmedia Public Relations, we work incredibly hard to generate media coverage that will help our clients meet their business objectives. Being in the high tech B2B space, industry-specific publications often make up the vast majority of our clients’ Tier 1 media targets. While company and product-launch announcements sometimes spark some interest from local, business or daily media, coverage in trade publications, though it can take longer to come to fruition, has proven to generate a far greater ROI for our clients.
The 2007 Forrester Research Study on B2B Media & Marketing, released in October, has some interesting figures about the media consumption habits of business decision makers. This finding really stood out for me: “Business decision makers find industry-specific media invaluable for informing and validating their business purchasing decisions and helping them do their jobs better. 40%-45% rely on traditional industry-specific media to validate purchase decisions – again, more than other options”
Also interesting to note was business decision makers’ adoption of new media. According to the report, business decision makers rely heavily on digital media, with 70% relying on industry-specific web sites for their jobs and over 75% having used or planning to use emerging media at work. View the following chart for more details:
Click to enlarge
