By Francis Moran
I could subtitle this, A newbie’s excellent adventure in blogging. Read on.
A week or so back, I reluctantly waded into the increasingly acrimonious battle being waged by some bloggers against the worst of the pitches they receive from PR folk, a contest that even the most mainstream of media are characterizing as a war. I believe it’s really a phony war given that competent practitioners on both sides of the PR-journalism fault line understand and appreciate what the others do, and know how to create value from the necessary relationship between us.
In my post, I cheered the bloggers who were naming and shaming the wretched. This caused my colleague, Gillian Brouse, to comment that, while she generally agreed with my sentiment, she was thankful such bloggers were not around in her misguided youth to call her out on the mistakes she made. Then, late last week, she drew my attention to what she called a “particularly egregious” example of a horrible pitch. I’m not going to provide the link here; if you really want to see it, you’ll be motivated to find Gillian’s comment and get the link there.
I’m not providing the link because my intent here is not to dump more opprobrium on the poor flack who was called out. I’m writing this update to share with you what happened when I posted a comment on that site, mainly in response to the many defensive comments it received from other bloggers and, especially, from PR practitioners who felt slamming bad PR was, to quote one of them, like “shooting fish in a barrel.” I wrote,
We’ve been commenting a bit on this whole hacks-versus-flacks thing our own blog, wwww.inmedialog.com, and one of our readers pointed to this, what she called a ” particularly egregious” example of the worst of PR practices. Some of our comments, and yours, wonder how fair it is for bloggers to pick on such easy targets. As a practitioner for 20 years, I say, “Bring it on.” Like the jackal who actually does the shepherd a favour by culling the weakest from the herd, having bloggers name and shame these poor practitioners will only make the PR species stronger.
BTW: Poor Tom Biro has missed the boat. This wasn’t a case of a “blog pitch gone bad.” This was malpractice from the first cut-and-paste. It was engineered from the outset to be a disaster.
As soon as I hit “Submit,” I had a momentary pang of concern that I had gone too far, especially in naming Tom Biro, the unfortunate flack’s boss, whose internal email addressing the problem had also been outed by the blog site. I’m very new to blogging and while I most certainly don’t want to pull my punches, I also don’t want to insult people or start flame wars.
So imagine my consternation when, the following morning, my Inbox told me I had an email from Tom! I expected a broadside of invective from him, or, at least, a mumbling defense of how his person had been mistreated, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Well, my hat is off to Tom. He wrote me a gracious and sporting email that made no excuses and actually thanked me for weighing in. “I completely take your comments to heart,” Tom wrote, adding, “I appreciate your chiming in and criticism of this situation, and this is yet another reason why I’m so strident into bringing much closer the way that solid media relations is supposed to work.”
And then, bless him, he graced us with a marvelous compliment. “Thanks for adding some actual value to this discussion, and now I’ve got another blog to keep an eye on by people who take their world very seriously.”
It confirmed my conviction that strong opinions about best practices in PR will find a receptive audience and that the blogosphere can be a forum for effective and considered debate of these issues.
By Linda Forrest
The truth is that all media channels have original content in the hopes that it will capture and maintain the audience’s attention enough so that they see the paid advertisements. Print publications, including trade magazines, are no different. That’s not to say that the editorial content is not valuable or does not have the potential to move your market, it does, but at its simplest: no advertising revenue, no media channel.
Editorial calendars are an integral part of the media kit for print publications. In addition to the document’s purpose of mapping out what editorial coverage will be happening and when, with what focus and responsible writer or editor, it also provides the advertising sales department with a compelling reason to target specific companies with particular product or service offerings at specific times.
For our purposes, as a company that focuses exclusively on securing earned, as opposed to paid, media coverage for our clients, we are interested only in the editorial aspect of the calendar. That doesn’t stop some sales people from pitching us for advertising dollars, but that’s another story.
Editorial calendars begin to emerge in the autumn and winter for the year ahead. The gathering of these ever-changing calendars is a cumbersome task indeed and as such there are a number of subscription-based aggregators through PRNewswire and other independent providers like MyEdCals. These aggregators can help one find those opportunities that may be less obvious, opportunities in those publications that are not primary targets for the ongoing campaign.
Some editorial calendars have all of the pertinent information one would need to pitch the editor while most have just a phrase or subject and require more intensive follow up with the publication to assess the opportunity. Even if an opportunity seems as though it would be appropriate for your company, it’s important to gather information about the nature of the opportunity – is it a case study? A bylined article? A Q&A? A product review? A ‘bake-off’? – and whether your company has the resources to participate in the article if the editor is interested. If resources are tight, you should be able to turn to your media relations agency to develop content on your behalf, mediate interviews and case studies with your customers or handle the logistics of submitting a product for review.
While certainly not a comprehensive view of all opportunities to spread your message in the marketplace, editorial calendars are another useful tool in the PR practitioner’s toolbox.
By Chris Biber
News releases present multiple opportunities to improve your company’s visibility. Their wide distribution across many wire services and online news sites makes optimization critically important.
News release optimization, in this context, is not just optimization of content for search engines. Equally important is the optimization of reader experience.
Let me explain what I mean:
The principles of search engine optimization apply to news releases just like any other online content. Search engines index a news release, follow its links and assess the overall relevance of the content for a given subject. When writing a news release, consider the following search engine optimization tips:
- Keyword mapping: Which two or three keyword phrases are most relevant for each individual news release? Ideally, these keywords can be worked into the page title and into a descriptive headline. Needless to say, the phrases will also occur naturally in the body of the news release itself. Otherwise, they are not the right choice of keywords.
- Keyword-rich links: Links play an important part in search engines’ ability to determine relevance for any given web page. Make sure that your news release doesn’t just link to your home page, but rather contains keyword-rich links to focused landing pages. Don’t expect too much from these links, however. The primary reason for a given link in your release should not be to attract search engine page-rank juice, but to get the reader to click through to a landing page for conversion.
- Use analytics: Where possible, use unique tracking parameters to identify which of your news release vehicles is resulting in traffic to your landing pages. Incorporate this knowledge into future efforts.
- Create a concise meta description: While meta descriptions are not being used for ranking of content, they are sometimes used in the search engine results. A compelling meta description can be the difference between an arbitrary text snippet and a compelling message that entices the searcher to click through.
- Online distribution: Where will the release be distributed? Make sure that you take full advantage of online distribution vehicles, and don’t forget vertical niche directories, which sometimes offer this as a free service. Keep in mind that search engines will identify duplicate content. Distribution of identical releases across multiple wire services is therefore a futile exercise for SEO purposes.
- Multiple angles: Does the news release warrant several different angles of coverage? If so, distribute different versions of the release to different wire services and distribution outlets.
Viewer optimization, on the other hand, concerns itself primarily with the usability of content. Online, everyone has ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Here are a few tips to cope with that:
- Make content easily digestible: Using bullets and short headlines lets viewers quickly grasp the main points of your content.
- Plan a call to action: What do you expect the reader to do next? Make sure that this is blatantly obvious. Do not overload your text with competing links. Less is more.
These are just some of the suggestions to help you maximize the impact of your next news release. Needless to say, the story is still critical, and no amount of optimization will turn a dull and boring release into a lead generation machine. So don’t be boring.
Chris Biber is President & CEO of SearchingWorks.
By Jill Pyle
Media monitoring tasks vary in complexity. Some clients are interested only in knowing when and where their company or products are mentioned while others require close monitoring of issues related to their business, technology and competitors.
With more publications moving online and new blogs popping up every day, there is an increasing amount of information we media monitors must sort through. By commissioning us to sort through and make sense of the wealth of media coverage that is produced each day, our clients can focus on what they do best without losing track of the media coverage that is affecting their business.
Knowing just how overwhelming some media monitoring tasks can be, I thought I’d share some tips for maximizing the value of your media monitoring efforts.
Understand your client’s story
In order to be an effective media monitor, you need to understand your client. A list of keywords is not nearly enough. You should have a clear sense of what the company does, to whom it markets, and who buys its products or services. Having in-depth knowledge about a client and its business will allow you to make informed decisions when sorting through mountains of media coverage.
Collaborate on keywords
Keywords aren’t everything but they certainly play a key role when it comes to media monitoring. Your keyword list will either broaden or narrow the focus of your monitoring efforts. If you select terms that are too broad, you’ll have difficulty finding the important stuff. If the terms are too specific, you’ll likely miss some of the important stuff. Needless to say, each keyword added to your list should be given careful consideration.
It’s pretty much a given that all clients will want you to monitor their company name, product names and the names of key representatives or spokespeople. Don’t forget to ask them what else is important. Work with each client to develop a comprehensive list of keywords and make sure to get approval on the final list. Whenever possible, avoid selecting common terms and acronyms that have multiple meanings. Revisit the keyword list often and continuously refine it.
Know what issues are important
Monitoring for client coverage is just the beginning of most monitoring efforts. In our business, many clients want to know how the media are covering similar technology providers or direct competitors. No matter how well you think you know your client, be sure to confirm your thoughts about what issues are important to monitor. Throughout the course of your program, work with clients to adjust monitoring efforts as new issues arise or priorities change.
Offer context
Beyond highlighting where relevant media coverage has appeared, media monitors should be able to provide context to the media coverage they highlight. You should know how to identify the level of authority each media outlet holds. This is especially important when you’re monitoring for blog coverage. Like media outlets, not all blogs are created equal. With many clients still unsure of how they should be reacting or interacting with blogs, it’s important for you to be able to help them keep things in perspective.
There’s a lot more to be said about media monitoring but I’ll leave you with these tips for now. If you have any additional tips, be sure to share them in the comment section.
By Jill Pyle
Over the last few months I’ve had a lot of fun pitching gift ideas to daily news media on behalf of our friends at Help Lesotho. Now that Ottawa is covered in a blanket of fresh snow, I can’t help but feel festive. In the spirit of the fast-approaching holiday season, I’ve decided to pull together a gift guide to help anyone who has a public relations professional to buy for this holiday season.
Students studying PR, young PR professionals and veterans alike should always have a style guide on hand. Some of our favourites include The Canadian Press Caps and Spelling, Eats Shoots and Leaves and Globe and Mail Style Book. If the PR professional in your life doesn’t have one of these or similar titles, you should be able to cross them off your list by visiting a well-stocked local bookstore. Books about grammar fundamentals may not be very exciting but they certainly are useful. Dictionaries are also great to have on hand. For the terminology-saturated person working in technology PR, try Chambers Dictionary of Science and Technology. If you think flipping pages is too low-tech, a subscription to the online edition of the Chicago Manual of Style may do the trick.
For PR pros who frequently travel, there are a wealth of gadgets you can buy to help them stay plugged in. While an iPhone or iTouch may be a bit pricey,
consider springing for a country-specific SIM card or a gift certificate to a phone-unlocking specialist like Warlox Wireless. After reading about the positive experience Francis had with his unlocked GSM smart phone loaded with a pay-as-you-go SIM, I don’t think you can go wrong. Skype credits aren’t a bad idea either. For the earth-conscious gadget lover on your list, Amazon Kindle, a souped-up e-book reader that allows for wireless e-book downloads, would make a great gift.
For social media-savvy PR folks, a bottle of Stormhoek‘s Blue Monster is guaranteed to win smiles. Thanks to Hugh Mcleod, this wine is well known amongst those who frequent geek dinners. Other great gift ideas include flickr pro accounts, tickets to popular conferences like SXSW or cool t-shirts from the likes of Threadless. Grammar gurus are bound to appreciate the They’re, Their, There shirt.
That’s our list. Feel free to share your ideas in the comment section. You can also check out Chris’s gift guide for marketers, which Seth’s Blog pointed me to.
