By Danny Sullivan
Working at an agency, it is always interesting when you first sit down with a prospective client to find out more about them and determine what their requirement for PR might be. Often, companies have not given much thought to what it is they are hoping to achieve through media relations, but simply feel that they need to be doing some of that “PR stuff.” While it may well become clear that such companies can probably benefit from doing such stuff, it’s probably not a bad idea to have some idea of what story you want to convey before pulling the trigger.
An effective PR program does not simply operate as a standalone function, and should be a natural extension of an organization’s marketing operations, seeking to help achieve the same goals. It is not uncommon for early stage meetings, originally intended to lay out the scope of the PR program, to turn into extensive internal and external messaging sessions. And while it’s certainly better for this to happen at the outset of program than at a later stage, I often can’t help but wonder why such a session had not already taken place long before the prospect of using PR was ever raised.
We of course expect, and encourage, fullsome discussion around the focus and objectives of a PR program, but companies can benefit from having a clear idea of the basics before calling in an agency. Questions like: Who are we targeting? In what sectors? Where are they located? Who are our competitors? How are we different? and so on.
It may seem obvious, but having such information clearly established before engaging a PR firm will ensure a smooth, swift start to your media relations program.
By Francis Moran
I have been an enthusiast of the Clover coffee brewing machine ever since the new Bridgehead café a few blocks from our ByWard Market offices opened up a year or so ago, featuring one of these shiny devices that brew a perfect single cup of steaming hot Java exactly to my taste and specification. I’ve become so regularly devoted that my morning cuppa is often being brewed before I even get to the cash to place my order!
And now, courtesy of a Wired magazine article on how Starbucks has gobbled up the maker of this impressive machine so it can have it all to itself, I learn that Ottawa’s Bridgehead, with two of the roughly 200 machines in the market at the time of the Starbuck’s takeover, represents fully one per cent of all the Clovers anywhere in the world, and will continue to hold that share of all Clovers not owned by the bean-burning Goliath of the coffee trade.
It’s a coup for my favourite coffee shop coming on top of this innovative chain’s already laudable business approach that sees it support a broad range of community initiatives here in Ottawa and buy most of its fair-trade, shade-grown beans directly from small grower-owned cooperatives throughout the world.
By Francis Moran
Many, many years ago, I worked at the then-decidedly down-market tabloid Halifax Daily News. (See my post on the closing of the News earlier this year by Transcontinental.) It was not unusual for our newsroom to receive odd missives, their senders clearly counting that our bent sense of humour, appreciation for the scandalous or unmitigated curiosity would drive us to investigate.
But nothing from my Daily News days compares with the letter that arrived here at inmedia this week. My colleague Leo, who was not without his occasional peculiar piece of mail when he worked with Ottawa Business Journal, has also never seen anything quite so strange.
In a plain brown manila 5¾x9½-inch envelope accurately addressed to the company rather than an individual (but with the peculiar second line, “The Public Relations General”), I found a single sheet of 8½x11-inch paper folded in half and a Canadian five-dollar bill. The envelope bore correct postage and a generic Canada Post frank with the H4T 1A0 postal code, corresponding to Montréal, near the airport.
The sheet of paper seemed to be a colour copy of an original, which may mean additional copies were sent to other people. (So far, I have been unable to find any Google references to clumps of the text for which I searched.) In block capitals, and with all the spelling, grammar, punctuation and paragraph breaks faithfully reproduced here, the text read:
The Bell Canada Express Vu Satellite Dish Startments.
When The Customer Indicates The Desired Programming Has Not Yet Released Payment Maker lings. If A Ten Percent Mathematical Root For A Special Turn Key.
A Perma Frost 700 Perma Lock. Or A Short National Mail Out.
August 1, 2008
That’s it folks. Colour me utterly bewildered. If anyone out there can shed any light on this, please do.
By Leo Valiquette
Francis posted a good piece today over at Dangletech on the misperception that marketing and public relations activities are a wasted effort during the summer months when sandy beaches and boat docks beckon. Linda blogged quite handily herself on the issue a little while back.
There are, without doubt, fewer pairs of eyes available in July and August to pay attention to the news, but I contend that a greater number of the eyes that remain have more time to keep abreast of, even catch up with, the news and information that’s relevant to them.
In fact, I would even go so far as to suggest that more people will take note of your activities than at other times of the year, when the the volume of work makes it difficult to keep the inbox clear, never mind take the time to read papers and magazines.
Case in point. During my time as a reporter and editor with the Ottawa Business Journal, the paper migrated away from publishing specialty magazines and supplements between Canada Day (that’s July 1 for our international readers) and Labour Day, which is the first Monday in September. I’m not sure now how or why this came to be, but a perception had taken hold that no one’s around to read this stuff during July and August. Perhaps it was the advertisers themselves who believed, for whatever reason, that their budgets were poorly spent this time of year.
Frustrated by this summer blight, OBJ publisher Michael Curran and I reviewed the traffic numbers to the OBJ website, and the pickup rates for the print edition of the newspaper, through the summer months over the past few years. Rather than seeing declines, we saw increases. More people were coming to the website, more people were picking up the paper from the curbside box, than they were during other months of the year believed to be prime advertising periods, such as September to November.
How is this possible, when there are undeniably fewer people at work on any given day? I think the answer is a simple one. It’s summer time, it’s nice out. Who wants to stay cooped up in the office all day? Instead, people go for a walk, visit the newspaper boxes out on the street. Meanwhile, back in the office, with many staff away, fewer projects are underway and the workload eases off a bit, giving people more time to surf the web and catch up on their reading (which is no doubt all work-related ;).
My former colleagues at the OBJ confirmed this morning that this year is no different. Web traffic for July came in higher than it did for many of those “busy” months of the past year.
As Linda said in her post, why miss the opportunity to make some noise when your competitors are taking the summer off from getting their messages out?
By Leo Valiquette
In business circles, defining what is social media is immediately followed by the question of how can it can be turned into an effective marketing and communications tool. But who owns this function in an organization? Is that even a valid question? Over at A Shel of My Former Life, Shel Holtz gives a comprehensive rundown of who can, and can’t “own” social media and why.
Chris Brogan, meanwhile, provides a handy list of 50 online applications and sites to consider when developing a social media presence.
Lastly, Robert Geller at Flack’s Revenge discusses user-generated content options for organizations trying to build presence at a time when the number of traditional media channels is on the decline. Youtube anyone?
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July Roundup: Good tips, bad slips and farewell to Linda
August 05, 2008 by inmedia
By inmedia In case you missed these posts the first time around, here’s a recap of everything we published in July. Linda: July 3: Blogging about blogging July 9: A post for the word nerds July 11: iPhone frenzy! July 18: How times have changed July 21: Marketing to different age groups July 25: Home […]
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Over and out
July 31, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest Today is my last day of work prior to going on maternity leave. In Canada, we’re incredibly blessed that we have the option of taking one year off to be with our new arrivals, so I’m taking advantage and plan to be off until mid-August 2009 doing work of a different sort. […]
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Oh, the sweet serenity of white space
July 31, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette Over at Glass House, Frank Shaw takes a moment to talk about, taking a moment. The power of silence, the impact of that empty space between words, whether written or spoken. Not that there’s much chance to enjoy the comfort of one’s own silence, or anyone else’s, for that matter, in this age […]
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How not to make a big PR splash
July 29, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest One word: Cuil. This supposed “Google-killer” launched to much ballyhoo earlier this week. Problem is that the product itself is not yet ready for prime time and so it has, as many media have said, “stumbled out of the gate.” In today’s fast paced tech environment, it’s a costly misstep for a […]
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Just the facts … no, these facts
July 28, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette In my years as a journalist I endured my fair share of embarrasing gaffes, both my own and those of my staff (which I was often on the hook to explain, apologize for and redress.) Despite the emphasis on clean, factual and reliable content, the occassional mistake is made in the newspaper business. […]
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Everyone needs an editor (reprise)
July 25, 2008 by inmedia
By inmedia Again, proof positive that everyone needs an editor. This is a good Friday afternoon chuckle if ever there was one. Enjoy.
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Home is where the workplace is
July 25, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest As I sit here, 36 weeks pregnant and a short week from my maternity leave, my commute into work has become untenable and so I’m thrilled to be living in an age where I can reasonably work from home. I’m not the only one, it seems, according to several interesting recent stories […]
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Mediums for the message
July 24, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette A community manager does what again? There’s this new corporate entity that’s apparently popping up more and more called the community manager. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what exactly is the scope of responsibilities of this position and where it fits vis-a-vis the public relations function. Over at his […]
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Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]