PR 2.0, 101
As of a few weeks ago, I’ve been given the task of explaining how social media plays a growing role in our jobs during training sessions for new SHIFTers. I came up with a one-page document that outlines a few different resources and tips relevant to the evolving practice of social media and blogger relations within the industry, and I think it actually gives a really good overview that’s helpful to my colleagues.
But… I figured, why not reach out and see if any PR pros or people approached by PR pros out there have nuggets of wisdom to share. With improving understanding and ongoing education in mind, what would you want to make sure your new hire had on a PR 2.0 one-pager? Maybe it’s an example of what not to do, or a tip on how to leverage LinkedIn. Maybe it’s a blog tracking tool, or what you consider
the simplest RSS feed reader for newbies.
I think it would be cool to compile a list of quotes from people who can share advice, encouragement, examples or opinions that I’ll then pass on to the SHIFTers and my Social Honeycomb readers. I’m sure I’ll dig up some gems from PR Squared, PR 2.0 and various other PR/marketing/communications blogs, but I figured I’d open the door and invite you to chime in here.
Your 2 cents. Spill it.
Video Pearls of Wisdom from the Pub Club Panel
I managed to capture a video at the end of the Pub Club “Buzz Word: New Media” panel on Wednesday night, and I wanted to share it with my readers. Brian Reich set it up, asking the panelists what PR pros should read or sign up for as a final word of advice. The speakers took the prompt in different directions, and I think there’s some good insight here.
Adam Ritchie thinks you should compare your company’s blog to industry leaders’ blogs and take a look at what’s missing or where you can learn from best practice examples.
Mike Volpe thinks that beyond reading something or signing up for something, every company should blog. He thinks if your company can’t blog, there’s something wrong because you should always have something interesting to share.
Patrick Richardson recommends that PR pros use the Internet as the marketing research tool it is. As he said, your customers are out there, opting in to conversations about your brand. His advice is that using RSS feeds is a great way to listen to these conversations and learn about your consumers.
Mark McClennan feels that too many companies are mute, but that the bigger challenge at this point is too many companies are also “blind and deaf.” There are effective, free ways to listen to and learn from all the things people are saying about your clients online. He also highlights that there are tons of PR pros sharing insight and information on the Web, and it’s important not to overlook these conversations as well. His parting words: You gotta listen and you gotta see.
Also, I won a copy of Brian Reich’s Media Rules. Share in my glee!
A Little Feedback Can Go a Long Way…
Yesterday I had an interesting experience.
A PR professional from an agency elsewhere in the United States sent me a pitch over email for the blog. It, um, wasn’t a great pitch. The subject line was a bit confusing. She let me know she liked one of my recent blog posts but then copied and pasted some stuff from a press release that had nothing to do with what she said she liked and also nothing to do with things I write and care about. There was a big typo in there somewhere. It just wasn’t a good pitch for me.
Because I’m a PR kid and a blogger at the same time, this pitch made me upset for two different reasons. As a blogger, it was a little upsetting to receive a pitch so off the mark. As a PR pro, it was upsetting to see someone sending out pitches like this one and know she’s probably not just sending it to me. It worried me that another public relations practitioner was running the risk of getting blasted on some blog for sending spam-like and lazy emails.
I called her up.
I told her who I was and said I had gotten her email. I let her know that as a fellow PR person, I wanted to call and talk about what may have worked better for pitching me. We ended up having a great conversation about the how difficult it is to always make the right decisions when reaching out to bloggers and we discussed some better approaches. I let her know that with me, if I’m on an outreach list, but she isn’t totally sure that her news is a puzzle-piece fit for me and my blog, to just say so and be honest. I told her not to waste any minutes of her busy day writing out a big flowery pitch and including paragraphs of information. Just tell me honestly why you’re reaching out, let me know what the news is and give me a few short bullet points with things like links so I can find out more before I write back. I stressed that while this is a good approach for me, it might not work for everyone, and it’s important to remember that. It’s a good idea to reach out to bloggers you want to befriend and ask them how they’d like to be pitched (if at all) and what types of things they are open to receiving.
The thing that makes my experience interesting is that this PR pro was really appreciative of my call. It’s so rare to receive constructive feedback in this business, so I think we both hung up feeling a little better. I wasn’t angry, I wasn’t threatening. It’s important to me that PR professionals improve their skills and understanding when it comes to social media. This was just one little way I felt I could help someone and by extension, the profession.
Here’s my call to action. We all get pitches we think are less than awesome, but so many people either ignore them or humiliate the person who sent them. Once in a while, give some constructive feedback. Remember that this person probably doesn’t want to annoy or offend you–they’re still learning how to respectfully and effectively reach out in this changing media landscape, and sometimes they need some pointers. Be pissed off for a minute, but then spend a minute thinking of how this PR person could have done a better job or how they could better approach you in the future. The profession as a whole will have an easier time improving and moving forward with a little guidance and a bit of feedback. You may be surprised at the difference it makes.
Five Plugged-in Dudes Get Fired Up About New Media at Pub Club
Before I headed over to the Publicity Club of New England’s “Buzz Word: New Media” panel tonight, I thought to myself, “When are we going to be able to stop calling this stuff ‘new’ and what kind of marketing/communications world would we live in that could allow that to happen?” Since you’re reading my blog right now, you’re probably at least somewhat technologically inclined, making you about 17 gazillion light years ahead of the average anyone. We tech/media geeks forget that too easily. I’m sure all the panelists would agree that we have considerable work to do before all this “new” stuff becomes widely adopted and understood. That said, I think moderator Brian Reich (EchoDitto and author of Media Rules) and panelists Adam Ritchie (Adam Ritchie Brand Direction), Mike Volpe (HubSpot), Patrick Richardson (Schneider Associates) and Mark McLennan (Schwartz Communications) gave their audience a push in the right direction.
One of the gems that stood out to me (besides the chocolate-covered raisins in my dinner package, mmm) was the discussion around being “on message.” Mike really hit the nail on the head as he explained that there’s simply no such thing as the crafted, corporate message working anymore and that “the message” is what people are saying, regardless of what you put in a PR plan or what your client’s legal team approves. I really liked that Mike took this idea one step further to say, “If you don’t like what people are saying, YOU have to change something. You have to change what YOU’RE doing if you don’t like what people have decided the message is.” I’m a firm believer in this concept, and it pains me when I hear stories about clients pulling their hair out over “this” vs. “that” word choices and ignoring what’s really being said about them on the Web. You don’t own your message, so listen to the people who are creating it and respond and collaborate accordingly.
Another key takeaway from the night was the discussion that social media tools and tactics aren’t always right for every client or in every situation. As much as we get excited about this stuff and see the value in bringing it to light for our clients, there’s no merit in rolling out a Facebook campaign or a YouTube contest if it doesn’t make sense for the goals you’re trying to achieve. The panelists mentioned that while Facebook might work for getting in front of college students, some almost-100 percentage of students also look to and trust their university papers for news. And let’s be real–no one is hosting an event with panelists getting fired up about how awesome newspapers are and fresh ways to use this sweet PR tool, but it’s good to remember that a little traditional/new mix-n-match can be the magic potion for meeting client objectives and achieving success.
Each of the panelists also stressed the importance of practicing what you preach by being engaged yourself. I really liked what Mark said about “social media finally enabling PR people to do what we’ve been WANTING to do for 100 years.” We have countless tools and opportunities to connect with people, learn new things and share interesting content, so why are so few people taking advantage?
In the car ride home after the event, Pamela Seiple, Mary Sullivan and I got to talking about the connection between online and offline interaction. In my opinion, the Web has given us a digital reflection of how social relationships exist in real life already, which makes the transitions from online to offline remarkably fluid. Brian alluded to a PR team in crisis mode taking angry bloggers offline to talk about issues as possibly revealing a flaw or failure of new media. I have to respectfully disagree. (Or honestly, maybe I just missed the point? Brian’s a soft-spoken guy.) I think taking plugged-in people offline is just an extension of the way they’re able to socialize online, and vice versa. And when bloggers and tweeple congregate offline, they’re most likely still texting, updating Twitter, sending emails–still connected to their online interactions. The fluidity of online-offline social interaction is pretty sexy if you ask me. Engage me online, engage me offline and let’s talk about online when we’re IRL and real life when we’re online.
And let’s remember: most people who are participating in this social media and social networking stuff are into the idea of engagement. These people generally want to connect, so if PR people are passing up opportunities to form relationships with the people who are driving “the conversation” on the Web (and offline!) about brands, products, public figures, whatever–they’re pretty insane.
All in all, I feel like a lot of my values and ideas about social media and its marcom uses were brought to the surface and that the overall excitement in the room tonight was promising. Every day we’re takin’ this thing closer to the future.
What do you think, boys and girls?
Tool I Love: HubSpot’s Website Grader
(Disclosure: HubSpot is a SHIFT client.)
As an entry level PR professional, I spend a lot of time in the trenches scanning, tracking, compiling, reporting, monitoring… You get the picture. I’m sure the other newbies out there know what I’m talking about, w00t. It’s part of the job, and even though it’s sometimes tedious and time consuming, this stuff is important to our clients and supportive for our account teams.
A tool I’ve been using in my scanning and monitoring work is Hubspot’s Website Grader. Since Technorati isn’t all that comprehensive or reliable on its own when it comes to ranking and scoring blogs, I love that I have this tool to help me give meaning to the content I track. Why does this service rock? From the Website Grader home page:
Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.
I like that the grading doesn’t just give you a number or a score, but that it shows you how the tool derives that number (AND how to better optimize your content if you want to improve your score). Website Grader pulls from different resources like Technorati, Google Page Rank, del.icio.us and Alexa (not to be confused with this Alexa), and gives you a table-view snapshot of your results. So simple. It helps people like me to explain the authority of certain blogs as opposed to others with easy-to-understand evidence supporting my recommendations. I love this tool.
If you have been tasked with scoring blogs, have you used Website Grader? What do you think?
Remember the Why
I’ve noticed now that I’m in the working world, I don’t spend a lot of time during my days thinking about the greater significance of my work and the various tasks I do. I realized this today and I wondered how many people out there consciously keep their job’s significance top of mind during the daily grind. I’ve been finding lately that I get sucked into the “doing” and I don’t step back enough and think about the “why.”
I guess I have a new mental exercise: Remember the why. Do you?
Yay for Career-Starting
I can haz jobs?
Yeah, I’m On the PRowl
Because we all need extra reading, right?
My friend Maria Thurrell (@MaThurrell) and I are co-authoring a blog about the experiences we’re going through as PR students transitioning to the “real world” in the industry. On the PRowl started as a project for our New Media for Public Relations class in Boston University’s College of Communication, but we are kind of loving it, so we plan to continue writing after the semester ends.
Let us know what you think, and put On the PRowl on your radar if you want to know what’s going on with us young ladies. Oh, and um, favorite us on Technorati and show us some link love to boost our grade! (I have no shame. Oh well.)
Photo: Steve Garfield
CC BY-NC-SA
Questions to Consider
Brian Solis recently participated (with Doug Haslam, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Cathryn Hrudicka and Marc Orchant) in one of Aaron Brazell’s roundtable discussions about Social Media and PR.
Visit the Technosailor blog to read more about the questions and discussion. This is very relevant and interesting stuff. Tell your coworkers.
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Podcamp Boston 2 = Gathering of Rock Stars
To everyone who had the pleasure of being a part of Podcamp Boston 2, you know how much fun it was. To those of you who couldn’t make it, please do live vicariously through the many posts, casts and photos that have been popping up around the Web. Podcamp, for me, really was a gathering of social media rock stars. (See Eric Skiff for any and all Podcamp-related rock songs and/or jingles.) Podcamp was brimming with people I look up to, people who inspire me, people who shake things up… Just stellar human beings.
One thing I really enjoy about social media events here in Boston is the feeling that no one is a stranger. I’m young and I’m pretty new to this game, but I always feel completely welcomed by the many people I meet. The atmosphere at Podcamp was electric.
I took away a lot of interesting bulbs of knowledge:
- Twitter is more addictive than crack cocaine.
- Hugs are free and wonderful.
- Listening is one of the most important things we can do as PR people. Whether it’s a podcast, a blog or a face-to-face conversation, listening is one of the keys to kingdom
- There are little things we can do to be more productive, happy and healthy. Since Saturday I’ve been making an effort to drink more water and breathe like a yogi. (Ask Brogan to demonstrate the chest-string-pull if you too would like to enjoy the benefits of better breathing.)
- I guess I really do look like my profile pictures, because people recognized me.
- There’s no time or reason to be afraid of putting yourself out there.
- “With advertising you buy your way in; with PR you beg your way in; with new media you publish your way in” -David Meerman Scott.
- Sometimes you should dance anywhere you want.
- Chris Brogan makes ridiculous faces in photos.
- Podcasting is a really involved process. I greatly respect the people who take the time to plan, produce and edit their content to share with the world. Echoing my third point, I have a lot of listening to catch up on.
- LOLsaurs are pretty sweet.
- Chris Penn has the funniest business cards. Nobody picked one up without smiling.
- You don’t say no to a Pulver Party.
- There is someone in the world who hasn’t heard of Google according to Mitch Joel and CC Chapman.
- Jeff Glasson knows how to make people feel special.
- Facebook is getting so huge that it completely defies logic. It’s like trying to visualize the galaxy. Your brain pretty much can’t handle it.
- Podsafe music is pretty awesome.
- RSS (specifically Google Reader) is uh-may-zing.
- It’s important for us to spend time “finding, following, joining and creating” conversations online. Bryan Person and Doug Haslam gave an interesting presentation/led an interesting discussion about this engagement process.
- Being a student about to graduate at this particular time in history is ridiculously exciting.
- There are some really savvy, talented young PR pros out there who are helping to shape what social media becomes in the future.
- Steve Garfield has one of the friendliest smiles I’ve ever seen.
- Even bars like Tequila Rain can be geeky.
- Scott Monty laughs at pretty much everything I do and/or say.
- My New Media for Public Relations class rocks. You should follow @MaThurrell @danilady and @KeraC.
- I’m lucky to be a Boston girl.
- I’m a big fan of where my life is going.
Like I said before, Podcamp was electric. It was a weekend of connections, hugs, laughter, ideas, conversations, and lightbulb moments. Thank you to Chris Brogan, Chris Penn and all the organizers and volunteers who made Podcamp Boston 2 possible for all of us.
More link love to come. And photos of my Twitter costume. Yes.
