Posted by Jennifer on July 27, 2009
Mashable recently covered Muck Rack, a company that charges by the word to tweet releases to journalists on Twitter. The story and concept elicited plenty of negative responses from PR and journalists alike - from indignation to charges of ripping off another business entirely.
From a PR perspective the responses missed the point entirely. Twitter is all headlines and any good tweeter will tell you, 140 characters doesn’t leave much room for verbosity on the brilliance of a new hire. Write a good headline and they will come. Even better, write a brilliant headline and they will share.
Does your release pass the Twitter test? Is your news interesting, clear, compelling in 140 characters? If not, perhaps you don’t know what your point is or, better do you need that release at all?
If you need inspiration just grab a few copies of the NY Post or Variety.
Your job is to make the reader WANT to know your news.
Posted by Jennifer on July 20, 2009
PR ladies and Marketing gentlemen let’s get ready to RUMBLE!!! Without being sexist (because we all know many men in PR and whip smart women in mktg), I think it’s an accurate statement to say that PR and marketing have squared off over who owns social media.
Both sides recognize that social media is a tool, a powerful tool in their strategy arsenal and they want to take control over its use and implementation. I say it’s a tool each can and should use in collaboration. The role of PR and marketing hasn’t changed even if the lines have blurred, so why would social media suddenly upend these two distinct purposes. Public relations and marketing need to work even more closely to make their social media strategies work in conjunction and amplify the power of social media. If PR is paying attention to their efforts in terms of the traffic they deliver to a site, marketing needs to communicate even more clearly their strategies. Are you working together or did the bell just ding for Round 1?
Posted by Jennifer on June 17, 2009
No, I’m not picking on ET but I am warning all TV magazine giants and all the big players in general that they better bring their digital A-game or the upstarts will get all the juicy interviews. And by upstart I mean sites like TubeFilter who create great content for their audience on the web AND can drive traffic. Let me repeat – sites with a well defined audience who also effectively drive traffic and awareness ie. help marketing & PR do their job.
Yes, I realize this isn’t happening tomorrow but it’s coming soon. Results! It’s the new mantra. Ad budgets are shrinking, departments are streamlining and people are multitasking. Social media has not only enabled direct to consumer interaction, it’s made everyone accountable to deliver the goods. And no, securing a list of critic reviews is not delivering the goods because I’ll bet $1000 that the demo reading that paper isn’t going to watch or care about your show or project. I’m talking about strategic execution of a campaign to deliver traffic and results in a rapidly shrinking world of resources ie. money, man power.
Here’s the scenario. I was on set last week when PR brought some crews to interview cast and crew for a new web series. In the mix were the usual TV news magazines and one upstart website. It got me to thinking. The PR guy had to justify why this relatively small, unknown site was getting time with the cast but the reality was that this little site consistently delivered traffic to his projects through linkable stories, sharable video, etc. So my PR friend went to bat and got a slot for the little guy – who is actually a heavy hitter for the PR and marketing teams. When the rest of Hollywood gets over its love of “placement” in the trades, there’ll be a few more outlets fighting for first place on the red carpet.
Think about it PR friends. What do your efforts really deliver? Do you know how much traffic that each outlet can & does deliver to your project? Do you know if the outlet imbeds links, makes their story sharable so fans can put it on their Facebook page and reach additional potential fans? You should know because it’s your job.
TV Newsmagazines this is your wake up call that relying on eyeballs & share doesn’t count if the viewers don’t click. This is the unteathered generation. Who is your audience? Choosing stories based on Neilson ratings is over – you can reach wider audiences by thinking about tapping into smaller but fervent fan bases online. Cover shows and stories that aren’t “winning the night” but who have loyal audiences that could be turned into your loyal audience. Cover shows like Chuck or Breaking Bad. It may not make sense or be justified to air the segment on broadcast but post it online, use the fans to help syndicate that content. When online engagement is counted equal as broadcast reach you’ll be glad you invested the time. So implement smart syndication, consumer engagement and results for those who pitch you stories.
