What I’m also positive of is the barriers to securing great coverage for our clients can be extremely daunting. Because even if your pitches are always spot-on, we all have days where even the best press release doesn’t get the type of coverage we hoped for. It’s always disappointing but that is the ebb and flow of PR.

Many in PR will agree that it’s standard procedure to issue press releases on Tuesdays through Thursdays. But while this strategy works sometimes, it also creates a glut of news and reporters are feeling the pain. This is a significant problem when agencies and corporate PR departments are jamming thousands of releases into a three day period.

I was recently confronted with this very scenario when pitching a release that was – you guessed it – issued on a Tuesday. In the course of my press outreach, I got into a conversation with one of my favorite technology contacts about how many releases he is receiving Tuesday through Friday.

Why not, he suggested, try something different and release announcements on Mondays or Fridays instead??

My first thought was, okay Monday makes perfect sense.

But announce news on a Friday?? What value would that bring to my client?

But after giving it some thought, I realized that I was initially thinking with my 2005 brain, before the advent of tools like Twitter and Paper.li.

Before these social tools were invented, a press release’s life was very limited. It would sit in an editor’s email in box for maybe a month or two before the article was written and published in the printed version of the magazine perhaps three or four months after that.

Today, once a story is out it goes viral on Twitter and on other sites, reaching more people than we could ever have imagined just five or six years ago.

This reminds me of an old story I first heard when I was selling TV spots in the 1990’s. It’s the “pan’s only this big” theory. The abridged version: Why do you keep doing the same thing, especially if it it’s not working?

In other words, maybe it’s time to try something new. Go wild and crazy. Issue a release on a Friday. Maybe not your client’s most important piece of news they’ve ever announced. But take a chance with a less sensitive piece of news and see what happens. You never know — you might end up finding many of your press and blogger contacts don’t have any big news to cover that day. And your client’s announce might just be exactly what they were looking for!!

Have you done something unconventional lately with your press release that’s garnered significant coverage? Please share your thoughts here!

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The ‘Kony 2012’ video was created by the organization Invisible Children to raise awareness about the atrocities committed by the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony in an effort to help bring him to justice. The video was posted last week and received 100 million views in just six days, making ‘Kony 2012’ a bigger media sensation than Susan Boyle’s performance on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

The new epitome of viral video, ‘Kony 2012’ is not only a supremely compelling documentary, but also an incredibly interesting case study from a PR perspective. To start, the ubiquity of the video over the past week has been phenomenal. It spread through social media as well as traditional media outlets like nothing we’ve seen before. But how did it become such an event? It’s not as though Kony’s story is breaking news, and there have certainly been equally horrendous atrocities documented across the globe, but for some reason this particular video, among thousands of videos with similar content, really resonated with people. But again, why? What is it that makes a video become viral?

I have a somewhat cynical theory that relates the popularity of the Kony video to the Tom’s Shoes fad – it’s a great way for Americans to feel good about themselves while being trendy without actually having to really do anything. I suppose it’s a sad commentary on American lifestyle, but hey, it got the message out there.

Which brings me to my next point: yes, the video was a “clickable moment” and spurred countless donations and purchases. However, how much action will the video actually prompt? Will it actually help the cause? Will Joseph Kony be arrested and prosecuted based on the strides taken by Invisible Children? Unfortunately, its seems like due to poor PR on behalf of Invisible Children, the popularity of ‘Kony 2012’ could actually hinder efforts already underway. As soon as the video went viral so did the criticisms of Invisible Children’s background. Rumors circulated about the organization’s funding and leadership, and a great deal of controversy began to envelop the message they were trying to communicate. Only recently, one of the co-founders, Jason Russell was arrested under unseemly circumstances, which is, again, creating buzz and ink for ‘Kony 2012’ but doing nothing to help the cause.

This, in turn, illustrates one of the problems with receiving news through social media. It seems as though if the content is scandalous, shocking, or moving enough and there is sufficient hype around the story, people don’t really consider the source of the news. People tend to take in the information at face value without considering that there is no “gate keeper” or publisher or editor that makes judgment calls about the news we read. It is completely unfiltered and we are left to deem for ourselves what is valid information and what is not.

Overall, I think ‘Kony 2012’ delivers an important message about an important topic. It raises awareness about a serious global issue and was able to permeate the social web with unprecedented speed and reach. But the fact is, the public relations and personal issues of the Invisible Children may have hindered any positive attention that the viral video had attained for the cause. I’m still on the fence about whether the adage is true – is there really no such thing as bad press? All of the negative publicity may be keeping ‘Kony 2012’ in the news, but is it productive?

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Technorati Tags: Invisible Children, Joseph Kony, Kony 2012, Social Media, Viral video

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SxSW: Cannes is still king: Like the Internet, SXSW provides a lot of content that may not be as high-quality as you’d like. There are close to 2500 panelists in less than 5 days, so there could be 60 panels happening at the same time slot, so even the pros end up with more misses than hits. However, SXSW earned its reputation through Twitter’s legendary 2007 launch, as well as Foursquare’s 2009 launch, where they began with 50 users and left with 5,000. Since then, people have waited for the next big startup. Do you think it would be worth attending? Do you know of any success stories for companies or individuals?

Papers put faith in paywalls: As more newspapers close the door on free access to their websites, some publishers are still waiting for paying customers to pour in. The numbers of readers signing up so far suggest that at many papers, “paywalls” aren’t about to reverse publishers’ deteriorating finances.  However, this story has tremendous implications for our careers at PR agencies. If agencies don’t evolve to fit the changing media landscape, we will not be as valuable as we once were. While I’m not a fan of paying for online content, I think many people are – are you?

Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs: We couldn’t not talk about the biggest news this week, the op-ed from the now-former Goldman Sachs employee. It’s a trend we’ve all seen for a while now; tell-alls for the purpose of attention. We all thought that while this op-ed wasn’t news (you mean banks want profit?!) it served to call out the whistleblower. We could be seeing a book deal, a big new job offer, etc., but this story was all about personal branding. Were you upset by this op-ed? What are your thoughts?

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – if it was the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

We had a tie this week, between the paywall story and SxSW. The paywall for newspapers goes to show the implications content has on our careers as PR people, and agencies must evolve to be able to produce, manage and distribute content effectively instead of relying on media relationships. As far as SxSW, we thought it has become too much of a behemoth to be able to provide value, and Amy found “unconferences” such as our own MassTLC’s Unconference to provide the most value for your time and money.

What do you think? Be the tiebreaker!

Journalists grumbling about PR people and how we’re apparently so annoying. They Tweet things like “the “spray and pray” PR pitches are arriving en masse this morning. Resistance appears futile.”

There are even some editors who’ve said on LinkedIn that female PR reps are especially annoying (true story!)
And now, an anonymous 35 year old PR executive apparently has it straight about all PR people.

Yes, Mr. Anonymous, we all send out crappy pitches and don’t do our research. None of us work hard to do our best for clients. At least, that is the scenario you have suggested.

But much of your rant is simply off base.

Okay, maybe some of us do open our notes with “hope all is well”.

Beyond that, however, some of us actually do try to ensure that we:
a) Don’t spam reporters
b) Only send news that is relevant to the editor we are approaching
c) Make the pitch as succinct as possible
d) Offer unique angles
e) Keep our story ideas fresh

Is there room for improvement? Yes. Always. But are we guilty of the PR crimes as charged by Mr. Anonymous? No, your honor, we are not.

But maybe you disagree? Let’s discuss.

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Thinking as a public relations professional I can understand why a business would want to use Pinterest. It‘s another easy way of reaching your customers with images of your products, and it drives traffic to your website.

One of my thoughts on why this social media platform has become so big is because it allows us to escape our everyday lives. For example, if I live in a one bedroom apartment in downtown Boston with no yard, I know I can’t have a pit bull. However, my virtual pin board allows me to show how cute pit bull puppies are and I can pin them all over my board, but I still don’t get it.

My second theory on why Pinterest is so popular is society’s materialism. I can fill my board with Shelby Mustangs, the new pair of sneakers I want, or an 80-inch flat screen television. I know I can’t afford these things, but they look awesome on my pin board; does this make sense to you? Not to me.

I understand the statistics. I can hear my co-workers already yelling at me, “It drives more traffic to retail sites than Google+, Facebook or Twitter!” But what is the allure that keeps millions of people coming back to the site every day? I won’t get into how this has now become a copyright infringement issue, as that argument is for another day. How many times can you look at flower arrangements and dresses before they all seem the same?

So, why is Pinterest popular? Is this all because I have a Y chromosome? (Over 80% of Pinterest users and 97% of their “likes” on Facebook are women.) Maybe in a few months I will look back and see how foolish I am for writing this blog post. My theories make me feel as though Pinterest is more of a passing fad than it is a real social media tool. Twitter and Facebook have real staying power; let’s see what happens to Pinterest.

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B2B Marketers in the Social Media World – We’re all aware that social media and PR for a smaller, B2B company is quite different from a B2C company, large or small. But the principles behind it are the same: be transparent, be consistent, and stand out. AdAge talked about one specific social media campaign by Kinaxis, which is a supply chain management company in Canada, which launched several online comedy series about SCM. The article was a particularly good one because it’s easy for small or midsize B2Bs to ignore the success of the IBMs and GEs of the world, since, of course, they have deeper pockets. But as I said, the fundamentals are the same, and using social media channels are cost-effective for everyone.

Super Size Me – The Wall Street Journal posted a story on McDonald’s franchisees, and having grown up in an era of “Fast Food Nation” and “Super Size Me,” the next generation is moving quickly to address criticism of the fast-food industry. The younger franchisees are proposing everything from healthier foods—including gluten-free hamburger buns and organic produce—to more corporate responsibility on issues like recycling and providing community services like books for low-income kids. The group also promotes use of more technology, such as installing Wi-Fi in restaurants and building McDonald’s Facebook pages. Franchisees in different areas have taken advantage of community building through relationships with mommy bloggers and CSR, such as educational events to raise money for schools. While I am not one to come to a fast food restaurant’s defense, these franchisees are being pretty smart. Do you think they’re helping the McDonald’s image?

Introducing “Iced T” Beer – It’s nice to know that the alcohol industry is unaffected by a down economy. As drinkers turn to alcohol over beer, beer companies realize it’s because of the crazy flavors alcohol companies have come up with, such as bacon-flavored vodka, fiery pepper Southern Comfort, or fluffed marshmallow vodka (all of which sound disgusting). In the latest move, Molson Coors Brewing Co. said Tuesday it will launch Coors Light Iced T in Canada next month ahead of a possible U.S. rollout. The iced tea-flavored beer will have roughly 4% alcohol content but no caffeine. We wouldn’t want the illegal 4Loko fiasco again! At the same time, smaller craft brewers have been swiping consumers from bigger brands, often with novel flavors such as strawberry buckwheat honey or bourbon-barrel-aged beer. At Boston Beer Co., maker of Samuel Adams, a major growth engine in recent quarters has been Twisted Tea, its hard iced tea brand. While this is a fun and fluffy story, I really liked how the WSJ highlighted Boston brewing companies, and the craft beer angle really has become a New England hobby.

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – if it was the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

We chose the B2B marketing story, because it’s most relevant for us and our clients. We say social media is important, but every once in a while it’s great to see a company like Kinaxis carrying out tactics in a fresh and fun way.

By now you must have at least heard of Pinterest, the new social network sweeping the nation. The social pinboard site launched in 2009 but has experienced record-breaking growth over the past 6 months- they have grown from about 1 million unique visitors in June of 2011 to more than 11 million by January 2012.

 

For those of you who haven’t been following Pinterest’s development, the site has best been described as taking the visual elements of Tumblr in combination with the social bookmarker Delicious. Pinterest made news this past February when it surpassed Google+, Youtube and LinkedIn combined in referral traffic, and now new data from Shareaholic found that Twitter can now be added to that list.

 

Personally, I love it. I’m obsessed really; I’ve even started doing some of the DIY crafts on the weekends. But what does this mean for PR? For years PR pros and marketers alike have been trying to find the best ways to use social media for our clients. Some platforms have come and gone more quickly than we can catch on and others, like Google+ seemed like they would be game changers but soon disappointed. Pinterest is something different all together. Pinterest snuck up on many of us before we knew what was happening.

 

Some brands have been quick to act and have been using Pinterest extremely well, Martha Stewart’s brand was the first to add a ‘Pin It’ button to their site and since then Pinterest has been their top social referrer. Etsy.com claims to have seen their traffic increase tenfold due to Pinterest referrals. Many companies have even started to hold ‘Pin It to Win It’ contests on Pinterest allowing them to interact with their consumers where they are spending time online.

 

Pinterest can help brands interact with their consumers in one important way that Twitter and Facebook can’t- Pinterest allows you to interact with people by category- Weddings, food, DIY crafts, even technology, science and architecture. Interactions are not limited to those whom you are directly connected with so the opportunities are limitless.

 

Love it or hate it, Pinterest is truly force in today’s online presence. Brands that have not already figured out how to integrate Pinterest into their online marketing plans are going to have to soon, or they will be left behind while others flourish.

 

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Technorati Tags: Pinterest, public relations, Shareaholic, Social Media

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Not long after Topaz launched, we began hearing about blogs, and our team was quick to see the value this could have for our clients. We began by offering support for “blog communications,” and while progress getting buy-in for this and other social media initiatives were slow in those early years, the pace of adoption has since accelerated dramatically. Among the reasons for this growing acceptance of our social media services: the consolidation in the media and the public’s growing dependence on social networking. In the years that followed our launch of “buzz media” (as we called it back then), new social media channels and platforms – blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – emerged as valuable options for companies (and their PR agencies) looking to reach their audiences.

Topaz adapted to the evolution of social media, launching and populating corporate and thought leadership blogs, pitching influential bloggers, using Facebook as a communication platform, supporting announcements and other PR initiatives with Twitter, and much more.

We continue to find new social media channels — Pinterest is a hot topic around Topaz these days, and there’s talk about FourSquare, Instagram, and Ticlr (a new Topaz client).

But the big opportunity I see in 2012 is “applied social media”, the work we’re doing to find more ways to apply these and other social networks and social media channels, sometimes working with content developed for other PR initiatives to achieve our client goals.

I feel that the opportunities to leverage social media will only grow more significantly in 2012, further shifting the balance in PR. While still important, traditional media will need to share more and more space in the toolbox with those social networks and social media channels being applied by PR professionals.

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It’s OK to be Antisocial – People are saying retweets are the new comments. Many social media experts insist that a two-way conversation between marketers and consumers is the whole point of social, and anything less than that is a reflection of outdated, broadcast-style thinking. But really – how many conversations do you engage in per day with the brands you follow? The thinking has evolved to reflect people follow brands because they want to hear from them in an efficient manner, and not necessarily talk back.

Active Video Games Don’t Keep Kids Moving – I know! You’re thinking, “That’s crazy. They play sports in active video games, dancing and all that! How could they not be more active?!” However, research has shown that in a normal home setting, kids with Wii or active game systems were no more active than kids whose thumbs got a workout. In laboratories, of course kids were more active, but it didn’t translate to real life. How does this bode for video game companies and marketing? What are some alternatives for them?

Yahoo! Japan gets a younger look – Yahoo Japan Corp. freshened up its management team, installing much younger executives as Chairman Masayoshi Son called for the company to stay competitive in the fast-moving Internet industry. Yahoo Japan, which operates the country’s most popular Internet portal and is one-third-owned by U.S. Internet giant Yahoo Inc., said Thursday that 44-year-old Manabu Miyasaka will become chief executive April 1.Mr. Miyasaka currently heads the company’s online shopping and auction services. Incumbent CEO Masahiro Inoue, 55, will step down from the board in June after an annual shareholders meeting. Seven other new executive officers between the ages of 35 and 44 also are slated to take up their positions in April, and Yahoo Japan said the average age of its executive suite will drop to 41 from 50 as the company looks to keep up with changes in the industry spurred by increased use of social media and smartphones. “Some of our rivals are young, and Internet users are also young,” said Mr. Son, 54, who is also chairman and CEO of Yahoo Japan’s biggest shareholder, mobile-telecommunications company Softbank Corp. Softbank owns 42% of Yahoo Japan and includes the latter’s earnings on its financial statements. “It’s important [for management] to stay young,” he said. Mr. Inoue, Yahoo Japan’s current CEO, said the company needs a younger leader who isn’t afraid to “destroy,” if necessary, what the company has built, as the proliferation of Internet-capable mobile gadgets such as smartphones changes the industry.

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – meaning any aspects of PR could be the reasoning behind the pick. Is it the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

We chose AdAge’s appropriately headlined story, It’s OK to be Antisocial. It’s the new wave of brand interaction, and it’s important for us at Topaz to discuss this to counsel our clients. We want to hear about our favorite brands through efficient channels like Facebook, but it’s impractical, on both the marketing and consumer ends, to expect a constant two-way conversation. It was nice for a while, but now we’re listening much more effectively!