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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Twitterchats, Tweetathons, T-chats, Tweetups, whatever you want to call them, require a 100% team effort. If done right, they can greatly increase web traffic, improve organizational transparency, increase your Twitter followers, and build up or improve your community. It may be hard to convince your client this is a great thing for visibility, but all evidence points to success.

Since I’ve wanted to organize a Twitterchat for months now, I went searching for the best way to go about the task. I found a step-by-step blog from The Blue Key Campaign, which spent a week promoting and organizing its first one. The first step, of course, is that you need an established community. If there’s no one there to participate, where will your responses come from?

I mentioned before that this effort requires input and time from every team member. In our agency case, we’d need the PR team plus our clients, in order to answer questions in the format they arrive, whether it’s Twitter @reply, DM, or email. My hope is that once everyone gets on board, we’ll see results for our clients and as an agency. If you’re looking for a way to start a Twitterchat, check out Blue Key Campaign’s steps. They are as detailed as they come!

Have you ever tried a Twitterchat? What were the results? What would you do differently next time?

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Technorati Tags: community, PR, Social Media, Twitter chats

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Facebook for small businesses – An article on USA Today talks about the reasons why small businesses should leverage Facebook when promoting their businesses. The article offered some great Q&As to help aide any business wondering what this “like” business is all about and how they can participate.

Google announces their virtual wallet platform – Google is announced near-field communication (NFC) to be added to their Android-based phones, allowing consumers to make payments, redeem coupons and earn loyalty points via their mobile device. Some though are saying not to hold your breath for this technology as Google tends to start small and slowly when it comes to rolling out products.

Sony has been hacked again – First Playstation, now Sony Ericsson’s Canadian version of their online eShop has been hacked – this time by a “Lebanese grey hat hacker” who accessed 2,000 records of customers, and posted almost 1,000 of the records online. While after the hackings, it was originally said to have cost the company $50 million, it is now being said to be costing them $170 million. Can they recoup?

Smartphone apps helping drunk drivers avoid checkpoints – Applications made for the iPhone, RIM and Andoid platforms are designed to alert drivers if there are sobriety checkpoints, then alerting them with alternate routes. Are these apps helping drivers stay off the road by alerting them of these checkpoints or are the making it OK to drive drunk on an alternative route?

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.

This week, the article talking about how small businesses can use Facebook to promote their businesses wins. First of all, if you are a small business owner, time is normally not something that you have a lot of. Articles like this that lay out the details clearly can be a huge asset to any small business owner looking to market their business through a new channel. With so many people on Facebook, if they aren’t participating they could be missing out on a big demographic of potential customers. So – jump in! It’s all about trial and error, however articles like this can at least jumpstart marketing efforts.

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Technorati Tags: Drunk Driving, Facebook, Google, Hacking, Small Business Marketing, smartphone applications, Sony, Virtual Wallet

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Add to our discussion – how else has PR changed?

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Technorati Tags: Infographics, Pitching Media, Sam Whitmore, Scare Tactics

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Focusing on keeping your sustainable business going requires paying attention to customer needs, watching the bottom line, understanding the difference between revenue and profit and maintaining pricing advantage over competing products or services. It’s basically sticking to your knitting, and arguably, it doesn’t work. Sometimes it pays to look at the bright shiny object, the thing that threatens to disrupt your business, and go all-out for innovation.

As many businesses have discovered, you have to stick to your knitting, and then do more – take risks, in fact – to sustain forward momentum while creating an environment that rewards innovation. Risk here is less about financial exposure than it is about fear of the unknown. As an example, simply doing what you have to do to keep your business going ignores the effects of technological change and culture change, expressed as daily life – what we could call ‘the unexpected,’ which is fraught with risk. Recent business history is littered with companies or industries which failed to tackle the risk of factoring for the effects of change – Blockbuster’s fall from grace, the withering of broadcast news, the near-death of print media and the irrelevance of music companies stand out.

Innovation is not a core competency in most companies. A few outliers exist – Apple is the clear poster child – but for most organizations, just keeping up with business-as-usual is a full -time job. Risk avoidance, on the other hand, is a core competency.

Committing resources to anticipating risk and managing for change is something most CEOs, CFOs and boards are uncomfortable with; they fail to see any immediate value. It’s risk, and no one wants to front-load risk in the form of ‘the unexpected’ into a spreadsheet. (Of course anyone who’s read an S1 knows the front matter is loaded with ‘risks’, but those are usually risks in the context of the business as it is presented to the financial markets, not risks the business must anticipate as a daily innovation exercise – ‘the unexpected’.)

All of which leads to the point of this blog: it’s really tough to build an innovative business. There are exceptions, of course – Hubspot (not a client,) Black Duck Software and SpeedBump (clients.) VCs are more conservative these days; tech talent is frustrated by how difficult it is to break through with innovative, risky ideas, and the business media is focused on covering organizations with national footprints, not innovative startups with tons of potential but no ticker symbol.

How do we bring innovation and an appetite for risk back to Boston?

Here are a few ideas to embrace disruption and risk in the quest for innovation:

• Ask your customers where their businesses are going. Not what they need today, but in one or three or five years. Our client Black Duck does this at their Customer Summit, and they act on what they hear. But other companies who try this may be surprised. If your customers can’t answer with something that is surprising, your business is in trouble (and so are theirs.)
• Ask your employees what they need to be creative. If you don’t give employees incentive to be creative, your business is in trouble.
• Revisit the notion of ‘incentive.’ It may not be money that interests your most creative people. They may be yearning for challenge, change, recognition and risk. Reward them by making these part of their job descriptions.
• Ask your peers what they think the NE region needs to regain preeminence as a hub for innovation. Scott Kirsner does this at the Nantucket Conference, but don’t wait. Start the discussion now, and make sure to talk a lot about risk and the unknown.
• Take risks. Writing this is a risk, for example. Committing to living this way would be a much bigger risk.

Clayton Christensen took risks when he wrote his book. His ideas were challenging and innovative; they disrupted many assumptions executives hold dear. He’s a local hero. There are many others. Take a look at your business’s leaders and think of ways to help them create innovation. It’s a good way to spend time on a cold, rainy Boston day.

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Technorati Tags: Black Duck, Clayton Christensen, HubSpot, innovation, Speedbump, The Innovator's Dilema

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Why it’s important to be relevant – Over the years, relevancy has been brought up as a best practice over all industries. It is also key to the success of any PR strategy and planning. To stay relevant, any good PR pro should know that they must stay on top of industry issues, know their clients differentiators and counsel their clients to talk about hot items that show their expertise. What do you think makes relevancy so important?

Forecast: social media in 2011 – It’s no shock that there are more and more companies and brands participating in the various social media channels. The Fresh Networks published a post that talked about what changes we should see in the discussion and implementation of social media in 2011. No longer should companies focus on what can be measured, they should be focusing on what SHOULD be measured. And this means focusing on the value that social media is providing to the actual business and brand itself

Comeback Brands to Watch in 2011 – A recent article found on msnbc discussed how 2010 was full of old brands making comebacks. It will be interesting to see how these brands evolve in 2011 – which ones will stick around for the long haul and which ones will disappear as quickly as they came.

Will e-books kill print? – According to USA TODAY’S Best Selling Book list, e-versions of their top 6 books outsold print versions. Over the holidays, between 3 million to 5 million e-readers were activated. What does this mean to print?

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.

This week’s winner(s) are Comeback Brands! These old brands are dusting off their shoulders and putting good efforts in both PR and marketing-wise to redevelop themselves into current times. While, I’m sure not all these efforts will be 100% successful, we wish them good luck!

Who do you think should have won this week?

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Do you want your employer to know your every move? – A new application called myUnity can go on smartphones and will show employers whether or not an employee is at their desk, on the phone or has left the building. Is this level of employee tracking going too far?

EBay’s new group buying service – EBay is launching a new online group buying service that will enable groups of people (i.e. friends/family members) to make it easier for a group of people to all contribute towards a gift. This new group buying trend is really adapting to they way consumers buy. What do you think of EBays new launch?

T-Mobile ad pokes fun at AT&T – T-Mobile’s new ad campaign piggybacks on AT&T’s old Verizon digs by promoting their new 4G Network. Do you think it’s about time someone takes a little stab at AT&T? I do!

Subaru launch of mediocrity – Subaru’s new ad campaign pokes fun at all the other car brands out there with a launch of their fake new car called Mediocrity. It’s definitely a creative campaign, but hopefully people don’t think this is actually the new Subaru car.

Can a Madlib help to create the perfect micro pitchs? – An article on TechCrunch talked about the art of the micro pitch and the importance of entrepreneurs to perfect this pitch. Adeo Resse, from the Founder Institute’s, created this madlib for entrepreneurs to try:

My company, [INSERT NAME], is developing [A DEFINING OFFERING] to help [A DEFINING AUDIENCE]…[SOLVE A PROBLEM] with [SECRET SAUCE].

What do you think – would that work?

Disney’s Demi Lovato goes into rehab – Demi Lovato has quit the Jonas Brothers tour and entered a treatment facility. An un-named person close to Lovato said that she has an eating disorder and cuts herself. Are pressures of keeping up with Hollywood society too much for young people who are now always in the spotlight?

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.

This week was a tough decision as the Madlib micro pitch gave great pointers and reasoning for businesses. However, Subaru’s Mediocrity campaign is this week PRobecast PR Power Ranker. The campaign was creative, got people talking about it and it was just nice to hear from Subaru – we don’t hear too much from them nowadays.

Congrats, Subaru!

Who do you think should have won?

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Technorati Tags: AT&T, Demi Lovato, EBay, Group Buying, Mediocrity, MyUnity, Pitches, Subaru, T-Mobile, Tracking

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I read an interesting article on ZDNet about why less is more when it comes to news release headlines…and it all boils down to SEO.

So what constitutes an optimized news release headline?

The perfectly optimized news release will have a headline that is the appropriate length, (meaning Google will display it fully) and it will use the best targeted keywords for your organization.

What’s the magic number of characters a PR pro should stick to when crafting his/her next release headline?

SEO experts say the number falls between 65 and 70 characters. If you use any more than 66 characters, Google won’t display the headline fully (which is not exactly optimal).

Schwartz Communications Research Group – with the help of BusinessWire – analyzed how well PR professionals are at optimizing press releases by looking at the length of more than 16,000 headlines issued over a 31 day period on Business Wire (from July 26 to August 25, 2010).

The research found that only 18.4% of all releases had headlines with 65 characters or fewer, which were fully displayed on Google.

The majority of releases were under 150 characters, but 2% of releases had headlines in excess of 300 characters, with one headline that was over 1,000 characters (wowza!).

The shortest headline was 18 characters, which to too short when you factor in keyword optimization.

The average length of news release headlines was 123 characters…halfway to optimal.

There was one more interesting tidbit that I pulled from the research (mostly because I’m based near Boston):

Companies located in the tech hubs – Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Austin, etc- often do the worst job of optimizing headline length. The releases from New York, Philadelphia and Chicago were the best at keeping headlines short.

The moral of the story is this: Keep your headlines short and use your keywords wisely…and never underestimate the importance of SEO.

If you want to download the full research report, you can find it here.

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He goes on to give advice that we give to our clients on a regular basis – establish yourself as a thought leader. We have found that this is best achieved by becoming a publisher. Michael says write a book – which is great for positioning yourself as an expert – but even simpler than getting into book publishing, we recommend producing by-lined articles, podcasts and getting out in front of prospects speaking at industry events. The message you deliver should be clear and concise and can I say – simple.

Do you agree with Michael’s points?

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Technorati Tags: Good Marketing, Michael Katz, New Business

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It’s every client’s dream to get TV coverage, however news assignment editors are swarmed with emails for us PR folk every day, all day trying to fulfill this dream for our clients. The panel was great and offered excellent insight as to how to get their interest. They also said not to take it personally if you don’t always hear back with a response – they’re essentially working in a tornado.

Here are a couple highlights from last night:

After all the fires & robberies are covered, how do they make their decision as to what to feature next?

Roche: He sees what people are clicking on. It’s about giving people news items that they are interested in and want to see. The news is 3 parts: what the audience wants to know, what the audience needs to know and what the audience didn’t know.

Olsen: At NECN keep in mind there are different areas to tap into: the Business Show, CEO corner, etc. She tries to look for a mix of stories and noted 3 very important things a pitch should be packaged with:

1. Make it visually pleasing
2. Make it of human interest
3. Have the story be relatable

Bettencourt: LNS covers many things that some of the other stations couldn’t. She loves community outreach stories.

Let’s talk on-air vs. web, do they choose different stories for each?

Auresto: We don’t wait till the 6 o’clock news to break a story that happened at noon. It’ll be put on the web (but it still may be covered during the 6 o’clock news). The Web is like having a sister-station. Everything is moving to the Web.

Roche: For instance, if there is a news conference, only part of it might be shown on TV – but you’ll be able to see the entire conference online.

What don’t they cover?

Olsen: Dry meetings or events that are more like a dry meetings. Stuff that isn’t visually stimulating.

Auresto: You have to think, “Do I want to watch this on the 10 o’clock news?” Fine a compelling story about what you are pitching.

Bettencourt: Also, if you send releases about events, have an interesting person available at the event.

Top Dos and Don’ts

Bettencourt: Don’t send an email then call 5 seconds later. You can call, but remember she always is checking email, but she might be busy. Give her time to digest. Do, however, leave contact information including cell phone numbers.

Auresto: Contact information is extremely important. Put that up front with details below. *Regarding events

Olsen: Establish a relationship. She’ll take a few minutes to talk to you if you start a relationship with her. Also, remember you don’t always have to pitch the assignment editors, build relationships with others at the station too.

Roche: Relationships are important. Don’t call too close to news time. Don’t pitch the same exact thing to him that you are pitching to another station.

A couple other interesting pieces I got out of last night:

Roche: He said they aren’t a bunch of prima donnas, so do reach out.

Auresto: He files all the experts he receives, so send him a list of clients and what they can talk about/specialize in.

All-in-all, the panel stressed the fact that they just want to put together an awesome newscast. Think about what you would want to see on the news, create a good story for your pitches and offer them a nicely packaged story idea.

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Technorati Tags: FOX 25, NECN, Pitching News Station, Pitching Tips, TV Coverage, WBZ, WCVB-TV, WFXT-TV, WMUR-TV

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