In PRobecast episode #96, Topazers Amy Krigman and Evan Siff join me in talking about software that tracks employee whereabouts, group buying via EBay and Demi Lovato. Here is the full list of topics:

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?

MP3 File

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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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Technorati Tags: BusinessWire, headlines, news releases, Schwartz Communications Research Group, SEO

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Catching up with emails this morning I came across my friend Michael Katz’s latest eNewsletter where he compares good marketing to going fishing. I agree with him wholeheartly. It really doesn’t matter how smart you are, how many awards you have won or even where you went to school. As Michael points out, winning new business has more to do with “when and where you show up, what you use for bait, how hungry the fish are and how many other people are parked right beside you.”

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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