The tools---they are obsolete my friends
Well said. Great post by Curtis Hougland at Attention PR. This snippet nails it on the changing of the PR industry, with simple proof.
The press conference is becoming obsolete for two basic reasons. The media has become more distributed, fragmented. The news cycle has changed. The people that spread word-of-mouth often cannot or do not attend these events, and the news is invariably already being discussed by the time of the press conference.
Rachel Roy (client) proved this point through a one-hour Twitter press conference, which cost $1 (Dina on our team wanted a Poland Springs water), and effectively reached both top-down and bottom-up media.
It is time to change the tool set.
Why social media makes things worse than they really are.
Do you remember bad news always being THIS BAD? Think about bad things that happened in the news a few years ago. (I don't think I need examples) You saw what happened by watching CNN or picking up your newspaper. Then blogs came up and would post recaps. You could comment and add your 2 cents and you'd be able to find more information by doing a search based on your own interest for the cause.
But now, with Twitter especially, news (and especially BAD NEWS) gets spread around to a point of over exposure almost making the news sound catastrophic.
For example, the latest in celebrity deaths was extremely overwhelming. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson. Billie Mays. Each announcement alone was a shocker in its own right, but when multiple people in your online stream are constantly posting, commenting, tweeting---it makes it even bigger because the news continually repeats right in front of you.
No longer are you able to back away from the news. It follows you everywhere. People are writing about the same things as part of a new news cycle across social media. This continuous repeating of the news makes small things bigger than usual and more important than it really is.
Great example: Yesterday, Tumblr went down for about 30 minutes. You go to Tumblr, it's down. Fine. I won't be able to check it out but I can move on with my life and get back to work. You then go and check Twitter and EVERYONE is writing about how Tumblr is down! Alone, it's not really a big deal but together with a critical mass of content about the same thing: IT'S INSANE.
What do you think? Does social media make things bigger than they really are because of the opportunity to spread it and repeat it?
A chat with IRG
I spoke with my friend Steve Melfi who works at IRG, The Investor Relations earlier this week about PR & Social media. It was fun. Check it out here.
Thanks Steve!
My blog is 1 year old today
Today is the one year anniversary of this blog. I'm not much for talking about how far I've come with it, what I like, what I don't. Let's just look to the future.
Also, for those readers that do come back ever so often. Thank you!
PR Agency Social Media Check In: Burson-Marsteller
About: Burson-Marsteller is a leading global public relations and communications firm whose knowledge, strategic insights and innovative programs help drive strong corporate and brand reputations for its clients. We provide our clients with strategic thinking and program execution across a complete range of public relations, public affairs, advertising and other communications services. Through our proprietary research, we lead the industry in knowledge of and insights into the relationship between communications and the reputations of companies and their CEOs. These learnings are applied to our many and varied corporate clients.
Social Media Sites on Corporate Website:
- The Burson-Marsteller Blog
- Twitter-@BMGlobalNews - news and insights from Burson's network.
- YouTube
- Flickr
- SAP China: implemented a community blog in which people could maintain individual blogs on SOA topics.
- Transforming Chichen-Itza from Virtual Wonder In Second Life to World Wonder: Targeted Second Life residents to communicate to target audiences the wonders and history of Chichen-Itza in a way that would generate votes, drive traffic and awareness from travel/lifestyle media.
- Separate Burson Digital Practice (where most of the social media links are hosted) Burson Digital is described as developing "communications strategies around social media/community, online reputation management, interactive experience design, digital business management, and mobile marketing on behalf of corporations, consumer brands, government agencies and other large organizations."
- Digital Perspectives Blog.
- Separate Twitter: @BMDigital (*Note the account is private and blocking updates and seems to be empty)**EDITORS UPDATE- Burson responded on Twitter. The new account is @BursonDigital.
Do you know or work for an agency doing great things with social media with their clients AND internally? Do you work for the agency featured? Leave suggestions in the comments!
One Pitch Two Pitch Bad Pitch Blue Pitch
I'm not one to call out bad pitches. I'm against those lists of bad PR people and all the bad they've done. Having written a few bad ones in my early days, you have to give space to make mistakes and learn. (In fact: I had a pitch I wrote almost 2 years ago read out loud at dinner the other night. It was horrible, but a good laugh and I'm thankful my emails don't look like that anymore. One day I'll post it. Maybe.)
Anyway, reading this article in Gawker (of all places) makes me just cringe. There's one thing about pitching a publication that isn't right for the story. You may be stretching the interest of the publication and think they may like your news...they may not.
But really? Pitching a news announcement about how to avoid pregnancy to a gay publication? Common sense folks. It's like pitching a "Top 10 Ways to Lose Weight This Summer" to a publication about Eating Disorders.
Read the full story here.
Looking for more bad pitches? (I urge you to read these as a learning tool, not to ridicule. You're not perfect either.) Check out The Bad Pitch Blog.
Attending EVERYTHING
I think our industry places too much emphasis on conferences in an era where there are amazing tools to congregate online and find like minded people. I am not suggesting that face to face meetings aren't important, they are critical. But schmoozefests at fancy resorts aren't the kinds of face to face meetings I want to do.
And 'by invitation only' or high priced events are particularly bad in my mind. The most interesting people you can meet are the outsiders, the up and comers, and the hackers who can't afford to lay out $4000 to attend an event and are never going to get an invite to an event where you have to know somebody or "be somebody" to get in. So I avoid those most of all.
I saw this quote today on Fred Wilson's blog and it just hit me. Right now, working in an industry focused around social media I feel like there are conferences, panels, meetups, tweetups, camps...you name it, something EVERY week.
I guess for those who are making a shift into this industry or have that overwhelming feeling that they have to attend EVERYTHING to learn---rest assure that you don't. The information you want to know can be found in other ways.
Sure, going to events are definitely important as face to face interaction (aka--get off your damn computer, go outside and meet someone) helps foster relationships and network you to many opportunities.
But, at many events, the same people show up. Many become friends and it's great to see them, but from a business perspective---the stuff and people you want to meet are not necessarily the ones at every event. They're the ones at home building the next technology. The ones having private dinners with CMOs from big brands doing big things. They're the ones who are having their own smaller meetups to discuss the next thing with 3 or 4 people who are going to change the way we think. I agree with what Fred says, the outsiders and up and comers are the ones you want to meet.
Now of course, being one of the organizers for Digital DUMBO, one could say that I promote the very thing that I'm saying is what you shouldn't be doing. I'm not. I don't expect everyone to come to the event. Trust me, I absolutely LOVE meeting tons of new people but I don't want it to become an event without a purpose. The goal is to bring together the Digital DUMBO community, have them interact, share ideas and maybe throw some work around. We've been very lucky with the success of it and are continuing to figure out ways to make it "not another networking event."
In Kelly Samardak's recent Just an Online Minute column recapping the event, I was extremely proud of her comment.
“There are a lot of britches at DigitalDUMBO drinkups, but nobody acts too big for them — and that’s 100% the reason why no matter how crusty I feel, I will always make the trip across the river to play.”
That's how all events should be. You should feel equal. Interested. Motivated and excited. You should go to things because you have a purpose for being there, can bring something to the table and have a good time doing it. Don't go to go. Go because you want to. If you're not really into the event, it's OK to pass. That time can be put to doing something that can change the exciting and growing world that we're in right now.
PR 2.0-A slideshow
Thought this was pretty interesting showing the changing role of PR with social media's impact.
PR Agency Social Media Check In: Edelman
About: Edelman is the world’s leading independent public relations firm, with more than 3,200 employees in 51 offices worldwide. Edelman was named PRWeek’s “2009 Agency of the Year,” PRWeek’s “Large PR Agency of the Year” (three times in the last four years), and Holmes Report’s “2008 Global Agency of the Year”; and was listed as a top-10 firm by Advertising Age in 2008 and 2007. In 2007, CEO Richard Edelman was honored as “Agency Executive of the Year” by Advertising Age, and he was cited in 2007 and 2008 as “Most Powerful PR Executive” by PRWeek. Edelman’s network includes specialty firms Blue (advertising), StrategyOne (research) and BioScience Communications (medical education and publishing).
Social Media Sites on Corporate Website:
- Filterforgood.com : Brita's campaign to reduce bottled water waste. Integrated Facebook, Twitter, blog post widgets.
- Go Red for Women: Connecting thousands of women across the country empowering them about heart disease. Using Flickr and Facebook.
- The Edelman Digital Blog
- Steve Rubel's Micropersuasion Blog (editor's note: Steve was a main reason I started blogging on my former employer's blog.)
Do you know or work for an agency doing great things with social media with their clients AND internally? Leave suggestions in the comments!