Few things irritate me more than buzzwords. Why? Because the person who spews buzzwords all over the office actually thinks people are impressed! But the truth is once a buzzword loses its magic, it has the opposite effect; we’re not impressed, we just think you’re a shallow idiot who thinks a few adjectives can cover for a steaming pile of dog crap. A robust pile of dog crap still stinks!
Category Archives: PR
The Importance of Ethics to the PR Industry
Time to Set Record Straight on PR’s Ethical Backbone
via Guest Post: The Importance of Ethics to the PR Industry – PRNewser.
For PR professionals, 2011 has been an up-and-down year in terms of ethics.
A quick glimpse at recent headlines would give the casual reader the impression that all is wrong in the world of PR ethics: The News of the World phone-hacking scandal; American PR firms providing image counsel to dictators; and PR firms writing fake online product reviews on behalf of clients.
While it may seem that each week brings a new tale of an epic ethics flap in PR, reality is not as gloomy as perception. The fact remains, however, that public relations practitioners have long battled an image problem: that we, collectively, are unethical — no better than snake-oil salespeople.
13 reasons why PR should lead social media efforts
the fact is that there are a lot of people who want a slice of the social media pie. PR leaders are being asked to defend their marketing credentials to folks who may not even understand what public relations professionals do each day.
Our colleagues in sales, advertising, customer service, HR and IT all want control of the digital media PR budget. I understand why they would ask for it, but I just don’t think they’re as well-equipped to head the effort as PR pros.
Here’s why PR should lead:
via 13 reasons why PR should lead social media efforts | Articles.
HOW TO: Make Your PR & Marketing Believable
Public relations and marketing professionals have dug themselves into a hole. With the overwhelming amount of PR spin and marketing messages flying at consumers on a daily basis, individuals are constantly on guard, trying to spot the underlying motives behind each claim, motto, message or deal that brands introduce. Many times the assumption by consumers is that marketing messages are motivated by greedy or deceptive intentions. This phenomena is what Ogilvy’s SVP of Global Strategy & Marketing, Rohit Bhargava, called a “believability crisis” during his presentation at Mashable Connect 2011.
Best list ever – stuff that journalists like
Quick Stat: Digital Newspaper Revenues to Grow 8.6% in 2011
Here are some figures to help put the New York Times’ earnings in context of US ad markets for digital and print newspaper advertising:
via Quick Stat: Digital Newspaper Revenues to Grow 8.6% in 2011 – The eMarketer Blog.
Top 5 Innovative Ways PR Pros Are Using Social Media
Most PR professionals have now incorporated social media into their day-to-day activities, and many would say that they couldn’t live without it. But beyond the basics, such as following and engaging with key media, keeping tabs on competitors and sharing company news and perspectives, what are some of the more innovative ways that communications professionals can use social media in their daily jobs?
How PR People Are Destroying Social Media
his is by definition a controversial post and a bit of a rant. So I want to be clear what I’m saying, and who towards – and who I’m not talking about.
I’m not saying all PR people are destroying Social Media. I consider a number of Social Media experts with PR backgrounds to be friends of mine, and I converse with them regularly.
But there is a type of PR person in Social Media that I’ll call the Ignorant Opportunist, and these are the people who are hurting Social Media.
I’ll say more about how they’re hurting Social Media later, but in brief:
They are blocking the growth and effectiveness of Social Media, and they’re confusing both the people who need to be using it and and the people who are paying for it.
How PR People Are Destroying Social Media | Search Engine Journal.
Embargo – still a delicate matter
I’ve seen this video on 2 or 3 different blogs these days, so I decided to share it with you. Again, it’s about the delicate matters of Embargo. Most of you probably reminds the previous embargo crisis in the past (and I’m not talking about Cuba) : see the previous conversations related to embargo on the Dblog
The video hereunder. Warning for the explicit language 🙂
[DRAFT] Toolkit – Search Engine Optimized Press Release
I talked about it a few weeks ago. I’ve been asked what would be the things to do to write a search engine optimized press release.
I’ve answered a few basic points, but I do think that creating a toolkit might be useful, especially since the audience is changing, and if you want to target journalist, but not only.
Of course, press release will remain for the press, but we have to keep in mind that Google is the biggest wire on the planet. If you want to exist somewhere, you have to be on it.
Preamble :
- The recommendations hereunder are a draft version – any additional comment is more than welcome
- The purpose of this toolkit is to facilitate the optimization of press release for Search Engine. It is not designed to become "blog release" (a press release dedicated to blog – a wrong idea), but to facilitate the recognition by a larger audience.
Content
- Title of the press release : keep it as short as possible, with key figure to immediately attract attention, keyword and the name of the brand, the name of the product.
- The text : keep it also short – keep in mind that it will be read on a computer screen. The choice of the font and the formatting is also to consider.
- Media : people pay more attention to pictures. Embedding picture on a text to illustrate it will attract more attention. I would also recommend creating a specific link to make available high res illustration and eventually a short movie hosted on youtube/dailymotion (could be an interview of a spokesperson, a demo of a product, etc).
- Include keywords / tags : could be easily identified by search engine – 3, 4 tags, no more.
- Submit the press release on web services : we’ve previously identified services on the web – they are supposed to distribute releases. Not sure that it is very efficient, but could help for the referencing (look at the list on mashable previously seen by Aaron for example – I also know that some services exists on a local scale, depending on your country)
- Link the release to social news site : digg-likes, delicous-likes, etc … You’ll find over internet services to add buttons to rate news or to add it to the major social news services (addthis for example).
- Link to content : Do not hesitate to link to previous release or to content on the company website.
Be sure that your online press room is up to dater
- Integrate a dedicated RSS feed to let reader be alerted of the latest news (we’ve discussed that topic in the past with Erica, but since then, I’ve discovered additionnal services for those who don’t have feeds such as magiepieRSS or Feed43 …)
- Create a media resource directory with your media content (HD Logo, HD Shots of products, screenshots, video, press kits, etc)
- Make an obvious access to your contact
- Create an archive section
- If you have an online press review somewhere why not integrate it (via del.icio.us) …
From a technical point of view
- Check with your IT guy that the HTML formatting of your page is well done, and that the code has all the info (because that’s where search engine looks first).
- Check also that the website is correctly declared to Google, and that Google is advised when the content of the website changes (some tools can help – thank you Google)
Just to be clear : these recommendation does not replace our work with journalists and our precious relationship with influencers. But it might help to give visibility for messages.
And if a blogger can find enough information he can use (with screenshot he can link or video he can embedd in his post) inside a press release, why not ?
Now, it’s your turn : do you think these recommendation could be helpful for some of your clients? Is it just not relevant? Do you have additionnal recommendation to share ? Have you already tried similar things?
Pierre from Paris