Flack's Revenge

PR News Digital Guide: Boosting Social Media & PR with Content Curation

PR News Digital Guidebook is out now, and I am pleased to say that it includes an article I wrote on how to boost PR and social media results with content curation.

Please see below for a brief excerpt

Do you want a better way to generate high-quality social media content and connect with your target audiences? Are you looking to keep your organization’s teams informed about relevant contents, trends and topics? If so, you need to add content curation, an increasingly important skill set for communicators, to your repertoire....

How Content Curation Works

Before embarking on a content curation program, you must understand what will be involved in terms of process, technology and methods... the magnitude of the effort needed to support content curation can vary quite a bit. Tracking down relevant topics in areas where there’s much social media chatter and well-known consumer brands represents a much different challenge than doing the same in niche B2B areas.

The article provides tips and answers the following questions:

• How to use different types of curation
• Which articles should be selected or ignored?
• How to measure your efforts and tell when it is working

The article includes exceprts from an interview with Tom Riddle of CIThread.  CIThread is a hosted content curation platform, and the technology behind our own Tech Marketing Scoop.

I wrote a couple of articles for various PR News guides last year; and was happy to contribute again.  Their guidebooks have lots of useful information; it is always blast around this time of year to get my copy, see how the article came out and read articles from others in the field.

I urge you to visit the link and order the book

Wiseguy Way for PR

I was flying back from my brother's bachelor party in Las Vegas (alas, the details of the trip will need to remain in Vegas), picked up a copy of the NY Post, and saw an article - Wiseguy Way - about the book Mob Rules: What the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman.

Written by an ex-mobster, the book explains how mob rules can be applied to legitmate businesses.  I enjoyed the article, and it occurred to me that some of the rules cited in the review could also apply to the PR agency world.  Here are some examples, the text in italics is from the article:

Don’t forget a name

Everyone knows a memory for names is a valuable business tool. Mobsters excel at this, says Ferrante — thanks to mnemonics. Basically, this is the practice of nicknaming someone so you’ll remember who they are.

The takeaway here is that you need to value your client and media contacts - confusing them or forgetting their names is a recipe for disaster.  I am not so sure about inventing nicknames, sure this is done but can backfire, especially if the names aren't flattering.

Don’t close yourself off

Ferrante looks back on his prison days... Although he was in a lockup where cell doors could be left open, he often kept his shut so he could get more reading and writing done. “This guy came up to me and said, ‘Lou, you can’t do that,’” he says. So he tried leaving it open...

The lesson for managers: Keep an open door, so as to a) stay connected to what’s going on; b) keep in good standing with your people; and c) stimulate creativity.

This is good general advice for managers; also, it is important to be available for the media if you want to maximize coverage.

Don’t let things fester

In “Let’s Meet in the Back for a Sit-Down: Mediating Disputes and the Art of Compromise,” Ferrante advises dealing with intercompany squabbles as the mob does — quickly and fairly.“Squash a beef before it gets out of hand,” he writes, “and be sure to offer fair and honest advice every time.”

Yes, it is a good thing to avoid conflict, with clients and media too of course.

Don’t shortchange your customers

Ferrante talks about the difference between mobsters and corporations — and the mobsters come out looking like the good guys.

“I would feel more secure sitting down with another mob guy and shaking on something than I would with a businessman,” he says. “On the street, your name is all you have. If you screw somebody, you’re out of business.”

True enough, agencies need to deliver excellent serivce and be responsive to client concerns.

Towards A More Refined Publicity Stunt

The publicity stunt is the carnival sideshow of PR.  Sure, they are used and sometimes get great results across many different types of programs and industries; having said that, I think most would agree that stunts don't show off the profession in the most positive, intellectual light.

However I got a different picture of publicity stunts in reading the New York Times Book Review recently.  Tony Perrottet wrote an essay about litrerary publicity stunts.  It is a great walk through the history of book PR.  I share excerpts below, and encourage you to click the link and read the entire article.

• The most revered of French novelists recognized the need for P.R. “For artists, the great problem to solve is how to get oneself noticed,” Balzac observed...
• Hemingway set the modern gold standard for inventive self-branding, burnishing his image with photo ops from safaris, fishing trips and war zones. But he also posed for beer ads.
• But the tradition of self-promotion predates the camera by millenniums. In 440 B.C. or so, a first-time Greek author named Herodotus paid for his own book tour around the Aegean.
• Perhaps the most astonishing P.R. stunt... was plotted in Paris in 1927 by Georges Simenon, the Belgian-born author of the Inspector Maigret novels....Simenon agreed to write an entire novel while suspended in a glass cage outside the Moulin Rouge nightclub for 72 hours. ... A newspaper advertisement promised the result would be “a record novel: record speed, record endurance and, dare we add, record talent!” It was a marketing coup.

 

A Publicist's Touch and Sinatra's Career: The Power of Branding and a Strong Headline

I had been seeing and hearing a lot about Frank Sinatra recently, and while reading the NY Times this morning, it became clear why the news has been covering the legendary crooner. There is a new book out about Sinatra's early career, "Frank: The Voice," by James Kaplan, a book that New York Times writer Stephen Holden says is riveting in his review.

The first words of the review cover the story about how a few edits of the publicist's pen made all the difference in branding the singer and bringing him to wider fame and adoration. According to the article:

... the author pinpoints the moment in 1943 when the crooner's publicist, George B. Evans, came up with his defining sobriquet. Fourth billed at the Paramount Theater in New York... Sinatra's name was accompanied by a slogan: "The Voice that Has Thrilled Millions."

The creakiness and sexlessness of those words made Evans cringe. Certain he could come up with something better, Evans closed his eyes and and imagined what drove Sinatra's fans in bobby socks into a frenzy and suddenly realized he didn't have to add anything. "All he had to do was subtract. Frank was just... The Voice."

If "The voice" was later superseded by "the Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes," it was the only major nickname to focus on the indispensable ingredients of Sinatra's success... "The Voice" evokes the intangible, mystical alchemy of sound, technique and emotion that fused when the skinny young Sinatra murmured tender endearments into a microphone."

Brains on Fire, a Great Read

The nice people at Wiley were kind enough to provide a review copy of the book Brains on Fire (click here to find it on Amazon), by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church and Spike Jones (no, not that Spike Jonze).

I get lots of requests to look at books, this one in particular intrigued me because of the title, and its subtitle/subject: "Igniting Powerful, Sustainable Word of Mouth Movements."

I have started to skim through it and it is very readable, and loaded with great information about ways to get people excited about products, ideas and brands.

Let me share an excerpt, the first paragraph, which sets the stage pretty well and made me want to read more:

Technology is a trap. A crutch.  The shiny new object in the room.  And while many people think it could be the answer to their prayers, we guarantee that it could also be your biggest detriment.  A lot of companies that concentrate all their efforts in the area of technology seem to take the human element out of the equation.  But the focus of business is not - and never should be - technology.  Rather, it always has been, and always will be, about people.  Living, breathing human beings with hopes and dreams, pet peeves, and a whole bunch of emotional baggage.

I read ahead a bit and found another great passage:

Movements Rely on Word of Mouth, where People are the Medium

Like it or not, your life is a marketing medium.  Sure, it's the clothes you wear.  The music you listen to.  The car you drive.  Your belief system.  Even the words that come out of your mouth.  But you yourself are a vessel.  A vehicle that carries your hopes, thoughts, dreams and especially your experiences.

This is where word of mouth comes into play...

I will be reading and sharing more on this important topic.

The YouTube trailer, an Indispensable Part of Book Marketing

For almost as long as there has been a book publishing industry, authors (and their PR agents) have devised ways to promote books. In the article The Author Takes a Start Turn, the NY Times reports on how creating a YouTube video is becoming an indispensable part of book marketing.

Authors are increasingly filming first person narratives, or trailers, that talk about their books, in search of the viral magic that can seriously boost sales.  This is not necessarily easy.  According to the article:

"...people who spend their whole lives writing and people who are good on video turn out to be two very different sets of people,” said the best-selling author Mary Karr, who last year starred in her first book video for her memoir “Lit.”

But in the streaming video era, with the publishing industry under relentless threat, the trailer is fast becoming an essential component of online marketing... And now, those who once worried about no one reading their books can worry about no one watching their trailers.

Some are achieving success, and the article includes examples, such as this one:

Many consider Kelly Corrigan’s “Middle Place” the first book to gain real traction through its trailer. Released in 2008, Ms. Corrigan’s memoir of cancer and caregiving briefly hit the best-seller list, then dropped. In an effort to drum up interest, she began going on the breast cancer lecture circuit, speaking to women’s groups nationwide... she read an essay on the power of female friendship to a silenced audience, and ultimately, a standing ovation.

She began reading the essay at all her appearances, to rapt, commiserating listeners, and decided to videotape and post it online. But first she showed the clip to her editor, who immediately called in a roomful of Hyperion executives. “We thought it could be a breakout best seller in paperback,” said Ellen Archer, publisher of Hyperion.

What followed was a carefully orchestrated stealth campaign. Hyperion employees e-mailed the clip to about 30 people. It ricocheted, producing so many Amazon orders that Hyperion had to reship hardcovers. “It wasn’t slick — it was from the heart,” Ms. Archer said, “like that Hillary moment when she broke down in tears and people felt like they were seeing the authentic her.” To date, the trailer has had nearly five million views; the book has sold more than 300,000 copies.

Books and Advice on Blogging

I have been blogging for several years now, and have learned much along the way. I've gained a following and gradually (at least I like to think, and have been told) improved the quality of Flack's Revenge.

Having said that, I believe it is never too late to up my game, and have started reading books on the subject.  The long form advice is a nice complement to the many conversations I have had with other bloggers and great blog posts I have read on the subject.

One very good book (I am about halfway through it) is The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging, from Simon and Schuster.  The Huffington Post rocketed to becoming a major force in blogging, and I reckoned there must be some good advice within the pages.

I have already gotten some great value from it, here are a few excerpts:

On the topic of how often to post, which I have often wrestled with:

Rule #1: Blog often

If you want an audience... you need to reward visitors to your site with new content... We've heard arguments about quality vs. quantity, but we believe this argument is a luxury for people who already have a big readership.

Other rules include:

2. Perfect is the enemy of Done
3. Write like you speak
4. Focus on specific details
5. Own your topic
6. Know your audience
7. Write short
8. Become part of the conversation with like-minded bloggers

Advice on finding your blogging voice:

Use the voice you already have...Think of blogging like writing an email to a friend.  Better yet, an email to a really cool, clever friend with whom you have a great and witty rapport... just start writing... Don't try too hard... Don't try to be funny (especially if you're not) and don't try to be serious (it's too much pressure).  Don't try to be anything but exactly who you are.

I also recently received review copies of two new books from Pearson that I look forward to digging into and reporting back on soon Blogging to Drive Business and Create your own Blog: 6 Easy Projects.