Good Pitch Blog (post)

Posted on March 26, 2010 by rgeller

I thought my last post, What is YOUR Brand of Social Media Snake Oil?, was provocative, and might stir up some controversy, if not flames and violent disagreement. (For the record, I really do believe what I posted and did not do so just to get attention).

But there really wasn’t much blow back (OK, I lost a few Twitter followers).

This could mean any number of things: either everyone agrees (I sincerely doubt this), no one reads my blog (I know that isn’t true), people read it and just didn’t care enough to want to comment, or those I was most obviously talking about consider me to be small potatoes, and me and/or the topic to be unworthy of a response.

Anyway, I did get a very nice pitch from Deb Holland of The Marketing Zen Group.

There is so much noise about bad pitches (and believe me, I do get my share of these); in comparison, much less attention is given to effective ones, and to people who do the job well.  So, in the spirit of Karma (appropriate, given the name of the company and book) I thought I would shift from the snarky tone of my last post to my more usual charming self (OK, I know I am laying it on thick here) and share a few nice words about her pitch.

Deb obviously took the time to discover topical blogs such as mine and approach me with a personalized email pitch.  Her note said:

…your post about the various brands of social media snake oil is so dead on, I decided to tell you about my personal brand of social media snake oil.

Mine is called the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the unvarnished truth. And that is that social media ONLY works if you remember two things: that its a consumer platform, not a marketing platform, and that it is an amplifier, not a shortcut. It isn’t a replacement for solid marketing strategy  and it certainly doesn’t replace a great PR effort.

Thats the whole point of my boss’s new book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing. This book is based on real life case studies, and practical examples, and starts with the premise that social media marketing comes LAST…

When I mentioned that I liked her pitch, she replied:

My theory on pitching is simple – pay attention to the outlet you’re pitching, and try to give them something appropriate that fits in with their editorial focus.  (I’m not big on “canned” pitches that are the same for a thousand targets on a list you pulled from a database.)

Makes so much sense, doesn’t it?  And, news flash – it really works.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Good Pitch Blog (post)

What is YOUR Brand of Social Media Snake Oil?

Posted on March 23, 2010 by rgeller

I have a post on Social Fluency today about a backlash to social media consultants that may be brewing.

I can relate to this.  Although I don’t mean to discount the success of the social media elite, I am not convinced that building a large following online automatically equips someone to dispense effective and practical advice for others.

Too much of it sounds like religious, effete BS, and some of it actually makes my skin crawl.

  • You have heard the brilliant A list bloggers implore companies and brands to “get transparent” and have naked conversations.
  • You have admired the life streams of the social media elite.  Watch them as they stream golden showers of pithy prose and important activities all over the place.
  • It has sounded all so impressive and important as they implore you to curate your fine corporate content collection.

Don’t make me laugh, I have seen some of those “corporate content collections.”  OK, there might be some good info in there somewhere but most of it is nothing to write home about, “curation” seems like way too lofty a term to apply (most client-side folks would agree with this statement, I believe).

Anyway, you can go to Social Fluency to read the rest of my rant if you like.

Posted in PR Tech | Tagged , | Comments Off on What is YOUR Brand of Social Media Snake Oil?

My Wrap on SxSW

Posted on March 17, 2010 by rgeller

I attended the South by Southwest show for the first time this year and found it to be very worthwhile.  I learned a lot, made some great new business contacts, and caught up with a bunch of people I had not seen in awhile.

You can read more about my experiences there, and learn about top Twitter tools of the social media elite by reading my post on the Social Fluency blog.

Posted in Events | Comments Off on My Wrap on SxSW

Media Wonderland: Down a Rabbit Hole and Through a Looking Glass

Posted on March 12, 2010 by rgeller

Several stories recently made me think we are edging toward a strange new reality – one in which 6a00d834517b5669e200e54f3e6ece8834-800wi everything is distorted.  It brings to mind Alice in Wonderland.  Or, perhaps the better analogy is the quantum physics world, where the very act of observing or measuring something changes the experiment and the outcome.

So what am I talking about? Let me list the threads behind this thinking and then I will tie them together.

  • David Carr's piece in the New York Times, Breaking the Story that Isn't, talks about the hall of mirrors effect that happens when reporters try to sniff out each others' stories (and write about them).  It starts out:

Reporters have always kept an eye on other reporters… but what if watching your competitor becomes the whole story?  More and more inside the echo chamber… there are published reports about what other reporters might be doing.  On the Web, it takes nothing more than a rumor, or even a rumor of a rumor.

Later, he relates a conversation with a source about a story in progress who said: "You realize you are daring me to do a post about what you are working on, right?"

  • There was a news report earlier this week that an Israeli raid had to be called off because a soldier leaked details in advance on his Facebook page.
  • I heard a news report on talk radio about a Web site called Please Rob Me (see Consumerist post about this) that searches Twitter and uses geolocational tools like FourSquare to monitor people's activities, discover their comings and goings and identify which houses are empty.
  • My own experience in seeing news get leaked prematurely because some tenacious blogger ferreted the information out from some public filing or other source.
  • My own observation that reporters and PR folks are becoming increasingly transparent about what they are working on, by spilling their guts on Twitter, for example.
  • The feeling of surprise (and sometimes twinge of annoyance) when people note your Facebook interactions ("Oh, I see you are now friends with…")

What these items have in common is the increasingly mercurial nature of
info and efficiency of the Web and social networks in disseminating it. 

The fact that people are so freely wearing real time information about what they are doing on their sleeves has many implications for journalists and communicators such as PR professionals and bloggers. Reporters – the good ones, anyway – will increasingly take their cues from bloggers and get better at chasing the digital breadcrumbs that indicate a potential story. By contrast, an emerging skill for the PR field will be the ability to contain info rather focus so much on getting it out.

In an age of info glut, it is often the lack of information that can create a sense of allure and generate interest (Google and Apple are masters at this).

The teams that can successfully create suspense and build on it, i.e. manage the sharing and dissemination of info without letting the story get out and ahead of them (no small task these days) will be the ones that get people to stop and take note.

 

Posted in PR Tech | Comments Off on Media Wonderland: Down a Rabbit Hole and Through a Looking Glass

Tech PR, The Reality Show

Posted on March 10, 2010 by rgeller

I got the chance to watch SPINdustry, the new show on E!, and thought “big deal – one  more reality show March 2010 013 about PR that gives everyone the wrong impression of what the field is really about.”

In saying this I don’t mean to criticize the entertainment PR field.  And I get the fact that we are in a celebrity-driven culture.  Hollywood is great and so are attractive people and flamboyant personalities.  I could see how some might find all this to be very entertaining.

On the other hand, does the show really do the broader PR field any favors?

The good people at E! hope to make money on this show, and it is excellent PR for the agency Command PR.  My Flack’s Revenge gig , on the other hand, is to examine issues about the industry (PR in general and tech PR very specifically), pull back the curtains and educate.

In that vein, let me humbly submit that the field of tech PR could be good fodder for a reality show and provide its share of fun moments, while helping to educate people about the profession and showing another side of it.

There are parts of the business best left to the imagination – all the back office administrative stuff, for example – but other parts that would be great fun to watch (or maybe I am partial).  We’ve experienced many “fly on the wall” moments that have been entertaining and funny (often unintentionally). Some of the most outrageous ones occurred in the dot com years, granted, but lots of frivolity still ensues.

Here is what the ad copy might say for some fictional reality show for Tech PR (I am accepting proposals to produce this, serious offers only please).

Tech PR, the Reality Show! (OK not the most creative, I am still working on the title – how’s about Tech Reality Bytes?)

  • See the rock star CEOs of tech exert their Svengali effect and entrance the media!
  • Enjoy brainstorming sessions in which we devise ways to make a chip or circuit board seem exciting
  • Gaze at the trade show booth babes – yes, sex sells even in tech!
  • Laugh at the confused looks on journalists faces as spokespeople string buzzwords and acronyms together with nary a real word in between!
  • Delight in our campaigns and stunts, which have featured everything from neutered bunnies to drinking shots on tricycles at trade shows!
  • Watch the tap dancing and delight in the smoke and mirrors as software demos hilariously go off the rails!
  • Laugh as the tech PR peeps take a break from daily business to do team building in the form of bowling – scores will be settled!
Posted in Fun Stuff | Comments Off on Tech PR, The Reality Show

Help Your Info Rise to the Top

Posted on March 4, 2010 by rgeller

I wrote a post for the Social Fluency blog that explains how to get attention for your information: Top Tips for Giving Your Info an Edge

Please see below for an abbreviated version, and visit the link for the complete post.*

As I explained in my post Revenge of the Press Release,
it can help to think of the Web as a battleground of ideas and
information, an environment in which Darwinian rules apply and only the
“fittest” info survives.

It is all about survival of the fittest info. The crowds applies
their wisdom and are a filter, deciding what info is hot. They consume
the info and share it, elevating its ranking and alerting others in the
process.

So, how can you give your info that vital edge? And what steps can you take to
ensure that you get the desired result (i.e. your info is shared and/or
or brings people to whatever the best next step might be?)

Unfortunately, there is no magical “silver bullet” for doing this; there however are some general guidelines I can offer (more details are available under each at Social Fluency).:

Be Brief

Be Loud

Be Sticky

Layer Info

Dress it Up

Know the Buzz Du Jour in Your Space

There’s No Substitute for Hard News

* I thought of a couple of more important points to add:

You need to make sure you use the right keywords in your copy.  This will help both human readers and machines (AKA search engines) identify the info as something that is relevant.

Also, it helps to use writing style and forums that are appropriate for the information you’re communicating, and understand ways to share information across the social networks (see Paul Gillin’s excellent post on the last point).

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Help Your Info Rise to the Top

Are you a Serial (Agency) Killer?

Posted on March 2, 2010 by rgeller

I wrote a post on the Fusion PR Forum blog today that explorers the phenomenon of the serial PR agency switcher.

Many companies find that they need to switch gears with regard to agencies and PR quite often.  The post offers some ideas about what might be going wrong in these situations, and advises a holistic approach to assessing PR needs and identifying potential problem areas.

I encourage you to visit the blog, read, and comment.

Posted in PR | Comments Off on Are you a Serial (Agency) Killer?

Now Blogging at Social Fluency

Posted on February 25, 2010 by rgeller

Just thought I’d let Flack’s Revenge readers know that I will also be blogging at Social Fluency.  Social Fluency is the name of the “pure play” social media PR agency that we are launching.  The post I have there today will tell you more.

In a nutshell, we help clients achieve social fluency – i.e. further communications goals through use of social media – in the following ways (excerpts are from the post):

What we offer is a handcrafted approach based on in-depth knowledge
of and experience for just about every category and subcategory of tech.
We help our clients see (by social media monitoring), be seen (by
taking their stories to the right places) and influence (by helping them
have their voices heard through blogging, Twitter, social networks,
etc.).

It is about communicating in a way that resonates, whether taking the
shape of an informal missive to a member of one’s social network, a
blog post or a social media release.

So, what does Social Fluency really mean? If you are in mobile
handsets, high performance data storage, desktop virtualization, CE,
gaming or Web marketing tech, we can implement a program that taps into
the buzz that is already happening in each space and helps you take your
story to the top blogs, Tweeters, social networks, online
directories and user forums. It is about helping clients build out their
digital “footprints” and influence.

Social Fluency is a natural extension of core PR – when done right,
an integrated program will deliver better results than programs that
favor traditional media channels or just social media.

And it is social media with a purpose. The programs are very
specifically tailored to achieve goals such as brand building,
reputation management, awareness and lead generation.

Posted in PR Tech | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Now Blogging at Social Fluency

CNET Says “Press Conferences are Over”

Posted on February 23, 2010 by rgeller

I take my responsibility for maintaining the PR Death Watch list seriously.  It is a lonely and thankless vigil. So little free time.  So many PR sacred cows to slay, and anachronisms to highlight; all those knives to keep sharp; so much blood to drain from cutting board (well, you get the picture).

That is why I thought “great now I have some help, from none other than CNET!” when I saw the headline Press Conferences are Over (thanks for your tweet about this @bakertweets).

In reading further, though, it became clear that the story is not about the death of the press conference; rather it related a journalists’ pet peeves, and was based on reporter Kent German’s experiences at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

German has some good tips that are worth reading.  See the link for the full story, and the following excerpts:

I may be in the minority here, but I’m at a press event to work. I’m there to get in, get the news and get out because I have a story to file. A bar is nice and food is welcome, but I don’t need either. Skip the chitchat and the fluff and let’s get on with the program.

…If you do hold a press release event, there are a few things to remember-

First off, your product, and not the location in which you show it, is the star of the show. A location can be an accessory of sorts, but when it becomes inconvenient or ill-suited to the event then I don’t care how fashionable it is.…

Remember that we’ll want to take photos of the phones that you unveil, so please give us the light we need to do so.

Seriously, folks, you could hold your event in a tent and I would be there. It’s my job to attend, so if the tent has enough room, the Internet works, we have a place to sit, and press check-in isn’t complete chaos… then I’ll be a happy camper.

But even better,.. Just send us an e-mail with your announcements. You know we’ll cover your news anyway, so let’s just save each other time.  

Posted in Reading Files | 3 Comments

PR in the News: Errors, Corrections and Omissions Department

Posted on February 18, 2010 by rgeller

While most of the rest of the world is focused on the Winter Olympics, the NY Times covered another highBest_in_show stakes event earlier this week: the Westminster Dog Show.  More specifically, the article was about PR (or so it seemed).  The headline "Best PR in Show" did its job and reeled me in (note: as often happens, online NY Times articles get different headlines than their print versions for some reason).

Apparently, some spend big bucks on lavish multi-year campaigns to try to draw attention and influence the judges.  As the article says:

Among breeders, owners and handlers, it’s understood: you can’t just
turn up with the paradigm of the breed, if such an animal exists, and
expect a best-in-show ribbon. To seriously vie for victory, a dog needs
what is known as a campaign: an exhausting, time-consuming and very
expensive gantlet of dog show wins, buttressed by ads in publications
like Dog News and The Canine Chronicle.

The cost of a campaign can add up fast… Altogether, a top-notch campaign can easily cost more than $300,000 a year.

However as above implies, most of the focus is on ads.  Despite the headline, I could not find mention anywhere in the article about PR.  This is another example of how the field is portrayed inaccurately in the news.

One would think that at least some of the campaign investment and effort would go towards true PR programs.  Don't people read Dog News for the articles?  Doesn't Canine Chronicle have any actual chroniclers? Apparently not, it is all about ads:

Most magazines are struggling with a downturn in ads. Not Dog News.
It’s about 75 percent ads and runs as long as 600 pages in issues
coinciding with big shows. Prices vary from $250 for a full-page
black-and-white ad to $4,000 for the cover…

Judges are the main target — they are sent the magazine gratis — and
they star along with the dogs in most of the ads. There’s a tradition
at shows of taking a photograph of winning dogs along with the judges
who selected them, and most of the ads are little more than that photo
and a cutesy tag line.

Posted in In the News | Comments Off on PR in the News: Errors, Corrections and Omissions Department