Crowdsourcing and Collaborating on the News

Posted on August 15, 2008 by rgeller

My colleague Chris Michaels blogged just the other day about crowd sourcing news in his post on Fusion PR forum.

This is the flip side to User-generated PR, a topic I just wrote about.  Crowd sourcing and collaborating on news covers the demand side, drawing on the reach (if not wisdom) of the crowds to connect bloggers and news writers with sources and story fodder.  It is a fascinating concept, and one that illustrates yet another way that the PR business is changing every day in response to Web 2.0 and social media.

One such service that has gotten lots of attention lately is HelpAReporter.com.  Peter Shankman, the site’s creator, lives and works not far from Fusion PR’s office.  He came in as a guest speaker for our internal education series this week.  It sounds like his service is really starting to get some traction.

I have signed up, and it is indeed sending a steady pipeline of qualified inquiries, three times a day.

Also, I learned about Sally Whittle’s GettingInk website when she commented on my blog.  According to Sally:

This service has been running for
several months now, as has a UK blog (run by me) called Getting Ink
Requests, which provides free media requests by email, RSS, Twitter and
on the blog itself. We’re still quite new but have more than 1,500
regular subscribers and growing!

Another site I learned about recently is Andy Fowler’s NewsVetter.  We got to chatting based on a conversation thread on my blog about poor PR writing   (with blogging you get collaboration, knowledge discovery and networking all rolled into one, isn’t it a beautiful thing?)

I spoke with Andy at length about his novel concept.  He has developed a site (still in beta) that lets people not only submit stories, but also provides a format that guides users through the process of writing a pitch.  It provides pointers along the way, alongside entry fields for different parts of the pitch, and a handy checklist at the end.

If it is not cure for poor PR writing, at least it gets you thinking about how to organize your thoughts.

Further, the site promises:

News media review the submissions, provide feedback in
the form of ratings and comments and, if warranted, contact news
presenters to discuss possible publication of their story ideas.

He lets you share the pitch publicly, or you can mark it as private and instruct the site to forward your pitch to the desired targets.

On the demand side, reporters can sign up and indicate their interests.  This is a key difference from the more established media databases, which are not opt-in (the last time I checked, anyway).

It seems the positioning he is taking is to be a step up from the sites that simply broker story opportunities and PR connections.  His site seems to want to go to the next step to ensure that interchanges are productive.  He spoke about some interesting plans such as adding all kinds of metrics tracking.

Andy impressed me with his research, and is obviously well connected.  He has spoken with many influential people and it seems like he put a lot of thought and effort into the site.

Andy has some ambitious plans and may well be interested in taking on the heavyweights like Cision and Vocus.  Although he has quite a ways to go, some very respected names in tech journalism that tech PR folks like myself know well and respect have signed on,  earning credibility  points with me and showing me that he may just be onto something with NewsVetter.

Here are a couple of other interesting concepts that I will explore further and blog about in a future post:

Fast Company writer Francisco
Dao has created a Fast Company Buzz Pitch portal for people to pitch their buzz worthy stories.  People vote for the submitted ideas, and the highest
rated ones make his column.

And a service called Handshake 2.0, which my colleague Bennie pointed out to me today, appears to do the same thing.

Posted in Tech PR | 6 Comments

PR Apocalypse Now

Posted on August 14, 2008 by rgeller

There was a new round of teeth gnashing over the state and future of PR driven by posts on some of the highest profile blogs earlier this week.

Anyone who cares about the field should have a quick read here if you haven’t already tuned into the dialog.  The posts, combined with what must be hundreds of comments, collectively showed an intense debate and many different sides of the issue.  Commenters included names you will recognize  – those who have been vocal about PR’s evolving role – and many others.

Here’s a blow by blow (not literally, but almost) account and analysis:

First Rubel riffed off Scoble’s post about a PR-less launch, and the diminishing need for PR to help bloggers find stories (Scoble’s post is a good read on how information flows and people find stories to write about these days).

Steve Rubel said in his post Does the Thrill of the Chase Make PR Obsolete?

It’s my view that increasingly, bloggers (and maybe journos too) simply
don’t want our help. Many bloggers – particularly those who cover tech
– love to discover new things and experience them on their own, unaided
by PR.

So you have Rubel, one of the top bloggers who also happens to work in
the field for one of the largest agencies, openly questioning the
relevancy of PR for bloggers and journalists.

(OK, I have sometimes been critical of the field, and also work in it, but have never questioned our relevancy and besides I don’t have nearly the megaphone that Rubel does).

He ends his post on a note of “adapt or die” which I can’t argue with, that has formed the basis of my PR Death Watch series.

Mark Hopkins on Mashable had some positive things to say about PR’s evolving role, and how we can adapt, in his post The Changing Role of Public Relations:

Those that position themselves in the mindset that they aren’t
gatekeepers for information but connectors for entrepreneurs and
resources for journalists will achieve the most success for the clients
they do represent.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch said in his provocatively titled post The PR Roadblock on the Road to Blissful Blogging:

I can’t speak for big media who’ve been in the game for
years and years, but from my experience blogging for a few years, I agree that PR as a profession is broken…  PR is the last refuge when I am attacking a story…  they keep trying to put out the fires I am starting.

What I think is happening is that the over eager (and admittedly sometimes clueless) PR hordes are colliding with the realities of a social media dominated world (in which people just to have to tell the world exactly what is on their minds, no holding back, need to fill all those Tweets and posts) creating a caustic brew that I fully expect will implode in an apocalypse at any time.

The blogosphere and PR communities will square off, breaking into small camps that take up crude weapons, duking it out, Road Warrior style, until one side kills off the other (actually, that would be  something as many PR people are themselves bloggers these days).

Seriously, like the debate over pitch spam, it gets tiresome after awhile and one hopes that we all learn our lessons, adapt, and just move on.

I also think this increasingly points to the need for evolving approaches to PR measurement.

It is simple math, as media multiplies, attention divides, and it will increasingly become more of a challenge for PR to prove its value.

When compared with other marketing vehicles, PR has been shown to deliver outsized returns and those who know what they are doing will continue to do so.  Nothing like good solid ROI to silence the critics and prove value.

Posted in PR Tech | 4 Comments

Turning PR into a Sales Lead Generation Machine

Posted on August 12, 2008 by rgeller

In my last post I discussed that the best job security for PR in a down economy is to make sure your programs are really working (of course, you should always strive for this). And the more your efforts can be shown to have a real impact on sales, the better the “insurance” against cutbacks in the program.

Fusion PR CEO Jordan Chanofsky blogged about this a couple of months ago in an excellent and detailed post on the Fusion PR Forum. I provide excerpts from this below, and a few more additional thoughts.

It’s easy to say that PR is part of the selling process. And it is. But to get more specific, I present three reasonably simple ways to make the connection more apparent. I’m overlooking the fact (which is hopefully and abundantly obvious) that PR is a selling tool and the media that we garner is perhaps the best sales support activity.

First, PR needs to be “pegged” to interactive marketing strategies. When combined, these tools are a strong support system for the sales force. For another example, we suggest creating a balanced approach of SEM (paid advertising) and SEO. Then use tags within search and social media optimized press releases to maximize impact by helping to ensure that customers are surrounded by a client’s literature when a related search is done.

Another example of integration might be using a press release as the content for an email direct-to-customer campaign rather than adopting overt selling copy. This is especially relevant when the news has tangible selling substance such as a new product or technology. PR copy in advertorials, landing pages and microsites is an extension of this point.

Second, PR does play an active role in customer outreach (in this framework we’ve questioned and considered whether or not “PR” is a correct term for our industry). Over the years, we’ve collaborated with customers, media, and analysts to meet with clients in the context of educational briefings, updates, round tables, and media opportunities. It doesn’t take much to transform these gatherings into sales meetings.

Third, coordinate with the sales force. If sales is reaching out to a particular geography or vertical then the PR effort should shadow the initiative to maximize and broaden the impact. Consider what may be intuitive, but not always top of mind such as: bloghubs (blogs focused on specific areas that are not the megablogs), local broadcast, chamber of commerce events (where customers can participate), customer events (at related conferences), and PR programs set to draw customers to the sales efforts (i.e. distribution of a media alert re: an education briefing on small business storage solutions at the local chamber of commerce).

Also, why not make sure that your clients are listed in the wealth of online buyers’ guides, directories and references – and that the entries are both up-to-date and interesting? If search engines are a buyer’s first stop, online references are frequently the second.

Make sure you cover what I’ll call the buy-side research analysts in your efforts. Sure, it is great to get into the reports of any and all analysts. But getting on the radars and into the reports of those who sell information and advice to end user organizations (in tech PR, we call these IT advisory firms, the Gartners of the world) is a great way to build credibility and generate qualified leads.

Make sure you are doing enough bread and butter product PR. Yeah, an upgrade sometimes does not make a terribly exciting announcement, but it boosts SEO and gives people searching on the related keywords a pointer to info on your products.

It is also important to focus on the vertical industry publications, especially with stories that document customer benefits and ROI.

Our clients have found that great product reviews get the sales phone ringing, so don’t neglect the publication testing labs.

Finally, and most important, speak with your clients about their sales efforts. Are they tracking the connection to PR? Is there any way to monitor buying signs like increased registration on product info pages back to the program? Is there some way to implement a closed loop system that makes it easy to connect PR results with sales activity?

Posted in PR | 2 Comments

PR Job Security in a Down Economy

Posted on August 7, 2008 by rgeller

We were discussing the state of business in a manager’s meeting today and the conversation turned to a refrain we have been hearing from people in the industry including friends, clients and investors. 

The buzz is that the single biggest favor PR agencies can be doing for their clients these days in light of the down economy is to make sure that their campaigns are delivering solid ROI.  And compelling ROI now means PR  results that drive customer demand and keep the sales pipeline brimming with leads.

Many people don’t understand PR and view it as a sort of the read headed step child of the marketing mix, capable of delivering primarily soft benefits.  It has not helped that many in our profession pursue coverage for the sake of coverage, without much regard for strategy or the connection between PR placements and the buying and selling processes.

There is no better time than now to take a good hard look at your PR practices and programs and make sure they are working.   This means showing some connection between PR results and common objectives such boosting awareness and building brand.  And the most compelling results these days are ones that can be shown to have a direct and real impact on revenue.

I’ll be blogging more about PR and demand generation, so please stay tuned, and thanks for reading.

Posted in PR | Comments Off on PR Job Security in a Down Economy

PR Olympics Flubs, Drubs, Thrills and Spills Highlights Reel

Posted on August 6, 2008 by rgeller

The thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat.  Overcome with excitement about the pending Olympics, and awash in potential related PR opportunities, I have decided to take a break from the frenzied pace of things and feature highlights from the past week with a special focus on unfortunate outtakes in the realm of news and public image.

Here are my picks, I welcome your feedback and suggestions. 

John McCain "No He Di’nt" Shouldn’t Have Gone There Mash up
OK, comparing Obama to Britney and Paris got lots of attention but does McCain want or need this kind of attention? Does he really want to be taking guff from Paris and her family, and the media for pointing out that the Hiltons have donated to his campaign? Or from Paris’ mom, for crying out loud? 

Watch this hilarious video from Funny or Die, which features Paris referring to John McCain as the white-haired dude from the "olden days," and proposing a surprisingly lucid energy policy.

Obama Flat Tire Spill out
Obama, I am on your side, but did you really need to give the Republicans a gift by suggesting that properly inflating our tires and tuning up our cars are ways out of this energy mess?

Bi-candidate Flip Flop Somersault
When is a flip flop not a flip flop? Both candidates struggled to explain their evolving positions on offshore drilling this past week.

Strong Man Wallet Crush
Yea, they pay tons of taxes, and their profits are proportionately not as high as Google and many others, but $11 billion in profits is $11 billion.  Reports about oil company profits left them, and the right, with lots of explaining.

Financial Markets "Hell in a Hand Basket" Crash and Burn
It was always the really smart guys who landed on Wall Street, and in general made tons of money.  These days the markets look like Dante’s Inferno.  Whether it’s news about the effects of rumors and short selling on the markets, or oil traders driving up energy prices, the possibility of a new round of foreclosures, the Bear Sterns debacle, or news about how Wall Street’s struggles effect Main Street and local economies (especially New York’s), it just seems to get worse and worse.  Maybe greed is not so good, and Wall Street is not the place to be.

"Be Careful What You Wish For" Gala Event
PR-wise, it was a
net win for China to host the Olympics, but many of the news stories
have focused on all the cleaning up they are doing to prepare, issues
with journalists’ access to websites, the pollution, etc.

Posted in Fun Stuff | Comments Off on PR Olympics Flubs, Drubs, Thrills and Spills Highlights Reel

User-Generated PR

Posted on August 5, 2008 by rgeller

I just want to call attention to my post yesterday on Fusion forum about user-generated PR.  This post contains excerpts, and you can read more on the topic here.

If you are in tech PR, it might seem that there are fewer places to go to pitch your stories these days.  The trades have been consolidating and shrinking for some time.  True, the shrinkage of traditional media has been offset by the growth of blogs and other forms of online and social media that buzz about tech.  To many, however, these options require a new approach that might be unfamiliar and perhaps even seem a bit risky.

I have covered effective approaches for pitching social media quite a bit.  Rather than focus on these tactics in this post, I’d like to discuss other opportunities that are sitting under our noses.  User-generated PR cuts out the journalist, blogger or editor middleman. 

There are many opportunities to post your (or your clients’) news, opinions, and stories.  While there may be some vetting and approval of this content for it to meet the standards of the targeted sites, in many cases, if you make sure the content fits the style, rules and format of the forum in question, then it is almost just a formality to have this content appear online.

I list a few ideas below.  Once you start thinking about this, I am sure you will think of other options, it would be great if you can share these.

YouTube
Online PR makes it easier to tap into the storytelling and emotional power of rich media, and what better way to use video in your PR efforts than through YouTube?  Everyone in PR should become familiar with how to produce a video and post it to YouTube.  Although it is important to understand that the vast majority of videos posted do not become hits, there are some methods for boosting the odds.  Click here for more info and helpful links.

Blogging, and commenting on blogs and other online media
PR folks and their clients or employers have always dreaded coverage that is negative and/or inaccurate. While we have previously been somewhat powerless in correcting the record, these days there are many options for doing so.  We can post our comments in a variety of online forums.  Most articles these days appear online and many allow for comments.

Blogging is the shining example of user-generated PR.  You can help clients’ find their online voices and establish digital identities by helping them master blogging. This can involve putting in place individual blogs, corporate blogs or finding guest-blogging opportunities.  However setting up a blog generally requires some thought, planning and commitment from the client. 

You can get a journalists’ attention by commenting on their article or on their blog, if they have one.  Of course, this is another way to reach the same audience that follows the reporter or blogger. 

For the above tactics, it is important to realize that these opportunities come with an awesome responsibility.  The ability to quickly react online does not mean that one should casually do so.  Gain your clients’ approval if it involves your client.  But try not to have client and team collaboration devolve into paralysis.  It will boost your online credibility and increase your odds that your comments survive the moderators’ cut if you speak simply and genuinely, in the tone and tenor of the forum at hand, and ideally within the flow of the ongoing online dialog. 

Click here for more info and useful links

Online Directories and References
Although print directories and buyers’ guides have been around forever, these days many are online, and allow you to submit your clients’ information there.  You should get to know which sites accept content and listings.  Start with the recognized media brands that have high traffic and work your way to the niche sites.  Also, some do require fees.

Of course, you need to do your homework to find out about which directories are relevant for your offerings and markets.

And let’s not forget the gold standard of online references, Wikipedia.  Although it is not a product directory, Wikipedia does list information that is related to technology and often mentions vendor names.  Their editing system takes a little getting used to, and anything entered runs the risk of getting edited out.  Still, given its stature and rising reputation as a go-to source for all kinds of information, it is important to leverage Wikipedia in user-generated PR efforts.

Click here for more info and useful links

Submitting News
Of course, no post about User-Generated PR would be complete without mention of social news sites that you let you submit and vote on your favorite news items: sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit.  Please see my post: Blocking and Tackling PR 2.0 style for more info about this.

Posted in Tech PR | Comments Off on User-Generated PR

More Validation for the Mainstreaming of blogs

Posted on August 1, 2008 by rgeller

It is kind of ironic.  I have been writing about blogs crossing the chasm into mainstream adoption.  Then I saw word just this week that it looks like the SEC will be accepting corporate blogs as another way to meet disclosure requirements for public companies.  Previously, companies had to use one of the standard press release distribution services to meet the legal disclosure requirements for getting news out that is considered to be "material"  to their stock prices.

(Actually, the way I learned about this is an interesting story by itself.  I saw people buzzing about it on Twitter before reading
this on a blog or in the media.  Some have said that blogs are a kind
of Amber alert for the media and general public; perhaps micro blogging
tools like Twitter are becoming Amber alerts for the
blogs).

Various people, most notably Sun CEO and blogger Jonathan Schwartz have been encouraging the SEC to make this move.

I also saw this on the TechCrunch.  Brian Solis wrote a post (guess he is writing for TechCrunch now… congratulations, Brian!) that poses the intriguing question: SEC to Recognize Corporate Blogs as Public Exposure.  Can we Now Kill the Press Release?

Some have said that blogs can be an alternative to traditional press releases and even social media releases for issuing news.  I guess this development will probably rekindle the whole social media vs. traditional press release debate.

Posted in PR Tech | Comments Off on More Validation for the Mainstreaming of blogs

If it ain’t Social, it ain’t Worth a F**K!

Posted on July 30, 2008 by rgeller

The Facebook Developers’ conference generated lots of buzz last week.   Much of the excitement was around the launch of Facebook Connect, which many covered and proclaimed as a step forward in the social Web.

Facebook Connect makes the data, updates and interconnections from your social network portable, for integration with other Web and social networking applications (and vice versa: updates from your blog can go back to Facebook, for example).

It seems to be a powerful concept, and Facebook is once again demonstrating its leadership and ability to drive the dialog in social networking (sure, they have also had their share of controversy, but they somehow manage to stay ahead of the curve; and their numbers verify their growth and progress, I read somewhere that they have achieved user parity with MySpace).

Somehow the concept of the social graphs seems to have been haphazardly lumped into all of  this, and I am trying to determine if Facebook Connect really does advance of the concept.

I have blogged about Social graphs (WhatIs definition) from time to time.  As the name implies, social graphs provide a visual way to analyze social networks. They hold the promise of a better way to map relationships, and graphically show networks, connections and hubs of influence.

The challenge in all this of course is sensitivity over privacy and personal data.  People don’t necessarily want to show up on some marketer’s graph.  Also, most social networks are to an extent closed – users can make their profiles inaccessible to others.

Not to get to hung up on terminology, but it seems like Zuckerberg and others who have chimed in about Facebook Connect very casually throw the phrase around and say “social graph” when what they are really talking about is social networks.

To me, this news is more about socializing Facebook and the Web  and less about graphs.  Unless I am missing something, Facebook Connect does not necessarily advance the social graph concept.  Although, perhaps that is an application developers are working on as we speak.

The term “socializing” in the context of information and applications is quickly becoming one of my favorite verbs.  You can socialize press releases, content and now other Web applications, with Facebook Connect, as noted above.

Social is in, standalone, out.  You want your info to play nicely with others and leverage your connections, and connections’ connections (threatening rugged individualists, freelance gunslingers and wallflowers everywhere).

I am starting to wonder if Web 3.0 = social Web?  The Social Web seems to be where some of the more interesting development work is being done, and would appear to be a logical extension and advancement of Web 2.0 concepts (I am sure the semantic Web zealots will be chiming in on this).

So I am thinking of updating my old slogan.  What do you think?  Does Web 3.0 as Social Web have legs?

Posted in PR Tech | Comments Off on If it ain’t Social, it ain’t Worth a F**K!

Interesting Links

Posted on July 28, 2008 by rgeller

Getting behind in my blogging and reading, will have to do something about that!

So forgive the fact that I am referencing links that are not quite hot off the press.  They are still great links, and I am sure you will enjoy them if you haven’t seen these pieces already. 

These, among other links, have been sitting in my Firefox browser for the past few weeks (a neat trick, you can set up Firefox to "remember" which sessions you had open in tabs when you close, so that they get instantly called up again the next time you start the browser – neat, except that it is a recipe for procrastination).  While we are on the subject, everyone who uses Firefox should upgrade to 3.0, it rocks.

Anyone who reads Flack’s Revenge should know that poor PR writing is one of my pet peeves.   That is why the following caught my attention:

From the Riffs, Tiffs and What ifs Blog:  It’s Complex to Write Simple These Days–but Hemingway’s Rules of Writing can Still Work

This post opens with the perennial question: "Why Can’t new PR and Marketing People Write?"

Steve Kayser writes about writing in the context of Hemingway’s recommendations, and includes these tips amongst others:

  1. Use short sentences.
  2. Use short first paragraphs.
  3. Use vigorous English.
  4. Be positive, not negative

A great read, and some excellent tips.

In the post I am not cut out for PR from the Getting Ink blog, Sally Whittle tells about her experiences as journalist-turned copywriter/PR person, and discusses (amongst other things) the rudeness she encountered from journalists in the process.

Not that we want or invite gratuitous trashing of journos, but it is becoming so commonplace to air peeves about PR people these days, it is nice to hear another perspective from someone who has experience on both sides.

Posted in Reading Files | Comments Off on Interesting Links

Competition for Profnet (HARO Gets some Nice Buzz)

Posted on July 23, 2008 by rgeller

I  learned about a service called HARO (for Help A Reporter Out) via some colleagues that joined a Facebook group of the same name a few months ago.   The group seemed like a novel way to leverage social networking for connecting reporters with useful info and sources.  So I signed up.

Shortly thereafter, I got a note from colleague (and top PR guy) Justin Finnegan about a  media inquiry he had learned about through HARO.   Only this inquiry came from a website service. Apparently Peter Shankman (the same guy who started the HARO Facebook group) also has a website, HelpaReporter.com.

Anyway, Gawker covered this today, in the post: Why Does a Flack want to Help a Reporter? (thanks for alerting me to this Justin).   According to the article:

A flack named Peter Shankman (who enjoys getting tased) has built up quite a little reporter-helping service! Through a free website, Helpareporter.com,
Shankman takes in queries from reporters in search of sources for
random stories, and then sends those queries out to the PR world,
who—coincidentally—like to be featured sources. Everybody wins! Except for the other Profnet, which does the same thing, but charges a big fee to flacks to participate

This was also covered in the Industry Standard.  Congratulations, Shankman!

Posted in PR Tech | 1 Comment