Promote something interesting – ‘The most expensive seafood hamper’ perhaps?

It’s a complete mystery to me why some PRs still promote the same old products without any particular story behind it, bloggers typically don’t have the time or inclination to promote ‘The Latest Hair Straightners’ for example… think a little deeper before you waste hours pushing this story up a very steep hill.

This is a great example where printed and online media differs dramatically. Paid journalists have quotas to meet to fill pages – bloggers don’t necessarily have this sort of pressure to adhere to… it’s what they want when they want – nobody pays them directly (well maybe Google for advertising).

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FACT - 90% of PR’s still don’t get digital, let alone social media

It has to be said that out of all the PRs that contact us to get placement on our own network of consumer blogs (out of an average 100 requests per day), 90% of them really don’t have a clue. TRUE! In fact, it’s annoying me so much that I felt obliged to write this article to share a few home truths from both sides of the fence – as a blogger and a social media marketer.

The ones that DO get it are often from the States… why? ...because they truly seem to want to understand and reap the benefits of this powerful medium and clearly invest more time getting to grips with tools and techniques available to do so. Obviously the PR market is no doubt more competitive there and not forgetting that they were blogging 4 years before many of us here in the UK.

Unfortunately (for the client) most PRs today are driven by tough targets for coverage set by a demanding client who also doesn’t understand digital or social, but just wants to see their brand across as much digital media as possible (“fair enough” I hear you say). For the majority of PRs, quality of online coverage doesn’t even seem important… it seems to be more about quantity and keeping the client happy with numbers. But this is entirely the wrong way to look at it.

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How to make a viral ‘go viral’ – 8 key rules

Ever wandered what makes a viral ‘viral’?

Well, start by taking a look at the best virals on the web and they have a number of things in common. FACT: The best virals normally just happen and are not planned and also resonate with your target audience.

The list below highlights 8 key things that have attributed to the success of a winning viral:

1 – Get your market right. It’s obvious, but don’t go promoting a viral about politics to a youth audience. Understand their sociological and behavioural patterns and keep it to their taste!

2 – Don’t try too hard. There’s nothing worse than forced humour… it’s real ugly! Don’t try to ‘get down with the kids’ if your brand really isn’t, it could actually harm your brand. That means NO cheesy lines… just keep it clever!

3 – Plan your seeding. Do you know which blogs and sites your demographic frequent? If not, then get a grip man! It’s critically important to encourage these sites to showcase your video… bloggers especially can either make or break a viral. Remember to give 24 hr exclusives to the top 2-3 sites if possible.

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Online PR embraces blogging - 10 years too late!

The blog Herald recently wrote about UK PR’s slowly coming to terms with blogging.
Wow, better late than never I guess!!!

It has always amazed me how much PR’s have buried their heads in the sand as far as digital media is concerned. Whilst measures are being taken to correct this approach, I still have a little chuckle when I hear that a struggling PR company has opened up a digital division (with great fanfare) in a belated attempt to get on the bandwagon.

Look under the hood a little, and this either turns out to be someone (desperate to save their job) over projecting their skills within the company and being offered the digital role or it’s a spotty intern straight from school who “gets” social media - umm a recipe for disaster I think - example Habitat’s awful attempts to garner exposure on Twitter using Iran related hashtags.

There are some harsh facts here:

1. Most conventional PR’s are going to find it hard going in the digital world. Example, I was training a PR lady in digital media and she said to me “this is so complicated, how I yearn for the days of picking up the phone and getting coverage in the Times or Independent”. In my experience this is the prevailing sentiment within the PR industry.

2. Generalistion here but most PR’s aren’t technical. Fact. The brave new digital world requires an understanding of how blogs work, how social media works, how SEO works, how analytics work and how this all works together. Plus it’s a moving target with new technology changing the rules everyday. Staying on top of this for your average PR is daunting to say the least.

3. The result of this is that alot of PR companies and PR employees are doomed. The inexorable shift of PR and marketing spend online will leave many old style PR’s high and dry.

And out of the ashes a new PR industry will evolve.

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Social Media Press Release Tips

By now you’ll no doubt be well aware of the importance of social media and its value to marketing today… that’s old news. BUT why are so many PRs still adopting the ‘traditional press release template’ when promoting to the likes of bloggers? This article explains what the differences between a traditional press release and a social media press release really are and helps you to get to grips with putting one together.

Let’s start by comparing bloggers and journalists (appreciate that this is very generalized so please forgive):

As you can see, there’s a major difference between the two… but showing you the difference between the two is not the point of the article. The point I’m trying to make is that because they are so different they need to be treated very differently when approaching for publicity.

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