Archive for February, 2012
Weekly Media Monitoring News
Feb 27th
In addition to looking at social media monitoring and measurement, this issue of Media Monitoring News features articles on “content marketing” and how to build readership of blogs and other social media.
Preparing for a Social Media Crisis
1 to 1 Media
In an increasingly social era, organizations need to be prepared for crises started in or amplified by social media. Preparing for a Social Media Crisis looks at the social media crisis strategies of The Scotts Company, Dominos, and Intel.
21 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue
Copy Blogger
21 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue is organized into four major categories: a) “steal” content and ideas b) create content without creating content c) borrow some name recognition d) get inspired. All the categories contain practical suggestions on methods to develop interesting content.
A Brief History of Content Marketing [Infographic]
Content Marketing Institute
Would you believe that the au courant marketing approach dubbed “content marketing” goes back to 4200 B.C.? A Brief History of Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi cites many of the seminal examples of “content marketing” including the John Deere customer magazine (1895), Michelin Guides (1900), the Jell-O recipe book (1904), P&G Soap Operas (1930s) through to more recent successes such as Channel 9, the first major corporate blog by Microsoft (2004), the American Express Open Forum magazine for small business (2008), and the launch of Chief Content Officer magazine (2011).
20 Tips to Build Your Blog Audience From Scratch
Heidi Cohen
A blog without an audience is a noise without anyone to hear it. The common advice to building a blog audience is to “write great content”. But great content alone seldom attracts a large audience. In 20 Tips to Build Your Blog Audience from Scratch, the always-prescient Heidi Cohen offers practical suggestions on building your audience for your personal or business blog. P.S.: It takes work. You have to grind it out over time.
How to Identify Influence Leaders in Social Media
Bloomberg Business Week
All “communities” have leaders — including social networks. How to Identify Influence Leaders in Social Media looks at the interconnections in social media and methods to identify the “influencers” within each community. Paradoxically — or maybe not — more connections mean less influence. Think about that.
Trends in Social Media
Social Media Examiner
This 8-minute video interview with Tom Webster of Edison Research nominally titled Trends in Social Media covers a wide range of topics involving social media and offers a number of important insights. One insight: monitoring social media has two major purposes. The first is as an early warning system (which most companies understand). The second is to identify and evaluate slowly evolving trends (which many companies ignore or overlook).
Social Strategies for Controversial Industries
Christopher S. Penn
Should Social Strategies for Controversial Industries be different from social strategies in less contentious industries? It’s a provocative question, especially if you represent a company in a controversial industry. What social strategies (if any) should tobacco, alcohol, and firearms companies, among others, employ? How should social media approaches differ from conventional approaches?
The Social Media Measurement Smackdown
Business 2 Community
A growing chorus of naysayers questions the value of social media measurement. The Social Media Measurement Smackdown, written by Mark Schaefer, offers four solid reasons to measure social media that you can include in your media measurement proposal to management.
The Social Media Metrics That Really Matter
iMedia Connection
“Old-school” social media measurement approaches assessed easily harvested metrics like “likes”, “posts” and “comments”. The Social Media Metrics that Really Matter outlines a few key “new school” metrics to consider incorporating into your key performance indicators (KPIs) for each of the major social networks.
Are You Ready for the Era of “Big Data”?
McKinsey Quarterly
Analytics in public relations and marketing are just one small component of a new business wave called “big data.” To understand the context of marketing and/or PR metrics, give a look at Are Your Ready for the Era of “Big Data”? which examines the major implications (or what it calls 5 Big Questions about Big Data) for corporations of capturing and analyzing huge amounts of data. PR and marketing staff should ask the same questions in implementing and analyzing measurement data.
The 8 Principles of Product Naming
Fast Company
Most every PR and marketing pro is called on at some point to name a product. The 8 Principles of Product Naming provides key guidelines to create a blockbuster name — and to “test” each name you devise. Having once been saddled with a difficult to pronounce corporate name, I second the rule: “Say it aloud” to others over the phone to see if they have any trouble understanding the new name. If they do, keep looking.
6 Types of Questions the Media Always Ask
Ragan’s PR Daily
Preparing for a news conference, it’s not necessary to prep the speakers on every possible question — only on the 6 Types of Questions the Media Always Ask and how to answer them with ease. This is a good guide on fending off tough questions and framing answers so that the story comes out they way you want it to.
Weekly Media Monitoring News
Feb 20th
This week’s issue of Media Monitoring News covers a wide cross-section of topics on public relations, marketing and social media. The recommended lead article examines the change in attitude about government surveillance of social media — a topic that will undoubtedly become important for businesses during 2012. A New York Times Magazine article examines utilization of “Big Data” in marketing and corporate communications. Media measurement is the subject of three different articles and we recommend two articles to improve writing skills. And, de rigueur for this week, we have a Jeremy Lin article focusing on his impact on social media and business outcomes.
Lawmakers to Homeland Security: Social Media Monitoring Threatens Free Speech
Mashable
How times have changed! After 9/11, government security agencies did most anything they wanted to protect against terrorism including incarcerating suspects without due process. Now, as explained in Lawmakers to Homeland Security: Social Media Monitoring Threatens Free Speech, legislators balk at even commonplace approaches to identifying potential terrorist threats as threats to civil liberties. The question — and one that corporations must also answer — is where do you draw the line. Prediction: the first corporation caught “friending” a critic in order to monitor Facebook comments will face a serious outcry over privacy issues.
Six Key Metrics for Managing Global-Local Communications
Sinicom (Angela Sinickas)
Angela Sinickas, always good for a unique twist on PR analytics, focuses on measurement as a method to develop communications strategy in Six Key Metrics for Managing Global-Local Communications — and, as is usually the case, offers some out-of-the-box approaches using measurement to achieve more effective media placement.
Content Marketing Tactics Now Critical to All Businesses [Infographic]
Business 2 Community
Nowadays, it’s called content marketing — and it’s HOT! Back in the day, it was called public relations — and it was kind of, well, ignored. This infographic entitled Content Marketing Tactics Now Critical to All Businesses examines the extent and value of content marketing (aka: public relations) and its effectiveness. Thought: Some PR pros might consider positioning themselves as “content marketing experts.”
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Incredible Headlines
The Content Strategist
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Incredible Headlines delivers on its promise, providing a comprehensive list of approaches to developing attention-grabbing headlines for newsletters, blogs and most any other form of communication. The article includes links to other articles on headline writing. Another thoughtful article on good writing for marketing and PR, appearing in Kissmetrics, is The 4 Keys to Writing Persuasive Copy without Hype, BS, or Other Icky Gimmicks on writing clear, shiny copy that affords prospects the perfect view of whatever it is you’re selling.
How Companies Learn Your Secrets
New York Times Magazine
“Big data” is among the hottest topics in marketing. How Companies Learn Your Secrets is the typical in-depth analysis of lead articles in the New York Times Magazine — maybe telling you more than you want or need to know about the subject, but containing a fistful of substantive insights. This is a must-read article for marketing and PR pros who want to better understand the emerging “big data” trend.
Is Social the New News?
SlideShare
Social media, especially Twitter, now often announce news events ahead of traditional media — because social media have people on scene witnessing the events. In a set of self-explanatory slides entitled Is Social the New News? for a presentation to the New England Newspaper & Press Association Winter Conference, Debra Askanase analyzes how crowd sourcing in social media is affecting traditional newspapers, journalism and the news cycle. Question: how is social media affecting corporate news distribution?
So Where Did AVEs Come From Anyway?
Institute for Public Relations
Ad Value Equivalence (AVE) as a measure of public relations effectiveness has persisted for decades, but has no academic support according to Professor Tom Watson of Bounemouth University. So Where Did AVEs Come From Anyway? recounts the evolution of AVEs from first mention right to the current condemnations by most every PR association.
4 Unique Approaches for Measuring Social Media
ClickZ
How do you measure how the effort put into social media is paying off? Just measuring volume certainly is not the answer. 4 Unique Approaches for Measuring Social Media suggests some controversial media measurement approaches including “value of a customer” and “paid value of traffic” (which sounds suspiciously like AVE).
Measuring Social Media: Interview with Web Analytics Guru Jim Sterne
WDFM
As more and more marketing and public relations budgets move online, web analytics become vital in assessing effectiveness of various online approaches for promotion and corporate communications. Measuring Social Media: Interview with Web Analytics Guru Jim Sterne offers key insights on utilization of web metrics.
How to Use Facebook Metrics to Give Your Audience the Content They Want Most
Beth Kanter
Corporations know what they want to tell consumers. But consumers won’t listen unless they’re interested. How can PR and marketing communicators determine the interests of their audience? Beth Kanter illustrates How to Use Facebook Metrics to Give Your Audience the Content They Want Most with approaches that apply to other social media as well.
Don’t Be a Pest with “This Social Media Stuff”
Business 2 Community
Written as a bit of self-promotion by a social media coach, Don’t Be a Pest with “This Social Media Stuff” can also be titled “How PR and Marketing Can Sell the C-Suite on Social Media” or “How to Get the CxO to Participate in Social Media.”
Five Crucial Steps to Retaining Brand Loyalty in a Crisis
Marketing Profs
The crisis playbook is now well established and Anita Williams Weinberg presents it succinctly in Five Crucial Steps to Retaining Brand Loyalty in a Crisis.
12 Most Productive, Low-Cost Ways to Influence the Media
12 Most
Targeted at non-profit organizations but applicable to most any small business with a skimpy budget for marketing and PR, 12 Most Productive, Low-Cost Ways to Influence the Media is a primer on effective techniques and tactics for media placement.
Jeremy Lin and the Power of Social Media
Forbes
How could any newsletter having to do with media not have a Jeremy Lin article this week? Jeremy Lin and the Power of Social Media contends that “no athlete has ever illustrated the power of social media so quickly and as much as New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin.” Hmmmmm. Yes, pro basketball phenom Lin caught fire on social media, but he also dominated the sports pages of traditional media. It’s enlightening to see how one player can affect business outcomes, but attributing the effect to social media seems an overreach.
13 Cost-Saving Web Sites for Entrepreneurs
The Next Web
Any business — especially a small business — that wants to save money and increase productivity should peruse the list of 13 Cost-Saving Web Sites for Entrepreneurs. The list includes a cross-section of online services intended to reduce business costs.
Weekly Media Monitoring News
Feb 13th
Media Monitoring News this week focuses on the topic of how to handle bad publicity, including how to manage an ambush media interview. This issue also includes an amusing article on how donuts explain social media. In addition to articles on media monitoring, measurement and analysis, there are also tips for writing a great case study and for finding travel bargains in social media.
Tweets as Poll Data? Be Careful
Wall Street Journal
Tweets as Poll Data? Be Careful issues a warning on the validity of social media measurement. Focusing on the drawbacks of measuring public opinion and sentiment through social media analysis, it’s a worthwhile counterpoint to the many articles advocating quantitative measurement of Twitter and other social media. Our conclusion: monitoring social media is crucial; the value of aggregated sentiment analysis is still questionable.
How Measuring PR Helps You Triumph Over Competitors
Bulldog Reporter
Written by Kristin Jones, CEO of the media measurement service Wallop! OnDemand, How Measuring PR Helps You Triumph Over Competitors makes the case for measuring not just your own media exposure, but also that of competitors in order to better understand your PR performance and to identify weaknesses in your program compared to competitors.
7 PR Lessons Komen Didn’t Know It Was Giving You
Waxing Unlyrical
In last week’s issue of Media Monitoring News, we cited a number of articles on the Susan G. Komen Kerfuffle — thinking that would be the last of it here. But 7 PR Lessons Komen Didn’t Know It was Giving You by Shonali Burke uses the Komen incident to punctuate seven crucial points about crises management. The article also includes links to other worthwhile analyses of the Komen incident.
Managing Negative Comments in Social Media
Waxing Unlyrical
Shonali Burke offers straightforward advice for Managing Negative Comments in Social Media. Eventually, almost every organization will be “hit” in social media. Better to be prepared on response strategies and techniques — and consult this template in most any crisis. Also, take a look at the highly-personalized article on reputation management entitled How to Respond When the Internet Calls You Names which appeared on Poynter, the blog for journalists.
How to Survive an Ambush Media Interview
Mr. Media Training
Just wondering: has any corporate executive ever said to an ambush interviewer something like this with a nice friendly smile: “Look, stop acting like a jerk and start acting like a professional. Call for an appointment and I’ll be glad to talk with you.” If anyone ever did, you’ll probably never see it on TV news. How to Survive an Ambush Media Interview offers solid tips on what NOT to do (which is exactly what most every ambush-ee does) and how to gain the advantage over the ambusher. There’s also a Part II of How to Survive an Ambush Media Interview. And Mr. Media Training has an interesting case study entitled My Rape Charge Was Dropped. Now What?, on ways to reclaim your good name after wrongful publicity.
How Americans Are Spending Their Media Time…and Money
Nielsen
Americans spend more than 33 hours per week watching video across the screens, according to the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report. But how they’re consuming content – traditional TV and otherwise – is changing. Demonstrating that consumers are increasingly making Internet connectivity a priority, 75.3 percent pay for broadband Internet (up from 70.9% last year); 90.4 percent pay for cable, telephone company-provided TV or satellite. Homes with both paid TV and broadband increased 5.5 percent since last year. Changes are afoot, however, as consumers seek out the entertainment option that makes the most sense for them.
8 Tips for Writing a Great Case Study
Kissmetrics
If you’re in PR, you’ll almost certainly be called on the write a case study. 8 Tips for Writing a Great Case Study will help you do it well. Best tip: don’t think just “print”. Instead, create multiple versions for different types of media.
51 Ideas for Blog Posts
Business 2 Community
If you’ve ever been stumped when sitting down to write a blog post (haven’t we all?), 51 Ideas for Blog Posts can serve as an idea-generator.
How to Guarantee Your Press Releases Will Be Completely Ignored
CommPro.biz
How to Guarantee Your Press Releases Will Be Completely Ignored is a litany of all too commonplace errors in development and distribution of news releases. Ignoring the rules invites failure.
Top 100 Influencers in Social Media
Social Technology Review
Yet another selection of Top 100 Influencers in Social Media, this one with “The White House” at #100. In reviewing the list, you’ll be struck by how few mainstream journalists and business leaders make the list, comprised mostly of individuals who made their reputation largely through opinionated blogging.
5 Essential Spreadsheets for Social Media Analytics
Mashable
If you’re in search of free, time-efficient methods for measuring social media, 5 Essential Spreadsheets for Social Media Analytics points you to ready-made analysis tools to measure Twitter and Facebook. Yes, they’re free and they’re helpful, but they’re not integrated and the metrics are limited. They are certainly better than no media measurement at all, but far less valuable than most any subscription social media analysis service.
What Others Like (and Dislike) about Your Tweets
Marketing Profs
Based on an extensive survey by Carnegie Mellon University, What Others Like (and Dislike) About Your Tweets includes concrete guidance on preferred types of Tweets. What’s disliked: Tweets that were part of someone else’s conversation, or updates around a current mood or activity. What’s liked: Tweets that included questions to followers, information sharing, and self-promotion (such as links to content the writer had created). Repeat: No one gives a tweet what you’re eating…or feeling.
The State of Social Media Marketing
Awareness Networks
It’s a white paper and it’s free, but you have to register to get a copy of The State of Social Media Marketing, based on interviews of 320 marketers from multiple industries with varying levels of social media experience. Some key points:
- Executives and senior managers expect traction in three key areas — ROI, integration of social with lead generation and sales, and expansion of social presence and reach.
- Though social marketers do not have the necessary resources to execute initiatives successfully, they must meet expectations of senior management who demand tangible business value.
- Companies experienced in social marketing are moving beyond growing social presence and reach. Their focus is shifting to active social media management for increased lead generation and sales.
- Less-experienced marketers follow visionary peers, adopting established practices as they move along the maturity continuum.
Social Media Explained Through Donuts
Todd M. Post
Social Media Explained Through Donuts is amusing — and startling accurate in characterizing the positioning of each of the social media networks through short posts about donuts.
10 Immutable Laws of SEO
Evergreen Search
Anyone responsible for a Web site should be competent in search engine optimization to generate traffic. If you understand and apply the 10 Immutable Laws of SEO, you won’t need an overpriced SEO consulting service and your ranking in the search engines will almost certainly rise.
Fixing the Reputations of Reputation Managers
Business Week
Before hiring a reputation management service to fix your organization’s online reputation, check out the online reputation of the reputation manager advises Fixing the Reputations of Reputation Managers. Tha’s sound advice for whenever you do any hiring of employees, consultants, or business services.
5 Ways to Find the Best Travel Deals Using Social Media
Mashable
In our effort to expand our newsletter content to self-help articles for PR and marketing professionals, we offer 5 Ways to Find the Best Travel Deals Using Social Media. Even the most seasoned business travelers are likely to find some helpful tips to save bucks.
Weekly Media Monitoring News
Feb 6th
Fewer topics; more articles. That’s the deal for this week’s Media Monitoring News as we cover a few topics in greater depth with links to more articles. We’ve selected six widely varying articles from widely differing perspectives about The Susan G. Komen Kerfuffle to provide a cross-section of analysis and insight on policy decisions and reputation management. And, as a diversion, we’ve chosen multiple articles about the Super Bowl Commercials including a link to all 50 commercials.
CyberAlert Awards 18 Non-Profits PR Grants for F.r.e.e. Media Monitoring
CyberAlert
CyberAlert announced its annual PR Grants in a news release on Feb. 1. The CyberAlert PR grants consist of f.r.e.e. media monitoring services for one year and were awarded to 18 Not-for-Profit Organizations from 11 states and 3 countries. The list of PR Grant recipients includes organizations in diverse services including health, education, social services, science & technology, culture, disaster preparedness, animal rights and economic development. Started in 2004, the CyberAlert PR Grants program has awarded grants to a total of 178 not-for-profit organizations with a retail value of more than $525,000.
Social Media Monitoring for Higher Ed
Social Media Today
Listening to constituents on social media is crucial for institutions of higher education (and all other types of education), according to Social Media Monitoring for Higher Ed, which suggests some do-it-yourself ways to monitor social media and some of the more expensive subscription services. Alas, CyberAlert (www.cyberalert.com) is not included in the list. Please consider best-value CyberAlert social media monitoring of blogs, message boards and forums, online VDO sharing sites, and Twitter.
Measuring Social Media ROI
Forbes
Calling Measuring Social Media ROI “slippery ground”, Sunil Senan of Infosys nonetheless offers sound suggestions on starting a corporate media measurement program. The article is also an implicit warning shot across the bows of smaller media analysis companies. The “big boys” like Infosys, IBM and Accenture are gearing up to offer media measurement services.
Gamification of PR Messages Could Be a Game Changer
Holtz Communication + Technology
Gamification - using interactive game techniques in corporate communications - is a hot topic in marketing. Now, Gamification of PR Messages Could Be a Game Changer analyzes how game techniques can be applied to classic public relations activities.
How to Make Your Pitch Stand Out in Crowded In-Boxes
Hubspot Blog
It’s an often-covered topic, but How to Make Your Pitch Stand Out in Crowded In-Boxes gets rid of the fluff (one of the guidelines) and offers common sense approaches to grab the attention and interest of journalists and bloggers.
How To Be a Self-Righteous Social Media Jerk
Logic + Emotion
A tongue-in-cheek self-help article, How to Be a Self-Righteous Social Media Jerk offers best practices on how to be obnoxious on social media. Unfortunately, the jerks haven’t figured out they’re acting badly. Antidote #1: ignore what annoys you and carry on. Antidote #2: send this article to any jerks who complain. (If you do, it’s guaranteed you’ll hear back from them!)
Analysis: The Susan G. Komen Kerfuffle
Washington Post, et al
The Susan G. Komen kerfuffle contains many PR lessons. Recap: Susan B. Komen Foundation changed policy on grants, resulting in denial of funding to Planned Parenthood for breast exams. Given reason for grant denial. Congress was investigating Planned Parenthood. Defenders of Planned Parenthood and all that it stands for rose up in protest in both mainstream and social media. After first unsuccessfully changing it’s story, Komen Foundation reversed its decision. Some lessons: First, no policy change goes unnoticed. Second, if your organization is a “neutral party” in political wars, stay neutral. Third, stand your ground against pressure from partisans to change policy. Fourth, be forthright and transparent in explaining any policy change. Fifth, if retreat is necessary, do it as promptly, gracefully and as completely as possible. And, there’s a final lesson: “liberals”, “moderates” and “progressives” may be passive most of the time, but will fight just as fiercely as “conservatives” for their principles and liberties. Here are seven of the most insightful articles and analyses on the incident. Komen Speaks on Planned Parenthood in the Washington Post. Komen’s Faulty PR Strategy in PRSA. Can Komen’s Reputation be Saved by K.D. Paine in The Measurement Standard. The Accidental Rebranding of Komen for the Cure was published in a blog by Kivi Leroux Miller. A liberal-biased account appears in Think Progress entitled Victory! Komen Apologizes. Backs Off Planned Parenthood Defunding. And, finally, a more crisis management oriented analysis titled Komen Provides Excellent Crisis Management Case Study in SpinSucks. As a postscript, Lamer Kramer opines that Komen has lost something more important than reputation; they have lost the benefit of the doubt. The article in Daily ‘Dog is titled Reversal of Fortune Goes Beyond Reputation Management.
The Truth about Reputation Management - What You Need to Know NOW!
Diva ToolBox
It’s come to the point where every individual and business must know how to defend their online reputations. The Truth about Reputation Management - What You Need to Know NOW! explains where online reputations can get blistered and the basics of what you can do to counter or overpower an online attack.
Twitterverse Tips: Headlines to Boost Your News Release Online
BloggingPRWeb
In analyzing media monitoring results for our news release on PR Grant awards last week, we at CyberAlert learned that many Tweeters “scrape” headlines automatically to create tweets. The lesson we learned: write a news release headline that’s about 120 characters in length to leave room for the shortened URL link to the article. Headlines to Boost Your News Release Online offers that and other suggestions with plenty of examples on writing headlines for the Twitter cognoscenti.
Be Better at Twitter: The Data-Driven Guide
The Atlantic
Are you an annoying Tweeter? It’s possible. To make sure you’re not, peruse Be Better at Twitter: The Data-Driven Guide to become a more effective Tweeter. The article references a substantive academic article titled Who Gives a Tweet? Evaluating Microblog Content Value. Conclusion: There are nine important categories of tweets, but nobody gives a tweet what you had for lunch.
7 Common Mistakes on Social Media (and How to Fix Them)
Smart Blogs on Social Media (Heidi Cohen)
A social media faux pas can explode into a disaster - and many have. In 7 Common Mistakes on Social Media (and How to Fix Them), the always trenchant Heidi Cohen explains how seemingly ordinary social media postings can cause serious problems. More importantly, she presents actionable fixes for each misstep.
14 Cringe-Worthy Things PR Clients Say
Ragan’s PR Daily
If you want to know the things you say that make agency personnel wince (or laugh!), 14 Cringe-Worthy Things PR Clients Say is a good starting list - and the comments have many more laughable comments.
The Best and Worst of the Super Bowl Commercials
New York Times, et al.
Was your impression of the 50 Super Bowl commercials that they generally lacked creativity, originality, and marketing savvy? Most reviewers agreed, though all had some favorites. Stuart Elliott of the New York Times in his column entitled Judging Super Bowl Commercials from Charming to Smarmy liked a “few gems among the rhinestones” including Acura with Jerry Seinfeld, Best Buy honoring technology innovators, the apocalyptic Chevy Silverado truck, and Volkswagen’s slimmed down golden retriever. The highly anticipated coverage by Advertising Age includes links to all the commercials and features an article titled The 10 Super Bowl Commercials that Blew Up the Biggest on Social Media. (The winner is H&M Body Wear.) The Washington Post Critique uses three branding gurus to evaluate the commercials. The analysis we like the best is The Best and Worse of Super Bowl Marketing Strategy 2012 in the Influence Marketing Blog. Our top choice: Chevy’s Happy Grad.
Weekly Media Monitoring News
Feb 1st
The topics for this issue of Media Monitoring News cover a wide range of issues and functions in PR and marketing: media monitoring, reputation management, media pitching, digital marketing in social media, media measurement, and more.
A Glimpse of Murdock Unbound
New York Times
Written by the seasoned business columnist David Carr, A Glimpse of Murdock Unbound is remarkable on a number of levels. In the introduction to the main part of the story, Carr bluntly derides the efforts of corporate “communications operatives”. Then, the columnist for the liberal Times praises how the ultra-conservative Rupert Murdock, CEO of NewsCorp, utilizes Twitter to broadcast his opinions. And, finally, Carr portrays Twitter as a valuable, untapped resource for CEO communications that cuts through the clutter of corporate spokespersons. An absolute must-read by everyone employed in corporate communications.
Tools to Monitor Online Reputation Across Different Languages
Search Engine Watch
With so much information freely available, it’s never been harder to monitor exactly who is saying what about your business. It can only take one negative article or blog post to seriously undermine customers’ trust. Tools to Monitor Online Reputation Across Different Languages suggests using Google Alerts and other search engines to monitor corporate reputation in different languages. This often requires the time-consuming process of entering different query terms for each language — and then saving the results. Sponsor plug: Utilizing a worldwide monitoring service such as CyberAlert 5.0 News Monitoring is almost always a more comprehensive, time-efficient and cost-effective media monitoring solution than doing it yourself if you count the cost of staff time.
Stop Avoiding Video for PR Purposes
CommPro.Biz
NYU’s Don Bates makes a strong case for utilizing online video as a PR tool in Stop Avoiding Video for PR Purposes. “Video should be top-of-mind when you plan client programs, prepare business proposals, and devise strategies and tactics for reaching target audiences,” he says. Agreed. “The biggest reason, he says, “is we all like it. If we have a choice between video and text when we visit websites, we will look at the video first and the text second (if at all).” With that, we disagree. And, as a former producer of videos for medical education, we’ll share our pet peeve about online videos: in far too many online videos, the visuals add little or nothing to the story. Watching a video that is simply a “talking head” takes far longer than reading text, is more difficult to understand (especially for individuals who learn best through their eyes and not their ears — which is most of us), and is impossible to scan. Text, then, is the preferred format if the visuals are not integral to telling the story. For more on use of online videos in marketing and PR, take a look at Creating Compelling Video Content on the Bulletproof Blog from Levick Strategic Communications. Bottom line: If you’re going to use video, make certain you have interesting visuals to carry the story. If not, stick with powerful words in text.
The 11 Things that Journalists Consider Newsworthy
Mr. Media Training
Pitching for a placement? There’s often a big difference between what your company (or client) may consider important and what a journalist considers newsworthy. The 11 Things that Journalists Consider Newsworthy provides a framework of newsworthiness with which to pitch stories. Hint: to increase pitching success, try to use at least one of the 11 things in your pitches.
26 Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts
Social Media Examiner
The A to Z 26 Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts offers superb guidance on how to create a successful blog — from selecting a platform, to developing a content strategy, to writing headlines and formatting content, to blog promotion, and even measuring results. It’s quite a thorough look at what it takes to create and maintain a successful blog — either personal or corporate.
13 Social Platforms Your Small Business Should Consider Using
Business 2 Community
As if you didn’t have enough to do in maintaining your Twitter and Facebook accounts, 13 Social Platforms Your Small Business Should Consider Using examines other social media services that can be used to deliver customers and sales. When your time is the gating factor (as it often is), it’s best to concentrate on the “big boys”.
Who Are the Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers?
Forbes
Using a semi-scientific metric, Haydn Shaughnessy identifies Who Are the Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers. Media Monitoring News has cited most of them over the past year and includes the crème de la crème in the CyberAlert Blog List — thereby validating the selections, if not the methodology.
Automated vs. Human Analysis
The Social Analyst
The battle rages in media analysis circles. Which is better: automated or human analysis? Often, an individual’s opinion depends on which side of the fence he or she works. Human analysts opine for, well, human analysis. Executives of text analytics software push their solutions. Automated vs. Human Analysis sometimes confuses “monitoring” (the gathering of content) with “measurement” and “analysis”, the evaluation of the gathered content. The author of this article opts for human analysis. (Guess what type of company he works for!) “There are aspects of monitoring where machines cannot completely replace the quality of a smart, well trained, and careful human analyst, and those aspects also happen to be the most important,” he contends. Automated sentiment, he say, is less accurate than flipping a coin — a harsh assessment that text analysis companies would heartily dispute.
In Paterno Death Apology, a Lesson for CEOs
MSNBC
A kid who edits a student-run website at Penn State University showed exactly how you’re supposed to apologize for a terrible mistake. The site reported the death of Joe Paterno before his actual death. The story was picked up by CBS sports and spread nationally. The editor wrote an apology that is close to ideal: straightforward, sincere, heartfelt, humble, taking responsibility, asking for forgiveness and taking action. In Paterno Death Apology, a Lesson for CEOs includes the entire word-for-word apology. Every PR pro needs to read it, learn from it and maybe even save it for reference when that terrible PR day comes.
8 Things You Should Think About When Dealing with Several Crises at Once
Johnston Wells
The sinking of the Costa Concordia embodies the epitome of crises management. After detailing the multiple crises embedded in the single incident, Gwin Johnston delineates 8 Things You Should Think About When Dealing with Several Crises at Once.
How Chasing Your Metrics Has You Chasing Your Tail
Destination CRM
Measuring marketing or PR performance can put you into a maze of charts and graphs. Most marketing and PR professionals are creative types, not bean counters. So the data can be alien…and confusing. How Chasing Your Metrics Has You Chasing Your Tail explains what to do with all those metrics generated by marketing, CRM, and other programs. Just focus on the data that connect to your specific business goals.
Qualitative Web Analytics: Heuristic Evaluations Rock
Occam’s Razor
Avinash Kaushik publishes some of the most cutting edge (pun intended) ideas on the subject of media monitoring and measurement. Qualitative Web Anaytics: Heurestic Evaluations Rock provides in-depth analysis of hueristic analysis or applying rules of thumb to Web analytics. Heuristics are fast and cheap — and often yield actionable information. Find out here how to apply heuristics to identify flaws in and amplify results from your Web site.
Marketer’s Guide to Engaging the Tablet User
iMedia Connection
Every new generation of communications technology requires new approaches to communications. Owners of hand-held tablet computers use them for longer each day than they do their desktops or laptops. If they are on their tablets, that’s where marketer’s need to be too. Marketer’s Guide to Engaging the Table User analyses how people use their tablets, what they expect of their tablets, and what types of programs marketers and PR staff can develop that appeal to users of tablets and other mobile devices.
11 Deadly Social Media Sins
ClickZ
Most companies and brands are trying to engage customers on social media. 11 Deadly Social Media Sins delineates key things not to do in social media. The recommendations may seem obvious, but major brands falter most every day.
What Not to Post on Facebook
Huffington Post
What Not to Post on Facebook mostly applies to personal, not corporate, accounts. Here’s a few: your birthday, your mother’s maiden name, your home address, your phone number, your trips away from home, your inappropriate photos, or confessions. There’s more and they all have to with protecting your safety, privacy and reputation.
