pr briefs

In 2011, 80 percent of marketers will use social media, and that is expected to rise to 88 percent by 2012. Back in 2008, only 42 percent were doing so. This growth has largely been driven by higher usage worldwide and the ongoing growth of Facebook.

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The most retweetable words and phrases

Dan Zarrella, author of “The Social Media Marketing Book,” identified the most retweetable words and phrases, including:

• you

• Twitter

• post

• blog

• free

• media

• help

• follow

• how to

• top

• blog post

• check out

(as reported in The Public Relations Strategist by Ed Schipul)

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3 tips to help you develop a good media contact list

It’s useful to keep a list of journalists, editors, blog authors and producers who might be interested in sharing newsworthy information from your business. To build your list, first identify your markets and the people who matter. Document what they read and watch—these are your target media. The next step is  to identify the people at your target media who write or talk about topics that relate to your business. These three tips will help you develop an effective list:

1. Review and update your list of media contacts at least quarterly. Editors, journalists, news producers change their beats and their media. Be sure your list is current.

2. Don’t send every news release to every contact on your list. Take the time to match up your news with the right media contact.

3. Be sure your news is actually newsworthy to the public. Too frequent,  or irrelevant material (such as a purely local item sent to the national media, or something with little visual impact offered to a television station) may turn off their interest.

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It’s iPhone, except at the start of a sentence, as in: IPhones are coming to Verizon.

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2011 crisis communication—3 critical things your plan should include

While a crisis at your business may not be on the same scale of those experienced by BP or Tiger Woods last year, a crisis management plan (CMP) is something every business or organization should have. Consider it an outline for reference but keep in mind that when you implement your plan, it will need to be flexible based on the type of crisis you are dealing with.

Your CMP should include three main elements:

1. Contact information of key stakeholders

2. An overview of what to do when a crisis happens

3. Any forms you will need to document your crisis response

Having a plan in place when a crisis happens will enable you to prepare your internal “crisis team,” (who should be prepped of their role long before a crisis occurs) and will serve as a basic roadmap during a time when clear thinking may be difficult because things are moving so quickly. Tip: update your CMP every year and conduct a run-through. You’ll thank yourself if and when an actual crisis happens.

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New business? Try focusing on bloggers instead of media journalists

If you’re a new business you might have better luck getting your business noticed by bloggers than being picked up by traditional media journalists. Influential bloggers have thousands of followers. Research those who write about your industry and start following them. Then if you think their followers could benefit from knowing about your business, contact them.

Media journalists may be more difficult to reach and influence, but bloggers have the freedom to write about anything they’d like. If you can pique their interest, you might be able to garner some publicity; and if  nothing else, you may benefit from reading their blog posts. And keep in mind that 75% of journalists are reading blogs for story ideas.Tip: Be sure to include a link to your Web site.

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How to keep your pitch from getting deleted

Jeremy Porter recently blogged for Journalistics: “13 ways to keep your pitch from getting deleted”. One way, he writes, is to keep it personal.

“If you really want to keep your email from being deleted, make it personal. Demonstrate that you understand what the journalist writes about and that you’ve done your legwork. You should NEVER cut and paste a pitch or use mail merge software of any kind to switch out names and details in a pitch. Journalists can smell this tactic a mile away and will almost always click the ‘delete’ button. Write the pitch as though you were emailing a family member about the news. You should have that level of comfort and knowledge of the recipient before sending. If you tailor the pitch to an individual, you are much more likely to receive a response. If you do cut and paste, or you do try to mail merge, you will screw up. You will call him a “Mrs.” and you will call John “Sally”. Don’t do it.”

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Bigger media list not neccessarily better

If you’re like a lot of people who want to earn publicity from sending out a news release, you probably think that the more reporters and news media you have on your distribution list, the better. But that’s a serious mistake that might be keeping your release from getting the coverage it deserves.

One of the most common mistakes public relations professionals make is trying to pitch a story to the wrong person. Most reporters have a specialty, like “lifestyles,” “food” or “business.” If you pinpoint the reporter(s) whose “beat” matches your news, you’re much more likely to score coverage.

Tip: Create a master distribution list of reporters, separated by specialty, and then handpick the relevant reporters each time you send a news release. The reporters who get your news will appreciate that you took the time to personalize your pitch, instead of blasting your news to a generic, all-in-one list.

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Conventional marketing wisdom long held that a dissatisfied customer tells ten people. But…in the new age of social media, he or she has the tools to tell ten million.

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