Category Archives: PR

Dec 30 2012

Do you want to work in PR? Come to our Assessment Day

Are you a recent graduate looking for a PR job in London? The PR agency where I work is holding a Graduate Assessment Day!

With the view of hiring at least a couple of new grads, there is a good chance for you to land an exciting job at an international PR agency and get lots of experience right from the start. Continue reading →

Apr 22 2012

First BlogCamp of 2012 – in Birmingham

It was an amazing day! I’m so glad that our hard work has paid off and that the event went without a glitch. Phil and I have been helping Sally Whittle plan the event for months. There have been some last minute changes but I must say (…and I really hope that the 100+ bloggers who attended will agree with me on this one) it was a BlogCamp to remember.

Here are some highlights for you: Continue reading →

Jun 28 2010

How to Work With Bloggers and Influencers

This video produced by GasPedal caught my eye today.

Presented by Virginia Miracle, this class offer seriously relevant tips on how to build relationships with different types of bloggers and online influencers.

Virginia, Ogilvy PR, covered how to identify relevant influencers, what to use to get them excited and engaged, and how to make your program last.

For a recent PR grad, this is a valuable video. But even an experienced PR pro will find some interest in this.

Client requests: “I NEED THESE BLOGGERS TO WRITE ABOUT ME!!”

How can you get your client what he wants? Take the Inside-Out Approach –> do not start with targeting, look at these steps:

  1. What it is you are trying to accomplish? Name what it is, before you start your outreach. Reason such as this one: “everybody else is doing it” is not good enough though.
  2. Create engagement value. Look at what can these bloggers do for us and what we can do for them => focus on value exchange. Virginia’s big objective: “What is the value we can provide people so they will actually give a crap and want to spend time and energy with us?” Audit your assets = what do you have to offer? A sneak peek, fame, meet their hero, recognition, etc. Virginia uses the example of LifetimeMoms.com where contributors are paid for their content, transparently.
  3. Identify who we want to talk to: bloggers and other influencers (conversations happen within forums too).
  4. Design your outreach program in ethical and honest way, build it out of bricks. Virginia emphasizes WOMMA’s Ethics Code, FTC Guidelines, and others.
  5. Keep up the relationships. Virginia says: “It’s critical you’re regularly talking to them, responding to their needs, and reacting along the way.”
May 18 2010

BIG THINK – paid, one month summer internship at Big Yellow anyone?

The closing date is 11 June 2010 … But enter now if you really want it!

“Big Thinkers Wanted at Big Yellow” – Big Yellow Self Storage is looking for their summer 2010 intern who will join their communication team in London. Absolutely anyone can apply! Well you must fancy Social Media of course.
How to enter? Simply visit facebook.com/bigyellow and submit your news headline including the words “Big” and “Yellow”.
How easy is this? No need for long essays, no need to answer: “Why do you think we should pick you?” or “What for you was the biggest PR disaster during 2009 and how would you have handled it differently?” types of questions…
So what are you still waiting for?
Apr 17 2010

Twitter kicks off promoted tweets

So, Twitter launched the advertising platform this week. Companies like Starbucks and Virgin have signed up for the service straights away. I noticed these three today:
 I find it quite weird. It is a form of advertising, no doubt about it, but why when I click on the “Promoted by XY” ,just below the particular tweet, it takes to me to “FAQ: Promoted Tweets“. Shouldn’t it take me to the brand’s home website? I am the target audience, not a potential advertiser…
Apr 14 2010

PR Spam: PROs know what to do now, what about Journalists & Bloggers? Do you have an opinion? Share it then…

Journalists and Bloggers have been complaining about being spammed by irrelevant and often unsolicited PR communication for ages. This bad practice is as old as Public Relations itself. The nature of the relationship between PROs and journalists (and bloggers since the introduction of Web 2.0) is sometimes quite difficult to define. Some say that PROs need journalists as much as journalists need PROs. So this should be a win-win relationship then, right? Apparently it isn’t.

The Inconvenient PR Truth campaign has brought to light a ‘bill-of-rights’, set of 10 demands on behalf of journalists. In my opinion, the most important ones are the first three, the rest of the rules follow from these three. These are: Permission required, Timely unsubscribe, Don’t rely on media lists exclusively.

By following these simple three rules when trying to sell a story to the media, a PRO can not only manage to do so, but also build his/hers reputation as a rational and sensible person who does the research and respect the journalists’ side … simple as that. If you behave more like a human and less like a machine, you will get the results your client requires.

Thanks to the ‘bill-of-rights’ PROs know what to do, but what about the journalists and bloggers?

Journalists & bloggers are very good in complaining, posting shame-lists of names on their blogs and spending (and wasting) time on keeping this issue alive. What if they also made a step forward and published their key interests and topics they like to cover on their websites and blogs? Some of them have done it already, but some are still resistant to make the step and remain in the phase of complaining and moaning. This could save them valuable time (currently spent on deleting irrelevant PR pitches & Press Releases and complaining about it in their blogs) and actually improve their work. I said “could” because not all PROs’ ethics are the same. Some just generally don’t care.

Here I am, trying to get some response from the journalists & bloggers and PROs on the issue of PR Spam for my final year PR project. I thought that it was going to be much easier than it actually is. It seems like my target audience has no opinion! Is it even possible?

Journalists & Bloggers – please find the time to complete this 10-question survey on PR Spam. I need your opinion to find out the possible solutions to this issue. You have been complaining for quite long now, now is the time to make the next step.

PROs – do you think that journalists are right to complain about sending out PR communication in bulk? Or maybe you think that they should do something to improve your relationship… Let me know in this 10-question survey on PR Spam please.

Alternatively, feel free to email me with your thoughts on the issue.

Mar 18 2010

It is more than PR Spam…

I’ve started getting into the issue of PR Spam and I must say that I‘ve reached the point, when I just hate to call it this way, It is because I think that the term doesn’t really capture the nature of the issue.
Definitions of spam on the Web are very diverse yet similar:
  • A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE).
  • Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.
  • A collection of unsolicited bulk electronic messages; Any undesired electronic content automatically-generated for commercial purposes
  • Indiscriminately send unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities.
  • Unwanted, unsolicited email
So I am asking, what about the unwanted and irrelevant DMs on Twitter? The unnecessary and annoying phone calls and text messages? Other forms of information received without people requesting them? Based on the definitions of ‘spam’, the PR issue is not just PR Spam. It is more complex than that. In my opinion, the key aspects of what we call ‘PR Spam’ are:
  • Inappropriate targeting => resulting in sending information in bulk
  • Laziness to do the initial media campaign research => resulting in sending information in bulk
  • Unrealistic expectation on PROs to meet crazy objective (i.e. every day coverage in the FTs) = causing high level of stress on the PRO to get some coverage => resulting in sending information in bulk
  • Lack of appropriate education=>causing low practical PR skills=> resulting in sending information in bulk
  • Expensive media training courses => little chance that a PRO will attend => resulting in sending information in bulk
I get it, journos and bloggers are angry because their email in-boxes are full of irrelevant information but they need to see the reality of being on the other side too. (I intend to cover this in my next blog post)
The campaign “An Inconvenient PR Truth” covers 10 demands on behalf of journalists and bloggers – “bill of rights: 
Are these purely about finding ways how to stop PROs from spamming journalists and bloggers? I don’t think so. It seems like the problem is hidden much deeper – in the nature of the ‘PRO – Journalist’ relationship.
I have noticed that some people are trying to cash out on this hot issue and came up with training seminars, webinars, blogs, and who knows what else. Here is an offer to ‘attend’ a webinar on how to deal with the media, in particular how to pitch journalists in the new media world. It will cost you ‘only’ $99!!! Is this helping?
‘CIPR training, qualifications and seminars for PR& communication professionals’ booklet offers only two workshops on basic level on how to deal with the media.
  • Selling-in your stories (£350 + VAT for CIPR members, £455 + VAT for non-members)
  • Working with the media (£350 + VAT for CIPR members, £455 + VAT for non-members)
 I am not entirely convinced that these two workshops are tailored to the needs of the journalists though.

So as I said above, the so called ‘PR Spam’ is more than that. PROs should think before they hit send. Do you all remember the definition of PR?
“Public Relations is the planned and sustained effort 
to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual 
understanding between an organisation and its publics.”
  (CIPR)
By kat4pr • Posted in PR
3
Mar 5 2010

How important is Social Media in Marketing Plan?

If this question was asked 5 years ago, marketers would go: “Maybe Social Media is important but we will wait and see what our competitors come up with first.” It is 2010 now and the answer has changed significantly: “Yes, it is very important to try something new ahead of our competition” …Social Media are even crucial for some companies. The key point here is that SOCIAL MEDIA HAS TO BE INTEGRATED WITH THE OTHER MARKETING AND MARCOMS TOOLS. Social media doesn’t drive marketing, but marketing doesn’t drive social media. THEY WORK TOGETHER.
In the society where the main focus is on brands not products, it is immensely important that the brands put emphasis on engaging with their key stakeholders (customers and consumers) via a range of social networks. Social Media help communicate with the customers and reach them in more ways than the traditional mediums. Communication is also about listening to the customers and monitoring their attitudes towards the brand. You can learn about what your customers want and what drives your business. What more, you can spot any change in their behaviour and avoid potential crisis and reputation damage.
Social Media is most of all AN ONGOING PROCESS, so whatever you start you need to follow through. The key is to have seamless and consistent communication across all mediums and listening to what your target audience really wants. Start with thinking of your objectives: What do you want to achieve by integrating Social Media into your business plan? Who are the key stakeholders that you want to talk to? What you want to say? How much you want to invest in Social Media? What media are you going to use? How do you implement this step into your communications strategy? How will you measure ROI? Etc.
The social media strategy should integrate the following 3 steps:
Step 1 is about creating content. Focus on creating a comprehensive digital presence for your company or brand across key Social Media and digital platforms: Facebook Fan Pages, YouTube channel (or Vimeo), Flickr! account, AudioBoo account (or any other recording online tool), and blog. 
Step 2 is about communicating your content via Blog Directories (Technorati, AllTop), Twitter, Digg, Stumble Upon and Stumble Exchange, etc. There are so many of ‘seeding’ sites available, just go and do your research.
Step 3 is about integrating step 1 and step 2:
  1. Generate content: create a blog post on your brand’s achievement/create a video of a  winner of your competition/update your Flickr! page with new pictures from your company’s meeting/record an interview with your boss using AudioBoo/etc.
  2. Use Digg, Stumble Upon, Stumble Exchange, etc. to make others aware of the blog
  3. Post the link to the blog post on your Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account  
  4. Watch how the traffic to your website increase – don’t forget to use SEO so you can measure the number of hits and your ROI in Social Media
Social media can be integrated further. Use mobile apps, traditional marketing, customer loyalty, reward, and an advertising mix across the platform that is matching the client goals and market niche.
By kat4pr • Posted in PR
0
Mar 3 2010

PR Spam & Campaign ‘An Inconvenient PR Truth’

Background on the Issue
The Internet is affecting Public Relations in both positive and negative way. PR professionals (PROs) can research, communicate, listen, monitor and engage with their key stakeholders in much faster, therefore more convenient way. There are arguably many benefits of using the Internet but this brief is devoted to one of the negative aspects of the new PR practice: use of emails to send out irrelevant and often untargeted press releases and pitches to long lists of journalists, without considering the consequences. PROs have been spamming the opinion formers (journalists, bloggers and other non-traditional journalists) this way, and therefore the PR Industry is facing damage to its reputation and ability to achieve the influence it desires.
Recently, key PR industry figures have launched a campaign named ‘An Inconvenient PR Truth’ that aims to cut PR spam and help PROs and journalists work together better. The campaign includes a ‘bill of rights’, which is a list of demands on behalf of journalists and bloggers about how they want to be approached by the PR community. Prior to the launch of the campaign, several blog posts were published revealing the names and email addresses of PROs who had been spamming a particular journalist or blogger. This can be seen as a controversial step but it reinforced the debate about inappropriate targeting. The campaign was launched on the 28th January 2010 by Realwire CEO Adam Parker and is backed by Borkowski founder Mark Borkowski, Speed Communications MD Stephen Waddington and Umpf founder Adrian Johnson.[i] Since its launch, the numbers of supporters, such as the 3WPR founder Stephen Davies, have increased and even the CIPR published a statement of support.
The research that contributed to the launch of the campaign has found that “78 percent of press release emails are received by recipients to whom they are irrelevant and more than half (55 per  cent) of recipients have taken action to block a sender of news.”[ii] This is shocking and potentially damaging to the image and reputation of the PR Industry.

 

The Importance of this Issue to the PR Industry
PR has gradually gained respect as one of the most cost effective and impactful marketing tools that are available to any organisation. The fact that some PR professionals have been spamming their key target audience – the media – may have a negative effect on the reputation and image of the PR industry. The media is central to PR activity. PR is about building relationships and should aim to achieve ‘balanced dialogue’ and ‘mutual understanding’ by the use of open two-way symmetric communication between PROs and the media (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). “Truly effective press relations starts with effective targeting” (Theaker, et.al., 2005). In order to establish and maintain good working relationships with the journalists, and therefore gain valuable media coverage, the PR “messages have to be tailored to the wide variety of media available, being clear about the target audience” (Theaker,et.al.,2005:59). There is a potential threat that if PR professionals don’t change their habits of sending out irrelevant and untargeted press releases and pitches, their key target audience may block their incoming communication, and as a result of this the PR message will not be received and published. PROs shouldn’t focus on”…filling up [journalists’] e-mail inboxes with unwanted material, but instead [provide] specifically targeted and relevant material” Theaker, et.al., (2005: 37). This practice will improve their relationships with the journalists and positively affect their success rate.

Time schedule
Week 1 (01/032010 – 07/03/2010)
Conduct initial research: “An Inconvenient PR Truth” campaign, media coverage (focus on the media side and PR side separately). Is that a PR stunt? Create a list of key journalists & PROs for a survey.
Week 2 (08/03/2010 – 14/03/2010)
Prepare two short surveys (media & PROs) based on the previous findings and seed them on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Send them directly to the key PR Practitioners and the key journalists.
Week 3 (15/03/2010 – 21/03/2010)
Conduct research on potential reasons behind PR spam and what actions have been undertaken to stop this bad practice (CIPR and other educational bodies). Who or what is to blame? E.g. lack of skills and education, laziness of PR professionals, technology (Internet), payment by results oriented pay structures (problems with measurement and educating clients), etc.
Week 4 (22/03/2010 – 28/03/2010)
Evaluate and analyse the outcomes of the surveys. Look for the real reasons behind sending out untargeted press releases and pitches, and what steps have been undertaken on the media side to stop this bad practice. Do the journalists and bloggers really mind?
Week 5 & 6 (29/03/2010 – 11/04/2010) EASTER BREAK
Start putting the information together & suggest possible solutions to achieve two-way symmetric PR.
Week 7 (12/04/2010 – 18/04/2010)
Summarize the data and create first draft of the reports and presentation.
Week 8 (19/04/2010 – 25/04/2010)
Create presentation – select the key information and decide on the correct structure.
Week 9 (26/04/2010 – 02/05/2010) GROUP PRESENTATION DUE
Practice presentation presentational skills as a group.
Week 10 (03/05/2010 – 07/05/2010) REPORT DUE
Edit the report (individually) – Introduction, Conclusion, Executive Summary, Appendix, etc.