PRMeetsMarketing Weekly Articles: January 31, 2023

Follow

OK – either I’ve been lazy lately (which is possible) or I’m just not finding things that I want to share. I think I need to expand my list of reading. Until then, here’s this week’s articles.

You can click on the Weekly Articles tag for previous issues or subscribe to the Weekly Articles Feed.

Email Marketing Gone Bad – PR Week demonstrated what NOT to do with email marketing. Per BL Ochman, PR Week spammed thousands of subscribers and exposed passwords.

Pack a Twitter? – This was a topic addressed by Chris Brogan and Dave Fleet. The idea is creating a way for people to find who to follow on Twitter. This post provides advice on using Twitter Packs. Here’s the original post from Chris Brogan. Granted, that depends if Twitter can be stable enough to even allow you to find, follow and tweet!

Beyond the Age of Conversation – Frankly, I go through different stages of reading lots of marketing, PR and technology books and times when I just can’t. The Age of Conversation is one of those books that is waiting anxiously for me to read. I plan to. I just haven’t gotten to it. So it’s interesting that the folks behind the first project are soliciting contributors for the next book. I’m tempted. If you’re planning to contribute, let me know in the comments.

Designing the Right Email Newsletter – I know that this doesn’t usually fall on PR, but I know it does happen. For those asked to write and design an email newsletter, here’s an interesting report on email newsletters from MarketingSherpa. Act now. Only available for one week to non-subscribers.

PR Blogs that I Read

Follow

I have several PR blogs that I follow. Some are from PR agencies and others are from PR practitioners. I purposely didn’t include some bloggers who may be more “marketing” related.  In alpha here are the PR blogs that I follow.  

1.  Chris Brogan – Chris has undertaken a project titled Social Media 100 to write 100 useful blog posts on using social media. 
2.  Fleet Street PR – Written by Dave Fleet, I find his insights on PR, social media and the industry interesting.  
3.  inmedia Public Relations –  A public relations firm based our of Toronto, I like their thoughts about PR.  
4.  KD Paine’s Measurement Blog – KD is the goddess of PR measurement. Need I say more? 
5.  NakedPR – Jennifer brings a sassy sense of humor to all things PR.  
6.  Now Is Gone – Goeff Livingston is the most frequent contributor with a couple of authors. Looks at the industry, PR strategy and general thought leadership.
7.  PR Communications – John Cass provides practical insight on how to implement blogging, PR, marketing, etc. for companies. 
8.  PR Squared – Todd Defren was probably one of the first PR pros to blog. His blog is influential and provides thought leadership on the topic 
9.  RaceTalk – RacePoint is a boutique PR agency. Occasionally some good content, sometimes not.  
10. The Flack – Peter Himler provides commentary on how corporations are or are not doing a good job with PR. 
11. Update: The Buzz Bin  – I forgot about Goeff Livingston’s other blog related to his Livingston Communications company.
12. Update: a shel of my former self – Yes, how did I miss this one? I don’t know, I just did. I’ve just added this blog to my reader and look forward to Shel’s insights.

 Surprisingly, I only follow 2-3 PR firms. Why? I find that the blogs are unfocused with a group of people posting day-to-day happenings. I’m looking for relevant, actionable information for my job.  Let me know if there are others I should be following.

PRMeetsMarketing Weekly Articles: January 24, 2023

Follow

 This week’s summary is shorter than usual. Let me know if you have any recommendations for make this a more useful list of information. You can click on the Weekly Articles tag for previous issues or subscribe to the Weekly Articles Feed:   

 It’s Good to Be Delicious – I so love MarketingPilgrim because I always get nuggets of wisdom that help with PR and marketing. Yahoo is starting to include delicious information into the search results. Whether or not this will augment search rankings, it’s good to know how many other people find the information useful. From a PR perspective, all press releases, marketing materials, etc. should be bookmarked on delicious. You never know who is looking for what where.  

 Fact Check Everything – Dave Fleet of Fleet PR writes an important post about fact checking everything first. By just omitting some details, the meaning can be completely different.  

 Jumping on the Green Bandwagon – This article in MarketingProfs highlights the recent trend to jump on the green bandwagon. I think this is a key thing to keep in mind as companies proceed with sustainability and green programs.  

 Online Reputation Management – Paul Dunay provides good tips for managing your online reputation.  Monitor – Respond – Optimize. Check out my previous posts about online reputation management and the tools I used to manage my online reputation.

Effective New Media Mediums for Marketers –  eMarketer is summarized some recent reports about what are effective marketing mediums. For my company, I found it interesting that 54% of marketers found webinars effective. Who knew!

WTF: What does this sentence mean?

Follow

 OK, I know that there are bad pitches. But have you ever read bad openings for an article. This one came from the AP about an Afghan journalist: 

An Afghan journalist sentenced to death for distributing an article that allegedly violated Islam is actually being punished for reporting by his brother about abuses by northern warlords, a media group said Wednesday. 

 Do YOU know what the reporter is trying to say? Well, it finally appeared four paragraphs later: 

 Jean MacKenzie, country director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, which helps train Afghan journalists, said Kaambakhsh is being punished for stories written for IWPR by his brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi. 

 Me thinks this is the beginning of Bad Journalism. I tried to rewrite this one out myself and stopped. 

 How would YOU make this sentence better? Add them to the comments. I know you’re all smarter than me =)

Can You Survive the Truck Test?

Follow

 When I was with Niehaus Ryan Wong, we used to have this saying, “If a truck, God forbid, hit one of your team members, what would you do?” 

 Yes, not a pleasant thought, but this did happen to me. No, not the truck =), a broken and dislocated ankle. But there is nothing more vivid than the truck test to focus your attention on preparing you organization for the unexpected. 

 What has that person be working on?  What are you policies for checking the person’s voicemail and email? And if the laptop is destroyed, are critical documents and plans lost as well?  Here are three things for surviving the truck test: 

Centralize – Laptops are great for their mobility – you can take it home or away on a sales trip thereby getting more work done outside of traditional work hours. But there is a tendency to save documents to the laptop instead of a shared server or intranet. In case of an extended leave, the challenge is accessing documents that may be relevant to the team, especially for sales information, marketing plans or other documents critical to the company. Ensure that documents are saved on a company server or intranet for easy access.

Standardize – Let’s assume that you have a server to save documents. To ensure that you can easily find critical information, create a policy that outlines 1) what documents are to be saved to the server and 2) how to name documents for consistency. For point 2, I recommend always including a) the person’s name, b) main subject and c) date.  For example, “MaryMediaList_May252007” is easier to find than just “MediaList.” The date also helps for versioning.

Communicate – Assuming that your team member survived the truck test, it’s important to provide regular updates. Not only does your team want to express their best wishes for a speedy recovery but also will help minimize confusion as to 1) what happened, 2) when is he/she coming back and 3) who is handling his/her responsibilities in the meantime. 

 By just focusing on these three factors, you can begin preparing your organization for the unexpected. 

 What has your company done TODAY to ensure that YOU survive the truck test?

PR Meets Marketing Weekly Articles: January 17, 2023

Follow

I know you’ve missed your summary of weekly articles. It’s been a slow start to the New Year, but I how you enjoy this week’s selection.

 You can click on the Weekly Articles tag for previous issues or subscribe to the Weekly Articles Feed:   

 Engagement Overrated? – AdAge just released a survey of marketers and media buyers. I’m a little confused by what this survey means frankly. In the end, different mediums are judged by different criteria. Indicative of this contradictory stance: Survey respondents said it’s print — yet ranked print lowest for delivering results. Online was ranked lowest for engagement but highest for results, while TV was ranked in the middle for both results and engagement.   

 Baiting for Links – Adotas has an interesting article on how to receive quality links for your website. I’m not sure I agree with adding media mentions into a press release, but there is some good advice for those needing quality links. 

 Saying Sorry the Right Way – Andy Beal compares two situations of how Search Engine Land and Gizmodo apologized for recent incidents. Andy highlights the five steps for handling such a situation. Hmmm… Twitter, are you listening?  

 Protecting Your Online Brand – Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb wrote a post an email  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/brand_squatting_what_to_do.php 

 Why Meet Face-to-Face When Virtual Suffices? – I found this article interesting as part of my role is how to support sales with materials to help in the sell. This article highlights a buyer’s request for an online demo being spurned by sales folks. As a PR/marketing person, this raises a question of what can I do to facilitate the sales cycle. PR has a great opportunity to research, test and introduce new tools that can be used by sales folks. The question is, can you teach a sales person new tricks? =) 

 Twitter Pals Galore – The good folks at MarketingPilgrim have compiled an impressive list of online marketing folks on Twitter. Have fun finding people to follow! 

 Raising Customer Expectations – Chris Bucholtz of Inside CRM posted a great article of how to exceed customer expectations. No matter how big a company gets, it’s the little things that win over your satisfied and dissatisfied customers. Being proactive and quick to respond goes a long way then sending an impersonal email that arrives weeks later. 

 Protecting Your Brand Here, There and Everywhere – Richard McManus of ReadWriteWeb about a recent email exchange from a person using the “readwriteweb” brand overseas. Though I am sympathetic with Richard’s dilemma, I believe he received some bad advice. Richard can probably argue for protection in the US but may lose overseas. In the end, brand protection is brand protection. Always trademark. Even if you’re not planning to expand overseas, consider it. You never know.  

 Improve PR Programs through Measurement – KD Paine has some useful tips on how measurement provides insight for more effective PR programs. KD uses the word “dashboard” in her post. I believe she means a central place – whether a formal dashboard, database or excel document, that will help you identify and evaluate these points. 

 Standing Out in the Tradeshow Crowd – Rohit of Influential Interactive Marketing shares his tips for standing out in a tradeshow. Though I don’t agree with Rohit’s suggestion on a giveaway, I do believe he has some valid points. For those folks going to DEMO this month, my one word of advice is to walk to the space, pull people to the demo, and network at the events. Don’t wait for folks to come to you otherwise you won’t get the full bang for buck at the show.

Thoughts from 2007: Lessons Learned

Follow

And what have I learned this year? In no particular order, here are my lessons from blogging and life in general:

1.         I realized how important family is, even if they annoy you!
2.         The power of social media to meet new friends from all over the world
3.         Twitter is truly addicting.
4.         That you don’t have to blog every day. Saying something interesting is more important than frequency.
5.  Good friends are hard to come by – fight for the good ones, don’t stress about the others.
6.  Compromise is important, especially if you’re wrong or think you’re right.
7.  Be patient.
8.  Keep telling yourself that the 49ers will always get better.
9. Take comfort that at least the Red Sox are doing well.

What lessons have you learned from 2007?