A new study from the CMO Club and Digiday uncovered a gap between how people use social sites and how we’re marketing to them on those platforms.  They started out looking for something completely different – the gaps in the capabilities and perspectives amongst marketers, agencies and publishers, but found that another gap existed:

The real glaring gap is the massive divide between consumers’ online activity and the current digital marketing practices used to reach and engage them.

Digitally empowered consumers are engaging with content and brands in real-time and on their own terms across channels and devices. Firms across the current digital landscape are struggling to evolve and execute cross-channel and real-time interactive digital marketing programs to become more relevant to these consumers, says this report..

Only a quarter of agencies, marketers and publishers are engaged in cross-channel digital marketing and a scant 15% on average do real-time interactive marketing.

Key Challenges in Digital Marketing

So what is preventing marketers from being in sync with user behavior online? “Overwhelming complexity” and a “lack of unified measurement” are identified as the key challenges preventing the industry from being properly aligned with the consumer.

• Consumers are moving freely across channels and devices, interacting with brands and content in real time
• They have ever-rising expectations of relevant, unified, customized and rewarding digital experiences
• Consumers are flowing to those companies that “get it,” and leaving dry those unable to quickly and intelligently adapt
• The fragmented digital marketing landscape adds undue complexity and inertia to digital marketing capabilities
• The lack of unified measurement makes it difficult to gauge campaign success
• There is an urgent need to move from multi-channel to cross-channel marketing

About half of the agencies polled feel they are doing well in these areas, but marketers are reporting only about 10% satisfaction with their digital marketing efforts.

The complexity of the digital channels is affecting these areas of marketing:

1. Focusing on the customer: The consumer perspective is often lost in planning. There is a need to be more consumer-centric, to incorporate the consumer mind-set based on actionable insights and unified views. (Keep tabs on availability of my new book Social Media Intelligence due out in September)
2. Content strategy and generation: it’s vital to use the customer view to plan and deliver relevant content.
3. Creative: there is a real need to up the game and provide richer, more engaging experiences with digital creative.
4. Relationships with digital partners: innovation and rapid technology advancement elevates the need for specialist skills. Direct relationships with skilled digital partners are a necessity.

What do senior execs think is the answer?  Real-time intelligence and customer insights that an be integrated into the planing and execution of their digital strategy

“Real-time intelligence and unified automation are two evolutionary forces that, in union, provide the basis to enhance digital marketing execution, and thus, help bridge the current digital divide. These two forces are reshaping the digital
landscape and, over time, will enable the industry to consolidate and evolve towards more real-time adaptive markets, with real-time efficiencies and fair value discovery.”

Pulsepoint Digital Divide Report.  Download the full report here

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Join Chris Abraham for an extended tutorial on how to use Google Plus for business

He delivered a 30 minute webinar, but he felt he had to rush through the information so he has taken the time to make the extended  tutorial and show you all the insider tips and tricks of using Google Plus for business.

It is 80 minutes – Pehaps watch it in sections,  but it is worth watching if you want to get the most out of your G+ account.

An article in USA Today says RIP Corporate Blogging. According to a study by UMASS fewer companies in the Fortune 100 and INC 500 are maintaining their blogs.

I hope that these companies don’t have any women customers.  The recent BlogHer survey of 2000 women in the  US found that women regard blogs as their most trustworthy source of information and advice. Blogs beat out Facebook and Twitter by a big margin.  In fact Facebook was in a distant third place for the general US female population.

“Blogging requires more investment. You need content regularly,” said Nora Ganim Barnes, who wrote the UMASS report.  Yes, it does.  A blog is a publication. It’s not a quick conversation at the water cooler.  It’s not a news feed.

A blog requires good writers and editors.  It needs images and graphics.  It needs an editorial calendar.  The content has to be timely, relevant, interesting and worth sharing.  Oh, and did I mention that it’s a publication?

A  BofA spokesman said the bank dropped its blog because its social media strategy is focused on Facebook and Twitter.  Facebook and Twitter are completely different methods of communication and should not mean that you don’t blog.  And since BofA has many female customers (I know, I am one of them and I see many women in the bank) looking at the BlogHer figures, I can only say ‘Good luck with that”. If you are not going to maintain your corporate blog, best plan you should embark on a blogger outreach program and build relationships with other women bloggers.

I agree that the reason companies don’t blog is more likely to be a lack of resources or insight into how to blog and the value of a blog.

“Companies often underestimate the amount of work a blog requires” Pete Stegee, director of marketing communications and Web strategy for digital storage device maker Rimage.

“Many corporate blogs fail to attract readers because they exist solely to pitch products and are badly written.” Lou Hoffman, PR veteran.

If you have a blog and are struggling to fill it with good content read these tips from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger

And stick these tips on your wall.

1. Hire a great writer
2. Create an Editorial Calendar
3. Set up news alerts for phrases you often cover
4. Get stories from other employees and execs
5. Post regularly
6. Link to other stories and blogs
7. Optimize all content for search
8. Make it easy to share the content
9. Use original, interesting images
10. Make it a news blog – write like a journalist.

Your blog should be the hub of your brand journalism.

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A recent survey of UK  journalists showed us that press releases are still the #1 source for corporate news.

However, what journalists need has changed dramatically.

They’ve been telling us for at least five years now that they need more than just a page of text. And PR Newswire’s study of how multimedia with a press release increases views makes it very clear that we have to provide images, video and graphics with our news releases.

Yet today I saw this press release about a survey of marketing decision-makers regarding their organization’s attitudes and practices in social media.  The release has some useful statistics:

• 65% of C-suite execs are interested in how their brand is perceived in social media.  (I’d love to know what the other 35% think of social media, but that’s another blog post altogether)
• 71% of those surveyed think they are doing a good job of reporting on the brand’s perception in social media
• 56% says they measure it by levels of engagement
• 31% use quantitative measures (# of fans, followers)
• 11% rely on gut feel ( very scientific!)

Perceived Value to the Brand

• 84% ranked Facebook #1
• 45% ranked YouTube first
• 41% said LinkedIn was their best bet

The Engagement Gap

Although the majority of companies surveyed see Facebook as the most valuable social media platform, the public is not so enamored of brand fan pages.   A recent BlogHer study surveyed 2000 women and discovered that Facebook is not their most trusted source for  information and advice:

• Blogs  81%
• Pinterest   81%
• Twitter   73%
• Facebook  67%

The press release references a paper released at the 2012 International Public Relations Conference on Millenials’ interaction with fan pages on Facebook that shows that this group (intensive users of social media platforms) have an arms-length relationship with Facebook fan pages.

All of this data would make a fascinating infographic.  At the very least it should have been in a chart or two.

A slidedeck using visuals to depict the data could have been made – see what BlogHer did with their survey:

Using the slide deck a short  video of the main points, with perhaps a couple of interviews and interesting quotes could have been produced for next to no cost.

What a missed PR opportunity.

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]]> http://www.proactivereport.com/c/sm/pimp-your-press-release/feed/ 0 http://www.proactivereport.com/c/pr/the-press-release-is-not-dead-yet/ http://www.proactivereport.com/c/pr/the-press-release-is-not-dead-yet/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:08:59 +0000 Sally Falkow http://www.proactivereport.com/?p=2639

Great news for PR practitioners: Despite rumors to the contrary, the trusty old press release is not dead.

Text 100 surveyed 72 journalists and found that the press release is still the preferred format for receiving corporate news.

While you are celebrating this news, there is one caveat: text only releases don’t do much for you.

PR Newswire reports that a study of releases on their wire service shows that::

• Adding a photo or an image increases views of the release by 14%
• Adding a video gives you a 28% increase in views
• Make that an image and a video and you’ll get a 48% boost in views
• Go all the way and put in a photo, a video, a graphic and a download and you’ll see a 78% jump in the number of views

Watch this video of how to craft a Social Media News Release with multimedia

The Power of a Good Online Newsroom

Nipping right at the heels of the press release is the corporate website. This highlights the importance of having a comprehensive online press centre.  It should give journalists access to

• Press releases
• Press contacts
• Photos
• Images
• Video
• Graphics
• Downloads
• Slide shows
• Embed Codes

Your online newsroom should also display your social content, such as your corporate blog posts and your Twitter feed. Did you see that the number three source for journalists is the company blog and number six is the Twitter feed?

Make this content easily visible in your newsroom.  A well-designed online newsroom should provide a one-stop source for journalists and bloggers.

The fountain at City Creek Center is a marvel of technology

Here’s an interview with the designer, Mark Fuller of WETDesign.

As we are often told there is no such thing as a viral video.

There is however a plan to make a video go viral.  And it does not take an experienced video team or in-depth technical knowledge.

Step One:

You do need a network of people with some measure of influence that you can tap into to give the video an initial push. You need to give it some traction. This is not something that can be done overnight.  You should be developing your social network anyway, because it’s the smart business thing to do.  Then when you need it for spreading a video, or another piece of content or in a crisis, it’s already in place.

Step Two

You need a video that will attract attention and interest.  That’s not likely to be a standard corporate video.  It has to be interesting, unusual, exciting content.

For example:  I went to Salt Lake City last week to host ten bloggers at the Grand Opening of City Creek Center.  I had heard a lot about the features of the center. The feature that I felt would most likely get people’s attention and interest is the fountain built by WETDesign, the people who built the Bellagio Fountain, which combines fire and water.

I made sure that I got the shot once it got dark and the fire was turned on in the fountain. It was shot on a Kodak Zi8 – a simple handheld camcorder. I am not a brilliant videographer. But I know enough to get the job done.

Step Three

Get the video online fast. I had the video up a couple of hours later. I had primed several of my best connections to watch for the tweet about the video. By Thursday morning it was already being retweeted.

Step Four

Keep an eye on the views, and who is retweeting or posting about the video. Send it to more people with influence and lots of followers.Ask them to retweet the link.

Step Five

Thank everyone who helps you with the distribution of the video.

Step Six

Watch for pick up in big blogs and mainstream media.
Retweet those links.

This video has been posted in

The Huffington Post

Gizmodo

A Google Search of those headlines shows that those two posts have been republished on more than 1000 other websites and blogs.

To date the video has had 92,923 views.

This chart shows how many views most videos on YouTube get.

This puts the video in the top  2.69% of all videos on YouTube.

Not a bad result for a 2 minute video shot by a PR person on a flip-type camcorder.

And if it gets over 100,000 views it will be in the top 1.73%!!  So pass the link along, would ya?

Some conflicting numbers showed up this week about blogs:

The State of the Blogosphere from Technorati claims 70% of businesses are blogging.

According to a recent analysis of websites and blogs by Percussion only 20.5% of mid market tech companies have an active blog.

UMass Dartmouth studies show that back in 2007 INC 500 companies were outstripping the Fortune 100 when it came to blogging, but that the bloom has definitely gone off the blogging rose. The number of INC 500 companies blogging is down to 37%. Facebook nad LinkedIn now lead the way in these fast-growing companies.

So are companies blogging or not?  And if they’re not, should they be?

There is currently a lot of buzz about content marketing and the need for  a central content hub.  A good blog can serve as that hub. Think twice before you abandon your corporate blog, says Aaron Dun, Percussions’ VP of marketing and strategy.

“Research shows that blogs play a critical role in helping companies create compelling content for engaging constituents, and guiding them into taking action that drives measurable results for the business. The findings uncovered in our research spotlight an enormous opportunity for companies to reframe their content marketing efforts to, first and foremost, include a blog.”

Whats’ your take – does your company have an active blog? Is is part of your social media content strategy?

As technology advances, journalists and bloggers are adopting more social tools to help them gather and report the news.  Many journalists have stated that in this new media world they rely on outside sources for content, which is an excellent opportunity for PR pros.  But we have to provide the news content in the format they need and provide the social tools they find useful. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen took a look at corporate  newsrooms and gave us a dismal “D” in PR.  The reason?  We don’t provide the content and tools journalists require in the digital world.

So if you want to score an “A” in PR on your website what should your online newsroom offer?

Social Media Integration:

According to a report from the Altimeter Group social integration keeps visitors to your newsroom on your site longer and provides one URL where they can access all content.   The Washington Post listed not having a social content hub  as one of the top 10 mistakes companies make in social media.

Sharing Icons:

According to the Pew State of the Media report sharing your news content should be a priority.  Provide one-click buttons that allow visitors to post content they like to Facebook, Twitter,  Google Plus and other social sites. Use the most social form of these sharing tools -  ones that show them their friends who have liked or shared this content.

Diverse Audiences:

In today’s digital world your newsroom has to serve more than just mainstream media. You should also deliver content for bloggers, buyers, consumers, analysts and investors.

RSS feeds:

Journalists and bloggers use feeds to access and organize their information. Feeds also increase your search visibility and filter your content into the social web. Allow visitors to filter your content and subscribe to sections of news they are interested in – don’t just offer one feed of all content.

Search Engine Optimization:

Journalists, bloggers and the public find their news and information via search engines. Just throwing a few keywords into a release won’t do the job. You need an SEO strategy for your PR content and the hour newsroom should allow you to tag all content, including images and videos, with keywords.

Content Quality:
Does your newsroom focus on news releases or do you consistently deliver high quality content that will drive qualified traffic to your website?

Content Format:

In a recent study PR Newswire found that news release views increase significantly with the addition of visual material. When you add an image, a video and a graphic to a release views increase by as much as 77%.

An online newsroom needs a multimedia gallery with images, videos, slide decks and graphics. You should be able to pull these visual assets from the gallery and use them with any release.

Embed Codes: This is one of those new tools journalists find invaluable – and corporate newsrooms  don’t supply.

Web editors, reporters and bloggers are asking for embed codes because it makes it possible to embed a video, flash presentation or slide deck right on their site with just a few clicks.  85% of media websites use video today and 76% ask for embed codes.  Only 11% of corporate newsrooms offer embed codes.

Your online newsroom should have a place to add the embed code for every multimedia asset you offer in the newsroom.

Brian Wong has an excellent article on how to embed video

Analytics: It takes very little effort to add Google Analytics to an online newsroom.  Your webmaster or IT folk can do it in a jiffy.  Buy SAMS Teach Yourself Google Analytics in 10 Minutes and watch the Google Analytics IQ presentations and videos on their site.  Take the time to learn the basics, so you can see what is working and what is not.

There are many ways to achieve this “A” rated online newsroom.  You can build it in WordPress, if you have a programmer who can tweak the basic WordPress templates.  You can hire a team to build you a custom newsroom, or you can use an online newsroom vendor, like PRESSfeed.    PRESSfeed can have an “A” rated online newsroom, with all the required elements in place, up and running in just two weeks. And they offer free training sessions so you know just how to use all the features.

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In the previous post I took a look at how the 5W’s apply to Digital PR. One of the most important reasons for  examining how you are using these 5Ws is that if you don’t, you have no Digital PR strategy.

The first W is Who.

Unless you know who you are talking to, odds are your communication efforts won’t hit the mark.

Think back to the basic communication theory you learned at school:  Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect. (Laswell)

Let’s just start with the first part of that statement: Who says what to whom.

So someone has to be the  originator of the communication. (That would be you)   There has to be an idea, a concept, a message.  You have to know what you want to say and who you are going to say it to.

This is not new, and it is not rocket science.  But it seems to have been brushed aside in the new media era.

“We must be on Twitter, we need a Facebook page.”   “Oh! Everyone is on Pinterest – let’s do that.”   Without a thought to who is on those channels and what they’re are looking for or interested in. So you make lots of content and throw it against the Facebook wall to see if it sticks.

Then we hear comments like:

“Social media is hard to measure.”

“Where is the ROI in all this engagement?”

“I can’t see the point, it’s just a bunch of people nattering on about nothing.”

And studies  that prove only a third of Tweets have any value.

So before you start producing content, spend some time analyzing your comm theory formula so you have a viable Digital PR strategy.

Concentrate on who you should be talking to and what they might find interesting and valuable.

Listen, learn and then respond.

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