I have talked a lot about how PR has historically been more about MEDIA Relations than PUBLIC Relations. I’ve noted that Social Media enables the PR industry to fulfill its original mission of facilitating relationships between brands and people. But...
Posted in PR Squared on September 1, 2009 01:53 PM
I half-joking tweeted to my pal, the absurdly prolific Chris Brogan, that I’d happily run with his “cast-off” blog ideas: posts he’d mused about but never got around to jotting down. Fortunately for me, he took me up on it. This is...
Posted in PR Squared on January 20, 2009 12:42 PM
It’s the last day of the year. It’s snowing. I’m feeling reflective. I know that there are lots of things on my mind to accomplish in 2009. For example, I’d like to grow the business by a solid 15% —...
Posted in PR Squared on December 31, 2008 12:26 PM
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. There’s something about a 4–day weekend that makes me think that every weekend ought to be 4 days long. It not only allows for DOWN time, it allows for THINK time. Here’s what...
Posted in PR Squared on December 2, 2008 08:54 PM
Throughout my travels in Google Reader, I often “favorite” a post – which is as much about reminding me to really, really read something as it is about simply finding a new favorite. I promise myself that a “deep ponder”...
Posted in PR Squared on October 29, 2008 11:32 AM
It happened today. The economic angst whacked our agency upside the head. We now have our first example of a client who’s asked to terminate our contract “strictly as a precaution driven by economic uncertainty.” It seems Sequoia Capital’s “Mandatory...
Posted in PR Squared on October 13, 2008 04:25 PM
It’s no secret that most every consumer fires up their browser and starts off with a Google search. Heck, even your sainted grandma knows about “the Google.” That’s why so many companies pay so much attention to SEO and SEM. ...
Posted in PR Squared on October 3, 2008 02:55 PM
As more and more companies come to realize that Social Media will play an important role in their emerging marketing efforts, they often turn to outside agencies (PR, advertising, interactive marketing, SEO, etc.) to play appropriate roles in strategy and...
Posted in PR Squared on October 1, 2008 09:52 AM
It pains me to write on this topic. I sincerely thought that the basic tenet of Social Media – transparency – was becoming well understood among marketers. But, the experience I’m about to describe makes me think that abuse of this principle...
Posted in PR Squared on September 30, 2008 10:55 AM
If there is a “negative” about blogging, it’s the fact that we all fall prey to the relentless march of content. Some of our best posts from yesteryear – brilliant stuff! still relevant! – start to languish in a musty...
Posted in PR Squared on August 8, 2008 02:49 PM
You work at a PR firm. Among your tasks is netting a few juicy speaking opportunities for your client’s top executive. You fill out the forms. Follow-up. Nail the gig. A keynote, no less! Yay! Prior to the event, you...
Posted in PR Squared on August 5, 2008 10:50 AM
I’ve been meaning to write a post about Monday’s launch of Cuil, the so-called Google-killer search engine. But then Erick Shonfeld at TechCrunch wrote it for me. “The hype cycle now lasts less than a day. Take yesterday’s over-hyped launch...
Posted in PR Squared on July 30, 2008 03:02 PM
I was talking about Social Media strategies with a big tech client yesterday. In the course of the conversation they rolled out a slick-looking report, chock-full of truly interesting data about their industry. They plan to make it available online....
Posted in PR Squared on June 18, 2008 10:51 AM
A radical suggestion for the Social Media Release: don’t put any Social Media Releases out over the wires. While I sincerely applaud how far the wire services have progressed in all-things-social, I am unconvinced that “distribution” is the Big Issue for...
Posted in PR Squared on June 11, 2008 07:50 AM
You’re familiar with the SWOT Analysis? It’s a way to think about the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your company or project. It’s often used in message development as well. Given the high-flux state of the Public Relations industry...
Posted in PR Squared on June 2, 2008 09:12 PM
From the team at Hubspot that brought you the fabulous WebsiteGrader, now you can apply the same principles to your press releases (including your Social Media Releases, ‘natch). Press Release Grader is a free tool designed to help PR pros...
Posted in PR Squared on May 30, 2008 03:43 PM
While at NewComm Forum last month, I attended Rohit Bhargava’s session on “The Future of Marketing & Advertising.” During the Q&A I asked Rohit one of those classic, simple questions that tend to elicit surprising answers. “What keeps you up...
Posted in PR Squared on May 21, 2008 02:56 AM
Whether or not you choose to put out a Social Media Release, I am quite sure that you want your news to rank well within Google. In today’s search-centric culture, if you don’t show up on the first or second...
Posted in PR Squared on April 30, 2008 10:21 AM
It’s conventional wisdom that Google figured out that Search was the Internet’s killer app. But I think Google’s smarter than that. I think Google’s figured out that the true killer app is, “location, location, location.” In “search,” clearly “location”...
Posted in PR Squared on February 26, 2008 02:43 PM
Back in April 2007, Charlene Li of Forrester Research published a paper on “Social Technographics.” In the paper, Forrester defined consumers by their levels of participation in Social Media channels. The rungs of this stepladder-of-participation ranged from “Creators” (e.g., bloggers, video uploaders, etc.)...
Posted in PR Squared on February 14, 2008 03:26 PM
It’s one thing to come up with a Social Media Release template and offer it up to the community for free. It’s quite another to spend hundreds of hours researching, writing, editing and agonizing over a polished work of intellectual...
Posted in PR Squared on January 23, 2008 05:56 PM
This has been an absolutely incredible year. We’ve been privileged to talk to some household-name companies about PR & Social Media. We’ve even won more than our fair share of FORTUNE-level engagements. (w00t!) But, as the brand names got bigger, I...
Posted in PR Squared on December 20, 2007 10:01 AM
Yesterday’s post generated a lot of interesting debate points in the Comments section re: astroturfing. For your reference, Wikipedia defines “astroturfing” thus: Astroturfing is a neologism for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising that seek to create the...
Posted in PR Squared on November 30, 2007 10:57 AM
This post was developed jointly by Todd Defren and Brian Solis. It was updated following some great comments and commentary across the blogosphere (and especially at Silicon Valley Watcher).The Social Media Release (SMR) is gaining traction and visibility and is...
Posted in PR Squared on October 17, 2007 12:11 PM
Last week I pointed ya’ll to this Social Media News Release (SMNR) that we put out for our client, HubSpot. Here’s a quick case study on the strategy & “what happened next.” We were launching a cool aspect of HubSpot’s online...
Posted in PR Squared on October 10, 2007 03:47 PM
On Jeremiah Owyang’s Facebook group dedicated to Web Strategy, a forum sprang up to discuss how Social Media will impact the design of traditional corporate websites. A great thread is being created; already there’s a recurring theme re: resistance among...
Posted in PR Squared on September 18, 2007 09:55 AM
(Via Facebook) Todd asks... Is the PR industry starting to make the same mistakes as it did during the Bubble Days? Cathy Summers: Look at salaries and attitudes vs. experience of most PR people today -- especially younger staffers. 1...
Posted in PR Squared on September 11, 2007 07:08 PM
Many pundits have weighed in on the pros and cons of PR firms dabbling in Search Engine Optimization techniques. Most of the Big Guys are buying-up SEO experts, to serve as a resource to their other marcomm shops. Certainly, if nothing...
Posted in PR Squared on August 7, 2007 12:15 PM
One of the oft-cited complaints about the Social Media News Release is that “many journalists are not ready for it.” After explaining that SMNRs mean that announcements are “not just for reporters anymore,” I often follow-on to suggest that...
Posted in PR Squared on July 19, 2007 12:32 PM
The conundrum of facing up to “where conversations should happen” (as discussed last week) is particularly relevant for news releases, and specifically those releases published via the new, SEO-oriented newswires like PRX Releases (run by my friend Shannon Whitley) and the...
Posted in PR Squared on June 25, 2007 09:46 AM
Every now and then, a friend or colleague says something that makes you want to slap your forehead – how could you not have figured THAT out on your own?? Such a moment struck me at the NewComm Forum event...
Posted in PR Squared on June 6, 2007 10:17 AM
I know, I know – been a little light on the blogging front lately. Busy, busy. I tried to give ya’ll 3 pretty juicy posts last week, though! Hope you liked ‘em. Got some good stuff brewing for the...
Posted in PR Squared on June 1, 2007 12:24 PM
Next month, PR-Squared will celebrate its 3rd anniversary. Since June 2004, this blog has served as both a personal forum and a place that SHIFT could point to as its “official” blog. I am glad that we got started early...
Posted in PR Squared on May 17, 2007 03:20 PM
Shel Holtz has a funny way of blogging about stuff that I’ve been thinking about, but haven’t yet written down. This week he posted about “edge content,” which he sums up in his advice to corporate marketers: “(Organizations) are going...
Posted in PR Squared on May 8, 2007 10:56 AM
Via Twitter, I recently posed this question to my network: I quickly received an interesting range of replies. amandachapel: the single most important issue will be the Web's total rejection of "surreptitious selling." ericeggertson: Agencies need to enable,...
Posted in PR Squared on April 27, 2007 09:50 PM
A client recently informed us that they were about to hire some outside bloggers to post stories about their industry – with copious links to their site, ‘natch. Red flag. Would the bloggers clearly articulate where the funding for...
Posted in PR Squared on April 26, 2007 04:50 PM
Tim Verras of TechLINKS (“the guide to technology in Georgia”) sent me a thoughtful note re: the Social Media News Release & Newsroom. His musings below (edited for length) are interspersed with my own thoughts, in blue. “One of the...
Posted in PR Squared on April 10, 2007 09:22 AM
While participating on the NewComm Forum panel on the Social Media Press Release in Las Vegas, I sensed a palpable desire from the audience to learn more than could be covered in 1 hour. From the packed hall, it was obvious that...
Posted in PR Squared on March 19, 2007 03:45 PM
Betcha’ thought that the JetBlue flap was “sooo yesterday,” but, in some of the circles in which I run, it’s still being picked-apart for the lessons-learned. One of the more interesting notes I’ve received came from David Appelbaum at BigFix...
Posted in PR Squared on March 6, 2007 10:40 AM
Following up on our release of the Social Media News Release (SMR) template, it only made sense to conjure up some thoughts about how the corporate newsroom ought to evolve to keep pace with developments in Social Media. SHIFT Communications'...
Posted in PR Squared on February 5, 2007 07:37 AM
I am kinda' sorta' back in the saddle; still foggy-brained and too swamped to be very effective. But then again, "foggy, swamped, and ineffective" doesn't sound too outrageous on the first day back --- it's almost to be expected! Here...
Posted in PR Squared on January 4, 2007 12:54 PM
Dan Greenfield, VP at Earthlink and blogger at Bernaisource, asked a handful of PR bloggers for their take on "The Most Important Developments of 2006." Among those participating are John Wagner, Kami Huyse, Mike Manuel the Media Guerilla, H-P's Eric...
Posted in PR Squared on December 18, 2006 09:30 AM
A fair number of Social Media News Release "101" questions have cropped up lately. That's a good sign! It seems every time I turn around, I hear about a new Social Media release. Thankfully, most of these are success stories....
Posted in PR Squared on November 9, 2006 10:54 PM
Got a note from PRWeb's David McInnis about the news today that BusinessWire will use the PRWeb/Vocus platform for Social Media News Release distribution and Search Engine Optimization. "Business Wire will use a private label version of Vocus's PRWeb press...
Posted in PR Squared on September 27, 2006 10:02 PM
I've continued to think about the Social Media News Release, and I think I've pinpointed 5 core principles required for these new media versions of the 100-year old document. Democratize "Access" - The content (words, multimedia, links) need to...
Posted in PR Squared on September 7, 2006 11:13 AM
Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy recently posted on "5 Rules of Social Media Optimization" and his effort was further riffed on by folks like Jeremiah Owyang and Lee Odden. With nearly 2 weeks now passed (sorry, Rohit!), I would not try...
Posted in PR Squared on August 22, 2006 01:11 AM
When Vocus bought PRWeb, I suggested that the acquisition would take PRWeb "out of contention" in terms of its long-term viability as a competitor to PRNewswire and BusinessWire. I based this opinion on a) a terrible customer experience with Vocus...
Posted in PR Squared on August 16, 2006 12:50 PM
Everybody loves Constantin. The PR blogosphere's pioneer and chief advocate got himself a big-time gig at Converseon, and who doesn't love it when good things happen to good people? In Constantin's honor, here's a makeshift list of my Top 3...
Posted in PR Squared on April 4, 2006 02:08 PM
I love it when Microsoft is put on their heels by an upstart competitor. It's no secret that Google has been eating up market- and mindshare from Redmond for the last few years (in Search), just as Netscape did in...
Posted in PR Squared on March 3, 2006 01:07 AM