PR for Start-ups!

Social Media Gets Socially Active: 12for12k Challenge

Recently, we have seen several examples of how social media can make a social impact in the world through online/offline events like the Tweetathon 2009 and Twestival (just to name a few). Another social media charity challenge is underway and is worth taking a look at.

The 12for12k Challenge is the brainchild of Press Release PR owner Danny Brown. Inspired by the way that social media has changed so many lives for the better already with various charity promotions, Danny wanted to do something that was both easy to take part in and have the potential to change as many lives as possible. The 12for12k Challenge started taking shape.

Dave Taylor and TrackVia -- Driving Awareness Online

Dave Taylor is widely recognized for his writing and speaking engagements on both technical and business issues. He has written over twenty business and technical books including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Growing Your Business with Google and maintains several weblogs two of which are the The Intuitive Life Business Blog and Ask Dave Taylor.

What's in your social media toolbox?

Here is a list of tools that I have come across that are extremely useful in storing and promoting content whether it is audio, video or text. Feel free to pass on or add to the list.

"Everyone else has a blog so we should too"

 A common comment made by companies large and small. What isn't common? Is the understanding that  you can't simply dip your toe into these waters, you have to dive in or be prepared to swim with the fishes. Okay, that is probably enough aquatic references for today...

Creating a blog is one thing, diving into the community that you hope will engage, read and follow your blog is another. To take a line from the infamous Gary Vaynerchuck... you have to get in the trenches, bitches.

Before you decide to start a corporate blog, here are a few suggestions.

1. Promise transparency - be truthful, authentic and personable.
2. Listen to your customers - bring issues (good and bad) onto your blog.
3. Give something away - whether it is a best practice, tips, report, PowerPoint, information fed into the community will help build social equity.
4. Make it easy for people to comment and participate.
5. Link love- link back to areas of your site as well as other sites of interest.
6. Chill on the marketing speak - this is a place to be conversational, not speak like a robot.
7. Make it social - make it easy for others to bookmark the content, subscribe etc.
8. Give it personality - what can people expect to hear from you.
9. Be the first to provide a statement - in case of an outage or other issue, make sure you use the blog to communicate to your customers and community before someone else does.
10. Commit or don't do it... This isn't a one time thing, you need to dive in.

Good luck and if you would like to learn what not to do, give me a call. I have a catalog of lessons learned the hard way!

Whuffie - the social currency?

I came across a great video today by crowd favorite Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee). In this video he talks a bit about "whuffie" a concept described by wikipedia as:

Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow's sci-fi novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. The usual economic incentives have disappeared from the book's world. Whuffie has replaced money, providing a motivation for people to do useful and creative things. A person's Whuffie is a general measurement of his or her overall reputation, and Whuffie is lost and gained according to a person's favorable or unfavorable actions.

As a consultant, I often share advice as well as seek it quite a bit. Rarely in these situations is currency exchanged but I always walk away with a great feeling and the hope to pass it on. Sort of a "pay it forward" but with knowledge. Although I didn't have a term to wrap around this exchange before, hearing and learning more about the concept now makes me want to acknowledge the people who I believe have grand social capital or "whuffie" cred.

The first person who comes to mind is Dave Taylor (@davetaylor). Dave is a person, who in my mind, has exemplified the meaning of whuffie. Dave maintains three weblogs, The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, focused on business and industry analysis, Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and The Attachment Parenting Blog, discussing topics of interest to parents. As part of the number of books, projects and speaking events he is a part of, Dave always shares what he has learned and coaches others on the power of educating and sharing what you know.

My point isn't to do a public service announcement about the greatness that is Dave Taylor but more to demonstrate what he does for the community and for me. I have been having coffee with Dave for years and in every situation, I was asking for advice, comments and suggestions on different things I was working on. Dave always made the time and I always left with a great deal of information. The other thing I walked away with was the urge to pass it on or help someone in the way that he helped me. No obligations, no currency exchange and no expectations.

We are seeing a great number of examples of how "whuffie" is creating a positive impact on the way that we work. I understand that there are points to this economic system that are subjective but for now I would like to focus on the positive.

Who would you nominate for a whuffie award and why? You know mine.

Look for a book on the subject from Tara Hunt (@missrogue) in April or order the Whuffie Factor early on Amazon.

Tips and Tricks for PR Pros and Mobile Workers

I have been guest blogging lately on TrackVia's site. TrackVia is an online database company that provides solutions perfect for us consultants and mobile workers. Included below are links to two of my recent posts.

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 A Few Clicks from Your Data
December 26th, 2008 

As a so-called mobile warrior, I have put together a few tips and services that I use for surviving those times when you are away from the office but may need to check in from time to time:

1. Wi-Fi Hotspot List - If you are traveling, find out the local Wi-Fi spots before heading out.
2. Twitter/ FriendFeed - Stay connected with clients and friends using frequent updates.
3. MobileMe - Sync your calendar between multiple devices and save copies of those important documents that you may need later.
4. FlickR - Upload all photos that you may need to access later for presentations and the like.
5. GoToMyPC - connect from anywhere to your computer in the office.
6. Skype - make cheap international calls when you have Wi-Fi access.
7. And of course, TrackVia - Save all contacts, excel files and sales leads in the web-based database.

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Next Generation PR - Meet Your Database

In PR it isn’t always about “who” you know… In today’s world where voices are a plenty, tracking “who” you should know is just as important. With a rise in social media and the growing influence of bloggers, the days of relying on a media subscription for your PR activities are long gone.

Most PR professionals subscribe to at least one media database but like me, you probably aren’t using the notes features. I, for one, use a number of media databases and would rather not store my information in a service that I may not continue using- not to mention that many of these services have limited sharing functionality.

I have used a number of databases throughout the past decade or so. Most were server-based and made it difficult to keep records updated in real time given out-of-office requirements. Today I run a virtual firm, Digital Idea Media, with two partners and a number of contractors. What we thought would just be a nice alternative to saving our contacts in Excel has quickly turned into a platform with unlimited ways in which we can track client programs and our business activities.

I decided that it would be best to share a list of the few surprises that we found in using TrackVia for our business:

1. Influencer Database – track all media, analysts, bloggers and record all PR activities (it isn’t just media relations anymore); run target lists and reports on activities per quarter; include images of contacts for tour briefing books

2. Media Database – track all audio, video and blog posts and upload stats for quarterly reporting; provide clients with a quick and accessible record of all media

3. CRM: Prospect/Client Database – track people who work for companies of interest; include background information; add notes for touch points; send holiday cards

4. Client Reporting Tool – keep an editorial or activities calendar and house documents that need approval; house final documents where all information can be assessed by the client or the firm at any time

5. Newsletter Database – track newsletter issues and calendar of ideas; use the mail merge feature to send the newsletter to the contact database

6. Blog Planning Database – create a list of blog ideas and final posts to keep on top of regular posting

7. Planning Database – track all PR activities for the year in one place; record how you did against your goals and keep your “PR Plan” in a living database

As you can see, there are many different ways in which you can use an online database solution like TrackVia. What we didn’t expect when we started using the database was the value in sharing the status of activities with clients, not just with our team as we had done in the past. The TrackVia database allows us to create the fields that are most relevant to our business and, we are able to customize a solid database that allows us to stay organized and our business well managed. We are just getting started and would love to hear how others are using it in our industry or others.

Social Media... See what sticks and do that again

One of my favorite sites to check for tips and tricks is Hubspot's Blog. This week they posted a fantastic presentation "Combine SEO, Blogging and Social Media to Optimize Your Marketing Efforts" (embedded below).

As I often say to my clients, try a few different things, see what sticks and then set a schedule. If you are seeing more traffic from Twitter when you post links in the evening, then continue to do that. If you find that podcasts are driving traffic, look at what time of day you saw the spike, the type of content you were pushing out and the referral sites that were responsible for the spike. You will most definitely find a few surprises and the best part about inbound marketing or social media or whatever you choose to call it is that you are marketing "in the moment," you can make changes, perhaps even a few mistakes but it won't hurt your bottom line if you are able to adapt quickly and produce content that is interesting to your audience.

Probably one of the best pieces of advice I have heard in a while is the idea of paying yourself first. In the context of your profession, this means, write a blog post first thing in the morning or do something that will help to push the things you are most passionate about in the beginning of the day. I hear that this sets the tone for the rest of the day and makes your professional life that much more rewarding. I am working on taking this advice starting in January ;).

How to Combine SEO, Blogging, and Social Media For Results HubSpot

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: business blogging)

Social media cliff notes

There have been a great number of compiled lists of tools that communicators can use to get the word out, better connect with journalists and just plain understand what is available in the world of social media. Without a lot of chit-chat, I have listed a few of those that I found quite useful.

• 10 of the Best Social Media Tools - Sarah Evans

• Use the New Google Web Search RSS Feeds - ReadWriteWeb

• Companies using social media - Peter Kim

• Twitter Tools for Community and Communications Professionals - Brian Solis

Thanks to everyone who has compiled and shared these helpful tools. In the spirit of community, let the sharing continue!

Hold on Mr. Reaper, the blog isn't dead yet

 

Very interesting article in Wired this week that asks the question, are blogs dead?

This topic is sure to have a variety of answers and may depend on your intentions. Given that more and more corporations are looking at blogs as a way to get their voice heard without the typical red tape and time, I don’t see blogs going away but maybe it is time to evolve. The blogosphere is flooded with new blogs popping up every day.

While this post may have attracted the attention from a very large audience, the blog is not going anywhere for the time being. If anything, this economy will push companies to think differently, to market in new ways and to understand what the customer really care about.  Most everyone has either heard about or seen Sequoia's doom presentation about  the recession and what it means for businesses. But the one thing is clear, the time is now for nailing your marketing so that it is customer driven and has high impact. Forget the competition for the time being and ramp up communications aggressively.  Measure what works and cut what doesn’t.

Social tools like blogs can have an important role in the way that we communicate and allow you to make an impact with little to no investment. Linking to others, commenting on other blogs, watching page views and analytics and understanding that the blog page of your website has the most SEO potential should all be considered for a truly effective blog.

The idea that Twitter and other microblogging tools will replace long form writing is naïve. Twitter definitely has its purpose but getting your message out in 140 characters is not always going to work unless your name is Calacanis.  The key to any method is making sure you are reaching your intended audience. If you are on Twitter, who is listening to you and is it the right group? Sure Twitter can be searched but are you “search worthy” and are you talking about topics that would find their way into a search string? This isn’t to say there isn’t a great opportunity to leverage Twitter but it is all in the execution and looking at a variety of tools without relying on just one.

Similar to Paul’s claim that blogs are dead, we have heard for years that the press release is dead and as much as I would like that to be true, the press release still has its place. What is happening is more options are being made available for getting the word out. The good news is that these methods don’t require additional investment on the company’s part, just creativity.

Imagine how a launch could be presented using a variety of tools:

•    Twitter: post a teaser that invites beta users to take a test drive
•    Video: capture reactions to a new offering and include analysts, customers, staff
•    Audio: record a conference call between the company and a partner on the impact
•    Press Release: details, specifications, links to product and site
•    Facebook: hosted poll

Of course there are so many ways to use these tools and to hone your marketing efforts during this time. These are simply a few things to consider.

Saying I Do...Social Programs Met with Fear of Commitment

Companies of all sizes are quick to talk about the need to implement social media strategies/tactics but when faced with the question of Who? How? and When? the fear of commitment washes over. Regardless of the industry, I often find that decision makers struggle with the commitment it takes to really get involved in the communities they wish to influence.  Whether it is confusion around measurement and effectiveness or deciding who will take on the responsibility, doing a little homework beforehand could save your company from the embarrassment of a bad start. Mitch Ratcliffe of ZDNet wrote an article that lays out levels of commitment that companies should keep in mind when considering a corporate blogging effort.

For startups, consider putting community manager on the list of necessary recruits. Often times, resource-limited companies and entrepreneurs are the first to make the plunge without considering the level of commitment it will take to serve as an evangelist and help build the community. It is possible to hire a part-time person to fill the role of the community manager. To get an idea of how this could work, I suggest you read “Do Startup Companies Need Community Managers” by Marshall Kirkpatric.

To understand the essential skills of a community manager, Chris Brogan, social media strategist has put together this thoughtful post.

The moral to this post, don’t jump. Wait until you have a plan in place, someone to make sure you are doing what you said you would do and a strategy that aligns with business goals but that also ensures involvement in the communities that you want to reach.

If your company has hired a community manager, I would love to hear about it.