PR for Start-ups!

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.

Online Community and Social Media Events

John Cass has begun a great list of online community and social media conferences. Be sure to send him your event suggestions!

List of Online Community & Social Media related conferences for 2009.

1. Jan Social Media Conference, January 22 - 23, 2009, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami, FL
2. Health 3.0: The Next Online Generation, January 26 - 28, 2009, Las Vegas, NV.
3. Feb 2009 Customer Reference Forum: 2009 Customer Reference Forum, February 17-19, Berkeley, CA.
4. FOWA Future of Web Apps, Miami, FL, 22-24 Feb 2009, Miami.
5. March O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference 2009, March 9-12, 2009, San Jose, CA
6. SXSW Interactive: March 13-17, 2009, Austin Texas
7. 2009 Media Summit, Date: March 18-19, 2009, McGraw-Hill Building, 49th St. & 6th Ave., New York City
8. Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco, Co-presented by O'Reilly Media and TechWeb, March 31-April 3, 2009, San Francisco, CA
9. April 6th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, ITNG 2009, April 27-29, 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
10. May 3rd Int'l AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, May 17 - 20, 2009, San Jose, California
11. Where 2.0 Conference 2009, May 19-21, 2009, San Jose, CA
12. June TTIX Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange, TTIX 2009 will be held June 3-5 2009 on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Get your head out of the clouds... But feel free to run your business there...

A very interesting article appeared in Slate recently that looked at the dwindling number of startups actually attempting to go public. Thanks to open-source software and cloud computing, companies can build businesses at a fraction of what it would have cost just a few years ago.   

More cloud-based services mean less people needed to support applications, servers etc. Which means the dollar can stretch further than ever before.

Forrester Research analyst James Staten calls cloud computing “classic disruptive innovation where the mainstream dismisses the product and small companies have time to create a real differentiated value.”

Both Amazon and Google are gearing cloud offerings toward SMBs and even AT&T has jumped in with its Synaptic Hosting service which can add capacity in the event of a site's usage spike.

Some cloud-computing solutions worth checking out:

• Napera Networks: Network Access Control for SMBs - keep those roaming laptops healthy
• Elastra: Design, deploy & manage database and application infrastructure in the Cloud (Amazon recently participated in their financing)
• TrackVia: online databases - break through the limitations of excel and build your own database

MMM... Perfect Tweat, Twitter Acquires Summize

Two of my favorite tools wrapped into one, Twitter acquired Summize today. Makes perfect sense, I use Summize daily to find discussions on certain topics as well as threads of conversations between myself and others. Summize, now Twitter is a fantastic tool for marketers.

Slightly better than a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup!

Twitter is down, how will anyone know what I am doing?

This picture is worth a thousand tears.

Everyone seems to be voicing that they are jumping ship with Twitter. But I wonder who is most affected by these outages? Is it the loyal followers to the egos of the internet? Is it the fans of corporate identities? These perspectives are rarely heard in the pissing match between Twitter and FriendFeed fans. It appears as though the Twitter celebrities are the ones that are adamant about their move to FriendFeed, Plurk or others. Are these outages having an impact on stock price, corporate evaluations or Web traffic altogether? We all know that additional tools exist for getting the word out but so much time, ink and energy is spent on the frustration that exists when Twitter is down that it begs the question of how did you promote your activities before?

Today, the problem seems to focus on the scalability issues, giving copycats an opportunity to grab these frustrated micobloggers. But with the jump comes more time invested in building a following and applying resources to understand how to get the message out to the scale of followers that people have built up using Twitter. We have seen this problem in the past with search sites and it will continue with social networking tools. Rather than spinning wheels and bashing the tools that give us our voice, wouldn’t it make more sense to use that time to focus on business and strengthening other areas for getting the word out? Twitter has made it easy to create bounce for important or not so important updates. I for one am tired of the whining and believe that time could be better spent on improving our own methods for getting the word out in the few minutes that we have to deal with a disruption.

Thoughts?

 

Marketing Your Business on Facebook

Looking for a way to test the waters with a corporate identity on Facebook? As MarketingSherpa mentioned a month ago, there is a way to create an identity and many businesses may not even be aware of it. If you click on the advertising button at the bottom of the Facebook home page, you will find advertising options but also a way to create a corporate identify.

Some of the possibilities:

• Create social ads that attach to other's news feeds and friend activity.
• Use the Facebook Beacon to allow customers to share  actions they take on your website with their friends.
• Create social applications using Facebook Platform that lets users interact with their friends and your business. Platform applications are effective ways to leverage the social graph.
• Use Facebook Insights to understand who is engaging with your page and clicking through social ads.
• Facebook polls allow companies to run a survey that is targeted to the demographic that you define and the best part, you can have results in 30 minutes. You can actually watch results as they come in.

This is easy for any company to do, especially those of you who are bootstrapping! If you have tried one of these options for your viral campaigns, let me know how it went.

Start with a crowd…..

Key topics of discussion these days... collaboration, 2.0, web communities and sharing are all concepts widely discussed and considered as part of today's marketing mix. But limiting these practices to marketing is a disservice considering the possibilities that web communities and mass collaboration can bring to your business. Activities such as strategic planning, product development, branding and marketing can all be influenced by outside resources and often in a positive and cost-effective way. One term that can be used to describe this act is crowdsourcing.

Many authors and businesses have leveraged the power of mass collaboration using Web 2.0 technologies for feedback, editing support, general business ideas or product feature sets.

What better way to deliver products/services then to involve your targeted demographic or “crowd” into the planning stages.

The person who actually created the “crowdsourcing” term, Jeff Howe, is preparing to release a book on the subject. In following his own advice, he collaborated and opened up the chapters during the process of writing through his blog. Guy Kawasaki has also done this using Twitter among other things to get people involved in the creation of his latest book.

Go Ahead, Tighten the Bootstraps and Get Creative

So why wouldn’t bootstrapping companies consider this method? Most of the companies that I have met with recently are being cautious with their money and sometimes at the expense of great ideas. But rather than shelling out a bunch of dough for one level of results, why not put out a challenge to a community and see what response you get? This could be done through Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook just to name a few. Any company could apply these tactics and create a community of zealots who are eager to see the final result whether it is a book, product or even a service.

Even if you aren’t bootstrapping, consider leaving your four walls and opening up your collaboration environment to a crowd to generate better ideas or at minimum, ideas you may not have thought of. Goldcorp and Colgate hold successes with going transparent and allowing others to get involved with ideation so why can’t you? Another consideration is to tap Universities for fresh ideas and perspectives.

Some sites to consider if you want to tap specialists...

• InnoCentive - connects companies, academic institutions, public sector and non-profit organizations with a global network of more than 145,000 brilliant minds
• YourEncore - network of retired and veteran scientists and engineers

Open Call for Logo

In the spirit of the “open call,” I would like to put out a request for the Activevoice blog logo. Interested parties should contact me at Melissa_hourigan@yahoo.com and we can discuss a trade or compensation agreement.

Books to Consider

• Mavericks at Work – William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre
• Here Comes Everybody – Clay Shirky
• Coming soon…. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business – Jeff Howe
• The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations - James Surowiecki

 

 

The Value of Conversations

Could you imagine if your friends measured your conversations? Hopefully my friends don't.  But for companies looking to uncover the value of their social media efforts, effective measurement is one thing that still remains in question.

One barrier for many marketers who are considering social media is the fact that it is hard to measure conversations and truly understand the effectiveness of a campaign. Maybe this will change with Federated Media’s announcement of the Conversational Measurement Toolbox.

The group that claims to connect voices and great marketers states that this toolbox will collect, aggregate and report data from internal reporting, third-party tracking providers and social media application developers.

The toolbox consists of a suite of campaign measurement, planning and reporting tools.

Will be interesting to see how conversations drive marketing campaigns in the future…

 

Rockin' With Social Network Widgets

What would our social networks be without glitter text, slideshows and personal countdown meters? Apparently these social network widgets are worth a little something given news that RockYou secured $35 million today. RockYou is a provider of widgets and applications for the web such as photo slideshows, glitter text, customized Facebook applications and voicemail accessories that are simple to use and enable people to frequently refresh their online style. 

Outside of the popularity of SuperWall and the vampire and zombie applications, today’s news proves that there is a business for widget makers and a great opportunity for companies to understand the ways in which consumers are using social networking tools. Companies such as Paramount, New Line Cinema, Sony, Microsoft, and CBS are already benefiting from millions of unique site visitors by sponsoring social network widgets or tools.

Some interesting facts for consideration:

•  RockYou has over 35 million users, serving over 180 million widget views per day in more than 200 countries.
• RockYou applications are customized for easy integration across all social networks including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Tagged and hi5.
• RockYou’s cost-effective, results-focused advertising platform is the largest Ad Network on Facebook today.
• New applications can reach over 100k users in 24 hours, spanning a suite of applications across multiple publishing partners.

A common question that seems to pop up each day on LinkedIn is how do you monetize or benefit from social tools? Who is using them and how? Various opinions and open-ended comments are out there and everyone is trying to understand how to increase eyeballs or quite frankly, increase sales of products and services by leveraging social media tools.  comScore is trying to do just that with its Widget media Metrix.

According to Forrester research, U.S.marketers spent $600 million advertising on social media, a sliver of the $18 billion spent on interactive advertising that year and that number is expected to surge to $6.9 billion by 2012.

Companies who are consumer-focused should consider widgets and other social tools as the marketing and advertising paradigms continue to evolve away from traditional media.

More on this subject… Please share your comments or experiences with widget marketing - especially successes.

Rock on,

Melissa Hourigan

 

 

Meetups... Collaboration Gets Real

Just returned from the Boulder/Denver New Technology Meetup held on the CU campus. The traffic was a nightmare from Denver so I arrived a few minutes late to a standing room only crowd. Great energy, interesting and sometimes bizarre presentations (blog about watching grass grow and paint dry and a 3D social world that I still don't understand). Anyway, two companies really stood out from the pack with interesting ideas. A brief snapshot on each below:

which launched a public beta yesterday is a networking and referral exchange site. Unlike Linkedin, users can earn credits for referrals, use credits to obtain referrals, or cash out credits for money. According to the presenter, this site will help professionals with the ebb and flow of the business cycle. Definitely one to watch!



claims to be the world’s leading social network for book lovers. Founded by three former RealNetworks veterans, this site allows users to build virtual bookshelves and socially interact around the books they care about. The widget can be added to Facebook and Myspace profiles in addition to individual blogs. I added the app to this blog, check it out.

Great event.... stay tuned for more...