Credit: NotSoGoodPhotography on Flickr

Far be it from me to lament the ability for anyone to build or publish virtually anything now that the age of the consumer and age of information have intersected so gloriously. We are truly blessed to live in a day when, with a little time and instruction reading, even the tech-tarded can have their own blog or website and publish anything they want. The more adventurous and creative, or all-night code-bender freaks, can build platforms and tools and toss them out there to see if the public bites.

How liberating the Internet has become.

Still, I fear we are approaching an abrupt slap in the face we’re not looking for if we – specifically bloggers and entrepreneurs – can’t recognize that we have a responsibility to ensure our readers, customers, audience or subscribers aren’t misled or left vulnerable. And that slap in the face is most likely to come from our government, which serves one important, if invasive, role: to protect its people.

With the Federal Trade Commission all but set to pass revised regulations to protect consumers from bloggers who fail to disclose financial or product compensation for their recommendations, endorsements or writing many bloggers are calling foul. “What I write on my blog is none of the government’s business,” cry the cyber-hippies (or perhaps Twippies). But what the FTC is proposing is exactly what our independent-minded ancestors pushed for in the 1940s and 50s when radio disc jockeys were accepting money from record companies and advertisers to plug artists or products. Payola and plugola rules have been in effect for years in the broadcast industry and we’ve been thankful for it.

Sure, bloggers are technically not media, at least in the traditional sense, and perhaps feel entitled to free-market handling by the government because they supposedly don’t come to the table with a money-making agenda like a media outlet might. Still, once your blog reaches a level of influence, even if in but a small, niche audience, you have a responsibility to care for your audience, ensuring they are treated fairly, not lied to or persuaded unwittingly.

The responsibility to one’s audience doesn’t stop with just blogs, or even blogs big enough to be considered media outlets. That same responsibility lies with startup companies, tools and platforms as well.

Case in point, Twitter currently does not have safe guards in place to protect its users from unwanted or inappropriate material. Simply put, a 12-year-old can visit the public twitter page of an Adult film star, liquor or beer company or tobacco brand. While the platform is technically an opt-in service – you follow who you want – Twitter’s creators probably never considered they had a responsibility to prevents some users from opting in to see material inappropriate for them.

I can report that a former client of mine, one in the spirits industry, has tried repeatedly to discuss the matter with Twitter executives, going so far as to offer its resources to help build what the industry calls legal purchase age gateway technology for Twitter. Unfortunately, the spirits company has received no response from the company.

This may not seem like a big deal if you take the attitude that Twitter can run their platform however they like. Yet, they do have an important responsibility to protect their users from some content. If they don’t do something about it, and soon, then bloggers won’t be the only people the FTC comes after.

My fear is that with the open source movement, free-market philosophies and virtual lack of a barrier to entry for bloggers and technology creation, this new age, groovy tech world we live in is going to come crashing down around us, to an extent. And in the form of government involvement and regulation none of us want.

The only way to prevent it is to clean up our own acts and do what is right. Not for the government or even for us. But for our audience and customers.

Jason Falls is a social media and public relations consultant based in Louisville, Ky., He blogs at SocialMediaExplorer Connect with him on Twitter by following @JasonFalls.

The conversation about Social Media Releases (SMRs) as well as the tools to create them continue – albeit slowly. Each time someone introduces something new, we place a new stake in the ground and reignite an important conversation.

Maggie Fox released a new Social Media service called Digital Snippits(tm). Congratulations Maggie, it’s a very polished and useful solution that will help your clients expand their options when running proactive communications campaigns. And, I’m being genuine when I say that Maggie has done a great job. She’s gets it…

The rest of this discussion is aimed at everyone who is looking to learn more about SMRs and how to improve press releases in general.

For all of those who have been part of this exhaustive process of “pushing a boulder uphill,” as Chris Heuer so appropriately put it. I think we all agree that this is a positive release and an opportunity to bring the conversation into the spotlight in order to learn from one another. It is also comparable to a variety of tools and solutions that are available today. But, I’m not here to compare everyone’s work, only to acknowledge individual achievements along with the great work contributed by others.

What we don’t need to do is overlook noteworthy contributions over the last 20 months. That way we don’t take away credit from those whose advancements have paved the way for everyone else. At the same time, most of the industry is still shaking their heads wondering what all of this means…so what are we going to do about it?

Geoff Livingston is right when he says, “Old-timers in social media need to realize that innovation and adoption will occur with or without them.”

Where I differ with him on opinion is when he continues, “They would be better served embracing these people, and making their past content easily available than kvetching about how no one researches. History means nothing when people with two years, two months or two days of social media experience are trying to create a solution that will work for their companies and paying clients.”

I do agree with embracing new ideas and those who create them. And for the most part, I think we all do…maybe to a fault. We also get dinged for creating a so-called social media love fest that sometimes eclipses the value of what the collective of great minds produces.

Regardless of money and paying clients, it is important to remember that history lessons prevent us from repeating mistakes in the future. It also eliminates celebrating the reinvention of the wheel. And, research aka “getting smarter” also serves as a foundation for legitimate evolution in a rapidly changing media landscape. We’re talking about social media here, not just about the latest shiny new object. There’s real value in the stuff that happens behind the scenes and as we’ve all learned, companies can make mistakes and customers are quick to call them on it.
There are consequences.

Why do I care?

This isn’t just about PR for the SMR.

There’s a tremendous amount of confusion out there and the community is working independently at a time when we should be working together to help people. It’s only widening the gap between the people who do get it and the people that don’t. Narrowing that gap is a personal objective for me across all forms of Social Media.

The only reason I run this blog is to spotlight the evolution in New Media, Social Media and also traditional Public Relations to bring things from the edge to the center so we can all learn and grow together.

Almost two years ago, Todd Defren released the SHIFT template in response to Tom Foremski’s call for evolution. Todd graciously offered it up as an “open source” document to help the entire PR industry do something new and at the same time, re-examine the way they write traditional press releases.

How did the PR industry respond?

- Many pushed back.

- Others defended it.

- Most just didn’t know what to do with it, and it continues today.

- Some PR and New Media agencies and consultants saw the opportunity to rebrand it as a differentiated service> This may be one of the main reasons that we don’t see many case studies available to the public as it could now be considered a competitive edge.

- A small group of people banded together to help build a community around it to help the rest of the industry get it.

I’m part of that small group which includes Chris Heuer, Shannon Whitley, Tom Foremski, Todd Defren, Shel Holtz, Todd Van Hoosear, among others. Together we founded the New Media Release Workgroup with the original charter of creating an open standard technology base for creating and distributing SMRs. The product would eventually be called the hrelease.

We looked for participation from PR practitioners, wire distribution services, geeks within the microformats community, bloggers, and reporters.

To this day, the WorkGroup moves forward under the leadership and perseverance of Shannon Whitley. Members include, Alison Minaglia, Andy Arnold, Dan Zarrella, David Weiner, David Parmet, Jason Ryan, Michael O’Connor Clarke, Paul Dyer, Paul Pritchard, Steve Kayser, Susan Watiker, Todd Van Hoosear, and me.

I’m happy to report that there are good things to come. You can also join the discussion with advice, insight, and quesitons on Social Media Releases and the hrelease format on Google.

With every new SMR discussion it’s good to go back to the beginning to unearth the case for SMRs from the archives, dust them off, and spotlight two years of invaluable discussions to set an equal foundation for everyone currently standing in the same room.

There is tremendous brilliance in those discussions and not embracing them is like trying to practice law without referring to past cases.

For a quick study, see “Everything you wanted to know and should know about Social Media Releases.”

The most important and consitent points that emerge are:

- Aren’t press releases dead?

- Why an SMR?

- How do you build one to look like the existing template?

- Does it need to have bullets?

- Why another release?

- Has anyone asked journalists if this is what they want?

- How do you send one out?

- Do SMRs replace traditional releases?

- How do SMRs comply with RegFD?

- What’s the difference between a traditional release, multimedia release, and a social media release?

- Should conversations be hosted or should they be encourage through individual communities?

- Could an SMR be a Web page or should it be hosted on a Social Media platform?

- Does adding RSS, embedded content, widgets, links to external social networks, images, videos, bookmarks, etc. make a release “social?”

- Where are the case studies?

These are all incredibly relevant questions to this day. So, let’s take a step back to remember how and why this started in the first place and why it isn’t going away.

Press releases are 100 years old and reporters, and now bloggers, have been complaining about their uselessness for years. Over the years, PR got caught up in buzzwords, hyperbole, spin, and caused an inability to easily build a story from them, which was supposed their intent and sole purpose all along.

SMRs aka SMPRs are not the miracle cure for the ills that plague a majority of press releases.

Todd Defren was the latest person to take the tools of today to help PR tell a story in a way that gives the media what they need so they can assemble the story their way, without having to first deconstruct, research it, and reconstruct it. There have been champions for change and improvement over the decades.

Whether it’s Social, Traditional, or Multimedia, it all starts with what you have to say and how you say it.

Instead of presenting aggregate pieces, bullets and facts, you could very well write the story you want to read. For example, I’ve experimented with SMRs which were basically “branded” blog posts that read exactly like the story we hoped to see, minus the gratuitous BS and unecessary posturing found in most traditional releases. When hosted on a blog platform, in this case, WordPress, they an inherently operating in a Social Ecosystem. They’re an extension of a company press center and each release aka post, feature embedded video demos, audio interviews and sound bytes, artwork, etc. all sourced from the various networks where we ALSO place them for additional exposure. We share them under password protection and after the embargo passes, the post appears to the public. To everyone else, it looks like just another blog article…but to those in the PR business, it’s easy to see the connection to what we talk about in a Social Media Release. Each one distributes through blog search engines and also features RSS, bookmarks, tags, trackbacks, comments, widgets, embed codes, and all other pertinent social building blocks. The press and bloggers we’ve worked with absolutely love it.

But, let’s not confuse SMRs with Social Media.

SMRs are just one of the many Social Tools available to help reach the people that matter to your business and the communities of customers wherever they engage across the Web. You need to use a variety the tools, networks, and services through the channels that reach them in the way they communicate. For more on this, read the Social Media Manifesto.

But remember, they don’t want to be pitched or marketed “at.”

SMRs are only meant to deliver information in a way that not only helps media write stories, but a bonus effect of good Press Releases, regardless of format, is that they enjoy additional exposure through search engines. Why not use it to facilitate conversations. It is a Social Media Release after all, and Social Media is defined by any tool that hosts and encourages conversations on the Web.

Again, if you can distill the essence of your story in a way that matters to the very people you’re trying to compel, then why wouldn’t you change how you do things? It could only expand your reach and help you improve blogger, media and customer relations. In the new world of PR, they are intertwined.

Social media releases, to me, expand the discussion beyond form versus function and forces us to examine why we need to explore additional options and what we can bring to the table in return.

One thing to think about in any discussion related to traditional or social media releases is that stats show that good releases ARE the central point of consumption, “conversations,” and more importantly, a catalyst for “action” courtesy of search engines.

In the tech world, numbers show as much as 51% of IT professionals discover news and information from press releases found in Google or Yahoo over trade journals. That’s pretty compelling…and it’s the activity and discussions inside the bubble that keep a level playing field in order for it to effectively influence the rest of the industry.

With stats like that, it starts to show you several things…1. Press releases are far from dead. 2. One press release doesn’t serve everyone. 3. There are now press releases for journalists and bloggers as well as story-based releases directly for customers.

And, when you break it down, as of now, there are search engines that comb through traditional HTML web sites and there are search engines that monitor blogs, wikis, and other forms of social media.

If customers are searching for information, make sure you have a social and traditional strategy in place and think about the content, context and building the social bridges that reach them. You might write for customers differently than you would for media and you should consider utilizing all forms of releases available to you. After all, one message doesn’t fit all…

Maggie’s keeping the discussion going…if anything, we should consider that “social” in the social media release implies conversation…whether hosted internally or externally. An SMR is an ideal beacon for all of those conversations and can serve as a hub for flourishing thoughts, ideas, and opportunities for customer service and also a magnifying glass into the dialog within their online communities.

At the end of the day, take from all of this what applies and matters to the people you’re trying to reach – media, bloggers, and customers. None of these options are magic bullets. You still have to do your homework and reverse engineer the distribution channels that reach journalists, bloggers and customers, nderstand what they need, and why they should listen to you, and in turn, share information within their own social networks.

Other voices on the subject:

Chris Heuer on the history of the SMR.

Shannon Whitley on Digital Snippits and PRX Builder.

Chris Heuer, Paul Gillin, Jason Falls, and Geoff Livingston on the Digital Snippits.

Geoff Livingston shares 9 points for evolving SMRs.

Make sure to read the comments in these posts. There’s great dialog there…there always is. If you agree, perhaps you’ll join me in the discussion, “The Value of Online Conversations.”

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plaxo, or Facebook.

Early stage and bootstrapped startups must embrace DIY (Do it Yourself) or outsourced PR as their product reaches advanced alpha in order to build strategic visibility without losing precious time.

It all starts with answering a several important questions:

Who are your customers?
Where do they go for information?
What are they looking for?
Why would they need this product?
How can it help them do something they couldn’t do before and better than anything else out there?
What will be the most compelling things to convince them to give it a shot?
How can you tell your story in a way that matters to the people you’re trying to reach without speaking “at” them?

PR is not an afterthought.

You need PR to help you carry your product or service to the very people who will help your company grow.

Simply relying on features and word of mouth simply isn’t going to cut it. This is a real world and the reality is that customers aren’t looking for you. You have to compete for mindshare. Those companies who don’t proactively tell their story will find themselves missing from the radar screens of their customers while their competition earns their business – regardless of whether or not it’s an inferior solution.

In order to be successful in Public Relations, you need to grasp what it is, what it isn’t, and how it works and why. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to build the right team, determine the best strategies to amplify visibility and gain traction, or have the ability to effectively measure it.

I’ve created an ebook for startups and VCs based on a previous post to help steer them in the right direction on the road to visibility, attention, and resonance. It will go through several revisions in the future, but at the moment, it’s a great place to start.

Table of Contents:

1. Understand what PR is and isn’t.
2. Don’t under value PR.
3. PR is not a switch.
4. Initial and consistent coverage takes time.
5. Get a spokesperson.
6. PR is not the only tool in the shed.
7. PR at the Head, Across Chasms, and in the Long Tail.
8. Engage in social media.
9. Support and reward your PR program.
10. Keep good people.
11. Keep an open line of communication.
12. Establish realistic metrics.
13. Do not launch your company or product at a conference.
14. Do not start contacting people on your own.
15. Breaking News.
16. PR and Social Media Enable a new form of outbound customer service.
17. PR isn’t charity.
18. You’re not the only company with a great story.

Download as a Word Doc.

Download as a PDF.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plaxo, or Facebook

The discussion around blogger relations is more relevant now than ever. And quite honestly, with every debate, exploration, and analysis, these conversations only fuel the advancement and improvement of Public Relations overall.

It makes us think.

Lest we forget, there is a significant percentage of bloggers, reporters, and analysts who think we’re useless – we’re merely spin artists who focus on pitching, blasting, and cranking out poorly written press releases. We contact people without caring or knowing their interests or passions without knowing what we’re talking about or why it should matter to them. That’s the perception.

Don’t be that PR person.

No, seriously. Chances are, at one point in your career, you contributed to the stereotype. So, let’s do something about it now.

Believe it or not, I still arm wrestle with influencers defending PR. But in may cases, they’re right. And, a lot of it has to do with pushing down important outreach to people who are either too junior to engage with industry veterans or not concerned with educating themselves as to why they’re reaching out in the first place and why it matters to the person they’re contacting. But, this is another topic for another day.

Blogger relations is so much more than the recognition that bloggers ARE influencers in their own right. Now it’s the understanding of how PR can work with them in addition to their traditional day-to-day activity.

I compiled a series of articles into one ebook that I hope will contribute to the elevation of PR as a respected profession, not just by the clients and executives, but by the very people we hope to build relationships with to bridge our story to the people who matter.
View it here.

Download the Word Doc.

Download the PDF.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plaxo, or Facebook

In celebration of Alex Iskold’s brilliant toolbox for startups on Read/Write Web today, I’ve decided to join the conversation to help startups make PR work for them now and in the long term.

PR is one of the most misunderstood disciplines in the marketing department and many startup entrepreneurs and even veteran executives are quick to under estimate and under value it, or on the contrary, expect PR to solve all of their marketing needs all with just one email or press release.

In order to be successful in Public Relations, you need to grasp what it is, what it isn’t, and how it works and why. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to build the right team, determine the best strategies to amplify visibility and gain traction, or have the ability to effectively measure it.

And, for disclosure purposes, the following points are based on good PR and are highly summarized and simplified to get you thinking. As in anything, there’s more to the story. And, there are always those that do not represent PR in the best possible light. Keep in mind that those who do not practice PR effective are obvious when you know what to look for, and thankfully, they do not represent the entire industry.

While much of this seems like common sense, please remember how uncommon common sense really is.

1. Understand what PR is and isn’t.

All too often, businesses expect PR to perform miracles simply because they confuse it with advertising, online marketing, media buying, search marketing, etc. PR can’t guarantee legitimate coverage in industry publications – no matter how tight the relationship. If PR promises it, then they’re lying. I leverage relationships daily to consider stories that I package in a way that’s most relevant to them. Most of the time it works because I take the time to make it valuable to respective markets. If I took advantage of my contacts to force coverage whenever I needed to deliver on a promise, then it would mark the beginning of the end of my relationships.

While I won’t compare PR to each branch of marketing, I will say that PR IS NOT ADVERTISING. Reporters and bloggers don’t stop what they’re doing to write about your company, just because we send them a press release. They’re bombarded by PR people all over the world. Stories are cultivated. If we respect them, do our homework, and help highlight the value of a story, coverage is imminent.

If you want guaranteed exposure, buy an ad.

2. Don’t under value PR.

PR, when done right, is extremely valuable to company branding, which has immeasurable benefits in the long haul. Customers have choices and if you’re not consistently vying for their attention, it’s pretty easy to fall off their radar screen when they evaluate options. Too many companies nickle and dime PR to the point of absurdity. Don’t get me wrong. Expensive PR doesn’t equal success. But short changing PR is usually a first step in the wrong direction.

3. PR is not a switch.

It doesn’t go off and on whenever you have the time or budget to throw at it. The market moves too quickly, and if you’re not actively participating in it, you’ll quickly find that company sales and site traffic will begin a downward spiral that may or may not recover. Embrace it. Nurture it. Stick with it. PR is an inexpensive solution for gaining visibility within the market segments that matter to your business.

Don’t fool yourself. As a company executive, you can not and should not run PR yourself. You have more important things to do, like say, run a company.

If you turn off the PR switch, your competitors will steal your thunder, and, your customers.

4. Initial and consistent coverage takes time.

In most cases, coverage doesn’t just happen. PR is like farming. The more seeds you plant, along with the time you spend watering, caring for, and feeding them, your crops will grow in the form of coverage over time. While some things such as news, etc., force information out quickly, other stories take time. And when they appear, they help raise brand visibility, drive some people to buy, and they also spark others to consider writing about it – which in turn also influences the cycle to replicate. Don’t assume all of this coverage happens simply because you are a popular company.

Also, realize that there are different forms of media and they each react to different stories in their own way. Trades (whether traditional media or blogs) will cover certain things that relate to your industry whereas mainstream media will need the story presented in a way that has broader appeal.

5. Get a spokesperson.

Just because you created the product doesn’t mean you’re the best person to sell it. I’ve worked with some of the most passionate executives that just don’t click with the people they’re trying to engage – no matter how hard they try. This has negative impact that lasts and is tough to overcome.

Suck it up and get a spokesperson who can help tell the story to the people that will help grow your business.

6. PR is not the only tool in the shed.

Understand that PR is only an umbrella for the specific communications initiatives that will help you achieve complementary, simultaneous goals. For example, corporate branding and product marketing require different campaigns. Don’t put all of your eggs in the PR basket. Run SEO campaigns. Look at online ads and promotions. Run contests. Attend events.

PR can not be the only thing you rely on in order to build and sustain a successful business.

7. PR at the Head, Across Chasms, and in the Long Tail

No matter what industry you’re in, realize that the most popular blogs, newspapers, or magazines are only one part of the process.

Your market is divided by adoption and buying behavior and documented through a bell curve rich with chasms, pyramids that further divide and classify them, quadrants that demonstrate competitive advantages, ladders that represent the technology that people can use to reach customers in different ways, a cluetrain that shows how people carry it through the long tail, and hopefully reflected by a hockey stick that forces you to evaluate what to do from Inside the Tornado.

Yes, of course this was meant to be funny…but it does show that one program no longer serves the masses when you deconstruct it by the markets and the people that comprise it.This means that you have to embrace both new media and traditional media in PR.

For example, in the tech space, TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat, Read/Write Web, et al, will yield measurable traffic so great that most of the time it will knock out Web servers.

Every executive wants them. CEOs cry if they can’t get coverage on them. But, by no means, do they carry your value proposition to the entire collective of people that will embrace your product and help sustain your business for the whole game.

They represent the early adopters and pragmatists. However, there are other worlds of global microcommunities rich with horizontal and vertical publications and blogs that will carry your story to the more conservative groups of people that collectively converge as the primary base of recurring revenue.In this case, it’s less about traffic and hits as metrics for success and more about quality, registrations, purchases, referrals, etc. that define business growth and sustenance.

8. Engage in social media.

We live in a “social” economy and the only way to succeed in it, is to participate. Participation is marketing. Community relations is marketing. Engagement builds trust, relationships and loyalty, but it requires a genuine, dedicated, proactive, and value-driven effort.

Blog about industry-relevant topics, not just company accomplishments. Provide tips and hints to help your customers make more informed decisions. It’s not a new tool in the marketing belt. It is a new opportunity to engage customers and cultivate relationships. Simply put, be a resource for your community.

Embrace online video and watch how creative, genuine, and cool content becomes incredibly viral. Words can carry the message so far, but video is also an opportunity to showcase the product while entertaining viewers.

Podcast new updates, customer successes, ideas for new product uses, etc.
Bookmark and share relevant links using the popular social tools available.

Cultivate user generated content.

The press release IS NOT DEAD. Write them. Write social media releases. Write SEO press releases. However, write them well and strip out all of the bull shit, hyperbole, and marketing speak. Make them meaningful.

If relevant, build transparent profiles in the social networks where you can find and support customers.

Share images and behind the scenes footage using services such as flickr and YouTube.

Listen and engage in MicroMedia.

Hire a community manager. In the new world of social media, new PR can be complemented through the efforts of someone who can actively represent the company in all things social so that they can provide proactive information and support to people looking for guidance in the communities they frequent. Don’t market to them, have conversations.

Note, this is an ultra-simplified list of how to jump into the world of social media. Read the Social Media Manifesto and The Art and Science of Community Relations for additional suggestions and guidance.

9. Support and reward your PR program.

Feed it as you do any other branch of the company. Respect it when it works and let your team share in the success. Don’t focus on the shortcomings. Don’t take credit for coverage if you randomly sent someone an email a long time ago. Don’t tell your PR team that the coverage that’s happening is solely driven by the viral activities of users and other existing coverage. PR is designed to spark Word of Mouth and every time a new article appears, it’s because of something that PR did either recently or awhile ago. That’s the value of PR. It’s the program that keeps on giving!

Bottom line, extend congratulations as goals are achieved and support PR in a way that keeps your team motivated to kick ass.

10. Keep good people.

If you find a PR person or team that truly lives and breathes the company and the product, never let them go. They are a rare breed and deserve support and promotion.

11. Keep an open line of communication.

Meet with your PR team regularly to communicate realistic goals and measure progress. Paint a real world picture of what success looks like each month and listen to the reports to see if they are indeed attainable. You get out of PR what you put into it.

12. Establish realistic metrics.

PR isn’t a miracle solution to help you attain all business objectives.

Agree upon realistic metrics in advance.

All too often executives lose sight of what PR is designed to do. The right coverage is invaluable, even when it doesn’t translate into visible hits, traffic spikes, or sales. Super Bowl ads, for example, rarely pay for themselves in the short run.Realize that a proactive, intelligent and consistent PR program will contribute to the bottom line. It shouldn’t be solely responsible for company success or failure.

Metrics can be in the form of specific targets every month, traffic, registrations, lead generation, links, and now, conversations.

13. Do not launch your company or product at a conference.

Contrary to popular belief, do not attempt to launch your company at a tradeshow unless it is a venue specifically designed to make your launch successful. For example, in Tech, we have DEMO and TechC

Crunch40, and each draw worldwide attention. But, the best PR is always done before the event.

At conferences, companies kick and scream for attention and usually drown each other out. Tell your story before you have to compete to do so. However, go to conferences and events for lead generation and networking.

14. Do not start contacting people on your own.

This is one of my personal favorites. Many executives believe that in order to get something done right, they have to do it on their own. So, they start emailing reporters and bloggers on a whim without regard for relationship, existing conversations, or their best interests. I have seen some pretty interesting ramifications for doing so.

All I can say is this. Consult with PR before doing so. In fact, sometimes contact is best coming directly from an executive. It just needs to be planned and orchestrated in a way that is beneficial to reporter/blogger, the company, and the overall PR initiative.

15. Breaking News

The blogosphere and social media in general has created the need for new rules when breaking news.

Determine who your news benefits, where they go for information, and what they’re looking for. Then reverse engineer the process and design everything around what you learned, from writing the release, what you say and how you say it, to whom and when.

Do not rely on a wire service to get your news out. PR is best served by specifically working with the new and traditional influencers who can help get your story told, in advance, and usually under embargo. (Note: Most of the time, less is more. Do not try to take your news to anybody and everybody under embargo. Be smart about it. A few key places can carry your story farther, and, without ruining relationships with influencers along the way.)

Exclusives are a rare practice these days and usually reserved for some pretty incredible and industry moving news.

16. Customer service

Customer service is no longer an inbound activity or viewed as a cost center. Social Media changed everything and it isn’t a spectator sport.

Marketing-savvy corporate executives are working with PR, Advertising, and Marcom teams to explore options and strategies on how to participate in relevant online conversations. This represents a shift in outbound marketing as it creates a direct channel between companies and customers, and ultimately people.

Social Media is rooted in conversations between people and peers, regardless of the technology that facilitates them, and every day they take place across blogs, networks, forums, micromedia, and online groups. And, each day, with every new community and social tool that is introduced, brands, products and services are actively discussed, supported, and disassembled.

Social Media represents an entirely new way to reach customers and connect with them directly. It adds an outbound channel that complements inbound customer service and traditional PR, direct marketing and advertising, placing companies and their customers on a level playing field to discuss things as peers. Most importantly, it transcends the process of simply answering inbound questions to creating a community of enthusiasts and evangelists.

17. PR isn’t charity.

While many PR people and agencies demand unreasonable fortunes, remember that you’re a startup and solutions are abundant when you know what you’re looking for and value the engagement.

In PR, you get what you pay for – well most of the time anyway. Don’t expect brilliant PR for pennies. Nor should you expect results by over paying for services. There are consultants, individuals, and agencies willing to work for reasonable cash and stock incentives. But, I can’t think of anyone, who’s good at what they do, that will work on a performance-based payment program.

PR just doesn’t work that way. Think of it this way. Good sales people don’t work solely on commission. Most earn a salary on top of their commission to keep them active and successful. If PR people wanted to earn their income on a commission basis, they would get into sales where they can usually make a lot more money. They’re in PR because they prefer to “tell” a story instead of “selling” it.

18. You’re not the only company with a great story

Remember this. At any given moment, reporters and bloggers are getting bombarded with pitches, both good and bad, by companies that take the time to learn what they want in addition to those who simply spam them and hope for the best. It’s overwhelming to say the least.

They have better things to do than stop everything that they’re working on just to read your press release. This is one of the reasons why you need PR. Well that, and the fact that you need someone who’s not drinking the bath water to tell you that your story needs help in how it’s told to the specific groups of people to whom it matters.

Just because it’s new doesn’t make it newsworthy.

You have to compete for attention and in order to do so effectively and genuinely, you need someone who can help tell your story, the right way, through the people who reach the customers that will impact your bottom line. It’s not an overnight process. It’s not a game. It’s a process of investing in building and leveraging relationships now and in the long term.

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tech

2006 – 2007 saw the rise of new media and it has been nothing short of disruptive for journalists, communications professionals, newsmakers, and the people formerly known as the audience.

I’m sure this isn’t news to you. After all, you’re reading this blog, which says that you’re already part of the new media movement and are mostly likely creating your own media as well.

Whether you’re in technology or not, there are some very important movements taking place in the world of new media, influence, and the ability to discover the most authoritative voices.

MediaMap, Burrells, Listlogix, among others have done a decent job over the years of tracking traditional media, but none have embraced new media effectively. New services have emerged to help such as Dow Jones, BuzzLogic, among others, which track Social Media metrics and the conversations defining your markets.

But what if you don’t have the budget to afford these new services?

So far, the best results have been generated by resourceful people who research, listen, and identify the right people covering your markets. As I’ve said before, there are two different search strategies that should matter to you…traditional search and blog search. Both are distinct in how they shape your communications program.

In the world of new media, blog search engines such as Google Blog Search, Sphere, Ask.com, and Blogpulse have become the standards for identifying blogs covering key words and topics. In my opinion, Technorati however, stood out among the fray as the definitive headquarters for listening, tracking conversations, measuring influence, viewing popular topics, and discovering the voices that matter to you.

Among the services Technorati offers, its top 100 blog list has become the standard for identifying the most authoritative voices in the blogosphere.

Now that list is being challenged by Gabe Rivera, founder of Techmeme, a unique service that tracks popular conversations as they unite around particular topics and automatically refreshes as each topic expands.

Gabe Rivera introduced the Techmeme Leaderboard which tracks the most consistent sources of popular discussions and news and ranks them based on presence.

Presence is measured by the percentage of headline space a source occupies over a 30-day period. Instead of tracking links, its measuring influence.

I know what you’re saying…I don’t work in tech, so why does this matter to me?

I promise to get to that.

Gabe explained his reasons for creating the Leaderboard in his introductory post, “I suppose this is long overdue. For two years, I’ve been urged to publish such a list. Why? Techmeme, in surfacing the latest tech news, also identifies leaders in tech reporting. As a friend who works in PR recently told me, ‘I gauge hot new blogs via Techmeme.’”

Gabe Rivera by Lunch 2.0 co-founder Terry Chay via flickr

Techmeme is unique amongst the other Social Media tracking tools and services. It introduces familiar voices around conversations but also includes new voices to the subject. This broadens the horizons for PR pros and reinforces the need for them to look beyond the A-List and start tracking the people who truly have a peer-to-peer relationship with your customers.

Gabe Rivera’s platform is expanding into new industries and also uses the same methodology to track conversations. Additional properties include WeSmirch, entertainment gossip, Memorandum, politics, and BallBug, baseball. As of now, Leaderboard is covering tech, but will eventually migrate to the other sites.

So, let’s get back to the Leaderboard. While it doesn’t yet track the top 100 for other industries, its spotlight on tech is very revealing and introduces a new look at the mixture of new and traditional media (the full list is below).

The number one spot goes to TechCrunch, which is number two on the Technorati 100 list. But what’s interesting and important here, is that traditional media is demonstrating that cultivating an online presence rivals even the most popular blogs.

For example, New York Times is at number three, the BBC is at number eight, Infoworld at nine, and The Wall Street Journal rounds out the number ten position. In fact of the top 100 online authorities, 26 are traditional journals, magazines and newspapers with online branches.

And, are you ready for this?

Two of the top 100 sources for news iare traditional wire services! BusinessWire, number 29, and PR Newswire, number 38, have been sourced more for news than ZDNet, PC World, Wired, Washington Post, Forbes, Bloomberg, and many others.

This demonstrates that the right press releases can spark conversation regardless of distributing in a social or traditional format.

Attention PR people and company executives! Don’t underestimate the value of either traditional or new media. Your campaigns should not be limited to either blogs or press, nor should it simply focus on the Top 100 list at Techmeme, Technorati or any other service. The best communications strategies will envelop not only authorities in new and traditional media, but also those voices in the Magic Middle of the attention curve who help carry information and discussions among your customers. The Magic Middle is defined as the bloggers who have from 20-1000 other people linking to them.

While these lists are representative of the people you ideally wish to reach, it doesn’t give you an invitation to spam them. At the end of the day, this is all about relationships and it all starts with listening and reading.

So wrapping things up, I had a chance to speak with Gabe about the Leaderboard prior to launch, thank you Gabe!

PR2.0 – Do you see the leaderboard also going live across your other sites?

Rivera – Yes, other Leaderboards will appear soon.

PR2.0 – How is this different than Technorati’s list?

Rivera – Technorati’s list ranks the general blogosphere. You can use it to support claims like “PostSecret is among the Top 100 blogs.” Techmeme’s list identifies leaders in tech news reporting. Blogs are listed among non-blogs. It’s a good reflection of the realities of today’s news media.

PR2.0 – Were you surprised by the mixture of traditional media v new media?

Rivera – Nope, my sites are built around the understanding that both have a major role in tech news.

I know from speaking to PR professionals that they need to keep current on who the influencers are. And it’s not as obvious as it seems. There’s churn; they keep changing. (e.g., Silicon Alley Insider came out of nowhere this summer.) So this list, which is updated every 20 minutes, should definitely help.

PR2.0 – What do you think about Businesswire and PRNewswire showing up in the mix?

Rivera – Fine by me. Occasionally press releases contain pertinent details not emphasized elsewhere. That’s usually the case when they appear on Techmeme.

–

Here’s the top 100 list, which I also ran here.

1. TechCrunch
2. Engadget
3. New York Times
4. Ars Technica
5. CNET News.com
6. Read/WriteWeb
7. GigaOM
8. BBC
9. InfoWorld
10. Wall Street Journal
11. The Register
12. Reuters
13. Silicon Alley Insider
14. paidContent.org
15. Between the Lines
16. Gizmodo
17. Google Operating System
18. eWEEK.com
19. Search Engine Land
20. Computerworld
21. Crave: The gadget blog
22. Associated Press
23. TorrentFreak
24. Webware.com
25. VentureBeat
26. The Unofficial Apple Weblog
27. Business Week
28. CrunchGear
29. Business Wire
30. Google Blogoscoped
31. Techdirt
32. Microsoft
33. Bits
34. Rough Type
35. DailyTech
36. Scripting News
37. mathewingram.com/work
38. PR Newswire
39. CenterNetworks
40. The Boy Genius Report
41. ZDNet
42. Guardian
43. All about Microsoft
44. PC World
45. Wired News
46. Inquirer
47. AppleInsider
48. Epicenter
49. Tech Trader Daily
50. Washington Post
51. Forbes
52. Bloomberg
53. Times of London
54. Apple
55. BoomTown
56. InformationWeek
57. Publishing 2.0
58. Scobleizer
59. A VC
60. iLounge
61. Download Squad
62. All Facebook
63. Financial Times
64. Boston Globe
65. Electronista
66. Yodel Anecdotal
67. apophenia
68. Official Google Blog
69. Google Public Policy Blog
70. USA Today
71. Compete Blog
72. AdAge
73. Apple 2.0
74. WebProNews
75. Mashable!
76. New York Post
77. Googling Google
78. iPhone Central
79. Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog
80. NEWS.com.au
81. DigiTimes
82. Digital Daily
83. BuzzMachine
84. comScore
85. Security Fix
86. CNN
87. Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim
88. NewTeeVee
89. istartedsomething
90. Think Secret
91. ProBlogger Blog Tips
92. Reflections of a Newsosaur
93. GNUCITIZEN
94. O’Reilly Radar
95. MediaShift
96. ipodminusitunes
97. Doc Searls Weblog
98. Kotaku
99. Valleywag
100. Los Angeles Times

–

Additional voices on the subject:

TechCrunch 1 & 2
Ben Metcalfe
Robert Scoble who asks, TechMeme list heralds death of blogging?

–

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To all of you advanced new media PR professionals, this post may seem a bit remedial in comparison to some of more technical and exploratory subjects we usually cover.

Last year I ran a series covering blogger relations Forward Moving, a specialized blog dedicated to PR education. Due to unexpected demand, I’ve been asked to update these posts and re-run them as an ongoing series.

I’m happy to do so. I’ll try to double up on posts to make sure that we still review Social Media and other new communications subjects to advance and expand the conversation.

Before I jump in, let me just say that even though we’re talking about blogger relations, we shouldn’t forget that at the end of the day, we’re talking about reaching out to people. This is not unlike talking to reporters. It’s all based on building, investing in, and cultivating relationships. And, relationships are built on respect, understanding, communication, and information (among many other things.)

The difference between bloggers and journalists is only the medium they use to reach people. Wait. That statement is loaded! But think about it. I know I should say that the difference is a formal education in journalism (which I have, even though I’ve been in PR since 91), experience in the print business (or online too), and circulation through traditional channels. This is why blogging is one of the great disruptors in media. It, at its very foundation, gives a voice to anyone with an opinion and an internet connection.

In a general view, the blogosphere is simply powered by people, whether they’re journalists, enthusiasts, pundits, or simply writers.

And to all those who still have yet to admit the importance of blogging, please eradicate your impression that the blogosphere is simply comprised of self-important ranters who simply keep an online presence in order to satisfy their own egos. You brush them off at your own peril.

So with that said, as one of the main drivers in the new world of Social Media, blogging has done nothing less than change everything. Even though, to this day, I am still questioned by various folks as to why I place such great emphasis and resources on bloggers, in addition to top tier press. How are they even capable of moving the needle for companies?

Well, the are bloggers in every market segment that have the sheer numbers behind them and have the ability to not only influence the people you want to reach, but also drive reporters in traditional media to cover the same topics. BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Forbes, Fortune, and USAToday, among many, many more, dedicate editorial resources to monitoring the blogosphere.

Why? Because blog readers are very loyal and enthusiastic and it shows in the internet metrics and analysis each month. While others may not have volume, many smaller communities can pool together to make a big difference.

For those who are unfamiliar with the almost immeasurable level of clout many blogs carry today, they have substantially grown from pockets of disparate musings, personal experiences, enthusiast rants, and op eds to full blown reporting across every category you could imagine – with influential pundits defining and stimulating activity in every demographic possible. And, the interconnectivity between bloggers has formed an incredibly powerful network of authority that changes how people find information and make decisions in every facet of life.

Bloggers are ranked based on the links back to them, the traffic to their site, the amount of subscribers to their feed, as well as how well they grasp the industry they represent. There are a variety of online tools (which we’ll cover) that help define their reach, not necessarily their ability to impact decisions.

Remember, don’t gun simply for the top ranked bloggers, they’re not the only game in town, nor are they the always most beneficial or necessary target in your overall communications strategy.

Top ranked bloggers usually represent the thought leaders, held in high regard by their readers, with many creating a dedicated following that look forward to every post. When they cover a topic, it sends a flurry of online traffic, almost instantly, inciting a series of online discussions that usually extends across the blogosphere – lasting several days to several weeks. In my business, which is technology, one of the top targets is TechCrunch, which is capable of sending upward of 10 – 50,000 visitors to any given Web site within 24-48 hours.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to overlook this group. Obviously, they lend credibility to your brand, or the brand you represent – that is, as long as the exposure is representative of the story you helped to cultivate. In my experience, however, this group typically jumps from topic to topic and product to product, with very little investment in dedication or loyalty, simply because their focus is driven by activity. For the right product, story, or service, you will find that a decent percentage of these bloggers, and their readers, will keep their partial attention with you – if they like what they see.

But sometimes, it may be more meaningful, or additionally beneficial, to reach the “magic middle,” a group of passionate people dedicated to writing about topics and issues that are relevant to them peronsonally. They tend to inspire real world customers to explore and experiment with new products and services based on the word of their peers.

Customers and people are influenced, inspired and driven by unique channels and communities. Figuring out who we want to reach, why they matter to us, and why we matter to them, is the ante in order to buy into this game. Then we reverse engineer this process of where they go for their information and discussions to learn about how to reach them. And, while there may be several horizontal mediums that overlap, the vertical avenues are usually distinct and dedicated.

BUT WAIT. Please don’t think that this is your last step before you reach out to bloggers.

Be respectful and honest. Listen and read before you engage.

There’s much to learn about each of the conversations, information and communities you wish to jump into. You’ll find that more often than not, you’ll change your story based on the insight garnered from simply observing. It’s the difference between speaking in messages and relevance and most importantly, honesty.

This entire process is invaluable to the new world of marketing, traditional and social media alike. It forces PR to think like a customer instead of competitor.

Read this important and timely post over at CityMama and Kimchi Mamas. This is an invaluable lesson of why you have to be honest, transparent and smart about how and why you’re reaching out to any given blogger.

“We all know PR people don’t read our blogs. I mean, if one more PR person starts and email with, ‘Hey! How was Hawaii!’ because a quick glance through last month’s posts mentions my trip, I’m gonna scream…Tell me you looked up my stats on Alexa. Tell me you picked me because you *think* I may be influential. Tell me that you know mombloggers g
et pitched to all the time but that you’d *pretty please* like me to listen to you. Just don’t bullshit me by telling me ‘you read my blog.’ I know you don’t.” – Stefania Pomponi Butler.

Don’t be that PR person.

Here is a historical review of past discussions on the subject:

TopRank

TechCrunch

Andy Lark

LiveDigitally

Jason Calacanis

Technosight

Connect on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce or Facebook.

Click here to read this story with a white background via ThinkFree Docs.

CES is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the enthusiasm and energy are at its greatest levels ever. Why? Because for a 40 year old show, CES is still making headlines – and I’m not just talking about the latest in electronics or gadgets either. This year, CES recognized bloggers as legitimate media. Finally…a huge validation for citizen media.

This year, CES contracted the folks behind the behind Business Blogging Summit to screen and qualify bloggers for official media credentials. Why is this news you ask? Because finally, the masses are starting to realize the power, the frequency, and the instant ability for bloggers to break news and spark national and global conversations. And it’s not just because of any one blogger, it’s the ability to get many talking or “socializing” about topics, relaying the baton of information along every marketing demographic in the preverbal bell curve.

I’m attending CES this year with my press pass, and now I am officially recognized as a newsmaker for the information I will publish along with the hundreds of fellow bloggers. The blogosphere will roar with thunder from CES, and exhibitors will enjoy a newfound sense of greater online visibility not possible in prior years.

Andy Abramson of VoIPWatch labeled it, “The New Instant Journalism” heralding our entrance into a new era of “just in time” distribution of news content. J.D. Lasica’s Social Media blog also captured the value of “instant” publishing. Giovanni Rodriguez befittingly called it “the new rat pack” – which is so money and so Vegas.

Good friend, Jeremy Pepper, called for tradeshow organizers to follow in CES’ footsteps and get smart about letting in the good bloggers and vetting out those just trying to get a press pass.

Pepper continues, “But, the reality is that the old media, mainstream media, still has influence and stories that will not be covered in a blog, and social media is bringing new eyes on events and news that was missing.”

CES is a convergence of media, traditional and social. It’s no longer only the traditional media’s role in journalism to break news from the CES show floor anymore. Bloggers will now help spread the word, and in many cases, with a greater sense of immediacy, passion, and socialization.

The evolution in the media landscape also requires PR to adapt in its outreach strategies. Now’s the time to engage bloggers as well as journalists and analysts. But do us a favor first, read the blog to get a sense of what we write about and why we should cover your product/company.

Kudos to CES for paving the way for the rest of the events to follow, and more importantly, for recognizing the importance of citizen media and the value we bring to show exhibitors.

Tags: CES07 futureworks bloggerparty cesbloggers ces2007 lasvegas las+vegas ces jd+lasica social media social+media socialmedia bloggers citizen+media citizen brian+solis pr pr2.0 public+relations publicrelations citizenmedia jeremy+pepper giovanni+rodriguez andy+abramson voipwatch

I just read over on Techmeme that Microsoft PR may be digging itself deeper into another potential PR fiasco. There is a blogstorm out there with dozens of bloggers, myself included, casting opinions. Many of which I don’t necessarily agree with. I had to find out for myself, so I contacted several of the privileged bloggers who already have the notebook as well as other PR leaders to discuss the topic.

Welcome to Crisis Communications 2.0.

Microsoft’s intention was right on target. Their PR thinking, on the other hand, was slightly off target, with a few key elements overlooked or underestimated.

What’s most important here is that the Microsoft empire gave a nod to the blogosphere and proactively embraced it to help launch an important product. While some are calling it a bribe, I like to think of it as recognizing the ability to reach and interact with your community of customers. It is social media marketing in its purest sense, but as any marketing campaign goes, it’s all in how you aim and pull the trigger.

One way to approach this would be to:

1. Identify a group of highly influential bloggers, some of which use Macbooks, but also hit Windows enthusiasts and open skeptics
2. Send them an ultra-fast PC running the new Windows Vista OS
3. Say something in the package that says “Happy Holidays” and “send it back, give it away, or use it as a review platform” so you’re not implying that you’re trying to buy them off (unless you believe in Guy Kawasaki’s take on bribing bloggers to get coverage)
4. Have all communication come from Microsoft and not PR – recognizing them for status and requesting an honest review – providing a publishable statement for the posts
5. Revisit step number 1 and ensure that big guys and little guys in the 2.0 and PC blogosphere are represented
6. Request full disclosure to protect the blogger’s status with their audience

How they launched it:
1. Microsoft’s PR Agency, Edelman, may have neglected to analyze the fallout from the Wal-mart flogs and predict how bloggers (in and around) this campaign may react. UPDATE: Word is that Steve Rubel was behind this and the idea may have stemmed from Microsoft’s recent meet and greet with bloggers.
2. Selected a group of high traffic bloggers that live in the web 2.0 world and who may or may not understand the significance of Microsoft Vista in the Windows world. UPDATE: Some say they really have no idea how to even review Microsoft Vista. Many speculate that Edelman simply wanted controversy.
3. Sent the email from Edelman and not Microsoft, while others received emails from Microsoft directly. UPDATE: Depending on the caliber of blogger, there are upwards of 3-4 varying emails from Edelman and Microsoft all with different messages and approaches.
4. Incited negative posts from bloggers who felt either alienated or jealous because they didn’t receive a $3,000 notebook
5. Sent an Acer Ferrari, which isn’t the fasted notebook on the market, but it sure is the flashiest. Keep in mind that most bloggers adorn their Macbooks with stickers from their favorite sites. I’m not sure Sony would have played along here, so I will at least send Kudos over to Acer and AMD for playing ball. UPDATE: There are reports of three different types of notebooks circulating, ranging from Acer to an no-name whitebox.
6. Sent a series of emails after a few not-so-kind posts which is coming across as backpedaling
7. Most importantly, may not have asked bloggers to disclose their intentions so it was perceived more of a reward for influence as opposed to a bribe. UPDATE: After speaking with several recipients of the infamous notebook, they’re were told that it was “a holiday gift” with “no strings attached” and were not offered options of giving it away or returning it after the review was completed.

What they did right:
1. To their credit they are giving bloggers a choice to keep it, give it away, or return it. UPDATE: I guess only certain bloggers received this option and it arrived after the notebook.
2. Ensured that they represented the full spectrum of A,B and C list influentials
3. Recognized that the blogophere is influential – according to Hugh MacLeod at gapingvoid.com, “a well-executed blogging campaign is an act of love.”

While many likened it to a blatant payperpost campaign, others were open minded. One of the biggest fallouts, may have been unforeseen by Mircosoft’s PR. Many bloggers dedicated entire posts to defend their standing, ethics, and perspective among their readers why any post on Vista or the Ferrari should be read as genuine and not influenced by a lavish reward.

It’s all about disclosure and less about relying on the intelligence of the reader to make a decision in your favor. Disclosure in this case, should run from Microsoft to bloggers and from bloggers to their audience. Calling it a gift was wrong and disrespectful. As bloggers, our word, credibility, and reputation are our greatest assets.

Here’s a summary of what’s going on out there:

Michael ="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=331">Arrington likes it – “Frankly, I’m pretty impressed, and I’m a hard core Mac guy.”

Marshall Kirkpatrick is not so impressed – “Microsoft and AMD sent out a pile of very expensive (yet trashy looking) laptops to a number of bloggers over the past week. I almost smashed mine in the middle of the street 10 minutes into trying to use it!”

Robert Scoble first called it “Pay Per Post” but now thinks the move is brilliant – “Is sending out laptops ethical? Of course! Their job is to get the product and company they represent in front of as many influentials as possible.”

Scott Beale is open-minded – “I’ll report back later on once I’ve had a chance to setup the laptop, configure Windows Vista and play around with a it a bit.”

Brandon LeBlanc at first didn’t disclose where he received the notebook, later posted – “I’m sorry if this donated laptop makes my readers think any less of me and my posting and objectivity.”

Barb Bowman loved it – “I’m convinced I have the coolest and fastest laptop on the planet.”

Mitch Denny humbly defended his ethics and credibility stating the Microsoft’s move here was less of an attempt to bribe, and more of a strategic ploy to move the dial – “Ironically I posted up this piece the day before the laptop arrived about marketeers earning mindshare rather than buying it”

Traditional media balked at this approach citing that Microsoft crossed the line as it bribes bloggers with Vista notebooks. Journalist Dan Warne quoted, “Microsoft isn’t a computer company! It’s a bit like the owner of a motorway giving journalists free cars.” John Pospisil stated, “In the ten years I’ve been writing about computers this is the first time I’ve heard of this kind of PR give away on this level.”

My opinion on the last set of quotes…the market is nothing like it was 10 years ago. But just for reference here, back in 1999, I represented a company that made a software OS for digital cameras. It was way ahead of its time, so we actually sent out cameras that could run the OS and aftermarket software and sent them to traditional reporters and online enthusiasts (before they were called bloggers) so that they could review the software in a self-contained review environment. It was far from bribery and more often called brilliant, as it actually landed a 100% review rate with all recipients. Without the review kit, we would have been lucky to hit 25% – if that.

Now, back to Microsoft. I’ve included a few of the emails from Microsoft PR for your reference…

Here’s the intro email:

“Michael,

I’m working on getting some review PCs out to community bloggers, and wanted to include you. I’d love to send you a loaded Ferrari 1000 courtesy of Windows Vista and AMD. Are you interested?

This would be a review machine, so I’d love to hear your opinion on the machine and OS. Full disclosure, while I hope you will blog about your experience with the pc, you don’t have to. Also, you are welcome to send the machine back to us after you are done playing with it, or you can give it away to your community, or you can hold onto it for as long as you’d like. Just let me know what you plan to do with it when the time comes. And if you run into any problems let me know. A few of the drivers aren’t quite final, but are very close.

If you are game, would you send me your address and phone? I’m going to send this out next week, so if you will be travelling on the 22nd let me know where you’ll be, and I’ll send it there.”

Here’s the email clarifying its intent after a few bloggers posted stories on the subject:

“Marshall,

No good deed goes unpunished, right? You may have seen that other bloggers got review machines as well. Some of that coverage was not factual. As you write your review I just wanted to emphasize that this is a review pc. I strongly recommend you disclose that we sent you this machine for review, and I hope you give your honest opinions. Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding of our intentions I’m going to ask that you either give the pc away or send it back when you no longer need it for product reviews.

Thanks for your understanding, and happy reviewing.”

Please vote for this story at NewPR.

This isn’t an attempt at sensationalism, this is a clear message for all businesses, in every market – Engage or die! If you don’t, you’re competition will. Those who engage with customers and markets will cultivate loyalty in ways never before possible. Traditional marketers will lose, unless they embrace new media.

The key however, is finding ways to measure everything in ways that mean something at every level of corporate communications.

In any given day, I will sell, evangelize, educate, and defend social media to clients and business prospects. But then again, I seem to have to do the same for PR – as to this day, most executives have no concept of how PR works, nor the understanding of how it helps them.

But either way, when it comes down to it, businesses want metrics.

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with a new player in an already crowded consumer electronics marketplace. It was a fascinating experience, because while it’s considered by many experts to be a commodity play, this company happens to be one of the oldest, most trusted brands on the planet.

While we discussed PR opportunities, both traditional and 2.0, their greatest enthusiasm unveiled during potential ideas surrounding social media and the ability to engage their customers in conversations. More importantly, it was a glimmer of hope as it revealed that they too, might have held reservations about the potential for success.

Last week, Factiva invited a group of Social Media Practitioners, Bloggers, Corporate Program Managers, and PR consultants, to discuss metrics in Palo Alto and what was important to them as influencers, their executive team, and clients. Jeremiah Owyang hosted the roundtable and Daniella Barbosa from Factiva made it all happen.

This post isn’t intended to serve as a summary of the discussion. Jeremy Pepper, Jeremiah, Christopher Kenton, and Daniela Barbosa, among others, have already captured it brilliantly.

Jermiah Owyang

My platform for the event was many-fold, as I wasn’t there simply as a PR person. I’m also a blogger, and more importantly an advisor to many tech companies in a variety of industries including enterprise, consumer electronics, and Web 2.0. With each hat I wear, my answers vary.

Stowe Boyd, Greg Narain, Daniella Barbosa

My goal here is to emphasize key observations and critical points that must surface in order help social media permeate into day-to-day marcom campaigns – including skeptics and evangelists alike.

Jeremy Pepper

Here are some of the questions we discussed and attempted to answer?
- Do you believe Consumer Generated Media is important and should be measured?
- Who is creating Social Media? What are they creating? And is “the who” more important then “the what?”
- If you are producing Social Media, how will you measure ROI?
- Do you think that Social Media needs a structured, mutually agreed upon measurement techniques and metrics (e.g. MSM’s ad value equivalence and article impressions) to make monitoring a more serious practice?
- So what should be measured, and how do you want it delivered?

I think we all agreed that CGM (the term) is dead. Let’s just call it social media, and absolutely, it’s critical that we track it. We call can agree that customers, peers, competitors, basically, everyone can and is generating social media. But it’s not just about who, it’s about “what” they’re saying.

In this case the “I” in ROI becomes much smaller than previously factored. And, while we’re at it, ROI for social media, should be measured in terms of “ROP,” return on participation. Why? Because ROI is iffy at best when measuring the true value advertising, branding, event marketing and especially PR.

The mistake that most executives make is that they try to tie everything to sales. Advertisers link everything to circulation and page views. PR people tie column inches and online articles to ad value. How does any of this apply to social media?

Those of us in the space are actively finding ways to measure ROP – and many of the processes are painfully manual. Services such as Technorati, Buzz Metrics, Blog Pulse, Buzz Logic and Alexa help, but wouldn’t it be incredible if there was a Techmeme or Tailrank for tracking conversations based on key words? Now that’s a winner right there! It’s the only service that could measure “conversations” and we all (or we should all) know, that markets are conversations now more than ever.

ROP is specific to the measurement of “participation” which is, at the end of the day, what separates social media from traditional marketing. ROI is a metric when marketing at customers. ROP measures conversations with customers and customers conversations with others.

After all, social media isn’t only for companies that “get it.” In fact, my greatest challenge is trying to help those companies that need it, understand and embrace it to not only succeed, but also survive.

Some of the ideas that were introduced for measurement include (through my creative mashing-up of many of the ideas tossed out there):
- Relevance
- Influence and reach
- Community, engagement, participation, comments, etc.
- Demographic
- Sentiment/tonality of the post
- Ranking, via Alexa, Feedburner, downloads, etc.
- Blogroll
- Meme, tracking conversations
- Readers and loyalty

Based on the voting, the following were the results:

Photo Credit: Jeremiah Owyang (see more from the set)

The Results, Photo Credit: Jeremy Pepper

#1 Participation – Engagement
#2 Influential ideal, memes, path
#3 Relevance
#4 Sentiment / Tone

According to Jeremiah, “Measurement depends on what the business goals are. Some folks tied measurement back to hard ROI: (Does Social Media shorten the sales cycle/reduce cost, and does it increase revenues).”

However, most of the discussion focused only on measuring bloggers. To me, bloggers only represent one, albeit highly influential, piece of the social media landscape. However if we’re talking about social media as it relates to CGM, then services such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, flickr, Yahoo Groups, LinkedIn, among thousands of others are also relevant for metrics.

One important observation regarding bloggers is that it’s not just about the most influential bloggers out there, it’s about the “magic middle.” These are the people who recognize valuable content and in turn share it amongst each other. With the right tools, conversations can then be tracked throughout the traditional marketing bell curve, while inside the tornado, riding the cluetrain, crossing the chasms along the way.

Perhaps the most critical element of any of this is to combine existing metrics with new measurement standards in order to make this whole process tangible and easier to embrace. ROI + ROP.

Engage or die!

Andy Lark

Here’s a partial list of attendees courtesy of Factiva’s Glenn Fannick
- Stowe Boyd, BlueWhale Labs /
- Andrew Lark, Founder, group lark
- Ed Terpening, VP Social Media, Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo Blog Index
- Christopher Kenton, MotiveLab,
- Jeanette Gibson, New Media Communications, Cisco
- Brian Solis, FutureWorks PR / PR2.0,
- Ian Kennedy, Product Manager, Yahoo, flashpoint
- Jeremy Pepper, Social Media, Weber Shandwick / POP! PR Jots
- Jory Des Jardins, Co-Founder, BlogHer, LLC;
- Mike Manuel, Strategist, Voce Communications, Media Guerrilla
- Andrew Vignolo, Director, Market Trends & Analytics, Levi Strauss & Co.
- Jeff Beckman, Director, Worldwide and U.S. Communications, Levi Strauss & Co.
- Tony Obregon, Director of Social Media, Cohn & Wolfe

For more pictures from the event, please visit the stream on flickr. You can also visit Jeremiah’s set on flickr.

Please keep this story relevant, vote at NewPR!

Roi rop social media social+media factiva pr bloggers metrics jermiah+owyang daniella+barbosa jeremy+pepper cgm web2.0 web+2.0 technorati buzzlogic techmeme tailrank alexa feedburner stowe+boyd greg+narain brian+solis pr2.0 pr+2.0 blogher Andrew+lark grouplark group+lark lark marketing advertising marcom communications public+relations

The previous article discussed, “Reaching the Blogosphere – Finding Bloggers in Your Market” using tools such as Technorati, Sphere, Google’s BlogSearch, Blogpulse, Alexa, CyberAlert, BuzzMetrics, Cymfony, and Umbria.

The new article explores how to identify the right bloggers for your market and how to best reach them and why they should even receive your news in the first place.

Please vote at NewPR!

Tags: pr2.0, pr+2.0, newpr, onlinepr, smpr, bloggerrelations, blogger+relations, blogs, bloggers, pr, publicrelations, public+relations, forwardmoving, forward, erincaldwell, briansolis, brian+solis, futureworks,

Skeptic over at Dead “Twenty” - inside joke- ran an impressive post today regarding the ideas, benefits, and consequences of blogs taking VC funding.

I’ll run a few excerpts, but make sure to jump over there and read the full article.

He starts by asking, “So the question is, can bloggers successfully build businesses that are worth funding?” Then continues, “An even better question is: why raise the money?”

His post explores the market as well as high profile funded and private blogs.

The article features insight from Om Malik, Paul Kedrosky, and some guy named Brian Solis.

Tags: dead2.0, web2.0, skeptic, VC, venture capital, om malik, gigaom, paul kedrosky, michael arrington, techcrunch, blogs, bloggers, web 2.0, dead 2.0, brian solis

Social media is becoming pervasive and more importantly, extremely influential among the people buying products and solutions.

According to a recent survey, and all the rage at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, Outsell, a marketing research firm, recently interviewed 7,000 professionals in corporations, government, healthcare, and academia to find out:
o How much time they spend searching and reading info for their job: 12 hours per week.
o Where they search and read that info

“The real headliner in this is that the most used content type among knowledge workers for business purposes has switched to press releases,” says Outsell VP and analyst Roger Strouse. “Until recently, trade journals had occupied the top spot.”

Albeit in 2006, citizen journalism and social media has taken the form of blogs and press release optimization, but back in the day (sending a shout out to 1997), the idea was prevalent in the form of stevesdigicams.com, imagingresource.com, etc. Yes, that’s just digital imaging as an example, but really, think back and you’ll remember that people were designing text and image-rich columnar sites as a mechanism for delivering “enthusiast news.” The difference is, nowadays, we have emerging technologies and capabilities in the form of do-it-yourself blog kits, RSS, del.ici.ous, digg, technorati, etc..

But back to the matter at hand. According to Outsell:

#1. Press releases online have overtaken trade journals and their respective sites as the top information source for knowledge workers.

#2. 47% of study respondents were reading “real content” such as news and e-books on their wireless handhelds regularly.

#3. The average respondent was reading nine blogs on a regular basis.

#1 is very important. Aside from the traditional value of the wire, the web has brought a new dimension to PR. In the beautiful world of mashups, wire services truly mash PR and SEO (search engine optimization), the results of which are largely untapped and undocumented.

When a release crosses the wire, it’s usually picked up on Google News, YahooNews and MSN News, among others, which is where most executives find and read the latest information.

There are ways to increase visibility of your press release aside from typical journalistic value, to expand its overall worldwide reach. This is huge, because the wire “lucked-out” and found a whole new reason to offer value. This is a whole other topic, but just remember to write releases that bring key / tag words up front (including the headline), and include the most pertinent information upfront (think search-terms, buzz words, markets.)

#2, Let’s skip that one…

Ah, but on to #3, which is huge. Bloggers, whether authored by professional journalists, savvy market analysts or astute, experienced civilians, are proving to be some of the most influential resources in almost every industry. Yes, this particular topic is an article unto itself. The point here is that as marketing professionals, we can’t overlook any form of influential media.

Well informed and shrewd Bloggers, blogerati, writers, journalists, all share a unique sense to survey the landscape and serve up a smooth cocktail of analysis, opinion, perspective, and insight. The only varying level, is the reach. Granted, well established publications (whether online or print) provide an unswerving service to their readers. In my opinion, bloggers provide a different value by communicating/capturing a convincing view, peer to peer perspective and a proven sense of “been there, done that.” And, not to mention, that the number of bloggers is expected to soon double.

Either way, blogs have already proven not only their ability to deliver concise and relevant information, but the ability to influence readers behavior and opinion.

So remember, in any given communications program:
1 – target traditional analysts and print/online media
2 – Reach out to bloggers, by market
3 – find all channels to reach your customers

PR and marketing have a lot to learn in order to reach this new, challenging, and diverse group of targets. But, those who do, will find themselves enjoying solid, tangible, and overwhelming results.

To be continued…writing for a new audience.

Tags: PR, Web2.0, outsell, technorati, search engine strategies, ses rss, tags, digg, social media, pr2.0, blogs, bloggers, SEO, blogs, pr 2.0 futureworks.