Deirdre Breakenridge

As much as the media landscape is shifting and consumers are turning to the social sphere for their news, I still find myself seeking local news from good local print and online sources.  My area newspaper is the Asbury Park Press, which I enjoy reading every Saturday and Sunday morning.  There’s also a community social network that really digs into what’s going on in my area.  When it comes to local news, you just can’t get that from Twitter.

Now, maybe it’s because of my age (let’s just say that I’m over 40) or perhaps because we have teenagers at home, I’m interested in the news in our area. But, I believe that at any age you can find entertainment, sports, and news that will enhance your community life.  This is one of the reasons I was so happy to come across a new service called Simple.PR, which is a free twitter newswire designed for local businesses to help them reach the local media. Simple.PR will also be launching a widget next month that enables bloggers to have a filtered twitter newswire based on location and category on their blogs. 

The founder of Simple.PR is Eddie Kim, a student at the winter semester of founderinstitute.com.  Before moving back to NY in July 2009, he lived in Shanghai, China for nearly four years where he co-founded NextStep, currently one of the largest business networks in China, NextStepDirectory.com and Tangential Consulting.Eddie is also a volunteer with Wokai.org where he is building out their online store.

My interest in Simple.PR is two-fold.  As a PR person it’s great to see that local news lives and as a small business owner, I also know how difficult it can be to connect with local media due to lack of resources. I stumbled upon Simple.PR when I was checking my tweet streams a couple of weeks ago.  After learning a little more about it, I tweeted out the URL to my friends.  Within a few minutes there was excitement about the service.

Eddie reached out to me last week to thank me for my tweet and asked me if I wanted to learn more.  Of course, with an interest PR, local media and being a small business owner myself, I couldn’t pass up the offer.  For the record, I have no material connection to Simple.PR or Eddie for that matter.  I’m just a passionate PR person/entrepreneur who wants to know what goes on locally in her community.

Here’s what why I like Simple.PR.  It’s at no cost to small businesses.  Although right now, it’s only in the New York area, Simple.PR has the potential to build connections between small businesses and local media in any area.  The service, which is a Twitter based model now, allows the small business to tweet out their announcements or news with a hashtag, #simplePR.  By using the #hashtag, the conversation is picked up by local media looking for story ideas.  In many cases, Simple.PR will actually reach out to the media on behalf of the small business and their announcements, to make them aware there’s a potential story of interest.

To date, Simple.PR has about 3,000 to 4,000 small companies and over 40 media outlets within the New York area.  The plans for the service, in the future, include building up their databases of both businesses and the media and providing a platform that allows small companies to build their own news releases and distribute them for $20.00 per news release to local aggregated news outlets.  Simple.PR is not looking to compete against the many Twitter Clients that already exist.  Rather the company hopes to be integrated into one of the popular tools to make it even better to use.

Simple PR is an easy solution for connecting local businesses with local media.  At a time when resources are scarce and companies don’t have large media budgets, a no-cost service is a great option. I’m sure there are other business owners and PR pros like myself who enjoy their local news.  What’s your interest in local news and how are you capturing it?

It took me a little while to receive my invitation to Google Wave and to play around with the platform.  For the past few weeks, friends have asked me to discuss my thoughts on Google Wave and if I like it or not.  In the beginning, it was difficult to respond, because I just didn’t feel I had enough time to explore to properly make an assessment.

I feel more comfortable now answering those questions and giving my opinion, after starting several waves, and even working on a project in a wave. So, to answer the question: I like Google Wave and I see tremendous potential for collaboration, relationship building, streamlining project work internally within an organization (employees working in groups) and also using waves for my client’s and/or my own company events.

With any “new” technology there are the pros and cons.  Of course, you need to keep in mind that my opinion is only based on a few weeks of experience, so if you have been on Google Wave longer or have discovered anything that you feel is a definite pro or con, I hope that you will share your knowledge with us.

The Pros:

• It’s easy to get started in Google Wave and simple to import and manage contacts.
• Once you create a wave, you can invite your contacts to be a part of the conversation immediately.
• When you are in a wave, you have the ability to upload images, documents, etc. You can also drag and drop files and images into your wave.
• I like the yes/no/maybe gadget you can embed in a wave that allows you to gauge interest on a topic.  The users in the wave can select yes/no/maybe to let you know how they feel about a particular area of interest or if they can attend an event.
• You can imbed a map gadget in your wave to collaborate with placemarks, paths and shapes to mark location for wave participants.  The tool is good for planning trips and events.
• There’s a Google Wave add on to Firefox that let’s you know via email when you’re wave is updated.
• Google Wave really cuts back on unnecessary email that tends to clutter your inbox (especially the emails that talk about what you have to do but nothing seems to get done).  In a wave, you can collaborate with your team to get the task done quickly, whether it’s drafting an agenda for a meeting or collaboratively writing a report that’s due.  You can also use a wave to assemble important information that should be shared with colleagues post event, meeting or conference.
• Waves are great to brainstorm with your peers.  I recently used a wave to discuss/brainstorm the criteria for judging an award program and it was easy to follow the conversation.

The Cons (I included a few comments from my friends):

• A wave can get messy if you are not highlighting important information or using the playback feature.
• It takes a little while to play around and to figure out what features are the most helpful in your daily routine.
• I’ve heard many of my peers say, “There aren’t enough people on Google Wave so what’s the point of being there and starting conversations, if it’s not a popular platform (of course, in time I believe this will change).
• Google Wave may not be an intuitive experience at first. I’ve had friends tell me that they stare at the screen and don’t know what to do or how to get started.  My advice is that it’s worth taking the time to review the help videos and tutorials to learn about how to use the many different features on the platform.

Other interesting features I still want to explore are robots (to interface with other systems) for example, Tweety, and how to embed your wave in a blog, which is a cool function that allows you as to update your wave and that same update appears on your blog simultaneously.

I’m excited about Google Wave and as it opens up to more people, I think we are going to hear a lot more about it and the feedback will be positive!  What do you think?

Valerie Simon (@valeriesimon) and I just recently announced that Wednesday, December 16, 2009 is the next #PRStudChat.  We’re always excited for our Twitter chat, but this particular session carries special meaning and value.  It’s the last #PRStudChat session in 2009.  In honor of the tremendous amount of learning we’ve experienced, since the inception of our community, we’ve decided that the December session will be called #PRStudChat New Year Celebration: Give the Gift of Learning.   The discussion will focus on learning and how important it is to give back to your community.  There’s a tremendous amount of knowledge and information that is passed between the members of our dynamic group of PR professionals, educators and students.  And, with each and every session there’s an unsaid feeling of thankfulness and appreciation for the entire community’s dedication and active participation.

To support our New Year Celebration, the Gift of Learning and to thank everyone involved, #PRStudChat is going to recognize its community with special gifts based on learning.  There will be gifts of learning for everyone (because that’s what we’re all doing – sharing and learning together).  We’ll be announcing the special prizes the day of the chat session.

We don’t want the feeling of thanks and appreciation to go unnoticed.  The Holidays are a time to celebrate those people and relationships that are special and #PRStudChat has helped us to develop so many.  Valerie and I want to recognize all of the devoted participants, who have helped us to build a strong community and also give thanks to several of our special guests over the past several sessions:

@briansolis

@missusp

@ssmirnov

@laermer

@heatherhuhman

@alecjr

@rupertmike,

@dhutson

@angelahernandez

@davidspinks

@amybp

Along with our special guests, we would like to highlight some of the participants who have made special contributions to the group, including Heather Whaling, @PRtini, winner of the Putting the Public Back in Public Relations giveaway for the comment most retweeted, and all of the students and educators who participated in the #PRStudChat Student Chat Challenge. Congratulations again to the winning school, University of Maryland, led by Brooke Fisher Liu, Assistant Professor of Public Relations (@bfliu)

I also want to personally thank Valerie for her hard work, energetic participation and incredible devotion to #PRStudChat.  She’s been a tremendous asset in making our community thrive and grow.

As we move forward in 2010, it’s important to remember that #PRStudChat is based on a community that learns and grows together.  I’m learning from all of the members, whether they are students, professionals and/or educators.  None of us are experts and I personally steer away from that word.  I’m sure I’m not alone when I say, “Together we have the opportunity to learn even more.”  We’re fortunate to learn through the sum of our parts, which is a far greater experience.

When Brian Solis gave his keynote at the April 30th 2009 PRSA Digital Impact Conference, he discussed how the world of social media is evolving so rapidly that even the “gurus” are in a perpetual state of learning.  He stressed that there are no experts yet, just students.

I agree with Brian, and for me, #PRStudChat has been a fantastic experience to meet, discuss and build relationships with new friends.  It’s more than just a monthly discussion; it’s a group of passionate people who talk everyday about a common interest.  It’s people who believe in public relations and want the very best for the profession.  In the New Year, we will have good reason to carry on the celebration.  We should continue to be thankful for the abundant amount of information that’s available to our community, and keep giving back by sharing with one another.

By participating in #PRStudChat you are contributing to the gift of learning…for everyone involved. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to join the #PRStudChat LinkedIn Group to help keep connected to the group between chats. Thank you for a tremendous 2009 and get ready to learn even more in 2010!

I just finished the book, TwittFaced, by Jacob Morgan and Josh Peters.  I think it’s a good social media 101 handbook that provides you with a breakdown of social media tools, platforms and opportunities that are not overwhelming to the reader, but organized so that the information is straightforward and easy to read.  I had the pleasure of interviewing co-author, Jacob Morgan.  Jacob is a social media consultant and the Principle of Chess Media Group, a social business consultancy, focused on strategy, creativity, and results.

Here’s my Q&A with Jacob:

Twittfaced is an enlightening social media toolkit.  With all of the tips and tools on how to understand and maximize the social web, what are the three most important takeaways of the book?

1)    Social media is changing the way in which organizations and individuals can do business.

2)    Making social media campaigns and strategies more accountable is going to become crucial in order to justify their existence.

3)    There are a lot of tools, platforms, and strategies out there but in order to success you need to understand what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it through social media.

What’s the meaning behind the name of the book?  Is there a special significance to the name, Twittfaced?

Twittfaced is the moment of enlightenment you get when you realize that social media is much more than just Twitter and Facebook.  Twittfaced is the realization that social media is impacting business on a massive global scale, business is changing and those of us that are “Twittfaced” realize that change and are able to take advantage of it.

What made you decide to write this book and how long did it take from start to finish. Did you enjoy working together as co-authors?

Josh and I actually collaborated on an ebook called “social media for authors.”  This ebook spread across the web and eventually landed in the hands of our publisher, “Clay Bridges.”  They asked us if we wanted to write an actual social media book and Josh and I jumped at the opportunity.  I decided to write it because first of all it helps add credibility and authority to what I talk about on a daily basis on my blog, JMorganMarketing.  Second, I wanted to create an easily digestible social media handbook that covered all of the content without being overwhelming to the reader.

Do you have a favorite chapter or passage in the book, and why is it your favorite?

My favorite sections in the book are the measurement and ROI areas (including the Q&A with Olivier Blanchard) because I feel they are oftentimes not addressed yet are absolutely crucial.  Social media and marketing, in general, needs to become more accountable and this book has several chapters, which call that out.  Yes, social media is valuable and important, but if you can’t back it up with some sort of business results then it really doesn’t warrant any type of investment.

What is the one thing that makes your book stand out above all of the other social media books?

Our book is meant to be a handbook that can quickly guide you through the social web. There are plenty of other social media books out there that are 300+ pages.  Ours is around half of that from cover to cover, which means you can get all of the information you need quickly and efficiently.  We also cover everything from “listening” to measuring ROI so it’s quite comprehensive.  Finally, we had Brian Solis and Chris Brogan contribute to the book with a little bonus Q&A section from Olivier Blanchard.  When you take all of that into account and that factor in the price (around $16.00) it’s really the greatest value out there.

________

Hope you enjoyed the interview about Twittfaced and if you want to reach out to Jacob, you find him on his social media consulting blog or connect with him directly on twitter @JacobM.

Here’s Part II of my blog post: Q&A from the Vocus Webinar: PR Planning Considerations for 2010.  These are the last of the questions that I wasn’t able to address, due to time constraints.   Once again, I wanted to share my responses on my blog:

Q: You and I met when I was a magazine editor, but now I work for a “boutique” PR agency serving high-tech agencies. How much emphasis should our agency be placing on developing podcasting or webcasting products for our clients?

A: There are a few factors to consider before building social media tools/resources for your clients.  First you should take a look at your customers, their respective markets and their external footprints.  Are webcasting and podcasting effective tools to use and if you create this type of content for your customers’, will their target public(s) use and share these resources? When you develop a content strategy it’s important to consider the type of content that is preferred by the people you want to reach, and always align your content strategy to the company’s business objectives.  You should always ask: What are we trying to accomplish by developing these specific types of social media tools?

After considering the external factors, then you should conduct an internal audit of the organization to see what resources internally can be relied upon to create podcasts or webcasts.  Will the company be able use its own resources or will it have to use an external service provider and what are the costs to hire an outside service?  It’s also really important to consider the time commitment of the executives/experts involved in creating the webcasts and podcasts. Will the executives or experts participating in an audio or video streaming series be available for live streaming or to record the sessions, and how much time will they commit to the program.  The external and internal considerations are key to determining the type of content strategy and what will be the most effective social media tools to use moving forward.

Q: I am alone in my PR efforts. We recently purchased Vocus/PR Web services. I just released my first release. I created the RSS availability but have not set up a Twitter page yet however, my question is; Is there a tool to sync all of the business/personal social sites to display a released blog?

A: If I understand the question correctly, it sounds as if you are looking for a tool that will allow you to sync or update all of your community sites simultaneously.  So for example, if you write a blog post and you want to share it on all of your networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., then you can use a tool called Ping.fm.  Ping.fm is a resource that updates all of your communities, at the same time, saving you the time, energy and effort of posting separately in your networks.

Q: Our company has been using a few different types of social media for several months now but we have seen almost no ROI (limited sales from promo codes, limited site visits etc). How long should a company be experimenting before giving up?

A:  I don’t think that you should give up on social media outreach; you may have to adjust your listening/monitoring strategy.  Are you in the communities that have the people that you want to reach? Are you finding in-depth conversations on topics that relate directly to your brand?  After you listen, observe and identify the right community and understand the dynamics of the culture, then you can engage with the members.  When you begin your outreach, you may also want to position yourself as a helpful resource by engaging in conversations and then sharing information about promotions and other offers available.

It’s really important to make sure that you are in the right community at the onset and that the community members find value in the content that you are sharing. You may also want to identify certain new influencers/bloggers who would be interested in sharing your content because it has relevance to their community members.  I would go back to the Conversation Prism listening exercise that I mentioned during the Vocus webinar to see if you can find relevant conversations and people in specific networks through key word searches.  After you listen and observe, then you can move toward participation once again.

Also, make sure that you have the proper measurement in place to capture people who are interested in your offers either by directing them over to landing page to capture information or to a specific area of your website where it’s easy to take advantage of a promotion or similar offer.

If you have questions or answers to share on any of the topics posted above, it would be great to hear your feedback. Thanks!

You’ve probably heard me say this before, “One of the best parts about participating in a webinar is what comes after the presentation.  It’s the Q&A portion!” Of course, there’s never enough time to answer everyone’s questions.  So, I always try to answer what didn’t get a response, here on my blog.  I’m answering these questions, from the Vocus Webinar:  PR Planning Considerations in 2010, in a two-part blog post, with the part one below:

Q: I teach PR at a college. I feel like I’m a horse-and-buggy expert teaching students how to drive cars! Some of the skills are the same, but others are so new, so changing, even as we speak! Of course, they need to know how to write a release, identify audiences, and set a strategy. What advice do you have for training the next generation of PR professionals?

A: This is such a great question because it hits right at the heart of the PR person’s new role.  I believe when training the next generation of PR professionals they will need to understand and embrace a new PR approach and how their roles and responsibilities will increase.

Through social media communications we have the ability to help our brands connect with so many different stakeholders in web communities, including customers.  The way that we tell our organization’s story is different and we can no longer use a traditional broadcast message; one-way communication and “the one story fits all” is not welcome in the social sphere. Now, we can show our brands how to target, humanize and customize their business stories for different communities and to reach new influencers. It’s also a big change from solely relying on mainstream media and the credible third party endorsement.  Although we will still rely on the media and build relationships with bloggers (our new influencers), it’s really important to also listen to consumers and to make direct connections with them.  By becoming a resource (whether it’s to answer your customers questions, provide them with tips or expertise, teach them how to properly use a product or to hear their gripes and work toward a solution) you build a stronger relationship.

As a result, PR people are looking at social media strategy through a different lens.  Yes, we are still conducting research, identifying our target publics, working on strategic communications and measuring results. However, we are also monitoring and tracking conversations and listening on behalf of the organization (becoming more of a customer service role). Suddenly, we are research librarian; listening closely and reporting back to our brands in order to fuse this information into our organizations.  Communications can’t work in a vacuum.   We need to share the knowledge with different departments to evaluate the information and to formulate the proper feedback and insight to the community (the brand’s participation or engagement).  As we listen and observe, we also become sociologists and cultural anthropologists. We’re studying the dynamics and interactions of community members, learning what matters to the people driving those communities and observing what is considered accepted behavior.

Our roles also increase when we create social media content, work in new technological environments, learn to integrate strategic communications with Web 2.0 and viral marketing and measure engagement and participation in new ways.  And, as we continue to focus on listening, we can become conversationalists, engaging in web communities and actually becoming the people we want to reach. As we learn more about participating and making connections that lead to strong and valuable relationships, we become better equipped to help our brands take the same approach.

The next generation of PR professionals has all of these new roles and responsibilities to look forward too, especially as PR takes a lead role in strategic social media communication.

Q: We have been under attack by a small group who have posted false and defamatory information on forums, blogs, etc. Should we respond directly via our website?

I always think you should take the time to get the correct information posted on your website or within a community to clear up any false or inaccurate information and you can also rely on the rest of your community to provide supportive communication on your behalf.

Sometimes, it’s a judgment call on how much effort you should invest into a group of people or an individual who is a deterrent detractor.  Every situation is unique and I would have to review the history to make a proper assessment.  However, not knowing your particular situation, as a general rule of thumb, if a customer or customers band together because they are unhappy and should their requests go unnoticed, they will often take it to the blogosphere. In this case, you should always reach out…perhaps outside of the social network, if you can contact them by telephone to move them back into your happy community once again.  If there is the opportunity to change someone’s opinion and return their opinion back to goodwill toward your organization, then it’s worth the time and resources.  However, in the case of the deterrent detractor, you should evaluate that person’s authority and credibility.  If this person is just providing entertainment value for those that listen for the sake of controversy, but not really influencing anyone, then they don’t require your time and attention (if you know they will never be a part of your camp again).

___________

I’ll be answering a few more questions in my next post and I hope that you will share your answers to these questions or any comments you may have.  And, if you participated in the Vocus Webinar: PR Planning Considerations for 2010 and you had a question that wasn’t answered, feel free to post it here on my blog for all of us to review and respond

On November 12, 2009, I participated in the Vocus PR Planning Considerations for 2010 Webinar.  I discussed the challenges of PR planning for 2010 and how to plan for the “unknown, unknowns.” When I think about the “unknown, unknowns,” I feel that just being in public relations means always planning for the unexpected, based on our roles and responsibilities. We’re seen as the “conscience” of the company, reputation managers and damage control officers.  Social media communication adds a whole new level of complexity to our planning process.

The Webinar was carefully orchestrated by Vocus; first with a survey that went out to approximately 1,800 PR professionals regarding their planning practices for 2010 and then a Webinar to discuss the findings.  My role as a presenter was to share the survey results along with some best practices in PR planning. I found out very quickly that my presentation materials were very much in line with the expectations, challenges and thoughts of professionals regarding the state of our industry.

Most of the results the survey did not surprise me and after reviewing the results, I walked away with a sense of urgency and challenge, yet strong confidence that PR professionals were ready to play a major role in social media strategy and outreach for their brands in 2010.

My presentation focused on how you have to work several new strategies into your planning process including different approaches to monitoring and tracking technology, distribution/channel strategy (which social media platforms to reach important stakeholders), communications and content creation strategy, measurement strategy and an engagement strategy to evoke emotion/sentiment.  Here is the diagram I used to explained the planning process:

Some of the interesting survey findings that supported my discussion were the following:

• Approximately 50% of the survey participants stated that planning for PR programs and strategies in 2010 would be more difficult (I believe that this may be due to a limited amount of company resources, employee or organizational culture not wanting to participate in social media and a lack of management buy in to social media programs.)
• Approximately 42% surveyed stated that budgets would remain the same in 2010 (exhibiting a cautious optimism for the year ahead although 24% said that budgets would increase slightly).
• About 63% stated that their organizations would focus more on innovating effective processes.
• Approximately 51% of the survey participants believed that there would be more investment in new technology (however, if 42% believed that budgets would remain the same, then resources would have to shift from another area of the company in order to invest in technology).
• About 80% of the participants said their organizations would focus more on social media in 2010.
• Approximately 53% said that their organizations currently use social media monitoring.
• About 65% said that their organizations are currently using news monitoring.
• More than 50% described their Strategic Communications roles as a significant to a primary role within their organization.
• Over 50% described their Marketing Communications roles as a significant to primary role within their organizations.
• More than 50% described their Content Management roles as a significant to a primary role within their organizations.
• Brands still place a good deal of emphasis on traditional media, with 67% of the survey participants stating that their organization’s focus on traditional media relations will remain the same.
• Approximately 62% of the participants stated that their use of the press release would remain the same (It would be interesting to find out what’s the percentage of PR Professionals who will focus on Social Media Releases).

The Vocus Webinar on PR Planning Considerations provided very useful statistical information that PR people can use to better understand their planning challenges in 2010.  Do any of these statistics surprise you?  What do you think will be some of your biggest planning challenges in 2010?

I had heard a great deal about Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) from my peers long before I even purchased his book, Crush It.  They told me that he was extremely driven, energetic and so enthusiastic that he couldn’t help his use of profanity (often apologizing that some day his children would be watching his Wine Library TV videos).   The first question that came to my mind about Gary was:  how does a guy from New Jersey (my home state) turn a business under $10 million dollars into a $60 million operation?  Was it a combination of luck, skill and timing?

I got my answer when I heard Gary speak for the first time at IMS 09 Boston.  I was there to participate on a panel that discussed PR 2.0: The traditional news release versus the Social Media Release (SMR).  I had been out the night before and was a little tired.   Sipping my morning coffee, Gary entered the room and took the stage.  My question was answered immediately.  It was pure PASSION!  He certainly woke the audience up that morning and had us on the edge of our seats.

I had the same feeling when I read his book.  I was on the edge of my seat, not like I was reading a thriller or murder mystery, but feeling very motivated by someone who had pure passion running through his body.  You know there’s an old saying that if you could bottle it, then you would make millions.  Well that certainly applied here.  Gary’s energy is contagious and his book is a motivating story of how you can use passion and your own DNA to change your life.

This book is not just for those who are unhappy in their current jobs and feeling unfulfilled in life.  Of course, they should read this book, but it’s also for people who are happy but just need that extra boost to reignite their passion to experience that useful and meaningful feeling (similar to how you feel when you begin a new career or new adventure in life).  Through Gary’s in-depth knowledge of the Internet and social media, as well as how he tackled his own challenges, you can learn to reinvent yourself to find 100% happiness.

Crush It is a really easy read filled with energy, enthusiasm and most of all passion.  The book’s chapters discuss how success is in your DNA, how to build your personal brand and how there’s a whole new world to experience, if you have the passion and the determination.  Gary’s story is amazing and will make you rethink the steps to your own personal and professional success, especially if you follow his three simple rules:  love your family, work super hard and live your passion.  Excellent advice if you ask me.  Crush It is a book that belongs at the top of your reading list!