Sally Falkow

April 13 2015

Guest Post: When PR Opportunity Knocks…

Deirdre Breakenridge Guest Post, Media journalism, news video, PR, PRESSfeed, research, Sally Falkow, trends, Video 1

A Guest Post By Sally Falkow, President and Co-developer of PRESSfeed.

There’s an old saying – when opportunity knocks don’t stand with your hands in your pockets.

Fling open the door. Grab it with both hands. Or before you know it, someone savvier will have scooped it up and it’ll be gone.

Right now there’s an opportunity that’s not just knocking on the PR door – it’s banging and demanding to be let in. A savvy few have grabbed it. But most PR agencies and in-house teams are standing around with their hands very firmly in their pockets.

What is this opportunity? News video.

Almost every editor of a news website I’ve spoken with in the last six months has told me that a news story with a couple of good, original images, and a video that lets the reader feel like they’re there, is top of their list for news content.

76% of journalists say they use externally produced videos. And they expect to use “much more” in the next year. (Source: 2015 DS Simon Media Influencers Report) Makes sense – the shrinking media newsrooms lack the resources to produce video. Newspapers, magazines and radio stations never had those resources to start with. Now every news website needs video.

The 2015 PRESSfeed Media Trends and Online Newsroom Study shows that only 30% of the Fortune 100, 10% of the Fortune 500 and a scant 5% of the Inc. 500 have a video gallery in their newsroom. 22% of the Fortune 100 companies in the US include video with their news releases. 16% of the Fortune 500 and just 11% of the Inc. 500 offer any multimedia with news releases.

89% of news media ask for embed codes with videos, but corporate America never got that memo apparently. Only a handful of companies in the US offer embed codes with their videos: 9% of the Fortune100, 5% of the Fortune 500 and 3% of the Inc. 500.

There has never been a better time to use our PR skills to get excellent media coverage for our company or our clients. Yes, it takes a little investment in learning how to create great original images and videos that tell more of the story. But it’s not as daunting as it once was.

You can take photos and video on a smart phone or tablet. You can buy a decent camera, a mic and a light for less than $1000. Invest in visual content training for your team.

Fling open that door and grab this PR opportunity. It’s yours for the taking.

To see all 5 Media Trends that are affecting how a brand should be presenting its news content download the full report or watch the video of the webinar with Sally Falkow, Wendy Marx and Rebekah Iliff.

Sally Falkow is the President and co-developer of PRESSfeed, the socially-integrated digital news hub and the author of SMART News: how to create branded content that gets found in search and shared on social media. She was appointed a Senior Fellow for the Society for New Communications Research, a new media think tank based in Palo Alto, in 2006. Her research project on Media Trends and Online Newsrooms is conducted under the auspices of SNCR and has been done annually since 2010.

April 9 2012

The #PRStudChat Community Discusses Online Newsrooms on April 18th

Deirdre Breakenridge Event, PR 2.0, PR 2.0 Technology, PRStudChat, Social media, Twitter Deirdre Breakenridge, Online Newsrooms, PR, PR 2.0, PRESSfeed, public relations, Sally Falkow, Steve Momorella, TEKgroup 3

We’re gearing up for another dynamic #PRStudchat Twitter chat session on April 18^th at 8:30 p.m. ET. Our topic of discussion is the online newsroom, which is used as a centralized headquarters for an organization’s communications content. From news stories, photos and videos to contacts, media kits and investor relations, newsrooms offer information for the public that’s available 24×7 (reaching broader audiences beyond journalists).

We have two special guests joining us the night of the 18^th. Steve Momorella (@momorella), owner and founder of TEKGROUP and Sally Falkow (@sallyfalkow), President of PRESSfeed. Our experts will share their insights on how to position your online newsroom as a go-to resource, ensure you have the essential elements journalists expect and the social media features necessary for easy sharing and inform our community about the types of content to help increase exposure and brand awareness.

Here’s a little more on our experts:

Steve Momorella

Steve Momorella, owner and founder, TEKGROUP International, has more than 17 years of direct Internet experience ranging from programming to high-level design and consulting for numerous large corporations including IBM, AOL and Ford Motor Company. Currently, Steve is responsible for the sales and marketing of TEKGROUP’s Online Newsroom Solution, used by well-known brands including Toyota, Starbucks, Prudential, Walgreens, Sprint, and many of the Fortune 500 companies. Steve is co-authoring his first book, The Incredible Online Newsroom, to be published in the spring of 2012.

Sally Falkow:

Sally Falkow is the president of PRESSfeed. Sally has been involved in the use of technology for corporate communications since 1995. She has been evangelizing the use of blogs, optimized press releases and online news rooms with news feeds (RSS) since 2003. In her work with optimized press releases and blogs, Sally found that there was a need for an easy to use, affordable online newsroom that would allow marketing and PR people to add news and other branded content to their websites.

If you want to share some of your online newsroom tips and/or if you have questions for our experts, please feel free to comment on this post, or to start a discussion in our LinkedIn Discussion Group. We’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the online newsroom and how you’re using the newsroom as a resource to increase brand exposure. Please join us for a fast-paced discussion filled with helpful tips, techniques and best practices to get your online newsroom up to date and providing value for your organization. Hope to “see” you on the 18^th.

A Little More About PRStudChat:

It began with a simple question asked by Angela Hernandez, then President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). “Is PR Right for me?” A follow up blog post by PR 2.0 expert Deirdre Breakenridge inspired a series of direct messages on Twitter between Breakenridge and fellow PR industry pro, Valerie Simon. This was an important question and one that should be explored beyond one student or one blog post. Why not build a community to help students across the country, and even the globe, learn from the experience and perspective of industry professionals… A community where everyone can learn and grow together. Read more