Archive for January, 2009

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Back To Pitching Basics

09.01.16

Despite having a set of guidelines on how to pitch me positioned prominently on my site, I continue to receive poorly targeted and poorly-written pitches on a daily basis.

I’ve written in the past about some bad pitches and some really bad pitches I’ve received, and given my advice on those pitches. This time, though, instead of looking at how to pitch, I want to take a look at why a good pitch is necessary.

Let’s consider a straight news release, emailed to someone, against a decent pitch.

A straight news release:

  • Costs little to send per recipient;
  • Takes little or no additional time to draft per extra recipient;
  • Is likely targeted at one or two key audiences;
  • Addresses every recipient the same way;
  • Takes no account of the recipient’s interests or previous work;
  • Does nothing to develop a relationship with the recipient;
  • Has to go through many layers of approval throughout the organization, with many hands making changes;
  • Is generally written to please multiple stakeholders, both internal and external, so gets diluted;

A tailored pitch:

  • Requires research, time and editing for each recipient;
  • Is targeted at the recipient;
  • Addresses each recipient differently;
  • Can refer directly to interests and past work;
  • Can help to build a relationship with the recipient;
  • Is likely to be subject to less peoples’ tinkering than a release;
  • Is written for one purpose and one audience, so can be focused.

In every instance except one – cost – the tailored pitch comes out ahead. The untailored news release is cheaper to send to lots of people, but at what sacrifice?

  • No relationship;
  • No relevance;
  • Reliance on the law of averages to obtain coverage.

In the economic environment we’re in, we’re unfortunately unlikely to always have the budget to tailor every single pitch the way we’d like to. However, even a compromise pitch that acknowledges areas of interest, geographic relevance or an existing relationship is better than a straight news release. In a worst-case scenario, I know I’ve recommended pitching fewer journalists, but doing it well, rather than going out ineffectively to a big bcc’d mailing list.

What would you do if you found yourself with a low time and/or budget for your media (or blogger) outreach? Would you go with a news release to many, a tailored pitch to fewer, or would you take a different approach?

Posted in: pitching, public relations

Tags: , , , ,

12Comments

Do You Get Social Tool Fatigue?

09.01.15

A few weeks ago, Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang announced that he was taking a 20 day hiatus from Twitter. This Tuesday, CIO Magazine’s C.G. Lynch described how, while social media tools may have improved his writing, he needed to turn them off in order to actually write:

“Without those tools, I might have not had the same experts and colleagues at my disposal who offer me some of the best insights on technology, media, journalism and life — all things that make me a productive and (I hope) intellectually curious individual.

But to do the basic thing that sustains me (write), I had to block it all out.”

Yesterday, Jennifer Leggio noted that “FriendFeed is a little high maintenance — you need to really have time to manage that community to get the most out of it.”

I know I’ve found some of these social media tools overwhelming at times, especially when I’ve been particularly busy at work. Even though I’ve reduced my Twitter useage since starting to work on the agency side (see below), it can still be too much somtimes. I still find I’ll have days when I just need to close Twitter, Google Reader, Facebook and the other apps, and just focus. However, sometimes it feels like there’s a pressure there to keep up the flow.

Tweetstats graph for davefleet

My question to you: do you get social tool fatigue? How do you deal with it? Do you find it easy to switch off when you have to?

Posted in: social media, tools

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19Comments

Twitter Follow-Back Fail

09.01.14

I’ve just crossed 2,500 followers on Twitter; double the number of people who read this site. I follow roughly 680.

That means I follow roughly a quarter of the people that follow me.

I’m no A-lister (I’m many thousands of followers and a large ego short of that). I’m a communications professional, not a professional blogger. I don’t have the bandwidth to follow thousands of people while doing my job.

If you follow me I appreciate it, but don’t expect me to automatically follow you back.

So how do I decide who to follow back? Here are my five suggestions on how to go about it.

@ replies

Far and away the most common thing that causes me to follow someone is them sending me a message or engaging with me in a conversation. I’m looking for interaction and conversation when I use Twitter, so demonstrating that you’re interested in conversations about the same things that interest me raises the odds that I’ll follow exponentially.

Real name

I filter my follower-notification emails into a folder. Occasionally I’ll scan through those emails. If I see a topic or company name, unless it’s a brand I’m particularly interested in I’m unlikely to even click through to the Twitter profile to see if it’s interesting. However, this isn’t enough to guarantee a follow on its own.

Relevant bio

If I click through to someone’s profile, I immediately look at their bio information. I look for people who live near me; people who work in similar jobs and people with similar interests. If there’s no bio, it lowers the chances I’ll follow. If I find the bio compelling, I’ll either follow there and then or keep looking.

Website

If the bio is compelling, the next thing I look at is the person’s website. I’m more likely to follow people who write about things that interest me.

Messages posted

The last thing I’ll look at is the kind of things they’re posting. You might think this would be higher-up the list, but it’s a bit more of a crap-shoot – people won’t always post on-topic. Twitter is all about conversations, and sometimes they veer off-topic. So, a person’s updates are the last thing I look at. I look at how people are posting (if updates are all fed through RSS feeds it’s a no-go), whether they broadcast or converse (the former is a no-follow) and general topics.

There you have it – my five things to look at when you’re deciding whether to follow someone back.

This is a very personal thing – different people look for different things. Some people follow everyone back; others filter. How do you approach it?

Posted in: best practices, Twitter

Tags: , ,

21Comments

Present.ly – Internal Microblogging Just Got Better

09.01.13

Present.lyLast September I wrote about Yammer, a Twitter-like “microblogging” service designed for internal use by organizations. At the time I decided I liked it, describing it as “Twitter behind the firewall… and turbocharged.”

Issues with Yammer

We tried Yammer out for a while, and I revisited the tool about a month later on this site to look at different perspectives on Yammer’s pros and cons. Essentially Yammer’s effectiveness seemed to come down to organizational culture – if your culture supported a tool like that then great; otherwise it would fail.

However, we also encountered another problem: Yammer restricts membership in a network by email domain. Our company has two units– the public relations group at Thornley Fallis, and our colleagues on the web/interactive side at 76design. We have different email addresses for each unit, so we couldn’t all be part of the same Yammer network.

We toyed with the idea of building an application in-house, but instead recently chose to try out a different application, Present.ly, for our organization.

As it says on its site, “Present.ly is a simple, private way to keep everyone up-to-date.” Like Yammer, it’s like an up-market Twitter for use within your organization.

My first impressions: very good, but still a little buggy.

As we did with Yammer, let’s take a look at the pros and cons in turn.

Pros

  • Allows membership by invitation, by domain, by access code or open to everyone.
  • Present.ly’s groups feature lets you limit your posts to the people who will find them relevant.
    • For example, we’ve set up a group for each geographic location and one for each division.
  • Desktop, Blackberry, android and iPhone applications, although we haven’t been able to get the Blackberry one to work yet.
  • Neat icons appear next to posts when they include a question (?) or an urgent message (!!!).
  • Mimics most Twitter syntax, and has an easy-to-access syntax guide to help new users.
  • Automatic updating on the Present.ly site; no need to refresh.
  • Ability to turn most email notifications on or off.
  • Ability to integrate posts with Twitter.
  • Allows you to attach files to posts (contrary to Stowe Boyd’s post, you can track files – under the ‘browse’ tab then under ‘files’)
  • Built-in hashtags (now built-in to Twitter, but wasn’t originally) let you track issues or client posts internally. We use it to track IT issues, for example.
  • If you run over the 140 character limit, Present.ly gives you two options instead of cutting you off:
    • You can keep typing and it will simply split your message into two posts.
    • You can ‘attach’ more text to your post.

 

Cons

  • Desktop app has a nasty habit of going into an infinite login window-creating loop if the login window loses focus. The only solution is to reboot. Not cool.
  • Desktop app can be a bit of a memory hog – seems to be a memory leak in there.
  • Several of us have had issues with the desktop app not refreshing automatically.
  • Syntax is a little picky – allows @ replies to be anywhere within posts, but only highlights them as replies if the @[username] is at the beginning of the message.
  • You can’t turn all email notifications off, so when an organization first starts using Present.ly the resulting email deluge is a nightmare.
  • Confusion over groups and following people – if you don’t follow someone but they post to a group you’re in, do you see the post? My feeling: you should. In practice: you don’t. That means you need to follow everyone in your groups.
    • In some cases you may not want to see everything so this could be fine (in large groups where you don’t know everyone, for example). However, the lack of clarity on this is an issue.

Conclusion

I like Yammer, but it has its limitations. Present.ly solves those limitations, but it does come with a few shortcomings of its own. They’re not as deal-breaking as Yammer’s issues for me, though, so Present.ly wins with me.

Once again, our success with this tool is going to come down to whether people use it constructively over time; many people are new to this kind of tool. I co-hosted a lunch and learn session for our Toronto office on the tool last week, and it was good to see the lightbulb go off with some people. Still it’s going to take some adjustment.

In the meantime, we’ve already started to see a few good uses:

  • Tracking IT issues using hashtags
  • Organizing people into common-sense, useful groups
  • Many-to-many conversations within groups
  • Sharing business successes throughout the company

I’m hoping to see this expand to cover more things – client-specific conversations and client groups, company-wide collaboration and more. Time will tell.

Have you used Present.ly? Yammer? Do you have a preference? What do you think of them? Do you think any of them have potential?

Julie HacheUpdate: My colleague Julie Hache has written an excellent & eloquent post over at 76design’s Shift+Control blog with her thoughts on Present.ly. Check it out.

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Posted in: micro-blogging, social media, tools

Tags: , , , , ,

4Comments

When Editing No Longer Helps

09.01.12

Error Whether you work in communications in a corporation, an agency, a not-for-profit or the public sector, you’ve probably encountered people who don’t know when to stop editing.

Editing is one of the most important stages of the writing process. With even one round of editing you can see drastic improvements in quality. You can see your writing improve from being average to being good. From just another release on the wire to something that’s worth writing about. From the delete button to the ‘I’d like an interview’ email.

With each subsequent round of editing, the return on your time investment will likely get incrementally smaller. At some point you need to make the call to stop; to accept that it’s just not worth making more edits. Ideally, that’s the point where the improvement will be worth less than the investment in time.

Working in the public sector, time was of little object. The focus was on producing the best product while balancing all of the competing interests. I would frequently see materials on version 20 or higher, half way through the approvals process.

On the agency side, it’s a different story. Consultants typically bill by the hour, which means you need to make a call on when additional investment simply isn’t worth it for the minimal benefit. Sometimes that means telling your client that their best course of action is for them to stop making changes, which isn’t always easy.

How do you know when that’s the time? There’s no hard and fast rule, but these are useful indicators:

  • When you see the piece beginning to revert to previous versions
  • When you see changes that could be produced with a thesaurus
  • When you see people tinkering with minor wording deep in the release
  • When you see the work increasing in length unnecessarily
  • When you see information irrelevant to the topic being added

If you start to see any of these signs, think – are they improving the release, or are they just changes for the sake of it? It might be time to put the writing to bed and move on.

What other signs do you look for?

Posted in: public relations, writing

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"We Should Do Something In Social Media"

09.01.08

Every so often a client (or potential client) will come to us and say something like,

"We think we should be doing something in social media."

Whether it’s social media monitoring, a podcast series, blogger relations, community building or a fully-integrated campaign, they’ve heard that social media is the thing to do and they want to be seen to do it.

"It would be good for people to see us using social media."

That’s quite possibly true, but by itself it’s not a reason to invest in social media. As I said recently, social media outreach won’t work for everyone.

These companies may have the budget and the will, but likely not the knowledge of how to approach their public relations (and any associated social media tactics). That’s fine – that’s what agencies like ours (and others) are there for – we’re paid to have that knowledge, and we can help companies to plot the right course through social media.

Here are a few questions companies might want to consider before deciding that the time is right:

  • What are their business objectives?
  • What are their communications objectives?
  • Which social media tactics will help them to meet those objectives?
  • Are they ready for an ongoing commitment to social media tools?
  • Are they ready to speak with the voice of people, rather than that of a faceless company?
  • Might social media fit better into a corporate plan rather than an initiative-specific plan?

The answers to any one of these questions could completely re-shape any pre-defined ideas for that company’s social media plans. They could even scupper them completely.

I know this list of questions is far from complete. What would you add to it?

Posted in: public relations, social media

Tags: , , ,

15Comments

Avoiding The Dark Side Of Social Media

09.01.07

If you look at social media as a collective group of instruments, the exciting part is that it’s, well, social. The discussion; the interaction; the dialogue is the game changer here.

Unfortunately, all too often the tone of discussion fails to live up to its potential. Just today, the Globe and Mail (re)stated its policy of closing comments on all Middle East stories:

"Past experience has demonstrated that too many people post racist, vulgar, abusive and offensive comments, often encouraging violence against specific individuals or peoples whenever we open comments on such stories."

air_force_web_posting_response_assessmentThe tone of discussion on other newspaper sites often falls to these levels too. Meanwhile, the commentary on sites like YouTube is notoriously vulgar.

Still, constructive and valuable conversations persist throughout the Internet using "social" tools. It’s these that offer the potential for businesses. The question for us as marketers and communications professionals is, how do we encourage and foster these discussions while keeping out the trolls?

Choose your issues carefully. If you write about politics, religion or similar types of topics, you’re going to attract controversy. Does your company need to wade into geo-political issues? In most cases, the chances are it won’t. If you do, be prepared for (sometimes over-)heated commentary.

State and enforce a comment policy. Set the boundaries on your properties and stick to those boundaries.

Establish a process for engaging online. Decide the criteria that will determine whether you engage with a specific post or not. The US Air Force’s process has done the rounds online recently (thanks to Joey deVilla for flagging it). It features a series of questions which determine whether the post in question is one with which you should engage. Devise your own process, or use this one – it’s solid.

Practice what you preach. Be respectful to others, particularly if they disagree with you or vice versa. Remember, disagreement with you isn’t always a personal attack on you. Criticism can be good.

Don’t poke the trolls. Some people are just out to offend or to pick a fight. Don’t let them. Again, criticism is fine; attacks aren’t. Don’t respond to the latter unless you have to.

Know the rules of the game. Old-school marketing tactics are frequently received poorly in social media forums. Know what you’re getting into and know how to navigate the murky, nuanced waters of each venue in which you engage. If you’re not sure, get some professional advice (ahem).

What other tips would you offer?

Posted in: best practices, social media

Tags: , , , ,

16Comments

Customer Service Is Public Relations

09.01.06

If you think about it, your customer service function has always had an element of public relations to it. Every touchpoint with your customers has the potential to either build loyalty or breed dissatisfaction.

Nowadays, though, the people you please or infuriate with your customer service have the means to give voice to that sentiment.

Every time your customers have to wait on hold for an hour, or are told different things by different representatives, or receive defective support, or simply don’t get their issues fairly resolved, you don’t just harm that one interaction – you hurt your relationship with that customer.

I was highly impressed recently when a Dell customer service agent told me he would stay on the phone with me as long as it took, because he got paid for resolving issues, not just taking high numbers of calls. Meanwhile, agents for other companies seem all too eager to pass me off to someone else as soon as possible.

With modern social media tools, you run the chance of that harm becoming widespread knowledge.

There are four implications for this:

  • Your customer service representatives need to be trained to recognize this new role. Gone are the days when a curt, factual response will be sufficient for every situation. Representatives’ responses to queries need to have an eye on issues management.
  • Customer service needs to be in the loop on company news. If you’re launching a new product, they clearly need to know, but this goes for emerging media and online issues too.
  • Objectives need to focus on customer satisfaction, not turnover speed. Too many support centres focus on the number of customers handled as a success measure. They need to focus on happy customers, not quick ones.
  • Organizational structures need to reflect this role. Customer service benefits from sitting within, or having a direct line to, the communications function.

At a time like this, when new business is at a premium and given that it takes far less of an investment to keep a customer than to gain a new one, customer service takes on a new importance. It’s time to start thinking of customer service as an investment, not simply a cost.

What do you think?

Posted in: public relations

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24Comments

Why Podcasting Is Like Photography

09.01.05

Daniel Steinberg‘s guest post on Chris Brogan’s blog this Saturday got me thinking. He noted: “we don’t know what podcasting really is any more than we know what photography really is.”

When you think about it, podcasting as a communications medium has a lot in common with photography.

  • Niches - while they don’t need to by definition, many podcasts serve narrow niches – they focus on a tightly defined topic. Photographers often focus on specific niches – Caralin, for example, focuses on portrait and wedding photography. There are plenty of other forms out there, but she’s decided to focus. Your podcast is more likely to succeed if you do the same.
  • Comments after the fact – unlike Twitter, for example, podcasts don’t involve a rapid free-flowing conversation. Comments are possible, but they are submitted after the current content is posted.
  • Large or small audiences – most photographers have a relatively small audience for their photography. The vast majority of photographs aren’t taken by people who would consider themselves ‘photographers’ but who take photographs anyway. Meanwhile, a small number have very large audiences for their work. The same goes for podcasts. Most have a very small audience. Others enjoy large followings. Both are fine. Don’t expect your podcast to go nuclear just because you produce it.
  • Perfect for some means, limited for others – as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, in some cases photographs just can’t capture the moment effectively and a different medium – perhaps video – would work better. The same goes for podcasting – just like any other communications tool, it’s not suitable for every occasion or every audience. Pick your use effectively.

What do you think? Are these comparisons on-target? Way off-base? What would you add?

Posted in: podcast, uncategorized

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7Comments

Internet Withdrawal Symptoms

09.01.02

Radio tower down, via a car: not goodHappy New Year, everyone! I’ve just arrived back in Toronto after spending the Christmas season out of town with Caralin‘s parents.

You may have noticed that this site has been quiet over the last few days. About six days ago, Wiarton was on the receiving end of some very strong winds that brought-down the 25 year-old radio tower in our backyard (onto one of their cars, see right) and, along with it, our Internet access.

Over the last few days I’ve come to realize just how much I rely on the Internet, every single day.

It’s more than just Twitter and blogging; we rely on the Internet in almost every aspect of our lives now:

  • We’re in the process of buying a car at the moment. The research process ground to a halt without Internet access.
  • I did much of my Christmas shopping online. Without web access, I couldn’t look up any information about those products or return policies.
  • I wanted to share my holiday pictures with my family in England. No Flickr, no photos.
  • When we experienced an urgent situation with a client, I couldn’t log-on to our network to check my files.
  • The family’s web design business was completely hamstrung.

There were plenty more examples of times I thought, almost by default, “oh I’ll just look that up online,” before realizing I couldn’t.

Is this kind of dependence on the Internet a bad thing? A good thing? Is it really dependence or just utility? The Internet hasn’t been around for that long, but it’s had a massive impact. If we needed to, would we quickly adapt to being offline?

What’s your take?

Posted in: uncategorized

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