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Tendenci – The Open Source AMS Blog

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Tag: public relations

Posted on 2011-12-062014-11-02

The art of the online press release

Organizations have long communicated through press releases to their public and the media.   Organize your official thoughts in a single document, snag a couple of relevant quotes for someone in leadership and go – it works.

But in the days of the Social Web, how relevant are one-sided blurbs of self-focused content?   That’s where we thinking tempering your official messaging with two-way, less formal communication (like great Facebook updates and blog posts) come in.

But the press release beat goes on…   here are a few resources and links to know and utilize when sending your organization’s news across the Interwebs:

Start at the very beginning, tweak those headlines!

Of course you can get super geeky on just headlines alone to help maximize your online press releases (like some of these tips from this great PR Newswire blog post):

  • Length‘ Keep things short, sweet and Tweetable (stay under 90-120 characters)
  • Keywords‘ Put your most important keyword at the beginning of the headline’ within the first 65 characters.
  • Informative – Readers like data, include numbers that are interesting and relevant (of course)
  • Subheads – Share more detail (and keywords!) by using a subhead below the main title of your press release – or use it to break up a really long headline.

Use Social Media monitoring tools to help you gauge your impact

When sharing a press release online, know your network’s audience for greatest impact.  If you know that the majority of your likes, shares and comments happen in the morning – post then!  If your Twitter followers are more active on the weekends, share your content when they are awake and ready to chat.

Online monitoring tools like Sprout Social and Crowdbooster   actually look at your follower base on different networks and tell you the best time to post for optimal engagement.  And be sure you are actually engaging – not just throwing a press release in the room and not hanging around to answer questions or provide more info.  It goes back to that whole ‘relating to the public’ thing you signed up for as a PR rock star.

Another handy Social Media tool to use is a link shortner like bit.ly or tinyurl.com to more easily track links you include in your press release.  Change them up on different press release versions (ie: one you link to from Facebook versus Twitter) so you can more easily track what tools get you the most clicks.

Don’t forget to optimize, optimize, optimize!

Online optimization isn’t just for your website text.  Use your Search Engine Optimization basics and apply them to your online press release postings too, with special consideration for the power of internal links to your website and featured projects.  This press release optimization tips blog post has some good ideas to help you out too.

Need help creating an online press room or optimizing a press release for the Web?

Our Creative Services and Search Engine Marketing teams are pros at helping you get your messaging out to the masses in actionable and meaningful ways.  Contact us today and let us get started on broadcasting your awesomeness on the Internet!

 

Posted on 2011-10-312014-11-02

PR Day 2011: An Emphasis on Crisis Management

It was a wonderful day at Reliant Park as PR professionals from around the city gathered to learn from some of the most  renown people in the Marketing and Communications industry.    The morning began with discussion about “trust” and how the media attempts to gain it from sources when breaking a story. Investigative reporters Wayne Dolcefino and Amy Davis expressed their concerns with the growing amount of distrust between people and the media. An estimate of 46% of the public trust a TV journalist.

As PR professionals, our relationship with the media is always important because they can make a story explode or tone it down (depending on how generous they are feeling). Lee Warren, manager of external communications for Marathon Oil Corporation, presented on ‘Crisis Communication-Proactive vs. Reactive PR’ and discussed the importance of building these relationships with the media before a crisis happens (be on the offensive, not defensive).

“If traditional media is evolving so quickly, we need to evolve aswell to be successful,” said Lee Warren in regards to the constant growth and changes in PR.

Obviously, being on the offensive doesn’t work for all problems. Let’s use British Petruleum, for example. When the oil spill occurred on the Gulf of Mexico, there were several angles to the story. You had people exposing stories about BP’s  negligent  behavior on testing the rigs, environmentalists complained about the oil stained beaches and wildlife deaths, the economy came into play when stories about oysters were being  discarded  and affecting  Louisiana  restaurants and tourism. This crisis is an example of  how an unfortunate event can draw in multiple story angles, making it hard for any publicist to contain the problem.

In this case, regardless of what relationship you had with the media, there would be no way to downplay the severity of the matter at hand. It looks like the only remedy for an event like this would be a lot of money toward oil spill clean up (which BP and the government came to a $20 billion agreement) and loads of positive story fillers. However, I do completely agree that if you create a brand and keep a constant positive message, when something bad happens, you’ll have less of a problem gaining trust than if your brand was already scrutinized to begin with.

 

 

Another panel that I had attended was one called ‘True X, Y, Z’s of Social Media: Optimizing New Media in a Multi-Generational Workplace’. This panel was hosted by Monica Danna, Founder and CEO of Colab; Kelsey Ruger, Vice President of Design and Innovation for ChaiONE; Maggie McDonald, Sr. Account Coordinator, Marion Montgomery; Jay Steinfeld, Founder and CEO of blinds.com.

My favorite part about their presentation was their analysis on the differences of generations and how information is being displayed online. For example, the current generation is open to allowing the public to have a closer look into their personal lives. They tweet and post images on  Facebook  that a majority of the older generation may find distasteful.  Also, growing up with cell phones and technology has added a new mix of resources that other generations didn’t have access to.

PR professionals range from various generations with different types of expertise and creativity so when it comes to social media, it’s important to keep yourself updated on the newest trends and updates so that you don’t fall behind, regardless of your age.

 

 

Posted on 2009-04-202014-11-02

What is “Uncommon Storytelling?” Find out this week as Ed Schipul presents to PRSA Gulfstream Chapter

If you are in public relations and you are not neck deep in social media you may be in trouble. Tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube  have become essential for PR pros. Not surprisingly,  many still wonder how to get the greatest positive impact from these technologies, so Ed Schipul will be heading back out on the road this week to make sense of it all. His presentation, “Uncommon Storytelling: Putting the Relations Back Into Public Relations with Social Media,” will be featured at the Public Relations Society of America Gulfstream Chapter luncheon.

In today’s news release on the subject, Ed delivers (ha) a body blow to poor Dominos Pizza for its mishandling of last week’s embarrassing social media fiasco.

“Virtually every week we see examples of companies that make serious mistakes or miss opportunities because they don’t understand the rules of engagement in the online environment,” said Schipul. ‘Hoping nobody is going to notice when potentially harmful conversations are happening online is a recipe for disaster. The good news is that used strategically, social media can help to create deeper and more meaningful connections between brands and their communities.

Ed’s presentation is scheduled for noon, Thursday at JM Family Enterprises in Deerfield Beach. Advance registration is $20 for PRSA members and $30 for non-members. For more information, visit www.prsagulfstream.org.

Hope to see you in Fort Lauderdale!

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