eriksr on October 10th, 2008
Over the past few months I’ve been in touch with hundreds of public relations and marketing professionals. Through some great discussions about how social media is affecting their work and business, I’ve learned two very important things. I’ll go into detail on them, below, but the reason I bring these up is because I’ve developed a very short, very friendly social media primer. It’s a .PDF file, and you can get it by clicking here: Social Media Primer.
The first big pain point
“There’s so much out there, I don’t know what to focus on.” No kidding! The only way I can keep up is by constantly reading technology news sites, blogs, message forums, leading Twitter users…and then spending time to think about what I’ve just read.
I can do that because I love this stuff and am glued to my computer. Other people aren’t quite that passionate — they have things like stamp collections, dogs, and children. My suggestion? Read my primer, and then go out there and pick a social media strategist blog to read. Like mine.
Pain point number two
“There’s no single source of information that gives me just the very basics so I can get started.” There is now! Again, snag my primer, above. But I feel your pain. What I recommend is that you find a single source you trust and stick with them — they will eventually cover just about everything you need. No need to try to take it all in at once. You can of course read me, but check out my blogroll, off to the right there — I follow all those folks, and ProBlogger is my favorite source for news.
Ultimately, you can always write to me! I’m happy to help.
eriksr on August 18th, 2008
Just a reminder here, folks.
Remember the poetry you wrote at thirteen years old and posted on your very first Website? Remember the rant against your girlfriend you so cleverly turned into a podcast? The lapdance you put on YouTube? The too-drunk-to-stand pictures you placed on Flickr?
No? Well, no worries, a Goggle search will find them. Don’t believe me? Search your partner, your boss, or for the brave at heart, yourself. Then skip to page 23 (if you’ve been busy) or page 123 (if you’ve been very busy). Why look. There’s your glorious opus, your silver-tongued tirade, your gluttonous grin, your, well, you get the picture.
You are there because the Internet has a memory like an elephant. It never forgets. Ever. Which means everything you have ever posted, in any format, at any time, is preserved for all eternity for all future bosses, potential spouses (and spouses-in-law’s), up-coming clients, and anyone else who can spell your name. Preserved forever. Me? I’m embarrassed by my old USENET posts where I show off my Warhammer rules lawyering skills. You’ll NEVER find them, by the way…
So watch what you say on the Internet. Watch what you post. Watch what your spouse posts. Watch what your kids post. And, heaven help us, if you are in PR, watch what your client posts. Even on their own Website.
Unless, that is, they are delinquent in paying their bill.
eriksr on August 14th, 2008
Brian Solis just wrote about MicroPR, an effort that combines Twitter like brevity with public communication. He and Stowe Boyd came up with it, apparently, after Boyd successfully determined that he prefers to be pitched via Twitter.
Here’s a link.
All I can say is: Wow. Great idea. Pitching in the clear is an interesting concept. The catch, of course, is that no PR person in their right mind will share information of value to competitors of their clients…and reporters sometimes don’t want to share what they are writing about.
I totally agree that this will force PR pros to focus on the key details and not the useless buzzwords and crap that litter frequent communications. But again, will the need for secrecy kill MicroPR? And will a critical mass of journalists and bloggers opt into this?
I love the idea, but I think it is ahead of its time. Regardless, in their own words, here’s how it works:
Examples of usage:
Journalists and bloggers can declare that they do or do not want to be pitched via Twitter and other micromedia tools. They can also announce their specific preferences for contact.
Reporters looking for help with on story development can send a tweet, “@micropr Need startup recommendations for story on new micromedia tools. Reply via public tweet to @reportername” (112 characters).
A writer can share relevant beats @micropr beats = #social #micromedia #networks #media #infrastructure #hosting.
They could declare what sorts of microPR they want (or don’t want) to receive, and in what mode — @public messages or direct/private.
Other services could include scheduling calls and or meetings, etc.
Conference and awards organizers can call for speakers or submissions.
Media can also block certain PR people who are doing it wrong.
eriksr on July 28th, 2008
Dear Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb,
Thank you so much for your article about bit.ly. If I ever meet you in person I’m going to give you cookies and maybe flowers.
And you might want to do the same. Let me explain.
What is Bit.ly?
Bit.ly is a URL shortener similar to TinyURL. Unlike TinyURL however, bit.ly gives you access to metrics.
Why should I care?
Let me answer this with a common scenario.
Let’s say your client or company is about to launch a new site, or has created a new sub-page, and you want to let people know about it.
A shortened URL is a lot easier for people to read and understand.
Now let’s say you want to make this URL a link. And you want to track how many people click your link.
Traditionally you would use a unique referral ID appended to a link. So you end up with something like this:
- http://mydomain.com/tracking.php?ref=abc&destination=1
- http://mydomain.com/tracking.php?ref=abc&destination=2
Looks simple enough, doesn’t it? But in my experience, co-ordinating with your client’s (or own) IT/webmasters to get a referral ID process set up is painful and time-consuming.
And that’s where Bit.ly really shines. Because, with Bit.ly, you can track how many people click your link without involving IT.
Bit.ly has a long memory
The first time you use Bit.ly for a pitch, you do so to shorten your URL. The second time you use it — after the pitch has been sent — you simply enter that shortened URL to see how many people have clicked your link.
Easy, eh?
But, even better, bit.ly remembers the last 15 times you used the service. So if you are putting together a report for a release that went out last month, say, and you want to know the number of clicks your link generated, all you have to do is surf over to Bit.ly.
Of course (and life just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?) you can forego the surfing and access this information via an RSS feed.
So where can I use Bit.ly?
Of course, since you’re using Bit.ly’s shortened URL and not the actual URL, you wouldn’t want to use this in a press release, for example (just think of the library of dead links you would have if Bit.ly were to fail). So save it for items with a short life span. Like a pitch. Or an email campaign. And any short effort where you want to know how many people are clicking your link(s).
Pitfall: Privacy and cookie cleaning
But great as Bit.ly is, there are two pitfalls.
First, the metrics about your shortened URL are not private. Anyone can replace the unique part of the info screen URL (the bolded part — http://bit.ly/info.php?id=ikWtm) with a code from someone else to see their click-through rates. So be aware of this if you don’t want to share metrics (or if you want to see someone else’s).
Second, if you don’t accept cookies, or if you clear your cache, then you won’t get historical information from bit.ly. Be aware of that if you are relying on them to generate client reports complete with click through metrics.
eriksr on July 12th, 2008
In this new post I cover ways bloggers can work with PR people to build traffic for their sites. Pretty easy stuff — asking for product, information, or even setting up interviews. PR people are good sources of content, and content rules supreme!
My original post over at ProBlogger can be found here. It attempts to explain to bloggers why PR people do the things they do…with an eye towards easing tensions between these two communities. Think before you spam!
eriksr on July 2nd, 2007
Allow me to direct your attention to I CAN HAS CHEEZEBURGER?
This blog/site has been at the top of traffic lists on Wordpress for weeks. All it does is post pictures of animals with funny or cute captions around them. I’ve included one here, in fact. But I digress — in this post I just want to introduce you all to memes. Just so you know what they are.
Read the rest of this entry »
