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 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 3rd, 2008
Well, someone at Nintendo has got to be pretty happy right about now. See, they got Dooce to mention the Wii in her blog.
And that would make the day of any social media person.
But, as if that wasn’t good enough, she also mentioned Nintendo three times. And she mentioned their newest product, Wii Fit, eight times.
That’s twelve mentions of wholesome goodness on a blog that averages 40-50,000 viewers daily.
Twelve mentions surrounded by words of love, like ”… good people from Nintendo …” and “… this is a product I use, something in my house, something I’d love to share with you.”
If I were the lucky Nintendo social media person who managed this, I’d be having a cigarette right about now and mumbling something along the lines of “And was it good for you?” Read the rest of this entry »
