Public Relations Archives - Page 8 of 24

The Online World Of Negative Product Reviews

03/25/2013 By Jayme Soulati

I got bought, and I bet you’ve been bought at some point or another, too…right there in the online product reviews of Amazon.com. I don’t feel good about it, I actually am upset that I caved.

Let me share:

1. Kidlet wanted a new iPod case; none of them were available or appealing at Best Buy.

2. In a search on Amazon for “iPod cases” this Harry Potter SkinIt brand “case” appeared.

3. We bought as it was the most reasonable price; it arrived and to my chagrin and lament, it was a sticker.

4. Then I felt dumb; ah-hah, the “SkinIt” brand was all about skins as stickers and not skins as gel cases or what not. How was I to know? A mom trying to appease a pre-teen with what she wants with nary a look at the fine print.

5. We went to Target and found a white case; kidlet trimmed the SkinIt to fit and now she’s happy. But, Mom wasn’t.

Write A Product Review

When the request came to write a product review (it caught me at the right moment as I had ignored the request many times previously), it was the right moment. I gave it 2.5 stars and said that maybe I was a dumb mom for not knowing SkinIt meant sticker.

Wait several days and here comes the product team for SkinIt. “We have refunded the prices of your purchase, will you please now alter your product review to something more positive? After all, the fine print says explicitly that this is not a case at all, blah, blah. Here are the steps you take to change your review to a positive one.”

A Range of Emotions

From the “I got bought” trashy feeling to the “really? Are you kidding me?” and the “I’m so pissed off” emotions, I ranted and raved internally and was none too happy with this chain of events.

Options were to:

1. Oblige them with a new glowing review.

2. Do nothing.

3. Delete the comment totally.

4. Rant and rave in the comments section for all the world to see.

5. Write a blog post on the experience.

Before I share my decision, let me share one of my peer’s blog posts with you; it was so timely it was uncanny.

Mark Schaefer’s Dongle Blog Post

Mark Schaefer, blogger at {grow}, shares a scary post about the world in which we now live policed by onlookers and bystanders (no longer innocent) looking for an instant of fame (in this case negative) to influence the what-used-to-be-jokester mentality of peeps having fun in and amongst themselves.

In a gist, two guys yak together about the “big dongle;” the girl in front of them snaps a photo of them, posts it to Twitter with an “I’m offended” comment and what ensues is where nightmares are written. I want you to read Mark’s post to get all the gory details, and how this is relevant to me is the following:

1. Your fellow man is no longer trustworthy.

2. The online world is scarey and full of those wanting to take advantage.

3. Employers are caving to the online pressure of negativity by a few who have taken advantage.

4. Innocent people (who joked amongst themselves) are losing jobs as a result and fighting back via cyber attack.

5. And, me? I wrote a negative online product review because it was true and was bombarded with the appeal of a refund and strong request to alter the truth.

What did I do? Number 3 and number 5.

By Jayme Soulati

You might like Mark Schaefer’s latest book, Born To Blog:

Streamlining Blogger Outreach With Inkybee

02/12/2013 By Jayme Soulati

It’s getting harder and harder for media relations practitioners to earn stories. There is a depletion of journos at print and broadcast outlets, and social media has altered forever the course of media relations.

Where are publicity hungry professionals turning to secure “ink” for their clients?

To Bloggers.

Blogger Outreach

There’s something agencies do called blogger outreach. It’s quite similar to media relations only it’s done with bloggers who may also have a background in public relations. When I get a pitch from a peer blogger, I typically find a way to work the content in to my blog IF it’s relevant.

Gini Dietrich went on a rant yesterday right here on Spin Sucks about how she hates PR people and provided seven tips on how to pitch bloggers better. She’s a PR pro (and I am, too), so that means she gets to say she hates her peers.

What Hugh Anderson of Forth Metrics in the U.K. has been doing is writing a few e-books and great blog posts about blogger relations/outreach. He and his team have made it a topic of choice; so much so that they made a huge announcement late last week about a new platform for blogger outreach two years in the making.

Inkybee

I jumped on the beta of Inkybee to see what his fuss was about, and I stuck around. You know a beta is great when you keep jumping from one section of the platform to the next to poke holes and try to break it. There wasn’t much broken, but I still had questions, so Hugh and I Skyped on Friday so I could get in his head a bit more.

Here’s the gist:

Inkybee is for PR pros doing blogger outreach. You enter in key words and wait for InkyBee to churn the blogs that include your key words in the category you’re seeking. I put in social media just to see if my peer group popped up; more than 1900 blogs were returned via a ranking algorithm to my email box. It wasn’t right away, but I was very impressed with the list.

When you open the home page, you’ll find great tutorials on how to navigate and use the site. The best personal touch is that InkyBee uses personalized sticky notes throughout navigation to share instruction. There are also links to both of the Inkybee blogger outreach ebooks; one of them I already downloaded, and it’s full of testimonials from the field’s leaders – one of them Ms. Dietrich herself.

The lists are awesome and really push you quickly into the task of identifying bloggers with keywords you want in your outreach and even those you’d like to look at for guest posting and business development.

When setting up a campaign, you can track and measure; this step I’ll reserve until I have an active campaign to test.

As with anything just entering beta, there are kinks to work out; I’d say, though, that Inkybee already looks polished, clean and impressive. I encourage each of you to take up the call and sign on to the free beta right now.

Anyone who has tested a product, service or online tool knows it can only get better with real-time feedback. Won’t you please lend yours?

PR Strategy For Business: The Company Launch

01/30/2013 By Jayme Soulati

News crew setting up to report on the floods (Photo credit: max_wedge)

Economics and economies are contributing to the start-up and along with the great idea to launch a company comes the need for solid public relations counsel to strategize about the best way to distribute news.

Gone are the days when launching the company was straightforward. What we used to do was develop a media list, write a press release and get it approved, and then start pitching media one by one with phone calls, followed by executive interviews, and stories that appeared in media outlets.

I’m not going to say that was easy, but it certainly pales in comparison to what we do today (she said with excitement!).

Blending Traditional With Digital

Launching a company today requires in-depth strategy and a healthy regard for the social media sphere.

When a start-up is launching a company website at the same time it’s trying to establish a brand and reputation, there are elements to activate that enable a one-two punch in logical sequence.

A website with language by copywriters and marketers needs to launch with the appropriate optimization and back-end analytics tools.

Meanwhile, a should be orchestrated from which a few news releases and fact sheets are created.

The media list is trickier these days. Media outlets have fewer reporters on staff and also fewer print editions. Many publications are strictly online which means the lead time for publishing the news (especially if it’s hard news with a time element) is zilch. If an editor likes a story, he can clear a blank web page and run it! Funny, but true; you get the idea of the immediacy of the news cycle.

What that means is the PR team has to button up and think about every news angle, its impact on the company, how it should be communicated, and when. Please read this sentence twice; it is that important for your business’s success.

Factors To Consider

Should the news go on the wire, just online or both?
Should social media channels post the news same day and repeat it or wait?
Which social media channel should be regarded as primary for corporate news; how about consumer news?
Should bloggers be pitched? How about important journalists? Should you pitch them online via Twitter or traditionally via phone and email?
Do you want to field requests for interviews that are inbound or do you want to be aggressive and pitch and earn the hits?
Is your spokesperson trained using the message map? Is there a Q&A developed so spokespeople are prepared and not blindsided?
Has the PR team created a media brief of reporters who call requesting an interview?
When should a blog post news of a launch? Before or after a news release?

And, there is so much more.

The primary takeaway is not to confuse you, Ms. or Mr. Business; it’s to encourage you to hire a qualified public relations strategist with media relations expertise. Have no fear…

PR Strategy For Business: Blog Post Or News Release?

01/29/2013 By Jayme Soulati

The news release is NOT dead. There is no other way to formally announce company news that meets and adheres to traditional journalistic standards.

For those suggesting a news release no longer matters should take a look at whether they have hard news to share.

Start-ups, small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), and even established companies need to use a press release to issue news either online, via the wires, or sent as a pitch by media relations teams.

Blog Post Or News Release?

More companies are realizing the value of blogging. The blog, like the news release is owned media. You create the message, write the content and publish it, post it or distribute it via many channels.

But, here’s the $5 million chicken-or-egg question — which comes first?

Should a company write a blog post to launch news or should it write a news release to launch news?

A blog post seems like the easiest method to put news out there; albeit, the audience that sees the post is questionable (especially on a brand new blog with zero analytics).

If a company was to launch news of a new product, service or other innovation for the very first time via a blog, then that news is no longer fresh.

A blog is NOT the best place to announce major company news first unless a news release is included in that news strategy with strategic timing.

Here are the steps I recommend, and afterwards I share why:

1. To launch company news, draft a news release and blog post at the same time.

2. Get the content for each approved via the overall marketing and legal teams at the same time.

3. Set distribution of the news for both the blog and news release at about the same time. A blog post can be scheduled at any time of day.

4. The news release should hit the wires first, and the link to the news release should be included in the blog post just before clicking “publish.”

Rationale For This PR Strategy

If media get wind of a start-up’s news announcement and the company’s blog is the vehicle to share that news, then any attempt at issuing a news release, featuring the same content, and garnering attention is likely to fail.

When media relations practitioners pitch media, a blog post is not the vehicle of choice to inform media of news. It can complement; however, it is not an official vehicle.

Corporate blogs have a variety of authors and topics. To establish the company blog as the official word from the C-suite would take months of consistent writing with on-message topics. Media relations cannot be done via an occasional heavy-hitting blog post.

The news release must prevail first complemented by supporting vehicles with the content emphasized and packed with punch.

Thanks for reading Soulati-‘TUDE! Blog Post #400! Please subscribe, up and to the right, so you miss no more!

The News Release Is NOT Dead

01/28/2013 By Jayme Soulati

newsrelease Everywhere I read, someone speaks of the demise of the press release. Perhaps they’re right; we in media relations rarely put “press” in front of “release” to describe company-issued news.

We call it a news release, and the news release is NOT dead.

There were 137 news releases issued on PR Newswire today in the span of 30 minutes, the majority issued at 8 a.m. ET.

News, among those who don’t truly know what news is, can be anything a company announces; however, if it’s hard news then it’s oriented to facts, data, investors, publicly traded companies, major new products with mass appeal (Boeing’s failed jet), global issues, national crises, weather disasters, and other critical news of the day.

Soft news can be anniversaries, events, new books, babies, ribbon cuttings, christenings, restaurant openings, and other items without critically timed orientation.

Regardless of whether a company has soft or hard news to share, the news release is one of the best vehicles with which to distribute news. Here’s why:

If and when you’re pitching media with that news, a news release written in appropriate journalistic standard and AP style (follow them on Twitter @APStylebook) (typically) is most easily recognizable and accepted by media.
When a company issues a news release in the format as stated in #1, there’s credibility around that action which requires attention.
A news release usually goes through several rounds of editing by many layers of teams and professionals (marketing, legal, executives). Once it is approved and ready for publication, it becomes the official word of the company.
News releases are archived on websites as public record and as an historical queue of stories that inform audiences.
Media and other writers comb these archives to report on and understand companies, products, and people.
Executive quotes are readily accessible in news releases and can be printed in a variety of media with attribution to the spokesperson.
A news release is owned media; your company creates and controls the message. It is used to garner earned media…the story that appears in media outlets featuring much of the news and facts from company-issued news releases.

How is media relations done at your company? If it’s just via a personalized email to multiple email addresses via email marketing, then the message is harder to control.

If the team is using a pre-approved pitch and news release, then everyone is using official language approved by company leadership.

As I said, the news release is NOT dead.