City Publicity Blog

Picture yourself walking down the street and being noticed by strangers.
They know YOU, know what YOU look like and what YOU do, they know YOUR story and are happy to see YOU in 'person'. 

We are not talking 'stalker-like' knowing you, more like ; "I think  I know her", "That's the lady from the Sunday Mail article about..." "That's that woman who started that company who ...' "He's the founder of that shoe company who ... "  Those kinds of comments.

Would you LIKE it?

Building a great public profile means putting yourself 'out there' to be noticed. Not so much the product or business - it's more about YOU, the person behind the business, the brains, the passion, the driver.

I read two job advertisements today and had to post about it. Once was totally awesome, the other not so great.

I also posted on Twitter that #yougetwhatyoupayfor when I was referring to the 'bad' job ad. I need to explain why. Although this is true to some extent, if you read the job advertisement and compare how these two companies go about it you will see why one of them will attract the right person for their brand and the other most likely, will not. 

Please note the jobs advertised are very different I am merely using them as example to highlight the  difference in style of advertising and attracting the right people for your brand.  Salaries are not advertised for both, only one of them -  one is part time, the other is full time.

Why am I interested in this as a Publicity/profile topic? I believe everything that you put online reflects on your brand. Job advertisements included. They  even appear in online search - depending on what content the advertisement has  included. It is all content and  it is a good reminder to make sure that it is in-line with your brand, your company ethos and are happy for it to be 'public'.

JOB 1 was a Marketing Role ( Digital Innovation Consultant - Marketing) 

The company had their brand visible so you know who you would be working for. You could google the company name to find out more about them,  see if the business appealed to you and if you had something to offer a company like theirs. My favorite part is they have a section with a link to it within the ad which advises how best you apply for a job with them and what they are looking for. They also have a video on what the place looks like , the people in it and essentially where you would be going to work each day. This information is all public for everyone to see at all times. 

The job ad stipulates the company is a leader in their field and  suggest that if you are of the right level your application should be a standout amount the 100's that come in. The company stands out already, they want great people to join the team  and if you are exceptional, there will be a desk for you.  Money is not mentioned - lifestyle is,  good work/life balance is,  along with support, mentoring and growth. All of these things reflect on the overall brand once again. Quality. They want quality people to create quality work for quality clients. This in turn should provide a challenge, rewards, job satisfaction and  a  well balanced lifestyle.

I would apply for that  that job if I was looking.  I may sweat out the daunting application process but once though I can imaging it would be a very rewarding place to grow.

Next...

Job 2 is a Marketing Role. ( Marketing Expert) 

This one lead with the headline:  Great Working Environment • Exciting Opportunity • Close to Transport • Thursday – Friday (apr. 20 hrs ) • alternatively part time-suit student. 

"Must be versatile and able to swing between sales, marketing and website development with a desire to succeed in anything and everything they do."  With the following Core Skills: A google search of the company returns results of the same company name internationally and a local business directory listing. They do  need some marketing help and all the things they listed on the job description but not for the price they are asking. They could use a part time Marketing student for that price to manage the 'project' of finding a team of contractors who specialise in  various areas and get the work done to help their brand be more prominent online. That would work.

Social Media Policies are set to be as common as standard workplace agreements across all industries and will also become common  additions to existing  staff handbooks and induction procedures.

Here are some interesting articles on this topic which are worth making the time to read.

1. Five rules to protect your online reputation
2. Be careful what you post; social media can cause problems
3. Enterprise: List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines
4. COURSEWARE: social media and PR Crisis Communication  ( This one has an awesome free downloadable paper to go with it!) thanks to @Silkcharm ( Laurel Papworth)

PLUS - listen to  David Meerman Scott, Author of the #1 bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR , and the Wall Street Journal bestseller Real-Time Marketing & PR, talk about why companies need a social media policy.

Video interview conducted and posted by Vivienne Story, General Manager, Blands Law. (twitter @mysocialmediapolicy )

 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the way Social Media Policies are  currently being used or how you can see them being used in the future.

City Publicity in conjunction with BlandsLaw has available for purchase a Social Media Policy for $500.00, including GST. Can you afford not to have one?

 

Cheers, Peta. 

(Tips I’d like to share from The New Rules of Marketing & PR)

Online Media

The online media room (sometimes called a press room or press page) is the part of your organisations website that you create specifically for the media. In some organisations this page is simply a list of news releases with contact information for the organisation’s PR person. But many companies and nonprofits have elaborate online media rooms with a great deal of information available in many different formats: audio, video, photos, new releases, background information, financial data and much more.

It is important to consider that all kinds of people visit a media room, not just journalists! Your buyers are snooping around your organisation by visiting media pages on your website. Your current customers, partners, investors, suppliers and employees all visit those pages.

Best Practices for Online Media Rooms

An online media room is an important part of any organisation’s website and a critical aspect of an effective media relations strategy. When done well, an online media room will turn journalists who are just browsing into interested writers who will highlight your organisation positively in their stories. More importantly, an online media room can move your buyers into and through the sales process, resulting in more business for your organisation and contributing to meeting your organisation’s real goals of revenues and customer retention.

Optimise Your News Releases for Searching and for Browsing

The best online media rooms are built with the understanding that some people need to search for content and others are browsing. Many people already know what they are looking for.
1. They need answers to specific questions and organisations must therefore optimise content so that it can be found, perhaps by including a search engine.
2. The second way people use content is to be told something that they do not already know and therefore couldn’t think to ask. This is why browsability is also important; it allows users to stumble across useful information they didn’t even know they were looking for.

While many web-savvy marketers understand the importance of search-engine optimisation, they often forget that sites must be designed for browsing too. Failing to do is particularly unfortunate because the high traffic on news release pages comes partly from the many people who browse these pages as they conduct research.

You should deploy a navigational design in a way that provides valuable information visitors might not have through to ask for. Consider including multiple browsing techniques. For example, you can create different links to targeted releases for different buyer personas (maybe by vertical market or some other demographic factor appropriate to your organisation). You might also organise the same releases by product (because some members of the media may be covering just one of your products in a review or story), by geography or by market served. Most organisations simply list news releases in reverse-chronological order (the newest release is at the top of the page and ones from last year are hidden away somewhere). While this is fine for the main news release page, you need to have additional navigation links so people can browse the releases. Don’t forget that people may also need to print out news releases, so consider providing printer-friendly formats (e.g. PDF format as well as HTML).

Include Multimedia Content

Innovative communicators make use of non-text content, such as photos, charts, graphs, audio feeds and video clips to inform site visitors and the media.
• Include executive photos, logo images, product photos and other content that is ready (and preapproved) to be published or linked to by journalists.
• You should offer audio and video clips (such as parts of executive speeches or product demonstrations), photos and logos in such a way that journalists can use them in their written stories as well as on TV and radio shows.

I have found a sensational resource to share with you from Author David Meerman Scott.

David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker, seminar leader, and the author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, an award-winning BusinessWeek bestseller published in 24 languages. He is also the author of the hit book World Wide Rave and three other books. His Web Ink Now blog is ranked by AdAge Power 150 as a top worldwide marketing blog.

He provides some FREE Downloadable Ebooks on PR, New Media, ROI and Viral Marketing via his website www.davidmeermanscott.com . These are top recourses which I can highly recommend for great reading and reference. Enjoy!

Lose Control of Your Marketing! (2009)
Why marketing ROI measures lead to failure Give this one to your boss! 
Download now

The New Rules of Viral Marketing (2008)
How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free!
Downloaded more than 1 million times! 
Download now
 
The Gobbledygook Manifesto (2007)
Chosen for the Viral Marketing Hall of Fame! 
Download now
 
The New Rules of PR (2006)
 How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly
"One of the most read business white papers in history" -- Anne Holland, MarketingSherpa
 Download now

How Will You Create a WORLD WIDE RAVE? (2009)
Making of the Video Making of a viral video 
Download now

David is also the Author of the following published books:

The New Rules of Marketing and PR (2010) SECOND EDITION
 How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly 
Learn more about The New Rules of Marketing & PR

World Wide Rave (2009)
Creating triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and share your stories
Learn more about World Wide Rave

Tuned In (2008)
Uncover the extraordinary opportunities that lead to business breakthroughs (written with Craig Stull and Phil Myers) Learn more about Tuned In

Eyeball Wars (2001)
A novel of dot-com intrigue
Learn more about Eyeball Wars

Cashing In with Content (2005)
How innovative marketers use digital information to turn browsers into buyers
Learn more about Cashing In with Content

More info can be found here: http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/books.htm 
Please look up more of David’s recourses on his website, http://www.davidmeermanscott.com,
his blog http://www.webinknow.com or follow him daily on twitter http://twitter.com/dmscott .

Below is a list of links to interesting articles and blog posts on PR, Publicity, Online Marketing and Social Media that I have at some stage tweeted about.  They are all  great resources and good reading.  I thought I would put them all in one spot so they can be easily shared.  Enjoy!

1. 30 Twitter Tools for research  via Ana ADI
2. How to get promoted in PR (with the help of social media) via mUmBRELLA
3. What's right with Public Relations? via The Sports Commentary
4. How to (NOT) pitch a blogger via Get Social PR
5. Can Internet Public Relations grow your business? via Get Social PR
6. What CEOs and PR Pros should learn from Oprah via Jack Horner Communications Inc
7. Boosting your traffic and credibility with PR via Feed Front
8. Consumer-facing PR means business via New Media Cowboy
9. Matrix: Evolution of social media integration and corporate websites via Web Strategy
10. The 5 foundations of social media success that no one talks about via ProBlogger
11. 10 questions that will always make you better via ProBlogger
12. Five killer press release tips for small businesses via Small Business Trends
13. 5 reasons to use press releases to promote your blog via ProBlogger
14. 10 things you should not share on social networks via How Stuff Works
15. Why you should blog before you twitter via Jeff Bullas
16. Boost your credibility with article marketing via Strawberry Communications
17.  Why PR Professionals Need to Understand Social Media via socialmediatoday
18.  How is PR changing? by Journalistics
19.  How PR Pros Are Using Social Media For Real Results by Mashable
20.  10 Free Social Media Tools Every PR Pro Should Master  by socialmediatoday

**BONUS 2010 Social PR Summary** 
Best Social PR Guides and Tips of 2010 ( So Far) by Webbiquity

There is no single way to use twitter, there are no 'rules' as such - only etiquette guidelines and suggestions from those who have made it work for them. You will find a million links to various people's guides to Twitter and tweeting successfully - take the bits you can relate to and make sense, then leave the rest. Do your own thing, and you will soon see what works for you. Loads of tweeting suggestions can be found  at The Twitter Agency.

Below is a few ideas from how I personally use Twitter in Public Relations.

Some users I know simply want to see what their favorite celebrity is doing. Others want to keep up on the latest industry news and trends. Others want to share their thoughts and activities with friends or family. Others are there to inform their followers on various issues or share useful or  favorite links.

Twitter is a communications tool. This means that regardless of why an individual is on Twitter, they are there to speak and be heard. As a marketer or public relations specialist, it’s your job to tap into your audience.

It is important to spend time communicating to your followers  as well as  time listening to them.

Here are a few ways you can use Twitter in public relations .

• Consumer Relations - You can open the door to two-way communications by asking questions, answering the questions posed by others, and simply discussing news. You might get others involved by arranging meetings or simply asking for feedback. You have a forum for thanking and helping your customers. This allows your followers to connect with your brand and participate in it.
Great example of:  How not to do customer service on Twitter via social media guru Laurel Papworth  aka@silkcharm

• Reputation Management – By monitoring mentions of your brand, you can see what others are saying about it. Recommendations and mentions by consumers and partners provide free exposure for your brand. If something isn’t right and someone says something negative, you now have a public forum to make it right. This demonstrates that your company does care about its consumers in a very public way.  It is AMAZING how many companies still do not do this. Try it - mention a recent experience of a product/place/dining experience and see if the brand you mention acknowledges it.

Great post by Editor-in-Chief of  Mashable @adamostrow about this: " Not Using Tweetscan to Manage Your Brand? You’re Not Doing Your Job"  The post mentions  both tweetscan and summize ( summize was later acquired by Twitter, as the blog post was in 2008! )
Find out what  Twitter search can offer you and also Socialoomph.
Also read " 8 Easy Twitter Monitoring Ideas" posted on a fave site of mine -  Social Media Examiner

• Media Relations – When it comes to bloggers and other media professionals, it’s becoming a common practice to communicate through social networking. Twitter can also be used to make announcements to the public and share business news. This does not mean SPAMMING - be careful here. Connect genuinely otherwise you may become blocked.

MEDIA ON TWITTER( Global resource )  www.mediaontwitter.com
UK Journalists on twitter via Stephen Davies @stedavies
AUSTRALIAN Journalists on Twitter via @silkcharm Laurel Papworth 
US Journalists on Twitter created by   @GibertPascal

• Journalism and Reporting – Twitter is often used to report on company events and involvements in public affairs. It can be used to keep listeners informed about events in real time, whether that’s conference events or speaking schedules. I follow so many news outlets, it's awesome to be able to have global current news on tap.
As a publicist - it means you can monitor  news in relevant industries for your clients ensuring you are always up to speed with the latest.

The most important one out of the above for me is by far REPUTATION MANAGEMENT. If people are out there talking about you, you had better find out what it is - good, bad or otherwise....and RESPOND :)

For those who still are not convinced Social Media is the way forward, the future, our new communication medium and basically the platform for our future generations  to learn from  - I recommend you watch this You Tube clip from Socialnomics.


ROI (Return on investment) is hard to gauge at the best of times, yet  it is one of those vital things businesses need to know and calculate to be able  to justify future budget allocations and campaign success in relation to PR & Marketing.
With Social Media (hopefully) at the core of any good marketing plan  statistics like these seen in this clip should not be taken lightly.

I think it is time those who think Facebook is for the 'kids' , Twitter is for  'people with nothing better to do' and posting a blog entry, tweet or review from a mobile phone whilst in a restaurant, out shopping or after experiencing either good or bad customer service is 'too much', had better think again!

 

This is happening - and at lightning speed. There is no going back,  the mediums have been created, the people have a voice and will use it, their opinions will be heard. All you have to do now is work out what you are going to do about it.

Engage?

Still not sure....READ MORE FROM SOCIALNOMICS or follow founder, Erik Qualman on twitter - he is   @equalman