A Great Personality

How might you describe your handbag if it were a person?  Creative?  Vivacious?  Down-to-Earth?  And how about your toothbrush?  Would you call it friendly?  Or intelligent?

And why is that?  A lot of how we see the products we buy stems from their marketing and branding campaigns.  I know this isn’t news, but it’s also not something we tend to think about.  And here’s something else we haven’t been thinking about:  for decades, larger companies have been establishing brand attributes through magazines, TV, billboards and radio.  But now that social media is thriving and available to all, many smaller companies without this advertising experience are diving in without considering their unique brand personality.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is, there’s no better way to express who you are as a company than through social media, and it’s not too late.

I’m here at the Digital Matters conferences in Singapore, and it’s offered a lot of insight for just about anyone navigating the digital media landscape in any way.  One of the more valuable sessions was called, “Moving Forward with Social Media”.  It was made up of an impressive panel, including Thomas Crampton, Asia Pacific Director – 360 Degree Digital Influence, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific; James Miner, SVP, Digital, ESPN; and Doug Fraser, Operations Associate from Facebook.

The biggest take-way for me was that before starting any social media campaign companies need to sit down with their stakeholders and determine what they are all about.  Do they want their business and products to be seen as hip and flirtatious?  Reliable and conservative?   Brazen and tough?   Think about traits you would use to describe a person, not necessarily descriptors you would use for the merchandise or service.

Then, once you know the brand personality, keep that in mind with every social media engagement.  When it comes to establishing a brand, there’s nothing worse than inconsistency.   Then, in the words of one of the panel members, “build on the campaign, and see where it takes you.”  As long as you are saying true to the brand you have a guide, and this can make engaging in social media more fun, too.

Has Social Media Changed the Game of Media Relations?

Last week I attended a great Webcast titled The New Rules of Media Relations put on by PRWeek and Marketwire.  What was particularly good about this Webcast is that top journalists from PCMag.com, Reuters Health and Kiplinger shared their candid feedback on how they use social media, how PR professionals can drive them nuts, what we do right and how we can turn so-so pitches into successful pitches that result in coverage for our clients.

So, has social media significantly changed the game of media relations? The short answer – not really. According to these journalists, tried and true methods reign BUT new media outlets have made it significantly easier for PR professionals to research topics, stay current, and contact journalists.  Also, it was noted that reporters are still trying to navigate their way through this online world of social media and understand how to best leverage it to make their jobs more efficient – just like us PR folks are trying to do. That was reassuring to hear.

Webcast Participants:

• Chloe Albanesius, News Writer for PCMag.com
• Kevin McCormally, Executive Director Kiplinger Washington Editors
• Ivan Oransky, Executive Editor, Reuters Health NY
• Jessica Strange, Executive Director Media Relations, Marketwire

Key Takeaways:

• Respect Journalists & Build Relationships
  • One of the most laborious and important parts of media relations is identifying the appropriate contact at a publication
  • Take the time to learn what they write about, follow their Tweets, get to know their beat
  • Slowly begin a relationship by commenting on their articles, tweets, and mention past articles in pitches
• How to Craft the Perfect Pitch that will Actually Get Opened
  • Subject Title – keep it short and simple (you’ve got about 2 seconds to garner their attention)
  • Use bullet points
  • Avoid flowery language
  • Keep the publication’s audience in mind
  • Kevin from Kiplinger’s motto – send 3 off-point pitches and your email address is blocked
• How Journalists are Using Social Media Day-to-Day
  • Most use it to receive and share ideas, not a main source of news yet
  • Initiate discussions with folks and follow relevant industry pundits and companies
  • Corporate Blogs – Chloe is a big advocate of getting news/quotes from corporate blogs
• Preferred Contact Method
  • Yup, it’s still good ol’ fashion email
  • Using social media (ie. Twitter or Facebook) is ok too, but email gets the best response
• SEO-Savvy Releases & Pitches
  • Keep headline of release to under 65 characters to be SEO optimized
  • Embed unique keywords
  • First 2 words of a sentence and first 2 paragraphs are key
  • Cut through the clutter and get to the point
  • Interesting Note: Yahoo! will be releasing an Editorial Style Guide for the Web in 2010
• Future of Journalism
  • It’s a bright, Internet-filled future
  • Journalists and PR are in the midst of an evolution and understanding how to work with the Internet and social media
  • Types of people reporting and the overall definition of “journalism” will evolve as the Internet and social media progresses

Click here to listen to the entire Webcast.