Media Guerrilla

New Skills For Young PR Pros

So last Friday, half a dozen students from Chico State's journalism program (my alma mater), came to Voce's Palo Alto office and spent the day observing and discussing agency life.

As part of this visit, I spent some time talking about the web and its impact on the PR industry. It was one of those discussions where unfortunately you just end up having to go a mile wide and an inch deep on things, however, one question shook out of this talk that I thought other students and new grads might find interesting and helpful, I'll elaborate on it here. The question was pretty simple:

What *new* skills are important to PR?

It's a great question, one I could chew on for a while here, but if I had to pick three things, I'd say:

Learn Another Language
Seriously, as communicators, if you really want to be successful using your first language, consider learning a second — HTML. It's a universal language that's becoming critically important in PR, especially as the reach and influence of the web continues to shape and inform market opinions and perceptions. I think having some basic knowledge of HTML gives you a small leg up when, for example, you're using a tool, such as a blog in business. It also provides you with a better understanding of how metadata, markup and the like all quietly work together behind the scenes to aid in the discovery and distribution of what you're ultimately communicating via the web.

Learn Conversational Communication
This is admittedly harder than it sounds, and dangerous too, but it's about learning a different style of communication, one that separates things like AP style and institutionalized standards of "business talk,' from more informal and colloquial forms of writing and discourse. It's important because the vehicles for communication are changing. We're no longer confined to emails, or press releases or static corporate web pages. Yes, we're still using these mediums, but we're also communicating via blog posts, in comment threads, on IM and through other forms of media. The dangerous part of all this, particularly for those new to the workplace, is just learning to determine when this style of communication is advantageous, and, well, when it's not.

Learn Media Production
Understanding how to plot, plan and produce media, particularly video, is important. It's another communications tool, one that more companies are adopting as the cost and labor barriers to production continue to lower. Having some basic knowledge of composition, sound, lighting, and editing, is a skill set that has a lot of utility — be it an agency or inside a company. I'll also add, understanding basic distribution techniques and services, like RSS enclosures, aspect ratios, iTunes directory submissions, etc., is helpful.

Again, there's much more I and I'm sure others in the industry would say are important skills. Ultimately, however, it's about getting the fundamentals right, first. It's about learning to dribble, pass and shoot before you worry about learning how to dunk, but hopefully this helps.

pr, socialmedia, students

The Press Release Page A New Approach To An Old Problem

So I've never really considered the whole 'press release vs. social media release' debate an either/or situation. The way I see it, there's arguably utility and merit in both formats, as there are gaps and drawbacks. Frankly, I'm not convinced either approach is really the best way to think about news distribution on the web, and well, maybe for that reason alone, I think there's still room for experimentation.

With this in mind, the Voce team did an experiment of our own recently, something we've been calling the "press release page."

Conceptually, it's pretty simple: We "announced" a partnership two weeks ago. There was a press release which we distributed over the wire, as well as an accompanying web page (i.e., the press release page) we created to augment and contextualize this news. I'll explain both things here...

The Press Release
It was 175 words (less than this blog post). It captured the top-level news and highlighted the type of info the reader might find helpful on the accompanying press release page. It was a functional teaser of sorts, that's it. The goal was to pique interest and pull attention to the press release page for more information — and, well, looking at our stats among other things, it more than accomplished that.

Now, did the format of the release really matter here? Not really. Did we encounter any wire distribution headaches? No, none whatsoever. If it had been a "true" SMR, by all the standards, would it have spread further across the web? I don't know, maybe. Was it expensive? Nah, it was less than $100 bucks, although your milage will vary, depending on the wire service and the distribution circuit you pick.

The Press Release Page
It was a simple web page we created with WordPress, the same platform that runs our company blog. We did some minor CSS and HTML customization, but nothing radical by any means. Again, the whole purpose of the press release page was to augment, color and contextualize this announcement with copy and content – basically, the very same stuff that would have torpedoed the attention and economic gains of our press release had we tried to shoehorn a fraction of this into what went across the wire.

Now, could we have made this press release page a little more dynamic? Could we have enabled comments? Yeah, and we should have, because *this page* is where the value of conversation bears real fruit, longer term, for us and those that trip across it with future web searches, it's not, however, the press release, which will steadily and inevitably disappear online.

And therein lies one of my biggest gripes with focusing so much energy on the release format.

There's been too much fuss over the wrapper, not enough focus on the package.

Again, I make no claim to this being anything other than an experimental approach, an experimental alternative to news distribution on the web. One that that I think has real practical potential for an increasing number of companies that are already deploying corporate blogs and could very easily squeeze more PR value out of those platforms, by extending their scope and purpose a bit.

pr, socialmedia, pressrelease, smr, media

The Three O'sof Social Media Measurement

"How do you measure social media programs?"

You know, I try not to, it's a buzz kill. I'm kidding...

This question surfaces all the time. It's hands down one of the biggest challenges we marketers face, but come on, it's not impossible. Yeah, we need better weights and measuring sticks for new media — they will come — but don't let that stop you from adapting and customizing an approach that works for your business.

There are three things you should think about when it comes to measurement, each I'd argue are equally important:

Outputs

Pretty self explanatory, right. Is content being created? It could be a blog post or a forum topic or a video, you get the gist. Try not to get too hung up on the "how much" part of the output. Focus instead on the quality and relevancy of what's being produced and the utility of the medium for you and your customers.

Outgrowths

Again, pretty simple. What stems or grows from the content that was created? It could be comments, links, tags, diggs, votes, etc. How people choose to participate with the content will vary so try to think about the value and weight you place on certain actions — and how you might better enable them.

Outcomes

Basically, the net result or response to the first two things. It could be attention (influencers, media), amplification (memes), engagement (quality/quantity of comments), sentiment (positive/negative), this is where you have to simply interpret and weigh the shake out. And then compare your analysis to whatever the hell your goals were to begin with. Oh, and then pray they line up.

Keep in mind, all of this is just one approach to measurement — an admittedly simple one for an increasingly complex web. I tend to think social media measurement will always be half science/half art, and maybe for that reason, always be a headache too, but hopefully this gives folks a framework to pivot and build on.

Related Post:

Social Media Measurement Deconstructed

Also Read:

PR Measurement Blog (Katie Paine)

Like Nailing Down a Shadow (Brian Oberkirch)

Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang)

[Cross published on Voce Nation]

Online Response Tactics 101

"So, how do you know when to talk back?"

Yeah, I get this question a lot...

The upside of companies recognizing the importance of online conversations is that they're, well, increasingly listening. And with listening comes the inevitable urge to act and respond to a whole bunch of things, but when do you do this? And how? Do you leave a comment? Do you send an email? It's not like you have a field manual to reference for on-the-fly tact, so calculating what action to take (if any) is a challenge and unfortunately, a determination you have to make fairly quickly.

Here's the thing: there's no formula for how or when to talkback. You have to take each instance on a case-by-case, however, there are three baseline questions you should try to ask — and answer — before you do anything:

1. Is the post factually inaccurate?

If yes, congrats, you're dealing with the top 10% of blogs. Kidding. Proceed to question two.

If no, okay then, a response may be necessary. I tend to weight the response tactics according to the severity of the inaccuracy. If it's a simple mistake (e.g., a misspelling, a misquote, etc) then try contacting the author privately and directly. State your case and request the change, that's all you can do. It's no guarantee of a timely fix, but I think most folks will make an honest effort to correct their mistakes.

For those that don't or who make more severe, err egregious errors, you have a reasonable case for leaving a public comment. Again, it's no guarantee that the problem will be fixed or that the author will even allow your comment to be posted. In this instance, you may also want to consider contacting the author privately and directly too. And if you really want to escalate things, consider dragging the link out with your own blog post, bookmarks, tags and annotations - this is a response 202 tactic, proceed with caution.

2. Is the post a fair expression of opinion?

If yes, proceed to question three.

If not, you could consider talking back, but be careful, this is where most companies get tripped up because the only fair point-of-view is, well, the corporate one. I think this where you just have to be *really* honest about your company's strengths and weaknesses. If, for example, a post is recounting a terrible experience with your product, there is very little you can do to change that person's experience. Think about what purpose talking back with serve and what outcome you're really looking for. Are you trying to appeal to the author or future readers who stumble on this post?

3. Is a relationship with the author important?

If yes, then you have to go one step further and ask yourself if talking back via comments or the back channel will augment and extend the relationship. Only you can answer that question.

If no, then you still have to go one step further and ask whether or not the blog post itself can impact and influence people's perceptions. In most cases, if a relationship with the blog author isn't a priority, neither is the blog's readership, and therefor there's no need to talkback. Case closed.

This is admittedly an incomplete post, there are nuances to all of this that I'm not digging into here, it's response tactics 101, get off my back, but seriously, hopefully this provides some good starting points for reference for companies that want to talk back.

Also Read

The Purposeful Conversation

When it Comes to Social Media, Ask The Hard Questions

In my world, this time of year is always crunchy, it's an endurance race to the holidays. It means unfortunately that I don't get to read as much, blog as much, breathe as much, etc., but oh well, so be it. I figure I can either put my head down to cover ground and get some creative stuff in the works for '08 or stand still debating the finer points of bad PR vs. ugly PR vs. fugly PR. It's a pretty easy decision, right?

One observation I will share as I've been scooting about, is that I'm increasingly seeing this me-too mentality surface inside companies that want to do more with social media. My hunch is that this stems from a mix of places, but mostly, it stems from fear. Fear that companies that are embracing new tools and new practices online are gaining "all sorts of business advantages" — and that other companies somehow, sadly are falling behind because they are not.

Truthfully, this is a healthy fear to have, but please don't kid yourself or let it blind you.

If you're considering social media projects, don't be afraid to ask the hard questions first.

Can your company tell its story with a blog? How will a presence on MyFaceSpace augment communications? Does a SMPR have any utility? Can a widget add value? Do your customers watch online videos? Does a mention on a blog really get you anything? Do you have the time to invest to do this right?

The list goes on, the important thing is that you ask the questions - both internally if you're on the corporate side and externally, if you're talking to a consultant. Oh, and for all of these questions, there's the big, fat inevitable one, right, which is "where has this been successful?" I mean, if you're gonn'a try and replicate something that's been done, know that it worked, right?

Fear is one of those classic business motivators, and at times it's a healthy one, but don't let it cloud your judgement or get in the way of what you're company is trying to accomplish. Social tools, social strategies might be be able to help your business in a number of ways, but they might also be a terrible distraction.

The only way you'll know which is to be uncomfortable with the easy answers and always ask the hard questions.

Technorati Tags: business, marketing, pr, socialmedia

Hello [NAME], I Want to Pitch You.

It's odd, after so many fits of anger and bouts of frustration by bloggers over PR tactics, particularly pitching, my own recent anecdotal evidence indicates there's a growing air of surrender - or maybe it's collective ambivalence - toward the very tactics that were once so illicit. I can't decide if this is just my own random observation or if there's really some sort of shift afoot.

I think there's a group of pro bloggers that long ago sought the privilege of corporate access and when they got it, smartly used it to amplify their own credibility and influence.

I can't help but think that there's a growing pool of bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, and the like, out there today, each having witnessed the meteoric rise of these first movers, and each hoping in their own way to achieve the same levels of success. Because of this, maybe the desire for company access and info is beginning to outweigh the cost of all the PR cruft that comes with this - be it the industry-leading press releases, the auto-personalized emails or the super valuable pseudo-executive briefing invites.

Sadly, if this is really the case, it also means the incentive for change in the PR industry is diminishing. Why adapt to new tactics of engagement when you can simply force people into submission with the old ones?

Technorati Tags: pr, puppy, socialmedia

Social Media Bandwagoning

"If you see a bandwagon, it's too late."

A great quote from James Goldsmith and something every marketer ought to keep in the back of their head, especially those of us mixing it up in the mess. It's easy to see the bandwagons for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the like, and it's even easier to jump on them, but it's much harder to pick a path of your own - one that forces you to look past the rhetoric and hype and consider new products like these as the tools that they ultimately are.

Only then can you really decide where the real returns and risks exist for your brand, your client, etc...

Technorati Tags: socialmedia, bandwagon, james+goldsmith

Making Sense of the "Messy Middle"

It's funny, after several years, countless projects, big successes and humbling failures, I still to this day stumble and stutter when casually asked: "so what do you do?"

It's pathetic, I know and a bit ironic too, because I actually have a very clear understanding of what I do, and maybe more important, an appreciation for why I do it. The problem with explaining it is that, well, it's just kind'a messy.

You see, I work in and out of this place that goes by so many different names: PR 2.0, Web Strategy, Edgework, Social Media Marketing, and countless others. To me, all of these concepts are equally right in both their spirit and definition, and have each grown from the same kernel, the same source -- what I'll simply call the "messy middle."

The messy middle is where several historically disparate business disciplines are intersecting; it's the place where marketers, communicators, product developers, customer support folks, and arguably other arms of an organization all meet and mix to maximize their efforts, thanks to the social web.

I used to think the messy middle was this franken-field, built from the best parts of other disciplines, that would in time evolve and displace all the tired modes and models of business, particularly PR and marketing. You know, the "one ring" school of world domination. The longer I stay in this, however, doing what I do, the less confidence I have that this will ever really happen.

The truth is, a lot of folks visit, pick and pull from the messy middle as they see fit, based on how best it applies to what they do - the funny thing is, fundamentally, they each keep doing what they've always done.

Case in point, the customer support folks continue to look for ways to improve the customer experience. Today, among other things, this includes monitoring and responding to customer blogs. Likewise, the product dev folks continue to seek and understand what their customers want, and again, today, among other things, this includes reading tons of comments and reviews, and encouraging opinion and feedback. And the communication and marketing folks, well, what can I say, read the last 3+ years of blog posts here, that ought'a cover things.

All this being said, I suppose the answer to the "what do you do question" gets a whole lot easier when you consider the "what" part hasn't really changed that much. Now, just pray they don't ask how...

Technorati Tags: edgework, marketing, pr, pr2.0, socialmedia, web strategy

Social Media Measurement Deconstructed

I know a lot of folks (myself included) have been slamming their heads against the wall for a while now, trying to grok an approach that really captures and measures the impact and value of social media. For many PR folks, the headache that is “social media measurement” arguably boils down to three things - influence, engagement and reach - and how you qualify each.

Influence
Fairly simple, right: who has it, who doesn't? I've seen this problem reasonably solved in 60 minutes with a search engine and some Excel-fu. I've also seen this problem solved with proprietary indexes and ridiculous six figure contracts. You do the math, but trust me, it's a solve-able problem that has little to do with the size of your wallet, and more to do with your ability to track outputs and analyze outcomes.

Engagement
A little tricky, yes. Neuroscience? No. For communications folks, engagement is about qualifying and quantifying participation. How you calculate and weigh various participation factors (e.g., a conversation, a blog post, comment, tweet), err gestures (e.g., a link, tag, photo), is ultimately up to you to define, but assuming you can successfully identify your influencers, agreeing on the participation criteria is fairly simple and will likely be a combination of things that in aggregate (over time) indicate just how engaged - or not - folks are with what you're doing. The scorecard model works well for this.

Reach
Reach is a lame duck carry over metric that we just can't shake. I think influence and engagement are far better measures for social media work, but if you get stuck with factoring reach into the measurement mix (like so many of us do), concentrate on two things - links and size of networks. Both are direct measures of reach/amplification, just remember to bake in a multiplier for the net effect of the web.

Taken as parts, deconstructing these three things really isn't that difficult, the bitch of it - historically speaking - has been tying them together into a meaningful macro measurement. Again, not to over-simply the challenge here, but assuming you can identify your influencers, assign weight to their engagement levels and calculate their reach, you've got yourself a fairly strong macro measurement fix. Don't worry about the lack of a big fancy bow, you already have the package....

Also Read
Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang)
Web Metrics Guru (Marshall Sponder)

Technorati Tags: measurement, socialmedia

Monitoring vs. Mining Conversations

Earlier this morning I had the chance to speak on a PRW panel about corporate web strategies, and one of the topics that surfaced (err, re-surfaced) was the ol' conversation monitoring vs. mining debate...

If you don't know what I'm referring to, I wrote about this a while back, but essentially it has to do with the competing (and sometimes conflicting) need companies have to monitor and react to online chatter with the need to measure and weigh the value and impact of conversational efforts over time.

Oddly enough (or is it, sadly enough?) we were talking about this issue *two years* ago, yet it continues to frustrate and divide the way that communicators and marketers approach online conversations today.

In the end, like everything these days, it's about finding a balance between these two things, but you have to understand the difference before you can bridge the divide.

Technorati Tags: conversation, measurement, mining, monitoring, PRWeek