By Shonali Burke

Do you know what “neuroplasticity” is? It’s essentially the brain’s ability to “rewire” itself by forming new neural connections when it needs to. Or, in other words, it’s what happens when the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain start to find new ways to connect with and “talk to” each other, when the old pathways are no longer there (for example, because of injury, or disease).

If you read up on it (for example, via Wikipedia, the God of All Thesauri) you’ll learn that the concept of neuroplasticity is relatively new; up until the late 20^th century it was believed that after about early childhood, the structure of the brain didn’t change. That, basically, we were stuck with what we had as kids. Isn’t that a ghastly thought?!

One of the things I find most fascinating about the practice of PR in the digital age is how we are rewiring the discipline, our practice of it and some of the earlier assumptions that went unchallenged for a long time, much in the way the brain rewires itself when it has to. Because it knows the “old” way of life has disappeared, and in order to successfully function, it has to adapt to a new world.

However, in rewiring our discipline, I think sometimes we get a little too close to throwing out tried and true principles, simply because they’ve been around for a while. That’s a big mistake. Certainly, the tools and platforms we use on a daily basis are changing quickly. And, in fact, there is a fundamental shift in how we should be approaching building and maintaining relationships with our audiences. But one of the constants in creating and implementing effective PR programs, even in the 21^st century, is what the basis is for those programs in the first place.

And that is research.

With the advent of social media and digital platforms, I’ve seen far too many practitioners—and, frankly, companies too, some of them quite large ones—get extremely excited over the SNTs (shiny new toys). So much so, that they start to dream up public relations programs using X platform, or Y tool… forgetting that a good program needs to be grounded in research. That is the only way we can build solid programs that can grow.

One of the great advantages of living and working in the digital age is that now it is so much easier to conduct research, thanks to a plethora of digital tools. Now, I’m absolutely not saying traditional research methodologies should be thrown out, like the proverbial baby with the bathwater. But we have more ways to conduct research than ever before. Many of them are free, or low-cost… so why not take advantage of them? However, once again, how we use digital tools and channels for research should be determined by what exactly we are researching for. Here are just some ways (and reasons) to do this:

• Researching your content strategy: for many companies, a blog is a large part of that strategy. But you want to publish blog posts that resonate with your customers and prospects, right? So why not ask them what they want to hear about? If nothing else, they will appreciate the fact that you asked them… and that, in and of itself, goes a long way in building a relationship.

How to do this: you can do this on your Facebook Page (the Arment Dietrich “Facebook Question of the Week” feature is a great example), on Twitter, on Google+… anywhere you have built up a community that is engaged enough to reply to you. Use that intelligence to populate your posts. Go a step further by incorporating the authors of the responses into your posts (with their permission, if the conversation took place on a private forum). They’ll be thrilled, they’ll help you share and generate conversation around it, and are likely to become your staunchest community supporters.

• Keyword research: this continues to be important for search engine optimization (SEO) when you’re building your website or blog—that’s a given. But it’s also a great way to learn what other, relevant bloggers are writing about. In other words, smart keyword research is at the core of your listening program.

How to do this: for starters, Marketwired has some excellent tools to help you with your listening program. You can also set up a regular email or RSS alert for the relevant keywords (try Talkwalker, it’s great), and that comes to your inbox on a regular basis (I was also able to tweak Talkwalker so that the results are fed to Feedly, which is my preferred alternative to Google Reader now that the latter is being sunset). This is now a triple threat: you a) stay abreast of what is being published; b) put your own, unique stamp on the subject when you write your posts; and c) build relationships with said other bloggers by commenting on their posts… all of which form a three-pronged approach to building thought leadership in the digital space.

• Focus groups: when you launch a new product or service, you want to make sure it will be well received by the target market, right? And the best way of estimating the response once you actually get to market is to try and approximate that market ahead of time.

How to do this: ask a few people whose opinions you respect (and who are representative of your target audience) if they would be willing to act as a beta testing group for you. Create a private, invitation-only forum in a social space they are comfortable in, e.g. a Facebook Group or a Google+ community, and make that where you show them what you’re working on, and secure their feedback. I actually recently went through this process myself as I was getting a makeover for the online home of my social PR micro agency, and it made a huge difference to the final outcome.

There are several other tools you can use, from Twtpoll, to online surveys (I imagine you’re familiar with Survey Monkey and Zoomerang, but there are several others; Qualtrics is a platform I like very much), to everything in between.

The key is to use the right tool for the right kind of research. So what might work really well for editorial calendar, or a blog post, research, might have disastrous results if used to generate “data” about how Americans feel about apple pie (for example). When in doubt, commission a “real” researcher or research firm to help you out; but please don’t avoid the initial, research phase of your PR planning.

That’s one type of rewiring we’ll be better off without.

Shonali Burke is president and CEO of a micro PR agency that successfully helps businesses take their communications from corporate codswallop to community cool. She founded and curates the popular #measurePR Twitter chat, is an adjunct faculty member at The Johns Hopkins University’s M.A./Communication program, and blogs at Waxing UnLyrical.

By Denielli Dy, Associate Editor

In today’s world, people rely on their mobile devices and electronic gadgets to connect with others near and far. They obtain information about the world and their surroundings via these handheld devices and these tools assist in making activities easier and more enjoyable.

‘Apps,’ or small software applications designed to operate on mobile devices, are developed for each social media platform to allow users to download and browse data in real-time. Users can gather information, organize files, expand their networks and be more productive. They can collect data from various applications using different devices, and even connect with people anywhere in the world to help them carry out their day-to-day tasks with ease and comfort.

People utilize their mobile devices in many ways — from learning about the most ground-breaking news, to finding the most mundane information like the weather report. There is no doubt that press releases and news that are delivered via the mobile app platform have a huge audience that can span the world.

So how can public relations professionals adapt their press releases to ensure they’re most effectively utilized on mobile devices?

1. Keep content concise. People who get information through their mobile devices are usually on-the-go and need to obtain facts quickly, hence, most prefer to read information that is readily available and can be easily understood. Therefore, the text should be direct to the point and written with plenty of details in a small space without sacrificing clarity. Unnecessary details and lengthy explanations should be avoided in order to keep the text clear and easy to read.

2. Make the headline simple but catchy. A brief, easily scanable headline gives readers the general essence of the article and holds their interest longer. An inviting header provides a good opening for more details while supplying the basics of the overall information.

3. Use short text. Information shared through the Internet should not be too wordy and long-winded. Long news with big file size requires more data transfer from the server to the device and takes more time to download. This not only hinders the reader attaining information quickly, but also requires more data usage (and will directly affect your reader’s bottom line).

4. Avoid too many multimedia enhancements. Images and other multimedia enhancements surely make an article more interesting and appealing when viewed from the comfort of a tabletop computer screen, however, images and videos have huge file sizes and will make the download time longer. Instead of including the actual image and video in the article, use SEO (search engine optimization). This allows you to hyperlink words or phrases in your text to other websites, which help extend the reach of the article by optimizing the visibility of the website in search engines and allowing faster file transfer. By linking words or phrases to multimedia-hosting websites such as YouTube and Flickr, you can share your multimedia assets without weighing down the size of your press releases.

Modern technology makes information sharing easier and faster. Mobile devices allow communication and information transfer possible among people – whenever, wherever. Using the mobile device platform to disseminate news is without a doubt beneficial to both the news provider and the consumer

By Daniel Kushnir, Associate Editor

When it comes to pop music, video may have killed the radio star — but in the world of marketing and public relations, it is rapidly becoming the lifeline. Currently YouTube estimates its site receives over 4 billion views per day and is projecting gross revenue for 2012 somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.6 billion, placing it as the fourth most-viewed website in the world.

Business owners and marketers see this data and understand the importance of including visual media when attempting to spread a name, product, or message. In fact, 70% of B2B content marketers use video, with this segment growing from 52% in 2011 to 70% in 2012. And 58% of B2B marketers rate video as the most effective content marketing tactic. For the B2C market, the average Internet user in the US watches 19 hours of online video each month, and shoppers who view video are 174% more likely to purchase.

However, as including embedded video/visual media in a press release becomes more common, we now begin the search for ways to ensure that the media we upload doesn’t get drowned out among the billions of other videos that reside in cyberspace. The content of your video may be ground-breaking and absolutely relevant to your target market, but it must be put in a position to be seen by that market.

Here are several tricks that will help your release and video “pop” (be more visible) than others’:

1. Direct readers to your video by putting a sentence in the text of the body that describes the video as well as gives a link for where to view it.

EXAMPLE: View the [your name] video on [your subject] here: [www.yourvideourl.youtube.com]

By putting the link and a short description in the body of the release text, not only will it increase the video’s accessibility and visibility for the reader, but it will also increase the chances of search engine crawlers seeing your video and placing it on the first page of related searches.

2. Another great way to enhance your press release and video’s searchability — which naturally will increase the number of eyes that see your video — is through the use of embedded links.

Identify ahead of time what your target market is. Next, pick a phrase in the text of your release that is both related to your video and also seems likely to be used by that market in a related search. Finally, embed the URL of the video within those words.

EXAMPLE: Our research team has put together this extensive video on how to [get more views on YouTube]

It is very important not to over-use this technique as too many embedded links will end up being looked at as spam by sites like Google or Bing. A general guideline is to try to include one embedded link for every 300 words. Of course, this is not an exact science, so if your release calls for a few more or a few less, then so be it! Just use discretion and be conscious that web crawlers do factor these things in when organizing a search query.

3. Finally, as obvious as it may seem, make sure to stay relevant. All videos, along with their descriptions, hyperlinks, embedded text, etc., must be totally relevant to the topic of the press release. Yes, making a video can take a lot of hard work and time, so it is completely understandable that we would want to show it off to all audiences as much as possible. But, while not having visual media in your release won’t help the visibility of your release, putting an unrelated video or video link in your press release can actually have a negative impact on its pick-up.

While the obvious reason is that “tricking” people into going to your website or viewing your video – having a misleading video title or an incorrect description of the video – will eventually only damage your credibility in the eyes of the public, it also will work against all of your other efforts to optimize the video’s searchability. If the keywords, tags, descriptions, embedded links, etc., in your release don’t match those on/in your video, if will confuse search engine crawlers and, in turn, have quite the opposite effect of what you had hoped for (more views).

There is no exact science to getting more publicity, but keep the three aforementioned tips in mind next time when putting together your press release and you may be pleasantly surprised with the response you receive.

By Renee Sylvestre-Williams

The buzz for your event is strong and journalists and VIP guests are sending their RSVPs. How do you maximize your momentum?

In the previous article on event planning published on January 21, we looked at the preparation necessary before an event. Now we’re going to look at how to make your event successful and follow up with media after the event.

Kei Baritugo, founder of BoldLove Communications says there are many ways to make an event successful. As she said in the previous article, figure out the overall event goal and objectives and identify your target audience.

Once that’s done, at the event, Baritugo recommends the following:

Have a guest list but be flexible. If an important person shows up at your event and they’re not on the guest list, let them in. “Instruct your staff to be friendly and cordial, especially if it’s a VIP party. Always be polite and when possible, accommodating–even toward people who may not officially be on your guest list. Remember: kindness is free,” says Baritugo.

Set up a photowall or visually interesting area(s) for media and guests. Have press kits and one-sheets handy to address basic questions on name spellings, facts, and other pertinent information.

Grant journalists access to your key spokesperson(s) for interviews. As a backup, set-up a designated quiet space for interviews in case the event area is too loud or noisy.

Make sure attending photographers and videographers have a great vantage point if there are speeches or special presentations or performances. Great visual documentation is important for coverage so give them the space and access they need to take good shots.

Have official photos with suggested captions available the following day by hiring your own event photographer to capture the highlights of the evening.

After the event, Baritugo likes to send thank you notes. “It is very important to thank people for their time,” she says. This includes media and personnel working the event.

After a few days, she follows up with media to inquire when she can expect their coverage to be published or aired. If some journalists who attended the event are unable to give your event the spotlight it needs, be understanding and remain cordial. It’s not personal.

“PR is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. You don’t know what long-term impact this event has on your future endeavours and relationship with media. They may have not covered your event this time but maybe next time they will. In the end, it’s important to base your success on whether the overall event goal and objectives have been met and your guests had a great time,” says Baritugo.

By Leland Humbertson, Associate Editor

Public relations professionals are always looking for ways to more effectively distribute their messages to members of the media and other influencers. One way — which is often very cost-effective — is to create a custom list of professionals to augment news distribution through a wire circuit.

Custom lists — also called custom wires, email blasts or personal lists — are collections of email addresses and fax numbers of members of the media and others that are assembled by public relations professionals with the help of a newswire. The service is called Custom Wire at Marketwire. A typical Custom Wire list includes journalists outside the distribution of a wire circuit, or people associated with the sender’s company whom the sender thought should receive a copy, or even stakeholders who have requested information about the company. In general, the recipients are people who media and marketing professionals would want to receive the news being reported.

In addition to compiling a list of known Custom Wire contacts, Marketwire clients can take advantage of Mediahub, a database of more than 1.5 million individual contacts and editorial opportunities in the US, Canada, Europe and the UK, to augment the list they have already compiled. For example, if a public relations officer had a list of 200 affiliates in the sports industry, but wanted even more coverage, Marketwire’s Mediahub sports professionals’ index might be used to augment the list.

Aside from achieving more coverage, sending a Custom Wire in addition to a wire distribution has the advantage of making a message more personal. Press releases going across the wire are often delivered to the general inboxes of targeted media outlets. While this is an effective way of making sure a message “gets out,” a Custom Wire ensures a message reaches a specific, named individual. To further personalize the communication, the message comes from the sender’s email address, and faxes arrive on the sender’s letterhead.

All business professionals know the benefit of collecting customers’ e-mail addresses and sending out e-blasts; this type of email networking is a way to make customers more engaged with the goings-on of a business by personally addressing new products, deals or exciting events directly of interest to them. The principle is the same with Custom Wires — writers acquainted in some way with the sender company are receiving individually addressed emails in their inboxes. This process goes a long way toward building relationships between two parties.

Having a Custom Wire attached to a Marketwire profile – a pre-determined set of distribution criteria residing in Marketwire’s submission system – is another way to ensure the same people receive a sender’s messages regardless of other areas a company might wish to target.

For example, a company that makes electrical components may want to send out a release to the Biotech Hotspots circuit to communicate news about a new medical device. However, if the company’s next release is about a device dealing with airport security, the wire circuit might change to the High-Tech Hotspots circuit. By attaching a Custom Wire list to each release, the same group of writers and professionals interested in the company’s news will always be included.

PR agencies or other companies with linked Marketwire accounts can also have multiple saved Custom Wire lists, easily allowing anyone to send releases to one or several different groups of people. Managing all these lists through your Marketwire account can be easier than trying to juggle them in an email program.

Once a Custom Wire is distributed, the user can monitor the impact of the communication by logging into his or her Marketwire account and viewing a comprehensive report, by Custom Wire list, which shows how many addresses it was sent to, the number of emails individual contacts received, how many recipients opened the message, and how many distribution errors occurred.

Whatever the reason — be it a cost, targeted coverage or merely convenience — Marketwire can help compile and manage custom distribution lists for every type of industry.

By Gail McInnes

Before social media took over traditional media, many brands participated in product seeding, where groups of individuals in targeted demographics were paid to test out products and casually mention it in conversations. These were the original professional influencers – hired guerrilla marketers who were apt in the art of subtlety. (more…)

Marketwire recently hosted a webinar called, Stop calling journalists, get them to call you! 10 PR Musts for Business Owners. Lisa Elia, the founder and CEO of Lisa Elia Public Relations took an hour of her time to share her tips about how to lay the proper groundwork so journalists and bloggers are motivated to call publicists for interviews.

Enjoy!

2012-06-28 12.04 Stop calling journalists. Get them to call you! 10 PR musts for business owners. from Marketwire on Vimeo.

By Dagmar King

You’re yawning through yet another boring presentation. Try as you might, you find it really difficult to focus and your mind starts to wander. The presenter seems to care more about what he or she is saying than about what his or her audience is absorbing.

Sound familiar? (more…)

Positive word of mouth and brand advocacy are important to any organization.  But for nonprofits, groups that are typically challenged by strict budgets, limited human resources and government regulations, word-of-mouth and advocacy marketing are key strategies.  Enter social media and the abundance of wide-open channels (most of them free to use) and communities of socially and ethically conscious millions.  For many nonprofits, the opportunity to identify and tap into groups of like-minded citizens helps the organization not only share its mission and mandate, but use the common collective of fans and followers to spread those messages far(ther) and wide(r).   Let’s look at ten nonprofits doing just that.

(more…)

There’s no doubt about it; 2012 is going to be a year of great conversations with your customers, employees, investors and the media. You’ll create fantastic content and share it with the people who matter most to your company. You’ll provide them with the news and information they need to make informed decisions about buying your products and services, and you’ll build strong, long-lasting relationships with the people who can make your brand better and your business more successful. And you’ll do it all by being engaged.

(more…)

To be influential in social media can mean many things.  Sometimes it’s all about the numbers — the sheer volume of followers that one individual can amass is truly staggering, and with every Facebook post or tweet, millions of people have the potential to be swayed by that influence on what to buy, where to travel or how to vote.  But it’s not always just about numbers.  The creativity, expertise and unique insight that an influencer shares with his or her community are what truly make them worthy of following.  Take a look at our choices for some of the most influential in the social sphere in 2011. 

(more…)

There’s little question that for many companies, Twitter is good for business.  With more than 300 million user accounts and about 13% of online adults in the U.S. using Twitter there is increasing potential for companies to build relationships with customers, increase brand awareness and drive revenue.  Twitter has become a hotspot for social media-savvy brands, and the best-of-the-best use creativity and a customer-centric focus to engage their audiences and cultivate true brand ambassadors.  But for a brand to truly succeed on Twitter, they must look beyond the number of followers and retweets, and instead focus on the level of engagement they have with the stakeholders who can – and do – impact their bottom line.  Take a look at ten brands that are doing it right.

(more…)

Let’s face it.  In the business world, despite every terrific tweet, luminous LinkedIn recommendation and fantastic Facebook post, sometimes a little quality time and face-to-face action is just what it takes to really connect with your clients and get the job done.  With this week’s Pulse, we step away from our usual online and social media focus in order to highlight offline hot spots — specifically, some of the best-recommended restaurants from around the world for hosting agency clients.   We know that online presence and audience engagement across the social sphere are critical for public relations and marketing professionals today, but we also recognize that offline “real life” is where some really great stuff happens. After all, contracts aren’t signed on Twitter, and most new business pitches are still sealed with a handshake and a smile.  Here’s a list of ten sit-down social hot spots.

(more…)

Because bloggers are often considered the journalists of the Internet, it’s no wonder many professional communicators are turning to them to pitch ideas, events or products. Depending on the blogger, he or she can leave either a positive or a negative impression about your pitch to his or her many faithful subscribers. Let’s not forget that influential bloggers also receive many pitches – sometimes up to 100 a day – from organizations promoting their products, services or the organizations themselves.  So how do you successfully pitch a blogger?

(more…)

“Because of the people.” It’s one of the oldest workplace clichés and invariably, one that is almost always true. People don’t just work at a company — they define it and shape its personality. At Marketwire, one of the things that continues to set us apart year after year is our personality. From our editorial and product teams, to sales and customer service, we enjoy what we do and it shows. Our people are second-to-none, and proof positive that “work” and “play” can co-exist and make for a totally awesome place to be.

(more…)

If you wonder how much impact social media has on sports, consider two of the most tweeted events in recent history:  Japan’s victory over Denmark in the World Cup (3,200+ tweets per second), and this year’s Super Bowl (4,000+ tweets per second).   In the last few years, professional sports teams from around the world have tapped social media as a new way to connect with fans, allowing them to share the same enthusiasm and team spirit on Facebook that they do courtside.  But what teams are hitting it out of the park when it comes to their social media presence?  Take a look at ten teams who are doing it right.

(more…)

What is the “X-factor” for excellence in corporate reputation? Is it simply how a brand is perceived by the public? Is it company culture? What about charitable activities, community engagement, corporate leadership and work-life balance? It’s all of these things, but we also believe corporate reputation starts closer to home, with employee brand ambassadors who best represent the company online and offline, at work and at home, and via social or traditional media. In our list of ten companies with stellar reputations, you’ll find some unsung heroes—and one guaranteed surprise—in this refreshing collection of small and large companies who value and foster brand ambassadorship.

(more…)

When it comes to work, money means a lot – but it doesn’t mean everything. That’s why, in our quest to find the leading “money meccas” for public relations, we chose our top ten cities based not only on highest salaries, but also on the concentration of available jobs and quality of (city) life. The resulting list reveals PR-rich cities, where an exciting variety of opportunities is available to upwardly mobile communications professionals. You’ll discover what U.S. cities have a three-fold greater availability of PR jobs compared to the national average, and which cities have the highest concentration of “PR specialist” jobs. You’ll even learn more about the “2011 Eastern European Consultancy of the Year,” and the top “2011 PR Agency in Europe.” Grab your passport and work permit, and take a look at the 10 best cities for top-paying PR jobs.

(more…)

There are a lot of PR blogs and bloggers out there – and that’s a good thing.  From Richard Edelman to Brian Solis, many are RSS and TweetDeck mainstays, and whether you follow industry giants or niche writers, some of the most insightful and foreward-thinking blogs about communication, social media and audience engagement are authored by those in the PR space.    With “The New Breed,” we set out find ten PR blogs we could recommend to you that offered a unique mix of content and personality, and gave you some new ideas and fresh thinking when it comes to public relations. 

(more…)

Many North American employees spend as much time (if not more) at the office as we do at home, so it’s little wonder that we want our workplace to be more than a sea of cubicles bathed in fluorescent light and muzac.  But what makes a great space?  We set off in search of the coolest PR and marketing agency reception areas knowing we’d see some pretty incredible spaces:  exposed brick, funky artwork and open, welcoming interiors. We didn’t expect to see the utterly amazing, quirky, and just plain fun alternatives to traditional office design, including an antique carousel, a barista bar and even a “WOW” bell for clients to ring when they experience great service.  Equally impressive was the extent to which these agencies and their employees personified the social media ethos: collaborative work environments, Wi-Fi lounges, breakout spaces that foster creativity and sharing.  Let’s take a look at ten of the places some very fortunate and creative people call “the office.” 

(more…)