Ms. Kennedy says PR pros are seen as manipulators and the stereotype still exists that we want to trick people into buying stuff they don’t need.  I see tricking people into buying things as more advertising-related than PR-related—and in the advertising world that stereotype is well earned!

The stereotype I run across most often as a PR pro is the belief that we “spin” the truth to be advantageous to our clients. While clearly the degree of spin determines the integrity of our messages, and some spin is on the edge of being untruthful, I think most PR pros believe in their clients and want to help promote awareness of products that are truly good for customers. Yes, there are different ways to say things and messages can be manipulated to appeal to different audiences, but is that a negative, or simply highlighting what will be most interesting and meaningful to a particular audience? (How’s that for spin!)

The second challenge Ms. Kennedy addresses is getting heard. I wholeheartedly agree with her that there are an overwhelming number of options today for getting our news out, as opposed to the limited options pre-Web2.0.

While it certainly takes diligence to make sure we cover all the possibilities for getting heard, and we’re likely to miss opportunities here and there, the exciting thing is that we haven’t failed if we miss one opportunity, because there are so many others to take up the slack, and if one opportunity doesn’t work, another almost always does. We are no longer at the mercy of a select few editors of print publications—anyone can publish a blog or even send out a tweet and be found through common search channels if he/she knows how to use keywords, SEO and hashtags. So even a single article from a blogger can result in new business for a client.

The third challenge Ms. Kennedy discusses is that everyone thinks they know everything about PR. I guess I have been lucky over my career, and am especially lucky with my clients at DJA. I rarely come across a client who tries to tell me how to do my job—and the few who do actually know what they are talking about.

I’ll add a fourth challenge here, though—clients who don’t understand how PR works and expect that if they are paying for professional services they should make the front page of the Wall Street Journal with every press release they send out.

There are different kinds of news that are effective for different strategies and tactics. Just because our client’s news isn’t big enough to make the Wall Street Journal doesn’t mean that an article in a core industry magazine or even a simple blog post on the company’s website won’t garner some new business, position the client as a thought leader with customers or intimidate the competition. PR professionals do much more than get clients news coverage. They help evaluate each piece of news, each activity, each business accomplishment and promote it in the best place and in the best way to achieve a positive result.

What other PR challenges have you encountered in your career? I’d love to hear of others I haven’t mentioned.

First, you need to define your target audience. Bullas calls this the foundation of any business marketing plan and strategy. If you’re not entirely sure who your target audience is, he mentions visiting sites such as Twellow.com or Tweepi.com. These sites will help you to narrow down your search and determine whom you want to address.

Second, is to find out what your goals and objectives are. He outlines some example goals and objectives such as, increasing traffic to your blog, enhancing customer service, increasing sales, engaging with customers, growing Twitter followers, strengthening and promoting the brand or maybe even increasing SEO. Whatever your goals and objectives may be, it’s important to keep them specific and timely, establish the role of metrics.

Third, is to design, develop and implement tactics to achieve goals. He breaks this down into two sub-categories:

1. Twitter Marketing Tactics for Growing your Followers
2. Twitter Marketing Tactics for Increasing Traffic to your Blog

For growing your Twitter followers, Bullas expresses the importance of adding “follow me on Twitter” buttons to your blog, emails, newsletters…etc. It’s a valuable tool in building your follows as well as giving your blog more visibility.

When increasing traffic to your blog there are a couple options to consider. One of which is to explore automated tweeting services such as SocialOomph.com that can help to schedule, track and measure tweets. Another option is using Twylah.com where the site creates a one page personalized website based off of your tweets. You should also take advantage of Twylah’s “power tweet” feature. Power tweets are shown to maximize and increase Twitter engagement, which can be key for your blog.

The fourth point he makes is about the importance of monitoring and measuring. Some sites Bullas mentions such as Hootsuite.com or Tweetdeck.com are helpful and accurate in keeping a close watch on different lists, streams and searches.  Other sites include: Google Analytics, Twitter Counter, and bit.ly.

And lastly, his fifth point is in the value of modifying, rinsing and repeating your marketing strategy. It’s okay to be creative and to experiment with what works and what doesn’t. It’s about knowing where to start and creating a plan that works.

What do you think about Jeff Bullas’ five key points to an effective marketing strategy? We’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments below.

The office is really coming together and we’re now just weeks away from the big move. Stay tuned to see the final result!

His concept is brand drafting; and the metaphor he uses is a bike race where a lead rider is in front facing the wind and “pulling” so that his teammate behind him can “draft.”  Similarly, companies with no brand can build one by drafting off of a stronger brand.

Welinder is a two-time world champion freestyle skateboarder and now the president of Blitz Distribution, an incubator of brands and a manufacturer of apparel and skateboards.

He talked about brand drafting in a Webinar to alumni of UCLA’s Anderson School, where he earned his MBA.

Brand drafting starts with the assumption that you, or your company, are excellent at something.  He gave the example of his friend Tony Hawk, who became a world-class skateboarder before he became famous.  Thus, the goal of a branding campaign is to find symbiotic partnerships with other companies that can turn your expertise into a true brand.

Welinder cited an example of a classic brand drafting campaign by the owner of Crustacean Restaurant in Beverly Hills.  To build awareness for the restaurant, the owner sought to have a party to celebrate Tony Bennett’s appearance at the Grammy awards.  She first got the OK from Bennett’s PR team, then assembled her ecosystem:  she signed on an LA celebrity magazine for guaranteed publicity, brought in some celebrity friends as “attention magnets” and finally lined up a sponsor to pay for the event.  The result was a very successful event that exposed the restaurant to a brand new audience with a positive association to a very popular singer.

Welinder says that any small company can brand draft by following four steps:

Start by conducting a self-exam of your brand to determine its true perception in the market.  Get an honest outside opinion from customers, a trusted friend or partner. That will help guide what kind of partner brand you will draft off of.  Also, determine if your business has the potential to grow significantly, otherwise the branding effort might not be worth it.

Next, assemble the ecosystem.  Who are the brands or individuals that you can collaborate with?  In the other examples that Welinder gave, people started small, but snowballed.  So don’t think you need to shoot to the top right out of the gate.

Next, pick your media strategy to take the message to market.  Maybe you will use traditional media (like Crustacean), or maybe social media is the best fit.  Welinder cautions against getting caught up in hype around new tools like Google+ or Pinterest – pick the best tool that will reach your audience.

Last, keep an eye out for the “halo effect”; that is, the new opportunities that will come along because of your successful efforts.  In the case of Crustacean, their branding efforts caught the eye of Bloomingdales, which contracted with them to build restaurants in all of their stores nationwide.

To get started, Welinder says take 20 minutes a day for the next two weeks to think through your brand and then identify the collaborators.  While it may take up to three months for the branding project to materialize, Welinder exhorts those interested in drafting to keep working the process with an eye on the opportunities that your new brand will bring.

After some research, I found a number of blog posts on the importance of using reputable wire services. Ben Norman, SEO Consultant and Internet Strategist blogged about the importance of choosing the correct distribution service, as some may simply spam recipients. And although you might not be the one directly sending the press release, your name will be there and this can be damaging to your, and your client’s, reputation.

Maybe even worse, as OneSEOCompany points out in a blog post, a lot of these free or newer distribution services don’t have a reputation with journalists, meaning your press release will miss this key audience altogether and experience little to no press exposure.

Still, if you’re on a limited budget and want to give one of these newer services a try, my advice is to do your research and select the one that best suits your needs. Try to see what other businesses are using the service and how and where the press releases are being sent. And if you’re still wary, try to experiment with the different distribution options at the bigger services to find a price point that is right for your company.

Have any of our readers tried any of the new services? If so, let us know in the comments below!

The Importance of B2B Press Releases

Deep <Tech> Dive shares five thoughts on why businesses should re-visit the reasons behind writing press releases. What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Transforming PR

Daniel Tisch discusses the role of public relations in today’s world. He offers up three transformational public relations opportunities that could change the way PR professionals think.

Marketing’s Golden Age

Todd Defren, author of PR-Squared provides some valuable insight on how businesses can use Pinterest as a powerful marketing tool.  This mirrors our own recent post on the topic. How are you using Pinterest for your business? Let us know in the comments below!

I couldn’t believe the amount of hustle and bustle that was going on at OFC/NFOEC. Everything was so organized and each exhibitor’s booth had a different look and feel to it. I had never seen so many people interacting and products on display in my entire life.

Turns out, after doing a little research that numbers were on the rise at this year’s show with nearly 800 technical presentations, 560 exhibitors, a 25 percent increase in white paper submissions and a significant increase of attendees for the fourth year in a row, growing to more than 12,000. With numbers growing larger with each year, the future of OFC/NFOEC was looking quite bright.

During this week’s staff meeting, we discussed the notion that some industry insiders believe trade shows are on the decline. I wondered why this might be, especially after attending OFC/NFOEC and observing the entire spectacle in all its glory – the booths, products, services, media, attendees…etc.

To my amazement I came across an interesting article in the technology section of The New York Times titled: “A Tech Show Loses Clout as Industry Shifts.” The article talked about the changing nature of the technology industry and the need for creative buzz and attractive branding at trade shows like CES. The story stated that product introductions were not creating the type of hype that some of the larger companies, such as Microsoft were hoping for.

Phil McKinney, who recently retired as chief technology officer for the computer division at Hewlett-Packard commented that CES has become less important for the big players in the tech industry and questioned whether the absence of these companies would cause the show to lose its pizzazz.

But, according to Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, losing these companies as exhibitors doesn’t stop the show from being able to attract some of the top executives in the high tech industry.

I believe Shapiro’s comment to be a very valid statement after attending OFC/NFOEC. Trade shows are going to gain and lose exhibitors. Companies are going to attend the same show every year believing it builds reputation. Others will leave because the show may no longer run parallel to their goals and objectives. But the high levels of engagement and networking that goes on at trade shows between some of today’s top executives will be forever present. It’s important for companies to position themselves where opportunity and future business arise.

Trade shows, in my opinion, are not on their way out. True, the future of trade shows may be shifting, but I believe shows like OFC/NFOEC will continue to play a valuable part in the industry as not only a way for companies to promote new product launches, but also as a useful tool in building strong industry ties.

So what do you think? Feel free to let us know in the comments below what your take is on the future of trade shows. We’d love to hear what you have to say.