Public Relations

Why PR is Essential to Content Marketing

Lauren Gray 1 Comment

PR and marketing used to be separate. But now more and more of their job responsibilities are starting to overlap.

Image credit to 5wpr.com

Go to a well-known public relations or marketing blog, and you’re sure to see something about content marketing. Content marketing is kind of in the spot social media found itself in a few years ago: no one agrees on who should own it.

I won’t go into my thoughts on the topic, but I will say this: successful content marketing can’t happen without some PR. And while not every marketing team needs a designated PR pro, the team’s success depends on having strong public relations skills.

Good Content Means Nothing Without Good Distribution

Sure, it’s great that you wrote an awesome ebook. But tell me this: how is your company planning on getting people to read it?

Many content marketers say you should spend twice as long promoting a piece of content than you do creating it. That may sound daunting at first,  but think about the ongoing nature of blog promotion. One hour of that promotion may be broken up into creating several one-off shares over the course of a few months.

A rounded content distribution plan might include:

  • Sharing on social media

  • Including links in a company newsletter

  • Syndicating the content on other websites

  • Optimizing the content for shares

  • Personally emailing content to interested contacts

  • Linking to content in guest posts

  • Earning inbound links to the content

  • Getting influencers to share or endorse the content

Those last four bullet points? Yeah, they take some PR savvy.

 

Public Relations for Content Marketing

The most important reason that content marketers need a grasp on PR is the need for relationships. PR pros are experts at building relationships – it’s one foundation of PR as a whole.

Content marketing is a whole lot easier when you have strong relationships with people who can help you get your content out there. It all boils down to knowing how to write a pitch. Let’s look at those bullet points again:

Personally Emailing Contacts

You just wrote a post about something and think several of your contacts would enjoy it. Don’t leave it to chance that they’ll see your social shares of it or find it on their own. There’s nothing wrong with sending a quick email saying you wrote something on a topic they’re interested in. But if you don’t know how to write a good pitch, you may come off sounding more pushy than helpful.

Linking to Content in Guest Posts

Guest blogging can be as valuable for content promotion as it is for personal branding. You can link to content in the body of the post, provided it’s related to what you’re talking about in the post. Or you can highlight specific content in your bio instead of including a link to, say, your blog’s home page.

But once again, to secure great guest blogging gigs, you need to know how to pitch yourself and your writing to relevant outlets.

Earning Inbound Links

Have you ever seen 10+ outlets writing articles about the same company’s recent report or whitepaper? Think about how valuable those links are, especially when they’re from authoritative, high-ranking sources.

Do you think that those publications all just fell upon that data? I’m betting that in most cases, they received a great email from the original company. It probably stressed why the report would be valuable to readers. I’ll also bet that the publications receive pitches like that a lot, and only pay attention to the good ones.

Getting Influencers On Board

I love stories where one tweet boosted a company’s subscribers or conversions by crazy amounts. It may seem like exaggeration, but it happens. Influencers can drive hundreds of visits to a small company’s website. That may be twice as many visits as they usually see.

This kind of success depends on targeting the right influencers and building a relationship with them. Then you need to show them the value in your content. If you spam them, are pushy, or use any other combination of bad pitching tactics, you’re making that success next to impossible for yourself.

So while everyone debates on whether content marketing should fall under marketing or public relations, you can focus on how to combine the two for content success.

What PR tactics do you think are most important in content marketing?

 

710T3ue1Brittany Berger is currently a Digital Content Supervisor at eZanga.com. She graduated from University of Delaware in 2012 majoring in Mass Communication with a public relations focus and minoring in Interactive Media and English. Connect with her on Twitter @bberg1010.

The Artistry of Creating What’s Never Been Done Before – Part 1

Lauren Gray Leave a comment

Before the previous World Cup, Nike asked its go-to creative agency, Wieden+Kennedy, to create ‘something that’s never been seen before and never been done before.’ No pressure, right? What sounds like an overwhelming statement at first, has now become the industry norm. 

Creativity and innovation are not only critical in the public relations and marketing profession – they are vital to generating ideas that can differentiate a brand or an organization from a million others.

TheAmericanGenius_AGBeat

But what is the key to continuous inspiration – is there even one? Is it as simple as reading magazines, researching industry trends and talking to as many people as you can? Or is it about being awake, taking things in and experiencing life?

I consider myself a creator and love my profession, yet, sequentially having to come up with new concepts, innovative solutions and BIG ideas ads pressure. I do love the challenge but at the same time, it’s worth exploring how one finds continuous inspiration after having been in the industry for a few or even many years.

On my journey to endless imagination and artistry, I asked five leaders in the industry to share some of the secrets that keep their creative juices flowing:

David Bruce, Senior Director of Brand and Integrated Marketing at Major League Soccer

“I believe pretty firmly that inspiration is everywhere; it could come it the biggest or the smallest form. To me, the most crucial factor in being inspired is not closing yourself off to anything – not coming to judgments. A lot of my energy comes from the city I live in and the sources of inspiration it offers. Living in a city such as New York, gives you this rich tapestry – this energy – gives you this vibrancy. To me, that doesn’t necessarily mean having to go to a show, seeing an art gallery. It’s just walking around the streets having my music on, listening to a podcast and observing things around me. You see street graffiti and kids acting in a cult-like way. Here, they are all part of a small collective and express themselves a certain way, whether it’s through music, with art or how they dress. Every part of the city has its own style and sensibility. Chinatown is different from the Lower East Side, Midtown or East Village. That energy you get from experiencing those various communities and how different they are offers endless inspiration. It gives me direction.

I also enjoy experiencing cuisines from different cultures, seeing how a restaurant creates an experience from start to end: How you enter, how they greet you, what the waiters and waitresses are wearing, looking at the different types of menus, how everything is staged, what music is playing in the background, how you leave – all that, for me, is fascinating. You also see it in hotels, or when getting on and off an airline; it’s the small and unexpected things, the attention that people pay toward certain elements of an experience. I try to remember those things and create a memory log of things that I can regurgitate when I need to.”

Janet Froelich, Former Creative Director of the New York Times Magazine and Real Simple

“I think that a lot of what you do when you problem solve in an area that you’ve worked in for a very long time, is you feed off of it. It’s like a language that you learn so well, that you can use it without thinking about it any longer. You can structure new ideas by examining the nature of the problem. That also means, working off and with other people. I strongly believe that creativity is often collaborative. No matter which field you go into, you will work with other people. Today, I was reading an article in the paper, about how different Paul McCartney and John Lennon were. John Lennon was more of a wild spirit and undisciplined in his approach whereas Paul McCartney was very structured. They played off each other, sometimes battling it out, but often coming up with a much better solution than either of them would have had alone. So, some of it is about collaboration, learning to work with other people, developing a strong team, and understanding the nature of a problem solving in your specific discipline. The more you solve those problems often, the better you get.”

Check back on Monday for part two featuring Nicole Dobrzynski ‎(Global Football Brand Manager at Nike), Tony Telloni (Managing Director at Golin NYC) and Ben Roth (SVP Creative at MKTG Inc).

 

HelmaVonZadowHelma von Zadow works with the Brand and Integrated Marketing team at Major League Soccer and is a member of the PRSA New York Chapter.  She served on the 2013-2014 PRSSA National Committee as vice president of professional development. Connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

5 Things To Do When You’re Feeling Over-Stressed

Lauren Gray Leave a comment

One of the things that drew me to work in PR most was the diversity; the diversity of clients, the range of topics you “become an expert” on, the fluidity in your schedule and how no two days are alike. It’s liberating… but it’s also very consuming. Your brain is always running and playing connect-the-dots between your clients and the seemingly unrelated beats desirable journalists want to cover. And although I argue that those right for the field should thrive in this state, sometimes it can be a bit much. [Insert disquieting yearly statistic where PR is ranked as one of the most stressful jobs in the nation.]

When you find your brain is giving you the spinning beach ball of death, try doing one of these:

62c809b1f2bf23b96f99fee270e9a2d61)   Put Down the Coffee

I know. This is blasphemous for our industry. And believe me, I am the last person who’d say this because I’ve proudly flaunted my Starbuck’s Gold Card since 2008… but you can’t ignore the facts. When you’re stressed, your body is already on high alert, pumping cortisol and adrenalin into your veins to ensure all systems can fight or flight at a moment’s notice. (Yes, this is what’s chemically happening as you nervously wait for your turn to present at the all-hands meeting.) Adding copious milligrams of caffeine to the mix would be like adding water to a grease fire. I suggest substituting with tea until things settle down.

2)   Get Some Vitamin D

More than likely, you’ve been sitting at your desk, glaring at LED lights and typing away for the past 6 hours, agonizing about an impending deadline you don’t feel prepared for. Sound familiar?

Get up from your chair and step outside for a quick recess. Walk around the block for a new perspective. Breathe in the fresh air, and let it fill you with new ideas. A simple 10 minutes is all it takes. Sunrays have a way of thawing your worries and shedding light on what’s important.

3)   LOL

Whoever coined the phrase “laughter is the best medicine” was a poetic genius. Everyone and their mom still says it because it really is true. (Read this 2013 article by Mayo Clinic for the nerdy details.) Find something, anything, to laugh about. Make it a full-bellied chuckle because pity laughs don’t count! If you’re in dire need of a quick fix, a funny animal video usually does the trick.

4)   Get KRAFTy

After a long stressful day, I find one of the most relaxing ways to unwind is to crack open a bottle of wine, crank up the “Chillin’ Playlist” and cook a gourmet-style dinner. Don’t worry if you’re not a master chef; it’s about letting yourself disconnect from outside worries and putting all of your concentration on what’s in front of you, while simultaneously expressing yourself through a creative outlet. I find that cooking shares the similar cathartic effect of painting, only you get the added bonus of getting to eat your masterpiece afterwards! Baking works for this too; however, I prefer to cook stuffed bell pepper + risotto for the week’s dinner than have two dozen baked chocolate truffle muffins sitting on my counter right at the start of beach season. Whatever melts your butter, do it.

5)   Werk It Out

** If you chose baking from the last stress release tip, you may want to try this one too.

Stressful energy is a powerful force if you can learn how to make it work for you rather than against you. Use all of that pent up frustration to propel you and push you forward in whatever type of exercise you prefer. Swim laps, run, cycle or dance until you’ve exchanged your anxiety with endorphins and self-accomplishment. Can’t solve how to get a client into Us Weekly’s national gift roundup? Okay, but you can run nine miles and feel great afterwards. Do something that builds your confidence outside of work to remind yourself how competent you are the next time you step into the office.

By now I think we’ve all agreed that in this profession (and life in general), stress is inevitable. However, there is still a silver lining! Though you may not always be able to stop things from going bananas, you CAN control the way deal with troubles when they do occur. If you chose to frame life’s stressors, not as the enemy, but as an opportunity to ‘rise to the challenge,’ it would make the idea of stress a lot less, well, stressful.

And if all else fails, call your mom.

Megan Nicole O'Neal headshotMegan O’Neal graduated from UCLA in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, emphasizing in mass communications. She is currently the PR Coordinator at Marketing Design Group and volunteers with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, freelancing for the public relations department. Connect with her on Twitter @megannenicole.  

Three Ways to Stay Informed in a Busy PR World

Jess Noonan 1 Comment

blog6Pitch targeted media. Handle company crises. Prepare media materials. Tweet, post, pin – then do it all again. Side note: You’re on deadline. Side, side note: The company’s reputation is in your (probably trembling) hands.

Ahh, a day in the life of a PR pro. And, on top of those responsibilities – and many more – you must find time to keep up with the latest trends and news about, well, everything.

Yeah, I guess that whole “PR executive is a top five most stressful job” is true after all. But it doesn’t have to be.

With the right mix of media – and some high-quality multitasking – you’ll be consistently on top of your game. It took me upwards of two years to perfect my “mix,” but I think I’m finally getting somewhere in the busy world of PR. Here’s how:

Email newsletters: If it’s in your inbox, it’s more likely to be read. That’s why I love my email newsletters. One note of caution, though: Don’t sign up for too many newsletters. You’ll end up overwhelmed, deleting them all before reading. (As someone who loves a clean inbox, I initially drove myself crazy).

But now I’ve narrowed it down to three newsletters. And yes – I read them all:

  • The New York Times features a comprehensive news-of-the-day overview with top headlines from all sections and short excerpts.
  • Social Media Examiner sends social updates as they happen along with tips for using the latest tools.
  • PRSA Issues & Trends compiles all the PR industry news you need in one place.

Aggregated news sites: With all the news sources around us, we could spend eight or more hours a day just reading. But with a full-time (ahem, top five most stressful) PR job, who has time for that?

No one. That’s why I love these aggregated news sites.

  • Alltop Social Media displays top headlines from hundreds of social and PR news sites.
  • Circa is an app that combines popular news headlines for on-the-go reading. I especially like to scroll through this in the morning before I start my day.
  • Facebook Trends turned out to be more helpful than I initially expected. It’s quick, comprehensive and features the most talked about news – from pop culture to politics – in one place.

Podcasts: If you’re like most new pros, you have several mundane – yet still important – tasks on your to-do list. Why not get some additional education during those tasks with a good podcast in the background? Here are my recommendations.

  • Inside PR features notable PR pros discussing the latest industry trends.
  • Brave Ad World gives a quick look at the changing social and digital media world.
  • NPR is probably a given – it has hundreds of podcasts to choose from based on your interest areas. If you can’t decide, try the Shuffle podcast. It randomly chooses the content for you.

Since our digital world is constantly evolving, this resource list is nowhere near complete. As new PR pros, we should always be on the lookout for the latest time-saving tools. But remember: These resources can only get you so far. It’s your job to use them for information gathering regularly.

How do you stay updated on breaking news and industry trends? Share your tips and tricks for new pros below.

Stephanie Vermillion headshotStephanie Vermillion is an account executive at Wordsworth Communications, a public relations agency in Cincinnati. She is on the PRSA Cincinnati Leadership Team and is part of the PRSA Cincinnati New Pros Committee. Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn and Twitter (@SMVermillion).

Five Tips to Start Pitching Holiday Gift Guides Now

Lauren Gray Leave a comment

1)   SIMPLE SUBJECT: The first challenge when sending any pitch is to get the editor to open your email! Simple and upfront subject lines are most effective when pitching holiday season gift guides.

Example: “Patterned stationary under $20 for gift guide consideration”

Holiday Gift Guide Photo

2)   KEEP IT EVEN SHORTER: We all know the rules of keeping product pitches short, clear and concise. For holiday gift guides, the pitch can be even shorter than traditional pitches. Let your contact know what the product is, why it is a great gift idea, give them pricing info and a link to the website or specific page for easy viewing.

3)   KNOW THE RULES: It is important to know the criteria for being considered in the gift guides you are pitching. Most importantly, be sure that your product falls within the price range of the gifts being featured in the guide.

4)   TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Though you’ll want to pitch gift guides of national magazines and outlets throughout the summer, your work is not done. You will want to pitch regional magazines and large online publications in September. In October through mid-November, you’ll be pitching the online versions of those national magazines!

5)   EXPAND YOUR REACH: If your product does not make it into holiday gift guides of the winter season, get an early start on pitching annual gift guides for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

 

Bio PhotoMagan Felitto is a public relations professional, working in the New York office of Jack Morton Worldwide.She graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology’s, Advertising & Marketing Communications program in Summer 2013 with four years of experience as Vice President of Chapter Development of her former PRSSA chapter and a plethora of internships. She is a proud member of PRSA, PRSA-New York, and PRSA New Professionals Section. Ms. Felitto can be reached at MaganFelitto@gmail.com