Public Relations

Three Quick and Easy Ways to Build Your Online Community

Stephanie Vermillion 1 Comment

Three Quick and Easy Ways to Build Your Online CommunityWe know for the good old- fashioned sales funnel to work, your message needs to have the widest possible reach.

In an online and socially-driven world, that means brands need to pay attention to building their online communities. But, it doesn’t have to be complex or take hours a day.

Here are a few ways to use some common social media tools to get you where you need to be in just minutes.

1. Use Twitter searches.

The Twitter search feature allows you to look for tweets and users talking about a specific topic. Perhaps your company is a car dealership. You can search for the phrase “new car” and peruse the tweets for potential customers. You can narrow the search down to tweets near you, and you can even use the Advanced Search feature to find tweets in a specific zip code or date range.

Once you find your new potential audience, interact! Find those tweets about needing a new car and respond to the user with a link to the latest deals on your website. Encourage them to stop in to your dealership. Follow some of the users.

When a brand interacts with a user on social media, that person feels like he or she is getting special, personal attention. This is essential for creating brand loyalty, and, ultimately, revenue for your organization.

2. Stay on top of trends.

Facebook now displays a list of topics that are trending in its network on every user’s home page.

When you click to expand the topic, you can see more articles on the topic, Facebook posts from individuals named in the stories, what people in your own network are saying about the topic, and a live feed of reactions to the topic from all over the world. Use these trends to create customized social content to draw new users into your online community.

A word of caution: This is only effective if your brand is relevant to the trending topic. If you try to involve your brand in the wrong trend, it could turn into a PR disaster.

For example, if Car Company A is trending because it announced a massive recall, your dealership, which sells vehicles from Car Company B, could post an article about your product’s safety ratings and an offer for an extra 10 percent on a trade-in of a Car Company A car. Your brand and content are totally relevant to the trending topic.

Things start getting a tricky when the trending topics involve politics, tragedy, natural disaster, etc. It is best to avoid linking your content in these sensitive situations. Any content or comments made in bad taste will turn into a PR gaffe.

3. Do an Instagram promotion.

With nearly 300 million monthly active users, brands can’t forget about using Instagram. The visual-only platform is the perfect place to show off products.

Launch a photo contest by creating a hashtag relevant to your brand and encouraging users to send in their own photos that pertain to the topic. Offer a special giveaway for those who engage with your brand through Instagram.

Don’t forget to do your part by interacting with the users and their photos. “Like” some of the photos that are posted and respond to comments as much as possible. Remember that two-way communication is imperative for building an online community. Let the community know you’re listening.

Jennifer MaterkoskiJennifer Materkoski is a graduate of Kent State University with a Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications with a specialization in Public Relations. She has worked as a writer and editor for both newspaper and television and as a member of a non-profit marketing and development team. Materkoski is the owner and principal consultant of a boutique public relations firm, Songbird Public Relations. She is an avid sports fan, a yogi and also owns and operates an online store selling essential oils and natural products. Materkoski resides in Wheeling, West Virginia with her husband and son. Find her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter @MrsMaterkoski. She can be reached via email at jen@songbirdpublicrelations.com.

 

Three Keys to Networking Success

Ashleigh Mavros Leave a comment

CONTRASTPRSA defines our collective interest of PR in this way: “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” A key part of that definition is the phrase “mutually beneficial relationships.” Who are we as PR practitioners if we ourselves can’t create these bonds?

In the world we live in, connections are essential. They help us get the job we want, meet the people that will inspire us and market to the audience that is most receptive. If you’re reading this blog, I’m sure you’ve heard you’re supposed to network (the all powerful buzzword), but when you’re a fresh face to the business, it can be intimidating. How are we supposed to hold conversations with people with 25 years more experience? Make sure you’re executing these three tactics to make the most out of networking:

Position Yourself. Successful PR professionals are bountiful but when you’re looking to connect with them, they seem to be an elusive species. Luckily, there are many resources available to help with this process. The best way I’ve found to introduce myself to people I’d like to know is by utilizing my local PRSA chapter. Monthly luncheons and occasional happy hours provide the perfect venue for exchanging knowledge and business cards. Before attending an event, be sure to research organizations of interest and the key people within. This will help you find a way to start the conversation.

Follow Up. Meeting people that are doing what you want to do, and successfully, provides an invaluable insight into how to flourish in your dream career. After receiving those business cards and handshakes, don’t be afraid to connect with them in another venue – online. A Twitter follow or LinkedIn connection can help you absorb the expertise they share (and keep you on their radar for possible future connections). From here, you are starting to build on a solid foundation from people with various strengths, interests, and specialties that you can learn from.

Meet in Person. As PR professionals, successful or aspiring, most of us enjoy a cup of coffee or a cold craft brew from time to time. Although we all know the value of creating a strategic online presence, an in-person one is extremely important, too. These are where you can get into deep conversations and ask your burning questions. Some of my initial go-to’s were: “How did you get into this career?”, “Where do you get your news?”, or “What has been your most successful campaign and why?” No matter where you are in your career, face-to-face collaboration leads to unique points of view and possible paradigm shifts in your own work.

Building your network can be overwhelming, intimidating and time consuming, but with each connection you make, you grow your knowledge base and become the person that an inexperienced you was hoping to connect with.

Christine PielaChristine Piela uses her expertise in public relations, website development, and customer relationship management as the Digital and Social Media Coordinator at Svinicki Association Management, Inc. She attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Professional and Organizational Communication with her minor in Music. Christine is currently working towards other passions including improving her communication and leadership skills through Toastmasters International and is currently the Mentor Program chair on the Young Pros Committee for the Southeastern Wisconsin chapter of Public Relations Society of America. Connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Five Ways to Keep Integrated PR Consistent

Stephanie Vermillion 1 Comment

Five Ways to Keep Integrated PR ConsistentWith integrated marketing communications, the focus is usually on which platform you’re using or how you’re adapting to industry changes. But despite all the integrated PR news and happenings, one traditional, important staple remains true:

All messages should be consistent and relevant at all times. (Click to tweet!)

Messages should be reinforced consistently across all communications function – be it a post on Facebook or a press release about a new hire.

In addition to messages being consistent, you should also make sure they’re understandable. The best integrated communications messaging is concise enough that all stakeholders understand the brand.

As a new pro, you’ll impress supervisors if you can understand the fundamentals behind this new PR world. Here are some integrated marketing tips to help you get in the know on this important subject.

Messaging

Everyone in an organization, be it a CEO or intern, must be on the same page on the five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. This will ensure the outgoing messages are concise and understandable.

If you’re starting a new job but want to comprehend your company’s five Ws, answer each question specifically about your company, ask your supervisor to review your answers, then post them on your wall. The more you integrate yourself into the company – and test your knowledge – the more likely you are to be called on for important tasks.

Photo Filters

Taylor Swift may win at social media by using each platform differently, but this doesn’t always work for everyone. For nearly every business, brand uniformity on all channels is important.

The content doesn’t always have to be the same, but little things like using the same filters for each platform ensure consistency.

Some see the world in Valencia and others view it in Lo-Fi. The brand should have a noticeable aesthetic. For example, Conscious Magazine is a winner in my opinion for having beautifully curated social media accounts. They can be found @cmagazine on Twitter and Instagram.

Hashtags

As an organization, there should be a hashtag that links your conversations together across all social media channels. Hashtags help us discover content curated internally and from members of target audiences.

Color Schemes

A company should choose theme colors to be used across all platforms that are on-brand and consistent. Colors have meaning and subconsciously communicate with the audience, so it’s no coincidence that the leading fast food restaurants all use red, yellow, and green in their color schemes.

Why? Red triggers stimulation, appetite, hunger, and garners attention. Yellow communicates feelings of happiness and friendliness. Green sends a message of nature and relaxation.

When creating assets like images and logos, organizations should use that chosen color scheme across all communications functions.

Planning

As a PR pro, I know nothing can come to proper fruition without planning. The most successful pros – and companies they work for – are always two steps ahead and have a plan for every situation. There should be a planning around National Holidays, potential crises, upcoming company and client announcements, editorial calendars, etc.

Public relations is constantly evolving because of new technology and convergence. Transparency is integral to combating negative stereotypes people have of the industry. And, in order to be transparent, all the functions of communications (public relations, marketing, and advertising) need to correctly reinforce a company’s open, cohesive and honest message clearly across all channels.

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Tiffany WooTiffany Woo is an Account Coordinator at NRPR Group, which is a public relations and social media marketing agency in Beverly Hills, CA. She has a goal of becoming one of the public relations industry’s top practitioners. Find her on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

How to create an editorial content calendar

Stephanie Vermillion Leave a comment

How to create an editorial content calendarCreating and maintaining an editorial calendar should be an integral part of any PR or marketing strategy.

But, with the ever-growing number of networks to share branded content with our audiences, keeping a well-curated editorial calendar is a daunting task. Here are a few tried-and-true ways you can simplify the process.

Creating your editorial calendar

The first steps in creating an editorial calendar that works for you are outlining the social networks to be used and the brands/blogs/etc. that you need to manage, as well as the depth of detail you need. Knowing these items will determine which services will work best for you.

If you only need to see a schedule of posts, using a traditional calendar app like Google calendar will work perfectly. You can create separate calendars for each blog or brand and color code it all to easily see when something needs to be done. Using a calendar app will also allow you to block out time for development and strategic planning.

If you prefer to see your posting schedule as a breakdown of the process behind creating and posting your content, a service like Trello may be the way to go. With Trello, you can create multiple boards for each step of your editorial process and add cards with topics, ideas or post titles as needed. Cards can be labeled with colors, assigned due dates and shifted from board to board as the piece moves through the editorial process. Drafts of posts can also be attached to the cards.

Using your editorial calendar

Once you’ve decided which type of editorial calendar you need, it’s time to fill it with your topics and ideas. A good content marketing plan is part coming up with great ideas and part actually getting the ideas posted on time. (Click to Tweet!)

Creativity and productivity often come in bursts, so it’s important to let the ideas flow, but to not run wild with posting everything at once, since consistency is almost as important as great content.

Once your editorial calendar is full of fantastic ideas and your content creation is underway, you need to plan how to get it noticed by your audience. As you’d guess, social media is a key component of this strategy.

Using a social media scheduling app, like Buffer, Hootsuite or TweetDeck, depending on your needs. Including which networks you plan to post on for each topic in your editorial calendar is a great way to keep your efforts on track and organized.

Setting aside a chunk of time each week dedicated to scheduling your social media for the week will also make being consistent so much easier. Planning is half the battle, after all!

What are your favorite tools for editorial planning? Please share in the comments below!

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Robyn Rudish-LaningRobyn Rudish-Laning is a graduate of Duquesne University, with a bachelor’s in Public Relations, a master’s in Media Arts and Technology, and currently works as a PR Associate with Pretty Living PR, a boutique firm based in Pittsburgh. Find her on LinkedIn or Twitter or read her PR-focused blog

#ThrowbackThursday with Christopher Penn

Stephanie Vermillion 1 Comment

Editor’s note: This is the second post in our monthly #ThrowbackThursday series, which features a prominent, successful PR pro taking a look back and sharing tips from his/her days as a new pro. 

Earlier this week, we shared five skills young pros need to excel in the PR world, and as many noticed, digital knowledge was at the top of that list.

Christopher S PennToday’s #ThrowbackThursday guest, Christopher Penn, pretty much wrote the book on digital PR. (And by “wrote the book,” we mean authored three best sellers.)

He’s the vice president of marketing technology at SHIFT Communications, co-founder of PodCamp New Media Community Conference and co-host of the Marketing Over Coffee podcast. Christopher has been named one of the top 50 most influential people in social media and digital marketing by Forbes multiple times, and he was named the PR News 2014 Agency Professional of the Year.

So, yeah. When it comes to integrated marketing communications, Christopher Penn is kind of a big deal. Now, let’s take a walk through his PR memory lane on this #ThrowbackThursday!

Question 1: You didn’t start off in PR right out of school. How did you get started in the industry?

It’s funny you mention that. I’ve been a marketer for years and years. The middle of the funnel – lead generation – was really my area of expertise. I could squeeze leads out of nearly any audience with tried and true marketing tactics.

But I ran into a problem: where does the audience come from?

As a marketer, you usually just buy it, with ads or list buys. That gets expensive. In 2012, I was talking to a good friend and agency owner, Mitch Joel, and he said that I needed to understand the agency world.

After that conversation, I reached out to longtime acquaintance Todd Defren, co-founder of SHIFT Communications, and said hey, let’s trade. You teach me about the top of the funnel and how PR works, and I’ll bring the middle of the funnel expertise to your clients. That started a beautiful relationship!

Question 2: Right out of college, what would you say are the most important skills new PR pros should possess?

The Ability to Write

Writing is at the heart of modern marketing and PR. Everything begins with writing, from sticky notes on your desk to 90,000 word books to screenplays for YouTube videos. Even great speaking leverages your ability to skillfully choose words. The problem is, most people aren’t great writers. Most people are average or slightly below average writers who can’t communicate with clarity.

I recommend that every student – and every PR pro – become familiar with tools like SlickWrite and Hemingway. While these tools cannot fix problems with structure, logical flow, or facts, they can identify basic flaws in writing. See this post on up-cycling content for a bit more on these tools.

The Ability to Do Deep Analysis

Statistics and mathematics are core skills for today’s PR pro. I know, I know, you got into PR to avoid math. Bad news: everything has math now. You must have the ability to take data, visualize it, analyze it, and turn it into insights and strategies.

Many students take courses with tools like SPSS and R; when they leave university life, those skills quickly atrophy. Don’t permit that to happen. Download data sets from public sources like data.gov to keep your data analysis skills strong. Practice, improve, and expand your data analysis toolkit.

If you’re facing data analysis challenges, I also recommend my latest book, Marketing Blue Belt.

The Ability to Be Creative

Creativity is one skill area that gets systematically beaten out of you by school and work. The ability to be creative hinges on your inputs, on how much useful stuff is in your brain that you can draw on at any given time. If all you’ve got in your head is junk, then all you’ll produce is junk. (Click to Tweet!) Feed your brain, especially after leaving an academic environment!

The more useful, usable information your mind has to work with, the more creative you can be. (this is also the basis for my previous book, Marketing Red Belt).

Question 3: Many new pros know they need to learn digital marketing skills, but they don’t know where to start. Can you share some tips on how new pros can learn on their own?

Learn by reading. There are great books out there like the Portable MBA on Marketing that can give you a solid foundation. If you’re in a hurry, I wrote a Cliffs Notes style book on marketing called Marketing White Belt.

Question 4: What were some of the pivotal teachings or experiences from your past that helped you become the PR pro you are today?

The biggest lessons come from the martial arts. One of the tenets of the art I practice is “keep going!”. It’s an admonition to never get comfortable, to never believe that you’ve won, and to keep learning.

One of my teachers, Ken Savage, has a great expression, “Teacher for now, student for life”. As we rise up in the ranks of our organizations, we tend to forget to keep learning. We get entrenched. We don’t budget time for learning – and we fall behind. Our organizations fall behind. Don’t let that happen – keep going!

Question 5: If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself during your first year in PR, what would you say?

I would advise myself to buy Apple stock before the 7-1 split last summer. Investing 100 shares in Apple when I joined SHIFT would have cost $12,400. Today that same investment would be worth $87,493.

More about Christopher:

Christopher S. Penn has been featured as a recognized authority in many books, publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, BusinessWeek and US News & World Report, and television networks such as PBS, CNN, CNBC, Fox News, and ABC News for his leadership in new media and marketing. In 2012 and 2013, Forbes Magazine recognized him as one of the top 50 most influential people in social media and digital marketing. MediaPost renewed this honor in 2015. Marketo Corporation named him a Marketing Illuminator, and PR News nominated him as both Social Media Person of the Year and Social Media Icon MVP in 2014. PR News also named him Agency Professional of the Year.

Mr. Penn is the Vice President of Marketing Technology at SHIFT Communications, a public relations firm, as well as co-founder of the groundbreaking PodCamp New Media Community Conference, and co-host of the Marketing Over Coffee marketing podcast. He is a Google Analytics Certified Professional and a Google AdWords Certified Professional. He’s the author of the best-selling books Marketing White Belt: Basics for the Digital Marketer, Marketing Red Belt: Connecting With Your Creative Mind, and Marketing Blue Belt: From Data Zero to Marketing Hero.