CaliberPulse

Newspaper layoffs; One reporter on three beats; The journalism landscape has changed and the practice of public relations has to change with it. These days getting a lead story comes down to relationships. Or, does it? Perhaps it comes down to seeing the right lead at the right time, to putting yourself and your client in the way of opportunity. PR pros must be more “plugged in” than ever before. HARO will help. HARO, or Help A Reporter Out, has changed the way public relations professionals pitch journalists. Over 5,000 journalists nationwide use HARO to locate experts for on-air interviews, article quotes, and more via an email blast distributed to over 56,000 resources three times a day. The best part: HARO is free.

A press release is often considered a tool used to inform members of the media about an event, update, or new information that would make a useful story for their readers. While this is certainly true, a press release is also content on the internet that can be used to draw people searching for certain keywords and phrases to your website. Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t just for the text embedded in a website. All communications, including press releases, can be “tagged” with key words to receive priority placement in organic searches and therefore drive users to your message and content. A press release can be optimized for searches by including key words and phrases and adding relevant links to the text.

“Communication is a complex activity under the best of circumstances and turns exponentially intricate when a crisis occurs. The mass shooting this past January 8 is a crisis that rocked not only Tucson, but is still being felt across our state and nation, and even around the world.” -Daphne Gilman and Jan Howard, Presidents of IABC Tucson and the Southern Arizona chapter of PRSA. It is not often that those involved in communicating about a crisis talk publicly about the process of handling the events. But recently, Caliber team members had the privilege of attending a seminar at the University of Arizona: Crisis Communication in Action: Tucson in the International News. This program, sponsored by PRSA Southern Arizona Chapter and IABC Tucson, provided insight into the communications crisis that arose from the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and other victims on January 8. It was a unique opportunity to hear news leadership and institutional public information officers speak openly about this shared experience, and we would like to share the top takeaway messages with you.

Over the last decade, marketers have focused on moms as the primary shopper and decision-maker of most households. With the emergence of mommy bloggers and followers coinciding with an unabashed admission of female buying power, more marketing and PR professionals began focusing campaigns on these consumers. Where did this leave dads? Some dads report feeling ignored by brand ad campaigns. A recent Yahoo study about dad consumers is turning heads and should influence some retail marketers to expand their target audiences. Some of the misconceptions that researchers found about dads are: 1. Dads don’t do housework. 2. Dads aren’t interested in retail shopping. 3. Dads don’t sway spending on household products. 4. Dads don’t share brand choices with peers. 5. Dads don’t do brand research.

“Email is the original social media” according to social media scientist, Dan Zarella. Zarella, on behalf of Hubspot, presented findings from an analysis of 9.5 billion Mail Chimp emails, survey responses, and focus group information in a webinar that we participated in last week. We’d like to share the top six takeaways with you. Try using some of this advice on your next email campaign and give us feedback on the results.

We hate to break it to you, but the days of “Dear Media Outlet” with an attached press release are long gone. Generalized follow-up emails to journalists are quickly deleted. In today’s world of public relations, the traditional pitch to journalists is becoming outdated altogether. Now that social media and blogging have consumed our online agendas, PR specialists must take this into consideration. If you haven’t already heard, participation via social networking is the new pitch. Likewise, creating a personal pitch that will catch a blogger’s attention is the key to successfully sharing your news. If executed correctly, not only will your story get published, but your credibility among the blogger community will undoubtedly increase. PR practitioners have come to realize that bloggers can be some of the best and most responsive sources, when the pitch and follow-up are implemented genuinely and strategically. Every PR professional has his or her own unique process for creating a great pitch, but there are certain guidelines for pitching to bloggers, in particular, that tend to yield the most successfully receptive results.

The return on investment of time spent posting messages on Twitter is directly related to the number of qualified impressions those messages make. One key to increasing Twitter impressions is to have followers retweet your message to their followers; hence, retweets become an important tactical goal. Researchers and astute students of Twitter user behavior have made observations about tweet characteristics that result in retweet activity. Below are 10 things that you can do to get retweeted more:

In December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released new guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising (now including blogging and microblogging). These guidelines are intended to ensure that consumers are made aware if third-party endorsements are influenced by advertisers and marketers. Translation: blogging and micro-blogging evangelists (including celebrity spokespeople) must reveal that they have received free products or incentives of any kind that may have influenced a positive endorsement of a brand or product.

In 2010, social media played more of a key role in the marketing, advertising, and public relations industry than ever before. More companies, large and small, used social media to increase interaction with their consumers, promote company news, events, and sales, and much more. As the use of these platforms increases, it is important to take note and understand the constant changes occurring in the world of social media in order to plan for using it most effectively.

LinkedIn posted a list of the top ten most overused buzzwords in U.S. user profiles. You’re sure to have seen them, and may have even used some of these words and phrases; the ambiguous descriptors that have diminished impact or meaning. The 2010 top ten overused terms in U.S. LinkedIn profiles are:

There are hundreds of thousands of outlets in the U.S. that serve as resources of entertainment and news for millions of consumers. To achieve placements in these outlets, PR professionals and publicity seekers must provide a service to the publications; providing impactful, pertinent information that their readers can use. Interpretation: pitches must be targeted to publications and writers that are interested in providing your story to their readers. Building a targeted media list entails finding topic-specific publications, becoming familiar with their content, combing through previously printed/posted articles to find the editors and writers on a particular beat, and digging for their contact information. While this process is educational, it is time-consuming and may be prohibitive if there is a wide swath of publications and consumers you plan to reach.

Has the daily job of sifting through Google alerts or the local media for company or product mentions turned into a time and resource drain? If you’ve been tasked with gathering media mentions and evaluating results from a variety of national and international sources, a paid media monitoring service is the best tool for the task. Sifting through the options to find the right service can be intimidating at the onset. Several reputable companies offer media monitoring tools that can save time and effort and help deliver comprehensive reports to stakeholders and the executive team. We’ve recently had the opportunity to evaluate several of the products on the market and will share our findings here.