Did the right person catch that pitch?

In Chapter 16 of Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals, Julio Romo discusses how to pitch using social media.  Typically, PR practitioners would have to find a journalist(s) that was willing to listen to why they should write about the brand or client that is seeking coverage.  Today, with the increasing use of social media platforms, there are many new ways to get in contact with people who can promote the story.

One of the main points that Romo hits on is that there are now media outlets that list right on their website what journalists and producers are on Twitter; as we have discussed before, Twitter is one of the best ways to promote a story (thats if your 140 characters really captures all important elements).  Romo mentioned how we used to have our address books with the numbers to journalists but now he is saying that “creating a digital address book today could not be easier” (2012, p. 140).  These digital address books allow PR practitioners to promote and pitch these stories to many individuals via social media platforms.

But… what if you pitch to the wrong person? What if your pitch doesn’t go as intended?

With multiple social media platforms, it is VITAL that PR practitioners are familiar with the different platforms and who they are pitching to.  Romo stated that “too many PRs make the mistake of assuming that because bloggers can carry content, they work like journalists,” and continued to an example that ended up resulting in a post that “was cold and written in a manner that highlighted the possible lack of a working relationship between the two parties” (2012, p. 139).  Moral of the story is, you have to be careful of who you are pitching to and how you are utilizing the different platforms.

In a post by Amber Mac, titled Social Media Makes Bad Pitches Go Viral–And Can Save PR from Itself, she opens with “not even spam filters can save fast company writers from horrible PR pitches” (2012).  She then later describes that in order to save yourself from the bad publicity there are 3 steps that should be followed: 1) Do your social search homework, 2) Consider a social pitch first, and 3) Kill the “dear journalist” from letters and mass e-mails.

I came across a website, with a specific page titled Bad PR… Bad which is hosted by a site titled “The PR Coach.”  I started to read the page a little bit and the first paragraph states, “we present the best of the Bad PR examples from the ‘net. We hesitated to put this page together but there’s too much to learn from other public relations mistakes, PR Fails, bad blog pitches, media missteps, bad judgment, poor PR pitching and PR faux pas.”  This page just made it extremely clear for me that there are tons and tons of critics out there so you can be put in the spot light for just one bad PR pitch.

The moral of the story is, you have to be careful what you post because you don’t want to end up as a link on Bad PR.. Bad or pitch your story to the wrong person.  If you follow the steps that Romo states in the chapter, you should have a great pitch on social media!

Sources

Mac, A. (2012). Social media makes bad pitches go viral– And can save PR from itself. Retrieved on October 24, 2013 from http://www.fastcompany.com/1840131/social-media-makes-bad-pitches-go-viral-and-can-save-pr-itself

Romo, J. (2012). Pitching using social media in Share this: The social media handbook for PR professionals. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester, West Sussex.

Bad PR.. Bad. Retrieved on October 24, 2013 from http://www.theprcoach.com/bad-pr-bad/.

Public Relations- What Kind of Correlation?

Before I decided that I wanted to be a part of the Communications program at Saint Rose, I had my own opinion on what I thought Public Relations and Advertising was all about.  I assumed that PR practitioners lied in order to get consumers to buy their product, or at least show interest towards it.  I assumed that PR practitioners worked in fancy offices, making a lot of money and simply just working for one company.  I was definitely wrong..

Now that I have taken a large amount of courses in the field, I know the real ins and outs of Public Relations.  I know that we must provide the client with what they are looking for and also set it up in an attractive way so that it attracts the attention of consumers and other members of the community.

What I didn’t know was that there is a correlation between being a PR practitioner, a trendy woman and a democrat.  An article on PR Daily, titled PR Stereotypes: Fact or Fiction?, written by Arik Hanson discussed the different stereotypes and which ones were true or not.

He clarified that it is not true that most PR practitioners are democrats and trendy woman.  He did state that there is a ratio of 4-1 when discussing women to men in the field.

I found it very interesting that these were some of the things that individuals thought.  Neither of these stereotypes have crossed my mind but the ones that I did think of, were not mentioned.  I find it interesting that the field of PR is related to people who are liberal, open minded and pretty much the farthest thing from conservative.  I personally feel that the field of PR is so intriguing because it is made up of so many individuals of different personalities.

Sources

Hanson, A. (October 15, 2013). PR stereotypes: Fact or fiction? Retrieved on October 21, 2013 from PR Daily http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/15390.aspx

Be desperate business because you need to blog!

In Chapter 11 of Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals, Stephen Waddington discusses The Business of Blogging.  In the introductory portion of his chapter, he discusses how blogs were formed and how individuals were the first to experiment with the blogging world.  As many of us know, once something works for individuals, businesses are desperate to get their name on that specific platform.

Waddington writes within the chapter that “good commercial blogs are hard to find because of the organisational and communciation challenges of the genre” (2011, p. 98).  This chapter got me thinking and to be honest, many of the blogs I follow are written by individuals that have a passion and knowledge for/about a specific topic; I can not recall any blogs I follow being run by a business.

But why?…

In an article on Tweak Your Biz, titled The Real Reason Why People Don’t Care About Your Business Blog, Brown states that “numerous business bloggers struggle with how to bring in targeted traffic to their blogs and how to get their readers to engage with them and their content” (2013).  This confirms that one of the challenges that businesses face s bringing people in, hence why I do not follow any blogs.

It is important that businesses start figuring out these difficulties and make a name for themselves within the blogging world. There are many articles that have reported that there are MANY benefits to blogging, especially for businesses.  On Social Media Examiner, there is an article titled 5 Reasons Your Business Should be Blogging.  The article provides 5 logical reasons why it is necessary for a business to blog.  I particularly thought that the best reason was number 3. Marcus Sheridan says, “You become the trust agent,” and continues ” helpful content= trust, trust=leads, leads=sales” (2011).  If you provide your viewers with helpful content and the real deal, they are likely to trust you and they can later bring in sales to your company.

After reading these articles and looking at whole I follow, I think it only makes sense that businesses continue to follow these words of advice and become desperate to blog.

Sources: 

Brown, S. (2013). The real reason why people don’t care about your business blog. Retrieved on October 10, 2013 from Tweak Your Biz http://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/2013/08/21/the-real-reason-why-people-dont-care-about-your-business-blog/

Sheridan, M. (2011). 5 reasons your business should be blogging. Retrieved on October 10, 2013 from Social Media Examiner http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-reasons-your-business-should-be-blogging/

Waddington, S. (2012). The business of blogging in Share this: The social media handbook for PR professionals. John Widley & Sons Ltd: Chichester, West Sussex

Apple, Coke, Google- SHOOT

According to Pearcy, A. of PR Daily, Apple has claimed the number 1 spot for the world’s most valuable brand.  Following Apple was Google, which was then followed by Coca-Cola.  What is surprising about this jump in ranking is that Coca-Cola had been in the number one spot.  Pearcy, A. joked, “the marketing “machine” that is Coca-Cola usually invites consumers to “open happiness,” but those at the global beverage giant might be less chipper today” (2013).  

What I found most interesting about this article is Apple, Google, and Coca-Cola are three main brands that are always discussed within the business and communications field.  Each company has successfully marketed their brand in a way that is unique and differentiates them from all competitors.  I do not believe that there is one person walking, especially in the United States, that has not heard of these three main brands.  

I did find it surprising however that Coca-Cola jumped from the number 1 spot to number 3.  Yes, Apple had a launch of a new product and yes, Google is just awesome but as we discussed in our Twitter chat, Coca-Cola is a wonderful brand within social media.  I thought it would be a good idea to look at Google and Apple’s twitters and of course, they have a wonderful presence to.  I do not believe that all of their success is linked to the way the utilize the social media platforms but I do think that it plays a big role in the way the continue to advance.

All three of these companies are great companies and continue to dominate the market and their specific industries.  Apple, Google, Coca Cola is playing its own game of Rock, Paper, Scissor.  With their continual approaches, you never know what company may shoot to the number 1 spot of the world’s most valuable brand tomorrow. 

Source:
Pearcy, A. (October 1, 2013). Apple overtakes Coca-Cola as most valuable brand.  Retrieved on October 6, 2013 from PR Daily http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/15316.aspx