A Word on PR Spam
I just learned about the Inconvenient PR Truth campaign, a PR industry initiative launched by Realwire’s CEO Adam Parker. The campaign aims at initiating a debate on PR irrelevance and how it’s polluting our online environment. According to research by news release distribution service Realwire, each year US and UK journalists receive an estimated total of 1.7 billion irrelevant press release emails. That’s a lot!
My initial reaction to the campaign was: Yes! That’s right. We PR people should work on honoring and improving our craft. We should help reduce PR pollution by only sending out relevant information.
On second thought: What’s relevant really depends on the receiver. An information that’s relevant to an audio-visual technology trade mag might not be relevant to a cooking magazine. That’s easily figured. So how do we solve this problem of PR pollution?
Well, there is never a straightforward, easy solution, is there? Nonetheless, I believe that the new era of conversational public relations leveraging social media holds the key to less spam and more relevance as towards press releases and its distribution.
PR Relevance: It’s a Two Way Street
Yes, PR practitioners need to target the right journalists when it comes to distribute releases. That’s only one side of the story.
Journalists and bloggers have the power to say “No!” to unsolicited press release emails. Rather than feeeling victimized, they should harness their position, stop being mere receivers of information and become active information “hunters and gatherers”. The new internet offers endless possibilities when it comes to looking for topics and news that match their editorial needs .
Shift Communications’ Todd Defren has a great blog post on this PR pro/journalist dynamic. He writes that “part of the PR pro’s new job in this era is to create, seed and cultivate content about clients in the socialstreams.” And why is that? Because a majority of reporters already turn to the internet and social networks when it comes to information gathering.
From Press Release to Social Media Release
Assuming PR people would shift their priorities and concentrate on spreading relevant “trails of breadcrumbs” - as Todd Defren calls them - for the searching journalist or blogger to find and follow, would that help generate a shift in PR practices? Would it help reduce PR spam and increase conversations among PR pros and reporters that are pertinent to a particular issue? Tools for social media releases are out there, and they are being used already. But not enough.
My notion is, the more information you “have to” accumulate to make your release fit for the social web, the higher your chance you’re getting the information right. A traditional press release distributed - text-only - over the wire to a million media recipients bears the risk of being irrelevant, not because of the large number of receivers but because of its undeliberated and often rash way of sending.
The Power of Multi-Media Resources
Imagine you would have to include an embeddable video that presents a brief product demo by an in-house expert. Imagine you would include accompanying graphics or statitics that support your release with useful data. Imagine you would add quotes from your company’s executives or clients and analysts topping off your information. What about MP3 files or podcasts? What about links to relevant additional information or coverage on the same topic?
A social media release leveraging all these multi-media resources about your product, service or company stands a chance of not being dismissed as irrelevant or spam - especially when equipped with RSS functionality as well as embedding, bookmarking and sharing possibilities to social networks, news aggregators and blogs.
Brian Solis wrote a very helpful introduction and overview of the power and possibilities of social media releases. In his “Definite Guide to Social Media Releases“ Solis sums up what a social media release should include and why we need social media releases. On that note, I hope that social media releases will help reduce PR spam and make the conversations between PR pros and reporters a fruitful one. What do think? How can we reduce PR pollution?
4 Marketing Tips for Voice-over Talents
Twibes: Join a Twitter Group
The following is the content of an actual email I sent out to the members of the Los Angeles voice-over marketing group I’m participating in. These 4 marketing tips are targeted to voice-over artists in Los Angeles; however, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t equally useful to self-entrepreneurs in other industries and other cities. Just find the groups and keywords that fit your professional area and have fun marketing yourself!
Marketing Tip #1: For those of you who are on Twitter
• Add yourself to the Twitter directory wefollow.com : You can choose 3 tags that you want to associate with your Twitter account. It will help increase visibility and ultimately followers.
• Join a Twitter group. I joined Twibes.com/voiceover : It’s a great way to find and network with like-minded professionals on Twitter.
• Create an alert…uh…twilert(!) on www.twilert.com : It let’s you receive regular emails on topics and keywords on Twitter that you are interested in.
Marketing Tip #2: For those of you who are on LinkedIn
• Yes, join groups that correspond to your industry like Voice Over Professionals or Voiceover Universe
• BUT also join other groups like Media Professionals or International TV Professionals, really any kind of group that might offer potential to connect with people in your area of interest (animation maybe or audio books?)
• Apart from LinkedIn, the German-based and internationally operating professional network Xing.com has helped me a lot to connect with people on- and offline. They do have a great Xing Los Angeles group that actually organizes regular IN-PERSON get-togethers! And I’m sure they do have meet-ups in any other larger American city.
Marketing Tip #3: For those of you who are on Meetup.com
• There is a Hollywood Voice Acting Meetup group that you might want to join. It’s sponsored by Holdon Log. There are Meetup groups for almost any kind of passion or professional area all across the US, so don’t hesitate to join a group that you’ll think you enjoy in-person networking with. I’m a member of the Los Angeles Euro Meetup which organizes the most fun get-togethers!
Marketing Tip #4: For those of you who are looking into a news release distribution service
• Yes, there are tons of free distribution services out there, just google free news release distribution and you’ll find them. I found PRWeb.com a very effective service in the past. It’s a paid service with rates starting at $80 per release. Depending on what package you choose, you can enhance your social media visibility, boost your SEO, or even add an embedded video to your release to enhance media visibility.
I hope you find these tips useful! Don’t forget, the most important thing about marketing yourself is HAVING FUN with it! Just be YOU and ENJOY YOURSELF no matter if you’re connecting with people online or offline - your personality is your greatest asset! And let me know about your experiences!
Thanks for reading!
News: Music, Trends, and Germany’s Insiders
Jody Whitesides - Los Angeles singer/songwriter
What’s new at grenniMEDIA?
Musician Jody Whitesides
First and foremost, I am proud to be able to announce a new grenniMEDIA client: Jody Whitesides is a very talented young Los Angeles based musician who is currently busy preparing his Canadian single release. grenniMEDIA will provide publicist services for Jody, and is excited to be supporting Jody’s very promising endeavour. Jody’s unique sound can be best described as a premium blend of Maroon 5, John Mayer, Lenny Kravitz, and Seal. His album Practical Insanity is available on iTunes - in fact, the first non-signed artist iTunes added to their music store. And I promise - its 12 tracks won’t disappoint any of you alternative pop rock music lovers. Music Connection magazine recently praised his display of “skill and craft without sacrificing heart or conviction.” Jody simply calls it “Music that makes your soul happy!”
STARFISH LA Trend Service
STARFISH LA - Trend Service
STARFISH LA, an innovative media service agency based in Los Angeles, is now expanding its trend service internationally. grenniMEDIA and STARFISH LA have collaborated on putting together a convenient and affordable trend service that makes the essential addition to any editorial team. Fashion, accessories, beauty trends, whatever is en vogue in Hollywood and beyond - STARFISH is dedicated to providing the latest trend information straight from Los Angeles to magazines all over the world. The STARFISH trend service provides editors with custom-built content that is ready for publishing. It is built with the busy editorial office in mind: editors save time thanks to STARFISH’s research and easy-to-use format. Interested magazine editors can contact the STARFISH offices at nina [at] starfishla [dot] com for further information and details.
freie HONNEFER-From Inside Germany
FreieHONNEFER - From Inside Germany
FreieHONNEFER, the popular German online magazine, has added an English language column to their wide-ranging topics and themes. The magazines chief editors explained their English expansion to an otherwise German 2.0 enterprise as follows: “Lederhosen, Black Forrest, sauerkraut? Still clichés determine the image of Germany in foreign countries. A good enough reason to fight prejudices and give some inside views from the middle of Europe. From Inside Germany - that is Christopher-Street-Day, The Seven Mountains and currywurst. Keep curious and expect the unexpected.”
My Social Homes
