Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
We’ve been blogging a lot lately about how organizations can leverage the juggernaut that is Twitter, but according to a recent article on CNNMoney.com, more and more professionals are using social networking sites to find new job opportunities.
Reporter Jessica Dickler says, “In the worst job market in 25 years, building an online presence is crucial to getting a job. Who you connect to, “follow” and “friend” can be just as important as conventional tools like résumés.”
Twitter and Facebook have made is easy for people to let their professional and social networks know that they’re looking for a job. Whether it’s a tweet or a status update, the information is out in the universe instantaneously, as opposed to the traditional e-mail or phone call.
Dickler goes on to mention that job seekers don’t necessarily need to send out a tweet and wait for leads to come back to them. “There are several services associated with social networking sites to such as TweetMyJobs, which sends out automatic updates of new openings in a specific field and region sent to your cell phone or by Twitter.”
The classified ads may be a thing of the past, but when it comes to uncovering new business leads or job opportunities, it’s still all about relationship building. The rise of social networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter are merely new tools to help build those relationships and shouldn’t be ignored by those looking for a job or new business prospects.
As a PR professional, I use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn on a daily basis to gather a variety of different information including my clients’ competitors, trends in a particular industry as well as journalists, new companies and potential business prospects. I’ve found social networks to be an invaluable tool to help me quickly find the information I’m looking for and I suspect, I’ll be finding new ways to use these networks as they continue to evolve.
Gender-focused public relations and marketing campaigns can be effective – if executed properly. However, some companies have found that targeting specific genders can cause controversy and negative consumer feedback.
Just recently, Dell launched a new Web site targeted towards women called Della. The site, which soft launched on April 30, is being criticized for “pandering to female stereotypes” with its overwhelmingly pink color scheme and content that some argue “paints women as having little tech savoir faire.”
Nicole Zerillo with PRWeek recently wrote two articles about gender-stereotype traps and discussed the controversy surrounding Della as well as the marketing campaign for Mars Snackfood’s new candy bar Fling, which referred to the candy as “fingers” and featured ads that suggested women “pleasure yourself” with the chocolate bars.
Dell has been following online conversations and making revisions to the Della Web site based on the feedback it is receiving. On May 15, a company spokesperson published a blog post about the mixed feedback and the changes being made, which include incorporating more business-oriented products and information on the site and omitting some of the pink.
Reggie Bradford, CEO of social media company Virtue, tells PRWeek the incident with Della shows how a “small group of dissenters can be magnified through social media.” Reggie also references the Motrin Moms’ campaign and comments, “If you have consumers passionate enough to stand up and be heard . . . [marketers] should use it to develop a more proactive dialogue.” This is also true for public relations campaigns.
As companies look to implement campaigns that resonate with women or a niche audience, it’s important to engage with them and target their needs and values rather than only looking at one aspect of their interests. Some of the most successful campaigns to date, such as Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty”, are powerful because women relate to the values and the messages that are being communicated.
In order to ensure you implement a successful PR campaign, it’s important to really understand who your target audience is and what motivates them. Consider the following tips:
Research and plan. Determine what your goals are for the PR campaign and outline the target audience you want to reach. Once you’ve determined who your target audience is, find out what types of messages, themes and values will resonate with that audience. If your goal is to communicate messages that resonate with women, evaluate what values will spark their interest and avoid making generalizations or stereotyping.
Choose the right PR tools. You need to choose the right PR tools to communicate your message. Depending on the audience and message, it might make sense to develop and distribute a press release or plan an event, write a contributed article, implement a social media campaign, participate in a conference, discussion panel or trade show, etc.
Integrate with other functional areas. In order to implement a successful PR campaign the messages and tools must align with your business objectives. Integrate your PR efforts into your sales and marketing efforts and invite different groups (marketing, executives, etc) to participate in the efforts. This will help to establish cohesiveness and build consensus for your PR plan.
Whether your PR campaign is geared towards a gender specific group, or you are targeting a niche audience, make sure to evaluate your messages clearly and remember to monitor online conversations about your company and brand.
This economic downturn has hit the newspaper industry hard, and free papers have taken the biggest blow.
In a June 7, 2009 New York Times article on the subject, Eric Pfanner describes the plight of the free newspaper. He writes, “They rely entirely on advertising, which is more volatile than revenue from newsstand sales and subscriptions.”
Unlike their paid counterparts, free newspapers are fairly new. While the first free daily paper is believed to have started in 1940, free dailies did not become popular until 1995. The business model seemed promising, and soon free papers popped up in cities across the U.S. By 2008, free newspapers were available in 58 countries.
Free papers, such as the Seattle Weekly, are read by a younger demographic, and their content caters to this audience. They generally have short news tidbits, with a bigger focus on lifestyle, technology, media and entertainment.
But today, analysts say ad revenue of free dailies has fallen by more than a third compared to last year. To cope, free papers are cutting costs and consolidating. Companies like Metro International, which has papers in more than 100 cities around the world, sold several of its newspapers last month – including those in Philadelphia and New York.
Competition is fierce for the coveted title of the top two most popular free papers in each city, as these generate the most ad revenue. Says Anders Kronborg, CFO of Metro International, “If you’re not No. 1 or 2, get out.”
Fewer papers also means more competition for articles. From a PR perspective, it may be more difficult to place articles in the few remaining papers. Pitches should have a strong local angle and appeal to a younger demographic. As papers cut staff, there may also be an increased opportunity for contributed articles.
Just as other media are consolidating, in coming months we expect to see papers that are not in the top two slots falter – or close altogether. After all, how many free dailies does each city need?
If you have a Google Gmail account, you may notice the word, ëbeta’ tagged below the logo. Or perhaps you were able to experience Bing, Microsoft’s new decision engine and consumer brand, in advance of the company’s worldwide deployment on June 3. Both Bing and Gmail represent products that were launched in beta form.
So, exactly what does beta mean? According to WikiAnswers.com, a beta version is the first version released outside the organization or community that develops the software for the purpose of evaluation or real-world testing. The process of delivering a beta version is called the beta release.
From a PR perspective, launching a product in beta can be an effective way for an organization to not only receive user feedback, troubleshoot bugs and finalize a product, but also build buzz and excitement. Based on our experiences working with beta versions of a variety of software and solutions, we recommend keeping the following tips in mind when planning for a beta release.
- Make sure your product is user-ready. Although new users may have some leniency with your beta version and its minor bugs, it still needs to operate well. The purpose of the beta launch is to solicit feedback and iron out small kinks. For the most part, your beta version should provide a smooth experience for users. Creating frustration early on will only distance users from returning for the official release.
- Establish a timeline and make a plan. A plan and timeline will help ensure your activity aligns with your organization’s objectives and that your beta version has a set release date for the final product. It will also allow you to ensure you have enough time align marketing and PR activities such as securing reviews and editorial coverage to hit at the time of the launch.
- Get the word out. In order to ensure beta users experience your new product, you’ll need to get the word out. To help accomplish this, have a solid PR strategy to inform key audiences and generate excitement and buzz. For example, organizations may want to consider sharing the news with relevant bloggers under embargo in advance of the launch so they can post blogs about your beta release.
- Make a good first impression. It is critical to provide a great user experience during the beta release to capture the attention of your customers. A first impression is a lasting impression and organizations must retain customers.
- Secure customer feedback and evolve. One of the great things about launching a beta version is the feedback you receive from customers. Make it easy for users to leave comments and send feedback. Provide easy directions on your beta Web site as well as provide a feedback@ e-mail address. Organization should also consider designating someone internally that can not only monitor feedback on blogs, Twitter and other social networks, but also engage with users to build relationships. This individual could establish an online chat or Twitter account to increase accessibility.
Have you or your organization recently launched a beta product? Tell us about your experiences and leave a comment.
MySpace, the one-time leading social networking site owned by News Corporation, announced earlier this week it will lay off approximately 400 employees, or nearly 30 percent of its staff, in an effort to return to a “start-up culture.”
Owen Van Natta, CEO of MySpace and former Facebook executive, said in a statement that MySpace would cut its “bloated” staff levels and return to an “environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product.”
This move comes at an interesting time when Facebook, once the second most popular social networking platform, is now leading MySpace with more than 200 million users worldwide. In May, we wrote a blog post entitled, “Facebook vs. MySpace” and discussed the changing media landscape and the competition between social networks including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Results from a March 2009 comScore survey revealed MySpace had more than 70 million total unique users in the U.S. However, statistics now show Facebook has surpassed MySpace in terms of active memberships worldwide and matches MySpace’s U.S. numbers with approximately 70 million users.
While MySpace is still a top social network for celebrities and music, Facebook has become the social networking destination for those who want to connect with old friends, network with people in similar industries and share photos and status updates with family and friends. Analyst Josh Bernoff with Forrester Research comments, “If MySpace is about your entertainment life, Facebook is about your whole life.”
As social networking continues to gain traction, we anticipate the competition will continue to increase. However, the success of each of these platforms will depend on each company’s ability to innovate and provide users with tools to connect them to what matters most in their lives.
Perhaps MySpace’s layoffs will help the company re-focus and reinvigorate its site to take social networking to the next level. It will be interesting to see what’s next for the company and you can bet we’ll be following this closely.
While many magazines are feeling the pinch of the recession, Hearst Magazines is growing. The Hearst family of magazines – Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Food Network Magazine and Oprah Magazine, to name a few – have almost all held steady in circulation, according to a New York Times article by Richard Pérez-PeÒa. And their combined advertising pages dropped by only 6.7 percent last year, compared with the 11.7 industry average.
To what does Hearst owe this success? According to Samir Husni, chairman of the University of Mississippi journalism department, it’s Hearst’s contrarian strategy. While other magazines are shrinking and cutting newsstand prices, Hearst is doing just the opposite. Hearst is increasing the physical size of many of its magazines – by up to an inch in most cases – and upping the price by more than 25 percent in the past two years. Despite these increases, sales have remained steady. Evidently, customers are loyal to their favorite magazines and willing to pay the price.
From a PR perspective, one of Hearst’s most interesting strategies is keeping its articles offline. The company’s magazines have Web sites, but they offer only a few select articles and features. Says Pérez-PeÒa, “Their sites try to tantalize readers with what they can see only in print – and drive them to buy subscriptions.”
In an age when consumers expect all print news to be available for free online, this tactic seems counterintuitive. But according to Hearst Magazines President Cathy Black, it’s working. Says Black, “I want 1.6 million women to go to the newsstand every month to buy Cosmo, and they do.” She continues, “I don’t have any interest in challenging that economic model.”
Black and other Hearst executives may be on to something, and they certainly have the industry clout to start a trend. But if this “print-only” movement takes off, what will it mean for PR? Here are a few of my initial thoughts:
Circulation – When an article appears both in print and online, it reaches a vastly larger audience. And online articles are often reposted on other news sites and blogs, resulting in higher circulation. Should articles shift from online to print? The key to client satisfaction will be setting expectations. If you know an article will only reach print subscribers, make sure to mention this to the client at the outset.
Pitching – Pitching a story to a print-only outlet is different because pitches do not include multimedia, such as videos, and the audience is much more specific. Pitches should be more narrowly focused for the publication’s target audience instead of for a broader online audience.
Web sites – We often advise our clients to hyperlink articles in which they are mentioned. Should an article appear in print only, it will be important to scan and provide the client with a PDF so they can link it from their site. Our client OnRequest Images does an excellent job of this in their newsroom.
As Hearst moves forward to change the size of its magazines, increase prices and keep materials offline, we will continue to monitor the industry to see whether other magazines follow suit.