social media & pr: a match made in heaven?

Social Media & PRA Match Made in Heaven?

Presented by:Leslie Vickrey & Michelle Krier

© 2011 ClearEdge Marketing

September 7, 2011

Roundtable Series

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About ClearEdge Marketing

� About ClearEdge Marketing� Founded in 2006, ClearEdge is an award-winning marketing and

PR firm headquartered in Chicago, IL

� Clients are technology services, software and staffing firms

� Operate on a unique and flexible outsourced marketing modelo Become virtual department on a monthly retainer or project basis

o Special forces for internal marketing when bandwidth needs arise

o Offer growth companies an opportunity to invest in marketing without carrying the overhead of an entire department

� Team of strategic and tactical marketing professionals with experience managing global marketing operations

o Strategists, Project Managers, Writers, Designers, Developers

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ITA Marketing Affinity Partner

� ClearEdge helps ITA members stand out from the crowd and win new opportunities. Through the following services, we help ITA members improve lead generation, expand brand reach, build name recognition and enhance relationships:

� Branding & Messaging

� Digital/Interactive/Social Media

� Public Relations

� Campaigns

� Sales Collateral

� Event Support

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Today’s Agenda

� Social Media – A Quick Overview

� The New PR Ground Rules

� Examination of Leading Networks

� What Reporters Have to Say

� What to Do: Success Stories

� What Not to Do: Cautionary Tales

� Final Tips & Ideas

� Closing Q&A / Discussion

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Question 1

How far “in” are you when it

comes to social media?

A. All in: profiles in numerous networks, tweeting, blogging,

hashtagging, etc.

B. Halfway in: Registered with several networks but usage is limited.

C. Barely in: I rarely use social media in any form.

D. Not in: I do not use social media at all.

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Social Media

A Quick Overview

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Social Media. What Is It?

Definition

� Internet-based technologies that facilitate shared community experiences and turn communication into an interactive dialogue.

Source:

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Always Growing

Expansive

Diverse

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How Big Is It?

Social Media Is Big

� In the U.S., Facebook’s traffic tops Google’s

� YouTube is the second largest search engine

in the world

� A new member joins LinkedIn every second

� More than 35 million Facebook users update

their status every dayo Stats from 2011 Socialnomcis: Social Media Revolution 2011 &

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-statistics/#ixzz1BVs9Uwh6

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How Big Is It?

Very Big

� If Facebook were a country, it would be the

world’s 3rd largest

� Many universities have stopped issuing email

accounts — it’s becoming passé

� 176+ million U.S. Internet users watched

online videos last montho Stats from 2011 Socialnomcis: Social Media Revolution 2011

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Giving Power to the Individual

� The power to edit and create content

� Tools to broadly distribute opinions, insights, experiences, and media

� Forums low-cost communication and congregation

� A way to leverage personal networks to make decision

Empowering the

Individual

� Power to edit and create content

� Tools to broadly distribute opinions, experiences and media

� Forums for low-cost communication and congregation

� Ways to leverage personal networks to make decisions

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How Has Social MediaChanged PR

The New Ground Rules:How Has Social Media Changed PR?

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Question 2

How Different Do Your Social Media Releases

Look from Your Traditional Releases?

A. Very different

B. Slightly different

C. Not different

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The Changing Press Release

The Social Media Release

� Headlines are Tweet-able

� Content short and succinct

� Rich in links

� Mobile app friendly

� Social media handles in about/contact

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The Changing Press Release

Variety of Forms

� Traditional Releases (still have a place today, but the role is changing)

� Video Releases

� Microblog Releases (Twitter, etc.)

� Podcasts

� Texts

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The Chatter Factor

Social media helps PR get more people quickly interested and “talking”

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Expanded Chatter Targets

� Media� Reporters and Media Outlets

o Media list should have new column for Twitter handles –follow, re-tweet, comment!

� Bloggers

� Industry� Analysts/Influencers� Industry Experts� User Groups

� Company Resources� Staff� Customers� Partners� Associations

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One-on-One Engagement

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Focus on Engaging Constituents

Narrowcast vs. Broadcast

� Targeting individuals and small groups vs. “the masses”

� Constant network adaptation required

� Tweet for Twitter

� Post for Facebook and LinkedIn

� Video for YouTube

� Etc.

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Focus on Engaging Constituents

Creating Conversations

� Listening

� Finding and following reporters, clients and prospects where they are

o Social media groups, industry networks, media streams, etc.

� Talking

� Engaging directly with reporters, clients, partners, prospects, investors, analysts and more

o Offering information, resources, soliciting opinions, deals, etc.

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Question 3

What’s Your Favorite Tool or Site for

Social Media PR Today?

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How Has Social Media

Changed PR

Examining the Top Three

Social Networks

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� Professional networking, mainly used for business and career development

� Excellent for B2B communications

� Strong tool for reaching individual media contacts

� Better results through individual networking vs. company level

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Question 4

What percent of journalists would you say

are on LinkedIn?

A.22%

B.42%

C.62%

D.82%

E.92%

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Question 4

What percent of journalists would you say

are on LinkedIn?

A.22%

B.42%

C.62%

D.82%

E.92%

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“92% of Journalists Are Now on LinkedIn.” � Arketi Web Watch Media Survey

How to Use It

� Set up company and staff profiles

� Join or create groups to get involved in, and start, discussions

� Connect, follow and research journalists and key media contacts

� Get recommended and ask for contacts for recommendations, and reciprocate

� Be active and make sure status updates are linked to Twitter, and regularly update your status

� List events for your company and industry

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What to Post

� Industry news, trends, interesting developments

� Company press releases

� Questions to start discussions

� Team/company news/blogs/thought leadership

Tips for Posting

� Shorten URL if needed, but sometimes URL can be descriptive

� Tone: professional

� Auto sync Twitter to your profile (or consider just #hashtag link)

� Auto sync blog to your profile (even if company, not personal)

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Valuable Resources

� Groups and answers

� http://www.linkedin.com/myGroups

� http://www.linkedin.com/answers

� Great for networking and thought leadership positioning

� Great for seeing what’s trending

� Company page

� Static in comparison to Facebook, but can add Twitter and blog feeds

� Skills

� Events

� SlideShare

� Polls

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Products/Services Feature

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How Has Social Media

Any LinkedIn Questions?

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� Fun, friends, family, social

� Facebook pages are microsites

� More social than professional

� Use is so widespread that a presence is almost required

� Most generationally diverse of the big three

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Question 5

How Many Active Users Does

Facebook Have?

A. 25 million

B. 50 million

C. 750 million

D. 100 million

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Question 5

How Many Active Users Does

Facebook Have?

A. 25 million

B. 50 million

C. 750 million

D. 100 million

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What to Post – Company Pages� Industry news, trends, interesting

developments, blogs, events

� Team/company news

� Photos (team, events)

� Tag with permission

� Videos (video blogs, events)

Tips for Posting� Use @ sign to mention someone or

a page

� Shorten URL if needed

� Comment on other posts

� Tone: relaxed, informal

� Use share functionalities

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Reporters are on Facebook:HARO – Facebook and Media

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How Has Social Media

Any Facebook Questions?

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� World’s biggest microblogging service

� SMS of the Internet

� Send and read Tweets: posts of up to 140 characters

� 200 million registered accounts

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Question 6

Who Is the Most Followed Person

on Twitter?

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Who Is the Most Followed Person

on Twitter?

Question 6

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What to Post

� Industry news, trends, interesting developments

� Team/company news/events/blogs

� Things posted elsewhere — photos/videos on Facebook, YouTube, presentations on SlideShare, etc.

� Callouts to partners, reporters, clients etc. related to their news, events and successes

Tips for Posting

� Always shorten URL (http://bit.ly)

� @ mentions a profile (@lvickrey, @apple); RT means retweet

� # make topics more searchable (#marketing, #jobs, #ipad2)

� Leave 20-25 characters in your tweet to allow for easy RTs

� Tone: very objective, informal

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Have multiple Twitter accounts to manage or monitor?Use Hootsuite/TweetDeck monitors multiple profiles

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ClearEdge in Action

� Blogging live from Chicago Innovation Awards event

� Reporter’s work was mentioned several times (Ann Dwyer, Crain’s Chicago)

� Sent congrats Tweet and shout out

� Received direct thank you and Twitter shout out

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Client in Action — Harvey Nash

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Client in Action – Harvey Nash

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How Has Social Media

Any Twitter Questions?

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Social Media

Insights from Reporters

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Melissa Harris

Business Columnist

Paper: The Chicago Tribune

Twitter Handle: @ChiConfidential

Thoughts on Social Media & PR� Twitter for work, Facebook for personal life

� They remain separate, always

� I use Twitter to:� Learn what’s going on with sources

� Promote my work

� How should PR teams use Twitter to reach me?� If you follow me on Twitter — and then I decide to

follow you — it’s a way for me to get to know you

better

� So when you do pitch me, I’ll have a better sense of who you are, what you do, what you’re interested in

� Pitches - via e-mail or phone. Social media is never as important as face-to-face contact or a phone call.

� Favorite Social Media Success Story� Reporter that broke huge national story after a veiled

Tweet for information

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Meridith Levinson

Senior Online Editor

Outlet: CIO.com

Twitter Handle: @meridith

Thoughts on Social Media & PR� I use social media to:

� Promote the stories that my colleagues and I write to reach a wide audience (we live and die by the traffic/page viewsour stories generate)

� Follow journalists on Twitter, re-tweet any stories they tweet; journalists appreciate the help getting traffic to their stories, good way to endear yourself to a journalist

� Get ideas for stories and to identify sources for stories

� Twitter allows me to see what career-related topics are hot, and I’ve met dozens of new CIOs and IT professionals through

Twitter whom I’ve later interviewed for sources

� CIO.com has an active reader forum on LinkedIn, and I’ve written several very popular stories based on discussions that took place in our LinkedIn forum

� Pitches – definitely prefer via email

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Brad Spirrison

Managing Editor/Technology Columnist

Appolicious /Chicago Sun-Times

Twitter Handle: @spirrison

Thoughts on Social Media & PR� Any PR communication campaign should involve as many

relevant channels as possible. For tech in particular, it's hard to fathom in this day and age a campaign that did

not leverage Twitter, Facebook, etc.

� Like everything else, implementing a social media campaign requires great care and thought. It should be beyond putting up a vanilla Facebook page. Twitter feed should post a variety of links and ideas, not just canned marketing

� As in any medium, get to know the reporter. Read their articles, follow their tweets and public announcements. On Facebook, avoid mixing anything personal or commenting public on their pages or within conversations about something you are trying to pitch. No marketing posts on public Facebook pages

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Social Media Success Stories

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Toyota — Digg

� Confronting recalls head-on

� Chose its medium to combat negative sentiment: Digg

� Used Digg Dialogg, blogs, press releases and more to address chatter across social media

� Video = 12 million views, 3,500+ questions submitted

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Social Media Cautionary TalesSocial Media Cautionary Tales

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United Airlines — YouTube

� Globally viral customer compliance video

� Created in 2009 — shelf life still strong today

� Over 10 million views worldwide to date

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Nestle — Facebook

� Online moderator gets personal with Facebook site visitors

� Fuels angry online mob

� Looks like social media newbie to public, issues several apologies

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Social Media

Closing Tips & Ideas

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HARO

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HARO

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Track and Visualize

� Viralheat

� Infoharmoni

� Buzzstream

� Twitalyzer

� Omniture

� Eloqua

� Klout

� Yahoo Pipes

� Bime

� Google Analytics

� WolframAlpha

� Compete

� Bit.ly

� Lugiron

� Hubspot

� Mixpanel

� Wildfire

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Pitch Smartly and Creatively

� Stay targeted

� Focus on region, expertise, etc.

� Follow reporters, read their stories, comment and re-tweet

� Keep it brief

� Brevity is king of journalism, emperor of social media

� Mix it up

� Don’t pitch the same people again and again

� Offer something new

� Data, research, new industry/expert insights

� Personalize it

� Show you know their audience

� Use creative media

� Video, podcasts, etc.

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Be Sure to Listen

� Use RSS feeds to follow your favorite industry blogs (http://www.google.com/reader/)

� Use http://technorati.com/ to search content from the blogosphere

� Use Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) to receive information on your favorite keywords and clients/prospects

� Search Twitter using hashtags (#keyword)

� Ask co-workers, clients, consultants and partners about which industry blogs they keep up with

� Find out where people from your industry hang out online, then start reading those publications, blogs, tweets as well

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Watch Emerging Tool: G+

� G+ combines aspects of Twitter with…

� Tools for organically organizing sources and information

� Tools for scanning headlines

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Focus on Chicago

Local Reporters We Follow

� http://twitter.com/#!/ChiConfidential

� http://twitter.com/#!/AnnDwyer_Crains

� http://twitter.com/#!/Mr_Innovation

� http://twitter.com/#!/spirrison

� http://twitter.com/#!/Technori

� http://twitter.com/#!/LeenaRao

� http://twitter.com/#!/smallbizchi

� http://twitter.com/#!/sandraguy

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Focus on Chicago

Additional Local Resources Worth Following

� http://twitter.com/#!/ITAbuzz

� http://twitter.com/#!/Chi_Innovation

� http://twitter.com/#!/chicagolandec

� http://twitter.com/#!/ChicagolandCmbr

� http://twitter.com/#!/windycitynews

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Let’s Talk

Your Questions, Experiences & Thoughts.

Let’s Share & Learn.

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Contact Us Anytime

Leslie Vickrey, President & FounderTel: 312.731.3149

: lvickrey@clearedgemarketing.com: @lvickrey: www.linkedin.com/in/lvickrey: www.facebook.com/clearedgemarketing

Michelle Krier, Sr. Director – Marketing & Social MediaTel: 414.617.3103

: mkrier@clearedgemarketing.com: @michellekrier: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellekrier: www.facebook.com/clearedgemarketing