Blog Action Day: A Mass Communication Case Study?

Today is Blog Action Day!

According to their Web site, Blog Action Day queries, “What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day?” They conclude, “One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.”
What a great idea to unite voices of mass communication for awareness of a great cause. Blog Action Day is about blog posts about the environment that still pertain to the bloggers typical topic.

Correlating PR and the environment is harder than you may think. However, I think we should take today to remind ourselves to not fall into the trap of taking the environment for granted. While this is stereotypical, I think it is common for the PR type to become too consumed with their to-do list to see the big picture. We need not let our proliferated technologies completely take over, and instead think about what we are doing. Turn off auto pilot, appreciate the world around us, and think about the importance of preserving it.

This is my small reflection and support of Blog Action Day.

If you missed it: PRSSA Social Media Meeting

Last night’s PRSSA meeting went well. It helped enhance many things we have been discussing in the social media class, and many great tools in the industry arsenal. Natalie Rittle, director of client relations for Plexus Web Creations and Audrey Baker of Porter Novelli discussed the facets of social media.

Audrey made some great points about social media tools. Notably:

The new shift in PR facilitates horizontal communications within organizations. It is no longer viable to communicate top-down. Organizations should have a human voice and be at an equal level with the consumer.

She also made a great point that we should not get ahead of ourselves when it comes to new media. Being the first to jump on a new application’s band wagon may not always be a great idea. She used Second Life as an example. Although it is not always a bad idea to be a pioneer in using these applications, her point is don't use a tool just because it is there, but rather see its need first.

Natalie taught us tremendous things about search engine optimization. Notably:

An organization should strategically write its Web site copy to display key words in order to rank high in search engines, but sometimes that forfeits good, clear writing. You may have to decide which is more important and make compromises.

SEO is a great way to show your client substantial results. PR is often times difficult to measure, but SEO follows a kind of scientific method that can be measured with concrete numbers.

Thanks to Natalie and Audrey for sharing their expertise with our chapter!

What were some of your favorite points our speakers made and is there anything else you wish they could have touched on?

The "FUN"damentals of Pitching a Press Release

We have all had our variety of internships with their various duties. Therefore I was thinking I would tap into the resource that is the blogosphere and see what your ideas are concerning pitching a press release.

While the social media press release is great when it comes to laying out your information and respecting the journalist’s intelligence, what is the best way to pitch it? Would you e-mail the journalist with just a few details asking if they would like more information and then send the SMPR, would you just send the SMPR cold with a salutation and their name, or would you lead in with a small pitch letter and have the SMPR appear under it? Do you adhere to the “never send a journalist an e-mail with an attachment” rule? Would you ever follow up with a call?

These are questions I have been working with the past week. We recently have had a story at my internship that we want in the store’s local newspapers. These newspapers are mostly small town publications so I am really hoping it won’t be too hard to get some coverage.

So far I have done research on the newspapers’ websites trying to identify the reporters who are covering the beat I am interested in. Then I get their e-mail addresses and send them our version of the SMPR and a small note at the beginning explaining the angle I think has the most interest. I followed up a few days later asking if they received the information I’ve sent. I am not sure if I should follow up with a call next or not.

Pitching press releases are honestly my least favorite part of public relations. I hate feeling like a sales person. Does anyone have any tips of the trade on how to develop relationships with the media or how to pitch a story? My favorite blog that answers some of these questions is the Bad Pitch Blog. Check it out and please help me with some insight from your experiences.

The Social Media Press Release Gets Booked

We have talked a lot about the social media press release in many of my classes including my social media class. Recently, I have been trying to implement it within my internship position. I work at the Barberitos franchising office in public relations and marketing. Because Barberitos isn’t a huge corporation set in its ways with a looming hierarchy of management, I am given a lot of freedom to try new things. I’ll let you know how my pitching of the SMPR goes later. That’ll be another post.

Enough about me. The SMPR may soon have many more "friends." PRXbuilder.com, a SMPR creation tool has been redesigned to work within Facebook.

Shannon Whitley, president of Whitley Media the provider of the PRX Builder, announced on his blog the release of the new Facebook application.

Whitley describes it:

"PRX Builder, the Social Media News Release creation tool, has been totally redesigned to work within Facebook.

No need to remember a separate user id and password – 
PRX Builder now seamlessly integrates with Facebook using your Facebook
account. Distribute releases using Facebook Messages & Posts.

Automatically post releases to Newshound, a Facebook news application.

Additional features, coming soon, will make it even easier to share your news with your Facebook friends. This is a fantastic way to virally spread your news."

I wonder how many professional practitioners would utilize the Facebook application to distribute their releases. Do you think using Facebook as an outlet for the SMPR may make your message look like spam? Or, do you think you could use it to legitimately reach more of your chosen demographic? You may not be able to control who receives your message, but isn’t that the point of social media? Putting the information out there to engage others in a conversation may be more important than the control. I'm not sure who I would be distributing my news releases to on Facebook. I can't imagine a reporter or even a regular "facebooker" that would perceive anything like that seriously In the Facebook world.