Is Response Source an educational tool?

Daryl Wilcox has one of the worst blogs around. Not just because it more or less reiterates the mass e-mails sent out to the Response Source database, but because that's all it does. We could spend all day picking it apart, but what frustrates me most is that Daryl is in the position to really utilise the benefits of blogging. Instead he clumsily attempts to leap aboard the social media bandwagon to sell more Response Source subscriptions.

Regardless, I picked this post up because it is about my University's PR degree (which I am, thankfully, not on).

We’ve teamed up with the University of Gloucestershire’s new public relations degree course to help PR professionals of the future develop their media relations skills.

Students at the university will have access to journalist requests through our Response Source Journalist Enquiries System. This will give them real-world examples of the sort of requests journalists make so they can consider effective ways of pitching. We may also embark on some research projects with the university and will share any insights with the industry.

I thought I would run down the pros and cons of this:

Pros:

• Students will learn how Response Source works, what it is, and it's value.
  
• Students that pay close enough attention to it will get to know some of the most familiar journalist names and their respective beats.

Cons:

• Students might get the wrong idea of PR. PR is not a reactive process responding to journalists queries. It's a proactive process of talking about your clients to journalists in innovative and interesting ways.
  
• Roughly 90% of Response Source queries are completely useless. They will either ask for unrelated information to your clients, irrelevant case studies of couples who have had IVF treatment or 'amazing' stories.
  
• Too many PRs both use Response Source. Response Source queries are one of the most competitive to gain coverage. I personally have a better hit rate pitching feature ideas to journalists rather than responding to journalists' feature ideas.
  
• Too many PRs abuse Response Source. Response Source queries cultivate a "just in case" culture. As in, if you have a client that is remotely related, it doesn't cost the PR anything to send a press release in on the off-chance it might be used. The problem is that this dilutes the service considerably and journalists are bombarded with poor responses.

Update: Andrew B. Smith has also blogged on the issue

I'm still here

Don't worry, I still exist. Judging by the number of e-mails sitting in my inbox, a lot of other people still do too.

I have been away for a week doing whatever it is I do on holiday. Regular blogging resumes tomorrow.

Happy 50th post everyone!

The Virtual Athlete

This week I am proud to say I have a feature in New Statesman magazine titled 'The virtual athlete'. It has absolutely nothing to do with social media, well perhaps a little, but instead covers what brought me into writing, PR and marketing in the first place. Snippet below:

Top players have formed teams owned by limited companies, and often receive salaries to train and compete. These companies are becoming brands with their own identities and merchandise. As in football, there are transfers: US-based NoA bought the Norwegian Ola Moum in 2003 from a Swedish team, SK Gaming; he later moved to Mousesports of Germany.

In China and South Korea, gaming is already a recognised sporting activity and top players are national figures with their own fan clubs, whose league matches are watched on television by millions. Several players, some as young as 17, earn more than most Premiership footballers, though their lifestyle is probably tougher - eight hours' training a day is standard.

New Statesman is quite a well-known and high-profile magazine and makes for a great clipping should I decide to pursue journalism in the future. You can read the full feature here, or buy a copy (18th Septh ed).

Don't be a flack

There is a good post up on Valleywag.com giving advice to PRs on how to avoid being that flack journalists hate. A brief snippet below:

Today a flack from public relations firm SS PR sent me yet another piece of spam following up an e-mail pitch I never asked for, proving that PR folks need some guidance in how to avoid being "that annoying flack" that journalists and business development workers gossip about at the bar. Because by pleasing journalists, you don't just help them -- you help yourself.

1. Don't follow up e-mail pitches ("I was wondering if you had the chance to read this material," said the SS PR message. Oh, I had the chance. I also had the chance to watch Ron Popeil infomercials). The journalist you pitched probably gets ten to a hundred of pitches a day and deleted yours. This time you're marked as spam.

Personally I have found that a lot of it comes down to common sense. Most of the time it comes to a choice between annoying journalists by trying to force a weak story through (Company X attends a trade show, Mr Y new sales manager for company X) and actually providing journalists with proper, not overhyped, news which is well written. Still, give the post a read.

Finally, check out these links:

• http://www.btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=29202
  BtoB argues that the social media bubble will not burst like the dot.com boom because the VC and over-inflated expectations aren't there.
  
  
• http://performancing.com/node/3623
  Chris Garret gives 10 reasons why blogging for PR and Marketing works.
  
  
• http://www.forward-moving.com/blog/2006/09/13/no-man-is-an-island/
  The great Richard Bailey puts forth a future for Public Relations.
  
  
• http://consumerist.com/consumer/blind/target-still-being-sued-for-having-website-blind-cant-see-200394.php.
  Great story, Target is being sued for creating a website the blind can't see.

The insomniacs playground

I'm very annoyed that having insomnia is so fashionable these days. Especially those that suffer from it due to a combination of stress, no exercise and a poor diet. I'm not sure when insomnia became fashionable, I believe it was with the release of Fight Club in 1999. Or perhaps possibly with the release of that Faithless song.

Insomnia is a disease! It disrupts your life, turns you into a zombie and weakens your heart i.e. You will die sooner. Still cool?

Fortunately I am not an insomniac. I do have bouts of insomnia, though not nearly as bad as my Donnie Darko phase back in school. These days mind the internet has become a playground for insomniacs. Online games, chat-rooms, stupid puzzles and a never-ending supply of unique reading material has finally provided a suitable meeting hall for insomniacs.

This week though I have discovered I can access my work e-mail from home. Isn’t that wonderful? Instead of not-sleeping, I can work. Does anyone else do this? Honestly, I can’t think of anyone more dangerous to my leisure time than being able to access my e-mail from home.

Interacting with those big bad journalists

Owen has made a post close to my heart. On his blog Owen asks about the value and success of journalist surveys. I want to add my $0.02 because I believe this to be an extremely effective and important method of building up a relationship and obtaining information useful to both PRs and journalists.

Whenever we obtain a new client at apt marketing & pr, I use PR Planner to compile a list of target publications. I then individually e-mail a contact (dept editor is usually best) a few quick questions such as "Who would be best person to contact with information about [CLIENT], in what manner do they like to receive information (e.g. press releases, by phone, feature pitch ideas), what is their copy deadline etc...

I have found this to be a mutually beneficial way of building up a relationship with a journalist and obtaining invaluable information. It is probably best to state the value of responding to the journalist, e.g. It helps me to help you (do try to avoid this cliché).

In conclusion, some journalists are actually quite nice.

I begin working on Wiggly Wigglers

As of yesterday, I have just started working on an account I’m very excited about. The company is called Wiggly Wigglers (a name you might recognise from the article below) and apt marketing & pr have been hired to both raise the profile of Heather’s Social Media outlets and promote their book Bringing A Garden to Life.

The two objectives (and don’t worry they are SMARTer, albeit slightly more confidential, than summarised above) obviously overlap somewhat. I’m really excited about working with Heather on this project because it is not a client we have to explain what Social Media is or convince them of the benefits of utilising a Social Media strategy. It is someone who has already achieved great success and now wants to take this further.

Heather Gorringe has been both blogging and podcasting for nearly a year. Her podcast is on the front page of itunes podcasts and attracts a weekly audience of over 2100 people. Quite a feat I’m sure you will agree. What I like most about this is that this is not a tech company jumping into the depths of Social Media with their tech crowd. It is not a communications company targeting the communications early adoptors. It is the best example I have found yet of a ‘normal’ SME benefiting from proactive Social Media.

It is an example, which could be used for any company not involved in the tech or communication sectors.

Oh, and my boss broke her toilet seat. Sorry, but that was too fantastic to ignore.

The Western Daily Press Article

Good news. I can now post my article featured in the Western Daily Press a few weeks back. Please find it below, all trimmings attached.

//header

Who is talking about you?

//strap
A social media epidemic is presenting businesses throughout the region with new opportunities to find niche markets.

//body
Heather Gorringe of Hereford’s Wiggly Wigglers is succeeding where Coca Cola failed. Heather has a blog that takes visitors behind the scenes of the small mail order business and offers readers a glimpse of life on a farm with some new gardening ideas. Heather also has a podcast, or rather “Wormcast”, with 2100 listeners.

In preparation to launch the new Coca Cola Zero drink, the global drinks provider created a Zero Movement blog. This blog attempted to create a counter-culture ‘Zero Movement’ centred around the new drink. The blog was slammed by its target audience and gained considerable bad publicity due to its impersonal, product-driven, nature.

Social media is a phenomenon sweeping through the business world. Businesses small and larger are keen to leap aboard the bandwagon. Why? Because social media has created a business environment where, SME’s especially, can get their messages out to consumers at a fraction of the usual cost. Indeed social media has levelled the playing field, a playing field where Wiggly Wigglers can out-smart Coca Cola.

So what is social media? Unfortunately there is no standard, all encompassing, definition. The most popular interpretation is that social media relates to the new tools and platforms through which people communicate. Primarily online, this covers blogs, podcasts, feeds, forums, videos, and even multiplayer computer games.

To put the remarkable growth of social media in perspective: According to blog search engine Technorati, there are over 37.5m blogs worldwide and this figure is increasing by half every year. Mathematicians will calculate this as close to 75,000 new blogs every day. Podcasts are also gaining popularity at an unparalleled rate. Podcastingnews.com reports that the number of Podcasts is increasing at a rate of 15% per month, and the number of subscribers to these podcasts is growing even faster, at a rate of 20% per month. Then there are online video sites such as YouTube, yes that is the site where work colleagues send you links to funny videos. In July, YouTube reported over 100m videos were being watched on the site each day, roughly 3 billion viewings a month.

With such a growing social phenomenon, how can businesses get involved? Creating a blog, starting a podcast or filming a video is easy enough. Blogging sites such as blogger.com, typepad.com and wordpress.com offer a free service. There is plenty of free podcasting and hosting software on the internet and creating a video involves nothing more than a videophone or a camcorder. Anyone can now record a video and upload it for the world to see.

Getting an audience is the challenge, and not one that can be achieved overnight. It should go without saying, but social media is sociable. Success depends upon the ability to interact with others. So by all means talk about your thoughts of the day, but also find out what other bloggers or podcasters in your field have discussed, and add your input. Aiming to be passionate about what you do, not what your product does, is what will generate loyal readers.

This is why Wiggly Wigglers succeeded where Coca Cola failed. Heather writes and speaks with passion and it’s easy for gardeners to identify with her personality. The key aim of social media platforms is to put a human face upon a brand or product. Coca Cola failed because they did not address their audience in a personal way.

Businesses that ignore social media do so at their peril. US Bike lock company Kryptonite were amongst the first to feel a negative backlash. Upset with poor customer service, an annoyed customer filmed himself using a biro to open one of their bike-locks within a few seconds. The video was then uploaded to YouTube where it spread through the social media network and was picked up by several magazines.

Social media offers the greatest opportunity since the internet revolution for creative companies to reap huge rewards. Companies of any size and speciality can begin putting a human face to their products and finding niche markets through blogs, podcasts and videos. Yet, at a regional level, businesses still remain hesitant about getting involved and wait for bold pioneers to lead the way. As seen in the tech industry, those that wait could miss out on the opportunity to become their field’s leading figures. So, why wait?

--

Richard Millington is an Account Executive at Cheltenham’s apt marketing & pr. apt provide clients with practical and innovative marketing and public relations strategies. Richard’s blog can be found at http://theprplace.blogspot.com.

www.aptmarketing.co.uk

Blogging Rule Number 1

Rule number 1 of blogging.

1. Never blog after you have had a few pints

...nothing else to report.

How to handle pitches

I have just stumbled across the most fantastic freelance journalist (and i'm not just saying that because I might pitch to him soon). Whilst researching potential contacts, I came across Danny Bradbury, the IT Journalist.

At first glance, Danny appears much like many other freelance writers. He complains about some of the PR he works with and discusses other topics of interest.

What makes Danny really stand out from other freelance journalist blogs/websites is that he has a complete system for dealing with PR pitches. No, I'm not talking about a spam filter directing incoming pitches to the recycle bin. What I mean is that he has a features list which outlines, in considerable detail, what he is working on as well as information on how he likes to be pitched. It really could not be easier.

Perhaps the best thing is that Danny has worked up the PHP coding for PRs to submit pitches via his website and can then track their pitches. E.g. Outstanding pitches.

Wouldn't life be so much easier if all journalists, newspapers, magazines could have such a system? Personally, I believe Danny might have a market to sell his coding to other freelance writers. Seriously though, check his website out.

The crop circle press release

There have been occaisions when I have written a press release and later looked back upon it and thought "hmm, this wasn't really my best work". I remember reading once that every writer looks back upon what he wrote four years ago and cringes. The more worrying dilemma is if you don't cringe.

So on that note I wonder what the writer of this press release on Sally's great blog will think in a few months time?

A crop circle that has appeared in Cradley is being seen as a bank holiday sign from extra terrestrial life that the days of extortionate bank charges are numbered.

The crop circle bears an extremely close resemblance to the logo of Zopa, the world’s first people-to-people borrowing and lending marketplace ... James Alexander, COO of Zopa said: “The similarities are undeniable and given the timing of Bank Holiday weekend, we’ve taken it as a sign that somebody obviously agrees Zopa really is a better way for human beings to borrow and lend money.”

Was April Fools day really so far away?

The rules of working in PR

1. The Financial Times don't like you. No, really. Call and ask them.

2. Coffee is life.

3. So is money - try and earn some.

4. Lies make baby jesus cry.

5. Good coverage is not better than sex.

6. Response Source exists for comedy value only.

7. Follow up calls. Grrr!

8. Journalists love you really.

9. Case studies should be true.

10. Social Media is rollercoaster. Wheee!

Practical ways to target students through social media

Ok, when I said I would blog every day, I didn't mean the weekends...or when I don't feel like it. Anyway I have made up for it with quite a big post today.

I find it extremely ironic that so many companies are trying to target students through social media, yet the most popular student social networkers remain completely oblivious. Cash-strapped, net-addicted, students could be paying off tuition doing something they are already doing for free.

What is going wrong here? How can so many companies aimed specifically rely upon the collage of adverts within the university newspapers? Using the University of Gloucestershire, in Cheltenham, as an example there are so many companies which could easily be getting involved.

Take Cannard Student Lets (and I mention them by name in the hope that they might stumble across this blog). Cannard are one of the biggest student housing companies in Cheltenham. They could easily start a blog discussing various houses available to students, offering advice of what they need to do (re: council tax, safety, insurance etc), responding to critics about their houses. Also Cannard could do well to court some of the most popular student networkers at this university. Research who has the most popular MySpace pages (using google, technorati or a variety of other tools) and invite them to look round their houses. What do they think? Were they impressed? Yes? Great then they can make a positive recommendation (or perhaps if they create enough interest you could increase the rent. No? Why not and what can they do to rectify the problem.

Local nightclubs in the area, Fez, Subtone, Moda, Blush are also an obvious market. I would really like to read a blog from a manager or maybe from the bar staff, even the bouncers. I'm sure they have interesting stories to tell. They could discuss, even review, recent nights they have hosted and what evens they have got coming up. They could also create much better communities around their clubs if they can get students discussing it offline.

Fez, for example, are undergoing a complete refurbishment and will be re-opening at the start of the new semester. Why not then find the most popular bloggers or MySpace pages of peopel at this university and give them a sneak preview. Let them take a look around at what's new and begin generating the online buzz. Even if you were to give them free entry (at a grand cost of £3 per night) i'm sure they would rave non-stop about the new opening.

Final example? How about the university itself. I see open days and the prospectus losing importance with the increase in social media. Any prospective-student will soon go online and want to read about the experiences of peolpe that are already at this university. Experiences that the university cannot manipulate and control as they could an open day. What's the area like? Is it cheap? good nightlife? What's the course? What are the people like?

This is going to become a fundamental method of students searching for a university. Therefore Gloucestershire University should appoint someone with this function in mind. Someone who searches for such blogs then lists them within the prospectus or on the website as continued reading. This person could also uses social media as a key method of gaining marketing information and address the criticisms of the university.

Why not also then go further. Use YouTube, get students to make a fun/quirky video which involves the university and release it upon various websites. Why not invite the most popular student bloggers or those with the most amount of friends listed on their MySpace pages and invite them to a discussion group at some point, let them become key opinion makers as they would any student council.

In conclusion? I think that any company that is targetting the student market should become savvy to it. Students read the university newspaper once and are careful to skip right over the adverts page (if they're not advertising jobs why bother?). Also students could do with a little whisper in the ear "you know, with the right approach you could be making a fair bit of money from this". So does this where marketing & pr companies come in? Do we begin approaching both parties and try to make these connections? Are we the catalysts of this change? Ethically, should we be the catalysts or should we let it evolve naturally?

Until tomorrow!

In response to Jane Priestley

This morning the Gloucestershire Echo saw fit to publish my response to Jane Priestley's letter on Friday. Her letter, below, bemoaned "rough" and "21st century families", I just couldn't resist. My response read:

"Dear Echo,

I am writing in response to Jane Priestley’s letter published on 1st September. Jane suggested reviving the Victorian custom where “the rough” would only be allowed to walk along the Promenade at certain times of day, I wholeheartedly agree. It is about time something was done about “the rough” and those pesky “21st century families”.

Therefore, next Saturday, please can the entire population of Cheltenham politely line up down the Promenade so Jane can separate “the rough” and “21st families” from the Priestley’s. I know this may inconvenience many of you, but you could bring a picnic and make a Victorian-era day of it. Please remember to make yourselves as presentable a possible. This means trimming fingernails, having a moderate hair cut and wearing suitable clothing.

It is important that all members of the families are present for inspection. So please fetch your children from the chimneys on the way over.

Thank you, see you on the Promenade next Saturday.

Kind Regards,

Richard Millington
Cheltenham"

Understanding the public

To work in Public Relations it is important to put yourself in the mindset of your public. However when I read letters like this in the Gloucestershire Echo, I really do struggle:

I'm no snob - but family appalled me

MADAM - As my mother came from a Lancashire council estate and my father was from the lower High Street area of Cheltenham, I have never considered myself a snob.

However, an encounter with a 21st century family has put me a notch higher in the social scale. One lunchtime, on attempting to leave a local bank, I was forced back by a child, followed by his portly parents pushing a pram. When I politely inquired as to the whereabouts of their manners they were rude to me. I do not want to live in a society where people behave in this way.

Perhaps the council could revive the Victorian custom of only allowing rough people to walk along the Promenade at certain times.

There are so many things I could say to this, but I really don't need to