No surprise here.. although press releases are more frequently shared on Facebook, shares on Twitter drive significantly more traffic back to releases than shares on Facebook.  Read the details here from CrowdFactory....

I work for journalists, analysts, and bloggers.  

Photo by me shot somewhere in West Virginia (c) 2011

My goal is to bring them really great stories, that come from companies with great technology, platforms and products.  

Behind those companies are great people who are passionate and really give a shit about delivering something disruptive, significantly better, possibly (but not not always) less expensive, that in all cases delievery a superb experience.

Yes, I work for journalists, analysts and bloggers.

My clients pay me (and the team I build) to do this.  

I think like a journalist, and provide content, information, data, case studies, end user profiles, access to the client and more.  

I work to help to increase the journalist, analyst, and bloggers of coverage because I've done my homework and prepared them for the best story they can cover.

When you work to serve the journalist, analyst, and blogger you get an inverse rate of success.  

It goes way up.

Time for A Re-Set

Re-set your thinking to not being about you or your company, but how you can help make the journalist, analyst or blogger more successful in their work, not yours.

I really love using Spotify the free service (with options to upgrade to a premium service) that lets you discover and share music.

Pay Attention to Discovering and Sharing as a PR Strategy

I am spending more and more time helping clients discovering new voice to reach out to, share their technology and insights with, and connect with new enterprise and consumer end users by relaying content through their networks.

Yes, I still do very traditional, old school PR, but if you take a moment and see what Spotify has done, and how it impact your own music selection and discovery behavior, maybe there is something you can learn in your media, analyst and blogger initiatives.

Make your content compelling so it can be discovered and of course, shared.

This is an interesting look at hour by hour media habits across different generations.  While I like this approach to studying human being behavior, don't let your passion and instinct get in the way of being way too scientific in how you produce and share media.  

I would also not let it affect your PR strategies.

If you study the chart, and follow it verbatim, what happens when you have a breaking news story - or a crisis your have to respond to?  

As with any research.... study, observe, take with a giant grain of salt.

Created by: MBA Online

We're all busy with client work, family things to do, and managing our lives on and off-line.

I'm using Wunderlist as a to-do list.  I use this as a primary way to organize tasks for clients that are tactical in nature.  

I've tried many of these types of platforms and even rely on a Moleskine journals to keep track of things, take notes the old fashion way.  

Yes, they are over priced and expensive when an ordinary tablet you can buy at OfficeMax will do, but when I am using Moleskines, I tend to take the note taking as an art, rather than a task oriented process.  I buy mine here on Amazon.

But Wait - My To-Do LIst Overwhelming Me.

Even with the elegance and simplicity of Wunderlist, I just started to try GoalStacker.  

Amidst a massive to do list, GoalStacker makes me focus on what has to get done today.

Not tomorrow.  

Not pending.  

Not in the future.  

As in today.  

Oh - And Place A Place For Notes... 

My favorite App for notekeeping - not note taking - is Evernote.  To me the tasks and processes are very different. When I am taking notes, these are just reminders of what I hear.  And when I really want to capture what I hear and possibly transcribe later, I use the 

How 'bout you?  How do you keep track of things to do?  How do you get things done?

Chime in.....

The single most asked question I get from prospective clients is if either I, or the team I have assembled to handle an account have connections to a particular publication, media outlet, or industry analyst research firm. 

Beating the drums of my client's stories is based being helpful to journalists, bloggers and industry analysts.  Oh - these are my Ludwig drums - circa 1967.

While it certainly would make my job easier if I could respond with an absolute vote of confidence with: "....oh sure, we personally know and work with all 300 analysts at Gartner or the 30 or so business editors at The New York Times," the realities are that while I certainly consider us well connected, it is physically impossible to have on going relationships with every journalist and analyst in the technology universe. 

Why I Work For Journalists, Bloggers, and Analysts and NOT for My Clients

The realities are this: if you have a good story and a well thought out media strategy, you don't have to be "connected."  You have to know how to effectively pitch and provide compelling stories and content. 

Even with my having a good contact in place, my job is to work for the media, bloggers and industry analysts and not for the client.  The client pays me to be helpful to this universe and deliver great story ideas - hopefully based on what my client has to offer, and the story we want to share.

I have personally sold stories in major media outlets and very industry specific trade publications to journalists I have never worked with.  And I have done many of these through pure email dialogues without ever having a real time phone conversation.  

If you have a compelling story, a body of work in place that helps you be a trusted source of content, it will not only make your PR team's job much easier, it will enable you to be discovered and found.

No, you don't have a relationship or contacts with at a publication to successfully pitch your story.  

Because of the volume of pitches, many publications like the one above requires you to fill out a form.  

What you need is a compelling story and reason the journalist would pay attention.  

Hint:  rather than blindly pitch, read the journalist's body of work so you can understand what they write about and what their interests are.

Have you taken a look at your positioning lately?

Before deploying a successful public relations campaign, certain groundwork must be done.  Planning must occur, but even before tactical planning, strategic planning should take place.  Essential to the strategic planning process is the positioning exercise.  Public relations programs are based on messages and those messages emerge from an understanding of one's position in the marketplace.  Solid positioning is the very foundation of the campaign.  A public relations program is an awful lot of work to go through if the underlying messages are not sound and relevant to the market.

Louis Vuitton (well positioned) shot in Paris by Alan Weinkrantz

Positioning is the act of defining your place among your peers and identifying the unique value you offer within that competitive landscape.  It is both a goal and a process.  It is ongoing and above all, it is proactive. If you don't position yourself, the competition and other market factors will do it for you.  Good positioning is the heart and soul of an effective public relations campaign.  If done properly, it begets effective messaging -- messaging that makes sense within the larger context of the marketplace, addresses important issues within that market, and demonstrates a vision for the future.  Thus, through its relevance to a given market, good positioning helps build credibility with press, analysts, investors, channel partners and customers. 

Too many people think that public relations is simply a matter of pumping out news releases and hounding the press.  Ill-prepared, they wage an uphill battle, trying to penetrate a press corps already defending itself against such tactics.  In fact, effective PR occurs through having a credible, newsworthy story to tell in the first place and convincing the press of that story's significance.  Positioning is about sorting through everything you know about yourself and unearthing that newsworthy story.  Companies who take the time to engage in the positioning process -- evaluating their competitive landscape, putting a fine point on the unique value their product offers, and thoughtfully establishing how that capability is critical for their market's future -- will reap the benefits of more coherent messaging, greater credibility with the press, and improved authority in the marketplace.

Speaking With One Voice

Completing a formal positioning exercise not only leads to effective messaging -- it also assures consistency in messaging.  A company has multiple audiences and one of the most important of these is its own employees.  Involving employees in the positioning process fuels the exercise with rich input and helps the organization to speak in unison.

This means bringing to the table a panel of key employees from across the organization and working with that group to build consensus on questions of what your place in the market really is, what it should be, and how to get there.  Enlisting the opinions of this group assures the creation of a positioning that your own people will accept and articulate, thus empowering the organization to speak with one voice.  This is essential if the organization is to successfully relay its messages to customers and the press.

The Need for Consensus

When representatives of a company sit down with an objective strategist and take up the task of defining who they are, what their product is, what its strengths and weaknesses are, and how it stacks up against the competition, they often witness a surprising array of responses.  In fact, the extent to which representatives of the same company disagree on key positioning issues is not so surprising.  In all likelihood, they have probably never been assembled for the specific purpose of discussing and evaluating the company's positioning.  For this reason, the positioning exercise is often a groundbreaking event, where participants disclose their opinions on positioning issues for the first time.  Even though companies get product out the door every day while disagreeing on big-picture issues, doing so incurs certain risks.  Without consensus, you risk deploying an ill-founded communications program.  You risk alienating an already skeptical and unapproachable media.  You risk the fragmentation of your marketing and communications efforts, as departments undermine each other with conflicting strategies.  Fortunately, a positioning exercise is a great way to build consensus and gain valuable feedback in the process.

Leveraging Feedback

One of the most valuable benefits of the formal positioning exercise is feedback, specifically incongruous feedback.  Once at the positioning table, companies often realize that their marketing and communications efforts have been hobbled for too long by internal disagreement on critical issues.  The positioning exercise creates the opportunity to examine these disagreements and the underlying issues that cause them.

The idea is not to silence these voices, but to leverage what they reveal to address problems and build better, stronger positioning.  In their direct dealings with customers and channel partners, rank and file employees are often privy to candid feedback about product performance that higher - level executives are not.  Enlisting a diverse panel of company representatives allows decision-makers to elicit this feedback in an organized setting in order to help evaluate the company's present position, establish its desired position, and chart the course to get there.

It is no mistake that the most successful public relations campaigns begin with a formal positioning exercise.   The benefits are numerous; a proactive positioning process creates the foundation for successful communications and public relations efforts; it helps establish credibility with press and analysts; it engenders constructive dialogue, and helps achieve a shared vision across the organization; it helps companies identify the unique value their products offer and communicate that message effectively to the right audience.  Good positioning also needs upkeep.  Market influencers, your competitors, and product features change over time; so too your positioning needs to be revisited and modified along with the changing market. 

Have you taken a look at your positioning lately? 

If not, position yourself before someone else does it for you. 

Whenever I talk about doing traditional press releases, I generally get a blank stare or a look of disbelief.  

Typical Responses I get to the notion of press releases and heaven forbid, using a Wire Service like BusinessWire, which has the best pricing (note I did not say they were "cheaper"), the best reach, and the best service.

"Who reads news releases?"

"No one is going to just pick up a news release."

"Why can't we just announce what we have to say on the social web and count on others to spread the word?"

"Our fans on Twitter will Tweet this thing up."

"OMG- news releases are so.... Web 1.0"

Here's my belief:  when appropriate, news releases matter, have impact, and yup, they actually work.  They are not a substitute for the social web. They are a part of your overall communications strategy.

If you are publicly traded, then it's a no-brainer that you have to have traditional news releases for disclosure and compliance issues.  And if you are not, I still believe that select, strategic news merits the time and minor expense, of a news news release.

Here's why:

1.  Writing a news release is a more formal process, and makes you really think through what you are saying -- and how you want to reflect the collective written word about your company.

2.  Investors, partners, suppliers, and your other publics will still mosey on into your press room to see what's news, how you report your news, and the wording and editorial strategy you take.  

3.  The written word is very much a part of your overall brand experience.  How you write, the tone and choice of words is very much akin to the graphical image you project, the company culture you promote and the quality of customer service you aim for.

4.  News releases, if applied correctly, can be searched (and found) on Google.  They are also a platform which can easily be re-published and spread by your stakeholders on the social web.

5.  A well written and well crafted news release illustrates team work and common vision.  

There is more to a news release than just the mechanics of writing and pitching. 

Oh, and speaking of pitching, yes, I still do very traditional pitching.  And that's a whole other post in its own right.

I’m thrilled to be joining Jeff Pulver at the upcoming MEGAComm Conference in Tel Aviv on February 20.  The event will be held at the Kfar Maccabiah and Jeff will be delivering the opening keynote.  

There will be amazing and concurrent sessions all day long, and will conclude with a keynote from Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon.

How Can I Help You?

I’ll be conducting a seminar that will focus on the key elements needed to shape a company's message and build a successful media, blogger and industry analyst relations program.

The seminar will address subjects including message development, gaining media, blogger and analyst attention, tradeshow support, using online research tools, social media, newswire distribution strategies, content development, and much more.

With the advent of the social Internet, it’s important not to lose sight on the importance of traditional Public Relations and its role in today’s hyper connected online world.

Being in Israel can actually work to your advantage. 

If you can work around the time zones and some differences in holiday observances, you are located in a part of the world that comes with high regard and is known for a center of technology innovation. 

Listening, following, engaging and creating content takes place in Israel just as easily as it does in the U.S.

I’m finalizing my presentation and would love your input on what you’d like to learn. 

• What are some of the issues facing your company and you personally in terms of getting your job done?  
• How are you incorporating social media into your communications programs?
• What challenges do you face in reaching the media in the U.S.?
• As a marketer and / or a technical writer, what tools and platforms are you using to publish content on the social Internet?
• What cultural barriers do you face in trying to get your management to "get it?"

Leave a comment or just email me:  alan at weinkrantz dot com. 

I look forward to meeting and connecting you with in Tel Aviv!