A recent survey by VerticalResponse found that small business owners ranked public relations as one of the most important tools for their businesses to succeed in 2010. The survey of 831 people at businesses with fewer than 500 employees also found that 96 percent of small businesses will use e-mail marketing next year. More than two-thirds of respondents plan to increase their use of e-mail marketing and increase social media marketing. Meanwhile, many respondents seemed wary of online banner advertisements and search engine marketing.
ID Tag blog explains how Twitter can improve your marketing copy. For instance, No. 1 says, “Be brief. Any more than a sentence or two, and you’ve lost them.” Sound familiar? In the book, On Writing Well, William Zinsser said, “Clutter is the disease of American writing.” If that’s true, then Twitter is the vaccine.
Here's the opening sentence from a story in Metro Canada: “Just as sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 reach a fever pitch among video game enthusiasts, so the rates of suicide in the Canadian and U.S. military are rising.” By the way, this is the only mention of the video game in the story. What do you think? Is it the worst lede ever, as one blogger suggested?
This was another brutal week for the publishing industry, with layoffs striking the Associated Press and BusinessWeek. Editorial layoffs hit BusinessWeek Thursday and the list of axed marquee writers and editors has piled up. The list includes media columnist Jon Fine, tech writer Steve Baker, personal technology columnist Stephen Wildstrom, community editor Shirley Brady and many more. Reuters reported that 130 employees were let go. Bloomberg acquired BusinessWeek this fall. Related PRWeek AOL is shedding 2,500 employees. Here's how AOL's PR team helped make the announcement. Related TechCrunch TweetPhoto CEO was fired after giving an on-the-record podcast interview to a blogger.
Can you believe it? The Army — the structured, hierarchal U.S. Army — is ahead of many, maybe most corporations on social media adoption. “The U.S. Army recently started using social media tools to tell its story to and engage recruits and parents,” Arik Hanson wrote on his blog, Communications Conversations. “So far, they’ve seen tremendous momentum.” It’s already enlisted 61 bloggers, most real-life soldiers. “The U.S. Army is actually encouraging ‘employees’ (soldiers) to talk about their unique experiences working for their ‘employer’ (US Army),” he blogged. “The good and the bad.” Hanson explained four lessons your brand can learn from the Army.
Hyatt hotels is hiring a director of public relations. This person must have media relations experience with solid writing and editing skills. Organization as well as communication skills are of utmost importance. Read more about this job.
New research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that the median age of Twitter users is 31. That’s compared with the median age of Facebook users, 33; MySpace, 26; and LinkedIn, 39. (By the way, median refers to the middle number, not the average.)
Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? Here was the gist: When you reached the end of a section, you — the reader — could choose from a bevy of options what the main character would do next. “When pitching reporters and bloggers, think like a Choose Your Own Adventure author,” Amy Mengel, a communications consultant, blogged. “Not every reporter wants to take the same path through a story. They all have different preferences and interests.” For instance, when pitching a product, a tech reporter will probably want to hear a different story than a general interest reporter.
What can’t public relations do? “Completely replace advertising and marketing, for starters,” PR consultant and blogger Sarah Dawley wrote. “Making people like you if you’re a genuinely horrible person or company. Being able to guarantee that your sales will increase by 20 percent if you launch a PR campaign.” So, what can PR do? “The value that public relations brings to an organization [is] being a flexible process that latches onto your specific needs, goals and personality and adapts accordingly,” she said. “This goes beyond branding — it’s brand execution.”
This is solid advice whether you’re launching a Web site or wondering why people aren’t spending more time on your current one. Nothing too groundbreaking, but still good reminders if you’re writing for the Web. For instance, tips include “use a bigger font than you would for text” and “use short paragraphs.”
Members of the Wild Women Web Club were polled to determine who they had “girl crushes” on in the world of social media and marketing. (A “girl crush” is when one woman has feelings of admiration and adoration toward another woman. This is not romantic.) The results from the survey include women like Arianna Huffington, Miley Cyrus, Charlene Li and Susan Boyle.
There’s lots of talent on this list. That said, there’s no real explanation as to why these strategists are on the list. All the post offers is this statement: “We admire their work and look forward to what they’re going to come up with in 2010.” The descriptions provided for each person seem to be nothing more than copy and pasted bios.
You know the tweet. Someone posts a message that's so self-congratulatory or maybe an obnoxious quote and you've had enough. Sorry, pal, you're unfollowed. What kind of tweets make you unfollow someone?
Graduation season is over, which means college grads are either in the workforce or looking for work (or maybe none of the above). What advice do you have for budding communicators in today's harsh hiring landscape?
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