I'm sure that I'm the last one who's heard this thing, but for those of you out there that haven't heard the Podcast song from Cruisebox - you're in for a treat. They have both NSFW and SFW versions.

[via the Hobson & Holtz Report Podcast]

Mr. Murphy has a nice collection over at PR Opinions

brian d foy wrote an interesting piece on his experience with an outsourced PR person completely blowing a press opportunity for her client company. What a trip.

Lesson learned: Do periodic checks on your outsourced PR people from all angles. See how they react. Coach or fire them if you don't like it.

She feels insulted. I ask her if there is anything in the demo that isn't covered in the manual or the online material. She doesn't have an answer, and keeps insisting that I see the demo. I've been using the previous versions for years. I'm doing a hard-core techie's review of the product for a hard-core techie audience, and I've already done my homework. She says that I could ask questions, but I point out that it's the companies policy not to comment on future or missing features, and those are the only questions I have. I don't need to be sold on the product, and all I'm getting is the hard sell.

Then I realize that she really knows nothing, and that she probably doesn't even work for the company. She says "we" in an odd, insincere way. She's an outsourced public relations person. I've dealt with this situation a lot. She probably runs her own boutique public relations shop, so at the same time that she's supposed to be selling the product to me, she's trying to retain her position of authority as the owner of a company.

Bill Stoller of Publicity Insider (I recommend you subscribe - it's worth every penny!) put together these 4 quick, and very free ideas for tracking your media/PR hits. You are doing PR, aren't you? As an aside, before I go here, PR is really the only way I have of publicly keeping up with any of my old employers. I try to keep up with them in the press so that I can send congragulatory emails, or pass along ideas or interesting stories. The point here is that I'd slowly lose sight of them were it not for constant media presence, and your customers, current, and former, can lose touch as well if not reminded through the media that they consume every day. Seriously folks, many small businesses have as much fodder as any large business to write about, there just needs to be greater focus on intelligent PR work.

On with my adaptation of Bill's recommendations...

1. Google News Alerts (http://www.google.com/newsalerts) Simply tell Google News Alerts what topics or specific companies you’d like them to monitor, and they’ll send you an email when news articles appear. Simple & elegant.
   
2. Google Web Alerts - These give you the lowdown on pages, other than news sites, that mention your keywords. Same process as News Alerts. http://www.google.com/webalerts
   
3. Go to the Newspaper’s Website - If you know that a story appeared in a particular newspaper, chances are that the paper’s website will have it. This works with television & magazines, but it isn’t as reliable.
   
4. Clip & Copy - This service automatically scans over 300 publications to find keywords, names and phrases which you pre-designate. When Clip & Copy finds a news story that meets your criteria, it emails the headline and creates a summary of the story. http://www.icopyright.com/content_user/clipandcopy.html
   
5. Beg, Borrow & Tape - If you ask upfront, many sympathetic reporters will provide you with a "tear sheet" (a news clipping) when the story appears. Just make sure not to push too hard, and offer to send a self-addressed stamped envelope. Keep in mind, that reporters ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION to send you anything. Just because they're running a friendly story about you doesn't mean that you're entitled to review and critique it. In fact, I would argue that even asking for such grace pegs you as a putz.
   

Kirsten will be on Entrepreneur Magazine's Sales and Marketing Show with show host, Tony Parinello on Friday, June 11th.

During her live interview, Kirsten will:

This is just funny. Not that I wish Ill will, but it is my prediction, that when people look up the Sisters Rodeo in 6 months from now, they'll find all of our posts and not the site.

Bloggers are a volitale lot. Especially if you happen to come across one that actually knows how to write, like, say, a professional freelance journalist like Simone Paddock. Simone's less-than-pleasant episode with an incompetent PR person from the Sisters Rodeo organization is chronicled here, on her weblog.

Personally, I think she was way too nice. I'd have gone on a rant of much greater severity. I applaud Simone for her self control.

Lesson learned: Thou shalt not piss off a press person with a public unfiltered voice.

[via Media Culpa]

TekGroup offers up 50 Tips for an Effective Online Newsroom in an article by Steve Momorella and Ibrey Woodall. Every organization can use an online newsroom to provide documents, graphics and press kits to the media. Here is their list of tips that can help any public relations professional create and manage an effective newsroom that provides a return on investment (ROI).

This relates pretty closely to a former article on building an online pressroom.

[via PR Machine]

The Startup Journal had a great piece on doing public relations for startups and small businesses. This article is interesting because it highlights a little fact that I've become pretty comfortable with which is "most PR firms don't do well at getting publicity for small business", which is compounded by the fact that most small businesses do not strategically handle their publicity campaigns (if you want to call them that...).

This is not to say that there aren't firms out there doing this well, but frankly, when you look at the overhead of the average PR firm, and the amount that your average SMB/E owner is willing to pay for publicity, you have to admit that there is a discprency there!

On that note, here are a few pointers on small business public relations from my experience and from the article that, as a small business person, can use today:

1. Small businesses working with any PR firm should demand a plan that targets particular publications or venues for contact. Yes, I know this requires more work, but especially in a small town like ours, this is crucial.

2. Your list of publicity prospects should include -- the local daily newspapers, weeklies, the local business journal, trade journals, the free tabloids, the neighborhood and university papers, and other publications that cover a bit beyond the radius of your target market or industry

3. Be mindful and take note of the reporters who demonstrate an interest in your industry/community/etc. These are the folks who should receive your press releases when you send them.

4. Writing a press release does not require a degree in journalism or extra special talent. Many business books offer examples. (One is "Getting Business to Come to You" by Paul and Sarah Edwards and Laura Clampitt Douglas (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 1998).) These press releases aren't going to get you into the New York Times, but they might get you a mention in the local business weekly. (caveat: Professional PR types might consider this blasphemy,but I've written now dozens of press releases for small business, some of which end up making the FRONT PAGE in a small-town local newspaper or onto the prominent pages in a local business journal - thus, achieving the objective for a small business serving locals)

5. There a dozens of reasons to send news releases. Do a quick "gut check" to be sure that what you have to say might be of value to the community/customers. Don't be bashful.

6. Suggest story ideas to those covering your beat, which would feature you as the expert on a pressing topic. Are you a shining example of some national trend, for better or worse? The hot trends in whatever season is coming up that especially suit your customers and community?

7. Use this as an opportunity to reach out to other businesses with you PR efforts, not just the media. Write letters to restaurants, salon owners, and other businesses from all over town to invite them an to event at your store or restaurant. It's great word-of-mouth advertising to be connected to the greater local business community.

8. Start a partnership/coalition/co-op/whatever with another local business or group of businesses. Offer to get the media attention for your venue. Local media and business leaders usually love these cooperative efforts and doubly so if there's real tangible benefit for your customers.

9. Nonprofits need to do this too, and can get great traction by reaching out to, and partnering with the local business community. Make speeches, hold seminars, get in touch with local corporate PR executives, and suggest you give a speech to their employees on whatever cause you support.

10. Be consistent. Remember the point about making this a CAMPAIGN...well, you need to make this a consistent, year-round effort to reap any benefits. Don't be a fly by night press release dropper. Besides, the media can come to know and respect you with more and more interaction (or become extremely annoyed with you) which typically yields additional benefits such as stories on your business and the opportunity for regional or national media attention.

11. Submit your news release to free online PR distribution sites like PRWeb.com. While these may not assist in getting you into your local business journal or hometown newspaper, these sites have have an impact on driving traffic to your website, provided that you include a proper URL in the news release. You can pay more to have the news release picked up on Yahoo news & other such sites, which also helps when people are doing searches on your company name.
    

[Bill carries on the conversation and offers some more insights at Pheedo]

According to Media Guerrilla, Yamaha is using USB storage keys as their new portable press & media kits.

This is a great token for things like trade shows and special venues where you want to share a lot more that what's on paper, or offer a library of images & assets for journalists to take away.

Personally, I don't know if this will catch on. Printed materials in a big fat packet seem to have a bit of curb appeal, but are a bear to carry around as they accumulate and are probably responsible for more than their fair share of chiropractor visits. Website press & media rooms have become pretty efficient at delivering content, and most online media rooms still have a long way to go, so I'd be a bit skeptical on predicting mass adoption of more elaborate electronic delivery methods, but the idea certainly merits further investigation!

[via Media Guerrilla]

I've really been on a PR kick lately. Frankly, I've had some success doing PR for local clients and I'm just happy it's working out. However, keep in mind that we're in a rural area, and a "press release" can easily (we just did it this week) make the front page of a small community newspaper. So I'm keen to take in any knowledge I can on how to improve my "amateur PR" efforts, and this post from John P. on Six Sigma concepts applied to PR really caught my eye. I'm a huge fan of process and systems, so this seems like something that I could really get my head wrapped around.

Six Sigma Project Ideas for PR: Reduce time for press release approval Improve media targeting (identify media that have proven reach among your target audience). Assess journalists' preferences and satisfaction with current PR initiatives Assess “internal client” preferences and satisfaction with current PR initiatives Improve the ratio of releases sent versus releases used Improve the ratio of placements featuring critical messages Improve the ratio of placements featuring a company spokesperson Improve the ratio of stories featuring visuals or graphics Improve the ratio of stories that are either exclusives or feature-length Improve the ROI of event sand event sponsorships For agencies, improve percentage of billable hours

Jennifer Nastu of Marketing Sherpa interviewed several of us last week on how PR types might go about obtaining coverage for their clients in some of the more popular weblogs. It appears that we're an odd bunch :)

Other great blogs in the mix include:

• Adrants
  
• MarketingVOX
  
• Micro Persuasion
  
• PR Machine
  
• Search Engine Journal
  
• Seth Godin - Don't even think of pitching Seth.
  
• What's Next Online
  

Nick Denton of Gawker Media also discusses this topic with PRWeek. Nick doesn't "see why the approach should be that different." However, he warns "If a weblog writer receives a stupid press release, they may mock it." (depending on their character, I've already gotten a few and decided to not be a jackass and just ignored the pitch). Nevertheless, "Just make sure the pitch is a good one. The price of getting it wrong is high."

UPDATE: More mention of PR & Weblogs (Thanks Toby)

- PR Week just released a findings from their PR Marketing Management Survey http://www.prweek.com/home/message.cfm and while grass roots and web marketing were mentioned, nothing specific about blogs. Toby Bloomberg just spoke with Keith O'Brien, editor at PR Week, who has promised to let us know if the data included anything on blogs. In the mean time he very kindly made available a couple of direct links to articles about PR and blogging for our list.

- An article about corporate PR and gadget blog Gizmodo. - http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story_free.cfm?ID=207616&site=3

- Also one more article for your reading pleasure - an interview with Robert Scoble, called one of the most influential blogs http://steverubel.typepad.com/micropersuasion/2004/04/qa_with_robert_.html

[via John Cass - PR Communications]

The only downfall of this PDF download of the e-agency PR Elements Plan is that is speaks nothing of weblogs and their power to put a personal face on a corporate entitity, which, as we've seen in some cases, weblogs do pretty well in the PR world.

We often get asked what makes a successful public relations program? What does it cost? Does my organization really need it? How long do I need to do it? Can’t I do it myself? Why do my competitors always get in the papers? Why does the media get my story wrong? To answer some of these questions we have put together this booklet as a starting point for a discussion on how to develop a public relations plan.

Unless you are a celebrity good public relations just doesn’t happen on its own. It takes a lot of skill, and consistent hard work, over a period of time. It’s part art, part science and when practiced correctly the results can be very rewarding. The bottom line, public relations—versus other marketing communication tools — delivers the most bang for your buck.

Good PR is just as complex as rocket science. The customer is pulling one way and the client is pushing another, while competitors shift this way and that and the economy fluctuates yet again. One little mistake and hundreds of thousands of dollars of PR fees become nothing more than a bathroom break during half time.

The truth is that in many ways, PR is harder than rocket science. It's news when a rocket launch fails. It's news when a PR campaign succeeds.

Steven Blinn of the Blinn PR Report goes further on this subject in the latest edition of the Blinn PR Report, go check it out.

An article by Nicole Burdette, O'Keeffe & Company, "Good PR Needs Good PR"
maintains that PR teams neglect the crucial final step -- leveraging results. PR needs to support sales and sharing PR results can help achieve that goal.

Among the suggestions:
- Hand out PR results at sales seminars, demonstrations and user group meetings;
- give press clips to current and prospective employees and hsareholders;
- post news of speaking engagements, media placements in Intranets, all company publications
-
Source: Insider Pass E-Letter - http://www.technologymarketing.com/mc/index.jsp

Bill Stoller of Publicity Insider mentioned an Alternative to Costly Press Clipping Services called Clip & Copy, a free on-line news clipping service, that automatically scans over 300 publications to find keywords, names and phrases which you pre-designate.

When Clip & Copy finds a news story that meets your criteria, it grabs the headline and creates a summary of the story.

This service is free, as are Google News Alerts. I asked Bill about the difference between the two, to which he said:

"Neither are all encompassing - GNR misses a ton of placements.

I'd advise using both - one might pick up what the other misses - they're both free !"

I personally use both to keep up on our publicity for the company and also to keep up on topics in the industry, by keyword

Green Bay, WI – February 17, 2004 - What is the most important item on an e-mail marketer’s mind? Having the right list, says Dana VanDen Heuvel, New Media Director of Balance Studios, an interactive solutions provider based in Green Bay, specializing in helping clients create and communicate the right messages.

Karon Thackston wrote a compelling article on using press releases for more than just buzz, but also considering their development as a traffic generator for your site.

Karon recommends considering the following elements when writing a multi-purpose press release.
1. Have a narrow focus.
2. Include copy that deals with one specific topic.
3. Incorporate the use of keyphrases.
4. Use keyword-rich headlines.
5. Choose keywords that can be easily included in your release.
6. Incorporate keywords into your headline where possible.
7. Incorporate press releases into your blog
8. Create a seperate HTML page for each press release

Related Resources:
PR and the Web: The Case for a Robust Online Newsroom

Green Bay, January 21, 2004: Balance Studios announced that Dana VanDen Heuvel has been appointed to the position of New Media Director effective Jan. 12, 2004. VanDen Heuvel has demonstrated success in leading Internet marketing and sales technology initiatives for companies like Krueger International and Warner Brothers.