Marketing Roadmaps

PR

Bad pitches… everybody gets them

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Just to follow up on both my previous post and comments I’ve left on a number of blogs this week:

All bloggers — even PR and marketing bloggers — get crappy email pitches. I thought I would share a couple with you. Names redacted because I’m irritated, not mean.

Dear Sirs:

COMPANY will be releasing a revolutionary new software package that I thought might be of interest to you. It is easily adaptable to any language and to vendor private labeling.

We are notifying certain companies involved in Online Marketing to let them know about our software, prior to its release to the General Public.

Below is a copy of the Press Release that will be going out.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRODUCT creates quality web content from wasted web pages.

PLACE August 1, 2007 – A new age of e-commerce dawned today with the release of PRODUCT; the software package that makes dynamic web pages visible to the Search Engines.

PRODUCT creates static HTML pages, which Search Engines can easily index and use, from dynamic pages like shopping carts, forums, blogs, databases or ANY link-navigated web pages created from a database.

PRODUCT uses a two-step process; first creating a static page from a dynamic page, then changing the URL address of that page to one the search engines will visit.

Search Engines do not give dynamic web pages much import and they seldom appear in Search Engine top listings, if at all. Until PRODUCT, there has only been a partial solution; using complex server-installed modules beyond the range of 99.9% of web masters, which offer nothing to help the readability of the resulting URL. Unlike these previous so-called "fixes", PRODUCT is simple-to-use, quick-to-setup, easy-to-understand and the program installs on any web master’s personal computer that runs Windows.

COMPANY’S PRODUCT has changed the face of the Internet by turning wasted content into visible pages for the search engines.

About COMPANY

Established in 1997, COMPANY has over 250,000 copies of its ANOTHER PRODUCT, in use in over 30 countries.

NAME, CEO of the company says, "COMPANY is dedicated to helping businesses to become more successful on the web. Ten years ago, we changed the face of the Internet by developing the first linking software and now we are changing it again by making the ability to optimize websites available to the average web master. There are over a billion web sites on the net, and if you are invisible to the search engines you are virtually INVISIBLE. If the search engines cannot see your pages, they cannot visit them and list them. We have just changed the face of the industry, by making it simple to index hundreds or even thousands of pages of previously wasted content."

Yeah, this PR person took some time to get to know me. Susan. Before they sent me a release in which I have absolutely NO interest. YAWN.

And here’s another beauty. No cover note.

Publicity Firm To Represent Former PLACE Prosecutor in News Marketing Campaign
COMPANY will market former PLACE prosecutor NAME OF PERSON in a campaign for news publicity.

DATELINE / August 2, 2007  The news publicity agency, NAME, which has landed clients on Good Morning America and into the pages of top national magazines, today added a former PLACE prosecutor to its list of publicity clients.

NAME is a former PLACE criminal prosecutor. He’s now a criminal defense attorney in ANOTHER PLACE and a professor at A COLLEGE teaching Criminal Law.

“NAME has the qualities that news executives and booking agents look for in a legal expert,” says PUBLICIST, of PUBLICITY FIRM. “He’s smart, knows his stuff and has the experience to debate topical legal issues with the best attorneys around and I look forward to seeing him do it.”

PUBLICIST is a former reporter, investigative reporter and anchor. He left a successful TV news career after 20 years to form his own publicity agency. He represents individuals and businesses seeking news publicity.

“My goal is to make NAME a regular on local and cable news,” says PUBLICIST. “I think he’s got what it takes to do really well.”

NAME is a graduate of A UNIVERSITY. While with the PLACE District Attorney’s office he was assigned to the Narcotics Bureau where he prosecuted drug crimes. He also has extensive experience prosecuting and defending drunk drivers.

About PUBLICITY FIRM: PUBLICITY FIRM is a news publicity agency that specializes in writing and distributing press releases and representing elite clients in their quest for news publicity. PUBLICIST, a former TV news reporter, investigative reporter and anchor, who left a successful career to start his own publicity agency, runs the company.

Lovely. Really. I wish them well in their quest to make NAME a sought-after legal expert. But why in the world would I care? Last time I looked, I was neither local nor cable news…..

Want to read some more bad pitches? Head over to the Bad Pitch Blog.

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Defining Social Media Success, Part III

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Yesterday I did a webinar on Blogger Relations with David Meerman Scott and Vocus. Looks for links to the replay and Q&A tomorrow.

Afterward, I started thinking about the definition of success for blogger relations. Not how you measure it. That’s a topic for another day.

But quite simply, what is effective blogger relations? I came up with three critical things.

And, as I looked at my list I realized that these three things define successful marketing, full stop, not just online. Not just on/with blogs. Probably why I’ve embraced social media so strongly 🙂

  1. It’s all about making friends. Treating people like you would your friends. With respect. Paying attention to what they need, what’s going on in their lives. Realizing that good, true friendships take time to mature.. That it’s about both parties getting something out of the deal.
  2. Be relevant. Tell interesting stories to the people who care. If they don’t really care, the story won’t be interesting. Even when it is.
  3. Put the bloggers (customers) first. Think about their WIIFM not yours. Really. Pay attention to theirs and yours will follow. Think about ways you can help them, make their lives easier… and not just if they accept your value proposition and buy your product. That’s table stakes. Doesn’t count.

What are your three critical measures of success?

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Following up: Vocus and CBS

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More on CBS. As I wrote last week, I think CBS is making some smart moves in the blogosphere. BusinessWeek columnist Jon Fine agrees. Not with me, of course. I doubt he knows who I am. But that they are doing some smart things. Check out his column in the June 25th BusinessWeek, Not Bad, for a TV Network.

Next week David Meerman Scott and I will be joining the folks at Vocus for a webinar, The Inside Scoop on Blogger Relations. I’m sure we’ll discuss the mis-steps some companies have made, but we’re planning to spend more time talking about good blogger relations — including some practical advice on how to do it well.

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PR/Marketing Links, 18 June

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This week I am going to be focusing on my Snapshot Chronicles blog, but wanted to share a few links from this month’s reading that just didn’t fit into any of my posts.

Brian Solis has written a very comprehensive Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing. It’s an excellent summary of the state of social media and marketing, but I recommend it with a caution. Do not share it with clients, bosses, staff or colleagues that haven’t at least taken a sip of the social media koolaid. Among other things, his 20+ item list of what you need to do will scare the shit out of someone who isn’t ready to take the plunge. Or at least dip more than a toe in the water.

Todd Defren ruminates on the one year anniversary of the social media press release with two posts.

Toby Bloomberg covers two new blogs from pharma companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson. 

David Parmet on Why PR Still Works.

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Ghostwriting, Warren and Yippee

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As I wrote last month, I strongly believe that ghostwriting is not appropriate for blogs. Others disagree, and while I was out of pocket the past week or so, the conversation took flight again

Let’s be crystal clear: ghostwriting is when someone writes for another person and the item is published under the other person’s name. In books, you might see it as "By Very Famous Person, with Known Ghostwriter," although you may also see the "By, with" construct with co-authors when one is more well-known or made a greater contribution than the other. In blogs, you are not likely to see the ghostwriter’s name at all; the item is posted by the "author."

While ghostwriting is a legitimate approach to communications vehicles like the CEO letter in the annual report, magazine article or a speech, it is not a good approach for blogging. As Shel Holtz points out, blogging is a new communications channel that is supposed to remove barriers, not create new ones: 

[But] a blog by an identified senior executive is different. By blogging, the executive is specifically saying, “This is me engaged in a conversation with you.” While everyone knows that the quotes in the press release are fabricated, and that the speech was penned by a speechwriter, there is an expectation when someone reads and comments on Jonathan Schwartz’s blog that he’s engaged directly with Sun Microsystem’s CEO, not some anonymous proxy. When people learn that somebody other than the CEO is the blog’s true author, it will serve only to deepen the distrust and cynicism that characterizes most peoples’ existing perceptions of business.

That doesn’t mean that if your CEO can’t or won’t write, you can’t have a company blog or participate on blogs.  You just need to take a different approach. Shel mentions some possibilities in his post. Here are a few others. 

  • Hire a writer specifically for the blog. It can be a staff person or an outside consultant. Depending on the "editorial mission" you pick for the blog, she can post as a more impersonal "Company Name" or under her own name. If you choose  "Company Name"  you should disclose the approach and contributors somewhere on the blog. That readers can actually find. When I blog for clients, I prefer to write under my own name, but will do the "company name" approach if that suits the blog better.
  • Look around. See if there is a good blog on your company’s topic already in existence, and consider sponsoring it. It can be written by a customer or expert. Maybe even an employee writing on his own time  But remember: becoming a sponsor doesn’t mean you now own it. The blogger should retain her independence. Note: this could be slightly different if the blog were written by an employee. In this case, you might want to acquire it outright and make it part of the employee’s job.
  • Develop a group blog, with an editor responsible for the editorial calendar. Much like a magazine. Contributors can be employees, customers, outside experts, etc. etc. This can be a challenging task but well worth it. The group brings diversity of opinion and distributes the posting burden among a larger number. That generally means more posts and ultimately more visibility. It’s no accident that the top blogs are group blogs. Your editor can be internal or external, and post under his own name or the company’s.

All these approaches are legitimate ways to engage with blogs without resorting to the artificiality of ghostwriting.

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Two shout outs

To Grace Davis for her post "Enjoy Every Sandwich" A little Warren was just what I needed today, thanks for the reminder.

To Mary Schmidt for her Yippees and Yawns. Excellent advice for anyone embarking on a Web site project. Or wondering why no one ever visits their site 🙂

 

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