What I learned in Ireland 1.0

By John Fitzpatrick

Photo Credit: Lydia Elle's photostream on Flickr

I recently made a long overdue trip home to Ireland—18 months is a long time to be away from family, but it made it all that more special.

On my return to Dublin, I met my former colleagues from Elevate PR for lunch. Elevate gave me my first taste of PR as an intern—and what a taste it was! I learned a lot when I was there in 2006, however, in looking back, social media was not even a focus of our campaigns. It was only until I moved to the U.S. and began working at SHIFT in 2007 that I really got to dive into social media and understand not only its importance, but its effectiveness. Specifically in the past year, I have really been able to experience social media up close, and while it’s been challenging trying to keep up, it’s been amazing to see its evolution.

A year ago I would have been amazed to see an advertisement that contained a Twitter logo, or to hear Rihanna’s lyrics include the question, “where them bloggers at?” While I’m hesitant to say it, social media is now cool. But as I discussed this with my former Elevate co-workers last week, it became clear that the social media evolution hadn’t become “cool” everywhere just yet. Their clients have not yet reached the point of requesting full-scale social media campaigns, but they’re being proactive by educating themselves. And, just as SHIFT did several years ago, that will make a big difference when the evolution comes.

At SHIFT, our team recently embarked on transitioning a traditional PR client to a social media campaign. Six months in, it has been quite an experience filled with wins, losses and a couple of in-betweens, but it was a learning curve that I won’t forget. Our VP told us that this campaign was a great training course for the future. I think he was right!

As we move into 2010, it will be fascinating to see what lies ahead for social media. We at SHIFT still hear “I know we have a Twitter account, but why? Isn’t it all BS?”—and it’s our job to educate them. Over a year ago, with 150 followers on Twitter, to say I was engaged is an understatement; but fast-forward to the present and with more than 700 followers and successful conversations with reporters and analysts under my belt, I’m seeing traction and rewards in my personal and professional life. Take Facebook for example: we see massive traffic from our fan page to the Slice blog, traffic that simply would not have existed two years ago.

So if I had any advice for people starting out, it would be that while the word is definitely out there that social media is effective and can be an essential part of any marketing/PR initiative, first, you need to believe in it.

A Slice of SHIFT – Jennifer Usher

Ready for another Slice?  This week we chat to San Francisco SHIFTer and blogger Jennifer Usher.

Name: Jennifer Usher

Title: Account Executive

Twitter: @jmanos

SHIFT office:  SF

Client focus/title: Consumer, Security, B2B or Admin:

I’m on the B2B side of the house.  My clients mainly focus on mobility/wireless, GreenIT and Security (I’m a security geek at heart!)

Hometown: I grew up in oh-so-lovely Sacramento, CA, however few know that I was born in Portland, Oregon.

What is the best part of your job?

I truly enjoy meeting people and developing lasting relationships. I love grabbing drinks with reporters outside of work – it provides a fantastic opportunity to get to know each other better.

What is your PR shining moment?

A client’s positive feedback is the ultimate barometer of success in my book.  When a client shares that a recent launch brought in several great leads, that lets me know that I’ve done a great job.

What brought you to SHIFT?

A few years ago I was working at a small Investor Relations company but I was actively looking to break into the PR industry.  Like my friend Alex, I consulted Craigslist to see which companies were hiring, saw SHIFT and immediately applied.

Though the company had a great reputation and had a solid client roster, the interview sealed the deal for me.  I loved every single person that I interviewed with. When I began talking with my potential new manager about clubs and our favorite radio stations, I knew I had found my match.

Whose Tweets/Blog could you not do without?

Honestly, there are too many to name, so I will go the shameless plug route and say my own – The Jennifer Beautiful Me Show.  Please note: the name is a joke from my childhood. J

SIPA Online: PR Stranger Wanders into the World of Publishers and ROI

By Doug Haslam

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the SIPA (Specialized Information Publishers Association) Marketing Conference in gorgeous Miami Beach, Florida (I know, the life of a PR flack is tough). I was asked to do a little work (the nerve) and present on social media news releases.

In our world- especially here at SHIFT, home of the Social Media Press Release Template, this can be an “old hat” subject (dirty secret; it’s not old hat– still much to do and learn). At this conference, I was very interested to present in front of a different crowd- which, to my surprise, was very eager to learn and came armed with questions. I was also pleased and flattered to find SIPA board members in the audience.

Below is the presentation I gave, with slides synced to audio. Special thanks to Todd Defren, without whom I would not have been able to sharpen my plagiarism skills to present on his and SHIFT’s behalf:

Why did I consider myself a “stranger” at this conference? SIPA is very ROI-focused, and PR is notoriously, well, not ROI-focused (more dirty secrets!). One basic presenting tenet that was proved at my session? Bring data. People were very interested in the ins and outs of press releases and new social media formats, but the takeaway that was re-broadcast at the conference? The statistics on social media release vs traditional release performance from Andrew Parker (see slide 18). I provided context and caveats, and this was not what I considered the lynch pin of the presentation, but numbers rule.

That was more true at the next day’s panel on “Social Media Success Stories,” with Hunter Boyle of Marketing Experiments and Matt Bailey of Sitelogic. Hunter and, particularly, Matt were quite at home from the analytical side, but I was able to answer a pointed question about the ROI of Twitter with two points: Dell Outlet’s $3 million Twitter account (thanks to Jay Berkowitz for serving up the exact number from the audience), and was able to recount revenues realized from Twitter networking in my PR work. Numbers from a PR guy? I astonished myself.

What are you doing to get outside your normal comfort zone (for me, that’s the “social media” crowd, such as the one at BlogWorld Expo)? And what do you need to present to them to make sure you, as a stranger, can get your message across?

Also: a quick thanks to Mike McKinney and the folks at Comhaus, who worked diligently during the SIPA Marketing Conference to capture the sessions on audio and/or video. I hope to have access to the panel soon, and will share a link to other sessions when it is available.

Putting the “Relations” in Public Relations, Regardless of Industry

Photo Credit: Jimmyroq's photostream on Flickr

By Danielle Mancano

Regardless of industry, PR is an incredibly important business function.  Whether the core audience is an enterprise, government agency or consumer, it is the PR professional’s responsibility to understand what the target audience wants, what will motivate the audience to perform a desired action, and what tactics and tools are needed to make this happen.

It’s important to remember this golden rule while working on both consumer and business-to-business PR campaigns.

During my first five years as a PR professional, I worked solely on business-to-business IT accounts.  My first few months were spent fumbling over tech jargon and acronyms, convinced I’d never sound smart enough to pitch a reporter.  I dedicated so much time to learning the technology that I lost sight of the true audience—people.

You can talk BI SaaS and MDM until the cows come home, but what is the benefit for the people using the product or service?  While your client’s product is intended for enterprise use, what is making that IT administrator or business professional say, “That would make my life so much easier, simpler, better”?

Don’t get caught up in what proof points the marketing department or engineers want to hype.  If it doesn’t make sense to you, it surely won’t make much sense to reporters and more importantly, potential buyers.

Understanding human behavior and motivation in the technology industry made the transition to my agency’s consumer practice much smoother.  I’ve worked on the consumer team for nearly six months.  Now, instead of asking myself what would make me purchase this technology if I were a CIO, I can now ask, “What would make me buy this as—well—ME!”

The challenge with consumer public relations is the competition.  I am no longer touting a piece of software to retail companies, for example.  My clients’ products and services are meant for nearly everyone.

When I pitch a women’s magazine on behalf of my clients, I am competing with apparel companies, cosmetics, new Web sites, gadgets, restaurants and more.

How do I break through the noise and make my clients stand out among the rest?  I remember the reporter is human and so are her readers.

No matter what industry you or your clients are in, or how busy your day gets, don’t ever lose that human connection.  It will be the longstanding foundation to your PR career.

A Slice of SHIFT – Mimi Jonas

Time for New York to shine this week as we profile NYC Account Manager Mimi.

Mimi Jonas (@MimiJ)

Title: Account Manager

SHIFT office: NYC

Client focus/title: Consumer – everything from booze to online video!

Hometown: Wilmington, DE but haven’t been back since I was 18…Always considered NYC my home…even when I lived in SF and Boston. No disrespect.

What is the best part of your job? That’s a toughie…the best? Just one thing? Besides my kick-ass, rock star team (yeah that’s you TeamCarter)? I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people – professional, hilarious, unbelievably smart and creative…they set such a high bar, I try really hard to fit in with them! The rest of the SHIFTers aren’t shabby either, but I don’t discuss orange food products, ancient nicknames or obscure movie references with all of them!

So the second best part of my job – have to say I love calling reporters. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I like the challenge of turning a PR pessimist into a PR enthusiast. I find that building the best media relationship starts by picking up the phone. No matter how witty and well crafted an email pitch may be, nothing is more personable and sincere than the sound of your voice.

What is your PR shining moment? Let’s see, well, in my pre-SHIFT days I worked in entertainment PR (traveling the globe, dealing with unbelievable personalities (not only talking ‘bout divas here) and working on some top-notch events – I came out unscathed and still loving PR) and like any good publicist you stay in the background and let reporters, bloggers and photographers tell their stories. But it was always fun to open Variety or the San Francisco Chronicle and catch a glimpse of myself smiling back from the red carpet. Everyone must have been dying to know who that girl behind Renee Zellwegger was…

What brought you to SHIFT? Their reputation. A former SF SHIFTer, Julia Stemerman, wouldn’t stop raving about the place, the people and the clients. When I moved to Boston I had to see what all the fuss was about. I’m happy to report that everything was true, and even two years later, I’m still just as happy as when I started.

Whose Tweets/Blog could you not do without? I used to be a real WhatWouldTylerDurdenDo junkie, but the RSS feed doesn’t come through cleanly in my google reader, so now my free time is filled with http://cargocollective.com/learnsomethingeveryday, http://www.howtoeatacupcake.net/, http://newyork.timeout.com/section/own-this-city, Groupons and following – @JoshMalina, @MartinStarr, @rainnwilson, @robcorddry and @michaelianblack, @wwtdd – if you can make me laugh using 140 characters you make my top 5

365 Days of Blogging

One year ago, I took the plunge and started a blog (http://seasonoflight.blogspot.com).  Registering a domain on Google Blogger took approximately five minutes; coming up with the title and first post took several hours.  After the fact, I told exactly three people.  And this is the story of how it grew from there.

For PR peers who are thinking about blogging, or even talking with their clients about launching a blog, here are a couple of lessons I’ve learned from the past 365 days for your consideration:

Lesson #1: Deciding what your blog should be “about” is the second hardest thing you will do. I received some great advice from a fellow SHIFTer (and dual-blogger) Chris Iafolla, who told me to focus my blog theme on something as specific as possible.  Without a defined direction, the motivation to routinely come up with an interesting topic can be overwhelming.  So I chose something that I was passionate about, currently learning about, and that I felt wasn’t being given enough attention: child trafficking, and my subsequent involvement with a nonprofit called Love146.

Lesson #2: Keeping your blog updated, interesting, and consistently relevant is the hardest thing you will do. Knowing that abandon rates for first-time bloggers are high, I decided to keep my site under the radar until I built some momentum and proved to myself that I could keep it going.  In the meantime, setting up Google alerts for news stories and other related blogs proved to be invaluable. I also searched Twitter to find people who regularly tweeted about child trafficking, modern day slavery and human rights, and began following them.  I did eventually “announce” myself as a blogger and started calling attention to posts as I published them, and that’s when the real commitment started.

To be completely honest, my motivation and interest in posting has been cyclical; it peaks and wanes depending on what’s happening around the topic, my conversations with other interested parties, and what’s going on in “real life.”  Ultimately, the way I’ve come to think about blogging is that if you have any sort of loyal readers, it’s holding yourself accountable to what they’ve already invested in you. Sometimes blogging is most about just continuing to contribute even during those periods when you feel like throwing in the towel.

Lesson #3: You really can make blog friends. In PR we talk a lot about community and interaction—and in the blogging world, it’s remarkably easy to build relationships with people who have the same interests.  It’s communicating with an agenda—the difference is, it’s a shared agenda.  I really appreciate it when colleagues and friends give me a head’s up on something related to human trafficking that they think I’d be interested in.  By being friends with bloggers who have no connection to my job, it’s become easier to reach out to those who are.  I’ve gained better insight and more confidence around how to interact with other bloggers in general.  Which leads me to my next point.

Lesson #4: Being a blogger can—and will—make you a better PR person. First of all, it’s just good writing practice.  It’s coming up with a story structure and thinking of what would interest the audience.  It also reiterates what effectively motivates me as a blogger.  For example, my favorite (and, IMHO, best) blog posts are the ones that result from a personal experience instead of those I’m reporting on second-hand through a news service.  The more hands-on, interactive, and personalized you can make an experience for the blogger, the better chance they’ll be inspired to write.

Of course, having your own blog is also a good reminder of what NOT to do—I’ve had people post their entire press releases as a “comment,” or suggest I write about something that I’ve already posted on.  I’m not going to complain—at this stage of the game, I appreciate that people are even visiting the site and taking the time to leave a comment—but it has reminded me to always triple check that the news/angle I’m pitching isn’t redundant.

Lesson #5: “Blogging is a conversation, not a code.” – Mike Butcher, Editor of TechCrunch Europe. The “lessons learned” in this post aren’t meant to be seen as a code; instead, they’re more like a few talking points to jumpstart your own conversation.  Ultimately, there will always be a significant gap between being knowledgeable about a subject and actually putting that knowledge into practice.  When my clients want to talk about blogging, I feel like I can serve as a valuable resource for them, because I’m not just talking about the practice of blogging.  For better or worse, I’m out there doing it.

And for the next 365 days, you can be, too.

A Slice of SHIFT – Amy Lyons

On a Slice of SHIFT this week, we chat with Boston Managing Director Amy Lyons.

Name: Amy Lyons

SHIFT office: Boston

Client focus/title: Managing Director

Hometown: Charlestown

What is the best part of your job? As the Managing Director of the Boston office, I get to work very close with our amazing staff and I’m continually blown away by how creative, talented and committed everyone is.  From our Account Coordinators all the way up to our Vice Presidents, there’s just a sincerity in the work everyone is doing and a real desire to knock it out of the park for our clients and our team.

What is your PR shining moment? When a client reaches out to me to give kudos to someone on their team. Whether it’s for a great hit or a stellar press release, there’s nothing like getting that email from a happy client – it’s truly the best feeling.  Everyone works so hard and sometimes in the grind of the day, you can lose sight of what you’re working towards.  Having a client send a personal note just to let me know that someone on their team did a great job – that’s the best!

What brought you to SHIFT? After 6+ years working in politics down South, I decided it was not only time to return home, but it was also time to take the skills I had learned working with press secretaries, politicians and constituent lobby groups to a new arena.  Truthfully, I fell into technology as a PR focus, but SHIFT just felt like a great place to build a career.  I was impressed that at the time I applied, many of the senior managers had started out where I was starting, and I’m proud to look around now and see that’s still the case.

Whose Tweets/Blog could you not do without? Well, besides Todd Defren’s PRSquared of course (wink, wink ), I’m a fan of Seth Godin and each week I find myself checking stuff out on Mashable and TechCrunch. On the personal side, I am addicted to Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, and his Crew Blog is a great read – the behind the scenes look at all the great places they visit and food they eat, not to mention the quirks of Bourdain himself, is a trip. If you love to travel, you should definitely check it out!

Embargoes Get No Love from Reporters

By Colleen Wickwire

Per Wikipedia, an embargo is described as “a request by a source that the information or news provided not be published until a certain date or certain conditions have been met. The understanding is that if the embargo is broken by reporting it before then, the source will retaliate by restricting access to further information by that journalist or his publication, giving them a long-term disadvantage relative to more cooperative outlets.” (see full entry here).

This past Thursday night I attended a roundtable event titled “Embargo 2010: An Industry Discussion on Future Rules of Media Engagement,” that was hosted by Waggener Edstrom and held in downtown San Francisco at the Varnish Gallery. Sam Whitmore moderated the panel of reporters that included Mark Glaser of PBS’ MediaShift blog, Damon Darlin of The New York Times, Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher and Dylan Tweney of Wired (a replacement for TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, who canceled last-minute). The session lasted for an hour, but could have gone on all night because I walked away realizing two things:

(1) no other subject seems to provoke such passionate discussion from a reporter; and

(2) we’re still a long way off from finding a symbiotic solution that will resolve the complications embargoes can produce.

The general consensus from the panel was that the embargo does serve a purpose. It allows time to further investigate into a story so that there’s more in-depth and thoughtful reporting. By the same token, embargoes are not welcomed with open arms, but rather as something that is tolerated because they are a necessity for some reporters (e.g., those writing product reviews). The biggest issue with embargoes is that they are often broken by competing journalists. One perspective that I thought should be repeated is from VentureBeat’s Paul Boutin (who was in the audience). He explained that once a story has been reported on, there’s no opportunity for follow up stories since the competition for page views is essentially over at that point. For instance, if TechCrunch posts a story before VentureBeat does (or vice versa) people aren’t going to read it again somewhere else. He believes that embargoes do work since they essentially line up reporters “like horses at the racetrack.” {see Paul’s take on embargoes here}

In terms of solutions, the panel addressed some interesting suggestions. Tom Foremski brought up the idea of announcing news via a press conference (virtual or otherwise) so that it levels the playing field by allowing everyone to learn the news at once. {see video here}

Others said that issuing news via a company blog (à la Google News blog) or via Twitter are the preferred alternatives. From a PR perspective, these both seem like great channels for issuing news if you are Google, but I question the effectiveness for Startup Company X, which has yet to develop its own “watchers” or “followers.” Not to mention the disservice it does to a reporter who may not be as familiar with the space, something more commonplace as newsrooms shrink everyday.

Other opinions reinforced the importance of relationships and how leveraging them (based on relevance and audience influence) for exclusive reporting is preferable.  While this certainly benefits some reporters by allowing them time for in-depth reporting, by design it greatly reduces the opportunity for clients to receive wide spread coverage of their news and definitely does not benefit the smaller outlets that likely won’t make the cut. While there wasn’t one single solution that seemed to appease everyone, there are two main takeaways – addressed as pet peeves – that should be reiterated here (although they are likely a no-brainer for most everyone reading this):

• NEVER send or discuss the news before the reporter has agreed to the embargo, otherwise it’s fair game for them to publish it
• ALWAYS alert reporters to a leak – if the embargo has been broken, make sure you let everyone who agreed to it that they are free to publish their stories as well

Are there any other ideas that haven’t been mentioned? How can PR teams and agencies issue news in a way that benefits not only the client and reporter, but ultimately the audience the story is intended for?

Hands on Small Business Comes to SHIFT

The challenges that small businesses hurdle can sometimes be even larger than those of the corporate giants—especially when time and available resources are taken into consideration.    To help today’s small businesses and entrepreneurs tackle these challenges, the folks at Hands on Small Business are kick-starting a series of in-person classes all over the US and Canada.  The hands-on sessions will offer practical advice, direct instruction, and application tips for free online and social media solutions.

On Thursday, November 5^th at 7:00 p.m., SHIFT will be hosting one of these sessions in our Brighton, MA office.  Christine Koh, founder of Boston Mamas, will be teaching the class.  The event is free and open to the public, so come join us to learn about the online platforms and social networks that not only make life easier, but can help entrepreneurs reach their business objectives.

More details are below, we hope you can make it!

Thursday, November 5th, 7:00pm-9:00pm

• Location: SHIFT Communications
• 20 Guest Street, Suite 200 Brighton, MA 02135
• (617) 779-1800

Additional information on registration can be viewed here:  http://www.handsonsmallbusiness.com/events/boston/

Register here: http://bostonnov5hosb.eventbrite.com/

A Slice of SHIFT – Alex Kirschner

This week on a slice of SHIFT, we talk to SF Sr. Account Executive & Operations Manager Alex.

Alex Kirschner (@AKirschner)

SHIFT office: Boston, NYC, or San Fran:

San Francisco

Client focus/title: Consumer, Security, B2B or Admin

My focus has been in B2B technology, particularly security, storage, email marketing and events/conferences. I’ve also had the opportunity to pitch cheese that was shaped in interesting forms – thrilling stuff. But I have a hybrid role here in SF, where half my time is spent on PR and the other half as the office manager. This allows me to have flexibility with my schedule so I can focus on my passion: acting! I’m pretty lucky to get to do both.

Hometown:

Seattle, which I think is way cooler than wherever you grew up

What is the best part of your job?

I thrive on media relations, so the best part of my job is having a good story to pitch, going out with it, getting results and fortifying relationships with journalists in the process. But then again, it’s also gratifying when the story isn’t so good, but the team still gets results! Seeing something go from a pitch, to an interview, to coverage is addictive (okay, now I sound like a dork).

What is your PR shining moment?

This summer I was named to PRSourceCode’s Top Tech Communicators list based on a survey of 800 journalists from the IT and business press – the people I’m paid to pitch every day. Getting that kind of validation was the tops, and without a doubt the best day of my career thus far. Shameless plug: read about it here.

What brought you to SHIFT?

My friend Craig – his last name is “List” in case you haven’t heard of him. No…really! My road in finding PR was a little bumpy, with stops in the restaurant industry and recruiting along the way. But I knew from my college studies that PR was an interesting field that could keep me on my toes, so when I saw an ad for an internship at SHIFT, I crossed my fingers and hit “send.” Its reputation in the field was very attractive, and the staff I met while interviewing sold me. It has seriously been rainbows and butterflies since then and I couldn’t be happier.

Whose Tweets/Blog could you not do without?

I guess you can call me a headline chaser, so I don’t tend to read one particular blog or Twitter feed with any type of religious fervor, but instead read stories that have interesting topics. Three of my morning newsletters that I can’t live without, however, are the CNET News Daily Dispatch, eWEEK.com Securing the Enterprise and Network World Security Alert. The exception, of course, is PR Squared.