PR 2.0 – “Tool Time”

PR 2.0 – “Tool Time” – Edition 1, December 15th

Twitturly
By Abby Snyder, Account Executive, SHIFT Communications
Twitter: @AbigailHS

Introduction:
Welcome to the first edition of “Tool Time,” SHIFT’s latest social media resource!  In the weeks that follow, we’ll be providing you with a run-down of the most relevant social media apps out there – what’s great about them, things to take into consideration and how to use them.  We kick things off with an analysis of Twitturly.

Overview:
At the most basic level, Twitturly calculates the number of times an article or blog post has been re-tweeted.

This tool tracks and ranks the URLs people are tweeting about in real-time.  The site incorporates the links into “Twitturly’s Top 100” list (updated every 24 hours) and the more people tweet the same URL, the higher it’s ranked and viewed by more people – very similar to how Digg works.

Pros:
Twitturly is a useful research and tracking tool, and is fairly user friendly.  I did a quick search for the term “supply chain” since I actually just wrapped up a supply chain social media audit, and was pretty impressed with what I got back.  Not surprisingly, there aren’t many supply chain trending links on Twitter, but there is definitely a conversation surrounding the industry.  Just a quick look gave me insight into some industry news being discussed, as well as relevant people I want to be following.

However, the best part of my research was that I instantly found this YouTube gem.  The Muppets cover Bohemian Rhapsody?  Animal yelling “Mama!”?  Can’t get much better in my book.

Cons:
From a business standpoint, particularly for the B2B industry, Twitturly should be used with caution as there is no filter for inappropriate links.  I would also suggest ensuring the language choice is English (the language selection is in the top right-hand corner), or whichever language you prefer – otherwise you’ll get everything from Arabic to Thai tweets.

When I started playing around with the site a little more, I came to the realization that a real-time stream of the most popular links on Twitter is quite a bit of data.  Which means the search feature can be quite slow.  However, I do give Twitturly credit for the thought bubble that popped up letting me know to “Please be patient, this might take awhile,” otherwise I may have thought the site was down and would’ve given up. (I mean, I already found my Muppets video, what else do I need?)

Summary:
In my estimation, Twitturly is worth the short wait I endured during my search.  I wouldn’t call it a “catch all” for doing research via Twitter, but it’s a great starting point to see what’s out there and what’s being discussed.  Plus, I found a great rainy-day Muppets video to refer back to!  Overall, I would give Twitturly 8 out of 10.  For more information on Twitturly, check out this post at oneforty.com too.

How to Build a Brand and Keep it!

By Jennifer Eastman – @eastmanj

Photo Credit: sensesmaybenumbed photostream on Flickr

Last week I attended the Personal Branding @ Work event that was held in the Cambridge Innovation Center on Wednesday—featuring Dan Schawbel and Dan Zarrella.  In addition, the presentation’s panel was moderated by Stever Robbins and included SHIFT’s own Doug Haslam, Sarah Long of Soundbridge Group, civil litigation lawyer David Barrett and financial specialist CJ Bowker. I had never heard any of these presenters speak before, and as a whole, the event raised some interesting issues that I hadn’t given thought to before.

One of the most dominant topics of the panel was about who owns your contacts and relationships—especially in a world where our personal and professional lines are blurred—when you leave a company.  As the debate goes, social media has enabled us to build our own brands based on both the personal and professional lives we lead, and removed any barriers we’ve previously had.  Perhaps we have a personal relationship that becomes a client or customer at some point—so if you leave the company, exactly who owns the relationship?  And at what point does a non-compete come into play if there is no existing contract in place about these interactions.

It’s an unprecedented time for companies and employees that are getting more involved in social media initiatives.  From a PR perspective, and while we can’t counsel clients from a legal standpoint, I think it’s an important issue for us to be aware of.  We often counsel our clients on how to develop social media/social networking company policies.  In addition, when we think about how we build a company’s brand online, we should be aware of the personal brands from within the company, whether prolific or not, what this means for the individual, the company and in any future departure.  I personally think that while for some companies this may become more a legal matter, the debate of owning contacts, friends and followers will calm down—much like the initial hesitations to blurring personal and professional lines.

One of the most interesting parts of the evening, was a presentation by Dan Zarrella—a self-proclaimed Social Media Marketing Scientist and Hubspot employee.  With all of these emerging social media tactics, everything is fairly new, the future remains to be unforeseen and to a degree we’re all in trial and error mode.  But in the very near future—and really these are conversations we’re having externally and internally at SHIFT—we are going to have to be able to prove our tactics, ideas and strategies beyond case studies.  This is especially true for the traditional businesses that may still be hesitating on the sidelines of social media—they want to see the numbers in order for them to make a business case.

His presentation included countless formulas, stats and graphs that identified what works and what doesn’t—particularly for Twitter.  From what words get the most re-Tweets to the time of day one should Tweet to get the most number of re-Tweets.  He examined words and links in Twitter bios and how this compared to their number of followers.  The reality is there was so much new and valuable information in the presentation I had trouble keeping track of it all.  Social Media is still new, and the hard and fast true facts about best practices are still volatile—but the initiative Dan has taken to try to at least start to make sense of it all, will likely become a huge part of how we counsel our clients in the future.

A Slice of SHIFT – Cara Foley

Think you know Cara Ambrose Foley?  Think again.  Read on to learn a little more about this BC Grad, Kennedy enthusiast and Chinese food lover.

Name:

Cara Foley

Title:

Senior Account Executive

Twitter:

@CARAFOLEY

SHIFT office:

Boston

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

B2B! Currently, my clients focus on engineering, healthcare IT, and security.

Hometown:

Cohasset, Massachusetts

What is the best part of your job?

My favorite part of my job is meeting face-to-face with clients. In the day-to-day craziness of updating the weekly, pitching reporters, drafting a byline, etc., etc., etc., it can sometimes be challenging to keep the bigger picture at the forefront.

I love to be able to hear straight from the executive team, the sales force, the office manger, whoever, how they see, in ways large and small, the impact of the SHIFT’s hard work.

In my last role at a consulting company, I was constantly exposed to different types of companies – in various industries, of all sizes, and each with their own separate culture – and that’s something I continue to enjoy in my current role at SHIFT.

What is your PR shining moment?

I’ve been lucky enough to be on one of my current accounts since day one of my SHIFT career. Less than two years ago, the team was brokering introductions for the Company with the security trades, and, in the last couple of months alone, they’ve received a number of top-tier inbound inquiries from business publications. It’s rewarding to know that you had a direct hand in helping a Company take their awareness to the next level.

What brought you to SHIFT?

Mary Sullivan! In early 2008, I had decided I wanted to make a career change and Mary and I had a mutual friend who put us in touch. I sent Mary my resume to pass along, and, within a few weeks, I was sitting in the cube across from her.

Whose Tweets/Blog could you not do without?

@ariannahuff for entertainment and politics updates. I also love mrs-o.org, a blog started by a BC grad that follows Michelle Obama’s fashion choices.

Gilbane Boston Conference: Content Management and Social Media

By Doug Haslam

I had the pleasure of attending the Gilbane Boston conference on December 2^nd. The topic? Content management, with “CMS” (Content Management System) and “WCM” (Web Content Management) being the magic TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for the day. While I am not deeply immersed in content management systems at the moment myself, the need to manage it is common, and the conference wasn’t a total nerd party (although you might consider it slightly nerdy that some of us were sneaking around trying to steal pictures of a lookalike for SHIFT client, Aaron Strout of Powered Inc). I came away with these few thoughts:

• Social Media is still a hot topic: People in technology silos aren’t simply sticking out their heads, acknowledging social media, and going back to the way they were. Social media informed every conversation, weaved into most very bit of technology, and was baked into many of the sessions (examples: “Driving Net New Revenue with Socal Media;” “Social Publishing and WCM;” “Social Media Solutions Enriched with Mobility”). People are intelligently finding ways to harness social media for content management and collaboration. It’s actually quite an interesting time for those in the space.

• Google Wave is (probably) not a fad: Just because most mortals can’t make heads or tails of Google Wave when they get in, IF they get in, doesn’t men people won’t take it seriously. Far too many discussions centered on Google Wave at Gilbane Boston to come away feeling dismissive. For example, the “Content Collaboration” panel with Bob Collins of New Marketing Labs, Andrew Davis of TippingPoint Labs and Chris Paquin of Sun Life spent a bit of time discussing potential uses of Wave, and the conference itself had a “Gilbane Boston” Wave (which I, of course, could not find). People want Wave to work for them. I suspect it will happen, and once Google Wave becomes a public product, it will look a lot different than it does now.

• The “Analyst Debate” was a dud. Well, not really; the participants, from 451 Group, Burton Group, Forrester, Gilbane, and IDC, said a lot of right-on things, such as the need for more globalization features for social media to work in larger companies, a healthy cynicism about the widespread adoption of Twitter (though I am not so cynical, I don’t think it is there yet), and the fact that younger people are leaving companies that don’t offer the requisite (to them) social tools. Other things said I wasn’t so sure about, such as the impression that there is a hard “age line” between the types of communications tools being used (do we risk mislabeling social media as a “Generation Y” thing?) Actually, the main complaint on the Twitter stream for the event was that the analysts were agreeing too much (moderator Frank Gilbane admitted as much at the end of the panel)- we wanted blood! That was OK in my opinion, if a little less fun. Ellen Rossano of Crisis Media Consultants, seated next to me, wondered if the analysts were talking in terms that were 6-12 months behind the curve. I wondered if they were behind the curve of early adopters, but still ahead of the curve of enterprise social media adoption. I wonder what others think.

One last bit: it’s great to get out there and learn. I think it’s vital to take time to read, interact, and participate. Reserving time for this and taking what we learn back to our client work makes us stronger and more successful.

A Slice of SHIFT – Reshma Fernandes

From Bombay to Boston to NYC! Check out how Reshma made the journey from India to SHIFT.

Name: Reshma Fernandes

Twitter: @reshma

SHIFT office: NYC

Client focus/title: Consumer, Senior Account Executive

I’m part of the consumer team and my clients are pretty diverse, ranging from consumer tech software and gadgets to an upscale travel resort.

Hometown:

I was born in Bombay, India but for now I call NYC home.

What is the best part of your job?

Being surrounded by sma–ht people [I lived in Boston for 4 years!]. From the clients I interact with on a daily basis to colleagues, reporters, bloggers, it’s great to work with a smart, challenging, fun bunch of people that push you to do your best. No day is ever the same and I can honestly say I learn something new everyday.

What is your PR shining moment?

I’ve made the transition from doing PR in Bombay and Dubai to B2B and now consumer tech at SHIFT, so it’s hard to find a shining moment! I’d say predicting what your client wants and delivering it before you’re asked – every time that happens it’s the best day of my week.

What brought you to SHIFT?

I was newly minted from grad school, had just arrived in Boston and eager to get started on my PR career. Sure I spent my time networking and doing research online but it was actually Todd’s blog that brought me to SHIFT’s Web site. It was great to get a feel for the agency through Todd’s voice on PR-Squared, so I decided to apply.

Whose Tweets/Blog could you not do without?

The best part of my day is I get to read blogs and follow Tweeps whose work I have a natural interest in. So anything travel related from the Practical Traveler blog on the New York Times to Walletpop.com for anything personal finance is interesting and fun. I use Twitter to stay in the know, keep up with the industry and to stay alert for developing stories that can impact my clients. I’m by no means a Twitter addict but for anything PR or marketing related, I usually check out the latest tweets from @briansolis, @sgetgood, @skydiver and of course @badpitch!

A Movember to Remember

By Matt Trocchio

As the month of December kicks off it signifies to many the joyous beginning of the holiday season.  To others, it means the sad end to Movember.

For those who are not familiar, Movember is an international month-long charity where male participants grow out their mustaches to raise money and awareness of major health issues affecting men’s health.  This year, the money raised by Movember is donated directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG). **Please note, although Movember is a SHIFT client, I do not work on that account.

For the second time, the SHIFT Boston office participated in Movember and did our best (some hairier than others) to grow our ’staches for a good cause.  Although I will not discuss financials, I was pleased to see that friends and family took the time to donate to a good cause during hard economic times.  Our team, “SHIFT’s Mo 2.0″ consisted of all ranks from Account Manager to Account Coordinator.  A big step for us was that we were able to get a few “Mo Sistas” in on the cause as well.  (Sticker mustaches are still mustaches.)

Last year when I entered this upper lip journey I was met with laughter and then sheer confusion about my efforts for the cause.  I was quite pleased to see that this year was a little different.  Although I was still asked about my upcoming roles in the adult entertainment industry, there were fewer questions about Movember itself.  The movement had legs and people had not only heard of Movember, but knew of others participating. In fact, according to the LA Times the U.S. raised $2.6M for this charity, which is more than double the $1.1 million raised in 2008 — and the 28,359 “Mo Bros” and “Mo Sistas” who signed on is a fourfold increase over the 7,000 from last year!  Check out all the international totals here: http://us.movember.com/momoney/.

Did your office participate in Movember this year?  If not, now is the time to start planning your facial hair attack.  For some inspiration, here is a NHL Movember tribute.

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.