How Spooky Is Social Media?

June 2, 2012 Leave a comment

In a recent opinion article for CNN, Andrew Keen, a British-American entrepreneur, professional skeptic and author of “The Cult of the Amateur,” and “Digital Vertigo,” warns us about the dangers not only of Facebook, but with our growing obsession with social media.  (Opinion: Facebook threatens to “Zuck up” the human race) He describes it as digital narcissism, a narcotic, that is defining and desensitizing us.

In his article he quotes, Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who says there is a “shift” from an analog world in which our identities are generated from within, to a digital world in which our sense of self is intimately tied to our social media presence.”

Keen explains that our capacity for solitude and an inner sense of self is quickly fading and being replaced by an external sense of who we are and how we are valued.  Scary stuff, mainly because it’s true.  Don’t get me wrong, I think that Facebook, Twitter and the other social media sites are great communication tools – for marketing tools.  They are tailor made to help build and brand, sell a product and build a business, but the trouble is most people use them to build personal relationships.  Or believe they are building personal relationships.  Most people are selling themselves using social media and not their company or products and by doing so are losing any authentic sense of who they are.

So what’s the secret to learning how to effectively utilize social media?  Understand what it can and can’t do.  Social media is great for staying in touch, but not so hot for being in touch.  It’s a great promotional tool, perfect for communicating information about your company product, service or cause, but it’s a poor substitute for real personal connection or communication.  Again, it’s an amazing promotional tool, perfect for PR and marketing, but it is not so great as a communication tool.

If you want to get the word out about your product, social media is a great way to do it.  But you are not a product, you are a person – deal with it!  If you want to connect with someone you care about, how about picking up the phone and talking, or (here’s a strange idea) actually getting together and meeting face to face.  Social media has very little inflection, or nuance, you don’t hear the person’s voice; you don’t see his or her facial expression or body language.  It’s a strange static form of expression.

But people seem to forget that and believe they are actually connecting.  They feel if they’re not on social media, they’re missing out, they’re not good enough, or stranger yet, they feel they don’t actually matter.  It’s spooky stuff.  The trick is to use social media for what it is.  Have fun with it; use it as a marketing tool, use it to set up face to face meeting, then get off of Facebook or Twitter – and go outside and play!

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Filed under Marketing Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SEO Press Release Tips

May 30, 2012 Leave a comment

Business Wire, Marketwire, PrimeNewswire, PR Newswire, and PRWeb: these are the main paid wire services that American companies use. On any given day a couple of thousand press releases are sent out in the U.S. by those wire services.  So, how can you separate yourself from the pack?  How can your PR efforts and press releases be noticed in such a throng?  It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

It’s no longer enough to concern yourself with interesting the traditional media with your releases.  Yes, you need to create press releases that meet the needs of the traditional media, but you also need to maximize the use of search engine optimization (SEO).  Why do you need to concern yourself with SEO?  Will it help you land a story in the New York Times or an interview on the Today show?  Most likely not.  But it can help in other ways.  For example, when someone is searching online for a company that offers your type of product or service, are you the one they’re going to find?  Where do you show up when it comes to a Google search?

That’s where search engine optimization comes in.  SEO’s primary function is to help you rank in Google and Yahoo News and for your keywords.   And this is generally accomplished by knowing your keywords, and creating anchor backlinks for your blog or website.

Anchor text is the hyperlinked text on a web page.  They are the highlighted words you click on when you click a link.  It offers readers information about the nature of the page you’re linking to.  For example, this is my Public Relations Firm’s website linked to a keyword.  More importantly anchor text communicates with search engines.  In essence it tells search engines what the page is about.  It’s incredibly important to use in your press releases; used effectively it can boost your rankings and particularly your Google rankings.

Your first step is to learn your primary and secondary keywords.  Your press releases should reflect the keywords used on your website.  You want your releases to work for you by driving search engines to your site.  Don’t make the mistake of only using your keywords on your homepage.  Make a concerted effort to have a minimum of one of the keyword links in your press releases lead to a page on your site other than your homepage.

Focus on the first 200 to 250 words of your release.  These initial words set the tone not only for the release itself but for your overall search results.  You want to choose those words carefully and you want them to be targeted.

In most of my articles about press releases, my main focus is on the content; on telling a strong story with a compelling narrative.  Those are points you always have to keep in mind and my follow up article on SEO press releases will cover that in more depth, but here the focus is on making sure that your releases not only are interesting but that they also are SEO friendly.  A few points to keep in mind are to make sure your headline contains your primary keyword  and that you pepper the release itself with three target keywords.  Also, never forget to include at least one URL in the release.  You never know, your release might be republished without anchor text and by including your URL you’ll assure that the reader can find you.

SEO is an ever changing field and one I don’t think anyone fully masters.  So keep experimenting and keep writing new releases with SEO in mind, but also remember, when all is said and done, it comes down to telling a compelling story.  Don’t get so lost in the SEO game that you forget the basics.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Filed under Marketing, social media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Secrets of Fiction For PR Success

May 26, 2012 Leave a comment

I began as a fiction writer and then moved into journalism.  From there I found my way to PR.  It wasn’t a career path I was thinking of taking, it more or less was a process that evolved.  But, whether I’m writing fiction, journalism or for public relations campaigns, the basic tenants remain the same.  It all comes down to a good, compelling story.

When I worked as a journalist I wrote with my readers in mind.  I wrote with the intention of being relevant to my target market.  When I write a novel or a play, I’m looking to tell a good story, but I’m also looking to connect with the public.  In essence, as a fiction writer, I’m once again, looking to connect with my target market. To some writers that sounds crass and although I don’t write my fiction with the market in mind, I do hope and try to write a compelling enough story that the play, novel or screenplay directly connects with my audience.  From my perspective, that is part of my job as a writer.

I’ve written quite a bit on how PR comes down to effective storytelling, which is in fact what public relations is all about.   Here again, it’s not just telling a story, it’s telling a story that resonates with a specific audience.  When it comes to traditional media, your job is to convince that editor or producer that the story you’re pitching is going to captivate his or her readers, listeners or viewers.

It needs to be compelling, but it also has to be relevant to that particular target market.  For example you could have an incredibly captivating tale that has to do with sports or fitness.  From your perspective it’s a slam dunk.  It has all of the elements of a strong, powerful story.  But creating that pitch is simply step one, now you have to present it to the right media contacts.  If you spend your time pitching your sports-oriented story to the beauty editors of the top women’s magazines, I’d say your chances of landing an article are slim.  Yes, you have the story, but there is a disconnect when it comes to the media you’re pitching.  In effect you haven’t built the bridge necessary to take your story from being a strong concept to being a produced segment or published article.

There lies the secret.  You need to develop a strong story with a compelling narrative, but you also need to know when to pitch it and who to pitch it to.  In other words you need to know your audience.  Combine those two elements, a strong story and a defined market, and, regardless what style or form of writing you work in, you’ll succeed.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Filed under Marketing Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Novel Approach to Reading: In Defense of the Lowly Book

May 22, 2012 Leave a comment

IPads and Nooks and Kindles have gotten more than their share of PR and media coverage.  There has been a press battle among them with press releases flying fast and furious.  And the media campaigns are working.  They’re selling.  These e-reader devices are fine for reading magazines.   I suppose they could be okay for reading some non-fiction books.  But when it comes to reading fiction, there I firmly draw the line.  It’s not so much that I’m a Ludite in this arena; it’s that as a reader you lose so much of the essential reading experience when you shift from a book to a shrunken computer.  There is a certain romance to reading novels that supersedes merely looking at and digesting words.

I’m an admitted novel junkie.  I cannot go to sleep without reading for at least half an hour.  And it has to be a novel.  Reading non fiction or current affairs as I lie in bed only serves to agitate me.  With a novel, I can blissfully drift towards Morpheus.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  Before I find myself lying in bed lost in strange and foreign lives and worlds, I need to choose the book.  Here too, I admit to being old school.  I actually go to bookstores.  Not only do I go, I do so with the same enthusiasm as a five year old goes to a toy store.  It’s an outing, an experience, an adventure.  I never know what I’ll find and seldom go with any particular book in mind.  I browse, pick up the various books, study the covers, and touch the pages, read some pages; it’s a totally sensual experience and not simply a visual one.  You touch books, feel them.  Books have a scent.  You can read them aloud and make it an experience that touches all of the senses.  Reading novels is not simply about the words, but about the experience of choosing, holding and being engulfed by a book.

If the focus is on how many volumes you can carry in a particular device and how quickly you can read a particular book, I’d say you’re losing a good deal of the joy.

There are people who like to figure out the most practical and least time consuming ways to eat; people who have shakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  They get their nutrients, their calories, but, at least from my perspective, they’ve lost quite a bit in that bargain.

And that is not unlike what I fear we’re losing when it comes reading.  It’s meant to be a sensual experience.  The focus is not supposed to be on transferring information from a machine into your brain.   The physical book, with its specific size, layout, cover, graphics, font and paper, is all a part of the total experience.

I suppose it’s an experience that is losing ground, as e-books and various pads and devices flourish.  Oh, well, I hold on to my book mania.  Plus, at least on my end, I really don’t have much of a choice.  You see, I often fall asleep while I’m reading, drifting off as I’m lost in a novel.  And, there are times, when said book falls from my hands to the floor.  This isn’t a constant occurrence, but it’s happened often enough.  And my novels, being the sturdy troopers they are, take the plummeting and live on to fight another day.  They neither complain, nor do they break.    Now think of me lying in bed reading my IPad and having it tumble onto the floor.  Disaster!  Reading would become such an expensive pastime; I wouldn’t be able to afford it.  No, I’ll happily stay on the sidelines in this e-reader revolution and stick with the romance of my books.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Tew, Sarah. “Kindle vs. Nook vs. iPad:…”  Photo. CNET. 05 12 May 2012. 21 May 2012. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20009738-1/kindle-vs-nook-vs-ipad-which-e-book-reader-should-you-buy/>
Carr, Austin. “Twitter Stats Reveal How the iPad, Nook, and Kindle Stack Up.” Photo. Fast Company. 11 Jan 2011. 21 May 2012.  <http://www.fastcompany.com/1716018/how-the-ipad-kindle-and-nook-stack-up-on-twitter>

Filed under Reading, Top Stories Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

EXTRA! Buffett Buys Newspapers: Maybe Newspapers Aren’t Quite That Dead

May 18, 2012 Leave a comment

Berkshire Hathaway, perhaps best know as Warren Buffett’s company announced a deal on Thursday to purchase 63 newspapers from Media General.  Berkshire will be purchasing more of MEG’s daily and weekly newspapers for $142 million in cash.  Buffet’s statements on May 5 seemed to be heading him away from the newspaper business, which he described as an industry that was “declining” and one with “Problems”.  He then went on to say that generally it was best to stay away from declining businesses and that that’s not where they make real mon

ey at Berkshire.

But Buffet obviously still thinks there’s value in newspapers.  I think the secret here is that the focus is mainly on local and regional papers, where people still find a good deal of their information.  That’s where traditional journalism can grow and thrive.  It’s almost like a return to the early days of newspapers where all news really was local.  The internet and the cable new stations pretty much have a lock on national stories.  That’s a hard place for newspapers to compete now at days, but local stories and information can still keep newspaper journalists buzzing.  The local newspapers will have to be creative to remain competitive, but the death of the newspaper might have been greatly exaggerated.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

 

 

Filed under Top Stories Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

How PR Drove Facebook’s IPO

May 16, 2012 Leave a comment

Sometimes an amazingly effective PR campaign can be a dangerous thing.  Take Facebook for example.  The company raised the price range for its IPO to $34 to $38 a share, from $28 to $35 a share.  That illustrates how the media frenzy has hungry investors biting at the bit for this offering.  It also shows how perception can create what could be a false reality perhaps blinding investors to the reality of the situation.  Facebook’s initial price range put its valuation at $77 billion to $96 billion, but now that shifts to $93 billion to $104 billion under this revised price range.  That, my friend, is a lot of money.

Facebook has yet to prove that its $3.7 billion in revenue and $1 billion in profits last year can justify such astronomical evaluation. . Last month, Facebook disclosed that its first-quarter profit and revenue shrunk from the fourth quarter of 2011.  The company claimed that it was do to seasonal trends in advertising.

Facebook going public can be dangerous.  The pressure of being a public company can make companies lose sight of what made them so successful to start.   When it comes to Facebook, the pressure will be particularly great. Its earnings are quite a ways below its projections.  It’s hard to see how it will find a way to grow at the lightning speed investors will not only expect, but demand. 

Another red flag is that Facebook has real exposure to Europe. Apparently over twenty five percent of its users are fromEurope, giving Facebook definite financial exposure on that front. With the state of the European economy, and Facebook’s reliance on European advertising, that could be dangerous.

According to the media, most savvy investors seem to be shying away from Facebook’s IPO.  There are probably some credible reasons for that.  This is not to say that Facbook is not an amazing success story.  Its success and growth have been astronomical; still that doesn’t necessarily justify such aggressive valuations.  And that’s where the media and PR frenzy comes into play.  From newspaper and magazine articles to radio and TV segments Facebook’s IPO has been a front page story for weeks. And then of course, there is Facebook itself.  The social media outlet is its own non stop marketing machine.  The buzz creates more interest and investors start beating the investment drums.  It looks like a difficult road for Facbook to live up to those projections; time will tell whether the drum beating will lead to success or investor disappointment.


Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Flauraud, Valentin. “he loading screen of the Facebook application on a mobile phone is seen in this photo illustration taken in Lavigny.” Photo. Chicago Tribune. 16 May 2012. 16 May 2012. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/sns-rt-us-facebook-retailbre84f0x2-20120516,0,4596444.story>

Filed under Marketing Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Breast Feeding & the First Gay President: How Time & Newsweek Are Riding the Social Media Train

May 14, 2012 Leave a comment

The news magazines controversy wars are going at full steam.  Time got out of the gate first with its May 21 cover, featuring a rather defiant and somewhat uncomfortable looking Jamie Lynne Grumet breastfeeding her three-year-old son, Aram.  In the photo, Aram is standing on a chair and feeding on her exposed left breast.  Not your everyday magazine cover.  But it wasn’t meant to be.  The image had more impact than the article, which accompanied the photo; which is exactly what Time intended.  The web erupted with praise and criticism; and the social media stir accomplished the decision, makers at Time, were hoping for. Celebrities jumped in; Alyssa Milano and model Joanna Krupa began to Tweet about it and the social media frenzy was off to the races.   It drove more readers to the site, where they had to pay to read the full articles.  The traditional media had a heyday with the cover which, in turn, caused an even bigger sensation on the various social media fronts

An article in the Los Angeles Times explained that Time’s editors ran the controversial photo and article to mark the 20th anniversary of Dr. Bill Sears’ book on the topic.  According to the article, the book helped “power the movement for moms to establish deeper, and more prolonged, physical bonds with their children.”  That is all true, but the purpose of the cover photo was to cause a sensation and drive sales

Not to be outdone Newsweek’s cover May 14th cover declares Obama “the first gay president,” with a story by writ

er Andrew Sullivan.  With Tina Brown at the helm, Newsweek has recently a number of controversial covers, but here the envelope is being pushed with a vengeance.   The cover, which shows President Obama with a rainbow halo above his head, comes days after Obama’s statement that he is personally in favor of gay marriage.

The article draws parallels between the isolation felt by many in the homosexual community and Obama’s struggle to fully discover and assert his racial identity.  But again, the image and the tag were less about the article and more about the marketing.

As with the Time breastfeeding cover, it is the Newsweek cover photo and tagline that will be remembered and that will cause a stir.  Here, the major news magazines, which have taken tremendous blows during the past few years, primarily because of the internet, are now utilizing the power of social media to sell magazines.

It’s an interesting irony and in a way marks a bit of a 180 turn.  The traditional media using the tremendous power of social media to market it wares.  This is indicative of how public relations, social media and the traditional media have in a sense all melded into one.  You can no longer separate one from the other and, if as a marketer you fail to see that – you lose.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Martinson, Jane. “Are you mom enough?’ … Time magazine Photograph: AP”. Photo. The Guardian. 14 May 2012. 14 May 2012. < http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/may/14/breast-best-row-time-magazine?newsfeed=true>
Harrigan, Matt. “Newsweek cover calls Barack Obama ‘the first gay president’.” Photo. Syracuse.com. 14 May 2012. 14 May 2012. <http://www.syracuse.com/have-you-heard/index.ssf/2012/05/newsweek_cover_calls_barack_ob.html>

Filed under Top Stories Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Is Traditional PR Still Relevant?

May 11, 2012 Leave a comment

According to a study done by PR newswire “ In both the US and Canada, pitches through a social network resulted in coverage approximately 70% of the time. In contrast, the standard pitch to a US or Canadian journalist rarely leads to coverage, with 66% pegging the success rate at 0-20%.”

Needless to say social media has forever changed the way PR works.  Whereas the traditional media still offers the best validation and credibility, that sort of seal of approval and trust factor is becoming its primary function.  Sure, if you land a segment on the Today Show or an article in USA Today, you are still going to get a huge boost, but overall the landscape has changed dramatically.  It used to be you could launch a very effective traditional PR campaign without landing any of the major media coverage.  Trade, local and regional media could and did carry a campaign.  But just as the music world has been turned on its head, so has the world of traditional media.  There are fewer outlets and there is a smaller audience.

So, does this mean that traditional PR is dead.  No not by a long shot, but the game board has changed dramatically.  Traditional PR is still vitally important, but to be truly effective it needs to be augmented by different forms of outreach.  This is no longer the time to only reach out to writers, editors and producers. 

Social media has become as important as traditional media, but each has a different function and must be addressed in a different manner.  Neither one on its own is as powerful as the combination of the two.  Social media offers a conversational style of communication with a connection to your audience.  This generally requires greater transparency.  It is a different type of communication and can lead to stronger and deeper personal relationships.

Conversational style—PR people used to interact primarily with industry journalists. “Pitching” and “spinning” were terms often used (not always with a positive connotation) to describe much of that interaction. Those days are fading, which is welcome news to many PR practitioners as well as their audiences. Greater availability of information requires greater transparency, but also leads to richer conversations.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Cwinters. “Media Free Agency.” Photo. Return on Reputation. 25 Oct 2010. 11 May 2012. <http://www.returnonreputation.com/2010/10/25/media-free-agency/>

 

Filed under Marketing Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cold Calling in Reverse: A Unique Approach to Signing Clients & Selling Products

May 4, 2012 1 Comment

You know what it’s like, you have your list (which you’ve either put together on your own- spending a lot of your time, or you’ve purchased one, spending a lot of your money) and you’ve practiced your pitch.  Now it’s time to pick up the phone and start making the calls.  Off you go trolling for clients, hoping to turn a cold call into a warm prospect into a paying client or customer.  It’s not easy.  It’s actually one of the toughest parts of business.  Keeping the pipeline filled with warm prospects is never an easy task, and cold calling is only one approach.  What if there was a way to get prospective clients to call or email you?  A dream?  Nope, it’s possible.

Media relations is a unique form of marketing. Unlike advertising or direct marketing, with public relations you can’t pick and choose specific outlets and dates that your story or segment will run – that is the challenge of PR. Yet, on the other hand, when a news story does run on you or your business, you are positioned in a unique and powerful way. A feature in a magazine or newspaper or a segment on TV or radio positions you as an expert and positions your company or product as a news story. That type of coverage offers you validation and credibility that no amount of advertising can buy. With PR you reach your target market and build your brand via the media.

Now combine traditional public relations with a social media approach. The lines between traditional PR and social media are blurring.  Land a story in a traditional magazine or newspaper and chances are that media outlet will have an online presence.  With that one move you’re suddenly edging closer to the social media world.  All you need to do is tweet the link or post it on Facebook and there you go, a traditional media campaign has now melded with a social media campaign. On the other hand, an interesting social media campaign can grab the attention of a magazine, newspaper or TV show and a social media phenomenon can become a mainstream news story.  It’s a two way highway and one that if worked well, can be an amazingly effective approach.

Marketing-wise, social media is opening new worlds of possibilities.  By combining your social media strategy with a traditional PR campaign you can create a powerful two-pronged approach which results in more followers, more buzz, more customers and more business. Also social media is a great example of how people can create conversion through conversation. It is also an avenue that can be used to transform public relations into personal relationships in order to build and grow a brand and a business.

The best part of this blended approach to marketing is that instead of you making cold calls to interest prospects, suddenly the phone rings and emails show up from prospects wanting to talk to you.  That’s always a nice conversation.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Filed under Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Alice Cooper, Pat Benatar PR- & You

May 3, 2012 Leave a comment

I began in the media world as a freelance writer.  My focus was on music, primarily rock.  I learned how the PR and marketing machines worked, but also learned how working with their teams, rock acts formed their own brands and created their own legends.  For example, two of the rock stars I interviewed, Alice Cooper and Pat Benatar and Kate took very different paths and approaches, but both created an image and a brand that defined them, and made them quite a bit of money.

Alice (Vincent Damon Furnier) had perhaps the most fun of any rock star with his mage, paving the way for KISS and a plethora of shock rock bands.  The band was the house band at the Whiskey on the Sunset Strip and became the band to walk out on (something I had to admit to Alice that I had done myself).  As the image and act grew, he added guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors, and baby dolls to his act, drawing on a number of  influences from horror films, and vaudeville acts, to the more theatrical Broadway musicals.  He pioneered an over-the-top, theatrical and uber violent brand of heavy metal created to shock and rock.  In person, Alice is a fun, funny amiable guy, who talks about his alter ego with a wink and a smile.

Not as over the top as Alice, Benatar created her own alter ego.  Initially Benatar’s focus was on classical and Broadway theatrical styles. Rock did not seem to be in the cards.  Inspired by Liza Millelli she quit her job as a bank teller and decided to give a singing career a stab.  Yet, Out of that Pat Benatar the rock sex goddess was born, which lead to two multi platinum albums and decades of success.  Again this was a case of creating a brand, an image and turning that brand into a career and an amazingly successful business.

You might think you have nothing in common with Alice Copper or Pat Benatar, but (surprise) you’re wrong.  Chances are you’re not launching a new rock act (then again maybe you are), but the basic gameplan of creating a brand and an image is the same whether you’re an entertainer, an entrepreneur, a physician, an attorney, a jeweler, or the owner of a new social media site.  You want to establish your brand.  You want to create that message, story and image that is specifically you and that separates you from the competition.  Your brand and story can be loud and carnival like or extremely subtle and sophisticated.  It depends on you and your company.   You’re image probably won’t have much to do with spandex, guillotines, or over the top make up.  Then again, if it does – use it!

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

 Ochs, Michael. “Alice Cooper.” Photo. Rolling Stone. 02 May 2012. <http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/alice-cooper>

Filed under Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 65 other followers