How to Find Your Public Relations Target Market

January 22, 2013 Leave a comment

HiResBefore launching a PR or marketing campaign, take the time to learn exactly who your target market is.  This might seem obvious, but studying your market can save you a lot of grief in the long run.  Assuming you know and understand your market can set you on the wrong course, needlessly costing you time, money and effort.

Who is your market?  Who are your customers? For example, is your target mass market or a special niche audience?  And if it is indeed a niche audience, how is it defined: age, gender, and geographical demographics?  What is your customer profile?  Is it mainly male or female, urban or rural?

These are all important questions that you want to answer before launching a media relations, social media, or any type of marketing, campaign.  Here is where it pays to do your homework. Study your product or service.  What inspired you to develop it?  What customers or clients did you have in mind?  Now study your competition.  How do they market?  Where do they market? Who do they market to?  If they’re successful, you want to know why and you want to know who they’re selling to.  If you have a relatively new product or are carving out a new market, you still need to figure out who your customers are.  You don’t need to spend an arm and a leg doing demographic testing or studies, but you do want to make sure that before you launch your marketing or public relations campaign that you’re headed in the right direction.  Your first job is to get rid of any preconceived ideas you have.  Often entrepreneurs approach a business from an unrealistic perspective.  Instead of looking at your business from the inside, step outside and look at your business not as an owner, but as a potential customer or client.

Although there is much to be said for listening to your gut feelings, keep in mind that your gut sometimes needs a reality check.  Be realistic, be cautions, get feedback from others, weigh all of the possibilities, and then make your decisions.

iStock_000016947133XSmallFor example, let’s say you’ve developed a new children’s toy. Okay, who is your target market? Kids are who are going to play with your toys, but generally they won’t be the ones buying your product.  Your target is going to be parents, and primarily mothers. Right off the bat, I’d say you could write off auto racing and scuba diving-oriented publications as your primary media targets.

Now your job is to figure out where you reach mothers. The most obvious would be parent and child-oriented publications (of which there are many), talk shows, local magazines, newspapers, TV and radio programs, and women’s magazines. But here too you need to limit your focus.  Are you targeting mothers who have infants, pre- teens, teens, what is the specific age range of the children you’re looking to reach?  Study the various women’s magazines.  If you’re looking to reach mothers of pre-teens, study the media outlets that cater to that demographic.

Your first step is to define your message once that’s done, you want to define your market, or various markets and narrow your target audience.  Make those your two priority steps when preparing to launch your marketing and PR outreach. Once you’ve defined your message and your market, you’re ready to successfully use the reach, impact, credibility and validation of an effective public relations campaign to reach you clients and customers.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2013

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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>

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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

 

 

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A Fashion PR Truism: Out of Sight, out of Mind

June 28, 2011 1 Comment

Perhaps in fashion, more than in any other industry, “out of sight out of mind” is a truism, which is why PR is such an important element of a successful fashion line.   It’s very difficult for fashion and clothing lines to become truly successful without being in the public eye.  Fashion lines can grow without traditional advertising, but if you’re a new designer hoping to build your brand and grow your company, trying to do that without media coverage is like not putting a label on your designs.   More importantly why would you want to launch your line without being featured in the media?  By appearing in magazines, newspapers and TV shows your designs are viewed as newsworthy.  You and your fashions get the validation and credibility that comes with being featured in the news.  Today traditional media works hand in hand with blogging and social media.  If you land an article in a local newspaper you can then amplify that article by posting it on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other social media sites.  By combining a traditional media campaign with a social media campaign, you can create an extremely powerful branding and marketing campaign for you and your designs.

But don’t just jump into a media relations campaign.  My advice is that you either hire a public relations company or PR consultant to launch your campaign for you.  Yes, it is an expense, but the pay-off can be huge and the cost is negligible compared to monies involved in launching a traditional advertising campaign.  If you are unable to afford a public relations firm, don’t just wait on the sidelines.  There are steps you can take and actions you can make to get started.  But do your homework before moving forward.
To start, know your story.  Good PR is good storytelling.  Figure out what your story is before approaching the media.  What makes your fashions different, unique?  What about your personal story?  Do you have a compelling human interest story about how or why you started your own line, or began in the fashion industry?

Once you know your story, study the publications.  Become acquainted with what they write about, who reads it and what their target market is.  Most magazines have editorial calendars, study them.  Remember that monthly publications work on a long lead time.  In August they’re gearing up for the Christmas issue.  

Come up with interesting and unique pitches.  Focus on what makes you and your designs unique; now think of creative ways that you can present your story and your fashions to the media.  

Invest in quality photos and an attractive website or blog.  You don’t need to break the bank here.  You can be creative.  Make deals with up and coming photographers and come up with a clean, attractive, but inexpensive site, but make sure the look is fun, exciting and attractive.

Write, or hire someone to write a one-page (it cannot exceed a page) press release that tells your initial story in a compelling and succinct manner.

Make a list of media that would work for you.  Don’t come up with a list that includes hundreds of media outlets; create a local list and a national list of no more than 20 outlets.  Find the appropriate editors or writers and concentrate on those.
As mentioned earlier, do not neglect social media.  It not only enhances your traditional media campaign; it is also a way to speak directly with your customers.  Create your own YouTube channel and tape any and all shows or live promotions that showcase your designs.  Also, videotape yourself talking about your line and fashion in general.  Start establishing yourself as an expert in your field.  Wear your own designs whenever you’re in public (well you don’t have to wear them to throw out the trash), but you get my drift.  Remember if you don’t think enough about your designs to wear them, why will anyone else?
Regardless of how you decide to PR and market your brand, it is one of the most important steps you can take.  So – get started!

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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PR: The Play

June 22, 2011 Leave a comment

An office.  Two men are sitting at a table.  One is talking very animatedly.  The other is listening and occasionally taking notes.  

Client:  You don’t understand, this is a story that the media will pay you to pitch them.  Listen, I know PR.  I could probably teach you a few things.

PR Consultant:  I’m not quite sure about the way you want it presented.  I mean the fact that you can change people’s lives is great.  But we need to show the media how you do that.  We need to offer them transformational stories with a strong narrative.

Client:  Just tell them to read my book.

PR Consultant:  You can’t always count on them reading your book.  We need to give them short, concise easy to understand pitches that will offer them a good story.  We need to pitch a story that meets the media’s needs.

Client:  (Irritated) What do you mean they won’t read my book?  Do you know how long it took me to write that book?  Do you know how much time, effort, money, blood, sweat and tears went into creating that book? (Raising his voice)  And now you’re telling me they won’t read my book?

PR Consultant:   Some will, but our job is to get them to talk about your book, to get them to interest the public in buying and reading your book.

Client:  Well that’s your job.  Do it.  And besides, I’m telling you, it’s easy.  As soon as they hear about my book and read it they are all going to be begging me to go on the show or to do interviews with me.  I’m telling you.  This is basically shooting fish in a barrel.  You should be paying me.

PR Consultant:  Believe me no campaign is easy.  What we need are stories that grab the media’s attention.  The way we do that is by pitching them stories that will appeal to their readers, viewers or listeners.  We need to think backwards from their perspective.  Once we meet their needs, we’ll meet yours.

Client: (Starting to lose his patience) I’m telling you; just explain to them that I change lives.  There’s really no one else out there like me.  I can’t believe Oprah went off the air.  She would have begged to have me on

PR Consultant:   What we need are specifics.  We need specific stories that we can pitch to women’s magazines, news publications, talk shows, etc.  That’s what I wanted to go over today, specific stories on how what you do changed the lives of people you’ve worked with.  Their transformational stories are your best stories.  For example, when representing a physician, I’ll focus on patient stories, that way you can see the impact, the transformation and people relate to that.

Client:  You don’t get it, this isn’t about my clients: it’s about me!  I don’t see why you just don’t send them my book and then call them and get me on national TV.  You’re making this much more complicated than it needs to be.  I tell you once they read my book, it’s a done deal.  This is easy; I should have my own TV show by next season, right?

                                                                                                Lights Fade: End Act One

Yep, true story.  He wasn’t a bad guy, he simply didn’t understand the process or the media’s needs.  More importantly, he didn’t want to take the time to learn how the process works, educate himself and pitch towards his strengths.  What I needed were short, concise, transformational stories.  I needed to be able to show the media how he transformed people’s lives.  To him it was obvious.  It was all about him and it was all in his book.  But the story was not about him, it was about how he changed people’s lives.  His client’s stories were his best story.

As to having the media read the book, the trouble is that nine times out of ten the media’s not going to take the time to read it.  They’re going to look at the cover, read the back page and read a press release.  And you have to sell them on the story then and there.  It had a second act and a good ending.  We met again and were able to come up with some specific story ideas that grabbed the media’s interest and his PR campaign was a successful one.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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Successfully Marketing via the Internet

October 12, 2010 Leave a comment

The entertainment and the information industries have never encountered times like these.  The internet changed all the rules without bothering to inform anyone.  Even the sex industry, which initially saw the net as its cash cow is hemorrhaging money at record rates.  The two most obvious victims are the newspaper and the music industries.  As a generation came of age believing that content and intellectual property was free – everything changed.

According to the Economist, since 2000, 72 American newspapers have folded and circulation has fallen by a quarter since 2007.  But that pales compared to the thrashing the music industry has taken.  According to some accounts 95% of all music downloads are illegal.  95%!   What industry can survive that?  The book industry is following suit and the film industry is playing with new models in hopes of hanging onto as many dollars as possible.

So does this spell the end of these industries?  No, that’s not happening, but these are trying, difficult times as everyone from CEO’s to new artists are trying to figure out models that work.  And those models are there.

In India, the number of daily newspapers has surged by an amazing 44% according to the World Association of Newspapers.  The Times of India with a circulation of 4m is the world’s biggest English-language newspaper.  As publishers shift from English language and focus more on regional and local language publications, there will be an even greater growth.  The situation in India is a very different one compared to that in the U.S.  The internet has yet to take hold there as it has here.  But there is still a lesson to be learned.  For example, the newspaper industry in India is slowly moving from the English-language monolithic model to a more segmented, niche approach.  Therein lies one of the main secrets to success in this brave new world.

This is no longer a time to throw out as wide a net as possible; this is a time of specialization and niche marketing.  Find your market, focus on your target, and define who your viewers, readers, listeners or buyers are.  Now market to them specifically; use the internet which has created these challenging times as your ally.  The net offers you some amazing opportunities and avenues to communicate with your consumers and clients.

Develop a marketing strategy based on traditional public relations and social media.  Create free content that visitors want to read that will then lead them to content or products you can sell.  Have them join with you, become part of your tribe (so to speak).

A targeted media relations campaign can help establish you via magazines, newspapers and TV, you can then utilize that press coverage by amplifying it online.  Have your PR work for you.  It can separate you from your competition and establish you in your field Post your media hits on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and YouTube.  Post them on your site and your blog.  Create a targeted offline/online media relations approach.  You’ll soon discover that the internet (the culprit that caused all these problems in the first place) can become your most effective marketing tool and your number one ally.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

 

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How To Successfully Sell

September 23, 2010 Leave a comment

What are the elements of a successful sales call?  There are two, 1) know your information and your product or service, 2) understand the specific needs of each prospect you talk to, and address them.  Nothing will lose you a sale quicker than sticking to a basic script while your prospect is not interested in going down that road.  Yes; you do want to stick with the basics, gather the information that you need so you can figure out the prospects needs and deliver your presentation according to those needs, but you might not always be able to do that in a methodical sequential manner.

Jeff Thull, president and CEO of Prime Resource Group, states that there are four stages to closing a sale, Discovery, Diagnosis, Design and Delivery.  He describes it as a process that you walk your customers through to reach the ultimate objective.  Whereas he definitely knows his field and his process is a solid one, from my experience there are times when a sequence-based process, that is designed to move orderly and step-by-step, isn’t always possible.  Thull’s system is on the money, but prospects are like the weather, you can never predict how they’re going to act or react. With that in mind, when talking to a prospect keep your basic system and outline in mind, but be ready to move with the conversation organically.

Some prospects want to learn everything about the process.  They are ones who are eager to go through the step-by-step process.  Others are impatient or have very specific questions they want to address that will side-step your basic planned delivery.  Prepare for those.  Don’t try to stick to a script that will only make an impatient prospect even more impatient.

Practice your calls or presentations.  Remember you don’t want this to be a sales call; you want an engaging conversation that educates the prospect, solves his or her problems and offers specific solutions.  Your objective is to create a mutually beneficial relationship.  You also need to know what your prospects’ true needs are.  Each prospective client is different.  He or she might be buying the exact same product for service, but for very different reasons.  For example, I run a public relations firm.  Our job is to place clients on TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, as well as in blogs and social media sites.  But that’s just the nuts-and-bolts of our job, what we really do is bring our clients more customers, grow, their business, establish them as experts in their fields, establish their brand, position them as being at the top of their field, etc.  Each one of our clients comes to us for a slightly different reason.  Some clients are looking for media relations and PR to help sell products and bring in customers, others want to establish themselves as the expert in their field, others want to establish or reestablish their brand.  It’s important that I understand what the prospect’s needs are during the initial conversations so that he or she realizes that I do indeed understand what their specific needs are and am addressing them.

The objective is to make it an organic process.  As you speak to prospects you are gaining information on which they are, what their needs are, how they communicate and how they think.  Use that information to shift and modify your delivery.  Speak to their needs.  Present yourself as someone they can trust and can solve their problems.  Remember, that’s what they’re really looking to buy.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

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How To Create A Niche Market For Your Business

September 8, 2010 1 Comment

It’s tempting to think that your product is perfect for… everyone.  Now, there is a broad market sector.  Generally when a company markets to everyone it’s listened to by no one.

Not only that, if you want to market to everyone, that means your marketing has to be everywhere, which generally means you need to invest millions in your campaign.

There are times where your product or service will define your market for you.  For example, if you produce golf clubs you have a pretty good idea of who to market to, although even within such a defined market you can generally drill down quite a bit and define a variety of different markets within the overall target audience.  Let’s get a little more general, let’s say you develop a line of lipstick.  You’re primary market is female, that is somewhat safe to say, but that still leaves you a rather large terrain.  Is your primary market teenage girls, women in their 20s to early 30s, women over 40?  Are you focusing on women who shop at Wal-Mart, Nordstrom’s, or trendy boutiques? These are just a few of the questions that you’d need to answer before you launched your line of lipstick.

Let’s broaden the scope even more.  Let’s say you’re selling a new brand of bottled water. Everyone drinks water.  Your market is infinite, right?  Wrong.  What you need to discover is who drinks your brand of bottled water.  Are you targeting men, women, teens, seniors, athletes, moms, who are your customers?

Finding a niche market does not mean that you will only focus in that arena, it means you will create a following a loyal group of buyers who know and trust your product or service.  Once you establish yourself in a niche market, you can then branch out and develop customers in other arenas.  By targeting your approach, your odds of success are also much greater and your risks are reduced.

But how do you know what your market is?  First and foremost know your product or service.  What does it offer? What problems does it solve? Whose life does it make easier?  If you truly know and understand your business it will lead you to your customers.  Be honest with yourself. Don’t develop a product that is perfect for college students that are on a budget and then market it to private jet owners.  That is an exaggeration, but I’ve seen companies who refuse to see their true customer base because they had a preconceived idea of the market they wanted to capture.

To start, you need to be sold on and passionate about your product or service.  If you don’t believe in it, don’t expect anyone else to.  Know your business.  As I mentioned, if you truly know your product or service it will help define your market for you.  Take some time to research that there is a need for your product.  Don’t create a business solely because it interests you.  A hobby is not always a business.  In some cases it can be, but make sure you have researched the need and demand for your business.

Now if the demand is there, you’re onto something.  Create the best product or service that you can and go forward.  Figure out exactly who your potential customers are.  Where do they buy?  What magazines or newspapers do they read?  What TV shows do they watch? What sites would they visit on the internet? Once you have that information, you have your direction.

If you’re working on a limited budget start with a targeted PR campaign combined with a social media/blogging campaign.  If you have the funds hire a public relations firm, otherwise, do some homework, learn the basics and start by launching your own targeted niche marketing campaign.  You can broaden your scope and target other markets as you grow, but to start, find a niche, develop your marketing and media relations campaign and grow your business.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

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How To Identify Business Opportunities

August 14, 2010 1 Comment

Chances are you’ve been focusing on your prime business opportunities for a while.  Or at least what you think are your primary opportunities.  The trouble is business owners generally get locked focusing on what they see as their primary markets and seldom look at other opportunities.  Sometimes that means looking at ancillary markets that could possibly bring you new opportunities.

One way to broaden your perspective is by looking at sub-markets in your arena that are poorly served. Perhaps these avenues could represent a new market. Consider looking at your client’s clients.  Are there services or products that they might need that you could supply?

Is there something in your field that’s missing?  Maybe it’s something that others think could never be addressed.  Well, what if with some creative thinking there is a way to address it and help solve a problem that others haven’t thought of.

Look at your industry as a consumer.  What would you change?  How would you do business differently?

One of the most interesting approaches is to let new business opportunities find you.  You’ll never know all the opportunities that are out there, that’s just not possible.  But what if you get your story and information in front of prospects, potential clients, opportunities that you don’t even know are out there?

This is one of the most amazing benefits that traditional public relations can bring to your business. Whether you choose to hire a public relations firm, a PR consultant, or launch a media relations campaign on your own, by garnering media coverage in newspapers, radio and/or TV, your story and your business can be showcased to prospects, investors and possible business opportunities that are perfect for you.  Most of these you’d never know existed.

Via the press you’re presented as an expert, one of the tops in your field. The real plus to this is when a prospect calls it’s a completely different conversation than if you instigated the conversation through a cold call.  When they call you, it’s a completely different conversation.  As a business owner you couldn’t ask for much more.

So, start looking for new business opportunities, shift your prospective, look at your field and your business as a problem solver.  What problems are out there and how can you make money by solving them?

Perhaps most important, position your business so your opportunities can find you.  Even if you’ve never tried PR, try putting your toe in the water, give it a try.  When your phone starts ringing, you’ll know you’ve made a strong business decision.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

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The Difference Between Online PR and Traditional PR

August 5, 2010 Leave a comment

Traditional public relations and what is generally referred to as online PR are definitely different animals.  In general, traditional PR or media relations has to do with placing articles or segments in newspapers, magazines, TV and radio.  Unlike other forms of marketing such as advertising or direct marketing, PR is a story-based process.  The objective is to pitch a compelling story to the media which meets the media’s needs but also garners coverage for you or your business.  When placing stories in the media, you want to highlight your product or service, but in order to be successful, you also want to educate, to enlighten and, if possible, entertain. Effective PR is not about fluff and hype.  It is about pitching the media a strong story that educates, entertains, enlightens and it gives the readers, viewers or listeners information on a particular topic or field that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

Perhaps the most important aspect that differentiates public relations from other forms of marketing is that the stories go through the same scrutiny as other articles or segments that are featured in the news.  They are vetted.  There is verification (or at least there should be).  There are editors and segment producers that assign and review stories before they run.  This gives stories that appear in the media the validation and credibility of being the news.  That gives them a trust value that a commercial or print ad can’t deliver.  Most anyone with the money to pay for an ad can buy it.  The phrasing and the copy is that of the company.  That’s fine.  It’s an important marketing approach that works, but appearing in an ad is very different than being featured in an editorial story.  The trust value that comes from being featured in the news is immense.

Whereas there are some online magazines and news sites that work in the same way that the traditional media works, what is generally referred to as online PR is more akin to marketing or advertising than it is to traditional public relations.  Generally, there is not third party verification.  There is not a vetting process where an editor or producer fact checks or reviews the article or segment that has been submitted.  What is referred to as online PR generally has to do with blogging, posting information on social media sites, email marketing campaigns, and online press release distribution.

Pitching bloggers is a process unique to the Internet; it is not quite the same as a pitch to a traditional media outlet, since what bloggers are looking for varies quite a bit.  Your best bet is to study the blogs you’re submitting to.  Don’t pitch the same way you would a media outlet.  Bloggers are not looking for PR releases and media oriented pitches.  They are looking for what interests them and their readers.  Make your contact personal and don’t make it a pitch.

Sending out press releases through such distribution sites as PRWeb and PR Newswire is another online PR approach.  Again, this is different from a traditional media approach.  Here you are not so much looking to land mainstream media via your releases (if you are, rethink your strategy); this is primarily a tool to help your online ranking and visibility.  When using this approach often the more releases you send out the better, which is the opposite approach you want to use in a traditional PR campaign.   Be sure to map keywords to the press releases.  Use appropriate keywords in the title, sub title and in the body copy of the release.  If you’re going the online press release route, use social bookmark services such as furl.net and del.icio.us to archive your releases.

Although online PR can influence the media, its main function is to communicate with others on the net using various online sites and blogs.   The most powerful approach is to meld traditional PR with an online marketing approach.  Using this approach, you can utilize the validation of traditional PR and the global reach of online PR to create a marketing program that is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under business, Marketing, marketing strategy, PR Campaign, small business Public Relations, social media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Twitter Emerges as Larry King Exits

July 2, 2010 Leave a comment

file:///Users/aubriewienholt/Desktop/Larry%20King%20blog.mov This week, Larry King announced that he will be ending his Larry King Live interview show this fall after 25 years on the air. One of the most interesting aspects of his exit is that his announcement was made on Twifile:///Users/aubriewienholt/Desktop/Larry%20King%20blog.movtter, a social media site, and not on his CNN show.   It is indicative of how social media has changed the communications landscape.  From Obama’s presidential campaign, to coverage on the BP oil spill, Twitter and other sites have become primary forms of mass communication.  Stories that not that long ago would have been broken on TV or in a daily newspaper are released in real time via the net.

Both King and Oprah, two long time media giants are exiting at around the same time, as online and social media are changing the media as we know it.  Although King’s show is no ratings giant, it has always been a must for celebrities, politicians and others in the media world.  He recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest running show with the same host in the same time slot.  King’s softball approach changed the media landscape, melding entertainment and news into a type of edutainment hybrid.  Some major news events took place on the show including Ross Perot announcing his run for president on the show and O.J. Simpson calling in the night of his acquittal.

King has never been the hard hitting acerbic type of interviewer, which offered guests a comfort level that didn’t exist on similar shows.  He and Oprah have defined talk TV in the last two decades.  As the two exit, the torch is now being past on.  At present, sites such as Twitter and Facebook serve to deliver quick bursts of communication.  It will be interesting to see if social media, blogging and other online forms of communication will morph and eventually take up the role now served by the mainstream traditional media.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under Larry King, Media, Oprah, Talk Shows, TV, Twitter Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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