Digital Media & Today’s Electronic News Release

MACVB Annual ConferenceJune 8, 2010

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1. Declining viewers/readers

2. Fewer journalists

“Since a modern era peak of 56,400 reported in 2001, newsroom jobs have decreased by 9,700.”

The American Society of News Editors 2009 Census of Newsrooms

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“I don’t use AP terminals and never did in my work as a journalist in a newsroom at two different newspapers from the mid-1990s through 2002. I go online ALL THE TIME.”

Former New York Times Reporter Lisa Guernsey

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3. New news gathering

Journalists use social media to...• Find sources

• Find story ideas

• Research individuals and orgs

• Keep up on issues and topics

• Disseminate their work

• Incorporate others’ social media into their work

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Society for New Communications Research, Best Practices Tip Sheet, February 2010

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Explosion of social platforms

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Explosion of platform use

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•Six out of 10 Americans get news from the Internet, survey says

•Online news is now more popular than newspapers or radio

•Pew Internet report also says people's online news experience is a social, interactive one

•Most people said they have from two to five main news sources online

Online news readership

tipping point

What Happened To Media?

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It Turned Social

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What is social media?

Social media is another communications strategy, like advertising, PR and

interactive, except different.

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Social media defined

Social media are platforms that enable engagement with and among stakeholders to

create endorsement and evangelism for your brand.

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PAID MEDIA(Brand Leverages)

Display adsPaid search

Sponsorships

OWNED MEDIA(Brand Controls)

Facebook FanpageWeb site

Twitter profile

EARNED MEDIA(Stakeholder

Controls)Blog posts

News coverageFan videos

Social Media RelationsSocial CRM

Mobile Social Media

Social media relations

• Reactive engagement• Monitoring

• Engaging satisfied & dissatisfied stakeholders

• Proactive engagement• Social media releases & search

• Online newsrooms

• Blogger outreach & seeding

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Social media relations

• Reactive engagement• Monitoring

• Engaging satisfied & dissatisfied stakeholders

• Proactive engagement• Social media releases & search

• Online newsrooms

• Blogger outreach & seeding

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Google video, Yahoo, Youtube, Grouper, Break, Dailymotion,

Metacafe

VIDEO

Boardreader, Google alerts, Live, Technorati, Icerocket

BLOGS/BOARDS

Twemes, Tweetscan, Dittes, Telewebber, Terraminds

TWITTER

DIY SERVICES

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• Monitoring caught blog story on ZDNET.com (1.4M visitors monthly) about privacy practices

• In one day, it spread to other high traffic sites (BoingBoing.net; The Consumerist)

• Sent a response directly to Denise Howell, high profile attorney/tech blogger

• Outreach resulted in a positive follow-up blog post

“The good news is that shortly after posting my piece I heard

from Dave Finnegan, Build-A-Bear’s "Chief InBearmation Officer." Kitschy executive

designations aside, you’ve got to be impressed by a company that responds so quickly, directly, and

receptively to criticism; I am, anyway.”

Build-A-Bear Workshop

Social media relations

• Reactive engagement• Monitoring

• Engaging satisfied & dissatisfied stakeholders

• Proactive engagement• Social media releases & search

• Online newsrooms

• Blogger outreach & seeding

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“The idea behind the Social Media Release is not

about capitalizing on trends in order to take an archaic, dying

press release formula and present it to newsmakers in a fancy

new package labeled as ‘social media’...The IDEA is to strip

out all of the bullshit and hype from

traditional, mechanical and useless press releases and rebuild

it as a focused compilation of relevant facts, links, media and

a subscription feed to help readers write, tell,

and share a story their way...”

Brian Solis, Blogger, Author

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SOCIAL MEDIA PRESS RELEASE TEMPLATE, VERSION 1.0

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Client contact Phone #/skype Email IM address Web site

Spokesperson Phone #/skype Email IM address Blog/relevant post

Agency contact Phone #/skype Email IM address Web site

5.3"

NEWS RELEASE HEADLINE Subhead

CORE NEWS FACTS ! Bullet-points preferable

LINK & RSS FEED TO PURPOSE-BUILT DEL.ICIO.US PAGE The purpose-built del.icio.us page offers hyperlinks (and PR annotation in “notes” fields) to relevant historical, trend, market, product & competitive content sources, providing context as-needed, and, on-going updates.

PHOTO e.g., product picture, exec

headshot, etc.

MP3 FILE OR PODCAST LINK e.g., sound bytes

by various stakeholders

GRAPHIC e.g., product schematic; market size

graphs; logos

VIDEO e.g., brief

product demo by in-house

expert

MORE MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE BY REQUEST e.g., “download white paper”

PRE-APPROVED QUOTES FROM CORPORATE EXECUTIVES, ANALYSTS, CUSTOMERS AND/OR PARTNERS

Recommendation: no more than 2 quotes per contact. The PR agency should have additional quotes at-the-ready, “upon request,” for journalists who desire exclusive content. This provides

opportunity for Agency to add further value to interested media.

LINKS TO RELEVANT COVERAGE TO-DATE (OPTIONAL) This empowers journalist to “take a different angle,” etc.

These links would also be cross-posted to the custom del.icio.us site.

BOILERPLATE STATEMENTS

RSS FEED TO CLIENT’S NEWS RELEASES

“ADD TO DEL.ICIO.US” Allows readers to use the release as a standalone portal to this news

TECHNORATI TAGS/“DIGG THIS”

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Social media release & search

PDF version of the

release

Hot links to other sites

Forward to a friend

Podcast interview w/

spokespersonEmbedded photos

Downloadable files for news

sources, blogs, etc.

Downloadable multi-media files

TechnoratiTags

SocialBookmarks

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Search engine optimization (SEO)• Optimizing a release:

• Choose two to three keywords (ones that consumers will be looking for)

• Important keywords must appear in the headline (within the first 80 characters) and be echoed in the first paragraph

• Use them consistently throughout the document

• Additionally, they should link to relevant areas of a company’s website

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Online newsroom

Online newsrooms

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Blogger outreach & seeding

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Blue Bunny sweeps

• Objectives:• Develop and establish relationships

with respected mommy bloggers

• Drive awareness of our brand through Mommy Bloggers

• Strategy: Mommy Bloggers create and execute their own program that features Blue Bunny as the prize

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Colleen

Katie

Kelcey

Christine

Lucretia

Blue Bunny sweeps

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Classy Mommy

• Had readers enter by:• Leaving a comment on her post

• Joining the Classy Mommy Facebook fan page and leaving a comment on post saying so

• RT the give away on Twitter and include Classy Mommy

Output

• 6,000+ contest entrants = quality brand engagement

• 20 winners (bloggers) who have become brand advocates

• Blue Bunny Twitter followers grew 30%

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Blogger outreach tips

• Know the bloggers you're working with and pitch to them accordingly. This means knowing their names, their children's names, ages and genders, and the kinds of things they like and dislike.

• Be prepared to compensate bloggers for their time, either with product in the case of a review, or with cash if you're asking for consultation or involvement in a large initiative.

• Bloggers don't want to receive press releases, but they DO want to partner with companies and provide value.

• Not all bloggers are alike. Some love doing product reviews, others will only do them rarely or not at all.

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Blog with integrity

• Represents standards that we actively encourage our bloggers to adhere to if they choose to post about our clients.

• Signatories agree to disclose their material relationships, policies and business practices.

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New FTC guidance

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• Guide: an administrative interpretation of the law.

• “...endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities.”

• “...the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement.”

Encourage disclosure

“In accordance with FTC guidelines and in the spirit of the Blog With Integrity

pledge [http://www.blogwithintegrity.com] we encourage the bloggers we work with

to fully disclose that the products they are reviewing and/or giving away were

provided to them at no charge by XXXXX.”

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Resources

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Jeff RisleyVP, Social Media

risleyranch.blogs.comtwitter.com/risleyranchjrisley@barkleyus.com