48: Making hay out of LinkedIn and Facebook

David and Paul have both used LinkedIn and Facebook recently to find sources for their stories. The results have been impressive, with David getting dozens of great responses for an article he is writing, and Paul filling pages in his upcoming book with replies to his queries. In this program, they talk about the value of new social networking sites for PR professionals. These days, it’s all about spreading your resources across many venues and opportunities.

You can download the podcast here.

47: Twitter magic

Many people’s first reaction to Twitter.com is that they just don’t get it. At first blush, the group instant messaging service looks like chaos: everyone is talking at once and some of them talking about nothing in particular.

But Twitter has inspired a passionate following. Some people make it their main online communications medium. It’s certainly changed Laura Fitton‘s life. The Boston-based presentations consultant uses Twitter to meet influential people, find business opportunities and answer everyday questions. Twittering as “Pistachio,” she’s amassed a following of more than 1,500 “followers,” who value her ability to stimulate discussions with provocative questions and comments that fit into Twitter’s 140-character format. She’s a poster child for a service that is revolutionizing the way people interact with their social networks.

In this interview, Fitton describes what’s unique about Twitter and how it can be useful even to people who don’t log on that often. She also touches on possible uses of Twitter for marketing and PR.

Download the podcast (23:27)

Creative commons photo by Doc Searles

46: How to find influencers

Paul’s writing a book, and he’s devoting a chapter to hands-on techniques for finding influencers online. It isn’t as simple as it sounds. Google indexes only a small percentage of online content and no search engine taps in to all the features of the various photo-sharing and social network sites. This week, Paul talks about what he learned conducting influencer searches on behalf of a mythical Quebec resort. Step one: master advanced search. It will save you a load of time. Learn how read tags. And understand that del.icio.us is actually a very powerful influencer search engine.

Download the podcast (19:26)

45: The social media skeptic

Jennifer Mattern calls herself the “social media Grinch.” But that doesn’t mean she’s down on social media. On the contrary, her NakedPR blog is one of the more popular online journals in the PR world. It’s just that Jenn thinks the focus on social media can distract PR people from their real work, which is to influence the organizations that shape opinion and achieve business results for their clients. In this interview, she outlines her cautionary advice about social media and stresses the fundamentals that PR people still need to employ. She also discusses the value of press releases (they do have value, you know) and how to use the impressive list of free press release distribution sites that she’s assembled.

Download the podcast (18:28)

44: Internet marketing superlist author shares secrets

Late last month, a post appeared on Tamar Weinberg’s techipedia blog that stopped us in our tracks. It’s called Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007 and it weighs in at more than 8,500 words and 250 links to an amazing assortment of blog entries about everything from headline writing to linkbaiting to becoming a Digg.com power user. So we called up and Tamar and talked to her about how she assembled the list and what she learned in the process.

If you’re trying to figure out what social media is all about, listen to this interview. Tamar is a recent Columbia graduate who consults on social media marketing and who isn’t tainted by memories of how easy things used to be. She’ll tell you about behavioral and ethical standards of new media and give you a lot of practical advice. We certainly learned a lot!

Download the podcast (15:51)

Social Media Group updates the press release

Maggie Fox’s Social Media Group, which is one of the most innovative boutique agencies specializing in new media marketing, has developed a new version of the Social Media Press Release (SMPR), which was pioneered by Shift Communications in 2006.

The SMPR differs substantially from the traditional press release, which is often long, detailed and inflexible. The new format emphasizes many points of entry, so that journalists and bloggers can pick and choose the information – and the media – that they wish to use. The latter point is important. With so many media outlets today using images, audio and video to tell a story, the traditional press release doesn’t meet their needs very well. The SMPR makes room for story-telling through whatever media the publisher wishes to use. It requires more work on the client end, but should result in much better results.

Another innovation in this new version is its use of popular back-end services like YouTube and Flickr to host content. This means that people can find the information through search engines as well as via the press release.

Maggie has made the template available for anyone to use under a Creative Commons license. She has a more detailed explanation here. Or you can just download the template in PDF format.

BTW, Maggie was our guest on episode 16.

43: A roll of mints, a jug of cola and Wow!

Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe have turned chemistry into a viral video sensation. Their experiments mixing Mentos candies with Diet Coke have produced a series of online videos that have logged more than 40 million downloads and shaken up marketing at the Coca-Cola company. This week we snagged the duo, whose venture is known as Eepybird, and asked them about the secrets of their success. A hint: Don’t overdo it on production values, but pay attention to staging. Above all, keep it genuine.

Download the podcast (22:55).

40: A look ahead

This being the final Tech PR War Stories podcast for 2007, David and Paul thought they’d stretch out a little and ruminate on what’s ahead for 2008. Here, in no particular order, are their predictions. It’s going to be another wild year for tech PR, but one in which savvy PR pros can elevate their status with employers and clients:

• The end of beats at technology publications. Reporters will become more generalized and contract experts will contribute more of the specialized coverage;
• Fragmentation in coverage of technology; it will come from a variety of sources;
• Google will buy Second Life and Skype. Paul sees big opportunities for the search giant to leverage those core technologies into franchise businesses;
• PR pros will have to do a better job at creating meaningful relationships with press. They’ll also have to reach out to unexpected places for coverage;
• Increasing concerns about privacy in social networks. Facebook’s Beacon was just the tip of the iceberg;
• The Wall Street Journal will become a free service. Rupert Murdoch has already made it clear that he wants to take the paper in this direction and that will have big implications for tech coverage as the Journal asserts itself as a major online news force;
• The rise of social search, addressing some of the inherent limitations of search. Mahalo and WikiaSearch are early proofs of concept of an evolution of the search utility;
• Vendors will increasingly become publishers and will need help from PR people to create useful and interesting content.

What do you think? Post your comments below and please continue to offer suggestions and sources for future Tech PR War Stories podcasts.

Download the podcast here (19:00).

37: How to measure social media success

This week our guest is Katie Paine, the social media measurement guru of the great northeast. Katie’s an experienced journalist and PR professional who has spent the last several years developing a business around understanding the payback of social media campaigns. She has strong opinions about what marketers should do.

Katie believes that the Internet is the most measurable medium ever invented, but that people generally don’t do a good job of using the metrics they gather. It’s not about bar charts, she says, it’s about trends. The important thing to measure is how your reputation in the blogosphere is developing over time, using a variety of promotional means.

Katie tells the story of the ASPCA, which had an epiphany when it realized there was a direct correlation between news stories in the media and traffic to its web site. The organization used this insight to increase contributions and membership.

Lots of services try to automate the task of measuring online conversations, but the human factor is still needed. Even Microsoft is on record as saying that machines alone aren’t up to the task of evaluating online results; people still need to interpret the data. In the early days of the Internet, measurement was all about total eyeballs, but Katie argues that the important factor today is audience engagement. In that respect, online media is a powerful complement to traditional media. You can use online metrics to assess the effectiveness of print and broadcast campaigns.

Listen to the podcast (18:39)

34: Blogging at SAP

Paul’s at BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, where he met Mike Prosceno, VP of Marketplace Communications at software giant SAP. SAP has an unusually progressive approach to working with the blogosphere. Not only does the company use blogs for internal and external communications, but it has embraced bloggers as important influencers, treating them in much the same way it treats mainstream media. In this interview, Prosceno talks about how SAP evaluates influence in the blogosphere, the company’s PR strategy as it relates to bloggers and why blogging is so compatible with the SAP customer service philosophy.

Listen to the podcast (11:42).