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Last week 150 PR practitioners gathered in Palm Springs at the PRSA Western District conference. One of the keynote panels was about the media and their needs in today’s Web 2.0 world. After hearing for years that the press release is dead, it was refreshing to hear them say it most certainly is not dead – in fact reporters need information from us more than ever.

Newsroom are under tremendous pressure today. In a segment about the sale of Newsweek on Marketplace on NPR yesterday Kai Ryssdal said “Papers and magazines that have been around for decades are barely hanging on. A lot of them aren’t hanging on at all.”

When asked if he thought Newsweek would still be sold at newstands in 10 years time, Porter Bibb, who specializes in capital financing of media, entertainment, and technology ventures said: “I don’t think you’re going to find newsstands at airports or anywhere else in 10 years. Print is really on its last legs.”

The media panel at the PRSA conference made it clear that they are expected to provide muh more than just a print story today. Every newspaper and magazine has a website and that website has a voracious appetite for content.

In Q1 of 2009 newspaper websites saw a 10.5% jump in traffic. (Neilsen) “Digital success has become a critical component of newspapers’ transformation,” said John Sturm, president and CEO of the NAA.

Q1 of 2010 shows an even bigger jump Newspaper companies drew unprecedented 74.4 million unique visitors per month — more than one-third of all Internet users, according to a custom analysis provided by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America.

A February 2010 survey from comScore for the NAA (Site Matters: The Value of Local Newspaper Web Sites) found that newspaper Web sites continue to be the most used and valued destination for consumers seeking credible and trustworthy local content and advertising online.

Small wonder then that the media outlets are pushing their journalists to provide content for their websites.

Another report from comScore show that more people around the world get their news online from Google News than from CNN or the news properties of the New York Times. In December 09 Google News attracted 100 million unique visitors worldwide, making it a larger news site than CNN (66 million) or the combined properties of the New York Times (92 million). And top of the news list is Yahoo News, with 138 million unique visitors worldwide.

How does this affect us as PR people? The traditional press release format was developed over 100 years ago to service print journalists. They’re not looking for those same things any more. Print is on its last legs. The web is where people go to get news. Figure out what the journalists you work with really want. Help them to do their job. The panelists at PRSA WDC said they need PR people now more than ever. But they need much more than just a traditional press release.

They need the facts supported by reseach and background information. They need images, graphics and video. They need quotes from your top execs, analysts or other experts. And they need to be able to find it easily and access it easily. It must be on your website in a format they can take and use right away – even if it is midnight and you’re not available.

Media Relations in 2010

• 98% of journalists start a story by doing a search in Google. Is your news search optimized?
• Can they easily find your newsroom on your website? Don’t make them register.
• Do you add multimedia to your releaess?
• Is the news in your newsroom in a format that makes it easy for journalists to use it? No PDFs. Embed codes added to images and video? Images and video web-ready and search optimized?
• Does it have links to all your social media content?
• Is your news available in a feed?

Our job as PR people is to service the journalists – give them what they need and you’ll get better coverage.

Social media newsrooms that offer all these features are beginning to appear on larger company websites. As the rush to the web to get news and information continues, don’t lag behind. Make your company’s news available to the media in the format that gets you the best results.

How can you seize this opportunity?

NOTE:  I’ll be in NYC for the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Summit at the end of June. I’m leading the a workshop on social media and PR strategies and we cover all these items in that class.

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Branded content will become an important part of PR in 2010:

Branded content is essentially a fusion of advertising and entertainment, says Wikipedia. Marketers upped the dollars spent on branded content in 2009 – double what was spent in 2008. Branded content snagged 32% of overall marketing, advertising and communications budgets. And the numbers are expected to jump significantly in 2010.

So what is branded content and why will it be a PR trend?

The notion of an advertiser or company producing some engaging content for the consumer in order to sell something is nothing new. That’s why soaps and sponsored radio shows did so well back in the 60s.

The Web 2.0 world is about permission and attention. People don’t want to have messages thrust at them. But they do want to communicate with companies and brands so they can get information they want or need.

The idea is to listen to online conversations and establish what interests your community. Is there a need for certain information? Can you creatively provide that info in an engaging way? Storytelling in articles, with images and video, is one of the best ways to produce branded content. And that’s a PR skill.

GroupM has partnered with Yahoo! to produce branded video content – 5-10 minute “webisodes” that usually feature story lines around a specific product (a show about someone driving cross country in a Toyota Hybrid, sponsored by Toyota, for example) with plenty of product placement.

Being able to creatively brand interesting and valuable online content that attracts readers and viewers might just turn out to be the shortest way to the consumer’s hearts and minds.

If engagement is the holy grail of social media marketing, how do we know if we’ve hit the jackpot? How many of our visitors are fully engaged and how many are walking away?

Measurement depends on setting goals, establishing benchmarks and then measuring progress toward the goal.  But is engagement too fuzzy a concept to be able to measure?

What exactly is this engagement thing we’re trying to achieve?  According to a post at eConsultancy.org you want people to

• make a noise.
• store and share things.
• love your website.
• visit more frequently
• refer your company to their friends.
• buy into your brand.
• and of course buy your products.

I’m not so sure about the make a noise one.  Any old noise is no good – they have to be saying good things about you to others.

What I do agree with wholeheartedly is that you have to give people a way to interact with you – online and offline.  There is overwhelming evidence that people want to contribute, they want to be involved.  They have opinions and ideas about your business.  Witness the success of Dell’s IdeaStorm  and MyStarbucks Idea.

And if you think it’s an odd notion that customers would want to have a say in your business, both these companies were featured in the Engagement study that showed that the most engaged companies in the US are also the ones that did the best financially through the recession.

So what activities count as engagement?  These 36 are from Chris Lake who is working on a new social commerce start up in the UK.

A list of social interaction metrics / KPIs

1. Alerts
2. Bookmarks (onsite, offsite)
3. Comments
4. Downloads
5. Alerts (register and response rates / by channel / CTR / post click activity)
6. Email subscriptions
7. Fans (become a fan of something / someone)
8. Favourites (add an item to favourites)
9. Feedback (via the site)
10. Followers (follow something / someone)
11. Forward to a friend
12. Groups (create / join / total number of groups / group activity)
13. Install widget (on a blog page, Facebook, etc)
14. Invite / Refer (a friend)
15. Key page activity (post-activity)
16. Love / Like this (a simpler form of rating something)
17. Messaging (onsite)
18. Personalization (pages, display, theme)
19. Posts
20. Profile (e.g. update avatar, bio, links, email, customisation, etc)
21. Print page
22. Ratings
23. Registered users (new / total / active / dormant / churn)
24. Report spam / abuse
25. Reviews
26. Settings
27. Social media sharing / participation (activity on key social media sites, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc)
28. Tagging (user-generated metadata)
29. Testimonials
30. Time spent on key pages
31. Time spent on site (by source / by entry page)
32. Total contributors (and % active contributors)
33. Uploads (add an item, e.g. articles, links, images, videos)
34. Views (videos, ads, rich images)
35. Widgets (number of new widgets users / embedded widgets)
36. Wish lists (save an item to wish list)

How many of these do you offer on your site?  How do you know which ones to add?

Go back to step one of your social media strategy and listen to the conversations – tap in to the needs, likes  and dislikes of your visitors and customers.  The days of deciding for others are long gone.  You have to give them the tools they need and want, not what you think is right for them.  Everything on this list won’t work for every site.

For example:  A company that is involved in bath and kitchen makeovers is currently looking at adding social interactivity to their website.  After taking the list of ideas the CEO has, and listening to his customers and visitors to the site, this is the proposed list

1. Register for Alerts by RSS feed – to get new content
2. Views (videos,  rich images, design concepts)
3. Use the design widget
4. Put the widget on their blog or Facebook, etc)
5. Feedback (via the site)
6. Email subscriptions
7. Favorites (add an item to favourites)
8. Feedback (via the site)
9. Forward to a friend
10. Invite / Refer (a friend)
11. Social media sharing / participation (activity on key social media sites, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, relevant design forums, blogs  etc)
12. Time spent on key pages
13. Time spent on site (by source / by entry page)

How are you keeping track of your engagement stats?

Image: FoxPar4 on Flickr, some rights reserved

The Engagementdb study from the Altimeter Group and Wetpaint looked at the effect that engagement with your customers and audiences can have on the bottom line.  They analyzed major brands like Coca Cola, SAP and Starbucks. The key finding is that those with the highest engagement factor also had the best financial results over the last year.

And this is not just applicable to large corporations.  It holds true for companies across the boards.

In my session at the PRSA National Conference in San Diego on November 10th  I’ll be looking at how this data applies to some mid- sized companies/organizations you might not even have heard of: one non profit, one BtoC and one BtoB.

One recurring theme throughout these case studies is that engagement cannot remain the sole province of a
few social media experts, but instead must be embraced by the entire organization.  Is your company ready to take on this level of engagement?

If you’re looking for some  hard evidence that companies are focusing on communicating directly with existing and prospective consumers with content placed in social media sites, the 2009 Survey on Marketing, Media and Measurement has the data.

This ability to use new media channels to reach audiences directly, and to measure the value of their response and interaction, is advancing a trend: companies are abandoning other media platforms in favor of creating their own branded, original content in social media channels.

Back in 2002 Forrester Research said success online was all about the content and it seems that part hasn’t changed. What has change is where we find that content and how we consume it.

“Marketers have been aware of the effectiveness of building relationships and trust with content since long before the Internet,” said Gordon Plutsky, Director of Marketing and Research, King Fish. “More and more marketers are abandoning old media — and traditional advertising — to venture out on their own with original content.”

And it is working: Blendtec has seen a 5X increase in sales since they launched their Will it Blend? videos. HerRoom created an interesting series called What is She Underwearing? They launched this content feature late last year and it’s been one of the actions that resulted in the steadily increasing traffic to their site.

Some  key findings of the King Fish Media 2009 Survey on Marketing, Media and Measurement:

• 86% of respondents’ companies are currently creating or plan to create original content for their customers and prospects in the coming year.
• 81% believe that brands and companies can create content that is as engaging and informative as content created by media companies.
• 74% feel that original content and media are most effective for generating marketing ROI.
• 70% are spending more today to reach customers and prospects directly with branded content than they did three years ago.

As companies take on the role of publisher and create more and more branded content on social sites,  that content also has to have a place on their own website. Journalists, bloggers and website visitors want an easy way to find and share your social content online.

Consider upgrading to a social media newsroom in 2010.

Download the complete survey at King Fish Media.

Image credit:  Intersection Consulting

One of the biggest trends in 2009 is the shift to real-time content online, sometimes referred to as Now Media.

And when you say real-time web or the instant news cycle, most people think of Twitter.

“The Real-Time Web is much more than Twitter,” says Richard McManus of ReadWriteWeb in a series about the top 5 web trends in 2009. “It has changed the products and strategies of almost every major Internet company in 2009.”

Twitter has been a large part of it and Twitter search has changed the speed with which people gather information.

The old news cycle has been well and truly trampled in the rush to real-time information. There have been a few high profile news events that showed up in Twitter well before the mainstream media got their content out online – never mind in print.

The US Airways plane in the Hudson was a case in point. Janis Krums, who happened to be on the scene, took a picture just minutes after the event and posted it to Twitter. “There’s a plane in the Hudson,” tweeted Krum. “I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”

“Social media tools like Twitter -– which allows users to tap out 140-character status updates — have changed how breaking news events are recorded and covered,” says the Wall St Journal.

“We’ll get used to the fact that we can now connect, publish and collaborate in real time from mobile devices anywhere in the world that there is signal. This awareness will become widespread and more interestingly, smart uses of its potential will continue to emerge. New things are coming. We don’t know the half of it yet,” writes Laura Fitton (Pistachio).

And the first comment on that blog post states: “I haven’t even watched the news yet… I got everything I needed from Twitter.”

Journalists and bloggers have seen the value of real-time news and content.  You can find them on sites like Media on Twitter and Muckrack.com.

Media Relations is not what it used to be. People find their information and news in new places.  And they find it fast.  In the real-time web, delayed news and information just isn’t good enough.

Journalist and bloggers are watching the real-time news stream for stories and ‘citizen journalists’ on the scene at breaking news stories.  Go over these lists of journalists and bloggers on Twitter and see if anyone on your list of media contacts is there.

It’s just one more reason to be in these real-time conversations and to watch what is being said about your company, your brand and the generic phrases that describe your industry.  Add Twitter search to your Google searches. Keep an eye on the devloment of RSS Cloud so you can make your corporate news available in  real-time too.

Today the media relations race goes to the swift.

Related Links:

Real-time Web Primer from ReadWriteWeb

Rebooting the RSS Cloud Dave Winer

Image Credit:  Dave Parker

At the PRSA T3 conference Greg Jarboe of  SEO-PR moderated the  panel “Boosting PR Results with SEO, SEM & RSS,” and by a show of hands about one third of the audience said they are optimizing press releases for search.  And while that might sound like a small percentage, theadoption of SEO tactics by PR folk is changing the game.

There are 2000 press releases day issued by the major wire services.  If PR folk adopt SEO at the same rate the marketers did, within a year we should see the number of optimized release move from a third to half in a year.

Take a look at the numbers Greg crunched:

When only 50 press releases per day were being optimized, or 2.5 percent of the total, innovators could kick sand in the face of virtually any competitor. When 320 press releases per day were being optimized, or 16 percent of the total, early adopters could still beat competitors five times out of six. When 1,000 press releases per day are being optimized, or 50 percent of the total, the early majority discover that the innovators and early adopters have moved on to the next tactic.

One of those tactics that’s still in the early phase of adoption is the addition of feeds to news content. (RSS)  At the Marketwire Social Media Roadmap webinar in May, only 8% said they are using feeds to boost their PR results.  Feeds make it possible to reach new audiences, spread the content to social sites, build more links and improve the search visibility of your news content.

According to Pew Research audiences for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news online has surged.

Recent figures from Nielsen show that in 2008 the number of people getting news online passed those reading newspapers and it’s headed for an intersection with TV in the future.

Since the early 1990s, the proportion of Americans saying they read a newspaper on a typical day has declined by about 40%; the proportion that regularly watches nightly network news has fallen by half.

Younger audiences are  more accustomed to watching the news on the Internet than on television.

These ‘Net-Newsers’ are the youngest of the news user segments (median age: 35). They’re are affluent and well educated: More than eight-in-ten have at least attended college. Net-Newsers not only rely primarily on the internet for news, they are leading the way in using new web features and other technologies. Nearly twice as many regularly watch news clips on the internet as regularly watch nightly network news broadcasts (30% vs. 18%).

To reach this audience , CBS News announced that it has partnered with UStream, a live video Web site, to simulcast its newscasts and special reports. (via New York Times)

Ustream will feature breaking news coverage several times everyday– presidential press conferences, Congressional hearings, and online-only content and on-air programs such as the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

This is not CBS’ first foray into social media -Katie Couric already has a YouTube channel and a Twitter feed with 28,486 followers.

Although CBSNews.com already shows many of those live streams, UStream makes the video more interactive – users can comment and chat beside the live coverage and embed the video player on other sites.

PR Lesson: More and more people get their news online.  The younger, well educated and affluent segment get their news almost exclusively online. (92%)   They are social media savvy. The use feeds (RSS) to access news.

Put all your news content online, optimize it for search and syndicate it with feeds.

The old model of interruption advertising is over. Content marketing and telling brand stories by  offering interesting, useful entertaining content that engages your audience and provides information they want to read is what works today.

“The power has shifted to thousands of small conversations that can to grow to influence millions,” writes Wayne Arnold in Advertising Age. “Place a greater focus on brilliant brand storytelling and content that gives rise to as many relevant and deep conversations as possible, both on and offline.”

Target is rght on the money with their new venture – Red Hot Shop.  Red Hot Shop is a partnership with The Daily Candy, a free daily newsletter and website aimed at young, influential women.  Candy covers fashion, boutiques, restaurants, and local finds in key markets across the U.S. and London.

Red Hot Shop, will feature products from up and coming designers selected by DailyCandy editors, along with articles and artwork by the DailyCandy team, reports the Wall St. Journal.

PR Lesson:  It makes good sense to partner with someone who already has the audience you want to reach. Find the places they ‘hang out’ online and listen for what they’re interested in.  Provide  great content that tells your brand story and ignites conversations.

I’ll be speaking about Brand Story telling at Search Engine Strategies, San Jose in August 13.  Charlene Li is the morning keynote.    Should be a great day.

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The online social conversations that have attracted the interest of corporations and nonprofits are proving to be just as useful to small businesses – social media workshops are popping in towns across the country.

We’re in the age of constant connection, no matter the size of our business. For better or worse, our clients expect us to be available – right now.  If  they’re under 40, they definitely expect you to be online and participating in the new social channels and tools.

Blogs and online press releases are replacing or supplementing the trade journal articles that in the past have been a valuable way to reach your audience.  While social media content does not cost much, it does require a time commitment. Followers expect fresh, interesting content frequently.  Once you start, it’s important to keep up the flow of good content.

What kind of content gets a good response? Answering questions, sharing tips, and giving advice about your area of expertise: your market segment.

Dell’s recent Small Business blog post on the best approach to creating a business plan is a perfect example: It’s useful, and it addresses a problem that taxes many small business owners.  It’s not promotional and you get the sense that Dell understands what’s important to small businesses. That builds trust.

PR Takeaway: Sharing your knowledge online is one of the easiest ways to connect with consumers and it positions you as someone who cares.

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