Tag Archives: PR trends

An Emerging PR Trend: Content PR Strategy & Tactics

Posted on January 15, 2013 by | 8 Comments

Content PR.  You’ve probably seen this phrase bouncing around the blogosphere recently, and no wonder, it’s an emerging PR trend for this year.  But what is content PR?  To discover the answer, we need to look to marketing first.

ContentPR-infographic-loResOver the last couple years, we’ve seen a significant change in marketing tactics, and the subsequent rise of inbound marketing.   Driven by generating interest rather than causing interruption, inbound marketing tactics, including content marketing, draw the audience to the brand, rather than pushing messaging out and hoping that someone pays attention.   Doing this requires a brand to be in tune with its audience, know what they’re talking about (and where the talking is occurring) and the creation of content that speaks to the audience’s interests.

The Genesis of Content PR

Within that last sentence you see the genesis of content PR.    More than any other department, public relations is dialed into the sentiments of their brand’s constituents.  And knowing where influence and conversations are to be found is PR’s stock in trade.  And finally, PR pros are an organization’s master storytellers.  In a word, they do content.

What is Content PR?

Content PR is the extension of content marketing principles applied to PR.  The core content marketing principles include:

  • Understanding audience interests,
  • Creation of relevant and compelling content
  • Deployment of that content in various formats and across different channels in order to reach audiences where they live

New strategy & tactics

In practice, content PR requires some shifts in the traditional PR mindset and tactics.

From episodic campaigns to ongoing presence.   It can be tough to get away from the traditional idea of a campaign.  But as we all know, audience interest isn’t dictated by campaigns.   While campaigns do a great job of building interest, opportunities are lost when brands don’t serve the organically occurring interest that develops when a person has a gift to buy, is researching charities related to a new cause, or is researching vendors or a project at work.   Content PR is crucial to developing a plugged-in brand presence that understands – and delivers – what constituents are seeking, and what they need to make related decisions.

Reflecting the audience point of view in messaging.   While there’s still a place for news announcements of record, savvy brands are changing their messaging to reflect the audience point of view.   Rather than simply issuing a message from the ivory tower to the masses, brands today are communicating in the context of their customers and other constituents, building audience values into their messaging.   A brand that’s launching new software, for example, might develop content supporting the launch around related customer challenges, bringing in expert advice about dealing with a particular issue, and work in details about the new software’s capability within that context.  So instead of “NewSoftware from XYZ Corp. Offers Improved System Performance,” the headline might read “5 Ways to Improve System Performance.”  And instead of a simple text press release, the content might include an array of elements, including an infographic, slides or a short video with an expert.

Measuring pull, not push.   While we’ve been talking about “push vs. pull” communications for years now, fully embracing a “pull” mentality is crucial for the successful practice of content PR – and measuring it.  How do you measure pull?   While metrics will vary for each organization, here are some ideas:

  • Search rank, and inbound search terms used to find brand content.  A dive into website analytics tremendously revealing.  A look at the search terms people used to find your web site shows you pretty clearly 1) the terms for which your content ranks in search engines and 2) the terms your audience is using to get to your web site.  If those terms don’t jibe with the larger PR strategy, a focused content PR effort can help.
  • Traffic to specific content – and the resulting activity. Measuring the visits to specific pages is one obvious measure.  But take it a step further, and look at what happens next.  Are people sharing the content published on social networks?  Are they clicking on the links embedded in the content and taking the next step (see Outcomes, below.)   Looking deeper into page traffic will reveal whether or not your audience is truly engaging with the content your brand has published.

Collaboration.  More than ever, integration with marketing is crucial if content PR is going to work.  Key challenges that collaboration will address include developing a consistent and coherent experience for your audiences.    It’s also important to realize that one piece of content can trigger a variety of outcomes, and brand need to have their ducks in a row to capture all of the potential results.  For example,  in addition to generating interest among media and bloggers,  the direct connection the audience has with the content brings with it the opportunity for the brand to move prospects ahead in the decision process.   PR and marketing should collaborate to ensure the content is accurately mapped to the customer decision process, and appropriate next steps are offered to readers. Designed to further inform – and qualify – your brand’s prospects, next steps can include access to more specific information (such as case studies), tips for doing something better and access to staff.

A hallmark of content marketing is creating content that can ultimately represent the brand’s voice and POV within the timelines of an individual person’s search for information or buying process.  Content PR shapes opinion contextually.  When coordinated with the brand’s marketing efforts, content PR shapes opinion generates lasting visibility and delivers measurable, top line business results.

Join us for the upcoming webinar on Wednesday, January 23, 2013:  Leveraging Converged Media’s Impact on Content Marketing

Additional resources:

White paper:  Maximizing Content Marketing – A 6 Step Plan for Agile Engagement

4 Ways to Attract Qualified Audience With Content

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.   See her in person at the upcoming Online Marketing Summit in February, where she’s hosting a workshop on Driving Qualified Audiences Into the Funnel Using Rich Media and Distribution Networks.

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PR Trends for 2013: Outcomes & Tactics

Posted on December 20, 2012 by | 12 Comments

google trends prYesterday we discussed the evolving media environment, and some of the emerging PR trends that will impact our business in 2013.  Today, we’re going to drill down into more tactical PR trends, and discuss how the practice of PR is changing on a fundamental level.

Evolving outcomes

The outcomes expected of PR are evolving, and that’s where we’ll start today.   Traditionally, PR outcomes have been campaign based, and in many cases, have been measured fairly narrowly, in terms of media pick up and AVEs.  Tying PR output to the business bottom line has long been a challenge.   It’s a different story today, however, and it requires an expanded view of measurement across the enterprise.

“What we measure is part of the puzzle,” notes Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO of Pure Performance PR and author of Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional. “When we look at the metrics we capture, we have to be working with other business areas to gauge the full impact.  The pieces connect. We’re not in a silo.  We have to make correlations between the data and the outcomes.”

So what are some of the outcomes we’re seeing PR departments charged with delivering?

Reputation & mindshare:  In today’s connected business and social environments, PR is charged with developing reputation and generating lasting mindshare.

Example:  Today’s buyers (both consumer and B2B) conduct extensive research before contacting vendors. If a brand doesn’t have a good reputation, positive reviews and strong search and social visibility, it will be eliminated from consideration well before the prospect gets serious about buying.  Instead of building episodic awareness, the new imperative for PR is to develop ongoing brand visibility and a strong reputation.

Related reading:

Lead generation, web site traffic, conversion rates:  Yes, you’re still reading a post about public relations.  One of the strongest emerging trends is the requirement for PR to deliver hard, measurable business results, whether that’s measured in an increase in web site traffic, or leads generated.    Delivering results that hit the top line, while formerly the domain of marketing, is increasingly expected of PR departments, and to PR’s benefit (in my mind, at least.)   Information drives many purchasing decisions today, and it’s only natural that the department responsible for conveying much of an organization’s information plays a strong role in influencing customer decisions.   However, doing that requires PR to become much attuned to the audiences, and to develop messages within that context.

“We have to ask how we differentiate ourselves,” says Shana Harris, COO of the Warchawski Agency.  “What are our goals, and what are the audience’s pain points? We have to put ourselves in our target audience’s shoes, understand the target audience and understand the experience we want to create for them.”

Related reading:  Demand More from Your Press Releases

Practical tactics

It goes without saying that PR tactics are evolving in tandem with shifts in the media, information and attention markets.   Emerging trends that are gathering steam as we head into 2013 include:

  • “Content PR”:  You’ve undoubtedly heard of content marketing – the practice of deploying content designed to interest, educate and inform an audience, in order to attract them to the brand and to influence decisions in the brand’s favor.   Many of the tactics adopted by content marketers are pulled straight from PR’s playbook, but the way content marketers are using them should awaken PR pros to the opportunities in their midst.

Specifically, content marketers focus on developing content that serves the audience, answering their questions and giving them the information and education they are seeking.    Conversely, PR has traditionally spent a lot of its time crafting the message the brand wants the marketplace to hear.  “Content PR” is an emerging trend that combines PR’s access to influencers and its traditional role as the storytellers in chief for the organization with the audience-focused approach advocated by content marketers.    The most effective PR departments are evolving their message strategy, developing stories their respective marketplaces will eagerly devour (and like, post, tweet and share.)

Related reading: Content marketing case study: It sure looks like PR to me

Communicating visually:  We’ve been talking about multimedia here at PR Newswire for years: as previously discussed on this blog, we know empirically that press releases that include some sort of visual (image, infographic, video, etc.) generate better results than their plain-text brethren.  At this point, it’s probably safe to say that multimedia communications are less of a trend, and more of an imperative, for communicators today.  However, the mechanisms by which our audiences access, ingest and share the images, resources and video we publish continue to multiply.    Developing the ability and means to communicate key messages visually is an important skill required of today’s PR pros, and an investment required of PR departments.

Related reading: Press Releases With Multimedia Get Better Results

In just a few days, I’ll be celebrating my 18th year with PR Newswire.  While that is a staggering number and I’d be willing to argue that I can’t possibly be *that* old, this post caused me to reflect on all the changes I’ve seen during my tenure with “the Wire” (as we affectionately call it.)   PR is an infinitely interesting discipline, and the changes enumerated in my last couple posts underscore the simple fact that we are getting closer and closer to the intersection of information, interest and intent that is really the golden ring for communicators. Are you as excited about what’s in store for communicators in 2013 as I am?

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

Want to dig deeper into the evolution of PR and trends to watch for in 2013? Access the archive of a recent webinar titled PR Prepping for the New Year: A Look at the Evolution of Modern PR & What It Means for You discussing the evolution of PR and trends for 2013.  Panelists included:

  • Deirdre Breakenridge (@dbreakenridge), CEO of Pure Performance Communications

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PR Trends for 2013: Evolving Media & Social Business

Posted on December 19, 2012 by | 5 Comments

What’s on tap for PR in 2013?  The answers we received when we asked PR pros to complete the sentence “PR is _____”  provided a harbinger of what the industry can expect in the coming year.

The answers were myriad and varied:  Mind share. Cross-channel conversation.  Content that adds value for readers.  Creating understanding in a complex world.  Engaging dialogue.  A connection between a company and its publics.

And all the answers were correct and point to an emerging reality – PR is getting a lot “bigger.”    The scope of the job is greater, the audiences more vast, the information marketplace is more fluid and the integration with other departments more crucial.

To gain a better angle on the trends for 2013, it’s also important to consider the underlying drivers of trends.

Social Business :   There’s no question that changes in the media environment has had an effect not just on PR departments, but on entire organizations.     Social media has changed customer expectations and introduced an age of radical transparency.  Smart organizations have recalibrated their entire enterprise to connect with, communicate to and serve their customers and prospects.   So what do these changes mean for PR?  A lot, it turns out, from a tactical standpoint.

  • Collaboration & integration:  Silo-busting has taken on a new urgency – it’s crucial for different departments to collaborate in order to deliver a cohesive message strategy and experience for customers across channels.   Social media, inbound and outbound marketing and print buys, for example, all have to work together and make sense.    Print media often drives online behavior, and brands need to plan for (and capture) those actions.
  • Listening & response:  Today’s transparent marketplace puts new pressure on businesses to respond quickly to queries  and comments from their constituents.  This requires communications departments to spool up their social listening efforts, and calibrate their processes (such as review and approval) to speed response.

Evolving media markets:  Journalistic model evolution:  The underlying business models of traditional media continue to evolve – the fact that Newsweek is going all digital in 2013 was probably the most dramatic example from 2012.   What does this mean for PR?  As journalistic models change and go digital, chances are excellent that the folks creating content for digital entities will change how they measure success. Instead of news stand sales, for example, digital metrics, such as the number of times a story was read, shared and commented on – will take precedence.  But the digital environment wages war every second for reader attention .  How can an organization succeed?  By consistently publishing unique, useful and interesting content. Therein is the opportunity for PR pros.

  • Digital media does a great job of serving niche interests, and while the audiences may be smaller, they are enthusiastic and informed.  Find unique story angles to share with tightly focused digital media for maximum visibility to your core audiences.
  • Just because something isn’t “hard news” in the traditional sense doesn’t mean that it won’t be of interest to your audience.  Content that will help your constituents and addresses their pain points plays very well.  Find your internal experts who can offer tips, tactics and advice to your readers.

Mutable social networks:   As we build our communications plans and strategies, it’s important to remember that social platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest have the right to change their service offerings, algorithms and terms of use – and they do.  For example, in November, Twitter ceased to render images from Instagram (owned by Facebook) within its news feed, in order to give images generated by using its own suite of photo filters more visibility to Twitter  users.   Organizations that had created rich content on Instagram, and used Twitter to share it to a wider audience, found themselves in a tight spot, as visibility for the images they distribute was reduced.   At the same time, Pinterest announced that (for the time being at least) they added support for Twitter cards, thus ensuring images shared via Twitter via Pinterest will render  on Twitter’s web site and apps.  Confuzzled?  You’re not alone, and there is no safeguard against these sort of changes, which can negatively impact the investment an organization has made in developing a strong presence on a particular network.  So what should communicators do?

  • Don’t become solely reliant upon a social network.   While social networks are incredibly useful for finding, connecting with and engaging audiences, at some point, the brand needs to develop a more direct relationship with audiences.   Encourage your social connections to participate in events, refer them to content on your own web site, and provide engagement options (live chat, comments, etc.) on your own web site to enable your audience to communicate directly with the brand, via channels the brand owns.

In subsequent posts, we’ll discuss trends in PR tactics and outcomes for 2013. Watch this space for more!   In the meantime, you can access an archive of a recent webinar titled PR Prepping for the New Year: A Look at the Evolution of Modern PR & What It Means for You discussing the evolution of PR and trends for 2013.  Panelists included:

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

 

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PR Trends for 2013: Free Webinar Dec.12

Posted on December 11, 2012 by | Leave a comment
PR trends for 2013 are driven by changes in external forces, and the tactics and opportunities today's environment affords.

PR trends for 2013 are driven by changes in external forces, and the tactics and opportunities today’s environment affords.

What are the big PR trends for 2013? It’s a broad question, and it receives an equally expansive answer.  I discussed this question with Deirdre Breakenridge, one of the panelists on the webinar titled PR: Prepping for the New Year .

At the end of our conversation, one thing was clear – the job of PR is “bigger” than ever, with more scope – and more potential impact – than either of us can recall.   And, not surprisingly, the forces driving changes in the public relations marketplace bring new opportunity and new challenges for those practitioners who are staying on top of the trends, and have acquired the skills needed to take full advantage the opportunities at hand.

We isolated for key areas in which change is particularly evident:

  • External forces – the changes roiling traditional media and how information is consumed, and the ramifications of those changes that require organizations to re-tool;
  • Tactics – new tools and tactics PR pros are using to find audiences and make messages stick in today’s environment
  • Outcomes – PR pros are facing a host of new expectations which demand new outcomes of our PR campaigns
  • Resolutions & Job Skills – What skills do PR pros need to acquire to deliver results from their efforts in 2013?

We’re going to really dig into the evolution of PR and trends we’re spotting for 2013 during tomorrow’s webinar.  I’ll be moderating, and the panelists include:

  • Deirdre Breakenridge (@dbreakenridge), CEO of Pure Performance Communications
  • Shana Harris COO of Warschawski

Please join us for the discussion tomorrow! Attending is free.

PR Prepping for the New Year: A Look at the Evolution of Modern PR & What It Means for You

It’s that time of year when all of us reflect on the pros and cons of the past year, and excitedly plan for the next. And in the multi-dimensional world of public relations, there is much to consider – particularly at a time when communicators are acutely focused on integrated campaigns that will enable them to reach and foster an ongoing dialogue with relevant audiences across traditional, digital and social media.

Join PR Newswire for this FREE webinar as we discuss the evolution of modern PR, including a review of current trends as well as tactical recommendations for 2013.

Date:     Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Time:     10:00 AM Pacific; 11:00 AM Mountain; 12:00 PM Central; 1:00 PM Eastern
Duration:  One hour

Registration

 

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Storytelling and today’s media environments

Posted on November 7, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Our organizations are full of stories which can attract and engage our audiences.  Shifting the strategy to incorporate storytelling can be a challenge, however, as is the case with content creation generally.

In this video, our CEO, Ninan Chacko, discusses the emergence of content marketing as a powerful discipline allowing brands to become true storytellers. He takes a look at the range of assets currently being used by PR and marketing professionals and the digital tools used to help illustrate and spread their messages far and wide across platforms, networks and search engines.

“The audience  is living across this broader landscape.  They aren’t solely present in paid media,” noted Ninan, in follow on comments about the changes in the media landscape, and the opportunities these changes afford communicators.

We think you’ll find his comments to be thought-provoking.   And if it’s been a while since you’ve thought about how different types of content and distribution strategies can build audience for your organization’s stories, take a quick look at this overview of press release distribution and other types of content syndication.

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Press Release Engagement: When Your Reader Takes “The Next Step”

Posted on November 6, 2012 by | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, we added the Instant Access button to our popular ReleaseWatch reports, providing immediate access to the comprehensive Visibility Reports press release measurement reports  PR Newswire provides with each message we distribute.  At the same time, we also started sending a “Five Day Reporting Snapshot” via email, to make it easier for everyone to see the results their releases are generating.

(Related reading:  New Press Release Measurement Reporting Features!)

Press release engagement, defined

In addition to simply telling you how many times your press release was read (which we call “views,” we also summarize the number of times your readers took a “next step.”  We call those actions “engagement.”

Simply put, when someone reading your press release on PR Newswire.com takes another action with the release, we consider that to be engagement.     So what are these other actions readers can take when reading a release on PR Newswire.com?

  • Clicking through on an embedded anchor text link within the press release
  • Clicking on a URL within the press release
  • Sharing the press release on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+ using any of the sharing buttons we embed on each release page
  • Printing or e-mailing the press release
  • Bookmarking the story on sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious, using the buttons embedded on the release page
  • Embedding the press release in a blog post or other web page, using the Embed button on the release page

Engagement actions are important, which is why we call them out separately within the press release reports we provide.  When one of your readers takes one of these next steps, they get closer to the ultimate objective of your press release, whether that is selling a product, generating support for a cause, encouraging downloads of a white paper or driving traffic to a web site.

The Engagement Index

On the Five Day Snapshot, you’ll also see a reference to the “Engagement Index.”   This index is designed to give you an idea of how your messages are performing when compared to press releases issued by other organizations within the same industry category.   While these categories are fairly broad – the “retail” category will group giant retailers and small mom & pop stores together – they do a good job of giving you some feedback on how your messages are faring within your sector.

Index scores range between 0 and 100, and 50 is an average score.   Scores above 50 are highlighted in green on the reports, and scores below 50 are colored yellow.

An important sample of audience reaction & message effectiveness

While the reports just capture the activity your releases generated on one web site (PR Newswire’s), the information is nonetheless informative, and provides a solid indicator of how audiences responded to your messages.

The index scores are especially useful when you log into the Online Member Center, and access your entire Visibility Reports dashboard, which aggregates all of your press release reports in one place.   (The Instant Access link only provides access to the report for a single release – to access all of you .) When you’re in the dashboard, you can see clearly which releases generated higher engagement scores.  Why is doing this important?  Simple.  Comparing the engagement results of different releases will help you develop an understanding of what sort of content your audience prefers – and what content is most effective.  Taking the analysis a step further and looking at the activities the releases generated can give you more insight into how your audience is using the press releases you issue.

We think engagement is important to think about, because ultimately, engagement describes whether you captured your audience’s attention, and inspired them to act.  It’s a far more involved measure than many, but we think it’s one of the most important, because it helps you understand whether or not a message was effective in inspiring action, not just acquiring eyeballs.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

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Content Marketing Case Study: It Sure Looks Like PR to Me

Posted on October 29, 2012 by | 5 Comments

Wordstream’s infographic that supported their campaign generated fantastic results for them. (Click on the image to see the full size version.)

A blog post on search engine authority SEOMoz titled “How I Got a Link from the Wall Street Journal” offers some real instruction for PR pros on linking content – and public relations outputs – with measurable, top-line business results.

It’s worth noting that the author of the post – and the content marketing campaign discussed – is Larry Kim, the founder and CTO of Wordstream, a search marketing firm.  (There’s another link for you, Larry – I know you’re counting.)  In short, he is a data-driven quant, C-suite denizen and SEO guru.  And within his case study is some very important guidance for public relations pros.

Think strategically (and holistically) about online pickup.

The first lesson to be derived from Larry’s post is this:  PR should think more deliberately about the value to be had for the organizations we’re promoting in the online mentions and “pick up” we generate — and not just in terms of PR outcomes.   In this day and age, the content we publish digitally can provide a variety of benefits to an organization.  The content, for example, can be mapped your customers’ buying process by your marketing team, and re-purposed.  And the content can generate potent search engine visibility – if you manage the language and linking correctly.  Optimizing press releases and other content can certainly help, however, it’s important to think beyond one granular message, and think instead in terms of how messages can improve web site search rank and provide content that aids potential customers as they make buying decisions.

Defining SEO benefits

What do I mean by “good link” and “significant SEO benefits”?  Search engine optimization is the art and science of fine tuning a web site’s content (among other things) so it shows up on the first page of search results for specific, targeted keywords and phrases.

A “good link” is one that includes one of those target terms, and links back to related pages on your web site.   Here’s how Larry defined his objective of garnering a “good link” from the WSJ.

“Real, editorial links from the WSJ. But not just any link. Ideally, links in an article that:

  • In some way mentioned WordStream (my company) so that we could get a bit of media exposure out of this effort
  • Links to both our homepage and contained to a deep page on our site with relevant anchor text.“

Now, as we all know, the sort of placement Larry in talking about – real, editorial placement – is right in PR’s wheelhouse.   How many of us are working with our web marketing teams and thinking about search terms and deep links when we’re developing our PR campaigns and planning our tactics?  Anecdotally, from the many conversations I’ve had with PR teams over the years, I’m going to venture to guess that the answer to that question is “Not many.”

A good link from a high-profile, high-authority news site – whether it’s the Wall St. Journal or an important niche publication – can provide lift in search rankings for your web site, which is a proven driver of business results, as well as fuel for social conversations.   The content we publish, and the results it generates across the enterprise – is all connected.

Newsworthy content & a good news hook

As one continues reading Larry’s post, it reads more-and more like a modern guide on how to get more PR pick up. He emphasized the need for newsworthy, unique content that was written for the WSJ readership, not a bunch of search experts.

Further on in the case, Larry also addresses the vital necessity of a solid news hook, and how he went about identifying the hook for his “content marketing” campaign.

Finally, by now we know that press releases with multimedia generate better results than plain text.  Larry knows the power of visuals too, and made an infographic central to his campaign.

This *really* sounds like PR now, doesn’t it?

The importance of high-value links & a new definition of “pick up”

I’m prepared to argue that generating high-value links from credible media and blogs should be a key goal of many PR campaigns.   This is a new facet to that old standard in our business – achieving editorial “pick up,” and it’s one that our peers in marketing are really good at measuring.  The teams who manage web marking, in particular, generally have really good insight into the performance of different web site content in terms of the generation of qualified traffic and leads, conversion rate and search rank.   There’s no reason why the content PR deploys can’t be tweaked in order to work in tandem with other content deployed by the organization.  This ‘tweaking’ isn’t onerous.  It just requires a little collaboration with the web marketing team, getting organized, and then being sure to use target terms in PR content, and linking those terms to relevant web site pages. In addition to synching publishing strategies, the same should also be done for measurement at well.  It’s not unreasonable to imagine a scenario in which a press release, for example, is measured in terms of resulting high-value media links, leads generated and search marketing value.

Borrowing a few pages from Larry’s playbook is a good idea for PR.  Simply put, we can leverage the press releases and other content we produce, publish and syndicate to impact far more than the goals set for the PR department and the outcomes the organization usually expect from the public relations team.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media and has written extensively on how public relations, content marketing and search intersect.

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Big League Pinning: Pinterest Best Practices for Brands from Pinleague

Posted on October 24, 2012 by | 11 Comments

The Online Marketing Summit is a playground for marketers to expand their knowledge and to network with their peers. With the convergence of PR and marketing, it seemed like a natural event for me to attend and extend the knowledge shared with my clients, and now all of you.

One of my first sessions for the day was “Tapping into Pinterest: The Time is Now!” Presented by Danny Maloney, CEO and Co-Founder of PinLeague.

Pinterest is still a platform that a lot of businesses are trying to harness. According to Maloney it is a platform that brands are taking notice of but struggling to get traction. For me, I am trying to find ways to elevate our company boards, especially the one I help curate for @PRNHealth.

Maloney stressed that the “I” in “who I want to be” translates to brands. Where is your brand headed? What are you trying to shift in your brand perception?

Pinterest goals can be divided into two plays for companies: Is your presence for branding purposes or to drive more traffic? Both have value, the latter can be linked to harder ROI figures – both to elevated SEO.

Pinterest audience stats:

The Pinterest audience is in planning mode by nature, they are looking for who they want to be or want to do:  this, coupled with the large numbers of women 25-44 on the platform, leads to more referrals and more revenue per referral.  Here are some powerful Pinterest stats he shared:

  • Less than 1% negative sentiment on the platform.
  • Contributing 20% of social commerce.
  • The half-life of a pin is more +1 week compared to 80 min for a Facebook post, and 5-25 min for a tweet.
  • It is not about conversation it is about quality content. It is a 175 to 1 ratio on repins versus comments.
  • The average order value on Twitter $69, Facebook $80, Pinterest $179.
  • PinLeague estimates that Pinterest is will have 90% of the top 1500 brands within 12 months.

Now the question becomes how to make Pinterest work for your brand? According to Maloney, “If you lead with monetization, it is a recipe for failure.”  This is a platform, like other social platforms, that have a long term benefit for your brand. His advice was, “Invest in building the audience now, and monetize later. “

Getting your brand started in Pinterest:

Should you invest time and effort into Pinterest for your brand?  Maloney’s short answer was YES. The longer answer entailed that fact that becoming an “early adopter” allows your brand to establish and audience and credibility within the platform prior to the inevitable push for monetization when ads could be sold or promoted pins could be created. Right now Pinterest helps elevate power pinners and boards without cost.

If you’re new to Pinterest and paralyzed, Maloney recommends creating 12 boards to get past “pinners block.” 5 boards about things your users love, 5 boards about things they have a hard time finding, and 2 boards about your brand.

If you have already started leveraging Pinterest, look at the data. What pins are performing? Do you have high influence followers? How are you competitors doing? PinLeague can help with a lot of that data, in addition to targeted outreach to people based on their current usage status of Pinterest. Other tips on how to elevate your Pinning:

  • Get your cover photos right!
  • With the fans you have on other platforms, drive them to your boards with content not a request to “join you on Pinterest.”
  • Create a contest.
  • Have content live on your boards that people want to see.
  • Mix owned content and other content that interests your audience.
  • Optimize your Pinterest profile
  • Leverage an in-kind exchange of pins
  • No need to be an “over pinner” even the largest brands only pin a couple times a day. If you inundate your followers with an too much content too fast they’ll get annoyed with you filling up their feed.

When I asked Maloney his top brand boards he offered a couple with different strengths. GE for a strong brand building set of boards, Mashable has great content, Whole Foods provides information and ideas for their followers, and Karmaloop is a great example of a growing brand displaying engaging images to tell their story.

Additional resources

Visuals play a crucial role in garnering online attention.  In addition to being loved by social media denizens, images, infographics and videos are also given extra visibility by search engines and social networks alike.    If you need some ideas on how to create and use visuals for your organization’s communications campaigns, here’s some additional info that can help you out:

Building Brand Engagement Through Online Video (free white paper)

A collection of posts about Visual PR (lots of tips about using images and videos in social networks)

Infographics!  How to create them, some ideas for developing them and some case studies to help you get started on using them!

Author Natalie Bering is an account manager in PR Newswire’s San Francisco office.

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5 Content Marketing Rules PR Can Play By, Too

Posted on October 22, 2012 by | 3 Comments

The three phases of the customer relationship, and where content marketing fits in, according to Marketing Experiments managing director Flint McGlaughlin.

A webinar hosted by Marketing Experiments last week on the subject of effective content marketing included a lot of nuts-and-bolts perspective on content strategies that deliver measurable results, in terms of moving audience toward the publisher’s intended outcomes.    More than a few of the approaches suggested make as much sense for public relations as they do for content marketing.

The webinar was hosted by Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, managing director of Marketing Experiments, and PR Newswire’s CEO, Ninan Chacko, who brings a strong marketing background to his work at PRN.

Ttitled “5 Steps to Effective Content Marketing,” the webinar kicked off with a discussion of why content marketing works so well.  Dr. Flint framed today’s marketing challenges in the context of the relationships brands build with customers, noting that business relationships have three levels of commitment:  relational, transactional, and contractual.   Content marketing – like so much of PR – is generally concentrated in the ‘relational’ phase, in which audience attention is garnered – and kept.

“We’re moving from getting attention through interruption to a useful conversation,” noted Ninan, as the two discussed some of the aspects that make content marketing particularly effective.

However, as Dr. Flint noted, many organizations make the mistake of moving their audiences horizontally – within the relational phase, never taking the steps to encourage customers on to the next phase – the transaction.

Herein he offered some good advice for anyone developing content for a brand, whether they’re a content marketer or a PR professional.   Here’s an outline of the five steps organizations can take to increase the effectiveness (as measured in business outcomes) of the content they publish.

  1.  Map content across the marketing funnel.  As you do so, be thinking about the outcomes different content drives, and where those outcomes reside in your organization’s selling process.
  2. Craft a biographical sketch of your customers.  Also called developing personas, this step is crucial, giving insight into the customers’ perspective.  From that POV you can better understand what problems customers have and how the content you create can serve them.
  3. Identify the distribution channels in which you have the most influence.   Deploying content where there is little interest or where your audience doesn’t gather is an exercise in futility.
  4. Connect content to decisions.   As Dr. Flint said, “Marketing exists where choice exists…Any marketing effort that does not influence choice is a waste.”
  5. Optimize your messages.    Testing will reveal which work best in terms of delivering business outcomes most efficiently.

Dr. Flint and Ninan kept up a steady stream of discussion as Dr. Flint enumerated his five steps, focusing in particular on the nature – and effect – of high-value content.

“High value content establishes your credentials and creates a foundation of trust,” noted Ninan, who when on to say that as a rule, brands shouldn’t gate content.  Dr. Flint readily agreed.

“Don’t serve ads,” he said, emphasizing the unique role of content in attracting attention, and building the customer relationship.  “Serve the marketplace with useful content, and then invite incremental commitment.”

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media. 

For another take on the evolution of PR (and to get some great ideas and examples for your own PR plans) read our free white paper, Modern PR, the Art & Science of Media Influence.

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Posted in Content PR & Marketing

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New Career Opportunities at the PR Agency of the Future

Posted on October 16, 2012 by | 3 Comments

PR agencies are in a world of transition and leaders are re-defining roles as they move into unchartered territory. At the PRSA International Conference in San Francisco, heads of some of the top agencies in the nation sat down to discuss what the future holds and contribute creative ways the profession will need to adapt to address changing client needs.

One central theme is around becoming a Specialist instead of a Generalist in PR. Unique titles are emerging such as Creative Catalyst or Community and Conversation Analyst.  At the same time, PR firms are hiring candidates with special skills including videography and even comedy writing.

Key takeaways:

Janet Tyler, co-CEO and founder of Airfoil Public Relations
• The employee of the future will never look, act or think like another, they will understand the power of data is a connector and believe in the power of community.

Jack Martin, CEO, Hill+Knowlton Strategies
• Talent function is the most important part of the business

Fred Cook, CEO and President, Golin Harris
• Employees now go through an assessment process to uncover their strengths and passions which are furthered nurtured.

PR Newswire’s VP of Business Development on the agency vertical, Andrew Meranus talked on camera afterwards to Rob Flaherty, CEO and President of Ketchum and Peter Himler, Founding Principal of Flatiron Communications about these career twists and turns already happening in PR:

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Posted in Digital Content

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