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Content We Love: Social Media Makes this Release Pop

Posted on May 17, 2013 by | Leave a comment

“Content We Love” is a weekly feature written by a team of our content specialists. We’re showcasing some of the great content distributed through our channels, and our content specialists are up for the task: they spend a lot of time with the press releases and other content our customers create, proof reading and formatting it, suggesting targeted distribution strategy and offering SEO advice. In Content We Love, we’re going to shine the spotlight on the press releases and other messages that stood out to us, and we’ll tell you why. We hope you find the releases enjoyable and the insights gained from discussing them enlightening.

Kellogg's Pop-Tarts 'Gone Nutty!' Toaster Pastries, Now Available in Two Peanut Butter Flavor Varieties. (PRNewsFoto/Kellogg Company)

Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts ‘Gone Nutty!’ Toaster Pastries, Now Available in Two Peanut Butter Flavor Varieties. (PRNewsFoto/Kellogg Company)

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but when it comes to a modern press release, social media is reigning champion.

My eyes popped upon seeing Kellogg’s recent release announcing the new Pop-Tarts® lineup. The release jumped from a “traditional release” (just text) to a supercharged social media delight!

Social media can be daunting but is important when it comes to releasing news. Why, you ask? Search engines are showing social content higher and higher (as of May 16th,Yahoo! is showing tweets in the news feed itself), a whole untapped audience is awaiting on these social channels (more and more are joining daily), AND it expands the life of a release.

Imagine dropping colored dye into a glass of water. The moment the dye hits the water, the entire glass changes color. Impact. If you can drop more dye into more glasses of water, the dye goes even further and affects even more.

Sharing your story on social media is adding glasses of water!

Kellogg accomplished this by way of Click-To-Tweet.

Click to Tweet: Pop-Tarts have Gone Nutty! @poptarts411 brings fans the most requested flavor #CrazyGoodPB! Check it out http://on.fb.me/kdgHx

A) Clicktotweet.com is a website for custom tweet creation. Want others to tweet something specific? Create a click-to-tweet!  The release is so much more shareable because quite literally, it is a push of a button.

B) The tweet is solid – the handle (@poptarts411 is called a ‘handle’ as it is how to find the company/person/group on twitter) is within the tweet instead of at the beginning. This is important because tweets that start with a handle look like replies or a conversation in progress. While the hope is for replies and conversations, many simply skip over tweets that start with a handle. Optimum visibility is not starting with the @.

C) #Hashtags are the way to search via social media. It shares a thought/trend/news that connects others. The #Discover feature at the top of twitter finds the news you’re looking for. Whether it is a #workout or sharing your Pop-Tarts® #CrazyGoodPB experience, you can find conversations around the #.

The press release did not just stop there. Also included a link enabling readers to connect on Facebook, providing seamless connections on multiple platforms.

Having social-media friendly releases are not difficult to have but imperative in our social-savvy world. Start the conversations by putting your content on social media platforms. Share your news and let your story be heard everywhere it can.

Big thanks to the Kellogg Company for the release we’re nuts over!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mornings-have-gone-nutty-with-new-pop-tarts-peanut-butter-flavors-207165211.html

Author Emily Nelson is a Customer Content Specialist for PR Newswire. Follow her adventures on www.bellesandawhistle.wordpress.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/emilyannnelson.

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4 Best Practices Brands Should Implement, Now That Twitter is a Yahoo News Source

Posted on May 17, 2013 by | 3 Comments

Last month a single 61 character tweet (12 words as a matter of fact) caused the S&P 500 to drop $136 Billion in mere minutes.

It boggles the mind and makes one try to find some sense in it. What does it mean?

Well, it certainly proved the tremendous reliance we all have on the content that comes from Twitter. Some would say investors rely too much on automated trades based on tweets.

It also proved the great value our society places on Twitter as a provider of content and information.

Tweets will now be featured in Yahoo’s news feed.

Yesterday Yahoo announced that it was taking Twitter very seriously indeed.

In her blog, Merissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo stated, “Tweets have become an important information source for many of our users, so we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Twitter to bring Tweets directly into the Yahoo! newsfeed.”

She went on to say that over the next few days users would begin to see Tweets “personalized to their interests and preferences” appear in their content stream, delivering on earlier promises that the search and new aggregation giant would move toward more personalization of content for its users.

[An interesting side note is that the title of Mayer’s blog post “@Yahoo delivers #bestoftheweb” is really not very tweetable. Oops. To start a tweet with a Twitter name is a mistake unless you are talking ‘at’ that person/account. It will not appear as normal tweet.]

Yahoo’s big search competitor, Google wasn’t able to keep its former relationship with the microblogging giant. Twitter results disappeared from Google some time back, making this an quite a win for Yahoo.

But what does this move mean for communicators?

While few details have been revealed, it’s probably safe to assume that Yahoo will feature tweets that are popular, influential and of course meet certain criteria for authenticity and newsworthiness.

As communicators we should be prepared and simply take this as a reminder of some best practices for content creation:

1)  Create share-worthy content with tweetable headlines and by highlighting crunchy, interesting facts in bold font or in bulleted lists.
2)  Cultivate social networks. Build credibility for your content and your brand.
3)  Build relationships with influencers.
4)  Calibrate your team for rapid response to current events.

Perhaps your content will make it to the Yahoo news page along with relevant content from trusted news sources which Yahoo customizes based on user interest.

One thing a fast-moving PR team needs is information. Stay on top of issues and opportunities as news breaks by incorporating MediaVantage into your communications strategy. Learn more about our real-time media monitoring suite.

Victoria HarresVictoria Harres is VP, Audience Development & Social Media at PR Newswire, the main voice behind @PRNewswire, social media lead for @Business4Better and a frequent speaker and writer on social media for business. 

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Vulnerabilities in Social Media: The AP Twitter Hack and How They Recovered

Posted on April 23, 2013 by | 6 Comments

Hacking happens. Today it resulted in the following false and malicious information being tweeted from the @AP Twitter account: 

“Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.”

S&P 500 dips drastically after @AP Twitter hack.

S&P 500 dips drastically after @AP Twitter hack.

Unfortunately the Associated Press, a normally very credible source of information, was victim to a hack and the results were devastating for the stock market. According to Bloomberg, the malicious tweet tanked the S&P 500 by $136 billion within two minutes.

@AP quickly tweeted that their account had been compromised and it was soon suspended and remains so now. The stock market regained strength and I think a lot of people nervously took their first breath after several long minutes.

Who should we blame?

Of course there are lots of people playing the blame game. At the top of the list is of course is the hackers themselves, and I agree! But who else holds responsibility for this crisis? The AP? Re-tweeters? Twitter?

The fact is, we’re all as vulnerable as the AP. I recently attended a panel featuring Eric Carvin, social media editor at the AP. He spoke of the efforts they put into securing their social accounts and gave some very sound security tips.

They were doing their due diligence. Unfortunately, there are always people out there who can get around almost any online wall.

The tweet was retweeted thousands of times within minutes. All of us with the power to retweet or repost messages ‘must’ be more vigilant about confirming through a second and even third sources, information that seems incredible.

Social media is a powerful tool that can be used for good, and which can easily turn to evil by our very own laziness to verify what we’re posting.

Is Twitter to blame? Perhaps Twitter can put better security measures around its service, but in the end, online vulnerabilities are everywhere, and that includes all social media platforms. Not just Twitter.

After securing our passwords and linking social accounts to something other than an easily hacked free email address, part of doing our due diligence is to have a plan of action in case such a crisis occurs.

The AP made the right moves to recover quickly today:

1. They quickly caught and countered the false tweet on their own twitter account, @AP.

2. They had AP journalists with strong Twitter presences Tweet out that the tweet was false.

3. They put out a media advisory with information making sure the story was clearly represented.

4. They told their own story on their own web properties.

At the end of the day the stock market was stable and I don’t think anyone questions the AP’s credibility as a source of news anymore than at the beginning of the day.

UPDATE:  The AP Twitter account is back up and running this morning.

Victoria Harres

Victoria Harres is VP, Audience Development & Social Media at PR Newswire, the main voice behind @PRNewswire, social media lead for @Business4Better and a frequent speaker and writer on social media for business. 

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Inside PR Newswire: Meet Customer Content Services Manager Cathy Spicer

Posted on March 18, 2013 by | 2 Comments

The Grammar Hammer, who is also known to her friends as Cathy Spicer, is on vacation this week.   So while she’s away, we’re giving our readers a chance to know her better, in this edition of Inside PR Newswire.

cate fluteThe key to quieting the chatter in Cathy Spicer’s life is simple.

She picks up her flute.

“My outlet is music. It’s important to have a creative outlet to balance the work stress,” says Spicer, PR Newswire customer content services manager in Cleveland. “I’m always in such admiration of the people who play professionally because they’re so skilled and talented. It shows me just how much I have yet to learn.”

Spicer has been playing flute for 30 years. She especially loves duets and remains in awe of flutists who flawlessly play complicated pieces of music.

cate big flute

“I can appreciate the effort that goes into a person trying to master a piece of music,” she said. “You’re so focused on the music and what the next passage is going to be.”

This kind of focus and thinking also has benefitted Spicer in her PR Newswire life. In April, Spicer will celebrate her 18th year with the company.

Spicer started out as an assistant editor in the Cleveland office. It was her first big job out of college.

Today, she oversees an eight-person team that’s the primary contact with clients from the northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, with the exception of New York. Her team primarily handles the editing of news releases, and it manages customer calls to the PR Newswire 800 number.

The calls into that line cover the gamut: Billing questions, inquiries from new prospects, clients with an immediate release to send out, or clients with changes to make on a current release.

Spicer is incredibly proud of her group.

“They have good instincts,” she said. “They know our policies and procedures, and we have a lot of great resources around us. We work in a very collaborative environment.”

Spicer spent some time opening the PR Newswire office in Chicago, where she spent 10 years before moving back to Cleveland.

In addition to managing her team, Spicer also can be found immersed in social media.

Spicer is the new Grammar Hammer contributor on the PR Newswire Beyond PR blog. She’s also part of a three-person team that curates the @PRNcnsmr Twitter feed.

On Twitter, Spicer and her colleagues from Albuquerque tweet PR Newswire consumer-related content.  The feed currently boasts nearly 900 followers.

It’s a world she’s already pretty familiar with – Spicer also tweets and curates @ClevelandFlute for the Greater Cleveland Flute Society.

You could say music always has been a part of her family – her father was a newspaper publisher by day and a jazz player by night.

Cleveland features an impressive music scene with its Institute of Music, Cleveland Orchestra, and the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College.

Spicer said she prefers to play with small groups. That’s why she joined the flute society.

“The trick is to play with people who are better than you,” she said. “You learn so much just paying attention with whom you’re playing.”

Cathy's venerable feline, Sid.

Cathy’s venerable feline, Sid.

When she puts down her flute, Spicer loves to cook. But she admits she’s not a great baker, which “requires a lot of precision.” She also has a 20-year-old cat named Sidney.

Christine Cube is a media relations manager for PR Newswire and freelance writer. You can follow her @cpcube.

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Content We Love: Social@Ogilvy’s #SocialMediaWin

Posted on March 8, 2013 by | Leave a comment

ContentWeLoveImagine an event full of people. Our modern world has supplied social media in their hands and each individual has a story to tell. Now harness that visually– each person is firing photos via social media and all using one unified hashtag to make it searchable…

#DOAUSTIN

Social Media + Press releases!

When I read the headline from Social@Ogilvy, I was instantly stopped in my tracks.  Social@Ogilvy and Chute: Capture, Create and Share with #DOAustin

Not only will social media be utilized at the interactive festival in ATX, but Social@Ogilvy prepared a release to showcase their efforts AND
shared the components!

If your company is using social media for events, for communicating, for interacting, include it in your press releases! It invites your readers to join in the conversations already happening, the pictures already being posted, and the networks already being used!

  • Why include social media?

Social Media is your online community, your networking neighbors.  In short, it is the audience for the message! Social@Ogilvy is taking its instagram interaction and letting it grow into an even bigger movement. The release included not only was the #hashtag, but ways to connect with the company itself through different social channels. (Remember, the bigger the audience, the wider the potential impact!)

What is a #hashtag?

A hashtag is a word or phrase that is searchable on the social media platform. Visible are the “trending topics” of what is being discussed and relevant content pertaining to specific interests can also be found on these channels. In Social@Ogilvy’s case, #DOAUSTIN will be searchable through Instagram and will be streaming the images live throughout the event.

Now that is cool!

So if social media is the audience for your message and your message is searchable (so interested parties can find it)… that is a #SocialMediaWin!

A hearty thanks to Social@Ogilvy for the #SocialMediaWin and the great release!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/socialogilvy-and-chute-capture-create-and-share-with-doaustin-196083961.html

Author Emily Nelson is a Customer Content Specialist for PR Newswire. Follow her adventures on www.bellesandawhistle.wordpress.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/emilyannnelson.

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Life at the Intersection of Search and Social

Posted on March 2, 2013 by | Leave a comment

When it comes to Twitter, engagement is key, says Peter Greenberger, Twitter’s director of sales in Washington, DC.

“Followers is somewhat of a vanity metric,” Greenberger said Wednesday, during a Social Media Week panel on Life at the Intersection of Search and Social in Washington. “You are who you follow and you are who you tweet.”

For brands, the vehicle for Twitter engagement is simple. Case in point: 50 percent of this year’s Superbowl ads had hashtags, he said.

Greenberger was joined by a couple heavy hitters from the search and social industries – Trevor Madigan, formerly of Facebook and founder of The Vision Lab, and Tripp Donnelly, founder and CEO of RepEquity.

The group discussed how social media is changing search and what this means for one’s social presence.

“Google has always been – at its essence – a social network,” Donnelly said. “We as humans trust what’s on Google Page 1 to the tune of 90 percent. What’s in your social profile? It’s something we need to consider.”

Greenberger agreed, admitting he recently searched for himself on two platforms – Google and Bing. He added that taking care of one’s social profile is critical when people are trying to find you or your company.

“Think like a search engine,” Donnelly said. “You dominate most of your page; people will land on a property that’s controlled by you. That’s important from a marketing side and for reputational reasons as well.”

The future of search and social looks like this: A real-time aspect, especially with regard to Twitter, geocentric and with more customization and relevancy, said Greenberger.

“We’re probably going to see the 50 pages and millions of [search] results going away,” Madigan said, adding that Facebook and your social network likely will come into play, advising and impacting your decisions. “It’ll be more simple.”

Christine Cube is a media relations manager with PR Newswire and freelance writer. You can follow her @cpcube or see what she’s up to @PRN4Bloggers.

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Twitter’s New Vine App: Perfect for PR Pitches

Posted on January 24, 2013 by | 9 Comments

Remember when we had to figure out how to condense a 400 word press release into a 140 characters? Daunting as the prospect seemed at first, eventually talented PR professionals became quite deft at the micro press release and we all learned a great lesson about brevity and the modern attention span.

But now we have a new challenge, the six-second video.

vineTwitter has launched its new Vine app, which lets you capture a six second video that loops continuously. The app is very simple to set up if you already have a Twitter account, although it is not a prerequisite, and you can share your micro-film with your Twitter followers, your Facebook friends and the Vine audience.

Brilliantly captivating, the six second video format is both a challenge from a PR perspective and an opportunity.

You couldn’t embed your four minute product demo video in Twitter. The best you could do was to link to it and hope that people would want to leave the platform and go watch elsewhere. At this point you can add page loading time and video loading time to your 4 minute production.

Not something that people are very willing to do for a product demo.

But think how often you’re willing to hit ‘play’ on Facebook and watch videos. All sorts of videos you would otherwise ignore. Why? Because you don’t have to go anywhere and if the video turns out too boring to watch, you click stop and move on. No big deal.

Vine makes videos on Twitter no big deal. And at six second length, people don’t have time to turn off your demo before they’ve seen the whole thing!

Opportunity! It’s the video elevator pitch.

So what kind of content should you be thinking about for your six second PR video? I asked Bev Yehuda, VP of Web Engagement Products for MultiVu and here are her suggestions:

  • Behind the scene clips
  • How-to segments (think time lapse, as Vine allows stitching of 3 segments)
  • Product demo
  • Presentation clips
  • Quick take from speakers at a conference
  • Create a “sneak peak” of a longer video (making-of-a-video clips perhaps)

So go make some videos and share them. As we’ve frequently written about here on Beyond PR, people like visual content. Multimedia press releases blow the socks off traditional text-only releases.

Victoria Harres is PR Newswire’s director of audience development, and the primary voice behind our @PRNewswire presence on Twitter.

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Top 10 Best Practices for Social Media

Posted on January 3, 2013 by | 5 Comments

editorial guidelines sticky noteI recently challenged myself to come up with the top-ten best practices for social media for a presentation. As it turned out, it was hard to keep list to only ten items.

So I did some research and much scrapping of excessive rules and realized that it all does boil down to ten very basic principles to be successful in social media:

#10 – Have good tools

Sure you can do social media with nothing but web access to Twitter and Facebook, but if you want to measure success and if you want to have a well-orchestrated presence for your brand (personal or business) then you need to think about tools that can save you time and give you useful stats. Some of my favorite include Hootsuite (web and mobile), SocialOomph, Buffer, Twitter lists, SproutSocial, Bit.ly and Topsy.

#9 – Be nice

This may sound simplistic, but I can’t stress enough how important this is. Social media is about being human, participating in the big virtual cocktail party, as some like to call it. So that means being nice and helping others where you can. Offer answers when people are looking for it. Especially when you have nothing to benefit from it. People notice and remember.

Want a journalist on Twitter to remember you fondly? Give them a tip that helps them and does nothing for you.

#8 – Be responsive

You have to ‘man’ the social accounts. Clients will expect you to provide customer service there. You have to be present to respond to questions and handle concerns. It’s better to have one or two well manned social channels than a multitude of accounts you have trouble keeping track of.

#7 – Engage!

No need to buy a diamond ring for this, but you do need to engage your audience. A stream of tweets that have no or few @replies or mentions is really no different from paid media. If you want earned media you have to participate in the greater conversation.

#6 – Have clear editorial guidelines

Your editorial guidelines may be very simple and fit on a sticky-note (guilty) but you do need to write them down. Even if you are the only social media manager. You need it clear in your own mind what topics you will or won’t discuss on your brand’s social accounts.

This, of course becomes significantly more important when you have multiple people managing social media.

#5 – Have a crisis plan

Again, even if fits on a sticky-note and you have it stuck on the wall above your desk, this is a must. List who needs to be contacted or consulted in case of a potential situation. If you have multiple managers you better also clearly state what constitutes a crisis.

And keep it simple. No need to be over-specific and risk confusion.

#4 – Have a clear mission

You should have a reason for your social media endeavors and you should be able to put that clearly into one or two sentences. Again, as above this is especially important if you have multiple people working together, but even if it’s just you, put that sticky-note up as a daily reminder.

#3 – Listen!

Listen to your clients, listen to industry experts, listen to your competitors and then listen just a little bit more to a few more people. Listening is like learning, you can never learn too much.

#2 – Set social media policies and guidelines

Your policies and guidelines don’t need to be complicated, preferably they’re not, but they do need to exist and they need to be housed where all employees have easy access to them. Everyone should be familiar with them and more importantly have a clear understanding of them.

And, last but not least:

#1 – Like your mom said, “Be real!”

Maybe your mom didn’t say that, but I’m sure someone’s did. Seriously, be human, be yourself, be ‘real.’ The greatest gift of social media is the opportunity to humanize a brand and being real is the only way to do it.

What did I leave out? Do let me know if you think there should have been a  #11. I would love to hear your thoughts on best practices.

All press releases and other content distributed by PR Newswire have social sharing built in, and the amount of social interaction these messages generate is pretty amazing.  Get the most out of the content you publish by incorporating some of the easy tactics we recommend here: Headline Hashtags & Other Tweetable Press Release Tips.

Victoria Harres is Director of Audience Development at PR Newswire, the main voice behind @PRNewswire, social media lead for @Business4Better and a frequent speaker and writer on social media for business. 

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Content We Love: National Instruments’ Click-To-Tweet

Posted on November 2, 2012 by | Leave a comment

 “Content We Love” is a weekly feature written by a team of our content specialists.  We’re showcasing some of the great content distributed through our channels, and our content specialists are up for the task: they spend a lot of time with the press releases and other content our customers create, proof reading and formatting it, suggesting targeted distribution strategy and offering SEO advice.   In Content We Love, we’re going to shine the spotlight on the press releases and other messages that stood out to us, and we’ll tell you why. We hope you find the releases enjoyable and the insights gained from discussing them enlightening.

Writing a press release can be daunting. Not only do you have information to relay, but technology to embrace, visual clues to remember, and extras.

Extras? What do I mean? Links, images, bullets, social media… there are a lot of options! Yet I could barely conceal my joy when I read National Instruments’ latest release about 5G Wireless Research.

There nuzzled between a bulleted list and a quote made my social-media-loving heart soar!

A) The tweet is awesome. Pithy. Informative. Hashtag (only one– so not ‘spammy’ looking). Company handle (@NIGlobal) is within the tweet so it doesn’t look like a reply*.

Bonus: #5G is searchable on Twitter (as are all hashtags) so if you’re looking to see the news about #5G technology or how many people are tweeting the tweet–done!

B) Click-To-Tweet (http://clicktotweet.com/) is a website that takes the leg work out of asking your readers to tweet the news… the release is so much more shareable because quite literally, it is a push of a button.

C) It puts the content in the hands of the consumer. The consumer could be a journalist, a blogger, a person perusing the internet, someone writing a research paper, an individual looking for information about this technology– Tweeting is the “like,” the “share,” the “email,” of twitter.

*Replies you ask? Starting a tweet with the handle (@) signals a reply in twitter lingo. Why would this be bad? Programs can automate to hide all replies and/or when viewing the feed and the tweets are replies, it is natural to skim over instead of read them. **Utilizing social media is already a step in the right direction so having a great re-tweetable tweet is like crossing the finish line.**

Adding social media to a release is imperative as the social platform is taking off by storm AND search results are featuring social related things higher and higher. Want to increase visibility? Let’s go social!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-instruments-releases-software-defined-radio-module-used-in-leading-5g-wireless-research-176420331.html

Author Emily Nelson is a Customer Content Specialist for PR Newswire. Follow her adventures on www.bellesandawhistle.wordpress.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/emilyannnelson

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Storytelling: The Lynchpin for New & Traditional Media

Posted on October 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

A potent video from Facebook Stories – it’ s a masterclass in storytelling.

Is being a communicator for some of the coolest brands a road paved with yellow bricks?  They must have big teams, large budgets, and journalists knocking down their doors, right?  PRSA 2012 International Conference attendees got a look behind the curtain at a session featuring:

  • Jonny Thaw (@jonnyjt), Manager of Technology and Engineering Communications at Facebook,
  • Karen Wickre (@kvox), Editorial Director at Twitter, and
  • Demetra Kavadeles (@metersd), Global Consumer Public Relations Manager at Skype.

Peter Himler (@peterhimler)of Flatiron Communications LLC, moderated the discussion.

I let my geek flag fly, got right up front and waited for pearls of wisdom to be hurled at me in succinct 120 character sound bites – that way I could easily be retweeted and and broadcast their genius across the social sphere. The good news? All three panelists had great wisdom, advice and practices. The bad news? Not in 120 character sound bites.

I found myself so enthralled with the content of their discussion that my tweeting suffered. There were some fun voyeur facts (Facebook has 40 people on their communications team, Twitter has eight, and Skype seven) and that Facebook’s team reports up to the COO, not through marketing.

In addition to all the new school tools, all three still give paramount status to pitching the media. What was truly revealing was not the “peek behind Oz’s curtain” but the very real conversation about storytelling, FTC regulations for bloggers, authenticity and transparency.

Storytelling and blogging have a symbiotic relationship. Both Facebook (http://www.facebookstories.com/) and Twitter (http://blog.twitter.com/2011/11/introducing-twitter-stories.html) have whole sites dedicated to their users’ stories to demonstrate their offline impact. All three companies have a lot of time and resources invested in creating a robust and engaging company blog. Dametra keeps things fresh by getting a variety of contributors creating posts, which then begged the question: how do you get them to write it?!  The consensus of the panel, and I suspect the audience, was that is the biggest challenge to the company blog. Jonny makes sure to offer kudos to those who write for the blog. He says it helps the contributor feel valued, and starts the momentum of others wanting to contribute.

“If they are too busy to even write a bad draft, have someone go over and ask them questions,” Karen offered.  “Provide them with a first draft to edit and adapt.”

As the discussion went on the issue of the FTC came up. They all agreed that when in doubt disclose. Karen referenced her time at Google and shared that she would edit Wikipedia from her corporate email address, disclose who she was, and let them know it was an edit for factual accuracy.

In closing the panel was asked about what companies best utilized their platforms. All three referenced media organizations as top performers. Jonny thought The New York Times does a great job on Facebook, Karen thought that The New York Times and NPR both use Twitter artfully, and Demetra thought that broadcast news organizations have ally learned to leverage the Skype platform well.

Some of the key take always for me were:

  • Harness your internal talent to help tell your story.
  • Be authentic and transparent – to not only stay out of trouble but to engage with your audience.
  • There is value in traditional media telling your story, social and curated content is complimentary.

In the end it still holds true, no matter the company popularity or notoriety as communicators we still have the same challenges, concerns, and conversations – they are just scaled differently.

Author Natalie Bering is an account manager for PR Newswire.

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