Archive for May, 2010
Unpleasant Outings
A recent trend that should concern the profession is the outing by high profile bloggers of PR and communications people for lame online behavior.
Is this tactic an appropriate response designed to educate the profession or are the attacks unjustified or illmannered? And what can communications professionals do to avoid being publicly humiliated or in other words how can we do a better job pitching bloggers?
Probably the harshest of these outings occurred last year when Chris Anderson Editor in Chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail published the actual email addresses of PR people he has blacklisted referring to them as:
Lazy flacks who send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can’t be bothered to find out who on my staff if anyone might actually be interested in what they’re pitching. Fact: I am an actual person not a team assigned to read press releases and distribute them to the right editors and writers that’s editorwired.com.
So fair warning: I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I’m interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that I love those emails; indeed that’s why my email address is public.Everything else gets banned on first abuse.
In an era when the value of the traditional PR agency is being called into question one thing that distinguishes the profession is its ability to build and take advantage of genuine relationships with journalists. This skill can be easily transferred to the online world but requires the same technique: knowing the journalist aka blogger his or her beat and preference for mode and style of pitch. There is no excuse for shot gunning untargeted pitches to journalists online or off. And the best coverage comes from authentic real world relationships not from guesswork or laziness.
I dont agree however that public humiliation of individuals is required. Quite nearly the same point could have been made by saying I have blacklisted x PR people some from nationally known agencies. The addition of the names is sensationalism.
While I believe Anderson had good intentions at the other end of the spectrum is a recent attack and I can only call it that on Michael Arringtons Crunchnotes titled We dont do reprints. Arrington apparently received a request from a communications agency seeking permission to reprint something that appeared on Arringtons blog. Instead of politely declining the request or approving it Arrington responded yeah were a blog we dont do prints let alone reprints and then posted a copy of the email on Crunchnotes. Arrington didnt explicitly say what an idiot though it was implied and he must have known he was encouraging people to pile on with comments confirming this. I was pleased to see that many suggested Arrington had taken the wrong tact as in this comment by Steven Lubetkin:
And if she hadnt requested permission and had just made a PDF from the blog what would have been the reaction here?
In an age when you cant make a screen cap from the Wall Street Journal online without them embedding a disclaimer that its only for your personal use and that you have to ask for copyright permission why is this so terrible just because you are a blog and not a print publication?
From a copyright viewpoint she did the responsible thing to protect her clients interests and that gets her raked over the coals. Why?
Hear hear. One can only hope that there are voices of reason that will weigh in when they spot what they see as unfairness instead of doing the easy thing and piling on with the crowd.
That does not however excuse the profession sorry to lump us all together from being smarter about working with influential bloggers. Here are my brief suggestions for doing this:
- When pitching bloggers there is no correct way for all bloggers. There is a correct way for each blogger.
- Get to know the blogger before making the pitch. Read his or her blog thoroughly and often comment on the blog link to the blog go to the same industry events look at the companies industries and themes the blogger DOES cover and how. Take the blogger out for drinks. Do the homework.
- Its called media relations or blogger relations for a reason. It only works when there are trusted relationships. Dont pretend to have a relationship with someone when you dont. You need to actually have one and maintain it and apply the rules of relationships. Be honest respond on a timely basis give the other person communications with value dont manipulate or if you must manipulate admit to it.
- Dont think your Facebook messages Twitter direct messages emails or any other seemingly privileged correspondence is off limits. Apply the old rule dont put anything in writing in any form unless you dont mind seeing it on the front page of the New York Times. Or a widely read blog.
Finally here are some additional resources on making good and bad pitches:
The Bad Pitch Blog
A blog focused on the good the bad and the ugly of PR pitches and gaffes in all forms
In Blogger and Media Relations You Earn the Relationships You Deserve Excellent blog post on this topic by Brian Solis
Id love to know what you think. Is the public outing effective in educating the profession or is it just one more way to mock people who are just trying to do their jobs?
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Joel Postman is the principal of Socialized a consultancy that helps companies make effective use of social media in corporate communications marketing and public relations. His background includes a decade of Fortune 500 corporate communications leadership four years as the speechwriter to the CEO of Sun Microsystems and experience in print and broadcast news. He is currently working on a book titled SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate to be published in November.
You may also find articles by Joel at the TalentZoo.com website under Very Public Relations.
A Guide To Printing Four Colours Process Imagery Onto Promotional Products
The Problem with Four Colour Process Designs
Historically four colour process designs with tints and shades have caused problems for marketing departments and promotional product suppliers alike. In the past there were few items that could be successfully branded with such a complicated design.nbsp; The simplification of the design to a single colour print version was generally not desired and if it had to be produced as a single colour it generally reduced the visual impact of the promotional product.
One other consideration previously has been the origination costs on four colour printing. Generally these were considerably higher than standard screen printing and this was a bug bear. If screens were charged per colour this can increase the overall cost of the item by at least pound;100 if not more. With modern printing methods such as transfer printing and dye sublimation printing if there are origination costs then they are much cheaper than previously and more in line with screen printing origination costs.
The Current Options on Four Colour Process Products
There is now a fabulous selection of promotional products promotional awards and promotional clothing that can have the most complicated four colour printing on. There has been a great deal of investment by the industry’s factories to ensure that the print quality is of the highest standard. Dye sublimation printing is available on a range of promotional products which is a print method that involves transferring the print onto the product via a heat application process.
Top Selling Promotional Items to consider if you have a four colour process design
With the improvements in the printing methods many more items can be printed with bright and colourful four colour process designs. The most popular would be promotional pens and promotional mugs which are two of the industry’s best selling merchandise items but promotional clothing and promotional bags can both be personalised with a four colour process transfer. USB sticks can now be printed with these detailed designs and staying with the technology market a range of Skins for your mobile phones laptops and gaming consoles are now available. What are skins?? Essentially skins are like stickers but so much more and better!.They are made of top quality adhesive vinyl material made by those clever people at 3M who make post it notes which stick on easily to your device. Each skin is cut to fit the exact contours of the specific device so they look like they’re part of it. They also peel off easily without leaving any mess behind. We have skins for a whole range of popular devices. These skins are produced on 3M Controltac Plus graphic film which is a 100 micron white vinyl material with ‘Comply Performance’ adhesive. So what does that all mean? Well Controltac films have a pressure activated adhesive which allows you to position and reposition the skin on your device when applied with light hand pressure. Then when you are ready to fix the skin in place applying firm pressure bonds the adhesive to the device. Comply Performance Technology adds a unique characteristic to the film adhesive that enables you to apply it faster with very few air bubbles. These films have a network of microstructure air channels in the adhesive. The channels allow air to escape laterally beneath the film. An air bubble trapped beneath the film can be rubbed out easily. If you would like to see a skin please visit: http://www.arcadiaonline.co.uk/productdetails.php?proid=4615
Dye Sublimation Printed Products
Many fabric based promotional gifts can be printed via the dye sublimation method. This includes promotional lanyards promotional umbrellas as well as custom made promotional clothing. By using these print methods you can ensure that your product creates an excellent impact delivers your promotional or marketing message and increases the life span of the item.
The Benefits of Four Colour Process Printing
The ability to print fourcolour process imagery onto promotional products is a great bonus if you are planning to use the products in conjunction with a printed advertising campaign. The products could also be printed with the same design on packaging for a new retail based food brand or product. The range of materials that this style of print can be printed onto includes metals ceramics cloth plastics and Polypropylene.
So to conclude: be adventurous! Be bold! Be loud and be proud or your logo design or imagery! Think carefully about which promotional product can best support your marketing campaign and carry your design.
About the writer: Steve Barnes is currently a Director of Arcadia Corporate Merchandise in the Marketing and Advertising industry in the UK. Arcadia is a Promotional Product distributor and a Sourcing company based in High Wycombe UK. Basic branded promotional products as well as bespoke designed and manufactured items are supplied. In the promotional products industry since 1995 with Corinthian Marketing Steve has been with Arcadia since its formation in 1998. A keen rugby player in his younger days enjoyed spells with Northampton Saints and Henley Hawks. Married with two daughters life is now very different. As a keen motorsport fan Steve enjoys his work with the F1 clients that Arcadia has. Arcadia specialises in web based corporate merchandise programmes and manages these on a global scale in conjunction with our partners Club Colors in Chicago USA. Arcadia is currently launching PROMOB2B a unique Merchandise Management System. For further information please visit: http://www.arcadiaonline.co.uk/promob2b.php The account management teams at Arcadia service European accounts from the UK and are available for onsite meetings within the whole EMEA region. Online ordering systems can manage orders for all UK EMEA and worldwide destinations. Other services available: * Storage and distribution * Incentive programmes * Brand management * Fulfilment and mailing services * Inhouse design service * Inhouse embroidery
Mommy Bloggers More Than Cloth Vs. Disposable
Ive always thought I knew what a mommy blogger was. Ive heard the term I know a couple of mommy bloggers and I read all kinds of blogs so I am familiar with mommy blogging in general.
I try to keep an openmind about all blogs and there are some great writers out there writing on mommy blogs and I enjoy and respect that. I write a blog but I dont consider myself a blogger and I certainly dont call myself a daddy blogger though there are hundreds of men who do think of themselves that way.
There are several things about mommy blogging that intrigue me so I decided to do some research. I wanted to know how deep the mommy blogger movement ran whether it was about more than cloth vs. disposable diapers why women become mommy bloggers and whether the phenomenon had run its course.
I think theres a subtle contradiction in the term mommy blogger. In a career context the words mom mother and mommy traditionally have had an almost apologetic element to them or have served as qualifiers. A working mom was someone who balanced career and family life. An underlying implication is that this involved tradeoffs or sacrifices in the quality of both family life and career. The term stay at home mom came into use as a way of saying I dont work for a company but I do an equally or more important job than my husband.
I think mommy blogger can be demeaning because you dont see the word daddy blogger being bandied about freelance journalist Kimber Schmahl who does not consider herself a mommy blogger told me. I certainly dont feel my blog is any less worthwhile because I am a mother.
Whether its politically correct to say so or not the mommy blogging field is an offshoot of blogging in general. The very early days of blogging were generally dominated by male bloggers. When women started blogging it was initially though no longer a novelty and the notion of a mommy blogger was all the more unusual.
Even today mommy bloggers remain a minority albeit a large one. According to one study 57 of the total female population in the U.S. is online regularly but only 20 of online users are moms. And in the last three years Internet use by moms has tripled. In other words the market for mommy bloggers should be growing.
The mom blogger field is an over saturated one right now says Mae Mason creator of Mutha Maes Word to Your Mutha blog. There arent enough hours in the day to get through all of your favorite blogs/mom networking sites/mom forums. Mae says she blogs because she likes the attention enjoys the outlet and draws strength and confidence from her readers.
Mommy blogger Kristen Munson thinks mom blogs are going to remain very influential whether they are personal or for business adding Most women have an inherent need to interact with other women and the Internet makes this possible in so many unique ways.
From a thematic standpoint the idea of a mommy blog does not generally appeal to me because I have always assumed mommies blog about mommy stuff like choosing a private school or day care provider. I have children and my wife and I have a circle of married friends with whom we get together socially and these topics are constants so I have no need for an online forum for this. I prefer to spend my online time on my career and on personal interests like antiques vintage motorcycles music rhetoric and persuasion etc.
Zoe Siskos a blogger and Social Media Analyst who often helps clients interact with mommy bloggers says I always keep in mind that a person is not their blogBeing a mommy blogger may be a piece of that but I also enjoy diving into their blogs to find out what other ways they like to define themselves.
Still even the most popular mommy blogs often focus on the minutiae of being a mommy. This can be very appealing to advertisers who want to promote car seats childrens clothing baby formula etc. as well as fashion and womens lifestyle products.
If youll pardon the mangled metaphor perhaps the mother of all mommy blogs is Dooce written by Heather Armstrong of Salt Lake City. According to ABC News Armstrong says she prefers to chronicle the mundane and boring details of the life we all live. While this holds no interest for me apparently I am alone. Dooce boasts 1 million monthly readers and receives 40000 per month in revenue from advertisers like WalMart HewlettPackard and most recently the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mommy blogging is big business though Mason doubts there will ever be another Dooce phenomenon.
Dooce was also the winner of the 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards for “Hottest Mommy Blogger” which brings me back to this notion of mommy bloggings potentially confusing messages: mommy bloggers often take stands on social and political issues and actively support mothers and families as important institutions while at the same time writing openly about sex and in some cases porn and sex toys. I can understand how people are receiving mixed messages from some mommy bloggers and this could make it difficult for some of them to take a clear firm moral stand on gender and sexual issues.
I think mommy blogging like blogging in general is a very useful and healthy pursuit for most people. Mommy blogging is surrounded by complex social and gender issues and both perceptions and misconceptions. There is both tremendous opportunity to do good and potential to deliver mixed messages and demean women.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Joel Postman is the principal of Socialized a consultancy that helps companies make effective use of social media in corporate communications marketing and public relations. His background includes a decade of Fortune 500 corporate communications leadership four years as the speechwriter to the CEO of Sun Microsystems and experience in print and broadcast news. He is currently working on a book titled SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate to be published in November.
You may also find articles by Joel at the TalentZoo.com website under Very Public Relations.