Group items tagged

#1 – Results are not immediate I call this the “seven week itch”. One thing that’s consistent with tech startups working with PR agencies or consultants for the first time is how antsy they tend to get before they start to see results

Here’s the mantra for Slow PR: Good results take time, require solid messaging groundwork and need a strong fostering of your media network. There are exceptions, but for the most part, solid, sustainable media results require a foundation that needs to be built.

If you have a new app and you want a review from a strong critic, make sure that the app is ready for that level of scrutiny.

more than 90% of PR executives believe that the distribution of fake news and the purposeful distortion of truth are the biggest ethical threats we face in the future. Defense of malicious behavior and lack of corporate transparency were cited by over 80% of the respondents.

Today, earned media – pitching and placing stories through work with journalists and influencers — remains the dominant source (50%) of revenue for PR agencies. It’s predicted to drop to 37% over the next 5 years, with shared (23%), owned (23%) and paid media (17%) picking up the difference.

nearly two-thirds (64%) of PR professionals think that in five years the average person won’t be able to distinguish whether the information they consume comes from paid, earned, shared or owned sources.

Introducing: #PRstack and PRgeeks.co The first is a free front end for #PRStack, Stephen Waddington’s crowdsourced directory of third party PR tools. And to accompany it, we have created PRgeeks.co, a resource designed to match these tools with great guides, knowledge and community.

PRgeeks.co is the other piece of the puzzle. Over time, we will be developing this site into an encyclopaedia of PR tips, tricks and hacks in a format accessible to anyone.

Don’t Just Apologize, Act They say actions speak louder than words, and the “they” in this scenario, are consumers on social media. When tracking conversations about the Starbucks apology and their announcement to close 8,000 stores in May, we found that there was much more social interest in Starbucks’ action than their carefully worded apology.

71% of the conversation about the Starbucks apology was disgusted with it, as opposed to 38% of those discussing the actions were disgusted with that decision

Both progressive and conservative affiliations use the hashtag #BoycottStarbucks the most. However, those with more progressive leanings are using the hashtag in response to the racial profiling incident itself, whereas conservatives are using the hashtag in response to Starbucks taking a stance against the employee for calling the police, stating that it was an overreaction to the incident. Conservatives are also rattled by the store closures in May.

While women make up about 70% of the PR workforce, they only hold about 30% of the top positions in the industry.

This raises the question, are big agencies losing talented women — some of whom start firms that ultimately become competition because of rigid policies?

A recent study by Bain & Company found that 43% of women aspire to top management within the first two years of their position, compared with 34% of men. “Both genders are equally confident about their ability to reach a top management position at that stage,” reads a blog post on the research. “This suggests that women are entering the workforce with the wind in their sails, feeling highly qualified after success at the university level.”

Some of these were gaffes by clients, others were campaigns by PR and marketing teams that didn’t turn out as planned. The good news is, all these blunders left messes that somebody had to clean up, guaranteeing full employment for crisis response teams.

Effective public relations has two primary outcomes: awareness and trust. We measure awareness in a variety of different ways: The gold standard is properly done, continuous market research and surveying, such as unaided brand recall, purchase intent, and recommendation intent Digital metrics include branded organic search and new user traffic but these are secondary because they don’t help explain the impact of PR as well Open-ended awareness questions on intake forms (digital and traditional) Trust is measured through market research and measurement systems like Net Promoter Scores

The most important PR move you can make is to build and maintain relationships, and be patient.

86% of journalists like when PR pros follow them on social media When asked, why do you immediately reject otherwise relevant pitches, 22% of journalists cited lack of personalization 72% of journalists wish PR pros would stop calling them to pitch story ideas 78% of journalists don’t like pitches with emojis

On social media 70% of journalists said they saw Twitter as their most valuable social network. 72% of journalists track how many times their own stories are shared on social media

We’ve rounded up responses from some of the journalists we’ve had the chance to interview. Read on for their best tips on pitching.