Should PRs pitch on Twitter?
No.
Well, that’s what I always tell PRs when I run training sessions. Why? Because I find it impossible to explain to twitter newbies exactly how and when it *might* be OK to do so. But am I too hardline?
Maybe.
I mean when I run training sessions most people are new to Twitter full stop, forget the marketing applications (ick) of the service. But could PRs have an authentic and relevant conversation about a client on Twitter? Hmmm…
Willing to accept I am not the Social Media equivalent of a Delphi Priestess I instead asked some of my on- and offline writing contacts to “B*tch about the Twitter Pitch”. Over to them……
PR: Is it really so hard to be nice?
I say that in PR you always get the short straw. Being the liaison between journalists (who can be a tad tough to deal with sometimes) and a client who may not always understand how important it is that you get the correct pricing, stockist and hi-res image in 30mins for a deadline is tough.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard “PR is incompetent”. The reality is that you do your best, working on behalf of a number of people’s interests, and always having to put on a happy face.
You can’t exactly say
“sorry, my client thinks you’re Tier Three press and hates your reviews”
likewise to the client
“The journalist didn’t even want to include your cr*ppy product in their feature.”
Despite the amount of un-niceness there is working in public relations, the role implys you can actually relate to the public. Which is why this story about a PR rep telling a blogger that images of them wearning the designer’s clothes were bad publicity had me astounded.
Is it so hard to be nice? It doesn’t matter if you’re a blogger, write for Vogue or just someone posting pics to your Facebook profile. Surely this is not an example of bad practice in blogger relations it’s an example of just bad relating.
Unfortunately when it comes to bloggers there is still an ingrained attitude of agression from PRs. Could we all be a little nicer to eachother?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYLsyNBnE5M]
How to do a blogger event
Event Essential: The Goody Bag
Following on from How not to run a social media conference in London I saw this from Gemma Cartwright praising The Body Shop for a recent bloggers event and explaining why it worked. [Organisers Headstream should take a bow for this]
If you’re collecting advice then back in the day I also wrote on the Shiny Red blog top tips pitching to the UK’s top tech bloggers following a panel discussion.
How not to run a social media conference in London
Another day, another event, another load of griping online. If you’re planning a social media conference in London here’s some common complaints distilled into tips for doing it well.
More How to promote your music via social media
My Chemical Toilet praises the artist Little Boots’ use of social media to promote herself and engage with her audience.
Personally I like the fact that even as she’s about to hit the big time she does all the MySpace / YouTube / blog stuff herself. It allows her intelligence and sense of humour to come across, and you can’t help warming to her. Of course if she really makes it that’ll all be handed over to a lackey, but at this point it’s an example of how pop stars can use “social media” to promote themselves beyond just bunging a few tracks onto their MySpace. Or making videos that make them look like dicks.
Is it all pointless once marketers get involved ‘helping’ maintain social media platforms on behalf of artists? Or, is this just something we need to stop being precious about, much in the same way we accept stars have been media trained and not every autographed pic will be signed personally. What do you think?
How to promote your music via Social Media
What a week. First I nab the goods from children’s author Alex Milway on How to promote your children’s book via Social Media then the ever talented solobasssteve whips up a similar post for musos with ‘Social Media- first principles for musicians‘.
At this rate I may never have to think of an original thought again!
Both new and established creatives are lucky; they don’t need to wait for help from fancy agents or publicists and can take hold of their online self-promotion today with these masters sharing their best tips.
How to promote your children’s book via Social Media
[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-bWSuuBVjtI]
This is a follow up post to How to promote your book via Social Media. In that post I mentioned a chidren’s book called The Mousehunter.
Now you can read the author, Alex Milway, explaining what he’d recommend for self-promotion in his own words (which, you know, is probably better than me trying to paraphrase here because he’s like a proper writer and stuff).
The Cool Curve
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=19411479855870500&hl=en]
I’ve been a bit of a dweeb this year reading books about Lifestyle (like Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week), Business (like The Beermat Entrepreneur), and Design (like John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity).
Now I’ve found a concept which plays to my need to obsess on theories *AND* teaches me about my inability to be even remotely cool – The Cool Curve.
The Cool Curve is a presentation honed at Tuttle, introduced to me by one of my favourite web people (sizemore), and created by Creative Coffee Club guru Toby Moore AKA sleepydog.
Enjoy.
Tips for PRs wanting to blag it in social media
Get ready to sign-up to every new web thing going
This perfectly observed post from Jon Silk gives tips to journalists looking to make it in PR and, as I couldn’t leave a comment for some reason, I felt inspired to do a quick list of my own on making it from PR to the social media side of murky online marketing and stuff.
About:
I'm Darika Ahrens and I help brands develop marketing strategies for Social Media.
My background is in Public Relations for companies like Orange, Microsoft, Philips, HTC, Yell.com, and Estee Lauder. I've worked with and trained some of the UK's top agencies.
In 2009 the Financial Times referred to me as "a new breed of business matchmaker" due to my network of contacts and way I work creating bespoke teams to deliver projects.