PR Marketing Strategies. Learn How To Use MySpace Correctly.

Today’s topic follows yesterdays with a little more input on reaching this social network.

Listen up pr clients and all of those public relations agencies who think it is still a fad that is going to disappear, social media is stronger than ever, and it’s growing. Until another type of media in cyberspace is developed, social media should be part of your public relations services. If your pr agency cannot provide this service, then go outside and hire a company that can. All pr strategies must now include some type of social media in their overall publicity campaigns.We all know and have heard good and bad things about MySpace. But what a publicity agency needs to do for their pr clients, is to better understand this type of media in order to gain favorable publicity for clients.

Let’s look at how to use social media correctly. For example, a BusinessWeek article by Kerry Miller asked several experts what they think are tips for social media, specifically MySpace. I like to refer to these as rules. The author lists them as 8 tips. Here are a few:

  • Forget the Hard Sell. This means it is time to give than receive. Offer the visitors, and viewers of MySpace something. Whether it is a receipe, a newsletter but give them something, don’t do the hard sell.
  • Focus on Quality Over Quantity. One of the experts, named Key, says to provide useful information to the community, that will develop into friends, which will give you better publicity.
  • Think Long Term. Just like any other pr marketing plan, or publicity event, you need to think in long terms, not immediate.Too many pr clients want “instant” ROI’s, and forget this is a network of people. You need to “give them something” in order to build a relationship. That takes time.

As I have said before, you need to plan this type of publicity activity. It should be part of your overall pr marketing strategy, not a one-shot approach.

A New Marketing Tool For Publicity

Behavorial Targeting


Another marketing tool for publicity is called "Behavioral Targeting"(BT). This term is in most respects new. It addresses how people are purchasing on the Internet.

If you have a publicity campaign and your pr client is selling a specific product to a selected market, then you need to know and learn about BT.

An author of this is Jack Smith. He addresses this new tactic so that marketers and publicity professionals can locate their pr client’s audiences faster and more cost effectively.

Mr. Smith best describes the BT marketing as follows: "BT does its job by tracking what people do online: the pages they visit, where they click and how often. It filters the anonymous results into marketing-relevant categories of those with like behavior and like tastes." Just reading this description should show you that BT is needed in all areas of marketing and publicity.

With budgets getting tighter, it now means that smart marketing and publicity targeting are more important to be effective. You can no longer run a series of “testing campaigns” to see what works best. I am not suggesting you eliminate tests, just limit those by doing the BT study of customers for your client’s products. This will then help to isolate the target audience so that your results can be more productive.

Mr. Smith’s “5 step plan for BT beginners” has a lot of examples, but can sometimes be confusing. His examples are based on fictional companies and products, which is ok. Sometimes it is unclear when trying to follow the steps. But in all fairness, it does help you get closer to learning about behavioral targeting.

See Also

Interviews on Radio

Radio is a good medium for publicity

Getting your message out can be done using a variety of media. Newspaper, magazines, TV and radio. And of course the Internet.

Whenever possible, try to get yourself, or a representative from your company have a radio interview. This is an excellent media. It is done live, and the questions asked by the Host can provide you the opportunity to explain more about a new service or product than someone reading about it in a press release.

These types of interviews can be done. It takes more than one or two letters or phone call to the radio station. You need to be pushy, without being a pest.

But before you start making those calls, the interview needs to be planned. What I mean is that the subject you want to discuss should be relevant to the listeners of that station. And that the subject is of interest to the station as well. Otherwise, you’re wasting everyone’s time, and building a poor reputation for your company with non-relevant topics, or issues.

Radio can enhance any publicity campaign. It should be used as a media to help ignite your campaign. Another important thing to consider.

If you want to get an interview on the radio, make sure that you have been sending publicity releases prior to them and other media. It helps to have published releases, or an article written about the company, or yourself (if you are promoting you) before you make those calls. This adds to the credibility and name recognition.

Last and just as important. If your story you want to tell on the radio isn’t of a timely manner, then be patient and make follow up calls. If you have a subject that is critical to the timing, make this known. Just remember, broadcast media is a timely industry. News happens immediately, so sometimes your interview may get pushed back a week due to current events. That’s why it is best to discuss a topic that isn’t as timely but has a lot to offer the listeners.

See Also

What’s Better—Blogging or Publicity?

Is there a difference?

You hear so many opinions about what is the direction of the future. Is it blogging, or a stronger, traditional publicity campaign?

Neither one should be practiced alone.

The new technology has made blogging a good communications soruce, which in part is publicity. But this alone cannot be the main source for a solid PR campaign. You still need to interact with the media.

I saw a blog site this morning about this similar topic. Tom Murphy’s PR Opinions speaks about how people think Blogging killed PR (Publicity). He is right, at least in my opinion, that blogging is a new form of communication, but it is not replacing or killing traditional PR.

As I have said before, publicity is everywhere! Blogging is just one of the many and useful means to get your message out the market.

So before you jump into blogging and think it will be your main publicity vehicle, think twice. Don’t turn your back on reporters, or other media. They will be around for a long time. And these reporters, journalists are also reading blogs. They are not in the dark of the technology.

As for blogging, it will probably be here too, but will it outlast traditional publicity vehicles, I doubt it.

See Also

Take a Break Fridays

As you noticed I wasn’t writing any blogs these past few days. Well, like most people, it was time to take a break.

Now it’s a new week and there are a lot of interesting topics that need to be discussed. Most of the subjects revolve around publicity. You just can’t avoid this pr stuff! It’s everywhere.

Even when you meet people at a party, or celebrate a holiday as you did this past weekend. We are always using pr. Yes. Think about when you are talking to someone, a family member for example. You speak to them differently than a new person you meet at the party. Then when you are driving home and a police officer pulls you over…right, you use a different "form" of pr. It’s all in the presentation.

I will be discussing several subjects that include marketing, packaging, web sites, to complete creative campaigns that might include logos and sales materials. Even sales calls will be discussed.

In all, these will be interesting subjects that should open your mind and provide informative views to help you improve your own company’s publicity. If you have a specific area that you need better understanding, then send me a comment and I will address that issue or topic.