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I have to tell you about an interesting business proposal we received last week. Interesting not for the complexity of the project, but fascinating in terms of the proposed terms. Fascinating, yet not unique, which leads me to this conversation.
Intrigued? Hmmm...yes.
Wow! I had the privilege of being part of Portland's annual Hacking Social Impact 2016. The place was chock full of social impact entrepreneurs and change agents, and I was proud to be there with them. I had the chance to help these thought leaders become better equipped to get their message out through partnership and effective sharing with the media.
Would you like to get in on the how-to's of effective dialogue with journalists? Just click through for your free presentation on being a "Social Impact Rock Star" - and let me know what you think!
Also, a HUGE thank you to Portland Radio Project, who kindly hosted the day's event at their iconic headquarters!
The number of changes hitting the retail industry are piling up like mohair sweaters on a sales rack in July. For the retail executive, just keeping up with the latest technology shakeout or millennial shopping shift can make the usual challenges of logistics, buying strategies and mobile sales promotion seem like a proverbial walk in the park.
It's all too easy to fall into a comfort zone; to post a quick update on Facebook, or perhaps you send out a release after every new software update. Even with a program, planned calendar and strategy, it can be easy to overlook opportunities in a jam-packed business day.
But the reality is you need an integrated, three-pillars approach to communications to ensure you're maximizing your market reach potential. The following report, prepared by social media ace Maria Dykstra of TreDigital and public relations expert Pam Abrahamsson of PRA Public Relations, details the key Three Key Pillars of Social Media Success. Concise explanations, examples, and how-to's are all just a click away.
Don't cry over your lack of good PR, get to work and master some earned media skills
You’ve tried everything to get digital media coverage. You really worked to get important journalist from that top media outlet interested in your company news. You’ve called. You’ve emailed. Maybe even a little Twitter stalking went on. Yet, no public relations-meets-media-coverage success has happened.
Don’t let your colleagues’ well-meaning sympathy steer your wrong. It’s definitely you. But it's not your fault. Today's world of earned media coverage is a fickle and fast-moving place.
So don't give up,. and don't weep either. Just read through these tips, help yourself to our free "Ten Tools for Media Mastery" download, and get to work on your earned media coverage success.
The Hacking Social Impact 2015 Unconference was an epic weekend of inspiring and world-changing talks, videos, action-oriented workshops, all centered around business innovation, social impact, venture capital, investing, entrepreneurship, and much more!
And, we might humbly add, it included a presentation about the impact of today's social and earned media landscape from our founder, Pam Abrahamsson, and TreDigital's rockstar principal, Maria Dykstra. Read ON for all the details, and to learn how YOU can Hack Social Impact! More
There's a powerful partnership driving the media world today: the deepening integration of search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations. This partnership is powered in equal measures by Google's changing viewpoint on earned media (PR) content, and marketeer's ongoing understanding that native advertising is only part of the game.
This partnership of credible media coverage and digital traction is the rich material that brand awareness, market reach and web presence is made of for enterprises and the agencies guiding them.
Google: A Slate of Updates
Over the past year or so, Google has released more than 15 updates that have made Google’s preference for credible editorial clear. Some of the most significant changes, from this earned media person’s humble point of view, include:
Taken together, this is a remarkable migration away from mechanical treatment of SEO content, and a positive move towards the ranking of natural, credible, content results. For mobile-friendly communities, this is an equally powerful move, making previously-siloed content easily searchable across the web.
Public relations has emerged as search engine optimization’s strongest tool, and a must-have partner for any digital content or social strategy
The Take-Away? Genuine, Credible, Earned Content is Carrying the Day
The ranking of social content in search further ensures communications are coming out of the "social only," "digital only" and "PR only" silos and merging into an integrated, 360-degree communications model. While the consumer community struggles to understand native advertising and promoted content’s role in the web world, (suggested read on this topic: Native Advertising Survey: Very Few Know of Native Advertising Concept), media-driven coverage, in tandem with content marketing, has emerged as a winning partnership in today's web world.
Which is terrific news for anyone with a story to tell in today’s digital marketplace, don't you agree?
A campaign our team is working on has gotten me thinking about, well, values. Specifically, whether our 24-hour media cycles, and always-on social media, accurately captures a core of values that I suspect we as a society possess. While we're still in the early stages, I'm delighted to report this project is revealing that both journalism and optimism are alive and well in our digital society.
The Nuts & Bolts
The campaign, sponsored by Western Union as part of an American Dream sweepstakes, wanted to know if people still believe in the American Dream. So, they sent a photojournalism team more than 13,000 miles across the U.S., asking a number of people that very question. The videotaped responses reflect hope, hard work, concern and optimism in equal measure. But above all, the filmed piece captures the clear answer of "yes."
We invited the amazing Andre Bourque of the Huffington Post to preview this video. He took a look, and ended up with a story that was both light-hearted and focused on the aspirational nature of community. Within less than 24 hours, the sharing had begun, delivering a 1:228 engagement ratio from a publication that is itself read by over 33 million people around the world. The shares and likes were uniformly positive, and even outpaced early reviews of the video, which revealed that over 79% of the respondents saw the film in an upbeat light.
The take-away? There is a strong current of values and positive outlook that run through our community. Digital and social media can and does capture this sentiment, and there is so, so much more to all of us than clicks and shares of the latest celebrity selfie.
