Seasonal Outreach

Much of my PR life has followed the rhythm of the seasons.  Living in the world of premium consumer products, we are always working one or two seasons ahead.  Christmas 2009 has already happened for us and we still have Halloween candy unwrapped! 

Currently we are deep in the throes of spring 2010.  It’s always exciting to get a preview of what’s to come.

Right now we are looking at bambeco’s spring collection of eco-chic home furnishings and decor.  Initial products show a strong story developing in tabletop and beddings.   Now we begin examining the trends in design, such as shape, color and materials, then we begin tying it together in terms of themes.  At the same time we are thinking about what audiences might be interested in what stories.  Having lived in fashion and home furnishings world,  it’s interesting to note that trends in textiles and furniture tend to follow fashion by several seasons sometimes longer.  Clearly not all fashion trends make sense for the home, but even over the last couple years, design editorial has been looking and sounding more and more fashionable with an emphasis on seasonal updates and makeovers.  This is only a benefit for the consumer – who wants to look at the same home decor every season?  Even if you don’t want to change your look, it’s always inspirational to see what’s new.

Searching for End Points

“A career is a journey not an end point,” Lee Caraher.  Friend and trusted colleague said this to me a few years back during a particularly frustrating moment.  These simple words provided me such clarity and solace. It’s not a race to some mythical stopping point, title or salary.  It is a journey to be welcomed head on, for all its momentary triumphs and crushing in-the-moment disappointments.

My original purpose for blogging was to share best PR practices and provide insights based on work we do for clients.  But I have found it difficult at times to get motivated to write these entries. I am so in the day-to-day of client work that I feel less interested in delineating and writing about the specifics.  However, I realize that although the information may seem less compelling to us, since we live it,  we hear from our non-PR friends, that they enjoy the insights. 

As a compromise, the posts will still be about some of the creative work as well as the overall experiences, challenges,  and lessons learned from running a business.

Social Media – Results Now Please

A year ago, new clients did not mention or even ask about social media.  Today, it’s invariably the second question I get asked.  I tell clients not to get overwhelmed by this hugely influential, but unwieldy new medium.  Social media from a PR perspective doesn’t really change how we approach the business of telling a company story.  What has changed, has been the acceleration of time.  None of us want to wait for quarterly or monthly recaps, demographic reports, analysis and trend studies or for the 3-5 month lead time required by most consumer lifestyle magazines.  We want feedback and results on a daily basis.  Luckily,  this just makes my job more exciting and certainly interesting!

Social media platforms provide more opportunities to not only reach out direct to consumers and influencers, they allow us to target our information so that it’s more closely aligned by consumer’s specific interests.  Sounds simple, but there are now hundreds and thousands of potential consumers and influencers out there.  Where do we start?

As a PR professional, I look at these new audiences in terms of market segments.  My clients are lifestyle – food, fashion and home.  So for instance, my home clients, the market is centered on interior design.  Great, now we know we want to target interior design bloggers.  We can’t track them all, so let’s approach this in segments – let’s only monitor and engage the top bloggers in this space.  How do we do this? What qualifications are we looking  for?  Traditional media relies on demographic info, circulation and in the premium consumer lifestyle space, overall wow factor – how well a magazine stands out for visual artistry and influence.

In the social media world the metrics have changed.  For interior design space, we’ve found Technorati to have the best search for this particular industry.  For our food clients we are using other SM search tools, but that’s for another post.

My amazing intern, Jen pulled together the following information on Technorati.  Check it out and let us know if it works for you.

What is Technorati?: Technorati was founded as the first ever blog search engine. It generates comprehensive information on the blogosphere by indexing millions of blog posts and sorting them by tags, keywords and topic. Technorati also releases a “State of the Blogosphere Report” every year to analyze the trends and themes of blogging.

The new age of media: This is an important step for PR because people now look to bloggers for their expertise on trends, products and ideas. As the blogosphere continues to grow, the lines between blogs and mainstream media sites are becoming less clear.

How to do searches: Most people use Technorati for its blog search capability. You can search blogs or blog posts by keyword, tag or URL. You can also search the blog directory for blogs in certain categories (e.g. fashion/lifestyle blogs, business and finance blogs etc.).  Technorati also lets you browse top videos, photos and news articles to see what people are blogging about at that moment. Additionally, if you set up a profile, you can monitor your favorite blogs and specific topics.

What is Authority?: One way Technorati tracks the influence of a blog is through its Authority. Authority simply counts the number of blogs linking to a website within the last six months. The higher the number, the more people are linked to your blog and the higher the authority-It’s the who and what is most popular in the blogosphere. This approach also eliminates spammers looking to profit off traffic from keyword searches.

What’s new?: You can now claim your Twitter profile on Technorati. By doing this, you can use Technorati services to help make your Twitter more visible.

But What Do You Do?

I love meeting new people.  It’s always interesting to hear not only “what they do” but how they talk about what they do.  Lately I seem to have been out more than normal and have consequently had lots of opportunities to answer this question.  I’ve encountered many politely interested, but completely blank stares.  You can’t just say “I’m in public relations” and expect anyone to know what you’re talking about.  Thanks to Hollywood, apparently I plan parties ( I do of course, but that’s another post).

So, there are many ways to explain public relations but I will keep it somewhat generic and straight forward.  According to Wikipedia, public relations is “the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics.[1] Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment.[2] Because public relations places exposure in credible third-party outlets, it offers a third-party legitimacy that advertising does not have.

I like this definition because it reinforces the heart of PR – legitimacy.  Because the review, the coverage, the placement or story must be EARNED, each and every time – it maintains a credibility that advertising can never claim.  Don’t get me started on the ROI of PR versus traditional marketing and advertising.  There are so few hard costs associated with PR.  It really is about understanding your product/company/service, creating a great story and delivering it to the right audience(s).  Sounds simple of course, but it’s in the execution (a bit of luck and timing never hurts) that differentiates a successful campaign from a merely forgettable one.

So, next time you’re at a party and someone tells you they are in public relations, you can impress them with your thorough understanding of earned coverage versus paid placements.

Musings on PR

Welcome to my first official blog on my first official blog entry.  A brief explanation to the obvious – why blog? 

I hope to use this as a forum to share best practices and open the proverbial kimono a bit more, share the process, thinking, and tactical execution that goes into the things we do for our clients.  Initially, I was worried that I might give away ”proprietary intellectual capital” but have come to realize that someone may be inspired or borrow some of the tactics or ideas, but no one can execute and deliver in the same way.  Social media has really moved the needle and opened up the floodgates to information that we have never been able to access.  In the spirit of sharing and connecting, I hope to contribute as well.

Some background.  I feel very lucky to have a “job” that I love.  The difference between owning my own agency and working in-house or at a big firm?  I feel truly vested and responsible to my clients at a whole new level.  It is a very one-to-one relationship.  I also get to choose the people I work with and qualify the products and services I represent.  This keeps my”pitch” honest and real.  

Feel free to comment, share and visit.  I will try to keep the content relevant and fresh.  Enjoy,  Kimberly