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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
February 8, 2014 1:46 AM
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I used to get a lot of pitches by agencies and solo marketers when I was running Social Media for a client. I would get emails and sometimes pitches on Facebook. Very few were legitimate. And they charged a lot of money for doing nothing. One client recently left me for someone because she was the typical small business owner who gets caught up in spin. It is why Marketers rank with Politicians and Used Car Salespeople for trustworthiness.
So what can you do to see if they are on the level? Here are a few very simple tips that will expose them....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 21, 2013 1:28 AM
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While it may not be the norm in public relations just yet, integrated communications is starting to take up more bandwidth in the PR process.
At our recent PR Agency Elite Luncheon, PR News spoke with Lia LoBello, a management supervisor at Peppercomm, which captured the Elite Award for Integrated Communications. LoBello shared a few tips on how PR execs can maximize integrated communications.
LoBello said that Peppercomm’s motto, “Listen, Engage, Repeat,” is the agency’s driving force behind working with other marketing disciplines. She added that in order to demonstrate their value, PR execs need a “deep understanding” of myriad marketing disciplines and should help decide how melding the various marketing channels together will create the best go-to-market strategy.
In helping to create integrated-marketing plans, PR agencies also need to take a “deep dive” into social media, LoBello said. “You need to take a hard look at all of the social channels,” she said. “Using Instagram may require a different approach” than Facebook or Twitter, for example. You have to match each social channel, if it’s appropriate for the campaign, with the ultimate goals of the client....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 9, 2013 3:34 PM
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Much has been shared about the way the PR gig has changed over the past few years. While all of what’s being said is accurate and important, noteworthy is the fact that seeking new business has also changed. Listed here are a few of the ways new business generation has changed since I first jumped into the business:
In 2013, prospects find you. This is the first and by far the most significant item on this list. Prospects find agencies or individual PR professionals in a home office somewhere by way of their online presence. That’s an online presence far beyond just a website – although that remains hugely valuable. Prospects are looking for professionals who practice what they preach, and who are active and engaged....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 5, 2013 2:06 AM
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Even as economic power has become increasingly concentrated in large corporations, communication power has become more diffuse. Most of us now carry global publishing power in our pockets, and we are connected to one another like never before. This combination of access and interconnection gives us the ability to make or break reputations and brands.
For the last two years, I’ve had a unique vantage point on this tumultuous change, as chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the confederation of the world’s PR and communications professional associations.Professional business communicators are on the front lines of the communications revolution. The Global Alliance represents 160,000 practitioners and academics around the globe and I’ve been able to meet thousands of communicators on every continent, from at least 30 different countries and many different cultures. Based on that experience, I can share a few insights about how communication is changing the world of business — and how business communication itself must change as a consequence....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
August 28, 2013 2:03 AM
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To be successful in the new multichannel and digital age businesses have to adopt an integrated approach to marketing.
And as companies seek to join up what have often been siloed activities, agencies are moving towards a fuller service offering to cater for the increased demand.
Data included in our new UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2013 shows that more than half of agencies (52%) now offer a ‘full range of digital marketing services’, an increase from 45% in 2012 and 42% in 2011.
In comparison just 12% of agencies specialise in SEO while 7% focused exclusively on paid search. A further 10% of agencies carry out both SEO and paid search....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
August 19, 2013 9:26 AM
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For the first time ever, our clients have the ability to generate content in multiple forms--they are content publishers.Historically, the PR industry has revolved around media relations. Over the years, many firms have talked a big game about providing other services, but almost all buttered their bread by generating a mound of media clips for their clients.
Are media relations still important? Absolutely. Do we still provide media relations services at Peppercomm for most of our clients? You bet.
But, unlike the past, it’s not the focal point; instead, it’s one of many channels that we use to reach and engage with our client’s most important audiences. For the first time ever, our clients have the ability to generate content in multiple forms and distribute via a number of channels, and audience members might even feel compelled to circulate themselves. It’s no longer enough for a consumer products manufacturer to run 30-second TV spots touting their products. Now, they need to understand consumers’ lifestyles and engage in a meaningful, fully transparent way that brings real value to their lives.
This is why agencies like Peppercomm are starting to look more like publishers and less like traditional public relations firms. Companies need content that engages audiences and builds their brand’s value among stakeholders. And, if they know the best channels – digital and otherwise – in which to reach their audiences, they need agency partners that can develop content in multiple forms and distribute it effectively....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
August 15, 2013 12:04 PM
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We all love lists, especially “best of lists” related to our own profession. It is even better, of course, when people we know actually make the list—and when we make the list ourselves. A number of “best PR blogs” lists recently surfaced. InkyBee, Cision and CyberAlert all weighed in, tackling the ranking in different ways using a variety of criteria....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
August 2, 2013 9:34 AM
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Advertising executive Andrew Teman wrote a blog about why he's dropping out of the game because of Oreo's infamous Super Bowl blackout tweet...
....Real time marketing has become the "it" thing in advertising. Minutes after the royal baby's birth, a slew of marketers tweeted out pre-packaged images and messages "spontaneously" reacting (and capitalizing) on the moment.
Teman continues: "In bestowing this award on this piece of work, we’re actually exposing a really sad truth. That the advertising industry has become so top-heavy with cost and process and approvals and meetings and waste, that the idea of just making a simple image, and deploying it to a simple platform at an opportune moment, is considered at this point to be ground-breaking."...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 22, 2013 8:44 AM
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As competition grew in the late 1960s and the phone stopped ringing, ad agencies turned to their public relations cousins and asked for help to stand out. From the mid ‘60s on, this took the form of pumping out press releases and cultivating media to cover agency activities. The vast majority of the content was announcing new clients an agency had picked up and awards won at the ever-increasing number of shows.
Both of these items quickly became table-stakes material, contributing no real differentiation for the agencies. Sadly, the biggest innovation agencies introduced in subsequent decades was hiring public relations professionals to work in-house.
All this did was reduce cost as these folks brought little new to the equation. The result is advertising agencies have confused public relations with brand building for the past 50 years. Do not get me wrong: Public relations has a part to play in ensuring an advertising agency is top of mind. However, most public relations practiced by agencies remain incredibly traditional and shockingly boring for an industry that prides itself on creativity. Avi Dan, founder of Avidan Strategies, wrote in a Forbes article that agencies that hire a public relations firm as a way to solve new business struggles are soon disappointed....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 22, 2013 1:37 AM
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Take a moment to think about what’s just happened in the last 6 months. - Facebook allows images in comments. - Instagram allows videos. - Twitter allows video through Vine. - Podcasting is back in a very big way. - LinkedIn rolls out video ads. - Google+ Hangouts integrate YouTube, Slideshare, and many other media types.
Think about how many different kinds of content these changes encompass. Video. Audio. Images. Text.Think about what it costs to license information from all of the different stock sites you work with on a regular basis.The public relations agency of the future will have a library, a digital repository of content that’s ready to go at a moment’s notice, and the associated creative team to help build and maintain it. Forward-thinking agencies already do....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 9, 2013 10:08 AM
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A friend of mine shared an agency RFP with me today. It’s been circulating around the town although the client thinks it is a secret.... ...It’s time for agencies to stop mooing. It’s time for agencies to stop dropping their pants. It’s time for agencies to stop chasing rejection and the RFP of the day and focus on developing a vibrant network of prospects and alliance partners. It is time for all agencies to just say NO. NO. NO.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
May 14, 2013 9:30 AM
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It's the age-old question: "Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?" In the war of public relations agencies versus defenders of in-house PR, the question should be, "Do you want to be right or do you want to be effective?... Leu started the latest discussion with a guest post on VentureBeat that, well, I’ll let him speak for himself: “There are lots of dumb things you could do as a startup entrepreneur… but nothing could be more dumb than throwing your hard-earned venture capital money at a public relations firm.” Oh, there are so many other dumb things that startups do, like replace the “s” with a “z” in the company name or send unsolicited embargoed news to TechCrunch. But one of the dumbest things that a startup company — or any company, for that matter — can do is assume there is a one-size-fits-all approach to PR that could be simplified into “do or don’t” hire a PR agency. Ward appears to understand this, writing in his own guest post, “There are business reasons to hire or not hire a PR firm. Many reasons are valid. But to dismiss any option categorically or to blithely substitute one’s own poor experiences as a reflection on an industry is questionable advice.”...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 27, 2013 10:55 AM
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Have you noticed the recent proliferation of “content marketing agencies” popping up on the scene? You may be wondering why, but this trend has been building... ... I had a recent conversation with an SEO executive team, and they were seriously contemplating taking the entire company in a new direction… to content marketing. Why? Their reasoning was (besides pure SEO budgets drying up) that the value they used to provide to customers (which used to be immense) simply wasn’t there anymore. Hundreds, if not thousands, of SEO agencies are in the same position. I’ve seen a few — such as TopRank Online Marketing and Vertical Measures — make this transition incredibly well. Others have simply put the “content marketing” moniker on their SEO content production service and called it content marketing. Yes, they’ve added such services as infographics creation, video production, and blog content creation, but content production is only one small part of the content marketing process. Strategic planning aspects of mission statement creation, audience persona gathering, internal content integration, and measurement outside of content consumption metrics are often absent. The lesson for brands: A holistic content marketing strategy includes up-front planning and multiple goals, which in turn must bring in non-digital channels (such as print and in-person vehicles). SEO is just one very small part that covers a few marketing objectives. Make sure your content marketing strategy goes beyond top-funnel considerations....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 17, 2013 9:50 AM
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Real-time social media are transforming marketing and public relations. I recently visited two firms in Chicago that are responding to the need for speed within the flow of online conversationconversation.
...Content and storytelling are at the heart of how we help our clients build meaningful relationships with their audiences," said Mark Hass, president and CEO, Edelman U.S. Edelman's plan focuses on client partnerships with five U.S. newsrooms and one in the U.K.Edelman newsroom "trend spotters" identify trends and events, collaborate with account leaders and design creative concepts. Ideas are shared with clients, and then decisions are made about posting or not.Real-time PR and marketing content frequently is covered by traditional media -- television, radio, newspapers and magazines.
News organizations, too, are now in the business of conversation monitoring and engaging. In this sense, the news model shares with PR the goal of creating viral videos, flashy graphics, photographs, memes and other popular social media content. Everyone is competing for measurable engagement that may translate into new revenue....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 13, 2013 1:55 AM
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On Thursday, Ketchum scored another public-relations coup: It helped place a Putin commentary in opinion pages of The New York Times, just as representatives from Russia and the United States were beginning to meet in Geneva to negotiate a plan for Syria to give up its chemical weapons.
The article made quite a splash in Washington. Putin painted himself as a peacemaker and lectured the United States for what he said was a tendency to use "brute force" in world disputes. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said he was "insulted" by the article, while the White House noted that Putin was taking advantage of press freedoms unavailable in Russia.
Ketchum, a division of the Omnicom Group Inc., has earned more than $25 million working for Russia, according to documents filed with the U.S. Department of Justice. It also has been paid more than $26 million since 2007 to promote Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas company....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 7, 2013 10:54 AM
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Doug McKinlay, a 71-year-old ad professor at Brigham Young University, worked as an unpaid intern at dallas agency Richards Group over the summer.
Would your agency ever consider hiring a senior citizen for a summer internship?
In a business that's obsessed with hiring the hottest young talent boasting digital experience, most shops would probably balk. But 71-year old Doug McKinlay -- an ad professor at Brigham Young University and former agency owner -- took a chance anyway, and proposed an internship to Dallas-based Richards Group this summer.
"The industry is moving at Mach One and academia isn't moving nearly that fast," Mr. McKinlay said, comparing the pace of changes to advertising curriculum to "the speed of a receding glacier...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 5, 2013 1:42 AM
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New webmaster rules from Google just killed PR agencies according to Tom Foremski's post "Did Google just kill PR agencies?" last month.He highlights a Google webmaster update warning about black hat, linkbait press releases and other similar improper SEO content practices trying to manipulate search engine results.Look out PR agencies Foremski warns....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
August 26, 2013 9:59 AM
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The competition between public relations agencies and inbound marketing agencies is heavily one-sided. What can PR professionals do to step up their game?
Most agencies (advertising, social, search, design, digital) realize that inbound marketing isn’t just some concept waiting to get trumped by the next fad. It’s actually a comprehensive, forward-thinking type of marketing that puts the power in the consumers’ hands. I know this can be scary for some, and that may explain why not everyone is as excited about inbound marketing as they should be.PR agencies have all the makings of successful inbound marketers (in fact, some could argue that public relations professionals were the original inbound marketers), but for some reason they just don’t seem to get it.
Rather than integrating their practices to keep up with the competition, they are choosing to stay in the background and focus on less competitive areas like crisis communications, social monitoring and CSR.For the past few years people have actually been saying that PR as we know it is dead. Rather than adjusting to the new world of journalism, many PR agencies are content to sit on the sidelines and wither away while other firms take their business. Which makes no sense, because public relations is the industry most similar to inbound marketing....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
August 18, 2013 2:27 AM
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It’s just over a hundred years since the first press release was issued by a company in an effort to tell their story in the media. In 1906, after a railroad accident, the company hired a journalist to help them deal with the disaster and the media coverage. Soon press releases and media relations became a core part of public relations.In the 1930s radio was a part of most American households.
Companies and PR agencies soon realized that just sending a text press release to a radio station was not enough. Sending a photograph was a complete waste of time. This was a new medium with new technology and it needed new content. And so the sound bite was born. Smart PR agencies and company PR pros quickly learned how to make 15-second audio clips to send with their releases.
And then came TV. By 1955 half of all American homes had a TV and this became the medium of choice for news. Smart PR folk had to adapt once again....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
August 11, 2013 1:46 AM
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Toward the end of the meeting he asked us to describe how he knows if the communications firm is the right fit for them. A data scientist, he wanted something solid on which to place his decision.
Unfortunately, I told him, 99.9 percent of working with a communications firm is gut, chemistry, and trust. But I could tell he was very uncomfortable with that answer and I’ve been thinking about it since.
I, of course, have never hired a communications firm because I’ve worked inside one my entire career so I had to put my business owner hat and think about how we hire professional services firms for work we can’t do.
PR Firms: Is it the Right Fit?
So how do you know if the PR firm is the right fit for you?...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 29, 2013 8:57 AM
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This week it’s a look at social media marketing for B2B companies from Clearpoint Agency.It shows that 87% of B2B businesses use social compared to 77% that use blogs, with LinkedIn being the social network of choice for 83% of marketers.Looking at the reasons for using social, 79% use it as a tool for raising brand awareness while 74% use it for customer acquisition. For more information on this topic download our best practice ...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 1, 2013 2:12 AM
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... If you drill down into the top 500 agencies, you’ll find that the fastest-growing and most profitable firms are those that are devoted to specific areas of expertise. Social media, experiential marketing, and customer relationship marketing account for many of today's competency specialists. Other types of successful market specialists include travel/tourism, agriculture, food, pharma, and senior living.Solutions, not servicesUltimately, marketers aren’t buying a service from an agency. They’re buying a solution. And effective solutions spring from deep areas of expertise, not a from a “wide range of experience” as most agencies are prone to tout....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 12, 2013 12:59 AM
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The rise of digital marketing and social media will require agencies to make significant changes to stay ahead of the competition. As digital marketing has continued to become a powerhouse in the marketing tool belt it has required agencies to consider how they can best serve the needs of the brands they serve. We’ve seen agencies slap social media on their list of services with little true expertise. Now we are seeing agencies slap content marketing on their list of services as it has become the new cool that everyone is all the rage about. This is a natural progression of service offerings and frankly agencies have to figure out how to provide these services because their clients are starting to demand them. We’ve seen transformation in the traditional full-service agency as well as a resurgence for boutique digital marketing and social media firms. But is that enough? The report “The Digital Marketing Agency of the Future” released today by Skyword argues that it isn’t even close to enough. They took the insights of 16 innovative agency leaders and created a forward thinking view of what tomorrow’s digital agency needs to look like....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
May 22, 2013 3:07 AM
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Here are some telltale signs you've been in the PR rat race a bit long.... It's tough being a public relations pro these days. Reporters don’t respond to your daily pitches; clients want more media hits. You’re tasked with creating content for social media only to find out your client can’t tell the difference between a like and a tweet. Digiday spoke with several public relations execs about how they know they’ve been in PR too long. Here are 20 reasons it’s time to hang up the PR spikes....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
May 13, 2013 10:38 PM
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Agencies that promise placements on the Oprah Winfrey Network and ‘The Rachael Ray Show’ in exchange for thousands of dollars don’t represent PR as a whole, but not everyone realizes that.
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Howie Goldfarb calls BS on all the social media gurus.