The iPad is the new computing superstar with 2 million units sold in 2 months. As a result, plenty of small companies are benefiting from the apps they have developed for the new tablet computer. Within this new environment, startups can thrive by creating unique and usable software applications that enable iPad users to be more productive.

Todo from Appigo is one such app. It’s a very intuitive application that helps users manage to-do lists, tasks, and projects on their iPad. Because the iPad is hot news, great apps are potentially newsworthy, too. Unfortunately, there are plenty of competitive choices even at this early date.

How, then, can this one small player stand out from the crowd?

As a critical component of their content marketing strategy, the company behind Todo, Appigo,  issued a news release  that makes it very easy to find and to learn about  the company and the product. This is great for users who are looking for information, but it is also a lifesaver for reporters with too much to do and too little time to do it . 

They chose PR Web, which is an affordable new release service offering a lot of handholding for small companies who are new to the PR game.  In addition, it offers broad distribution across the web for every release.

Why This News Release Is so Effective

• Their headline and subhead make it obvious why we should care about this news release and includes keywords(bold type below) for easy findability :
  
  Appigo Raises the Bar for Beautiful iPad Apps by Launching Todo for iPad
  Appigo Todo for iPad Takes Advantage of the iPad’s Large Screen by Presenting a Planner-like Interface for Managing To-do Lists and Tasks. Todo for iPad is Now Available on the iPad App Store at a Special Introductory Price.
  
• They integrate those obvious but important key words such as iPad,to do, task, and Appigo throughout the release so that Google and other search engines—as well as users and reporters–can find the release easily.
• The news release does an excellent job of explaining what Todo does and why we should care. And, it takes only 557 words to do it.
• For potential customers , it tells us exactly where we can buy this App.
• They provide contact information for a real live human being with his phone number and e-mail address.
• They include 5 HTML tags that provide links to external sources. All of those external links are very appealing to Google.
• They highlight a terrific callout quote which sums up the Todo experience– and this quote is hyperlinked to the company website:
  "Holding Todo for iPad in your hand just as you would a daily planner is an incredible experience that gives you motivation to be productive."
• They provide plenty of images that will be available for industry publications or bloggers to use in enhancing their articles. This includes an appealing logo icon and multiple screenshots.
• They offer a window to the company website so you can see what’s available there and can then click to go directly to the site.
• They provide a link to a media kit for reporters and bloggers
• They provide links to printer friendly versions, PDF version, and a Reader version.
• They offer a “Share this” link so that you can spread the word via e-mail, Facebook, Twitteror Google Buzz, among others.

Appigo is a small company, but it’s thinking big about the huge iPad opportunity. Its effective use of a PR Web press release puts it in the same league as much larger organizations.  Did it work? Well, in a search today for “iPad to-do list,” the Appigo App came in 5 of the top ten results on page one. Not bad for a little guy.

P.S. It is a terrific App, one of my iPad favorites.

Guest post from Kathleen Taylor, APR, President of the Southwest Florida chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association offers 4 top takeaways from their January 2010 Social Media Cafe.   Her report from the seminar illustrates that social media is beginning to permeate PR even in a relatively small market such as the Naples/Ft. Myers Fl area.

By Kathleen Taylor, APR

"The wisdom’s in the room. Make a concerted effort to learn from those around you," said Butch Ward from Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, FL, as he spoke with a crowd of public relations professionals at the January 2010 Social Media Café.  Butch and three fellow experts shared new ways of including social media tactics in our public relations practices.

The Poynter Institute describes itself as “a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders.” The Institute’s interest in how PR or “business communication” professionals practice exemplifies the social media requirement  to reach beyond the way we’ve always done things. As Butch reminded the audience, we are all learning together as we explore the new  social media sandbox. Fortunately for all of us, not everything is new and unfamiliar.

In fact, as we expand our minds to embrace new technology and new methods, the best of traditional public relations and marketing principles still apply.  Moreover, even new elements such as business blogging don’t need to be intimidating.

Here are 4 useful tips from the Social Media Café seminar that will make even reluctant marketing professionals comfortable about  jumping on board the social media train before it has left the station:

1. Research, planning, implementation, and evaluation: These fundamentals still apply to social media.

Don’t be tempted by the deceptive simplicity of going social. Some companies jump right in with little or no knowledge of why they want to be there. Don’t abandon the traditional wisdom of defining goals and calculating the plan. Before diving in, consider what you want to talk about and which social media connection can be the most beneficial. Are your customers already participating on this platform? Do you want to build your brand in a different market? Not all Social media sites serve the same purpose, and many are industry-specific. Companies will typically benefit more from a social media venture that fits them strategically. Social media is continuously evolving, and it can serve a multitude of purposes for a company; just don’t let the extent of your reasoning be “because everyone else is doing it.”

2. Blog posts don’t need to be long or fancy to be useful and popular. Just know your subject matter, and give people what they need to know.

Your business blog can provide timely and valuable insights to your customers about your industry, on current events, and on key market trends. Don’t be intimidated because plain and simple writing will work just fine when combined with the authenticity and transparency your customers demand. Your business will benefit from a blog because you give customers reasons to keep coming back. Providing a detailed, updated communications with your audience makes your company  both more approachable and more valuable to customers. Equally important is the fact that regular, relevant blog activity that attracts and keeps a regular following can boost your Google Web site ranking.

3. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million!

Practically from the moment the moving picture was invented, audiences were captivated. In recent years, YouTube has captured our attention with millions of users count on it for news, entertainment and seemingly countless cute kitty home movies (Doubt me? I dare you to search for “cute kitties” on YouTube.). Research by eMarketer shows that there is a HUGE audience watching online video. Now, it’s your turn to put video to work in attracting that vast universe. From promotional videos, how-tos, and testimonials to commercials and interviews with company officials, you’ll find dozens of opportunities to get your customers to pay much more attention to what you have to say (Here are 2 recent posts the may be helpful as you explore the possibilities: 10 Ways to Win with Online Video and 6 Secrets to Making Online Video Work for Small Business )

4. Talk about ethical decision making within a social media context before a crisis presents itself.

Pretending something will never become a problem is a bit like triple-dog daring Murphy’s Law.  Your limited time is better spent considering sticky social media situations in advance than to find yourself in a crisis without a plan.
A case in point: As both professional and personal participation grows in social media networking, there are ethical concerns on both the part of the employee and the company when it comes to social media and the freedom it allows. If unfavorable commentary about your company were broadcast through an employee’s personal site, would his or her job be at risk? Are employees already aware of the expectations? Have a plan. Be proactive and have these conversations about social media ethics with your employees and partners now.

Contributing presenters to the Florida Public Relations Association’s Social Media Café on January 22, 2010 at the Royal Palm Yacht Club in Fort Myers, FL included: Butch Ward of Poynter Institute, Michelle Catin of rbb Public Relations, Chris Griffith of Keller Williams Elite Realty, and Michelle K. Gardner of John Scott Daily Florida Institute of Government at the University of Central Florida. You can read more about the presentations at the blog: http://www.fpraswflchapter.blogspot.com/

More on guest blogger, Kathleen Taylor:

Kathleen Taylor, APR is the president of the Southwest Florida chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association. She currently works as a public relations consultant for a variety of clients ranging from real estate to healthcare. When she’s not penning public relations prose at
her computer, she’s discovered that logging miles in her running shoes provides great cardio and generates great ideas. You can follow Kathleen on Twitter @KatTayls, and learn more about her profession background at http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/taylorkathleen.

We all tend to go overboard with any important trend. We get so excited about what’s brand-new that we forget about the tried and true. So it is with inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing.

Celestine reminds us that outbound marketing done right, particularly in the form of smart public relations can make a measurable and almost immediate positive difference. 

The concept behind inbound marketing is that you engage in a lot of information creation activities that will pull in folks who are interested in what you have to say. Business blogs and participation in social media such as Twitter and Facebook enable you to offer content that prospects volunteer to consume.

Obviously, I believe in that. Witness the existence of Content Marketing Today and the blog post you’re currently reading. But, as Celestine emphasizes, that’s only the first part of the equation that should also include smart outbound marketing.

Traditionally, outbound marketing was about advertising, trade shows, and public relations.  Big companies have a decided edge because of their huge budgets and their access to high profile media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.

Today, even very small organizations can conduct effective outbound marketing campaigns by focusing on public relations. Celestine Chua brought this all home in a recent guest post on ProBlogger.com, titled: How To Get Featured By the Press (Repeatedly) Even If Your Blog is New. Celestine is based in Singapore and had previously worked in a Fortune 100 company. She abandoned that safe career to start a coaching practice which she markets via a combination of inbound and outbound marketing.

Although her blog does a terrific job of proving her expertise as a personal coach, her outbound marketing efforts focused on savvy public relations made all the difference in accelerating the growth of her practice. As she says, "If I were to look at the trigger point for my results today, it was the first media coverage which helped put me on the map. The amazing thing is, none of these came about due to any personal relationships or media contacts. Media coverage is something that you can get, whether you are a newbie blogger or a seasoned veteran."

When she writes about getting featured by the press as a brand-new blogger, she offers sound, timeless marketing advice which illustrates that some things in the marketing universe remain essentially unchanged.

Here are my top takeaways from her blog post:

• Getting traditional press coverage makes you distinctive from hordes of other bloggers and exposes you to a broader audience who may not read blogs regularly
• Traditional press coverage gives you credibility that is critical when you’re just starting out.
• Create an absolutely enticing news story because reporters are always on the lookout for great stories. (She even offers techniques for brainstorming great ideas in a 25 Brainstorming Techniques article)
• Create a press release that encapsulates your unique and newsworthy story.
• Use a ready, fire, aim strategy to get your story out to as many relevant channels as you can find including print, radio, TV and online.
• As soon as you are alerted to an upcoming story, publicize it among your entire extended network.

Smart outbound marketing builds your blog impact fast

I love the idea of adapting the best of traditional outbound marketing techniques to today’s online realities. You must have a business blog as your starting point. Normally, it will take a minimum of several months for your blog to have a positive impact on your business. You can accelerate that positive impact by using the be savvy outbound marketing approach that Celestine recommends.

Click to read her entire article: How To Get Featured By the Press (Repeatedly) Even If Your Blog is New. Then get started on an outbound marketing campaign that will reenergize all of your inbound marketing efforts.

Big ideas can trump big bucks.  This is especially true in the new Internet-powered world of public relations. 

Savvy marketers with minimal budgets can get pervasive press coverage that would have been impossible five or 10 years ago.  Just ask Tina Haisman, Southwest Florida PR professional, who was able to generate an astonishing amount of TV, radio, and print coverage far beyond Florida borders. 

Tina’s challenge was to help a Southwest Florida homeowner that needed to sell his multimillion dollar mansion in a very tough real estate market.  The homeowner knew that he needed to reach well beyond his local market for likely buyers of his luxurious home.  So, he cooked up the idea of a $1 million coupon that would be offered to anyone who bought his house.

She began with a traditional public relations approach of assembling a list of a hundred or so media contacts that might be open to writing about the unique coupon idea, particularly in the area of real estate.  She would then plan to e-mail reporters and follow-up with phone calls.  For decades, some variation of this proven approach has worked well to get news coverage.  But, without a lot of time, a big staff, and a big-budget, she could expect good, but limited success.

Instead, motivated by the client’s reiterated push for’ buzz’, Tina decided to make a big bet on a social media press release approach via PR Web.  This enabled Tina and her client to reach and influence a global audience with minimum effort and maximum impact.

She created a persuasive news release that was optimized for social media exposure. The release included:

• a brief summary at the top that highlighted key points and keywords
• an embedded YouTube video which offered a house tour
• a photo of the house
• a hyperlink to a dedicated webpage for the house itself
• an attached file of the actual $1 million coupon
• multiple options to print, blog, and share the release
• a hyperlink to the million dollar coupon webpage
• a host of social media bookmarks for sharing
• phone and e-mail contact info for Tina

All of these elements add genuine value to the PR Web news release, but the power of the editorial appeal derives from the big idea: the $1 million coupon exemplifies the need for marketers to be really creative to help their clients sell products and services. In other words, the press release was not about a house for sale.  It was about a wonderfully creative marketing idea that happened to be perfectly in tune with a challenging American economy

Here is how Tina put it in the summary of the release:

The downturn in the real estate market has inspired some creative thinking. A Fort Myers, Fla. couple, ready to sell their $10 million dream home, thought of an inventive way to attract a buyer to their property. They created a $1 million coupon and placed it in local and national newspapers. The couple hopes this creative real estate marketing idea will help attract a buyer for the home.

Tina noted that the realtor invested in advertising in appropriately targeted, high profile publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.  Their thinking was that, apart from their intrinsic merits, these targeted ads would underscore the seriousness of their marketing effort.  Even though they did get press coverage from some of these ads, Tina emphasizes that the overwhelming impact came from the SEO-optimized PR Web release.

The effectiveness of this new approach hit home with Tina when she realized that her client was getting extensive media coverage from reporters who had no need to call her to cover the story.  The information and links she had provided on the PR Web release was comprehensive enough so that they had exactly what they needed to do their job.  That timesaving element is increasingly important for reporters who are having to work harder than ever in a challenging media environment. 

Of course, Tina saves time and effort, to not only did she not have to make hundreds of outreach phone calls, but she did not have to field incoming phone calls in order to generate the press coverage and the ensuing buzz she sought for her client.

Thus, a big idea nicely articulated in a well-structured social media release generated global coverage that even big-time PR shops would envy. 

The cost of the PR Web release: $360.  The public relations pay off: priceless.

If you are looking to build buzz with big ideas, I suggest you get in touch with Tina Haisman.  She has become an ardent advocate and successful practitioner of the new Internet-centric public relations. 

They call it public relations for a reason.  Although PR methodology has focused primarily on getting the traditional media to write about your company or your client’s company, the goal has always been to influence ‘the public’, that is those members of the population that you want to impact positively.

Thanks to the infinite reach of the Internet, you have the capability to extend that influence dramatically.  But, you need to change your approach and your toolkit as part of a 21st century PR strategy.

If your primary public relations strategy still amounts to sending press releases to a finite number of media contacts, you fail to take advantage of the Internet.  You are not reaching the new influencers, to use Paul Gillen’s term.

You need to do do more than reach those influencers. You need to take advantage of the emerging power of social media by creating a new kind of release to reach a much broader audience.  We have written previously about Shift Communications’ template that offers a useful template on which to create your news content: Social Media Release Template Makes It Easier to Get Social.

Now, another powerful tool has emerged: PitchEngine, which lets you create and share social media releases for free.

As they describe it:

With PitchEngine, users can easily create and share Social Media Releases (SMRs). Unlike the rigid, printed press release of old, SMRs offer both creator and reader far more flexibility. Users can incorporate embedded video, images, powerpoints and more into a hosted “microsite” or SMR, that can easily be shared via the social web using apps like Facebook, Twitter and more. A dynamic blend of traditional PR and a more progressive, conversational method, the SMR opens doors and engages readers. Those readers include not just media, but investors and consumers (friends, fans and followers) alike.

If you think this social media stuff and tools like PitchEngine are a passing fad, here are some impressive stats on their social media release tool:

• More than 3500 brands have created thousands of releases since October 2008.
• There were more than 100,000 visits (70,000 unique visitors) to PitchEngine in February 2009
• Of nearly 5,000 users on PitchEngine, 67% have returned to create more than one SMR
• From the largest PR agencies in the world to the best boutique and smaller firms, PitchEngine is used by a diverse mix of in-house PR pros, agency reps and other communications professionals.
• What brands are benefiting from PitchEngine? Here are a few of the more recognizable companies: American Red Cross, Anheuser-Busch, Albertson’s, Bailey’s, Carl’s Jr., Dell, Dove, Harley-Davidson, Matchbox, Mattel, MySpace, Overstock.com, Puma, Shure, Xerox, Zappos.com

New Tools are Great, But You Still Need to Make Your Content Really Findable

Even if you are sending your news release to a wider audience by using a great online PR tools such as PitchEngine, you are still making a mistake if you don’t optimize your release for the search engines. Be sure to keep these essential content marketing elements in mind as you craft your social media release—and your broader strategy:

• Use a pithy descriptive headline with important keywords and repeat those keywords in your lead.  And don’t use jargon!
• Link keywords to relevant landing pages on your site–that is where many of those keywords will be found.
• Don’t think of your release is a “media relations tool.”  Think of it as a mini web page that covers the news item or topic about which you are writing.
• You release should act as a portal to more information on the topic.
• If you have audio or video content be sure to include them with your release.

In the end, social media is still all about content that is relevant and compelling.  Bells and whistles don’t substitute for substance.  Don’t let the social media tail wag the content marketing dog.  But, do put leading edge tools like PitchEngine to work in becoming a social media PR powerhouse.

What You Can Learn from Their Response to My Critical Commentary on Their New Instant Coffee Launch

Last week, I wrote a fairly skeptical post about the launch of Starbucks new instant coffee, Via Ready Brew. I suggested that it might suffer from a sad fate similar to that of ‘New’ Coke in 1984, in spite of the massive amount of research that both companies have conducted prior to the new product introductions.

In fact, I used the instant coffee launch to illustrate the power of the blogosphere for a mini case study with a class of PR strategy students from Florida Gulf Coast University.  As a guest lecturer, I spoke to the class about content marketing and the growing importance of social media components such as business blogging.  My Starbucks article and the company’s good-natured and gracious response  perfectly illustrated the importance of monitoring and responding positively to the blogosphere.

In preparation for the class, I did a search on Starbucks and instant coffee on Google.  Up came stories primarily from bloggers not from the mainstream media.  Amazingly, if you search for ‘Starbucks instant coffee’ and ‘New Coke’, you actually pull up the article that I wrote.

Just as I was about to finalize and e-mail my presentation to the professor, I was surprised to receive a very gracious and good-humored response from Starbucks’ own Matthew Guiste, whose team is in charge of their social media efforts.

Here’s the comment that  Matthew made to my post:

Thanks for the thoughtful commentary. I don’t know if it was a bazillion, but we did do a lot of research before this move, for sure. We think there’s a great opportunity in the market, one that tastes great and is 100% natural. As coffee-lover, I have a number of uses already in mind–visiting my father who lives in the country, to send to a friend of mine who’s office has bad coffee, and for mornings when I’m in a hurry. For reasons like that I personally can’t wait to get more than just my sample versions.

Did you get a chance to order a free sample?

Matthew’s comment was completely positive.  Even better, he turned it into an opportunity to possibly persuade me of the error of my ways and encourage me that the new product would be a good thing.

Clearly, Starbucks has set up listening posts on the Internet so that it can monitor what people are saying about the company, its activities, and its products.  When team members like Matthew respond to what they hear, they seek not to confront but to engage bloggers like me.  That’s both positive and powerful in reinforcing the Starbucks image as good guys with great products.

Why you should emulate the Starbucks listening and response methodology

Today, it is both easy and free to monitor what others are saying about you, your products, your industry, and related issues on the Internet.  With tools like Google Alerts and TweetGrid and TweetDeck for Twitter, you can monitor those activities in real time.  Whenever appropriate, you can respond promptly–and positively–to what you hear.  This makes for a wonderful way to engage both your customers and prospects as well as thought leaders on the web.

I may still be skeptical about instant coffee from Starbucks, but I sure admire their constructive use of social media to monitor and to engage folks who are taking an interest in the company.  And, I do love their coffee.

6 Lessons to Learn from a Young Mom Who Has Built a Successful Clothing Brand While Learning Business the Hard Way

Heather Nolte is a self-described 5′ 1″ Texas firecracker who launched her fun and fashionable  clothing company with tons of energy, but not a shred of entrepreneurial experience.

She targets moms and their very young kids who are desperate for clothing options that are not the same old same old “mommy and me” choices. Her tagline tells the story: “From the crib to the catwalk.”

Although Heather was able to get her company up and running on just $2000, she has always had big dreams. Those dreams and her business naivety led her to make some expensive and damaging marketing mistakes very early on.

Instead of conceding defeat, she immediately set out to learn absolutely everything about building a successful business with a combination of creativity and frugality.  What she learned about marketing has made all the difference.

The effective use of inexpensive tools including public relations, content marketing, and social media has played a key role in Glamajama’s growth. Her clothing line is now carried in more than 500 boutiques in the US and around the world. (They absolutely love her stuff in Japan)  In addition, she is in negotiations to sell her clothing line through some very large retail operations.

Here are 6 important lessons I think we can learn from what Heather and Glamajama have achieved.

1. Have Clear Positioning and Vision of What You Do and Who You Serve. Glamajama understands exactly where they fit and what their customers are seeking. As they put it: Our goal is to provide edgy and playful children’s wear that are easy care and baby friendly, while giving moms some trendy alternatives to “Mommy & Me” with our signature “mommy” tees and matching sets.
   Heather’s company has a well defined market position and keeps working to build their reach within that niche. Even their brand extensions into a somewhat less expensive market segment maintain a fun, chic appeal.  No boring baby clothes for this company!
2. Make maximum use of free promotional tools such as public relations. Out of necessity, Heather began to promote her business with her own PR efforts She targeted small websites and blogs that were writing about products, services, and issues within her market. These included small, but respected sites such as JamesGirone.com and StyleBakery.com.
   As Heather notes, “You never know who is going to be reading those niche websites.” Sure enough, she was able to build on that initial targeted exposure so that she has since received national coverage in venues that range from Oprah, The Today Show, The CBS Morning Show, WABC-TV in New York City, USA Today, and Working Mother Magazine.
   It’s worth noting that Heather’s PR efforts began on the web in 2004 before most PR professionals understood the power of the online niche media.
3. Make full use of your website to reinforce your credibility as a vendor.  When you visit the company website, Glamajama.com, you can’t help but be impressed by the extent of the press coverage she has gotten online, in print on radio and on TV.  Because 60% of her sales go through a reseller network, the extent of her press coverage gives Heather’s company instant credibility. If you are a reseller, you know that she’s going all-out to make her clothing line easy for you to sell.,
4. Be relentless and consistent in your marketing efforts. Glamajama was not an overnight success. Heather’s promotional work has extended over a five-year period and continues to this day.  She never assumed that a quick shot of promotion in 2004 would carry her company for the next half decade.  But her relentless and consistent marketing has helped her to achieve a 400% increase in annual sales since her first full year in business.
5. Connect regularly with your customers to maintain a positive dialogue that increases customer retention. Our customers have lots of choices for the products they buy.  We can be very easy to forget.  This is especially true in the highly competitive retail clothing universe in which Glamajama competes. 
   Thus, Heather sends out a monthly eNewsletter to her customers which has recently undergone a transformation so that it is now much more about dialogue and community than it is about sending a one-way message. She is working hard to enable her customers to connect with one another as well as to her and to Glamajama.
6. Make full use of social media to connect with your customers, your colleagues, and the media in all its forms. You can find Heather and Glamajama on her blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, and as a regular contributor to StartUpNation.com.  All of these efforts enable Heather and her company to reach a much broader audience and to establish a potentially large fan base that will solidify her market position.
   But, she is doing much more than just extending the reach of her personal and her company brand. Very importantly, I think Heather exemplifies the best of the new social media ethic.  That is, she is paying it forward by making positive contributions to knowledge that helps others succeed– even when it may have no intrinsic or immediate benefit to her or to Glamajama.

Heather doesn’t think for a moment that she has all the answers.  In fact, she is continually experimenting and working on improving what she does and how she does it.  I guess that entrepreneurship is a little bit like playing the guitar.  Every so often you just have to keep retuning it.  And, that’s what I think she has done so successfully.  She keeps retuning the business so that it continues to thrive even in these very challenging economic times.

Needless to say, if you know of a baby that could do with a fashion makeover, visit Glamajama right away.

Terrific new book from Paul Gillin takes the mystery out of using online conversations and communities to connect with your customers.

Nothing is more rewarding than to read a book that is at once valuable, timely, and engaging. Secrets of Social Media Marketing is all that and more.  Paul has a genius for making the complex simple enough to understand without oversimplifying.

Is there a need for this book?  You bet!

“There has been more change in the media world in the last five years than in the previous 500.”–Peter Koran, President, Media & Advertising, IAC

Understanding social media marketing is so difficult because it seems to be so different.  For decades, most of the rules of communicating with customers stayed the same.  You figured out who you were going to sell to.  You did your best to create a product or service that would have value for that target audience.  And then you blasted out your marketing message in print, on billboards, on radio, and since the 1950s on TV.

Now, and in the future, much of those old methods go right out the virtual window. Happily, Paul’s book teaches you exactly how to put social media marketing to work by telling you what to do and precisely how to do it.

It’s all about relationships extended online.

There is an important connection with the past which cuts through a lot of the confusion that surrounds social media marketing.

In his introduction, Paul notes that social media is really about relationships extended online.  That’s not so new. The desire to form communities of shared interests goes back to the guilds of the Middle Ages.  But, here’s the hard part: Figuring out how to make effective use of the staggering variety of ever-changing social media trends, venues, and technologies.

As Paul indicates:

Marketers aren’t stupid or reactionary.  They recognize that the world is quickly changing around them.  They are trying to change as well, but a variety of internal and external factors make it difficult to do that very quickly.  They’re scared and nervous, but that’s okay.  No one is an expert on all these new trends and no one knows where it’s all going.  Marketers need to start learning and experimenting because the only sin in social media right now is inaction.

Plenty of practical and easy to apply information

To give you an idea of Paul’s approach to bringing social media mysteries down to earth, here is a quick look at his blogging appropriateness quiz. Most content marketing types, myself included, will urge virtually every business to get a blog going.  But, with a helpful little six question–and 5 minute–scorecard, he helps business executives figure out whether they should bother blogging at all.

Here are the highlights(minus Paul’s explanations of each question):

Is  blogging right for your business?

• Do you want to do it?
• Do you have a topic in mind?
• Are you passionate about the topic?
• Are you knowledgeable about the topic?
• Do you communicate well?
• Do you have a thick skin?

You apply varying point levels to your yes or no answers.  A high score means, “go for it.”  A low score means “don’t bother.”  He has just saved you hours of meetings and deadly powerpoint presentations.

The ‘cut-to-the-chase’ blogging appropriateness quiz is a tiny sample of the wealth of useful, compelling, and understandable coverage of every conceivable element of social media marketing–and how to deploy those that are appropriate for your organization.

You need to begin deploying social media marketing.  This is the book that will put you on the right track.

There may be a better book on social media marketing.  But if there is, I haven’t found it. 

Go to Amazon.com right now and buy it: Secrets of Social Media Marketing

Public relations practitioners, like most of their marketing colleagues, are struggling with the new realities posed by the decline of traditional media and the rise of unfamiliar new approaches.  The effective use of content marketing will almost certainly replace much of traditional public and media relations. 

Joe’s presentation to the Cincinnati PRSA did a terrific job of explaining why these fundamental changes are happening–and how to leverage content marketing to best serve client marketing needs.

Joe learned in a recent conversation with Forrester Research that we might lose 50% of our newspapers across United States within the next 2 years.  Moreover, there will be fewer editorial pages to accommodate client-related stories sparked by public relations work. At the same time, local TV news coverage will shrink, as stations cut back because of advertising declines.  Within the business-to-business universe, trade publications are suffering steep losses in advertising which are threatening their survival.

This means that all marketers, including the public relations professionals who are working to generate positive publicity for their clients face a huge problem. They won’t be able to count on a large and stable set of media outlets.  Instead, they will increasingly need to reach directly to customers and prospects with relevant and compelling content. They will be bypassing the incredible shrinking universe of traditional print and television media.

As Joe put it in his blog summary of the presentation:

The challenge is that the content distribution process has completely flipped on its head. Can PR professionals understand that they need to start communicating directly with customers and prospects, and not go through traditional media channels, to tell the story?

Since most of you were not in Cincinnati to listen to Joe’s presentation, you can view it here courtesy of Slideshare:

Content Marketing: The Present and Future of PR?

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: cincinnati 42)

Be sure to read all of Joe’s blog post that expands upon the presentation by clicking here.

You may also want to check out our related article:

To Succeed Small Business Marketers Must Unlearn Traditional PR.  It’s one of the most popular content marketing posts we’ve ever done.

Clearly, the confluence of PR and content marketing represents an unstoppable trend. Fortunately, the effect of your content marketing will enable PR professionals and their clients to survive a tumultuous set of changes in the media landscape.

You won’t be able to engage and interact with your visitors if they don’t click through.

I’ve been paying a lot of attention recently to the potential power of social media news releases as an effective content marketing weapon.  These releases appeal both to traditional news organizations and to the broader blogosphere.

Marketwire’s Social Media 2.0 Plus is a fascinating tool to enable small to medium-size companies to compete for attention with the big guys.  But it will work only if compelling, customer centric headlines lead visitors to access the news release. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a significant percentage of the headlines really did the job. 

Here’s how Marketwire describes Social Media 2.0 Plus:

Combine the firepower of social media with proven benefits of traditional wire distribution and extend your reach to millions of online influencers
Target mainstream media outlets while leveraging online news distribution like never before. Marketwire’s Social Media 2.0 Plus press release is a complete North American newsline that includes industry-leading social media tools and search engine optimization to add dimension and tactical intelligence to your communications while harnessing the power of the Internet.

In fact, Social Media 2.0 Plus looks like a terrific product that eliminates all the heavy lifting for individual companies when it comes to effective social media marketing.  So far so good.  For the most part, it gets better when you take a look at a sampling of press releases issued in the last two days via Marketwire. 

A high percentage of the headlines on the Marketwire site–and they show only headlines– offer clear, obvious reasons that a reader or reporter should click through to get to the good stuff underneath. Interestingly, almost none of the headlines appears to attempt humor or cleverness.  Some of them may be a bit dull, but they get the job done. The Brad Pitt headline is the exception proving the rule.

Here’s a fair sample of 5 good ones: 

Is the End Near for Chrysler?, an Industrial Info News Alert

Axis Technologies Ballast Featured in New Energy-Efficient Fixture From FSC Lighting

NeuLion Launches New iPTV HD Television Box; Now Offering Network Partners a High Definition Service for Both the PC Browser and Television

Growth of Unified Communications Services to Dwarf Products Growth

Brad Pitt’s Sexy Secret: Pitt Reveals All for Rolex in Japan

But there were some clunkers as well.  Typically, these seem to fall into the category of “We know there is very little news value to this, but we had to send it out anyway.”

Here are five losers that illustrate what to avoid (snarky comments inside parentheses):

SDRL – Construction agreements for jack-up newbuilds amended (what does this mean?)

Canada Post Rings in the New Year With the Year of the Ox (must have been a very slow news day)

Automatic Defrag: The “Must-Have” Tool (but, why is it must have?)

RevenueGateway New Hires Increase Strength of Network’s Staff (how exactly?)

Jon Barney Joins The Avascent Group (Who is he? Where does he come from? Why does it matter?)

Definitely take a look at what Marketwire is offering with its social media tool.  Here’s a link to their news release presenting it.  The release itself is effective because it contains absolutely every element that can be included with the product.  This is a great example of content marketing in which a news release can illustrate product benefits in a visual and compelling way.

The bottom line: Social media news releases can be a powerful tool.  But, without strong headlines they are like Sampson without his hair–powerless.