PRSA Intl Conf Workshop - Get the Right Buzz, Newsworthy Campaigns that Showcase Your Brand

Newsworthy campaigns that showcase your brand

Get the Right Buzz

Kimling Lam | @kimling

October 14, 2012 | PRSA International Conference

Today’s Agenda

1.What is the right buzz?

2.Strategic alignment

3.7 habits to align strategy to news cycles

4.Case study: create compelling stories that get published and shared

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What is more important for PR success: Reach or Relevance?

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REACH

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Result for an article with a lot of reach but poor relevance?

I’m such a happy

CEO!

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RELEVANCE

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… Is there anybody out there?

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Getting The Right BuzzHow do you get reach AND relevance?

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We need a plan &

performance metrics!

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A Typical PR Plan

Rapid response programCEO visibilityProactive media pitchingDraft 2 press releases per quarterSpeakingAwardsMonthly & quarterly reporting on PR

efforts

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Summary coverage analysis…

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Total number of hits: 26

On average, 73% of all coverage has been produced

as a result of proactive PR

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No context! Ask critical questions:

Relevant to whom?

Reach whom?

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PR Problem #1: Relevant to Whom? Your Business? Your Audience?

Entertainment & Education

Company News & Generating Business

The important messages for your business are not interesting to your target audience

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PR Problem #2: Reach Whom? JournalistPR Professional Audience

Audience ReachMessage Relevance

EducationEntertainment

Reaching your target audience is blocked by a chain of misaligned

goals

Story IdeasSources

Truth & VerificationAttract AudienceMeet Deadlines

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Aligned Goals: A great story for readers An easier job for journalists

Reaching your target audience is blocked by a chain of misaligned

goals

Interesting Story

Good Journalism

Audience ReachMessage Relevance

Entertainment& Education

Story IdeasAttract Readers

SourcesTruth & Verification

Meet Deadlines

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Getting AlignedHow Can I Help Journalists and Readers Achieve Their Goals (and mine too)?

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Help with Story Ideas

• Pitch stories, not messages or releases

• Keep a story library with many variations

• Pitch relevant ideas NOT exclusively related to your company or product

• Utilize your network to help understand who could help with a story

Journalist’s Goal

Get Aligned

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Help Attract an Audience

• Tell interesting stories that readers/viewers/listeners will care about

• Be flexible and ready to modify or tweak a story

• Leverage trending topics

Journalist’s Goal

Get Aligned

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Provide Credible Sources

• Maintain a list of company resources by area of expertise

• Build a network of mavens; be valuable and provide referrals

• Be a maven yourself

Journalist’s Goal

Get Aligned

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First obligation is to the truth

• Verify your sources

• Double check facts

& figures

• Don’t present anything that may be a conflict of interest

Journalist’s Goal

Get Aligned

TRUTH

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Meet Deadlines

• Maintain an arsenal of story details and resources

• Have interviews on-call

• Have high-resolution images & video ready

• Offer production help Writing Graphics Video

Journalist’s Goal

Get Aligned

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Educate the Audience

• Provide useful information

• Present new information

• Include expert commentary

• Offer opportunity

Audience Goal Get Aligned

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Entertain the Audience• Make the story

about the reader

• Find a unique angle Humorous Cultural Emotional Scary Visual Controversial

• Use trending topics

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Getting Aligned

• Help attract readers Reach audiences Pitch stories, not

releases Access to insider info

• Help meet deadlines Draft articles &

excerpts Timely ideas &

expertise Provide resources Offer Referrals

• Be Educational Provide useful info Present new info Offer opportunity

• Be Entertaining Serve the audience Leverage trending

topics Find a unique angle

Journalist Alignment Reader Alignment

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Case StudyEntertain the Audience

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Our 2011 PR goal:

Gain category credibility and build brand

recognition

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Infographic Campaign: Using our own data to tell a story

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Oprah vs. End of World

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Reached 6.6 million people from over 1,600 tweets. The post received 108 Facebook Shares, 38 Facebook Likes and 31 Facebook Comments

Reached 2.4 million people from over 520 tweets. The story reached its 11 million unique visitors per month.

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• 4Series of 4 Meltwater infographics were placed in Mashable during SXSW Interactive

Reaching approximately 80 million unique visitors 16 million social media followers

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• Mashable readers used StumbleUpon the most to share the Meltwater SXSW IGs- In total there were 5,286 StumbleUpon shares

• Twitter received second most social shares with 3,135 tweets

• Day 4 received the most shares of the four infographics Mashable SXSW Infographic – Social Shares

Social Network

Day 1-2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Total

Twitter 929 652 972 582 3,135

Facebook 72 33 52 17 174

Google+ 28 12 16 6 62

StumbleUpon 817 647 1,677 2,145 5,286

Pinterest 92 53 71 47 263

LinkedIn 278 129 209 83 699

SXSW Key Results (cont’d)

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• There were 263 total “pins” or shares on Pinterest- Pinterest is now drives more traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn

combined - A search for “SXSW infographic” populates over 15 results

SXSW Key Results (cont’d)

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#m

elt

wate

rVIP

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THANK YOU