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Bob Dylan once said “The times, they are a-changin” and

what‟s more, in the modern business world they are changing

at an incredible pace.

PR now needs to support an even wider, content hungry

audience

Online coverage is now of equal importance to printed

column inches

Journalists are using social media channels as well as

traditional PR routes to find and promote stories

Traditional PR methods alone will not be as successful as

they have been in the past

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The rise in Social Media has changed the way that people

communicate and the way that people look for solutions

Although not necessarily a good thing, people are now

more likely to trust something posted online by a stranger

about a product or brand, than something said by the

brand itself

The PR audience has widened so that it doesn't only

include journalists but now anyone can be a contributor

to the growing information that exists within the internet

about a company, its products and services

Content is king and all forms need to be included as part

of the PR mix

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PR has become social – so social needs to be included in the PR toolbox to support pitches to journalists and to help spread the news

Journalists are using a range of communication channels to promote features and stories, so monitoring and listening is vital

How we measure PR needs to change – we now need to combine traditional column inches with online coverage, links and mentions on social platforms

Content needs to be valuable and targeted to support the different types of information needed by decision makers e.g. white papers on the value of a solution, customer case studies & testimonials,videos etc.

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Introducing the Essential approach to PR

It‟s clear that social media cannot be ignored

At Essential our approach is to embrace social media and intertwine it with our

traditional PR offering. In effect our PR services have now become social

So how do we integrate the traditional and the new?

Well, we still use the traditional services such as feature tracking, press releases

and by-lined articles but we combine these with a more social approach

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Feature Tracking to Find Media Opportunities

At Essential we use a paid for feature tracking service, direct contact with journalists and social media monitoring to identify potential features for clients; with the objective of getting coverage as a result of a pitch or from a telephone interview with the client‟s spokesperson

This can also be used to leverage a client‟s other rich content such as case studies, videos and white papers

Target publications for all PR work will include relevant vertical magazines, C-level publications, IT / Technology publications and online news portals and channels and even blogs

Press Releases for News Flow

Press releases are used to announce specific news about a client to its target press, stakeholders, influencers and shareholders

Unlike many agencies, Essential will call the target press to help to sell in the story rather than simply blasting the release out via a newswire (this can be done too for those clients that require it). We find the targeted rather than „shotgun‟ approach to be far more effective

Positioning You Through By-Lined Articles & ‘Thought Leadership’ Pieces

Essential will use a variety of techniques to identify opportunities for by-lined thought leadership articles. These opportunities can come from conversations with our clients and journalists or sometimes they can arise from a pitch to a journalist in direct response to a request he or she has put out

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Extending Your Reach Through Social Media

In addition to personally sending all press releases directly to target journalists Essential also publicises all stories via its Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, helping to spread the word into the social space

This reach can be further extended out to the client‟s own social platforms

Coverage within features will also be monitored and can also be Tweeted

Monitoring the Return on Your Investment

We know that Return On Investment is key to gaining board level buy-in to PR and to justifying further investment

Essential tracks this by monitoring coverage in key target press, online and in the social space; providing its clients with a monthly report of coverage found

This can include copies of coverage and calculated return on investment in terms of value of coverage based on equivalent advertising spend

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In order to extend the reach of Social PR even further the following activities

can also be provided:

One to One Meetings

Talking to journalists over email, by phone and via social platforms is great

but the best relationships are still cemented face to face

Essential can arrange one to one meetings for the client‟s spokesperson

with target journalists to establish these relationships

Podcasts – The Audio Alternative

Essential can arrange and record interviews with the client and its key

partners, customers and key influencers

These could then be promoted via Twitter and LinkedIn and used as a

possible tool in feature pitches to journalists

Podcasts could be hosted on the client‟s website pulling traffic into the site

and could also be uploaded to iTunes

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Making Social Media Work for You

Social Media isn‟t just for kids!

Twitter is now firmly established as a business tool and LinkedIn is often one of the best

referring sources of traffic for business to business websites

Essential can help you set up your social media platforms and keep them updated with regular,

topical, valuable content

Working as part of client‟s team Essential can monitor, identify and publish useful content via

our client‟s Twitter account

We can also run targeted follower acquisition campaigns to identify and start following existing

customers, prospects, suppliers and other key influencers, each of whom will be notified via

email that your business is now following them

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Blogging – Because Your Opinions Matter

Blogging is a key way of raising awareness within the

social media space and being seen as a „Thought Leader‟.

It can also help to pull in traffic to your website

Essential designs, builds and manages blogs for and in

conjunction with its clients

Essential can work closely with selected client contacts to help

identify and steer blog posts

To be effective the framework and majority of content from the blog posts needs to

come from the client but we all know how hard it is to stare at a blank document

and try to write something. So in many cases our clients provide us with a

framework and we weave the stories together for them, taking care not to change

the message

In all cases our client always reads and approves any blog post before we post it

for them

The client can get a regular flow of content without a huge amount of time invested.

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Feeling inspired?

Ready to take your PR to the next level?

Then get in touch.

Call us on (+44) 01635 43967

Drop us an email

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