Category: Media Relations

Google+ and B2B: Drink the Kool-Aid

Posted on | by Ketner Group

Let’s say you’re training to be the next Sanya Richards-Ross and you’ve got a track meet next spring that you’re planning to dominate. You bought the high-tech water bottle, the chicest of running outfits and have really committed to your weekly training schedule. You’re doing everything right! Except for one thing… you’re training in some worn-out Converse shoes you’ve had since high school. Your track meet rolls around, and you’re the fittest of them all, but before the first lap is over you’ve fallen behind your competitors.

In a similar way, Facebook and Twitter are still widely used and well-loved, just like that nifty pair of Converse shoes you’ve been hanging on to, but if you haven’t upgraded to some Nike trainers and aren’t including Google+ in your marketing efforts, you’ll be last place in the race for SEO success and B2B glory.

Google+ has taken off in the last several years as the search engine giant’s attempt at a new social platform. It initially landed on the social scene with a flop, but the good people at Google stood by their new product and have boosted Google+ into popularity contention with Facebook while surpassing Twitter and LinkedIn in active users. Over the course of its lifetime, it’s now become a widely used tool for businesses in virtually all verticals. So what can Google+ bring to the B2B marketing table?

Brands like Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard and VMWare are taking advantage of the platform’s most beneficial B2B marketing uses. Here are a few things we can learn from these Google+ gurus:

  • When visiting their company pages, you first notice that they’ve put some actual thought into the look and feel of their profile. A visually appealing and interesting cover photo immediately catches the eye and can actually keep people on your page for a longer amount of time.
  • Outside of optical impressions, you can see that each company posts regularly on not only company updates, but industry news and current events. A consistent and relevant presence on any platform is a good rule of thumb, especially if thought leadership and industry expertise are important factors in your B2B campaigns for growing your customer base.
  • Hashtags, photos, infographics and videos are all great ways to beef up company posts that give profile visitors a more engaging experience overall. The more you can connect what you have to say to significant trends and hot topics in society, the more visibility you’ll harness for your brand. Making those connections noteworthy for your prospects can lead to a phenomenal B2B marketing program that could result in new customers.

Facebook and Twitter are obvious tycoons in the social sphere, but in terms of the best platform for business to business efforts, Google+ overpowers the other two outlets used mainly to talk to consumers directly. Its integrated features for SEO and video boost online visibility and its customizable categories in the form of circles is one of the best segmentation tools on the social web. Here are three main points to keep in mind when considering how your company can build its Google+ presence and why.

Highly Targeted Segmentation

Utilizing the circles feature in Google+ can make a world of difference in your efforts to reach specific groups, customers or prospects. By segmenting the companies and users followed by a company page, businesses can push out extremely specific information that can directly relate to any particular vertical your business has grouped into a circle. This kind of targeting is invaluable for B2B companies that need subdividing tools to effectively reach potential customers in various lines of business.

Sensational SEO

The entity that controls almost all search criteria and results for the entire internet of everything has created a social platform – you should be on it. Google+ places a great emphasis on search engine optimization throughout its whole platform, a huge differentiator from Facebook and Twitter.  Because Facebook and Twitter restrict certain data from Google’s search indexes, time spent marketing on Google+ leads to more tangible SEO results as it is directly correlated to PageRank. This article on Social Media Today does a great job of outlining the real SEO benefits of using Google+ in your marketing and PR mix.

Hangouts: More than Just Video Chatting

photo by brianDhawkins on flickr

Businesses these days are looking for ways to integrate and optimize more and more, so while we have all come to love Skype, it may be time to streamline communication and use Google+’s Hangouts for all your video needs. It acts as a video chat application, eliminating extraneous platforms like Skype, but Hangouts leverage the power of Google and its partners to boost your online visibility. Hangouts can be recorded as videos and shared directly to YouTube, letting you share product demos with prospects, stream live presentations for interested parties that can’t attend the trade show your company is keynoting, or simply post general company updates from the executive team to your audience using a highly engaging channel. Internal uses include client meetings, staff meetings, training sessions and more that will help you and your company maintain a strong and effective hold on brand image.

Every dollar counts in PR and marketing budgets, so breathe easy when making the call to jumpstart your company’s Google+ presence – when done properly, you’ll get some major bang for your B2B marketing buck! Is your company on Google+? Post your comments and experiences here – we’d love to see how you’re using it!

“Scandal” Inspiration, Judy Smith Speaks on Navigating the Business of Success

Posted on | by Ketner Group
Kalman, Zabarsky. 2013. Photograph. BU College of Communication, Boston. Web. 17 Sep 2013.

Last week I had the pleasure of listening to Judy Smith speak. You might be familiar with Smith if you watch the ABC hit show Scandal where she is portrayed by Kerry Washington as “Olivia Pope.” After binging on the show this past summer, I was extremely excited to put a real person behind a character that inspires not only women, but anyone who has ever overcome adversity.

Judy Smith is a crisis management expert and CEO/president of her crisis management firm, Smith & Company. Smith served as Special Assistant and Deputy Press Secretary to President George H. W. Bush and her firm has advised such notable people as Monica Lewinsky, actor Wesley Snipes and NFL quarterback Michael Vick. Pretty impressive, huh?

Judy Smith spoke at The University of Texas at Austin as part of a regular series hosted by the African American Culture Committee. She talked on the subject, “Good Self, Bad Self: Transforming Your Worst Qualities into Your Biggest Assets.”

She explained that she would give us three key pieces of advice to help us on our journey to success. But first, she wanted to clear a few things up: she’s never had sex with the president, or any president for that matter, and if you wanted to think of her as a godfather-like figure who orders her associates to beat people up for information – think again. Smith is as ethical as a person can get.  Standing there tongue and cheek, she earned her self a roar of laughter and a round of applause from the audience.

So what did the master of communication have to tell us? Some great advice and awesome quotes:

1. Power in being yourself: “Know who you are and know that’s more than enough”

While working at the District Attorneys office, the president’s press secretary was wowed by a press conference Smith was leading and immediately wanted her to interview for a position at the White House. Smith explained that when interviewing for the position, she never hid who she was—she was upfront about her politics and even shared that she disagreed with many of the president’s views. Being true to herself earned her a job at the White House and a compliment from the president, who let her know that honesty is invaluable.

2. Need to be prepared

How did Smith get the job at the White House? You guessed it, because she was prepared.

Full of humor, Smith went on to tell us that five days before leaving to New York for a job, her life took a detour. She was at lunch with a friend—in tennis shoes she wanted to point out—and met with four attorneys that worked with her friend. These attorneys weren’t just anyone, they helped manage crisis during the Reagan Administration. Tennis shoes and all, Smith made quite an impression, which made the attorneys offer her a job on the spot. The attorneys went as far as calling her new boss and convinced him to let her go, even after she spent her signing bonus.

I’m not sure if it’s preparation or luck with Smith, but through the joking and story telling, Smith made a great point, “If I wasn’t ready for the job, then I wouldn’t have gotten the job.” Good enough for me!

3. Character and ethics matter: “You have to believe what you want is possible”

“Character and ethics matter. Don’t listen to people when they say it doesn’t,” Smith said. In a time where people and businesses walk a fine line between what’s ethical and not, it’s important to set solid boundaries and ethics for yourself. In Scandal, the metaphor “wearing the white hat” is talked about frequently and isn’t far away from how Smith deals with uncomfortable situations. If it’s something she isn’t okay with doing, then she won’t do it, like representing clients such as Casey Anthony and Lacy Peterson.  This mantra is consistently represented by Smith’s character Olivia Pope who constantly talks about “that gut” that helps you know when a situation “smells bad.”

To close her speech, Smith ended with one more powerful statement: “You can try anything you want, but I also believe that there are things you are meant to do and this was mine.” Following this statement she was asked if she’s accomplished everything she wanted to in, which she replied, “I feel like I’m just getting started.”

Judy Smith left a lot of things for me to think about in my own path for success. What key pieces of advice keep you on track? Comment here!

FYI – Why does Olivia Pope wear so much white? Because it’s Judy’s favorite color of course!

Viral Videos, Marathoning & Some Small Biz Love for Austin

Posted on | by Ketner Group

Wherein I ramble about current events, keeping Austin weird, the latest memes and TV marathons

Sometimes news is absolutely shocking—like the time the president of the United States admitted to the public that he kept his Multiple Sclerosis a secret for seven years. Whoops—that’s all the West Wing I’ve been watching.* Um, for a real example… I nominate the news that broke on Valentine’s Day that a beloved South African Paralympic champion allegedly murdered his model girlfriend. The New York Times headline announced “a nation reels…,” and I don’t doubt it.

Photo courtesy of Outhouse Designs

But sometimes news is anything but shocking—say, last week when The Business Journals named Austin the best city in the U.S. for small business growth.

It’s hardly surprising that a city with such an obviously entrepreneurial spirit, evident down every street lined with local and independent restaurants and boutiques, should earn such an accolade. I maintain that you never have to eat somewhere twice in Austin, nor step foot in a chain, unless you want to. Austin has more pro-local loyalty cards than you can shake a stick at (Go Local, GoodyBag, LOCALoyalty and Belly, to name a few), and its thriving local business community is represented by the well-respected Austin Independence Business Alliance, who’s been Keeping Austin Weird for years. The confirmation that Austin’s independent spirit is alive and well even post-recession is just one more reason to love and be proud of our great city of Austin. Ketner Group is a small business itself, and we could not be happier to be part of the flourishing small business community in Austin, Texas.

But KG and the Business Journals are not the only ones loving on Austin lately. BuzzFeed’s “50 Sure Signs that Texas is Actually Utopia” list went viral last week (at least among Texans), and more than a few folks thought BuzzFeed missed the mark just a little, rewriting the list on behalf of Austin specifically (I side with the proponents of Austin).

Lastly, and just because KG is über cool and to prove my point that Austin really is the most awesome city for small businesses and humans alike, I present the latest viral video done right: the Harlem Shake on the Main Mall at the University of Texas at Austin.

BIGGEST Harlem Shake (University of Texas at Austin) Original

(Confession: I’m not so cool as to really “get” the whole Harlem Shake thing, I’m just cool enough to know it exists, and I’m ok with that.)

*The New York Times just wrote an interesting (and quick!) read on Americans’ new proclivity, thanks to the availability of DVD box sets and streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu, to watch entire seasons or series of TV shows in marathon bursts, and how this trend is changing the way TV shows are developed and distributed. I can’t believe I personally was not interviewed for that story. My “TV bingeing” resume includes Sopranos, Greek, The Wire, Big Love, The X Files and West Wing.

NRF 2013: What Editors and Analysts are Predicting

Posted on | by Jeff Ketner | 1 Comment on NRF 2013: What Editors and Analysts are Predicting

They don’t call NRF “Retail’s Big Show” for nothing! Ketner Group has attended NRF for the past 13 years, and year after year, it’s the ONE show that matters more than any other – and a great place to connect with retail’s leading editors and analysts. We asked a number of our friends in the editor and analyst communities to share their insights about NRF, and you’ll be interested in seeing their thoughts on retail trends, technologies, and the biggest surprises of 2012.

What will you be looking for at NRF 2013, in terms of retail trends and technology?

Jordan Speer, Editor-in-Chief, Apparel Magazine: Generally, I’ll be looking for technology that apparel retailers/brands are using. In particular, I’ll be interested to see how things continue to integrate to make a seamless omni-channel experience possible. It’s difficult for me to think of distinct technologies these days. It all goes together: Social media is connected to CRM is connected to loyalty is connected to POS is connected to mobile is connected to RFID is connected to fulfillment and so on and so forth. I’ll be looking for ways in which retailers are casting off the barriers between all of these solutions and getting the big picture of their enterprise.

Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner, Retail Systems Research: What I’m looking for is practical usability of technology.  I have been hearing a lot of buzzwords – “mobility,” “the customer as part of merchandising processes,” “Big Data” (my current fave), “Cloud.” So what I would like to see is the nitty-gritty of what it takes to actually get the job done.  For example, “What does the user interface in a system that includes the customer dimension of data look like?”  “How do you manage 30,000 iPhones and iPads in your stores?”

Joe Skorupa, Group Editor-in-Chief, RIS News: I am looking for technology strategies and solutions that are responsive to the dramatic shifts taking place in the marketplace as well as those that enable retailers to become more pro-active and get ahead of fast-moving trends.

Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief, Retail TouchPoints: I am expecting to see more advanced solutions that address the data collection and analytics related to Big Data and omnichannel retail. Retailers like Macy’s are starting to focus more on allocating by individual store, based on the demographics and seasonality of each store. New solutions need to provide an easy way for merchants to make this happen.

I also anticipate more solutions targeted to mobile payments, and the requirements around EMV. Retailers need to be prepared to accept EMV when the April 2013 deadline rolls around. Additionally, by October 2015, fraud liability will shift in the marketplace, which could be an incentive for merchants to enable EMV transactions before that date.

Greg Buzek, Founder and President, IHL Group, and Co-founder of the Retail Orphan Initiative: I think we’ll see a lot of emphasis in three main areas.  The rise of Big Data and Social integration will be a major trend.  Mobile will be everywhere – in all flavors – iOS, Android, Windows 8; we will be past our first mobile Christmas.  And then there are the rapid changes in the POS industry.  We are seeing a seismic shift right now in threats to this business and a changing of the guard in established competitors.  And of course everyone will be talking about how great Retail ROI’s SuperSaturday was!

What have been the biggest surprises in the retail industry so far in 2012?

Joe Skorupa, RIS: This is the year of bold transformation of business models and instead of taking a cautious approach or battling it, retailers are embracing change and finding new opportunities.

Greg Buzek, IHL: The biggest surprise is the speed in which retailers have come out and said they are never buying another POS terminal again.  We haven’t even seen mobile survive a Christmas rush, and several retailers have already said they are all mobile from now on.

Jordan Speer, Apparel: I think the big surprises for me are the increasing shift to the “fulfill-from-store” model and also the sense that, in apparel, we are really on the edge of seeing technologies like “magic mirrors” and such start to materialize at the commercial level. One other thing – it has really hit home with me this year just how much Amazon truly presents a major threat to so many retailers. I am glad that many of them are addressing that and will be interested to see some of the clever ways that retailers use product and technology to keep customers in their brick-and-mortar or online stores.

Paula Rosenblum, RSR: I suppose it’s the explosion of mobile payments – or the apparent coming explosion.  Starbucks adopting Square and Home Depot adopting PayPal was a pretty big surprise.  Beyond that? That wireless is still just not prevalent.  And overall in the industry, that the luxury market is softening.  I honestly don’t understand why it’s happening.

What do tech vendors and PR people need to keep in mind as they reach out to you for NRF?

Debbie Hauss, Retail TouchPoints: We look forward to meeting with as many companies and retailers as possible during NRF, to discuss industry trends and announcements. The most productive conversations are around innovations and how we can help retail companies improve their businesses. Once again this year, Retail TouchPoints will be filming short video interviews with retailers and solution providers during the NRF event. If any companies are interested in participating in these videos, they should contact us as soon as possible.

Jordan Speer, Apparel: I always appreciate a brief synopsis of press releases announcing new technologies, along with information on which apparel companies are using the technology (if any). If they can’t reveal that info specifically, it is helpful to know at least what type of apparel companies are using it (big vs. small; specialty vs. department, etc.) In the synopsis, it is helpful also for me to understand if the technology (or process or whatever) being announced is a significant shift, or basically just an update of what’s been available. It’s also helpful for PR people to keep in mind that I am looking for apparel companies that will talk to us on various topics, including but definitely not limited to those on our editorial calendar.

Paula Rosenblum, RSR:  They should understand that we’d be happy to take pre-briefings and will be doing a webinar or something for our customers afterwards to review what we saw at NRF. I would imagine what they want to know from us (besides “do you like our stuff?”) is “What did you see that was cool?”  This year, we’re going to have time to actually answer that question adequately.  Heck, we might even attend some sessions!  After much thought, we realized it’s a way better way to add value.

Greg Buzek, IHL:  Vendors should have talking points in handout form either in the meeting or use the meeting as more relationship building and very short demos rather than marketing speak. We see between 12-18 sales pitches a day; what gets remembered is the one-pager with key talking points. What are the 3-4 things you want me to remember? Have that on a piece of paper or better yet, show me and email it to me while we are in the meeting (not “I’ll get that to you”) so I am sure to have it in my inbox when I get home.

Personally, I am buried in the materials from my own event, other interesting things and several bags of swag items from different events. Standard collateral material doesn’t make it home. An analyst is not going to pay extra luggage fees to carry home a bunch of glossy materials.

Like everyone else, we are sleep deprived and exhausted and we will have heard 40-50 company pitches and caught up with another 100 friends and colleagues. Vendors give the same pitch over and over; we hear 50 different ones. What gets remembered past the show is what is written down or on a single page handed to us – and the meetings with our friends.

8 Ways Journalists Take the “Annoying” Torch Back from PR Pros

Posted on | by Ketner Group

Over the last several years, PR professionals have been graced with the superfluous presence of ‘Top X Ways PR Pros Irritate Journalists’ articles; it’s a well-favored topic in our industry. Honestly, if we had a dollar for every ‘Best Way to Ruin a Media Relationship’ blog post that mentions how PR pros are messing it up, we’d at least have enough to buy a pair of Manolo Blahniks.

Yes, we know that there are many people who think they can do PR well, but are missing the appropriate education and experience. There are those that think sending a press release to a 2-year old list with 500 contacts is okay, and there are some who think calling a journalist every day to follow up on an email s/he is obviously not interested in is acceptable. But not every PR professional shares these opinions, and not every PR professional is annoying to journalists. At Ketner Group, we’ve developed strong, mutually respectful relationships with our media contacts, especially in the retail and hospitality industry, and they value our influence and contributions.

We love journalists! We’ll do everything we can to help make their job easier, and if we occasionally teeter on the annoying side (let’s be honest, every PR person has at some point), it isn’t intentional. But…since we’re being honest, let’s admit that we PR pros aren’t the only people who’ve crossed the “Welcome to Annoying, population a zillion” border sign. So in good fun and humor, we’d like to point out some of the minor annoyances we feel when working with journalists.

1. When journalists suggest whacky ideas for PR practices. I’m sure journalists everywhere have their own personal preferences for email or phone pitching etiquette and we really do like to know and honor those preferences! But for the love of all things delicious and chocolaty, please don’t assume your preference is universally shared. I’ve read advice from journalists that suggest PR people should quit sending press releases and keep press pages current, because they’ll check your company’s site proactively if they’re interested. Yeah? You’ll think on your own to check out our clients’ sites for important news? We all know you’re too busy for that, and if we don’t send you press releases, memories of our clients and their customers will quickly melt from your mind like high scooped ice cream on a hot, sunny day. Continue reading →

Social Media Dominates London 2012, Launches New Olympic Era

Posted on | by Catherine Seeds

Blog originally published on Digby’sThe Mobile Retail Blog.

The 2012 Summer Games, hosted by the good people of London, has already been dubbed the “First Social Media Games”. As we start the second week of the XXX Olympiad, the world has already seen what a huge impact social media has had on the games – and the numbers are staggering! Twitter has already reported that the opening ceremonies sparked 9.66 million mentions, topping the total number of Twitter posts during the entire 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. According to iProspect, a large British digital marketing agency, and Carat, a media agency, Twitter was by far the favorite social media site, accounting for 97% of all online conversations about the opening ceremony.

Social Media Goes for Gold in London
For those of us who are Twitter users, we know there are good and bad sides to this social media platform.  For this year’s athletes, it is a unique way to communicate “directly” to their fans, families back home, and other athletes. “Twitter and social media are how we can get our word out, and fans kind of want to see what things look like from behind the scenes,” says U.S. swimmer Ricky Berens in a recent Mashable article. “TV portrays things the way it wants to and we can give a lot more than that.”

The dark side of social media, however, can be downright mean and pressure-packed, as we have already seen during the first week of the games. After becoming the first African-American woman to win the individual all-around women’s gymnastics competition, America’s newest sweetheart, Gabby Douglas, became victim to social media bullies who made fun of her hair. When Aussie swimmer Emily Seebohm failed to take gold in the 100-meter backstroke final, she told reporters that she believed the pressure put on her via social media to win gold caused her to lose the race.  “…Maybe I just started believing that I’d already won by the time I had swum…I just felt like I didn’t get off (social media) and get into my own mind,” said Seebohm.
Continue reading →

Public Interest vs. Private Access: Monetizing Content to Keep Newspapers Afloat

Posted on | by Ketner Group

By: Sara Lasseter

After the New York Times released its exposé on the Wal-Mart bribery investigation in April 2012, a sum of $12 billion was erased from the grocery store’s market value. While the story had a significant impact on the market for Wal-Mart and Walmex, the New York Times deliberately released the story over the weekend to deter any accusations of insider trading or private access. This story gained widespread attention for its sensitive market information and prompted many discussions on the idea of selling early access to interested parties.

But this poses a controversial question: What is the purpose of a newspaper? Newspapers began as purely profit-making entities that sold any and all stories to generate revenue. A shift toward news motivated by public interest began in the 1960s and 70s due to events like Watergate that prompted newspapers to become public institutions that existed to uphold certain principles for the good of society. Today, public value of ever-present and instantaneous news has created an “entitled and expectant” environment for the print media industry that makes it difficult to implement any major frontrunner services without a substantial amount of backlash.

Critics say that offering market-moving information at a price to hedge funds and investors plays against public interest, but could there be a beneficial side to selling these facts at a fee? Publications like the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones wire have begun to offer paid subscriptions for readers who wish to access market-moving information sooner than it is published in the newspaper or posted online. Some opponents think a move like this would be considered insider trading, while others say as long as there is no personal gain of the party disseminating the information, then it is completely legal. The court case of Dick vs. SEC 1983 established that a lack of personal benefit in trading eliminates the risk of insider trading. Neither the NYT nor Wal-Mart sources would have had any personal gain from releasing this story early to interested parties, therefore, both would be free from insider trading accusations. Continue reading →

April 2012: Retail Technology’s Landmark Month

Posted on | by Jeff Ketner

For those of us who spend our working hours focused on retail technology, April 2012 was a landmark month, for two reasons.

First, IBM announced that it was selling its POS business to Toshiba on April 16 – exiting the business that it started nearly 40 years ago and dominated for decades. To someone who started his retail tech PR and marketing career working with POS companies such as Wincor Nixdorf, Triversity and 360Commerce, this was a watershed event. IBM owned the POS industry. To other POS hardware manufacturers, IBM was the #1 competitor and the standard against which they were always compared. IBM was also the preferred hardware partner for virtually every POS software company, too, due to IBM’s brand reputation and unparalleled reach into retail.

I’ll leave it to the retail industry analysts to dissect all the reasons behind IBM’s decision (and for an excellent analysis by IHL’s Greg Buzek, click here). However, one reason that Greg mentions stood out above all the others: the continued rise of mobile, which leads me to the second point.

When the annual RIS/Gartner Technology Study was released early last month, retailers cited “mobile POS with payment” as their top technology for 2012. Retailers also ranked “developing a mobile enterprise and/or store strategy” as their #2 action item over the next 18 months – second only to social media.

Is mobile POS one of the main reasons that IBM is saying “adios” to the POS market? Certainly margin erosion in POS hardware was the key reason, but apart from that, I think it’s all about the shift to mobile. And in fact, IHL’s research shows that 72% of specialty retailers plan to roll out mobile POS, and they’ll also be purchasing 20% fewer traditional POS terminals.

Of course, traditional POS isn’t going to disappear completely, at least not anytime soon. But there are compelling economic and customer service advantages behind retail’s continuing rush to mobile. In years to come, I think we’ll see fewer cash wraps in stores, especially department stores and specialty, freeing up retailers to rethink and redesign the retail store experience. The work that Ketner Group is doing with our clients in mobile POS, mobile commerce and location-based mobile marketing is certainly hastening the transition.

April, 2012: IBM exits the retail POS that it founded, and mobile POS is crowned the #1 technology in retail. It’s no coincidence – and it’s one of the reasons that retail tech fascinates and intrigues me, with surprises and twists as new technologies continue to unfold.

I Need a Doctor (to Bring Me Back to Life)

Posted on | by Ketner Group | 1 Comment on I Need a Doctor (to Bring Me Back to Life)

“I Need a Doctor” I Need A Doctor (single), Dr. Dre & Eminem © 2011
I’m a very musical person. If I’m not talking, I’m singing and if I’m doing neither of those, then I guarantee I have a song stuck in my head to which I’m bouncing noiselessly along. Lately, I’ve been on a hip-hop (rap) kick. Nothing gets me more pumped at the gym, into the work zone and easily through rush hour than emcees spitting their rhymes through the mic and into my headphones. And no one does it better than Eminem (warning: major celeb crush). Because this is what’s in my head at the moment, I’ve taken the titles of some of my favorite Eminem songs as inspiration for a blog post to help companies experiencing common PR challenges.

Do you feel like you “Need a Doctor” for your company’s PR program? I’m no doctor—and neither is Marshall Mathers, Eminem or his alter ego, Slim Shady—but we can use his beats to help us structure common PR challenges companies face every day.

[Warning: If you’re offended by strong or suggestive language, avoid listening to the songs hyperlinked below.]

“The Real Slim Shady” The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem © 2000
Is another company imitating your business’ main messaging and value points? They say that ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,’ but I just find it annoying. Let’s combat this unoriginal behavior and have the ‘real slim shady’ stand up, please. If no one can do it better than you, they shouldn’t be able to say it better than you, so take back what’s yours with these steps:

  • Find a better way to say it: Refresh your corporate messaging to stay ahead of the copycats. Don’t let follower companies ride off of your success—refresh your messaging and find new ways to talk about the great things you do.
  • Find new SEO terms: Search terms are always changing in frequency. If your competitors have caught on to the key words and it has become a little crowded, analyze your industry’s SEO landscape to see what other terms your audience is typing into Google’s box.
  • Call them out: Go on, point the finger. In a classy way. It’s okay to say that you’re the only company that provides XYZ to ABC in exactly this 123 way. Don’t be afraid to describe why you’re different (…or better) than your competition. Just make sure you have the proof to back up your assertions.

“No Love” Recovery, Eminem © 2010
Are your Facebook and Twitter pages lacking in the love department? If you are aching for more fans, “likes,” and followers, follow these steps:

  • What are you saying? Analyze the content you’re posting. If you’re only tooting your own horn, lay off for a while. Post and tweet interesting industry articles or general questions to engage your audiences. Ex: What are you doing this weekend? Free #Starbucks drink for the person with the most interesting plans!
  • Engage to get visibility: For Twitter folks, “retweeting” and responding directly to people can go a long way in personalizing your online interaction with customers or prospects. Also, make sure to use hashtags whenever appropriate so that potential new followers tracking those interests see your updates.
  • The game is on: For Facebook folks, we’ve found that promoting competitions on Facebook can significantly boost your “likes.” One of our clients hosted a YouTube video challenge and to qualify, participants were required to “like” the company on Facebook, first. They boosted their Facebook fan base by over 3,000 fans during this competition. Continue reading →

Spambots? I don’t think so.

Posted on | by Ketner Group

I can’t think of a single person that likes to receive spam of any sort. It’s particularly obnoxious when it stacks up on your dining table, or backs up your inbox on an already hectic day. I hate it, you hate–we all hate spam.

One of my least favorite parts of being in PR is being considered spammy—say someone feels I have spammed them, when I think I reached out to them in good faith. I’ve done my research; I thought there was a connection. It’s a fairly common (mis?)conception of the public relations industry that as a whole we sit around plotting ways to send a release to as many people who DON’T care as possible. This begs the question, though, of why we would do that? It’s a waste of our time to reach out to people who are outside our clients’ interests. Maybe for true spambots it’s done out of laziness, but it’s a fact that individuals/outlets directly interested in a piece of news are the easiest coverage to secure, and low hanging fruit is the easiest fruit to harvest. It makes no sense to purposefully target anyone not interested in your topic—it yields no desirable response and serves a very poor ROI on time, indeed.

We take media relations very seriously at KG; in fact, building relationships with editors and writers in the verticals we serve is one of my most favorite parts of being in PR. We meet a lot of truly wonderful individuals and count many of them as friends. We build our media lists carefully, a combination of organization knowledge based on personal relationships built over time, and time-consuming publication- and individual-specific research based on industry and topic. In addition to day-to-day updates, KG goes through our active lists in their entirety annually, if not more often, to make any additions or deletions necessary as our clients’ products and services evolve and media outlets’ coverage areas change.

Of course, we’re not perfect. Here lies what I consider to be one of the challenges of modern-day, long-tail PR, where everyone has a website and/or a blog and everyone’s contact information is in the public domain–it simultaneously grows both more and less difficult to perfectly target the most relevant audience. It’s easier than ever in the Internet Age to search for and identify someone who covers your topic, let’s say Self-Propelled Gizmos, but it can also lead to more mistakes. The long tail benefits PR folks since there are so many niche outlets to cover your specific topics, but the niches become so, well, niche, that it’s all-too-easy to inadvertently reach out to someone who covers Green Gizmos but not Self-Propelled Gizmos.

Just because someone has written about Gizmos before, doesn’t mean they still cover them, and can sometimes take offense that you don’t know they now cover Doo Dads exclusively—of course Google can’t broadcast internal editorial decisions, and unlike the newspapers of yore that were trashed at the end of the day, past (and sometimes very recent) coverage of Gizmos lives on online, occasionally leading well-meaning PR folks astray. Someone’s name can make it onto a registered press list for a Gizmo show, when in reality they’re not press at all and couldn’t care less about your Gizmos. The myriad of ways one could inadvertently contact the wrong individual is enough to make you paranoid.

In the end, I find the best solution is to just be human, after all, we are human, not spambots. Do your best to research and reach out to only relevant media contacts. Respond sincerely when a media contact lets you know a mistake has been made. Fix the issue so as to not repeat the mistake. Know you did your best and that sometimes these things happen, and you will do better in the future. Amen.