It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on Marketing Conversation, but I return bearing a gift!

I was setting up a social media news release for HowToPhil and decided to try out Bootstrap from Twitter as a framework. After a few hours I constructed my SMNR and then also stripped out all the HowToPhil branding to make a template I could release to all of you:

Check out the HowToPhil SMNR

Download the Clean And Simple Social Media News/Press Release By HowToPhil

Take a look at what the Clean And Simple Social Media News/Press Release Template looks like before you modify it

You can quickly set up a social media news/press release using this template if you have a fairly decent understanding of HTML, CSS, javascript, etc.

The latest version will always be available on HowToPhil.com.

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions for making the template better. I’m also interested in links to sites that are using my template and just good old fashion compliments.

It is an undeniable fact that everyone has started to take notice of the powerful impact that a well targeted blogger outreach campaign can have on a product.

PR shops tailored specifically at reaching bloggers are popping up all over the place, and why shouldn’t they? There are millions of bloggers and even more blog readers. It would be a tragedy to leave these influencers untapped.In my position at Abraham Harrison

I am fortunate enough to serve as a bit of a gate-keeper in regards to the various pitches that come in for Chris Abraham.

Since we are in the industry of blogger outreach, and have been for 5 years now, I find these pitches to be quite interesting (even if they aren’t necessarily pitches that are applicable to Chris).

I like to look at the layout of the pitch. Are they tracking the email? Do they include links? Where are they linking to? Is there a social media news release? How easy are they making it for bloggers to post about their product?

Now I have a confession to make. On occasion, I like to take this curiosity one step further (I view it as scoping out the competition) and well, I like to respond. But not with your typical responses of “Great, I’ll make sure Chris sees this!” or “Thank you, but no, this isn’t a fit”. I like to throw them curve balls.

Most recently Chris received a timely pitch for a Facebook app called The Mural of Love (here, I will even throw y’all a bone and provide the link he was sent http://apps.facebook.com/themural).

What caught my attention was this email was a follow up email to an earlier sent message that I had merely chosen to ignore. I admired their persistence, it is something we incorporate into our campaigns as well. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

So, I read the pitch and clicked the link.

Side note: to access the application I had to grant permission to my Facebook page, that is where I declined and lost interest altogether. I find whenever I do that, “I” end up posting on ex-boyfriend’s walls, or inviting my 75-year old Nana to play “Drug Wars” with me, completely without my knowledge or endorsement. Had I been provided with a Social Media News Release and more information before having to allow access perhaps I would have continued. I digress, back to the story.

Now, if any of you know anything about Chris you know this…While he may be a hopeless romantic/social media guru, the odds of him combining these two things and paying to send virtual teddy bears, flowers, and chocolates to his potential suitors’ Facebook pages are pretty slim. At his age, and this point in his seasoned love life, I truly hope he has advanced past this type of digital flirtation. For goodness sakes, he is a Forbes Top 50 Most Powerful Social Media Influencer, he can’t just be posting teddy bears all over the place!

Curiosity killed the cat and I had to email back. I said….

“Thank you, XXXXXX, but Chris is a middle aged bachelor so I am not sure that this app has much relevance to him.

I do admire your persistence, the brevity of your message model, and as a fellow practitioner I have some suggestions. I really think you all could benefit from incorporating social media news releases into your pitches.

When you are “cold emailing” and asking someone to click on a link and grant access to their Facebook wall more information prior to making that request would be beneficial. We do social media news releases for all of our clients. They not only make it easier for bloggers to post, but they also provide any and all information available for the blogger to research.

So they can rest assured that this is a legitimate pitch, offer, product, etc. I would love to hop on a call with you and/or your CEO and talk a little bit further about SMNR’s and how we might be able to help you offer them for your clients.”

What response do you think I got back?

………….radio silence……………

Which resulted in what? Me writing this post as a precautionary tale of how you need to have a contingency plan for all kinds of responses.

Bloggers are an eclectic, cheeky, and brutally honest bunch. You can’t just fire and forget because you don’t like the response you get back, or it is something out of the ordinary.

The out of the ordinary responses are the ones you have to be the most careful with!

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…And he gets double credit for being 33, my favorite number. The man, the myth, the legend has done it again. Abraham Harrison President Chris Abraham made the cut this week as one of Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers. Way to go! He’s in great company alongside Chris Brogan, President of Human Works and Gary Vaynerchuk– wine and video king. The list was compiled using PeekYou’s social pull metrics, a handy tool measuring the number of people in your secondary networks. Check out the whole list and let us know who else you think you have made the cut.

Related articles

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• Detailed analysis of the perfect blogger pitch (socialmedia.biz)
• Christmas came early for the Abraham Harrison team (marketingconversation.com)
• Being Pretty Isn’t Enough for Social Media Success (socialmedia.biz)
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I’m hungry. A burger sounded good. Any West Coast suggestions? While you ponder, check out this week’s social media infographic from Bundlepost Social Media. Yes, I know there’s many Wendy’s advertisement connotations but it’s also an interesting way to look at the substance of strategy and execution in online marketing. Okay enough brainstorming time, where am I getting this burger from?

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Our esteemed leader had his television début on Washington Business Report a few weeks ago on WJLA ABC7. He was invited on by Rebecca Cooper because she stumbled upon the Abraham Harrison website and liked our humor and our business.  So, here’s the video of the segment for you to check out:

Happy Friday!

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WaveMetrix recently released the sixth edition of their quarterly report, covering social media trends. Keyword this quarter? Creativity!

Brands profiled include HP, Axe, and Converse and the creative ways they’ve ellicited positive responses from fans using social media. Standout tactics include Hewlett-Packards use of Twitter hashtags, then printing the 2012 consumer wishes on balloons; Pairs of Converse boots in mystery locations with only Facebook posts as clues, and Axe’s outreach to fans in the creation process of an online graphic novel as promotion for a new spray.

With social media advances, it’s no longer a question of technology, but rather a question of creating conversation. WaveMetrix notes the importance of letting fans lead the discussion about your brand. Consumer 2 Consumer communication increased tenfold in Q3 through tactics of “Twitter Parties” and gaming apps.

WaveMetrix also reiterates the importance of targeting specific demographics. There’s an abundance of brands aiming their initiatives at very defined age and gender groups including Harvey Nichols, Dr Pepper and Diesel. Of course this approach has only been successful when agencies research and identify exactly what kinds of humor and intellects will hit home with their audiences. Jobs well done? Harvey Nichols “Walk of Shame” ad campaign didn’t alienate older audiences because it poked fun in a positive way at its younger demographic.  Jobs not so well done? Dr. Pepper‘s “No Women Allowed” caused tension in both male and female audiences.

The quarterly trend report includes a lot of analysis of real-time Tweets. Marketers have found that there is a very small window of opportunity to leverage a lot of engagement during events like the Consumer Electronics Show or the X Factor finale. In order for consumers to be interested and active, the goals of the conversation need to be consistent.

Takeaways for Q3: Consistency, Content, Creativity. Let’s see what the relationship between these three entails in Q1. Download the full report for more information.

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All signs suggest that the new frontier of marketing is data mining, which is a cross-discipline practice that involve collecting user data from social media archives and other sources. This data can be used by marketing firms in order to get more accurate, empirical information about trends so you can customize campaigns more effectively. The advantage of data mining is having an edge on competitors, the disadvantage is the additional dent in your budget that will come with allocating the proper resources towards this challenging new strategy.

Whether you’re compiling profiles on consumer reactions to vending machines or environmentally safe cleaning detergent, data mining can offer a unique approach to both marketing and advertising. Fortunately, you don’t necessarily have to eviscerate your budget in order to tap into its strength. There is such a thing as ‘Do-It-Yourself’ (DIY) data mining. A creative marketer should know how to use social media in order to construct compelling consumer profiles, which can be utilized in multiple campaigns across multiple demographics. Creating a Facebook fan page and gauging the metrics of ‘likes’, comments, and shares is just the beginning. So too is wielding Twitter as a meme-tester, or a way to glean which trends are flourishing and which trends are waning.

A truly creative marketer will embed him/herself into various social media forums, niche or no, in order to understand consumer trends. Etsy.com, for example, is a social media site for craft-makers who create DIY jewelery, clothes and other crafts. The fact that it’s DIY is incidental; Etsy is a treasure trove of taste and preference information. Similarly, Deviant Art, Pinterest, and any number of online communities can be ‘mined’, so to speak, for information.

Is this predatory? Well, perhaps. But since when did the online world have any sort of grassroots purity that was distinct from corporate interest. Marketers of the future will have to forgo whatever compunction they may have toward collecting personal (though not ‘private’) information through publicly available means. This not hacking into organic communities and plundering their creative reserves, it’s leveraging transparent data in order to create more accurate and focused marketing pitches.

Whatever marketing strategies you employ, the future will be a place of online information gathering. More people are reporting their likes, dislikes, and preferences online than ever before and the success of many marketing campaigns will depend on the ability to interpret this information in a meaningful way. DIY data mining offers a significant method towards this end.

Everyone talks about social media plans. But do you really know what it takes to create one? A social media plan, whether it is for personal use or for your business, isn’t just one set of rules, but many different guidelines. Here are step-by-step guidelines that can help you with your plan:

1. Start listening.

It’s important to know what people are already saying about your brand. By using specific key words you can set up a dashboard with feed readers, creating an easy to understand display of what people are saying about your brand. Try Netvibes for your dashboard, it’s the platform I prefer. Also, set up Google Alerts for your brand so you know whenever anyone says something new and relevant that will show up on Google. The key is to know what communities you want to be involved in, before you throw yourself into the vast world of social media.

2. Determine your goal.

Know what you want to accomplish. Do you want to increase sales, increase brand awareness or gain more traffic to your site? Know your goal before you start, that way you’ll know what you need to be tracking when it comes to the measurement portion of your plan.

3. Know who you are and who is best suited to show that in your company.

Outspoken Media has some great thoughts on knowing who you are. Generally, it’s having the ability to tell a story about yourself or about your brand that is going to make other people want to interact with you online. On that note: DO NOT LIE! Being transparent is extremely important, because if you’re not it only takes about 4 seconds to do a Google search and find out the truth.

Knowing who you are means knowing who your customers are, too. Figure out who your target audience is. Knowing the demographics and psychographics of your audience will help you with step 4 when you choose which channels to use.

After determining who you are, make sure the person you’ve chosen to implement the social media plan reflects the image you would like to maintain online. You also need to make sure you have the time and the necessary resources, because if you stop a few months into it, you’ve wasted not only time, but money that could have been better spent on another marketing plan.

4. Decide what channels to use.

Not every social networking site is going to fit your goal. It’s important to choose the sites that will. Although it would make sense to use facebook if your goal is customer communication or brand exposure, it wouldn’t make sense to use it if your goal is SEO. Take a look at this chart from Drew’s Marketing Minute  it will help you decide what sites work best for your goal.

5. Create rules.

You need rules for engaging with people online. What are you going to do when someone says you’re doing something great? And what are you going to do when someone tells you that your brand sucks? Make sure your rules leave room for flexibility but create a solid guideline for how to react in both good and bad situations.

6. Creating and Scheduling Content.

Now you’re ready to start creating content. Know how often you want to be pushing information out, making sure you don’t flood your fans and followers news feed. The best way to ensure this doesn’t happen is to schedule all of your posts. Try Hootesuite or Tweetdeck, they’re both easy to use and free. Watch your noise to signal ratio as well. People don’t really care about what you’re eating for lunch as much as they care about the big sale over the weekend. Remember, quality over quantity.

7. Engage, be genuine and be transparent.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Be transparent and be genuine. No one wants to talk to a robot and no one wants to talk to a liar. Engage with people online. Decide what you’re going to do to encourage participation. You don’t want to be talking at people online, you want to talk with them.

8. Measure, analyze and rework your plan.

Are you accomplishing your goal? If your goal was to increase sales, have you? If your goal was to get more traffic on your site, what does Google Analytics say? Do you have more traffic then you did before you started your social media plan? If something isn’t working take time to rework and rethink. If your plan is working but you’re running out of money to fund it, analyze your overall marketing plan and consider cutting your losses; maybe you can get rid of something else and focus on social media.

Don’t expect results right away. A social media plan can take anywhere from two to six months, and sometimes longer, before you really start to see results. And if it didn’t work for you, figure out if it’s worth it. If your brand was doing better with traditional forms of marketing, then it’s probably a good idea to stick to what works for your brand.

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An online business has the luxury of avoiding many expenses and issues that affect traditional companies. It probably doesn’t have to lease commercial space or use a StorageMart to store old files. It doesn’t need to worry as much about its geographic base, employee commuting costs, and storage inventory. The fact that so many startups these days focus their efforts online, consequently, should come as little surprise considering the substantial cost advantages.

But what an online business lacks in bricks and mortar, it all-too-often also lacks in the arena of credibility. For all its increased hassles and costs, a traditional small business secures a measure of credibility simply by operating a storefront in your local area. The physical space with an awning out front signals strongly to the passing world that a reputable and likely profitable enterprise operates inside. A small, online business has no similar ability to automatically establish credibility. The consumer, for our purposes, does not perceive a store and a website as the same thing.

Fortunately, however, even the smallest online business has the ability to establish credibility on a national level. There are many ways to go about doing this. Here’s a quick primer:

Grow Your Facebook Page

For a small business, the more its Facebook page has – of “Likes,” posts, friends, pictures, etc – the more credibility it can assume. Work on growing your page by getting friends, family members, and colleagues to “Like” it; by posting professionally-worded comments and promotions on at least a weekly basis; by uploading photographs of your company’s logos and designs; and by “Liking” the Facebook pages of vertical companies that enjoy a measure of credibility.

Maximize Professionalism on Your Site

When making your website, it is important to ensure that every word, image, and any other detail are placed with an eye towards the establishment of a crisp and professional design. This does not mean that your site needs to have dozens of pages and an assortment of different styles and media. Rather, you should just insure that proper attention is given to your specific wording and your layout.

SEO

Many businesses scoff at SEO practices on the notion that a spot or two in Google search results is nothing to lose sleep over. But studies have shown that sites listed higher in results are far more likely accessed – and, even if they are not, their appearance towards the top confers upon them a status and a credibility going forward. For this reason, SEO may be a beneficial option for your online firm.

Hopefully these tips can help your online business continue to build its credibility. In the internet world, unlike in the traditional one, businesses are assumed guilty until proven innocent as far as credibility is concerned. This means that credibility is attainable – but that it won’t come naturally. It’s your job as a manager to make it happen.

So many marketing professionals are already trying to redefine social media for the coming year. Will Facebook and Twitter maintain their clout or will smaller start-ups sneak up from behind? Is it time to pull a “Myspace” on Foursquare and LinkedIn? Something to ponder over the weekend. Thanks to Josef Ohlsson Collentine for sourcing this infographic.

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As 2011 has come and gone, there are many things that we can take away from the year as to better our experiences with social media. Whether you deal with contract management systems or sell cars, your online reputation is highly important and how you use social media could easily make or break you in a matter of minutes. So take a minute to learn from some of 2011′s top social media PR fails, and reflect on how you can avoid doing any of the following:

Too Soon, Kenneth Cole. Too Soon.

Twitter seems to be the hotbox of bad social media moves this year, and no one offended a nation quicker than Kenneth Cole. With a simple February Tweet stating “Millions in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available,” Kenneth Cole nearly ruined its brand. The company did apologize an hour and a half later, but damage was already done. A fake Twitter account was created, KennethColePR, which further exploited the company’s original poor move.

Lesson: Never exploit a controversial situation to promote your company or brand – even if you and a few co-workers think it is funny. Others most likely won’t and those who were directly affected will be down right outraged and most likely come after your brand.

Chrysler Offends the Motor City

Within months of releasing a marketing campaign declaring its cars where “imported from the U.S.,” Chrysler found itself in a bit of a mess when one a member of its employed social media agency Tweeted “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f*cking drive.” The city the company is located in nearly revolted against Chrysler, and demanded immediate apologies – which came a little too late. In fact, before apologizing, Chrysler claimed its Twitter account was hacked, only later to have that statement proven wrong.

Lesson: Never outright attack a group of people – especially if your company is located within the same city and thrives off of its workforce. Also, when you are caught red-handed don’t lie. Come clean, and the masses will be more likely to forgive you.

Wiener Poses for the Camera

U.S. Representative Anthony Wiener ruined his entire career by submitting a few inappropriate pics to a mistress via Twitter. Within hours the pictures went viral, and every new studio in the country was questioning what Rep. Wiener was doing. Worse yet, was that Wiener denied the entire event publicly only to later come clean about his actions. Now the public didn’t trust him or his judgment, and were quick to force him in to resignation.

Lesson: Always think twice before hitting the send button. Just because you think a post or picture that is being sent is private doesn’t mean that it will remain private. In fact, it could go public, or even worse, viral, and destroy your reputation in a matter of minutes. Again, like the Chrysler debacle, don’t lie when you are caught red-handed.

Social media is an integral part of any business’ success. However, with its use also comes a high level of responsibility. One false Facebook post or Twitter Tweet can ruin a reputation that took years to build. So before you submit, remember to look at what you are actually posting. Your company’s longevity depends on it.

I was featured in a segment on Washington Business Report with Rebecca Cooper this morning on WJLA ABC7. The interview was a segment that featured DC-area small businesses. In it, I discussed social media marketing, long-tail blogger outreach, and blogger PR.  Please check it out and let me know what you think:

• Testomonial from Miriam’s Kitchen (chrisabraham.com)
• Happy holidays from Abraham Harrison! (marketingconversation.com)
• This humble blog made PRWeb’s 25 Essential PR Blogs list (chrisabraham.com)
• Free ‘Twitter for Business’ Webinar on April 30 (socialmedia.biz)
• How to write an irresistible blogger pitch email (chrisabraham.com)
• Christmas came early for the Abraham Harrison team (marketingconversation.com)
• Authentic Internet inbound marketing the way God intended (chrisabraham.com)
• Detailed analysis of the perfect blogger pitch (socialmedia.biz)
• I would have appreciated an apology (socialmedia.biz)
• Eccentricity and creativity- finally, a correlation (marketingconversation.com)

Search engine optimization and public relations go hand in hand –just like peanut butter and jelly. While it’s possible to have one without the other, to maximize their effectiveness, you need to employ both tactics.

Online PR is an excellent tool for creating content that creates natural, organic backlinks by utilizing keywords and links within press releases. It can also improve your reputation by creating positive content that pushes negative reviews down in the search engines.

However, PR isn’t just for businesses.  Individuals, such as celebrities and politicians, take advantage of public relations all the time.  Nevertheless, there are many traps you can fall into if you don’t know what you’re doing, and the results of these pitfalls can be disastrous.

The current presidential race has presented several examples of public relations faux pas that could have been avoided.   Here are just a few:

Herman Cain Denies Sexual Allegations

Background:  Over the past few months, several women have come forward alleging that Herman Cain sexually harassed them.   Another woman came forward claiming that she engaged in a long-term affair with the presidential hopeful.  Cain denied all of these allegations, claiming he had never even met some of the women.

The Pitfall:  Using the “deny, deny, deny” technique (also known as the “Liar Liar Pants on Fire” technique).

What he should have done: The absolute worst thing you can do during a crisis situation is tell a lie—especially when you are in the public eye.  Someone, somewhere, will eventually catch you, and then your credibility will plummet even further.  Cain should have taken control of the story by confirming what events had taken place, and making a public apology if necessary.  You would think that Cain would have learned from the Bill Clinton scandal and the Anthony Weiner controversy and would have realized that lies come back to haunt you. But I suppose everybody thinks they are the exception to the rule.  Hint:  You’re not.  Better to play it safe than sorry.

Michele Bachmann Loses New Hampshire Campaign Staff

 Background: Back in October, Michele Bachmann’s entire New Hampshire campaign staff resigned, citing frustration with the campaign.  When Bachmann was interviewed about the incident, she responded that she was not aware that anybody had resigned.  In the weeks following the incident, the New Hampshire campaign staff started giving additional details about their sudden resignation.  They stated that they were frustrated because. Bachmann’s national staff had essentially ignored the New Hampshire team, and had not paid them their wages in more than a month.

The Pitfall:  Ignorance.

What She Should Have Done: Ignorance was shown both in Bachmann’s lack of knowledge about her New Hampshire team quitting, and in neglecting them to the point that they resigned.  It’s important to always know what is going on in your organization—from knowing that your employees are frustrated, to knowing that they no longer work for you.

Disgruntled employees can be the biggest threat to any organization because they know the dirt, and can easily take to the media to spill it.  I know there’s a saying out there that “any publicity is good publicity,” but this is not the case.  Practicing internal PR is a must in order to manage your organization effectively.

Rick Perry’s Debate Blunders

Background: Rick Perry has been infamous this campaign season for his terrible debating skills.  At one point in October, the Texas governor made a comment that he didn’t want to participate in the debates anymore.  He later changed his mind after he was criticized (and I’m sure after his campaign staff told him the move would be political suicide), but his debating skills have not improved.   Since his statement, Perry has been known as the “forgetful” politician—forgetting which government agencies he would eliminate if he were elected president, forgetting the nation’s legal voting age, forgetting how many Supreme Court justices there are and forgetting the name of a Supreme Court justice he was criticizing.

On a search engine optimization related note, Perry currently holds the title for the most hated video on YouTube, which is reportedly the world’s second-largest search engine.    The video currently has more than 660,000 dislikes, stealing the title from Rebecca Black’s “Friday” video.

The Pitfall:  Being unprepared.

What He Should Have Done:  Practice speaking in front of a mirror, and bring note cards to debates and interviews.  Just do anything but wing it.  It is essential to be prepared in PR; not doing so can hurt your reputation as an expert and bring about unwanted publicity.

Jon Huntsman “Sells Out” on Global Warming

Background:  In August, Jon Huntsman tweeted, “To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming.” However, just a few weeks ago at the Heritage Foundation, Huntsman seemed to back off that statement by implying that science might not have all the answers.

The Pitfall:  Not sticking to your guns.

What He Should Have Done:  Jon Huntsman should have either a) never tweeted his position on global warming or b) made his statement at the Heritage Foundation to be in line with the tweet.  A social media marketing strategy could have done wonders in this situation.  You can’t have it both ways to please everyone.  If you try, you just end up disappointing everybody.

Newt Gingrich Thinks Poor Kids Should Clean Dirty Toilets

Background:  On more than one occasion, Newt Gingrich has stated that he would do away with child labor laws in order to allow “poor kids” to work as janitors and earn money for their families.  He also stated that he believes schools should get rid of their janitorial staff and hire the students to clean the schools.  Gingrich claims that this would teach children a good work ethic and give students a sense of pride in their schools.  Gingrich has since backed off from his comments.

The Pitfall:  Offending your publics.

What He Should Have Done:  Gingrich should have done some quick research on his publics to find out if they agreed with eliminating child labor laws.  By making such a bold, unpopular statement, Gingrich offended many voters, which could jeopardize his presidential bid.

Rick Santorum Feels the Wrath of the Bloggers

Background: Almost 10 years ago, Rick Santorum made some disparaging remarks about the gay community.  One blogger, Dan Savage, was angered by the remarks and held a contest on his blog to redefine the meaning of the word “Santorum.”  The new definition was meant to be shocking and offensive.   Savage then encouraged his followers to link to the definition.  The campaign was so successful, that it outranks the senators own website and Wikipedia page.  Savage recently threatened to redefine the word “Rick” if the senator does not play nice.  Last year, Santorum approached Google asking them to remove the website from its rankings, but Google decided to take a transparent approach.

The Pitfall:  Offending the wrong people

What He Should Have Done:  So, as mentioned before, it’s impossible to please everybody.  However, Santorum has done little to fix his Google problem.  Santorum should have employed a few search engine optimization tactics to outrank the website and nip the problem in the butt.

Mitt Romney Flip-Flops

Background:  Over the past few years, Mitt Romney has been famous for taking a stance on an issue one day, and then changing that stance, causing him to be labeled a “flip-flopper.”  There is even an entire website dedicated to keeping track of all the flip-flops that Mitt Romney has made.

The Pitfall: Trying to please everybody.

What He Should Have Done: The fact of the matter is, you’re not going to please everybody, and you shouldn’t try. Mitt Romney needs to concentrate on pleasing his publics.  Utilizing online public relations would also be a good idea to offset the flip-flop website.

Obama’s Online Store Took All My Money

 Background:  Barack Obama hasn’t really ramped up his campaign yet, but I wanted to keep this blog post as unbiased as possible.  So this anecdote is a personal one.  Recently, I was trying to purchase two coffee mugs for some Obama fans on my Christmas list.  I put my credit card info in, and a dialogue box popped up saying “I’m sorry, your payment did not go through, please try again.”  I then proceeded to “try again” 42 times before eventually giving up.  A few days later I received a bank statement in the mail saying I had been charged overdraft fees.  After a tearful call to the bank, I was told that while I was never officially charged for my purchase, I had $40.00 withheld 42 times on my bank account.  Long story short, those coffee mugs cost me a lot more than $40.

The Pitfall:  Detail disorientation.

What He Should Have Done: OK, so I doubt the president himself is the code monkey for his own website, as I’m sure he has more pressing issues to worry about (like war and the economy and stuff).  However, his campaign team needs to become more detail oriented – especially if they are promoting said coffee mug over the social media channels every day.   Mistakes can hurt a company’s reputation and cost a lot of money, and a political campaign is no different.

Candidates RSVP “No” to Trump Debate

Background: Donald Trump announced that he would be hosting a Republican debate on Dec. 27.  Trump also announced that he would officially endorse one of the candidates for president following the debate.

All but two (Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum) of the Republican candidates have said that they would not attend the debate because they were afraid that Trump would find a way to turn the event into an episode of “The Apprentice.” Critics say that this is not becoming of the presidency.    Trump was eventually forced to cancel the debate.

The Pitfall:  None.

What They Should Have Done.   This is one move political candidates have done right.  It shows the American people that they take the campaign very seriously and do not wish to see the campaign turn into a reality TV show for sheer entertainment.

Whether you’re a business looking to improve your image, or an individual looking for advice on how to manage your reputation, public relations can do wonders.  If you’re seeking more common public relations pitfalls and how to avoid them, check out this PRMarketing.com e-book.

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• New Hampshire Polls: Will We See An Iowa Bump? (huffingtonpost.com)
• US Republican rivals chase Romney (news.smh.com.au)
• Santorum, Romney Focus on Obama as Huntsman, Gingrich Target Frontrunners (foxnews.com)
• Romney retains strong lead in New Hampshire as Santorum gains in polls (guardian.co.uk)
• Tables Turn on Romney as Rivals Assail Him in New Hampshire (businessweek.com)

Internet domain registrar giant GoDaddy gave support to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) last week. It quickly withdrew support but not before a backlash of customer transfers caused front page news.

A Reddit user started a thread Thursday, Dec 22 calling for GoDaddy loyalists to drop their domain names after GoDaddy showed its SOPA support. The SOPA act, also known as H.R. 3261 proposes allowing the government to block any site which has been accused of copyright infringement. It’s raised a ruckus and not in a totally positive way. Many critics are worried that the vague wording within the bill will lead the government to knock off sites too easily.

Users hypothesized December 29 as the day of reckoning for GoDaddy. GoDaddy made bold steps, even making public announcements that it heavily opposes SOPA:

“Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation – but we can clearly do better… It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.”

However, naysayers had another think coming. Results show that GoDaddy actually had a positive December 29, netting 20,748 more domains at the end of the day. There were nearly double the number of transfers in as out (27,843 in to 14,492 out) as well as more new registrations than deleted domains (43,304 new registrations compared to 35,907 deletions) (Daily Changes).

A week later, the boycott has more or less fizzled and as PR initiatives continue to show, sometimes any press is good press.

Related articles

• Opinion: Why GoDaddy hasn’t earned my forgiveness (macworld.com)
• GoDaddy’s Now Officially Against SOPA (gizmodo.com.au)
• GoDaddy goes against SOPA (news.cnet.com)
• GoDaddy goes against SOPA (news.cnet.com)
• Why GoDaddy Hasn’t Earned My Forgiveness (pcworld.com)

With New Years Day out of the way, it’s time to officially start the year.

You get one cursory day to recover from the night before and REALLY write those New Years resolutions and now is the time to grab 2012 by the horns. Sue Reynolds of Carmine Media wrote an interesting article for Business Insider about her social media wish list for the year. Ultimate goal? measurement. Here are some of her top ideas-

Fan Interest Graphing- Facebook Insights is a good example. Excellent information on fan page demographics including key factors like gender, age and external referrals. Reynolds points out that Facebook Insights could be improved with content on topics like general interests so that users are being kept consistently engaged.

Social Media Dashboard- A master tool combining my handy friends Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Google Alerts AND Social Mention. Music to my ears. A tool that could aggregate all social media accounts into one easy-to-navigate dashboard, which is then follow-able by fans. Reynolds suggests Barry Hurd’s blog post on Social Media Dashboards as a good idea outline.

Trending Data- Yes Twitter offers tools to see what’s trending now and what’s trending where. But what about both? I may just want to know what was trending in Portland, OR on January 10, 2011. I’m going to assume the BCS National Championship (Go Ducks!), but to double check…

Know any tools that satisfy these social media measurement goals? Let me know.

Related articles

• Dead? Social Media’s Explosive Growth is Only Beginning (sazbean.com)
• Social Media in 2012 (debbiehemley.com)
• Don’t Assign Social Media to Bambi the Intern and Other 2012 Resolutions for Social Media (spiral16.com)
• Social Media: ROI vs. Correlation (pisocialmedia.com)
• On Social Media Becoming Social Business – David Armano (serve4impact.com)

Nothing more fitting as we close out the last week of 2011 than a vibrant look at the top resolutions ladies and gents are making and how well they’re faring. It’s so easy to say, “I’m going to blog every day! I’m going to blog and vlog and write a novel and become the digital marketing King/Queen of the world!” Sorry to disappoint…but Chris Abraham currently holds the King role around here. Ladies, we better step our game up! Thanks to the infographic savviness of Infographics Inspiration, explore and discuss:

The happiest of weekends and NYE’s to everyone around the globe! I’ll catch ya in 2012.

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• Resolutions for 2012 – The Prelude (firsthomediva.wordpress.com)
• Tips for Keeping Training Resolutions (trainingdaily.runnersworld.com)

A group of public interest organizations has endorsed the FTC‘s proposal to protect children from unauthorized online tracking. These groups include the Center for Digital Democracy, the World Privacy Forum and the Benton Foundation. They’re supporting updates to COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Ultimate goal? Curb the usage of cookies and tracking mechanisms that solely target those under eighteen.

The Center for Digital Democracy recently released a study showing that a whopping 81 percent of Websites targeted to kids use some form of tracking. It’s often for advertising purposes, and utilized for behavioral tracking.  A second analysis showed that these sites are failing to properly explain how and why this information is being collected.

“These findings demonstrate that children’s privacy is not being taken seriously by many of the leading U.S. online content providers targeted at young people”

“Given children’s limited cognitive abilities and the sophisticated nature of contemporary digital marketing and data collection, strong arguments can be made that behavioral targeting is an inappropriate, unfair and deceptive practice when used to influence children under 13”

-Collected comments from groups involved in discussion on Friday

Congress will likely tackle these ideas when consumer privacy legislation is discussed next year. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? I think child safety is of the utmost importance, and it’s important to know what kids are doing online for their safety’s sake, but if Websites aren’t being transparent about their goals, then two thumbs down.

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• Jeff Jarvis: FTC Fines Santa Claus for Violating Children’s Privacy (huffingtonpost.com)
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• Webkinz children’s site is subject of complaint to FTC (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Top 5 Legal Issues for App Developers (smallbiztechnology.com)
• Online Privacy for Kids: FTC Requests Comments (mediatechparenting.net)

The results aren’t overly surprising. Of the 21 countries surveyed, the majority have and use mobile phones. Pakistan seemed to be the lone exception with ownership only at 48%. Countries surveyed ranged from the US and Japan to Kenya and Indonesia, running the economic gamet. Sorry US, Spain takes home the prize of highest ownership at a chart-topping 96%. College grads and 20-somethings were most likely to use their mobile device the most in any country the study targeted.

As days of simple voice usage are far gone, the study delved deeper to explore which common uses of mobile phones accrewed most heavily in each country. Be it text, picture, video, internet usage, apps. The heavyweight remains voice, with texting coming in second and usage for picture/video lower than expected. Fun fact from the study? Only 9% of Pakistanis use their phones to send pictures or texts, they rank the lowest for usage.

(^Thanks, WebProNews!)

Pew’s research targeted social networking separately and broke down results according to those who do and do not have internet access. US and Israel top the charts at 50% and 53% respectively, for adults who partake in social media networking sites. When numbers were low in certain countries, Pew only had to point to lack of internet access which played the most major of key roles.

Interestingly enough, although age, income and proximity to internet were important defining factors, gender did not play a part in this study. There were no notable differences between female and male mobile/social networking usage. Hmm… now if only Pew asked HOW exactly males and females were networking…

Related articles

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• We Are Hitting Major Milestone: Time to stop calling it ‘mobile PHONE’ (communities-dominate.blogs.com)

With so many social networking sites out there, it’s nearly impossible to keep up, especially with the release of Google+ brand pages about a month ago. At this point, it may be hard to make yourself create and maintain another social media site for your business. Well, this one may be worth it because lets face it, it’s Google, and like we expected they’re integrating brand pages into organic search results in more ways than one.

Option A: Organic Search Results for Brand Page Updates

Choose your keywords carefully when posting updates to your brand pages because they’re popping up in organic search results. Make sure you’re optimizing your status updates to get the best SEO results. By using well thought-out key words, your brand page posts will increase in the Google ranking system, increasing your Google+ presence, and ultimately increasing traffic to your site.

Option B: Organic Search Results for Personal Pages

Now when people talk about your brand on their personal Google+ pages, it will show up as an organic search result. So make sure you’re always keeping an eye out for what other people are saying about your brand on Google+, because what they say may show up on the first page of a Google search for your brand. Create valuable and interesting posts that are share worthy to your Google+ viewers. Enticing people to share your post will get the right search results on the Google search page you want.

Thanks for the insight HubSpot Blog.

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• Google+ brand pages start appearing in Google search results (digitaltrends.com)
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Thank goodness, there is finally an answer to why everyone at Abraham Harrison happens to be both talented and eccentric.

Apparently the two run hand-in-hand. A recent article from Scientific American profiles Dean Kamen among other prolific technological and industrial talents whose interests and lifestyles stray from the norm.

Personally, I think Kamen’s day-to-day sounds magical. He resides on the seceded Connecticut island kingdom of North Dumpling where units of “pi” are the currency and visitors are given visas including spaces to indicate defining marks on both buttocks and face. My heart goes out to whichever North Dumpling dignitary is responsible for checking the buttocks marks.

Author Shelley Carson notes that

• People who are highly creative often have odd thoughts and behaviors—and vice versa.
• Both creativity and eccentricity may be the result of genetic variations that increase cognitive disinhibition—the brain’s failure to filter out extraneous information.
• When unfiltered information reaches conscious awareness in the brains of people who are highly intelligent and can process this information without being overwhelmed, it may lead to exceptional insights and sensations.

Scientific American also provides a really cool slideshow entitled “7 Ways to Cultivate Your Creative Side,” which I must admit, made me feel far more creative after. I’ve seen on a day-to-day basis working with the Abraham Harrison team that it’s all about surrounding yourself with people who will push your creativity to new heights, no matter how weird their methods may seem. As the great (and eccentric) Phillip Rhoades says:

 ”You don’t change the world by being sane. Genius leaps of history usually seem mad to the present.”

Related articles

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• Detailed analysis of the perfect blogger pitch (socialmedia.biz)

2011 was a monumental year for Twitter, a company which just five years prior was a virtually unknown Internet start-up. Their brand hit the headlines in spring by-way of the lewd acts of a congressman now in need of reputation repair services. In the months since, several founding members have fled the company they helped create, or have been asked to leave by upper management. The return of creator Jack Dorsey and resulting revamping of the Twitter experience are unmistakeably tied into these departures. All the while, Twitter continues to lose money despite growing, and receives no shortage of criticism that the allure of the social media service is falling flat.

In fact, these recent changes to Twitter have only been met with their own complaints – mostly the loss of certain features and the introduction of ostensibly unwelcome new ones. This is something that is to be expected from the fallout of the retooling of a widely popular digital product, but when Twitter is desperate for a pick-me-up, such lukewarm fanfare does little to make the changes immediately worth the hassle. With that said, a complete evaluation of Twitter’s decision to make drastic changes to its interface and offerings cannot be created with trust for sometime; Jack Dorsey, according to experts and analysts, is a forward-thinking technobrat liken to the late Steve Jobs. We may not be seeing the bigger picture he and the other heads of Twitter are seeing.

But when it comes to technological leaps, sometimes looking into the future isn’t the only perspective the thinkers involved ought to have. Looking backward at former mistakes is as critical a step in making big changes to something as popular and habitual as a social media service. Twitter need not look back farther than a few months – when the infamous “Dick” Bar came and went after unending hatred for the new addition forced Twitter’s hand. Indeed, obvious additions that occupy space on a familiar interface better be there to be useful, or otherwise few will be satisfied.

If Twitter needs further lessons, they ought to peer a little farther into the past, back to the moment when Facebook converted itself from a minimalistic electronic social resume service to a full-on aggregate and organizer of our social lives. The beginning was a rocky one during this transition for Facebook; the introduction of apps, games, and above all overt advertisements, put people off at the get go. As with Twitter, people appreciated the simplistic approach, especially when compared to Facebook’s chief competitor at the time, Myspace. When this simple structure was seemingly violated, people weren’t happy.

With that said, those of us who are skeptical about whether or not Twitter’s changes will improve it’s floundering status as a social media giant ought to be taking lessons from the past as well. Specifically, from the example previously mentioned regarding Facebook. Three years after the conversion from low-key involvement to full-on integration into our lives, few can question the social media service’s premier status within its field and within the larger construct of global communication. Indeed, there is still plenty of time for Twitter to gain a second wind and use it to carry their sales into the next stages of social media.

If you work in any kind of office or are even actively looking for employment, there is a good chance you are relying heavily on email for your communication needs. Everything from meeting memos to new resumes are sent through either an internal email system or a Gmail account. While it may seem like a super convenient way to communicate without actually talking, email is one of the biggest distractions we face everyday at work. If we are on Facebook all day long, why don’t we just combine our distractions into one easy to navigate package?

According to Fast Company, Atos, the largest IT firm in all of Europe, plans to completely eliminate email from their offices within the next three years. The CEO of the company states that it is an outdated communication tool and that smartphones, text, and social media are now the appropriate forms of business communication. The article also states that around twenty percent of businesses will do away with email by 2014.

If you speak to any American tween or teenager, they will probably be baffled by the way adults use email to communicate. Most of the next generation has started social media at a young age and see no reason to even have an email account. Schools are starting to use websites and even Facebook in order to communicate with each other.

With most professionals using their smartphones to communicate with each other, emails look just the same as SMS or social media alerts. For most people, email is not a way to stay informed and up to date, it is a method by which advertisers try to reach them. Instead of receiving messages from work, most people’s inbox looks like the side of a NASCAR. For every personal email you receive, there will be ten from daily deal sites and random spammers, akin to telemarketers you who just called you.

Instead of using email to communicate, internal work websites, social media, and text messaging should take place. While this sounds like a logical solution to the email problem, scammers will find new alternatives to the traditional “Nigerian Prince” scam. According to Cloudmark, con artists are already taking over text messaging services and spamming users out of their money. Most of these scams tell you to call a number in order to fix your checking account. Once on the line, you will be tricked into giving information to a fraudulent company.

Sometimes email is a good tool to use when you are sending out inquiries or doing sales outreach for your company. If you are already employed and looking for convenient internal communication, you should urge your company to eliminate the use of email and switch to a more useful option.

Samsung recently released a new demo (in Korean) of a transparent and flexible tablet that offers video, instant translation, and advanced mobile technology that is absolutely mesmerizing. This “tablet of the future” has a bendable 3D, clear screen with what seems to have the capability to display holographic images.

Although this concept has not yet hit the market, Samsung does intend to introduce real flexible phones to the public in early 2012.

The Samsung AMOLED reminds me much of Nokia‘s prototype, the “Kinetic Device.” Nokia is also working on introducing mobile phones with bendable displays and flexible interfaces. Click here for more info. on the Nokia Kinetic Device.

The AMOLED display is amazingly thin, yet tough and can even withstand the impact of a hammer, which has been shown in videos. I’m excited to see what other innovative concepts are to come.

Related articles

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• Samsung shows us what their flexible tablet technology could look like [Video] (inquisitr.com)
• Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)

A while back we at Abraham Harrison LLC released a downloadable Reputation Disaster training Simulation and had quite a few requests for a version that could be played in a web browser and embedded into websites and blogs. At long last, here it is! With this simulation you can learn the basics of an effective blogger outreach. I look forward to any feedback you have. Watch out for Blogger Bear!

Feel free to embed this simulation on your own site:
<iframe src="http://ahftp.com/repdis/small/embed.html" scrolling="no" frameBorder="0" style="width: 450px; height: 375px"></iframe><br /><a href="http://marketingconversation.com/?p=12493">Marketing Conversation</a>

(PS – Best viewed in Firefox or Chrome)

Hongkiat gives us a cool look at what the big kids in the business world are actually doing with their online presences. Happy Friday!

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Last week I dissected a blogger outreach pitch email line-by-line in A detailed analysis of a perfect blogger pitchas a way of proving that no matter how brief and conversational one of Abraham Harrison‘s blogger pitches may appear at first blush, the effortlessness takes a lot of work and the time of three senior agents. Today I plan to go through, line by line, a site we create to support all of our blogger outreach campaigns. You can call it a Social Media News Release (SMNR) or a microsite, a resource site, or a fact sheet. To those of you who are in communications, you’ll recognize the structural similarity between it and a traditional news release or press release.

To the right, you’ll see, scrolling down most of this article, a full-length screen capture of the SMNR we produced for a launch campaign that we did for the first iPad tablet-only daily newspaper, The Daily. I am using this SMNR because we’re particularly proud of it, and you can explore it In Real Life (IRL) over at thedaily-newsrelease.com.

As I am sure you will notice right away, this SMNR — and all of our SMNRs — is a flat-file, traditional Web page. You’ll also notice that it scrolls and scrolls and scrolls.

No, we didn’t do this because we’re not good coders and don’t understand database-backed web applications like WordPress or Drupal. I have been developing Web applications since they were Perl CGI scripts, into PHP, then into Python-based Zope, and even Ruby on Rails.

We’re building our SMNRs on flat-file, scrollable, single-page Web pages because of human nature: people tend to click away from where we want them to be. We want them to be on-topic, on-target, and really considering the act of blogging on behalf of our clients. In this case, The Daily.

We use old-fashioned HTML standbys such as HTML anchors, allowing us to link within the same page. We don’t want people to miss anything and we don’t want people to get lost in a maze of pages.

We also use flat-file HTML on an Linux-variant Apache install because we tend to reach out to thousands of bloggers at a time — upwards of 8,000 — and we don’t want a database-backed website to get bogged down by a potentially heavy, all-at-once stampede of traffic. Flat-file pages tend to serve faster and more reliably because they’re generally much less resource-intensive.

What we did for The Daily, section by section

Let me go through the SMNR we created for The Daily, section by section, so that I can explain. Long story short:

If we can’t get someone we send an email-based blogger pitch to to post something within five-minutes of opening our email, then we’ve lost him. If it isn’t as easy as pie and as clear as crystal, then we might get nothing. If it looks like it’ll take six minutes instead of five, we’re lucky if we get a tweet or a post to a Facebook Wall. More about that later.

The banner

The banner is simply a quick, attractive “splash.” It’s always above the fold and needs to convey, in a single glance, what’s up and why we didn’t, in fact, waste the blogger’s time. The banner is useless but essential. It allows the client to clearly, as though in summary or abstract, convey the entire message of the campaign both visually and textually. Carefully selected choice slogans, logos, screen shots, and photos go in the banner. However, since it isn’t really possible to “steal” anything from the banner, all the content found in the banner should be replicated somewhere else deeper in the SMNR.

The banner may just seem like bling or flair but it’s is really the single opportunity the PR professional or publicist has to sink the hook, to build the resonance and excitement and to activate the passion required to encourage bloggers to spend their valuable time and finite energy on doing something for me and my clients for free.

One caveat, however, is to make sure the banner isn’t too tall that it blocks out the QuickLinks, below, or seems just like an advert or splash page instead of what it is, a multimedia press release rife with important, objective blog fodder.

The QuickLinks

OK, that’s rather hard to see, so I will make it a bit larger below so that you can see what I am talking about.

That’s better. Well, the QuickLink row is essential because it might be the only interactive part of the SMNR that’s above the fold for some viewers, especially those who are still running 640 x 480 or 800 x 600 screens. (Don’t roll your eyes about the small screen size — there are still millions of folks worldwide who are running small monitors, large font sizes, and also dial-up modems, not your big 2560 x 1440 resolution, double-screened 27″ LCD computer displays. You should work with and understand everyone and design to your lowest common-technology denominator.

So, the QuickLinks are a short-cut to what the blogger wants. These links don’t go anywhere off-page, but, rather, just link down to somewhere much further down on the single page.

And like I said, if we don’t do everything to make it as easy as possible to allow the blogger to search, discover, collect, and report on what we’re pitching, then we’re risking losing them.

The video introduction and the social network sharing

This is a two-parter. Obviously, the commercial that goes with the introduction of the then newly launched iPad-only daily news site, The Daily, is the main thing we wanted to promote. A no-brainer.

More importantly is what I circled in red, the “Share This” embed with the easy-to-share-to-Twitter-Facebook-Yahoo!-Etc. buttons. We never used to add this to our Social Media News Releases. Why? Well, we were afraid that if we did, bloggers would share on social media and social network and with either their Facebook or Twitter friends and followers instead of posting it on their blogs.

The truth is, the SMNR is all about making everything as easy for the blogger as they need it to be. Folks who feel the need to feed the maw of their always-hungry 24/7/365 blog, will always blog (and often then tweet and Facebook their post), and the folks who are interested enough but don’t have the time or interest in the topic or promotion or don’t feel like their blog is the right place for the news we’re pitching won’t blog no matter how much we may well disagree.

So, popping that little “Share This” array of buttons has quadrupled the number of earned media mentions that we get from folks who wouldn’t have blogged our stuff, our news, our clients, anyway — they are just interested enough to throw us a bone and share the Daily with their followers and friends.

The news

The news section is the most important part of the SMNR. Because there’s lots of great stuff to steal. Consider our Social Media News Releases to be one-page versions of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book — which is to say that once we have appealed to a blogger enough that she has opened our email, read our pitch, maybe emailed us, clicked through to the SMNR, scrolled past the banner, the QuickLinks, and ignored the Share This buttons, we want the blogger to have to do as little additional work as humanly possible.

We also post as many photos, illustrations, screen shots, and logos as we can into each SMNR, inline, so that a blogger can easily copy-and-paste each image into the blog post and not need to download and then upload. We act as the host, happy to sponsor the image hosting to the SMNR. As many of these as we can because we never know which one resonates with each blogger.

So, we pre-link all the items in the bullet-list with text links to the daily. We link the phrase The Daily any and every time it comes up in the list. This will appall SEO gurus who think I am an ignoramus who doesn’t know Search. I am an expert in search and my SMNRs are not Google-bait, they’re blogger-bait. We actually do not want our SMNRs to start competing with our clients’ sites — and they used to — but if we mess up all the delicate Google balance, then hopefully our SMNRs will not show up in the top-ten on Google, which is often quite challenging since most sites are absolutely terrible.

Actually, recently, we have had clients who have wanted to optimize their SMNR for search, but then you put the onus of linking, textually, on the shoulders of the bloggers, many of whom are not experts in search or HTML. So, we make sure that almost every single link has one linked textual on The Daily, just to make sure that every potential news item that a blogger might want to copy-and-paste onto his blog includes a link.

We never know what the blogger will or won’t steal, we don’t know how much or how little the blogger will copy, paste, then blockquote into their blog. Some bloggers go full-text, blockquoted, and then wrap the copy that we wrote in a bit of introduction and a parting shot into a blog-post sandwich where the copy, exactly as we wrote it, is the meat.

OK, you may have noticed that the page is pretty long. It requires quite a lot of scrolling, right? Well, remember how brief, concise, and minimal the blogger email pitch was? Well, the pitch might be laser-focused but the SMNR is everything but the kitchen sink. As many diverse and random and seemingly extraneous content and assets as we can find and collect we put into the SMNRs.

Those of you who have ever spoken to me about this before might want to jump ahead. I have an analogy for you. If you think of the Sunday paper and all those coupons, think of our email blogger pitch as a coupon for a big-screen TV at hhgregg.

If we can get that person who’s browsing the Sunday Post to cut out the coupon — already a huge task, to say nothing of even buying a paper, reading the paper, and braving the coupon section — and then pocket the coupon, get in the car, and drive to the store, once that guy gets to the store, he’s generally committed to doing something. While we’re pitching the TV, we’re just happy if that consumer ends up spending an equal sum on something — anything — else, just so long as it’s with hhgregg.

Same thing with an SMNR. The email pitch is the coupon selling a particular thing — the launch of the iPad app — and the SMNR is the big box store offering loads of other things, including bios, and other content. In the case of the Daily SMNR, a blogger may well come in to look at the offer to download and use the iPad app or to share the video with the readers of her blog but may report, instead, on Daily Editor in Chief, Jesse Angelo, who left the New York Post for a position with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

To me, it really doesn’t matter what news from the SMNR the blogger reports, it just matter that the blogger takes time out of her busy, busy, day to spend some time writing about our clients, for free. We really always remember that we’re not entitled to anybody’s time, especially if we’re not paying for it. No matter what, every mention is a gracious courtesy.

Multimedia elements and the essential embed code

I always tell everybody that only 1% of all bloggers have media, communications, or public relations experience. Full stop. Even fewer of them are HTML gurus. Nothing can be assumed. I am not recommending pablum. I am not saying that we have to dumb down for the bloggers, it’s just that they speak a different language from ours in PR. We don’t share lingua francas. So, we always go out of our way to make sure everything is as simple and self-explanatory as possible without ever insulting the blogger.

In the above case, we always make sure that embed codes are included whenever any video is included — if we ever want to see it embedded inline in a blog post. We had an embed code in the first video at the top of the SMNR but it was deleted by the client. Even if our blogger knows how to find the embed code himself, we really don’t want him to leave the site to go hunt it down over at YouTube, as I explained earlier. We don’t want people to ever click away.

So, we include all embed code at a height and width that is optimal for most blogs, in this case 480 pixels wide. If the blogger is sophisticated enough to want a 853 x 480 video, he can go get that, we’re just making it as easy as possible to make the entire process take less than five minutes from the opening of the email to the clicking on Publish.

Social media and tags

The “Share This” buttons at the top of the SMNR are promotional. They don’t reference the client-owned Social Media properties. It is essential to make sure that we offer up everything and anything to the blogger’s consideration.

Finally, to make it as easy as humanly possible for everyone, we include a string of comma-separated topical keywords that each blogger can easily copy-and-paste into the “post tags” portion of your blogging platform.

Yes, I know. this SMNR has everything including the kitchen sink. Not true. It gets worse. If you explore the SMNR for Habitat for Humanity’s World Habitat Day the SMNR we did for the US Olympic Committee we made for the Winter Olympics in Canada, or one of the SMNRs for the Fresh Air Fund, you’ll see that there are all sort of other things such as banners with embed codes and additional videos and all sorts of other assets — really the kitchen sink, in many cases.

Favicon, header title, and meta description

One last thing that I want to discuss before we end this helluva long post is about fit and finish. Too often “single use” sites like this just don’t get the love they deserve. Make sure you take some time to create a nice “Favicon” aka favorites icon, shortcut icon, website icon, URL icon and bookmark icon. Also, please take the time required to create a strong and descriptive Metatag Title and Description tag as well.

<title>Introducing The Daily - Facts and Resources</title>
<meta name="description" content="The Daily facts and resources page. Introducing The Daily The first digital daily news publication built from scratch for the iPad by some of the best in the business to bring you information that's smart, attractive, and entertaining.">
<meta name="keywords" content="the daily facts, the daily resources, the daily facts and resources, the daily, thedaily.com, rupert murdoch, news corp, apple, mac, ipad, ipod, iphone, iphone 3g, iphone 3gs, iphone 4, steve jobs, macbook, macintosh, mackbook air, ipod nano, new iphone, ipod touch, apps, ipad apps, iphone apps, mac rumors, ipad reviews, apple technology, apple news, ipad news, iphone news, tech, technology, geek, geek news, gadgets, new gadgets, new technology">

Why? Why is it even worth the extra time to go back into the engine room and tool with the Meta Data? Well, the HTML Title tag directly contributes to what people see when they either bookmark your page, what they see in a browser tab, or what they see in the Title Bar. Easy-peasy. A real no-brainer. Also, despite what anyone at SEOMoz thinks, meta tags are still important and here’s why:

You’ll notice that all the text in the search result that comes up when your search serves up thedaily-newsrelease.com as a result is content that Google didn’t so much have to find or scrap; rather, it simply serves up the text directly from the Title we wrote and also the Meta Description we also wrote in the form of the search result headline and description.

I hope the previous 2,500 words have done a pretty good job of explaining why we at Abraham Harrison insist on producing a proper, well-produced, well-branded Social Media News Release (SMNR) — both philosophically, practically, and psychologically.

And because I really don’t know everything, please feel free to comment, contribute, share, and ask any questions you may well still have about the process, the evolution, and any technical details you might be unclear about or I have failed to cover. Thank you for your amazing attention span! Via Biznology via Socialmedia.biz

Related articles

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• How to write an irresistible blogger pitch email (chrisabraham.com)
• Why Using the Social Media News Release is a Big Mistake (hubspot.com)
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• Detailed analysis of the perfect blogger pitch (socialmedia.biz)
• The art of writing the perfect blogger pitch (biznology.com)
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“…walk the earth,” according to filmmaker George Romero.  In 1968, he introduced zombies to the masses with his ground-breaking cult classic “Night of the Living Dead.” 

The edgy, black and white film spawned a sub-genre of horror that exclusively featured the living dead.  Most of the time, they simply shuffled, grunted, and ate the survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse.  Fast forward to the present and Romero’s influence is still felt and his mindless reanimated corpses have evolved.

Today, zombies market products for companies like Toshiba, Honda, Federal Express, and Kellogg’s, just to name a few.  The cool cadavers even popped-up in a SuperBowl Commercial for Doritoes (a product of Frito-Lay/PepsiCo, Inc).  This past April, the finalists of “American Idol” were featured as zombies  in a commercial for Ford Motors.

“Zombie Marketing” is becoming a catch-phrase of advertising that draws parallels to the imaginary Zombie Apocalypse.  Fictionally speaking, most zombies exist due to an infection of some unknown origin.  The infection starts with just one unlucky individual who sets in motion the events that ultimately lead to a total collapse of society.  Before long, the shabby stiffs outnumber the non-dead.  In other words, to market a product designed for a specific demographic, you don’t need to spread the information to the general masses, but rather directly to that audience.  Before long, your product will, in theory, spread like a plague, thus acquiring more customers.

For example, during an episode of “The Walking Dead” (an AMC series based on the comic books of the same name) the channel aired a commercial for Hyundai, featuring zombies.  The show’s mid-season finale which aired on November 27^th, captured 4.5 million viewers in the much-desired category of 18-49 year olds.  That’s quite a target audience, so it’s obvious why advertisers are creating commercials that fit the mood.

I doubt that George Romero envisioned this type of zombie invasion, and in all my years of horror-film fanaticism, neither did I.  The types of commercials being shown in this vain are definitely memorable and I have found myself discussing them with friends and fellow “zombiephiles.”  Whether or not they actually influence my purchasing habits remains to be seen.  For now, I’m sitting back, grinning and mocking those who once condemned Romero’s creatures of the night.

Related articles

• George Romero adapting THE ZOMBIE AUTOPSIES for next project (geektyrant.com)
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• George A. Romero Interested in Performing The Zombie Autopsies (dreadcentral.com)
• George Romero Passed On ‘Walking Dead’ (splashpage.mtv.com)
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• Say Goodbye To Looking Good (intheeventofazombieapocalypse.wordpress.com)

My friend and colleague, Sally Falkow, is offering a free webinar about the Social Media News Release (SMNR), the modern interpretation of the traditional News Release, the mainstay of PR agents and publicists everywhere. The SMNR webinar takes place on Tuesday, December 13th, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST (1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST).  Be sure to register for the “The Social Media News Release Webinar.”

One of the hot social media trends for 2012 is content creation and curation. Bloggers and news websites are looking for content – 86% of all news websites are using video on their websites. Find out how you can tap into this trend and get your PR plan ready for the New Year..

Learn how journalists, editors and bloggers prefer to get news delivered so they can quickly and easily republish and share it: the social media news release (SMNR) format.

In this webinar we will walk you through the 15-step guide to crafting a successful social media release and show you how to use the SMNR to pitch bloggers and the media.

Pew Research stated that search was the one factor that most influenced news in the last decade and that sharing news content will be the factor that most influences it in the next decade.

Learn how to use social media news releases to get better search visibility for your news content and build a social content hub on your site that encourages bloggers, journalists and the public to share your content.

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• HRmarketer Webinar Explains B2B Media Relations in the Age of Social PR (prweb.com)
• Study Shows Social Media Releases Are Less Effective Than Traditional Press Releases (hubspot.com)
• Why Using the Social Media News Release is a Big Mistake (hubspot.com)
• Twitter Drives More Traffic to Press Releases than Any Other Social Network (webmarketingtherapy.com)
• Testomonial from Miriam’s Kitchen (chrisabraham.com)
• Free Mini-Webinar: Social and Mobile Media for Nonprofit Executive Staff (nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com)

Over the last five years that Abraham Harrison has been pitching bloggers on behalf of clients, we have learned a thing or two about how best to reach bloggers, how to engage them, how to get them to carry our client’s message to their readership. Whether we’re doing an outreach to the bloggers of mainstream media and celebrity blogs or to someone who has just set up a blog for the first time, it all begins with the message model.

Below is an example of a message model we developed for Miriam’s Kitchen for National Homelessness Month. We didn’t use it because we focused on Give to the Max Day instead, but I think it is an example of our best work and I’ll put it aside and we’ll use it next year for sure. I will share the entire email pitch in total below but then I will go through a line-by-line explanation as to what we did and why we did it:

From: Chris Abraham <cjabraham@miriamskitchennews.org>
Subject: November is National Homelessness Month

Hi <<First Name>>

November is National Homelessness Month and I’m reaching out to you to discuss the issue of homelessness in America. I’m also hoping that you’ll discuss this issue with the readers of <<Blog Name>>. I am a volunteer at a small kitchen for the homeless in DC and while working there it occurred to me that this issue affects every town, village, and city in America.

I have put together a microsite that puts the issue of homelessness in perspective and also uses Miriam’s Kitchen, the kitchen where I volunteer, as a model for addressing homelessness and untreated mental illness in the US capital city. There are a multitude of news, facts, videos, photos, and banners so please feel free to repost any of it:

www.miriamskitchennews.org

If you are able to post about this issue in any form, it would really help spread the message of homelessness in its many diverse forms and maybe suggest ways to help improve many lives. Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are able to help. Thank you so much.

Chris

–
Chris Abraham,
On behalf of Miriam’s Kitchen
www.miriamskitchen.org

OK, now I will go into more detail, section by section …

From: Chris Abraham <cjabraham@miriamskitchennews.org>

The first thing you’ll notice is that I am doing the outreach in this example. Though not the norm, I personally volunteer and donate to Miriam’s Kitchen and people know that, so I decided to reach out as me because that’s the most authentic relationship. In other cases, the names of Abraham Harrison team members fit the bill. The next thing you’ll notice is that the email doesn’t come from either miriamskitchen.org or abrahamharrison.com domains. Instead, we virtually always reserve a completely new and unique domain name for each campaign, in this case miriamskitchennews.org. Why? Three reasons:

1. Clients protect their domains. Most companies and organizations have very restrictive IT policies that limit the use of their domain and the allocation of email addresses. This makes it almost impossible to place social media news release content on their site, so we reserve our own because it gets around any of those issues.
2. Bloggers don’t trust PR firms. We prefer to reach out to bloggers as the client instead of as Abraham Harrison on behalf of our clients. Why? Not to be deceptive but because a strong majority of all the bloggers we reach out to are not trained in public relations processes and don’t generally feel comfortable being communicated to via a broker, so we always try to communicate as clearly and as simply as possible, so choosing something in-between the two is best, in this case cjabraham@miriamskitchennews.org.
3. Spam detectors are always a risk. Because we reach out cold to upwards of five-thousand bloggers at a time, it is essential that we don’t put ever put mission-critical domain names in jeopardy of being black-listed as spam or being taken away by a fickle registrar such as GoDaddy.com. While we’re exceedingly careful when we target and how we engage each blogger, it is amazing how few email recipients need to report a single email as unwanted before the gray-bearded email wizards can ban and block an entire domain from being deliverable–we never want to put ourselves or our clients in that precarious position. While this has never actually happened to us or our clients, we have felt enough saber-rattling and there have been enough shots over our bow that we make sure we never put anyone into a defensive position. Ultimately, protecting our clients’ brands as well as our own is of top priority.

Let’s move on to the all-important subject line.

Subject: November is National Homelessness Month

The first, and sometimes only, thing a blogger sees when she receives our email pitch is the email subject line and the sender. Choosing a title is super-hard because we want to be as neutral and as informational as possible. Teasing or tricking a blogger into opening by being cute, mysterious, or clever in the subject line has almost always blown up in our faces. The simpler the better, especially when you realize that we follow up a couple times after the first outreach–something I will go into more in a future post. But first, the salutation.

Hi <<First Name>>

When we research bloggers to pitch, we always do our very best to discover the full name of the blog, the first name of the blogger, and the best address possible. We also make sure the name is correct because it isn’t always clear. I can’t tell you how many pitches my blog, Because the Medium is the Message, and my corporate blog, Marketing Conversation, get from marketers who address us wrong, mostly as Abraham. “Dear Abraham.” Those go straight into the trash. Next, our mailer, nicknamed “The Cloud,” has a mail merge feature, allowing us to personalize our email a little bit, within reason, and appropriately.

What’s behind that first paragraph?

November is National Homelessness Month and I’m reaching out to you to discuss the issue of homelessness in America. I’m also hoping that you’ll discuss this issue with the readers of <<Blog Name>>. I am a volunteer at a small kitchen for the homeless in DC and while working there it occurred to me that this issue affects every town, village, and city in America.

The most important thing is to make sure the first paragraph of every pitch is simple, clear, concise, and immediately addresses why you’re emailing. Yes, answer who, what, when, where, why, and how–but in very short order, so get to it! Who? Miriam’s Kitchen. What? Homelessness in America, an issue that affects every town, village, and city in America. When? November. Where? On your blog. Why? To share the issue with your readers How? Posting to your blog. I added the last sentence to proactively address why I was the person to be writing at all–because I am personally invested and this is meaningful to me, for real.

I am lucky enough to have Dan Krueger and Phillip Rhoades on my team. They’re both excellent BS detectors and masters of minimalism. For a pitch like this, Dan or I generally create a first draft. Then, the other two of us go through the draft line-by-line. As if it were poetry. We cut to the bone. This process is a direct result of three things:

One, you only have a blogger for a few seconds–if she opens it at all–so you must cut to the chase.

Two, we have all received enough pitches ourselves to know who does and doesn’t read our blogs, so the entire “I am a real fan of your blog and have been reading you a long time” are generally lies. So, after you write your first draft, cut out all the inauthentic praise. Truth be told, if your targeting is good and you have a great offer and are clear as to what you want, you’re effectively doing the blogger the favor of providing good content that they can easily and quickly pop onto her blog–and you really don’t need to flatter. I am not saying that you should be short, rude, or curt, but surely be very clear as to who you are, what you are, what you want, and what you need.

Yes, I do volunteer at Miriam’s–many times-a-month. If I didn’t–or if I sent the email out as someone else in the company, an online analyst, and that person hadn’t ever graced Miriam’s, I would never make that up. Everything in the email must be honest and true. This isn’t a con job, this isn’t a cheesy 11pm pick up, this is the sharing of relevant information–don’t feel like you have to sell to someone or fool someone to cover you. Also, be very careful about playing the heart strings too loudly when you’re doing an outreach on behalf of a charity. To be honest, the less said the better–allow the blogger to come up with her own conclusions–you really don’t have to tell the blogger what to think. Not only isn’t that necessary but it can be downright insulting to bloggers, who are by their very nature free spirits.

Now, on to the meat of the pitch.

I have put together a microsite that puts the issue of homelessness in perspective and also uses Miriam’s Kitchen, the kitchen where I volunteer, as a model for addressing homelessness and untreated mental illness in the US capital city. There are a multitude of news, facts, videos, photos, and banners so please feel free to repost any of it:

www.miriamskitchennews.org

One of the results of making the email pitch so efficient and tight is that there’s a lot left behind. Most folks who pitch to bloggers still include the kitchen sink in their email pitches: PDF or MS Word attachments are still very common. The majority paste their rich-text traditional press release inline in the email, along with inline images, logos, and graphics. We refuse for three reasons.

1. Our email pitches are all about starting a conversation. We’re more interested in getting an email reply that we can respond to than we are in firing and forgetting.
2. We always send plain text emails. We do not include anything that might result in spam-boxing. We don’t even include any “http://” prefixes in our links, assuming that the webmail or email client will activate the link when the blogger opens up their email and views the content.
3. We don’t take the blogger’s interest in our pitch for granted. The email, to me, is a speed date. We don’t want to waste anybody’s time or good will, so we allow the blogger to decide whether she wants to go on a second date. We like it best when the chemistry is so intense that our client and the blogger drive to Vegas immediately and get hitched–by which I mean we reach out, the blogger immediately likes our pitch, immediately posting to their blog as well as Facebook and Twitter–but we don’t want to assume any of that. We like to play it cool because a heavy sell never works, especially in an earned-media PR campaign.

On to the end of the email:

If you are able to post about this issue in any form, it would really help spread the message of homelessness in its many diverse forms and maybe suggest ways to help improve many lives. Please let me know if you have any questions and if you are able to help. Thank you so much.

Chris

As I said before, being clear as to why we’re writing is essential. Being clear what you want and what you expect is essential, too. Too many pitches I receive simply share their message but are never bold, brave, or courageous enough to make an ask: please post it anywhere, anyhow, to help spread the message of homelessness in America.

The most essential thing, however, is that this is really just a speed date. If we pass muster but the blogger just isn’t sure who we are or why I am emailing her, we need to be painfully clear that this email is not a fire-and-forget. That this email is the beginning of a connection and that simply hitting reply will result in swift answers. Also, accountability. We end just about every email with a direct request to the blogger to please let us know if she ends up helping and sharing–and that we’re appreciative either way. At the very least because she’s spent some of her time opening and reading our email.

Finally, the signature.

–
Chris Abraham,
On behalf of Miriam’s Kitchen
www.miriamskitchen.org

If you’ll notice, we don’t misrepresent ourselves–or myself–as being on the staff of Miriam’s Kitchen; however, we also don’t want to confuse the purity of the message by bringing a second brand into the brief message model, such as would be the case if I included Abraham Harrison LLC in the signature. So, we chose to split the middle.

What you’re thinking right now is “how in the heck could you blog so much about such a short email?” Well, it is because we spend a lot of time, many revisions, and three or more staff cutting, editing, re-ordering, and BS-detecting each message model. We’re very intentional, very formulaic, and also very careful. We don’t want to tell bloggers what to think. We don’t want to put words in their mouths, and we surely don’t want to alienate a blogger because we color the copy in such a way that they reject our pitch based on style instead of content and mission.

It is like a first date, especially for a man like me: it is more important for me to remember to be a good listener and not to spend the entire meal making it all about me. The longer my message model and email pitch is the more likely the blogger will feel like I might have sent them an email in error. I want each email pitch to be as neutral and factual as possible. All dogma, passion, color, interpretation, and story should be provided by the blogger–and don’t forget that everything that you cut out of the email message model can possibly find a happy home in your Social Media News Release.

While the email might seem very casual and conversational, winging it is not an option when you’re officially reaching out on behalf of your brand. This is doubly so when you’re reaching out on behalf of a client. The message model is a getting-to-know-you process and not simply a product. Before I explain what goes into an email blogger pitch, I need to explain this process and the philosophy that we have developed through trial and error since the Fall of 2006.

Being completely familiar with the client, the brand, the product, and the services, before moving forward with the pitch is essential. Anything we don’t use in our message model and email pitch we aggregate it into a social media, multimedia, social media profiles, news release.

This process of collecting all of the client’s assets and collateral material, including videos, photos, ads, bios, history, background, context, interviews, case studies, testimonials, and media mentions, help us then decide if there are any missing pieces that we need to request from the client or create ourselves.

Then we can interview the client to discuss what the subject of the pitch should be, what the ask is, and then which blogs and bloggers should be included–or excluded–and who to exclude is often more important than who to bring into the pitch.

My next blog post will focus on what I am all sure you’re curious about: the social media news release (SMNR), that “kitchen sink” catch-all supporting document that provides all the details, content, media, images, and greater story that has been pruned from the initial pitch but surely deserves being told.

A future post will be about the value of following up a couple times with any bloggers who don’t reply or post. We have evolved a process that does not email just once but also sends two follow-up emails to those bloggers who don’t reply at all. Funny thing is, we get only 25% of all posts from the first email. We get 50% of all our total earned media posts from the first follow-up email and another 25% from the final outreach, so I really want to go into the why and how of that–and how we handle something that might very well be scary to some of you and and might feel like we’re being a pest to others–and I will address all of those fears and perceptions.

Please feel free to ask any questions or make any comments you might have on your mind after reading this blog post and I will do my best to respond.

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The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), aimed to combat online piracy against foreign websites, has created much controversy and debate over the past month. Proponents of the bill say it will protect intellectual property in the U.S. market, but Google and other tech giants say this is “Internet censorship,” which could depress investment.

“The solutions are draconian. There’s a bill that would require ISPs to remove URLs from the Web, which is also known as censorship last time I checked.”

-Google chairman Eric Schmidt

Introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Lamar Smith [R-TX] on Oct. 26, the bill would punish Web companies for hosting unauthorized copyrighted content, including music, movies and software.

Google and eight other Internet companies wrote a formal complaint to lawmakers on Nov. 15, expressing their concerns for SOPA.

Here is the list of the nine companies opposing the bill in the written statement:

• AOL Inc.
• eBay Inc.
• Facebook Inc.
• Google Inc.
• LinkedIn Corporation
• Mozilla Corp.
• Twitter, Inc.
• Yahoo! Inc.
• Zynga Game Network

Although these Web companies support the well-intentioned goals of the bill, they state “the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites.”

In addition, they believe that if SOPA and the similar PROTECT IP Act pass, this would deter economic growth and job creation for the U.S.

Related articles

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• Cautious Optimism Follows SOPA Hearings: Don’t Get Cocky (readwriteweb.com)