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Use Twitter to Reach Journalists

February 26, 2010 By David Leave a Comment

Reason #27 to set up a Twitter account for your organization: journalists are using it to research stories. The Online Marketing Blog reports on the study, which says 65% of journalists are using social media to find information about stories.

The study looked at social networks more broadly, but from my own experience, most newsrooms have at least one reporter who frequently checks Twitter for story ideas. Many of them are following local nonprofits, government agencies, and companies — and will follow up when a bit of news from the Twitter feed piques their interest.

Setting up a Twitter account is free and easy, and there’s really no excuse not to have one. If you do nothing else with Twitter, set up the account, search for your local news organizations, and start following them.

Filed Under: Journalism, Nonprofit, PR, Social Media Tagged With:

If an Ad Agency Produces Your Ads, Shouldn’t a Content Producer Produce Your Content?

February 25, 2010 By David Leave a Comment

Meredith, the publisher of Better Homes and Gardens and several other big magazines, is getting into the branded-content business. The Wall Street Journal has details.

Called Meredith Integrated Marketing, the operation has created custom publishing, email, social media and mobile campaigns for major marketers, including Kraft Foods, Chrysler and Wells Fargo. It recently recruited digital-ad veteran Martin Reidy to lead its marketing arm, and says it is on the prowl for more acquisitions.

I have a hard time putting into words how brilliant this is. And not just because it’s so similar to the work I’ve been doing for Learfield Communications, another major media company.

As I wrote in a comment over at Buzz Machine, advertisers are shifting a lot of marketing dollars toward producing engaging, valuable content for their customers. That content’s not advertising, but it’s marketing. So it makes perfect sense that they would turn to people who’ve been producing content for a living for decades: magazine publishers, radio companies, local TV stations. Workers in those places know how to tell stories, to engage audiences, to inform and entertain people.

My job at Learfield InterAction is built on this premise. Journalists are the best people to create content for audiences of all types — whether it’s the general public listening to a newscast, or a group of 75 donors to a small nonprofit. Why not take some of our journalism expertise and put it to good use for clients? As long as we don’t intermingle that content with our straight-news product (and we don’t), it’s simply another way of engaging audiences.

Disclosure: My employer, Learfield Communications, has a business relationship with Meredith involving one of its magazines. I don’t work on that project.

Filed Under: Branded Content, JournaMarketing, Marketing Tagged With:

Google, Real-time Search and Facebook

February 25, 2010 By David 1 Comment

There’s another great reason to have a Facebook fan page for your organization. Google has struck a deal to incorporate Facebook page status updates into its real-time search results.

This is a major development for your business, nonprofit, or state program. Real-time results are listed by Google at the top of their search results. It means your status updates will rise to the top of results for the key topics your organization covers. And it means more people will see what you’re up to, in real time, as you post fresh content to your Facebook page.

Will this change the way you use Facebook status updates for your organization, or change the priority of your Facebooking?

Filed Under: Nonprofit, Social Media Tagged With:

For ROI, You Gotta Have an “I”

February 24, 2010 By David 1 Comment

If you’re still tinkering around with social media to “see if it has any application” to your organization, you’re about 2 years behind already. The time for tinkering was 2008. But it’s never too late to start, so you need to get someone to help you put a plan in place now.

Chris Kieff nails it in a post today about the ROI of social media. Too many organizations assign an unpaid intern to their social media effort (zero investment) then complain that there’s no return on the investment.

In this case you get exactly what you pay for. Paying nothing for someone who understands the technology is foolish. It’s like hiring a mechanic to guide you to on the roads instead of a GPS.

If you haven’t begun using social media for your organization, what are you waiting for? I’m always willing to answer questions, no strings attached — and there are lots of other people out there who are answering the same kinds of questions.

The important thing is that you start making the investment, so you can start seeing the return.

Filed Under: Nonprofit, Social Media Tagged With: ,

“Pre-set Button Mindshare” and the iPad

February 23, 2010 By David 1 Comment

(Note: This post assumes that the iPad, and devices like it, will become a new platform for people to receive content. It might not happen, but it’s important for your organization to think about how to deal with it, if it does.)

Twenty years ago, our car radios had 5 pre-set buttons. Most of us picked our five favorite stations, programmed them, and never listened to anything else.

Now, along comes the iPad, with its home screen full of icons. And that’s a huge opportunity for small organizations who create their own application for the device. Because those home-screen icons on the iPad will effectively serve as station pre-set buttons. If the iPad becomes a new platform for consuming media, it will be the best opportunity ever for your company or nonprofit to grab “pre-set button mindshare,” alongside the millions of other options offered to consumers on the Web.

Of course, you don’t need to be a pre-set button for everyone in the world. The real value is in being a pre-set button go the 100 or 1,000 people who mean the most to your organization. So the trick is to decide what those 100 or 1,000 people want to receive from you so much that they’re willing to give you a place on their home screen.

The amazing opportunity of an iPad application is that it will reduce friction between you and those important people. Less friction for you to push content to your audience. Less friction for your audience to consume your content.

Creating an application to deliver your content goes a step beyond creating content for a mobile Web browser. You’re not simply making your content available. The idea is to encourage your audience to give you one of their pre-set buttons, and then earn their trust by delivering valuable stuff. That “stuff” is what I’ll address in my next post for this series.

(This post is part of a series about how the iPad may play a role in the communications strategies of small organizations.)


Filed Under: Branded Content, Marketing Tagged With:
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