So, you have a business and you’ve gotten your budding empire signed up for a Twitter account and a Facebook page (and perhaps a Google+ Business profile in the future too?). Go you! You’re part of the social media revolution. Cake and champagne for everyone!

Fast forward a few months and you may find yourself asking what’s this actually doing for me? What’s the value of social media? How can I get a ROI out of it? It’s a popular question on a lot of professional minds these days, especially in the case of B2B marketing. “Ok,” you say, “I got on board this train, where’s it taking me?”

Ensuring your business has a presence in the virtual world is an essential part of any successful marketing plan. With that said, it’s easy to get lost in social media. Between looking up relevant industry articles to load up the Tweetdeck and responding to comments on your Facebook page you can start to feel like you’re spending a lot of valuable time and resources keeping up a presence that isn’t necessarily turning into dollars.

Or is it?

I like to think of social media as a networking tool. I know, that sounds rather obvious but if you take a look you’ll see a lot of businesses aren’t utilizing it the way they should. Effective networking leads to sales, especially in the B2B market. Social media can be a great B2B sales tool, particularly Twitter, you just have to change the way you approach networking and sales.

Ever see a business you’d like to pitch your product or service to but had no inside connection? As any salesperson worth their salt will tell you, pitching to someone you’ve built a relationship with is easier, and usually much more successful, than cold calling. You just need a way to get a foot in the door, to get in their good graces, to endear yourself to them, and then the sale will follow. That’s how it happened in the brick and mortar days of sales, right? Well, Twitter can be the tool that gets those lines of communications flowing. The key is to pace yourself and to not be…..sales-y.

It’s important to remember that there are just as many spammers and cold tweeting annoyances out there as there are telemarketers. No one wants to talk with them. So sending a tweet to a new business you’d like to sell yourself to 5 minutes after you start following them isn’t going to hack it. You’ll be written off. Lines of communication will go cold.

Twitter isn’t about broadcasting, although a lot of people seem to think otherwise. It’s about listening. It’s about conversations. It’s about building a relationship. Take your time. See what sort of things they tweet. Retweet the ones that are pertinent to your business and add a short encouraging message in front of it. For example, “Talk about a dog day afternoon! RT @ChicDesigns It’s bring your dog to work day at the office!”

It sounds corny, but this is what gets them to notice you. And if they reply, then you can get a conversation going. I like to compare it to networking at a cocktail hour. No one appreciates the guy who shows up, doesn’t buy you a drink and lays into a business pitch. They want to talk to the guy cracking the jokes who also just happens to work at the company you want to be in business with. Show your personality, have some fun with it. In social media it’s as much about listening as it is about getting your message out there.

Social media can get you in the room with the right people. It just happens to be a virtual room. If you can outline and define a social media strategy and refrain from merely broadcasting, you’ll see that much sought after ROI start rolling in.

Welcome to the August 10^th edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we report on stories that get our marketing, social media and workaholic brainwaves going. What’s on this week’s docket of must reads? Well, small business owners can be confusing, cubicles suck, an office should be like a dinner party and the Twitter world rallies to help clean up jolly old London. So grab that morning coffee and read on!

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64% of Small Businesses Think Social Media is Unnecessary [Study]

Apparently an overwhelming majority of small business owners in the U.S. don’t think social media is vital to their marketing. According to a study by small business insurance provider Hiscox, many SMB owners say they don’t see the value in being active on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Oddly though, the same group of business owners polled said they relied heavily on word of mouth marketing. Um, what’s this? What’s the word we’re looking for here? Oh yeah, conundrum. Read the fully confusing stats here.

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The Rise of the Mobile Workforce [Infographic]

It’s infographic time! And who doesn’t love infographics? Today’s design covers the rise of the mobile workforce. Team Dukky is all too aware (and we’re sure you are too) that the days of the 9 to 5 job is over and working from a mobile device is taking a greater hold. Who needs a cubicle when you have an iPad and a smartphone, am I right? Check out the stats compiled by Cisco here.

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The Joy of Dirty Dishes (and Passion People)

I don’t know about you, but sometimes a blog post comes along and makes you take a moment to lean back in your chair and say “yes”. That’s what I did when I read this particularly refreshing post by Amy Taylor on the Brains on Fire blog. In it, she compares a dinner party to the workplace and asks us all to take a moment and remember that real life happens offline. Would you attend a dinner party thrown by your company? Something to ponder.

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London Riots: Social Media Mobilizes Riot Clean-up

We got to hand it to the good people of London. They’ve dealt with a fair amount of terror and craziness the last few days. But as we’ve continued to see in the wake of social revolutions in the Middle East, natural disasters the world over and now on the streets of London, people are using social media for good. Using Twitter to organize their movements, the Britons came out in droves with brooms, bags, gloves and smiles to show the shop keepers and home owners that were looted that the city has not forgotten them. So let’s hear it for the socially minded, digitally connected good people of old London town. Say it with me – hip, hip, hooray! Read some of the inspiring tweets here.

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Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse

This microsite was launched for a handful of Ruth’s Chris franchise owners. Clean, tasteful and to the point, the site was in keeping with the nationally recognized restaurant chain’s branding and image. More importantly, it had a great offer – two offers in fact. For filling out the form all customers enjoyed a complimentary appetizer (with the purchase of an entree) through a printable coupon. Customers were then encouraged to share the offer with their friends via email, social networks and SMS for a chance to win free steak for a year. In total the campaign allowed the franchise owners to add 3,419 new customers to their databases. Their response rate was a mind blowing 33.88%. And of course we all know why. Who doesn’t want free steak for a year?

NewEgg.com

NewEgg is a very popular, highly recognizable website for purchasing all things technology related. This campaign was a huge slam dunk, bringing in a total response of over 870,000 hits. There are 2 reasons for this level of success. First, their offer rocks. Just in time for March Madness, the company offered the chance to win the Ultimate Man Cave which included everything from a massive flat screen TV and surround sound to a grill, XBOX and a computer. What guy doesn’t dream of owning that? The second factor was how they marketed their promotion. Combining email marketing, ads on their website, ESPN.com, CBSsports.com and Turner Sports with national and satellite radio mentions from Howard Stern and Dan Patrick as well as a social media campaign on Facebook and Twitter, the campaign was unstoppable. Nearly a quarter of the people who hit the site input their information and shared, bringing NewEgg over 208,000 customers into their database. The campaign was recognized as the winner of AdWeek’s Media Plan of the Year for integrated campaigns.

Educate Now!

This is one of our favorite campaigns by a small to medium business client. Educate Now! is a non-profit in New Orleans working to bring effective and sustainable reform to local public schools. Their campaign capitalized on their target audience’s love of all things NOLA by including a partner in their campaign – The Maple Street Book Shop. The shop, is a favorite independent book store in the community. The microsite invited those who entered to enjoy the spirit of giving and send their favorite public school classroom on a shopping spree at the store. All in all, the organization received close to 500 entries, which was a 20% response rate from the total number of visits to the site. For a small organization with limited funds this was a highly successful way of adding to their database without breaking the bank.

Sucré

Another New Orleans small business, Sucré is a gourmet desert shop that has exploded on to the local food scene. One of the sweet boutique’s greatest assets in its marketing arsenal has been it ability to be instantly recognizable by the design of the store fronts themselves, the packaging of the sweets and their collateral. Their brand image is synonymous with colorful, lively, delicious sweetness throughout the city. The company makes a concerted effort to keep customers aware of their behind the scenes activities too, branding their gourmet kitchen as the Sucré Confection Studio. The offer for this campaign was right in line with that branding, offering those who entered the chance to win a day in The Sweet Life where they could go behind the scenes, tour the studio and make their very own confection creations with their renowned Executive Chef. With this campaign, the local store gathered over 400 new customers to their database and increased the likes on their Facebook page as well. Sweet life indeed. 

Designer Social

Designer Social, an online community where stylish users can buy and sell luxury designer goods, has launched several successful campaigns using microsites. By running multiple campaigns, they’ve come to find that partnering with a designer brand in their offer has brought in a much higher response rate. With this campaign they hit their stride. By offering 1 of 3 designer looks from popular beachwear brand Vix to those who shared they were able to bring in a 22% response rate from the 8,497 people who hit the site. Considering they were only offering a sweepstakes and not a coupon or discount to every customer this was a very high response rate. The design of this microsite played a major part in the campaign’s success. Knowing their target audience is a fashion minded, highly sophisticated bunch, they ensured the microsite reflected the look and feel of marketing collateral from a high end retailer. In the world of fashion first impressions are everything and Designer Social made a huge splash with this summer campaign.

Welcome to the August 3^rd edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we report on stories that get our marketing and social media juices going. This week we’ve compiled a short but rather concise view of, as Brice so aptly put it, The Realm of Social Media. So, without further delay here’s the rundown: Tweets save lives, show some love, Mail Chimp rocks (literally), and beware the looming Sharepocalypse. Read on!

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Twitterverse Rallies to Prevent Suicide

We are amazed at the ever growing number of ways people are harnessing the power of social media for good. Take for example the recent case of a South African woman who was contemplating committing suicide. When the distressed woman sent out a rather grim post her followers, recognizing a dire call for help, started tweeting kind messages of encouragement and consolation to her. Then they mobilized. Coordinating their efforts with hastags #FindGina and #SaveGina they managed to locate the woman and ensure she was in the safe arms of her family. Now if that’s not a powerful testament to the collaborative and community engagement capabilities of social media we don’t know what is. See the full article on Mashable here.

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Are You Talking To Your Most Intimate Customers?

In today’s market everyone is looking for ways to reach more and more people. We want MORE. More followers. More likes. More RTs. More +1s. The list goes on and on. But what about your core team of supporters? What about the people who really love you? Is your company doing enough to thank them and keep these brand evangelists engaged? In her latest post for the Brains on Fire blog (which is brilliant, by the way) Robbin Phillips asks these very questions. If you are a brand and you have 1000 or millions of likes on Facebook, do you know any of them, she asks. Do you know about their lives? Can you call them out by name? Read on for more insights about customer retention and engagement here.

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MailChimp: We Commissioned a Rock Opera

We at Team Dukky are pretty fond of creative tech and marketing people. They inspire us. They help get our brainstorming mojo on. So, like any good fans, we stalk them. MailChimp is often the target of said stalking. What can we say? They do it right, all the time. From putting out fun and engaging info on their amazing services to the fun items they commission we love all that they do. Case in point, their latest company sponsored venture – a rock opera. You read that right. Get the back story and download a free track from the project here. Then, we suggest, you bookmark their blog and join us in our fandamania.

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Sharepocalypse Now: Why Social Media Overload Means New Opportunities for Startups

You feel it. We feel it. It’s creeping in. Sure Google+ is cool but a lot of social media users are bemoaning the ever increasing number of networks we’re expected to be active on. Is there no end in sight? Will they ever all be linked together? The budding movement of social media overload brings with it one good thing – sharing. Sharing – be it B2B, B2C or C2C – is at an all time high. This looming sharepocalypse  means we’re entering a new era of social network chaos, and this, in turn, is going to create new needs and opportunities for startups. Read on here to see just how you can take advantage.

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My idea for this post is largely inspired by the hit new HBO series Game of Thrones, which is also an excellent book series. It tells of the epic tale of love, adventure, honor, and betrayal, and I feel I see much of the same drama unfolding every week in the social media world. Therefore, I will now present to you my take on the realm of social media, and the great houses that rule over it.

Google

“Never stop searching”

The current King of the Internet and all of its lands. Yet for all its massive power and knowledge, Google has still been unable to marshal the social realm under its banner. One of the oldest houses of the Internet, it provides its loyal subjects with, seemingly, all they could desire. It brings them the finest items for trade both near and far, carries letters from one end of the realm to the other, and its impressive grasp of technology renders new feats of science at an astounding pace. Yet, despite the fact that Google is the largest of all the houses, it has still been unable to plant itself in the social realm. This is not to say it has lacked ambition, as many of its conquests have sallied forth from its gates only to be found broken and shattered on the field. The greatest enemy to the King is Facebook, and the young house has had little trouble thwarting Google’s past conquests. Though the King is not without hope, as a new champion has arisen to conquer the social realm. Whether or not Google+ can finally make progress in the social realm remains to be seen, but to be certain, this new champion is not lacking in fortitude, reputation, or in valor.

Facebook

“Defend the Wall”

The most powerful lord in all the lands and sworn enemy to Google the current King, Facebook may be one of the youngest houses, but it more than makes up for its youth with ruthless ambition. Indeed, the aspirations of this young house are so great that it seems to be unwilling to accept anything other than being anointed King. Of course there are those who say that the Facebook house is more fit to be named King then Google, since it is Facebook who now firmly holds the social realm in its iron grip. The social media frontrunner has already accumulated enormous riches from the social realm, and certainly has the ability to reap even greater wealth from a kingdom whose true worth is not yet fully known. More and more, people swell the ranks of Facebook with every day, and it seems certain that the powers of Facebook and Google will soon clash again. Though Facebook is not without faults, as would be expected for a house with such ambition. The social realm is not as safe a place as many would like to believe, and tricksters, thieves, and brigands roam the roads of Facebook freely. It also seems that Facebook has little regard for the rights of its people, and it oft seems that the young house would sell the privacy of its followers to the highest bidder. The Facebook wall may be guarded by millions and protect immense wealth within its keep, but the wall is not without cracks, and those cracks are beginning to show.

Twitter

“WE WILL BE HEARD”

Another young lord of the Internet, this house may be lacking in size when compared to the powers of Facebook and Google, but it certainly does not lack in presence. Not long ago Twitter sought to challenge Facebook in the social realm through sheer numbers alone, but it quickly became apparent that such a tactic was not likely to succeed any time soon. The members of this house are boisterous to a fault, known around the Web as loud-mouthed braggarts with sharp tongues. To be sure, the house is well known for making bold accusations and has a propensity to share useless drivel with its followers, or simply besmirch the honor of a bitter foe. Though, as brash and simple minded as this house may seem, there is something to be said about those who make a habit of accumulating powerful and influential friends. The Twitter house is always ready to receive the famous, the wealthy, or the incredibly powerful, and it is not oft that their halls are not graced with the upper echelons of Internet society. Though for now the great potential of this house remains squandered, as it lacks consistent leadership or any semblance of a cohesive strategy for conquest. Until such a time comes when a true leader can marshal the masses of this powerful house, it will remain nothing more than a raucous den of jests and rumors; a glorified back alley brothel for the prominent.

LinkedIn

“Business as Usual”

An older lord who has only recently risen to a prominent position in the social realm, this house has recently experienced an influx of membership and riches that most houses merely dream of.  Taking the age old saying of “It’s nothing personal, just business” to heart, this house has chosen to make business relationships the cornerstone of its empire. This house serves as the focal point for all professionals in the social realm, and its doors are open to traders, guild members, and even mercenaries for hire. While in the end it remains a social house at heart, this house holds little regard for its principal competitors like Facebook, and feels confident with its smaller contingent of experienced professionals, in contrast to the endless rabble that swell the ranks of rival houses. If there is a deal to be made or an alliance to be forged in the social realm, this house will see it through, and watch their coffers fill with gold all the while. Yet, while the men and women who undertake most of the business transactions of the social realm are proud to swear their allegiance to this house, the vast majority of so called “commoners” find little use in the business oriented house. Whether this shall serve as a blessing or a curse remains to be seen.

Myspace

“Never Forget”

This ancient Lord founded one of the first great houses of the Internet, and was the first to sit the throne as King of the social realm. It is now nothing more than a shadow of its younger self, having long lost most of those who pledged their allegiance. It was undone by the guile of a younger competitor, for it did not comprehend the extent of the ambition that the young Facebook house had for claiming control of the realm. It did not take this new foe seriously, and was unable to match the clever ploys and attacks of its new competitor, and before it could grasp the graveness of the situation that had befallen it, Facebook had usurped the crown right off its head. Now the lands of this house, once vast and populated by millions, are scarce large enough to earn it the title of Lord. The deserted hovels of its previous subjects are numerous, and once where you could find gleeful chatter and harmonious music drifting through its halls, now lay only dust and abandonment. The house has enough retainers to earn it a title, but its once brimming vaults of wealth have long since run dry. There are few who remember this once proud King of the social realm, and even fewer who mourn it. This house now serves as nothing but a reminder to other houses that the allegiance of the masses is only as worthy as those to whom it is sworn. The social realm may be vast, and full of wonders and riches, but the trait that has always held most true for this magical realm, is that it is ruthlessly unforgiving.

Today’s blog post was written by Brice Sanderford. As he is off to bigger and better things he left us with this lovely article to remember him by. In true feudal fashion, we threw candy at him on his way out. Cheers Brice!

Welcome to the July 27^th edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we report on stories that are totally Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and every other social network-worthy. This week we have prepared for you the most fastidious assortment of robust and intellectually invigorating periodicals that ever did grace the Web. If you are sitting there wondering how on earth those two sentences could possibly follow one another, don’t worry; we are just as flabbergasted as you. Onward!

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HuffPo Outdoes Esquire, Microsoft in Shameless Use of Winehouse Death

We all experience different reactions when faced with death and tragedy, and for the most part people’s attitudes convey grief and remembrance for the loss of the loved one. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that not all enterprises adhere to the notion of respecting the dead. Numerous reports have surfaced since the untimely death of British singer Amy Winehouse of companies utilizing the pop star’s death as a marketing ploy (surprise!). Microsoft wasted no time reminding their Twitter followers to honor the dead singer by buying her album, and unfortunately they are not the only company masquerading their shameless profit-driven messages as sincere acts of respect. Not to be out done, PR ‘pros’ are took to the Huffington Post and used Winehouse’s death as a lesson to small business owners. Thankfully social media is around to catch them in the act and reveal their disgusting acts to the world. AdAge covered the use of social media for good in the wake of social media for bad. Read the full story here.

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Scoring Your Dream Job Through Social Media

This Philippine’s based writer must have known that the U.S. would soon be removing Galileo, Thomas Hobbes, Calculus, and Rhetoric from the syllabus and replacing them with how to manage your privacy on Facebook, ways to make your Flicker account edgy and cool, and of course, the best way to redeem your public standing through your Twitter. In this article he talks about ways you can use social media to help you land your dream job. Offering some very creative tips for helping you with the interview process, such as advice on how to find a prominent contacts email, and learning more about your future employer through their twitter postings, it’s a must read. What this post really shows is that it always pays to be ahead of the curve when looking for a job, and (just as we suspected) that social media can help you get there. Read on here.

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The History of Advertising on YouTube

Another social network is figuring out how to turn your avid fandom into millions of dollars worth of revenue. Shocked? Neither were we.  As much as we love using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and in this case YouTube, we need to remember that in the end these free services are businesses, and it is interesting to see how a free service can generate so much cash. This infographic covers the evolution of advertising on YouTube since its creation, but also includes all the other cool services the video sharing site has garnered along the way, as well as other stats. This infographic gets huge points for including the first instance of a Rickroll, because let’s face it “I’m never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you” is just hilarious. See the full infographic here.

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Study: Checking Social Media Addiction on Par with Smoking, Drinking

As odd as it might seem to some and as obvious as it probably seem to others, a recent study has found that social media can be just as addicting to people as smoking cigarettes or hitting the bottle. Some of the quotes by participants in this study are actually quite disturbing, as one of the participants equated having social media taken away from him to his hand being cut off. The parameters of the study are not given in this article, so it is unclear if they followed the scientific method, though the test size and demographics are given. Most likely someone would learn to cope with life without Facebook or Foursquare after a couple of days or weeks without them, but then again maybe a future epidemic is on the rise. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before we start seeing people holding signs with “Will work for Facebook”, or have to listen to your friends tell you not to lend that guy money because he will just go and spend it on Twitter. Hey, it could happen. Read more here.

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New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) July 21, 2011

As social media integration continues to become important for great marketing, local television stations are looking to give their advertisers the ability to reach and engage a more targeted audience and leverage those customers to become brand evangelizers. Many stations have recognized that offering their advertisers new ways to generate qualified leads through social sharing, in addition to traditional digital and broadcast advertising, is helping elevate their game in providing true returns for local businesses.

One television station is at the forefront of this evolutionary movement. WJW – FOX 8 in Cleveland, Ohio has recently begun using Dukky marketing technology which provides the ability to target and share clients’ promotional advertisements virally through customized microsites. These microsites, developed on the Dukky SaaS Platform, send customers through an interactive sales “funnel” capturing quantifiable data on their customers through contest registrations. With the integration of social sharing and incentives, each campaign can reach new customers, potentially ones that have never been exposed to the station or the client’s brand before. The Dukky Analytics Dashboard visually manages those incoming leads in real-time, showing engagement at each level of the funnel.

Using Dukky campaigns, FOX 8’s advertisers have enjoyed an astounding increase in response rates and ROI, in some cases nearly doubling the returns from previous, more traditional digital ad campaigns. Equipping their campaigns with incentives for sharing through Dukky’s Viral Peer Sharing, local clients have seen 70% to 85% increases in their response rates to their campaigns.

A major national furniture client of FOX 8’s recently launched a multi-platform campaign using Dukky and had great success. Over 18,000 people visit their Dukky-powered microsite; forty-two percent of those visitors shared their information and were added to the local furniture store’s customer database. Of those who gave their information nearly 60% shared the company’s offer on their social networks and through email, bringing in over 6,300 new customers to their microsite. Other FOX 8 clients enjoyed similar results to their campaigns, gaining new customer lists with 1,000 to 7,000 new customers each. All enjoyed share rates of 15% or higher as well.

By integrating Dukky technology onto its existing marketing strategies FOX 8 has been able to take its marketing reach and revenues to new heights.

Jennifer Guerrieri, Vice President of Interactive for Local TV LLC, FOX 8’s parent company, says, “Dukky has been a great addition to our marketing platform for local clients. With the wide net that we cast — television promotion, focused interactive marketing on our websites, and a mechanism for data collection and social sharing– Dukky has rounded out an offering for us that has driven tens of thousands of dollars in direct marketing revenue.”

After working with Dukky so successfully, the partnership is now being extended to include up to 19 of FOX 8’s sister stations, owned by Local TV LLC.

“Social sharing is very important to us at FOX 8 as well as our station group,” says Guerrieri. “In fact, we see quantifiable returns in both news audiences as well as revenue relating to the ability for our fans to share news, deals, offers and any other user benefit they find. Dukky helps us broker that relationship to get our clients’ offers in front of our users and their peers in a fun, exciting, and lucrative way.”

In a perfect world, tomorrow’s headlines would read, “Idiocy in public relations extinguished,” followed by an account of how the nation’s PR pros had woken up that morning equipped with all the knowledge, experience, and common sense necessary to excel in their jobs. But such flights of fancy are not meant to be, and PR pros will continue to have to learn their jobs in a piecemeal manner.

For the last six articles, this series has helpfully and whimsically provided common sense dos and don’ts for PR pros looking to learn the ropes or improve their performance. Today’s article has been turned over to a handful of well-respected public relations pros who will share their expert insights in order to wrap this series up with a bang.

A round of applause for the judges …

* Gini Dietrich, Founder and CEO, Arment Dietrich, Inc. (@Ginidietrich)
* Dominique Ellis, VP of Product Development, Dukky (@Dominiqueellis)
* Lauren Fernandez, Account Executive, Fleishman Hillard (@cubanalaf)
* Len Kendall, Account Group Supervisor – Digital, Golin Harris (@Lenkendall)
* Heather Whaling, Founder, Geben Communications (@PRtini)

Doing Your Job: Once you start working in public relations, you are always on the go. There often is not the luxury to stop, take a deep breath, and think. So refer to these insights in advance to help you understand how to do your job, each and every day, a little bit better.

• The best PR pros are simply great hosts. If you’re not consistently introducing new and innovative folks to the mix, you’re not doing your job. (Dominique)
• Remember that other types of agencies are organically becoming very good at what PR has done for a century. You must learn faster than them. (Len)
• Each lost minute can be damaging. Type thoughtfully and cautiously, but focus your energy on brevity and quick (when appropriate) reaction. (Len)
• Measurable objectives are key in every project — if you can’t tie it back, it isn’t the right strategy or tactic. (Lauren)
• Got a difficult client? Don’t underestimate what we know from birth in the South — a smile and a “sure, honey” or “yes, sir” can do wonders. (Dominique)

Growing as a PR Pro: Doing your job better is a good start, but its also important to think about how you can improve how you do your job in the aggregate, not just on a day-to-day basis.

• There is always something to learn, whether it’s from a senior or junior person.
• Be open to new ideas. (Lauren)
• Spend time reading outside the PR trades/blogs; your creativity will be inspired more by the connections that don’t exist yet. (Len)
• Case studies, stats, and best practices should be used to reaffirm your own original thoughts, not inspire them. (Len)

Interacting, Part I: Media Relations: Relationships are a major part of public relations work, though you should never mistake a relationship for an always-open door — use relationships wisely; don’t abuse them.

• Media relations begins with research — what you know about the reporter, what they write, and their tone. Relevancy is key to getting a story picked up. (Lauren)
• The best media relations tip I have is to call your voicemail and practice your pitch. Then play it back to critique yourself. (Lauren)
• Pitches should hook reporters within the first three sentences of the pitch. If it doesn’t, they are justified in deleting it. (Lauren)

Interacting, Part Deux: Bartering with Bloggers: Bloggers are people, too. They are also targets for your outreach. They may not have the reputation or fame of a print or TV journalist, but they have a near-instantaneous publishing capability, as well as a nearly unlimited freedom to write what they want, framed how they want.

• The 5 Cs of effective blogger relations: Cultivation, Communication, Collaboration, Content, Community. (Heather)
• PR pro and bloggers, alike, are passionate about their work. Take that into account when you’ve entered a relationship with one another. (Gini)
• Understand the blogger’s goals. If you understand what they’re trying to achieve, the better success you’ll have in working with them. (Gini)
• Building relationships is critical to effective media/blogger outreach, but solid pitches trump lukewarm relationships. (Heather)
• Spam sucks and so do mass emails. You don’t want spam. Neither do bloggers. (Gini)

The key lesson to take away from these kernels of wisdom is this: your peers are your educators when you are in the work force. No matter how wise or un-idiotic you may think you are, you can always benefit and learn from the people around you. Let your younger peers challenge you, and your older peers guide you. The only cure for idiocy is not certification nor more degrees, but on-the-job education, and the PR pros you interact with are the best teachers you will ever meet.

Miss Any Installments?

• An Idiot’s Guide to Public Relations, Part I: Preparing Your Subject Matter Expert for an Interview
• An Idiot’s Guide, Part II: Preparing for a Crisis Before It Strikes
• An Idiot’s Guide, Part III: Media Pitching 101
• An Idiot’s Guide, Part IV: The Art of the Press Release
• An Idiot’s Guide, Part V: Client Management Made Easy
• An Idiot’s Guide, Part VI: How to Lose a Client in 10 Days

Welcome to the July 13^th edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we award prizes to our readers ranging from ground breaking industry news to useful tips that will blow your mind. If you haven’t played “What We’re Reading” before don’t worry the rules are straightforward, simply read the summaries presented below and click on a story that interests you. Upon finishing the article, you will be awarded with a plethora of knowledge that you can use to help your blog, your business, or even your weekend forays as a vigilante crime fighter (at least, that’s what we do on the weekends).

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Google+ About to Hit 10 Million Users

It’s starting to look like all of those articles that postulated that Facebook should be very concerned about the looming threat of Google+ may have some merit.  According to some research presented by Mashable, which rightly described the report as unofficial, claims that Google+ may have already garnered more than 10 million members. Normally, we’d like to include a quirky jest or attempt a clever metaphor here, but shall refrain from humor for this news and instead differ to awe. If these estimates turn out to be true, and they are based off of a methodology that is questionable at best, than it is possible Google+ will have had a user growth rate faster than any social network in history (pause for the awe here).

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Tesco Opens A Subway Virtual Store

When the 2^nd most popular super market in South Korea wanted to break into the number one spot, they concocted a plan that was part marketing, part social, and part genius. Placing wall-sized images of isles of their super market in a subway, commuters only had to go to the produce they wanted to buy, and scan the QR code provided for the specific item. When they were done they paid on the smart phone, and their groceries were delivered to their homes. Unfortunately, the grocery isle posters did not come with a flavored sample, so that we could discover once and for all if the snozberries did indeed taste like snozberries. Click here to see the video.

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5 Tips for QR Code Campaigns

Since the previous YouTube video was a clear illustration of the power of QR codes, and how the tiny little piece of smartphone-friendly genius can change the world, we’ve decided to provide you with some tips on how to use them.  These five tips come from Forbes, and not only are they awesome because they provide some great information, but also because it includes a lovely tongue wagging image of Gene Simmons. Watch the YouTube video for inspiration, read this article for advice.

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Social Media Playing a Bigger Role in Crimes, Investigations

In what seems to be an immediate response to the Huffington Post’s article about cyber criminals, the Washington Examiner has put forth an article about cyber crime fighting. The tactics of online law enforcement are only just formulating, however. Their current strategies range from friending likely victims in order to deter predators, playing big brother and collecting data from known suspects’ Facebook pages, and of course the tried-and-true tactic of tweeting the bad boys’ mom. So all of you online criminals out there, let this be your first and last warning, for soon you will be issued your right to remain silent and yes, that includes updating your relationship status on Facebook from single to cell buddies with one-eyed Steve. To read more about the tactics see the article here.