YouTube, celebrated its 5^th birthday last month and earlier this week the power of video achieved yet another milestone as Mashable’s Ben Parr captured in his story, “YouTube Surpasses Two Billion Video Views Daily.” Keep in mind that this figure is nearly double the prime-time audience of all 3 major broadcast networks combined. Here are some more figures from Ben’s story to ponder… 

• 24-hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute and the average person now spends 15 minutes a day on the site
• 209.43 million – the number of times the most popular YouTube video, Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” has been played
• More video has been uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major broadcast networks created in 60 years

The stats speak volumes on their own but we as marketers we can’t ignore the fact that video must be a part of our communications solutions efforts ASAP. Here are 3 Reasons Marketers Can’t Ignore YouTube & Video:

1 – Consumers are lazy – I mean this will all due respect, but we are experiencing The Shift in the way we communicate with folks in this new world of ME Media. Consumers are in control and are demanding that video be a part of their “experience” with your brand and as a result, they can easily share with others via email, Facebook, etc. YouTube has become a force that dares any marketer to consider the full impact of the notion that if a picture is worth a thousand words, then moving pictures on YouTube are worth thousands if not millions of engaged viewers who virally share video content across their social networks.

2 – Making video doesn’t have to break the budget – The barriers to creating video have fallen so low in terms of cost and ease to produce that anyone anywhere with a $100 Flip Video Camera in their hands can create and share content worldwide within minutes. The reality that is hard for companies to embrace is letting go of the polished and professional-looking (expensive) videos and going with the more “raw” video files produced by Flip Video and others.

3 – Puts a human face on your brand – If done well video is an imprinting medium that will allow your company to put some human qualities around how you are solving problems for your customers and fans. People remember what they see and with the power of the camera you can put your organization’s story in the context you want your key audiences to view it in.

This list could have just as easily been 10 Reasons but I believe with this recent milestone from YouTube, the three listed above clearly spell out a case for the use of video by every marketer.

I’m anxious to hear your thoughts around this subject and how you are using video – Happy Friday!

I just read an interesting study from the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) that said, “80% of businesses plan to boost investment in social networking.” I can’t say this surprises me too much and don’t know what their definition of “boost” might be going into 2010 budgets:). I do think that as communicators and advocates of social media we need to be cognizant that social media isn’t our savior.

Okay, I won’t go as far to say that social media isn’t right for business – I actually do think there is a place in social for every type of business. What gets me the most excited is what the practice of social media has now uncovered in business communications. For example, I believe that businesses are now smarter about how they are distributing their stories to the audieneces that matter most…through social and traditional means.

As a result, here are 3 ways your organization can benefit from implementing a formal Story Distribution process:

1 – Leveraging Existing Communications – One of the biggest mysteries in the world of corporate communications is why so many useful and amazing studies, stories and facts are bottled up internally as if it were a map to the Holy Grail. Instead, look at each of these valuable communications tools, wrap your company messaging around it in an email and send it off to your employees, clients, investors and prospects.

2 – Actually Deliver an ROI – There is nothing more frustrating as a communications professional than having to quantify how awareness and branding effect a company’s bottom line. You know why? It doesn’t! Before you jump all over me…give me a chance to explain. There is significant value in landing a media story, having bloggers buzzing about your brand and unbelievable engagement across your social platforms. It may even result in a sale or two or several for your company. But it isn’t and shouldn’t be a direct tie into sales…until your Story Distribution process came along. Now imagine all of the validity, awareness and branding that you’re helping establish for your company is repurposed throughout the organization and among your targeted audience by the sales team, HR, investor relations, customer service, etc. In essence, you would be hedging your bet by doing so and allowing your communications to actually tie into your company’s bottom line – a true ROI.

3 – Because It Already Exists – What I mean here is the communications tools and channels already exist within your organization. Your sales, HR, investor relations, customer service and marketing teams already exist. You just need some real time communications tools developed around each story being distributed in a way that is complimentary to the platform and process that already exists. If Sales need it in a PowerPoint slide – it happens. If HR needs it in a 500-word article for their weekly newsletter – it happens. If Customer Service needs it in scripted bullet points – it happens.

I’ve always been a big believer in Story Distribution processes although I have also been caught up in the traditions of clip reports and focusing on the results. Today, I’m happy to say that I believe my job begins when the story takes place because now it is time to share that story with others…through social media, through additional media coverage, and through hand-delivering the story to your key audiences.

Do you use Story Distribution in your communications strategy? If so, how is it working and what makes it happen? If not, why not?

As a marketer and PR professional I am targeted (weekly if not daily) with a new seminar, conference or webinar on various ways I can leverage social media and the various platforms for my profession. A recent example includes a “Twitter Boot Camp for PR & Internal Communications Workshop” hosted by Ragan Communications (a very trusted source in our industry) which is actually being led by two folks I really admire – Allan Schoenberg (CME Group) and Barbara Rozgonyi. In fact, I recently led the conversation for a “Twitter 101″ webinar for PR professionals with CISION, the leading media relations software provider. Over the course of two sessions we had more than 2,000 participants!

I think its great our profession and industry are embracing social media advocacy and I can honestly say that I’ve never been on a call, webinar or attended a conference on this subject that didn’t provide at least some value. Most advice has been pretty solid for myself and I can only assume for the other marketers involved with each…but what about everyone else in business??

I’m a firm believer that as marketers and PR professionals we often operate in our comfortable “silos” (or departments). Some common examples of this are when your company receives media coverage and the marketing team might put a link to such coverage up on the website and perhaps have professional reprints made of the story for the sales team. Instead, shouldn’t the coverage be leveraged and packaged for all of your departments to effectively communicate with each of your targeted audiences? Probably…but we don’t.

I bring this up because I believe we’re missing the boat as social media advocates for business (as a whole). Instead we continue to educate within our own comfort zone, to our own people, and in ways that matter to our profession.

- What about the CEO who thinks social media is a waste of time…as he observes his teenage kids constantly communicating on Facebook?

- What about the Sales VP who doesn’t believe Twitter can generate any sales for her company?

- What about the SVP of HR and Legal Counsel who are trying to figure out how restrict their employees’ social media participation while at work?

I think you see my point. What can or should we do? I’m all ears:).

I’m usually pretty good at including links in my blog posts (as I advise any of my clients to do) but surprisingly, I can’t find much about a topic that has been very near and dear to me recently – advising businesses on how to effectively leverage their media coverage and other news to their targeted audiences.

Myself included, I believe that PR professionals should take a hard look at how we are conducting business. Too often the end result of our efforts are in the form of a “clip report” listing out all of the media hits we’ve received for the month or targeted campaign. Although media coverage is an essential part of what we do, it is only the beginning to an end.

As a result I’ve come up with “5 Steps to Effectively Leverage Your Media Coverage”:

1 – Gain Organizational Buy-In - It is so important that the most influential departments of an organization (not just marketing and sales) understand the value of passing along successful media coverage to their targeted audiences. These departments don’t need to create new ways to communicate with their important audiences, they just need to understand the value in “merchandising” these stories to such audiences. By doing so your entire organization is hedging your PR spend bet by ensuring these audiences have seen the coverage…directly from you.

2 – Customize Your Distribution – Once you have buy-in from the most influential departments (i.e., sales, marketing, customer service, HR, IT, IR, etc.) you need to make sure the materials you are arming them with are customized for their specific needs. For example, HR might prefer to send something out to the employees via an email while sales might prefer some speaking points about the coverage since they typically meet face-to-face or over the phone. In order to support the entire organization, you must customize your correspondence accordingly.

3 – Designate a Department Contact - It is one thing to arm a department with the right tools to effectively communicate with their respective targeted audiences, it is another thing to assume they know what to do with these tools and/or will use them at all. As a result, you must have a point of contact within each department who takes ownership of this communications strategy. Someone who can train, advise and measure how effective such outreach was within each department.

4 – Measure Your Impact - Building on point #3…you must develop the appropriate mix of measurements that are consistent with you management team’s expectations. Typically this is a blend of quantitative and qualitative measurements. Quantitative might be tracking how many people each member of your department reached out to with these tools – via email, phone, in-person, etc. Qualitative might be some anecdotal feedback you received from your targeted audience about the coverage.

5 – Report to Key Management – Once you’ve discovered the right mix of measurements for this program, you have to ensure that the executive teams are able to see how such a program is being implemented across your entire organization. In addition, they have to see how effective such outreach is for the overall goals of the organization. Seeing that you’re creating a minimal amount of work and leveraging existing means of communications…they’ll likely see the value of such a program.

I’m sure I’ve left out some of the important steps or details but I believe we as communications professionals need to remember that the validation we create with media coverage is only as good as the number of targeted audiences that see it. What am I missing? As always, thanks for reading and/or joining the conversation!

You’ve just wrapped up a successful PR campaign and generated numerous stories across national, regional and trade media. Your client is pumped up as you deliver the culmination of your program in the form of a massive clip report. Everyone is happy…right?

I’ve constantly been agitated by the PR industry (for which I’m a part of) and our inability to tie into the most important aspect of our profession – validating the client’s that we serve. There are many different ways for us to measure the effectiveness of our programs. In fact, Katie Paine, founder of KDPaine & Partners is probably one of the very best at designing the measurement programs in our industry. However, I’m not talking about measurement; I’m talking about educating companies about how to effectively “merchandise” these media placements throughout their organization directly to their targeted audiences. Validating their business by hand-delivering such media coverage to these targeted audiences.

Here are just a few of the things you can do to make your PR program an internal success that will have the entire organization (and targeted audiences) singing your praises:

• A Reason to Call or Email - How many times do sales teams bitch and complain about having to make cold calls or never having anything new to take to their clients or prospects? Now they do as a result of your media coverage. Draft a number of communications tools including emails, speaking points, etc. that anyone in your organization can take to their respective audiences directly relating to these stories. They now have a great reason to connect that isn’t self serving or traditional.
• Encourage You Organization to Leverage Social Media – Too many times we hear about companies looking to put restrictions in place for their employees on social media. Bad idea. Instead, encourage and arm your employees with the links, Tweets, and summarized posts about the media coverage on their personal profiles. Besides any employee should be excited about their company being featured in the media.
• Wear it on your Sleeve – Okay, not literally but employees should be proud of such coverage and should let others know via their email signature, on their website, marketing materials, business cards, etc. Everyone appreciates being featured in the media and besides, it will certainly be a great conversation starter.

I could go on and on but would love to hear what you’re doing to “merchandise” your stories. This has become a standard practice for my firm and I hope others will catch on and not move on once the results come in but instead let the games (and outreach) begin!

I continue to be amazed at all of the interactions being had on Twitter with traditional/social media professionals and others. In fact, today’s announcement by Cision introducing their new service called JournalistTweets followed by another amazing conversation tonight on #journchat made me think about something…

Is Twitter becoming a new media platform itself?

I say this for many reasons…not just because of the Twitter hype we’re experiencing today. Let me try and explain with these 3 points:

1 – The News Push – I’ve been able to replace all of my RSS news feeds because most of the major news outlets I traditionally follow are broadcasting their news via Twitter (i.e., here is an amazing list compiled by Sarah Evans – MediaOnTwitter).

2 – The Micro Blog – Most media (journalists and bloggers) are using Twitter to market their stories or blogs to others. Granted, they are only using Twitter to supplement their “story marketing” but there is no doubt that the traffic being created by these tactics are growing rapidly.

3 – The “Conversation” – This is the biggest reason (and most powerful weapon of Twitter) I am so bold to make a statement that this is becoming it’s own media platform – like TV, radio, print, etc. On Twitter journalists are conversing with mass audiences (not just PR/Communications professionals), tapping into general interest and niche expertise alike.  In the same right, these casual conversations are becoming news themselves.

Am I going on a limb here? Perhaps drinking too much Twitter Kool-Aid? Or do you too believe that Twitter has morphed into so much more than just another social media or networking platform. Talk with me!

For us “news junkies” we can’t help but see the stories and chaos taking place on Twitter today around Amazon.  According to reports, their supposed “glitch” resulted in several gay and lesbian authors and books being flagged as “inappropriate content.” Several folks are posting to the Twitter hash tag #AmazonFail (here is some additional background on this).

Without knowing all of the details or specifics, I have to offer up some PR thoughts to this entire situation (i.e., PR dilemma):

1. Speed of message – As many of my PR colleagues (@chrispitre & @JGoldsborough) mentioned while tweeting about this story earlier today, how could Amazon have sat on this over the weekend (regardless of it being Easter)?  As of 1 p.m. CT today, there has yet to be any statement beyond “glitch” from Amazon. Such an organization cannot afford to have their PR people (or their executive team) sitting back while getting slaughtered online & in the news.
2. Just tell the truth! – I’m not sure how much of the truth was revealed on this situation by Amazon, but when the WSJ, AP and others just have that you’ve said it was a “glitch” you aren’t quite answering the question.  Just admit, “we messed up” or “have no idea what happened but will get back to you once we do.”  Or in the spirit of yesterday’s religious holiday…”the truth will set you free!” Unfortunately it may be too late!
3. Get online – Regardless of the “facts” Amazon needs to be on Twitter, commenting on blogs, and communicating with the social media communities.  I’m not sure if this is their official Twitter profile, but it certainly appears to be “crickets chirping” on their end. This is a colossal mistake…either way you look at this issue.

I could have done a Top 10 or 20 list here but thought I’d start with the 3 most obvious:).  I’d love to hear your comments or reactions to the way Amazon is dealing with (or not) today’s situation.  Thanks!

What a pleasant surprise to wake up this morning and see that I was able to round out the list of 115 Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses in today’s The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur! 

What tips might you have added to this list? Any good anecdotes? Enjoy!

This past holiday season I conducted a pseudo study of all the holiday or Christmas cards I received. Much to my sjogren, I discovered that almost 75% of the cards received hadn’t one bit of personalization on them except for the handwritten address. And probably half of those that weren’t personalized at all didn’t even have a handwritten address…but a printed lable. 

Please don’t get me wrong, we had a nice family photo card made via Shutterfly this year, last and probably the year prior.  But my wife and I usually sit down and sign each card typically writing a little personalized note on each. Besides, for many, this may be our only interaction with them all year!

Unfortunately, I believe we’re in a new era of “Template Personalization.” The dichotomy of the phrase is on purpose as ”template” and “personalization” are as opposite as “night” and “day.” Yet we see examples of this being used across all mediums of communication today. Here are 3 additional examples of “Template Personalization”:

• Blast Emails – We see this one all too much within the business world and in particular within public relations as many PR firms and professionals see a need to blast a pitch and worse yet, a release to hundreds of journalists…hoping for something to stick.
• Evite – I’ve used Evite’s many times and will continue to do so as they’re a great way of managing a party or event. But when you have a small group of friends, family or even coworkers your inviting for an event…why not use print invitations and write a personal invite on each?
• Automatic Direct Messages on Twitter - When you start following someone on Twitter (kind of like your “friends” on Facebook for those of you not using Twitter) there are many services out there that allow for you to send a template response or direct message to those that started following you. I’ve recently started calling attention to these via my Twitter account (here is a link to these tweets).

What are some good (or bad in this situation) examples of “Template Personalization” that you’ve seen? I look forward to adding to this list as I definitely plan on tweeting & posting on this subject often…consider it a pet peeve of mine:)

I was recently interviewed by PRWeek for a story they ran on February 16 entitled, “Online marketplaces match firms with freelance pros” (subscription required). It made me realize that we are using many different (affordable) tools to help us remain nimble during these “challenging economic times.”

As most of you have probably heard me say, “I refuse to participate in the recession.” But at the same time, we have to be cognizant of the reality we’re facing every day as business owners and professionals. Here is a list of some of the tools, services and outlets that have helped us (1) save money, (2) save time & (3) remain competitive:

1.   Elance (http://www.elance.com) – Outsourcing isn’t just for the Fortune 500 anymore.  In fact, Elance is a wonderful place to connect with experienced freelancers, contractors, virtual assistants and even businesses. You can post a job description with details then review and interview your candidates before you make the decision…all online. The best part is you can tap into a global network of professionals, maximize the competitive environment and get high-end/professional services for a very reasonable cost.  We have used Elance in several capacities.

2.   Brads Deals (http://www.bradsdeals.com) – In today’s economy, you can’t afford not to find the very best deals on everything you purchase.  Brads Deals is a site that takes all the work off your plate and lines you up with the very best coupons, deals and values across 1,000+ retailers. Not only is Brads Deals a client, but we have started purchasing our office supplies, PCs, equipment and other business purchases on the site seeing as much as 60-70% savings.

3.   Base camp & High-rise (http://www.37signals.com/) – We were fortunate enough to find 37signals & their web-based software platforms early on in our business. As a result we are now using Base camp which serves as our intranet but is also an amazing project management tool [about $49/month].  The other piece we utilize is called High-rise which serves as our customer relationship management (CRM) database allowing us to track everyone we interact with (media, clients, prospects, partners, etc.) [About $24/month].

4.   RingCentral (http://www.ringcentral.com/) – RingCentral is a virtual phone system for your business. Bottom line, it allows you to act and function as if you’re a large Fortune 500 company for as little as $9.99/month. We have used RingCentral for about 6 months now as our primary phone #. Then they get a virtual directory to ring any one of our employees…the call is then forwarded to your office, then cell, then home (if you dare) and back to your voicemail if you don’t pick up anywhere. Then they send you an email with your voicemails…which allows you to save without clogging your voicemail.

5.   Social Media – How could I put together a Top 5 list about helping businesses without at least mentioning social media ? Besides the time investment, we can implement our social media strategy (and do) for no cost to our business.

As always, I’m sure there are hundreds of others we could add to the list. What tools is your business using to help during this recession? Please share!