The A-Z of Australian and NZ PR Blogs

Public relation practitioners and industry gurus Trevor Young of parkyoung and Kylie Lewis of Slice Media created a list of Australian and New Zealand PR blogs. We often hear about top marketing blogs but not often PR ones. Now more than ever, is a time for PR to shine and what better way to stay abreast of industry knowledge than to read what your peers are writing.

I am delighted to say my blog made it into the list! Click here to read more http://www.marketingmag.com.au/blogs/view/the-a-z-of-australian-and-nz-pr-blogs-1299

Social Networking Ettiquette

Been tweeting lately? Made some new friends on Facebook? Chances are that you’ve come across a cyber-seller, pushy, demanding and in your face, they take no time from when you follow them to promptly sending a message selling this or that product.

The increase of social media means as business owners and communicators that we now have a new channel and many more opportunities to share our message, but it’s how professionally we do it that makes all the difference.

Have you noticed the disconnect that often exists between people’s online and offline behavior and the seeming lack of polite niceties that typically you would find in business relationships being forgone in the social networking space with people saying or doing things they would never do in person.?

In a post at his Web Ink Now blog, David Meerman Scott encourages readers to treat social-networking sites as if they’re cocktail parties. That is, interacting with others in the same way you would at a face-to-face industry event. To make his point, he asks questions like these:

• Do you go into a large gathering filled with a few acquaintances and tons of people you do not know and shout “BUY MY PRODUCT”?
• Do you go into a cocktail party and ask every single person you meet for a business card before you agree to speak with them?

“Sure, you can go to a cocktail party and hit everyone up as a sales lead while blabbing on about what your company does,” says Scott. “But that approach is unlikely to make you popular.”

Take a moment now to reflect - flick back through your tweets and see if your sell messages outweigh your sharing information and listening and responding to others. And before you next start to fire away an update consider - would you say it to a real flesh and blood person standing right next to you?

Yours in prosperity, passion and purpose

Heidi Alexandra Pollard - The Communicator’s Coach

Greetings fellow communicators

If the idea of walking into a roomful of strangers in order to strike up multiple bland conversations, is second only to eating brussell sprouts on your list of yucky things to do that are “good for you,” then read on.

Regardless of the bad press that “networking” gets you have to acknowledge that there are times and situations when putting in some face time makes good business and career sense.

In the past few blog entries I’ve talked a bit about online social networking so today I thought I would discuss the traditional form of networking – in person.

In my new book Boost Your Career, I’ve included an entire chapter on the subject of networking. In it I include an interesting statistic that networking is meant to account for securing around 70% of all jobs. A fact hard to ignore.

Networking is something that has always brought me new business as well as valuable referrals and repeat clients. For me it is not just schlapping on a suit and some lippie and handing out my business card, rather it is about long term business relationship building.

In my new Boost Your Career Home Study Course  we go into ever greater depth of identifying your circles of influence and how to develop your brand profile and elevator statement. The course also includes an audio CD with an interview of US-based guerrilla marketing coach Ursula Kauth on the topic of networking.

I first came across Ursula in 2008 as a fellow member of the Business Building Mastery Online Forum and have been impressed with her work and her approach to marketing. Ursula’s approach to networking is that it is all about building credibility and trust.

I agree with her. Never think think about what you can get from other people when networking, it is not about selling anything, it is about building relationships. And, like Frank Sinatra, I’m a firm believer in doing things my way (or in your case, your way) so remember to be yourself.

Yours in passion, prosperity and purpose

Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators’ Coach
Director Leading Value
www.leadingvalue.net

G’Day fellow communicators

and welcome to all the new subscribers this week.

An article recently posted by SMH/Age reporter Paul McIntyre suggests that it’s about time businesses get more serious about harnessing the power of social media as a business tool. And if they don’t, they will get left behind.

The stats provide proof. Twitter, a micro-blogging venture in which users post views, or “tweets” to a maximum of 140 characters, is still tiny, but its growth is enormous. Numbers are up more than 500 per cent this year in Australia alone according to Hitwise.

What Twitter and other social media applications can do is provide an amazing platform for Public Relations professionals to get their messages out and to interact and connect with stakeholders online.

The number of global online users is staggering:
- Bloggers globally 184 million
- Those who watch video clips online 82.9 per cent
- Those who have joined a social network 57 per cent
- Those who have uploaded photos to a network 55 per cent.
…and importantly for companies and PR people:
- 34 per cent of bloggers say they post opinions about products or brands!
In Tribes Seth Godin encourages you to lead instead of being led and he points out that social networking tools like these are the tools to help lead the tribes that we are forming online.

So the challenge for professional communicators like us is not only to monitor these forums for information but to engage and participate in the discussion. At the back of my book Boost Your Career (add link) I have included an entire resource list that you can use to find groups both online and online that you can subscribe to, join and get involved with. To get your copy of the book click here (add link).
Well what are you waiting for?

If you want to get started right away then Join the Professional Communicators’ Network online forum today! A global networking site created especially for professionals just like you to provide a platform for you to share what works in the world of communication. For now you can join for F. R. E. E. so get connected and join the discussion now!

To read more about Paul McIntyre’s thoughts visit his article

Yours in passion, prosperity and purpose

Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators’ Coach
Director Leading Value
www.leadingvalue.net

Greetings fellow Communicators!

Today I thought I would send you a video… I don’t tend to look for them, but instead I like to “let them find me”.

This video found me and I love it! It is rather long (little over 16 minutes), but well worth the watch.

It is another reminder of how important it is to treat everyone with love and respect and of how we can be of service to others in the simplest of ways.

I hope you enjoy the video and have an amazing week!

Yours in passion, prosperity and purpose

Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators’ Coach
Director Leading Value
www.leadingvalue.net

G’Day fellow communicators!

Welcome to all the new subscribers this week.

If you haven’t “Integrated” yet – it is time!

What in the world am I talking about? I am talking about…Integrating Social Networking Into Your Brand. One of the most exciting and addictive trends is integrating social networking into your website and newsletter communications (just like I have done on this website).

As we are now well into 2009, not only should you be encouraging the companies you work with and for to use social networking sites, but you should also be integrating them into your own personal online brand presence as well.

With services like Ping.fm,and TweetDeck, managing and updating your company and personal status on all the social networks is quicker and easier than ever.

Here are just a few of the social networking sites I’ve created a presence in for myself, the Communicators’ Network and Leading Value.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linked In

Not only do I open up the connections for my members by doing this, I also generate more leads, which turn into more members, clients and business partners.  Make no mistake about it–social networking is the tool for leaders and communicators today. Don’t get left behind!

And like all networking remember in the words of Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way” so network your way and just be yourself.

Yours in passion, prosperity and purpose

Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators’ Coach
Director Leading Value
www.leadingvalue.net

PS If you want to find and follow me on any of the Social Networks above, just click below.
See you there.
http://twitter.com/Commscoach
http://www.linkedin.com/in/heidialexandrapollard
Professional Communicators’ Network Online Forum
Facebook

PR versus Search Engine Optimisation

Check out this interesting article on PR versus SEO…

http://holisticsearch.co.uk/2009/02/18/managing-reputation-seo-vs-pr-who-is-better-placed/

Cheers
Heidi

Social Media to help a social cause

Using social media today is all about looking to connect with people on a personal level, to move beyond one way communication to stimulate dialogue and a greater level of involvement and engagement.

A cute clip I came across recently from Haagen Dazs is a beaut example of a brand using ’social media marketing’ techniques for a social marketing cause.

It’s part of their Help the Honey Bees campaign and it is definitely worth a look.

Be well communicators
Heidi Alexandra Pollard

The ‘Embargo’ argument

Last year, Chris Anderson of Wired magazine made news with the controversial decision to publish the email addresses of PR practitioners who consistently bombarded him with irrelevant pitches. Now, Michael Arrington of the TechCrunch blog has fired an opening salvo at companies that fail to enforce embargoes.

The latest article from Marketing Profs outlines his new approach:

“We’ve never broken an embargo at TechCrunch,” he writes at a post titled “Death to the Embargo.” “Not once. Today that ends. From now our new policy is to break every embargo. We’ll happily agree to whatever you ask of us, and then we’ll just do whatever we feel like right after that. We may break an embargo by one minute or three days. We’ll choose at random.”

In the last year, argues Arrington, companies desperate for attention have become especially aggressive in their pitching methods, for instance by providing embargoed announcements to just about anyone with a URL. While reputable outlets like TechCrunch hold the news until the embargo date, it looks as if they’re being scooped on a regular basis by less scrupulous competitors. “The benefits are clear,” he says. “Sites like Google News and TechMeme prioritize them first as having broken the story. Traffic and links flow in to whoever breaks an embargo first.”

What do you think of Arrington’s policy?

Cheers Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators’ Coach

Using the power of the mass media

Hi everyone,

This is Heidi Alexandra Pollard, The Communicators’ Coach from picturesque Lake Macquarie and I thought I would share with you a story from a well known US PR guy Paul Hartunian.
Here’s what Paul had to say about the power of mass media:

“When I sent out my press releases about the Brooklyn Bridge, I knew I was onto something big. I knew I had a great story and I was sure that the media was going to pick it up and run with it.
What I didn’t know was just how big the publicity was going to be!
I didn’t just get calls from newspapers and radio stations in New Jersey and New York. I was doing interviews with news organizations around the world.
I spoke to reporters at outlets I’d never heard of.

I only knew two things knew about these media organizations:
1 - they were going to give me sales - and I certainly hadn’t sent them a press release.
2 - That second point made me think.
If I hadn’t sent them a press release how did these newspapers and radio stations get hold of me?

The answer was obvious: they’d seen the story on the news, just like everyone else!
Without a doubt, one of the most amazing things about publicity is that when you have a good story for the media, there’s no telling where you’ll end up. You could send out a fax release to your town newspaper and the next day, you could get a call from Oprah Winfrey inviting you on her show.The reason is simple. Reporters are desperate for stories.

They have to put out their publication or show every day or every week without fail. And each edition has to be packed with interesting information. They can’t just say, “Well heck, it’s been a quiet week this week, let’s cut twenty minutes from the show.”

It just doesn’t work that way. Whatever happens - or doesn’t happen - reporters and editors have to produce exactly the same amount of information in each edition or each program.

That’s why the story on that press release can end up circling the world before you know it.

You can read all about Paul’s Brooklyn Bridge adventure at:
http://www.Hartunian.com/bridge.html

Happy New Year everyone
Cheers and Happy New Year from
Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators’ Coach