We had some great training recently from Craig McGinty on Online PR, because it’s an area we’re dealing with for our clients more and more.

We worked specifically on how to write compelling press releases, and some of the more traditional aspects of PR that us geeky digital types often miss…

It’s all well and good knowing how to seed an article, but if the article’s not much good in the first place then it’s bound to struggle.

Craig reminded us of the Five Ws (and one H) that we learned at school a couple of years ago (ahem)  :

• Who
• What
• Why
• Where
• When
• How

He also spoke about the inverted pyramid method of writing used in journalism; where you give the most important piece of information clearly and concisely first, then move on into further detail.

This is something I don’t make a conscious effort to do, but after thinking about it, it makes perfect sense in a digital world.  Because people don’t read a blog or a website in the same way they read newspapers – they scan quickly in a series of horizontal movements, then vertically down the left hand side (as shown in the diagram below from Jakob Nielsen’s useit.com.

Paul Fabretti from KMP in Stockport gave a great presentation on the reputation monitoring and online sentiment tool he uses.  We had our ears pricked up for this one in particular because we’ve been using a reputation monitoring tool to help with our organic online marketing campaigns.  We’re particularly interested in analysing the data to shape online marketing plans, but also in using it to tackle negative and ride on the wave of positive PR.

There was also discussion about whether we need a professional body specifically for our industry.

I personally don’t think the British Computer Society covers what we do in the slightest, and as for Marketing, although the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), and the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) do courses for Digital and Online Marketing, it’s perhaps a bit of an afterthought.

I’m sure there was a branch off for digital from one of these institutions a couple of years ago, but it looks like nothing came of it. (If anyone has any information on this, please let me know).

Cathy Parker suggested a Digital Marketing Institute would help represent businesses working in our industry.  For example, in the case of Government Legislation – a professional body would more likely be called on for input.

This was all very interesting, and then we watched Spain versus Russia in the pub and carried on drinking… poor Julia’s not too pleased with the result.

Amazingly, all these types of holidays are offered by the dedicated bilingual team at Undiscovered Alps who have recently become the client for PushON. This is a France-based family business specialising in activity and adventure holidays for groups, families and individuals in a relatively small region in the south of France. We’re working on their campaign together with Tekin Suleyman and a number of media and PR companies in Manchester to optimise the existing marketing campaign for Undiscovered Alps, as well as to develop it further. At PushON we absolutely believe in organic and Social Media marketing, and Undiscovered Alps seem to be the right type of client to benefit from it.

The valleys of Champsaur and Valgaudemar form the southern edge of the Ecrin massif in the French Alps. The region includes three of the cols on the route of the famous Tour de France, ideal for biking. Skiing activities are hosted at Orcieres 1850, a well-known high altitude Alpine resort, and surrounding villages. On our client’s website, in addition to the expected information about the region and types of activities, you can find a choice of reliable accommodation, the destination routes, and even kit lists for different types of holidays and a booking form for ski hire.

…and if you can’t ski, swim or bike, and aren’t a fan of walking, you can paraglide. With Undiscovered Alps, sky is indeed your limit!

The article I found most useful to me was about how to write a social media press release; it has some do’s and don’ts for writing for social media, and an explanation of why traditional press releases don’t work for this medium.

I learned this the hard way – as some of my first social media press releases fell flat on their faces. I learned the correct way to write a press release equates to how not to write for social media.

Social media press releases are much more conversational and personal. So boilerplate, marketing headlines, facts, figures and quotes are generally seen as spam.

I also found that writing under my own name as opposed to on behalf of my company, with branding and logo, attracted kinder constructive criticism than writing as a fairly faceless writer. The Newsvine* community seriously let the dogs out when PushON had something to say!

In summary – when you’re writing for social media, you write personally, thinking about your audience and whether it’s relevant or useful to them. This is my opinion, and I think you’ll find this interesting because….

*Newsvine is an excellent place to read, distribute and comment user generated news.

And then out came the Troll!

This chap really doesn’t like us at all.

So what to do? Ignore it and leave the commentary negative? Fly off the handle and Flame the Troll? Cry?

In the end, curiosity was the driving factor. What was the guys problem? There was no substance to his diatribe so I was pretty sure I was on safe ground. I wasn’t going to get caught with my trousers down. Clearly an opportunity for some defensive online PR. So I fed the troll. What was he so upset about? I was assuming ‘he’ by the way. The tone and language of his comments seemed very male though I could be wrong.

He bit. So far, he’s made a number of very loose allegations which are unsupported. The very key piece is that he has ended up feeding me opportunities to talk about the credibility points of my client. Because it’s an ongoing conversation on the How Do site, more people are reading it, because it’s a busy thread. Those reading it are now checking out our website. Good relevant traffic and some direct contact from clients and potential clients.

When pitching, I often paraphrase Wilde. “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about”. Very relevant in the online marketing world. I’m fairly certain that most conversations about you can be turned to your advantage as long as you are open and honest.

Using Google alerts is a great way of finding opportunities. At its’ simplest level, just set the alert to search for your business name, or you as a person and the work will be done for you.

We mentioned recently that we would be reviewing the success of the viral video, so we’ve added some information in the form of a press release – this can be found here:

Viral Video Press Release

Whilst writing the release, it was interesting to note that a format for social media press releases has evolved.

This type of online press release encourages social bookmarking to increase the potential online spread.

This offers guidance for newcomers to PR, and helps produce articles in standard Press Release format – making it more likely to be published in full.
The PRX Online PR tool for WordPress is particularly useful for bloggers – where the line between blogging and Online PR is very thin.

Additionally, Now Public which is a user generated news publishing site, offers seamless integration with WordPress. You can publish your article or press release to the Now Public site, and with a couple of settings in place, it will automatically add it to your WordPress blog with a link to view the original, and further images/media on the Now Public site.

So seamless in fact, that it would be quite easy to inadvertently publish a test article to your blog…

The vague premise of the video was the myths and apocraphyl we hear in our everyday business about website and website marketing. We get bums into it as well.

We are nothing if not consistent.