PR is My Biz

4 Must have skills for the “NEW” PR person

sevfletcher — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:01:34 +0000

No one can deny the power of social media. PR professionals can benefit from it more than anyone. However, there are a few skills I think will aid in the “NEW” PR persons success more than others. Below are four skills that every pr person should know.

1. Headline Writing

With the growth of Social Media microblogging sites like Twitter, public relations professionals must be able to convey their thoughts and messages in short and sweet phrases. Though we can use these platforms to our advantage, there are millions of other messages being “tweeted” or published and your message has to have panache and the wow factor to be heard.

Also, journalists are not growing more patient by the day! They look at their inbox and scan the titles of their thousands of emails from other PR people like you. You have to be able to stand out from the crowd and catch the journalists’ attention quickly.

2. Proving what you know you are

Proving our worth has been a long standing challenge—however, it is easier than ever to show how an increased web presence has led to increased website traffic which in turn leads to increased sales. Just because we hand off the content to marketers and programmers—doesn’t mean we should forget where it all started—with us!

Creating content online is easy to track and analyze. Using the right technology to document the success of any content that’s published is essential. Programs like Vocus and Cisco put it all in a nice easy to read format.

3. SEO

Though most would disagree with me—any PR professional operating in the world today should know at least the basics of SEO and SMO. If we create the content we should be able to perfect the channels through which they are received. With that said we should also be able to work with the digital and marketing facets within our agencies to make sure these resources are working and doing the job we want them to do. Part of being a great PR person is knowing when to outsource. You may not handle the SEO exclusively—but you should know what goes into it because it affects your content.

4. Social Media and the New Ethics

Ethics with social media and blogging is, for some, a gray area and it doesn’t need to be. Setting out with a social media ethics policy is a good place to start. Also, just because bloggers interact with us more than reporters don’t mean that they can be bribed or tricked into marketing our product or client. Many of the ethics we practice now convert to online-but being clear on your company’s guidelines is a great place to start.

Of course this is all my opinon. What do you think are skills that PR people should have as relating to Social Media?

Working on my Website

sevfletcher — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:52:56 +0000

Special Twitter Follow Friday-LATISM Top 20

sevfletcher — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:02:24 +0000

With spring around the corner–i’ve been spring cleaning my life and really focusing on my Latino Marketing background. There are people on Twitter who give me great information, contacts and links that facilitate this process and today I wanted to honor them by doing a special LATISM (Latinos in Social Media) post. Happy Friday!! (NOTE: Names listed in no particular order)

Hispanic Marketing: What it is and what it isn’t! (Part 1 of a series)

sevfletcher — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:58:26 +0000

Hispanic Marketing can be defined simply as marketing a product or idea to Hispanic individuals. This is what many companies and brands believe and that is why they are missing the highly involved process of connecting, interacting and influencing the growing Hispanic population in the United States today.

Hispanic Marketing cannot be summed up with a blanket statement or idea and in this post I wanted to point out what I believe Hispanic marketing is and how some companies continue to get it wrong.

It is no secret to smart brands and companies that in 2002, the US Hispanic population officially became the largest minority in the United States, and it will continue in this position through at least 2050. (marketingprofs) With that in mind, deciding to ignore such a huge population could be a detrimental mistake. Marketing to them in the wrong way is not much better and could actually damage your brand reputation with this influential group.

The first thing any company should do when jumping into the Hispanic market is perform extensive research. This research must be thorough and not lump Hispanics into one group, as is often the case and the temptation for marketers. Like other customers and audiences, Hispanics can and need to be separated by age, sex, economic status, and technology knowledge background, level of assimilation and whatever else is needed to better understand your target market. By doing this you can begin to see ways to market to this group in the correct way.

Once you’ve reached a level of research that you believe puts you in a better position to market your brand to the Hispanic audience you must tackle the language barrier. Granted, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States after English—this does not mean that these are interchangeable languages and that your campaign can simply be translated into Spanish and affect the Hispanic consumer in the same way. (More on this in part 2 of this series).

Still, any marketer and great communicator knows that to reach an audience you must speak their language, so having someone able to communicate your message into Spanish will help your brand immensely.

You may decide to create an entirely unique campaign to meet the needs of the Hispanic market. In my opinion, this is the smarter choice but not always the most cost-effective. In this instance, you would go through the same steps of creating your campaign as with the English version but you would be sensitive to the research you gathered in regards to the Hispanic market.

Bottom line-Hispanic marketing isn’t easy, but with this group having about $863 billion in discretionary annual income, more than any other minority group in the country-it is something NOT to be overlooked.

The next part in this series will address the language barrier to Hispanic Marketing and mistakes not to make.

Freelancing to Stay in the Biz

sevfletcher — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:00:51 +0000

The horrendous headlines are everywhere, “Economy in Shambles”, ‘No Jobs”, “Will Take Years to Recover”. We’ve seen it and it freaks us out, however, when you’re laid off or unable to find a position that puts your Public Relations background into use, think about Freelancing.

This is a concept that is relatively new to me. I recently ended an assistant /intenship where I spent eight months working for a variety of clients and gaining a plethora of skills. Still, when the internship came to an end, my many applications submitted to other companies were still unanswered, leaving me unemployed and frustrated.

My dad recommended that I help a few of his friends with Public Relations. Many of his friends own their own businesses or are executives at large companies. Though I only have one freelance position at the moment, I am actively doing Public Relations, while having time to search for positions. I am constantly networking and telling EVERYONE that I am a qualified PR person in need of a break.

Though the economy may not rebound anytime soon, freelancing may keep me in the bussiness and ensure that I won’t get rusty. Check out the following sites for ways to get freelance jobs and learn all about how its done.

List of sites to learn more about Freelance Jobs:

Myspace : Lists freelance jobs.

IFreelance: a wonderful place to read up on freelancing and find jobs to get your name out there.

Online Writing Jobs: Features posts such as “real estate agency looking for someone to write a creative press release for our new real estate membership website. We want one full page press release, and an abbreviated one paragraph version.”

Friends can be a wealth of Knowledge!

sevfletcher — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:48:57 +0000

From my friend, Louis Pagan. He posted a list of sites that give him ideas on his blog. I think you’ll find them to be as beneficial as I have.

Below is a collection of recent news and links, as well as some super savory links that I keep saved to eyeball from time to time. If you do what I do in social media, you should be aware of some of these.

What Does Engagement Really Mean? MediaPost (Mentions #Latism (see previous post)

Facebook & Blog Promotios. Social Media Basics (Louis gets promotional ideas from here)

Mashable. (The Mashable link is just that…Mashable. This site is a cornerstone for current lore in socialmedia)

My ‘About’ Page. (It’s important to be transparent in this industry, so here you can find out more about Louis)

Ideas vs. Work. (Some courses of action require hours of planning, others may take years)

How I Manage Facebook. (Chris Brogan reveals detials)

Online Enemies (Think “Keep your enemies closer to you, than friends)

Latinos in Social Media Heritage Tour Banner!

sevfletcher — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:32:53 +0000

Latinos in Social Media Tour

Have you heard about LATISM?

sevfletcher — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:39:53 +0000

Bienvenidos to Latinos In Social Media Heritage Tour! (#LatISM)

The first national tour taking place in three states – NY, TX, FL - during the Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15th – October 15th).

This two-day event will provide a networking opportunity and conference presentation, bringing together the leading minds and innovators in social media and technology.

All are welcome to learn, understand and support Latinos in the current dynamic social media enviornment.

With 21 million projected Latino internet users by 2010, Latinos are adopting social media as their primary source of communication, news and entertainment faster than any other group. Their buying power is projected to reach $1.3 Trillion by 2013.

It is paramount to learn what cultural factors are driving this shift, and understand how to reach Latinos where they are primarily active in emerging technologies.

The Latinos In Social Media Heritage Tour, will present these topics and more:

-Latest trends in social media and effective marketing strategies.
-Case studies of top brands/companies; challenges and obstacles.
-Developing and social media technologies and trends
-Latino culture, heritage, demographics in the U.S. today

We believe the best way to reach Latinos is through Latinos. LatISM will bring Bloggers, Twitters, Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, LinkedIn Leaders and many more together to learn about the latest Social Media trends. All this while celebrating our culture!

Research Any and Everything!

sevfletcher — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:14:00 +0000

I recently happened upon a few posts about public relations jobs that require you tell them something interesting about one of their clients. The reason? They want to make sure you actually did your research and aren’t simply mass applying (which I had a friend do, out of 200 applications only received 4 interviews). This is something that may be helpful for the potential employee, however, research used to be what differentiated lackluster employees from great ones!

Some questions, such as-why do you want to work here- help the employer see if you actually want to be a part of their corporate culture and if you did the necessary research to see if you could fit into their organization.

My advice? Even if the employer doesn’t ask you to say what you like about their clients or what is the third word in their mission statement, you should still do your research. That involves studying the website inside and out. I do this by going to the sitemap (when available) and look at every single page. I also look at their clients and any recent press releases on the site. Below are my five basic steps to preparing for a job interview, the research portion.

1. Study the website

2. Google the agency/corporation

3. Go to glassdoor.com and other sites that give you an inside glimpse to the company.

4. Go to msnbc.com, forbes.com and hoovers.com to see if the company has any recent news, concerns and check out their stocks which could help you see if the company is in an upswing.

5. Linkedin.com, it has become my best friend and should be yours as well. LinkedIn has allowed me to connect with several people at a corporation, giving me that “in” that I otherwise wouldn’t have.

Like I said, the above list is just the beginning. Check out blogs, talk to friends, and send out inquiries on twitter. Just do what you have to in order to find out all you can before going into an interview. After all, why do you want to work there if you know nothing about it?

Interviewing Mistakes

sevfletcher — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:47:00 +0000

At my current internship, I was given the responsibility of interviewing tourist who came to St. Louis to enjoy the All-Star games. I thought I had a pretty good grasp about what the games were all about, until I met a guy from Los Angeles who showed me just how much I didn’t know! At times in your career, you may have to do things that you have little or no experience doing. This video showcases my lack of knowledge regarding baseball. It’s safe to say, however, that after this encounter with this amused guy, I have dusted up on my All-Star Game knowledge and look forward to another round of random interviews.