Team building is an important concept at March.  We incorporate this into our daily routine, and our summer outing was no different.  We gathered together as one group and hiked Old Indian Trail.  Our physical strength was put to the test, but reached the summit and was able to enjoy the beautiful views—and of course, take a break!

Once we conquered the mountain, we went back to the lodge and enjoyed lunch.  And if you are a PR Nonsense follower, you sure know how much we love food.

As a March tradition, we practiced our communication and team building skills with games of volleyball and Catch Phrase. We had to determine and communicate who was hitting the ball next—all within seconds—by yelling “I got it” or calling someone else.  As always, once we got the hang of it we were communicating play-by-play in no time.  With Catch Phrase, we practiced how to concisely describe a particular word without actually saying it.  It is always surprising how difficult this can be—especially since we are all PR professionals—I’ll blame it on the buzzer.  After practicing a few rounds we sharpened our skills and were certainly on a roll.

Our summer outing day was certainly successful.  Many thanks to Martin and Cheryl for a wonderful day!

1. Twitter has donated access to all of its tweets to the Library of Congress for research and preservation.
2. Corporate blogging accounts for 14% of blogs.
3. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn.
4. The average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events.
5. YouTube uses the same amount of bandwidth as the entire Internet used in 2000.

According to ExactTarget’s April 2010 report, most internet users engaged with brands only via marketing emails, but nearly a third subscribed to emails in addition to being fans of brands on Facebook.  Moreover, the vast majority of social media fans or followers were also email subscribers—meaning consumers tend to layer their marketing channels, rather than silo them.

Of the daily email users, 94% subscribed to marketing messages; two-thirds of daily Facebook users were brand fans; and roughly four in 10 daily Twitter users followed a company or brand.  Analyzing this situation psychographically, there are different patterns of engagement:

• Email appeals to nearly everybody.
• Facebook groups that had a great focus on gaining fans tended to be younger; but also shared a motivation for entertainment and the ability to publicly show support for brands.
• Twitter appeals most to consumers who want to feel up-to-date and ‘in the know’; which suggests information about new products and services or even brand initiatives would be of interest.

(Source: ExactTarget, Subscribers, Fans and Followers: The Social Profile)

Understanding the channel’s engagement certainly effects how you reach your audience and tailor your message.  Knowing that followers typically like breaking news and you’re launching a new product, it’s a good idea to use Twitter to help support this push.  Take your time to analyze the situation (I personally use GOST for this – Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics), and see if your communication channels line up with your overall goals and strategies.  This should help with reach your target audience.

To increase brand recognition, particularly among stylish women, HP has outbid Apple in the new movie’s product placement, and will have its laptops featured with Carrie and the other characters rather than Apple’s.  This is a huge shock for fans—as Mashable’s writer Christina Warren puts it, “Carrie’s Mac was practically its own character”.  The series dedicated an entire episode to Carrie’s laptop, called “My Motherboard, My Self”.  Even with the first movie, promotional site was created that allowed fans to explore Carrie’s MacBook from the film.  This included e-mails, IM conversations and other novelties from the film.

So why the change?

As mentioned, HP is targeting the fashionistas.  We have seen this with the recent 2008 partnership with designer, Vivienne Tam and the sponsorship of Lifetime television series Project Runway.  To support this push, Sarah Jessica Parker will be doing commercials and advertisements for HP, and other characters, like Kim Cattrall will be using the HP TouchSmart at her desk.  The brand even dedicated an entire site to its Sex and the City campaign.

What are your thoughts on HP being featured in Sex and the City?  Think it can replace Apple?

You may view the list of winners at http://www.terrapinn.com/2010/WVA

Congratulations to Comptel on receiving this award.

SEO Factors:

• How frequent does your content changes?  This is one of the main reasons why having a company is important.  Everyone a new post is added to the blog, it registers with Google and bumps up your SEO that much more. 
• Use of keywords.  Identify keywords that are important to your client, and what people are searching for online to find your client.  A good start is to identify 20 or so words.  Try and include these in your press releases, website copy, blog, etc.  The more frequently these words are used, Google will begin associating these words with your client.   
• Hyperlink to credible sources.  If you link to a source that already has a high SEO with Google; Google will associate that particular source with your hyperlink.  Your hyperlink should be linked to a descriptive word—instead of hyperlinking “to download, click here”; try “download Immunet Protect”.  Also, quality matters with hyperlinking—don’t hyperlink 15 words to your company’s website.  Google will recognize this and disregard your content.     
  • Other helpful SEO factors to check out, Web1Marketing and Web Pro News
    

Now that we know how SEO plays a role.  Consider these statistics:

• 98% of the media start each new trend by doing a Google search
• 76% of the media search sources and experts on Google
• 73% of the media search for press releases on Google.

Nearly all of the media are using Google to research and identify new trends and three-quarters are using it for background purposes.  From a PR perspective, knowing the influence Google plays on a journalist’s stories and news, don’t you want your client to appear within these searches?  To increase client’s SEO efforts and have them appear within these searches try the following:

• Use Multimedia—if your news wire service allows for multimedia, whether it is graphics, videos, podcasts, etc., upload them.  This registers well for Google and will increase your client’s product or company in a search result.  This feature is also more appealing for the user who is viewing your press release, as it is more engaging and interactive.
• Use Google Ad Words—this allows you to identify the right keywords when you are writing for your client.  Try and use these keywords in all of your online content.  Particularly for press releases incorporate these into your headline, first paragraph, body of release and boilerplate.  Ideally, the optimal keyword density for press release should be 2% —this is the percentage your keywords should account for in your press release.

Immunet Protect runs either on top of existing AV software or alone.  Once you register with Immunet you become a member of the community and gain Collective Immunity protection—meaning if anyone using Immunet Protect, registers a virus, all users are instantly protected against that virus.  The more members involved in the community, the stronger protection Immunet can offer.

Check out what the media is saying about Immunet Protect: Mashable, CNET, Technology Review, About.com and TechieBuzz.

Follow this discussion on Twitter @Immunet, @MarchPR, #AntiVirus and #Security.

…Goals are shifting from number of magazine article placements to number of Twitter re-tweets—and from TV ad time to YouTube video counts. The number of Twitter followers or Facebook connections someone has might even become more important than newspaper circulation or readership.

Cheryl provides great and useful advice about social media and tactics—a must read for PR practitioners and agencies.

Blogging…

• Humanizes your brand
• Establishes Trust
• Generate leads
• Communicates frequently with your audience
• Is recognized as an authority and a source of exclusive news
• Assists with crisis communications plans
• Is fun

Blogging is a great means to share information in an informal and friendly way while reaching your key audience and enhancing your image. PR is all about getting your message out to the public, and more importantly targeting your audience. Blogging efficiently and updating it regularly will attract both a reader and subscriber base, which helps get your message out there. What’s even better—you can get direct feedback and actually engage and form relationships with your audience.

Read Ochman’s post for specific use cases.

Evaluation is traditionally the ‘final’ step in the public relations process. This step allows PR practitioners to gauge the success of the overall plan. I agree with Professor Guth and Professor Marsh’s argument that research and evaluation should be intertwined with every stage throughout the PR process. I think this element is extremely important to highlight because there is no sense in continuing a campaign if it is not successful. If you find yourself in this situation, pause, regain composure and figure out a plan B. Evaluation is extremely important at every step, and can make or break a PR campaign.