Let’s connect some dots.
DOT 1 – Social media recognizes, even rewards candor and honesty.
DOT 2 – Traditional media is declining and those journalists that remain must do more in the same amount of time – God Bless You.
DOT 3 – Recession is causing executives to search for something less costly, more effective in marketing.
DOT 4 – Companies realize they are not the center of the universe, just part of it.

A recent article I wrote for Upsize Magazine, a business publication in Minnesota, received some traction yesterday on Twitter thanks to a few re-tweets, thank you for that Twitter readers. It was called “For better PR create a newsroom culture in your company.”  So I thought I’d highlight it in a blog post.

The executive summary of the article is this, with the dots I mentioned above, there is an opportunity for corporate PR to have more of a news mentality than a promotional one which will be more beneficial to the company’s communications goals. Dots 1 and 4 mean if you are less of a corporate shill and contribute to an objective conversation of issues impacting your universe, others in the online world, journalists, bloggers, customers et. al. will respond favorably.

Instead of only looking inward to pick off the low hanging PR fruit such as new product release, new hire (or recent round of layoffs), earnings (or lack thereof) report, and new client win (Oh please God), instead of that, let’s dig deeper and examine how the company appeals to a segment of the market, how it is participating in new technology standards, what is its reaction to the Obama stimulus package, or where it envisions job skills changing in their industry.

Have a heart and make it easy on everyone, build a story for multiple platforms, Dot 2. Journalists are writing blogs, hosting podcasts, and in general breaking their butts to accommodate new media. Package your content in those formats, meaning, produce a series of soundbites that can be used in a podcast, create a video (preferably not talking heads) that enhances the storyline, post a powerpoint on Slideshare with pretty charts and graphs, better yet, also have those single images available on a newspage or blog post for easy linking. Yes, this is more work, but it costs much less to do today than just a couple of years ago.

Which brings me to Dot 3, all formats are affordable, video, audio, even news distribution services (depending on which one you choose). I said affordable, not free. Sure, tools like Help a Reporter Out and Pitch Engine , and on Twitter MicroPR among others can be used at no cost, but someone needs to put this stuff together. Time is money and people still need to eat. However, shooting quality video and multi-purposing that content is a fraction of what it was. I bet for around $5000 (either time or cash) you can get a comprehensive story told in video, audio, images, and text that can be used across many platforms such as YouTube, Blip.tv (an example of a B2B video channel for enterprise software), iTunes, Flickr (just see how many people take pictures of coca cola),Utterli (a great platform for producing audio and other content) blogs, and other appropriate platforms.

Throughout the year pick off several issues and you’ll look back to see the following:

1. Better position in the market as a thought leader/player
2. More news media mentions and coverage in social media
3. More conversations about your company
4. More and better information that sales teams can use
5. Higher quality employment candidates

Put the dots together and you’ve got your self a fully functional, multimedia newsroom, ready to capitalize on issues in your universe, whether they are generated internally or externally, framed in a style that is more valuable to your audience and distributed in a channel that is likely to share your story with others. What’s your take?

Two for the Price of One Conference

An invite to attend the NewComm Forum and InBound Marketing Summit in San Francisco April 27-29. It’s a combined conference with strategic and tactical workshops on using online marketing, PR and social media. There is a line up of terrific speakers and ample opportunities to focus in on your specific questions. The NewComm Forum, sponsored by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) is colocating the forum with the sponsors of the InBound Marketing Summit making for a comprehensive event.

Marketing Edge listeners and readers, email me for a discount code at marketingedge AT providentpartners DOT net with NewComm in the subject line.

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