Snapchat says it’s sorry about spam

January 17, 2014 BG&A Staff
By Kevin Allen If you received some Snapchat spam over the weekend you’re not alone. (Though if you’re over 30 and using the service, you probably are alone.) The company has apologized for the...

Rules for becoming a better visual storyteller

January 16, 2014 BG&A Staff
By Danny Groner PR pros are always looking to improve themselves, and one area everyone can improve upon is how we give presentations and deliver our messages. Too often, people give talks instead of presentations, full of valuable information, but short on the skills that it takes to keep an audience attuned. It's hard—and it's time that we accepted that we can gain wisdom from others who have mastered the art of visual storytelling. Just think about all of those times you sat in on someone else's presentation and found it to be slow and boring. That's because people will find something else to look at when they need to. Once you've lost them, it's extremely difficult to gain back their trust, and their focus. Only a select group of people can cover the ground they wish to in a meaningful and compelling manner. The first rule you should remember is that your audience can read faster than you can speak. What this means is that if you put text on the screen, they will read ahead, get the gist of your point, and be craving the next slide well before you're ready to toggle over. In the interim, there will be seconds periods when people will sit staring and waiting for you to get out of their way. You become a roadblock in that instance, not their instructor. Avoid this predicament by limiting the amount of text you put on the screen and keeping people engaged with you. If they look past you at your slides, video, or live visual aids, you are rendered less useful to them than you should be. Rely on yourself. If you prepare and go in with the right strategy and confidence level, you will emerge as their educator. Finding ways to work in visual aids can be tricky, though. For example, a video can be effective to showcase testimonials or a history of the topic at hand, but it should never replace the one-on-one interaction you have with your audience. People will gain a tremendous amount from watching a well-cut video, yet you are the one who they have come to see and listen to. It takes a special variety of dynamic visual aid on top of great public speaking to make a presentation worthwhile. Of course, presentations aren't the only area where visual storytelling takes place. When it comes to making artwork that you'll be putting out into the world, without an instructor beside it to describe and help illuminate it, you'll want to run the proofs by someone outside your company for real feedback. Research is crucial for a good campaign or ad, and the same can be said for photography or video that you make yourself. These unbiased critiques will bring you a perspective you lack, as you sometimes will be too close to the material to be able to see certain things. Through speaking to others, and seeing how they approach similar projects, you can improve over time. If you get started now, you'll look back a few months from now and recognize how far you've come.  

5 flawed social media strategies you should shun

January 15, 2014 BG&A Staff
By Alex Singleton Forget what the social media gurus have told you. They’re wrong on just about everything. They promote strategies that frequently fail and can be downright dangerous to your budget. These “gurus,” who rarely use the tools to do anything except promote their guru status, have left PR practitioners using social media in the most impractical fashion. Here are five of the strategies they endorse—all of them wrong: 1. Using every network to constantly, spontaneously post content. Those who try to create conversations on every social network will fail to achieve much on any; those who concentrate on one or two might make a success of social media. Moreover, many firms forget that they have to nurture social media communities: it’s no good generating a Google+ page and then contemplating that customers will miraculously convert your clear canvas into a booming place for discussion. Social media posts must be part of a program of planned persuasion. They should not just produced spontaneously. Nor is it wise to concentrate on social networks that are the most fashionable (such as Facebook and SnapChat). Other networks might be more relevant to your target audience. 2. Believing that social media alone will make you well known. The “gurus” sell a social media fantasy in which a startup can join Twitter and suddenly hundreds of thousands of people will be magnetized toward the company’s Twitter feed, turning that business into a global triumph. Mainstream media, in this view, is irrelevant. Well, if you follow this course, it’s your company that will be irrelevant. Social media doesn’t work without mainstream media. Coverage in the latter acts as a powerful third-party endorsement and means that members of the public, who have a billion other things to consider, might actually start to care about your tweets. Besides, aiming for media coverage forces you to sharpen your message and to say things that grab attention. 3. Doing social media for SEO purposes. I don’t doubt that Google prefers sites that are discussed on social media, but SEO should be a byproduct of social media use, rather than the primary purpose. Otherwise, your team will start manufacturing idiotic SEO-directed copy. Even worse, you might get the idea of surrendering your social media to an SEO agency, whose continued existence is a mystery, and who will ensure your message is lost in keyword treacle. 4. Producing ‘viral content.’  Content shared on social media almost never goes viral. A paper from Microsoft Research and Stanford University shows that content is normally stuck in the “long tail” of social networks and is rarely even shared by connections of connections. It says that stories die out very quickly, rather than spreading exponentially, as with a virus. The authors point out that even Internet products such as Gmail and Facebook, which are often cited as spreading through word of mouth, “benefitted from extensive media coverage.” Instead of praying for a viral outcome that’s as likely as the lottery, social media should be used to intensify loyalty from your existing customers and to develop awareness among those who find you through inbound marketing and among hand-picked prospects. 5. Measuring success by engagement. Conversations and engagement have costs. Any business that runs a call center can offer evidence of that. More genuine gauges of success include brand awareness among target customers and what the social media “gurus” are remarkably reluctant to measure, namely sales.

Facebook in 2014: Fighting for Social Supremacy

January 14, 2014 BG&A Staff
by Kurt Wagner Put on your party hats and string up the banners: Facebook celebrates its 10th birthday in 2014. You'd be hard pressed to find a more popular, yet polarizing, service than Facebook over the last decade. In less than 10 years, Facebook has collected a billion-plus users, hosted a presidential Town Hall, been the topic of a major motion film, and connected people from every corner of the planet. Its global brand recognition may be the best in the tech world, rivaling only Google and Apple, both of which had a substantial head start. And while 2014 is, in all reality, just another year for the social media giant to collect users, data, and revenues, it's also a reminder of how far Facebook has come — and how quickly the tech world evolves. As Facebook approaches the ripe, old age of 10 (that's 70 in tech years, right?), the company will continue to face questions about its functionality in the social media industry it created. We're not talking about Facebook disappearing — in fact, all indications point to another year of increased user metrics and revenue, in keeping with its years of steady growth. Instead we're talking about Facebook's identity, which could be lost amid the new features and ad rollouts that have defined the company's most recent growth years. In a nutshell: What is Facebook now? And where does it fit into the social media landscape it helped define? Building Better Algorithms The good and bad of Facebook is that it has everything The good and bad of Facebook is that it has everything. It's a search engine, a dating profile, a family photo album, an address book, and a newspaper, all rolled into one. For many longtime users, it's also a never ending class reunion, featuring a stream of life updates and photos from long-forgotten high school or college acquaintances. The problem staring Facebook in the face, is that there is so much information and connectivity on the platform that it's becoming hard to keep any of it straight. Other social networks, like Twitter, Snapchat, or WhatsApp are filling the niche use cases like photo sharing or status updates that used to be Facebook's domain. Facebook tweaked its News Feed algorithm multiple times in 2013, twice with an attempt to bring more "high quality" content to users' News Feeds. It has spent years identifying which friends users want to hear from — now it's time for the company to identify users' interests and the news items they want to see as well. The platform encourages users to engage with the ads they come across, in an effort to better identify which ads work and what people want to see. It's a lofty challenge with more than one billion users and one million advertisers, but its also a challenge Facebook will likely come closer to solving in 2014 as its efforts continue. Facebook announced plans in early December to further grow and develop its artificial intelligence research team, a major sign that the company plans to continue perfecting the algorithms used to surface and share content on the platform. "[Facebook] is sitting on possibly the greatest cache of user data ever compiled," says Nate Elliott, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. "Certainly they know more about users' affinities — their tastes and preferences — than anyone ever has. If they stopped dancing around [the data] and started using it, it would be incredibly powerful. A big part of using this data and information revolves around Graph Search, the platform's Google-like internal search engine that allows users to seek out more specific data from their network of friends. A Google search will return a list of nearby restaurants. In a perfect Facebook world, you would get a similar list, with the added caveat that these recommendations are coming from your friends, the people you trust and, in theory, with whom you share common interests. Graph Search is still in its early stages — the company announced the feature last January but only made it available to all U.S. users in August. Expect Facebook to bring the service to mobile in 2014, a move that will test its functionality as people use it on the go the way Yelp or Google are used now. Read the full story here:

Bob Gold & Associates Proclaimed Best PR Service by toppragencies.com for January 2014

January 13, 2014 BG&A Staff
The independent authority on PR, toppragencies.com, has selected Bob Gold & Associates the best PR service for January 2014. Bob Gold & Associates was selected the best PR service due to their effective performance in the in-depth examination process. Thousands of PR firms are considered while only the 10 best are highlighted in the ratings PR consultants are put through the toppragencies.com genuine analysis process in order to identify which consultants produce the best overall solution. Consultants are selected based on merit established by achievement in the analysis process. This process consists of the use of a set of analysis criteria, connecting with client references, and performing various market and industry research projects. The independent examination team spends time benchmarking the PR industry as a whole to better interpret how contesting PR companies influence the industry. Time is spent attending various industry events to obtain a wider interpreting of the industry and to connect directly with PR companies in a neutral setting. Customer references are often used as another metric to learn which PR companies supply the best services. Bob Gold & Associates has been scrutinized as a part of the meticulous examination and has earned their placement as the best public relations firm. Through strong customer referrals and high scores in each of the five areas of evaluation, Bob Gold & Associates has passed each phase of the examination process. Those hunting for a solid public relations firm to assist them should consider Bob Gold & Associates.   About Bob Gold & Associates Bob Gold & Associates develops highly tailored integrated public relations, marketing, and social media communications programs that connect with audiences to make a direct, positive impact on the bottom line. Their experience in serving organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 firms vary in industries including telecommunications, M2M-connected devices, high-tech, customer care, cable TV programming, and sports. About toppragencies.com toppragencies.com is a organizer of public relations evaluations. The main ambition of toppragencies.com is to learn and announce those individuals or companies offering best public relations solutions available. Public relations companies are put through a meticulous analysis to ensure the listings contain the absolute best companies the public relations industry has to offer. The 10 best PR companies for January 2014 can be found at: http://toppragencies.news-prs.com/us/public-relations-rankings  

6 SEO rules every #PR pro should live

January 13, 2014 BG&A Staff
by Kathleen McFadden Search engine optimization (SEO) determines where and how businesses rank on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. As the competition for online real estate continues to heat up, B2B and B2C marketers have planned to increase their SEO budgets by 43 percent and 45 percent, respectively. With marketing departments increasingly seeing more value in digital services, PR professionals must understand how to best incorporate SEO tactics into their service offerings. Become your client’s trusted SEO consultant with these six rules to live by: 1. Take advantage of Google’s free tools. Claim your business’s location on Places for Business, and suggest that your clients follow suit. The same goes for Google+, which can and does influence Google Search. A +1 is similar to link-backs and Web traffic, in that it helps Google determine which sites people deem important. Last, identify the top search terms in your client’s industry for which they’d like to “own” a top spot in search results, and then use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find which phrases are searched most frequently. Sprinkle these words throughout your news releases and media advisories. 2. Always link to your client’s homepage in an email pitch. News outlets’ websites can generate some of the strongest link-backs for your clients. To increase the chances that your client’s name will be hyperlinked in a reporter’s story, always include it in your email correspondence with media contacts. 3. Never distribute a hyperlink-free news release. Take every opportunity to drive traffic to your client’s website, whether it’s through a release that crosses the national newswire or one that’s simply emailed to a media list. The rule of thumb is to use three to four hyperlinked keywords per every 400 words. Anchor text should direct clicks to pages within the company website that are most relevant, such as a page where a study’s full report can be found, where people can download an infographic, or where a particular service offering is described in detail. 4. Make the most of your news release’s lead paragraph. Search engine results often display only the first 75 to 100 characters of body text. Start with the most important, keyword-rich information to ensure that’s what Google uses to describe the release. 5. Start blogging. A company blog is one of the best ways to continually update your site with strong keywords. Blogs can be shared on popular social networks, thus creating a channel to increase site traffic. Plus, guest blogging opportunities may arise, and these can generate powerful link-backs from other sites. Map out a content strategy, know which keywords you want to target and stick to a publishing schedule. Blog posts published on Monday and Tuesday mornings often do best, traffic-wise. 6. Become the Web developer’s best friend. If your client is launching a website, you will likely be brought on to write the copy for each page. Take this project a step further by working closely with the developer to see how the site is being built to accommodate strong SEO. Meta title text—the page title you see in search results and at the top of your browser—is extremely important for SEO. Suggest title text for every page on the site by using Google’s Keyword Tool and your client’s Google Analytics account, which will show you how they’re already being found online. What other SEO tactics have you embraced in your PR work?

The Less is More Approach to Social Media Marketing

January 10, 2014 BG&A Staff
by @ElainePofeldt One way to get back in control of your time in 2014 is to spend less time onsocial media. That’s not so simple if you use Facebook and other sites for marketing your business. I spoke recently with Michael Fernandez, co-founder and owner of Factory 360, an experiential marketing firm in New York City that has served clients such as SVDEKA Vodka, ESPN, Chase and PayPal, about how to pull this off. Here are some tips. Use Facebook as your “mothership.” This is the social media site where many customers will first look you up, so if you’re going to maintain a presence on just one site, this is generally a good choice. “If you are a more visual business, then Facebook coupled with Pinterest might be the right social formula,” says Fernandez. Stay focused. Creating pages on social sites that you have no time to maintain can backfire. “The last thing you want to have someone do is look at your page and it’s December 2013 and the last post was in May 2013, ” Fernandez says. “ They think, `Did they go out of business?” Post to all of your sites from one place. Fernandez recommends signing up for HootSuite Pro, which is free. “If you want to post to Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, you can do one post and it will push it out to all three,” he says. Using Hootsuite also allows you to monitor the comments on all of the social sites you use from one dashboard. Listen frequently. Building a regular routine where you quickly check your social media pages when you start work, in the afternoon and maybe once in the evening will help you stay on top of any complaints from customers and respond to them before they escalate. “In social media, things happen in an instant,” Fernandez says. “You don’t want to wake up and have a whole controversy. The voice of one person on social media is as loud as 10,000. It’s not a dialogue between you and one person. It’s between you and everyone who’s watching in this arena.” Don’t hash out disputes online. If someone does post a negative comment, contact him to tell him how you will resolve the complaint or send him your private email address to discuss his concerns. Don’t get sucked into a public argument on a social media page. “It’s like a bar altercation,” he jokes. “Take it outside.”  

6 AP Style rules for press releases

January 9, 2014 BG&A Staff
by @ereleases There's more to writing a press release than you might think. Not only is there a format to follow (headline, summary, date, content, section about the company), but a set of standard procedures to adhere to—AP Style. Read on to learn how to make sure your press releases follow commonly-held stylistic procedures. What is AP Style? The Associated Press (AP) has set various regulations for news publications to follow. While they aren't the only rules out there, they are the most commonly used. The Associated Press has also set standards for press releases: 1. Set your objective in the introduction. Set your goal at the beginning of the release. If a journalist reads the first line or two of your release and doesn't find the objective, he'll toss your release and move on to the next one. 2. Cover the five Ws in the body copy. Once you have a reporter's attention, you need to deliver the pay off. Follow the five Ws to make this happen (who, what, when, where, why). In other words, make sure you give the editor all the information she needs to write a full story. Because of their tight deadlines, editors don't have time to dig deep. 3. Check your spacing. Here's where it gets a little more technical. While it may seem picky, you should only use one space after punctuation—none before. This may seem different to you, as some people like to add two spaces after punctuation. 4. Drop that extra comma. When you list items in a series, you typically have the option to use a comma before that last "and." For example: I ate bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate. I ate bananas, peanut butter and chocolate. When you follow AP Style, drop that last comma. I like that last comma, but I've made myself stop using it in press releases. 5. Use full names and titles only when you introduce someone. When you first introduce someone, like a CEO, in your release, give his or her full name and title. But don't keep doing so, as it will prove superfluous and make your writing sound clunky. After the introduction, simply use the last name. 6. Get numbers right. AP Style rules for numbers are a bit tricky. Spell out numbers one through nine. After that, use numerals like "10." Also use numbers for dates, and abbreviate months with more than five letters. AP Style is important for PR Yes, it seems trivial. Who cares if you get all the little intricacies correct? Editors care. And since you want them to pick up your stories, you need to play by their rules.

How to Optimize Press Releases for Shareability

January 8, 2014 BG&A Staff
by Caysey Welton In 2013, a lot of focus shifted away from impressions and moved towards shareable media. Sites like BuzzFeed, The Onion and Gawker were among some of the major content producers that created a new narrative—shares are king. That is, shares make your content sticky and bring in new audiences. Not only that, but shares are an extremely attractive metric to advertisers. Of course, for publicists, creating shareable content is a bit trickier. Posting shareable content for a branded website is one thing, but crafting a release and distributing it to journalists is another. Now, your news pitches must have panache and characteristics that shout “share me.” Easier said than done. Still, there ways to convince journalists that your news is shareworthy. With that in mind, PR News asked Taylor Cole, director of public relations and social media at Hotels.com, a few questions on how to write better press releases. PR News: What really makes a press release shareworthy? Taylor Cole: Press releases are shareworthy when they’re accurate, well-written (to the point) and timely. With the abundance of information available to consumers and the media, press releases will no longer be the primary source of data on a brand’s topic. Instead, press releases will increase awareness, spur conversation and help build a brand’s reputation. PR News: How do you craft a release to read like a news story?  Cole: Begin by considering the headline you’d like to read about your brand’s topic, then work backwards to tell the story with the who, what, when, where, why (and why should I care?). As you’re crafting the release, be mindful that any good news story will be balanced and present all sides of an issue. Your release will need to be balanced as well (and not masquerade as a stand-alone sales tool). People have short attention spans. Don’t waste your first paragraph on obvious information that any consumer could easily gather elsewhere. Use the first paragraph to draw readers into your story and give them the call to action early. PR News: What is your number one actionable tip for writing better releases? Cole: Never miss an opportunity to include visuals such as photos, infographics, short videos or charts with your press releases. Visuals can be shared along with the text of your release to draw more eyes to your content. Tag your images or visual content with your brand and add keywords that illustrate your topic. With social media and web links, visuals can become the initial driver to lead viewers to your release, blog or brand’s website for more information.

4 considerations for #PR success in 2014

January 7, 2014 BG&A Staff
by Carm Lyman A new year is the perfect time for a fresh start. As you kick off 2014, you have a chance to consider more ways to be successful at your job, providing your company and clients with even better results. Here are four thought-starters to get you going: Consider what the media sees as news, not what your team believes deserves coverage.  Although a major product update or an award is a huge win and great accomplishment by your team, it is seldom news. Media and bloggers are not covering every update to every product by every company—unless of course you happen to be Apple, Twitter, Facebook, or otherwise hot enough for near nonstop coverage. Product updates haven’t been news for years in many industries; for some industries, they never were. Give the media what they want and need: trends, stats, or how a product or company is improving our lives and businesses. Something that shapes the world around us is almost always newsworthy. If you present what impact or role a product or company plays, that’s how you’ll make news and gather a faithful following of journalists. Consider how you’re managing a situation, client, executive, or problem.  You’re the PR pro—remember that it’s your job to guide the client or your execs. Take a look at 2013. Were you consulting, guiding and providing the strategy for communications? Or were you taking orders on how PR should be done and, as a result, not fulfilling expectations? You know what works. Execute on that, and stick to your guns. You will keep your sanity, your client/exec will thank you (in the end), and the media will respect you. Consider what you’re not considering.  We get so busy in the day to day that it’s easy to fall behind on being proactive. What should or would you be thinking about, initiating or doing today if you found free time? Have you checked in with your teammates or client? Are you measuring tangible results to uncover what’s working, or what’s not? Should you be thinking a little harder about what would really make an impact on a campaign or program? What else might you not be considering that you should? Consider others.  It’s amazing what insight can be gathered by putting yourself in others’ shoes. Maybe start with a series of questions: How can you make today easier or more successful for your client or boss? Can you do any thinking for them? Take something off their plate? Consider the media when it comes to beat, schedule, and deadlines. Being thoughtful versus unintentionally negligent or distracting will net better relationships and ultimately a more successful venture.
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