Posted by: Guest Contributor
By Heather Cote
Cross-posted from the Adfero Group blog
We’ve all seen horrible presentations. Most of us have probably given a few in our day. But in the professional world, public speaking is an unavoidable fact of life. Whether you love or loathe giving presentations, people on both sides of the coin can be really, really bad at it.
In reminiscing on the truly awful presentations I’ve seen, I came up with 4 basic pitfalls that can doom any public speaker:
#1. NOT BEING PREPARED.
I’ve listed this as the first issue to tackle, because it leads directly to the other three. Luckily, this is also one of the easiest pitfalls to correct – because much of it doesn’t actually involve any public speaking. In fact, you can prepare for much of your presentation by yourself in your underwear if you want to.
So, how can one prepare for a presentation? (more…)
Cross-posted from No Straw Men
Why you should host one, and how to do it
Bloggers’ roundtables have been around for a while. They’re especially popular for book clubs, with the Department of Defense, and among politicians. (One wag asked John McCain if he knew the difference between YouTube and MySpace.)
Yet roundtables never really took off as a form of outreach. That’s too bad, because as a vehicle to engage many stakeholders at once, roundtables can be as effective, if not more so, than their headline-grabbing cousins, Twitter and Facebook.
What is a bloggers’ roundtable? Technically, it’s a conference call. Figuratively, it’s a virtual press conference or editorial board meeting. Instead of standing at a podium, the speakers sit by a speakerphone, while the audience—the bloggers—dial into a conference line.
When is a bloggers’ roundtable useful? A roundtable works best when you want to share your story with a small, engaged group; when you want thoughtful feedback; and when you want substantive write-ups. (“Small” can range from a car-full of people to a dinner party to an NFL team.) The conversation is more intimate than a live chat, the invitation is more prestigious than a tweet or Facebook update, and the whole thing is more fun than an e-mail. (more…)
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Event: Using Research to Guide Your Advocacy Strategy
When: Friday, September 16 (9 – 10:30 am)
Where: The National Press Club (529 14th Street NW, Washington DC)
Can opinion research help unlock the key to winning your advocacy effort? From free survey platforms and social media polling to state-of-the-art message testing, Adfero Group’s Sue Zoldak will be discussing the research tools that you can apply to increase your campaign’s effectiveness.
Join us as we explore how public affairs campaigns use research to find, reach, and win over their audience. We will take questions from attendees and discuss your case study live.
Click here to find out more
and
REGISTER TODAY!
Mention the phrase “blogger engagement” to today’s marketer, and you’re likely to get an eager response, followed by self-professed ignorance. “We’d love to do that—we just don’t know how.”
To some, this scenario spells new business. (In part, this explains why many agencies separate their “digital” practice from their traditional ones.)
Yet an honest blogger whisperer will let you in on a secret: If you can pitch a reporter, producer, or booker, you can pitch a blogger. After all, bloggers are just people—susceptible to the same charm-and-disarm techniques that every PR pro performs every day.
Indeed, the best way to understand bloggers is to view them as members of the media. Think of blogger engagement as public relations, albeit a new kind. Neither straight reporter nor pure pundit, the blogger is a hybrid creature who observes his own rules.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Cross-posted from Adfero
Last year, Wired Magazine proclaimed that “The Web is Dead.” The authors of the article argued that although the Internet is alive and well, its users are increasingly turning to simple and semi-closed applications. Demand for accessing the wide-open Web through browsers is fading. Instead, we now prefer the type of mobile, streamlined computing available through smart phones and iPads.
One recent marketing trend shows how right the Wired article may be. More and more, companies are moving away from listing their Web addresses in print and TV advertisements. Instead, many top brands are pushing their target audiences to a Facebook fan page.
In Volkswagen’s “Meet the Volkswagens” commercial, the company lists its Facebook address on the final shot of the ad: facebook.com/vw. Procter & Gamble, one of the biggest companies in the world, is now regularly listing Facebook addresses in print and TV advertisements for many of its top products. According to AdAge, P&G now has more than 15 brands with Facebook followings in the six figures. Two of its brands — Pringles and Old Spice — had 9 million and 1.3 million, respectively, as of April 2011. (more…)
Cross-posted from Adfero
Last week I gave a presentation at America’s Small Business Summit, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, about how small businesses and organizations can develop an effective — but manageable — social media strategy.
I deliberately stayed away from talking about the latest and greatest tactics, and the newest and coolest tools. Why? It has become far too easy to get caught up in looking at what’s new, interesting, or different. In reality, what we should be focusing on is what will fundamentally help our organizations achieve their missions on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis.
Organizations too often develop a social media strategy that is not properly integrated into its overarching goals. So rather than spending time on the latest Twitter app or discussing the merits of Facebook’s latest design changes, I encouraged attendees not to get bogged down in the tactics. Instead, I urged them to develop their social media strategies in the context of their organization’s key goals.
If your organization is looking to develop or refine your social media strategy, here are six steps to guide you along the way.
(more…)
If bloggers aren’t part of your marketing efforts, you might as well be designing your brochures on a typewriter. No longer pajama-clad hobbyists, bloggers today are card-carrying members of the media, whom you ignore at your peril (bad press) or worse (no press).
Yet bloggers are neither straight reporters nor pure pundits. They can be your loyal customer or your loudest critic, your champion or your competitor. They speak their own vernacular, observe their own standards, pursue their own goals, and loathe press releases. To reach these influencers, you need to understand their universe.
Last week, I detailed this universe in a presentation to the DC chapter of the American Marketing Association. My title plays off Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, since the essence of my advice derives from Carnegie’s timeless guidelines.
Here’s the deck.
Posted by: K Street Cafe Editor
Social Media Ad Spending to Hit $8.3B in 2015 (Mashable)
Organizations will look to harness the power of social media even more over the next few years, increasing ad sales from $2.1B last year to $8.3B by 2015.
Ownership of TV Sets Falls in U.S. (NY Times)
As more consumers go online to fulfill their entertainment needs, television ownership drops for the first time in twenty years.
The National Press Club and Adfero Group are partnering up again this year to present Get PR Smart, a series of continuing education events for communications professionals in the DC area and beyond. Topics range from social media to issue advocacy and everything in between.
The first event, “Blogging 101: How to Create the Right Type of Blog for Your Organization,” takes place on Friday, April 29th. Adfero Group Partner Chris Battle will talk participants through the different types of blogs in the blogosphere and what organizations should consider when deciding which type is the right fit. As more organizations begin to utilize blogs as a way to communicate directly to their audiences, it has become increasingly important for the individuals managing those blogs to gain a deeper understanding of the medium. This event has something to offer to both the novice looking to get started in the world of blogging and the expert blogger looking to refine their skills.
A full list of upcoming Get PR Smart events can be found below. Register today!
(more…)
Cross-posted from Adfero
Last week, event registration site Eventbrite released data indicating that an individual Facebook “Like” is capable of driving more sales than a single tweet. The study used in-house social analytics tools to track ticket sales, finding that the average tweet drove $0.80 in sales as compared to the average Facebook Like, which drove $1.34.
It may very well be that Facebook is a better tool for direct marketing to the general population. But Eventbrite’s findings – and the media coverage that followed – miss the point about Twitter’s value.
Because Eventbrite’s findings were focused on how often the general population signs up for event, it’s not surprising that Facebook would win the head-to-head battle with Twitter. As I have written before, the Twitter-Facebook divide can be explained by an analogy to two important but very different Inside-the-Beltway publications. Facebook is best compared to Politico: both appeal to the general population and have a high volume of users/readers.
(more…)
