17 Links to Bookmark So You Can Pitch Like a Pro

Pitching is integral to any young PR professional’s career. Despite it’s importance, many of my peers (myself included) find this to be the most challenging aspect of our profession. The only way to truly get better is to have experience, and many companies have policies that don’t allow interns to pitch.

So how do we learn about pitching without practicing? Doing a lot of research and reading numerous case studies helped me grow more comfortable when I first started doing media and blogger outreach.

Over the months, I’ve collected quite a few posts that have helped me enhance my pitching skills. They are all bookmarked and I refer to them often, especially when I’m stumped or uncertain about how to approach a new contact.

Below are some of my favorites that you might find useful, too:

Blogger Relations (and Social Media Release) Case Study by Todd Defren

How You Might View Bloggers by Chris Brogan

A Day in the Life of My Inbox – and When E-mail Marketing is Spam by Josh Bernoff

Open Letter to Fitness and Health Brands Pitching to Bloggers by Stephanie Quilao

Anatomy of a Bad Pitch by Dave Fleet

Great PR Manners Go a Long Way by Chris Brogan

Putting PR People on Notice by CityMama

e-Book: The Art and Science of Blogger Relations by Brian Solis

PR-Squared’s Blogger Relations Bookmark by Todd Defren

How Do I Get Placement on Blogs by Jason Falls

5 Wrong Ways to Pitch RWW and 1 Great Way by Marshall Kirkpatrick

How to Pitch Bloggers: 21 Tips by Darren Rowse

The PR Professional’s Credo: 7 Promises by Todd Defren

The Bad Pitch Blog’s Compiled List of Resources

How to Talk to the Press by Guy Kawasaki

Say What? A .pdf of What Not to Say to the Media compiled by the Bad Pitch Blog

5 Tips for Media Relations Success by David Mullen

Confessions of a Spendaholic: Why Creating (and sticking to) Budgets is Easier Than Ever Before

America’s economic situation is dismal. The headlines are depressing, the outlook isn’t good, and Americans are struggling in a sea of unemployment. Despite this, I somehow managed to let my spending spiral out of control. I have finally acknowledged my problem – I was a spendaholic – and thanks to a slew of easy-to-use online tools I have found ways to regain control of my habits.

Now, a slight disclaimer: I didn’t go crazy and accumulate tons of debt on credit cards. I am still relatively debt-free, but when I analyzed my spending habits, I realized that I wasn’t saving as much each month as I could have been. Money that should be going toward my professional and personal development was being spent on… well, that was the problem: I had no idea where my money was going.

It all started when I got my first full-time job. Receiving regular pay checks after being a broke college student for so long made it a little less painful to check my bank account. In fact, those checks made it so much easier that I stopped checking my accounts altogether. I became a spendaholic because I knew the money would be there.

In January, I checked my account and realized that after 4 months of having a job, my financial standing had not changed as much as I’d hoped it would. My savings had little growth and my checking had stayed the same every month.

Then, it hit me: I was living in the moment, and not thinking about my future. I realized that if I continued spending money at the rate I was, I would never save enough to go back to school or buy a car or purchase a home or travel as much as I wanted. Something had to change.

I decided I would sign up for a financial service that tracked and analyzed my spending habits. Many of my friends and co-workers recommended mint.com, and that’s the service I went with. (I’ve also heard great things about expensr.com.)

I’ve been using mint.com for a week, and I’m hooked. I can go back several months and see where the majority of my money went. It was a brutally honest wake up call – one I desperately needed. Like most young professionals trying to get settled in a new city, most of my money went toward my social life: concerts, movies, eating out, and happy hours.

Using mint.com, I adjusted my budget so I was cutting back on these things. Even with slight changes in each area, I will be saving thousands of dollars this year that can be put toward future investments. Mint.com also sends me alerts when I am getting close to a certain budget, or if large transactions occur in my accounts which helps me easily track my monthly spending.

In this era of economic uncertainty, I decided to reel in my inner spendaholic so I can practice financial responsibility skills that I hope will serve me well as I get further away from the collegiate lifestyle.

Using PR to Successfully Launch a Corporate Website

I spent Super Bowl Sunday hard at work in the NMS offices gearing up for the launch of my company’s re-designed website and monitoring online buzz about brands advertised during the game.

As a young professional in the public relations industry, the Super Bowl provides immense insight into consumer marketing and brand monitoring – which is why I was thrilled when one of my co-workers asked me to help with the Super Bowl Social Media Snapshot and working on the launch of our new website.

Getting Involved with the Website Launch

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned since graduating from college is when any of your colleagues ask you if you want to work on a project with them, you enthusiastically and immediately accept. This is what I did last week – and it led to a great opportunity that allowed me to use and develop my PR skills in a new way.

Yesterday, a 14 hour day at the office, allowed me to work on very challenging and rewarding projects that have stretched and improved my PR skill set. Not only did I get to work on the Social Media Snapshot, I also learned how to effectively market a company’s website re-launch.

I had never publicized a website launch before, so it was a great learning experience, especially since company websites are usually the main source of information for consumers and employees, both current and potential. Because of this, both internal and external PR was used.

Navigating the New Site for Highlights

Before the site launched, I spent considerable time browsing it to familiarize myself with all the new changes and how they enhanced the company’s brand and would provide visitors with engaging and necessary information.

Since NMS is a social media marketing company, my team knew we had to highlight the features of our site that showcased our experience in this area. For example, many of our case studies include links to Delicious bookmarks with placements we received. This innovative feature is valuable to our clients and employees. Picking out a few key elements will help draft reader-friendly marketing copy when it comes time to promote the site launch.

Writing the Press Release

Press releases spread the word, and when distributed via newswires they increase SEO results. Writing marketing copy and press releases about websites can be tedious, but every site launch needs them.

To ensure the release included the features on our site we wanted to highlight, but was also reader-friendly, we opted for a short introduction and a bulleted list of the features we wanted to showcase. This included our Flickr gallery, employee profiles, blog with 86 employee contributors, and interactive timeline.

The press release needed to provide readers with comprehensive information about the new site, that will pique their curiosity enough to drive them to the site.

Spreading the Word

If necessary, your company might want you to distribute your press release to the public over various newswires. Here are some free ones: OpenPR.com, PR-USA.net, Free-Press-Release-Center.info, i-newswire.com, PRLog.org and PRZoom.com. PRWeb and PRNewswire are paid services that allow more options for distribution and might be a good fit depending on your company, budget, and the quality of the website’s features and usability.

Pitching journalists and bloggers who cover your industry will help give the launch more publicity, leading to higher traffic and more press for your company.

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Have any of you worked on a site launch before? Is there anything you would add to these areas?

Super Bowl Advertisers Score Big on Twitter; Missed Engagement Opportunities with Consumers

It’s no secret that I’m a social media geek, which is why I had no problem spending Super Bowl Sunday in the NMS office working with my co-workers to compile the 2009 Super Bowl Social Media Snapshot.

The snapshot, a quantitative and qualitative analysis, looked at how consumers used social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Wikipedia, and blogs to discuss not only the game, but also the brands featured in those million dollar commercials everyone keeps talking about – for now.

What I love about social media is that it allows companies to connect with their consumers on a deeply personal level. This is what most of us find fascinating about social media, right?

Unfortunately, most advertisers have not fully embraced this concept yet… which is why the Snapshot revealed that marketers may have missed a huge way to engage and connect with their consumers by not providing long-term relationship development opportunities.

Here are some of the findings I found most interesting:

• In the 24-hour period surrounding the game, there were over 191,000 blog mentions of 41 Super Bowl advertising-related brands, personalities and terms
• During the game itself, there were about 41 Super Bowl advertising-related brands, personalities and terms
• Movie trailers and car companies saw the highest volume of blog mentions; notable performers included Audi, Star Trek, Hyundai and Transformers 2

However, here is where advertisers missed out:

Despite Facebook’s ability to serve as a tool for companies to build lists, much like Obama did by building a database of 13 million, through the group and brand pages, this year’s crop of advertisers failed to leverage the free tools available to compliment and maximize their TV buys.

• The analysis showed minimal discussion on Facebook brand pages regarding spots aired during the game
• Companies were selective in the platforms that they used – most posted their ads on YouTube at some point, some also ran a Twitter account in the character of their ad spot; however, users proliferated on dozens of social media platforms and no one single company successfully activated and realized the potential that was out there
• For a significant number of online community members, social media usage surrounding this year’s game was centered on sharing and documenting their own Super Bowl Sunday experiences, including: preparing snacks for a planned Super Bowl party, watching the game with friends at a local bar and families tailgating in head-to-toe Steelers or Cardinals fan gear

Engaging consumers on a variety of platforms, such as promoting a Facebook fan page community or a highly interactive Twitter account (kudos to the brands that did this!), should have been the rule, not the exception.

The full report can be downloaded in .pdf form here: http://newmediastrategies.net/docs/NMS-Super_Bowl_Snapshot_Report_2-2-09.pdf

Update: The Wall Street Journal ran a story showing how advertisers used Twitter to “keep Super Bowl buzz going.” The brands are: SoBe, H&R Block, E*Trade Financial, and Overstock.com.  Some of these brands have a lot of work to do when it comes to engagement and response, but at least it’s a start.