Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

yes, I do agree with you, particularly with starting a blog, I recommend wordpress.com

Also, check out the PRSA site for lots of information for you and your client

https://www.prsa.org/

hope this helps,

Steve

Even though I love blogs and have steered a number of clients to developing blogs, I wonder if their targeted prospects can really be influenced by blogs.

I would like to hear more about the articles they are doing. I have discovered that many times the people who are viewed as "regular contributors" can get their press releases picked up by the trade press - in a newsworthy manner.

I would be willing to chat with you about how to get this done if you want to contact me via my profile.

Dear Melissa,

Might there be greater mileage in articles AND PR? I'm suggesting this because as good as PRWeb are, there are two other sites worth looking at, both of which receive more traffic, and both of which are free.

www.prlog.org receives 1 million visitors per month and it costs nothing to post a press release on their site.

www.ezinearticles.com receives 13 million visitors per month and once you've satisfied their ten story contribution rule and been passed, you can post all kinds of articles, free of charge.

So, that's a potential audience of 14 million people. Now, OK, as to how many of these people are scientific types, your guess is as good as mine. But these two sources are worth further investigation.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

I read the following in PR squared blog. you may not find a direct answer but a relevant information on your planning. 'Scientific community' is not a clear enough of a target. Clarify it to direct, second relevant, third interested levels of your Audience. Than it would be clear. Take a survey of those who this company wants influence and use those means. Rule no 1, if you don't know who your audience is, make time and expand efforts to know them as much as possible. you can breakdown the target audience down to a person. Broadstroke is not the way for both traditional PR or otherwise.
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Different Approaches for Social & Traditional Media Success


In the early days of Social Media, the mainstream media scoffed at the blogosphere. The traditional journalists accused bloggers of scavenging content. Blogs drew little notice or outright derision.

Obviously, that’s changed.

Nowadays, when we pitch a mainstream reporter, they’ll often do a Google search about our client while we’re hanging there (suspended, expectant, hopeful) on the phone, and then say something like, “I dunno… I don’t see much about your client in the blogs.”

The mainstream reporters are using bloggers to vet their stories. Blogs are the proving ground in the marketplace of ideas.

But what if the client is doing a kick-ass job in Social Media circles? Does it follow that they will find success in mainstream media? Only “sometimes.”

Sometimes a story will bubble up to the traditional media thanks to the attentions of the blogosphere, sometimes not. Sometimes what is of-interest to the bleeding-edgers is clearly not ready for primetime.

The goal is to do a good job in Social Media and in Traditional Media. Success in BOTH arenas creates a force-multiplier effect. The trick is understanding that you need to craft custom approaches to these varying audiences.

Social Media demands 24/7 presence, frequently-updated and relevant content, a diplomatic and distinct voice. Traditional Media requires careful timing, a differentiated story, a proud voice, a tightly-packaged and closely-held assembly of content, verifiable proof and articulate defenders.

Understand the difference. Do both.

Is your client selling products/services for the scientific community or are they selling knowledge/research? The latter requires a lot of peer-review to bestow acceptance in a new way of solving an existing problem. The former requires case studies showing cost savings or other measurable results. A press release, blog, Twitter, etc. can assist spreading a message, but the key is the underlying proof.

Also, to improve their press releases, try using a tool such as: https://pressrelease.grader.com

If the only way they are submitting PRs is through PRWeb, then I think the problem may be that they are not connected to their primary media. To me, PRWeb (or similar) should be backups meant to maybe catch some media that they didn't send to directly. But the primary was to get the PRs in would be to send relevant and targeted PRs directly to the media of interest.

Blog and Twitter both require that the people they are interested in be willing to spend the time to follow - is this the case? Also requires a commitment to make sure stuff is put up and ability to put up stuff that is relevant and interesting. Don't want it to get stale.

Articles and forums are likely good ideas, worth considering no matter what the decision on traditional PRs. Byline articles can be very useful - often much more so than PRs. But of course, the articles can't be obviously promoting the product, but instead show information a bit more general related to the market/industry/science.

I think there is value in trying some of the new media formats suggested....blogs, twitter, facebook, but I also think that it's unrealisitic to think that posting press releases to PR web will automatically lead to stories. That's where the marketing staff comes in to recommend the appropriate media vehciles to pitch a story.

Eva Wu

You've gotten great answers so far; pretty solid collection of insights.

I guess it makes the question moot; what is "traditional" and what does it matter? In a way, all PR is "guerilla marketing" these days. Think carefully about the product, the audience, and (as someone above put it) what you are really selling. Then think of ways (ideally unexpected ones) to get the right message in the hands of the right people. There may well be a specific group/element in social media that makes sense.

But it probably ISN'T just a dump on PRWeb, and "standard" news releases probably won't have much effect.

Bottom line, do the research, be creative, and use whatever looks like it will work. Forget the labels, bring on the ideas!