52: Anniversary Party

It’s our birthday! And in recognition of this, our 52nd weekly podcast (okay, so we missed one or two weeks) we convene a roundtable discussion of the new world of business communications.

The stars aligned perfectly: David was in Boston on a speaking tour and some of our best friends and colleagues from our years in media were up for a free meal and discussion. Our friends at Lois Paul & Partners kindly provided the venue (as well as two of our speakers) and our seven participants turned out to encompass a mix of media, marketing and financial disciplines.

The debate got quite spirited at points, with Bob Scheier and Steve Hall famously facing off over the ethics of fact checking. Venture capitalist Bill Frezza had the quote of the evening: “We are in the post-integrity age of journalism.” And Lois Paul and Ted Weismann of LPP recounted with resignation the frustration of convincing clients that it’s about more than just the Wall Street Journal these days.

This podcast runs 56:42, with several minutes of bonus material and the end. This week we launch “Dana’s Pick of the Podcast,” a new weekly feature in which Producer Dana Gillin spotlights the program’s best quote at the end of each episode. For those of you who have always wondered about our theme music, we offer the full version of Meet You In The Heavens by Rebel Soul Band. Enjoy. And post your comments below.

Thanks to our panel:

Lois Paul, President, Lois Paul & Partners

Ted Weismann, senior vice president, LP&P

Bob Scheier, IT/Business Writer

Bill Frezza, General Partner, Adams Capital Management

Steve Hall, Publisher Adrants

Download the podcast (56:42)

Below:

Bill Frezza          Bob Scheier

Lois Paul

Steve Hall

Paul Gillin & David Strom

50: The Social Media Think Tank

The Society for New Communications Research has been studying social media since before the term was created. Founded by veteran publicist Jen McClure in 2004, the nonprofit group known affectionately to its members as “snicker” now counts more than 40 futurists, scholars, business leaders, communicators and other new-media professionals as research fellows. Its signature event in the New Communications Forum, a multi-day multi-track conference that features top speakers and results of the group’s most recent research. It also hosts the New Communications Research Symposium, a more intimate gathering on the east coast each fall.

Jen McClure’s passion for new media is the fuel that drives SNCR. In this interview, she talks about how the group was founded, the four new research studies that will debut at the New Communications Forum in April and what value PR professionals are getting out of their SNCR membership.

BTW, Tech PR War Stories listeners can take advantage of a $100 discount. Just use code NCF08100 when you register.

Download the podcast (16:05)

Four great trade show tips

Evan Schuman (TPRWS 39)  of StorefrontBacktalk.com has spent a lot of time at trade shows lately and he sent us these four tips for getting the most out of media contacts. We like them all, but we think #3 and #4 are particularly good!

Evan writes:

1. Most interviews today are done on the phone and some even via E-mail. The art of how to get the most out of an in-person demo and ESPECIALLY a tradeshow demo (where you have the space luxury of your booth or your demo suite). Demos and interactive capabilities should be top choices. Backups can be truly relaxed conversations about trends. This is NOT where you want to whip out the slides and do a 30-minute overview.
2. Lose the tunnel vision when setting up meetings. Those “want to meet at Big Tradeshow next week?” calls are huge opportunities for stories and coverage and I have seen tons lost due to tunnel vision. They ask and focus on “are you going to be attending X and Y?” with a backup of “Do you have time to meet at the show?” If the answer to either question is “no,” the call ends. What a waste of a contact with a reporter!
3.  Walk the aisles and go into rival booths. Crazy, you say? Not at all. How many times have execs tried to say why their product is so much better than the competition? At a tradeshow, you can make that case 1000 percent more effectively. Start in your booth and show how a particular task is done and how easy and effective it is. Then walk one minute down the aisle to your rival’s booth and have the reporter try to do the same thing with them? Of course, this only if your product is truly better in some way, but if it is, it’s an amazingly powerful tactic that can only be done at a tradeshow.
4. The commissary-like lunch. Last year, there was a vendor COO who did one of the most impressive PR tactics I’ve ever seen. We went down to the ultra-crowded lunch place at the Javits and grabbed sandwiches and looked for a table with space. He was trying to make the point that IT people cared about XXXXX a lot more than they did about YYYYY, which was a huge change. His eyes then lit and he told me to select any table. When we sat down, he knew that there would be at least one IT manager (and probably a lot more than one) sitting there. He brought the topic up and asked the table about it and they agreed with him. Given that I chose the table, there’s no way this could have been pre-arranged. It was a remarkably powerful way to make his point. And, yes, it could only have been done at a tradeshow.

39: Pitches, deadlines, and trade shows

This week our guest is Evan Schuman, who is the retail editor for eWeek and author of the blog www.storefrontbacktalk.com on retail technologies.

Evan has worked for Ziff and CMP for more than 20 years in various capacities, both for print and online media. He talks to David and Paul about how PR pitch him for expert interviews and things that he likes and doesn’t like about these pitches and how PR can make them more successful. He also talks about the meaning of deadlines in the online world and how hard it is to track down spokespeople during trade shows, among other pet peeves.

Download the podcast here (14:16).

35: Second Life with Mike Azzara

Our guest this week is Mike Azzara, a former CMP publishing executive who has gobs of experience with online and print publishing. We talk about ways that businesses can leverage the presence and immediacy of the virtual world Second Life, something that Mike has spent some time “in-world,” as devotees say. He talks about the experiences he had with Dr. Dobbs’s Second Life efforts when he was at CMP. Second Life can be used to deliver more effective and immersive conferences and is being used by many hi-tech vendors for briefings and events. Mike has written a white paper that introduces some of the basics and gives references for people that want to learn more.

Download  the podcast here.

31: Scott Kirsner talks shop

This week, Paul and Dave are joined by Scott Kirsner, a Boston Globe columnist, freelance writer, blogger and conference organizer. As a writer who’s had significant experience in both mainstream and new media, Scott understands the power of each to shape opinion in different ways.Scott sees greater convergence happening between newspapers and citizen journalists, but believes newspapers still have to come up the learning curve in understanding the unique characteristics of Internet content. PR people are skilled at pitching him as a print reporter, he says, but pitches tuned to his blog are almost non-existent. For every 250 print pitches, there’s one blog pitch. This is an opportunity missed. PR still doesn’t give bloggers the attention they merit.

Marketers can adopt new media to understand and engage with their markets better, Scott believes. Start by reading Cluetrain Manifesto. Then stop talking at your customers and start asking them for comments and feedback. You can leverage inexpensive tools like online video to tell people about innovative work your company is doing or to showcase interesting people. Scott’s book, The Future of Web Video, can help you there.

Get the podcast here. (16:51)

30: Feel the love

Paul and David talk about the best PR practices they’ve ever encountered. Paul recounts his experience with one firm that arranged a CIO roundtable and ended up with a three-page magazine spread. David lauds the organizers of a user conference for really celebrating their customers. Both hosts agree on the value of using customers to tell you story, even if it means accepting the bad with the good sometimes. David has a bouquet for NASA, which really knows how to put on a press event. There’s a lot that tech PR pros could learn from the space agency.

Download the podcast here. (16:42)

29: These are the worst

This week the discussion is about the worst PR practices Paul and Dave have encountered recently. These include unanswered inquiries, missed phone calls, messed-up mail merges and the trade show “press swarm.” They’re not complaining, mind you, just pointing out how lack of attention to the basics can torpedo even the best PR efforts.

A particular issue is PR people who don’t respond to overt invitations from reporters to be included in articles. What are these people thinking? Our hosts debate the merits of “info@” e-mail addresses; Dave doesn’t like them but Paul thinks they’re OK if done right.

Dave describes how his schedule was disrupted by a PR professional who couldn’t distinguish between eastern and central time zones. Paul reminds listeners that there is a difference between standard and daylight time and wishes more PR pros would make that distinction.

Paul tells of his experience at the Demo conference, where a PR feeding frenzy was evident on day two. Why didn’t these people do more advance work?

And then there’s e-mail. Dave reminds PR pros that if he doesn’t respond to the first e-mail, chances are low that the second one will be any more successful. And Paul recounts the amusing results of a misfired mail merge he received this week.

Download the podcast here. (11:24)

26: How to work a trade show, part 2

In part two of our interview with Pulvermedia’s Bill Sell, we talk about the role of new media in event PR. Bill believes bloggers are a hugely useful resource to PR people, but that too few companies leverage their enthusiasm and talent. Pulvermedia has been proactive about courting bloggers to cover its events but Bill warns that you can’t treat bloggers the same way you would mainstream media. By courting them appropriately, though, PR pros can find new communities of customers. Boggers bring knowledge and insight to their reporting that isn’t always evident in technology journalists, but they can also be critical and challenging. They’re worth the effort, though.

Download the podcast. (13:35)

25: How to work a trade show, part 1

In the first of a two-part interview, Bill Sell, Vice President & General Manager of Events at Pulvermedia, shares his advice on how to work a trade show. Bill’s been in the events business for nearly 30 years and has managed the biggest of the big: Comdex in its glory days. In this interview, he outlines best practices he’s seen PR pros use and talks about the future of the trade show business. He also talks about the worst of trade show PR, like the dumpster that Comdex organizers used to maintain to hold all the discarded press kits. A lot of PR people work a trade show badly, Sell says. They don’t plan well and their press kits are stuffed with unnecessary information that fails to catch attention. Hear about the best and worst practices for working a trade show.

Download the podcast here. (14:22)

Here are some of Bill’s main talking points if you don’t have time to listen to both parts of the podcast:

1. Talk with the show organizer

• Role of the show manager
• Role of the exhibitor
• Role of the public relations agency
• Role of the press person

2. Preparing pre-show, at-show and post-show media outreach efforts

• Pre-show – set goals and objectives
• Make calls to reporters you know and invite them
• Prep your press person for show site
• At-show – who is your ideal spokesperson and who wins the “quote war”?
• Handling press who visit the booth
• Planning for follow-up and thank you’s
• Post-show call to thank them (call, not email, then email)
• Summarize your show action plan and product announcements and recap for all of the relevant press your missed

3. Save some money – don’t create a press kit

• Don’t bring a press kit!
• Work the show press list early
• Pre-announce your product or service a week before and showcase it for the first time at the show “double exposure”