It has always been hard to get people to do what you want them to do. In fact, if you try to get me to do something, chances are I won’t. It is one of my fatal flaws. I am stubborn like that, but I am willing to bet that a lot of you are, too. Public relations professionals and marketers have been trying to overcome this inertia for centuries. It is one of the reasons people look at our profession as little more than spin and persuasion. Then along came social media and… read more...
Sponsored Conversations: FTC Guidelines Impact Companies and Bloggers
Is blogging or tweeting out an opinion about a product or service advertising? If you are being paid to do it, or if you have received the item in question as a freebie for a company, as of December 1, 2009, you are bound by the same truth-in-advertising guidelines as advertisers.
- Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive;
- Advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and
- Advertisements cannot be unfair.
Cool Tools: BuzzStream is Contact Management for Social Media
As a social media and public relations consultant, I spend a lot of time online researching various blogs and publications within vertical interest areas. One of the things that I have found frustrating is manually keeping multiple lists of contacts and notes about each contact. There are some extremely expensive tools. like Salesforce, and other CRM programs like ACT, which are cheaper but don't really address the needs of people looking to build relationships over time rather than sell stuff. read more...
Beyond Blogger Relations: Listening Provides the Spark to Finding Influencers
Okay, so I admit, we here in the Houston area are pretty focused on power since many have been without it for nearly two weeks now. But it is also a fantastic metaphor for the point of connection between a company or organization and the people that they care about. When you get this connection right, sparks can happen and everyone wins. In my first post in the Beyond Blogger Relations series, I covered the importance of read more...
Building Quality Relationships Online: Going Beyond Blogger Relations
As I have traveled around the country, no matter what topic I am speaking about, people always want to know, "How do I find and approach influential bloggers?" "Blogger relations" continues to be a very hot subject, even though many in the social media bubble are somewhat tired of it and all of the drama that continues to play around it. Many of my esteemed colleagues, who have proven track records of working with bloggers on behalf of clients, have done a great job of outlining read more...