Many of us are thinking about how we weave influencer relations and social media into traditional marketing programs. Todd Defren, a popular blogger and principal at SHIFT Communications, spends a lot of time on this, and in particular on the intersection of PR and social media. He’s raised a valid question: is there a point where the label “PR agency” no longer applies? Should public relations agencies deeply engaged in social media channels adopt a new category, such as social media agency?

There’s no right or wrong answer to Todd’s question. Nonetheless, it’s important for each of us to follow his example, and ask. Growth is messy and organic. We can’t throw a switch to jump from a traditional track to running on a whole new set of rails. Instead, we have to stop and step out of the moment, and take in where we are and ask ourselves what we’ve become.

Influencer relations, mobile communications, and social media will challenge each of us to decide whether to come up with new definitions for our old marketing labels, or to adopt new labels.

Republished from my Influencer50 blog, Sway. 

Check out iLocus’ blog for some inspired tips (10 tips for PR folks) on engaging smoothly with high tech industry analysts. The list, posted by iLocus Managing Director Jahangir Raina, reflects how analyst workflow is beginning to change with social media and web media. For example, he recommends adding some streaming content to detail backup documents, sharing photos on Flickr, and taking responsibility as a tech-knowledgeable intermediary.

I chuckled on No. 10, easing up on reverse sex discrimination within the PR/AR rank and file. The PRSA has documented this bias in the PR industry as a whole. The tech sector seems to be consistent, with women outnumbering men in client-facing analyst relations jobs.

Why is it, then, that there are more men blogging about analyst relations than women?

Press releases about research studies cross my desk every day. Here are a few of the basic tips I like to share with research marketers and PR agencies.

Keep the headline short. 10 words is the maximum. Anything longer is sheer vanity or an inability to communicate.

Start with the keywords that matter most to the audience. Unless you are promoting your latest study for Britney Spears or Al Gore, embrace this truth: your company name is not the most important word in the headline or lead paragraph. Don’t treat it as though it is, by placing it ahead of other keywords in the headline and first paragraph. People are looking for news about the topics you cover — not about your company. Find the right wordsmithing formula so that your keywords get picked up with highest priority and your company name gets picked up as well. Don’t try to cheat with a report title containing the keywords. That’s advertising in a flimsy disguise.

I do recommend leading with the company name in other types of releases — financials, business announcements, events.

A report catalogue description is not newsworthy; don’t publish it as a press release. This seems to elude decision makers at research companies. Think about it like this: Would you hold a telebriefing dedicated to reading the table of contents of one of your reports? Seriously, would you expect people to dial in or download the audio file, just to hear you read the table of contents or some other list of topics that are covered in a report? No, of course you wouldn’t. Nor should you use a press release in this way.

Use consistent names. Don’t switch back and forth between a full name and a nickname when quoting the research staff. Use the same, precise spelling on your website, biographies, report descriptions, promotions, press materials, and tags on all of these things.

Avoid those leading vendor traps. Here’s the deal: research companies live in glass houses. Any sweeping claim — “first study ever”, “only comprehensive study”, “only accurate study”, “industry bible” — should reflect some quality competitive research. Otherwise, such claims could backfire and undermine corporate credibility.

Use clean code. Make sure that all symbols are encoded properly. It’s still very easy to break your own RSS feed — and others’ — with a errant percentage sign or ampersand. That applies to company names as well as research findings.

Other tips, opinions are welcome!

The social media release (SMR) is being promoted as an updated take on the old fashioned press release. There’s a good general overview by Brian Solis reprinted in this week’s New Communications Review.

Research companies need to take a good look at the concepts and suggested implementations presented by Solis and his collaborators. Same goes for tech suppliers promoting research studies, analyst references, and other analyst content.

What I like about the SMR: helps bake the “socializing” aspects of online story promotion deep into the communications process

What I don’t like about the SMR: does not yet accommodate “personalizing” or “globalizing/localizing” online story promotion

One of the challenges for research-related stories is making them relevant. The research finding — the “what” — is only important in the context of “why” or, “so what?” in today’s parlance. For researchers, that means coming up with the specific context (and appropriate points for credibility) for each audience segment.

Of course, research companies that engage PR agencies can continue to handle the granular audience pitching offline.

The Tech for PR blog offers an insightful tip for leveraging Tekrati Industry Analyst Reporter for storylines — particularly for PR professionals with tech industry clients. This is a solid “how to” on using research findings as a launchpad, whether as a hook in pitching a story idea or the basis for an entire article. While freelance writers and editors visit Tekrati on a regular basis with this in mind, I suspect that many public relations professionals feel that they don’t have time to explore these avenues. Erik shows the process can be fast and easy.

In fact, he illustrates that creative pitching can leverage a single Gartner press release or whitepaper for several different articles. This is much more mileage than citing a statistic in a press release.

Naturally, it’s imperative to follow the citation policies of each research company when preparing the final submission.

Check out the complete post, “Use Tekrati to come up with ideas for bylines”, and browse more tips while you’re there.

It’s that time of year again. Time to decide which industry analysts called the shots, gave the answers, and made the time often enough to earn an IT research and advisory contract for 2007. My advice to analysts this year: publish proof points showing your accuracy, timeliness, objectivity, engagement. Put forward some well researched — not just well rehearsed — reasons for us to believe.

Analyst bashups, in general, are nothing new. Historically, the most damage was done by competitive sales teams and word of mouth — the kind of thing you find in any industry. A few journalists would take the time to sleuth planned budgets or controversial practices, and that was pretty much the extent of it.

Blogs have changed the old analyst bashups. More people than ever are publishing anecdotes about smart and not-so-smart analyst opinions, research, forecasts.
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