Web Ink Now

Newsjacking a naked Prince Harry

Over the past week, I've noticed a bunch of people attempting to newsjack the stories of Prince Harry's Las Vegas romp. As you have likely heard many times by now, naked photos surfaced of the Prince cavorting with equally undressed women in a hotel suite.

While most newsjacking attempts went unnoticed, several were highly successful.

Newsjacking works when you have a tie to the story

The pattern is quite consistent – the more of a tie you have to the story, the better your success at newsjacking.

The location of the Prince Harry photos was the luxurious Encore Wynn Hotel. The owner of the hotel, Steve Wynn publicly waived the tens of thousands of dollars hotel bill, which got the Wynn into, by Google News count, 3,657 stories. For example, this one from the UK’s Daily Mail Living like a king: Prince Harry's £30,000 hotel bill 'waived' by Vegas billionaire is essentially a huge, free advertisement for the luxury Encore Wynn Hotel complete with descriptions and photos of the property as well as the royal suite.

This is a perfect example of newsjacking success. For the price of waiving a few hotel nights, the Wynn gets mentioned in thousands of stories. This isn't the first time that the Wynn has newsjacked. Here's another example I wrote about a few years ago: Wynn Resorts real-time Paris Hilton PR triumph.

Another example of success was the $10 million offer made to Prince Harry by Steven Hirsch, CEO of Vivid Entertainment, to appear in a porn film titled The Trouble with Harry. The offer was shared with TMZ who wrote about it in a story titled Prince Harry Offered $10 Million to Bone on Film. If you click over to the story, you can see the actual written offer document, which makes for some fun reading. This story appeared in 642 mainstream media stories according to Google News.

Again, the Vivid Entertainment newsjack succeeded because the company produces pornographic films and Harry was caught in photos with his pants down. By sharing the actual offer with TMZ, the story was sure to be picked up in mainstream media.

Lessons from Prince Harry

The lesson learned here is if you want to newsjack successfully, you've got to have a legitimate tie to the story. If you do, and you put out there, journalists who are hungry for second paragraph content for their news reports may include you in their stories.

The other lesson, is you've got to be quick. Stories like this break in a matter of hours and if you dilly-dally, you won't be seen as reporters are writing their stories.

5 ideas for marketing and communications professors success in the classroom

Here in the United States, we’re just about to embark on a new academic year and therefore this is a good time for me to provide some ideas for instructors. If you know a professor who teaches marketing or communications (or a student taking a course in these areas), please pass this on.

It's exciting how far we've come in the area of marketing and public relations education at our colleges and universities worldwide. Just two years ago I found the state of university instruction generally so poor that I wrote a post titled Many marketing and communications professors are criminals. While I'm nowhere near as pessimistic as I was then, the academic world is very resistant to change (especially those with tenure), so there are definitely people who still resist teaching the new rules of marketing.

Here are some ideas I've learned from professors around the world that you might use in your classroom.

1. Care about your students

Take a look at this post from Bill Sledzik, Associate Professor, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Kent State University: Why we teach: Reflections on 20 years in the classroom.

Bill is someone who understood very early that we're going through a change towards digital. Because he cares about students, he implemented the ideas in the classroom before almost anyone else.

Here's an interview I did with Bill to learn more about what he does so well.

Direct link to Bill Sledzik discuses modern Public Relations education on YouTube.

2. Show, don't tell

One of the best ways to get students active with social media is to use popular platforms as tools in class. For example, you can use a blog as the course syllabus. Twitter could be the way people ask questions outside of class (longer answers could be posted somewhere with a link). Other platforms that could be used include Slideshare for presentations and Pinterest for links.

3. Encourage students to get away from the CV and resume

One of the most important things you can do for students is prepare them for the real world of job search. Starting right from the first year, students need to find internships. Upon graduation, they need full time work. Sadly, the vast majority of marketing and communications students still focus exclusively on the boring old plain text CV.

You should encourage students to start a personal blog as part of class. The blog will serve as a way to get them known to potential employers. For example, here's new Tufts graduate Lindsey Kirchoff's blog.

4. Pick a local nonprofit and do a pro-bono makeover of their online marketing

Having students work together to help a local organization is a good way to actually implement ideas. You can see the results in just one term and it will help a worthy cause.

5. Choose the right classroom materials

My book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, now in its third edition, is used in many hundreds of universities around the world. It's a primary or supplemental text in Marketing courses and Public Relations courses as well as MBA programs, entrepreneurial offerings and journalism classes.

My publishers, John Wiley & Sons, have put together a special resources page, which includes free instructor materials that you can use in class to supplement The New Rules of Marketing and PR. The materials are free, however, you need to register on the site to get access.

Are you a professor? What techniques do you use?

If you’re a student or recent graduate, what were some of the effective ways you were taught?

Confessions of a Media Manipulator

Last week, John Jantsch hosted an awesome video debate called Media Manipulation – fact or fiction – a frank conversation.

The discussion featured Ryan Holiday, author of Trust Me I'm Lying – Confessions of a Media Manipulator debating Peter Shankman, VP, Small Business Evangelist at Vocus (and founder of HARO). I was also on hand together with Shel Holtz to jump in now and then with comments and questions.

It was a very lively discussion!!

PR Stunts for fun and profit

Here's some backstory: Earlier this month Ryan released his book which received a great deal of coverage mainly because of the clever PR stunt he pulled to get attention. He used HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to respond to queries from journalists about such things as being an insomniac, a vinyl collector, a boating expert, and so forth, (none of which he actually was) and getting quoted by ABC News, CBS, The New York Times, and other news organizations.

Here is a good article on Poynter that provides background on the stunt: Telling the truth about media manipulator Ryan Holiday.

Here is our debate, which is well worth taking 45 minutes to watch.

Direct link to Media Manipulation – fact or fiction on YouTube.

In the debate, Peter was very critical of Ryan's use of HARO because he misused the service. In turn Ryan argued that HARO should vet the reporters and PR people who use HARO. I have to disagree with both Peter and Ryan. I think the way Ryan used the service certainly did prove a valuable lesson. However, having used HARO myself to find sources for stories I’ve written, of course I am going to vet the source. As I said in the debate, HARO shouldn’t get involved in fact checking its users any more than Monster.com should fact check the millions resumes on its platform.

That reporters from A-list media like ABC News and the New York Times didn't do a simple Google search to learn that the "Ryan Holiday" who they were about to quote in a story wrote a book called Trust me I'm Lying is strange!

Trust Me I'm Lying

I've read some of Ryan’s book Trust me I'm Lying (but not all because I wanted to get this post out). I find the book to be a valuable resource for PR people and journalists alike because he has clearly found some details about how today’s media works that you should know.

If you're engaging in Newsjacking (and I hope you are) there are some insights in Ryan's book that will help. But note that unlike Ryan's techniques, Newsjacking does not rely on manipulation. It works because of a knowledge about how today’s real time media operates and that’s what Ryan outlines in his book.

However, I do not agree with Ryan's techniques. Lying about who you are just to prove a point is not appropriate for anyone who wants to do business in the future. Now and forever, whenever anyone Google’s Ryan Holiday, they will learn he is a liar. Would you hire him? Would you work for him?

Sometimes Ryan used a fake name and sometimes his real name to alert the media to stores, which he himself planted. All of this was to expose how online media really works and I think it was largely successful in proving his point and generating interesting anecdotes that we can learn from.

While he was pulling off his media manipulation that he talks about in the book, Ryan was director of marketing at American Apparel (where he still works today). American Apparel is a public company listed on the American Stock Exchange. When I asked Ryan if his employers had knowledge of his stunts, he said yes. I find this fascinating.

An aspect of his manipulation was that he not only seeded (sometimes false) stories to online media outlets, those outlets also carried his company’s advertising. It was a surprising revelation about the porous wall between the business side and the advertising side of online media.

Watch the 45-minute debate and if you want to learn more, read Ryan's book. Sure, there is a lot of manipulation going on here, but there are also lessons to learn for those of us who don’t lie.

What do you think?

Obama says his biggest mistake as president has been communication

Yesterday, President and First Lady Michelle Obama spoke with CBS This Morning anchor Charlie Rose in the White House Blue Room, where they discussed the failures and successes of his administration as he heads into another election, among other things.

Rose asked President Obama about his biggest mistake as president.

"When I think about what we've done well and what we haven't done well," the president said, "the mistake of my first term - couple of years - was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times."

Direct link to Obama reflects on his biggest mistake as president on CBS.

After the election in 2008, I wrote a post Ten marketing lessons from the Barack Obama presidential campaign. My number three was: "Clearly and simply articulate what you want people to believe."

It's fascinating that Obama has identified his failures in this area as president. (While the President used the phrase "tell a story" in the interview, I am expanding it to "communicating" in this post.)

While I think he did an excellent job during the 2008 campaign, I certainly agree with the president that he hasn’t done a good enough job communicating over the past three and a half years as president.

Learning from the President Obama's mistake

These lessons are applicable to all. Many companies don't do a good job communicating. They don't focus on buyer personas and use the techniques of brand journalism and content marketing to tell a story.

Or, like the president, CEOs communicate during a product launch to make sales (the election cycle in Obama's case) but not once the product is released and used by customers.

Unlike the President however, many CEOs don't recognize this as a failure. Often, the people at the top think a good product is enough.

What can your organization learn from the President's mistake?

Note: This is a marketing blog, not a political blog. These are not political observations, but thoughts about marketing and communications.

Why PR pros need to watch The Newsroom

I've quickly become a fan of Aaron Sorkin's new HBO drama The Newsroom. It's a fast paced look into broadcast news much like Sorkin's other projects including The Social Network and West Wing. In fact, I thought the series premiere was so good that I watched it again the next night.

If you haven't seen the show, here is the official trailer.

While this is certainly fiction, and by necessity the drama-factor is turned up quite a few notches, I do think there are fascinating insider insights into how a newsroom works and how news is put together. These glimpses into what happens in a newsroom should prove valuable for many people who want to get news coverage.

Real-Time breaking news

Much that I recall about putting news out quickly and under intense pressure is portrayed on The Newsroom. For six years I worked in the real-time news division of Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the world's largest newspaper companies. I sat in the Tokyo bureau and Hong Kong bureau during the go-go years of the Japanese and Hong Kong economies.

I've never worked in broadcast news, but I have appeared in live interviews both in-studio and via remote on many news programs at networks like CNN, FOX, and ABC, and MSNBC. From my (limited) perspective, much of The Newsroom is accurate.

No, The Newsroom is not perfect. There are plenty of critics such as this from Huffington Post The Newsroom: Women Problems Abound In Aaron Sorkin's HBO Series.

But so much is right. If you're work in PR or run a business that could use some media attention, The Newsroom is certainly worth studying.

In the first episode, there are extensive scenes of how the news team covers a breaking news story. At several points, Jeff Daniels as anchor Will McAvoy, interviews spokespeople from various government agencies and corporations. We also see the producers and bookers scrambling to find qualified people to speak on-air. Interesting stuff for PR people to see.

I kept thinking how valuable Newsjacking would have been during the breaking news scenes! I was expecting a company to insert their ideas into the cycle.

Direct link to The Newsroom trailer

Watch The Network complete series premiere on YouTube.

Have you caught the show? What do you think?

Public relations is not the same as media relations

Back in the day, the only way to easily communicate with your public was to use mainstream media and analysts as your mouthpieces. So the public relations department and the agencies they employed spent a great deal of effort convincing editors, reporters and analysts that your company was one worth talking up.

Prior to the Web, there wasn't an efficient way for organizations to communicate directly to the public.

What's the role of public relations in the new world of the web?

There has been an explosion of channels that organizations can reach their audience directly with valuable online content: videos, ebooks, white papers, photos, infographics, and more – and then have that information shared in social networks.

However, many PR professionals still operate as if their only conduit is mainstream media.

Apologies if you've heard this because I've talked about this many times in the past. But there are still many holdouts so I say it again.

Don't confuse the superset (public relations = reaching the public with your information) with the subset (media relations = using the media to tell your story) and therefore insist that PR is only about mainstream media.

What you need to realize is that these are different activities. Media relations is still valid as a way to get attention. Who doesn't want to be quoted in an important newspaper, magazine, or television broadcast?

Today there are so many other ways to communicate with your publics

If your organization operates this outdated way, my recommendation is to re-name your public relations department the media relations department to reflect what they really do.

In this new world, smart PR pros realize they have a tremendous opportunity if they can effectively communicate directly with the public. They are transforming themselves into content creators. However, most are still operating in the traditional press release and pitching mentality.

If you're an entrepreneur or executive, don't put your PR department in charge of content creation for your company (unless they understand completely the power of the new world).

GolinHarris shows how an agency does real-time communications right

For the past several years, I've written and spoken extensively about the idea of real-time marketing & PR, the subject of my Wall Street Journal bestseller, now published in eight languages.

The biggest challenge of implementing real-time is one of mindset. It is tough for marketing and PR people who operate in the typical long-term planning of "campaigns" to adapt to instant engagement. This seems to be especially true of agencies that have built a business around implementing campaigns for their clients.

GolinHarris shows how an agency does real-time communications right

I was intrigued with the GolinHarris real-time approach of what they call "The Bridge" - a network of real-time storytelling centers - staffed in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

This Wall Street trading room approach is exactly what I've constantly talked about and I’m excited to see it being implemented so I connected with Jim Dowd, Executive Director, National Media for GolinHarris, to learn more.

"We use The Bridge as a listening outpost but we are doing it a little differently because we have the mainstream media folks and the digital folks working side by side," Dowd says. "So we are not just looking at social media which is obviously the flavor of the day. Digital and mainstream are literally sitting next to each other and they are coming up with ideas and are pitching media together and that is where we have seen just terrific traction."

For example, on the day that Michelle Obama announced a new food pyramid called MyPlate, the GolinHarris team watched the press conference live on CNN looking for ways to get their clients into the emerging memes. "We are watching all the activity online and took an idea to Hartz to create a food pyramid for dogs," Dowd says. The client loved the idea and reacted quickly. The team generated some attention as a result.

Generating quick client approvals

With most clients working at a glacially slow pace, requiring lengthy legal and PR client-side reviews, I wondered how GolinHarris is able to get speedy signoffs on ideas generated from The Bridge.

"Yeah, approval is always tricky particularly with legal departments," he says. GolinHarris works with clients to develop topics ahead of time in anticipation of potential stories so that they can work quickly. "With clients like McDonalds we have general topics that we predict, like if something comes up about the Happy Meal. McDonalds have preapproved that we can have certain conversations about Happy Meals with language we can go out with."

Just like a 24-hour Wall Street bond trading desk

The Bridge is set up just like a 24 hour Wall Street trading desk with three regions – Asia, Europe, and North America - passing the work around the globe.

"We are truly doing it globally," Dowd says, "We are 24/7 so we will scour the landscape the first few hours of the day here in New York then we will pass all of our results and insights onto Chicago and Chicago to LA. And you know, the whole notion of offices and cubes may go away. It's exciting to be able to walk in The Bridge and literally see what is going on."

Newsjacking the Super Bowl

When you have a real-time mindset and the tools of a facility like The Bridge, then Newsjacking becomes second nature.

"Our client AutoTrader.com challenged us to make them the leader in all of the post- Super Bowl auto commercial coverage," Dowd says. AutoTrader.com did not advertise during the Super Bowl but wanted to generate a bunch of attention anyway - a classic newsjacking strategy.

AutoTrader's analysts worked with GolinHarris to create data on consumers' real-time search patterns during the Super Bowl. They used data from the AutoTrader.com site and correlated that to the times auto commercials aired looking for lift (how much of a boost in search activity each vehicle got in the hour after its ad appeared). They provided the resulting data to the media who used it in stories like Acura NSX Won Big with Super Bowl Spot, Survey Says which appeared on the Wall Street Journal site.

Overcoming fear

"There are lot of clients who love the notion of the bridge and real time marketing and what we are doing but aren’t jumping on it out of fear - fear of the unknown, fear of the new," Dowd says. "A lot of our clients are still quite old school and traditional."

There's nothing like success to break down the fear barrier.

Dowd cites Dow Chemical as a noteworthy GolinHarris real-time success. The company is very careful with stories related to such topics as chemistry or chemical engineering or stem research but that doesn't mean they can't engage in real-time.

"We were in The Bridge tracking that President Obama was going to give the Teacher of the Year Award and we were watching live on CNN," he says. "And it was a chemistry teacher who won that award so we immediately got approval from Dow Chemical to go ahead and offer up public congratulations to the teacher and that resulted in some nice coverage. Even with the trickier clients there are always topics that will work."

Images courtesy of GolinHarris

Etch a Sketch newsjacking opportunity falls in Ohio Arts lap

Here in the U.S., if you’re plugged into real-time news, you can't avoid hearing about the Etch a Sketch brouhaha.

An aide to Republican candidate Mitt Romney said in an interview that the candidate could reset his campaign after he wins the primary battle "like an Etch a Sketch."

The reference to the classic toy which is familiar to so many played into the narrative that Romney changes positions frequently to appeal to whoever he is talking to at that moment. In many ways it was a perfect story and journalists ran with it resulting in thousands of stories mentioning the toy. (See below for a Google News image of the thousands of stories).

The Etch a Sketch is produced by Ohio Art, a family-run business. The toy has sold more than 100 million units worldwide since its introduction in 1960. I had one when I was a kid and played with it a lot.

When the newsjacking opportunity falls in your lap

Sometimes, the Newsjacking gods shine on you and present an opportunity that is so perfect that you can't help but jump in. So how to do it to the most effect?

So far, Ohio Arts has done an excellent job with media relations but has missed a huge opportunity to create original content.

Get in front of journalists

At least three Ohio Arts executives are doing media interviews. They are using humor, which gets some wonderful quotes into stories like this one which I love from a Wall Street Journal piece Ohio Art's Etch A Sketch Shakes Up Political Debate:

One thing the Etch A Sketch won't do is pick sides in the campaign, Martin Killgallon, the company's marketing director said. "We have a left knob and a right knob," he said, "so we neutrally speak to both parties."

Product placement

The company sent boxes of Etch A Sketches to the campaigns because candidates including Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have been holding up the toy, generating tons of images in the media.

When yours is the product of the moment, particularly when it is such an awesome visual, you can generate ink just by having people hold it in front of cameras.

Missed content marketing opportunity

The only mistake the company is making is that they have not created any original content to take advantage of the sudden media interest.

There is no fun photo on the Ohio Art homepage, no press release in the media section, and nothing new on the company Ohio Art YouTube channel.

Real-time journalism means new opportunities for PR pros

Freek Janssen writing for Lewis PR in a blog post Why Real-Time Journalism Requires Newsjacking provides us with a terrific expansion on the ideas in my Newsjacking book.

Freek writes: "Reporters are constantly looking for context and insights for their stories – newsjacking allows PR to become a source, not just for the benefit of being quoted. This is profoundly changing the world of PR: we are there much more to help clients become sources than to just communicate news or a message – brands are increasingly using their own channels for that."

In his post, Freek shares a link to an excellent video from the UK's Guardian newspaper on how their journalists cover stories in real time. The video shows what goes down in newsrooms by imagining how reporters might cover the story of the three little pigs in print and online. It is definitely worth a watch.

Note: The video may open with an advertisement.

Direct link to Guardian open journalism: Three Little Pigs on YouTube.

Real-Time Public Relations

Today's real-time journalism means there is room for anybody to add their take to breaking news stories simply by blogging or tweeting or commenting.

But you've got to be quick. Review cycles usually mean failure.

For PR pros, this is not endless pitching on your timetable. It means turning the PR relationship around and providing information at the precise moment that journalists are looking.

Tough love for marketing and PR job seekers

Are you a marketer or PR pro looking for a job?

Prepare for a reality check.

What happens if I Google the name on your resume and the most recent company you worked for?

When I am asked to vet a candidate for one of the companies I am associated with, the first thing I do is head to Google and see what content appears. And that's what I suggest potential employers do.

On the Web, you are what you publish

Sadly, for many job seekers, what pops up on Google are a few random things (like your membership in the company softball league), your LinkedIn profile, and not much else. Sometimes there is a Twitter feed but frequently it was started years earlier and has been abandoned or it's only updated a few times a month.

With more senior people, I always laugh when the top content when I Google your name is the press release that your company issued a few years earlier to announce you are joining.

Today's marketing and PR is about content creation. Your personal brand is also about content creation.

If you don’t care enough to build your personal brand then why should a company employ you to create a brand for them?

On Saturday at #SXSW, I met with my good friend Jon Ferrara (@jon_ferrara) who is the CEO of Nimble. Jon told me that he has a position open for a senior-level marketer and wanted to get my advice on the sort of person he should hire.

I told Jon to never look at a resume. Just delete it. Instead, administer the "Google test." We agreed that eliminates nearly all candidates from consideration.

People like Jon look for potential hires who are very active on social media and creating content. Jon and the other CEOs and senior executives I work with are not looking for professional managers. They are not looking for agency wranglers. They are not looking for talkers, they are looking for doers. They want marketers (even at the senior level) who are passionate about creating content on the Web.

Insisting on a positive result for the "Google test" makes it tough for CEOs like Jon to find qualified people, but greatly increases the chances that the marketer who ends up getting hired will be a good fit for achieving the company’s goals. Jon told me that anyone who wants to be his top marketer needs to be at least as successful on social networks as he is. Seems reasonable to me!

Prove you are a great marketer

The good news is that you can fix the problem that eliminates you from consideration for the hottest jobs.

You need to show, don't tell. You need evidence that you are passionate about your personal brand. You need to create content. Now. Starting today.

There are a bunch of things you can do, starting today, that might include some of the following: You could start a blog, create a YouTube channel, or tweet more than a few times a month. You could create an infographic about the industry you want to work in or your particular area of expertise. You could get active on some newer channels like Google Plus, Instagram and Pinterest so you can speak intelligently about them. You could sit on panels at events like SXSW and have people in the audience talk about you on social channels. These are just a few examples.

I've delivered this advice to hundreds of people. Sadly for them, I know from experience that 90% of people ignore this advice.

Will you be in the 10%?

I am convinced if you are a job seeker, you need to pay attention to this tough love.

Bonus for reading this far: People who get really clever with this strategy then target companies they want to work for and create content (a blog post or video for example) that relates to that company. Perhaps a suggestion for how that company can do something different. You want to get noticed by the marketing department of your target company? Forget sending a resume. Instead create something interesting and publish it on the Web. Your potential hiring manager will be eager to consume your work and you brand yourself as a player.