Wire Services in the Social Media Age

With the advancements and changes in the world of communications, many are pushing news and announcements through social media rather than traditional wire services.

Considering the results from wire services the best case scenario for getting news out is not to use one or the other, but both. Traditional wire services have an established presence and feed the media news and updates. Social Media is a fast new way to push news through Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, LinkedIn, Tumblr and more.

The best of the available wire services from our experience is Business Wire, for which we have seen noticeable results. Another good service with nice results is PR Web. Many like to use PR Newswire, but at Maxima PR we prefer Business Wire over PR Newswire. Some of the new services like PR Web are a little lower in cost than Business Wire or PR Newswire which are very close in pricing, but the reach of these bigger, more established wire services is significant and in most cases worth the higher price.

For the Social Media a well networked and followed Twitter account or accounts is key, along with a presense on Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and other sites such as StumbleUpon, Reddit, Technorati, Digg, Focus, Small Business Brief, Wikipedia, YouNoodle, and video posts on YouTube. With Social Media you want to establish a presence on all relevant sites and services, and update on a regular basis, daily if possible.

When using wire services and social media sites and services, do your homework to choose and use the best of the services available. In some cases you may want to use more of wire services while in others you may focus on social media.

Don't Forget About The Little Guys - Small Press Are Great Targets

In the quest for news coverage with traditional media, social media and blogs, everyone is on the hunt for the big name or "Big Game" media, but many forget or ignore the little guys, and you should never ignore any press.

No matter how small or large, how focused or broad the coverage, how frequent or infrequent, all media are important and need to be on your target press lists. We all know how big and effective stories placed with the Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, Mashable and Forbes are and can be, but Do Not ignore the small publications and blogs, as they can have a big impact on your clients and their goals.

Small or smaller publications and blogs such as Los Angeles Daily News, EE Times, La Opinión, SocialTimes, Network Computing, FierceMarkets Network, and many more, can be wonderful targets and provide your clients with needed exposure and publicity.

A simple piece of advice, always go after the big game targets, but never forget about the little guy, the smaller publications and blogs.

A Little Holiday Humor - How To Avoid Family, Friends or Others You DON'T Want To Be With

Ok, this is a fun post to give everyone a little humor and some laughs for the holiday weekend.

First, to those of you reading this at work or while working, step away from the computer, go home and have fun, it is a holiday weekend!

Second, to those of you who are dreading the family get togethers with those annoying Cousin Eddie type relatives, here are a few tips on how to avoid them and having to spend time with them during the holidays.

1. A sudden case of the Ebola Virus or Death will get you out of having to see them! The only problem with a sudden case of Death is, you can only use that one once.

2. Work Emergency, they had to call you in for the weekend to fix a major problem, so can't hang with you, sorry!
3. Fake a kidnapping, you and the kids, your wife or hubby, have been taken, kidnapped by some militant group and can't be found! (unless they check your weekend getaway place that is!) There is one big flaw to this one, you will have those unwanted family along with police and FBI searching for you, and will have a lot of explaining to do once you are 'found', so this is a last ditch idea to avoid the Cousin Eddie's in your life.
4. Abducted by Aliens, this is especially effective if you reside in New Mexico, Nevada or Arizona! and you have to see this story - http://www.ufodigest.com/article/strategy-and-tactics-manage-alien-abduction-or-unavoidable-alien-encounter (is this for real?)
5. Very bad case of diarrhea! Believe me this one is great as No One wants to hang with someone that has bad diarrhea! But, don't use this one too much or they may call your bluff and come over to try and help you!

Use these tips wisely to help you avoid the unavoidable family, friends and coworkers you would rather have diarrhea or the Ebola Virus than be with!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Pitching Media Around Holidays, What You Need To Know

Media relations is a lot of work, can take time and requires strong communications skills, and a little charm never hurts.

What it also requires is knowing the media, understanding the press, their publication or blog, beat and areas of coverage, topics of interest, and best ways to contact individual media. But, there is another aspect I wanted to talk about as we head into Thanksgiving and the holiday season, and that is media and pitching during the holidays.

Pitching media around holidays can be tricky and there are several holidays in the U.S. when the media are much more busy, short-handed or even unavaiable with many being off for the holidays. The main holidays which can be tough to pitch include Christmas and New Years, Thanksgiving, and the 4th of July. Also, with many still taking their personal time off in August, that month can be tougher than others.

To effectively work with media around these holidays make sure you have a good pitch and something really newsworthy, a really cool or juicy story never hurts. Also, if a news announcement just isn't something that is that awe-inspiring and not related to anything about the holiday or consumers, then you may want to advise your client to hold off making the news announcement until after the holiday, when the press are back in the grind and not worried about getting away for their own holiday time. Another important factor is having backup contacts at outlets, other people covering a space as well as knowing who is picking up news for the person out of the office. This way if you cannot push back the announcement to avoid the holiday, then you know who to go to in place of your usual contacts if they are out for the holiday.

One other thing is you need to be understanding and respect the time and work of the media, especially during holidays, as since many of the newspapers, magazines, broadcast networks, online news sites and blogs are undermanned and look like ghost towns during many of these holidays. So remember that the people you are contacting are trying to fill in and handle beats and news for those out of the office. You really should be understanding regarding how busy the media contacts are during the holidays.

Know your contacts, when and how to pitch them, and know that during the holidays many are out of the office and away for holidays of their own, and be understanding for those covering for them during the holidays and holiday season.

Good luck pitching and have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Some of the Top Technology Blogs for Media Lists

The number of blogs and bloggers in the world is staggering with what seems like zillions of blogs covering every possible subject in every location on earth.

A few great blogs and news sites for the tech PR crowd include:
TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, Gawker, Engadget, The Next Web, ReadWriteWeb, Search Engine Land, Ars Technica, NY Times Bits Blog, WSJ Digits, BNET and of course CNET, Wired's Blogs, Fast Company Technology, LA Times Tech Blog, San Jose Mercury News SiliconBeat, Bloomberg Busuinessweek TheTechBeat, and for a little fun try The Daily Beast.

Blogs and bloggers are a wonderful source of news and along with those mentioned above there are many smaller blogs that are nice to target for media outreach for your clients.

New Products, Services and Technology Trends

Trends are the cool word of the week and we want to go over how 'Trends' are a great way to go with clients, new business and with media.

Follow the trends as new markets, products, services and technology are developed and emerge. It can be fun and very lucrative to work with companies in a new trendy markets. Some examples of trends which started as small, bold or crazy ideas but have become a hot trend and the norm include: Mobile/Cellular Phones, Mobile Apps, Online Shopping, Online Dating, Social Networking, Smart Phones, Electronic Devices for Books/Reading (Kindle), Virtual Assistants, iPods and other MP3 Players, Clean Tech, SAS as a market and SAS companies, and many more. By keeping in tune with the markets, media and trends, agencies can quickly move on companies involved with new trends.

With media it can really help to not only follow the trends they are interested in, but create and push new trends, and by closely monitoring reporters and bloggers, you can find the most appropriate contacts for building new relationships with key media. Following the media and the trends they are already covering, and pushing new trends and ideas can lead to great contacts and story placements for clients.

Trends will continue to emerge and by keeping track of markets and identifying new trends early, you can be a leader and in the drivers seat for companies in these emerging markets for cool new products, services, technology and tools.

Which Is Best, Public Relations or Advertising?

Over the years I have been asked which is more important and best for a company when choosing a marketing tool, between Public Relations or Advertising?

The answer is simple, Both.

Advertising and public relations are both highly effective functions for people, companies and organizations to use for promoting a company, product or service. The differences between the two are unique, as it is a simple yet complex difference.

When choosing which service is more important a company needs to determine which will be most effective, in cost and results. In some cases public relations is more advantageous and cost effective, while other times an ad campaign will return greater results. In a perfect world a company would be able to use both public relations and advertising, but for many small and startup companies with limited funds and resources, advertising can be costly, whereas public relations is a more cost effective way to push and build the brand for growth, market expansion, customer retention and ROI.

For most small and startup companies that are operating under limited budgets, public relations is the best option.

123people Launches Mobile Apps in Spain

123people, the leading free people search engine today announced the launch of their very futuristic mobile app in Spain.

The apps were announced in the U.S. and Europe in August with Spain now available as well. The mobile apps offer many great people search capabilities, and the apps are very ahead of their time, as is 123people.

Downloads

Android: App: http://123p.pl/123-android

iPhone App: http://123p.pl/123-iphone

Top Business Media Sources and Outlets

In PR and media relations there are many categories among the media - Business, Daily, Broadcast, Online, Blogs, etc. - and we wanted to provide a brief look at some of the top, key business media outlets.

Business Media includes magazines, newspapers, broadcast, online news and blogs, focused on the business side of news. The top business media that should be on any PR person's contact list include (but are not limited) to the following list of 15 important business media sources:

1. Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
2. Associated Press (AP)
3. New York Times
4. Financial Times (FT)
5. Businessweek
6. Fortune (part of CNNMoney)
7. Forbes
8. Reuters
9. Business Journals (across U.S. in 41 markets including Los Angeles, Silicon Valley/San Jose, Boston, Austin, Atlanta, etc.)
10. Fast Company
11. Newsweek/The Daily Beast
12. Fox Business
13. Investor's Business Daily
14. CNBC
15. CNNMoney

There are many more business media, small and large, like the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, strategy + business, Business Insider, Inc., MarketWatch, TechCrunch, AllBusiness.com and more, that all should be in your contacts. Also, when working with media it is important to establish a relationship with the media in the local market(s) your clients are based and involved with. Whether New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley or Chicago, or smaller places like Colorado Springs, Raleigh or Louisville, no matter how big or small a city and location, it is very important to establish a presence and the brand in your local market.

When working with these outlets be prepared, know your target and contacts, the angles and sources they like, the beats each reporter covers, and work on building a relationship with as many as you can, it will pay great dividends in the end.

Public Relations and Media: Maxima PR Launches PR Services For Foreign Compani...

Public Relations and Media: Maxima PR Launches PR Services For Foreign Compani...: Maxima Public Relations launches new agency Monday, November 7 2011. PR Firm Serves Up America with a Savvy Social Media Punch Maxima PR...

Public Relations and Media: Knowing and Understanding the Media: The Key to Su...

Public Relations and Media: Knowing and Understanding the Media: The Key to Su...: Over the years many people have asked me what is it that makes a PR campaign a success, and what is the best way to handle media and media r...

Public Relations and Media: Scary When Cartoons and Sitcoms Make Fun of Online...

Public Relations and Media: Scary When Cartoons and Sitcoms Make Fun of Online...: From Maxima PR Team Considering all the issues, questions and doubts regarding online privacy and protecting yourself and your information...

Public Relations and Media: Which is Bigger, Better and More Important? Tradit...

Public Relations and Media: Which is Bigger, Better and More Important? Tradit...: Over the last year I have been asked by many as to the importance of traditional media compared to social media and social networks. Whic...

Public Relations and Media: News Announcements - Press Releases, Twitter, Soci...

Public Relations and Media: News Announcements - Press Releases, Twitter, Soci...: Making a big splash with your company name and news is important, and a company needs to engage in a comprehensive marketing and branding st...

News Announcements - Press Releases, Twitter, Social Media and Social Networking

Making a big splash with your company name and news is important, and a company needs to engage in a comprehensive marketing and branding strategy that includes public relations, media and news announcements.

With the evolving field of public relations, communications and media, as new tools and resources in the areas of social media and social networking such a blogs and corporate blog, Twitter and tweets, and Facebook and LinkedIn status updates, these are wonderful new means of communicating news and are very effective.

Along with the new services offered by social media and social networking is still the long-time and proven, good old fashioned press release and wire services for distribution. Press releases and using distribution services such as Business Wire and PR Web, are highly effective means of pushing your news to target audience and media. The cost is relatively low for local or national distribution, and the using traditional wire services is to this day a highly effective way of announcing news typically with a solid return on the investment.

For news announcements and the distribution of news we recommend utilizing both the social media and traditional media and wire services, as both are very useful and powerful ways of pushing your brand and news out to the public.

Which is Bigger, Better and More Important? Traditional Media or Social Media and Blogs

Over the last year I have been asked by many as to the importance of traditional media compared to social media and social networks.

Which is bigger, better and more important? The answer is... Both.

Some favor one over the other, but the best strategy is to use both to take advantage of every tool and resource available. With some sticking to traditional media, press releases and wire services, and others believing all you need is a Tweet or two and a Facebook post, the truth is those beleiving in only using one or the other are wrong. By using only one or the other you are potentially missing out on audience(s) and market penetration, and this could lead to a lower market share, customer or user base, sales and revenue stream.

With public relations and media what counts most is results. With the new age of social media making big moves in the digital world of today, along with the strength of traditional media, press releases, wire services and good old fashioned distribution, the best strategy really is to use both. Once you have determined company goals and objectives, as you build the marketing and PR plan, implement the tools that will be most beneficial for your client. For each campaign and project you should use a combination of both traditional and social media, using every aspect of PR tools and services online and offline. In some cases you may determine that traditional is more important than social media or vice versa, but with many using both will be the most effective way of meeting goals and increasing market share and revenue. Using all available resources and tools increases the chance of success and quantifiable results.

When it comes to traditional and social media they are all important and should all be included, and by prioritizing the list with main focus given to your top key targets you can take advantage of both traditional and social media. Traditional media includes: print, daily and broadcast such as Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Businessweek, NBC News, etc. Social Media includes: blogs and bloggers, online news, podcasts and use of social media and social networks such as TechCrunch, Mashable, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and more.

Don't become a creature of habit and ignore either the new or the old traditional ways, as both can be very effective and when it comes to getting results and success, embrace every possible way of meeting your clients goals and objectives.

Scary When Cartoons and Sitcoms Make Fun of Online Privacy

From Maxima PR Team

Considering all the issues, questions and doubts regarding online privacy and protecting yourself and your information in the lightning fast Internet and mobile world of today, it is a little scary (and funny as heck!) and just plain sad that things have come down to cartoons like Dilbert and Sitcoms including "How I Met Your Mother", making fun of the growing issue of online privacy.

Don't get me wrong, "How I Met Your Mother" is a great comedy and the episode about your digital footprint was a lot of fun, and Dilbert is a cute cartoon, but the fact that the issue has become so big and is getting so much news and noise, that sitcoms and cartoons are making fun, what is next, skits on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Dave Letterman? I hope so, love those guys and their shows and can only imagine how these two would make fun of their online reputation and digital footprint.

Jokes about Jon Stewart aside, online privacy and the abuse of data and information is a growing problem that can affect your personal life and your career. Those funny drunken photos from college, sexy nude pics you gave to your old boyfriend years ago, the nasty comments you made about someone in a blog, on Facebook or Twitter, like the mother arrested for posting a photo on Facebook of her baby smoking a bong  and giving out your cell phone number on a social networking site or blog, any of these actions could come back to haunt you in the future and have a very detrimental impact on your reputation and your life, including loss of job and legal trouble.

Everyone needs to take personal responsibility for the information and data they post online. You cannot rely on social networks, private companies, blogs or supposed rules, each person needs to be aware of the impact posting information online or through your mobile device can have on your life. Be careful with what you post online and how you use the Internet, social networks and blogs, and remember to check yourself online by searching for yourself on Google and people search engines like 123people, that can help you to monitor and manage your digital footprint.

Knowing and Understanding the Media: The Key to Successful Media Relations and Story Placements

Over the years many people have asked me what is it that makes a PR campaign a success, and what is the best way to handle media and media relations?

My answer is simple and very important:
Know and understand the media. Know who the media are, identify the appropriate reporters, editors, writers, producers and bloggers, and understand their beat and coverage. Know how they prefer to be contacted, by email, phone, Twitter, etc.? Understand them by researching their beat and stories they have written for last 6 months to year. Know them and know their beat, what they cover, and if you have a chance ask them what they are most interested in.

By knowing and understand media, what they like or don't like, how to pitch them or how not to pitch them, you will be far more successful with media and story placements.

Maxima PR Launches PR Services For Foreign Companies Looking To Break Into The U.S. Market

Maxima Public Relations launches new agency Monday, November 7 2011.

PR Firm Serves Up America with a Savvy Social Media Punch

Maxima PR, a veteran marketing and public relations team today launched new services aimed at tapping new revenue sources in Europe and around the world.  Maxima PR redefines public relations with a savvy combination of traditional full-range PR services and new social media communications strategies, tailored to meet the needs of foreign companies looking to build a strong presence in the United States...

See full release via Business Wire at: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111107005042/en/Maxima-PR-Launches-PR-Services-Foreign-Companies