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.