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PR is a competitive industry. At BLAST we know that there are hundreds of other PR reps competing for the same editorial space and time that we are trying to secure for our clients. Our competitiveness in the office has extended again this year onto the softball field. It's our third year in a softball league, and this year's league started back in June. As the coach, I can proudly say that this year's team is the best we've ever had. We haven't had any losses...until last night. With the Groeppers on summer vacation and the Wernes at a family function, we recruited some subs to play last night in the "battle of the undefeated." We gave a strong showing and were ahead until the fifth inning, when the other team came back to tie us at 11 - 11. In the bottom of the seventh inning with one out, we lost to a home run. Completely over Chantal's head in center field - and the fence. If we're going to give up our undefeated status, I guess it's best to go out by a home run. We'll be back on the field again next Thursday for more action...and a win.
From time to time, the media coverage we secure for our clients has an error in it. A price may be listed as $53 instead of $35 or a Web link could be non-functional. Editors are people too, and mistakes happen. We always work with editors to have the error corrected. Today we came across an unusually funny media mistake - check out the newspaper that actually misspelled its own name in the masthead. How did they let that one slip through?!?
While personal relationships with editors are our best way to deliver national media exposure to clients, we're always on the lookout for useful tools to help us generate even more media coverage. Like most PR agencies, we use traditional paid-subscription media tools like the Cision directory and BusinessWire. We also have a few other freebie favorites, like Meg Weaver's Wooden Horse Publishing newsletter and Peter Shankman's HARO: Help A Reporter Out. While Wooden Horse keeps us updated on new developments at media outlets, we love using HARO to connect reporters, who need expert sources and new products, to our clients. The service has grown tremendously since it was launched back in January and, according to some, is going head-to-head with the PR industry's traditional service--PR Newswire's ProfNet.
The competition is starting to get a bit ugly, but we're sticking by HARO. After all, it has helped us secure coverage in a variety of publications including the New York Times, Charlotte Magazine and Pizza Today. Plus, we've had some great client interviews with outlets like AARP.org, EverydayHealth.com, Baseline Magazine and Executive Roundtable Radio.
A good part of our Monday mornings are dedicated to reading news and catching up with weekend events. We troll the major news sites and go through our RSS feeds to stay attuned to what is going on in the world around us and in our clients' industries.
I was excited to read the top story on Yahoo! News today - CNNMoney's annual rankings of America's Best Places to Live. Fishers, Indiana came in at No. 10! Our Indy office is located in Fishers, just 15 miles from downtown Indianapolis. The town of roughly 60,000 people sits in Hamilton County, which was just voted by Forbes as the nation's No. 1 Best Place to Raise a Family as well. Yay for us!
What other cities do you think should have made the list?
This week, Ryan and I both had client product launches/announcements that kept us very busy. We decided to challenge each other to see who could get more coverage/press release pickup of our respective announcements in the first week - the "loser" of the competition has to bake the winner and the rest of the office a treat to share on Monday.
As of 11:30 a.m. EST, Ryan reported 41 press release pickups and solid reviews, and I came in with 35. Congratulations, Ryan - I guess I will spend part of my weekend baking!
When our clients have product launches and partnership announcements, it is our goal to get them as much media exposure as possible the first day and week of the announcement. We work hard to contact as many top tier members of the press in the weeks leading up to the launch and the announcement day itself, and our hard work pays off with all of the media coverage that our clients receive. While it was an inter-office contest, both clients were the ones that benefited in the end. Trust me, my baking skill are far from great, so the jury is still out as to whether or not our offices wins, too!
I have read countless diatribes on old media vs. new media. None have summed it up so succinctly as our buddy John Biggs, EIC at Crunchgear. Check out this "explanation" on his blog, BigWideLogic, in reference to the new 3G iPhone reviews. Too funny.
As we head into a Holiday weekend, I would like to take a moment to say thanks to all of the BLAST employees....yes, I know it is the 4th of July and not Thanksgiving, but our employees ROCK!
-Thanks for making this such a fun place to work!
-Thanks for challenging each other to be better day after day!
-Thanks for producing great media coverage on a daily basis!
-Thanks for all of your hard work and dedication to BLAST and our clients!
To everyone at BLASTmedia / BLASToutdoors and readers of our blog, we would like to wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July weekend!
As a PR specialist, it's always exciting to meet new people and hear interesting stories from within our client's industries. This past week was no exception, when I attended LT Pact '08 in Las Vegas. One of our clients, Layered Tech, was hosting their third annual conference to provide attendees with the most current information in the hosting industry. Besides Layered Tech, we also work with two other companies that are involved with the hosting space, 3Tera and Woopra. That's why it was great to hear first-hand from industry analysts, key industry players and a slew of other companies and individuals who are leaders in the hosting environment. But the best part of the week for me was meeting three of our clients, numerous members of media and a handful of company executives in person.
In today's connected world, we are so accustomed to corresponding through email, instant messenger, Facebook and now Twitter - the phone call and face-to-face contact are limited when you have clients all over the world, as we do. Here at BLAST, we utilize them all. We are in constant contact with our clients, to not only keep them updated with everything that is going on from the media outreach front (interest, feedback, coverage, etc.), but also to hear about everything that is going on with their company. That's why we jump at opportunities like this past week to get to meet and hang out with three of our awesome, and unbelievably fun clients. Not only did we get to soak up more knowledge about their industries and products, but we also got to know our clients on a more personal basis, which is always vital to maintaining good relationships.
Also at LT Pact, I was able to meet a couple of my media and analyst friends from GRIDtoday, Web Host Industry Review, Forrester Research and Tier 1 Research, to name a few. Introducing them to our clients to see and hear what our clients really have to offer is priceless. All the phone calls and emails in the world cannot match putting your client in face-to-face conversation with members of the media. Besides conferences, trade shows, and press tours, do you have any interesting places you have put you clients in contact with the media?
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