Welcome to Twitter Oprah

 

Dear Oprah,

I want to welcome you to the twitterverse! I know social media, and especially twitter can be a bit overwhelming so I thought I would share with you a few things I have learned along the way.

• Fellow tweeps will appreciate tweets that come directly from you. I understand you are extremely busy and may require a few others to help you out but … the more we can hear your voice, the better.
• While twitter is a great way to express yourself, make sure you do a lot of listening.
• Engage with your followers and try not to talk too much at us.
• Have a little fun with your bio.
• Follow a variety of people. You might be surprised at what you find.
• Insert humor into your tweets.
• Demonstrate your personality through your voice.
• Re-tweet as often as you can. There are a lot of great things people tweet on twitter and a re-tweet from you would help get the word out.
• Remember, not everyone will agree with the things you say but it’s ok.
• Twitter is another communications channel for you to grow your brand (even more!). Make sure you have a Plan B if communications spiral out of control.

And, as a quick reference guide, here is some Twitter lingo to get you through:

tweeps – people on Twitter who tweet
tweet – what you say on Twitter
fail whale - when Twitter is overloaded, you will see this screen depicting a whale
tweet up – when tweeps decide to have an in-person get together (you could probably have the largest one ever!)
twitterific – things that are just terrific
retweet or RT – when you like someone’s tweet, re-tweet it and send it on to your followers. Please remember to keep your tweets short so we have enough space to copy them, put in RT and @name
@name - which brings up another point… when you RT, you have to give credit where credit is due. This means putting the @name in your tweet. For example: RT @lisaredshoespr insert rest of content here.
Tinyurl – convert long-winded urls into a succinct url. This makes it easier to post your tweets. Visit www.tinyurl.com
hashtags - when you want a conversation to be tracked you can use the # with a corresponding word for the conversation. For example, #oprahontwitter
twittersearch – you can search conversations and tweeps on this site, as well as trending conversations (see above description for hashtags. I also noticed, of course, you are already a trend!)
DM – This stands for direct message.  You can DM a person, which means it’s a private conversation. Remember, though, you must be followed by the other person to send them a DM.
twitterers – I think you’ve heard about this enough and I don’t need to go any further.
#followfriday – This could be a huge day of the week for you. People like to recommend other people to follow. Oh my gosh. I see another opportunity for you, similar to your book club recommendations. Maybe an #oprahfollowsfriday !!!

Again, welcome to the twitterverse! Just DM me when you are ready to have a tweet-up and then I can RT it.

Sincerely,

@LisaRedShoesPR

Public Relations: The Art of the Pitch

Do you send out news releases and then wonder why your story isn’t getting the placement it deserves?

Many PR professional know and understand the intricacy of the pitch. And the pitch is an important part of the PR process. What I do is more than just send out a news release. Once the release is distributed that’s when the hardest part begins.

While each situation or pitch is different (reporter’s style, preference, angle, etc.), I’ve certainly learned a lot over the years to increase the odds that our clients’ news will get covered.

Here are some basics that you should think about when it’s time to play ball.

Make reading daily global and national news a part of your routine. Every morning I peruse the headlines from multiple sources. I’m always looking for trends taking place globally or nationally that are impacting or have the potential to impact our community regionally or locally. Is what your company talking about or doing tie into to these trends?

Know who you are pitching. This seems the most obvious but maybe the most over-looked principle. It is important to know what and who you are pitching. Reporters want to be pitched stories on beats they cover. You wouldn’t pitch a technology reporter on the latest developments of the credit crisis. Take the time to research who covers the particular topic you want to pitch and review recent stories or blogs they have written. And by all means, don’t pitch the same story to every reporter or every publication in sight.

The lead. These days, the media is forced to do more with less. They don’t have time to read through a 2-page pitch about your company, product or service. You need to get their interest in the first or second sentence. Develop a pitch that is compelling, factual, relevant and interesting.

Timing is key. The time of day you call or send an e-mail to a reporter can be crucial to a successful story pitch. Also, keep in mind holidays, weekends, breaking news and highly publicized events as well. If there is a major political election taking place or a five-alarm fire, it’s most likely your story won’t get the attention it deserves.

Don’t send e-mail attachments. Reporters rarely have time to open news release attachments, look through numerous photos or sort through pages of information. Keep the content of your pitch in the body of an e-mail. Interactive media allows us to add links to outside sites or photos where the reporter can seek out additional information if they want to.

Remember, it’s a two-way street. Keep this in mind with whatever phase of the story pitch and execution you are in. My golden rule is to treat a journalist as you would your client. Don’t just meet their expectations…exceed them.

Put yourself in the shoes of the media. Ask yourself, “Why would my target audience care about this?” Also, if you are pitching for TV, the story must have interesting visuals and the same goes for radio and sound bites. The media is constantly looking for fresh ideas for stories. A good pitch and follow through will often make reporters come back to you in the future, which is good for you and your company.

SlideShare April Fool's Joke Parts 1 and 2

SlideShare AFJ Part 1: Red Shoes Speak - Slideshare April Fool's Joke	SlideShare AFJ Part 2: Conference Call with Dan at SlideShare

If you’ve been following Red Shoes PR on Twitter and Vimeo these days you’d know that we were a little miffed about the SlideShare April Fool’s Joke. Here’s what happened - SlideShare added two extra zeros to everyone’s presentation views on April 1st as a joke. They then sent out emails to all of their subscribers calling them “SlideShare Rockstars” and sent the following message:

    Hi ___,

    We’ve noticed that your slideshow on SlideShare has been getting a LOT of views in the last 24 hours. Great job … you must be doing something right. ;-)

    Why don’t you tweet or blog this? Use the hashtag #bestofslideshare so we can track the conversation.

    Congratulations,
    -SlideShare Team

What looked like overnight success for SlideShare users ended up being the work of the SlideShare team who had falsly increased views by a significant amount. Angry subscribers began to take their frustrations out on Twitter and the SlideShare blog, which disclosed  it was an April Fool’s Joke. Some users laughed it off and moved on, while others became quite upset after having spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out from where the flood of new viewers came.

This could seem like a harmless April Fool’s Joke, but here’s where it went wrong - SlideShare is a credible file sharing site that contains professional presentations created and uploaded by users. The only tracking mechanisms in place to gauge success are views, downloads, embeds and comments. Therefore, when SlideShare changed the number of views by two zeros they fudged one of the only measures of success.

At Red Shoes PR, we decided to let our voices be heard so we made a video with our thoughts about the prank. The video went live on Friday, April 3, and we received a call from Daniel Lu at SlideShare that day apologizing for what had happened. Dan asked if he could comment via a video recorded conference call.

Here’s what we learned. As companies begin using social media as a communications channel to engage, they are inevitably going to make mistakes. It’s what you do after the mistakes are made that say a lot about who you are as a company. SlideShare began immediately answering angry posts on their blog and via Twitter. They also monitored the online conversations and responded to those in a sincere and timely manner. They continue to use these opportunities as a way to turn the situation around.

Will Red Shoes PR still use SlideShare for posting our online presentations and e-books? Absolutely!  

What are your thoughts? Did they handle the situation well? What would you have advised them to do differently?

Social media for the people by the people

One of my favorite aspects of social media is its approachability. The majority of the platforms are free and Web-based, and with a little instruction, they become easy to use. The more people I meet and talk about social media with, the less I’m able to guess who has already integrated social media into his/her life – my best friend makes fun of my Twittering, yet a 60-year-old friend of my father’s has taught me a few things about Facebook’s capabilities.

It’s this “by the people, for the people” spirit that has got me hooked, and also makes me want to look out for my Tweeples’ best interests. I recently heard about an in-person networking event for people who connected online. (I recommend these beneficial events as a way to extend your online networks.) What made me pause about this particular gathering was the fact that the organizers were charging attendees.

 It’s important to look at different online opportunities and evaluate them based on what they offer:

•    Who has been invited?
•    How many people are planning on attending?
•    Is there going to be programming offered?
•    Are there additional enticements (free drinks, etc.)?

I’m a fan of the informal, spur-of-the-moment meet-ups and the more organized Tweet-ups. I think this is what social networking is all about: finding like-minded people online and furthering your interactions by meeting off-line.

Like paying for anything, it’s important to remember “caveat emptor” and to discover what benefits will come with your payment (time, money or both) to attend social networking events. As social media continues to become more mainstream, it’s important to hold true to its foundational tenant: to provide networking and idea sharing forums within everyone’s reach.