HARO was created in 2008 by Peter Shankman, a Public Relations Expert and Entrepreneur. Shankman thought of the idea when journalists asked him regularly if he knew of any sources for an upcoming story.

To date, HARO brings nearly 30,000 reporters and bloggers, over 100,000 news sources and thousands of small businesses together to tell their stories, promote their brands and sell their products and services.

Once you subscribe to the newsletter, it is easy to scan the table of contents to see if there is anything relevant to your business or industry. If there is a request for an expert that applies to you, be sure to pitch on topic.

Answer promptly and include the query in the subject line with HARO listed. There are Five Rules of HARO that Shankman points out to always follow.

Other tips? Keep your pitch short and sweet. Offer contact information and links to more details if necessary, but no attachments. PR Web wrote How to Pitch HARO Successfully and it is chock full of tips from PR experts.

We have shared tips on pitching, building a media list, and follow up which are all elements, when done correctly, of a successful PR campaign.  Hopefully Help A Reporter Out can enhance your PR campaign and help your business reach the right journalists at the right moment.

Image via Help A Reporter Out 

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We are so excited to announce that we have expanded into the Netherlands.  Why the Netherlands?  And what does expansion mean?  Ok, one thing at a time so let’s first get to why we chose the Netherlands.

Nicoline Maes, Director of Business Services (and most recently Director of Business Development/Netherlands as well), moved with her family from the Netherlands to the U.S. in 2006 and in 2007 came on board to Creative Concepts.  At this time, Nicoline began working on developing our client reporting tools and then added working with David Borzo to the mix where the two became a very effective content management team.  Together David and Nicoline have managed our writer assignments and schedules as well as having developed content topics while editing drafts of blog entries, Facebook updates and more.  While Nicoline was helping to bring success to our clients she became a true believer in the power of social media as well as our other services: public relations, design and branding, events and video production.  When the opportunity came for Nicoline and her family to go back to her homeland in the Netherlands, she happily made the move and took with her the goal of expanding Creative Concepts internationally.

I believe that follow-up (well-done, targeted, slightly aggressive follow-up) is crucial to turn a well-planned public relations campaign into a success story. I have seen many a promotion bomb because the team did not:

Do Any follow-up calls (Do not be afraid to call! The Media are people too)
or
Do Enough follow- up calls (It takes several tries – do not give up!)
or
Do Effective follow-up calls (Be a clever and quick communicator and don’t give up until you speak to a human being)

Many public relations professionals are expert writers and creative thinkers, yet they are afraid to follow-up out of fear of bothering, angering or upsetting a member of the media. Forget the worry and charge ahead because the truth is PR people and the media can have a mutually beneficial relationship and often do need to rely on each other.

Here are four tips for following up on your perfectly crafted press release or pitch email:

1. Reporters receive thousands of emails and phone calls per day so remember that they may not have seen your press release. Always present yourself as if your call is the first time they’re hearing about you and your company or product.
2. Make it snappy: write down the three points you must get across to them and refer to it so you do not get flustered or lose your focus.
3. Be respectful of their time and know when their newscast is or deadline, and do not call at that time. If you aren’t sure, ask “Is this a good time?”
4. Even if you find yourself speaking with a grumpy person, just stay positive and give a big “thank you so much” before signing off.

We all hear a lot of “nos” on the road to a golden “yes” but note that rarely does a reporter become irate and slam the phone down simply for following up on a release. So go ahead and follow the tips above and let us know how much more successful your next campaign is because you found the courage to follow up and connect with the media.

According to AllFacebook—the unofficial guide to Facebook—teenage behavior on Facebook has become increasingly, and disturbingly, more antisocial.  New studies by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project report concerning effects of Facebook usage by young teenagers such as friendships ending, face to face confrontations at school, problems with parents, physical fights and bullying.  Possibly the most disturbing of all is how nine out of ten teenagers have observed cruelty on social networks, or treated others that way themselves.  Regardless of the age limit for a Facebook account, it has also been noticed that children thirteen and younger have been creating accounts with reported ages much, much older than their actual ages.  This is to get past the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the age limit that Facebook has set in accordance with the Act…with or without their parents’ permission.

On a Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago, I happened to peruse a blog entry on Mashable about a site called StyleOwner.  I read about a lot of new sites and apps and always investigate them as possibilities for Creative Concepts and/or our clients and this time was no different.  As Mashable explained, you could create your own online boutique drawing from many established and up-and-coming designers the site has negotiated a relationship with and by selling your picks, you could earn 10% of sales.  Instantly, I felt that this was a winner which was strictly instinct as I hadn’t even gone to the site yet.  And this wouldn’t be for me because I don’t need another business…Creative Concepts and a new sister site being developed is quite enough thank you…but this might be fun as a mother/daughter project for the youngest entrepreneur in my family, Olivia.  As a side note, when Olivia was in 2^nd grade, she created a store in our family room selling her stuffed animals for hugs and when she decided to hire her older brother to play cello to bring in customers (us), I knew that marketing and doing business were a part of her being even at that young age.

So it didn’t take much to get Olivia on board:

Me: “So, Olivia, do you want to pick out some cool clothes and accessories, sell them to your friends, and make money?”

O: “Sure Mom and can I get an iPad to help grow the business?”

Me: “Oh boy!”

So despite the perceived need for new tech toys from Olivia, I emailed StyleOwner for an invite (they are still in Beta) and within ½ hour we got the OK to build our site and boy what a joy it was and is!  Once we got our code, StyleOwner asked us to go through some very simple steps where we got to choose the name of our store and then we had the chance to design all the elements of the store from music that plays on our homepage, to the font and the background design where we had many options and styles to choose from.  Some elements we were able to pull from our own archives like the profile picture and a bigger picture that sits on the homepage so the setup of our store ended up being a nice combination of personalized elements and their templates which totally worked for us!

Next step was up to Olivia.  She built the store.  Styleowner has merchandise from a range of 75 individual brands she could choose from to help create a fashionista’s online dream.  From men’s and women’s clothes to categories like hats, scarves, jewelry and more, there was no doubt a store could be built that would provide a solution to everyone’s dressing needs.  Olivia took two days to go through every item that the site had laid out perfectly for the “stylist.”  While choosing an item to put into her store, she could click on an arrow to add to her store and she could click on a bubble to add a personal note about that item.  Other options allowed Olivia to choose from designers, categories of items or items based on pricing…so easy even a 6^th grader could set up a store if they have an eye for fashion and a heart for sales.

So here is where the site gets super fun with the social commerce side of the business.  They have easy ways to share updates about your store on your Facebook and Twitter profiles (Olivia: “hey look Allie (a good friend), I found the perfect necklace for you!” which posts right to Olivia’s facebook and twitter profiles with a link to that necklace so Allie can see it).  Olivia can also create recommendations for her friends and share with them once complete.  Maybe Olivia’s sister needs some options for the prom so Olivia, with her “recommend” tool, could grab dresses, jewelry, and shoes so her big sis doesn’t have to go through Olivia’s whole store.

While Olivia was still in set up mode, I found a little something to buy because the item was cool (can’t say what it is because it’s a Christmas gift and others are reading this) and I wanted to test out the site as a shopper.  Again super easy.  I chose the item I wanted, added it to my shopping cart, bought it, got a confirmation email and within days received the item directly from the designer.  We realized that Olivia and other storeowners don’t have to mess with ecommerce and shipping and handling themselves because it’s a built in feature.  The ecommerce is managed by StyleOwner and the shipping is handled by the brands.

Other helpful tools provided for the “Stylist” is a forum to share your wishlist and problems (it is in Beta after all), incentives for selling like $25 gift cards after five sales which is big for a 6^th grader, a blog for talking more about your fashion know-how, and amazing customer service which might be tested once they get more stores up and running but it works perfectly now.  There are some much needed elements like SEO for each store and analytics so you know if anyone is visiting but I am hopeful that those goodies will be provided for down the road.

As an up an coming business person, Olivia couldn’t have it better with this site (she has already made her first commission…ok, it did come from me but still…).  She has to be in tune with her potential customer,  keep an eye out for new designs provided by Styleowner.com that appeal to her clients and she has to continually market the site to preteens (her group), teens (her sister’s peers) and to the mom’s watching over their kids’ shoulders (do I have to say this is my peer group?).

With high quality products, responsive support on the backend for the store owner, and lots of room for personal expression and style from Olivia, the store owner, I am thinking she might just be paying off the mortgage soon with all that she can earn selling from her store, Liv2Shop.  Check it out and let us know what  you think!

Valorie
Founder, Creative Concepts

Every PR person has to create media lists during their career. From building a list from scratch to accessing your own personal database of names and publications, either way – most clients and their products call for the creation of a media list tailored to their specific news and target audience.

Evan Carmichael has some of the best tips for creating a targeted and effective media list. With so much accessible information on-line, as well as the new media category of “bloggers,” building an effective list is still time-consuming but is also easier than ever.

Here are three more points I would like to add to Evan’s list:

1. Because we are often given small budgets for PR, online newswires and database directories should be used as a last resort. While they often offer up-to-date factual information, more times than not, the information about the particular journalist or producer is not always accurate which wastes time and money.
2. One of the most important aspects of your media list spreadsheet is a section labeled “notes.” Every media contact should have a few words next to his or her name on the list. What stories do they like? What are their pet peeves? Do they accept products? This kind of attention to detail will pay off, and perhaps make your next list a breeze to create!
3. When you have down time, update. Look over your lists, do some research, ensure the contact is still there, or that the phone numbers or addresses are correct. Maintaining the lists are often more important than creating them!

So good luck in building your list and let us know if you have any other hints and tips we can use for the next time we build our own list!

Image via Motion Picture Association of America

Last week, I spoke at the M2Moms conference in Chicago; I spoke to a wide range of brand managers and PR people who are sincerely interested in working with bloggers to get the word out about the products and brands they promote. Over and over, they asked how to find the best bloggers. The short answer, of course, is to do your research — there is no one-size-fits-all directory of Great Bloggers.

There are a variety of Best Of lists available; Babble Media’s Top 50 Twitter Moms is a perfect example of a really useful list. Their list covers a variety of categories (Most Controversial, Most Helpful, Funniest) and points to some of the most prolific mom tweeters on the web. If you’re planning a Twitter-heavy campaign, this list would be a good place to start. A simple Google search for “best mom blogs” turns up multiple lists — all of which are a good jumping off place for tracking down that perfect blogger. (You can substitute any term for “mom” — food blogger, craft blogger, dad blogger — depending on what exactly you’re looking for.)

Once you’ve found a list, take the time to actually read the blogs. This seems like such a simple directive, but it’s one that many PR people and brand managers often skip. Rather than pitching your brand or product to everyone on a list because they are on the list, pitch only those bloggers to whom your pitch will be relevant. There are lots of terrific mom blogs out there, but not all of those moms have babies; indiscriminately pitching a campaign for baby products to every mom on a particular list is a good way to convince bloggers you have no idea who they are — and, even worse, that you don’t really care.

Reading the blogs you’re planning to pitch is also important because you want to be sure the blogger’s voice and tone are a good match for your brand or product. Look for bloggers whose online persona is a good fit for whatever you are pitching. Look also for bloggers who are already writing about brands and products similar to yours; a blogger who writes frequently about the environment, for example, would be a terrific match for an ecologically safe cleaning product, but a poor match for an SUV campaign.

How can you measure a blogger’s influence? A quick way is to look at his or her Twitter profile. A blogger with a huge number of followers may very well be heavily influential on Twitter, but be wary of making a hiring decision solely on that number. A blogger who follows 200 people but is followed by 2,000 may very well be more influential than a blogger who has 25,000 followers but follows an equal number of people. In other words, a blogger who is speaking to a loyal group, even if they are on the smaller side, may do more for your brand than a blogger who is not genuinely engaging with his or her followers.

Photo via DonnyGamble.com

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This link is a great example of every PR person’s worst nightmare: a journalist (or blogger in this case) makes fun of your pitch, shoots you back a snarky response, and it doesn’t end there as you continue to make more mistakes and they continue to broadcast it to their followers! Have you had this happen to you?  Do you never want to be on the receiving end of being called out online? Below are a few very easy ways to avoid this situation – even for the greenest PR person out there.

• Do not send out your client news to anyone and everyone – really know your media outlet, know what it reports on, know its tone, know its past stories. This sounds really simple but I know so many PR People who pitch a good story to the wrong place – wasting everyone’s time and energy (and their reputation for the future).
• Listen for media-feedback, and then incorporate that into your pitch moving forward—or perhaps even your current pitch. The writers, bloggers, and producers out there know what they want to write about –and know what their bosses what to see printed or on air.
• Determine if no means not now – or no means “NEVER” This is subtle—but a PR person who actually speaks with his or her intended target will get a sense of whether he or she should stop sending this person pitches forever—or keep them on a list.
• If No means never, don’t keep trying them with different angles of the same story. They could just be a media person who does not want any noise (or news even) from PR people. That’s THEIR problem. Leave them alone!

This brings me to my last but also very important point. Person to person contact is very important in communicating news. That, I hope, will never change. Really good, actually NEW information is difficult to obtain by Editors and Bloggers.  Public relations can help get the word out about a little brand that is trying to break into a bigger category or a company that is sharing industry news which can ultimately generate new ideas and then stories for the media.  Clever, well-thought out Public Relations campaigns are designed to inform and deliver news so please do follow the above points and make yourself (and the PR industry) an invaluable part of the news cycle!

Photo via Top Rank Blog

To get started with either demographic analysis or advertising, first go to: www.facebook.com/advertising. Once there, click on the green “Create an Ad” button on the upper right side. You’ll be taken to a screen where you choose a destination and ad type. For the purposes of this discussion, we’re going to assume you’re advertising an outside URL (like your website) and that you’re going to run Facebook Ads. (Sponsored Stories, the other ad type, are very cool, but that’s for another post.)

If all you want to do is browse Facebook demographics, you do not need to enter any creative, just skip to Section 2, Targeting. This is where you can start to learn how big Facebook’s reach could be for your exact target market. By selecting various locations, interests, ages and more you can winnow down to the precise demographic you’re interested in. At this point, you may not be ready to advertise, but wouldn’t it be great to be able to tell your boss that there are 262,000 women ages 25-50 within 50 miles of Stamford, CT who are interested in cooking? (Or wherever your business is or with whatever demographic criteria you choose.) That level of information is not available anywhere else, at least not without paying thousands of dollars for market research.

Play with this tool (for free!) and you could learn a lot about who you’re trying to attract to your Facebook page, or you could extrapolate that to the general public (assuming that 51% of Americans age 12+ have Facebook pages).

If you do want to give Facebook ads a test, it’s very easy to setup and manage on a small scale. You can test with just a few dollars, though I recommend a $500 test budget initially so that you can really give it a fair shake. And there’s no need for fancy banners or creative – it’s really something anyone can do themselves. All you need is a 25-character ad title, 135-character body copy and a small image (110×80 pixels or larger, which is a 4:3 ratio). All of that goes into Section 1 of the ad setup page (first image, above).

In Section 3 of the ad setup, you’ll be able to specify whether you want to pay for clicks or impressions; I recommend clicks, so that you’re only paying for traffic to your site. You can set a daily budget and also a cost-per-click (Facebook recommends the range of per-click cost that matches your demographic; you should generally stay within their recommended range, and you may find you want to change your criteria to lower the cost.)

Note that some days you’ll spend up to your desired budget, and other days you may not spend anything at all; that’s because Facebook’s platform is a bid driven, meaning that you may get outbid in your demographic for a period of time. When my spend starts to wane I usually just wait it out for a few days, but you can also tweak your demographics a bit, which may get the spend started again. Raising your bid will also help, of course, as it will put you farther up the ranks in the bidding system.

Are you already using Facebook ads to drive traffic to your website? We’d love to hear your experiences in the comments. Or let us know if you have questions about how understanding Facebook demographics can help your business.

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Thank god for my cellphone.  I might not have a complicated data plan, or a Blackberry or an iPhone, but texting works and it’s important to me.  It’s nice to have some contact with the outside world, trust me.  For me, it’s a way to stay in touch with my friends, especially during the long summer months when everyone decides to drop off the face of the planet.  I mostly use my phone for texting because talking on the phone has gone out of fashion, at least for my generation.  Let’s be honest, I really don’t have a conversation with anyone on the phone unless they’re over 40.  It’s just a plain old hassle, and every time I pick up the phone and someone talks nonstop for thirty minutes, I flinch and think this is why texting is so much more convenient!

You could say that texting is a teenage epidemic.  According to my driving instructor, it’s so extreme that teenagers argue they can text and drive because they are so good at typing quickly that they don’t have to take their eyes off the road.  I mean, yeah I love texting, but please, that is such bad logic… I don’t text on the road, but I text to coordinate with my parents, coordinate with friends, and admittedly, to gossip with friends over what crazy things happened over the weekend.  Once I was texting in the halls at school and a psycho teacher ran up to me and blared “Texting alert, texting alert, texting alert!” right into my ear…needless to say, I don’t text during school, or at least not within view of that teacher.  While looking for some stats on teen texting, I found a 2010 survey by The Nielsen Company which found the average teenager (13 to 17 years old) sends or receives 3,339 texts per month which is something more than 100 per day or about one every six minutes in a 10 hour day … that’s a whole lot of interpersonal networking!!

Photo via Michael Smith’s Principal’s Page Blog

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