PR Learning to Bypass the Media Filter

Posted: October 29th, 2009 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: PR Tactics, Social Media Tactics | No Comments

newspaper-headstone Public relations has always included business-to-consumer promotions in its arsenal of tools, but a large portion of the PR business has traditionally involved attempting to get stories placed in the media, in the hope that the consumer will then see those stories. Even highly public promotional stunts were largely, in the end, designed to gain mass media coverage.

But, what happens when the media weakens, and there aren’t enough reporters to cover even the most fascinating stories?

I happened upon two different articles this week that say essentially what I’ve been saying for some time — the answer is to create your OWN media. Blogging, podcasting, web videos, online news release distribution, Tweeting, and Facebooking all can take your message to your customers in an unfiltered way.
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Tags: newspapers, public relations, social media

Online-Only for the PI

Posted: March 17th, 2009 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Media News | No Comments

Today marks the final print edition of one of the top newspapers in the United States, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The newspaper, which dates back to 1863, will be online-only starting tomorrow.

In my view, it will bear watching whether a major newspaper can begin a successful new life as an online publication. Newspapers across the country have been struggling with how to repurpose their print content online and make that content something that people want to consume. For the most part online content from newspapers has been like the proverbial falling tree in the forest that no one notices. Not only have print publications generally not done an outstanding job with their web strategy, there’s just too much competition online for them to make a dent.

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Tags: newspapers, seattle post-intelligencer

Ghosts of Media Future and Past

Posted: January 28th, 2009 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Social Media Opinion | No Comments

Over the last couple of days, I’ve listened to an interesting contrast of speakers at two separate events. As mentioned in previous posts, I attended an appearance by Peter Shankman yesterday. Peter is a social media guru who has a great knack for knowing “what’s coming next”. This afternoon, I attended the monthly luncheon for our local public relations trade group, PRSA Richmond. The featured speaker was Glen Proctor, executive editor of our daily newspaper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He talked about the future of his newspaper and the newspaper industry in general.

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Tags: events, newspapers, social media