In last week’s post, I talked about how technology is creating an “always on” social media world. Like it or not, these days, if you’re in public (i.e., out of the safety of your own house and/or in the presence of a another person with a camera or camera phone), you’d better be comfortable with anything you do being captured and possibly even posted online.

For this week’s post, I thought I’d provide some tips from the PR industry to help you feel better prepared for those impromptu publicity events.

1. Stay (at least somewhat) presentable. Make sure that you’re at least presentable most of the time. My solution is to keep my closet up-to-date so that I feel “put together” enough, no matter what I might wear on a given day.
2. Get comfortable with public speaking. Fear of public speaking is often reported as the #1 fear of most people, so it’s no wonder we’re a little resistant to having video of ourselves broadcasted to the world. A public speaking or improv class can help alleviate anxiety and instill confidence for those times when you’re placed on the makeshift stage of the World Wide Web.
3. Spruce up on interpersonal communication skills. Learning to manage facial expressions and body language and to maintain eye contact can greatly improve how you feel, as well as your effectiveness, when communicating with others.
4. Control your energy and attitude. Sometimes we leave the wrong impression with people, even our loved ones, simply because we aren’t in the best of moods or because we’re not quite feeling up to par. Doing things to better manage how we feel overall can improve how we handle stressful situations.
5. Mind your manners. I often wonder about celebrities who are dismissed as rude, thinking, “Did they just have a bad day and get caught on camera at an inopportune moment?” Bad habits, poor manners and language, and being less than courteous can be a big turnoff for prospective clients and business associates, so it never hurts to err on the side of caution in this department.
6. Try not to appear defensive or guarded. If you come across on video like you’re fighting off paparazzi, it can easily be taken out of context so that others think you have something to hide or have a bad attitude. As nerve-wracking as it can be to appear on camera, try your best to relax and be natural.
7. Get comfortable making smooth transitions. You can expect to be asked a question at some point that you either can’t or don’t want to answer. Learn to make smooth transitions to another topic so that you avoid sticky situations or avoid coming across as uninformed or elusive.
8. Watch what you say and do. As many celebrities can attest, one careless slip in judgement can quickly put you front and center of a debate or media firestorm. Even if you think you might not be that powerful or important to warrant that kind of attention, you could still get into hot water with friends or family, your clients, or your boss, so be careful not to do or say anything that might be insensitive or offensive to someone else.

While it was once the job of publicists to manage the images of high-profile individuals and companies, these days, with the ever-present social media and devices to share content like photos, audio, and video, it’s becoming increasingly necessary to take charge of our own publicity and image as it’s presented online. Fortunately, a little preparation goes a long way to keep you in the good graces of clients and business associates online.

What other tips do you have for preparing for social media close-ups?

Photo courtesy Flickr user Carnoodles

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On rare occasion, you can find one shop that does all of these tasks and does them all well. More likely, as new forms of communications and marketing crop up with the development of new technologies, you have to go to a newly formed shop that is well-versed and immersed in the new ways.

So what happens when you start your foray into social media marketing by outsourcing to a new agency? You face a number of challenges, not the least of which is some tension from your existing agencies who may insist they know everything there is to know about social media while simultaneously scrambling to get up to speed.

Bringing in a new agency can be fraught with pitfalls, but the most common seems to be the creation of “silos.” Your other agencies — or even in-house marketing and communications departments — can cut out the new guys from key conversations or withhold critical information so your social media marketing team can’t properly integrate their work into your outreach efforts.

What you want to see happen is:

• Communication. Open discussions from the moment the new agency is introduced to establish that nobody is in competition but are all working toward a common goal.
• Cooperation. Willingly and frequently sharing information and assimilating the new agency as an integral part of your communications team.
• Collaboration. Bringing the new agency into projects from the start, not as an afterthought.

But with dispersed teams often vying for as much of your business pie as they can slice off, how do you foster an atmosphere of cooperation instead of competition?

If You’re Hiring the Team

If you’re the one hiring the new team to bring into the mix, there are some steps you can take to ensure that all your teams work together:

• Be open. If you are hiring others to carry out your communications work, everything starts with you. So from the start, make sure you are open with all your teams as to your expectations, particularly as to how you expect them to work together.
• Be clear. Clearly define roles, communicate who is responsible for what tasks, and outline your expectations to everyone separately and then together so everyone is playing by the same rule book.
• Be inclusive. If you are leaving someone out of the critical initial strategic conversations, you set a tone and pattern for others to do the same.
• Don’t create new silos. Including new teams at all stages of your planning and execution processes could mean discovering new opportunities and enhancing existing tactics.
• Don’t take sides. You may end up taking an almost parental role if your agencies begin finger pointing, but nip that in the bud immediately and always do what is best for your company as a whole, not what satisfies one agency or team versus another.
• Ask for something from everyone. If you want to see some creative from the advertising team, you should include your PR and social media marketing teams in the mix. Integrated marketing is not a new concept, but you need to put that into practice every day.
• Re-examine your workflow. Have touch points over time (maybe monthly and quarterly) to make sure that your new social media marketing team is becoming an integral part of the process. Have open and honest conversations and get critical feedback to make sure everyone is on the same page.
• Measure and leverage results. Don’t look for ways to prove or disprove that one type of marketing is better than another. It isn’t about pitting PR against advertising against social media marketing. It is about finding what works and building upon successes.

If You’re Part of a Team

The flip side of hiring an agency is being part of a team or agency that is being hired to assimilate into an existing group to provide social media marketing services. Here are a few things you should consider as you enter into the new relationship:

• Be aware. Understand the dynamics of different business interests. Each agency has their own bottom line on their minds but all the teams should be working toward a common goal: Helping the client to succeed.
• Be available. Establish and maintain open lines of communications so other teams or agencies can’t accuse you of being unavailable or unwilling to participate in planning sessions or other key events in the creative and execution process.
• Extend a hand. As new kid on the block, look for ways where you can help other teams or agencies get a win. Offer to help where you see others needing additional support. Prove yourself to be the asset that you know you can be by making the first overtures to participate.
• Play nice in the sandbox. Your goal should not be to win additional business by taking work from another agency. If you win new business from the client, it should be on the merits of your work, not because you stepped on toes, threw sand in faces and undermined others. You’ll lose in the long run.
• Look for collaborative opportunities. Maybe the other agencies aren’t bringing you into the fold as readily as you’d hoped. Don’t be discouraged but instead look for ways to bring them into the social media marketing realm in meaningful ways. Prove that everyone can win when working together.
• Give kudos. Regardless of how other teams are reacting to you, be the first to say something positive about others. Compliment their work, celebrate their wins. You know what they say about honey versus vinegar. But be sincere. You’re all part of the same team even if you might reside at a different company.
• Keep good records. Even while keeping a positive attitude and being professional, you shouldn’t be Pollyanna about everything. Keep careful records of work rendered, goals achieved, lessons learned and communications and interactions with other teams. It’s both good business practice and also protection in case there is ever a conflict.

No matter which side of the fence you sit, it is up to everyone at the top to set positive examples to everyone else on each team. Don’t approach inter-agency relationships from a position of scarcity but instead employ an attitude of abundance. There is enough work to go around for everyone who does good work. And the more you all work well together and better serve the client, the more work they’ll gladly outsource to build on that success.

How are you working social media marketing teams into your process?

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The new edition of the book isn’t just a rehash of old content. Scott has extensively rewritten the book, updating it to accurately reflect the latest opportunities to connect with buyers online. When the first edition came out, Twitter didn’t exist and Facebook was still very limited — you needed a .edu email address to sign up. Scott has also pulled in new examples, many of which came from people who used his book to effectively market their projects online.

The book weighs in at 279 pages and is clearly written for individuals who already spend some time online but who want to take their marketing effort to the next level. I’d recommend against skimming the book, though. There is a lot of information to digest, and while Scott breaks things up with lists and even boxed conclusions that draw attention, it’s important to actually read through everything in the book. If you particularly need information on a certain topic, like how to create an online media room or how to write persuasive web content, you can start with that chapter and then move on to the rest of the book.

The book makes for an ideal guide for web workers: Scott mentions readers of the first edition who have used the techniques he writes about for everything from landing a new job to raising donations for a non-profit. You can easily apply the techniques to your work no matter what kind of web work you do.

Even if you already have a copy of the first edition of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” it’s worth taking a look at the new edition. If you’re just getting started with marketing anything on your web, from yourself to your web site to a product, you should read this book from cover to cover. “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” is published by Wiley and is priced at $19.95.

Have you read either edition of this book? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

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In the study, bloggers cautioned PR professionals that traditional outreach methods would not be effective with them; they were adamant that a smart, well-researched approach would work best. The study goes on to say that “most bloggers tend to write about subjects they are passionate about. And most of the time, the product (blog) is wholly owned by them. Therefore, their blog and the subject matter are extremely personal endeavors.”

I haven’t seen a more recent study of a similar type to show what has changed, but as someone who engages both in blogger outreach with my company and blogging, I feel that the landscape has fundamentally shifted.

I’ve noticed a significant decrease, year over year, in how responsive bloggers are — or more accurately, are not — even to individualized, customized and thoughtful outreach. In 2007, response rates were between 20-25 percent positive (the percentage of bloggers who published information provided to them or responding to our outreach). Toward the end of 2009, I began to see a marked drop-off of in acknowledgments from bloggers, much less actual published responses to email outreach. In my company’s experience, we’ve found the response rate to decrease to less than 10 percent, even less than five percent in some cases. This poor response rate is even despite the fact that our relationships with individual bloggers have strengthened over the years.

The decrease in blogger outreach effectiveness can be attributed to a myriad of factors including

1. The recent FTC rulings on marketing firms and blogs
2. A glut of PR requests to bloggers, so most no longer get opened
3. The realization by many bloggers that they now hold an increasing degree of power and influence in terms of information distribution, so they are becoming more selective
4. The fact that many bloggers are still not businesspeople, and don’t even look to PR as a source of fodder for their blogs
5. A continued misunderstanding about blogging culture and what bloggers need or want by marketers
6. There’s a misconception that all bloggers want to be approached by PR reps or to receive press releases, so firms keep throwing stuff out there to see what sticks
7. The fact that not everyone who blogs is open to blogging about things other than their own lives or work, especially products they don’t actually use.

Putting On My Blogger Hat

As a professional blogger as well as a personal blogger, I find myself drowning in pitches from PR firms. On the personal side, I find that unless they use the correct email to pitch me and keep the pitches very short, to the point, and on target with my blog topics, I pretty much ignore the emails. I simply don’t have the bandwidth. Plus, my personal blogs aren’t really commercial endeavors.

On the professional side, I look for a prominent mention of the blog they’re pitching me for (such as WebWorkerDaily); exactly what they are pitching (a new application to help web workers do something better, for example); and how familiar they are with what I write. There is nothing more effective in pitches to me than one with a highly targeted phrase like “I noticed your blog post about RSS feeds last week and wanted to let you know about my client’s new app that would really benefit web workers by helping manage their feeds.” Bingo!

I can’t say that I read every email pitched to me — it is just not humanly possible. I can say that the PR people who politely but regularly nudge me several times to gauge my interest in their pitch have gotten a lot farther with me than the ones who threw a pitch at me like spaghetti to a wall. Kindness and consideration along with persistence wins the ink. Getting annoyed that I haven’t responded, or that I’ve had to switch a demo call at the last minute isn’t going to win any brownie points. We’re all just people trying to make a living, and we all have a life.

The other thing I find incredibly effective in terms of pitching me on behalf of a client is not only the thoughtfully targeted pitch but regular pitches that can provide me with ideas for new blog posts. I look forward to those emails and count the PR people who help to make my professional blogging life just a little bit easier as important contacts. That’s the power of relationships. You care, I care, we work together, everyone wins.

Alternative Ways of Engaging Bloggers

Because of the decrease in effectiveness of blogger outreach carried out in the manner of traditional media outreach, there needs to be alternative ways to engage bloggers to help produce valuable and educational content for our clients; build greater awareness of client brands; and have a measurable impact in the blogosphere. Some of these tactics include:

1. Blog panels. Select bloggers who are knowledgeable in a given area to provide guidance on a company or organization’s blog editorial calendar that can be syndicated on their own blogs in a coordinated fashion. This is a more credible and effective tactic when the participation is a voluntary and non-compensated position; however, there must be a mutual exchange of value and all value exchange must be disclosed.
2. Blogger pools. Select bloggers who can be guest authors of a company or organization’s blog by identifying a pool of qualified, expert and diverse bloggers who can contribute content – with or without compensation – for the exposure. Again, if compensation is involved, it must be disclosed.
3. Blog sponsorship. Identify key blogs and bloggers reaching the “right” audience and offering to pay them to sponsor content that meets particular guidelines. For the bloggers who are in the business of blogging, this can be a more attractive relationship, and both parties must make sure a paid sponsorship is properly and prominently labeled as such.

As the blogging landscape continues to change, it is important for us to engage bloggers in the conversations about best practices in blogger outreach and continue to build more meaningful relationships with bloggers similar to the way we’ve cultivated relationships with the media but realizing the differences. If I feel we have a strong base of blogger relationships in a given industry or area, I may recommend blogger outreach to a client in the future. However, building a targeted blogger list from scratch without relationships solidly in place is proving to be a less effective and more expensive endeavor than it was three years ago.

Do you engage in blogger outreach? Or are you a blogger being approached by marketing types? What are your thoughts on the topic of blogger outreach as an online marketing tactic?

I will never forget the vice president of the North American division coming into a meeting I was leading, pulling me aside, and saying, “We need to talk.” As I listened to his concerns over the pending fallout from the situation, I kept raising my objections and saying, “But that’s not us, that is some other company with a similar name.” Despite my protestations, my client was not convinced.

Within the span of a few days, our relationship with this client went from a smooth-sailing ship to a constant barrage of inquires. To say our work with them was becoming unproductive would be an understatement. Still, up until this point, all my business partner Keith and I did was say, “Well, that’s not us.”

Then we got it. We got what Toyota missed for the first few months of their crisis, what Tiger Woods seemed to be unaware of, and what John Edwards didn’t want to address. We got that simply saying something that seems sufficient to you, but does not address the concerns of the public or your client, is not a productive way to handle a crisis. Certain statements must be made and actions taken to show those watching that you take the situation seriously.

Finally understanding that, we got into gear. We contacted the reporter who first wrote the story to request a letter stating that we were not the company he was investigating, got copies of all our past corporate records, and basically proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were an upstanding company, not to be confused with the similarly named nefarious organization being investigated. Once we took these actions, the problem cleared up within a few days, and it was back to business as usual.

There is a lesson in recent PR events that all entrepreneurial web workers — be they freelancers, small business owners or corporate types — can take to heart. That lesson is that when a PR problem occurs, and it will, there is a right way to handle it productively. Here, then, are a few expert opinions on what to do (and not do) to prevent a PR disaster:

Prepare in advance. “Make it a regular part of your staff meetings to figure out what could go wrong,” says crisis expert Jonathan Bernstein.“Craft plans at those sessions that address the operational and communication side of the equation.”

Develop messages that answer anticipated questions. “To be confident and gain credibility, answer questions with a straightforward “yes,” “no,” or “maybe,” followed immediately with “and here is why,” says PR consultant David Sheon. “State your message, state it again and state it a third time.”

Don’t just say, “I’m sorry,” apologize. If you are in the wrong, communications strategist Jason Mudd of AXIA suggests using this Apology Model he crafted for his clients.

• Confess. State what you did. Own up to it. Be clear and candid. Give enough details.
• Apologize. Say, “I apologize” — not just I’m sorry — for whatever it is you did.
• Rectify. How will you make the current situation better? What are the short-term/reactive measures?
• Prevention/Reformation. What are the long-term/preemptive steps that will assure this doesn’t happen again — ever?
• Seek forgiveness. This is important. Don’t forget to ask for forgiveness from your employees, shareholders, customers, community and other stakeholders and those impacted.

While we would all like to believe that PR crises are the purview of large public companies, anyone that has been in business for themselves knows that’s just not the case. By preparing, planning and executing a well-developed crisis strategy, you can productively handle any PR debacle that may find its way to your doorstep.

What steps do you take when a PR crisis hits?

In a move to further differentiate itself in the annotation space, the company has just announced the availability of a new service plan, WebNotes PR, aimed at public relations and marketing firms who need to compile customized reports, market research and daily scans.

WebNotes continues to provide the core features of adding annotation and notes to web sites, as well as its easy organizational tools to keep track of your work. The major functional additions to the new PR plan include media monitoring, and a revamped and customizable reporting engine.

Reporting has always been a tremendously useful feature of WebNotes. The ability to quickly pull together all of your notes and annotations into one convenient document for sharing and distribution is really well done. Rather than cutting and pasting items manually into a document, the WebNotes reporter does this automatically.

The PR reporting engine has been enhanced to allow for more detailed modifications and customizations including templates and branding. If you’re generating daily scans for your clients, you can automate this process and present a nicely formatted report with very little effort. Options let you limit items by date range and in-place editing lets you customize and tweak the results.

But presentation is only a part of the package, it’s the data that is important. That’s where the new media monitoring functionality comes in to play. In addition to the manual items you have always been able to mark up and track, WebNotes PR allows you to integrate keyword searches into your results. Import or enter in your own RSS feeds, like Twitter search results, and WebNotes can do a lot of the research work for you. It can also generate feeds for you from within the app.

While aimed at PR folks, I can see real value in this implementation for anyone who wants to take advantage of the monitoring tools to automate their research efforts.

WebNotes PR is launching with an introductory price of $300 per user per year with a two-week free trial. Along with this announcement, the prior Pro plan has been renamed WebNotes Academic with a $5 / month price for students or $10 / month without the discount. A reduced functionality, although still quite useful, free personal plan is also still available.

The launch of the PR-specific functionality helps to further differentiate WebNotes from other similar social bookmarking and annotation sharing services. By focusing on a core group of well-implemented services that can be focused and customized towards specific niches, WebNotes is keeping its product offering useful and easy to use.

How much time per day do you spend preparing research reports? Can WebNotes help you?

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The science of marketing involves market research, segmenting the market and building and executing a marketing plan that fulfills business goals.

People in public relations (PR), on the other hand, work to get exposure for the brand, the organization and its people in the media. Although the lines blur between the two careers, they are distinct roles.

Is marketing or PR the web working career for you?

Types of Marketing and PR Careers

Not all marketing and PR jobs involve the same roles and responsibilities. Marketing and PR covers many careers, ranging from advertising manager, to media coordinator and brand manager, to social media manager. Here are some high-level job descriptions:

Marketing: Create, plan and deliver the company’s communications program to promote the company, its brand, its products and its services.

PR and Media Relations: PR and media relations professionals target online and offline media to promote their clients’ business or expertise, with the goal of seeing their name, company or product mentioned. Successful workers build relationships with the media, event coordinators and other organizations for partnering and sponsoring activities as well as working to get the company and its people into stories.

Researcher: The researcher investigates the client’s target market, industry and business.

How to Qualify

Like many other web working jobs, many marketers learned their trade in past jobs. Matt Scherer, president of Scherer Communications, spent 20 years in the Air Force working in public affairs, with ten of them as an editor. He also received a second degree in Marketing before founding his firm. “When I went back to college, I worked part-time as a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News and as a producer for KSAT 12. Those jobs helped me to hone my skills and understand how to pitch to the media,” says Scherer.

Before diving into marketing, web marketer Lorrie Thomas worked for an online advertising network. “I learned by doing. I had no choice: sink or swim. I rolled up my sleeves, ate my humble pie, failed a lot and only asked for help after I had tried as hard as I could first,” Thomas says.

Marketing and PR Tools

Many marketers and PR personnel say they rely on social media tools including Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, along with their cell phones. Like most web workers, their toolbox holds word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and finance applications.

Online meeting applications provide value for meeting with clients and conducting presentations and webinars. Marketers also use email newsletter services.

Find Clients

Referrals and happy customers are how most marketers and PR professionals land gigs. Scherer says that his San Antonio Express-News blog also helped. Hank Stroll of InternetVIZ, a custom business-to-business newsletter publishing company, saw a need among technology companies that struggled to share their value with clients and prospects. His company created a prototype email newsletter, which grew their business from 250 business executives to over 400,000 readers. He has a call to action offering a free prototype, which brings prospects into his sales cycle. In Lorrie Thomas’ case, she wants to fill seats in her virtual classroom. “Most students confess to checking out my web sites before they sign up for my class because they want to see if I know my stuff first!”

Would you consider a marketing or PR career?

Photo credit: Sophie

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Is tech support or customer service the web working career for you?

Types of Tech Support and Customer Service Careers

Tech support and customer service jobs don’t just involve working directly with customers using a product or service. Brian Roberts of nesaru consulting, for example, acts as the focal point for communications between his clients and their U.S. customers, service centers, sales groups, distributors.

Here are three general careers in tech support and customer service:

Customer service: Provides support for products and services including set up, repair, training, distribution and other logistics.

Tech support: Solves technical problems, remove malware, and provide help with applications. Jobs may involve specializing in several areas, depending on the business and its products or services.

Trainer: Show users how to use business applications. Training may be included in the responsibilities of someone working in tech support or customer service. In addition to offering tech support to clients, tech “go to” guy and WebWorkerDaily writer Scott Blitstein conducts training.

How to Qualify

Tech support pros often begin learning the job by taking care of their own computer problems and becoming the “go to” resource for family and friends. “I have been a technology innovator for almost 30 years. I love learning about new technology; it was fun to roll up my sleeves and learn about VoIP long before it was easy (like 10 years ago),” says F. Andy Seidl, president and co-founder of MyST Technology Partners, Inc.

In his role as founder and president of eSeMBe Technical Services, Scott Blitstein provides technical support services for clients. His experience comes from a combination of formal training, self-teaching and collaborating. “I do a lot of reading and internal testing to stay up to date and comfortable with current technology,” he says.

These jobs often involve interfacing directly with customers, so people skills matter. Managers often say they’d rather hire those with people skills first than those with tech support knowledge, because you can’t teach people skills. Another important trait is patience, as customers often feel frustrated or aggravated and take it out on the first representative they speak with from the company. Representatives not only deal with the physical problem of a product or service, but also the customer.

Tech Support and Customer Service Tools

People in this career rely on specific applications that help them review and identify problems. For example, computer tech support workers use remote control software such as LogMeIn, CrossLoop and NTRsupport Pro to access a customer’s PC to see and fix problems. Of course, a fast Internet connection is a must and headset comes in handy so you can free your hands for heavy-duty keyboarding and mousing. Customer support staff often also rely on a support ticketing app.

They also use many of the common web worker tools: Skype, instant messaging, Basecamp or other project management application and online meeting tools like GoToMeeting.

Find Clients

Word-of-mouth marketing continues to be the leader for lead generation in these fields. F. Andy Seidl finds his company’s primary sources for leads come from the company web site, and via resellers and value-added resellers (VARs).

Cold calling still works, as Brian Roberts attests, and so does face-to-face marketing. “We network a lot in international trade events to identify potential clients and have developed a community of companies and people with complementary skills and services we can offer to our clients,” says Roberts.

Would you consider a tech support or customer service career?

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I asked Jeff Crilley, a former Emmy-winning TV news reporter turned PR pro and the author of “Free Publicity: A TV Reporter Shares the Secrets for Getting Covered on the News,” for some advice on how web workers can orchestrate free publicity, get their names out there and drum up business.

Meryl: If freelancers or web workers want to be a “go-to” resource, how do they build relationships with reporters?

Jeff: Google the reporter. Study them. What do they write about? How can you help them? Are you an expert or can you be a resource for them on something they’ve written about in the past and are likely to write about again?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to come up with a smart pitch. If you’ve done your homework and can give the reporter something they can use, you may become their “go-to” source.

Meryl: Should I write press releases? What do I do with them? Does anybody really read them?

Jeff: Press releases are a little outdated. They’re very “old school.” I believe that in the year 2009 becoming interactive with the journalist is the way to go. Just about all journalists are Twittering, putting up Facebook posts, blogging, etc. They are making themselves available. Take advantage of their accessibility and develop a relationship.

Meryl: How can I get quoted in more articles, without having to actually write guest posts?

Jeff: If you aren’t blogging and following journalists on Facebook and Twitter, it’s time to start. If you hope to become a recognized expert, you need to announce yourself as one and get yourself and your views in front of the right journalists. The social media is a great way to do that.

It can be as easy as shooting a reporter an email praising them on a story and then offering an insight or follow-up idea that didn’t make it in their first article. A relationship with a journalist begins with you taking the first step.

Also, work on being more quotable. Instead of saying, “The stock market has been rocky,” say something like, “It’s been like watching a ‘Friday the 13th’ movie marathon. Jason just won’t die!”

Meryl: When contacting a reporter, what should a person say?

Jeff: I’ve always believed that the best way to a journalist’s heart is to talk about their work. Even if you respectfully disagree with them and think that they missed the point, most journalists want feedback and will be open to a dialog.

You might say something like, “I really enjoyed your column on the homeless problem. If you’re ever doing a follow-up article, I’d love to help you. You didn’t say anything about…” Then offer something that they may have overlooked in the first story. Though it sounds insulting, you can build a relationship by pointing out an angle the reporter may have missed. They won’t be offended if you word your email with kindness.

Get more free publicity tips from Jeff Crilley’s newsletter and subscribe to Peter Shankman’s “Help a Reporter” newsletter for quotable opportunities.

How have you found free publicity?

Photo credit: Gabriella Fabbri

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In order to stay on top of new Web apps and get a deeper understanding of how some of them work without having to subscribe to them all and use them all over time (which would be an overwhelming undertaking), I’ve been scheduling back-to-back demos with tech companies who are touting their cool Web apps and want me to blog about them here.

Here’s a list of things to consider before you conduct your demo. (And please share this with your PR people).

1. Know my style. Read a few of my blog posts to get a sense of my review style. I tend to detail my personal experiences as a Web worker and how I think a particular app might work for me or people like me. I am opinionated. My style is not really techie. I’m more interested in the practical nuts and bolts. (For those with PR firms, they should be doing this research for you). ed: You should know the blog you’re pitching. WebWorkerDaily focuses on products that the average web worker can purchase for themselves or for their smaller businesses. We don’t tend to focus on enterprise software, social networking applications (unless they’re specially focused on professional networking) or games.

2. Know my OS. I’m a Mac user. I talk about this in many of my blog posts. I love the Mac. So if your app doesn’t work on a Mac or doesn’t work well with Macs, please think twice before pitching me. There are other talented bloggers here who are PC users and you can tell by reading their posts.

3. Target your pitch. So while I’m on the topic of pitching, you are far more likely to win friends and influence bloggers if you send your pitch to the main email address (tips@webworkerdaily.com) and maybe a personalized pitch to one of the bloggers who you feel might really like your app. But blanketing your pitch to all the bloggers on a blog is just bad form. It makes our jobs more difficult if several of us are pursuing the same story at the same time and figure it out only after we’ve put in time we can’t afford to waste.

4. Use a scheduling app. Even if you have a PR firm scheduling your calls, turn them onto one of the handy Web apps available to coordinate the complex schedules of several people. I prefer the quick and easy Doodle myself. But trying to do the scheduling by email and voice mail really is inefficient.

5. Identify yourself. I hate to break it to you, but with all the emails flying back and forth to schedule the call and all the calls I’m on each day, I don’t necessarily know who you are or what you do for the company. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with several CEOs of new tech companies, but they often jump into the conversation without even an introduction. So when we connect on the phone, please tell me who you are, and let me do the same.

6. Go straight to the demo. When we’re on the phone, please start the demo first. I review Web apps. I don’t write about tech companies. Sure I mention the tech company responsible for the app in my post and occasionally quote someone from the company, but in general, I just want to know how your app works. Information about your company, your philosophy, your methodology, and your market research can come out during the demo or if I ask. Otherwise, let the app do the talking.

7. Kill the slides. I don’t need to see PowerPoint slides explaining your company or product. And I definitely don’t need to read along with you as you read your PowerPoint slides out loud. I need to see the app in action. I need to see it now.

8. Keep it brief. Hit only the highlights for a few minutes as you demo. If I like what I see, believe me when I say I will ask you questions. Lots of questions. Even if I see things I don’t like, I will ask you questions. I need you to show me what your app does. If you have to provide a lot of detail, I may get the impression that your app just isn’t smart or intuitive or that you don’t think I’m smart or intuitive enough. Either way, you’re killing me with your rambling.

9. Be open. Some of my favorite demos and most enjoyable reviews were with companies whose CEO or other rep was open to my feedback and critiques. Hey, I’m very opinionated and when something doesn’t work, I call it like it is. I’ve had some company reps make changes based on my feedback. Others have offered to make changes based on the feedback of commenters on my posts. That kind of responsiveness (versus defensiveness) wins you lots and lots of brownie points in my book.

10. Keep in touch. I don’t want to be spammed – but I do want you to ask me if you can put me on your email list (I have a special email address just for that purpose so do not just add my email willy nilly). I’d love to hear about new developments with your app. I’d love to know that the feature you said was “coming soon” that I blogged about previously has actually launched. And I’d really love a scoop on that!

I’m pretty sure that a lot of what I’ve said above goes for many bloggers out there. We’re crazy busy, on perpetual deadlines, and are fully immersed in a sea of Web apps. In this case, less is more. Be thoughtful. Be selective. Be brief. I’ll love you for it!

This post was greatly inspired by Jason Calacanis’ recent post to his email list about how to demo your startup, as reposted on TechCrunch. While some tips are similar to Jason’s, they are all things that I have personally experienced which just proves that he nailed it.

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