Brian Solis is a thought leader and influential practitioner in the PR and social media field. I have read his work across a range of channels, most recently with some very strong and insightful TechCrunch articles.

These articles are must read resources for communications professionals that are motivated to stay agile and develop constantly within their role which is now essential. As Brian discusses in the articles below the media landscape has changed and diversified, there are new players with in some cases much larger, niche audiences.

As a result of these ongoing changes “PR is in a long overdue renaissance”. New approaches and strategies are needed. But then again the strategy may need to change next week as a new channel, competitor, or influential voice in the blogosphere emerges.

I have summarised two of Brian’s recent TechCrunch articles below in bullets, as I am sure I will refer back to them, with links for those that want to read more or send on to colleagues. One is relevant to the PR community more generally, as focused on that tool that is the press release, and the second is a little more targeted to those interested in PR specifically for start ups.

Part I - The Evolution of the Press Release

  • Some bloggers equate these to spam.
  • Well written releases are far from dead. Are relied on for relevant for relevant information.
  • Distribution services complement. Use traditional and new tools to reach people through search engines and news aggregation e.g. Techmeme.

Types of Press Release

1.Traditional Press Releases

  • Avoid jargon. Too many adjectives. Hype. No “canned” quotes please. Worry less about structure and format and more about the news, story and supporting facts and media elements.
  • 400 - 500 words.

2. SEO Press Releases

  • Wire services have extra value in search engine marketing (SEM).
  • Integrate key words (in front of release - especially in headline, subheadline and esp boilerplate), phrases and embedded links. This makes it easier for them to rank on search engines. Choose 3 words and repeat but don’t overuse.
  • Keyword Density: Optimised at 2-8% of total number of words on the page..
  • Targets for SEO releases are more customers than journalists.
  • “Search engines seem to pay attention to the natural bolded words as well as the repeated words toward the top of the press release”
  • Keywords as anchor text to link back to strategic landing pages on your site, then make pages optimised as well.
  • Use Keyword tools. Brian’s fave is SEO tool
  • Read more about Keywords on Lucindigo here
  • Use industry and product names in place of “generic descriptors”
  • Other factors contribute keyword buys, keywords on website, affiliate strategies and other tools and campaigns. Stick @ 400 words.

3. Social Media Releases

  • New PR approach, Social Media release. I have looked at Social Media releases on Lucindigo here
  • SMR’s complement traditional and SEO by combining news facts and social assets in one tool. This is about multimedia content and connecting info across social networks.
  • In an SMR you may see offered: headline, paragraph, news facts, genuine quotes, market data (links), socialised content, social tools for bookmarking, supporting documents, tags for indexing and findability, RSS subscriptions, contacts e.g. LinkedIn/Facebook, trackbacks, ability to take parts of it to use as a new story (embed codes).
  • An SMR should “contain everything to share, discover and retell a story in a way that is complementary to your original intent and context.”
  • Should not cross the wire. Hosted on company blog channel to complement traditional, SEO, company blog posts and other comms.
  • Brian creates a full SMR under a prvate, non-indexed URL to share with key contacts in advance of an announcement. Provides all bloggers need to know, no additional research needed.
  • “Once the news is public, the SMR goes live with links to the traditional and SEO releases, company blog posts and in turn each also link back to the SMR. Also, wherever the social content is hosted, i.e. YouTube, Flickr, Scribd, Utterz, etc., should link to the SMR in order to create a seamless conversation bridge.”

All about SMR’ on Brian’s PR 2.0 Blog here

Link - Tech Crunch by Brian Solis

  • Part II - PR Secrets for Start ups


PR 1.0
Hype, Spin, Buzzwords & spam. Still companies taking this approach.
-Social media facilitates a conversation and humanises the process of communications. It is not online or social marketing. Think conversations WITH not marketing AT.

PR 2.0
Through media gatekeepers is not the only way to reach audiences.
-Listening, engaging with influencers and stakeholders on their level.

The Secrets
“You can not trust the future of your brand with someone who knows how to write a press release, place it on wire and email it to people”

1. You have to “develop the story” for the blogger. Invest time here.

2. Get the right PR people. Takes a lot of time so while DIY PR sounds good, it is not realistic for CEO’s. PR people need to understand the market, technology, benefits and challenges specifically related to your business. if they cannot tick all these boxes then they will not be able to sell it to the media community. Questions Brian suggests you ask the PR company
-Do you have the bandwidth to help us achieve our objectives?
-Who will be on the account and can I meet the rest of the team?

3. CEO can introduce themselves to the bloggers. Read work. Comment on it. Attend a networking event to build “social capital”. This secret was called what pretty much sums it up “participation is marketing”.

4. Identify your multiple audiences at every step of your companys growth stage. Which influencer, blog, channel reaches audience at each step.

5. DON’T launch Monday. Too congested. Embargoes? If yes give journo/blogger time to prepare. Less is more, give it to the person you want to work with it and lower chance embargo broken.

6. Research the preferences that Bloggers /Journalists have for contact. I like this quote, “Do the legwork and outreach that contributes to the reputation you wish to earn and maintain”.

7. It is very important to establish PR metrics first. May be conversations online, referring traffic, registrations or downloads. Conversion will always be forefront.

8. Keep it brief and clear. ELEVATOR PITCH - memorable. relevant.

9. Founders may need to pass the torch for spokesperson. But maybe not if you get media & presentation training. You’ll need to stick the the “tight elevator pitch”.

10. A company blog is critical to keep communication channels open with community. Don’t UNDER or OVER estimate it. Don’t break news on your own blog! Makes it less valuable.

11. PR should reach to traditional media, new media and the magic middle (20-1000 people linking to them). Important for reaching the long tail.

12. Use other social networks as well as Blogs. E.g. Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Deli.i.cious, Friendfeed…. Can get strong referring numbers here and build relationships within these networks.

Link - Tech Crunch by Brian Solis