So, What Do You Do? (And Other PR Blog Jots)

Stuck in the Middle
Media Guerrilla
Mike Manuel discusses what I suspect is a common problem for those in the 2.0 field—how do you describe what it is you do? Is there a name for it? Mike calls it the “messy middle,” pointing out that really, what many new media professionals actually do is an amalgam of several different disciplines, all coming together to form a new one. A new one that is occasionally tricky to explain. “The messy middle is where several historically disparate business disciplines are intersecting; it's the place where marketers, communicators, product developers, customer support folks, and arguably other arms of an organization all meet and mix to maximize their efforts, thanks to the social web.”

All the Skype Moves
A Shel of My Former Self
Following a two-day outage of the popular Internet phone service Skype, many have been wondering what the company will do to restore its credibility. Shel Holtz praises Skype for taking decisive action to restore customers’ faith in its service; the company will be adding seven free days onto all existing subscriptions, including to those who weren’t affected by the widespread outage. “From a PR perspective, Skype has it on the ball, taking a short-term hit (what is the cumulative value of all those subscriptions?) in order to rebuild (in some cases) or reinforce (in others) goodwill among its customers?”

Pitching Coach
What’s Next
While I think many readers of this blog are already fairly social media savvy, anyone new to PR 2.0 should read this Marketing Sherpa interview with BL Ochman, who gives advice on the appropriate ways to reach out to a blogger with a pitch. Her advice is specific to the What’s Next blog, but can be applied to general blogger outreach tactics as well. She covers the most fundamental—yet also the most important—thing to remember when reaching out to a blogger: make sure you actually read their blog before you make contact! “It’s useful to let her know that your query is related to the topics she writes about. Read some of her current blog posts. ‘I am looking for news about how big companies are using Web 2.0. That means I want to know about new online marketing campaigns, videos, attempts to create online communities, socially responsible marketing, trends and events.’”

Don't You Forget about Email
Common Sense PR
Eric Eggerston points out that when you’re launching a new blog, particularly a business blog, reaching out to all your exisiting contacts through that antiquated old system of “email” can help get you off the ground with readers and subscribers. He cites a case study from Copyblogger showing that a corporate blog reached thousands of subscribers on its first day through a simple email promotion to the company’s existing email network. “Remember, if you’re reaching people by e-mail, they may want to continue to be connected by e-mail. It’s a lesson that too many people forget. (I’m thinking of several websites that allow me to phone a customer service person, but won’t let me send an e-mail or fill in a "contact us" form.) As for whether you can keep your subscribers, that requires ongoing effort to provide something of value.”

You(oh, and also some ads)Tube
Jaffe Juice
Following the announcement that popular video sharing and networking site YouTube would begin featuring ads within user-submitted videos (without the user’s approval), Joseph Jaffe blames the development on Google and laments that it will only alienate the YouTube audience. He is especially critical of YouTube’s defense, that to include “pre-video” ads instead of overlaid ads was casuing more viewer abandonment. “Why should this ever have to be about lesser of evils? Why would YouTube basically admit to shunning 10% of their audience and consumer base? Beware. Beware. Today's 10% is tomorrow's 50%, especially if they are influencers and especially if you give your competitors (can you say broadcast networks?) half a chance to go for the jugular based on any exposed nerves.”