Join Brian Wallace for Using Infographics as a PR Strategy at the PRSA HyperConnections Summit, presented by the Technology Section in Atlanta, Sept. 27–28.

In a day when content is king, it is no surprise that infographics have most certainly had their reign at the top. Now, with Google cracking down on what should and should not count as good content, the importance of infographics is coming into question. Some feel they should be eliminated from the SEO chain altogether. Others believe there is still quite a lot of value in infographics, granted they are done correctly. So, what side are you on? Is there really such a thing as a good infographic? And if so, have they been devalued?

Continue reading " Infographics: Marketing Gold or PR Nightmare? "

Join Joseph Grove for “What Readers Want: Defining Techspeak to Verticals That Care” at the PRSA Technology Section HyperConnections Summit in Atlanta, Sept. 27-28.

I admit it. I can be a real jerk.

I don’t respond to your emails. I don’t return your voicemails. If your call happens to catch me at my desk, I’ll  know within the first five words that you’re a public relations person — maybe an intern — who is pimping a press release, I immediately I will begin to wonder how fast I can get to goodbye.

But I also have to say that some of you kind of deserve it. And for every editor who’d just as soon hit the delete button on your message than read or listen to the whole thing, there is a public relations professional who could use a few pointers on how to convey her message in such a way it might actually make the news.

Let’s face it: We need each other. I asked one of my editors how much daily news she gets from press releases and other forms of public relations. Two-thirds, she said. Among all our sites, we published 4,177 news items for the first six months of the year. Assuming her percentage holds true for our other editors, that’s 2,785 pieces of public relations we picked up. Was yours one of them?

Here are a few things you can do to make sure you are part of the next 4,177 we publish.

Continue reading " Five Ways to Become More Than Just a Necessary Evil "

We live in a hyperconnected world that moves forward into new realms every minute — like augmented virtual reality for business uses being explored on Georgia Institute of Technology’s campus in Atlanta, and that means even more consumption of news and data of all kinds, synthesized and scrubbed for your viewing. Hyperconnected is often described as a term for “people who feel they need to communicate virtually — via email, mobile phone or text — 24 hours a day.” Several recent research findings have shown that some hyperconnected individuals may even wake up during the night to check whether or not they have been contacted.  Companies like Ericsson have predicted that connected devices could outnumber connected people by a ratio of six to one by 2020, and the scramble to make sense of that shows up in sociology discussions.

The multi-channel, multi-device approach to communications is accelerating for all of us, and data actually supports predictions that by 2020, the next young adult generation will be wired differently. Jack Loechner’s March 2012 Research Brief from the Center for Media Research looked at “The Impact of Hyperconnectivity,” and discovered that more than 55 percent of those surveyed believe that this statement will be true:

“In 2020, the brains of multitasking teens and young adults are wired differently from those over age 35, and overall, it yields helpful results. They do not suffer notable cognitive shortcomings as they multitask and cycle quickly through personal and work-related tasks. Rather, they are learning more and they are more adept at finding answers to deep questions, in part because they can search effectively and access collective intelligence via the Internet.”

But other experts, such as David Ellis, director of communications studies at York University, disagree. He indicated that he sees the hyperconnectivity experience making them less productive, and adds that most of them do not understand the digital tools, according to the report.

As public relations practitioners, we really do not have time to debate what is upon us.  Statistics in a number of categories prove out this intensity of hyperconnections, from no “real” vacations away from phones and tablet devices, to the mushrooming of new social networks with new learning curves that start with expanding personal networks, such as Pinterest and Google’s Goggles, but will grow into even more important business toolsets as time goes on.

Continue reading " It’s Time to Examine the Multi-Channel, Multi-Device Approach for Clients in a Hyperconnected World "

AMEC’s European Summit introduced a glossary of social media measurement terms and a proposed update to the public relations valid metrics framework. The current public relations valid metrics framework is included in the PRSA Business Case for Public Relations.

Many of the measurement presentations from the Summit, including David Rockland’s presentation “How to Be Compliant with the Barcelona Principles,” are now available on AMEC’s website.

The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) hosted the fourth European Summit on Measurement, where representatives from more than 30 countries gathered in Dublin, Ireland, on June 13-15 to debate competency standards for PR measurement professionals and for PR practitioners in general.

What do you need to know to be an expert in measurement and what do you need to know about measurement to be good at public relations?  This question stems from the Barcelona Principles.

Here are some of the qualifications under consideration:

• Knows quantitative and qualitative research techniques
• Writes clear goals and objectives
• Selects appropriate metrics for outputs, outcomes and business results
• Measures quality and does not rely on simple quantitative measure, such as clips and impressions, alone
• Understands the benefits of different media measurement techniques
• Has knowledge of different outcome measures
• Can create effective research proposal requests, follow vendor and tool selection best practices and develop research budgets
• Integrates analytics into communications efforts across channels
• Emphasizes transparency in all facets of research
• Measures traditional and social media consistently

Continue reading " Setting Standards: Measurement Qualifications for PR Pros "

Join Ann Wylie for her in-person training session, “Writing That Sells — Products, Services and Ideas,” on June 22 at 9 a.m.–4 p.m. EDT in Boston, Mass.

Constant problem solving (to click or not to click?) and divided attention (you’ve got mail) lead to cognitive overload on the Web.

And according to Nicholas Carr’s book “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brain,” cognitive overload can:

• Make distractions more distracting. Some studies link attention deficit disorder to overtaxed brains.
• Cause us to overvalue the new, even when it’s trivial and irrelevant. Checking out the latest YouTube video becomes more important than analyzing the 46-screen study on illiteracy.
• Lead us to lose the ability to think and reason.

In fact, a 2005 study by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London showed that online multitasking temporarily lowers your IQ more than smoking marijuana does.

Continue reading " Writing Around the Obstacles of Reading On-Screen "