Today marks the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, a day set-aside for citizens of the world to take a moment and think about important topics such as global warming, ozone depletion, & our own interaction with the planet.  These are some weighty issues to say the least, especially as we seek to preserve the Earth for future generations.  So, for those of us in the field of PR & Marketing, as we go about our daily activities today, there are any number of ways that we can contribute to help on these fronts.

Specifically, as communicators we can each play a vital role in Earth Day in a number of ways:

1)   We can use our skills to showcase what our clients are doing for the environment: Use this as a story angle to help your clients get more press, showcase the efforts that they make locally to improving the environment & being a good corporate citizen; while earning points with their target audiences.

2)   Make our own businesses Green: There are a range of things that we can do in our own offices to help with the environment.  From maintaining a paperless office, to using recycled materials, adopting new energy efficient equipment, turning off our computers at night, & sorting our trash into recycle bins.  While each of these are small modifications, together they can add up to help make a difference in the overall well-being of the environment.

3)   Introduce Green communications tactics: By using new tools that allow you to communicate online, you can tell your story directly to target audiences with rich audio & video content through tools such as Podcasts and Webcasts.  These tactics can help to reduce the number of trips spokespeople or executives need to make, in the process reducing carbon emissions, & reaching broader audiences with your message.

Of course, there are many ways to go Green, do you have other tips for folks in PR & Marketing to consider adding to the list?  Just go ahead and share your ideas in the comments section below!

Here’s the long and short of it: there are no rules with online media.

Sure, take a moment to digest that because it goes against just about everything we’re typically conditioned to think.  We’re used to “best practices” and guidelines.  Think about it in terms of traditional media where there are a wide variety of rules & guidelines.  For instance, typically newspaper articles are a few hundred words in length; for television outlets the news department always tries to find a local angle on a story; while in the land of radio stories are usually told these days by a reporter, often syndicated, that at best feature a quick sound bite.  And accordingly, with each of these different arenas there are certain rules of the game if you will for for gaining traction for your particular story; however in the online space we have a blank platform through which to tell our stories.

This platform extends beyond the simple press release or website, but today expands into the mobile space and allows any organization to create rich media that is on-message and helps to tell its story.  This is vastly powerful space - organizations can now share video of their events, conversations with executives, and insights from their latest research with global audiences with ease.  A pretty powerful development that has come of age in the last few years, but as organization’s go to implement these types of tools they are often faced with questions in regard to the “right” way to do things…which is where we enter new & uncharted territory.

That said, the online space brings with it a double-edged sword because on one hand there are no rules, and on the other hand well, there are no rules.  Since there are no right or wrong way ways to leverage this space, it is most important that you think strategically about how to integrate these outreach efforts, how to brand them accordingly, and how to keep them professional and polished - just like you would do with any other piece of marketing collateral.

The bottom line is online space can be a powerful new venue to tell your story.  While there aren’t any rules per se, you’ll be able to think of plenty of new ways to include these types of options in your PR & marketing plans, and find opportunities to leverage your efforts and tell your stories.

Tear down those walls. In today’s social media infused PR & Marketing environment it’s no longer to your benefit to only publish content to your campaign website. No, in fact in today’s iPhone wielding, Twitter, & Facebook obsessed world it’s to your advantage to Syndicate your content to as many platforms as possible.

Such a concept of sharing content used to be a dirty thought, as you wanted to control your content and simply drive audiences directly to your website. However, while that is still true today, the strategy for obtaining and reaching consumers of your content has shifted; and the focus is now on spreading your message as widely as possible and having the audience further disseminate your content and propel new eyeballs in your direction. As audiences become more and more fragmented it is increasingly important to share your content and extend its reach in order to help meet the increased diversity with which content is consumed.

Sharing your content and syndicating it benefits your campaign in a number of innovative ways:

• By increasing the availability of the content, creating more pipes that lead back to your website & allowing you to reach broader audiences.
• Engaged audiences take ownership and will proactively share your news, and spread the message on their own to their own friends and contacts.
• Allows target audiences to opt-in and manage both when & where they interact with your information.

Beyond these aspects, there are other advantages, not the least of which is having the opportunity to syndicate any type of content from the latest news release, to a Podcast interview with your spokesperson, or simply a link to a related article via Twiter. The benefits are endless and will allow you to maximize coverage for your efforts.

Amidst the latest news of impending tablet like devices, including Apple’s newest creation, lies a new and important path for communications campaigns and the practitioners that coordinate these efforts.

First, in terms of the technology, the day of the E-Reader is upon us. Both the Amazon Kindle & the Barnes and Noble Nook experienced extremely successful holiday sales to wrap up 2009. While 2010 is staring off with numerous competitors announcing their own E-Reader efforts at the annual Consumer Electronics show, and mounting speculation as to what Apple will unveil in this space later this week.

The growth of this “reader” type of device in an arena already crowded by Notebooks, Netbooks, iPhones, & Blackberries is interesting; and yet it is an evolution of those devices. The e-reader, despite its name, I believe will extend beyond just electronic forms of books. This type of device, when done correctly will allow for easy consumption and navigation of content on a sizeable screen, in a format that is easier on the eyes (no backlight or optional backlight) and unites a variety of content types including audio, video, & text.

Specifically, with the web’s maturation we are now observing two different types of internet audiences… the first being the desktop/laptop space in which you interact with the web, collaborate with colleagues and essentially get work done. For most of us, that categorizes the vast majority of our day…but the second audience is more concerned with consuming content that is available online from the comfort of their family room, or along their commute. We saw the early evidence of this type of behavior with the iPod and subsequent similar devices; but the shift that has been observed in the past several weeks suggests that we are about to head in a direction that revolutionizes this media consumption in an easier to use and more portable format that that of a 13” or 15” laptop. This new type of device will make it easier to spend that down time “away” from the computer consuming any type of content that you can imagine.

All of that said, this technological shift simply underlines the importance for communications campaigns to seek to disseminate and Touch customers in any number of ways. While the devices continue to evolve and offer each of us new ways to be entertained, with the old phrase in mind “content is king,” it is increasingly important for those of us in the communications business to be content-minded. In doing so, we will be able to use these new types of outreach tools to produce content that can accompany our PR & Marketing campaigns and capitalize on these technologies to reach broader audiences.

One of my favorite radio bits used to be a promo for the latest way to read books: “Now introducing Books-On-Tape-On-Paper.”  That always made me laugh since it seemed so ridiculous that we had gone so far that the reintroduction of the printed word seemed “new.”

However, recently, as I’m in the midst of wrapping up my first e-book, Tom Verducci’s The Yankee Years, I have been thinking about the fact that the printed word really has been re-invented and is symbolic of the overall media shift and fragmentation of audience habits.  It seems so simple but there are actually quite a few different options these days for how you can read the latest novel or biography.  Reading used to be such a simple task; you went to the library or local bookstore, browsed around, and if you chose well, went home with, and enjoyed a page-turner.  It was pretty much a choice between hardcover or paperback; which was often a decision that was made for you based on what was “in-print.”

However, in 2009 depending on your preference there are quite a few ways in which you may experience that latest thriller or biography: Are you more of a buy it in hardcover as soon as it’s published type of person? Or do you wait for the paperback version? Do you download and listen to audio books? If so, do you go with abridged or unabridged versions?  Or do you download an e-book to some device, such as the Kindle?

Really, who ever thought simply reading a book could be such a complicated endeavor?  That said, there is an important lesson here for communications professionals; we have to communicate in a variety of ways to reach today’s diverse and segmented audiences.  Books have adapted and become available in a multitude of formats because audiences have changed and everyone’s preferences vary…so shouldn’t we be applying the same logic to how we communicate and showcase experts, opinions, products and events?

Clearly, you may not be dealing in the arena of books, but when it comes time to tell your stories (or those of your clients) this shift is real and people are getting their news and information in a variety of ways; the result is we have to think strategically about offering the same information in any number of different channels.  When it comes to thinking about campaigns we have to move beyond just those traditional methodologies (think hard and soft cover books) and leverage new opportunities to communicate and reach today’s audiences.  So while the press release, and the media outreach will always play a role in communicating let’s take a page out of the e-book and start thinking about how we can utilize new methods for telling the same old story.

MediaBack Page’s Quick Hits for April 3rd :

• Sometimes It’s About Doing What’s Right : Step Ahead | PR, Social Media & Internet Marketing - A great article from Step Ahead - about the value of handling your PR & marketing strategy with integrity.

New Media & Social Media tools are the latest options for PR & Marketing professionals, they provide new avenues to reach target audiences and enhance campaigns, however they are only part of the puzzle.  While I am entirely in favor of communicators adopting new tools as part of their campaigns, I think it is most important to do so with a managed and calculated methodology, which utilizes these tools as part of a cohesive overall strategy not just as a haphazard add-on for the sake of using technology.  While these new options can provide enhancements but it is paramount for practitioners to focus on telling their stories without getting caught up in the technology.

Yes, I do advocate as I did recently on this blog that you make your message Platform Agnostic, but I do not think that in doing so you should let the technology get in the way of your goal of telling your story.  Instead, I think you need to tell your story and use technology to accentuate your message and broaden its reach.  Of course, in some situations the technology can improve how you tell your story, enriching the experience for the audience and make the story come to life or bring a level of interactivity, but it shouldn’t entirely dictate or transform how you communicate.

So, the question is how do you communicate with Web 2.0 and Social Media Tools without loosing focus on the primary goal of telling your story.  Certainly, the answers are many and the approach could be quite complex, but on a high-level here are ideas that can lead to success:

1. Define Your Story - Sure, this is nothing new, but it is at he heart of effectively crafting a cohesive approach to new and traditional media tools.  What is it that you’re trying to convey?  Who are your spokespeople?  What is most engaging about your news?  How can you bring value to your audience with the story?  Further, as you figure out how to best position your story think about your audience; how will they relate to your story?  Have you given your story a voice, perhaps personalizing it in some way?
2. Integrate All of Your Strategies - Once you have your story well developed then it is time to think about the avenues through which to tell it and to tie together all of those tactics.  If you are taking a traditional approach of interviews with print, TV, or radio then these should be used as opportunities to communicate about and further deliver the story through the various online components.  Specifically, think about what tools online might enhance your campaign.  For example, online there may be opportunities to engage social media and invite comments and responses from communities such as Facebook, Linked-In, or other niche social networking sites.  Or possibly you can build on traditional methodologies by publishing a Podcast series, which can feature your experts to bring a face and a voice to your campaign.  You might also consider using Twitter to not only promote your story, but to open up a dialogue about those issues involved, and help the audience to become involved and take ownership in the topic.  Essentially, these types of strategies, while utilizing technology will also grow and strengthen the relationship with your target audience and if utilized correctly will keep your story as the focus of attention rather than the tools themselves.
3. Cross Promote Your Efforts - Regardless of the strategies you decide to facilitate - keep in mind the importance of integrating them - making it so that one leads to the other.  Successfully integrated solutions should not only build upon and promote one another, but should help to further educate the audience throughout the process while reading new audiences with each additional venue.  If somebody hears about your story through the print media, or via Twitter then they should be promoted to visit your website to download additional materials and learn more.  The cohesive approach will allow you to communicate in the various ways that today’s segmented audiences get their news and information and to maximize exposure for your particular campaign.

Regardless of the path taken, or the tool used, the bottom line is communications need to think strategically rather than getting caught up in using these new tools just for the sake of technology.  Certainly, thinking in terms of social media and tapping into these venues is an important part of today’s media landscape for business and consumer audiences, but at the end of the day it comes down to using these new tools to tell your story.

The end.

MediaBack Page’s Quick Hits for March 23rd :

• The Associated Press: Adam Carolla goes from canceled to podcast king -
• How the iPhone 3.0 Will Create a New Mobile Economy -
• Social Media Marketing Budgets on the Rise -
• Newspapers fold as readers defect and economy sours - CNN.com -

MediaBack Page’s Quick Hits for February 28th through March 2nd:

• Has TV lost its nerve when it comes to complex dramas? | The Watcher -
• Rap Works the Late Shift - WSJ.com - Jimmy Fallon hits the airwaves and brings musical icons The Roots with him to late night television.
• Paul Harvey Dead: Radio legend Paul Harvey dead at age 90 — chicagotribune.com - The Chicago Tribune offers a great commentary on legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey.
• Survey shows optimism for social media, digital in 2009 - PRWeek US - PR is Changing It’s Gameface
• Twitter Investor Says There’s ‘No Rush’ To Make Money, But There’s Definitely A Plan | paidContent.org -
• Broadcast Networks Battling Uphill for Profit and Audience - NYTimes.com -

MediaBack Page’s Quick Hits for February 26th :

• Audio Podcast Brings Help To Homebuyers | TomsRiverTimes.micromediapubs.com | Toms River Times - A smart way of communicating about some very important decisions that homebuyers will make in these economic times.
• Small Business Administration - Podcasts - In light of the recession, with the goal of driving the economy forward with the engine of Small Business the Small Business Administration has released a new series of Podcasts.