Inside PR video interviews with Shonali Burke and Shel Holtz

January 26, 2013 • Martin • PR

As many of you know, we’ve been doing video interviews since this summer in partnership with PRSA and Mesh. And we’ve had an opportunity to talk with some really smart and insightful people.

So we thought we’d share the video portions of the conversations we had with Shonali Burke and Shel Holtz at the 2012 PRSA International Conference. We featured the audio in IPR 3.15 and 3.16

And while you’re at it, check out our new Inside PR YouTube channel. We’ll be doing more interviews in 2013 so as they say in TV land…stay tuned.

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Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 3.22: Looking at the year ahead

January 9, 2013 • admin • PR

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Well, it’s January 2013 and we thought we’d start the year with some upcoming projects and a list of the conferences we’re planning to attend.

Projects:

Gini’s writing her second book, aptly titled Spin Sucks: The Book. It’s about the general perception that PR is made up of a bunch of spin doctors and what we can do to restore the industry’s reputation and perform our jobs ethically and honestly. In other words: how to ‘Fight Against Destructive Spin’.

Joe and the Thornley Fallis team are working on an ebook entitled, The User’s Guide to Social Media Listening and Engagement Tools, a marketing and communications industry resource. Twenty-two platforms will be reviewed and rated and individual sections will be published as blog posts.

Martin mentions he’s gearing up for the new University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Digital Strategy and Communications Management Certificate program. The first class, a Foundations course, starts on January 23 and is almost full. Future plans include offering the Certificate courses online. Stay tuned…

And speaking of online courses, Gini is one of the presenters in the Content Success Summit presented by Social Media Examiner. And Joe and Shel Holtz are offering an Integrated Social Media Course through IABC beginning on January 17.

Conferences we’re looking forward to/speaking at:

BlogH.O.T., March 25 to 27, Los Angeles

PRSA Western District Conference, April 18 to 20, Phoenix

Ragan 22nd Annual Corporate Communicators Conference, April 29 to May 1, Chicago

Mesh conference, May 15 and 16, Toronto

PRSA Counselors Academy Conference, June 9 to 11, Austin

CPRS National Conference, June 9 to 11, Ottawa

IABC 2013 World Conference, June 23 to 26, New York

PRSA Digital Impact, June 27 and 28, New York

PRSA International Conference, October 26 to 29, Philadelphia

There are lots more places to learn and keep your digital and social media skills finely tuned. We’d love to hear about what you’re looking forward to.

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Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 3.21: Our 2013 Predictions

January 2, 2013 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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We made it through December 21. The world did not end. The Mayans were wrong!

We hope you had great holidays!

This week, we talk about the predictions and trends we see for 2013.

I start the conversation with augmented reality and how those of us who create content should consider using it this year. Companies such as Layar make it easy to test some visual content with our written words. It’s an inexpensive way to see how it might work for you this year.

The other trend I like is native advertising. We talked last episode about how the lines between the disciplines continue to blur and native advertising makes that even more possible. While advertising will continue to pay for placement, PR should focus on working with our colleagues to create content that looks and feels like the site we’re visiting – from Mashable and Facebook to trade publications and blogs.

The trend Joe Thornley likes is the continued move from desktop to mobile; or the continuation of content consumption through smartphones and tablets. He says the percentage of visits from mobile on the sites Thornley Fallis manages continues to increase and the idea that we can be completely virtual continues to expand.

And Martin Waxman closes out the trends with the formalization of social media education. Of course, it’s a little bit selfish because he is at the forefront of the creation of this in Toronto, but Joe and I both agree it’s time to formalize the social web and harness the wild, wild west feeling.

So there you have it. Three very distinct, but integrated, looks at what 2013 holds for each of us.

What trends do you see coming this year?

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Inside PR 3.20: The Year in Review

December 20, 2012 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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It’s our last episode of the year – our winter finale, if you will. We take a look at the things that affected each of us, both in running our own businesses and working with clients.

This was the year Facebook hit one billion users and social networks, in general, wormed their way into every part of our lives. This was the year that it became impossible to treat social media as anything other than the main show.

Of course, we also had the introduction of the visual social networks with Pinterest and Instagram and even sites such as Mashable became more visually appealing.

Martin Waxman talks about the phenomenon known as Gangnam style and how interesting it is what goes viral and what does not. As a side note: We talk about doing an Inside PR Gangnam style dance next time we’re together. Who wants to see that??

Joe Thornley talked about the convergence of agencies and how Thornley Fallis ran into ad agencies during what would normally be PR firm pitches to prospective clients. Of course, Marketing in the Round calls for this breaking down of silos and integrating the disciplines and it was interesting to see it begin to take place this year.

We discuss search and what Google is doing with search plus your world. Martin mentions how Google now sees “Joe” and “Thornley” as a person instead of two words. And we talk about how tools, such as Zemanta, help you create content that is both optimized and has the right links included.

Joe, of course, talks about how “Trust Me I’m Lying” changed his sunny disposition about the blogosphere. He talks about how the era of trust is gone and how most bloggers are more interested in getting the backlinks and traffic than in creating a community.

And I wrap it all up with color commentary about each of the trends. You’ll have to listen to learn more.

Now it’s your turn. What was your year like?

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Inside PR 3.19: Lots of news in the social space

December 16, 2012 • admin • Inside PR, News, PR

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In this week’s episode of Inside PR, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley talk about a number of things that caught our eye this week.

Google+ Communities

Google has added Communities to its Google+ Network/layer/thingamabobby. Think Yahoo Groups. Discussion groups you set up to discuss specific subjects.

We’ve set up a Community for Inside PR listeners on Google+. If you like the podcast and would like to suggest future topics or discuss each week’s episode, click over to our Google+ Community and join the conversation.

Twitter upgrades(?) with Filters on Photos

Gini Dietrich points us toward Twitter’s move to add filters to photos.

Both Martin and Gini wonder whether Twitter is on the right path – or undercutting itself by moving away from the universal publishing platform to one that emphasizes its proprietary solutions and services.

Facebook drops its commitment to user democracy.

Does anybody care? Was this ever a real thing or did Facebook’s thresholds so high that it simply fed a feeling of powerlessness from the outset?

Lots of questions in a great discussion.

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Inside PR 3.18: An eclectic look at different cultures, a new digital strategy certificate and an NPR experiment

December 7, 2012 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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The team is back together and catching up on some exciting events that have happened in the past few weeks.

Gini Dietrich shares her stories of her trip to the great land of Holland. She regales us with tales of her journey to Amsterdam. You will get a little chuckle when you learn why she was thrown out of the red light district.

Gini’s trip also sparks the conversation of how different cultures respond to people in different ways. The hosts talk about the art and culture of listening in different parts of the world, and the importance of being a good and active listener, especially in the industry of public relations and communications.

Martin Waxman announces that he will be part of a new digital and social media program created by the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. They will be launching a three-course Certificate in Digital Strategy and Communications Management in January 2013. The classes are geared to communications and marketing professionals who want to fine tune their skills and learn how to adopt a strategic approach to digital and social networks. You can read his blog post on the program here.

And last, but most certainly not least, Joseph Thornley shares an NPR Facebook experiment that determined what kinds of local stories drive engagement. The result were the following nine type of local stories: place explainers, crowd pleasers, curiosity stimulators, news explainers, major breaking news, feel-good smilers, topical buzzers, provocative controversies, awe-inspiring visuals.

This study can help your organization determine what kind of stories to share to ensure engagement with your local audience.

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Inside PR 3.17: On content marketing and extreme reuse

November 30, 2012 • admin • PR

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This week, our episode is short, but sweet (well, we can at least guarantee the first part). We recorded this show before US Thanksgiving and Gini’s trip to Amsterdam to give a talk to the PR community there. We’ll hear about her adventures next show.

We continue our discussion on producing and sharing remarkable content and Joe mentions an article Aaron Dun wrote for Marketing Profs on why creating a single blog post on a particular subject is no longer good enough. You need to learn how to re-purpose your content – in a major way.

Dun recommends an approach he calls ‘extreme reuse’, that is building out and spreading one idea across multiple platforms. He suggests you start by considering everything you do as fodder for content, whether it’s a call with clients, a brainstorm, an article you read, a conversation, trends… Then figure out how you can take your concept and adapt it to other channels including blog posts, slides, webinars, Google hangouts, infographics, video, email marketing, etc.

Gini talks about all the content she creates – and how she doesn’t know where she’ll find the time to do any more…

That’s where having a talented and diverse team comes in. In order for extreme reuse to be effective, organizations need people with different areas of expertise to add their perspective to a story and bring it to life in various media.

Martin suggests we should also look at things strategically and realize not every idea is a big enough to merit that much reuse. So be selective.

Is content marketing something you can do on your own or do you need partners who are good at other things and who can create a series of social objects around a subject or a theme?

We’d love to hear what you think.

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Inside PR 3.16: Measurement – Shonali Burke style

November 22, 2012 • admin • PR

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Martin recaps meshmarketing 12. Among his highlights are singer/songwriter David Usher’s creative presentation that combined storytelling, images, video, and illustrating his points in song; and Kristina Halvorson’s observation that much of what passes for content on websites is online garbage. She urges us to start thinking more strategically and stop polluting. Watch for the upcoming video interviews we’re producing with Lee Odden, Kristina Halvorson and David Usher.

This week, we feature a PRSA International Conference interview with Shonali Burke, VP, Digital and Marketing at MSL Washington and creator of the Waxing Unlyrical blog. Shonali talks about one of her favourite topics: measurement and why it’s important to communicators.

She advises us to shift our mindsets from output to outcome and embed this type of thinking into our programs in order to demonstrate how our work actually achieves business goals.

She encourages communicators to perform measurement tests and present the results to clients as a way to educate them on how PR and social media programs can correlate to business outcomes.

Looking ahead, Shonali thinks we must all pay more attention to measurement and understanding analytics ; we should focus on storytelling – that is going back to what PR is really about and; we must learn how to become community managers and tell our stories directly to the audiences we’re trying to reach.

It’s always a real pleasure catching up with Shonali!

And on behalf of Gini, Joe, Kristine and me, we want to wish all our American friends a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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Inside PR 3.15: Gamification with Shel Holtz

November 9, 2012 • admin • PR

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Martin Waxman and Joe Thornley talk with Gini Dietrich about the elections and the United States does, indeed, have a newly re-elected President.

We also talk about the interesting phenomenon of the differences between the west and east coasts during Hurricane Sandy, which Joe likens to being at a funeral and half the attendees are cracking jokes. And we discussed citizen journalism and the strange trend journalists are faced with fact-finding and creating authenticity of a story based on a single tweet or Facebook update.

But we quickly got into the meat of the podcast, which is an interview with Shel Holtz about his session at the PRSA International Conference: Gamification.

Shel talks about how PR professionals need to think beyond our normal tactics and find a way to connect our brands or client’s brands to gaming. But, to include gamification in our programs, we need to have an understanding of human behavior, sociology, anthropology, and psychology.

Doing so can great an immersive experience for your customers, which creates kinship and loyalty.

To Martin’s point, though, you can’t stick badges on your site and call that gamification.

Listen to what Shel has to say about gamification as a game changer and see the slides he presented at IABC earlier this year.

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Inside PR 3.14: Content Marketing Secrets from Lee Odden

November 5, 2012 • admin • PR

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Following up on our last episode, Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich and Joseph Thornley, talk about another great interview they recorded at the PRSA International Conference in San Francisco.

This week, we feature Joe’s discussion with Lee Odden about his successful approach to content marketing.

Odden is the author of Optimize – ‘How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing’. He is also the CEO of @TopRank Online Marketing, a Minneapolis based digital marketing agency specializing in strategic internet marketing consulting, training and implementation services including: content, search, email and social media marketing.

Joe and Odden talk about the book, the ‘people’ behind the SEO, and how to strategically integrate other distribution channels beyond social media and email marketing to promote your content.

Lee Odden is one of the featured speakers at the 2012 meshmarketing conference in Toronto on Nov. 7.

Inside PR will also be there to talk to more thought-leaders and digital innovators and keep you up-to-date with digital trends in our industry.

Watch the video interview on the Inside PR YouTube channel:

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