Homegrown vs. fee-based databases
Regardless of the tools used — from Outlook and Excel to subscription-based services — organization is a must. PR practitioners use various methods, based on their individual needs, preferences and organizational styles.

Michael Levey, senior strategist with Zer0 to 5ive in Devon, Pa., for instance, says: “I have each account in a different Outlook folder. Under each account folder I have sub-folders — local contacts, trade contacts, op-ed contacts, etc. I save one email from each reporter into the folder, and then when I have an announcement, before I even make a media list, I immediately email all my saved contacts in Outlook.” Levey says he thinks the process works well because reporters are able to see the email strand and it allows him to get information out quickly when necessary.

“Spamming journalists will kill a career quicker than batting an eye.”

Dianna Stampfler with Promote Michigan manages contacts through Outlook and Constant Contact. “My media lists — 50-plus as of today — have more than 3,000 contacts,” she says. “I break them into categories — golf, fly fishing, wine, beer, hospitality, winter sports, senior, women, men, radio, TV, newspaper, magazine, freelancers, online — so that I can target my messages.” Stampfler also maintains an “A-list” of media in Michigan interested in most of the news she’s sending. “I usually send releases to them a day, or at least several hours, in advance so they can get a jump on everyone else.”

“Besides the usual database of media contacts, I create notebooks or binders of media for a variety of given topics and arrange them by the media format they represent such as local, national, radio, dot com, blogs, etc.,” says Janet Hansen, with Brio Public Relations. “For each project I work on, I build a media file with a tracking system that helps me keep track of the many media contacts made, follow-ups and what the outcome or comments are from journalists,” says Hansen. “Spamming journalists will kill a career quicker than batting an eye.” Hansen also subscribes to PartyLine, a weekly update that helps her keep track of changes. “Some people believe PartyLine is outdated and others are surprised it’s still in business,” she admits, but says, “I really couldn’t do without it right now.”

“It’s better to devote time researching what 10 of your top targets have written over the past month and writing a thoughtful pitch to each, rather than hitting 100 contacts who will most likely just hit delete.”

Jordan McAuley with Celebrity PR in New York uses the Groups feature of Gmail to stay organized and on top of contacts. “It’s great for organizing contacts and keeping track of correspondence,” says McAuley. “When planning media campaigns, I create spreadsheets using Google Docs with names, addresses, titles, phone and fax numbers, etc. Using both Gmail and Google Docs allows me to access my contacts anywhere, even when traveling.”

Jennifer Leckstrom, an account executive with Rose Communications, a boutique PR firm based in Hoboken, N.J., says, “It’s important to keep in mind that the quality of a list is much more important than the number of contacts the list contains. It’s better to devote time researching what 10 of your top targets have written over the past month and writing a thoughtful pitch to each, rather than hitting 100 contacts who will most likely just hit delete as soon as possible. While it is time-intensive, reporters and bloggers alike typically appreciate this approach.”

Leckstrom recommends setting up Google news alerts for desired topics. “Work by reporters covering the topic will be delivered right to your inbox.” Stampfler also uses Google alerts. “For every PR client I have, I set up a Google alert — sending them to myself and the client. I also have alerts set up for the industries I represent in Michigan. That way, when a story appears somewhere I can keep up on what the media is saying.” Then, she says, she sends a note to the reporter thanking them for writing about Michigan as a travel destination and asking if she can add them to her permanent media list and which category they’d prefer to be listed in. “Two years ago I read an article by an established wine writer online and invited him to visit Michigan’s wine region. Just this week, I had the pleasure of touring him around the state as he gathered information for an article for Travel+Leisure,” she says.

Sara Dobie with Sylvan Dell Publishing in Mount Pleasant, S.C., uses Cision. “By entering a couple simple bits of info, I can track down a beer reporter in Akron, Ohio. Why would I need to get in touch with a beer reporter in Akron, Ohio? Who knows? The important thing is I can,” she says. “You can save your searches, too. This is ideal, in my industry, for debuting children’s picture book authors. If one of my authors lives in Frisco, Texas, for instance, I can pinpoint the local book review editor before you can say, ‘Where is Frisco, Texas anyway?’”

Regardless of the tool or process used, says Christine Randle with DPR Group, a small Washington, D.C.-based PR firm which primarily serves technology-based clients, building media lists is “an extremely time-consuming process.”

It is imperative, she says, that lists are built carefully, scrubbed frequently and adequately maintained so they are up to date. That is an increasing challenge, she admits because “especially today, editors and writers move around often.” In addition to relying on well-maintained lists, Randle and others are turning to social media to help them build and maintain relationships with reporters.

Cull key data with social media
At Merlot Marketing, says Zsavonne Heathcock, “we have found social media to be a great tool to stay up-to-date and gain timely understanding of the assignments on which the reporters are working.” For example, says Heathcock, “We have been asking many of our media contacts if we can connect with them on sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter. By reviewing their profiles and updates, we are able to gain more insight into the stories they cover [and] what interests them, and it allows us the opportunity to pitch them directly when they are looking for the information we have to offer. “As social media becomes more integrated into traditional public relations, we foresee that this will be one of the primary ways to keep in touch,” says Heathcock.

Randle uses social media extensively, although she notes that the types of clients she works with — B2B companies — “are taking a longer time to get on the social media bandwagon.” Still, she says, she’s using the tools to establish relationships with editors and reporters and has a Facebook fan page and Twitter account that have been useful. She warns against using social media tools to “pitch,” though. “Social media is a way to offer information about your client to the media, but you have to be very careful.” Randle also watches postings and follows specific people to keep on top of what’s going on in her areas of interest. “Do a search — find out who’s talking about what — read their Tweets and follow them.”

If you’re not already using social media tools, start experimenting, suggests Randle, who emphasizes that the tool(s) you select should be focused on your audience. MySpace, she notes, is probably not going to be good for B2Bs — LinkedIn probably is. “If you aren’t using social media at all, dip your toes in the water. Start with LinkedIn; It’s completely B2B, and there are a lot of tools you can use,” says Randle.

The bottom line: Everything new is old again
Despite useful new media tools, ultimately generating results through PR efforts is still all about building relationships and paying attention. All of the social media, online databases and email management practices in the world won’t guarantee success if pitches are off-target or fail to connect with key contacts.

The same rule is still true, says Lieberman: “The best practice is consistent monitoring of your space. Social media helps with this consistent monitoring, but you still have to do the work by actually reading what your RSS feeds and email newsletters and Twitter posts are saying.”

Martin Arnold, with PR and Publicity Services in Trumbull, Conn., has been in the PR business for 30 years and has been teaching PR at the University of Connecticut for about 15. “I can tell you that while online tools are great, as are service bureaus like PR Newswire, nothing beats getting on the phone with editors, when they have a spare moment, to find out who is doing what,” says Arnold. “Journalism is so dynamic these days that even online resources are a step behind most recent changes.”
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Lin Grensing-Pophal is a freelance business journalist and independent marketing communication consultant.

As the landscape of influencers continues to evolve, we’re finding most of our clients are ready to explore new ways of reaching their customers. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is synonymous with the holidays and we’re excited to help make this year’s season a success by tapping new information gatekeepers and holding a two-way conversation directly with show-goers. Happy Holidays!

But that’s exactly what some critical customers are encountering online, as banks expand customer service operations into the digital frontier.

Plenty of businesses have sought to capitalize on growing social media forums like Twitter, the microblogging site that allows users to “tweet” messages of 140 characters or less to “followers” online. That stodgy, behemoth banks like Bank of America (BAC Quote) and Wells Fargo (WFC Quote) are among them may seem more surprising to some.

BofA and Wells have set up pages on Twitter to reach out to disgruntled customers, and be available to those who prefer tweeting questions or complaints, rather than deal with them on a phone call or branch visit. Customer service representatives even change profile photographs and introduce themselves by first name when changing shifts.

Toronto Dominion (TD Quote) doesn’t have a page like that, but still reached out to Lisa Tibbitts after she posted two tweets about what she considered shoddy online banking services. A representative from a branch in Pelham, N.Y. called her twice to find out the issues, and inform her that the service was set to be improved in September, offering to help Tibbitts learn the new features.

“TD Bank handled the situation in exactly the right way,” says Tibbitts, who happens to work in public relations. She tweeted about the positive turn of events to over 400 followers, many of whom would be interested to know since she represents financial services firms.

Social media experts say interest in online media like Twitter has taken off in the financial industry. Rosemary Ostmann, who counsels banks on strategies, recently gave a presentation on “building buzz” using Twitter at an American Bankers Association forum. “There was a huge amount of interest,” says Ostmann, who runs public relations firm Rose Communications. She adds that banks already building a presence on Twitter are “ahead of the curve.”

Whether or not they’re already on the site, banks are keeping a close eye on competitors’ strategies to avoid pitfalls. They hope to capitalize on Twitter’s popularity to win new business, and win over the hearts and minds of consumers who are frustrated with taxpayer-funded bank bailouts and what they perceive as greedy and unscrupulous practices. It could be an uphill battle, if David Broudy, who posted an impolite tweet about a transaction with Bank of America on Aug. 8, is any indication.

“I thought I’d paid off my last cent of debt and you buzzards want another $16 for interest?” said Broudy. “Kiss my…”

And so on.

Broudy’s sentiment is echoed by others across the online gamut, from Twitter to Facebook and MySpace to online diaries that have complained of the injustices of bank fees for as long as anyone has been blogging.

Addressing those complaints has had mixed results, though banks report that the response has been more favorable than negative. Some users turn from obscenities to pleasantries. They seem to be in a state of shock and slight embarrassment, thinking: Was my curse-laden, informal attack on a large corporate enterprise just responded to directly, on a human level?

But others, like Chris Pugh, are not so easily charmed.

Pugh posted a tweet that he’d be closing out his BofA account after crummy customer service experiences on the phone and at a local branch. BofA rep David Knapp responded with a, “Hello! I work for Bank of America. Please let me know if I can try to help!”

But as Pugh’s ensuing blog post — titled “Bank of America Customer Service Fail” — made clear, he was already too frustrated with his experience to be wooed. He seemed to poke fun at the bank’s overly polite gesture.

“I’m sorry @BofA_help,” Pugh writes, “not even your tweet can save this account.”

Something in Pugh’s humorous post rings true. It’s difficult to believe that big old Bank of America, with its $2.25 trillion balance sheet, is truly concerned about each customer’s happiness. Of course part of its strategy is intended to boost the bottom line and restore a badly tainted public image.

It’s equally difficult to harmonize conflicting images of Wells Fargo’s iconic, 150-year-old stage coach with its thumbnail photo of Jay, who tweets at a user with the handle “robynzombie” or posts about envelope-free ATMs.

But, there it is: 21st century banking.

“It’s where our customers are,” says Jenn McDonald, senior vice president of digital marketing at Bank of America.

McDonald says that BofA’s decision to launch a Twitter page in January was “fairly intuitive.” She notes that the bank recently reached benchmarks of one million deposits at ATM machines in a single day, and 3 million users who have signed up for mobile banking. In other words, if customers are banking outside of the branches and need assistance online on various platforms, BofA aims to serve.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote) is more cautious about Twitter.

“We’re looking at it,” says spokesman Tom Kelly. “We haven’t really announced anything yet.”

Citigroup (C Quote) has taken a different approach. It has several different accounts, all pitching products, attracting talent or distributing other types of information. However, it has not yet launched a central customer-service hub on Twitter like BofA or Wells. PNC (PNC Quote) also has an account with a few posts that promote products and press releases. Though their strategies may be developing, social media experts warn against their current ones.

“It has to be a conversation; it can’t be an advertising channel,” says Ostmann.

Twitter users may want product and service information from a tech giant like Apple (AAPL Quote), Google (GOOG Quote), H-P (HPQ Quote) or Dell (DELL Quote), and they may want coupons and sale information from a retail giant like Wal-Mart (WMT Quote). But by and large, customers reach out to banks to store and borrow money, and to complain, making an online service like BofA_Help or Ask_WellsFargo the most useful.

Andy Rohm, a marketing professor at Northeastern University, agrees. Users don’t want to engage with banks that “hawk their wares,” he says.

For their part, neither BofA nor Wells say they have no current plans to tweet sales pitches.

Wells’ marketing staff has been analyzing and tweaking its social media strategy since 2006 as new trends emerge. The company launched the Ask_WellsFargo Twitter account in March, but also maintains accounts on Facebook and News Corp.’s (NWSA Quote) MySpace, as well as five blogs and a channel on Google’s (GOOG Quote) YouTube.

Matt Wadley, who is part of that team, calls Twitter the “social network du jour,” noting that the staff has to think on its feet in a fast-paced media landscape.

“I don’t think that we can really speak to the future plans,” he says. “It’s just becoming such a part of everything, who knows where it will be used best down the road. But right now it’s just about being there for our customer.”

However, Rohm’s work with the Netherlands’ Rabobank may hold some clues about the future.

Rabobank created a virtual bot named Yvette, who can help multiple customers with difficulties and complaints.

She engages users through individual chats on MSN, and has profile on a Facebook-like service called Hyves. She also brings up facts mentioned in previous conversations to foster a less android-like relationship with the user. “She can respond in both functional and social chat,” says Rohm. “She might engage with you saying, ‘Hey it’s nice to chat with you again. How was your trip to Barcelona?’”

On some level it seems strange, but maybe Yvette is the perfect representation of a global financial institution trying to interact with people. Yvette’s red hair, ruby lips and delicate features provide an identity and imply a youthful friendliness. According to her profile, she’s is in a relationship and lives with her partner. When she’s not on the job, she likes to hang out at the Heineken Music Hall.

Anyone who’s frustrated by an overdraft fee — or just bored or lonely — can reach her via email or MSN chat at yvette@rabobank.nl.

– Written by Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York. Follow Lauren on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TSCLauren.

Duration: October 2008 to May 2009

Budget: $40,000

Overview When the economy collapsed, Context-Based Research Group, an ethnographic research firm, teamed up with sister integrated advertising agency, Carton Donofrio Partners, to create “Grounding the American Dream: A Cultural Study on the Future of Consumerism in a Changing Economy.”

The companies created the study in anticipation that their clients, which have included Bristol-Myers Squibb and Microsoft, and prospective clients “would need this information down the road,” according to Dr. Robbie Blinkoff, principal anthropologist at Context.

Strategy Despite an initial slow pick up when the study was released in December, AOR Rose Communications continued its efforts to help the report gain traction, says Victoria Grantham, MD at Rose Communications.

The team directed outreach toward past, present, and potential clients, as well as key media to showcase the “value of [the] anthropological position and ethnography,” Blinkoff says. It also used the study to better position the sister agencies, in context of the kind of insight they could provide and their ability to serve as experts.

Grantham noted that as the recession really took hold, interest in the study began to increase, particularly in February and March.

Tactics Strategic planning and initial outreach to culture reporters for the forthcoming study started in October, and a press release and microsite announced its release in December.

Later media targets included economic and political outlets. Traffic to the site was driven via Twitter, Facebook, and blog posts on Context’s “The Roots” and the agency’s “PRose.” Rose Communications also assisted with the key messaging, editing, and distribution of a letter to current and prospective clients.

Results In addition to garnering new business leads, approximately 575 people downloaded the study. Also, Context presented findings to six prospects on their request, including Wells Fargo.

Executive experts appeared in The New York Times, as well as the Financial Times and The Baltimore Sun. Also, Blinkoff will serve as the keynote speaker at the International Sleep Products Association in November. Citibank included a reference to the study in one of its internal Global Thematic Investing Reports, which came out March 27.

Future With the first phase of the campaign finished, Blinkoff says the agency will continue to better position the executive experts, with more appearances and media coverage, including bylined pieces.

From the June 01, 2009 Issue of PRWeek