We live in “there’s an app for that” society. Technology has made our lives easier and less cluttered. We’ve said goodbye to the Rolodex and hello to the Address Book. We’ve traded (mostly) a pile of dusty old magazines in the corner for versions we can view on our tablets.
There are plenty of online tools to help make the job of PR pros easier. Remember the days of faxing press releases and media alerts? So while some advances like email and the ability to post news real-time are incredibly beneficial, we can’t forget the power of the human element.
At our boutique firm, we spend countless hours discussing tracking placements, social media monitoring and list building. Sales reps approach us on an almost weekly basis, touting the latest service of their respective companies. We’ll distribute your release! Listen to what folks are saying about your brand! We’ll analyze! We can find every placement (except when we can’t)! Each one is full of promise, but at the end of the day, these services can’t stand-alone.
The fact is, it is important to know what publications and reporters are covering the topics relevant to your clients. Media monitoring software, both traditional and social, and the algorithms by which they filter content for relevancy and sentiment are fast and literal. I vividly remember one fan’s extremely enthusiastic tweet that included an F bomb, was marked with a negative sentiment. Earlier this month “Domino’s failed to use social media as a human voice for the brand and instead turned a positive earned media opportunity into yet another example of a brand social media fail,” according to Digiday. Clearly human logic and the many uses of four-letter words aren’t understood by these tools.
We’ve tried various tools, but more often than not, they are difficult to trust. A misfired email, an overlooked placement are cringe-inducing incidents for PR people.
Robots and analytics are great, but it’s important to remember the power of the people.