For some time now, our major pro bono client here at inmedia has been the Ottawa-based charity Help Lesotho. Although we originally became aware of this group because of my personal connection to Lesotho, where I spent five highly formative pre-teen years, we have stuck with the organization because we are in awe of the dedication and passion of its volunteers and supporters and, most of all, of the clear impact they are having every day on the lives and futures of the young people of Lesotho with whom they work.

Help Lesotho has just released a new video that documents this impact in the words and life experiences of a few of its young leaders and others. Lesotho’s situation is complex and often seems overwhelming and even irredeemable. But the voices you will hear in this video are testament to the human spirit, to the audacity of hope, as U.S. presidential aspirant Barrack Obama has put it, and to the tenacity of Help Lesotho and the young people who benefit from its programming. One life at a time, one group of young people at a time, one school at a time, new skills and leadership are being developed. It is in this way that a person, a group, a village and, eventually, an entire nation, will heal and grow.

Technorati Tags: Lesotho, HIV/AIDS, Africa, leadership

In case you missed any of these posts the first time around, here’s a roundup of everything we published this month.

Francis
India a challenging but promising market, entrepreneurs hear
inmedia’s “Team iPhone” triggers productivity crash
It’s easy building green

Danny
Do social networking sites play a role in B2B PR?
Tools are great, but they can’t do PR!
Checking out the Scottish Technology Showcase
Top business mags embrace social networking

Linda
Bulldog Reporter weighs in about online newsrooms
Best practices for your online newsroom
Providing the media with the tools they need to cover your company
Database maintenance
Components of an integrated PR program: Media monitoring

Jill
When and how to inquire about editorial calendar opportunities

inmedia
Not all journalists are angry
Major publisher of technology media titles declares bankruptcy

Peter Kemball
2008 Canadian budget a boon for entrepreneurs

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, B2B PR, B2B public relations, online newsrooms, press center, iPhone, social networks, 2008 Canadian budget, Ziff Davis bankruptcy

Since writing my last post about social networking and PR, I have learned about recent social networking tie-ins involving two of the world’s leading business publications, Fast Company and Business Week.

Fast Company kicked things off earlier this month, with company president, Edward Sussman, stating that it was “the first major media website to tackle the following problem: Can a business publication blend journalism and online community to create something better than either by itself?”

And then there was this week’s news that Business Week is partnering up with LinkedIn, the popular networking site for business professionals.

Both deals show a keen interest on the part of major media to broaden their horizons to include social networking. Great to see this kind of positive response from the top tier of the media sector.

Technorati Tags: social networking, social networks, social media, business media, business magazines, business publications, journalism, online community, Fast Company, Business Week

This morning’s Bulldog Reporter Daily Dog newsletter, a daily missive that shares PR news, views and tools, had an interesting article about online newsrooms and shares some anecdotes about companies that are good examples (Apple) and bad examples (Dell) of how to provide your media information online. The piece is an interesting companion to my post from yesterday and indeed drives home the importance of providing valuable, relevant and timely information to the media through your web site.

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, online newsrooms, press center

Last week, I wrote about the basic materials that, when combined with your media kit, will provide the media with all of the components that they need in order to cover your company, with or without your input. In addition to having these materials at the ready, in the hands of your agency, it’s best to house all of these components along with your media kit in an online newsroom on your web site. Here are our recommendations to a best practices approach for building and maintaining your online newsroom:

• a clear link to it from the front page of the corporate web site (and clear navigation back to the home page once you’re in the newsroom);
• a one-paragraph corporate overview on the landing page, full contact information and further links to:
• corporate backgrounder, executive biographies, product descriptions and other support materials (essentially the contents of a media kit). This section can also include good quality jpegs of the company logo, and head shots of executives;
• current and archived news releases;
• media coverage published on other sites or for which you have obtained a license to post on your own site. In the former, the link should open in a new window; in the latter, it should open a PDF page within the site.

We have recently launched several clients that have done a great job of following these guidelines on their own web sites: Essential Life Data and Singletouch. Visit their sites and see if there are any improvements that you could make to your company’s site, based on the guidelines above.

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, online newsrooms, press center

Ottawa technology entrepreneurs were reminded again this morning that India is the world’s second-fastest growing market encompassing 1.1 billion consumers, 300 million of them middle class and about 500 million of them under 25, and that with a confluence of manpower, money and a can-d0 attitude, it’s a market most technology companies will want to consider.

At the same time, Peter Sommerer, a veteran of Ottawa’s telecom sector who now advises companies on how to do business on the sub-continent, warned that there are still many challenges associated with chasing that opportunity. Quoting his former boss and current investment partner Terry Matthews, Sommerer said, “If it wasn’t easy, everyone would be doing it.”

Sommerer, who heads up consulting firm Erlauf Holding, was speaking to the regular Dollars and Sense CFO’s forum along with Raj Narula, co-founder of TaraSpan Group, which also helps companies explore business opportunities in India. The two also presented what they called a platform that has been developed by TaraSpan and Matthews’s private investment company, Wesley Clover, that technology companies can use to expedite their entry into the Indian market.

Technorati Tags: India, international business, entrepreneurship

At the outset of an engagement with a new client, we have a checklist of materials that we need to develop for the media and analysts to whom we are about to roll out the company, in order for these influencers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the company and its offerings. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, backgrounders on the company and the technology, biographies of key spokespeople, a fact sheet that provides information at a glance, and a news release to front the information package. Still, there are additional materials that are of great value and that ideally should be available at the time of the launch.

Chief among these additional materials is images. We work hard to ensure that the printed words that we’re sending out on our clients’ behalf do a good job of telling their story, but as the adage goes, a picture tells a thousand words. If your company offers products, have available high-resolution (minimum 300 dpi) images of the product in action that would be suitable for printing alongside your product announcement. If your key spokespeople will be quoted in the media, or if you plan on sending out hiring announcements, high-resolution images of your company’s executive team or that new hire will be requested. It’s also good to have your company logo available to any outlet that might be interested.

Rather than sending all of this information unsolicited to media and analyst targets, just have materials at the ready and when requests come in, they’re easily fulfilled. Another, and perhaps the best approach, is to have a fully stocked newsroom on your web site that houses all of the components I’ve listed above. I’ll address our best practices approach on web newsrooms, and links to some sites that do it particularly well, in a future post.

Technorati Tags: media relations, public relations, PR

Supported by the recent news of AOL’s acquisition of popular social networking site Bebo for $850 million, it is clear that the phenomenon continues to be considered an influential and valuable market segment.

And there is little doubt that social networking represents a significant new marketing channel for consumer-oriented products companies. Indeed, there are already many strategies and approaches out there advising on just such a topic, and viral marketing has never been so popular as a result.

But what does it mean for the B2B sector? Are social networking strategies an important PR component for companies selling enterprise software solutions or new server technology?

Well, we’re probably not talking Facebook or Bebo here. As far as I’m aware, these sites don’t yet host large groups of CIOs swapping tales of ROI and disaster recovery strategies.

But social networking extends beyond the realm of those well-known sites, and there are networks catering to members holding virtually every job description known to humankind.

Still, although such networks do present opportunities for PR professionals, any strategy to target them should be carefully considered. You can’t join a networking group and then start spamming everyone with your news releases… well, I suppose you can, but you won’t be in the group for very long!

A consumer product company will seek to generate excitement and interest for its products among social networkers in its target demographic, and a B2B vendor must seek to do the same. And in doing so to a (usually) well-educated and (almost always) sceptical audience, the approach and method must be well thought out.

As with contributions to conventional media outlets, companies seeking to influence such networks must present value to the audience and should not embark on blatant pitches for business. Providing relevant, interesting and thought provoking content is key.

Social networking is all about sharing - and this philosophy must be upheld by those seeking to take advantage of it.

Technorati Tags: social networking, social networks, public relations, PR, B2B public relations, B2b PR

Arguably one of the least favourite tasks that we PR folks must do is database maintenance, ensuring that media and analyst contacts and corresponding contact information (phone number, fax, email, address, etc.) are kept up to date. This is one of those “invisible to the client” tasks that we undertake on your behalf that greatly impacts the effectiveness of your campaign or program, but cannot be seen by the naked eye.

There is a wide variety of database programs that media relations practitioners can use, from software solutions like Filemaker Pro and ACT! to online solutions like Salesforce. One attribute they all share is that the inputted data needs to be kept relevant and up to date in order to be of real value.

Inevitably, people change roles or publications or leave the field entirely while new outlets appear and need to be added to your database. Keeping on top of these changes can be difficult if left for too long. Best practices would suggest that routine maintenance is the best way to stay on top of changes that affect your database.

Because we at inmedia never assume that we have the right contacts already in our database for a new client, we do extensive research at the outset of our engagement to build a relevant media and analyst list, with current contacts and accurate contact information. Still, despite our best efforts, a few of the emails may bounceback when we initially send out the release. We immediately get on the phone to find out whether the contact has moved on, whether the outlet has ceased publication or if there’s a new email address that we should be using. By inputting the new data as soon as we learn that what is currently in the database is out of date, and resending the materials to the corrected address, we ensure that we’re keeping on top of this activity before the task becomes unwieldy.

There is no easy, one-step solution to maintaining one’s database. Even the online media databases that purport to be comprehensive are wildly out of date in areas and unreliable. It’s absolutely imperative that your agency does the legwork to maintain its database so that your materials are reaching the intended recipients in a timely fashion. If there’s a new relevant outlet or contact, they should be added promptly so that the appropriate contact details are in place for when your agency sends out your next news release, is looking for suitable story pitch targets or scanning editorial calendars for pertinent opportunities. It’s not glamorous, but it’s important.

Technorati Tags: media relations, public relations, PR, contact databases, database maintenance

I’ve been approached by a few companies over the past few weeks, all of whom were offering some PR tool or another designed to make the life of the PR consultant that little bit easier. Often at first glance, these tools seem to offer some snazzy new features, but after you sit down and think “what is this actually going to do for me, and more importantly, my client” you begin to realize that, in many cases, these tools offer little in the way of true value.

Now, of course, I’m not saying that we should all arm ourselves with nothing more than a phone, pencil and paper. Technology is a marvelous thing and there are some great PR tools out there, many of which I use myself, but some careful discernment should be used when making the decision to add a new one to your arsenal.

The technology products and services available to PR folk are many and varied and many of them perform the same or similar tasks as others. Don’t end up in the position where you are paying for three separate tools that all provide the same basic functions. And never assume that some great-sounding features will mean the thing actually delivers on its promise… always try before you buy.

Also, it must be remembered that, while software, web services, outsourced resources and so on can go a long way in helping lower the poor flack’s workload, they still do not understand your client’s stories the way that you do. Putting your faith and your client’s PR program in the hands of a piece of code is risky business.

By all means, use technology, but remember who is supposed to be the expert here.

Technorati Tags: public relations, PR, media relations, technology tools