WordSmith › Fishing For Media Hits, Swimming With Social Media

Words of the Day

“It matters not how many fish are in the sea – if you don’t have any bait on the hook.” – Anonymous
 

Ways To Land Your Business In The Media

Copy Blogger, a leading online marketing blog, has sharpened the hook that could land a boatload of media hits.  They have created a clever list of 109 foolproof ways to entice the media. Catch the list here.  It’s all about building and cultivating relationships.  Here are WordSmith’s Top 10 baits from the list:

1. Connect on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or in real life more than six months in advance of pitching a reporter.
2. Monitor the Twitter hashtags of your community. Often reporters chat with the public on Twitter, and you can respond to comments they make.
3. Compliment a reporter via Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail on a story he or she did.
4. Introduce yourself to reporters at big public or chamber of commerce events. Pass along your card, but don’t try and sell them the idea on the spot. Just be helpful.
5. Invite reporters out for coffee, and ask a lot of questions about them.
6. Leave a comment at the end of the online version of a story a reporter did, which you genuinely liked.
7. Congratulate them on their birthdays, or other personal news they post.
8. Comb through Muck Rack to find regional or national reporters on Twitter who cover your industry.
9. Write a positive blog post on your blog highlighting a story of theirs, and e-mail them the link.
10. Respond regularly to posts they’ve written either on their blog, or on a local community blog you’ve noticed they post on.

Coca-Cola Cut Ad Spending Nearly 7 percent, Invested In Social Media

The Grocer recently published its Top 100 advertisers report and showed that Coca-Cola cut ad spend by 6.6 percent  in 2010 and invested more in social media, according to Social Media Today.
 
A spokeswoman at Coca-Cola said that while TV is still an important medium for promoting their brands, “many of our recent advertising campaigns and promotions have also utilized online facilities such as Facebook and YouTube.”
 
With the launch of Coke Zone, a social media oriented site which offers Coke drinkers access to exclusive content and rewards, Coca-Cola has clearly tapped the value of integrating offline and online marketing.
 
While Coke Zone is considered to be a valuable point of interaction with consumers, what’s more interesting is that using social media has allowed Coca-Cola to break out of the stop-start cycle of more traditional media campaigns and to start engaging on a more frequent, ongoing basis. Coca-Cola’s social media strategy is clearly about long-term sustainable engagement, developing advocacy and <>encouraging brand loyalty.
 
Social media is not just about campaigns or generating buzz around a new product launch. It can be used to engage with consumers on a consistent basis in order to deepen relationships with a brand.