B2B Monday Myth: All I Need Is a Press Release
by MGB2B
The Myth: All I Need Is A Press Release
The Truth: The PR Landscape Has Evolved, and B2B Brands Must Evolve with It
The nature of public relations has changed. The truth is, traditional PR cannot exist on its own anymore. Your company cannot skirt by with just a press release, hoping that newspapers, television, and radio will pick up your story. Technology and the rise of digital marketing have forced both B2C and B2B brands to broaden their PR strategy. The way information is shared is different, and your business must adapt if you plan to remain relevant and get your stories out to the right people at the right time.
The Integration of Different Departments
In the past, PR would have its own separate silo. When social media first blossomed, it was largely separate from PR. Now, public relations must integrate with social media and other digital marketing efforts for more engaged customers and better results.
SEO is also an important part of public relations today. Your press releases can go much further with the right links and keywords. These tools also give you the ability to better target your prospects and track results. This way, you can find out which stories resonate most with the audiences you’re trying to reach and back your decisions with concrete data.
Increased Speed of Communication
Information today moves faster than ever. Gone are the days when drafting and distributing a press release was a multi-day process. Companies today benefit from preparing stories ahead of time and developing a cohesive strategy for distributing them through multiple channels and media.
Public relations, at its core, is still very much about building and nurturing relationships. Going the extra mile to write in a form that is easily convertible for your contact, who will (hopefully) be publishing your work, will go a long way and get your stories out faster. Let them know where they can find more information, such as on your website or social media channels to speed up the process and keep your company top of mind.
A Bigger Network of Storytellers
Today, people aren’t solely relying on national publications and TV news channels as the only important and credible source of information. With the rise of social media, there could be any number of people talking about your company. Identifying influencers in your industry, whether they’re respected bloggers, YouTube personalities, or trusted trade publications, can help you shape your stories and who you want reading them. Engage and cultivate relationships with these influencers and you could see your stories reaching their networks of dedicated followers.
Improve Relationships With Trade Publications
Print is not dead. Which is why it’s important to cultivate good relationships with trade publications for editorial preference and customized digital opportunities. Leveraging a media buy and keeping up your advertising with a specific trade publication is a great way to get better PR for your company.
As the public relations landscape continues to change, it will become more critical to stay on top of digital trends and maintain valuable connections. While B2B companies should not overlook traditional media and trade publications, you should look for ways to stay connected online and make your PR content even more shareable. Telling your brand’s story is an important part of connecting with your audience and reaching new ones.
Continue Reading6 Ways to Use Twitter Moments for B2B Brands
by MGB2B
Photo Source: Twitter Blog
Twitter has been bending over backwards to gain new users. You may have noticed a slew of new features such as: “What’s Happening?” at login, a channel-wide push for live video, and notifications that tell you what people you follow are saying on Twitter. Yet, what is possibly the most useful tool Twitter has released in the past several weeks seems to have slipped under the radar: Twitter Moments. The feature is accessible to everyone as of a few weeks ago. And it is now available for use on mobile for the first time!).
A Little Background on Moments
Maybe you remember all of the pomp and circumstance around the release of Moments in late 2015, topped off with a TV ad campaign earlier this year. Moments launched as a feature visible to all Twitter users, but customizable by only a few. These collections of five to ten tweets about topics like science, sports, and entertainment were curated exclusively by Twitter employees and select publishers, leaving average users rather disconnected. Now that they are available for all users to create and with the ease of using your phone, Twitter Moments for B2B brands can become a useful tool in your social media arsenal.
Unlike a single retweet, a Twitter Moment allows you to collect and share several tweets at once from other users. For example, if you were to create a Twitter Moment about Elon Musk’s recent presentation on traveling to Mars, you may have selected a tweet from The Verge showing people flooding into the room, a tweet from a fellow viewer as Musk took the stage, and several tweets highlighting main points Musk made, as well as questions from the audience. While none of these tweets came from you personally, they would represent discussions and points of view that interest you.
Once you have a handle on how to create them, check out these 6 ways to use Twitter Moments for B2B brands:
- Cover events and trade shows. B2B trade shows create a flurry of great tweets and exchanges between exhibitors and visitors. In addition to pumping out content about your own experience at the show, use a Twitter Moment to aggregate 10 or so tweets that sum up the event. You or someone on your social media team can create Moments as in-the-moment updates during the show or as a summary of each day of the event.
- Offer commentary on conferences. Similar to the trade show tips above, Twitter Moments can create valuable summaries of conferences, webinars, workshops, and other live events for you and your followers. A Moment consisting of tweets posted throughout the presentation can help demonstrate your company’s perspective on a topic or simply act as an outline of the information you just received.
- Bolster product launches. Many trade publications rely on social media just as heavily as email to distribute news about new B2B products. As you send out your press release, create a Moment to aggregate tweets from these publications as they spread your news on Twitter.
- Follow market trends. Use Moments to track things that impact your industry (or your customers’ industries) such as new regulations, research, and other changes. Follow emerging technologies that could become new applications for your company’s products. Or monitor fluctuations in market value.
- Showcase your company’s interests. Does your company support a cause? Or are you closely tied to the surrounding community? Help your followers learn more about your company by sharing Moments about things that are important to you.
- Position your CEO as a thought leader. A CEO who maintains an active social media presence can offer many benefits to their company. Most importantly, it ties a personality and face to the company. This creates a persona customers can connect with. It’s a great way to demonstrate interest in things that impact the company’s well being. Yet with only 39% of Fortune 500 CEOs using social media, many Twitter users following B2B companies don’t know who CEOs are or what interests them. This is something you can take the lead on.
Now that the feature has been extended for use on mobile, Twitter Moments for B2B brands can become an even more versatile tool for PR and event coverage. Time to seize the Moment!
Continue Reading5 Ways U.S. Manufacturers Can Reap the Rewards of Election Season
by MGB2B
As we all know too well, election season is upon us. And whether you’re a staunch conservative, an unbending liberal, or anything in between, manufacturing is an important part of the conversation. In fact, according to Pew Research, the economy is the top issue for Americans in this election. If you watched the first debate, manufacturing came up at least once or twice in the conversation. That’s because, while the U.S. may face obstacles when it comes to manufacturing, it is still one of the most important drivers of our economy.
So how can you capitalize on this?
The key is for manufacturing companies to show Americans what they do for the economy, how they are creating jobs, coming up with new innovations, and driving America forward. A candidate for local, state, or even U.S. office might pick up your positive story and bring it to the public as an example of success (which can be good or bad depending on how people feel about the candidate). And if you’re really lucky, a national news organization may even cover your story.
Here Are 5 Storytelling Tips for Manufacturers during Election Season:
- Blog About It. Brainstorm the ways you contribute to American progress and get a blog post about it (or even a series) up on your website as soon as you can.
- Promote Those Blogs. Once you have them written, distribute your blogs on your social media sites and email them out to your database. Twitter allows you to promote them frequently and use appropriate hashtags so that industry people (and others) will take notice.
- Shop Your Story Out to Trade Pubs. Send a good old fashioned press release to the publications you deal with most, especially the ones who run your ads regularly.
- Shop Your Story Out Beyond Your Own World. A good, human story about the economy is valuable not just to people in your industry, but to bigger news organizations. If it’s a strong story and it’s written well, they might just pick it up.
- Make a Video. Obviously, time is running out to get in on this election, so this may not be an option for you unless you have an in-house team or an agency that can pull off a great video before November. But a video that shows your company’s progress and tells the story about how you are contributing to the American economy can go a long way. And it’s something that can live online long after the election is over. Sending a video to accompany your press release increases the likelihood that your story will grab the attention of news organizations. Who knows? They may even want to use a clip on TV.
You won’t know the possibilities until you try it. So if you truly have a great manufacturing story, and you think it’s time for America to hear it, put it out there. At this point, voters are aching to hear a positive story. You might as well be the bearer of good news.
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