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Turn Right Here Left

February 2, 2012 by kaypaumier

As the political campaigns heats up again (sigh), I’m fascinated by the political labeling. We have red, blue and purple states (and perhaps red, blue and purple people).

We have conservatives, liberals and moderates. (Not too many of that last group, unfortunately.)

And, of course, we have the “right” and the “left.” This is perhaps the most pervasive of the labels, because we use the words so often in daily, non-political speech.

After all, if you’re “right,” you’re “correct.” What a nice, positive statement. But we don’t say someone is “left,” do we?

Any driver will tell you it’s easier to go “right” than go “left.” And it can be tricky to follow the directions to “turn right here left” or “turn left right here.”

But you can be “left” behind (not good, generally, although it might be good in some circumstances). And we say someone “left;” we never say someone “righted.”

As a left-hander, I know too well how much in this world favors the right. I’m reminded of that saying: “If the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, then only left-handed people are in their right minds.”

Who Can You Trust?

January 26, 2012 by kaypaumier

Fully 75 percent of Americans think news organizations generally don’t get the facts right, according to Pew Research. Two-thirds (66 percent) say stories are often inaccurate–a new high–and almost 75 percent believe that journalists try to cover up their mistakes.

Julia Moos discusses these statistics in her article, “Pew: 75 percent of Americans Say Press Can’t Get Their Facts Straight”  (http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/147038/pew-75-of-americans-say-press-cant-get-their-facts-straight/

“Taken together, the findings indicate negative opinions about media are higher than ever,” Moos says.

But even given those dismal percentages, most Americans trust traditional media more than other sources of news.

What does this mean? We believe only a quarter of what we read or hear? If so, why do we repeat (and retweet) so much of this “fiction”? Why do so many bits of news have a greater life on sites like Twitter and Facebook than on traditional media channels?

To venture a guess, I think lots of us feel it is less important to be accurate than to be interesting. Being “interesting” is important (perhaps essential) for many online “communications.”

But being “interesting” (by itself) does not an informed populace make.

TV News Becoming More Popular

January 23, 2012 by kaypaumier

Who would have thought it? Network TV news, which was supposed to be on life support, grew their audiences last season, the first time since 2001-02.

In his article, “New Life in Television’s Evening News” (http://news.yahoo.com/life-televisions-evening-news-105534857.html), AP writer David Bauder says that ABC, CBS and NBC are continuing to add viewers this season. Collectively they are seen by more than 20 million people each weekday.

As Bauder notes: “Many pundits believed evening newscasts would become obsolete with the availability of news 24 hours a day on cable TV and the Internet. Instead, the curating function of the evening news has become more vital.”

It seems that many of us get Internet and news fatigue, and just want someone reputable to sort through things, explain them and give some perspective. I understand, really I do.

NBC is the most popular TV news, followed by ABC and CBS, a rating that hasn’t changed since the days of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather. But the content of at least two of the newscasts has changed somewhat.

With Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” as anchor, CBS “has aired a meat-and-potatoes newscast for a serious time.” The network has devoted more time to foreign policy and economic subjects than either of the other shows.

ABC emphasizes celebrity, health, medicine and family stories more than CBS and NBC. Although it’s called “World News,” the ABC newscast covers foreign affairs and foreign policy less than either CBS or NBC. Diane Sawyer is anchor.

NBC’s “Nightly News” with Brian Williams covers more late-breaking news than ABC or CBS, and spends the most time on natural disasters. It’s also the least-changed broadcast. But when you’re number one, you don’t need to change…much.

New Words Describe Mobile Types

January 12, 2012 by kaypaumier

In the November 13 issue of the New York Times Magazine, Lizzie Shurnick suggests several new words, all geared for cell phone/smartphone users.

“Clogin” is defined as “one who blocks an entrance or exit while checking a smartphone.”

“Mailingerers” are “those who pretend to have messages.”

And “e-ander” is “walking slowly while checking messages.”

I ran into several clogins and mailingerers, not to mention a few e-anderers, just the other day.

It’s amazing how they appear if you’re running late.

LinkedIn Popular with Journalists

November 21, 2011 by kaypaumier

Facebook seems to get all the buzz, but I’ve always been a LinkedIn sort of person. So I was glad to see that journalists are on LinkedIn more than any other social network, according to a survey from Arketi Web Watch Media. http://socialtimes.com/journalists-flock-to-linkedin_b77877

The survey found that 92% of journalists actively use LinkedIn, up from 85% two years ago.

The impact? Besides being a forum for business connections, LinkedIn becomes a publicity vehicle. And that means that sharing your content and information freely on LinkedIn can help you market not only to prospects and business associates, but also to media professionals.

Once you become established as the LinkedIn “go-to” person for particular topics, guess who the reporters will call when they need someone with your expertise?

Just another tool in the publicity tool chest.

Social Networks Soaring, Nielsen Says

November 17, 2011 by kaypaumier

Americans spend about a quarter of their “online time” on social networks and blogs, according to Nielsen’s third quarter social media report. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392800,00.asp#fbid=LF7speCVOdS

Not surprisingly, Facebook is the most dominant Website. What is surprising (to me at least) is that Americans spent more than 53 billion minutes Facebooking last May alone. That comes down to a total of nearly 101 years.

Where, I ask, do people get all that time?

Other interesting statistics:

• Almost 40 percent of social media users access their networks from their mobile phones.
• People over the age of 55 are accessing these sites on their phones twice as much as they did last year.
• Game and weather apps are the most popular smartphone applications.
• The most active social networkers are women and people ages 18-34.
• Tumblr nearly tripled its unique U.S. audience in the last year.

Free-form News Release

November 10, 2011 by kaypaumier

For years people have touted the demise of the news release…for good reason. In the Internet age, the initial purpose of the release—to inform the media you hope will then inform the “masses”—has definitely changed. Now you no longer need to rely solely on the reporter intermediary. You can submit your news release directly to your target “audience” (or “public,” “community,” stakeholders” or “constituents” depending on which communications guru you follow).

Over the years, people have suggested various changes to the traditional news release. Probably the most significant was the social news release (http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf).

Recently, however, some people have become more creative. In their article “New-Form Press Release, in Blog, Tweet and Haiku,” http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/new-form-press-release-in-blog-tweet-and-haiku/?ref=technology, Kevin Roose and Peter Lattman describe people using blogs (not terribly new), tweets (definitely takes several to make any significant announcement) and even haiku to convey news.

An example of the latter dealt with Google’s acquisition of Zagat. The haiku, written by Marissa Mayer, Google’s top executive for local and location services, stated: “Delightful deal done; Zagat and Google now one; foodies have more fun!”

I applaud the idea that people can have fun with news. But probably most people reading that haiku already knew what had happened. The haiku wasn’t truly “announcing” something; it was playing with a previous announcement.

The authors note that most of the more creative news releases come from Silicon Valley and its ilk, not from more staid ndustries such as banking, insurance or utilities.

What’s ahead for the news release? I do not hazard a guess, but I definitely welcome your opinions.

Newspapers Mistakes

November 4, 2011 by kaypaumier

Here are some entertaining newspaper mistakes, taken from “The Revenge of Anguish English” by Richard Lederer.

The state board of fisheries is considering whether to impose seasonal catch limits on tourists.

Queen Elizabeth arrived in Paris to begin a visit that inspired the warmest welcome the French have given given a royal figure since they guillotined their own Queen Marie Antoinette.

Owing to the lack of space and the rush of editing this issue, several births and deaths will be postponed until next week.

The ladies of the county medical society auxiliary plan to publish a cookbook. Part of the money will go to the Samaritan Hospital to purchase a stomach pump.

Rolls-Royce announced today that is it is recalling all Rolls-Royce cars made after 1966 because of faulty nuts behind the steering wheels.

The local medical association made a presentation to the minister complaining of laboratory delays, especially the 10-month wait for a pregnancy test.

The Case for Infographics

October 31, 2011 by kaypaumier

In his article, “Making the Case for Infographics in PR” (http://blog.journalistics.com/2011/infographics-in-pr/),
Jeremy Porter examines the power of graphs, charts and other visuals.

I definitely agree. Sometimes a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Porter’s discussion reminds me of the powerful statistical display of Napoleon’s advance into Russia, and his ignominous retreat the next year. http://bigthink.com/ideas/21281

The chart, which was drawn up by Charles Joseph Minard, unites six different sets of data.

• Geography
• The army’s course
• The army’s direction
• The number of soldiers remaining
• Temperature
• Time.

The statistics tell a tale of incredible human suffering. Napoleon entered Russia with 442,000 men. By the time he took Moscow, he only had 100,000 men left, and only about 10,000 of them made it back to France.

Fortunately, we’re usually using graphics for lighter topics. But the fact that this chart is still admired and discussed more than 100 years after its development attests to the power of an well-executed infographic.

For a discussion of the chart, see the article by Frank Jacobs, “Vital Statistics of a Deadly Campaign: the Minard Map.” http://bigthink.com/ideas/21281

The Media List (Part 2): How to Identify the Bloggers Who Are Most Important to You

October 27, 2011 by kaypaumier

Bloggers will probably be an important part of your publicity campaign, so it’s essential to know which ones are the most important to you. You’ll identify a lot of bloggers through the general media list process outlined in my previous post about the media list.

Here are some other tools that may be helpful.

Do a Google search on your keywords. Click the “more” link on the left side of the screen and then click the “blogs” link. The blogs listed here are more likely to be important in your industry.

Consult Alltop (www.alltop.com), which “collects the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic.” They group these collections into individual web pages and display the five most recent headlines of the information sources as well as their first paragraph. Alltop lists its topics alphabetically so you could see in a glance who is covering a topic and what they have said recently.

Another good tool is Technorati (www.technorati.com), which ranks the “authority” (standing and influence) of a site. The rankings cover a short period of time, so they can be volatile depending on what topics are “hot” in the blogosphere.  As long as you understand that, Technorati can be helpful.

Social Mention (www.socialmention.com) allows you to search blogs or other outlets by your keywords. The site gives a summary of “sentiment” (positive, negative, neutral) and other information.

A relatively new service, Group High (www.grouphigh.com) includes the blog’s page rank, number of comments and most recent post date (along with other information). You can search by your keyword (“3D TV”) and then refine your search through filters like recent posts or page ranks.

PR Daily called this subscription-based service “the best blogger relations tool” (www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/7707.aspx). Unlike the other services mentioned, this service charges a fee. However, as of this writing, the service was providing free test drives.

Identifying the right people to follow and “talk” with is essential for an effective publicity campaign. Doing a little research up front can make a world of difference.

Do you have other tips on how to identify the “right” bloggers? I’d love to hear them.

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