I am a firm believer in reading and absorbing research and surveys done nationally for how old and new media interact. There are lessons to be learned from this national research on how we should interact in our own communities.

The merging of old and new media continues to play out in the world of journalism.  No longer do people just read the New York Times or Wall Street Journal for news, but also a growing number of online entities such as HuffingtonPost, Drudge, TechCruch, GigaOm, and even social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. In our own communities this could mean the community paper, Twitter, Facebook and micro news websites.

Earlier this year, Pew Research Center issued a report analyzing this trend and examining how blogs and social media agendas relate and differ from traditional press.  The report, New Media, Old Media, takes into consideration a year’s worth of analysis, making it very in-depth.  It answers the various questions that are increasingly becoming difficult to track, such as “What types of news stories do consumers share and discuss the most? What issues do they have less interest in? What is the interplay of the various new media platforms? And how do their agendas compare with that of the mainstream press?”

Some highlights from the report include:

• News today is increasingly a shared, social experience
• In less than one third of the weeks did the blogosphere and traditional press share the same top story
• The stories and issues that gain traction in social media differ substantially from those that lead in the mainstream press, but they also differ greatly between social media platforms
• Of the three social platforms tracked in the survey – blogs, Twitter and YouTube – they only shared the same top story once
• Bloggers gravitated toward stories that elicited emotion, concerned individual or group rights or triggered ideological passion and unlike other forms of media, don’t favor one partisanship
• Traditional media news agendas are more event-driven and institutional
• While most original reporting still comes from traditional journalists, technology makes it increasingly possible for the actions of citizens to influence a story’s total impact
• 44% of online news users get news at least a few times a week through emails, automatic updates or posts from social networking sites
• In 2009, Twitter’s monthly audience increased by 200%

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In the first responder world there are two types of press releases, those that must be published and those that need a compelling reason to get print.

In our business if we operate at a significant fire or MVA we stand a 99.9% chance that our information will be picked up by the press. We are talking about hard news .

If we are pitching fire prevention day, our installation dinner or other similar story the chances of getting placement are greatly diminished.

In many instances when we do not receive coverage for non hard news stories I either misread the importance of the story or did not go the extra yard to prepare a compelling pitch. I usually only have myself to blame.

While there’s been much noise about the demise of the press recently, the truth is that there’s more media than ever around. The big difference is that the “press” has changed considerably over the last five years – it’s now gone electronic, has wider distribution than ever, and includes other media outlets like blogs, online news operations, Facebook and Twitter.

Today, the media’s need for information is insatiable, and as a result it’s never been easier for us to achieve non emergency mention in the media.  However, with media proliferation also come higher speed and an avalanche of competition for attention.

But the bottom line is that you can get noticed by the media today if you know how to issue a press release that creates a compelling story.

To that end, here are some general tips I have picked up to address what used to be called “getting ink”.

• The job of the people who receive press releases is to find interesting information that will arrest their readers or viewers for a few moments and draw them into reading on or continuing to view.  They are your first and only target, so provide them with what they need to do their jobs. Don’t make it about you, but about the media outlet’s readers or viewers.

• Get to the point. You’ll have about 3-5 seconds to attract attention before receivers move on to the next release. So make your headline, subhead and lead-sentence show-stoppers that draw them into the next sentence or two and thus gain you a few more seconds. Borrow from blog writing methodology and make strong declarative benefit statements, or problem-solution equations, i.e. “How xxxxx can prevent yyyy,” or “Six ways to do xxxxx”.

• Write press releases like blogs. The Internet has trained everybody to read differently. Provide very useful and also somewhat entertaining information, and use a lot of boldfaced subheads so the media reader can get a sense of the story by skimming. One way to do this is not to write the press release in linear style, but initially concentrate on the story the subheads tell. Then you can infill with regular writing.

• Target, target, target the end media consumer. Most press releases try to speak to “everybody”, which doesn’t work today. The mass has been shattered into thousands of different subject matter shards. You have to hit the right emotional points of ONE group of people you purport to serve. Study your citizens and profile and determine the problem points that will stir up emotions (children’s fire safety for parent publications etc.). The media receiver will also recognize them.

• Tell one story. Most amateur (and some professional) press release writers take a shotgun, or smorgasbord approach, trying to combine several storylines into one press release, i.e. “we’re doing this, AND we’re doing that, and we’re thinking of doing something else too.” First of all, nobody cares what you’re doing. Second, telling two (or three or four) stories muddies up the waters and makes the media person work too hard to find a story.

• Think film and radio. Increasingly, media is visual and aural, as in television, YouTube and rip-and-read radio (that’s online and offline radio people who simply grab a press release, read out the juicy bits, and sometimes make a comment on it).  See how you can make your story more visual with film or audio, and let the media outlet know that. Flip cameras and podcasting equipment make this simple. Increasingly, blogs and online media pick up stories that also have some video attached, because they attract readers (and are tweetable or sharable on sites like Facebook).

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I have discussed on the pages of this blog many times the use of social media, specifically Twitter, to keep residents informed of emergencies. It appears more and more municipalities are turning to Twitter to keep citizens informed.

Once again proving its utility for just about any situation, Twitter came to the rescue of Northeasterners plowed under by snow last week.

I looked across the internet for some examples.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, an avid tweeter, has been using the social networking site to find out which of his constituents need help digging out after the big storm (although some of those constituents aren’t grateful for the help).

And The Atlantic reports that Ushahidi, a nonprofit tech company that provides interactive mapping that has been used during relief efforts in Haiti and other international locations, is being deployed in Boston and New York to let people know that there is equipment available to combat the snow.

And, of course, social media is a good place to vent. Matthew Bishop, the New York bureau chief for The Economist took to Twitter about his struggles gathering his luggage after his plane landed, MSNBC.com said. “After 2 hrs in security, only 4 staff with 500+ passengers, luggage is still on the plane! But it’s good to be back!” he wrote.

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I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

What would the holiday be without a good old PIO, PR, social media take on what if the first Christmas happened in the era of Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Wikipedia, Farmville and Google?

Portuguese digital marketing company Excentric produced the clever and touching video above, following Mary and Joseph in their journey to Nazareth (no hotels available). Farm animals are purchased, the Three Kings connect, then check in at The Stable (to #worshipthebaby) and complete the most viral story ever.

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To many of us integrating social media into our PIO or PAO pr and marketing plan seems to be a daunting task. Some look at it as all encompassing and begin to ignore the traditional and still strong forms of news dissemination such as newspapers and TV. Others see social media as such a big challenge that they push it off and say “I’ll start tomorrow.” But in essence, social media is no more or less an additional tool for the old pr toolbox.

Public relations is one way of getting your message in front of the community, because PR is about building relationships with your residents through the media. With PR, you use newspapers and magazines to reach out to the community.

What social media has done is that it has allowed you to build the relationships directly with members of your community, as well as directly with the media themselves.

For example, large numbers of folks are on Twitter — including reporters in your area. They’re starting to get on social networks like Twitter. Suddenly, a barrier has been removed that was previously there. Journalists, editors and producers are more accessible now through social media.

If you’re on Twitter, check out Media on Twitter. It’s a database with thousands of reporters. You can see at a glance their Twitter names, their title and who they work for. This is a media list, which in the past you had to tediously compile yourself, or would have to pay a lot of money for. Now you can find journalists on Twitter and talk to them directly.

Social media is as simple as getting yourself some PR in the online world. You can create your own content and broadcast it yourself through your website, through your networks, through You Tube and other “channels”. At the end of the day, social media is just another method of communicating. Social media tools facilitate this communication and to be effective in social media you need to be able to communicate your key messages well. Just like in traditional PR.

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It seems as PIO’s that we are beginning to look at the dawning of an era where one persons negative observation of our departments can be magnified a thousand fold through the use of social media. The power of the pen has become the power of the keyboard and we have to be prepared.

I recently read in Advertising Age about the debacle revolving around the Gap changing its logo. The old logo which many found to be iconic was replaced with a pretty pedestrian looking substitute. The resulting “outrage” of gap fans on social media site quickly had the marketing department at the clothing giant revert to the old mark. This was done without any marketing research to actually find out if the complainers were indeed Gap shoppers to start with or just self appointed arbiters of good graphic taste.

With the TSA scanning more than just your junk, people seem pretty PO’ed by the invasion of personal space and are venting through social media. The concept is nothing new as many individuals air personal and professional (not recommended) grievances via Twitter and Facebook every day. However, these people had an organized campaign behind them and their rants.

Cooperative blogs are becoming more prevalent as people are shedding a bit of their egos and collectively campaigning for or against an issue. Whether it is a political campaign, environmental activism, Reality TV, our own Departments or the TSA, people are working together as a group toward one objective. Some of these campaigns will effect change while others will be the third wheel in a two man race but, either way, their voices will be heard because they are no longer a lone nut preaching on a street corner, they are organized, self supporting, and are loudly rallying to restore sanity and/or fear.

We need to spend time each day reading all materials that may mention our department. This includes blogs, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook postings and forums.

The voice of one can become the voice of thousands with little effort in the web 2.0 environment we function in today.

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Over the holiday weekend I have had the opportunity to do some reading and investigation to attempt to put together the facts from a PR perspective of how things could go so terribly wrong in terms of the “they against us” attitude most folks now have towards the TSA. A number of PR gaffs has lead to this perception.

First off the lame TSA Administrator John Pistole used a worn out administration card saying the TSA knows what right for our citizens but unfortunately they haven’t done a good enough job educating people. Again, we’re so stupid that the wonderful changes they put in place and the stellar way in which they presented it to the public is above our scope of appreciation.

The President uses this excuse every time he talks about healthcare, the stimulus plan etc, yet to my knowledge these alleged communications blunders have not lead to the firing or demotion of even one PR or communication person in the White House or any other agency in Washington DC. If lack of decent PR is such a detriment to clearly explaining administration positions why hasn’t reorganizing DC communications across the board become an administration priority? Why hasn’t the TSA reorganized their public affairs department? Time to stop beating on communication folks and look at yourselves in the mirror.

Back to the TSA. Considering the controversy, threats and headlines regarding the newly announced TSA screening procedures, I imagine the agency wishes they could have a do over.  Maybe not, but in any case, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall of the meeting room where plans were made.  There were plans, right?

I’d like to know if the following issues were discussed:

1)   Public Announcement – I can’t find anything from the TSA that formally announced the new procedures and timeframe to implement well before they took place.

2)   Timing – Why was the full blown implementation of these policies introduced during the biggest holiday air travel week of the year?  How was the implementation of the new procedures factored into the security process that has to take place when a massive amount of people go through airport lines? The public really had no advanced warning of what to expect.

3)  Anticipation of Issues – All good plans anticipate issues.  In this case, I’m wondering how many issues like consumer reaction, training uniformity, advocacy group backlash and political posturing were anticipated and plans made accordingly to counter those arguments.

4)  Collateral Tools – You had to drill down through the TSA website to find any information or tools to demonstrate what travelers should expect with the new screenings.  The website’s statement from Administrator John Pistole was as lame as he is.  The TSA has tried to play catch up by posting better information in recent days but the dour tone of the website still does not do a great job of justification.

5)  Testing – While the new procedures were tested at a few airports, I went through one of these new scanners during testing close to two years ago if I recall, did they try to gauge consumer reaction?  I don’t remember being asked what I thought or given a survey. Were media invited to a “screening of the screening” to provide insight on rationale and benefits of new procedures?

The point here is that when you’re dealing with change, especially when it impacts a lot of people, you can’t plan enough.  A solid PR and marketing plan seems to never have been put in place to deal with new screening procedures.

An investment in good creative advertising, PR and marketing would have eased the public’s angst and fear of the unknown.

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I lucked out a few weeks ago. I was in a hotel in DC setting up for an evening event when I heard a session starting in the adjoining room from a daylong conference. The topic was managing your time to perform social media duties. I heard the whole session through the wall and was actually able to glom the handout from the session afterwards when a kind participant gave me an extra copy.

In my regular PR and marketing job I have on staff a social media specialist who does an outstanding job of juggling those responsibilities with other daily work assignments.

As a fire PIO I am an office of one. A big problem for me is the ongoing desire to maintain and update Twitter, Facebook and YouTube but the reality is that extra time is not my friend.

I share the handout with you in hopes it can give you some insight into how to time manage social media to be able to make it an integral part of your departments PR efforts.

Here are the pearls of wisdom derived from the handout -

1. Don’t just jump into the social networking world. Many organizations feel that they need to set up a page on Twitter, a Facebook Fan page or launch a blog, but then are unsure of what do next. Determine which sites work best for you.

2. Develop a social networking strategy. Similar to creating a traditional public relations plan, you need to build a social networking strategy for your organization. Determine why your organization needs a strategy, the overall goals of it and what type of content you can/will provide. It’s a good idea to review your organization’s overall communications goals and develop content recommendations and tactics for each profile.

3. Set up a schedule and utilize some of the tools that are available to help you manage your time. By setting up a schedule, you are able to better organize your day, i.e.,  tweet 2-4 times a day, update Facebook status once a day about an organization activity, add a new video to YouTube once a month, blog twice a month, etc. Also, consider using tools like Hootsuite to schedule updates in advance so you don’t find yourself worried if you forgot to tweet one day.

4. Evaluate. Evaluate. Evaluate. Similar to any public relations plan, always benchmark your social networking activities against your goals. Determine what’s working and what’s not.

Social networking is an integral part of our work today, but it is not the only activity and should not consume your entire day–so keep that in mind when you are developing and maintaining your organization’s social networking outreach.

What are your thoughts? How are you managing your social networking activities without making it a time suck?

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As a PR and marketing guy I have over the year been confronted, when a consumer or customer thinks that an injustice has been done to them, spew the old line “I’m going to the papers with this.”

I used to love to hear this sentence spoken when I knew someone with no case, truth or validation to their complaint assumed the “papers” would hold the presses so the masses could hear that we were out of blue logo tees or a donation receipt was not mailed to a donor within moments of the envelope being opened. The chance a journalist or reporter had in receiving a Pulitzer Prize for the irate information usually tended to have them pass on the story.

While this type of unfounded consumer threat used to make me laugh, today that same threat needs to be taken seriously when anyone with a computer can post their grievances on Facebook, Twitter or even set up their own blog to pound on who they conceive to be the perpetrator of the injustice.

We as PIO’s and PAO’s have to grit our teeth and bear it in how we answer members of the community and their perceived grievances. I know it can become tedious and time consuming but our jobs now dictates we cross every T and dot every I or else suffer the consequences of being smeared in the cyber world.

 A case in point was how Alaska Airlines recently handled a flyers complaint and how the world including I found out about every sordid detail. The example does involve though a consumer with what I think was a legitimate complaint.

Alaska Airlines stepped into a PR mess that could’ve been avoided with a “dotting” patience I mentioned.

A few weeks ago, Colleen Roberge, Dan Blais, and their son had to make a last-minute restroom pit stop before boarding their flight. Blais spoke with the airline agent about the situation, but in the time that it took to change a diaper, the airline had given away two of the family’s tickets. And, according to Blais, when he said he wouldn’t board without his family, the agent said she’d give away his ticket too.

Mom and baby were crying, the family’s bags left with the plane, and it cost more than $1,000 to rebook the next day. Now Blais has started a blog called “Alaska Airlines Hates Families.” If that isn’t bad enough, there’s the response from the airline.

The airline’s social media manager Elliott Pesut replied via blog, Business Insider reports: “Reservations are subject to cancellation if customers aren’t ready at the gate within those times because many tasks must be completed before departure…We can’t push the plane back from the gate till everyone is sitting down. And so on.”

The best part is the “And so on.” Way to go Alaska Airlines.

Update: Way to go Alaska Airlines. The family behind “Alaska Airlines Hates Families” now says “Alaska Airlines Doesn’t Hate Families.” Apparently, the family has been reimbursed and the issue resolved.

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Over the last year or so I have been closely watching how various corporations, emergency service arms and organizations utilize social media to report on a serious incident or crisis. I am not totally convienced that reporting details rapidly on Twitter or Facebook is the most advantageous way to let the public know about an emergency. With things moving so quickly and so much at stake in giving details, social media can trap you into churning out information before we can actually put the unfolding events into perspective. A case in point took place in Singapore last week.

A Qantas flight from Singapore to Sydney had to make an emergency landing after the plane had a problem with one of its engines.

A far scarier version of the incident spread lightning quick via social media, with pictures showing damage to the plane, people supposedly holding pieces of the plane, and false reports about a plane crash.

Ultimately, the airline did post a statement on its website with assurance that no one was hurt and there was no plane crash. And eventually, the airline posted an update on its Facebook page, according to Tnooz.com, but its Twitter accounts sat idle for some time.

Everything turned out fine, but it raises the question: Is Twitter now the proper place for first response to a crisis situation?

Kudos to Tnooz.com, a technical travel site.  The story on the social media angle of this story was well done and the follow-up comments are interesting.

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