The Most Used Press Release Buzzwords

According to this post today on PRNewser, two recent analyses by different online marketing strategists concerning the most used terms in press releases yielded similar results.

In one study, conducted in April by David Meerman Scott, and based on an analysis of over 711,000 press releases across the major distribution services, "innovate" was the most widely-used buzzword. A more recent review by Adam Sherk revealed that "leader" and "leading" are number one and two, respectively. Incidentally, on Sherk's list, "innovative" and "innovator" are number seven and eight, respectively. Sherk's full list of 75 buzzwords can be viewed here.

What does this mean? Press release terminology has not changed much in the past decade, despite constant complaints from journalists that it needs to...AND that they're REALLY tired of reading the same schlock over and over again. In fact, this situation became so bad at the height of the dot-com era that a bunch of reporters from Fortune and other business publications banded together to create a site called BuzzKiller.net which exposed all of the bad writing they received from PR pros. The site still exists as a blog called Buzzword Complaint, and it's worth a gander by clicking here.

In the meantime, choose your words carefully, and avoid the terms on the list below:

Guerrilla Marketing: Defined In Today's Terms

The term "guerrilla marketing" has now been around for 25 years, if you can believe it, and it was coined and popularized by marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson through his book, Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business. The international best-seller has spawned 27 other related, guerrilla-themed business books, and Levinson's guerrilla concepts have influenced marketing so much that today his works appear in 41 languages and are required reading in many MBA programs worldwide. You can check out Levinson's official site here.

I recently became reacquainted with this seminal tome, now in its fourth edition, and that leads me to this post today. Nothing whatsoever against Levinson or the concept, but guerrilla marketing is somewhat of an outdated term nowadays that has given way to more current terminology, such as buzz marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, grassroots marketing, viral marketing, crowdsourcing, and social media/new media marketing. Honestly, one just doesn't hear it mentioned much any more when discussing marketing options. Regardless of what it's called, all of the functions I just named can be grouped under the guerrilla marketing umbrella, and this approach remains a viable (and dare I say it? necessary!) component for most small business marketing programs today. As has been proven by Levinson, and countless companies who have implemented programs of this nature over the years, guerrilla marketing...in whatever form, or by any other name...can be extraordinarily useful to firms with limited resources.

So how is guerrilla marketing defined today? I really like the definition offered by my colleagues over at UnderstandingMarketing.com:

"Guerrilla marketing is a very low budget way of promoting a company, series of products or services, or specific marketing campaign. Rather than use traditional forms of expensive advertising and promotions, guerrilla marketing instead leverages imagination, time and energy while utilizing word-of-mouth resources to get in front of people with a specific message. Guerrilla marketers rely on creativity and ingenuity to leverage unconventional forms of marketing to get people excited about a specific marketing campaign. Some guerrilla marketing tactics are more reliant on energy, like handing out flyers at a large public venue. While other forms rely more on ingenuity, like developing a fun Web-based game and emailing to everyone you know (this is also known as viral marketing) hoping that they will then email it to everyone they know, and so on. This form of marketing used to be deployed by only small business. But today even large corporations like Burger King utilize guerrilla marketing and viral video to create all kinds of excitement with people all over the world."

As you begin to formulate your company's marketing program and supporting tactics, you should always look at initiatives in the guerrilla marketing (i.e., low-cost, but still effective, communications tactics) arena that can potentially help your business, and generate sales, new business leads, brand awareness, and other forms of visibility.

If Your Social Media Program Isn't Working, Here's Why...

As a follow-on to my Friday post about the important need to make a strong business case for a robust social media initiative with concrete objectives, I thought I would offer this complementary guidance.

Many SMB owners who often dive into this arena without a definitive strategy and comprehensive plan in place usually complain to me that their efforts are NOT paying off. No surprise there. And that makes sense, no matter what marketing tactic is being implemented. One needs a game plan for any business initiative so it can generate the desired return on investment (ROI). It only makes sense, right? Usually, good planning = good results.

I recently revisited an excellent commentary, written by Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media, and published on SmallBizTrends.com, which succinctly explains the top six reasons behind the failure of most social media programs. And these points certainly bear repeating here. Here they are:

1. You have no framework.
2. You don't have great content (According to Barone, and I agree, this is the most important tip!)
3. You're targeting the wrong site/audience.
4. You're putting the wrong people in charge.
5. You're not listening.
6. You're just dabbling with it.

Follow these tips and techniques to maximize the impact of your social media efforts. If your program IS working, but not as strongly as you'd like, then perhaps it's time to revisit some of these areas to see where improvements can be made. Make your time, energy, and resources work for you. If you're going to invest in this channel, it makes sense to do it right from the get-go.

It Pays To Be Polite...Especially Online

Let's face it:  in today's society, we could all benefit from more courtesy, more civility, and MUCH more polite behavior. It's one of my all-time pet peeves. As Corky says to Nancy in the 2008 film Nancy Drew, "Courtesy is awesome!"

Nowhere is this more true than in the online realm, and in the social media sphere in particular. And the latest research backs this up. As reported in this recent missive by PRNewser, "It's not just nice to be nice -- a new survey suggests social media users ditch people, sites and communities online that aren't."

In the findings of an April, 2010 civility study conducted by Weber Shandwick, Powell Tate and KRC Research, 34% of the respondents reported "tuning out" of social networking sites, and 39% reported "general tone and level of civility" as to the reasons why they tuned out. Even more telling, uncivil behavior led social media users to defriend/block someone online (45%), stop visiting sites (38%) and drop out of online communities or fan clubs (25%).

Of course, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but yet, it should give us all pause about we say online, and how it can potentially impact personal and professional reputation.

As my mother used to naggingly remind me: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

Social Media: The All-Important Business Case

Everywhere I go, one of the biggest laments I hear from marketing executives, corporate communications professionals, and PR agency practitioners — across the board — is the constant struggle to convince senior executives of the value and benefit of strategic (and this is the key word...as opposed to ad hoc) social media programs. We all say it's necessary, but they say it's not...or it's a waste of resources...or our time is better spent elsewhere. In other words, as with any other program or function, a strong business case must be made for social media, and that can be a difficult proposition, even for the most experienced counselor. Truthfully, as the space matures, and as more results by small and large companies alike are generated, this case becomes easier to make.

Without question, much has been written on this exact topic, and I won't rehash those commentaries here in this forum. However, I would like to point to one of the best articles I've seen on this issue because it concisely summarizes all of the key points, and the counterarguments that we, as communications advisors, should make. Check out the following Social Media Today blog post, entitled "Making The Business Case For Social Media," for these insightful perspectives.

Remember, when making the case, you will need to reference concrete metrics, solid research, and compelling case studies to bolster your argument. Social media, as a tactic, will not resolve all of a company's communications challenges, but it can create many inroads for more effectively engaging and interacting with core target audiences.

Nike's "Write The Future" Viral Video Writes The Present

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is in full swing, and as the world's most popular and most watched sporting event (approximately 30 billion viewers internationally), it is a sports marketer's dream for reaching vast numbers of consumers, both in the host nation South Africa and in hundreds of nations across the globe.

For these reasons, much has been written recently about the viral and ambush marketing tactics employed by numerous brands, such as Nike, that are not official World Cup sponsors. In fact, according to this story yesterday in Advertising Age, and based on recent findings of a YouGov BrandIndex survey of consumer perception in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, "Nike has benefited from the FIFA World Cup more than any other brand despite not being an official sponsor of the event."

Why? Again, according to another report in Advertising Age, Nike's three-minute "Write the Future" video broke the record for the biggest audience in the first week of a campaign with 7.8 million views. That record, incidentally, was by another Nike ad: the somber and strange "Earl and Tiger" ad, which debuted earlier this year with 6.3 million views in its first week. In mid-May, Trevor Edwards, vice president of brand and category management at Nike, stated that the company's TV creative for the FIFA World Cup, including the "Write the Future" viral video, was "among the best we've ever done." Indeed, this is no small statement from a company renowned as "a master of the form."

Another Advertising Age reporter, in a blog post, commented: "It's a beautifully told story that transcends media formats to deliver a truly emotional and inspirational experience. In 30 seconds, it appears that Nike finally cracked the code by combining compelling narrative with the power of digital distribution. And, Wieden & Kennedy (Nike's ad agency of record) showed us what it means for a brand to truly participate in culture."

The ad, directed by Alejandro González Iñáritu (21 Grams, Amores Perros), features several of the game’s giants: Didier Drogba (Chelsea F.C and Ivory Coast), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid and Portugal), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United and England), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy and the U.S.) and Ronaldinho (F.C. Barcelona and Brazil) — along with cameos from Kobe Bryant, Roger Federer, and The Simpsons.

If you haven't seen "Write the Future," it's worth checking out below. If you have viewed the video live or on YouTube, it's certainly worthwhile to give it another look. By far, this is one of the best viral videos I've ever seen, mostly because of its enormous creativity and beautiful production values.

Another Sign The Cold War Is REALLY Over

Like most of my friends, I grew up during the heart of the Cold War; sat riveted to the TV, and screamed myself hoarse, when the U.S. hockey team felled the Russians in The Miracle On Ice in the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid; and watched countless James Bond films where 007 went head-to-head (or in some cases, fell in love with) with some KGB agent...and usually won. Of course, all of this ended back in 1989-1990 when the Berlin Wall, the ever-present symbol of Communism and Russia's barrier with the West, was destroyed. The rest, as the saying goes, is history...

And as a Communist country, the USSR was well-known and ridiculed for its state-conrolled media outlets, and the endless propaganda churned out by the government, much of it to the detriment of its citizens. PR in the Soviet Union? Fuhgeddabout it. Back then, it was mostly pay for play. However, today, the media environment is dramatically different...

...And that is why this caught my attention today: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in an effort to better communicate with Russians throughout the world, has officially joined Twitter. You can follow him @KremlinRussia.

Even better, Medvedev stopped by Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco to greet senior executives, set up his official account, and send his first Tweet, pictured below:

As of this writing, the president has acquired well over 12,000 followers (including me!). And make sure to check out the blog post from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone about the experience.

BTW, the English translation of the Tweet?: Hello everyone, I'm now on Twitter and this is my first message.