February 25, 2010

Thinking Email Marketing?

Using Flowtown With Your Email Marketing Lists
 
If you've never heard of Flowtown, it’s a service that lets you import an email list, then they cross-reference that data with public social profiles. So I can find out who among my subscribers is on Twitter and Facebook. It might even tell me who’s influential. What now? It’s not like I’m going to bug those subscribers with “more targeted emails” just because they’re “social.” I got one of those emails recently, and I can think of no better way to lose my hard earned subscribers. So I didn’t really think about this Flowtown thing much. Great for 1-to-1 sales, not so much for 1-to-many marketing.


But over time, we added engagement scoring, geotargeting, and the ability to download segments in MailChimp. The combination of all these new tools changed my outlook completely…

Read the rest of the article at mailchimp.

February 23, 2010

Who has time for all this stuff? Unless you try to keep up, however, you're falling behind, especially when it comes to social media.

Just when you thought you're a pro at FB and Twitter, along comes something new. Here's a list of 15 social networking sites you probably never heard of. Now you know.

Measuring ROI on Social Media

ROI: How to Measure Return on Investment in Social Media

"Over the years, Social Media experts attempted to redefine ROI for a new era of influence. While some introduced alternative philosophies for measuring the nuances tied to social media, others wondered aloud whether ROI simply wasn’t necessary as the tools and methodologies for analyzing yields didn’t yet exist. And furthermore, by focusing on justification and metrics, we were distracted from the primary objective of building relationships and cultivating dialogue."

Read Brian Solis' full post on measuring social media ROI.

Clear Your Mind to Fill the Page

Writing well is a basic skill for those in the public relations profession, and everyone has their own style, voice and technique. I found this article today and thought it had some insight into breaking down writer's block and writing with more impact.

Anderson: The Best Writing Advice of the Best Writing Advice


Few things are more addictive to writers than reading tips about writing. Anyone who spends several hours a day wrestling with the blank page approaches the enormous canon of writing advice (Brande’s Becoming a Writer, Gardner’s The Art of Fiction, Dillard’s The Writing Life, Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Paris Review interviews, etc.) as a kind of never-ending existential thriller. Over the weekend, the Guardian added to the genre, publishing a two-part survey of advice from 29 well-known contemporary writers, each of whom was asked to produce ten rules. The resulting 200-odd tips cover, pretty thoroughly, all the basic clichés of the form: write every day, read all the time, revise mercilessly, and so on. Some of them explore territory beyond that, with advice ranging from the incredibly specific (Helen Dunmore: "Read Keats’s letters") to the vague (Anne Enright: "Try to be accurate about stuff"), and from the practical (Joyce Carol Oates: "be alert for possibilities of paragraphing") to the evasive (Philip Pullman: "My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work").

Read more

February 19, 2010

Great tips for bloggers to observe copyrights

Jonathan Bailey provides great explanations of copyrights as it applies to bloggers (with broader implications for the rest of us who don't blog).

5 Copyright Facts Every Blogger Should Know

This post was was referenced on Ragan's PR Daily News Feed, which I've found to be a very valuable and timely resource for current issues in the profession. You might consider subscribing.

February 17, 2010

Want to know more about new FTC regulations on endorsements?

This was posted recently to PRSarahEvans.com:

Join Brian Solis, principal, Future Works, Ted Murphy, principal, IZEA, Mary Engle, associate director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission and myself for “FTC Regulations and Me,” (#ftcme) a webinar panel, on February 19 from 1 to 2 p.m. CST to learn how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” impact online promotion.

Read Sarah's full blog post here.

February 16, 2010

Users say they may be willing to pay for content

We all know the world of journalism has been changing, and online content has been the culprit for many subscription newspapers' losses. In order to stay vital, journalists struggle to balance their print work and maintaining online content. But the question still remains: in an increasingly web-dependent society (which demands free access), how will print (and other media) stay alive?

Nielsen recently produced a new study that should be good news for journalists. Younger users may be willing to pay for content.

Read this article at paidcontent.org: The Maybe of Paying for Content Online.

February 11, 2010

Message from the President

One of our chapter’s past presidents, Melinda Arnold, is happy to tell new acquaintances that we first met when she was in high school and I was . . . well . . . older than that. We didn’t reconnect until much later, when both of us were public relations professionals in Springfield. When we both landed in PRSA, we made a point of sharing best practices and learning from one another as we served together on our chapter’s board of directors.

One of the many benefits of membership in PRSA is the opportunity to make enduring friendships. Some may argue that this is only a side benefit, but I would counter that it is often through friendships that professional careers grow.

Those of you who have worked on one of our chapter’s projects or events know how that involvement allows you to know other members in a more personal way, brainstorming ideas and achieving something new. Committee work also opens doors, their small size facilitating good discussion and an exchange of views between veteran and new members. Service on the board of directors is often where you’ll learn the most about PRSA and its inner workings, from national on down. Your service can yield lasting professional relationships and, yes, friendships as you work together toward mutual goals.

I’ll always be older than Melinda, it’s true, but we’re the same when it comes to our belief that being involved members of PRSA benefits our careers—and our friendship, too.

February 9, 2010

Feb. 23 Meeting: Come See What Springfield Source is All About

Springfield Source is a bi-weekly online newsletter that provides news, events, job postings and information about the good things happening in the region. Participants represent Springfield-Greene County’s major government and education institutions and collaborative human-services networks.

What led to the development of this partnership? How has the newsletter been received so far? What lies ahead? Michelle West, Springfield Chamber of Commerce; and Michael Brothers, City of Springfield, will take us through the process that led to the creation of this new communication tool.

Scholarship Applications Now Accepted

Applications are being accepted for the Dr. Joe McAdoo Southwest Missouri Chapter of PRSA Scholarship.

The $1,000 scholarship will be awarded for the 2010-2011 academic year. The deadline is April 9.

Information about the scholarship and an application form are available at
http://swmoprsa.org/prsa/index.php?/Scholarship.

For more information, contact scholarship chair Susan Wade at 881-5300, ext. 101 or swade@springfieldmo.org.

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