Bloggers in the PR Pecking Order

When launching a public relations initiative where should we prioritize bloggers in the order of outreach? Do we connect with them prior to industry analysts? How about the trade press?

These questions were top of mind last week as I participated in a brainstorming session with the Tellabs team at Strategic Communications Group (Strategic). We planned out tactics to support an announcement of research that points to dissatisfaction among telecommunications professionals about broadband availability in the United States.

New survey finds gaps in U.S. broadbandIndustry professionals dissatisfied with broadband availability and definition
http://www.tellabs.com/news/2008/nr032008.shtml


A few days later I came across a post from Nick O’Neill of social media consultancy Capital Interactive bemoaning an undisclosed company for not informing him of news prior to distributing a press release.

Lesson Learned: Embrace Your Local Bloggers
http://www.socialtimes.com/2008/03/lesson-learned-embrace-your-local-bloggers/

“Personally, I felt side swiped when a local company that I have directly communicated on a regular basis decided to announce a press release without first privately announcing the news to local bloggers,” O’Neill writes. “…Cater to the desires of local bloggers and you will be handsomely rewarded. Go against them, and you immediately have the most vocal group of individuals in the community building negative press for you business.”

O’Neill (and any blogger who feels this way) needs to get a clue. For starters, publicly traded companies have to follow well defined SEC guidelines related to the announcement of news. It’s called fair disclosure.

Bloggers also need to recognize that while they are an important channel to the market, in many instances they are of equal or less significance than other influencers, including journalists, analysts, academics, think tanks, etc. It’s not a knock, merely an acknowledgment that a trade editor who has a readership base of thousands will often be of higher priority.

O’Neill’s contention that a blogger slighted will turn angry captures my biggest concern about the blogosphere: irrational thinking without the peer review process that defines quality journalism and analyst commentary.

Bravo for Buzzwords

From time to time a journalist becomes fed up with the buzzword-laden press releases that constantly arrive in their Email inbox and decides to take action. The latest to chide technology vendors and their public relations agencies for too much jargon is the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Worthen.

(Thanks to Steve Lunceford at BearingPoint for turning me on to Worthen’s article.)

Here is his assault on Oracle for a release announcing their new offering “designed to simplify the lifecycle management of complex IP-based services.”

Oracle’s Hot New Offering: Gobbledygook
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/02/08/oracles-hot-new-offering-gobbledygook/

While I find Oracle’s release suffering from a bit too much industry mumbo-jumbo, I am 100 percent comfortable standing up in defense of the buzzword.

For starters, in the technology markets words like enterprise, best of breed, solution and integrated actually mean something to customers, prospects and investors. In all marketing and promotion, it’s critical to talk in the language of the audiences a company targets.

Moreover, technology vendors have an expectation the journalists, analysts and bloggers who cover their industry have an understanding of the meaning of most of these buzzwords. It is typically business writers like Worthen who have a jargon meltdown.

The goal with a press release (or any form of writing for that matter) is to communicate in a clear and concise manner, while engaging the audience.

Here are two exceptional press releases from Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) client Tellabs. Full disclosure: Strategic does write many of these releases, yet it is the folks at Tellabs who champion a more creative approach to their written communications.


Ongoing fall in viewer retention overshadows 36% mobile TV growthSurvey of 34,000 mobile users reveals revenue potential for operators if quality and reliability improve
http://www.tellabs.com/news/2008/nr021208.shtml


Tellabs® 8607 Access Switch coming soon to cell sites near youNewest access superstar delivers video, data and voice to world's smallest screens
http://www.tellabs.com/news/2008/nr021108.shtml