360PR Blog

Over the past couple weeks I’ve taken note of a few blog posts and articles related to Digital PR and relevant to 360′s work and our clients’ businesses.  In the spirit of sharing, I’ve listed these below with a few thoughts. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mashable – “The 22 Step Social Media Marketing Plan” / List of Social Media Examples

A couple months ago I stumbled across Peter Kim’s list of Social Media Marketing examples. It is a really great resource, but can be a little overwhelming to browse (he listed over 300 examples!). More recently, Peter Kim wrote a guest post for Mashable.com in which he narrows it down and lists 22 different social media tools, like Blogs and Virtual Worlds, and examples of companies that have used these tools. If you’re interested in social media, I suggest you check it out. He links over to examples from companies like Delta, Kodak, Pampers, method, Rubbermaid, and more.

[Read more →]

Filed under: Blogger Relations, Digital PR, Pitch tips, Social Media, Video Games by EliciaBasoli - No Comments →

There’s still time to be considered for holiday gift guides.   Following, courtesy of the Publicity Club November newsletter and Victoria Renwick on our staff, are some quick holiday gift guide pitch tips to help put some PR coverage under the tree.  

Filed under: Media and Press, PR Industry, Pitch tips by LauraTomasetti - No Comments →

The SNCR held its third annual research symposium today in Cambridge, with some fascinating presentations.

UMASS researcher Nora Barnes presented a study looking at corporations’ use of social media.  There’s a huge disparity between the number of Fortune 500 companies and INC 500s using social media – maybe no surprise, when you consider most Fortune 500s are publicly traded and as such tend to play it more conservatively when communicating – whether via traditional or social media.

INC 500s outblogging Fortune 500s

It’s clear that the more entrepreneurial businesses comprising the INC 500 are leveraging social media.  Seventy-seven percent of INC 500s are using at least one form of social media, with 39% maintaining corporate blogs (vs. 12% of Fortune 500s). [Read more →]

Filed under: Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Internet, Media and Press, PR Industry by LauraTomasetti - No Comments →

Gone are the days of traditional marketing to teens. If you are truly trying to break into the hearts and minds of these young people with buying power, you had better be Tweeting, Facebooking, YouTubing, Video-Gaming, MMS’ing, texting, and many more made-up verb words that are sure to make it into the next edition of Webster’s dictionary.

These Millennials, or members of Generation Y, are presenting fun and exciting opportunities and challenges to marketers, PR professionals and advertising executives all over the world. This past week I attended the Ypulse Marketing Mashup East here in Boston. Top brand executives and representatives from the likes of Virgin Mobile USA, MTV, Kaboodle, myYearbook and many more gave insights on what their respective companies are doing to reach this on-the-go and plugged-in demographic.

Each presented a wide-range of initiatives, events and research that in the past few years has presented a better look at who Millennials, like me, are. Even I was caught off guard by some of the stats and ideas presented over the two day conference. [Read more →]

Filed under: Industry Organizations, Social Media by Admin - 3 Comments →

Election Day is one of the most congested days for marketers.  Every four years the typical news cycle come to a halt and for weeks all media is focused on the presidential elections.  Not to mention all of the advertising for senators, state representatives, and of course the presidential race – I am sick of it and I don’t even live in a swing state!  To even attempt to stand out in the election “clutter” is a monumental feat and the stars must align – or at least all the components of a great campaign must align.  This year Starbucks did just that.

I just did a quick search on Twitter and within the past 5 minutes there were more than 45 tweets about the free coffee offer from Starbucks – People who just got their coffee, others spreading the word.  There is no mention of the free coffee on the Starbucks Web site, but with the help of a primetime ad during SNL, Starbucks was able to launch the perfect viral campaign.  I got an email from a friend about free coffee that I, in turn, forwarded to the 360PR office and so on.  Starbucks also posted a video on YouTube on November 1^st. It has already received nearly 315,000 views and counting.  229,998 people confirmed on Facebook that they would attend the “event” “Free Cup Free Cup of Starbucks Coffee if you Vote on Tuesday.”  And now nearly 500 news articles pop up about the campaign when doing a Google News search on the term “Starbucks.” 

There was a slight bump in the road – according to Newsweek, it is apparently illegal to offer monetary incentives to get people to the polls, but I would say that this is a true case of “there is no such thing as bad PR.”  Now everyone gets a free cup of coffee.

I voted, got my sticker and am off for an afternoon cup of coffee.

Filed under: PR Industry by Admin - 2 Comments →

We just distributed the latest issue of the 360PR MomSquad Trendletter, with highlights from the Marketing to Moms Conference and a look ahead at how moms will be shopping this holiday season.  The operative word there is “how” not “if.”

Everything we’re hearing tells us that moms will be shopping, though later than past years and on the hunt for deals, according to Mommies with Style’s Whitney Wingerd, a contributor to our MomSquad Trendletter.  Retailers like Wal-Mart and K-Mart are priming moms to expect deep discounts.  One of the interesting findings of a new Silver Stork Research survey of 1,600 moms is that 9 out of 10 of moms who plan to shop online say they will watch for sales and coupons to make their holiday budgets go farther.

And moms shopping online will be clicking around more than holidays past.  Increasingly Internet savvy, moms they say they’re not wedded to one e-commerce site and will be searching several to find the best gifts and deals for their families.  You can read other highlights from Silver Stork’s report in the Trendletter. 

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Events and Conferences, Internet, Marketing to Moms by LauraTomasetti - 1 Comment →