Twitter Blows Up the News Cycle – READ THIS

Madden, who likened Twitter to TNT, said it was important that “digital was integrated into everything.” He said that “with so many instruments at our disposal,” his job was like “conducting a symphony,” ensuring everyone was on the same page.

via Twitter Blows Up the News Cycle – SocialTimes.

Very important applications to PR work, folks. This seems to be the big takeaway from the article:

Twitter also leveled the playing field among reporters, so that, a 23-year old cub reporter was  tweeting the same way a journalist with 30 years of experience was sharing on Twitter.

The old guard — across the board — hasn’t grasped this yet. The game is not changing. The game has changed already. And your experience? It just doesn’t matter anymore. Sorry. It just doesn’t.

Youngest Voters Pro-Obama but Dislike Politics – This Means How We Market to This Group Will Shift

But young voters also indicated a clear uneasiness with the electoral process, and with Congress. Disenchantment was strongest among voters between 18 and 24 years old. Four years ago, 43 percent of voters in that age group said they were politically active; now only 22 percent do.

via Youngest Voters Favor Obama but Are Uneasy With Politics, Poll Finds – Decision 2012 – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

This is interesting. What does it have to do with marketing, you ask? It has EVERYTHING to do with marketing because the next generation of consumers is going to not be easily led. And that makes your jobs not more difficult, but different from the jobs that we’ve done rather effectively for years.

This millennial generation will demand more from us, insist on our changing our beliefs and, quite frankly, spoon-feeding information to them in a variety of very, very non-traditional ways.

Frankly, I think it’s good for the industry, which tends to rest on its laurels whenever it thinks it can. The moral of the story, then, is DON’T!

PR Stunt: Activists Sink Amazon Bestseller with Fake Reviews – PRNewser

What can PR professionals learn from this story? Given the importance of user reviews for products like books, it should serve as a cautionary tale to authors and literary publicists—but it could apply to any product that relies on such reviews for PR purposes. It reveals the significant power of coordinated online smear campaigns to damage reputations and depress sales numbers.

via PR Stunt: Activists Sink Amazon Bestseller with Fake Reviews – PRNewser.

Excellent cautionary tale. Of course, it’s 2012, not 2002 or even 1992, so we are stuck with the online smear culture as a tactic of the douchebaggery. The importance of this, though, is to understand that it exists and as you roll out your marketing plans, this is a contingency that you will have to plan for.

The lesson: just because it sounds ridiculous, doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen.

Crowdfunding via Kickstarter: A New Kind of PR? – PRNewser

Crowdfunding via Kickstarter: A New Kind of PR? – PRNewser.

Crowdsourcing or crowdfunding is a buzzword right now. I blogged about it recently. I think it’s an interesting alternative for SMALL asks, I don’t know about anything larger right now.

I’m of about the same mind as this commenter, “SpreadTheNewsPR,” who says:

A few of my clients have done this — but as far as it generating media interest — crickets. We’ve found that we can get interest for the product on its merits but the media by and large aren’t interested in covering KickStarter projects as part of the newspeg….partly, they say, because everybody and their dog is doing it and it isn’t news…and partly because most media won’t feature a product or venture until it is on the market, not those in development. What is your media interest experience here?