But the good ones are another story. They’re a thriving community. Venues where people with shared passions can exchange ideas, opinions and recommendations. Tastemakers. Trendsetters. Word of mouth generators.

Connecting with the right blogs offers you unique opportunities to create brand buzz and awareness. You know this, and you want to reach out to the Quebec blogosphere to promote your brand. There’s just one petit problème: French.

You want to build a network of bloggers in Quebec, but you don’t speak the language. Maybe you’ve never even set foot in la belle province. What to do? Dust off your old high school French textbooks and take a stab at reading some likely-looking blogs, hoping they don’t get more advanced than “My pencil case is blue. What colour is yours”? Cut and paste some posts into a translation program and try to decipher the resulting gobbledygook (“I hope to drink a glass of tepid monkey”)? Email some bloggers in English and keep your fingers crossed that you don’t create a bad first impression?

Mais non. There’s an easier way. Use the mononews Quebec bloggers program. We know the language, the culture and the media landscape, and we’ll ensure your stories reach influential bloggers whose interests intersect with your brand.

We’ve built up a handpicked network of ten professional lifestyle and leisure bloggers who are serious about their writing and authentic in their love of brands. Each of their blogs is supported by other Quebec lifestyle sites that enhance their visibility. And because we know you want measurable results, we provide you with social media reports after each campaign that quantify its impact.

That’s why the mononews Quebec bloggers program is the smart choice—in any language.
Here is a link to it: http://www.bloggerprogrammononews.com

Now comes the hard part. How do you get this masterpiece to the people you want to read it? You can’t just send it out on a couple of general newswire services and hope it makes its way to the right reporters. In our super-saturated media world, it will sink without a trace faster than the Titandenburg (unfortunate love child of the Titanic and Hindenburg). You need a dedicated, up-to-date mailing list of lifestyle reporters looking for just the type of content you provide.

Better pour yourself a cup of strong coffee. This could take a while. You’ll need to go online and scour the Web for likely-looking names and call up contacts and ask for references and leverage social media networks until your eyes glaze over. And once you’ve devoted countless hours to researching and compiling a workable list—which in today’s fast-paced news environment should be good for, oh, a couple of months—you’ll need to put even more time into maintaining it.

Sound good? Didn’t think so. Here’s another option: sign up for mononews, and let us take care of the rest.

mononews is an affordable, painless way to deal with the crucial but tedious task of managing your media contacts. We’ve got an entire community of 7,000 lifestyle and culture reporters on our customizable list. Even better, we review our contacts every month and keep tabs on new websites, publications and shows, ensuring our network is up to date and on target.

We’ll save you the hassle of maintaining your media list—and let you get on with creating your next PR masterpiece instead.

So you’ve got this product. It’s a good product: well-designed, innovative, cool. There’s just one problem. It was released a couple of years ago.

Media years are like dog years squared. Last week is old. Last year is practically pre-historic. Two years ago, there may as well have been dinosaurs roaming the planet.  Your product is about as newsy as “Gangnam Style” and lip dubs.

You know it’s still relevant and interesting, but how do you let others know that? You need a hook, something to make people notice it, to make it seem timely.

Here’s the thing: You don’t have to create news. You just have to use news.

Find a way to link your product to local current events and popular trends. You’ll show it in a new light while leveraging what’s hot to your advantage. This approach, also known as “newsjacking,” helps to keep your brand fresh and give it valuable exposure in the context of something people are eager to talk about.

Take Quebec. No topic is hotter than Stanley Cup fever when the Montreal Canadiens go on a postseason playoff run. From talk radio to newspaper front pages to storefront windows, the Habs are everywhere—and smart communications people in the province are all over this opportunity like cheese curds on poutine.

That’s just one example. New opportunities to leverage your brand are everywhere, from general news stories to industry-specific developments. The key is to keep your finger on the pulse—mainstream media outlets, social media networks, Twitter hashtags, etc.—and use your imagination to pair your brand with trending topics.

It’s doesn’t matter whether it’s a press release, a Facebook post, a blog entry or a tweet. Don’t work to make news—make the news work for you.

Photo Credit: FloridaWing
http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/647947

There will always be a need for Marketing. 

There will always be a need for Public Relations.

The  fundamental principles and basic tools remain relevant and crucial.  It’s all about adapting them and understanding how to make them work for you.

Organizations will need to continue, as they have since the establishment of commerce, to educate and inform their customers about the product, what it is, what is does, how it works, and, most importantly how it meets the users needs.

Yes, social platforms, social media and the World Wide Web have radically changed how we seek and consume information. 

Power has shifted to the purchaser/user.

As I’ve said repeatedly, the pendulum of power has swung in the favour of the people purchasing and using the products.  Their role is more active than ever, as they seek and take control of their needs for information:  when they want it; how they want it, when they want it.

Long gone are the days where customers passively sat on the couch in front of the TV or with a magazine being served the information Brand Advertisers wanted them to see.  Information based on psychographics, demographics identifying the target users so the reach was appropriate, but little attention was paid to tailoring the message.

This makes the challenge of reaching customers both much more complex and that much easier.  It has resulted in a communication strategy shift from hard sell to meaningful, compelling story-telling with the target group at the heart of the story, a crucial participant.

It means getting the information to them via the most appropriate channel, when it is most relevant and communicated in a manner that is meaningful/helpful/useful.

What is unchanged is the basic need for information.

It is more important than ever to consider the opportunities for sharing information.

There are many vehicles, and each has advantages and constraints.  To be effective,  marketers/communicators must use multiple channels, with a basic, consistent message subtly tailored for each different audience.

One of the vehicles, frequently overlooked but as useful as ever, continues to be the press release.

The news release is the fundamental information created and vetted by the disseminating organization and remains the official and formal means of fair disclosure.

Research* indicates news releases remain the most credible source of news for reporters and journalists. The information they contain has been crafted and vetted for accuracy by the owner of the news. 

So, while as Sarah Marshall The Wall Street Journal’s social media editor for Europe, Middle East and Africa says,  “Social media has become intertwined with the processes of how we gather and distribute stories.”

It doesn’t eliminate the need for traditional marketing and communication tools like press releases.  Press releases contain the basic message.  A great starting point.

*Source: The State of Journalism in 2011 Oriella PR Network Digital Journalism Study

Common Courtesy

I guess I am rather old-fashioned in some respects, especially when it comes to manners and being polite. 

I believe that to be a responsible, well-adjusted and adequately functioning member of society, one must have basic good manners and practise common courtesy.

Good manners are the lubricant of society, greasing the everyday interactions and making interpersonal encounters pleasant, or at least, reasonably painless.

When people don’t have (a certain level of) satisfactory interactions, or, when they have more than an acceptable level of unsatisfactory/unpleasant interactions, they get irritable and impatient.  Their tolerance level goes down, and the potential for unpleasantness or disagreement increases.  It’s sort of like “kicking the dog”, but the impact is broader and exponential.

High levels of exposure to particular events, activities, vehicles or occurrences leaves us particularly sensitive to people who are so engaged in their personal devices that they are oblivious to the people with whom they are sharing space, for example.

Here are  a few basic guidelines to easily avoid some of the worst offences.

In Public

Watch where you are going! 

Keep your music and sound effects to yourself.

Be aware of your surroundings; remember you are sharing a communal space so be considerate of others.

Cell Phones

A phone conversation is meant to be between two people; keep your voice down and/or take it outside.

Turn your phone off (or to “vibrate”) when you are in meetings, at the movies, attending any type of ceremony, performance or in a public venue.

It’s nice that you’re always accessible, but I’d appreciate having your undivided attention whether you’re on the phone with me or in a meeting with me.  I’m sure in either the case the other person you’re interacting with would appreciate it too.

Texting

Say goodbye or otherwise let people know you’re signing off.

Remember that often seeing something in writing is more powerful than hearing it said. Plus, it’s pretty much permanent.

Use good judgment; don’t text delicate messages that need to be given face-to-face.

E-Mail

Don’t spam with e-mails.

Use a salutation. Make an effort to always address your correspondence to an individual; personalize it.

Keep it short; clearly state your reason for communicating. 

Basic Manners

Say “please” when you ask for something.

Say “thank you” when you receive anything.

Say “excuse me”, when you brush past or bump into someone.

When you are spending time with friends, family or colleagues, focus on them and put away your phone, game or electronic device.

Greet and smile at people you meet – the bus driver, the barista at the coffee shop

Dependence on devices leads to isolation.

Reliance on digital devices and Social Media promote self-isolation.  Some people depend on their smart-phone and tablets for everything, including social interaction.

Being polite and using good manners helps keep us anchored in the here and now.  It focuses us on personal interaction and helps us remember to consider others.

Courtesy is an opportunity to make a human connection.

It’s the little gestures of politesse that foster humanity in all of us.  Which makes us better people.

Please, feel free to add to the list.

Ladyheart
http://mrg.bz/gtWJxi

Communication – your responsibility is to make yourself understood.

One of the fundamentals of good communication is making sure your message is clearly understood.

You have a responsibility to share information in a manner which allows your readers, listeners, or the participant(s) in your conversation to easily grasp, and process the material.

This involves the words chosen – using language that is common to, and, which has the same meaning to all participants. It means providing necessary context, ensuring relevance and a measure of transparency and honesty.

Being honest, upfront and transparent in your end of the dialogue helps ensure that the other party (or parties) can take your communication at face value, trust the contents and agree, disagree, act, react or otherwise choose to continue the conversation.

To do otherwise is to create stress and mistrust, leading to the establishment of barriers, which make all further and future conversations more difficult and strained, increasing the scepticism and resistance of the “listener”, making it harder to be understood.

Suggestions to improve your communication output:

–       Know your audience so you are familiar with their language.

–       Use words you’re sure are mutually understood.

–       Use proper grammar.

–       Avoid slang, jargon or specific references (unless truly appropriate).

–       Explain and simplify material that may be new or complicated.

–       Give examples, relate to shared experiences.

–       Speak slowly and clearly.

–       Be honest and transparent.  You may not realize it, but dissembling or hiding information will impact what you say.  People may not be able to spot lies, but they perceive that something is not right, not believable.

One of the best examples of poor communication are political campaigns, where messages are crafted for specific target audiences but delivered broadly, endeavouring to satisfy multiple agendas, and vetted/crafted to remove any potentially offensive or sensitive content.

Easy to Read; Easier to Understand

If I had unlimited power and influence to systematically change things in the world, one of the first changes I would make is to make information easier to read.

From packaging to press releases, from advertisements to websites I would make information that is visually consumed easier to read and understand.

You can improve legibility by:

–       Increasing the font size

–       Eliminating serif fonts (letters with little doohickies on the ends of the arms of the characters – the terminals at the ends of strokes).

–       Minimizing the text.

–       Simplifying the wording.

–       (Again) using good grammar.

–       Ensuring proper punctuation AND spacing.

–       Designing a clear, simple format and even using a template for repeat missives.

–       Showing illustrations, diagrams or pictures.

Yes, as a reader, or, listener of your communication, I have a responsibility to ensure I understand what you are trying to convey.  However depending on how interested or invested I am, how busy or distracted I am or what other pressing concerns I have, I may not be willing or able to make the effort or take the time.

If you want to make sure I understand, it’s best if you make it easy for me.