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The Press Release is Dead Presented by Curt Mercadante Merc Strategy Group, LLC Business Expo 2010

The Press Release is Dead: Using New Communications Tools to Build Your Business, Non-Profit or Campaign

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Presentation given by Curt Mercadante, principal, Merc Strategy Group, LLC, to the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce Business Expo on February 28, 2010. This presentation provides case studies and a roadmap to how and why your organization should engage with new online tools, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

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Page 1: The Press Release is Dead: Using New Communications Tools to Build Your Business, Non-Profit or Campaign

The Press Release is Dead

Presented by Curt MercadanteMerc Strategy Group, LLC

Business Expo 2010

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Who is this guy?

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Who Are We?We bring technology to bear in communications, marketing and grassroots campaigns to cost-effectively augment message and reach.

•Social Media

•Online Media Placement

•Email List Building/Lead Generation

•E-Grassroots/Mobilization/Rapid Response

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What is “Social Media”?

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What is “Social Media”?

There’s no such thing as “social media.”

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What is “Social Media”?Thing

AsSocial Media

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Is the Press Release Dead?

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New Communications Tools

•Communication no longer a one-way street.

•Authenticity required.

•More efficient, effective communication than ever before.

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Medium or Messenger?

Trust?

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Medium or Messenger?

Trust?

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You May be Thinking...This is all just a fad.

I don’t have time for this.

I don’t have the budget for this.

I’m scared.

It’s just for kids.

I love this stuff!

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Just a Fad?Comcast: More than 160,000

customers serviced

through social networking sites

since 2008.

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Just a Fad?Comcast:

More than 1.4 million views of

video of Comcast

technician asleep on

customer’s couch.

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Just a Fad?Jason Plummer:Young Illinois Lt.

Governor candidate wins 6-way Primary by

4,900 votes — after building a 4,700-supporter

network on Facebook in two

months.

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Getting Started

•Facebook strategy? Twitter strategy? No — what is your content strategy.

•Perform a content audit.

•Begin building your opt-in lists.

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Email

Email is the first and largest social networking tool.

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Email

•The massive reach of email:

• Hotmail: 375 million active accounts

• Yahoo: 280 million active accounts

• Gmail: 146 million users

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Email

77% of online U.S. adults trust ‘emails from people they know’ more than any other media.

Forrester Research, Inc., North American Technographics Media and Marketing Online Survey, 2008

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Email•Start building your opt-in list now.

•A number of free (or inexpensive) email distribution tools.

•Please kill the “e-newsletter” (let me explain)

•Short, concise, clear call to action

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Twitter

The online cocktail reception.

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Twitter

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Twitter

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Twitter

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Twitter

•Starbucks (@starbucks)

• Twitter as a real-time focus group.

• 3.37 million mentions of Starbucks on Twitter through May 2009. (Daniel Adler, “Twenty One Twitter

Apps”, Forbes, July 31, 2009.)

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Twitter

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Twitter•Sign Up for Account at

http://Twitter.com

• Select a “personal” name — not a corporate or company name.

• Remember the importance of personalization.

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Twitter

•Go to http://Search.Twitter.com.

• Who’s talking about your company?

• What local customers are on Twitter?

• Who’s talking about your products?

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Twitter

•Listen.

•Follow.

•Engage.

•Repeat.

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Facebook• More than 400 million active users

— would be the world’s 3rd largest country.

• Average user has 130 friends.

• 20 million people per day become fans of pages.

• 1.5 million local businesses have active pages on Facebook.

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Facebook

•35+ age group = 30% of Facebook.

•55+ age group grew 922% in 2009.

Source: http://istrategylabs.com

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Facebook

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Facebook

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Facebook

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FacebookFacebook Ads

• Pay-per-click.

• Target by:

• Keyword

• Location

• Demographic

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Facebook

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Facebook• Sign up for a personal Facebook profile

• Get acquainted, search around, follow other businesses.

• Sign up for a business page at http://Facebook.com/pages

• Suggest to friends. Engage. Watch your network grow.

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Online Video

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Online Video•Americans Are Watching:

• More than 161 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in August 2009.

• 99% of Americans watched videos on YouTube, which accounted for 10 billion video views.

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Online Video•American Consumers and Voters

Are Watching:• More than 140,000 people have viewed the YouTube video

of U.S. Senator Conrad Burns napping during a 2006 U.S. Senate Farm Bill Hearing.

• More than 1.4 million people viewed the video of the Comcast technician sleeping on the customer’s couch.

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Online Video

The ultimate storytelling tool.

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Online Video

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Online Video

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Online Video

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Online Video

Who can best tell your story?

Put ‘em on camera.

Keep it authentic and ‘real’.

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Key Points

•It’s not about eyeballs — it’s about engagement.

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Key Points

•Keep it authentic. Keep it real.

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Key Points

•Not “extra” time spent ... it’s what you need to be doing.

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Key Points

•“The Web site is the easy part ... the hard part is the engagement.”

Luanne LawrenceVP for University AdvancementOregon State UniversitySpeaking at 2010 PRSA International Conference