The “media” is an undeniably powerful entity in our daily lives.  It’s even more invasive for teens and college students, a generation growing up with more forms of media choices than any other generation before them. “Stage of Life,” a blogging resource for high school students, Baby Boomers, and every life stage in between, wanted to know how teens felt about the media, so they asked its teen and college visitors, “What form of media impacts your life the most, and why?” as part of its national monthly writing contest series for students. (more…)

Survey of Phoenix-area journalists reveals insights about using social media to interact with news organizations and generating local media attention.

Local journalists are a large part of the conversation in the social mediashpere, especially during breaking news; when major news happens they are both reporting information and watching for updates from other news organizations. 

“Social media has drastically changed the way I get information as a reporter,” says Marc Martinez, anchor and reporter for FOX 10 in Phoenix. “During the Tucson shootings in January, Twitter became one of the main sources of updates from the scene. While traditional news outlets worked to verify the information before posting reports, Twitter was consistently first with instant updates.”  

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Facebook has released the “Best Practice Guide For Marketing on Facebook,” a comprehensive overview of how to utilize the social media site for marketing your business, products or services. Specific to Facebook, the guide is a practical overview that provides real-life examples from brands like M&M’s, OnStar, Clorox, Shane Co., Adidas, Levi’s, Sephora, 1800Flowers.com and more.

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I have compiled this list of Phoenix area journalists (TV reporters, anchors, producers, print writers, editors and multi-media journalists). News organizations see a lot of change in staff, so if you have any updates or additions please contact me or hit me up on Twitter http://twitter.com/joeprguy

KTVK – 3TV

http://www.facebook.com/PhoenixMedia
http://www.facebook.com/#!/3OYSPhoenix
Main News Feed @azfamily
AzFamily.com @natsnews
Jared Dillingham, Reporter @Jared3TV and Facebook
Carey Pena, Anchor/Reporter @careypena3tv and Facebook
Stacey Delikat, Reporter @sdelikat3tv and Facebook
Gina Maravilla, dayside @Gina3TV and Facebook
Jason Berry, Reporter/producer @jasonberry3tv
Tyson Milanovich, Senior Producer GMAZ @Tyson3TV
Jason Bannecker, Executive Producer @jasonbannecker
Beverly Kidd, Evening News Anchor @bevTV
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comScore says U.S. Online Display Advertising Market Delivers 1.1 Trillion Impressions in Q1 2011

comScore today released an overview of the U.S. online display advertising market for Q1 2011 based on data from comScore Ad Metrix, indicating that nearly 1.11 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during the quarter. Facebook accounted for 346 billion impressions, nearly double the number it delivered in Q1 2010, and accounting for nearly one third of all display ad impressions delivered.

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The Consumer Awareness Expo is free but attendance is limited, so register today

EVENT INFO:
Saturday May 21, 9:30am-12:30pm
Mesquite Library (4525 E. Paradise Village Parkway N., Phoenix, AZ  85032)
FREE! LIMITED attendance, so RSVP at http://consumerawarenessexpo.eventbrite.com.

The Consumer Awareness Expo will provide homeowners with information about the full spectrum of options available if they are underwater with their mortgage, experiencing financial hardship due to job loss, medical expenses, divorce or other life events. Some of the experts available include:

• Attorneys from Nagle Law Group and Scottsdale Law Group will assist homeowners with information and options about short sale, foreclosure and bankruptcy options
• Attorneys from Nelson Law Firm will provide information about tax consequences of short sales or foreclosures on income taxes
• Real Property Management North Valley will provide information about finding a rental home or apartment, including application information
• Representatives from Nova Home Loans will be at the event to consult with homeowners who are ready to purchase again and take advantage of these low housing prices
• Home Affordable Modification Assistance Group will be available to discuss loan modification possibilities
• Instant Settle Consultants will discuss debt settlement and credit repair options

“We want to provide consumers with options and answers they can live and move forward with during difficult times,” said event organizer Lisa Capes, Chicago Title Insurance Company. “This event is being held by a group of real estate professionals who are dedicated to educating the public with facts and options for underwater homeowners.”

This Expo is FREE to the public and the law firms and agencies are providing their expertise at no charge. Attendance is limited and participants must register by May 18^th at http://consumerawarenessexpo.eventbrite.com.

BrightEdge announced that according to its analysis, the majority of leading consumer brands are investing in social media presence but doing little to optimize Facebook or Twitter pages to make them more discoverable in search results. The SEO platform company reviewed the social media presence of the top 200 brands in the world. It found that close to 100 percent hold the top or near top rank in search results for the brand name. But in these same brand searches, the company found that 70 percent of these brands did not have Facebook or Twitter pages in the top 20 results. Experts say links that are not in the top 10 search results most often do not get clicked on by consumers.

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Columbia University has announced the 95th Annual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters, Drama and Music. Here are the journalism winners named for this year:

PUBLIC SERVICE
For a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalistic resources which, as well as reporting, may include editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics, videos, databases, multimedia or interactive presentations or other visual material, presented in print or online or both, a gold medal.  Awarded to the Los Angeles Times for its exposure of corruption in the small California city of Bell where officials tapped the treasury to pay themselves exorbitant salaries, resulting in arrests and reforms. (more…)

Here is a real life example of why Twitter is essential to public relations, whether you are a P.R. pro or business owner trying to promote your company.

It’s no secret that Twitter is a powerful tool for connecting and interacting with local reporters; this week provided a good example as to why Twitter is essential to public relations – whether you are a verteran P.R. pro or business owner trying to promote your company.

I saw a tweet from Tim Vetscher, a Phoenix TV reporter who works for ABC 15. He had a story lined up, but something fell through and he turned to Twitter for any quick story ideas.

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LivingSocial, the online source for handpicked experiences at a value, today announced it has secured $400 million in investment from a mix of world-class public and private investors, which includes new and existing investors. This round brings the company’s total investment raised to more than $600 million. LivingSocial will use this investment to carry on its aggressive domestic and international growth and continued product innovation.

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Summary:
Responsible for media relations for the 6th Annual Border Security Expo, a two-day event held at the Phoenix Convention Center. Event organizers wanted to generate local buzz for the event to both increase awareness and promote exhibitors.

Strategy:
Leveraging news topic of border issues in Arizona, combined with stunning visuals event provides, execute proactive media outreach to secure morning show lives on-location as well as recorded stories for evening news. Generate coverage in Phoenix and also pitch national reporters who cover immigration or border security.

Tactics:
In advance, sent out event media advisories followed by personal pitches to both local and national media outlets. Leveraged local media relationships to line up TV coverage through outreach to individual reporters and producers. During the event, posted photos and updates via Twitter, which generated second wave of media coverage the second day of the event where reporters could interview law enforcement attendees from around the world.

Results:
Coverage from every major news organization in Phoenix, including live television broadcasts on three stations; total of 8 TV stations (Phoenix and Tucscon), 3 newspapers and 4 radio stations. An Associated Press article and photo ran in newspapers across the country. Other national coverage included CNN, New York Times, NPR, FOX News and NBC Nightly News. Here are some examples: 

• CNN
• Arizona Republic
• Arizona Capital Times
• East Valley Tribune
• ABC 15
• CBS 5 News
• Ch 3 News, Segment 1
• Ch 3 News, Segment 2
• Ch 3 News, Segment 3
• Ch 3 News, Segment 4
• FOX Story 1
• FOX Story 2
• KOLD News Tucson

No matter what your company’s products or services, it is important to understand the consumer’s experience with your brand from start to finish – especially the delivery and implementation channels. When conducting a brand audit for new clients I focus closely on the end consumer experience: does your brand live up to its promises? What roadblocks are there in the delivery or implementation? How can those be improved or removed altogether?

You can deploy every marketing tool in the book and spend tons of money on massive advertising campaigns to build awareness of your brand, but in the end it is the customer experience that matters - especially in the age of Twitter and Facebook. (more…)

The state of the U.S. news media improved in 2010, at least in comparison with a dismal 2009. Newspapers were the only major media sector to see continued ad revenue declines, down 6.4%. But as online news consumption continues to grow—it surpassed print newspapers in ad revenue and audience for the first time in 2010—a more fundamental challenge to journalism also became clearer. The news industry in the digital realm is no longer in control of its own destiny, according to the State of the News Media report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

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New Brand Identity and Advertising Campaign Highlights the “Strength, Reach and Value of
Gannett’s Powerful Portfolio of Trusted Brands”

Gannett (NYSE: GCI) today launched a new corporate brand strategy and national advertising campaign that elevates the company’s corporate identity and supports its unique portfolio of trusted brands, powerful network of broadcast, digital, mobile and publishing properties and unmatched local-to-national reach. The new tagline, “It’s all within reach,” captures the benefits Gannett provides for consumers, business customers and employees. Through its portfolio of trusted brands, Gannett gives businesses the opportunity to engage targeted audiences on any platform – TV, local and national newspapers, online, handheld devices and even in a specific elevator in a specific building on a specific street.

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Large businesses are embracing social customer relationship management (CRM) software, with 30% planning to adopt it within the next 24 months, according to new study.

During the next two years 30 percent of leading companies will extend the goals of their online community activities to the design of enhanced service processes, such as social CRM, according to a study released by Gartner today. Social CRM for customer service has the potential to bring new and dynamic methods for improving customer service, and in doing so is creating opportunities for new and existing providers in the customer service and contact center infrastructure markets.

“Social CRM for customer service has only recently entered into the realm of contact center infrastructure and customer service software components, where it has been met with significant hype despite a limited number of field deployments,” said Drew Kraus, research vice president at Gartner. “There is strong corporate awareness, including at corporate executive levels, of social networks and their potential impact on corporate brand management and customer service perception. We expect the high-profile nature of social networks and social CRM for customer service to rapidly advance adoption from early adopter to mainstream deployments despite the volatile and rapid evolution of social networks in general.”

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Last week I read this blog The Problem With Public Relations on the Small Business section of nytimes.com. Written by Bruce Buschel, the owner of Southfork Kitchen, the blog chronicles his frustrating journey with finding the right P.R. firm to create a big splash for the grand opening of his new restaurant in Bridgehampton, NY. He writes:

“It would be crazy to categorize all public relations people as crazy, so let’s just say that P.R. people drive me crazy. All of them. As a client, as an interviewer of clients, as an avoider of clients they are selling too hard, and now as a client again. What I have finally come to understand is that P.R. people are paid to twist reality into pretzels and convince you that they are fine croissants. At some point, they actually believe their own concoctions.”

Buschel’s plight sounded eerily similar to a recent conversation I had with a new client as I was preparing a strategic P.R. plan for his business. I was hired to replace a previous P.R. firm who, in the client’s words “were good at invoicing and counting hours but that’s about it.” They made big promises but didn’t deliver, he said and his biggest frustration was “they didn’t understand my business.”

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Study of leading brands, including consumer electronics manufacturer Dell, show search and social media prompt a virtuous circle of channel engagement

The role of search and social media in a consumer’s path to purchase is a virtuous circle, where activity in one channel fuels engagement in the other, says a new study released by GroupM Search and comScore, Inc.

The research, which included analysis of online consumer engagement and purchase for leading advertisers including Dell and others in the telecommunications and consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories, revealed that 40 percent of consumers who use search in their path to purchase are motivated to use social media to further their decision making process. Similarly, 46 percent of consumers who use social media in the purchase pathway are driven to use search to expand their knowledge about their likely purchase. These findings demonstrate the emergence of search and social media as essential channels in the online path to purchase for consumers today. (more…)

As Facebook continues to solidify its role as the world’s top social networking site, eMarketer estimates that more than half of internet users in the US were logging on to the site at least monthly as of the end of 2010. This year, 132.5 million US web users will use the site monthly, eMarketer forecasts. That increase of 13.4% in the number of users means Facebook will reach almost nine in 10 social network users and 57.1% of internet users. By 2013, 62% of web users and almost half (47.6%) of the overall US population will be on Facebook. eMarketer’s estimates are based on a meta-analysis of survey data and visitor statistics from over a dozen sources, and include US users who use any internet-enabled device to access their Facebook account at least once a month.

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Entertainment Weekly (EW) is reporting that FOX’s ‘American Idol’ will soon allow fans to vote using their Facebook accounts on a dedicated voting page. According to EW, fans will be able to vote up to 50 times on Facebook. Fans can still vote via phone and text message, of course. Online voting is expected to start during the March 1 performance.

 In its 10th season, Idol continues to bolster FOX’s ratings; according to Nielsen, Idol has dominated the top two slots in the weekly rankings.

The International Press Institute (IPI) today announced that it has been awarded $2.7 million by Google Inc, to sponsor the IPI News Innovation Contest, a project aimed at advancing the future of digital news by funding new ways to inform communities in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The IPI News Innovation Contest aims to encourage breakthrough ideas with the potential to create lasting impact. Grants will be awarded to non-profit and profit organizations working on digital, including mobile, open-source technology created by journalists and/or for journalists and distributed in the public interest.

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With more than 500 million active users, marketers know they must have a Facebook presence to keep their brands top of mind with consumers. While many marketers have fully embraced social media and are maximizing their consumer engagement strategies, a new study conducted by advertising agency WONGDOODY shows that there is the opportunity to do more. The WONGDOODY Facebook Global Best Practices Study uncovered a trend that shows a surprising number of top brands do not get the most out of their Facebook marketing efforts.

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The “Dr. Oz Show” goes boldly where no other show has gone before. For the first time ever, Dr. Oz performs surgery on a celebrity patient right on Dr. Oz’s stage. The patient is none other than late night talk show host and friend Jimmy Fallon! Then it’s Dr. Oz’s turn to be the patient when he undergoes a procedure with Jimmy Fallon assisting Dr. Arthur Perry and Oz’s sister Seval offering support. The segments will air in an episode to run next Wednesday (February 23).

As Dr. Oz and Jimmy Fallon are neighbors with their studios right across from each other at New York’s famed 30 Rock, Jimmy showed Dr. Oz his mole on his left hand which the doctor diagnosed as a blue nevi. When Dr. Oz appeared as a guest on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” on January 6, 2011, Dr. Oz invited Jimmy to come on the show to have the potentially cancerous mole removed (after a biopsy, the mole was determined to be not cancerous).

Jimmy arrived in a hospital gown and, despite some nerves, he put his trust in the hands of Dr. Oz and physician Dr. Arthur Perry. As he sat in the operating room chair and doctors made incisions and sutures, Jimmy turned his eyes away, unable to watch.  He sang verses of the National Anthem and cracked jokes as the audience squealed and chanted in support, “Jimmy! Jimmy!” When the audience was silent during certain moments of the surgery, Jimmy pled for their support.

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Social Media Reputation (SMR) Index Ranks 50 top brands on social media

A new study from London-based Alterian has ranked the 50 top global brands using social media and they name eBay as number one. The online auction and shopping website beat Apple (2nd), Google (3rd), Blackberry (4th) and Amazon (5th). According to the new research, eBay took the top slot due to the company’s long standing engagement with their customers through forums, which were introduced in the late 1990s, corporate blogging, Twitter and Facebook. Quick to adapt to new social media offerings, eBay has adopted Facebook’s Open Graph so customers can split the cost of a gift and pay for their share via Paypal. The company also takes a social approach to internal communications, featuring blogs, forums and discussions boards on the company intranet.
 
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In spite of a backlash on Twitter after the song’s release, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” has become the fastest-selling single ever on Apple’s iTunes store worldwide, racking up more than one million downloads in five days, Apple said today. The song had hit the #1 spot on iTunes in 23 countries. “Born This Way,” the title track of a new album to be released in May, also went straight to the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles charts earlier this week.

The song was released last Friday, creating a flurry of activity on Twitter. Many said the new song was too similar to Madonna’s “Express Yourself.” The 140-character-at-a-time debates heated up with #bornthiswayfriday battling #express yourself on Twitter’s hottest trends.

On Wednesday, she posted to Twitter a simple message to fans: “ThankYou so much to Radio+Monsters for making Born This Way the 1000th #1 in Billboard History http://bit.ly/hcU95v ThankYou for believing.”

New research shows social media top marketing strategy for local businesses with Facebook surpassing Google as most-widely used. Group buying gets mixed reviews: 55% of merchants who have offered a “daily deal” through a group buying service would not do so again.

MerchantCircle has released results of its quarterly Merchant Confidence Index survey of over 8,500 small and local business owners across the U.S. The data reveals that local merchants, who have very limited time and money for marketing, are gravitating towards simple, low-cost online marketing methods such as Facebook and other social media, as well as towards tried-and-true methods such as search and email marketing. The research also demonstrates that while new marketing services such as mobile marketing and group buying are generating significant buzz in the media, local merchants have yet to tap these unproven marketing methods.

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American Airlines, which this year celebrates the 30th anniversary of its AAdvantage® program, has launched Facebook and Twitter channels dedicated to the wide range of opportunities to earn miles. American is the first U.S. airline to launch dedicated social media channels focused on earning miles.

Followers of the Advantage Facebook and Twitter channels can expect to see a variety of posts detailing ways to increase their mileage balance, including special mileage offers and promotions, the airline said. Channels also encourage followers to share their own strategies for racking up miles.

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A new Burson-Marsteller study shows that sixty-seven percent of Fortune Global 100 companies on Twitter are using the “@symbol” to directly engage with or mention other users, and more than half (57 percent) are “retweeting” content from their corporate accounts. This represents a 76 percent increase in companies using the “@mention” function and 78 percent increase in retweeting to interact and engage with stakeholders compared to last year. These are some key findings of the Second Annual Burson-Marsteller Global Social Media Check-up, which examines the Fortune Global 100’s use of popular social networking platforms such as: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, corporate blogs and other local and language-specific social networks.

The “@mention” or “@reply” function on Twitter is most often used to demonstrate that a user is directly responding to or mentioning another Twitter user.

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Who is influencing major topics of conversation on social media? And how? A new study by researchers at HP’s Social Computing Research Group reveals a fascinating look at how information flows on Twitter, the popular microblogging portal.

“You might expect the most prolific tweeters or those with most followers would be most responsible for creating such trends,” writes Bernardo Huberman,  HP Senior Fellow. “But as it turns out, that is not the case.”

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IOG's new shirts show the genetic fingerprint of heart disease

In Our Genes (IOG) – the Clothing for Cures™ Company – has developed and marketed the first genetic-art clothing line for the mass market; a green line of apparel featuring genetically rendered DNA prints of some of the most challenging diseases. The branded apparel comes with a charitable tie, making IOG the only apparel maker whose entire purpose for existing is to make clothing that funds genetic research for disease management and cures. In honor of Heart Health Month – an official observance across the U.S. in February – IOG has announced the release of its latest signature product; a t-shirt with the genetic markers for heart disease – the most preventable of the “top killers” that affect humankind.

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Taco Bell today announced what they are calling “the world’s biggest taco giveaway on Facebook.” The measure comes on the heels of major media attention to the lawsuit alleging that the fast-food giant uses meat that is only 36% beef.

Beginning today, Taco Bell will thank each of its Facebook fans with a free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco. The online offer is only available to Facebook members who “Like” the Taco Bell page, allowing each fan access to print the coupon.
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