The Internet for research and fun...

How long has it been since you picked up a Yellow Pages to find a phone number or used an encyclopedia to do research?

If it’s been more than a year, join the club.

Wikipedia’s main search page had nearly 280 million hits in December 2012 and that’s not counting people like me who google the subject, scan what’s available and usually click the Wikipedia page.

In fact, there are nearly 700,000 Google searches every minute.

Which is nothing compared to, 2.8 million emails sent every second.

But more than 10.5 million pictures uploaded to Facebook every hour.

When you say that of the 2.4 billion Internet users every day, 172 million of them visit Facebook, it sounds like a lot, but it’s a small percentage.  

Still, 400 million people post tweets on Twitter, every day, the most-read ones being about entertainment.

It’s been less than 20 years since the Internet took off.

In the next 20, maybe the phone book dropped at the door will be just a memory.     

For more information, contact Dell Richards Publicity at (916) 455-4790 or visit our website at www.dellrichards.com.

Why marketing relates to string theory

Clients mainly come from publicity, referrals, networking and Internet searches.   

Because we’ve cast our net so wide over the years, it sometimes feels like they come out of nowhere.  

We’ve had clients save a column on public relations and call us years later.

Or a decade later, the cousin of a consultant we did a radio show for calls and wants PR.

So much so, we say it’s energy that brings in clients, not marketing.

“You put out energy, you get back energy” may sound New Age, but not if string theory is true.   

In string theory, everything is a vibrating possibility until transformed into  reality.

While we have the present moment, the future is filled with possibilities that come from the past and the present.  

Publicity and marketing all keep those strings vibrating. 

For more information, contact Dell Richards Publicity at (916) 455-4790 or visit our website at www.dellrichards.com.

The worst time to pitch a reporter is

People sometimes call us because a competitor has a story in the media.

It’s great they want publicity, but they’re not going to get an article from that source, which is usually what they’re after.

To paraphrase Jeff Haden, a columnist at Inc.com, “If I just wrote about the subject, I’m good for the next year or so.”

Luckily, there are always other media to approach.

If the article was in the local daily paper, we could pitch the local business journal, the local weekly or monthly magazines.

We could go for broadcast media: television and radio appearances or quotes in Internet stories.

We could target trade journals—not the ones clients themselves read—but the ones read by their clients.

To do so, we come up with angles focused on the specific media.

That way, a missed opportunity becomes a way of creating a broad-range public relations campaign that delivers long-term results.

For more information, contact Dell Richards Publicity at 916.455.4790 or visit us at www.dellrichards.com.

Websites make updating news easy

The other day I grabbed a handful of hand-outs as I rushed out the door to a speaking engagement and didn’t realize I had the wrong one until it was too late.

I used it to talk about how public relations has—and has not—changed in the past few years.

The most revolutionary change is that company news sections now replace press kits.

A well done newsroom lets journalists scan what they need faster than a brochure, press release, backgrounder or business card.

Unlike printed material, news pages can be updated instantly—at much less expense—with as many pages and links as the company needs.

We tell clients to place articles prominently as they have more credibility than press releases.

We also suggest that clients get reprints of articles and quotes to link to the news page. Ditto broadcast appearances.

Reprints let the company add their logo and contact info to the story while still maintaining the integrity of journalism.

Press releases also can be used in the newsroom, but they don’t have the implied third-party endorsement of expertise that media recognition does.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity at 916-455-4790 or visit www.dellrichards.com.

Good article on handling social media crises

Since we recently wrote about a client who was concerned with Internet users posting information about them, even positively, we found this interesting article from LinkedIn on how to deal with social media issues, especially negative ones that apply to all media, including print and broadcast.

Some of the tips from "How to Deal with a Social Media Crisis and Prevent a Catastrophe," by Juan Sanchez, community manager at Waggener Edstrom, were:

Monitor your brand constantly,
Figure out what's going on before you react, but
React within 24 hours using the same medium, and
Have the CEO or someone responsible do it, and
Get the help of influencers.

Also, use SEO to push the good links in other media and, finally,
Think opportunity to engage with your fans.

For the full article, visit http://tinyurl.com/3zpk8ee.

For more information on our services, visit Dell Richards Publicity at www.dellrichards.com.

Disabled by the Facebook virus

I was recently disabled by Facebook. No reason given and no way to contact them except through their Q&A, then email.

I followed the instructions, but was informed I had a fake account and was permanently barred with no appeal.

Because I don’t take “no” for an answer, I immediately opened another Facebook account with a different email address, a placeholder account. (I later learned this is typical of teenagers: one for friends, another for family.)

The situation was frustrating, annoying and time-consuming. Was someone targeting me? Or, worse, was someone trying to steal my identity?

A few days later, I learned of the virus that targeted women—and asked them to send a copy of a government-issued I.D. to prove who they were to a “Facebook” customer support site.

Even though I got my account back, I couldn’t help questioning what was going on. How many women had given vital information about themselves to a hacker, an identity thief or worse?

Executives at Facebook said only a “small percentage” of its 500 million users were targeted, but even one percent could have been 5 million women.

Don’t get me wrong. I love connecting with the real world through the virtual one. Because I created a network of bird guides worldwide through Facebook, I not only enjoy stunning photographs daily, I know where my next big bird-watching trip will be.

Even before this latest virus, Facebook and other gargantuan social networking sites were becoming the domain of spammers, viruses and malware.

Now we have a virus that disables accounts and asks for personal identification. As far as I know, there has been no explanation of who received the identification papers. Facebook or someone else?

Ironically enough, Facebook executives announced they were creating a platform for email, etc. on the same day they had to admit there was a virus. Given the timing, perhaps Facebook itself was the target.

Being disabled from virtual friends for a few days was bad enough and cut off from the Dell Richards Publicity page for a few hours was unnerving.

But being cut off from email by a virus—with no way to phone customer support and get it fixed immediately—is my worst nightmare.

For more information, contact Dell Richards Publicity at 916. 455.4790 or visit our website at www.dellrichards.com