Pr has changed dramatically over the last 5-10 years. Here at Essential Communications, we're perfectly positioned to help your B2B technology company more your communications to the next level. For more info call 01635 43967

1. 24/02/2011
1

2. Bob Dylan once said “The times, they are a-changin” and
what‟s more, in the modern business world they are changing
at an incredible pace.
 PR now needs to support an even wider, content hungry
audience
 Online coverage is now of equal importance to printed
column inches
 Journalists are using social media channels as well as
traditional PR routes to find and promote stories
 Traditional PR methods alone will not be as successful as
they have been in the past
24/02/2011
2

3.  The rise in Social Media has changed the way that people
communicate and the way that people look for solutions
 Although not necessarily a good thing, people are now
more likely to trust something posted online by a stranger
about a product or brand, than something said by the
brand itself
 The PR audience has widened so that it doesn't only
include journalists but now anyone can be a contributor
to the growing information that exists within the internet
about a company, its products and services
 Content is king and all forms need to be included as part
of the PR mix
24/02/2011
3

4.  PR has become social – so social needs to be included in the
PR toolbox to support pitches to journalists and to help spread
the news
 Journalists are using a range of communication channels to
promote features and stories, so monitoring and listening
is vital
 How we measure PR needs to change – we
now need to combine traditional column inches with
online coverage, links and mentions on social platforms
 Content needs to be valuable and targeted to support the
different types of information needed by decision
makers e.g. white papers on the value of a solution,
customer case studies & testimonials,
videos etc.
24/02/2011
4

5. 24/02/2011
5

6. Introducing the Essential approach to PR
 It‟s clear that social media cannot be ignored
 At Essential our approach is to embrace social media and intertwine it with our
traditional PR offering. In effect our PR services have now become social
 So how do we integrate the traditional and the new?
 Well, we still use the traditional services such as feature tracking, press releases
and by-lined articles but we combine these with a more social approach
24/02/2011
6

7. Feature Tracking to Find Media Opportunities
 At Essential we use a paid for feature tracking service, direct contact with journalists and social media
monitoring to identify potential features for clients; with the objective of getting coverage as a result of a
pitch or from a telephone interview with the client‟s spokesperson
 This can also be used to leverage a client‟s other rich content such as case studies, videos and white
papers
 Target publications for all PR work will include relevant vertical magazines, C-level publications, IT /
Technology publications and online news portals and channels and even blogs
Press Releases for News Flow
 Press releases are used to announce specific news about a client to its target press, stakeholders,
influencers and shareholders
 Unlike many agencies, Essential will call the target press to help to sell in the story rather than simply
blasting the release out via a newswire (this can be done too for those clients that require it). We find the
targeted rather than „shotgun‟ approach to be far more effective
Positioning You Through By-Lined Articles & ‘Thought Leadership’ Pieces
 Essential will use a variety of techniques to identify opportunities for by-lined thought leadership articles.
These opportunities can come from conversations with our clients and journalists or sometimes they can
arise from a pitch to a journalist in direct response to a request he or she has put out
24/02/2011
7

8. Extending Your Reach Through Social Media
 In addition to personally sending all press releases directly to target
journalists Essential also publicises all stories via its Twitter and LinkedIn
accounts, helping to spread the word into the social space
 This reach can be further extended out to the client‟s own social
platforms
 Coverage within features will also be monitored and can also be Tweeted
Monitoring the Return on Your Investment
 We know that Return On Investment is key to gaining board level buy-in
to PR and to justifying further investment
 Essential tracks this by monitoring coverage in key target press, online
and in the social space; providing its clients with a monthly report of
coverage found
 This can include copies of coverage and calculated return on investment
in terms of value of coverage based on equivalent advertising spend
24/02/2011
8

9. In order to extend the reach of Social PR even further the following activities
can also be provided:
One to One Meetings
 Talking to journalists over email, by phone and via social platforms is great
but the best relationships are still cemented face to face
 Essential can arrange one to one meetings for the client‟s spokesperson
with target journalists to establish these relationships
Podcasts – The Audio Alternative
 Essential can arrange and record interviews with the client and its key
partners, customers and key influencers
 These could then be promoted via Twitter and LinkedIn and used as a
possible tool in feature pitches to journalists
 Podcasts could be hosted on the client‟s website pulling traffic into the site
and could also be uploaded to iTunes
24/02/2011
9

10. Making Social Media Work for You
 Social Media isn‟t just for kids!
 Twitter is now firmly established as a business tool and LinkedIn is often one of the best
referring sources of traffic for business to business websites
 Essential can help you set up your social media platforms and keep them updated with regular,
topical, valuable content
 Working as part of client‟s team Essential can monitor, identify and publish useful content via
our client‟s Twitter account
 We can also run targeted follower acquisition campaigns to identify and start following existing
customers, prospects, suppliers and other key influencers, each of whom will be notified via
email that your business is now following them
24/02/2011
10

11. Blogging – Because Your Opinions Matter
 Blogging is a key way of raising awareness within the
social media space and being seen as a „Thought Leader‟.
It can also help to pull in traffic to your website
 Essential designs, builds and manages blogs for and in
conjunction with its clients
 Essential can work closely with selected client contacts to help
identify and steer blog posts
 To be effective the framework and majority of content from the blog posts needs to
come from the client but we all know how hard it is to stare at a blank document
and try to write something. So in many cases our clients provide us with a
framework and we weave the stories together for them, taking care not to change
the message
 In all cases our client always reads and approves any blog post before we post it
for them
 The client can get a regular flow of content without a huge amount of time invested.
24/02/2011
11

12. 12 24/02/2011

13. Feeling inspired?
Ready to take your PR to the next level?
Then get in touch.
Call us on (+44) 01635 43967
Drop us an email
Visit our website
Join us on LinkedIn:
Follow us on Twitter:
24/02/2011
13