What’s in a Name? The Fragile Relationship Between PR and Bloggers/Journalists


Being a fan of good music, I follow @brainlove on Twitter. John runs a record label called Brainlove. He is not a man called Brian Love, that much is evident from his Twitter profile, where it says in quite big letters ‘John Brainlove’. Look…

About a month ago, I noticed this tweet..

…and it made me chuckle. It was mainly the name ‘Brian Love’ that did it. But still, it’s the kind of tweet that I see all too often – people complaining about PRs getting their names wrong. So, I did a quick search on Twitter and found, pretty quickly, two other people, Hannah Hobson from the Bow Dream Nation blog and Leigh Campbell, Beauty & Lifestyle Editor for Cosmopolitan Australia, with the same issue. So, I thought I’d ask them some questions about what happens when PRs get names wrong. Here are the highlights of their answers:

How does it make you feel when you receive a PR approach with an incorrect name or none at all?

  • “If they can’t get my name right, I’m not reading further.” (JB)
  • “It makes me really annoyed. It’s unprofessional, wrong and bad manners. I get the impression they are probably not that bothered with you in the first place if they get your name wrong.” (HH)
  • “I feel as though they haven’t bothered to do any research into their ‘target’ publication in which they wish their product to appear.” (LC)

What does it do to your image of the PR person who made the error?

  • “When a PR gets my name or another detail wrong I would automatically think they are incompetent and not a reliable person to work with.” (HH)
  • “It’s probably not their fault – they’ve probably been dropped in the deep end on a minimum wage or sub-zero wage internship with no training.” (JB)
  • “It’s such a fundamental mistake to make – and by doing so, sending the release/kit in the first place has been made redundant as I delete/dispose.” (LC)

Would it make you less likely to want to work with that PR person/company on the campaign in question or on future campaigns?

  • “Absolutely. If they can’t take the time to learn my name and its correct spelling, I don’t offer my time in learning about what they’ve approached me for.” (LC)
  • “Yep, straight in the bin, and once you have bin status, it’s very hard to claw back any credibility.” (JB)
  • “It would make me less likely to work with the person in the future but if they emailed to apologise or something similar I would give them another chance. Of course if it happened more than once them I would definitely not want to work with them again.” (HH)

The lessons for PRs are there for all to see.

by Paul Barnett


Paul Barnett, Social Media Tips and Tricks


Understanding The Social Media Landscape


Social Media Library’s James Fell recently did a presentation with a UK PR Agency, training their staff on social media. We thought we’d share it:

Understanding the Social Media Landscape

Let us know what your thoughts are. How will social media develop?


James Fell, Social Media Tips and Tricks


Play To The Crowd…


For journalists, a core consideration of their work is audience. Whatever the subject matter or the author’s personal opinion, the make up of the audience remains at the forefront of their thoughts throughout the writing process. Within Social Media and Marketing, the same rule should apply.

A freelance journalist might write for a left wing broadsheet one day and a right wing tabloid the next. They may even write articles on the same subject for each paper on subsequent days. However, the whole tone, even the basic opinion of what they write will change depending on who they write for. It is the job of a professional journalist to know their readership and target their copy accordingly. There would be as much value in writing a report for The Daily Mail playing down the recent student riots as there would be in writing one for The Guardian which condemned them: none.

When using social media, brands should think in the same way. Be they followers, fans, community members or readers, they should be treated the same as any audience. Your blog readers may be one set of people, your Facebook fans another and your Twitter followers another. But it’s essential to bear in mind, as much as is possible, who they are. Play to them, tailor your writing towards them, put yourself in the mind of the average recipient of your content. You may think the latest Tinie Tempah performance is worth sharing but will your followers? You might not have a huge interest in a report on the latest widget for the Blackberry, but maybe your audience will. So, remove yourself from the process and pitch your content at your audience.

An interesting report here notes how McDonald’s latest Twitter campaign may have fallen flat because they misjudged their audience. And they’ve paid the price for it, pitching a social media campaign at an audience who were likely to criticise rather than praise the product. Simply considering who their content was targeted at might have saved the fast food brand time, money and a slew of negative feedback.

About the Author

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer, an organiser of Scrabble Sunday and blogs about stuff that he does here.


Paul Barnett, Social Media Tips and Tricks


The Random Factor: Why Your Brand Needs To Stay Alert To Social Media


For marketers, social media is basically useful for one thing – spreading your message. Pages and pages of discussion have been devoted to the best ways that a brand can use the new media to direct attention towards your product or service.

But what if fate takes hold and produces some random element which causes your product or service to gain attention?

Yesterday, Monster Munch began trending in the UK on Twitter. The reason for this was because one Debbie Taylor appeared on GMTV talking about how she’s eaten nothing else but Monster Munch for the last 10 years.

Debbie Taylor - Inadvertently kick-started a social media trend

Debbie Taylor - Inadvertently kick-started a social media trend

Upon seeing the crisps mentioned in trending topics, my first thought was that it must have originated from Monster Munch themselves. But no, a large amount of people were sufficiently amused/appalled by the tale of Debbie Taylor that it took hold and spread organically (even if only for a short period). So, rather than Monster Munch kick-starting a campaign which got the public talking, the public simply started talking, by themselves. A sure stroke of luck indeed!

However, could Monster Munch have done anything to maximise the opportunity presented by this slice of good fortune? Could they have effectively done what most brands do when using social media but in reverse, and used the public talking about them to kick-start a campaign?

While a portion of the country was talking about their brand, Monster Munch were nowhere to be seen.

Monster Munch

Monster Munch

A quick search reveals that they don’t have a Twitter account (although Walkers do) but they have a Facebook page and a, no longer updated, blog. For a brand with such a visible and marketable presence (the monsters!), this seems strange. By being active on Twitter, they would have seen the interest randomly generated in their product and they could have capitalised on it. An awful lot of people revealed their love for the crisp and their intention to buy some straight away. Monster Munch could have conversed with these people, built up relationships, made the conversation last longer and actually made something out of this randomly generated publicity. Instead, the monsters were hiding.

About the Author

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer, an organiser of Scrabble Sunday and blogs about stuff that he does here.


Paul Barnett, Social Media Tips and Tricks


Top Ten Facebook Tips (Scientifically Proven)


Social media without analysis is worth nothing. Analysis and data is what has given online marketing its power. Social Media practicioners should never forget that without research they are flying blindfolded. Those who just “engage in the conversation” and “mingle” will probably be the same ones complaining they have seen no returns from their social media activity. Coincidentally we tweeted this week how 69% of companies embark on their social media without plan or strategy in a clear “me too” spree.

Thankfully, Dan Zarrella, a Social Media Scientist, has been studying massive amounts of information on Facebook to find out what is the best content and context to market using the site. Then, he shared it with everyone in a Hubspot live webinar. Although, as with any statistic, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work, just that it is way more likely to draw attention and shareability. Let’s take a look at the top ten takeaways from the study.

1. Weekends are the busiest days. So you need to schedule your messages to be sent on weekends. You may use Hootsuite for free or pay for an account at Sendible (where free basic accounts are also available).

2. The more people that like your content, the more viral it becomes. Open Graph aside for the moment, Social proof must become a key concept in your Facebook marketing. Consequently, make your users look cool when sharing your content, or they won’t.

3. Videos are shared on Facebook in great numbers, whereas they don’t work that well on Twitter.

4. Food, movies, TV shows, books and musicians are the most shared content of Facebook.

5. Statistics and specific numbers are also good attention-grabbers.

6. Conversely, religion, pets, bars and pharma are amongst the least shared topics.

7. Media buzzwords such as Optimisation, SEO, Twitter or Google are actively avoided.

8. Being entertaining and positive shoots up the number of Likes and Shares. Being negative has the opposite effect.

9. Straightforward, user-friendly content receives more attention.

10. Research your audience. Even with this hard data, you need to be aware of your own audience. Marketers of religious organisations or plainly boring companies may start with a disadvantage, but an ongoing bespoke analysis of the context and content of the most shared media and status updates will help you greatly. Also, use Google Analytics and Quantcast to give you insight into your audience’s demographics and tastes.

About The Author

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavi Izaguirre

Xavier Izaguirre joined Social Media Library as a Social Media Analyst, helping brands and agencies identify key influencers online and devising best outreach strategies. With a background in traditional marcoms, Xavier has also completed a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communications at Westminster University, London and carries out social media and online marketing consultancy work as a freelancer.

Follow Xavier on Twitter at @Xavi_izaguirre


Social Media Tips and Tricks, Xavi Izaguirre


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