1. Stop sending me irrelevant press releases (I know you won’t but I had to ask).  They get deleted/ignored every time.
  2. I will be covering more local-social media trends as part of the new Local Social Consulting Advisory Service I am starting with BIA/Kelsey.  If you are doing innovative things in this area and want me to write about your company here’s what I am looking for, sans the usual PR filler:
  • Case studies on how businesses are using local social media to attract & service local consumers and/or advertisers. “Case studies” not “advertisements”.
  • Actual data on how these programs are working (e.g. CPA, monthly budgets, # of people reached by a program, Time it took to figure it out, # of people working on program, etc.).  If you are not willing to share at least some proprietary information, your story gets much less interesting.
  • Interesting approaches – If you have a truly novel approach to using these channels I am interested in hearing about it.  If you are doing something that 20 other companies are already doing, I am probably not as interested.  If you are just pitching how great your service is, I am probably not as interested.
  • If you want me to read your pitch, please tailor it to me, rather than include me in your bulk SPAM blasts.  I guarantee you I will ignore almost every email that has “STORY IDEA -…” in the subject line.   You’re more likely to get my attention if you reference an article I have already published and how your client relates to it, or better yet use a subject line like “I reread this before I sent it and confirmed it’s not the usual PR crap”

Don’t let the cranky tone of the above scare you off.  I do want to hear from you.  I just don’t want to hear from you if you have nothing really interesting to tell me.

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    4 Response Comments

    • Phil Benham  January 31, 2011 at 12:26 pm

      I’m not sure social media is being “used” in efficient and/or effect ways which actually lend to a client’s bottom line and connect to their prospects or customers. We have been using most social media properties as simple content accents. In other words, we use social media to accent other SEO tactics. Likely, that’s how others’ use these properties as well; so I’m interested in how to use social media to actually connect with a local businesses’ prospects. Most local businesses are interested in being found on the first page of Google for their keyword phrases…are they concerned with social media? They would be if Facebook and Twitter could be proven to be a solid source of leads! How does that happen? I will be following this. Thank you

    • Andrew Shotland  January 31, 2011 at 12:30 pm

      Phil, while I will be covering how SMBs use social channels, my primary area of focus will be how companies that service SMBs use social. To that end I see the biggest innovations happening on the customer service side of things to increase speed of response and decrease the cost. Stay tuned…

    • Paul Levine  January 31, 2011 at 11:02 pm

      Great news. Congrats Andrew!

      Will you get to work with MacKenzie Lovings (aka MacLovings) at Kelsey? One of my all-time favorite names… 😉

    • Andrew Shotland  January 31, 2011 at 11:27 pm

      We will in fact be Superbad…