The Innovator's Mic

Gawker.com is gone. Some people are upset, some people are dancing on its grave. Is there a right or a wrong perspective on Gawker's demise? Was its fate deserved because of its controversial and confrontational editorial style, or was Peter Thiel's cash-fueled vendetta an ugly harbinger of what could happen to the state of media if the powerful choose to litigate the free press into non-existence?

The hot Gawker takes have been flying left and right, and on this week's Hacks and Flacks, Andrew Grzywacz and I try to dig through it all. We acknowledge the contrasting reactions of the media and the general public toward Gawker's end, and discuss the possible implications for other publications. 

SHOW NOTES:

• Nick Denton on Gawker: "How Things Work"
• Max Read on Gawker: "Did I Kill Gawker?"
• Peter Thiel editorial: "The Online Privacy Debate Won't End With Gawker"
• Other billionaires suing the press: Poynter

LINKS:

• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
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• Follow March Communications on Twitter:@MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher orPodbay today. The show’s music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

The relationships between PR pros and journalists can be... complicated, to say the least. But, it's not all form pitches and frustration - in the best case scenario, PR folks and reporters can establish mutually beneficial relationships that result in great stories and reliable sources.

On this week's Hacks and Flacks, Manny Veiga and Paul Davenport talk to HealthITSecurity's Elizabeth Snell about her preferred rules of engagement when it comes to PR pitching and outreach. We also talk about the unique experience of finding compelling angles and navigating PR relationships when writing and editing for a vertical publication like HealthITSecurity.

LINKS:

• Visit HealthITSecurity.com
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

When big news breaks, it's tempting to check if there's a chance to add your company's voice to the issue (how's your Pokemon Go pitch coming along, by the way?).

As March Senior Account Executive Alex Jafarzadeh recently wrote, the recent Brexit story provided interesting examples of what works and what can go wrong when you try to offer your spokesperson to reporters as an expert on a major timely news story.

"Newsjacking," as this PR strategy is called, can pay off when you have a legitimate angle or comment to offer a journalist. However, a poorly conceived pitch might come off as trivial, clueless and even tasteless depending on the story and timing.

On this week's Hacks and Flacks, we ask Alex and March Account Director Courtney Allen: when does this type of pitching cross the line, and how can PR pros ensure that their pitch actually benefits both the reporter and their client?

LINKS:

• Read Alex's blog post on Brexit PR lessons
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

Whether you're hiring for a PR agency or an in-house marketing team, it's helpful to know as much as possible about the capabilities, expectations and possibilities of your potential future employees. That's why Hacks and Flacks brought in Amy Shanler, Associate Professor of Public Relations at Boston University and the head of BU's PRLab, for a glimpse into how tomorrow's professionals are being trained for a PR career.

The student-staffed PRLab is the nation's oldest student-run PR agency and supports real-world clients, with access to BU's state-of-the-art resources (including a Communication Research Center with a faux living room outfitted with bio-metric sensors).

PRLab has worked on a number of compelling, creative and inspiring campaigns - including a partnership with March Communications to support the nonprofit Adaptive Sports New England. March Vice President Liz Swenton Hosman oversaw that project, and she also joins the conversation with Amy to talk about PR training and hiring today, career expectations and anxieties for students coming out of college looking for their first PR job, and what employers need to know about the next generation of communications talent.

LINKS:

• Learn more about the BU PRLab: bu.edu/prlab
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

Data can tell a great story, and research campaigns are how you find that data. In this week's episode we talk to March Research Manager Jeremy Guterl, Account Manager Steph Jackman and Senior Account Executive Samantha Bell about their recent work developing, distributing and promoting a successful PR research campaign.

Jeremy defines the difference between media-genic and strategic research, and walks us through every step of the research process. Steph provides a blueprint for conducting media outreach for a campaign, and Sam explains why clear, impactful data points help you capture the interest of readers and the media. 

LINKS:

• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

Want to host an event? You better be organized. Organizing an industry event or trade show takes careful planning, collaboration, support from sponsors, great content and much more, as we learned in this week's interview with Erin Callanan, co-chair of PRXNE16, the annual conference for PRSA's North East district.

Erin is one of the chief organizers for PRXNE16 - held this year in our hometown of Boston - and we talked to her to get her expert tips on event organization. She also previews the PRXNE16 lineup, which features a keynote discussion on the media coverage surrounding this year's presidential election, plus a session on client messaging from March Managing Director Cheryl Gale.

SHOW NOTES:

• 5:53 - The importance of sponsors
• 11:10 - Why put on your own event?
• 12:07 - Content is everything
• 12:30 Preparing for the unexpected
• 15:20 - Social media sessions at PRXNE16
• 16:20 PRXNE16 keynote topics
• 18:44 - Transitioning from communications to education panel
• 19:45 - PRXNE16 spotlight sessions
• 20:50 How do you build a content agenda for an event?

LINKS:

• Register for PRXNE16:PRSANorthEast.Org
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

When they think about a business social media strategy, most marketers probably think platform-first: where's my audience most active, and how can I spend the most time on that channel engaging with them? But is that actually the right strategy? Is it better to be hyper-focused on one platform, try to build quality engagement on every channel, or do something in between?

On this week's Hacks and Flacks we cover those questions and many more with March Senior Account Executive Alex Jafarzadeh (@ajafarzadehPR) and Digital Strategist Kristin McNulty (@beautyandbean). We're talking the intersection of social media, digital strategy and PR, and offering our take on the recent doom and gloom headlines prophesying Twitter's demise.

• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

What's new in the world of digital media? Some publications are launching on new platforms to get their content in front of readers, while others are experimenting with social and mobile channels to improve reader engagement. And no one can figure out what's going on with Twitter. 

We cover it all on this week's Hacks and Flacks, in our first monthly roundtable featuring March's own Andrew Grzywacz and Paul Davenport, plus Hacks and Flacks alum Jim Young. We muse about the BBC's use of Yik Yak to engage readers, the launch of Quartz's new messaging-based mobile app and the increased decoupling of the news from native sites as publications turn to platforms like Facebook Instant Articles, Medium, Snapchat Discover and Google AMP.

We also cover Twitter's algorithm update, Bill Simmons' new media venture, and share our thoughts on how marketers and businesses can similarly experiment with digital media channels to reach their audience. 

• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

SHOW NOTES:

• Platforms are eating the internet (Matt Carroll via Medium)
• Is Messaging the Future of News? Quartz Thinks It Might Be (Fortune)
• How will Twitter's new 'relevancy over recency' algorithm affect brands? (The Drum)
• Vox Hires Choire Sicha to Oversee Partnerships With Facebook, Snapchat (Wall Street Journal)
• Bill Simmons’ new digital venture, The Ringer, will launch in mid-March as an email newsletter (Nieman Lab)
• How BBC is using Yik Yak to talk to millennials (and get them to talk back) (DigiDay)

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

Numbers can be a little scary. Marketing and PR are results-driven industries, and demonstrating why the work you do every day meet key businesses objectives can seem daunting if you don't have the right tools, processes or perspective. Even worse, you might be reluctant to measure your results in the first place, out of fear of what cold, hard facts might reveal about your every day work.

On this week's Hacks and Flacks we talk to Katie Delahaye Paine, also known as The Measurement Queen, who has spent years helping businesses and PR pros fearlessly and confidently put hard numbers behind their communications campaigns. Katie explains how to create a culture of measurement within a PR agency or internal marketing department, and also shares her perspective on the tech businesses use to monitor and measure their work.

We also chat with March Digital Strategist Kristin McNulty and Content Manager Paul Davenport to get their tips on how to leverage measurement to tell a story and put context behind your campaigns.

• Follow Katie Delahaye Paine on Twitter: @queenofmetrics
• Visit Paine Publishing to learn more about Katie and her work
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!

It's one of the biggest trade shows in the world, and it can be a complete nightmare for the woebegone PR pro who hasn't adequately prepared. But, the Consumer Electronics Show - better known as CES - is also a great opportunity to connect your client or business with a huge number of journalists and influencers in one fell swoop. So, how do you avoid the chaos and make the most of your time at CES?

This week we talk to March Vice President Erica Frank, Account Director Courtney Allen and Account Manager James Gerber, three hardened CES veterans, who share their impressions of this year's event and other tips and tricks for PR professionals heading to this or any other big show.

• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Twitter: @hacksflacks
• Follow Hacks and Flacks on Instagram: @hacksflacks
• Join our Facebook Group: Hacks and Flacks Podcast
• Follow March Communications on Twitter: @MarchComms
• Visit the M+PR Nonsense blog: MarchComms.com/blog

Subscribe to Hacks and Flacks on iTunes, Stitcher or Podbay today. The show's music is provided by Job Creators. Check them out at JobCreatorsBand.com!