Last week, my friend and colleague, Theresa Freeman, provided an overview of the emergence of the “hyperlocal” scene. As her post explains, these sites combine user-generated content along with some professional content. While the sites Theresa focused on categorize information into localities, they fall into the larger context of citizen journalism, which (as she discusses) faces considerable criticism. Theresa points to comments from the Cape Cod Times ombudsperson who, to paraphrase, calls on consumers to question information derived from citizen journalism. To her credit, she calls on the owners of these entities to offer clear disclaimers like CNN does with its iReports.

So, with all this criticism out there it got me thinking – do consumers really trust these sources? (14 million people can’t be wrong?) If the answer is no, how do I in good counsel spend my time pitching these outlets or even submitting articles directly on behalf of my clients. Where is the value?

Up until this past Monday I thought I had a pretty healthy dose of cynicism when it comes to reading reviews and information, and letting any one particular article guide my decision. That is until I read the WSJ.com article that told me Consumer Reports does not recommend iPhone 4. In the WSJ.com poll that followed, I quickly voted that based on this review “I won’t buy it now.” Me and 903 other people; 40% of the voting population. Oops. I guess I don’t know me as well as I thought I did.

I’m not comparing the quality of Consumer Reports to citizen journalism; but, when I took a step back and realized how quickly I lost my cynicism, I realized that it’s not entirely necessary to answer my original question, do consumers trust citizen journalists? Somewhat regardless of source, there’s always going to be value in spreading awareness in both traditional and new media. While a product review in Consumer Reports is likely to carry more weight with consumers than say, a vendor-contributed article on Associated Content – we’re still getting eyes on our brands and generating new awareness. So next time the consumer sees our brand or product, there’s a familiarity, an ‘I’ve read about them’ moment. It’s also these moments that make true PR ROI measurement an impossibility. But, that dear reader is a blog post for another time.

There is no shortage of topics to explore related to better press releases. Should you use a social media news release? Who is right about style – the AP or Yahoo? These are important topics that require considerable thought, research and evaluation.

Who has time for THAT????

OK, you do need to make time for what I like to call “big thinking” to continuously improve your PR and marketing efforts over time. But there are also a million little things that can generate huge improvement in your day-to-day work NOW. With that in mind, I present the first installment of “Small steps, big results,” which (I hope) will become a regular feature on Matter Chatter. On to the tips…

For the love of all that is holy, kill the jargon!

Real people (like, the people you hope read and care about your release) hate jargon. And, if you’re being honest, you’ll admit that a little bit of you dies every time you write about “taking paradigm-shifting, turn-key solutions to the next level.”

We’ve all done it. Let’s all agree to stop. (Not sure if you’re using jargon? Here’s a good reality check.)

Use the quote(s) to SAY something

At some point, you are going to be tempted to have your executive quote start with “We are pleased / thrilled / delighted…”

Don’t do it. Ever. Really, don’t. Trust me.

The quote is the place where you can editorialize and provide context around the facts that are provided in the rest of the release. It’s also the part that tends to be pulled verbatim into news stories. Say something additive, interesting and valuable.

Give yourself a fighting chance that somebody will finish reading the entire release

Write shorter releases. That is all.

Fine…if you can’t get ‘em under 400 words (additional benefit alert – you’ll save yourself some $$ on wire distribution!), at least break up the content visually by using section headers (ahem) and bullets.

Taking my own advice, I’m going to stop now. Do you have other tips? Drop ‘em in the comments!

During the past few years buzz has been building around the idea of hyperlocal journalism and the PR industry has followed suit, seeking out ways to pitch these outlets. The execution of hyperlocal coverage varies slightly by outlet, but in general it appears to be a mix of user-generated and professional edited content. Media watchers, including those of us in the PR game, are waiting to see which services will emerge as the strongest – with the biggest backing to hire staff and / or with the largest readership and / or commanding the biggest ad revenue.

The Columbia Journalism Review this past fall noted in a lengthy piece on the reconstruction of American journalism that, “Reporting is becoming more participatory and collaborative.” Indeed, USA Today publisher Gannett recently announced plans for hyperlocal sites in 10 markets across the U.S. while it’s been reported that AOL will pour $50 million into Patch this year. Even YouTube is throwing its hat into the ring, last month launching its test CitizenTube news feed.

Locally, in Massachusetts, GateHouse Media has been ramping up its WickedLocal.com site during the past several years to be a “portal” site representing featured content from 158 individual community websites.

Advertising Age recently detailed some of the bigger players on the hyperlocal scene:

The big story about the news business these days, as a matter of fact, revolves around companies that generate news and information using big networks of cheap freelancers. They include Associated Content, which Yahoo bought last month for about $100 million; Demand Media, which is reportedly considering going public this summer; Seed, where writers, photographers and others can submit their content for publication on AOL; and Examiner.com, which says it has 40,000 freelance “Examiners.”

They’ve already got big traction with readers. Examiner’s sites got more than 14.4 million visitors in May, according to ComScore — more than the 14 million people who visited all the McClatchy newspaper sites combined, or the 13.4 million people who visited MediaNews sites, or the 12 million who visited Hearst newspaper sites.

AOL and Yahoo have separately been staffing up their original blogs and news sections; Yahoo is currently advertising for a blog editor for Yahoo Finance, who will report original stories plus hire a team of bloggers. And sites that aggregate local content are also mixing things up. Last year MSNBC.com acquired EveryBlock, giving it a new ability to horn in on newspapers’ role as local information centers.

Newspapers have, meanwhile, been cutting reporters, thinning the distinction between their products and those of their rivals.

However, even The Gray Lady has stumbled in its foray into the hyperlocal market. The New York Times just last week shuttered its hyperlocal and collaborative journalism experiment called, appropriately, The Local, and hooked up with the New Jersey-based Baristanet.com which now has free reign to link to The Local archives.

As PR professionals we should all be on the look-out to make sure any articles we submit or post are transparent in their origin and clear in their objective. While sites such as these or Allvoices.com, NowPublic.com or Helium make it easier than ever for PR pros to submit news and feature stories we’ve still got to rely on some of our tried-and-true pitching strategies: know who we are pitching and make the info clear and relevant for their readers. In Matter’s own backyard, The Cape Cod Times recently cautioned readers of hyperlocal sites to look closely at and consider the source of their news. Newsroom ombudsman Jayne M. Iafrate wrote, “Citizen journalists are reporters and editors with little, if any, professional journalism training who write and publish news. Many practitioners have a specific point of view they wish to promote; others mean well, but fall short of professional ethics and standards simply because they lack training. And other citizen journalists flourish because they provide unvarnished glimpses into their worlds — places and ideas left unexplored by or unavailable to trained journalists.”

Have you been pitching hyperlocal or user-generated sites? What tips would you share with other PR pros for dealing with this new breed of media?

Last month, my colleague Melissa blogged about whether or not social media is a valid investment for brands. Melissa made a key point in her entry: at the end of the day, it’s between you and your client whether Facebook and Twitter are the right move for their brands.

Since then, new research was released that may make the argument to use (or not to use) Twitter a little easier for brands.

A recent study about moms using Twitter revealed that not only do the majority of moms use Twitter to find out about new products and keep up with businesses they like, but they’re also interested in getting links to news and articles on topics that matter to them.

The most important factor for moms to follow a business on Twitter is because the business provides useful information. The study found that other important factors include:

• A desire to find out about the company’s products or services (67%)
• To get good deals (60%).
• To follow businesses on Twitter because they’re already customers. (67%)
• To follow up on a retweet (41%)
• Famous person doing the tweeting for a business carries little clout with moms (6%).

Does this make the argument to join Twitter any easier? Is your business or brand on Twitter?

How often have you heard something along the lines of “We’ll have to get PR to create a story around this.”? This line of thinking doesn’t sit well with me. (And don’t even get me started on “spin” – ugh.)

Is PR about story-telling? Absolutely.

But it is NOT about making stories up. It is about finding (really good) stories that exist within a company and sharing them in ways that are compelling and valuable to the readers (and yes, to the company, too!). I call it story mining. Like a diamond in the rough, the stories are already there, but they need to be searched out, dug up and cleaned off a bit.

This process can START with what the company sells (be it a hard good, services or content), but should also include things like causes, points of view, advice, personalities and more.

Often the best stories are hidden gems that people don’t necessarily think of as being part of the PR program, so you have to dig a little deeper than you may be used to. (OK, I’ll drop the whole mining analogy now…) Here are a few of the best ways I’ve found to do this.

Find out what stories the people that matter most to you want to hear!

Conduct an audit of customers, partners, the media, etc. Ask for input via your Facebook fan page. Conduct an online survey to your prospect list. While this step often feels intrusive, my experience is that, generally, people at a minimum don’t mind helping out and often are thrilled that you are taking such an interest in what matters to them

Conduct internal Q & A sessions

Select a group of the smartest / longest standing / most interesting / most controversial people within the company and conduct one-on-one interviews using a prepared (but not rigid) set of questions, almost as if you were interviewing the person as a member of the media would. (NOTE: this is not the same as media training, since the focus is on getting at great content, not honing interview techniques)

Participate in more discussions and meetings

OK, full disclosure, I think most meetings are crap (more on that in future posts). BUT they are also a / the primary means of communicating vital information within a company. Too often, if drafting a press release isn’t the next step coming out of a meeting, PR is not at the table. And there are TONS of missed PR opportunities because of this. For example, rather than relying on the biz dev folks to identify when a potentially interesting industry trend story pops up during a partner meeting, PR should strive to be involved in the meeting itself

Each of these techniques needs honing, based on every organization’s unique dynamics. And yes, some will be a waste of time. But the potential payoff from telling real, valuable stories that engage your stakeholders is huge. (I’m sure Woodward and Bernstein “wasted” a lot of time, too!)

What other techniques do you use to find great stories to tell?