This week’s guest post by Kyle Flaherty who writes a blog using insight, lessons learned and horror stories from his nearly 12 years in high-tech public relations, communications and marketing. He is currently Director of Marketing and Social Media at BreakingPoint Systems and of course you can find him on Twitter.

What’s the first rule of social marketing? Listen!

What’s the second rule of social marketing? Listen!

I first started thinking deeply about the concept of listening when I came across the term “lurker” at an event featuring Jackie Huba of “Church of the Customer Blog” and Society for Word of Mouth. The conversation came up in relation to stats that say 90% of folks involved in your social media activity are lurkers and 10% are active participants. Immediately the idea of lurkers turned into ‘listeners’ for me; people who are reading a blog, quietly joining a LinkedIn Group, reading Twitter and much more. Listeners are often your most dedicated readers and for your company they often become the most educated about your product and service and when they are ready to participate it is most likely as a qualified business lead.The best comparison is the person who walks into the auto dealership with a ream of printed materials from automotive websites, collected over a few weeks of ‘listening’, versus the person who walks in and just wants to talk with someone about their cars. The former is already in negotiating mode, the latter needs to go through the research stage in real-time, with a sales person who just wants to close. Which situation would you rather have, not only for selling, but for the customer experience? Well, what if the auto company was listening at the same time and had the new features and financing options that people had said they wanted on all of those sites. We just may have a match!

Listening is important and will set you up for success in your social marketing, if you are in any type of marketing role you must become a good listener because:

1. Listening is inspiring. Listening to your prospective community base will be the inspiration for the social media tools you use. Listening to our community on their blogs and microblogs led us to learn Ning and Facebook was of no value, for them, but rather LinkedIn was the key and we know spend a lot of time in that social network.

2. Listen before you jump. You must always listen to people first, for an extended period of time, before you jump into the conversation. For example; I have hundreds of searches within Twitter sent to me through RSS every morning, based on the pain points of our potential customers. I end up listening to these people on a daily basis, but often time take no action immediately.

3. Often silence makes the loudest noise. A great personal example is a person I listen to through his blog and his LinkedIn updates. Over the past two months I’ve learned about his pain points at work, his background, his skill set and more. He recently joined our LinkedIn group for network engineers and I could now easily reach out to him, set up a time to connect and listen some more.

4. Listening makes you a better communicator. I learned this one when I was actually in PR when my manager would tell me first to listen to how a reporter answered the phone. Was the reporter’s greeting a “hello” vs “yeah” or was the tone “speedy” vs “thought out”? I would then adjust my introduction accordingly.

The more you listen, in terms of quality of listening and quantity, the more you learn about your potential community and the better you will communicate with them in your efforts. However the question becomes how can you sort through all of the noise that is currently online. It is simply staggering to even sort through the noise on one medium like Twitter, however it is this medium that can provide you with some of the most important and impactful insights. I’m not going to write about ‘what’ you should be listening to, that obviously depends on your overall goals for Twitter, whether personal or business. Instead I’m going to go through three ways to better listen to Twitter conversations in order to get more out of your experience, consider it your Twitter Miracle Ear.

1) It’s All About the App: One of the great aspects of Twitter is the open API and the ability to use different applications when Tweeting (yes, the API restrictions are also horribly annoying, but that is another post). Originally I was on Snitter, moved to Tweetr, switched to Twhirl and now am devoted to TweetDeck…for now. I didn’t make changes for the sake of changes, in each case I need features and functionality that made listening to conversations on Twitter easier. The reason I’m now on TweetDeck is very simple; the ability to create personalized lists of conversations based on people or search terms. Using an app like Tweetdeck you can create a list of local people, sports-chat, social marketers or colleagues.  All of a sudden you have created a filter on top of the firehose that is Twitter and can really catch up quickly on conversations. I’m hoping that TweetDeck, or someone, adds some features to allow for easier reading of conversation threads, but the point is to use a variety of applications and find the one that can help open up your Twitter ears.

2) RSS Is Your Friend: Each morning part of my routine, as a social marketer, is reviewing thousands of RSS feeds, most based on Twitter search terms. It all starts over at Twitter Search, where you can put in any term that you want and generate an RSS feed to track in your reader. For any business this is a critical tool in tracking the conversation about your own company, your competitors, partners and more. One recommendation when setting up these searches is to use the same keywords you have gathered for SEO purposes or the terms people are using to find your website. You will end up refining this over time for sure, but getting these set up now will help you get in on the conversation as soon as possible.

3) Routine is Your Friend: Like working out or parenting, listening on Twitter is all about setting up a routine.  You’ve set up your application properly and your RSS feeds are feeding, now you have to schedule time each day in order to catch up on all of this data. Some folks might argue that “Twitter is too organic, man…you have to let it wash over you like a moonlight swim”, I’m not exactly sure who those people are, but trust me they are all over the web, avoid. But you need to set up a routine for yourself that will allow you to keep up with the often insurmountable amount of data that will be coming your way. I’ve found that my best listening is done in the morning, so I make sure to review all my RSS feeds during the first hour in the office. Then I use my Twitter application about once an hour for five minutes to review the conversations. All in all it helps me find the right conversations and listen to what folks are saying.

Each morning and throughout the day you are going to find people that are important to your business in some way or another, now it is up to you to engage. And that of course will be in my second column!

The world of PR is in a state of turmoil. As advertising dollars shrink, print pubs have all but disappeared and online media sites are strapped for resources. Only the biggest stories seem to get picked up these days. So, how do you get the press to pay attention? Try social media.

At BreakingPoint, I’ve seen a huge impact from social media activity on media coverage–primarily blogs and Twitter. In fact, I guestimate that a full 30% or more of my company’s Twitter followers are media or analysts. Recently one of our security experts posted an in-depth look at a clickjacking vulnerability on our blog, we posted on Twitter and a writer from Ziff Davis (one of our followers) picked up the story. This coverage has been one of our top sources of web traffic for over a week now. Amazing!

Here are a few very easy ways you can get started using social media to get to big media:

1. Monitor and get involved in the conversation. Set up your RSS feeds, Google Alerts, and Tweetscans in iGoogle and start watching the market. Identify issues and trends. Spot conversations and jump into the conversation. If someone posts to a forum about a need, offer advice. If someone mentions your company or product, by all means, reach out to them. HubSpot provides this excellent piece of advice in their post on the topic:”Monitor your company / brand on Twitter. A while back we noticed that Guy Kawasaki mentioned Website Grader on Twitter.  Well, of course we had to let him know a bit more about Website Grader and maybe ask if he would also blog about it?  The result was this blog article on Website Grader which drove a good amount of traffic and leads.”  (See below for a cool tip on how to easily monitor people talking about your company on Twitter.)
2. Build a circle of influence with journalists and analysts. BreakingPoint’s Director of Marketing Kyle Flaherty provides a detailed three part case study in how we used these tools for PR and crisis communications. He shares these details about getting started:“With our goals outland a limited amount of knowledge concerning our community we set about reworking the way in which we communicated with the outside world.  Blogging and Twitter dominated our activities the past three months, but we’ve also been sure to be interactive with Vimeo (after realizing YouTube simply provides poorer quality), Flickr and to gather information at places like FriendFeed, Facebook, Squidoo and Ning.”
3. Sign up for Help a Reporter Out (HARO) Think of it as a free version Profnet.How does it work and why is it so popular? Journalists go online fill out a form and their request gets added to the three time daily email distribution to members. If you see a story that you could contribute to, your simply reply directly to the query. I’ve used it myself and have connected with several journalists. East Coast PR pro Peter Shankman started HARO out on Facebook where the service grew rapidly and needed a home off Facebook to manage the size. You can also follow Shankman on Twitter.
   
   I’m sure there are many more techniques you can use to get noticed in the media these days. Feel free to share in the Comments section.

If you’re like me, one side of you wants to obsessively check Techcrunch and/or Techmeme and the other side is too busy worrying about having your hair on fire. So occasionally something really important hits the Internets and you miss out on the chance to react (comment, blog, etc).

The solution – I created a set of Twitter users or each of the blogs that I want to stay on top of and I’m using Twitterfeed to feed the headlines into them as soon as there’s a new post.  So all you need to do is follow these Twitter users for headlines and you’ll always be (almost) first to see the latest posts:

• TechCrunch – tc2tw
• Techmeme – tm2tw
• Mashable – mash2tw
• ReadWriteWeb – rww2tw
• Lifehacker – hack2tw
• BoingBoing – bb2tw
• Engadget – en2tw
• Gizmodo – giz2tw
• Ars Technica – ars2tw
• Scobelizer – sco2tw
• VentureBeat – vb2tw

I may still be a buck short, but at least I won’t be a day late.

Friend and fellow entrepreneur, Aruni Gunasegaram, got a sweet PR mention this Memorial Day weekend on Fred Wilson’s blog.  Fred’s blog, A VC, has probably 10k daily readers and PageRank of 6.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you should take note because what Aruni did cost her $0 got her some incredibly valuable PR visibility and link juice.  Here’s how she did it:

First, she got the idea to partner with eMailOurMilitary, to offer active service military deployed overseas free use of her product, Baby Insights.  Baby Insights is a service that allows new mothers to track virtually ever detail of a newborn’s life– eating, sleeping, pooping– all on a PDA.  Cool idea and giving it away is a great way to honor our military because the difficulty of being separated from a new baby obviously greatly compounds the sacrifice of service.

Next, she wrote up a press release, posted it on PRWeb, then posted on her blog about it.  Then she announced it on Twitter with a link to her blog post. 

Finally, she sent Fred Wilson a direct message via Twitter saying (paraphrased) “Hey, if you’re going to post on Memorial Day please consider mentioning this partnership,” with a link to her blog post. 

Indeed, Fred wrote a great Memorial Day tribute to the Armed Forces and included a mention at the end of the post, saying “And speaking of military life, here’s a neat example of two women who met on twitter who have teamed up to deliver a service to families separated by military service,” with a link to Aruni’s blog.

Here are a few reasons I think this was a great example of effective DIY PR:

• Aruni was active on Fred’s blog as a commenter prior to pitching him, so he recognized her, if not had the beginnings of a relationship by that point (this is a perfect example of the conversational PR model Brian Solis wrote about this weekend).
• Fred has written a lot about Twitter and Aruni’s post mentions that she met the other founder on Twitter, which Fred no doubt liked (and mentions in his post)
• Timing – her news was timely– she announced a partnership right before Memorial Day, and it dovetailed perfectly with the idea of honoring the military
• Soft target – it was a slow news day – it was a bit of a gamble that Fred would be posting on Monday, but it paid off because he was likely receiving very few other timely and relevant pitches.

Fred is definitely an A-List blogger, and even if getting coverage on his blog doesn’t necessarily bring lots of Aruni’s target customers to her site, she benefits in several ways:

#1 Her company earns recognition and validation from a respected influencer, #2 her blog gains the all-important link juice, which she can then redirect toward her product pages, and #3 she becomes top of mind in the online baby space for other potential partners.  I know Aruni has been doing a lot of work to raise her site’s visibility, so big congrats!

Quick follow-up on the last post about Twitter. Last week, RedWriteWeb published some good tips about pitching them, including one related to Twitter. Marshall wrote:

“Sending a Direct Message from Twitter just ends up being another email. I tell myself, “I’ll look at that later.” How about a public Tweet that says “I’ve got news about a new ad platform targeting seniors on mobile browsers! DM me if you want it under embargo.” We’ll jump on that, because that’s the kind of thing we eat up over here. “

I agree. Use Twitter for what’s it does best, public dissemination of your news. A Direct Message on Twitter isn’t much different from an email, and hey, that’s why we have email. When I wanted to actually “pitch” reporters, I would send them personalized notes via email. If you’re like me and pitch 20+ beat writers at daily papers all over the country, the number of personalized emails you have to send quickly gets big. But that’s what pitching is all about, and Twitter ain’t for pitching.

Your goal in using Twitter for PR should be three things: #1 participate in the day-to-day industry conversation (you might just get quoted), #2 announce the “small wins,” that don’t merit a press release or a full pitch (it might just get picked up as news), and #3 over time, come to be seen as a knowledgeable source in your industry (so journalists will seek you out).

Update: Wow, Twitter’s a hot topic over at RWW… great follow-up post about how they use Twitter for journalism. Indeed, they’re looking for breaking news there. But understand the difference between pitching via Twitter (which they guide against), and using it as a way to disseminate your news. If you’re breaking something really cool, you might want to reach out to RWW personally a bit before you do the big push, then put it on Twitter the minute you post it on your blog or when your, ahem, press release goes live.  Think of it as a second chance: even if journalists ignore your pitch initially, putting it on Twitter gives them an opportunity to write about it while it’s still newsworthy. Of course, this hinges on giving journalists a good reason to follow you.

Agree? disagree?  Follow me on Twitter: jeb512

As every entrepreneur knows, speed is your friend.  There are few online services better at that than Twitter (when it’s up anyway).  Since it’s such an incredible platform for finding and disseminating news, I highly recommend you take a look at using Twitter as a PR vehicle.  I’ve compiled a few rules to consider before you start.   

1. If you have a personal Twitter account, start a new one for professional contacts.  This is marketing 101, but it’s a question of audience.  Don’t confuse your professional contacts who are following Mike-the-CEO with your friends and family who are following Mike-The-Guy-Who-Won-Last-Weekends-Drinking-Contest. That doesn’t mean your professional tweets have to be stiff and corporate, but there’s a line (think Linkedin versus Facebook).
2. Your tweets should be from you personally, so choose a Twitter id that reflects your name, not your company.  Think about it: would you rather follow “AppleCorporation” or “SteveTheAppleGuy.” People want their news from the CEO.
3. Get as many friends on Twitter as you can… put your Twitter id in your email signature, on your blog, your Linkedin profile.  Let Twitter troll your email accounts to find your existing friends who are on Twitter.  Follow them, and hopefully they’ll follow you.
4. Follow everyone who you like, respect, and matters.  As Scoble points, out, “the more people [you] follow, the smarter [you] get.” 
5. Follow journalists who cover your space (this may work better (or not) in tech).  You can find out what’s top of mind for them and add value when appropriate, or maybe react quickly with a relevant pitch, or both.
6. If you blog, announce your blog posts on Twitter.
7. Announce minor new features, upgrades, service downtime, hardware upgrades, and other helpful news about your company on Twitter.  Twitter is great for announcing the “small wins” that aren’t worthy of press releases, but are interesting and cool.
8. Twitter about things that matter to your company: new laws that suck, cool blog posts that support your vision of the future, blog posts that get it wrong.  Take a stand and give your tweets a point of view.
9. Remember, your tweets are more or less public, and cannot be undone, so exercise some basic caution about what you want “on the record.”  If you wouldn’t want it printed in tomorrow’s WSJ…
10. Billy Goat Tavern is a bar in Chicago known as a hang out for the city’s top journalists.  A barfly there could easily stay on top of the news by sitting around all day and chatting up the regulars.  But Twitter may not be that watering hole for your industry.  If Twitter isn’t a place your industry tends to hang out, decide if that’s just because you’re ahead of the curve or because your industry may never adopt Twitter.  Effective entrepreneurship is all about the right action at the right time.

PS: I know I skipped right past any explanation of Twitter, so if you’re wondering, “What is Twitter?” here’s the best video I’ve found to answer that question.   Keep in mind it’s from the perspective of the general Twitter user, so hopefully this post helps you adapt the key ideas for use in a business/public relations context.