75% of Journalists Reading Blogs for Story Ideas

Still doubt the importance of blogs in a PR program? Even if you don't belive the importance of blogs in getting to consumers, there's now evidence that they are effective in interesting journalists. Marketing Pilgrim reports that 75% of journalists use blogs to generate story ideas.

The report comes from a Brodeur and Marketwire report and includes these other tidbits mentioned by Marketing Pilgrim:

• Over 75% of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue.
• 70% of reporters check a blog list on a regular basis.
• 21% of reporters spend over an hour per day reading blogs.
• 57% of reporters read blogs at least two to three times a week.

The survey also mentioned that 27% of journalists have a blog. We’ve actually found this to be true a couple of times when we didn’t expect it. Most journalist/blogger combo writers are easy to spot if you read their blog profile. Some blog away as unknowns until you begin talking to them. Then you find out they are an editor for the New York Times or producer for MSNBC and you're trying to remember if you said anything stupid.

So two lessons:

1. Treat bloggers as classy as you would regular media. Sometimes they end up being a journalist who can put your story on the front page of a Sunday section.
2. Even if you don’t end up coming across a journalist/blogger, you’ll still want to address the medium with the respect it deserves. As you see above, placement on a blog can influence the main stream media, and journalist reliance on this medium will only increase.

The full PDF can be downloaded here.

Via Marketing Pilgram

Web Inspiration: "Hot or Not for Websites"

Looking for inspiration for your next site redesign? Traditionally we've pushed customers to look at the Webby Award site or at the competition for initial inspiration. Now a new mine of ideas has launched at CommandShift3.

The self proclaimed “Hot or Not for Websites” offers access to some of the hottest designs on the internet. Easy search allows you to find great sites in your industry, or just browse to gain some general ideas.

These sites can generate great ideas on color palette, shapes, layout, imagery, and key information to include. Though you never want to copy anything, looking at other sites and pointing to specific pieces you like can be a huge help to your design team. You'll often find in these initial stages that you missed a key section for your business or that you need a different way to present your information.

A word of caution on looking at other sites, particularly on CommandShift3. The prettiest sites aren't necessarily the best. Just because they are gorgeous to look at doesn't mean they'll sell more widgets, attract more readers, or achieve any of your site goals. There's nothing pretty about Yahoo or Digg, yet they stand at the top of site traffic.

Determine your site goals and then marry good information architecture, site usability, and design together is what really produces results. But it never hurts to look at some pretty websites for design inspiration.

Facebook Marketing for Real Estate Agents and Other Small Business

You’ve probably heard about marketing on Facebook, but how do you actually do it? I came across a great article that’s aimed at real estate agents, but practically any other small business owner could use the advice as well.

Joel Burslem certainly doesn’t have the comprehensive guide to Facebook marketing, but he has five good points, which boil down to:

1. Build Your Online Network
2. Create a Group to Share Knowledge
3. Use Your Group to Improve Existing Relationships
4. Begin Marketing with Special Offers or Additional Information
5. Drive Traffic back to More Controlled Locations such as your Website or Blog

If you are diving into Facebook marketing, "Marketing Real Estate on Facebook" is a good article to digest along with everything else out there.

I’ve been refusing to join Facebook, but the buzz is too loud and I need to learn the ins and outs of the site better. We have some excellent Facebook experts on staff so as I dive into this world I’ll keep you posted with what comes of it.

"Marketing Real Estate on Facebook" from Future of Real Estate Marketing

Improve Your Vocabulary and Feed the Poor

Anyone who's ever been tripped up in life by a confusing word knows the importance of a strong vocabulary. Build your vocabulary and feed the world's hungry citizens with FreeRice.com.

The site was developed as an SAT prep tool and donates 20 grains of rice for every correct answer you get. FreeRice.com is an ad supported site that donates this revenue to the U.N. World Food Program. To date they have donated 12.8 Billion grains of rice.

The site does a good job of adjusting to your vocab level and then pushing you to excel to the next level. When you get an answer right, you feel good about your intelligence and about your 20 grain donation.

If you visit this site for a few weeks, you will surely become a vocab master. For most people this will be a small novelty, but I urge you to try it. Even with fifteen minutes of playing you can donate half of a cup of rice and feel good for the rest of the day.

FreeRice.com