intelInsidez

Monday, January 18, 2016

To keep up with today's media landscape, public relations professionals need to know not only who is going where, but also how to communicate more effectively with those journalists, bloggers, and influencers making moves.

This week's Influencer Insights feature five of the most significant newsroom changes selected by PR Newswire's Audience Research team, plus CNW Beyond the Wire’s guide to working with news photographers.

Want even more media moves? Check out the latest issue of the PR Newswire Media Moves newsletter or follow @PRNMedia for daily updates.

1. Maxim: Owner Sardar Biglari has taken over as editor-in-chief at @MaximMag. He replaces Kate Lanphear who was in charge for six months. Kate was previously in charge of New York Times T Magazine. Sardar is looking to get the magazine back on track after last year’s relaunch as an upscale men’s lifestyle and fashion title resulted in decreased sales.

2. Rolling Stone: Jerry Portwood (@jerryportwood) has been named deputy online editor at @RollingStone. He previously worked as executive editor for Out Magazine. Jerry will be covering film, theater and dance. Jerry describes himself as a pop culture addict and an industrious wordsmith.

3. Allure: Amanda Meigher has joined @Allure_magazine as a managing editor. Amanda comes to Allure after working as managing editor at Teen Vogue. She also held positions at Glamour and Vanity Fair as editorial business manager. Allure has recently been on the comeback trail, attracting 39% more visitors in the last year to their website.

4. Ser Padres: Grace Bastidas (@brooklynwriter) is the new editor-in-chief at @serpadres, described by Meredith Corporation as “a celebration of today's Latina mom: the gatekeeper and interpreter of her culture, her language, and her traditions and the woman who understands that taking care of her family begins with taking care of herself.” Grace is also the current editor of Parents Latina which was launched last April as an English language magazine for Hispanic parents.

5. NPR: Executive Producer Anya Grundmann (@npranya) has been promoted to vice president of programming and audience development at @npr. She has been serving in this role on an interim basis but has now taken the reins full-time and is looking to grow the number of NPR-affiliated stations and increase social media engagement for all of NPR's platforms.

Influencer Intel of the Week: As with all media relations, a bit of advance know-how is needed if you want to work well with photojournalists. In this article on CNW’s Beyond the Wire blog, journalists offer their guide on how to organize media events and photo opportunities with news photographers in mind.

When reaching out to journalists and other influencers, your content must be created with their needs in mind. Read our white paper 5 Keys to Crafting Press Releases that Drive Earned Media for tips on press releases that resonate.

Kevin Frey is a senior audience researcher for the Mid-Atlantic region. Each week, PR Newswire's Audience Research team makes thousands of updates to the media database underpinning our Agility workflow platform. Request a demo to learn more about Agility's media targeting, monitoring and distribution options.

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Friday, January 15, 2016

[New Post] Content We Love: Booking.com Maps Year of Travel for Deal – and Data – Lovers

Content We Love: Booking.com Maps Year of Travel for Deal – and Data – Lovers

Priscilla Ramirez

For many of us, the new year means a reset of vacation time. With a brand new slate of time off, it's only fitting to start planning trips for the year.

However, taking off of work is not usually the most important factor to consider when making travel plans. That's right, it's money.

What could be more helpful than a handy guide of the best places to travel on a budget? Booking.com has done just that with The Deal Hunter’s Guide to a Year of Thrifty Travel in 2016.

Booking.com tapped its data specialists to research cities' popularity, upcoming events and temperatures, as well as the average price per night of local four star accommodations. They then took this research and created a month-by-month itinerary of the best places to visit for a range of budgets.

“Our travelers are looking for a variety of places to stay, whether that be a traditional hotel or a luxury yacht,” says Todd Dunlap, Director of the Americas, Booking.com. “The one thing that remains consistent when it comes to making the final decision, is whether it falls within budget. The pricing plan will help travelers make smart financial decisions when booking their next trip.”

As we see in this and many other Content We Love installments, analytics can lead PR and marketing teams to interesting brand stories.

Data alone isn't enough, though. While data is at the heart of this content, Booking.com is ultimately successful because of the content's execution.

Focused on a specific customer persona: In 10 Habits Every Content Marketer Needs to Break in 2016, Amanda Hicken reminds us that considering your audience's actual needs over those of your brand can make the difference between acceptable and outstanding results. By focusing on a specific customer type (travelers on a budget), Booking.com's release was able to offer concrete advice that’s more relevant and valuable than generic travel tips.

Unique and newsworthy: Focused, specific content is appealing not just to customers, but also to journalists and other influencers who are on the lookout for a unique story. Booking.com's press release stood out and led to earned media like this TravelPulse article by offering two timely and newsworthy angles. It embraced people’s desire to resolve to travel more and offered expertise on making that dream a reality.

Easy to repackage and repurpose: Booking.com boosted visibility by repackaging their press release text in an infographic. The information in the graphic is concise, beautifully designed and extremely shareable – a great way to spread Booking.com’s message and drive more traffic back to their home page. Additionally, the graphic’s breakdown of locations by month creates the potential for follow-up pieces throughout the year that explore each month's hotspot in greater detail.

No matter your industry or target audience, taking advantage of the unique resources and data available to you in your field is a crucial step toward developing high-quality content.

However, the way that information is analyzed, packaged and shared is even more important. When executed right, it can prove very effective in demonstrating the value you provide and ultimate drive revenue.

For additional tips on perfecting your data-driven content, download Balancing Content & Big Data to Power PR Results for the various types of data you're able to collect and how to leverage that data in order to maximize ROI.

Author Priscilla Ramirez is a customer success representative for channel and advocacy marketing at PR Newswire.