Here are a few “spring cleaning” questions to ask yourself:

Look back at your objectives. Are you on track to meet them? If not, it’s important to figure out why.  Now is the perfect time to make a change in the campaign if necessary, while you still have time to execute and see results.

Has anything worked extremely well so far? If so, can you make it happen again? If you were able to produce great results from executing an element of your marketing plan, why not try it again?

Has something NOT worked well? Can it be changed? If not, drop it.  Thought that monthly newsletter was going to be a great idea, but turned out to be a flop? See if some elements can be changed to turn it into a success. If that’s not possible, ditch it and strategize on other ways to reach that targeted audience. The longer you let something that’s failing go, the harder it will be to pick up the pieces and start over.

Has the marketplace changed? The marketing plan you solidified at the beginning of the year may have been perfect at that time, but things change. If your strategies don’t match the current marketplace, determine what changes you can make so that you’re again on target to be successful.

Are the growth goals of the company the same? Just as markets can change quickly, so can the goals of a company. You may have developed your plan with the objective of gaining more customers, but now leadership is more interested in positioning the company to be sold. It’s important that the goals of the marketing plan are closely aligned with those of the company for it to be successful.

It’s important to think of a marketing plan as a working document, not something set in stone. Building flexibility into it will allow you to easily enhance successful elements and eliminate those that are not, which makes it much easier to meet your goals.

Don’t wait until the year starts to come to a close to look back at your marketing plan. If adjustments need to be made, it will be too late. Do it now and you’ll be happy you did.

So where do we turn to find PR news and trends? The options and outlets are endless, but here are three of my absolutely-all-time-favorites websites to keep tabs on new PR trends, tips, analytics and tools of the trade (the following all are completely free too):

         #1 – Ragan.com: PR News & Resources -  Ragan.com delivers practical advice, real-world solutions and field-tested strategies for today’s corporate communicator. This is where I can always find myself surfing five hours after I set out to fact-check something simple because the articles are strategically short, straightforward and smart. S much so that you find yourself thinking, just one more – you have been warned!

         #2 – HubSpot: Marketing Resources – This is mecca for any PR pro looking for a site to which to turn those begging beginners, aka those friends who what you to help them launch a Facebook page or explain what a blog is. They have awesome resources for advanced lessons in the dark arts of in-bound marketing, but the best base of basic webinars, guides and how-tos I have found let.

         #3 – Mashable – Follow the topics Public Relations & Social PR Guide Series – If you have never heard of Mashable, you have been living under a rock. However, to narrow down the infinite articles, follow the suggested topics to find PR content.

Don’t forget you can find updates, case studies, newsletters and whitepapers directly from Maven on www.mavenagency.com.

Not convinced blogging is right for you or your company? PRDaily put together a list of 5 reasons why your company should start a blog. Check them out below.

1. Search opportunity is knocking

Having a blog gives your company more opportunities to show up in search results. Without a blog, someone searching relevant keywords for your site may only find your homepage. By blogging about timely subjects on a regular basis—with relevant keywords—each post has the chance to show up in search. If your blog has a clear tie back to your main site—and it should—the traffic to your blog has the opportunity to drive people to your company site as well.

2. Google gets fresh

In an effort to provide users with more up-to-date and relevant search results, Google introduced the Google Fresh campaign. Essentially, the search giant now ranks sites with fresh content higher than static, unchanging sites. With a blog, you have the capacity to very easily add new, fresh content every week so those Google bots will continue to recognize your site.

3. Social hub

A company blog is the ideal place to create the content that you share on other social channels. Why drive your followers and fans to other sources when you can direct them to your site? Detailed posts on interesting topics or new products also serve as the destination for potential new customers, rather than sending everyone directly to the homepage to search for the relevant information on their own.

4. Viva la PR coverage!

As PR professionals, we work hard to generate awesome media coverage. However, news happens fast and that post on Yahoo News can be buried within a few days, maybe even hours. Writing a blog post to summarize and link to the coverage gives the story a new online home—a cozy place where it can live forever. Again, this is a great place to direct fans and followers to view your great PR hits.

5. Get personal

A blog is also a great place for current and potential customers/clients/employees to learn more about your company. Posts about team members or company outings and events—as well as the writing style on the blog—can tell someone a lot about your organization on a more personal level.

If you do decide to start a blog remember to update often and check back for comments from your audience. Creating content is only half the battle. By responding to comments left by your audience it shows them that you take their concerns and comments seriously.
I have enclosed links to my favorite company blogs. Some of the blogs are informative, others are fun but all of them show off their company’s personality.

Disney Theme Parks

Google

Jcrew

Linkedin

The article is essentially about companies who jumped on the tablet bandwagon before putting together a real strategy around how they really plan to use them – or in some cases, why. As the article demonstrates, a lot can go wrong when a company implements a new platform (or technology), without a strategy.

The same goes for social media. I can’t tell you the number of conversations I’ve had with some very smart marketing folks, who, when asked about the strategy or even reason behind their social media use, can’t give me a good answer.

Inspired by journalist Shara Tibken, here are three of the biggest mistakes companies make when jumping into social media:

No. 1: Failing to have a plan before rolling out the campaign

Too many companies jump on the social media bandwagon without first having a clear plan of action or strategy. Doing it because everyone else is doing it is not a good reason to do it. A social media strategy should be just as well thought out as a marketing strategy – and in fact, they should tie into one another. Clearly defined objectives, tactics for achieving them and measurement methods should all be determined before creating a social media presence.

No. 2: Not understanding what social media is – and is not – good for

Social media is a great way to connect and engage with target audiences. But it’s not a total replacement for tried and true relationship building methods. Social media is a wonderful way to show another side of a company’s personality, but it cannot successfully be the only way that a company communicates with target audiences.

No. 3: Thinking social media is cheap (or free)

Social media is not free, or even cheap, it’s just a different kind of expensive. Just like most things in life, you get out of it what you put in. So to really make a social media campaign work, it takes time, a lot of it. And as we all know – time is money.

Ultimately, companies need to realize that social media should be part of the marketing mix and be thought out and about as much as other marketing tactics. Don’t assume that good things will happen just because your company now has a presence on social media. It takes time, strategy and work to reach success.

• The best time to post on Facebook is when fans are not at work, typically between 8:00 pm and 7:00 am.  In addition, engagement tended to increase when posts were made on Wednesdays.
• As you might have heard before, quality wins over quantity when posting to increase engagement.  This was true when measuring posts per day, as well as posts per week.
• Shorter (1-40 characters) and simpler (text only) posts proved to increase engagement.

Weather you believe these stats will improve your follower and fan engagement, or not, there is no doubt that social media is an important aspect of your communications plan.  According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, social media saw the biggest percentage increase (75%) in trust among media sources.

Read more about social media strategy in a previous Maven blog post about effective social media techniques.

Advent of Social Media

The wide adoption of social media has fundamentally changed how people communicate and share information, and how brands communicate with their customers. When we started the company, Twitter was a relatively new tool that no one really knew what to do with. Most companies did not have a Facebook page yet – in fact, many people didn’t have a Facebook page yet. And LinkedIn was for recruiters.

Today it’s a given that companies and brands will have a social media presence. It’s also a given that journalists and bloggers can access company information and news easily online. It is now essential for up to the minute information to be at people’s fingertips.

It’s About the Journey, Not the Destination

Sorry to quote Aerosmith, but they have it right (in this instance at least). It used to be that a PR campaign would build and build and build until, WHAM – the big story in (insert your dream publication here). But that’s not how it works anymore. A mention on small blog X results in a Tweet by person Y, which results in a retweet by more influential person Z, which results in a guest column request by online publication A, which results in multiple “likes” on Facebook, which results in a link in blog B… which may or may not ever lead to national broadcast or big-time print. But that’s okay, because that’s probably not where you need to be. It’s nice to get your company name in an Old Guard publication, but that mostly likely won’t impact your business as much as a mention in one of the smaller, but very targeted outlets will.

Infographics

Who has time for words anymore? Based on the proliferation of infographics, not many! With the speed of content generation, it’s nearly impossible to get the attention of your target audiences. Infographics get your message across in an efficient and effective manner.

The Press Release Survives

Every year I read a new blog entry about the “death of the press release,” but after five years of reading the various reasons it’s no longer relevant – it’s still here. And I have to say, better than ever. Multimedia releases are more informative and useful than their cumbersome predecessors, including instant tweets, hyperlinks, embedded video, quotes, images and various ways to share information socially. Perhaps all the press release needs is a new name.

ROI is King

In the first half of 2007 the economy was still booming and companies were spending big time on marketing. In those heady days, there wasn’t a magnifying glass over marketing budgets like there is today, and much of PR was still unmeasured. Now, decision makers need to see ROI for all services and as a result the PR industry has become much more measurement-focused. Presentation of campaign results to a client must also include metrics and reports that demonstrate how the PR campaign also made the needle move. The old standard clip report no longer makes the cut (and thank goodness for that).

There are numerous other ways that the PR industry has changed over the last five years. I’d love to hear what else you think has been impactful in changing the PR landscape. And I look forward to embracing future tools that come our way in the next five years.

With a full-time team of five, the social media staff spends all day online reading tweets, Facebook posts, blog comments and foursquare check-ins. Because of the urgent and sometimes desperate nature of people when they’re doing their taxes, the H&R Block social media team prides themselves on urgent and timely responses.

If you check out their Twitter feed, you will see that they are actually responding to people in real time. In some cases they literally know which H&R Block location someone is tweeting from because they have also checked in on foursquare.

They also have a very active blog and Facebook page because they get that people should be communicated with on their channel of choice.  And it’s worth mentioning that they have over 83,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook. Not to shabby for a tax preparation service.

According to Zena Weist, Director of Social Media at H&R Block, the goal with people who are using social media to complain is to take them offline with a customer service representative. Once this happens, most people’s issues are addressed, and a majority go back online to express their gratitude.

The social media savvy of the folks at H&R Block is worth emulating for a few reasons. Not only are they extremely responsive and on top of all channels, but they also know how best to respond. First, they show empathy. You’ll notice in many of the responses on Twitter, they first acknowledge that something is “unacceptable” or express that they are “sorry you feel that way.” Second, they provide a solution. Sometimes it’s a number to call, sometimes it’s a request for more information about which location they are in or specific person they’re working with. The idea is that they are going to do something to solve the issue. Lastly, they work to transform a bad experience into a good one because they know that good experiences typically result in referrals, which is just about the best thing you can ask from your customers.

It’s also worth noting that not only are they problem solving in the moment, but they’re also using Twitter as an early alarm system. If more than a few people are having the same issue, they make a change before it becomes a bigger problem.

Despite the fact that no one like doing their taxes, those of us in the social media trenches can at least admire this aspect of the season, thanks to H&R Block.

McDonald’s handled this by ultimately pulling the hashtag.  Rick Wion, McDonald’s social media director said:

“Within an hour, we saw that it wasn’t going as planned.  It was negative enough that we set about a change of course.”

But there is something to be learned from McDonald’s misfortune.  Social media marketing can be guided, but only to a certain extent.  This could have happened to anyone, as social media marketing depends so greatly on consumers, stakeholders and the company.  It is how you respond that will define your company.

While social media marketing can unveil consumer grievances, it also allows for a way to reach individual consumers to solve problems.  With Twitter, McDonalds had the opportunity to reach out to each person who complained using the hashtag.

A great example of using a company Twitter account to resolve consumer complaints is JetBlue airlines, explained in The New York Times article, “How to Fight Back When your Flight is Canceled.”  After suffering from constant flight cancellations, consumers turned to Twitter to express their frustration.  JetBlue offered support through social media and followed-up on specific consumer problems to make sure they were solved.  JetBlue used social media to reform what would have been poor consumer sentiment.

• Did I target the reporter correctly?  Actually read what reporters are writing and get to know the publication.  Tracking reporter coverage is the best way you can target reporters effectively.  They notice the difference when your pitch is relevant to their beat and focus, and when isn’t.  Setting up Google alerts and subscribing to RSS feeds are easy ways to keep an eye on what journalists are writing about.  A lack of due diligence is the fastest way to get your email deleted.

• Did I contact the journalist through his or her preferred method?  Do your research.  Journalists and reporters often make it clear on how they want to be contacted.  While it is easy to forget that your pitch is just one of many in an inbox, being respectful of their preferences will get you far.  By making your ideas clear, your recipient will be able to decipher their interest faster.

• Did I market my client’s expertise effectively?  Work with reporters to develop an angle.  Successful correspondence requires creativity and the know-how to market your client’s expertise. Using this formula may spark a reporter to cover something outside of his or her normal beat.

• Have I made an effort to develop a relationship with the media?  Friend, follow, and network genuinely.  Including media relationships in your social media circles is a great way to track what journalists cover, and foster professional connections.

Media relations is an art, not a science.  Always keep in mind that sincerity and due diligence go a long way and will bring you the greatest return on investment with media relations.

Social media will play an integral role in getting out the vote in 2012, mainly due in part to social media outreach. Although the 2008 Presidential election may go down in history as the first “official” social media election, 2012 candidates are more educated than ever on the power of social media and plan on connecting with voters (both young and old) through a variety of social media platforms.

In 2004, political campaigns began to realize the important correlation between internet usage and reaching voters.  One of the main focuses during this election was the use of blogs.  Both John Kerry and George W. Bush actively took to blogs to reach their voters, writing about their campaign views and plans for the United States moving ahead.

In 2008, candidates took to facebook, myspace, youtube and twitter to get their message across and reach as many voters as possible. Although social media was still somewhat “new” to political campaigns, Barack Obama managed to dominate the social media platform.  According to a snapshot that was taken on November 3, 2008 (Election Day) Barack Obama had 380 percent more supporters on facebook and myspace, 905 percent more views on Youtube and 240 times more followers on twitter than John McCain. This alone can arguably be one of the main reasons, along with historically high new voter registration statistics, that won Barack Obama the election.

In the 2010 midterm elections, social media played a major role in how voters received and shared information about the election.  To get a better sense of exaclty how effective social media was, below is a chart issued by PEW Charitable Trust highlighting political social networking activites by age group:

Since 2008, twitter has become a social media game changer for political campaigns. With twitter receiving on average 460,000 new accounts per day, more people will turn to this social media platform for up to the minute campaign news. Although not very popular four years ago, Barack Obama now has almost 10 million followers (in ’08 he only had 112,474) and this number is expected to grow in the next year.  @BarackObama recently announced that he will be tweeting regularly while on the campaign trail. In addition, he will be utilizing foursquare and facebook where he plans to check in and share tips with voters along the campaign trail.

Social media has been so influential that the @Whitehouse even has its own Department of Social Media. Recently, President Obama made history by hosting the first ever Twitter Townhall. During the event, President Obama made the first live presidential tweet ever and the highest trending topic that day on twitter was #askobama. Below is footage of President Obama making history:

While the use of television was a huge way to reach voters for the likes of John F. Kennedy, social media will be the driver for 2012 candidates as they begin to launch their campaigns to the White House. Come 2016, social media will continue to evolve and dominate voter outreach efforts. Who knows, with additional technology advancements and support from Congress we may just be able to cast our vote online by then!