James at Men with Pens says that you should ditch your regular blogging schedule. Hmm…contrarian she may be…but does it make sense? Here’s an excerpt:

Here’s what the rules told us to do: Blog according to a schedule, and you’d be conveying that your blog was reliable, dependable and consistent… like a grocery store with set business hours you knew by heart. You could go in and get bananas because you knew the store would be open. And you knew when it would be closed, too. (Everyone needs sleep, after all.)

Warm fuzzies for everyone. Let’s give a round of applause, shall we? You’ve stuck to your schedule and your readers nod in approval. What a nice, reliable person you are.

But that’s where the benefits stop. In fact, if you stick to your consistent blogging schedule religiously, come hell or high water, you’ll soon fine the warm fuzzies fading away. You may even damage your readership relations, wreck your ability to collect comments, destroy your open rate on hot new posts and generally make your blog a boring mecca of take-it-for-granted production.

via–Why You Should Ditch Your Blogging Schedule | Men with Pens.

Even we, preachers from the Church of the Regular Blog Post have fallen off the wagon of late. Too much client work, a whole lot of life happening and perhaps even a little mental exhaustion has slowed us down. Perhaps the Men with Pens have a point. Or is it heresy?

We feel two or three posts a week for an established blog (our blog gets get about 34,000 hits a year–not immense, but not too shabby) is good. If you’re new to blogging you have to establish yourself, so of course you’ll want to do four or five posts a week. But when you hit that magic number–when you feel you have a set audience and that your blog is being “crawled” by the search engines–perhaps then you can throttle back. It’s worth considering.

What do you think? Leave a comment–or a link to your blog post about this subject.

Okay, I promised before that I wouldn’t do one of those trite “end of the year” lists as a blog post, but I changed my mind when I was on Twitter yesterday. I was reminded that a lot of Twitter “newbs” come on line every day looking for good people to follow. So, in no particular order, these are some of my favorite Tweeters. Check ‘em out in 2012.

Note: This list is not comprehensive–I follow more than 3,800 tweeps–it’s just a sample of some of my favorites. They range from PR colleagues (and *clients) to writers to journalists to strategists to marketers to…well, people from all walks of life.

@kbmckinney Mom. Social Media Geek. Writer. Lawyer. And a Bunch of Other Stuff. (Kate posts consistently interesting tweets and info.)

@Brainzooming Tweets by Mike Brown featuring strategy, innovation, creativity, & social media ideas. (He’s also pretty funny.)*

@EdenBaylee Author of literary erotica and bestselling novel, FALL INTO WINTER. (Eden is a great example of a person who shares of herself and helps others in the social media space.)

@ShellyKramer Marketing/brand strategist, idea generator, digital content magician, scribbler, information junkie. Luv MilkDuds+Beer. Member of Oversharers Anonymous. (The “dean” of Twitter as far as I’m concerned–though Shelly is far more than a social media titan–check her out, you’ll see.)

@mmangen Bookworm | Horse Lover | Virtual Assistant | Single Mom | From the Land of Beer and Cheese now Living in the Sunshine State | Oldest of Seven | iTunes Addict (Michelle shares some fun stuff–with a wide variety of interests.)

@Dan_Coyle Nationally (now INTERnationally) Touring Singer Songwriter. Music Lover. Coffee Lover. Lover of Weird Things — If You’re Weird, I’ll Love You. (This guy is an excellent self-promoter who truly cares about his twitter friends and fans. He also has a quirky side and often posts links to some very interesting articles and sites.)*

@adamsconsulting Graduate of USC, Entrepreneur for over 10 yrs, Writer for BitRebels.com and InkRebels.com, Voice for the Homeless in Atlanta. I’m really into just being happy. (Diana always has something I can’t resist clicking!)

@OfRevolt I narrowly escaped the clutches of The Man to travel, write, and blog about the daily activities of being without a home. I sing, dance, and make merry! (My favorite travel blogger!)

@JohnFugelsang God got Vaclav Havel, the Devil got Kim-Jong II, and neither of them got near Christopher Hitchens. I’m an actor & comedian. Our album- http://bit.ly/un61bi (Smart, edgy comedian. Note he’s often political and Left-leaning. If you’re a Fox News fan, you probably won’t dig him.)

@Jdickerson Political correspondent Slate magazine/Political Director CBS News. (Informative, witty and incisive.)

@JeanGleason An HR Princess with attitude speaking the hard HR truths. I love to travel and the ocean! My family & friends are the most important things in my life. (Jean is a great person and a true resource for HR info.)

@JasonHarper Son of a librarian & English professor. Champion of writing, dialogue, knowledge & culture. Tweeting for @KCLibrary. (His bio says it all.)

@Harris_Barb PR chick by profession, humanitarian by passion. Writer of food blog http://ourfeedingfrenzy.com. @feedingfrnzy (Her food blog is a must-read. She needs to tweet more, though!)

@ginidietrich CEO of Arment Dietrich. Author of spinsucks.com. Vistage member. Author. Speaker. Communicator. Avid cyclist. A foodie. Loves shoes & wine. (Funny, informative and prolific, Gini has a great PR blog, too.)

@AlexisCeule Social Media Mamapreneur-Chief Engagement Officer: Making ur brand social via word o mouse! I love me some @Train and I’ll shoot u on MWII as KUfans2009. (Great fun and lots of cool info.)

@StephGreenKC Sprint B2B PR. Ask me abt M2M, connected car, smart grid, health/wellness, digital signs, security, mobility, IP. Love to chase my 3-year-old and travel! (Good telecom-related stuff and yes, she’s my wife so you’re damn right I list her here!)

I could go on…but time is running out on 2011 and I need to hop off the blog, Twitter and the internet in general to enjoy more time with my family. Remember–Twitter is a great way to connect with interesting people, but don’t let it hog all your time and prevent you from “connecting” with your loved ones and friends “in real life.”

Happy New Year.

Our colleague Kelly Davis pointed out a great post about public relations and client expectations on Ragan’s PR Daily by Elizabeth Friedland titled “20 Things PR Clients Should Know.”

It’s a little snarky, but comes from a good place and can help clients understand the most effective ways for us to succeed on their behalf. We encourage PR pros and clients alike to check it out.

We’ve excerpted a few of the twenty “things” that we found of particular import. We have said many similar things on this blog over the years, but this is such a succinct post that puts it all in one place we just had to share it. So, without further ado…our favorites from this educational post:

1. No, we don’t know every journalist everywhere across the universe—not that it matters. Even journalists whose weddings we were in will turn down our pitches occasionally.

2. A good publicist doesn’t have to be based in New York or Los Angeles to be effective. Ever heard of this crazy thing called email? (Note from AlexanderG PR: Have we mentioned we’re in Kansas City?)

[...]

5. Stop insisting we call the media. Most of them hate this and specifically request we contact them exclusively via email.

6. PR is not free advertising. PR is not free (or cheap), period.

7. Don’t ask us to pitch an idea and then not be available for an interview. If you want the press, we need you to be ready to talk to the media at a moment’s notice.

8. What matters most to you may be totally irrelevant to a journalist. Remember that it’s what they—not you—think is important that matters in the end.

[...]

10. Social media is more than Facebook and Twitter.

11. If you insist on running all tweets and posts past your legal department, don’t expect results from your social media strategy.

12. If a journalist says he or she is not interested in a story, that person means it. Reaching out again will further annoy the reporter and guarantee you’ll be ignored the next time.

13. Don’t measure your PR results in ad equivalency rates. Do you want to know you had $500,000 of ad equivalent value in negative press, or would you rather know 80 percent of the press you received was positive in tone and accurate in its messages?

14. No, we’re not writing any more “…pleased to announce…” ledes.

15. Ditto for “We’re so excited/thrilled/happy” CEO quotes. Pretend you’re explaining the story to a friend over drinks, and then give us that quote.

[...]

17. PR is a process. You know who hits it big overnight with a story on the “Today” show? Criminals, naughty celebrities, and shark-attack victims. Do you want to be one of them?

Good stuff Elizabeth! You can read the entire “20″ by clicking over here.

We do a somewhat irregularly-published e-newsletter (aka eblast)–but when we do it’s usually pretty cool. Info, tips and fun stuff galore.

So if you want to sign up, go to our homepage:

Then look for this box in the lower right corner:

…and enter your email addy. We don’t send out more than one e-newsletter a month (usually less than that), but you can get some inside skinny you won’t find anywhere else plus the occasional special perk.

Another option–and this is more frequent than the eblast–you can get an email every time we publish a new blog post.  Just go to the homepage and find this box at the upper right corner:

…add your email address and you’ll be notified every time we post something on the AlexanderG Whiz blog.  You’ll note also that above that box is a convenient search box–you can look for that great post we did on Lawyers Vs. PR, for example, just by typing in the search terms. Below the subscribe box are handy links to find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even sign up for the RSS feed.

So, those are some easy ways to keep up with what we’re doing here. We hope you’ll sign up if you haven’t already done so. It’s a blast.

Our friends at The Brainzooming Group helped shape an intriguing project featuring two graduate level marketing communications classes at the University of Kansas. Students in Max Utsler’s “Innovations in Marketing Communications” class and Barrett Sydnor’s “Integrated Marketing Communications and Sales Strategy” class are writing blog posts during the semester on topics related to the classes, including branding, marketing, media relations, social media, experience marketing, and innovation.

Today’s author is Dave Dunn. Dave is a Broadcast Journalist & Communications Professional in Kansas City studying for his MS, Journalism, Marketing Communications at the University of Kansas.

Today he offers some fantastic tips for better media pitches. You can take this advice to the bank, as Dave is a TV news reporter who has seen the gamut of media pitches–good and bad.

Working as a reporter in TV News for more than seven years—from small markets to large—I’ve come across countless press news releases and story pitches.  My colleagues and I strive to give everyone a “fair shake” and seek out the stories that deserve coverage.  Sadly, some of the best and most worthy stories may not get coverage because of things that can set apart news releases (and I say “news” release and not “press” release because some TV and radio folks may turn their nose up at the latter newspaper-related term).  Here are three important tips for better success working with news media.

1. Formatting.

It starts before typing the first word.  While the release needs to be clear, concise and easy on the eyes, don’t get fancy with formatting. Many news software systems are highly advanced in many aspects, but not when it comes to transferring text.  Avoid tabs, boxes, graphic design or anything other than text that may not transfer properly.  When news “gatekeepers” receive releases, they simply copy and paste them into the appropriate day or place where stories are filed.  When reporters, producers or directors eventually view the release, those with “fancy formatting” are jumbled with encrypted code.  It can cause news decision-makers to sift through half a page or more of hieroglyphics before getting to, or between, the important information.  It can turn a one-page release into three.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen with this problem.  You may know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve applied for a job lately through a company’s website.  It’s similar to what can happen when you upload or paste your resume in the requested area.

As far as pictures with news releases, I’m not at all discouraging you to include them.  Visuals are often very beneficial, but keep pictures separate or make sure they are easily transferable/viewable.  Include as attachments or provide a link for a media person to copy and paste into a web browser.  You want to make sure pictures are viewed the way you intended.

2.  Don’t Bury or Muddy the Lead.

Help reporters and news people do their job.  It’s not about laziness, it’s just another strategy to help media people visualize the story.  Obviously, you’re pitching a story that involves or promotes a company, organization or person.  But don’t confuse that with the lead.  The story is about what’s happening.  News people don’t want to hear a company’s name 10 times before getting to what it’s actually doing and why it matters.  Organize releases with the key facts in the lead.  Get to specifics later.  Also, look to provide something “juicy”, a “wow” factor or a story angle.  And think “big tent” or large impact—the more the better in most cases.  Attach a story motivator upfront in the pitch/release or make it clear.  Here are some motivators to engage media (and media audiences).

Money – ways to save money or avoid waste

Family – ways of life

Safety – threats, ways to be safer or avoid danger

Health – threats, ways to live better or avoid harm

Community – how the country, region or city is changing, or a way of life

Innate Curiosity – something so cool or unusual that you want to see it

Moral Outrage – something that’s just plain wrong

3.  Think Sundays.

Sundays are undervalued and present a lot of potential impact because it’s one of the highest viewership/ratings nights of the week (Fridays & Saturdays are lowest viewership).  Yes, news staffs are smaller on weekends, but far fewer stories to choose from means much better coverage odds.  Also, if you pitch a Sunday story, don’t leave an office phone number that’s only answered Monday through Friday.  Provide a cell number.

I have to admit, as a Halloween and zombie fan (Love all of George Romero’s catalog–particularly Dawn of the Dead, which takes place in a shopping mall, by the way…) this “Zombie Day Sale” email for Sears online really got my attention.

Coinciding with the pre-Halloween holiday and the eagerly-anticipated new season of AMC’s The Walking Dead, this is a clever, hip marketing move on the part of the venerable Sears. Talk about Sales of the Unexpected (sorry)!

It works, too–at least it does on me. Their online sales and clever promos have led me to purchase a snow blower, leaf mulcher and lawnmower in the past year. I’m no zombie consumer, either. I plan my purchases carefully, and almost never pay full price. So when Sears tells me in an email with a subject line that reads

Use your brains & save up to 15%, tonight thru tomorrow

I pay attention. Cheers to Sears. Perhaps this clever approach will see their sales numbers rise from the dead.

I’m excited about my opportunity to speak at the 19th Annual Philanthropy Midwest Conference Oct. 17 in Kansas City. This conference is the Midwest’s largest gathering of nonprofit organizations.

I’ll be presenting a workshop from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. titled The Media: Opportunity Has a Secret Knock. My workshop walks participants through an audio-video presentation that will help develop key messages and package the organization’s story to get the media’s attention, respond effectively in tough interviews and generate buzz through social media.

I’m told there are 60-plus signed up. This should be fun!

Later next week I will be on a crisis communication panel for the National Educational Telecommunications Association conference. Crisis communication is a favorite topic of mine–I look forward to hearing what’s going on with NETA members in the crisis com arena and offering my thoughts.

Netflix handled the announcement of their new pricing and service rollout poorly. People reacted negatively to the fee hike–to be sure–but perhaps more so the tone deaf nature of the announcement itself.

So, Netflix followed today with an apology from their CEO via email–take a look. Do you think it’s enough? Of course it is, but it won’t immediately repair (completely avoidable) damage to a beloved brand. It’s another lesson in carefully considering the PR damage that a dramatic change in service, fees or products can cause when customer reaction is (apparently) not a top consideration when crafting the announcement.

	Dear Alex, I messed up. I owe you an explanation. It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing. For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do. So here is what we are doing and why. Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies. I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service. So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently. It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming. Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated. There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix. The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready. For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you. I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly. Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions. Respectfully yours, -Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments.

As you think of ways to get the creative juices flowing for your company or organization, remember: two heads are better than one. Case in point, Kansas City being chosen as the first city to receive Google Fiber (ultra-high speed internet service). To help the community figure out the best way to use what is potentially an economic game-changer, The Brainzooming Group (with their track record of success in conducting these types of workshops) is facilitating an epic brainstorming session for the movers and shakers in KC.  Think of it as the match that lights the fuse of creativity. Read on…

The area’s most avid internet users and innovators will convene with business, education and civic leaders to brainstorm ways to capitalize on Google’s bestowment of ultra-high speed fiber internet network upon Kansas City.

After Google announced last spring that Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri are the two initial cities to benefit from “internet access more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today,” the task falls to the community to determine the best ways this technological gift should be used.

In response, the Social Media Club of Kansas City (SMCKC) will host “Building the Gigabit City: Brainstorming a Google Fiber Roadmap” October 3rd at the Kansas City (MO) Public Library Central Branch, one of the event’s major sponsors.

SMCKC member Mike Brown, founder of The Brainzooming Group, will lead the  invitation-only, daylong work session. Brown volunteered to fully donate the company’s innovation services and the Brainzooming Methodology to the session that will bring together more than 50 individuals from SMCKC as well as the broader community—a combination of visionary entrepreneurs, developers, business leaders and creators.

A public presentation of preliminary results from the Gigabit City session and a call for public input will be conducted from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Kansas City Public Library Central Branch Helzberg Auditorium at 14 W. 10th Street in Kansas City, MO.

“The importance of not only accepting this tool from Google, but using it with an eye towards long-term success cannot be overstated,” Brown said. “The Brainzooming Group is based in Kansas City, and our method successfully allows a large, diverse group to actively contribute and shape ideas. That diversity of thinking is exactly what’s needed to bring the community’s best ideas to the surface.”

The public is invited to share their thoughts about community needs and opportunities that gigabit home internet might help address prior to the workshop by completing an online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GigabitCity. Data collected from the survey will be used to stimulate a focused, facilitated workshop designed to yield hundreds of potential ideas and at least 25 refined application concepts about what Google Fiber might mean to consumer households.

“We want to lay a framework on which businesses and individuals can develop opportunities on the social web within the Kansas City community, positioning the region as a national leader in the social technology and innovation space,” said Joe Cox, president of the Social Media Club of Kansas City. “As a metro area we will have a short window as the first gigabit city, and we believe in getting ideas on the table and into action as quickly as possible to take full advantage of the opportunity we have been given.”

Session output will also be shared with the public online as a crowdsourced foundation of opportunities and concepts for creation of positive economic, educational and lifestyle changes in Kansas City.

Other sponsors for “Building the Gigabit City” include Polsinelli Shughart PC and KCNext.

For more information, contact Joe Cox, President, Social Media Club of Kansas City, 816-809-6466, joe (at) joecox.me or Aaron Deacon, Events Chair, Social Media Club of Kansas City, 913-475-9885, aaron (at) thecuriolab.com.

Social Media Club of Kansas City’s primary mission is to expand digital media literacy, promote standard technologies, encourage ethical behavior and share best practices. We bring together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, toolmakers, and other interested collaborators–essentially the people who create and consume media who have an interest in seeing the ‘media industry’ evolve for everyone’s benefit. We are more than just USERS, we are the reason the tools exist – we are the people who communicate our thoughts and ideas near and far. Join us and let’s shape the future together. Learn more at gigabitcity.smckc.com.

The Brainzooming™ Group, based in Kansas City, helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Employing a diverse innovation methodology actively incorporating the expertise resident within an organization, The Brainzooming Group serves consumer, business-to-business, and non-profit organizations by dramatically improving their results in marketing, sales, and overall performance. Mike Brown, founder of The Brainzooming Group, writes daily about the firm’s approach to strategy, creativity, innovation, and social media at www.brainzooming.com.

I’m proud and very fortunate that AlexanderG PR is a active member of the respected national PR collaborative PRConsultants Group. Due to the hard work of several members (including noted writer and PR pro Amy Smith) PRCG has a spiffy new PR blog: PRCG Powerlines.

Check it out…it will be updated frequently with PR news you can use, info and more. You might even find a piece by yours truly.