Day Twelve: New tools…old ideas.
It was fitting that my meeting with Monika Maeckle ended up being a phone call while I was driving across Texas. Maeckle heads BusinessWire’s national social media strategy as their VP of New Media in an office across the street from the Alamo. Like Happonen Communications these past couple of weeks, she’s a virtual office.
Who better to provide some keen insight into growing trends facing both PR and media leaders across the country?
Maeckle has worn a lot of hats during her career. She’s been a reporter, a PR firm owner, marketing and fundraising professional, oh and she’s done sales, too. Her current position is a combination of all of those skills. And the responsibilities she oversees at BusinessWire are constantly changing.
“This is a tremendous time for reinvention,” Maeckle explained. “Opportunity is everywhere. It’s all about attitude.”
That positive, entrepreneurial approach to PR and media in today’s market has been echoed throughout this journey by professionals across all disciplines. For Maeckle, she has a unique vantage point because she is situated between the PR and the Media universe and hears regularly from both marketing pros and reporters.
When I asked her if the traditional “pitch” process has changed she paused.
“As much as so many things have changed, the fundamentals have remained the same,” she said.
And those fundamentals include the same things they always have:
1) Have a good story with good content.
2) Write well and distribute your message appropriately.
3) Have something of value to say.
“There is so much content out there, it’s hard to break through,” Maeckle added. “It takes hard work and energy to create valuable information.”
Much of Maeckle’s time is now spent providing webinars and other educational content for BusinessWire to help both PR and media pros connect and find that valuable content. In other words, she practices what she preaches. Because while she’s certainly expert at all the whiz-bang new media tools (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.) the content rules the process.
So it turns out that defining and distilling a compelling message to the right audience is still hard work.
Maeckle summed up that fact most succinctly with an axiom she coined in her many seminars, tweetups and webinars:
“You don’t advertise tires at Victoria’s Secret.”
