Mediaboss Marketing

By Dick MaggioreSpecial to The Canton Repository

A few short years ago, not many would have connected public relations folks with the digital revolution. But a funny thing happened along the way.

Digital and PR got hitched.

In the late 1990s, the so-called digital revolution gained a toehold as web development boomed. Few people other than those who were building websites understood what was happening. They knew a lot about coding but not so much about the content.

In the beginning, websites were basically online brochures. We even had a special name for early websites: brochureware.

As the web began to grow, so did the demand for content.

Something was missing, however, as the function of websites as online brochures fell short of providing enough gratification for those who visited. Visitors customers and prospects wanted more. They wanted information. They wanted knowledge. They wanted perspective.

In our agency's PR wing hangs a sheet of blue paper with a line that sums up the role of the work. It fits as well today as it would have 50 years ago. The line is: "The more we treat PR like news the more we will appeal to people's desire to know over their desire to be sold."

Fast forward to 2017 and it has become the still-emerging and still-evolving movement that many label "content marketing." PR and digital now are married. To understand, consider that public relations traditionally has been involved with telling companies' stories through the news and entertainment media.

PR professionals' storytelling talents track extremely well with many of the digital marketing activities. As agencies have learned, we are in a new day for an old profession.

As the internet continued to evolve, more online marketing tactics were developed. That naturally increased the need for content of many different kinds. More information. More knowledge. More perspective. Even interaction.

Most PR people are writers. So it was natural for the work to migrate to the PR departments to manage much of the online activity from the upfront strategy through execution.

Lots of stories are being told by lots of talented writers. But even the greatest of stories go unheard if nobody notices them. The same goes for the best, most relevant, most engaging digital content.

Google to the rescue. The single-most powerful way to get your website or page to come up high in a Google search organically is with the right search words or phrases. Those search words or phrases are written as part of the content presented on web pages.

Google's promise to people who use its search engine is to serve up just the right content.

Online is just another way to distribute a message a new media. If you can write for newspaper, magazine, radio and TV, then why not online?

The line between the advertising copywriter, who has a degree in advertising or creative writing, and the public relations copywriter, with a degree in journalism, has been getting fuzzier by the day.

Add a new category of writers: the digital copywriter. She brings a new set of talents to our industry.

Digital copywriters are a combo deal: Combining the skills that get noticed by search engines with the talents of the PR writer capable of casting stories in the third-party light that is still the hallmark of conventional PR. Success in conventional PR happened when a newspaper reporter, a trade publication editor or a TV or radio personality reported the brand's message.

Messages from third-parties often PR-fueled messages are judged in general as more believable than advertising messages.

Today, writers of articles, news releases, blogs, emails and other PR-related materials must include keywords to help the online pages where that content is published appear high in Google searches. The goal is to be on the first page of the search engine results.

Communicating online involves PR writing, ad writing and digital writing, along with paid and non-paid placements. Of course, all of this must be interesting and relevant, and written with this hard fact in mind: We have so little time to get the attention of our prospects and customers.

The payoff, however, is well worth the effort.

No less an authority than entrepreneur Richard Branson cited the value of storytelling in marketing communication strategies.

"A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front-page ad," Branson said.

We agree and see it continuing to be a driving force as digital marketing grows.

Dick Maggiore is president and CEO of Innis Maggiore, founded in Canton in 1974 and today the nation's leading positioning ad agency, building strong brands for companies in competitive markets here and across the country.

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Dick Maggiore: PR's storytelling heritage helps boost brands' online traction - Canton Repository

The PROSPER Show is pleased to announce its continuing education conference for established Amazon Sellers, March 13-14, 2018, at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas. Aimed to support online sellers seeking to improve their business on Amazon, this conference features several ex-Amazon leaders and uses a workshop and seminar approach to help Amazon sellers learn how to sell more online.

PROSPER Show President, James Thomson, a former Business Head of Amazon Services, remarks on the 2018 conference We are thrilled to have more than 1,000 large Amazon sellers joining us for this 2-day intensive educational event, and networking with one another, as they work to stay up to speed on the latest developments on the Amazon marketplace, and to stay ahead of competition.

This convention about Amazon is ideal for intermediate and advanced Amazon online sellers seeking to learn from industry veterans, to network with one another, and to dig into advanced topics through workshops. The exhibitors and sponsors of this event include many of the leading solution providers supporting marketplace sellers including private label sellers, advanced sellers, and general merchandise sellers.

The 2018 keynote speaker of the PROSPER Show will be Michael Gerber, the author of the best-selling The E-Myth Revisited, and the Worlds #1 Small Business Guru (according to Inc. magazine). With other 25 sessions at this event, highlight topics include:

The 2018 PROSPER Show will be co-located with the SourceDirect and ASD Market Week shows (March 11-14, 2018) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. PROSPER Show attendees will be extended free access to these two shows, where they can meet with over 2,500 vendors, including more than 400 overseas factories. For more information on the full agenda and list of PROSPER Show speakers, see http://www.ProsperShow.com.

About PROSPER Show

Prosper Show brings top sellers and solution providers together to reveal secrets to sell more on Amazon. This online marketplace convention brings hundreds of internet marketing consultants and seasoned Amazon Seller coaches together for a two days of Amazon workshops. This show is not sponsored by or affiliated with Amazon.com LLC or any of its business subsidiaries.

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PROSPER Show Announces 2018 Internet Marketing Event - PRUnderground (press release)

Salisbury has the fastest city-wide internet service in the country but it's losing millions of dollars.

About two years ago, Salisbury improved the download speed of its city-owned internet service to 10 gigabits per second, making it one of the fastest systems in the country. By comparison, Google Fiber is one gigabit. Salisbury officials predicted that Fibrant would create jobs and attract new businesses. But Fibrant is losing millions of dollars annually and city officials are considering a way out.

When Salisbury officials issued more than $30 million in bonds to launch the Fibrant high-speed network, most saw it as a great investment. The area had lost thousands of jobs in the late 1990s when several textile mills closed. Officials predicted Fibrant would fill that void and attract businesses that needed high-speed internet. But Salisbury Councilman David Post says the General Assembly put up a road block.

"The legislature passed the level the playing field law, Post said. It tied our hands saying we couldnt go outside the city limit and the intention when we built it was for it to go well outside the city limit. We have nowhere to grow.

That is unless Fibrant gets an invitation for services from a municipality or company. So far, that hasnt happened. But still, the word around the city was that Fibrant was profitable. That is until two years ago when Lane Bailey was hired as the city manager.

Then-Mayor Paul Woodson told me that Fibrant was now making money and was in the black, Bailey said. I started to delve into it more and I went to the mayor and individual council members and said were not making money. Were doing a direct subsidy to Fibrant from the general fund.

Bailey found that over the past four years, Fibrant lost more than $3 million a year. Plus, when Fibrant was initially launched in 2010 at speeds of one gigabit, Councilman Post said, The first couple of years when Fibrant lost money we borrowed money from the water fund, $8 million. And we went through a period of years where we took a lot of the Fibrant expenses and put them in the general budget so you couldnt see it so it looked like Fibrant was making money until this year.

According to Post, currently, Fibrant is close to breaking even but the city still has to pay off the money it borrowed to build the network, more than $3 million a year.

Residential customers pay between $44 a month for basic service to $100 for the 10-gigabit speed. Fibrant needs about 4,500 customers to turn a profit, but it only has about 3,200 subscribers.

We had a really bad start, severe outages and businesses couldnt afford that and residents are quick to change television or Internet if they dont work. Its been an uphill battle ever since, Post said.

Service reliability is now at 99.9 percent but marketing has been poor. That was the conclusion of a consultant and Mayor Karen Alexander agrees.

We realize that marketing is probably the largest hole we have in the operation, Alexander said. We are working hard to come up with a marketing plan that will allow us to compete.

Fibrants marketing budget is $100,000, officials say, and it has one sales rep for commercial customers and one for residential. Not much for a company that competes with the likes of Google, AT&T and Spectrum.

City officials have refinanced the bond debt at a savings of $438,000 a year. But it will take the city 12 years to pay the debt off with Fibrant still forecast to lose money in the meantime. Selling Fibrant would not bring in near enough to pay off the debt. In January, city officials solicited bids from private companies to help them run Fibrant and are considering two proposals. One involves a lease agreement, the other a management agreement. Mayor Alexander wants to take thing slowly but Councilman Post says a solution is needed quickly.

I think Fibrant is the most critical issue facing the city because it takes resources away from so many other needs. I mean $3 million for a town that has a $35 million budget, thats a lot of money. It is stealing from us big time, Post said.

Mayor Alexander chooses to see having the fastest, citywide Internet service in the country as a long-term investment.

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Salisbury's 10 Gigabit Internet Service Losing Millions - WFAE

Did you know Facebook will no longer allow you to change text or images when you publish a link? Or that you can create your own Snapchat geo filters inside the Snapchat app? Those are changes instituted in just the past few weeks changes that show how much the social media landscape shifts in absolutely no time at all.

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Read next: Researchers use science to help you snap 26% better selfies

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Master Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more with this social media marketing deal only $29 - TNW

BEIJING Moves by business giants Apple and Amazon to stop consumers from using censorship-skirting apps in China have renewed questions about the extent U.S. companies are willing to work with authorities to operate in the vast but tightly controlled Chinese market.

Apple chief Tim Cook attempted to defend the companys decision to remove dozens of apps designed to circumvent censorship from the Chinese version of its app store.

In an earnings call for Apples quarterly financial report, Cook said China tightened its rules on virtual private networks, or VPNs, in 2015, and was now making a renewed push to enforce them.

We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries, we follow the law wherever we do business, he said Tuesday.

By helping Chinese authorities curb the use of many popular VPNs, U.S. tech companies are seen as helping the Communist Party bolster what is already the worlds most elaborate and sophisticated censorship regime, often called the Great Firewall.

In addition to blocking the likes of Google and Facebook, Chinas censors shape what is published online, pull content deemed politically sensitive and, according to a recent study, even intercept images being sent via chat apps.

Cook argued that pulling some apps beats pulling out of the market.

We strongly believe that participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers is in the best interest of the folks there and in other countries as well, he said. And so we believe in engaging with governments even when we disagree.

Amazon also was in the spotlight Wednesday after disclosures that the companys Chinese partner, Beijing Sinnet Technology, sent emails to clients advising them to delete tools used to circumvent censorship. The news was first reported by the New York Times.

An employee told The Washington Post that Sinnet sent clients emails last Friday and again on Monday warning they must eliminate any content that violates Chinese telecom laws. The instructions came from Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the employee said.

On Wednesday, calls to Amazon Web Services' China office went unanswered. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Post.)

When Chinas first and only winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo, died in state custody last month, news of his death was all but scrubbed from the Web here. On some platforms, the candle emoji was blocked.

To get around these restrictions, millions of Chinese individuals and businesses use VPNs. Beijing knows this, but so far has let the practice continue, in part because it is good for business and aids academic research.

It is not yet clear how the latest drive to regulate VPNs will play out. In the earnings call, Apples Cook stressed that the company had removed some, but not all, apps.The fact that many VPNs remain could mean the government is focused on regulating the VPN industry, not eliminating it altogether, leaving room for some use.

For a sector focused on privacy, that is still bad news.

Apple claims to just follow the law, but it's just a convenient excuse,said Martin Johnson, the pseudonymous co-founder of GreatFire.org, a website that monitors China's Internet filtering and maintains an app to help Internet users get past the restrictions.In fact, they are actively helping the Chinese government expand its control globally.

When Apple removes an app from the app store of a given country, it affects all users who have registered with an address in that country, regardless of their physical location, he added.

This means that, thanks to Apple, Beijing gets a degree of control of Chinese citizens anywhere in the world.

Yang Liu and Shirley Feng contributed to this report.

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Apple, Amazon help China curb the use of anti-censorship tools - Washington Post