TCM Panel #3

Panel #3: Using Social Media to Generate Press Coverage

Speakers:
-- I.J. Hudson, Director of Communications, Garson Claxton (used to be with local TV news)
-- Adam Van Bavel, Special Events Coordinator, Komen Maryland
-- Jiyan Wei, Product Manager, PRWeb, Vocus

First up: I.J. Hudson
-- Everyone is a reporter. Treat everyone as such.
-- Can only control original distribution ... not where it winds up or how presented. (Followed up by "Merry Christmas.")
-- Must first have compelling story to tell. Put not-so-good story out and gets picked up and criticized for it. (Think BadPitchBlog. If you're a communicator, you need to know about it and be reading it.)

Second up: Adam Van Bavel (talking about awareness and branding)
-- Awareness creates brand coverage. Brand drives brand coverage.
-- Speaker wears a lot of pink. He's the "pink wardrobe guy." Says he gets a lot of questions about it b/c of how much he wears. Interesting...
-- First social media focus: He chose YouTube page for Komen b/c Komen is an emotional topic and you can connect on emotional topic by showing emotion. (Can't show emotion as well on MySpace, Facebook, etc.) Says the video has led to more interaction with audience. And they use YouTube for fundraising as well. (Didn't know YouTube made fundraising so easy.)

Third: Jiyan Wei
-- 80 million Americans get their news online daily (40% use news portals and search engines)
-- 23 million Americans read blogs daily
-- 27 million Americans visit social networks daily
-- 20 million Americans produce content
-- Static release isn't enough. Must be interactive and easily shareable.

(Side note: TCM posted a YouTube video to promote this conference. They got 25 registrations. Out of a little over 100. Not a bad endorsement for YouTube.)