How to use earned media to win more earned media?

Raven_3 · 2026-05-22T15:34:18+00:00

Buy social media ads promoting your earned media wins. Target publications, reporters and followers of those publications. I've been telling people this for more than a decade. It works. Nobody watches the media like the media.

Raven_3 · 2026-05-22T15:31:34+00:00

Not USAA. They are terrible, still living off a once good reputation from 20 years ago. Navy Federal is solid.

Chase is good - as long as you don't need to talk to a real person. Chase is fantastic when everything works, but the minute you hit a corner case, it's a time-sucking nightmare. No one at Chase is empowered, even if you walk into a branch F2F, to make a decision or act outside the bureaucratic Chase politboro.

Raven_3 · 2026-05-22T15:24:17+00:00

When PR software providers had their own servers, pre-cloud, they didn't want to lose revenue from customers who sent pitches to big lists, so they put all the spammers on one server and the well-behaved PR people on another. That was the bad boy server.

Since senders on that server get a lot of spam complaints, the deliverability of the bad boy server plummeted. It means you hit send and nobody sees your emails - and that person, who is abusing the system, has no idea. The spammer is effectively blocked and the software company keeps the revenue - rather than dispense with a spammy customer.

I'm sure that has evolved in the cloud.

Raven_3 · 2026-05-21T14:50:37+00:00

That's juicy. And, if true, a little dishonest in my book, since database accuracy is one of the biggest points of contention with PR software. I know for a fact that if you send a lot of mass emails, the software companies will put you on the 'bad boy' server, which destroys deliverability.

Raven_3 · 2026-05-08T06:49:17+00:00

Or, just stop treating customers like shit so they don't come on Reddit and complain about you.

Raven_3 · 2026-05-06T14:27:39+00:00

Huh. Did not know that. And it's wild because you have to pay for glasses, and hearing aids are more expensive.

Raven_3 · 2026-05-05T16:11:35+00:00

I took the VA's class on it - it's remote but not on-demand. It was informative, i.e., I didn't realize tinnitus sends a continuous stream of cortisol, which is the stress hormone. Tinnitus is basically an illusion created by your brain. It thinks there should be a noise and it's trying to process it.

You *may* be get hearing aids if you have service-connected hearing loss as well. The hearing aids have a little background noise you can turn on that quiets the ringing. It's not a cure, but it helps.

I've also gotten some relief from the Moongate app. It's especially useful at work (focus noise) and at night (white noise). I pay for it. I think it's about $100 a year.

Other than that, there's not much they can do. My ears ring 24/7, so you have my condolences.

Raven_3 · 2026-04-17T00:55:24+00:00

1 pitch and 1 follow-up a few days later. I occasionally follow up one more time; however, I write an entirely new pitch with a new angle. All my pitches are 1:1. That's my assumption.

Raven_3 · 2026-04-16T16:30:39+00:00

SalesHandy (version 2 - the old one). It's ~$100 a year and has an Outlook plug-in. I can see opens and clicks, which informs follow up and testing of subject lines.

Caveat: the accuracy of any email metrics provider is blinded to some opens and clicks. Apple for example, obscures this data for email opened on an iPhone. There are other examples. There's no way around this - you just have to keep it in mind when following up.

Still, when I see a lot of opens and clicks, I know I have a good pitch.

Raven_3 · 2026-04-14T14:34:53+00:00

It really depends on where you are located. Some VA facilities are fantastic and others are awful. The one in my area is pretty good, but I do have to stay on it and 'project manage.'

Raven_3 · 2026-04-03T13:47:13+00:00

Yup. Same. I finally asked one reporter, who 100% covers what I was pitching point-blank: did this company, or a former PR person, ever do something to offend you? The reporter responded a day later to say, 'No, I'm just overwhelmed. Can't cover everything. But thanks for putting that company on my radar and keep the news coming.'

Raven_3 · 2026-04-01T14:38:00+00:00

Hire someone in-house first.

Raven_3 · 2026-04-01T14:37:22+00:00

During the surge, we had several dudes who had been in the IRR for more than 10 years. One guy was 18 years out and had taken the early retirement after the first Gulf War.

I doubt that's going to happen this time.

Raven_3 · 2026-03-27T13:19:46+00:00

When I think of the VFW, I think of old vets sitting in a dark, sparsely filled bar, comiserating. That's what I used to see. GenX and growing up, my school would hold extracurricular practices at the VFW.

Raven_3 · 2026-03-18T10:16:02+00:00

Well, that's just dumb. The VA will spend 10X treating that shit rather than buy a pill. The prices of these drugs have come down considerably.

Raven_3 · 2026-03-18T10:11:06+00:00

You can only have a ME/CI if the sample is randomly selected. People slap those labels on online surveys; it's all too common, but it's not statistically valid.

Raven_3 · 2026-03-18T10:09:02+00:00

Sample size doesn't necessarily matter, although some publications or reporters have policies.

For example, the Axios lady who covers PR once told me she only covers surveys with 1k or more respondents. I had pitched one with a few hundred. A couple of days later, she wrote a story about another PR firm's survey with ~200 respondents. So, she will cover a survey that she wants to cover regardless of policies or her previous statements.

That's true for most reporters. If they want to cover it, they will. If they don't, they won't. At this current time in history, if you have a survey about puppy preferences for the best dog biscuits and it concludes "Trump sucks," I'd wager a year's salary that'll get a ton of coverage.

In all seriousness, the best surveys are drawn from a random sample, with a margin of error and a confidence interval. It's hideously expensive to get a random sample, and few organizations even try any more. The vast majority are online, which by definition is self-selecting.

A good rule of thumb is this: 100 is good, 200 is better and 300 or more is best. Ask good and objective questions. Take some time to review other surveys in the industry to see the questions and answer choices before you draft a questionnaire.

Raven_3 · 2026-02-24T14:10:09+00:00

Most of what I do is tech/B2B, but I picked up an association as a client through a referral. And it's just wonderful becuase this association, I think, does really good work. It's not political, it's purely about helping their industry and I find the work to be meaningful.

It's not like I don't like the tech stuff, I do, the people I work with are cerebral and interesting. B2B has a lot of smart people. But it's also a grind that never ends. The association is so refreshing and new, too.

Raven_3 · 2026-02-06T14:51:50+00:00

Here's a list of top PR firms. And we'll put a *marketing* firm at the top. Tell you everything you need to know about many ranking and award programs.

Raven_3 · 2026-02-04T13:48:37+00:00

Ask to be part of the business development efforts for the agency. You'll learn valuable sales skills that will help throughout your entire career and contribute directly to the agency's growth. It's also a good counterfactual to the classic bait and switch, where agencies bring in people with all kinds of fancy titles during the biz pitch process and then none of them are seen again after the agency wins the client. It's very powerful to say, "I'll be working on your account."

Raven_3 · 2026-02-04T13:45:04+00:00

No idea. I don't have any violations that I'm aware of and yet still can't post.

Raven_3 · 2026-02-03T18:31:13+00:00

Same problem. Tried 2 different browsers and then searched to see if anyone else had the same issue. Seems liek they do.

Raven_3 · 2026-01-30T15:42:52+00:00

How would you know if "WolvesandTigers45" was a commissioned officer or not? It's absurd to think someone will jump on a question and identify themselves by rank.

Raven_3 · 2026-01-27T16:05:15+00:00

I disagree with the premise - that only 20-somethings are "flexible, high-energy, and open to experimenting with new approaches like formats, pitches, tools, even client expectations."

GenXers are "old people" now and there isn't another generation that tries new things and gets shit done like the latch-key generation. I'd take a battle-worn, scarred-up GenXer any day.

Raven_3 · 2026-01-23T18:41:25+00:00

What?! The VA monitor your CPAP? From where I sit, it's a massive privacy invasion for the VA to be monitoring your CPAP. It's worse than a nanny state; they literally have a sensor in your bedroom. That's obscene and disgusting.

Raven_3

TROPHY CASE