While most clients understand the value of social media to develop a direct connection with customers and build community around their brand, we do occasionally talk with folks who question the value of social media for their business.

For example, I was recently in a new business meeting with a company selling high-end analytics services to Fortune 500 execs. The VP of sales asserted that “the people we’re trying to reach aren’t on Twitter.” I replied, “that may be true, but the people WE’RE trying to reach are on Twitter.”

The fact is, media and analysts (and many of the rest of us) now get much of our news from social media sources.

A recent survey by Cision and Don Bates at GWU University backs up this claim: they found that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter. The survey also found that 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.

Click here to read the full article on MediaPost – many eye-opening stats on where today’s stories really come from.

- Posted by Leyl Master Black (@mktgalchemist)

In the spirit of the holidays, we at Spark wanted to share something very, very funny. It’s a spoof Christmas speech with an increasingly inebriated monkey. What more do we need to say, really?

http://www.brandrepublic.com/Campaign/News/869618/PG-Tips-monkey-gets-sozzled-spoof-Christmas-speech/

It seems like there are a number of standard mistakes that all PR people have to make. Call it a rite of passage. Here at Sparkpr we love to talk about those painful times “when we first started out.” The days when we were so green and sweet, and to tell the truth some of us are still are a bit of both. The thing is that when someone new to their career makes one of these standard mistakes, they not only have to live through the embarrassment of making the mistake, they then have to listen to all of the veterans in the room talk about what happened when they did it. Stories like, “Don’t worry about it, back when I was an intern, I used to forget to put subject lines in emails and my manager would make me put a quarter in a jar…”

Here are some of the most endearing and embarrassing of the Newbie PR mistakes, crimes we’ve all committed and hope to never repeat, but still love to talk about.

1. Sending emails with no subject lines
2. Accidentally forwarding an email to client (regarding client)
3. CC’ing instead of BCC’ing – particularly horrifying if a senior manager or CEO is involved
4. Dropping reporters on media calls due to confusing conference option on telephone
5. Recalling email messages (that trick never works)
6. Cut & pasted pitches (what!) with the wrong reporter info
7. Ignorance to the nuances of Salesforce vs. Bacon’s
8. Pitching publishers or ad sales people instead of journalists
9. Getting too drunk at CES in Vegas (one of the most common newbie and seasoned professional errors, turns out)
10. Misuse of the “reply all” function
11. Misuse of “highly scalable” PR jargon
12. Writing pubic relations instead of public relations
13. Wearing high heels to the Las Vegas Convention Center

-Pam, Sheila, Jacqueline and Syreeta

A few of us here at Sparkpr thought it would be fun to create a blog series called “Stuff PR People Like” and poke some fun at ourselves. Who doesn’t love a self-deprecating PR person? Don’t answer that.

Please be sure to do your due diligence by checking back here over the next few days for new posts, and don’t hesitate to ping us in the comments section. We’ll do our best to leverage your ideas for top tier coverage.

Stuff PR People Like, Entry #1 – Business Jargon

This list includes – but of course is not limited to – the following terms:

Circle back: [sur-kuhl bak]
I like where your head is at, but let’s circle back to that point later…

Touch base (TB): [tuhch beys]
You need to build a media list? Let’s touch base on that this afternoon.

Ping: [ping]
Listen, can you ping me later about this? My client is in crisis mode.

Drill down: [drill]
We really need to drill down to the key issue here folks. Is this interesting enough to write a whitepaper on or not?

Due diligence: [doo dil-i-juhns]
I know our client doesn’t have that kind of money! But I had to do my due diligence and ask just in case!

Top tier: [top teer]
(common PR interview question) What is the most notable top-tier coverage you’ve secured for your clients in the past?

Leverage: [lev-er-ij]
Let’s think of a way to leverage the fact that our client has never spent the night in the clink

Penny publications: [pen-ee pŭb'lĭ-kā'shən]
Oh that other agency? They get a lot of coverage, sure. In penny publications.

Slammed: [slam]
I tried calling Kevin Marshall, but he was so slammed he slammed the phone down on me.

Value add: [val-yoo ad]
Hey nice work Schmitty! Nice value add on that one!

-Sheila and Pam