{Today’s guest submission comes from frequent FlackRabbit contributor and friend, Joe Flood. When it comes to hiring a public relations or marketing firm, how do you know you’re getting your money’s worth? It’s a question Joe poses and hopes you’ll answer! Do you tally sales, social media mentions, traditional media placement, happy executives? Do metrics differ between “marketing” and “PR” efforts? Share your thoughts in the comments!}

I recently attended a seminar on movie marketing. A pair of experts from Allied Integrated Marketing shared their experiences in promoting independent films such as Milk and Sin Nombre.

They used a variety of interesting tactics to get the word out about these important movies, including partnering with local nonprofits and having “tastemaker screenings” for influential people in the community.

But I had a more fundamental question. How do you measure the results?

After all, if you’re going to hire a public relations firm to promote your product, business or movie, how do you know that the expenditure is worthwhile?

In the case of movie marketing, there’s no direct way to track promotional efforts to ticket sales. You can’t connect PR to asses in seats. At least not in an objective way.

I think that’s part of the reason why the field can be so frustrating to clients. If I bought Google Ads, I could see how they’re performing and adjust my efforts accordingly. I could measure the clicks and the ticket sales. I’d know what ads and markets were working.

But how do you measure schmoozing tastemakers? It’s certainly worthwhile to appeal to the audiences who would be most interested in your film, especially for challenging films that are difficult for the general public to embrace. Read More…

{I can always depend on Joe Flood for informative, succinct guest posts. In his most recent FlackRabbit submission, Joe shares some marketing tips for all you creative, self-promoters out there.}

Last year, I published a book. Murder in Ocean Hall is a mystery set in DC about the death of the world’s most famous oceanographer.

Since then, I’ve experimented with social media to get the word out about my first novel. It’s been an interesting experience, one that has taught me a lot about product marketing in this consumer-driven age. Doing it yourself, without a staff or budget, helps you learn marketing tools in a very hands-on fashion.

Here’s what has worked for me:

Facebook – The most important audience for a new book is the author’s friends and family. Facebook is the ideal tool for reaching them. I promoted the book when it came out and at other key points spurring sales. My FB marketing has been simple – I’ve used my status update to tell people about my book.

Kindle – One surprise is that I’ve sold as many Kindle copies as print ones. The Kindle copy of my book is $2.99 (versus $9.99 for print) and people can buy it instantly. Also, Kindle owners seem to read more books than most people. Read More…

{In this month’s guest post, Joe Flood seeks your opinion on non-profit, street solicited “guilt-payments.” Through a PR lens, I see street solicitation as a sure way to decrease the validity of your brand and strength of your reputation. What’s your take? Read Joe’s post and share your thoughts below!}

One of the annoyances of urban life is the proliferation of people asking for money. We’ve all seen them– homeless men parked outside of stores, cup of change jingling in one hand.

However, the streets of DC feature another group angling for cash. They’re well-scrubbed young folks and they cry, “Do you have a minute for the environment?” Or poverty. Or AIDS.

They position themselves on opposite ends of the block, so they can harangue pedestrians going by in both directions. Clipboards in hand, canned spiels at the ready, they’re from organizations like Greenpeace and the Save the Children.

But is this really a good way to market your organization? Greenpeace and Save the Children are large international organizations, with thousands of employees and budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Read More…

On Monday, August 30,  DC Flacks joined forces with Washington Women in Public Relations to toast the one-year anniversary of DC-area PR and communications pros meeting up, talking to strangers and sharing beverages! More than 85 folks came out to Cedar in downtown DC to celebrate, greet new faces and present the DC Flacks Perfect Attendance Sash to the one and only Joe Flood. He’s only person besides me to attend every Flacks happy hour:

Photo credit: Dave Newman/GroovySoup

View all the photos here and be sure to check out this fun video, courtesy of Vocus, our DC Flacks sponsor:

Read More…

{This guest post comes from Joe Flood, who recently taught you how to make your blog look good on the iPhone. Today, Joe explains how to promote your cause and get results by playing nice with others.}

The DC Shorts Film Festival has rapidly grown to be one of the best short film festivals in the country.

I’ve volunteered with the festival for more than five years as a judge, screenplay competition manager, photographer and even sold t-shirts. With this front row seat, I’ve gotten to see what works – lessons for anyone promoting a product or cause.

Quality: DC Shorts has a commitment to quality that’s a reflection of the festival’s founder, Jon Gann. DC Shorts books top venues, like E Street Cinema. Marketing materials, from the web site to brochures, are professionally designed and branded. Great sponsors are wooed, such as Stella Artois and Clyde’s. The films and screenplays for the festival are selected by a rigorous judging process. Read More…

{Looks like several of you are taking me up on the offer to have your communications, PR and geek thoughts featured on FlackRabbit. Yay! Our first guest post is a quick WordPress/iPhone tutorial by the fabulous Joe Flood of Washington, D.C.}

Now that I’m sure you have your own WordPress blog, thanks to Margie, let’s make it look good on an iPhone. You don’t want people to have to zoom in or squint to look at your web pages in the iPhone’s tiny browser. Instead, you want something that looks formatted for the ubiquitous Apple product. Like this: Read More…