The Marketing Conference Blog

Jose Mallabo is currently the Director of Financial Communications at eBay Inc. In this role he oversees and leads the company’s communications strategies around its financial activities and performance as well as setting strategy for internal and external communications around mergers and acquisitions globally.

His session will address how you can increase the reach and lifetime of your public relations campaign by using online methods such as press release optimization.

1. Do you see new online methods of public relations replacing or enhancing the more traditional means?

I don’t see the online methods replacing traditional channels as much as I see them as an evolution to the tools we use. When you look back to the pre-mass media days of public relations when what you might call a PR practitioner was promoting his cause or company you’ll see a lot of what is all the vogue today – a focus to drive word of mouth at the grass roots level. PR and marketing people tend to tout it like word of mouth marketing is some kind of recent discovery when in fact we’ve known intuitively and empirically for a long time that the most powerful information is that which is delivered by someone you know and trust. Because of the interactivity that online forums enable, it has proven to be more effective than traditional mediums at mobilizing people. Many mass communications researchers would argue that the media don’t tell people what to think, they tell people what to think about. The Web, in my opinion, empowers people to do something about what they’re hearing, feeling and thinking. That’s pretty powerful.

2. Which online public relations applications are most exciting to you?

Obviously I work in corporate PR because I still believe the most important (though somewhat underutilized by consumer programs) is the online conference call with reporters, analysts, customers and investors. The Web cast of the earnings call came to be the de facto tool for PR and IR people to use around quarterly earnings and material news in the late 90s – targeted largely at investors. But with today’s very accessible technologies this online tool can be used for so much more. Smaller firms that want to do a media tour without the expense of flying people around the country can do this all on a series of online calls that can be supported by Web based presentations, virtual product demonstrations that then can spur real-time chats, live blogging and of course a live Q&A. There’s a way to do this in an innovative, yet non-gimmicky way. I’d love to see what can be done beyond the same old stale corporate earnings call online.

3. Is the press release dead?

No. In fact, after Regulation Fair Disclosure was ratified (in 2000) to keep public companies from selectively disclosing material information, the overall volume of press releases increased dramatically. What used to be communicated in conference calls, meetings or filings began making their way into a news release. Mercifully, that knee jerk reaction has been tempered by time and companies have developed a better filter for what is material, what is news and what is simply better fodder for a blog post or email.

While some companies (large and small) continue to create unnecessary noise with non-news announcements, the sanity has come back to most PR departments. Reporters and editors don’t want to get feeds that touts about a Web site re-launch. They’d rather get a call or email telling them what that site re-launch might mean to the industry as a whole. The growth and legitimization of the blogosphere may well be the biggest in the use of the press release. With so many bloggers, companies pushing out releases need to keep them in mind when creating the content and tone of press releases. They cut and paste content from release much more so than traditional media, so if you write something you better mean it.

4. You’ve lived and worked all over the country. What do you think are the benefits of holding conferences such as Online Marketing: Innovations That Work in places such as Pittsburgh?

I’ve been fortunate enough to work and live in small and large markets over the past decade or so – most of which in high-technology and using the Web for communications. In the smaller communities where there’s some need for an economic makeover or resurgence, I think the benefit is to see just how much talent and interest there is in the area. The first time I attended a forum like this in Rochester, New York was as an entrepreneur looking for partners, education and a line into some equity financing. I thought we’d be the sole Web-heads in the room but it was standing room only for a full week of sessions. It was really empowering and heartening to see that there were so many great ideas, entrepreneurs and resources at our disposal – locally. And unlike some other industries, people involved in the online world are almost to a fault overly enthusiastic about sharing with you what they’ve learned. I think it just comes with the spirit of the Web.