How do you use LinkedIn?

I've noticed an uptick in requests to connect with colleagues on LinkedIn since the beginning of the year. Where I once received a handful a week, I am now receiving a handful a day! Many are from people I already know and have worked with (most of which I thought I was already connected to!), but just as many are from people I don't know at all.

While I am more than happy to connect to people I know, I'm disinclined to connect with many that I don't know. On Facebook I would never connect to a total stranger, but for some reason on LinkedIn it seems more acceptable to do so since it's a social media site for business.

I have colleagues who will connect to anyone and everyone on LinkedIn who requests to connect to them. Usually they work in sales and are happy for any lead they can get. I, on the other hand, don't really want to be pitched or sold to via my LinkedIn connections, so I tend to decline invites from most people I don't know.

My only exception is if the person requesting the connection works locally in PR or marketing or might work for a company that I would like to work with as a Blabbermouth Communications client. Then I am willing to connect with them in the hopes that it might turn into a lead some day, though I do not sell them on my agency and its services just because we are now connected.

So how do you use LinkedIn? Do you connect only to people you know or know of, or do you accept anyone who invites you to connect? Do you use your connections for sales leads or to generate new business for your company or agency?

Traditional advertising isn't dead - case in point

You've no doubt heard colleagues say that traditional (paid) advertising is dead, but I've never agreed. I still think that advertising is an important component of any well-executed marketing plan along with PR, social media marketing, and other related tactics. I was reminded this weekend of the power of a good print ad in creating awareness and making a sale.

On Saturday I picked up a magazine called Women's Running as I am slowly getting into running for exercise and want to learn more about it (mainly what I am no doubt doing wrong!). I recently purchased new running sneakers to replace the pair I bought last year which had worn out. Due to a problem I am experiencing with some mild pain in the arch of my right foot, I've been considering getting inserts for my new sneakers.

As I reviewed the magazine, I came across a full-page color ad for the new Active Series insert for athletes from Dr. Scholl's, a well-known and trusted brand. The ad lead me to visit the company's web site for more information where I found a link to a $5 off coupon for this product. After reviewing additional information about the insert on the web site, I printed the coupon and redeemed it last night at the local drugstore. The coupon really helped make the sale for me but I probably would have purchased them anyway without it.

Seeing the well targeted print ad in the magazine created awareness for the product at a time when I happened to be interested in such a product. That lead me to the web site, which lead me to the coupon, which lead to my purchase of the product. That is a marketers' dream!

I know it's not often that a print ad leads directly to a consumer's purchase of a product or service quite that quickly, but it can and does happen. I'd be a hypocrite if I told my clients that advertising doesn't work, especially after being my own case study. All this experience did for me was convince me all the more that a well-designed ad placed in a highly targeted medium (online, newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, etc.) is still a good form of marketing.

Are the old rules on when to issue a press release still valid?

I was fortunate not to have been adversely affected by the great storm that hit our region this week. I lost power for less than 24 hours and was able to get back to business on Wednesday.

With a client's media announcement slated to be emailed out to the local media on Wednesday, I held off doing so figuring it would get lost in the continued news coverage of the storm's aftermath. It is about an event taking place later this month and this initial document is just a save-the-date type of announcement with more details to follow in a press release later this month.

I certainly didn't want to be insensitive and be THAT PR person who sends out a press release during a natural disaster about something not even remotely related to the disaster. I saw a local broadcast journalist nicely bash a local PR person on Twitter (not by name) for doing just that during Hurricane Sandy this week and vowed that that would not be me! But with next Tuesday being Election Day, the prospect of waiting until Monday to send  it out was further complicated.

So I contemplated sending out the release today, a Friday, which we were taught in college was a no-no. The belief was that press releases sent to the media on Friday get ignored and sent into a void. Mondays aren't great either since there's a lot of catching up to do at the beginning of a week and your release would get ignored, or so we thought.

That got me thinking if the timing for issuing press releases that I was taught in the early 1990s when I was in college was still valid today in this 24/7 world of news and reporting. Does it really matter when the release is issued? Perhaps weekends are still a bad idea due to limited staff, but what about weekdays? Can any day of the week be just as effective as another? Or should we still stick with the old rule of Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays being best? What do you think?