Marketing Happy Hour - The Press Release Is Dead — Here's What's Actually Working in PR Right Now | Mady Lanni of Manychat

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour, a weekly podcast helping marketing professionals and entrepreneurs build better strategies and hit career goals. I'm Cassie and I'm Allie. We're marketers and your host through these unfiltered convos with your peers and experts in the space. Let's dive in. Grab your favorite drink and let's get to this week's episode. Today we are joined by Maddie Lonnie, senior PR strategist at ManyChat, a platform that a lot of our listeners have the honor of using for their brands and just super stoked to learn more about the platform but also learn more about Maddie's career as well. Maddie, welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Super excited to have a chat with you guys.

Starting point is 00:00:45 Absolutely. Well, before we dive into the conversation, we have to kick off with one of our favorite questions that we ask here on the show. And that is what is in or what has been in your glass lately. So I don't have any glasses with me right now. I should have been there. But one of my go-tos is you can always find me with a glass of poseco. That's my go-to drink. I'm a prosceco girly. So that's everyone that I ever have a happy hour with knows that about me. So yes. You all know. Yes, absolutely. I have to also ask just like side. No, if you drink coffee, what is your favorite coffee shop in Austin? Ooh. Okay. Um, I. I have really been liking.

Starting point is 00:01:27 There's a coffee shop called Epic Coffee. They have a few locations. And so I've been going there frequently and having some like coffee meetings and like co-working there. So that's really good. Des Nudo is a classic. Everyone loves Des Nudo. And then in North Austin, there's a little food truck called, I think it's Dom Coffee is how

Starting point is 00:01:46 you say it, D-A-M-A-M-A that has a really good. It's like a, the latte that I can't explain it. It's just so good. Amazing. I'll have to add those to my list. Des Nudo is a favorite of mine. So I'm a big fan of their stuff. So I love it.

Starting point is 00:02:03 So Maddie, just diving in here, but can you tell us a little bit about your career and what brought you to lead PR at ManyChat? Yeah. So I actually have a fun backstory here. My degree that I got had nothing to do with marketing or PR or anything like that. I actually have a degree in criminal justice and criminology. I was convinced that I was going to go down like the FAA. FBI route. I watched way too much criminal minds when I was growing up in CSI Miami. And I was like,

Starting point is 00:02:32 this is what I'm going to do. But the universe had other plans for me. And out of college, I just needed to find something. And I fell into a media relations role at an agency. And I didn't really think much of it. I was like, it's a job. I'm a fresh out of college student. So it was great. And then I actually very quickly fell in love with it and I was like wait this is actually kind of like what I want to do and so I kind of had an entire like life changing like realization um but it makes actually a lot of sense too because I grew up with my my dad used to work newspaper in newspaper and so I would go like every Saturday with him to like the newsroom so there was almost like a comfort element to it whenever I kind of like was on the other end of it I was like oh I'm working really closely with like

Starting point is 00:03:15 editors and uh publications and I it was like a world that just felt a little familiar to me and so So was agency side for the last five, six years or so, where I was really more on the digital PR side of things, which is PR that has like an SEO element to it, backlinks, and that sort of a thing, really data-driven PR. And then I moved to Austin, and not long after I moved to Austin, a role opened up here at ManyChat. I applied for it, not really thinking much of it. And lo and behold, a year later, here I am. and been leading the PR strategy here for just over a year now, and we've been doing a lot of really fun things with it.

Starting point is 00:03:54 Okay, so tell us, too, for those who don't know much about many chat, can you kind of share a little bit more about the platform? Yeah, so in a nutshell, my elevator pitch is always, do you know when you are scrolling on social media and you see a recipe creator, say, like, comment, snick or doodle, and I'll send you the link to this recipe, or you're scrolling and you see an affiliate, someone that's doing affiliate links, say, like, comment shelf, and I'll send you the shelf that I just

Starting point is 00:04:20 put up in my house. That's actually an automation that's happening in the back end. And we are the automation platform behind those. So we are meta-business partners. We work very closely with them. So it's all very compliant in all of that. And essentially, we're just like a social media automation platform helping creators connect with their audience at scale and kind of powering those conversations and DMs. That's awesome. I actually didn't know. much about many chat before we knew we were having this conversation with you. So appreciate the background. And I think, as Cass mentioned, we do have some listeners that are actually already using it. So great to hear a little bit more about it. And I think just in terms of your role, you're very deep in the

Starting point is 00:04:59 world of kind of reactive PR culture, what's needed at scale in that way. What's kind of the first thing you check every morning to understand what's trending and what's on your radar? Like what are some of the resources you're using? Yeah. So a couple of them actually. So I do think right now, a lot of trending news happens in the feed first than it does in other places. So I am chronically online. I like to joke about that quite a bit. So I follow specifically for us, I'm following like the creators that are very aligned with our audience. I'm following like some social news sites. I've revealed this on another podcast I was on recently that I get like my biggest breaking news. This is I'm going to reveal this about myself. My biggest breaking

Starting point is 00:05:45 news comes from a Instagram account that is the Talking Fish from SpongeBob that reveals all the breaking news that happens in the world. It's actually really slightly embarrassing how many major world events I have found out

Starting point is 00:06:01 from the SpongeBob Talking Fish. I do have that as like a resource that I do follow pretty regularly. But outside of that too, I follow a lot of specifically creator economy newsletters for like my news. So if anyone is in PR, or looking to kind of just keep up with trends happening in their industry.

Starting point is 00:06:18 Look at the newsletters. And Substack and Beehive are becoming really, really popular for, like, sources of information. So some of the ones that I am, that I check my inbox anytime that I see those come through is Rachel Carton has her Linkin Bio newsletter. And then we also have, like, I follow Leah Haberman's in case you missed it. That just recaps a lot of, like, trending social news. And so those are some really good ones for just kind of keeping up with what's happening in the creator world.

Starting point is 00:06:47 But those are kind of my ones that I will look at in the mornings the most, just to kind of see what's going on. And if there's any news that we should react to. But definitely social first. And that's kind of the way that I position a lot of our PR is very social first. And it makes a lot of sense for like who our audiences and all of that. I think we're all going to go follow the talking fish from SpongeBob, by the way. That's amazing.

Starting point is 00:07:08 It's hilarious. I've shared this now with a few people. And so many people are like, I didn't even know that existed. And they're like, oh my God, like, I'm only getting my news from this talking fish from now on. Excellent. Yeah. It's in the voice and everything. I think it, let me, I believe it's at the real talking fish.

Starting point is 00:07:27 But there's a few different ones that do the same thing where I've seen it just come up. It's at real talking fish, bikini bottom news. Wow. 1.4 million followers quite literally is. And it's like the big news too. So I think that might actually be a bigger conversation behind why this is like so good right like now is because there's a lot of heavy stuff happening in the world. And I think a lot of millennials and Gen Zs that are getting their news from social like are

Starting point is 00:08:00 kind of maybe feeling overwhelmed. It makes some of those that hard news a little bit easier to take in, I think, coming from the SpongeBobfish. Totally. What is being shared is very, very heavy. topics. But I think it just makes it a little bit easier to digest in the moment. So, but they are also Yeah, other things that I, I just social is where I get most of my trending things that are happening now. That's a really good insight too. I'm curious, how would you describe your instinct as someone in PR? Like, what makes you say yes to a certain story? When I can like visualize

Starting point is 00:08:43 it becoming like a bigger conversation or it making sense coming from like many chat for example if it's something that I think can resonate with our audience and then with the messaging that we're trying to get across I have always rooted into relatability with anything that I do with a PR story not everything that we do is news not so if it's not something that is exciting outside of just our marketing team um then I won't pitch it but if it's something that's like actually actually, this is like a bigger cultural thing. This actually is affecting real people. Like this is something that actually can, someone can read that headline and be like,

Starting point is 00:09:21 wait, like me too or like, wait, I completely get that. Then it's, I'm more likely to say like yes to a story because I like to look at it from the outside in. And because with any company too, with any brand that I've worked on, a lot of times there are things that might be really, really exciting and a really cool thing that we're doing, but the only person that cares is, like, realistically is us. Not everyone's going to care about that product update, unless it's something that's actually going to, like, change the algorithm or change, like, a major way. Not everyone's going to care about that, like, one tagline

Starting point is 00:09:56 that you created. So it's like, what is the bigger story there? Whenever I'm pitching journalists too, I always have in the back of my head, like this question, because I've had this question been asked to me by a journalist before, of like, okay, and? Okay, so what? And so what? And so, So if you can't answer that when you're like thinking about what the story is of like the okay and like the why someone should care, that it's probably not going to get far. Does that feel like an edge for you? Like was there a moment where you felt like you had a real edge in PR and is that part of it, kind of building that instinct?

Starting point is 00:10:29 I think so. I think that definitely has come over time. Like I didn't just like wake up one day and like, I'm like, this is exactly how you do it. It's kind of like you build it up. Honestly, I think working in PR2 is one of the, easiest ways to have like some rejection therapy because you have to get used to being rejected a lot. And so I think over time you kind of just start to build up this muscle on what kind of makes a good story, what kind of clicks. But I also, I think that they're actually within the last year alone, I've had a little bit of a aha moment, a lightball moment, I guess, with having a little bit of an edge on PR with this idea of treating things social first.

Starting point is 00:11:09 There are unfortunately a lot of journalists and publications the newsrooms are dying and it's like really really unfortunate so a lot of people are like me turning to social feeds for getting their news and I actually see too there's a lot of ex-journalists that are turning to substack and creating their own publications and things like that

Starting point is 00:11:30 so what media even means today is really shifting and it's the people who get that and can follow that are going to be the ones who succeed in what this new era of what PR is becoming and the ones that are going to get stuck in the old only send press releases sort of a thing are going to get left behind well speaking of the shift to the way that we're connecting what journalists and finding story opportunities is changing as well i'm curious like do you have any insight into where journalists are hanging out at right now you know where are you making those fresh connections um i know a lot of it's very relationship driven and

Starting point is 00:12:08 say what type of relationships previously do you have with media that you can tap into, but just curious about your insights of like finding those new opportunities as well. LinkedIn is actually blowing up again. There's a resurgence of LinkedIn and they are also like powering a lot of like empowering a lot of creators too. But I'm seeing more media go to LinkedIn. It's becoming what Twitter used to be for journalists. And I think a lot of journalists will do hang out on Twitter X, whatever you want to call it now.

Starting point is 00:12:38 I do still think there's a really good community of them there, but I'm seeing more and more start to move over to LinkedIn to build connections and build relationships on. So that's something that I, like if I'm looking for, especially when it comes to, like we go to a lot of events and conferences and that sort of a thing with as many chat. And so, for example, we're getting ready to head to Cairns. And so I'm already on LinkedIn trying to see like, okay, what media is already talking about like that they're going to be there. and so that way I can make those connections there, start to connect. And it's also a lot easier, too, with LinkedIn to the DM function there. So instead of having to, sometimes, you know, maybe I'm not comfortable giving my phone number out or vice versa. But there's still like a way that I can get that notification pretty instantly.

Starting point is 00:13:22 That's not through an email because emails get lost really, really easily. So that's one. And then I also still use pretty daily quoted and horror, which are the like OG places to look for like stories that journalists are actually looking for insights on. So I don't think that those are going away anytime soon. I know Haro has kind of been researched over the last year or so, and so I'm seeing that one start to get built back out again, but I would say probably those are the places to look for the journalists

Starting point is 00:13:51 that are actually looking for stories still. Awesome. Yeah, thanks for that insight. And I know too, obviously with PR, you know, jumping on opportunities to pitch your brand is an important thing. You know, speed is critical. So I'm curious from your perspective, like how do you move fast without sacrificing quality of story, but also brand alignment too? It kind of goes back to what I was just saying too on like if I can answer that so what question or that okay and question pretty quickly, then it's probably going to be a lot easier to jump on something.

Starting point is 00:14:24 The other thing here is when it's like reactive PR time is really of the essence on it. And so it's a little bit different, I think working brand site now than when I was working agency. agency side, it was one of those things that if you didn't get sign off in like less than 24 hours, it probably wasn't worth even doing anymore. So brand side, you are able to move a little bit more quickly here. I would say this is actually kind of a harder question to answer without like, because it could be different based on what the story is. I need to go a quote out to a journalist, that sort of a thing. And we're going that approach to thought leadership. I probably would skip the, if it's like a reactive comment, it has to be done with like by the end of the day. I'm going to just go

Starting point is 00:15:04 straight to whoever that stakeholder is that is doing that quote, get it directly from them and just kind of move it along that way versus trying to get too many cooks in the kitchen because then that's when the messaging starts to get diluted and it becomes less of a story and more of a brand play. And there's a very fine line with PR specifically. And I think that that's where also a lot of marketing departments kind of cross the lines there a little bit of some things need to be done in a specific way because of that's how stories are written. That's how PR is written and if you start to brand it too much, it starts to read too much like an ad, and then it's going to get cut. So there's like some of those things that you just have to kind of keep in

Starting point is 00:15:39 mind. And so I think working directly with stakeholders and building up those relationships that you have internally so that you have that kind of connection that you can just go and do that pretty quickly and kind of guide it that way and kind of skip some of the other maybe touch points when needed. I'm not doing this for every single thing. If anyone from my company is watching, I'm not like just jumping hoops. But if it's like a reactive, thing. I definitely think like moving quickly and understanding that there's a difference between what's a PR moment and what's a brand moment. Yeah, for sure. And then, you know, going back to kind of our conversation about just overall modern PR and the way we're navigating the industry,

Starting point is 00:16:18 what role for you do creators and social platforms play in modern PR strategies? I know we talked about this a little bit already, but curious to hear what else you'd say. I really think that this is what the future of PR is becoming. And I think PR needs to be really, really closely aligned with any influencer marketing teams or social media teams that if you're brand side or if your agency side, getting to know those teams and the ways of working with the brands that you are working with, there's a lot of potential to have things blow up on social that become PR moments. I think a good example of this that I'm sure everyone looks to their,

Starting point is 00:17:00 marketing still a lot is dualingo. We all know that what they do is good. They could kill a little bird with a cyber truck and it became like 100 plus headlines. So I think thinking in this way like when it makes sense too, it's like an opportunity for modern PR. But with creators too, like I actually think there's a shift happening where it's less about executive spokespeople and more about the creators who actually use your brand. This doesn't just for software. This is for any brand, any product, that there is this level of authenticity that I think media is looking for a little bit more and executive quotes can sometimes come off too polished, whereas getting the real story from somebody like a creator who's actually using the product and using the, or using

Starting point is 00:17:48 the tool every single day, can speak to it in a different way. It's a different sort of authenticity. And so I think that there's also this like craving for that. And so working with your creators to even just have some that like want to help out with press ops and be able to like have those commentary. We've done this at ManyChat. We had some creators that we worked with for our Instagram summit by ManyChat that we did last year who we had an opportunity to come up that we that media wanted to talk to some of the creators that were part of that and I didn't I gave them like the contact information to set it up and let them just kind of speak about what about ManyChat. and it ended up being some of the best pieces of coverage that we've had because we gave

Starting point is 00:18:32 those opportunities to creators that are also trying to build their brands. So it not only like speaks to helping us, but it's like helping them to. And that's like something that's really important for, especially as many chat, we are creator-centric. Like we are a creator product. And so as much as we can involve creators in our press ops and things like that, that's like definitely the forefront of my strategy as well. So I work really closely with those teams. And I encourage anyone that is in those teams or in PR to start getting connected more because there's a lot of power there. I do also love the sense of how mutually beneficial it is in working with creators for both you and for them, right? It's one of the best kind of brand partnerships you can have is when both

Starting point is 00:19:15 are getting like something mutual out of it that you both really believe in. And so that's, that's a really, really great example, I think. In terms of your early career, I want to pivot back to that a little bit because I know we have a lot of listeners that are excited about the PR industry, but not really sure how to break in. What did your career teach you early on about what actually works in PR versus maybe what some other brands think work? I think this actually goes back to what I was saying, how I don't know if you kind of got the sense that I'm not a big press release person. And so I feel like this is what is I've I've mentored with college students. I've helped like early career and I'm seeing that this is still what's very much taught in these courses.

Starting point is 00:19:58 It's like how to write a press release. It's important. Don't get me wrong. But at least right now and from what I've even talked with people, it's not the end all be all of PR anymore. You need to have more strategy to it. And I think that I am very thankful that like my early career was more in like a digital PR SEO sort of a role to kind of help me have this other side of PR experience that has kind of shown me that you can still. get really amazing coverage and never have written a press release. And especially now in this era of AI search too, I think that you don't need to put all your eggs in that basket and there's a lot more strategy and unique and creative ways that you can

Starting point is 00:20:39 still get really amazing coverage that actually gets seen because the things that they, I think, are still a lot of more traditional PR that's still really nailing in is like knowing how to write these press releases, very corporate toned news. People just want human content now. And so if you can be relatable and if you can prove that you're a human, I can't believe I have to say that now, like prove that you're not a robot talking, you're going to get pretty far, I think. And so that's like something that I would give some advice to anyone that is kind of early career looking into PR is think of the things outside of the box. that actually make you stand out and make you not just another person sending an AI written press release,

Starting point is 00:21:29 AI written pitch because it's being like it's so seen now. And every journalist I've talked to, like they can tell and they're just going to trash it because they don't want it. No, it's so true. Yeah. If you can stand out, that's what's going to get you far. It's so true. You can really tell when it's been written not by a human. And I think Cassie and I talk about this outside of the podcast, but also just in general,

Starting point is 00:21:53 when we have guests on is that the human to human connection is more valuable than ever. And especially, especially from a brand safety and press standpoint, I feel like it's top of mind. And you'll get, I mean, you'll get called out immediately if your press releases written in AI, right? Like you can tell. And so I think that's a really, really good flag for, you know, for other listeners and also people that are working at, you know, other brands in PR too. Yeah, I feel like so many people are trying to like shove AI down like, like use it for everything, use it for writing, use it for, yes, AI is fine. Like there's like definitely really, really great use cases for it. I'm so a firm like believer when it comes to writing, especially in a role like PR, in a role like marketing that the writing needs to stay human because you can just, you can just tell. Oh, totally, totally. And it's one of our biggest assets, right, is like having. that sort of way with words, quote unquote, like from a marketing standpoint. And it can only,

Starting point is 00:22:52 it can only help elevate what it is that you're putting out there is by using your sort of creative writing skills and, you know, thought leadership skills and things like that. So completely agree. In terms of, in terms of your career in general, what's a sort of either a small habit or mindset or something that's really had a big impact for you on, you know, on the length of your career? Yeah. I think a mindset here that, um, is a very common phrase, actually, that I know a lot of people in PR say, but if you really kind of like put yourself in this mindset and believe it, you're going to be able to get further.

Starting point is 00:23:25 It's PR, not ER. I'm sure anyone who's worked at PR has heard this phrase. But if you really, really think about this mindset and just like let yourself have a little bit of slack, you're going to get further because you're not going to get burnt out as easily. They're in the grand scheme of things, that press release not or that email not getting sent by 2 p.m. on a Tuesday and it's going to get sent out 8 a.m. on Wednesday and that is not going to really make or break too too much. No one's on a no one's really on a deathbed. And so like it's okay to kind of give yourself some slack sometimes. Because if you are in this

Starting point is 00:24:04 like insane like mindset 100% of the time and like PR is very daunting. Like I know this but like if you do that 100% of your time, you're going to burn yourself out and you're not going to be able to to give that 100% and really come up with those creative ideas as well. So I would say treating it as it's a very important thing, but also like your mental health is also, especially in a role like PR that is one of, it's a very high stress job, but make sure you give yourself some time with your mental health because you're going to get a lot further if you do. Yeah, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:24:43 And kind of tying into our last question here on careers, just is there a skill or a tool or something that you can share that you feel has accelerated the growth of your career the fastest? Yeah, I think this probably has actually changed now that there we are in this era of AI, but like especially when I was early career, I did a lot of like the HubSpot Marketing Academy courses and those were really good to kind of just like even get an idea of a frame, what the framework was from some of this. And then also LinkedIn, actually the LinkedIn courses are pretty good.

Starting point is 00:25:21 At least they, it's been a couple years since I've taken some, but especially if you're just wanting to like see what content marketing or like SEO basics and things are, it can give you a pretty good idea. So I think that those are really good resources to start with. But then I know also now with the like rise of Claude and even the rise of creators, like that's been a more recent thing. There's so many resources out there, I think, to follow the people that are actually building some of these things. Like, so many marketing professionals are sharing all of their marketing journey on social now. And so you can, like, follow along and kind of learn so much from people, too. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for sharing that.

Starting point is 00:26:05 I think it's important as marketers. You know, we learn a lot in our actual day-to-day. But having resources like HubSpot, like LinkedIn, like even the meta-courses, to go. tap into and just expand our knowledge is always really important. So thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Maddie, this has been awesome. We'll definitely, you know, have you back and touch base. Just curious what you continue to learn in your career. But, you know, before we close out, we'd love to know where can everyone fall along with you personally, but also with many chat as well. Yeah, so you can find me on LinkedIn, just my name. And then I also am new in

Starting point is 00:26:45 my own content creation journey as well. So you can find me on Instagram at the PR girly. And for ManyChat, you can find us on all socials as at ManyChat or ManyChat.com. Awesome. Thanks so much, Maddie, for sharing with us today. I really appreciate you joining us. Yeah, thanks so much. This was fun. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Marketing Happy Hour. If you enjoyed it, make sure you're subscribed to the show and sign up for a weekly newsletter with insights and marketing resources. We also invite you to check out the MHHH collective, our community for marketers looking to connect, grow, and learn together. Check out the links in the show notes. We'll see you next time.

Marketing Happy Hour - The Press Release Is Dead — Here's What's Actually Working in PR Right Now | Mady Lanni of Manychat

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