Real Public Relations

Occupy This!

2011-10-25T07:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends.

It's been a while since we here at RPR Central have had time to enlighten you with more words of PR wisdom. Mostly it's been because we've been working on other blogs and social media efforts for clients, so that's a good thing.

Just here with a million of my closest friends...hope someone notices.

But never fear, we've been stocking up on some great posts for you to enjoy in the next few weeks. This post was going to be a brilliant analysis of the "Occupy" movement and how it's captured the attention of the world...or at least the world media. But, about a third of the way through, it became clear the analysis could be told in one single phrase. "Size Matters!"

If the occupiers consisted of a hundred angry folks holding signs and camping out in public parks and Wall Street, there's very little chance you would have heard much about this movement. But the fact is, there are thousands upon thousands of them clogging streets, holding up signs and making themselves known to anyone within shouting distance.

Yes, there's a little more to it than just size. There's the organized media content, the massive online and social media push and some smart logistical planning (such as taking it to Wall Street). But frankly, it's the sheer number of people involved that has turned the movement into such a big story.

The Inside Track:

I'm guessing here, but I'm pretty positive that a movement as large as this doesn't just happen on its own. Yes, it's possible to organize a few hundred people to suddenly show up as part of a flash mob to protest something or make a point. But this is much more organized that that. There are some very smart and organized folks behind the scenes that put all of this together. More than that, these folks knew exactly the right media buttons to push to get massive amounts of news coverage.

It's that kind of inside knowledge that helps businesses garner earned media coverage, regardless of the size. In the past we've covered the importance of building relationships with the media to help you pitch your stories. As mentioned, just because you have built a relationship with a reporter, producer or editor it doesn't mean they'll automatically cover your story. You still have to put together a great pitch, make it timely, impactfull and local.

But even if your media contacts don't always cover your story, you can still use those contacts to help you garner coverage for your business. This is because these contacts are the ones in the middle of everything going on in your local newsrooms. They know the scuttlebutt, the trends, they see the changes and they have a pretty good idea of how local events are effecting the other newsrooms.

Some of this information may come in the form of gossip. There are a number of websites out there dedicated specifically to the changes and trends taking place in newsrooms. These sites tell you who's leaving, who's coming, what broadcasting changes are on the way, or what kind of content certain newsrooms are looking for.

Sites like MediaBistro, assignmenteditor.com, SourceBottle.com and Broadcast.com are all very helpful in helping you keep on top of what to pitch, when to pitch, how to pitch and even who to pitch your stories to.

An Example:

I have to mention before I move on to the example that the individual in question is a good friend of mine. We worked together at a local newsroom and we chat often about how much the news industry has changed in the 8 or so years since I left local news. There's a level of trust there that you can't expect from your local news contacts, but that doesn't mean you still can't glean important information from them.

I have a client. A local theater that has just opened its doors. It's brand new and in serious need of some PR attention. Some buzz has been created, but as always, more is desired. Pitching the arts and theater is significantly different than pitching other news stories. First off, it's one of the few remaining beat jobs still in existence in local newsrooms. Just about every outlet has at least one individual dedicated to covering local theater, arts and entertainment.

But in the end, you're still pitching a business. As it happens, the newsroom where my friend works, has a very well known and popular entertainment reporter. He's been on the air in Denver for over 20 years and a single positive review by him can elevate a show from the doldrums to wild success.

In the many years I've been pitching a show, event or theater, I've never received coverage from this reporter. You'd think that would make me angry, frustrated or simply make me throw up my hands and quit. But you have to remember, it's never personal. I continue to pitch him because it's worth it.

Recently my friend and I were chatting at a party, discussing life and work and family. At one point, as it often does, the conversation turned to the changes taking place in local newsrooms. More than the mechanics of the rundown or new technology, we focused on overall content of his station newscasts.

It was during this conversation that he mentioned that even the entertainment reporter was subject to the content policies. In other words, even the entertainment stories had to have an element of economy to them. Every story had to provide some sort of economic value to the viewer. In other words, instead of just reporting on new shows or upcoming events, the stories had to report on deals and specials that would provide real entertainment value to the viewers.

Suddenly, I realized how I needed to pitch my story. It wouldn't be about a grand opening, or about new and unique shows. My pitch had to focus on the extraordinarily cheap tickets, package deals and affordable drink specials. A new venue, to be sure, but one that provided extra bang for your entertainment buck.

Had I not known this valuable piece of information, I likely would have pitched my story in very much the same way I had previous stories. And it would have been ignored. Now, I have some insight into HOW to pitch this particular reporter I didn't have and I believe it will help me get coverage for my client.

We'll see. The point is, I know how to pitch most of the other entertainment reporters, now I know how to pitch this particular reporter, one I've never had success with before.

As a small business owner, you can't simply put together a single pitch and send it out to everyone in a mass email. You have to cater your pitch, craft it specifically for individual journalists. One reporter will be looking for one kind of element in the pitch, while another will be looking for something completely different.

If you don't have someone on the inside to give these kinds of details, you can still get this information by simply asking. You may not get an answer, but it never hurts to ask a reporter what exactly they are looking for in the kind of news stories they cover.

It also helps to read the articles, watch the reports and listen to the broadcasts of the reporters you are most likely to pitch. In this way, you'll have a better understanding of what kind of stories they are looking for.

It takes time, and effort, but by creating unique pitches to each reporter you send your story to, you'll vastly improve your chances of receiving coverage.

Know The Code!

2011-08-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Maybe you've seen them out there. Funky looking squares that look more like those "Magic Eye" pictures than any kind of real marketing materials. They're called "QR" codes and believe it or not they represent the latest in guerrilla marketing strategy.

You might already be using them, and if so, that's fantastic. But chances are, you have no idea how these things work and more importantly, how to use them. Even if you ARE using QR codes, you may not be using them correctly. So let's take a moment to learn about what they are and how to use them to drive traffic to your websites and customers through your doors.

QR What?

Basically, the QR code is a pre-programmed visual representation of information. Think of it as a kind of barcode. You can't really see the information that's programmed into that barcode, but you know it's there, right? Well, a QR code is essentially the same thing. The biggest difference is that the information encoded into a barcode generally deals with pricing, or personal information such as height, weight, eye-color, etc. The barcode on your driver's license contains a wealth of information that can be used by police, fire, emergency crews and so on.

But chances are, you're not looking to provide that kind of information to your customers or online viewers. So what kind of information DO you want to give out to your friends, fans, followers and customers? You want to tell them about your daily specials, your upcoming deals, your website address, your social media information, everything that will help improve your business.

Chances are, though, that you don't have the time, or skill needed to program a barcode that includes all of that information. Most of us don't. Fortunately you don't have to be a computer programmer or take hours to develop a QR code that contains that information.

How To Get It:

The best and easiest way to generate a QR code for your business is to find a website that does it quickly and for free. There are a number of sites out there that do this. Simply type QR Code Generator in your google search and viola! For most sites, once you get on, you only need to type in the URL for the site you want encoded and the site will generate your code square.

Once the square is generated, you can download the code to your desktop. From there, it's all up to you. You can post it on your social media sites, print out a poster, insert it into your blog, whatever you want to do. This is where the fun begins.

How It Works:

Like a barcode, the QR code needs to be scanned in order to work. I'm guessing most of you don't carry around barcode readers when you go shopping, but many of us DO have smartphones. So many of us, in fact, that barcode readers for your iPhone or Droid are as common as wallets and belt buckles, everyone has them.

For most of us, we use these barcode scanners to retrieve nutritional information while we're shopping. We can scan the back of a potato chip bag, or can of green beans and find out how many calories per serving, how much sodium, etc. QR Codes have different kinds of information programmed in. While you're using the QR code to provide information, it's more of a delivery system than a repository for information itself. Instead of having tons of information encoded in, the QR square is primarily used to take the user to a specific location where they can find all the information you want them to see.

All you have to do is download a QR code reader onto your smartphone and you're ready to go. It's very simple to use. Just open the app, your camera will turn on and then you simply have to point the camera at the nearest QR code square you see. Within seconds, you'll be transported to a website that is hopefully interesting and useful.

How To Use It:

Unlike bar-codes, the QR code really only contains one piece of information. Generally, this is a web-page. But it can also be the link to your Facebook page, your Twitter page, your blog, whatever you want it to be. Some companies, such as Coca-Cola have designed special web pages specifically for their QR codes. When you scan the code, you will be taken to a website that has information, specials, daily deals, whatever they want you to see.

When I put together QR Codes for my clients, I make different codes for all of the different social media sites, website, and, if necessary, a special code for a special deals page. This could mean four, five, six different codes, which is fine, since you may want to drive folks to specific pages for different reasons.

There are two important factors to keep in mind when using your brand new QR code:

1. Enticement
2. Payoff

In other words, your code presentation has to be interesting enough to grab the viewer's attention and get them to pull out their smartphone, open the app and scan your code. But perhaps more importantly, you also need to make the effort worth it. There are few things more frustrating than scanning a QR code only to be taken to a page that offers nothing of value.

This doesn't mean you have to offer the world, but consider this: Platforms like Foursquare and the Facebook Check-in have been built on, and successful because of a reward system. You check in on Foursquare and more often than not, you'll receive a free drink, a free appetizer, a discount on a meal. It makes the effort to check in worth it.

Yes, it's nice to provide pure information to people, but what they really want is to be rewarded for patronizing your website or your business.

Years ago in Denver there was a band that called itself, "Free Beer". An interesting name to be sure, but the bar that employed them as a house band would advertise the band by putting out fliers that said, "Free Beer Tonight at The Whiskey Bar!" People would see that and they'd flock to the bar expecting free beer. Well, they got free beer, but they were pretty disappointed when they found out it was a band and NOT free alcohol.

But, the bar DID make it okay by providing one free beer for everyone who came to see the band. If you put together a QR code poster that said, "Scan me for Free Beer!" chances are you'd get a TON of hits to your website. If, once they get to your website, they are told about the band, and that they can get a free beer if they come to see the band, chances are you'll generate some excitement. You might even draw a bigger crowd because of your efforts.

The point is, the presentation of your code garnered enough interest to get folks to scan it. This alone gets the word out about your event or special. Then, you actually offer a decent payoff for people to consider walking through your doors as a customer. This is marketing 101.

Do's and Don'ts:

So here are a few tips to make sure you're using your QR code as effectively as possible:

1. Test your code - The minute your code is generated, scan it with your smartphone to make sure it takes you to the page it's supposed to. If it doesn't work, there's no point in using it.

2. Don't get too fancy - When you present your code, whether it's on social media platforms or as part of a poster, don't bury it in a ton of other media. In other words, you want folks to see the code and immediately know that it should be scanned. If it's buried inside pictures, graphics or other design elements, it can be confusing, and the last thing you want to do is confuse your customers, or potential customers.

3. Find a Signal - If you use your QR code as part of a poster or flier, make sure you hang that flier or poster in a location with a strong signal. I like to post my QR code fliers around downtown Denver and in an area we call LoDo. But there are pockets in town where the signal is pretty weak. One bar kind of weak. Plus, the WiFi that is available nearby is locked. There's no point of hanging the poster or flier in a place where people can't actually scan the code and be taken to the page. Test your code wherever you hang it.

4. Be Mobile - Make sure that whatever page your code directs the customer to works in a mobile format. Some websites aren't very smartphone friendly. They either use flash (which is bad for iPhone users) or they don't really fit into the smaller smartphone format and is a terror to negotiate on the phone.

5. Be Interesting - Make sure that the text or title around the code is interesting enough, intriguing enough to actually get people to scan the code. You want just enough information that entices them, but not too much that makes the scan irrelevant.

6. Make it Worth It - Add value to your code by offering a reward to those who take the time to actually scan your QR square. This could be in the form of "secret" information, a free drink, a discount on a purchase, whatever it is, reward the user for taking the time to scan your code. Trust me, they'll come back and scan again and, even better, they'll tell their friends to scan your codes as well.

Chances are, the QR code will, at some point, go the way of the fax machine, but then again, maybe not. That's the problem with new technology. We're not exactly sure what will stick and what won't. If you had asked me ten years ago if MySpace would make it, I'd have said yes, absolutely.

But then Facebook came along and made MySpace a non-factor. Does that mean that the time spent on MySpace was wasted. Absolutely not. Bands and other entities were able to use MySpace to build a fanbase, and when Facebook came out, they simply transferred that over. QR Codes may be replaced in a year or two by something else, true. Until then, why not use it to help grow your business and get the word out to the masses?

The QR Code is simply another weapon in your arsenal that can be used to help you. It is easy to generate, easy to use and easy to understand. They're already being used significantly by businesses of all sizes and stripes. And, at least for now, they seem to be growing in popularity.

So get yourself coded and get out there, it's cool, it's fun, and hey, everybody's doing it!

Judging The Cover

2011-07-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes what you see is exactly what you get. And sometimes, what you see is simply what you want. This point was hammered home to me last week as I was wandering local businesses attempting to drum up donations for a fundraiser I'm putting together for a local non-profit foundation I'm working with.

I walked into a small, cozy little liquor store in a tucked away section of lower downtown Denver. It's a nice shop, a family-run shop, the kind of shop you enter and instantly feel at home in. As I struck up a conversation with the owner behind the counter, we started discussing various alcohols and drinks and, since I'm a fan of the "brown" liquors, the conversation drifted towards whiskeys and rums.

You might not have a logo this recognizable, but your logo CAN help you drum up biz

Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with alcohol an rattle off the names of the more familiar whiskeys and rums found on nearly every shelf of every liquor store in the country. But I was surprised when the merchant started talking about a new rum that had hit the market. Apparently he was having a hard time keeping it in stock.

I won't name the rum, but I will say that it's relatively new, it has enjoyed a strong national advertising campaign and has a pretty cool label. When I asked the owner how the rum actually tasted, he said, "Surprisingly, really good."

But it's what he said right afterwards that is actually the point of this post. He leaned over as if to tell me a secret and said, "You know, most folks come in and buy it because of the label design, and then they buy it because they like the taste."

It's a pretty basic tenant that a cool logo, or a classy visual representation of your organization will help lead to success. Sometimes, logos become icons themselves, just look at Apple, or McDonalds or Jaguar. You can instantly see their logo. They are clean, they are classic, and more importantly, they are instantly recognizable.

This is why so many companies devote so much time and effort into designing their logos. They logo is often the first thing a potential customer sees, and it's what they'll remember. Your logo is the vanguard of your organization, so it has to be simple, clean and attractive.

Represent!

But more than that, your logo needs to say something. When people look at your logo, you want them to associate it with quality, or with fun, or with whatever you want your image to be. That means your logo has to actually say something about who you are, what you do and what you stand for.

Take a look at some of the more successful small businesses around you. Some may simply have their name attached and use that as their logo. Others may have a more complex logo. Some will have a simple, clean and easily recognizable and memorable logo. Chances are, the ones with the great logo will be the more successful organizations.

That doesn't mean having a great logo will ensure great success. Far from it. Because you have to remember the second half of what the kindly liquor store owner said to me. They buy it for the label, they buy it again because they like the taste.

You see, a great logo can only attract people initially. It's the substance behind the logo that will keep your customers coming back and help grow your business. If you have a fantastic "look" but your service or product is poor, you'll go under. The best of logos can't help a business that provides poor quality service or products.

But having a great look CAN help establish you as a force to be reckoned with and help your business attract customers, especially in the early days after the doors have just opened.

Customers, no matter how established they may be with an existing product or service, will always be curious about something new. Is it better than what they have? Is it more affordable? More convenient? Customers will come to you out of that curiosity, and it's your logo and look that will initially catch their eye.

And remember, your look extends far beyond just the sign hanging outside your door or on the sign on the corner. Your look has to be part of everything you do. This means your press releases, your pamphlets, your in-house collateral and anything you hand out or give away in your surrounding neighborhood. It has to extend to your advertising and even your uniforms (if you wear them).

And don't think that social media isn't important when it comes to distributing your look to potential customers. Brand your Twitter page with your logo, make your Facebook photo your logo. The same holds true for your blogs, your website (of course) and even your Foursquare and LinkedIn accounts.

You want your logo to be seen by as many people as possible, and that means making sure it's on every piece of paper the public comes in contact with from your business and on every associated page they might see online.

If you're putting together a logo for a business you're putting together now, or thinking about redesigning your logo, keep these tips in mind:

1. Keep it clean - We're not talking being obscene or not being obscene. We're talking about the KISS system; "Keep It Simple Stupid". This theory actually works in just about every aspect of social media, PR and marketing. But for your logo, simple is king. You want it to be a symbol that folks will easily recognize and remember. You don't want hieroglyphics that folks have to decode.

2. Let it Represent You - If you run an auto body shop, you certainly wouldn't use a sandwich as a logo, would you? You want folks to have a pretty good idea of your business just by looking at your logo.

3. Use The Right Colors - Look it up...colors have impact. This is why restaurant use the colors red and yellow in their logos. Red and yellow makes people hungry. Blues and purples make people feel confident. Green makes people feel calm. There are a number of resources online that you can refer to in order to get the right color combination for your organization.

4. Don't Get Wordy - You want your logo or look to be symbolic of your organization. It's hard to be symbolic with a lot of words getting in the way. One, two words tops. You don't need to put your slogan or message in your logo. There is enough time to do that in the rest of your collateral. Let your logo stand alone. Put your name in, no problem there, but otherwise, the fewer words the better.

Again, your logo is just the first interaction with your customers or potential customers. In the end, you have to have a quality organization in order to survive and grow. And one last item...as you're putting together your logo, make sure you get a design that is a high quality resolution and comes with various color backgrounds and one with no background so they can be used in videos, TV and other forms of printing and collateral.

So get out there and wave your logo loud and proud! Just like everything else, it's a tool to attract customers, and the better you use that tool, the more successful your company will be.

No Tiger? No Problem!

2011-06-16T23:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll admit it, I like golf. I like to play it and (gasp) I like to watch it. Let's be honest here, I fit the mold. I'm over 40, white, male and firmly middle class with aspirations to go higher. If there's a cookie cutter for wannabe golfers, I was cut from it.

Really good golfer...not exactly Mr. Personality, though.

Of course, like millions of Americans, I fell in love with the game of Tiger Woods from his very first Major Championship in the late 90's. Like most, I have followed his career with an almost stalker-ish interest. But in the past two years, Tiger has been conspicuously absent. He hasn't won a Major in that stretch, and while he's made a couple of runs here and there, he just hasn't been the same since that fateful run-in with a hydrant in December 2009.

And now, Tiger has taken his clubs and gone home for this year's US Open Championship at Congressional. This may be great news to the rest of the field, it's a nightmare for the TV networks who know that viewership goes down when Tiger doesn't play. It also presents a dilemma for pro golf in general.

Sure, they'd love to have a healthy Tiger playing. He brings ratings, he brings excitement, he simply raises the stakes. But pro golf also has an entirely new generation of young and talented golfers waiting in the wings to step up and take over the empty reigns left behind by Mr. Woods.

The problem is, no one knows who they are. Die-hard golf fans know Ben Crane, Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and the others. But the casual American has no idea who these young guns are. So, to counter this lack of name recognition, some young golfers and US Golf decided to reach out and touch someone, social media-style.

Take a look at this video that hit YouTube and the airwaves this week:

What's The Point?

Hey, it's a great video, and it's worth watching over and over. It's clever, it's creative, it's hip, it's in your face without being over the top. But really, what's the point?

This is a question you have to ask yourself every time you do something online, whether it's a Facebook post, a Tweet, a blog post or a video. What are you trying to achieve with your actions? Will your particular post or video help you reach your goal? Or are you simply throwing stuff up online to fill space and keep your name out in front of your friends, followers, fans, customer and potential customers?

In the case of the aforementioned video, one has to ask, "What was US Golf trying accomplish?" Because I don't work for US Golf, I can only speculate. My first thought is that the powers that be wanted to generate some interest and excitement and draw an audience to this week's US Open.

If that was, indeed the purpose of the video, then sadly, it most likely failed. It's not that the video isn't eye-catching, or clever or fun to watch. But the video itself isn't likely to bring any more viewers to the tv screens than would have previously been watching. It's not like someone will see the video and say, "Hey, these guys are cool, I HAVE to tune in to the US Open to check them out!"

In that respect, US Golf missed the target, and badly. But in the process, they may have hit a home run on another front. Perhaps unwittingly, (or maybe they are just crazy like a fox) they managed to bring some personality back into golf. Golfers can sometimes be a stoic bunch. Yes, they will wear colorful clothes, and every now and then a few pop up with some compelling stories. But outside of Tiger, let's face it, the personalities are generally lacking, particularly on the American side of the slate.

But now, with this video, the American public gets a chance to see some of the next generation of US golfers goofing around, having fun, being, well...interesting. There is no overt or clear-cut message in this video, other than, "Hey, we are pro golfers and we like to have fun!"

But that's okay. Most of the truly successful videos have messages that aren't immediately obvious to the viewer. In this case, the golfers in the video produced something that is enjoyable and entertaining to watch. This alone will grab people's attention and generate views. And ultimately, that's the goal.

A Delicate Balance:

That's what makes videos-as-a-marketing-tool so difficult. Too often small businesses try to hit their audience over the head with their message at the expense of watchability. We already know that humor is subjective, so that can be another pitfall, but more often than not, if you shoot for humorous and entertaining, you'll hit your mark more than you'll miss it.

But even the most entertaining of videos have a message in it if it's produced by a small business or non-profit. The message may be, "Get down here and spend your money," but it's still a message. The trick is knowing how to present that message and producing a video that meets your goals.

In the case of the US Golf video, they may have been off target in their goal of increasing viewership for this particular major, but they DID hit the target of making these golfers interesting and more personable. In the absence of Tiger, they injected some fun into an event lacking some star-power.

In the case of one of my clients, a veterinary clinic in Denver, they had some very simple and reachable goals. First, tell people that they exist. Second, talk about the quality of care they provide. Third, let people know they are one of the most affordable clinics in town.

It would be easy to shoot a video of the front of the clinic, give an address and tell people, "Hey we're here, we're good, we're affordable." But that doesn't seem like a very interesting video, does it?

Instead, they produced a series of videos. One showing a veterinarian caring for a cute little chihuahua, acting like the dog whisperer, talking to the dog directly and listening as the dog talks back. It's funny, it's clever and it has a tagline at the end, "Our doctors are THAT good!"

The next video shows a man in the waiting room, preparing to pick up his pet. Within seconds, the front desk girl comes out, hands the pet to the owner as the owner lugs out a huge bag of money to pay for the treatment. Instead, the girl takes a single bill from his hand and tells him to have a good day. The tagline is "It's really THAT affordable!"

Notice that there is some consistency with the presentation of the message, that there is a bit of humor in both, they're both short (a minute or less) and they use the right words. Affordable denotes quality whereas cheap is...well...cheap. You can check out both videos at www.downtownanimalcarecenter.com.

The messages get across that they provide quality care at a price people can afford by blending a short and interesting video with a strong tagline. At the end, they include a call to action for people to check out the website and make an appointment.

And Now The Tips:

Small businesses and non-profits can reap huge benefits from the use of video, but in order to do so, they have to keep these tips in mind:

1. Keep the videos short - Anything more than a minute isn't likely to generate a ton of views. :30 to :45 seconds is ideal. You can go a minute, but you have to get right into the interesting part of the video to hold people's attention. The only exception to this rule is music videos. Even then, try to keep it to less than two minutes. Anything more and you'll probably lose viewers midway through and they won't share the video with friends, which is what you want.

2. Know your message - The beauty of video is that you can produce a series of short videos, each with a different message. They can all work together or separately, but know what you want to say before you shoot the first minute of video, otherwise, you have no focus. If you have no focus, viewers won't know what you're trying to say.

3. Establish your goals - Know what you want to achieve with your video. If you want to raise awareness, that's a different type of video than driving business or donations. Make sure your video hits your target and is keyed to help you meet your goals. Again focus here helps.

4. Think entertaining - Make it funny, dramatic, avant garde, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it's fun and interesting to watch. That will bring eyes to your video and therefore get your message out to more people. Plus, the more entertaining the video, the more it will be shared. Think clever and interesting rather than simply overstating your message.

5. Keep it simple - Like everything else you do with your marketing, the simpler the better. You don't want to overwhelm people with too much at one time. Try to keep your videos to a single message. The more you try to cram into your video, the longer it will be and the more confusing it will be for viewers. Confusing is bad.

Remember, we are a visual society now. The more you can use video in your social media, marketing and promotional efforts, the more successful you'll be. Just try to keep in mind those simple tips and you'll find your pages filling up with fans, friends and followers. And if you do it right, you'll also start to see more smiling faces walking through your doors. And that's always a good thing.

Hide The Weiner

2011-06-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

Once again, dear friends, it falls upon the big, beefy shoulders of the Real Public Relations staff to talk a little current events and provide a little analysis and "lessons-learned" moments from the latest social media celebrity scandal.

As you'll recall, not long ago, an employee at Chrysler lost their job after dropping F-bombs on Twitter about the apparent lack of driving expertise by the lovely folks in Detroit. The individual in question said they made a mistake, that they had intended to make the "offensive Tweet"on their personal account, NOT the actual Chrysler Twitter feed.

Regardless, the unfortunate twit...errr...tweeter, was unceremoniously fired and a Detroit PR agency had lost one of their biggest accounts after the dust had settled. At the time, this space discussed Twitter etiquette and went over some of the Do's and Dont's of the Twitterverse.

Fast forward a few months and lo and behold, another poor soul has found himself in hot water due to a rather "racy" if not x-rated set of Twitter postings. This time, though, it's not some faceless drone working with Chrysler. No, my friends, it's a politician, Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner from New York, to be exact.

"Now I'll just send that as a direct message...D'OH!"

By now, you've probably heard the news. Congressman meets lovely young lady on Facebook, Congressman flirts with lovely young lady, Congressman sends pictures of his underwear-clad junk and bare chest to lovely young lady. Just like Disney would have written it.

Only there was a problem with all of this. First...said Congressman is recently married. Second...Said Congressman's new wife had no idea he was sending photos to the lovely young lady. Third...Congressman lied about the photos when they magically appeared on a government watchdog site.

We are not here to pile on Congressman Weiner or to judge his actions. There are enough people doing that already. We ARE here, though to point out to small business owners and non-profits just how powerful, effective and yes, sometimes dangerous, Twitter and the online universe can be.

First, here is an excerpt from a USA Today article:

NY Congressman Admits to Lying About Lewd Photograph
Congressman Weiner said he had meant to send the photo as a direct message to the female college student and “panicked” when he realized he had instead sent it out to all of his Twitter followers. He did a whole day of television interviews last week in which he repeatedly denied that he had sent the photo, saying it was likely a prank and that his Twitter account had likely been hacked.

Let's take a look at this a little closer. According to Congressman Weiner, he intended to send the photos as a direct message. Instead, he sent the photos as an @reply, which are visible to all followers of his account. Thus, instead of a single recipient getting the photos, EVERYONE got to see the kind of heat the Congressman packs in and out of the house.

Listen, we all know that dealing with new technology can be confusing. There are a lot of buttons and gizmo's and blinking dealio's on your Twitter pages, your Facebook pages, your Foursquare and blogs. It's easy to make a mistake, it's human. You're going to make them. But here's the deal, when you make a mistake about a special your running, or when you're hosting an event, those are easily fixed and they likely won't ruin your company. When you make a mistake about who to send your R-rated photos to, well, NOW you have some problems.

Know The Tweet!

It's been said here a million times, and it bears repeating again. Only post those items which you want the world to see! This means don't be tempted to post gossip about a co-worker, or your boss, or the company dress policy, or the fact that you're sleeping through meetings, or that sometimes you like to drive 130 through school zones unless you're perfectly okay with the entire world knowing about it. This includes posting any lewd photos.

Furthermore, it doesn't matter if it's Twitter, or Facebook or a blog or anywhere online. If it's up there, it has the chance to be seen by those you don't want to see it. It doesn't matter if it's private. It doesn't matter if you don't think you're big enough for folks to care. Because the fact of the matter is, SOMEONE WILL care. This is particularly true if you post on your official company or organizational platforms. But it also matters even if it's just your personal pages as well.

Congressman Weiner used his personal Blackberry and laptop computer to send the Tweets, did it on his own account, and apparently did all the photo-taking and posting on his own time. Other than being a bit of a louse behind his wife's back, he didn't break any laws. And yet, because of who he is, the photos were newsworthy...at least to a point.

The fact is, Congressman Weiner didn't know Twitter well-enough to send his photos in such a way that only the recipient could see them. And even if he had, who's to say that the lady in question wouldn't have sent those photos to others who would have posted them all over the internet anyway? Weiner SHOULD have asked himself this question, "Would I care if the world saw these photos?"

Clearly the answer was yes. In that case, he should have never sent them, on Twitter or anywhere else. The lesson learned here, is that even if you don't think people are watching, or reading or paying attention, they are. If you run a small business or non-profit you are in a position where people will be paying attention. And even if you don't post the offending items on your official social media platforms, folks are watching your personal pages as well. You are linked to your organization BECAUSE it's a small business or non-profit. Most people don't make the separation, so you'd be smart not to either. In essence, you ARE your organization. Best to remember that always when you're posting anything on Facebook or Twitter or a blog, or anywhere else, even an online comment or letter to a publication.

By the way, if you ever want to send a personal message on Twitter, just go to your Twitter page and at the top you'll see a tab that says "messages". Click on that tab. It will take you to a box where you'll type in the name of the person you want to send a direct message to. Type in the name, then in the text box, type in your message. DO NOT use the @ symbol in the text box and DO NOT reply to other messages with an @ reply. Those messages can be seen by everyone. Then again, don't send any messages you wouldn't mind the wold seeing in the first place.

Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies:

As noted above, what Congressman Weiner did wasn't Earth-shattering. He didn't kill his neighbor, shake a baby, steal money from orphans or spew racist slurs. He simply sent some R-rated photos to a woman who wasn't his wife. He didn't break any laws, he did something stupid, but then again, don't we all sometimes?

Again, we're not here to blast or defend Congressman Weiner. However, when we look at his actions, we once again see some decisions that, from a PR and social media standpoint are downright felony stupid.

We've already looked at his decision to send the photos online in the first place. But it's what he did after the photos were revealed that really put him into hot water. He lied about it.

Listen, as we've said here before, you can make heinous mistakes and get away with it if you're upfront about it, apologize about it and have a plan in place so it won't happen again. In situations like this, there really is no plan to put forth. It's not like Weiner is going to stand up behind a podium and say, "My wife will be monitoring all of my online activity from now on...oh, and I promise not to be a guy anymore...so, you know...I won't be doing stupid things from here on out."

That doesn't really fly. And besides, since no laws were broken, no one outside of his immediate personal circle was hurt, a plan really isn't necessary here. But what IS necessary is honesty and an apology.

How much simpler would it have been had Congressman Weiner came out and said, "Yeah, that's my junk, and that's my shaved chest, and I DID send them to a woman I don't really know who I met on Facebook, and I've talked to my wife about it, I apologized, we're okay as a family and I apologize to my constituents for making a poor choice."

Frankly, the story would probably have gone away within a day. No story here folks, he admitted it was him, that he sent the photos to a woman who's not his wife and by the way, he's very sorry we found out about it.

The public at large likely would have let it go and marked it up to men-in-power-doing-stupid-things syndrome. Yes, FOX would run it into the ground for the next six months, but for the most part, the public would forget about it very quickly.

Instead, he lied about the photos, and, once caught in a lie, had to lie more, and then after he admitted the mistake, had to own up to the lies, forever tarnishing his image as a lawmaker and leader. Certainly there are many out there now asking, "if he's willing to lie about something so small, what else will he lie about?" And that's a reasonable question.

As a small business owner or non-profit director, you have to remember these three things when you find yourself in a situation, either of your own making or of circumstance.

1. Be Honest - Don't lie. If you made a mistake, own up to it. If you did something wrong, own up to it. Don't blame someone else. Even if the problem isn't of your own making, ultimately if it happened at your organization, you're responsible. Take the hit and swallow your medicine like an adult. Trust me, it's better than getting caught in a lie. That just makes things worse.

2. Apologize - Be sincere, and contrite. Chances are, you're going to be very sorry about whatever happened. If one of your employees was running drugs out of your restaurant and someone overdosed because of it, YOU make the apology. It's your business, after all, and you're ultimately responsible. Apologize for not being more diligent.

3. Have a plan - In most cases, you'll be hammered for not being prepared or for lack of oversight or for simply having human foibles. In each case, you can offer up a plan that will ensure that something similar doesn't happen again. For the most part, that's what your customers and supporters want to see. They understand making a mistake, they just want to make sure it doesn't happen again.

When working in the online world, you have to be VERY careful. As you have seen, it only takes a single moment, a single sent photo, a random post or Tweet to get yourself into scalding hot water. You have to remain on top of everything you do online.

Social media is a powerful platform to market your organization and gain supporters, recognition and even business. But all of your careful work can be undone in just a handful of keystrokes if you're not careful.

And if you DO make a mistake, don't try to hide it, or "delete" it or ignore it. Tackle it head on with honesty and sincerity and you'll find that you can overcome almost any faux-pas. Just as long as your straightforward with your friends, followers, the public at large and the media.

Run For Your Lives!

2011-05-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

I like horror movies. I do. There's nothing better than sitting back and getting a good scare. The kind of scare that makes you jump out of your seat and scream and spew popcorn across three aisles in front of you. Sadly, my love of horror hasn't helped me much in my professional life. Truth be told, it hasn't helped me much in my personal life either, but that's a different story.

As it turns out, I just wasn't thinking far enough outside the box. This realization came to me today as I ripped through my Twitter feed checking for any interesting stories. That's when I came across THIS little gem from the Los Angeles Times and local TV station, KUSA (click on the links to read the entire article or watch the video)

Preparing for a zombie apocalypse? The CDC weighs in

Zombies take over Hollywood Boulevard in a 2009 zombie walk. Would you be ready if they came to your neighborhood? (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times / for the Booster Shots blog
May 19, 2011, 11:37 a.m.

Preparing for disasters has always been part of the mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from hurricanes to flu pandemics.

It was only a matter of time, then, before they decided to weigh in on another calamity of great concern to the public: the zombie apocalypse.

"That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this," Dr. Ali S. Khan, an assistant surgeon general with the CDC and head of its office of Public Health Preparedness, wrote on the CDC's Public Health Matters blog.

I have to tell you, the instant I saw this article, I laughed, I chuckled, I shared and I laughed again. But then I took a moment and thought to myself, "THIS IS BRILLIANT!"

I wasn't talking so much about the articles themselves, although the LA Times writing is excellent. No, I had to marvel at the creativity and cleverness of the Center For Disease Control. This, my friends is what we call a PR Home Run and there are some lessons to be learned from this particular news gem.

A "Newsy Sense of Humor":

Before I go on, I have to admit, I wish I had thought of something like this. I also desperately wish I had been in the room when whoever it was pitched this idea during the PR meeting. In my mind it goes something like this:

Person 1 - Any ideas of how we can make emergency preparedness more interesting and newsworthy?
Person 2 - We could use the recent tornado and earthquake tragedies as a news peg.
Person 1 - We could, probably too soon, a little depressing, but a good idea.
Person 3 - Terrorism?
Person 1 - Bin Laden's dead, not timely. Anyone else? Anyone? ANYONE?!
PR Intern - uhhhh....Zombie Apocalypse?
Person 1 - (choking on water) WHAT?!
Person 2 - BWAAAHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA!
PR Intern - I'm serious...how about a zombie apocalypse?
Person 1 - Errrrr....yeah, you know what? Okay!

Allright, I'm pretty sure it didn't go down that way, but a man can dream, can't he? Before we get too deep into the analysis here, I'm going to make a few assumptions.

1. The CDC is trying to reach a younger, more apathetic demographic
2. The CDC probably feels that their message is getting old and that they needed to spice it up a bit

By now, you've probably seen this story on the network news, in your local papers, on your local affiliates, heard it on the radio, heck, even NPR is running the story. So how does a "fake" news story manage to get massive amounts of news coverage across the globe and shared millions of times in social media circles?

The answer is that the CDC did a masterful job of blending popular culture with a real news story with a real news peg. And the incredible part is that they managed to do it about an issue that is generally VERY serious and, at least lately, involves stories centered around real life tragedy.

Zombies Rock:

Let's face it. Zombies are awesome. It doesn't matter if they're the slow-moving, dimwitted zombies from the 60's, or the lightning-fast brain-eaters from the late 90's. They're popular, they're scary (usually) and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is familiar with them. Zombies have replaced vampires and werewolves as top monster (despite the best effort of that Moonlighting show...wait, not Moonlighting...you know what I'm talking about).

That's what makes this latest CDC PR effort so effing genius. The American public has been listening to the emergency preparedness message for decades now. We've heard it so often, that for many of us, it's become a dull roar against the background of the rest of the news we're inundated with on a daily basis.

And yet, even though we see new zombie movies just about every year, we continue to love them, watch them, read about them; we can't get enough of them.

Zombies have enjoyed fifty years of mass appeal even as the emergency preparedness message has been relegated to the back pages of media outlets everywhere. At some point, it probably occurred to someone that, hey, what could be more of an emergency besides a zombie apocalypse? The nuclear threat has gone the way of the cold war, the threat of terrorism seems to have diminished a bit, the economy is picking up.

What's left to be afraid of? The answer, of course, turned out to be zombies. So what if zombies don't exist outside of certain New Orleans neighborhoods? If ever there was an emergency situation we can all get behind, it's a full-scale zombie attack.

Still Newsworthy:

But here's why the story REALLY works. There was an actual newspeg behind the effort. Yes, that newspeg happened to be the tragic deaths of hundreds in the U.S. and across the world due to severe natural disasters. Within our own borders, the need for emergency preparedness plans is all too evident after watching the Mississippi jump its banks and twisters tear apart town after town in the South.

Yes, the loss of life is tragic. The financial impact and the social upheaval is disastrous. But we already know that. We've all seen the pictures and, unfortunately, too many of us switched away to instead watch American Idol or Dancing With The Stars. The stories themselves have become a bit old hat. We're not only not shocked anymore by these disasters, we generally aren't paying much attention anymore.

Now, the CDC couldn't send out this release after the tornadoes, or after the initial flooding in the Midwest. That would have been seen as insensitive, and rightly so. But now, the flooding isn't as big of a threat, and enough time has passed since the tornadoes did their damage.

Yet the newsworthiness of the story remains. Being prepared for any kind of emergency, regardless of what it is, is still important. Newsrooms realize this. They KNOW it's a story they have to cover, it's just that they don't do it with any gusto anymore.

Right after 9/11, emergency preparedness stories received ten minute, in-depth packages and three page spreads in the media. In recent days, the same stories were lucky to get a :30 second VO or a sidebar mention.

One of the reasons I think this story really works is because the reporters, producers and editors immediately recognized the cleverness of the release. The Tweets I saw from my friends still working in newsrooms seemed downright giddy. They loved the story. They giggled and guffawed as they posted the story on their websites, read it on the air and printed it in their papers. They Tweeted it with lead-in's like, "I LOVE this story!" and "Thought everyone would enjoy this!"

The Breakdown:

So let's take a quick look at how this story worked, blow-by-blow.

1. There was an actual newspeg (recent natural disasters)
2. The information was wrapped inside a popular culture beast (literally and figuratively)
3. The CDC made the connection between the fictitious event and a real emergency and the need to
     be prepared in both instances
4. The release made no overt effort to be jokey. It was tongue-in-cheek serious and made its point as
     if it were discussing a real event
5. It was timed in such a way that it was still relevant without being insensitive

Trust me, this isn't as easy as the CDC made it look. It took skill and knowledge and some creativity to pull this off, which they did in spades.

Extra Benefits:

Another stroke of genius is the social media aspect of this story. Traditional emergency preparedness stories never make it as a social media viral posting. When is the last time you saw a Facebook post about being ready in case of a sudden snowstorm or epic hailstorm? The answer is, never.

And yet this story was burning up Facebook, it was blowing up on Twitter. In a day it became about as popular as the "Talking Dog Tease" on YouTube. I don't know if the CDC considered the social media aspect of the story, but because of the pop culture reference, and the uniqueness of the approach, the public saw exactly what the media saw, a funny, interesting story packed with real, useful information.

I suppose this story could have been couched in an alien attack, or a vampire scourge or an explosion of werewolves or teenage witches, but somehow I don't think it would have enjoyed the same success. Had they picked aliens, it would have seemed a little too much "War of The Worlds". Had they picked vampires, werewolves or teen witches, it would have seemed too cheesy. It would have looked like they were trying too hard to connect with a younger generation and see relevant.

By going with zombies, they managed to cross generational lines, be funny and informative at the same time, and look clever instead of desperate. The particular pop culture reference made all the difference.

How To Do It:

Generally, I encourage you, as a small business owner or non-profit director to take risks, to think outside the box. And trust me, I still do. However in this case, I have to say, be careful. Again, this isn't an easy thing to do. You can see how the choice of choosing the specific pop culture reference made all the difference. You can see how the timing had to be impeccable.

Plus using a fictitious event to promote real information can be tricky if not properly presented. The CDC got away with it because it's so well known and the story was one which had been presented regularly for decades. Try doing this with a first-time pitch and you could run into trouble, or run the risk that journalists think your a bit batty.

However, with that said, if you want to use this technique to spice up your story pitch keep these things in mind.

1. Make it useful - Your pitch has to have quality information, stuff that the everyday person can use and needs to know. This makes it difficult for a lot of small businesses to capitalize on this technique

2. Time it right - Like every other pitch, your story has to be timely and have a newspeg. If it deals with serious, sad or tragic events, you'll have to wait and catch that tiny window between not being insensitive and still being relevant

3. Choose your reference correctly - If you use this technique, you don't want to appear like you're just using a reference to attract a specific audience. You want to look clever and smart, not like you're working too hard. Your pop culture reference has to be something everyone can immediately relate to, like, you know...zombies!

4. Don't try to be funny - Again, funny is in the eye of the beholder. The CDC played it right by presenting the information as a real release, complete with background information and fictitious studies. Yes, the story was humorous, but the CDC didn't present it that way. There was a subtle wink to the reader, but we all knew what was happening right away and didn't need to be drawn in by jokes or overt humor.

5. Use it sparingly - This isn't the kind of approach that will work over and over again. This release worked because it came from a normally staid and conservative organization that normally doesn't do this kind of thing. It caught the media off guard, it caught the general public off guard. It was unique in both its presentation and in the fact that it hadn't been done by the CDC before. However, if the CDC tries to use this approach too often, it will backfire and the media will simply stop paying attention to it.
***NOTE*** The exception to this is if the CDC uses this same approach in a year when it releases its annual emergency preparedness story. Next time they might try "What to do if attacked by massive flocks of birds" or "How to be prepared in case the Mayan Calendar is correct." This will work for a few years, but only if used once a year, as if part of a series. Even then, in five years or so, it will get old and the media will have moved on.

So there you have it. The breakdown of an honest-to-goodness PR homerun. it doesn't happen everyday, and I rarely get as much joy writing about a particular press release or news story as I did with this one.

In the end, what small businesses and non-profits can take away from this story is that it's okay to think outside the box, to be creative and take risks. Yes, sometimes you'll fall flat on your face and your story won't be picked up. But then there are those times when your story might actually become a news blockbuster and an internet sensation.

Hey, it can happen...just like a zombie apocalypse.

The Human Brand

2011-05-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Branding. It's like the holy grail for most marketers. Creating an instantly recognizable brand is one of the primary objectives for the majority of marketers and organizations spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars to do so. And yet, with all that effort and with all the products, companies and services available to the consumer, the number of insta-brands (or instantly recognizable brands) is quite small.

Of course, small businesses and non-profits just don't have the resources that major companies do when it comes to branding their organization, product or service. But, as we've seen in this blog before, you don't need the massive resources of large companies to do something well and be effective. You simply need a plan and a little know-how.

The Obstacles:

First, branding isn't just getting your name out to the masses. It's about creating an image that is instantly recognizable. You want folks to have an immediate connection to you when they hear your name, product or service. This isn't just about having folks recognize your name, but about having them really connect with you. Maybe you want your name associated with quality, reliability, new and hip, it's really up to you.

The problem is, folks don't automatically relate to "things," they relate to people. It's hard to relate to a plate of spaghetti or a sandwich or a car. You can WANT those things, you can think those things are cool, or nice or desirable, but you can't really relate to them. The same holds true for most organizations. You can admire a business or what a non-profit is trying to accomplish, but at the end of the day, it's still a faceless organization, often a name without a personality.

And using social media to create meaningful, integrated relationships between a brand and consumers is simply harder than creating the same kind of relationship between people. In essence, all of the social media networks out there were designed to connect people with people, not people with brands.

For instance, you own a small business or run a non-profit. You're online as yourself, but also have pages for your organization. On your personal pages, you most likely interact with your friends in a more casual, conversational manner. Now think about how you interact on your organizational pages. You most likely use those pages to simply announce specials, deals, make a plea for donations or let folks know about an event. Unlike your personal profile where you're involved in conversations, these types of organizational postings are primarily one-sided.

This isn't how humans interact with other humans. Even on sites like LinkedIn, where your interactions are more professional and formal, you're still often having a conversation, it's rarely just a one-way street.

The problem is, if you attempt to involve yourself in more casual conversations from your organizational pages, it may not be received very well by others in the group or conversation. They'll probably look at it as an awkward intrusion by a company trying to sell something.

You can certainly build a network on your social media pages of people who "like" or are "fans" of your brand, but that still doesn't mean they want you involved in their personal conversations. Plus, commenting on various personal posts can potentially damage the brand image you have worked so hard to build.

So does this mean you have to continue the one-way conversation rut that you're probably already in? No, you don't. You may never be able to get folks to view your brand as a warm, fuzzy friend that can converse in casual conversations at will. But you CAN humanize your brand to the point where your network contacts feel comfortable interacting on a less-than-formal level.

The Solutions:

First, understand that we're talking about "humanizing" your brand. In other words, you want to make your brand feel less than a faceless entity and more like a welcome friend that can be trusted and conversed with regularly. At worst, you want them to feel like you're brand is a familiar acquaintance.

You can do this easily without breaking your bank.

1. Put a human face on your organization
2. Be more interactive

There you go. Simple, right? Actually yes, and we'll show you how.

The Human Face:

Think about the 'O' Network. Think about Virgin Records. Think about Maytag. What do all of these things have in common? They each have a human face attached to their names. Oprah Winfrey is literally a corporation unto herself. She owns magazines, runs a TV network, makes movies and television shows. And yet, she is, in the end, simply Oprah.

Virgin Records IS Richard Branson. He jet sets around the world, loves music, give generously to charity. He's a playboy adventurer that exudes confidence and fun. Oh, and he owns one of the largest music retail outlet chains in the world. Virgin isn't just a music label anymore, it's virtually a way of life. And that's because, as an organization, it's practically synonymous with Branson.

Both of those organizations have real-life individuals behind their brands. In fact, those people ARE their brands. They embody everything about their brands. But what about characters, a fictitious face to an organization? That's where Maytag comes in. You know the guy. The loveable loser repairman who has nothing to do because of the quality of his product. Like Mr. Whipple, Mr. Peanut, Mr. Clean, Tony The Tiger, the Travelocity Elf, Charlie Tuna, the list goes on and on, The Maytag repairman doesn't really exist. And yet, each of these characters have helped to create a brand that consumers love. Perhaps the most famous of this type of branding belongs to one of the most successful companies in the world, McDonalds. What would McDonalds be without the clown? Just another burger joint?

This type of branding works because now you have a face to front for the organization. Just like you should have a human face when pitching a story to a news outlet, having a character to represent your brand works. It works because now consumers have something or someone, a person or character that they can relate to.

One of the primary reasons this tactic works is due to a few important elements:

1. The characters are relatable - They're funny, charming, frustrated, in love, pursuing a goal. They represent many of the human hopes, strengths and frailties that people instantly connect with.

2. They are personable - These characters don't preach, they don't yell or scream at the consumer, they simply talk. This is important. They interact with consumers. Even in ads, you often see them interacting with regular consumers.

3. They stick around - Repetition matters. Like radio and TV ads, quality is important, but quantity is vital. You can't just toss out a character a few times and hope consumers catch on. You have to use your character all the time, over a long period of time.

Being Interactive:

This second part is perhaps the most important part of humanizing your brand. We've discussed this in this space before, but it's so vital to your social media success, that it bears repeating.

BE INTERACTIVE!

There, that wasn't so hard, was it? When you post, whether it be on LinkedIn, or Twitter or Facebook, don't just tell people about your specials, or your product or your service. Ask questions, look for feedback, get your network involved in what you're doing.

An example of a brand that is using social media to successfully interact and build their brand is "TempurPedic". This is where I say I'm not being paid by any organization mentioned in this posting...so you know.

TempurPedic is running ads that don't just tell the consumer how good their beds are. In fact, the ads make very few claims at all. Instead, they ask consumers to interact with their social media and online platforms. The ads ask viewers to go to their website, check them out on Twitter and Facebook and find out what OTHERS are saying about their product.

This is a brilliant approach. Particularly since they actually use the phrase, "join the conversation" in the ad itself. It's not asking them to log in and receive information, it's asking them to be PART of disseminating opinion and information. It makes the consumer feel like they are an active part in building the brand.

I know what you're saying right now. "But I don't have the money for a national television ad campaign." I get it. Who does? But that doesn't mean you can't have a similar message in your postings. You can encourage your network to participate in conversations. Ask questions, solicit for advice, open a forum to discuss specific things.

Then there's the issue of video. One of the best things about living in 2011 is that anyone, ANYONE, can shoot video, edit it and post it as a kind of ad for your brand. You can use a character as part of these videos, you can have a call to action, you can open conversations with these "ads".

In fact, if you're NOT using video on your social media platforms yet, you need to start, immediately. People like watching videos, they will share videos, all of which helps build your brand.

When you do put your video together, here are a few things to remember:

1. Keep them short - Anything over 30 seconds isn't likely to be shared or watched all the way through unless the video is REALLY good.

2. They don't have to be funny - Funny is relative. What's funny to you, might be offensive to others. Simply consider your message and the best way to deliver your message. You want the feel and image of your video to reflect and build on the image you are creating for your brand.

3. Have a call to action - At the end of the video, or during the video, make sure you let the consumer know what you want them to do. If you want them to join a conversation, tell them. If you want them to do something else, tell them. Just watching a video will help raise awareness, but it doesn't necessarily get consumers to support your brand.

That Human Touch:

In the end, you want your social media network to not only like your brand, to feel affection for it, you want them to help you build your brand. If your friends and fans can start relating to your brand on a human level, they will start to relate to your organization on a more personal level.

Eventually, you'll find that your network will begin to actively help build and humanize your brand through conversations with their own network and mentions of your brand as they might mention other friends they have.

This doesn't happen overnight, but it DOES work. Just make sure that the human face to your brand has a warm smile. I mean, we may live in a technological era, but some things never change.

How The World Has Changed!

2011-05-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

So, where were you Sunday night when you heard the news about the death of Bin Laden? Actually, a more pertinent question should be, HOW did you hear about the death of Bin Laden? This question matters because it reflects how technology has fundamentally changed how we receive information. Again, this isn't a newsflash like lightning from the sky. Technology has a history of changing information gathering and dissemination.

It started with the printing press, moved along into radio, then television and ultimately computers. There's no denying that smartphones have been the next evolution in that process. But what happened Sunday night was surprising.

I started a tweet...that started the whole world cheering!

I actually found out from a post on Facebook. A friend of mine works in a Washington D.C. newsroom and posted the news on his Facebook page just minutes before I received the breaking news alert on my iPhone. I was watching some cable TV show, blissfully unaware of the world-changing events taking place. But once I saw the FB post, I immediately switched to the networks in an effort to make sure it was real.

Being the news junky I am, I switched between CBS, ABC, FOX (always interesting to see how they handle their news). I even took a moment to peek at ESPN, just to see how they might be handling the information. Remember, this was about 40 minutes before President Obama made the official announcement on television.

Of course, the networks were all over the breaking story. However the most fascinating moment of the night for me emerged from Philadelphia, where the Mets and Philly's were playing a usual early-season nighttime game. Suddenly and without warning, a buzz started to rise from the crowd of 40-thousand in attendance. Within minutes, the crowd erupted into an impromptu chant of "U-S-A, U-S-A!" There had been no official announcement made over the P.A. system, or flashed across the scoreboard at that point. Just thousands of folks receiving the news on their smartphones.

Instead of waiting to hear the news on network TV, instead of dealing with vague rumors until the President confirmed the facts, Americans, heck, the world, was flashing the news as quickly as millions of fingers could type and hit send.

An Avalanche of Tweets

And the numbers back this up. According to Twitter on Monday, a record 12.4 million Tweets were sent per hour following the revelation that Bin Laden had been killed. Mashable.com noted the following from Twitter:

"At 11pm ET, just beore Obama's speech, users generated 5,106 tweets PER SECOND, the highest single volume of tweets during the night. At 11:45pm, just when he finished his speech, Twitter users were sending 5,008 tweets per second."

Even the average from 10:45 pm to 12:30 am ET, three-thousand per second, resulted in a whopping 27,900,000 tweets in just two hours and 35 minutes. That's impressive, no doubt. But, like everything else, these numbers need to be placed in context.

There's no doubt that the flood of Tweets prove, once again, that it is a powerful tool to relay information. It's easy to type in a few keystrokes, hit send and now someone else knows what you know. But what happens to that information? Certainly getting the news at light speed is valuable, however what happens after that initial blast of information remains crucial.

News has been changed forever by Twitter and Facebook and other social media sites. But ask yourself what you did immediately after you heard the news. The majority of individuals, when possible, did what I did; turn to a news network to get more information.

Twitter hasn't destroyed news. In a way it's enhanced it. It has opened the lines of communications between newsroom and the average Joe. It increased the speed in which we get news headlines. What it hasn't done is replaced news itself. In the end, all Twitter can do is provide headlines. While those may catch the eye and raise interest, we still need those headlines, those bits of information to be filled out with details and context.

I didn't sit around waiting for more Tweets to tell me what had happened. I went to my BBC app on my iPhone right away for any details. I then checked out my AP app., all while switching around the networks to get more information. Twitter can only raise the flag, it can't tell the whole story.

So what does this all mean?

From a news standpoint, it's a bit comforting. When news breaks, it alerts folks to tune into their local tv stations or check out the networks, or news websites for more details. And as long as the headlines continue to be newsworthy, people will continue to tune in.

Ultimately, though, it means that despite the power and the reach of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, they're only good up to a point. At some point you have to provide them with the meat of the story. FB and Twitter can tease and inform, but they can't tell the whole story.

As a small business or non-profit, you should pay attention to this point. It really comes down to the old problem with advertising. If you advertise one thing, and the product or service is completely different, eventually consumers will get wise. The same thing goes for quality. You may do a great job getting people to try out your latest dish, but if it's not good, you can be sure they won't be coming back. Worse yet, they'll tell everyone they know how awful it was.

If you're using Twitter to get information out about your latest special or deal or interesting tidbit, you have to follow up on that tweet with real quality. If you tweet about a blog, that blog had better be worth reading, otherwise, it will eventually be ignored and your readership will decline.

What we did after we saw the initial tweets about Bin Laden's death is typical of what folks do when they see an interesting tweet about any topic. The first thing they do is to check it out. People are cynical, they are cautious, particularly when it comes to their pocketbook. Your tweet may get them to check out your website, business, non-profit, blog, YouTube site, etc., but if you don't have the quality to back up your Twitter headline, you'll lose those followers and Twitter will become useless to you.

Don't think of Twitter as a singular marketing tool. Think of it more like one part of a bigger machine. Before you can even begin to use Twitter effectively, you HAVE to spend time creating your product or service. You have to make sure your blog is interesting. You have to make sure that the final destination is worth the trip.

Because remember this. Twitter can be used by larger entities to get the message out. But it's at its most powerful when in the hands of the individual user. You may get your tweet out to thousand of people, but that is only the beginning. Once those people have tested your product, they'll have the last word. If they liked it, they'll tweet their friends and let them know. They may even retweet your future tweets.

If they didn't like what you're selling? Then you could be in trouble. Because just as they'll tell friends if they like you, they'll tell EVERYONE who will listen if they don't like you. That aspect hasn't changed, despite the influx of technology. In fact, it's just enhanced that typically human behavior.

In the end, if you can't produce what your Twitter headline promises you could end up in the worst place of all, and that's simply being ignored. If people are complaining, they're at least talking about you and you have a chance to answer the critics. If you are ignored, your organization becomes persona-non-grata. And on Twitter, there's nothing worse.

The New Media

2011-04-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

Relationships...

It's a simple word. It's a simple concept. Relationships matter in business, they matter in your personal life, they matter in your public relations and social media efforts as well. An interesting turn of events reminded me of just HOW important relationships are when it comes to getting your message across to the audience you're targeting.

As part of my responsibilities handling public relations for my clients, I work hard to build relationship between my clients and local newsrooms. My clients are small business and non-profits. They rarely have met a reporter, almost never have been in a newsroom, let alone built a working relationship with a journalist. Part of my job is to get them in front of reporters, producers and editors that can, ultimately, help them tell their stories.

Unfortunately, building relationship with the media is harder today than it has ever been before. There are a number of reasons for this, but regardless of the hurdles facing small businesses and non-profits, it IS possible, you just have to be diligent, creative and smart.

Things Have Changed:

One of the biggest reasons why building media relationships is so much harder today is due to the economics of news. 20 years ago, when I started working in news, payrolls were tight. Expense accounts were smaller, less time was being devoted to investigative and in-depth stories that took longer and cost more to produce.

At the time, there was angst among journalists that the nature of news and reporting was changing, and not for the better. It's not like news was a treasure trove of riches at any point in history. But it seemed as if the money was disappearing at a historic rate. Despite the warning signs, reporters still took time to chat with potential experts, spend time with individuals that might make good stories at some point, linger just a bit longer while covering stories. They did this because they had a bit more time, but more importantly, it was part of their job.

Digging for stories was vital to their success. And digging took time. They understood that great stories don't always just walk in through the front door. They had to go find them. That meant building relationships of all kinds.

Fast forward 20 years and the scorched landscape of news looks like the aftermath of some kind of financial armageddon. Staffs have been slashed to truly the bare bones. Time constraints are tighter than ever before. Journalists simply don't have the time to go digging for stories and build relationsips, they're merely trying to survive.

Some of this is due to the competition from new information outlets and the explosion of social media. But most of the problem is that journalists are doing jobs that, even just a few years ago, they weren't being asked to do.

For instance, in Denver, a top feeder market in the U.S., is now asking many of their reporters to shoot their own stories. Reporters and producers are being asked in some cases to edit their stories as well. Nearly every discussion I've had with fellow journalists has centered around the increased workload and spike in stress.

One photographer lamented to me, "They even asked us to report on stories at one point..." he said laughing. "We're photogs, not reporters, that's how bad it's getting."

What this means is that, whereas in the past small business owners, pillars of their communities, the ones who live, work and play in the local neighborhoods, simply don't have the access to journalists they used to in the past. This lack of access ultimately makes it difficult for small businesses and non-profits to grow the kind of relationship that can help them in their PR efforts.

Tight Security:

There was a time when PR pro's were able to walk into newsrooms, shake some hands, drop off a case of beer or a couple of pizzas and leave behind some press releases or clever media kits. Reporters would stop by, say hello, munch on some food and get a chance to meet the client as well as the PR person.

Today, with budgets tight and competition fiercer than ever before, not to mention the rising violence rate against journalists, strangers in newsrooms raise flags and set off alarms. This was brought home to me this past week as I took a client around to all the local newsrooms to promote a new campaign. My group included me, two lovely ladies from HOOTERS and my client. We came armed with envelopes containing press releases and other campaign/client info., as well as boxes of Buffalo wings.

In years past, this alone would have granted me access to just about every newsroom in the city. Last week, I was able to walk into only two of them. Fortunately, the two newsrooms I was able to enter happen to be the two most popular news outlets in town. But the point still hit home.

New rules and procedures kept me and my group from getting into newsrooms I ordinarily would have simply walked into. When the two HOOTERS gals asked me why the security was so tight around these newsrooms, the answer sounded lame. Sadly it's true. The reason for the increased security is the result of competition and fear.

Competition with an increasingly growing number of information outlets, all battling for a smaller piece of the audience pie, is one main aspect. Each newsroom likes to think it has secrets that, if found out by their competitors, could destroy them. The working journalists know this isn't true, but the fear of spies remains high in most newsrooms, especially on the local level.

Of course, the rising violence against journalists is legitimate fear, and one that I understand, having lived through a newsroom shooting while working at a local TV station ten years ago. Limiting access to complete strangers makes sense. Limiting access to experienced and qualified professionals, doesn't.

Get Lucky:

Fortunately, I got lucky and was able to call in a favor at one station. This individual managed to wrangle a representative to come down and spend some time with me and my group. We had a wonderful conversation, arranged a future meeting and left the station feeling as if we'd accomplished something. In one newsroom, they didn't allow us to leave our food. At a third station, we lucked out and I managed to run into an old colleague who just happened to be one of the individuals I'll be pitching the campaign to. She was busy, so I didn't take much of her time. It was enough that I ran into her, said hi, left her the release and the wings and let her do her job.

The point is, if a seasoned PR pro with longstanding newsroom relationships who also happens to be a former journalist has problems getting into newsrooms, what chance does a small business person or non-profit director have with no connections at all? The answer, not much.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't continue to try to develop those relationships. Here are a few tips on gaining access to newsrooms even in this era of closed doors, tight security and overworked journalists who just don't have the time they once did to meet with the public and build relationships.

1. Target specific journalists to begin a dialogue with: This could be a reporter or a producer or an editor. It doesn't matter. What you want and what you need is someone who will carry your flag (story) into the news meetings and fight for you. Obviously they won't be able to do this all the time, but if you give them a good story, they'll fight for it to receive coverage.

2. Start your dialogue with an email, a press release, a hello, almost anything will do: In many cases, you'll start with a press release. But you can also simply send a small electronic media packet with a short note that introduces your organization to them. Let them know who you are, what you do and that you'd like to hopefully work with them in the future on a quality story.

3. Be respectful: If they know that you understand their business, their time constraints and their deadlines, they will be much more likely to respond to you. Don't pressure them too much, particularly in the beginning. You don't have to call them, or send a ton of emails. Start with your introductory email and follow up when you think you have a good story to pitch. The better the story, the more they'll take notice of you. Even if they don't pick your story up, they'll at least know that you understand how to pitch and what to pitch. Remember, news decisions are made by committee in many instances. They may have fought for your story but it was turned down. Keep your lines of communication open. Keep pitching them good stories and eventually, you'll hit one.

4. Invite them over for drinks: Okay, this isn't as creepy as it sounds. At some point, like many businesses, you'll want to consider a special "media night" where you offer specials and deals specifically for members of the media. You can throw a party and invite members of the media to take a look at your new location, or new product or sample your food and drinks. You DON'T want to say something like, "I would love to meet you some time, let me buy you dinner sometime." That sounds a bit stalker-ish, and your emails will most likely end up directly in the junk pile. Wait a bit, and then invite them to a night when all the media is invited to attend. And remember this; if and when you Do manage to entice members of the media to a party or special event, don't hound them with pitches or just talk shop. Just talk with them like ordinary people, because that's what they are. Share a drink, tell some stories, get to know them and let them get to know you. They'll appreciate not having to talk work. Let them relax and enjoy themselves. Oh, and if you REALLY want to get the media to your event, offer an open bar. Seriously, an open bar works.

5. Take advantage of the coverage: If after all your pitching you finally get a story covered, you'll at least end up with a photographer on your doorstep to take photos or shoot video. The reporter may or may not be in attendance. However, if you're lucky, the reporter will show up as well, or at the very least, spend time interviewing you on the phone. If it's a phone interview, don't wander in the conversation. Answer the questions, thank them for their time, and at the end, simply say something like, "I really look forward to meeting you sometime, thank you for the story." If they show up in person, you have a much better chance to chat while the photographer sets up. Be casual, just talk to them, compliment them on a recent story they covered. Flattery, like bribery, works. You don't have to roll out the red carpet for them. Just be nice and be respectful. Don't fawn all over them, and treat them like you would want to be treated. They have a job, let them do it. But if you see an opening to chat with them about life in general, take it.

Because newsrooms are trying to do more with less, you have to know that stories that would have been covered just a few years ago, simply aren't getting covered today. They don't have the resources they once had. Because of this, even really good story pitches aren't making it into rundowns. Don't get discouraged. It takes time to build these relationships, but if you persevere, you WILL be able to make a connection. You probably will never be best friends with these folks, and that's okay, you don't need to be. You DO need to have a professional relationship with them. One where they know who you are, trust you enough to listen to your pitches and respects you enough to fight for your story if they like it.

It's not always easy, and it won't happen overnight. But if you work at it, you CAN make a connection. And once you do, don't abuse that relationship. Ultimately, you need these individuals and these newsrooms to help you get your message out to the public at large. Now, go out and buy a case of beer, a box of wings and a cute greeting card with an insert that says, "My name is _____, will you be my friend?"

Okay, forget the card, but the beer and wings are still a good idea. Journalists may be overworked, underpaid and stressed to the hilt, but they'll always appreciate a quality tribute. And that, my friends, could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Solving the Charlie Sheen Riddle

2011-03-08T23:45:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't noticed, there's been a bit of a buzz the past week or so about an actor with a rich acting family tradition and a list of movie and television hits to his own credit. You might have heard of him. His name is Charlie Sheen and he's apparently composed of tiger blood and adonis DNA.

Now, if you're like most people, you're probably a bit fed up with the all-Sheen-all-the-time coverage on what seems to be every television station across the cable dial. He's been interviewed, quoted, mocked, been the butt of late night talk show jokes and he's been burning up Facebook and Twitter like a mid-summer wildfire on drought-ridden Colorado mountain. In other words, it feels a bit out of control. You want to avoid it. You try to ignore it. But it's everywhere...you just can't.

Chicks, money, drugs...Duh...WINNING!

We all know some folks who've actually tried to stay above the fray. And yet, one-by-one they fall. Just today, I ran across two Facebook posts from friends who finally gave in and posted something about the Sheen-ster.

The problem is, it's just so invasive. No matter what you do, you simply can't get away from the hurricane that has become Charlie Sheen coverage. It's part of the national consciousness by now and it's not only THE conversation that people are having, it's become a cultural, nearly iconic monster.

Yes, it's insane, it's confusing, it's infuriating. But from a PR standpoint, there is a lesson to be learned from all of this, and it's NOT the old standby that any PR is good PR.

Asking the "What-Ifs"

From a PR standpoint, it's hard to imagine something like this happening without a plan or at the very least some kind of handler in the background working tirelessly to manage damage control. And yet, at every turn, Sheen has popped up on talk shows of all stripes. And more remarkably, he's been just as crazy, if not moreso in each follow up interview. Now, as anyone knows, actors, especially big-time actors, have agents, handlers, PR experts and image consultants that are constantly working behind the scenes to manage every public appearance, monitor every word and dictate the message. Actors associated with major production outlets have an extra layer of handlers doing pretty much the same thing, only on behalf of the production company. This is TWO layers of handlers for an actor to fight through to let his or her own personality shine, or explode, whichever it may be.

So when an actor does go off the reservation and gets wild or does ANYTHING to tarnish their image and reputation, or that of their production bosses, there's often an army of handlers scrambling behind the scenes to put a cork on the problem, spin away the issues and begin to fix anything that may have been broken.

Yet, surprisingly, this hasn't happened in Sheen's case. Not only have the handlers apparently sat by idly while Sheen ran rampant all over the public airwaves, it seems as if they've encouraged his behavior by booking him on every show known to man with either little or no coaching whatsoever.

I don't know about you, but this seems a bit odd. More than odd, it's almost criminally negligent. IF Sheen is doing this all on his own, and his handlers are sitting back doing nothing, they should be fired, then sued, then thrown in jail for stealing money from Sheen.

However, if this is, instead, some kind of a larger plan, then it would seem that they have done their job. Not because they unleashed a wild and crazy actor onto an unsuspecting public, but because, if this was all planned, it was, in a word, brilliant. Brilliant because the whole thing began so spontaneously. It didn't feel concocted or contrived. One minute Sheen was dealing with some very serious personal legal issues, and the next moment, he is the cover boy for "Insane Weekly."

As a former journalist, Sheen's actions look like the very real ravings of a man on the edge. From a PR perspective, this entire situation feels like part of something much bigger. The inaction of his PR team sends up red flags to me. No one, and I mean NO ONE, would allow their client to perform like this under the glare of the media and public spotlight without either having given up completely or having a plan in place.

Why Does It Matter?

One of the biggest questions I've heard over the past couple of weeks is from clients and friends alike who simply want to know why. Why has the Charlie Sheen spectacle taken over our broadcasts? Why has it invaded our social consciousness? Why is it suddenly our cultural touchstone? Most importantly; why is the media continuing to make this an even bigger media circus than it already was?

The answers are pretty simple actually. Let's take a look back at the elements of what makes a good news story. You have proximity, impact, timeliness, relevance and WOW factor. Breaking down these elements into this particular story, it's easy to see that timeliness and WOW factor are the driving forces behind this continuing story.

Sure, it has little to no impact on our daily lives, for most of us, there is little relevance. Although some news organizations are using this epic implosion to focus on mental illness, drug abuse and domestic violence, which is noble. And while we all might feel like we know Sheen at least a little because we have seen so many of his movies and TV shows, there's really no proximity.

That leaves us with timeliness, which is and easy one, since this story grows bigger with each passing interview. He goes on the Howard Stern show on a Thursday, and by Thursday afternoon, he's headline news again and the social media platforms are burning up with his quotes.

But it's the WOW factor that is the real meat of this story. It's part voyeurism, part fireworks show. Many following the story do so because they enjoy watching someone rich and famous crumble right before our eyes. Others follow because they are simply amazed or dumbfounded by his actions. Even others follow the story because it's fascinating to see a person who seemingly had it all, throw it all away. Americans like to root for the underdog, we also like winners (WINNING!) and then, at some point, we eat our own. We eventually like to see our hero's fail because there's something satisfying in watching someone richer, or more famous, talented, good-looking, etc, fail. It makes us feel better about ourselves on some level.

Story Matters Here:

This is something newsrooms know all too well. Journalists know that the American public likes to see people fall from high places. It's even better when they do it to themselves and even better than that if they do it in such a way that leaves a flaming heap of personal debris along the way. It's why the Michael Jackson stories were so big. It's why newsrooms followed the Brittney Spears story so closely.

Sure, entertainment may be seen as a diversion to those who prefer to keep an eye on events in Libya, Iraq and Russia. But those problems always seem so far away and removed to an American public that prefers to watch American Idol to the BBC. The Charlie Sheen story may not have the impact or oomph that the chaos in the Middle East may have, but it is certainly more entertaining and it has all the elements of a tragic story that appeals so much to the average person.

And it's those story elements that would make even Shakespeare proud. You have it all. Character, plot twists, intrigue, tragedy, comedy, love, hate, a moral. In Sheen you have a talented, but deeply flawed individual who is adored by many, is well known, who seems to have everything.

And, like any good Shakespearean play, the main character tragically tumbles from his ivory tower through a series of poor choices and myopia. You see, journalists know a good story when they see one, and this one is as good as it gets. There's a reason why Shakespeare was so popular, why romance novels routinely outsell NY Times Bestseller books and why "reality" TV watched more than PBS.

So, What Can I Learn?

Like every other exercise here at RPR, the purpose is to take real-life events and glean valuable knowledge whenever possible. So in this case, you might be wondering, "What can I learn from the Sheen overload that can help my small business or non-profit?"

First, we hope you learned what NOT to do in an effort to get noticed. You should NOT make outrageous statements that hint at massive drug abuse, misogyny and a blatant disregard for the law on your behalf. While it certainly may get attention, the fact is, you're not Charlie Sheen and it likely won't help your business grow and prosper.

However, there ARE some elements of the "Sheen Incident" that you CAN use for your future social media efforts. First and foremost, you should recognize the elements of WHY the Sheen story has captured our imagination. As mentioned above, you have two things happening here.

1. Some of the elements of news, including WOW factor
2. All the elements of a great story

Now realize this; you don't have to publicly implode in order to get attention. However, in order to catch the eye of folks on Social Media and in the press, you DO need a good story and you have to have some elements of news.

Obviously, most of us don't have the name-recognition that a Charlie Sheen does. But we DO all have great stories to tell. You can tell a story with character, with plot twists and movement, with a moral with intrigue. Your story can be funny or it can be a tragedy, but you HAVE to have a story to tell.

With Sheen, we already all knew the backstory. So we basically started in the middle, with his career blowup. All great stories have a backstory. But that backstory should be able to be told in a few, short sentences so that the audience can get right to the meat of the matter.

For instance, if you're telling the story of a war veteran who has lost his house, you can tell his backstory in a quick two-sentence summary. Man serves his country, loves his wife and children, follows the rules, and then, after returning home from service in a war zone, finds himself in financial trouble and at odds with his bank. You have a main character, a bad guy which sets up conflict, you start in the middle with his return home and his struggles to keep his home and provide for his family. It tugs at the heartstrings, it's a tragedy and audiences everywhere can relate to the the issues.

This is why it's so important to really put some thought into your story. You have a good story, you have a great shot at grabbing the attention of readers, friends, followers and the media.

The other element at work here is the WOW factor. This is often very hard for small businesses and non-profits to generate. You just don't have the cache that movie stars, sports stars and politicians have. There's nothing wrong with that, but still the question persists...how can you use the WOW factor to enhance the profile of your business or non-profit?

Use Your Power Wisely:

Ultimately, WOW factor can either be celebrity focused, OR it can involve something so unique or eye-catching that people simply have to see it. Online, this is what normally passes for viral videos. A piano playing cat, a merengue-dancing dog, a waterskiing squirrel, these videos get viewed millions of times on YouTube because they're funny, unique and incredible. But it doesn't always have to be dogs. People can get in on the act as well.

In Denver 30 years ago, a man gained attention and fame by doing a series of stunts for charity. He sat in every seat in Mile High Stadium. He swam a lake 100 times, he used a pogo-stick to cross the state of Colorado. All of these stunts grabbed the attention of the press and ultimately the public.

Think about how others grab attention. They sit on a billboard for weeks at a time. They stage protests, they organize things like massive bike rides through the center of town, disrupting traffic. All of these things are headline grabbers. Not all of them, however, will work to enhance the image of your organization.

Clearly, the WOW factor is great at getting attention. But it's also risky. If you do it in such a way that goes against your image or grabs attention in a negative way, then you risk damaging your organization. You may, in the short term, gain notariety for your organization, but in the long run, bad publicity will cost you customers.

What you want to do is grab attention by doing something big, something positive, something that fits into the image and values of your organization. If you can do this, you CAN raise your profile and give yourself a pulpit from which to spread your message.

One example of this is a man who I used to cover when working in radio. Ever year, starting right after Thanksgiving, this man would begin pitching his story to newsrooms across Denver. He would drive his semi-truck around town, and then, dressed like a superhero Santa, complete with a mask so nobody knew who he was, would stand on top of his semi, encouraging people to bring him presents which he would later give to children. This became an annual tradition and after a few years, the masked Santa was a local hit.

While this story did have proximity and impact as well as timeliness, it was the WOW factor of being a "mysterious Santa" that garnered him much more coverage than the multitude of other toy drives taking place in the city at the same time.

In the end, as we watch "The Man They Call Charlie" continue his plummet into celebrity hell, we can look at it and understand why it's such a big story. But more importantly, we can watch it and learn from his actions, his mistakes and the hidden strokes of genius. You can learn what not to do, and take from this story the elements of story, news and character that you can use to make your efforts a success.

And if that doesn't work, you can always go out and get yourself some tiger blood, fists of fire and adonis DNA.

Join The Club

2011-02-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

Human beings are interesting creatures. Of course, like snowflakes, none of us is like anyone else. We're all unique. But as different as we all may be, there are still some similarities that binds us all together as a species. For instance, everyone eats, everyone poops (someone wrote a book about that), everyone sleeps and loves and laughs and cries. These are things that we can all relate to because we all do these things. But sometimes what binds us together is a group, race, religion, culture, gender. We may all be unique, but at the same time, we're all looking to belong...to something.

The need to belong to a group, something larger than ourselves, is very real for most of us. People like to be around others that have similar interests, backgrounds, likes and dislikes. It's this desire to be with others that have common interests that can have a major impact on your social media efforts.

I want you to help me grow my business!

Think about it. Regardless of whether you're a small business or a non-profit, you most likely already have a base of customers you deal with regularly. They are, in essence, part of your club, your gang, your posse, if you want to be a bit more "hip".

Some businesses have actually raised this mindset to a virtual art form. We've all heard the term, "Membership has its privileges." American Express has created a kind of exclusive club that many of us wish to belong to, but not all of us can. AMEX has made it clear that we want to be part of their club, because members enjoy certain perks that the rest of us don't.

Like a good nightclub that has a line stretching out the door, being exclusive can go a long way towards creating buzz and grabbing attention. We all want to know what the big deal is. What are the perks? Why does everyone want to go into THAT particular club? Eventually those questions turn into statements like, "I want to be a member, " or "I just HAVE to get into that club."

You can use this same kind of marketing strategy to push your social media efforts and create buzz about your organization. And you don't even have to be exclusive to be successful at it.

The Popular Kids:

Remember High School? There were all kinds of cliques, ranging from nerds, to goths to jocks to the popular kids. Some folks were able to mix easily with members of most cliques. Some simply stayed put in their comfort zone. But regardless of who you were or what clique you belonged to, you always wanted to hang out with some of the "popular kids". Being seen with them instantly raised your credibility and stature among the rest of the kids dancing around the proverbial campfire.

The world of marketing and PR isn't much different. It's why so many organizations latch onto certain celebrities to promote their cause or business. At least that's how it used to be under the old school system. Sure, businesses still rely on celebrity endorsements for the bulk of their advertising. But in the world of social media, celebrities have very little impact.

What DOES have an impact is finding the social media personalities that already have established themselves and have major followings. In most cases, these Facebook, Twitter and Blog pages have grown because the content is interesting, informative and fun. In the world of "New Media," these are the new "popular kids" on the block, and you want to be associated with them in some way.

In a lot of ways, it's easy to hitch your wagon to these individuals. You can simply follow them, or friend them if you're talking about Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. If it's a blog, subscribe to the blog and then participate in discussions. Become a regular reader and responder. It's a bit like trying to pick up on the waitress at the bar. You don't just go in and ask her out, you have to get to know her, she has to trust you, you have to make a connection before you can do anything with her.

Blogs are kind of like that. We've discussed this before in this space. It takes a little time, but getting to know the author of a popular blog can do wonders for your hit rate.

By connecting with these "popular" profiles, you wedge your way into their club. You now have an opportunity to reach many more individuals with your message and posts. Be clear, though, about the audience for the particular profiles you friend or follow. Make sure that you're reaching a group of people that are either interested in your product, service or cause, or MIGHT be interested. While it's always a good idea to go after groups of people that fall outside of your traditional audience, you still have to make sure that your posts will have an impact, otherwise, you'll still be shouting into the wilderness, despite how many friends or followers your new contact may have.

Let's Start A Club:

Up to now, we've discussed how to join existing groups or "clubs" on social media platforms. But you can have just as much of an impact, maybe even more, by starting your own club or group. There are a few ways to do this. You can actually start a group or club page on Facebook, start a blog for that group or club, set up a Twitter account for said club or group. This is the most obvious way to establish your group or club, but certainly not the only way, or even the most effective.

When I was in college in Boulder, I used to go to Old Chicago, on Pearl Street quite often. I also went to a bar called Potters every Saturday night. With all the bars in Boulder, why did I choose those places over all the rest? Quite simply, I liked the atmosphere, the clientele and more importantly, I was part of their beer drinking club. As a card-carrying member, I received discounts on beers at those locations. The more I went, the more I saves, plus I racked up points that rewarded me with perks like mugs, t-shirts, etc. Like the saying goes, membership has its privileges.

You could begin a similar kind of program for your customers or donors. This isn't a new marketing technique. Discount books or cards have been part of the marketing world for decades. And as they say, if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

There's another way to create a club atmosphere around your organization that can be even more successful than either of the above methods; Build a nation.

Nation Building:

We've all heard of the Steeler Nation, the Packer Nation, Arnie's Army. While these are sports-oriented groups, the simply fact is that everyone who belongs to these groups are fans. And fans matter. I'm working with a client now that is trying to increase traffic to their veterinary clinic. One of the ways they're trying to do this is to increase the number of spays and neuters they do every week. As part of the campaign, we have created, "NOOTER NATION." The spelling is a take off of HOOTERS, which is a partner in the effort. Everyone who gets their pet spayed or neutered becomes part of "NOOTER NATION" and receives discounts on food and drinks at HOOTERS.

Another client is considering starting "Amy's Army" to recruit volunteers to help trap and release feral cats in Denver. By starting these various nations and army's, these organizations are calling for individuals who want to be part of something they believe in. They can rally around a cause and feel part of a group with a name and a hierarchy and a vision. Plus, once you create your nation or army or club or group, you can begin to market it as a way to help market your product, service or cause.

People want to feel like they belong to a group or an organization that holds their same beliefs, has their same values. If you own a restaurant, start the "Hoagie Hangout" or "Carnivore Club". You own a theater, how about the "Actor's Circle," where regular attendees receive discounts on shows or refreshments. The purpose of beginning a club based on your business is towfold. First, you reward customers who use your service or buy your product. The other purpose is to draw in others who may otherwise not have been interested or even aware of your organization.

In the end, you want people to take advantage of your service or product or donate to your cause. By establishing a club or group, you give your potential customers something to latch onto, and a club, group or nation is just that something.

So get out there and start a club. Ask folks to join and make it worth their while. You'll find that, like the saying goes, "If you build it, they will come." And that's a good thing.

We're Only Human!

2011-01-24T23:53:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, as has been pointed out in this space numerous times, lessons can be learned from watching other people's mistakes. And let me be very clear on this, we ALL make mistakes. Journalists are just as human as you are and, as you have probably noticed from time to time, they make mistakes.

This isn't a posting about how to overcome mistakes in your PR or social media efforts. You're going to make them. In most cases, these mistakes are going to be minor in nature and you'll be able to overcome them with thought and diligence.

No, this is more like, storytime with Real Public Relations. By the end, you'll hopefully have a bit of insight into the way newsrooms work, about how personalities can get in the way of doing good work, and how that can all have an impact on your pitches and PR efforts.

A couple of examples:

Ever make a mistake in your job? Of course you have. Usually when you do, the only one that notices is your boss, maybe your co-workers. What you DON'T have is the general public breathing down your neck, pointing, laughing, cursing. When a journalist goofs, that's exactly what happens. Plus, mistakes don't do much for the reputation, which is basically all that journalists have to rely on. But it happens, a lot. Take this story for instance:

WESH News Van Gets Jammed Under Orlando Overpass:

A WESH news van got stuck under an Orlando overpass on Wednesday after the vehicle’s mast had been accidentally raised.
Reporter Greg Fox was riding in the van along with photographer Frank Burt when the raised mast struck the underside of a highway overpass, tipping the vehicle onto two wheels.
A fire rescue crew was called to the scene, according to the Orlando Sentinel, and rescue workers steadied the van using jacks so that Fox and Burt could exit safely.
Orlando CBS-affiliate WKMG reported on its rivals’ misfortune during the station’s 7 p.m. newscast.
The WESH crew told officials that the van had successfully passed under another overpass before the accident, leading them to believe that the mast’s deployment was a technical malfunction.

Here's another one: Have you ever worked in an office with someone you don't get along with? Have you had to deal with that person under extremely tight deadlines, forced teamwork and unrealistic expectation all in an environment of pressure-cooker proportions? No? Well, journalists often have to deal with these types of situations. And this can be the result:

Newsroom Brawl Lands WCCB Anchor Brien Blakely in Hospital

Anchor Brien Blakely spent Tuesday evening at a Charlotte emergency room instead of the WCCB anchor desk after getting into a violent altercation with a news producer.
Moments before WCCB’s 10 p.m. newscast, Blakely got into an argument with a producer that escalated into a physical brawl. During the fight, Blakely, who joined the Charlotte Fox-affiliate in 2005, was sent flying over a desk. His nose was badly cut during the fall and he was rushed to an area hospital for treatment.
Police were called to the scene but no charges were filed.
“I was protecting the honor and integrity of our station,” Blakely told the Charlotte Observer about the fight.
The news producer walked out of the station after the altercation as Blakely went to the hospital. Both men were not at work on Wednesday.
WCCB has had its fair share of turmoil recently. In December, news director Ken Whitewas arrested for walking off with a bag of groceries at an area supermarket.
While the station is not commenting on the fight, Blakely says that the incident is behind him.
“These things happen,” he told the Observer. “It’s over. We’re buddies again.”

Take a look at that last sentence. "It's over. We're buddies again." Sounds ludicrous, right? That two grown men got into a fight in a newsroom in the first place, but then, after one of them ends up in the hospital, that they could be "buddies". But it's true, it happens. I know from personal experience.

Rumble In The Rockies:

There happens to be a newsroom culture that is kind of hard to explain. But put simply, it's a high-stress, fast-paced environment full of strong personalities. Things get tense, tempers flare, people clash, there are arguments. Sometimes these arguments get very, ahem, heated. But here's what you have to understand. It's not personal. Unlike politics and religion, the newsroom wars are typically short, intense explosions that burn out quickly. Afterwards, you shake hands and you go out for beers together.

I've had several clashes with co-workers while working in news. For instance:

When I was in radio, we used to have an area called, "The Pit" where all the producers and talk show hosts used to be located. We'd discuss news of the day, as we all tried to put our shows together. The arguments used to get so heated and loud that management issued several memorandums telling us, in essence, to keep quiet.

One morning, my host, Peter Boyles, and I got into a short but heated argument about which topic we were going to start the show off with. We disagreed vehemently and at 4am tempers flared. He told me to "F" off, I flipped him the bird, words were exchanged, he threw a piece of his bagel at me. Fortunately, we were separated by several inches of soundproof glass as I was in the booth and he was in the studio.

Fast forward several years and I had just moved from one TV station to another. I was producing the morning news and our show had been experiencing some serious technical difficulties. As a producer who had spent hours crafting the rundown, writing copy, organizing guests, there's nothing more frustrating than technical issues. From the booth I continued to press the technical and editing staff to get them on the ball. Of course, they didn't take that well. Immediately after the show, I made a beeline to the technical room downstairs and sought out the senior editor on shift that morning.

He defended his crew, I defended mine. Again, words were exchanged, and an offer to "take it outside" was made. We nearly went, too. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. We were ushered down to the News Director's office and reprimanded severely. The fact is, by the time we reached the ND's office, we were fine. We realized how stupid we had acted and it was completely forgotten. There truly were no hard feelings. To this day, that man is one of my favorite individuals that I worked with at that station.

Sh** Happens:

Sometimes, however, mistakes simply happen. You'd be surprised how often the issue of a non-retracted tower plagues a newsroom, whether it be radio or TV. Fortunately, the stations I worked at had the good sense to keep me from driving around any sensitive or expensive equipment. I was relegated to holding a microphone or staying back at the station to report and write. But I've witnessed some real doozies.

One Halloween night our station had decided it would be a great idea to broadcast live from the Denver Press Club, one of the most haunted places (reportedly) in Denver. The shows were great radio. Seances, wonderful interviews, compelling storytelling. At 9pm sharp, the host signed off and the truck operator began to pack things up. All the wires were coiled, the equipment placed and locked down. Everything seemed in order. With one big exception, the mast was still up.

As the truck pulled away, it carried off the awning in front of the building. An awning that had survived fires, vandalism and a century of wear, tear and weather, was simply no match for a radio truck with a 20-foot broadcast mast.

The repercussions were swift and terrible. We all had to train on the truck and learn the secrets of the mast. Plus, suspensions were threatened if it happened again. Of course, the next time a big remote was planned, the truck was operated by the manager of the department himself. It was a great remote, again wonderful radio. It was just after Thanksgiving and the show that aired right after mine decided to broadcast live from a hilltop above Golden where a man calling himself the "Real Santa Clause" resided. He raised reindeer, lived in a wooden shack and dressed like Kris Kringle.

Once again, the show was a hit. After signing off, the crew wrapped up. With the manager in charge of things, no one thought twice to think about the truck mast. of COURSE it had been retracted. In a moment of serendipity, someone took a photo of the manager standing outside the truck, with the producer and talk show host sitting just inside getting ready to go. In the background, you could see the mast clearly still raised.

Within minutes, the truck was on its way and promptly ran smack dab into several power lines directly overhead. The power lines snapped and fell to the ground, some landed on top of the van. This kept the crew in the van trapped inside as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through the van and into the ground. They were safe as long as they stayed inside, but once they stepped outside, if they touched the van, they would have been torched.

Sadly, the mast also pulled some power lines out of the box at Santa Clause's shack, starting a fire. Within ten minutes the shack was ablaze, and Clause was trying to put out the inferno with a water hose, which quickly melted.

Below, at the bottom of the hill, the fire department could see the flames. The producer of the show told me later that she could see the firemen walk out of the firehouse and looking up at the fire, pointing and wondering what in the world was going on. About an hour later the fire had been put out, the power lines had been cleared and the truck was back on the road.

The following morning, the picture that had been taken moments before the mishap mysteriously appeared on the door of the manager's office. Someone had written in a thought balloon, "Hmmm, what am I forgetting?" with an arrow pointing to the still-erect mast.

True to their word, however, the manager was suspended for two days.

Don't Judge:

There are a million stories just like those. I alone could spend hours telling of similar events based solely on my experiences. The point to all this is that everyone makes mistakes. Reporters, editors, producers, they're only human. They will, from time to time, mess up on a fact, not check a critical piece of equipment or simply misspell a name.

I've heard many complaints in my time about how a newsroom got their name wrong, misquoted them or didn't get the right address for their business. In some cases a wrong logo was put up, or the story simply didn't run when it was supposed to. This happens. Your best bet to deal with these types of mistakes is to be patient. Don't lose your cool, get angry, yell or beat down the door.

You can try to prevent these mistakes from happening by following up with the newsroom. Email them the correct information in simple, easy to read fonts and short sentences. Make sure they received the information and then follow up again to make sure they have everything correct. Even then, it may not end up correct on the air or in the paper.

When this happens, calmly and coolly contact the reporter or producer and let them know the information was wrong. Ask them to make a correction and then, let it go. Trust me, they'll feel bad about the mistake and do what they can to fix it. By being professional about it, you'll earn way more points with the newsroom than if you yell and scream. Because even though journalists are able to fight with a coworker and then immediately forget about the conflict, when it comes to people outside the newsroom, they have memories like elephants. They'll remember how you treated them and the next time you pitch a story, you just won't be worth the time or effort.

You can learn something from the newsroom culture in this respect. It's okay to disagree, even get upset, but don't make it personal and then, when it's done, forget about it. Move on and focus on other more important things. If you can do this, you'll quickly earn a reputation as someone who really cares about their business, but is easy to work with and handles things professionally. Even if the mistake is completely theirs, it's best to chalk it up as an honest mistake and cheerfully thank them for their time before pitching them again in the future. Trust me on this. I mean, we're only human, right?

Today's Post brought to you by the word: Transparency

2011-01-17T01:12:00.000-08:00

I'm a football fan. I also happen to be a native of Colorado; born and raised. I learned how to ski at a young age, I remember when LoDo was a dump and spent my formative years cheering for the old "Orange Crush" Bronco defense when before Lyle Alzado went all Raider on us.

To say I'm a fan of John Elway is like saying Russians like their vodka. So you can imagine my delight when old No. 7 took over the reigns of my beloved Broncos. For one, it signaled the true end of the disaster that was Josh McDaniels. But more importantly, it meant that the team I grew up loving was returning to its roots, its traditions.

And yet, oddly enough, even as the team was starting to return to it's rich history, a new, fresh image was being born. Suddenly the secrecy and closed door policy that is so often a part of NFL culture was giving way to a more open, honest and transparent culture not seen in these parts since Red Miller prowled the sidelines and Tom Jackson was calling John Madden "The Fat Man."

What, you might ask, does this have to do with small business and non-profit PR and social media? In a word...everything.

A Modern Culture:

It's often been said that knowledge is king. In today's world of instant gratification and constant information overload, it can seem like secrets are a thing of the past and everyone knows what everyone else is doing. But look closely and you'll see that the organizations that have the most success with social media are the ones that not only use it regularly, but they're also the ones who know exactly the kind of information to release.

Success with social media isn't just about making regular postings, daily tweets and maximizing your groups, friends and followers. Certainly those are important, but no matter how efficient and active you are, if you don't provide the RIGHT kind of information, your campaign will ultimately fail.

We've discussed in this space before the need to make your posts informative, fun and interesting. We've talked about adding value to your posts across all of your platforms. But there is another element of social media content that most organizations simply overlook, an element that can help you build a massive following.

Pull Back the Covers:

I've always thought that some enterprising local TV station ought to place cameras in their newsrooms and conference rooms and let the world see the day-to-day operations. Of course, that is nearly impossible. But why not stream the daily news meetings? Let the world take a peek into the workings of how news decisions are actually made. I think people would be surprised at how passionately stories are debated.

While that hasn't happened yet, and probably won't for many years, some local TV stations ARE using Twitter to let their followers know which stories are being discussed for later broadcasts. I follow these newsrooms every day so I can get a jump on pitching a client if they're a right match for a story being considered.

Clearly, some newsrooms get it. They understand that times have changed and it's no longer just 20 people sitting around a table making news decisions, separate from a majority of public input. Today, there is an interactivity never before seen in news. Producers and editors are constantly updating stories, producers are using social media to gather feedback, track down guests, and dig for information. At the same time, the public has more access to journalists through Twitter and Facebook giving them a feeling of being part of the news that impacts their daily lives.

The covers have been pulled back a bit, letting anyone who's interested see a bit of the process that takes place in newsrooms everyday. In a similar move, Elway and the Broncos have started using Twitter to reconnect to the thousands of fans that felt betrayed and disappointed by the Josh McDaniels era.

Last week, before I heard it on the radio, before I saw it on SportsCenter, before I caught in on my local nightly newscast, I heard about the hiring of Denver's new head coach, John Fox, through Twitter. But this tweet didn't come from a friend in a newsroom or someone who heard it through the grapevine. No, it came from John Elway himself. It was short, simple and to the point. "The Denver Broncos have hired John Fox to be our next head coach."

The next day, this quote from Patrick Smyth, the Broncos' executive director of media relations appeared in the Denver Post: (click on the link to read the entire article)

"It was important to us to reach our fans directly and in the most personal way, and it was important to restore some of the credibility in our organization that might have been lost in a challenging season," Smyth said. "We owe that to our fans."

As a fan, I felt closer to my team than I ever have before, and this is coming from a guy who stood on the field of old Mile High Stadium covering the Broncos Superbowl celebration for local radio, rubbing elbows with the players and coaches, the Lombardi trophy just a few feet away. Such is the power of social media. It has the ability to inform, entertain, and most importantly, connect.

Reality Social Media:

With the popularity of reality television, more and more people want access to the inner sanctum of their favorite organizations. They not only want that access, they feel they deserve it. So why not give your customers, potential customers and supporters that access?

Remember, your business, like most small businesses, is rooted in the neighborhood in which you operate. Your organization is more than just a name over a door and a collection of individuals. You are, hopefully, a trusted entity in your neighborhood. If you're brand new, you want to reach that status as quickly as possible. One of the best ways to let potential customers or supporters get to know you is to let them see you in action.

I'm not necessarily talking about setting up cameras all over your office or store and streaming live video 24/7. But why not tell your story online? Why not let the world see the interesting and fun characters you have working for you? Why not allow them access to your decision making processes so they can understand the effort you put in to make your customers happy? By posting this kind of information, you achieve a couple of things:

1. You build trust - People can see that you're not skimping on product or effort. They can see exactly what they're getting for their money or time.

2. You build familiarity - The more the public knows about you, the more likely they are to view you as someone they are comfortable with. The old adage, you do friends with people you like" holds true.

3. You build interest - If your posts are interesting enough, you'll start to attract followers, friends and supporters based solely on the strength of your content. Your existing friends, followers and customers will tell their friends about you and direct them to your pages, thus growing your base.

Elements of Transparency:

Again, transparency can be easier said than done. But you CAN be more transparent and open to your constituency, and without divulging your trade secrets or putting your customers at risk. For example, if you own a bakery, why not post a video once a week that shows you making one of your special sticky buns or perhaps an easy to make holiday treat for kids? It's like your own little cooking show, only without the commercials. You don't have to show your baking secrets, but parents would likely appreciate seeing you make your bread or sweets, so they know exactly what is in them.

If you're a dry cleaners, why not offer tips on removing stains, something special that only your shop does. Bars can show virtual tours of their kitchens or let folks see how they decide on what beers to serve. There are a million things you can post that gives the public more insight to your operation, letting them feel like they know you a bit better and in turn attracting their business.

Yes, this means you have to shoot some video, and do some minor editing. It also means you have to post regularly and really make sure your content is valuable, entertaining and informative. But really, if you plan on having a successful social media campaign, you should be doing these things already.

What we're talking about here is the KIND of content that you're putting up. To that end, let's look at some of the elements you'll need to run an effective transparency campaign.

1. A good story - Just like putting together your release, you want to make sure you're pointing out the most interesting and unique parts of your story. Unlike your press release, this isn't about telling your history, but letting folks know how you operate on a day to day basis. What is happening in your office? What kind of decisions are being made and how will the general public benefit from these decisions?

2. A good character - This isn't absolutely essential, but it helps. If you have some colorful characters in your office, let the world see them in action. Do you have an employee that sings? Someone who is a great artist or a whiz with computers or machinery? Highlight them and let the world see the talent you have on your staff.

3. Video - You can write all you want, but people really want to watch interesting video. For example, we have a video shoot for a client coming up that shows a day at a veterinarian clinic through the eyes of a dog that is visiting for a day. People will get to see the dog get checked in, go through the grooming, get neutered, receive follow up treatment and then go home. It will be split up into a series of short videos. This kind of video takes a day to shoot and a day to edit, but you get weeks worth of video out of it and it lets the world see how this clinic cares for the cats and dogs brought in for treatment.

4. Follow the rules - Just like before, you still have to make your posts worth something. They have to have value, be entertaining, fun, informative. This is where a lot of businesses fall short. So often businesses use their social media platforms to just talk about an upcoming sale or special. That's talking TO the public. This doesn't open the door for conversation, and a conversation is what makes a good social media campaign so effective.

5. Be personal - One of the things that makes social media so special is that it can give people a window into the feelings, thoughts and actions of others. I can read about a daily deal or about how the weather sucks anywhere. But I CAN'T read about how the weather makes you feel, or how happy you are that your organization just received a prestigious award. Don't just tell me that you got the award, tell me how you feel and what you're going to do to celebrate.

I understand that this will be harder for some than others. Being open feels risky, particularly in this age of scammers and hackers. And you certainly need to be aware and cautious. You don't want to go telling the world about your trade secrets. But you DO want the world to feel as if they know you better than they know your competitors.

It's this kind of openness and familiarity that can truly have a positive impact on your bottom line. So get out there, beat your chest and bang the drum and pull back the curtain. Let the world see you in all your glory. Take a hint from Elway and be more transparent. You'll be surprised at how freeing, and successful, it can be.

An Air of Mystery

2011-01-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

Greetings all! It's been a while since I've posted last. I promise it won't be nearly as long between posts for quite some time. I decided to take a little time off during the holidays to catch up on some work, as well as with friends and family. It was a nice, much needed break, but I'm back and ready to get back to work helping small businesses and non-profits create and maintain their PR and social media efforts. So with that said, let's jump right into today's topic.

The Mystery Campaign!

First, let's begin by saying that the "Mystery Campaign" is not new. It's also not really a PR campaign. You won't have much luck pitching a media outlet a mystery story. Journalists have a bad habit of wanting to know details and the like. However, as a marketing strategy, more to the point, as a social media marketing strategy, it can be real boost to your overall efforts.

Before we move forward, ask yourself this...what is one of mankind's most enduring traits? The answer is, of course, curiosity. We are a curious species. When presented with something unknown, we nearly always go out of our way to satisfy that curiosity. For decades, marketers have banked on our natural curiosity to promote products, services and businesses. And, like the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Currently, in Denver, a series of billboards caused a minor stir when they appeared of the skyline of the Mile High City. If you live in or around Denver, you've probably seen them. They're big and red all over, with a single, yellow spoon situated just off to the right of center.

There's no copy, no hint as to what it might be promoting, no message hitting commuters over the head as they go to and from work. It's a simple, basic picture and nothing else. What is it? People asked. What does it mean? Who did it? What's the point? Within a week, people's curiosity was piqued.

I spend a lot of time online doing research for my clients, as well as for this blog. I read the papers, and the news outlets online and within a short period of time I began to see the question pop up all over the place, wondering about the giant red billboard with the yellow spoon.

It didn't take long, about two weeks, before the answer was out and the public curiosity was satiated. It turns out the billboards were part of a new promotion for McDonald's breakfasts. This is just a single example of this kind of mystery campaign being used to raise awareness and generate interest in a product or service.

Those of you old enough to remember the 80's will recall fondly, maybe, the very first Apple commercial that aired in 1984. If you don't remember, or weren't around to watch it the first go-around, here it is.

This ad ran during the Superbowl and confused millions of viewers who basically had no idea what the commercial was about. It created waves of interest as the general public tried to figure out what they had just seen and what it was supposed to say.

The "Mystery Campaign" has even been used successfully in animated TV shows. Anyone remember the "Gabbo's Coming!" commercials from the Simpsons over 10 years ago? Who is Gabbo? Why is he coming? What will he do when he gets here? Hell, as a casual watcher of the program I was intrigued to find out who this "Gabbo" character was.

Why it works:

I've already explained one reason why the "Mystery Campaign" works; simple curiosity. But that alone isn't enough to make a campaign successful. More than anything, the successful campaigns capture the imagination of potential clients and customers. They also provide a promise of some kind that appeals to the base desires of your potential audience. The question is, how can you do that with your social media campaign? Let's break it down.

The elements:

Let's get this out in the beginning; the mystery campaign doesn't work for everything. Generally they work best when unveiling something new, something innovative, something unique. If you're promoting a dry cleaners or widget, you might want to consider a different approach.

But if you have an event, an opening night, an unveiling, you'll want to start with an angle. Remember when we discussed news angles? This isn't much different. The goal is to build a mystique, a mystery, not just to ask question, but to truly get people's attention and tickle their imagination.

Just like in everything else you do, you also want to tease your potential customers or clients with the promise of something exciting, special, unique, wonderful. Use any adjective you wish, but you want your audience to be waiting in anticipation, believing that what they're waiting for will benefit them some way, either materialistically, financially or emotionally.

Let's look at the tools you need to make this work:

1. A date - No, I'm not talking about someone you ask to the prom. This is more like a deadline, a specific time frame in which to weave your web. In order to build anticipation, you need to let the public know when to expect the big event. Without a deadline or end date, you'll have a hard time creating buzz. You can only string the public along for so long. Eventually the excitement will wear off, they'll lose interest and move on to something else.

2. Appeal to the base wants and needs - What do people want? Money, love, happiness, security? Whatever it is, your campaign needs to give the promise of meeting at least one of their wants or needs. Let's say you're promoting a new sandwich at your restaurant. Give it a name, call it, the Bronson. Then, as part of your campaign you can say something like, "Bronson is coming, and you'll never be hungry again..." Hey, that sounds good. Of course, as a reader, I'll be asking, "Who the heck is Bronson, and why won't I ever be hungry again?" You have my interest. Now all you need is...

3. Follow up - What makes a great mystery campaign great is that it ends up being everywhere. It gets people talking. They start asking their friends and co-workers about the mystery. Posters begin appearing on streetcorners, posts end up flooding Facebook, the Twitterverse is abuzz with contemplation and excitement. But this doesn't happen without some work. YOU have to be constantly posting online, spreading the word, going into chat rooms and asking questions about the very campaign you have created. It takes some vigilance and effort to make a mystery campaign successful, moreso than your typical social media efforts. But if you put in the time, you'll begin to create the kind of buzz that will pay off big in the end.

4. Watch your timing - This is one of the most important elements of this kind of campaign. If you start too far in advance of your big unveiling, you'll lose the interest of the public and the buzz will fizzle out. Start too close to the end date, and you won't have enough time to build the kind of activity you want. A general rule is to not start your campaign more than a month in advance. Figure it will take about a week for people to actually start paying attention. Then two weeks for the buzz to reach a crescendo. The final week will be all about driving folks to either purchase tickets to your event, or get them excited enough to show up to your unveiling. This is called the 3 stages and I'll cover them in just a couple of paragraphs.

5. Have a point - It's great to catch people's attention, but once you have it, you have to do something with it. In other words, you want to drive the folks online to a website, a Facebook page, a Youtube page, or give them a call to action of some kind. Maybe it's to show up at a specific location at a set time for the unveiling where you'll toss out swag and have a party. Whatever it is, you have to tell people what you want them to do.

6. Be visual - Of course, words say a lot, but we all know the old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words. Take the McDonalds billboard mentioned above. A big red billboard with a simple, single yellow spoon laid against it does more to grab attention than a billboard full of words. The same holds true online. Even a picture of the date with a simple, short tagline can be effective. In order for your efforts to be successful, you will want to use pictures, graphic elements, even video to help build excitement and buzz.

7. Be diverse - In other words, don't have one single picture or one single video. People will tire of the same visuals very quickly. You want to have several different visual elements, each with a slightly different message or targeted at a different audience. For example, one of my most recent projects involves the opening night of a Shakespearean theatrical group. They know they'll attract more traditional theater goers. But in order to be special they need to attract those that might otherwise not pay money to watch live Shakespeare. To reach those audiences, we created a series of videos, some that appealed to those who enjoy action and adventure, blood and fights. At the same time we released a video that highlighted the more...sexy...elements of the show. All the while we are keeping the entire venture wrapped in a veil of secrecy. All these readers know is that something fun, sexy, new and exciting is coming on 1.14.2011. Plus, by having a handful of different visual elements, you'll be able to post and repost these photos and videos over and over to catch those who might have missed them the first time around.

If your campaign has all of those basic elements, your efforts will likely be successful. Again, you have to stay on top of this kind of campaign more than usual, which is just one other reasons why you shouldn't launch this kind of campaign too far in advance. You simply won't have the time to truly stay on top of it all and still manage the rest of your responsibilities. But three to four weeks of hard work and vigilance will net you some major results.

Which finally leads us to the the three stages of the "Mystery Campaign." Let's assume you are starting your efforts one month before the end date. As mentioned above, you can break your four weeks into three stages. But this works with a three week advance, and, if you're desperate, even a two week advance. Any less lead time than that and you're likely wasting your time.

1. Launch - This is where you make a splash. You can leak your best stuff, your most attention grabbing stuff out online over the course of the first stage. This is the part where you want folks to sit up and ask, "What is this about?" It's during this time that you will be posting the most content on your various social media platforms.

2. Maintenance - Once you have their attention, you have to maintain it. You can do this one of two ways. A) You can continue to post constantly in an effort to build momentum quickly. Or B) You can begin to release your material in a more measured way, designed to keep it in front of people, but still make it a bit of a mystery. If you suddenly pull back a bit, it will get people wondering what is happening and keep them on the edge of their seat, so to speak. Either way can be successful.

3. Tapering Down - The final week leading up to your big event is really your make or break moment. On one hand you can, in an effort to reap some PR bounce from your campaign, unwrap the mystery a day or so beforehand. This is risky since you take the chance that you will kill the suspense for some folks and lose some potential customers or clients before your big unveiling. The better move is to keep the suspense going until the very last moment. The only change you'll likely make at this stage is to focus not so much on the mystery, but on the date and the call to action. If your efforts up to this point has been to highlight the promise and the mystery, at this stage you'll want to really hammer the end date and what you want people to do at that time. By this stage, people will just be starting to tire of being in the dark. By giving them something to do on the date in question, you rekindle their excitement, knowing that their curiosity will soon be quenched.

Of course, you'll likely never make the kind of splash that Apple did in 1984, or that McDonalds did in Denver, but you can still reach thousands upon thousands of folks who otherwise might never have heard of your business or non-profit.

Also, keep in mind, that while we're talking about something potentially viral (isn't everything online "potentially" viral?) that isn't necessarily your goal here. Your goal is to get people questioning and talking, yes, but you don't need it to circulate around the world in forwarded emails. What you DO want to do is get your immediate community of potential customers and clients to take notice of you. And when it comes to grabbing attention, really, nothing does it better than a well-developed Mystery Campaign.

Don't Touch Me There!

2010-12-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

Years ago there used to be a TV show on late night called SpaceGhost Coast to Coast. It was a strange little cartoon who's viewers were comprised mostly of "The Tick" fans and folks who used to rush home early on weekend nights to watch Liquid Television on MTV. (How's THAT for a blast from the past?)

I bring this odd little show up because when I heard of the new TSA patdown policy I remembered a song from the show that I felt was appropriate. It was sung by one of the show's secondary characters called "Brack" and it was called, "Don't Touch Me." It was a pretty basic song. Basically it was just Brack singing "Don't Touch Me!" over and over again.

I amused myself the other day imagining thousands upon thousands of holiday travelers singing that song as TSA officers groped and fondled their way through prospective terrorists. In the end, though, what REALLY amused me was the public relations fallout from the new pat-down policy and the concept that someone in government though that this would just go by the average citizen unnoticed.

Well, clearly it didn't. And, as this USA Today article points out, the PR disaster didn't catch TSA officials completely off-guard.

TSA chief: Public outcry over pat-downs weighed vs. risk
By Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY
The nation's transportation security chief says he decided to launch controversial new airport pat-down searches without first warning travelers, against the advice of his public relations aides.
Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole said in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday that he rejected the advice for fear of highlighting screening weaknesses terrorists could exploit.
TSA's more intensive pat-downs of private body parts under clothing set off what he called a "media frenzy" leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday travel week.
Q&A: Pistole talks about threats, how far searches will go
FREQUENT TRAVELERS: Oppose new TSA security screenings
POLL: Most fliers bothered or angered by TSA pat-downs
"What it came down to was I wanted to make sure people are not subjected to additional risk of planes being blown out of the sky," Pistole told USA TODAY's editorial board. "I was gravely concerned that we needed to do something with a sense of urgency and professionalism that did not signal to terrorists that we had a vulnerability."
Pistole says he wishes there was an "easier answer" to the balance between keeping the public informed and ensuring flights are safe.

This article tells me two things:
1. TSA has competent PR consultants
2. TSA officials are terrible at damage control

It was reassuring to hear that at least SOMEONE at the TSA was aware of the potential PR disaster that awaited after announcing the new policy. As a PR professional, I was left wondering how an official government agency could believe that there wouldn't be some kind of negative reaction to the pat-downs. However, upon reading this article, I was comforted to know that there are some folks who could foresee the shitstorm that was to follow the implementation of the policy.

What is NOT comforting, however, is the response to the controversy. If the agency knew there was going to be a backlash one would figure they would craft the kind of response that would negate at least SOME of the anger and frustration felt by travelers. But no. What we got was more of the fear-based, shallow platitudes that we have been fed for several years now.

Right Moves, Wrong Message:

Let's look at the TSA strategy in response to the problem. They set up editorial board meetings and went out on a full-fledged media blitz to explain the new policy. This was exactly the right move, at least on macro scale.

But what was the message that they passed on in all of those interviews and meetings? Essentially, it was, "If we didn't do this, you would die!" Using phrases like, "blown out of the sky," and "signal to terrorists that we had a vulnerability..." does little more that reinforce the fact that the TSA isn't really doing their job. It instills fear, rather than confidence.

The fact that this message was approved by the PR folks is disturbing. Why not instead move forward with a message that focuses on reinforcing current strengths instead of highlighting weaknesses? A message such as, "While our current policies are working effectively, we feel the new policy will make our screening processes even stronger in the face of new threats."

Of course, there's no way that any message was going to completely satisfy everyone. But the message that was relayed through the media came across as arrogant fear-mongering. It told the public that we were helpless to stop future attacks without the new policy. Plus, it even blames the media for creating a "frenzy". It wasn't the media that created the problem, the public reacted to a new, surprise policy and the media covered it.

What This Means To You:

As a small business owner or non-profit, you will, from time to time, be forced to change your policies or prices. Whenever you make a change, you take the risk of alienating long time customers and driving away new potential customers if you don't handle it right.

In most cases, you can make the change easier by simply communicating better. In the TSA case, they sprung the pat-down change on the public with little to no warning. For small businesses and non-profits, you can minimize the anger and frustration of changes by announcing the change on your social media platforms. Simple posts on Facebook, your blog and through Tweets can let your customers and potential customers know your new policies.

More importantly, solid community outreach can go a long way towards minimizing the fallout from future changes in your business policies. Think about how much goodwill the TSA might have garnered if they had put representatives in major airports to explain the new policy and simply be there to allow travelers to vent their frustrations? Sometimes community outreach and PR is about listening to complaints.

Just by having someone there to listen to the venting, the TSA would have shown a willingness to acknowledge that there is an issue, and an understanding of travelers' frustrations. People know they won't be able to change the policy, but by allowing them to express their frustration, they let travelers know that they understand and that they care. That's really all that people want in situations such as these.

As a small business or non-profit, you can open a forum online, or have someone physically in place to listen to customer complaints after the changes have been implemented. You might still lose a few customers, but most will appreciate that you took the time to listen to their complaints.

Change can be difficult, we all know that. Your customers frequent your organization because they like how you run your operation. When change happens, it makes them angry, frustrated and scared. It is up to you to listen to them, to communicate with them, let them know WHY you are making the change so they can see your side of things. People are forgiving if they know the whole story and if you take the extra steps to show them that you understand and care.

So don't make the same mistake that the TSA did. Communicate beforehand, make sure you are prepared to listen to complaints and make sure your message doesn't condescend to them or blame someone else for any fallout that might occur from the changes. Put yourself in their shoes and use your social media platforms and a solid PR plan to get your message out before the change creates the kind of problems that you can't control. If you do this, you'll be able to make your changes without losing business or money.

The Forest For The Trees

2010-11-11T16:14:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest problems small business owner and non-profit directors have when handling their own PR and social media efforts is that they are too close to their own organization. I know this sounds strange to say, but sometimes being TOO familiar with your business or non-profit can actually hinder your ability to speak to the masses, gain friends and followers and garner you some much needed earned media coverage.

Case in point:

On Thursday morning, I received this email from a friend who works as news producer at a local television station:

On Nov 11, 2010, at 11:56 AM, Shaw, Duncan J Shaw wrote
You know I *love* sending you stuff…

Nowhere in this e-mail or attached press release is there an explanation of *what* “Wage Theft” is (they provide a link to a video in the e-mail, and I think there are links in the attachment), but you would think you’d at least give a one or two line explanation…

This "release" is one of the myriad of "Bad press releases" that newsrooms receive every day. Fortunately, I have the pleasure of reading a few of them from time to time without having to sift through the piles of garbage that producers, reporters and editors have to deal with.

Before we go any further, let's take a look at the aforementioned "release":
(NOTE - I have removed the name of individual who sent the release)

Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 11:53 AM
Subject: Press Advisory for Wage Theft Action in Denver, 11-18-10

Greetings.

Attached is a press advisory about a Wage Theft Day of Action and Awareness that will take place a week from today in 30 cities around the country (including Denver) on Thursday, Nov. 18th at 11:00am.

Here is a YouTube link about the problem of wage theft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn6nr2PviIU&feature=player_embedded

For general inquires ahead of time about the Day of Action in Denver or concerning the informal partnership that has developed in Denver between Interfaith Worker Justice of Colorado, the Department of Labor, OSHA, and the El Centro Day Laborer Center, please contact me (Rev. Daniel Klawitter) at: 303-477-6111 ext. 36.

For inquires about what wage theft specifically looks like in Metro Denver and/or to get personal human interest stories from workers who have had their wages stolen by their employer, please contact the Director of El Centro Humanitario, Eddie Soto, at: 303.292.4115, esoto@centrohumanitario.org

WHAT: Educational event/Press Conference on Wage Theft
WHO: Religious Leaders, Day Laborers, Worker Advocates and representatives from OSHA, the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division and Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment.
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 18th at 11:00am.
WHERE: El Centro Humanitario, 2260 California St. Denver, CO 80205.

Speakers will include Dusti Gurule, the regional representative for U.S. Department of Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis.

Sincerely,
XXXXXX

There was the obligatory follow-up contact information at the end, which was perhaps the best part of the release.

Now let's take a look at WHY this release is such a poor example of a press advisory. Look back at Duncan's note in his email to me.

1. There is no explanation of what "Wage Theft" is
2. The video link is just that, a link, no embedded video

These two items alone make this a very ineffective press release. Of course there are some reasons as to why these mistakes happened. First, the sender assumed that journalists know what wage theft is. Second, they may not have taken the time, or knew how, to embed video into an email.

While both mistakes are understandable, they aren't excusable. As we've covered in this space many times before, journalists are two things; busy and lazy. Yes, it sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. Reporters, editors and producers already have a ton of work to do. They either won't want to, or don't have time to open up external links or attached files. If you want a journalist to look at your video, read your release or peruse your article, then you have to put it directly into the body of your email.

You really have to make it as simple as possible for them to get and digest the information quickly. One stop shopping is the way to go. Don't make them go to YouTube, or take tha chance that whatever file you've attached doesn't come with a virus. Yes, it's only one extra click, but that extra click can be the difference between getting news coverage and ending up in the ignore pile.

Speak The Language:

Now about the other miscue, assuming that journalists were already aware of "wage theft", well, that's an entirely different beast.

As a small business owner or non-profit director, you deal with your particular cause, service or product on a daily basis. You know all aspects about what your organization does, from top to bottom and from all angles. No one knows as much as you do when it comes to your business or non-profit. On one hand, this makes you the perfect person to go forth and spread your message. On the other hand, this intimate knowledge can be a real handicap as well.

For instance, the individual who sent the above press release is most likely so involved with the issue of wage theft that it is almost inconceivable to him that very few people actually know what wage theft is.

This has been an issue with many of the clients I work with as well. Whether it's a restaurant, a storage company or any number of non-profits, each of them simply assume that everyone is already aware of their business or cause.

This assumption negatively impacts how you present your information. Because we all know that brevity works when dealing with the public, corners are cut and vital information is often left out. This is the kind of information that, while well known to those close to the business or cause, isn't readily known outside of those circles. Thus, you end up sending a release that focuses on your upcoming event, without actually describing what your business or cause is all about.

More than that, BECAUSE you are so well versed in your cause or business, you ultimately end up using language that is either confusing or is a turn-off to the public at large.

When dealing with one of my current clients, we have gone round and round over the type of words used to describe pets without homes. To the public at large, homeless pets are feral. But within the circles of animal rescue and care, feral has a very specific meaning. That means we have to use both "homeless" AND "feral" in all of our releases. It might seem like a little thing, but it's extra words that can ultimately confuse readers.

Another instance involves the upcoming holiday season. When it was proposed to promote proper care for new pets given as presents, the client had a problem because so many pets will likely come from breeders, something the client is opposed to. The problem is, the public doesn't care, thousands of new pets WILL come from breeders this holiday season. Simply by talking about holiday pets won't increase the number of pets purchased from breeders. But by avoiding the topic altogether, the client would have missed an opportunity to talk about spaying and neutering for all these new pets and wouldn't have had a platform to discuss spaying and neutering in general.

This problem can be seen in every walk of life. Engineers, chefs, computer programmers, non-profits of every stripe. When putting together your press releases, when posting items on your various social media platforms, keep in mind that the public at large isn't familiar with your acronyms, your technical speak, your specific definitions.

Combating The Problem:

It's not easy to step back and see the bigger picture. In most cases, you don't have that luxury. You're so busy handling the daily details of your organization, you are essentially immersed in every aspect of your organization. So when it comes to putting together your release or posting on Facebook or Tweeting, here are some ways you can make sure your knowledge doesn't get in the way of your success:

1. An extra set of eyes - Get someone you trust to go over your releases before sending them out. Make sure this is someone who isn't as familiar with your organization as you are. By getting someone to represent the public at large, you can make sure your message isn't lost, hindered or obfuscated by technical language or terms that only you will understand.

2. Dont' get caught up in the minutae - Yes, to you, the minutae matters, it has to in order to be successful. But too much minutae will turn away followers. They don't care about the difference between "homeless" and "feral" or between "hoagie" and "grinder". You also don't have to explain every little thing, just the overview. Make sure your basic message is received in the simplest and most understandable manner possible.

3. Don't forget the bottom line - In the end, you want others to understand, appreciate and support your business or non-profit. The public wants value and you have to show them why your organization gives them that value. Don't worry about every little thing, focus on explaining, briefly what you do or what you're about, and what you can do for them. If you can adhere to these two basic elements, you're releases and your postings will be successful.

You have a passion about your organization, that makes sense. But if you don't step back and simplify and clarify your message, your efforts will result in failure. Just keep in mind that you have to explain in short simple terms what your business, product, service or cause is all about and then explain why you bring value to the public. It's not hard to do, unless, of course, you're just too close to the subject matter to see the forest for the trees.

A view from the other side:

2010-11-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things anyone dealing with the media needs to learn is the thought process of producers, reporters and editors. Sometimes, it's not as easy as it sounds. Listen, it's not rocket science, but, like a lot of other professions, one can't REALLY understand someone's thought processes until they "walk a mile in their shoes," so to speak.

Of course, it's impossible for everyone to spend time working in a newsroom (although I, and many others think it SHOULD be requirement for PR professionals, but that's another issue). Heck, most people wouldn't want to work in news. It can be boring at times, terrifying at others, there is tedium, long hours and to make up for it all, few people are getting rich working in local news.

One of my goals when starting this blog was to help small business owners and non-profits understand a little better HOW newsrooms operate, what kind of pressures they work under and the thoughts and decision processes used by most journalists.

To that end, I offer this article. It comes from Shoptalk, a popular media website and email newsletter that comes out every day. The article is written by Doug Drew and I think it gives some incredible insight into how producers book guests for their shows.

Keys to Booking Guests

Guests are often trying to promote something other than your primary objective.
The producer of the Howard Stern show, Gary Dell'Abate, recently appeared on David Letterman's The Late Show, telling Dave that if Stern was a good guy on the radio "we would have no where to work." It was a great interview with lots of insight into Howard Stern and his shock radio show. It was about an 8 minute interview, lengthy by late night talk show standards, and not until the very end did Letterman let Dell'Abate plug the real reason he was on the show, to promote his new book They Call Me Baba Booey.

The plug goes at the end of the segment
I am sure Dell'Abate's agent or publisher pitched The Late Show to book Dell' Abate as a guest. In fact, most guests who appear on television are booked through a PR agency who sent a press release to the station. Television stations are inundated with people trying to get on TV to promote their product, their book, their movie, their concert, their community event, their restaurant, etc. Some of these make great guests, but just remember whose show it is. Accomplish your goals first, and get them to hold their plug for the end of the interview.

It's easy to book a guest who comes in the door through an agency or a press release. You simply call the contact person on the release, and select a date for the appearance.

Guests are given valuable airtime
But too often that is where the planning stops, and it can't be that way. Too many producers simply pick up the press release, call the contact person, agree on a date, and viola, the segment is booked! But it's not just about filling time. You are giving these people incredible amounts of airtime. It's time they very likely couldn't afford to buy if they were going through the sales department. So, they should be willing to do whatever it is you want, within reason.

Dan Aykroyd is making the local TV circuit, his agent offering him as a guest to pitch his new Vodka. Aykroyd is a great guest, but if not planned properly he will simply come in and do a commercial. Instead, think why you would want to have him as a guest. You'd want to talk to him about his movie career, and about the new Ghostbusters movie that is in the works. You have to make it clear to the contact, that you'd love to have Aykroyd as a guest, but that you will start off talking about his movies, and at the end, he can talk about his new Vodka. It's a win-win for everyone.

Charities must follow the same rule
If the Cancer Society wants to come in and talk about it's upcoming fundraiser, that's fine, but you don't want the Executive Director on as a guest. You want a cancer survivor on to talk about what it's like to deal with the devastating disease. Remember, what you want are real people with interesting stories to tell, while the charities are trying to promote an event. It's your show, demand a real person and promise you will promote the event at the end.

Make the PR agency do all the work
Put the people who write the press releases and the PR agencies who are pitching guests to work. Tell them that their clients can come on the show, but only if they do it your way. If they don't want to play, then they don't get on. Believe me, most will agree to your requests. Have the agency do all the work. If they are pitching new toys for kids, tell them that they have to have all the toys on set, plus they need 5 kids to test the toys and are willing to talk to your hosts about what they like or don't like about the toys. Make the PR agency come up with all the props and children.

Bottom line
Make the guests and their agencies do the heavy lifting. They do the work, and you get a great segment. These guests don't get on your show unless they do it they way you want. It's a win-win for everyone.

Take a moment and re-read that "Bottom line" paragraph. I think it sums up fairly well what works when trying to get yourself booked with a news program. I've mentioned it before, but I think it's worth going over again.

Producers, editors and reporters are busy folks working under tight, tight deadlines. The more you do to help them, the better your chances of being booked as a guest. More importantly, if you get booked once, and you prove that you can speak their language, understand their time constraints and deliver with a quality, interesting guest, they won't hesitate to book you again.

In essence, what this article is telling journalists is that they basically hold all the cards. Having been on the PR side for several years now, I'd like to dispute that point, but I really can't. They ARE offering you a chance to appear on television or in print and get valuable airtime to spread your message or promote your event, product or services.

Certainly you are offering something of value to the newsrooms as well. But it's a very rare and fortunate few that can call their own shots when trying to be booked as a guest on any television program.

Two very important things to remember:

If you take nothing else from this article, you should remember two very important points made about the purpose and kinds of guests being booked.

1. The purpose of the guest is NOT to give a commercial, but to provide entertainment or valuable information to the audience.

2. Always look for the more compelling guest. In other words, don't take the PR spokesman or the executive director, when a more compelling interview subject is there for the taking.

This holds particularly true for non-profits, as mentioned in the article. If you run a non-profit dedicated to improving schools in low-income areas, then it's much more interesting to hear from a student or a teacher discuss the challenges and difficulties and victories of everyday life at the school, than to listen to the non-profit director extoll the virtues of the program. People want real, they want gritty, they want emotion. They want stories, told by the people who are living those stories. They DON'T want to hear from spokesperson who isn't on the front lines of the problem and recanting stories second-hand.

This is the kind of information you have to put into your releases and pitch paragraphs. Let the journalists know immediately what the story is, then follow up by letting them know who the interview subject will be. The more compelling the interview subject, the better your chances of getting booked.

What this means:

This means you have to prepare, you have to train, you have to practice. In other words, if you're trying to book your business or non-profit as an interview subject either on a local TV news show or in your local paper, you might have to offer up someone other than yourself to actually be interviewed.

This can be tricky, because, frankly, who knows more about your messages, your business, your organization and its overall goals than you do? Whoever you offer up has to be well-versed in your messages. They have to be comfortable being interviewed, both on camera and off. They have to know what to say, how to say it and when to say it.

You will want to spend time going over all of these things before letting them loose in a newsroom. They will have to make sure they get your messages across without having it sound like a commercial, they will have to be able to tell their story in a concise and compelling manner and they will have to remember to make sure to plug whatever service, event or product your pitching at the end of the segment.

To that end, you will want to remind the journalists why your guest is there. You can do this simply by sending an email thanking them for allowing you to appear on the show to promote your subject matter. During this email you will want to make sure you include your address, the time and location of the event, the correct spelling of the product and of course, the correct spelling of your organization and the person being interviewed. You might also want to provide any photos or video you have, plus put together any lists you have that is associated with the interview that could be used as full cover graphics.

If you couch this in the spirit of trying to be helpful and providing information, the journalist won't be offended. You're simply trying to make sure there are no mistakes and that both parties walk away from the interview satisfied.

One of the biggest issues I hear about is a business or non-profit complaining about how the news misspelled a name or didn't get something right during the interview. When I ask them if they had followed up with the newsroom BEFORE the interview, 99-percent of the time, the answer is no.

Journalists KNOW you want to get exposure, and they're okay with that as long as they get a quality interview segment out of it as well. They won't take offense and they will appreciate any ideas or extras you throw their way to make the segment more interesting both informationally and visually.

So, in the future, if in doubt, take a moment and re-read this article if you have any questions about what kind of guests a newsroom might be looking for. Then go out and make sure you are able to provide a journalist with everything they might need for a good segment. If you can't, rethink making your pitch, or rework it from the ground up. If you can offer them what they want, then go forward and begin pitching. If you can do this, journalists will love you and you'll find yourself being called upon again in the future for more interviews. And that's never a bad thing.

Feel the Passion!

2010-10-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Recently I spent a day going around to local newsrooms to introduce a friend to reporters, assignment editors and producers. Whenever possible, this is a great way to begin to build relationships with local journalists and get a feel for how to pitch your stories to the separate newsrooms. Some newsrooms are more open to "feature" type stories, while others are really only looking for hard news stories. By meeting the journalists in their respective newsrooms, you can get a feel for how to pitch your stories.

But one of the biggest reasons to spend time at your local newsrooms is that you get to actually have conversations with the reporters, producers and editors that will be receiving your pitches. I always tell clients that when they have a chance to meet journalists, do more listening than talking.

The importance of this bit of advice came to the forefront last week during my little "mini-tour". We were chatting with the producer of the number one morning talk show in Denver and we began discussing media pitches. It was a discussion that brought to light one of the biggest mistakes PR professionals make all the time.

Hi, let me tell you about a great story you might be interested in!

First, a bit of insight:

We've covered this in-depth in this space before, but it's worth mentioning again. Newsrooms are flooded with press releases every day. They get hundreds upon hundreds of pitches, releases and alerts on a daily basis. This isn't even counting the number of stories they glean from listening to the local scanners, or the ones pitched individually by journalists who might have been alerted to a story through more "unofficial" channels. In other words, they are constantly swamped with potential stories.

And it's not just emails coming across their desk. When I worked in newsrooms, we still received a ton of faxes, and even today, the number of faxed releases might surprise you. But one of the most time-consuming and annoying pitches they get are the phone calls. Most of the time, these are first-time pitches; cold calls from a large PR firm halfway across the country where some first year PR account manager is simply calling every newsroom on their list making their pitch.

Here's the problem with this approach:

1. Generally, these calls are ill-timed, catching journalists when they're at their busiest
2. Journalists like to look at information rather than have it told to them over the phone
3. Most of the time, these pitches are scripted out
4. The PR person is often surprised when they actually talk to a live person and they aren't prepared to make a live pitch.

Here are some interesting comments from the producer we spoke to, Nathan Lynn, producer of 850 KOA's "Good Morning Colorado" program.

"They always ask to speak to Nathan, and when I tell them they've reached him, they panic a little. Then they go right into their script. I can tell when they're reading directly from a script and it doesn't inspire me to want to book them as a guest."

Take that in for a second. Imagine you're a business and you've hired a large PR firm to manage your account and get you some quality earned media coverage. You would expect this large, experienced firm to make quality pitches on your behalf. You would hope they would craft your message, release and pitch, target appropriate media outlets and individuals in those outlets and bring some passion to the effort.

Instead, what normally happens is the firm sends out a media blast to every conceivable newsroom, puts together a pitch script, hands a list of newsrooms to call to the account manager and hopes for the best. This is a bit like throwing a bunch of stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. It may generate some results, you might even get a couple of hits, but the money spent for the results will likely end in disappointment.

Advantage, small business:

This is where small businesses and non-profits often have an advantage over the larger firms, particularly if you're handling your own PR. In a word, you bring passion to the table, and that passion can often be the difference between a successful pitch and a failed one.

Granted, you probably don't have as much time to devote to your PR efforts as a large firm who has either an in-house staff or can afford to hire a firm to focus on pitching. But let's face it, you don't need a large firm. You're not necessarily looking for national media exposure. For most small businesses and non-profits, you're going to get much more of a bounce from your local media than an article in USA Today or the CBS Evening News.

Outside of the fact that national news outlets are losing viewers and readers at an alarming rate, your potential customers are tuning into local newscasts to find out what is happening in their immediate area. That's not to say that a mention on a national news outlet or magazine wouldn't be nice, but given the time you'll spend to get that mention, you're better served focusing on your local outlets instead.

This brings us back to why your PR efforts can often be more successful than those of a large firm. You know the area, you know the audience, you know the trends of the local newsrooms. Heck, you might even know a few of the local journalists. You can often do a better job at targeting local newsrooms, editors, reporters and producers than the larger firms. But the one thing that you offer that the larger firms usually don't is passion.

You know your product, service or business better than anyone. It is what you do, it is your lifeblood it is why you get up in the morning. Who better to make your pitch, then, than you.

Tips for the phone call:

With that said, there are some things you can do to increase success when it comes to making your phone call pitch. Keep this in mind, it is very rare to make a cold call phone pitch and have a newsroom pick up your story. In almost every instance, it is always a better idea to send an email release and pitch letter beforehand. Then you make your follow up phone calls to try and close the deal. When making that phone call, remember these tips:

1. Be natural - It's okay to write out a script if you really need it. But it's usually better to simply list the important points of your pitch. Reading from a script can drain the passion you naturally have for your story.
2. Practice - For most, making a pitch is not something that comes easily or naturally. You have to practice your pitch to make it sound natural. Record yourself and play it back. Do it over and over in front of a mirror until you feel comfortable with it. Then make the pitch to a friend or colleague and get their feedback.
3. Be prepared - If you're lucky, the journalist will be interested in your pitch. If this happens, you have to be prepared for them to ask you questions. You might get through your pitch just fine, but if you falter when they ask you questions, you're going to ruin your chances.
4. Be conversational - Anyone who has taken a public speaking course has heard this a million times, but it matters. You don't want to be stiff or awkward. Yes, you're going to be nervous, that's okay. But you still have to be able to talk about your story in a way that interests them. I still get nervous when I make my phone call pitches, and I've been doing this for years. I simply remind myself that I'm pitching a good story and that journalists always want to hear a good story. That puts me at ease. Instead of thinking that I'm being a pest, I approach it as if I'm providing a service, actually being of help, to a newsroom.
5. Be confident - Don't apologize for taking up their time and don't apologize for calling them to pitch your story. Be confident in your pitch. You've already sent them information, so in most cases, they'll already be familiar with your story. You simply have to remind them of the email you sent and then explain why your story would be good for their audience to see or hear.
6. Get to the point - As we've said before, journalists don't have a lot of time to spend listening to phone pitches. When you make your phone call, let them know who you are and why you're calling. In some cases they'll remember your email. If they do, simply ask them if they're interested in the story and would like to schedule and interview. If they don't remember the email, they'll ask you to refresh them on the pitch. If this happens do this:
   a. Tell them what the business is
     b. Tell them immediately about the event or story
     c. Mention the newspeg, let them know why this is a timely/important story
     d. Explain why it's a good story for their newsroom and audience.

You can do all of this within two or three sentences, literally 30-seconds. If you're lucky, you'll get two minutes to talk to the journalist, you have to make the most of every second.
7. Don't pester - Let's assume that the journalist has either read your email, or has listened to your pitch and responds with a "not interested". Now you have to do a little tightrope walking. You don't want to simply give up, but you also don't want to pester them. If this happens, reiterate why it fits with a current newspeg or how it will be of interest to their audience. You might even ask why they're not interested in the story. Make sure they know that you're asking for future reference so you can make better pitches to them down the road. Most of the time the journalist will tell you. Finally, you can ask if there might be another treatment of the story that they'd be interested in. In other words, you're pitching a package piece or feture story. They might not be interested in devoting so much time and space to your story, but they might be interested in a shorter VO or a reader or a calendar listing. You're simply trying to get the outlet to run something on your story, so if you don't get the bigger treatment, then try for something smaller. After that, thank them for their time and let them go. Most reporters will sit through two, maybe three follow up questions from you, but not much more. Again, remember that their time is valuable.
8. Be passionate - This doesn't mean yelling or jumping up and down as you pitch your story. What it means is that you feel your story is important and that it is valuable to the newsroom. Trust me, journalists can hear if you really care about your story. If you are hesitant or blase about your story, how can you expect them to get excited over it?

A short story:

Here's an example of how being passionate and persistent can really pay off during a follow-up phone call pitch.

I was pitching a story for Chase Bank in 2006. They were releasing their "Blink" card nationally and Denver was one of the first markets to get the card. Chase had already rolled out the card in Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Dallas before they ever got to Denver. Being fifth on the list put us behind the eight ball a bit since the story had already been covered nationally, and had been picked up at least once in both local newspapers.

We initially sent out an email release announcing the release of the card locally. This made it a local story, instead of a national afterthought. It was a chance for local journalists to dive deeper into how the card works and personally ask questions of Chase Executives.

Every time I made the follow up phone call, I was asked why they should spend time on a story that had already been covered several times on the national level. My simple response was this:

"Over 500-thousand Colorado residents will be receiving this card and this is the first time you'll be able to talk personally with Chase executives to localize the story."

In almost every case, this was enough to convince them to schedule an interview. However, I ran into a major roadblock when I started calling media outlets on the other side of the state. Editors and reporters of these smaller outlets flatly refused to cover the story. At first I was taken by surprise at the myriad of denials. after four refusals, I started to wonder why these smaller outlets weren't interested. I had tried the new technology aspect and even wondered if it was just a matter of limited time on the broadcasts or space in the newspapers.

During my sixth call, while talking to the editor of the Idaho Springs paper, I asked him why he wasn't interested. He answered that Chase had no banks in his area and therefore the story had no impact with his readers. I immediately kicked myself for not thinking of this earlier and then addressed his concern.

I mentioned that Chase DID have branches on the Western Slope of Colorado, only they weren't called Chase, they had a different names such as Wachovia, National and Western, all of which I knew WERE located on the Western Slope as well as Idaho Springs. I mentioned that thousands of residents in his area would be receiving the card in the initial statewide rollout. More than that, several other banks would be rolling out similar cards in the upcoming year, meaning many more of his readers would be impacted by the "Blink" card or cards just like it.

After a short pause, the editor asked if I knew exactly how many Western Slope residents would be getting the card. I told him I'd get that information within an hour and get right back to him. After hanging up, I found out that nearly 60-thousand residents would be getting the card and called him right back. Within minutes I had booked an interview, and started calling back the newsrooms that had refused the story earlier. Armed with my new information and knowing that it was good story, I managed to book all of those previous denials and went on to book several more outlets on the Western Slope.

Lesson Learned:

This pitch was very successful because I was passionate about the story. I KNEW it was a good story and that it had a place in newscasts and newspapers across the state. I also did not just give up when I was given a denial. I asked a simple question and received a simple answer to which and could respond. We also did not simply blast out our press release. We targeted key media outlets and key individuals in those outlets. This saved us time from having to call every single outlet in the state and we didn't waste our time trying to explain the pitch to a journalist who simply wouldn't care about the story.

As a small business owner or non-profit, you have the ability to bring that kind of passion and planning to your pitch. You don't have to get every media outlet in the state to cover your story. You can target the top outlets and make your pitch with them. The fact that you truly care about your pitch is also an advantage. Again, producers, reporters and editors can hear when you care.

If you practice your pitch, be confident, to the point and prepared, your phone call pitch will always have a better chance to succeed than a larger firm that is, usually, only going through the motions. This isn't a case of David vs. Goliath, it's really more a matter of passion. You have it, they don't. Use that to your advantage and you'll find yourself doing a lot more media interveiws in the near future.

A Call To Action!

2010-10-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

So you have a social media campaign. You're online every day, updating your Facebook posts, Tweeting regularly, blogging every other day. You're doing everything you should be, but for some reason, your network isn't growing, hits to your website or blog remain low, your business isn't picking up like you think it should.

On the other side of the coin, you've been pitching stories to your local media outlets, you haven't been getting much attention from the newsrooms, and when you do, the response hasn't been nearly as big as you'd hoped it would be.

And now you're asking yourself, "What am I doing wrong?" There might be a few culprits, but chances are, your biggest mistake could be something so simple, you'll kick yourself when you find out what the answer is.

Different Kinds of Campaigns:

Before we go forward, let's take a moment to go over a couple of things. First, take a look at your message. Is it clear? Is it concise? Is it memorable? Second, and this is important, ask yourself what kind of goals are you communicating to your readers, viewers, friends and followers?

There are really two kinds of social media and PR campaigns:

1. An Awareness Campaign
2. A Call To Action Campaign

If you own a small business or non-profit, one of the most important decision you'll make as you create and plan your efforts is to decide what kind of campaign you want to run. Do you want to simply raise awareness of your organization or of a your cause? Or do you want to motivate potential customers or donors to frequent your business or donate to your charity?

Depending on what your goals are, you'll end up running completely different types of campaigns. If you want to motivate people, then running an awareness campaign is going to net you very disappointing results. Let's take a look at how the two efforts differ.

Raising Awareness:

If you're simply running an awareness campaign, then your work is relatively simple. Like a call to action effort, one of the first things you want to do with an awareness campaign is to get your platforms up and begin linking to as many groups, friends and followers as possible. By doing this, you immediately have the ability to expose your organization to hundreds, thousands, potentially tens of thousands of new sets of eyes.

Once you've done this, your biggest goal is to continually grow your network as much as possible. In order to do this, you have to provide content that is both interesting and shareable. Your links, your posts, your photos and videos must be appealing to the audience you're trying to reach. If they are, your links will be shared and, hopefully, your efforts will begin to draw attention from others that have received a shared link from one of your followers.

If you're trying to raise awareness, much of your content will contain information that is crucial to your efforts. We'll get into some of the best ways to run an awareness campaign in our next post, but if all you want to do is raise awareness of your organization or cause, then most of your work will deal with constantly posting information that is both entertaining and informative. Kind of like news. You want sets of eyes to see your material and log into your platforms. In order to do this you have to focus on the content. Do this, and your awareness effort will have a great chance to succeed.

This is why non-profits do so well in the social media realm. If your major goal is to simply get folks to see you, to become aware of a cause, then all you really need to do is put something online and then work to distribute your content to as many sets of eyes as possible. You're trying to educate. Your biggest hurdle is getting it in front of folks and then making the content as interesting as possible so they take the time to read what you posted. If you can get others involved in your cause you can build your network, and your non-profit awareness campaign will take off. But what if you need to actually get others to DO something other than just read your material? Then what you need is something a little extra.

Motivate, Motivate, Motivate:

But let's assume for a moment that you don't just want to let people know that you exist, or tell folks about a particular cause you're interested, but you really, truly want or NEED to motivate the public to begin buying your wares, using your service or donating to your cause. What kind of campaign do you need to run then? Simply put, you need a "Call To Action" campaign. And while there are some similarities to an awareness campaign, there is one primary difference; and that difference is right in the name.

A "call to action" campaign implies exactly what it say, you give people a REASON for actually getting out of their house and down to your doorstep. But in order to do this, you have to offer more than cute phrases, interesting information, funny videos or catchy slogans.

Whether you're involved in a social media campaign or a PR effort, you have to make people want to participate in your venture, whether it's a small business or a non-profit. One of the most common questions I get is "how do I motivate people online?" Surprisingly, there's a pretty common answer.

If you own a small business, think about how you normally motivate customers and potential customers to frequent your business. You run specials, you offer sales, you organize contests. No matter how much technology changes how we do business, the fact is, people want to feel like they're getting a bargain. This has been true since folks began trading beads for food millennia ago, and it holds true today.

Why change what works? The biggest difference in social media and PR isn't what you're offering, it's the method of communication that has changed. Before mass media, you would depend on word of mouth. As times changed, businesses began using newspapers and billboards and eventually moved to radio and TV ads.

As you know, advertising can be expensive, and often small businesses and non-profits can't afford to buy quality advertising to raise awareness or motivate the public. This is why social media and PR has been such a boon for small businesses and non-profits. It allows you to spread the word, raise awareness and motivate without having to spend thousands of dollars on advertising.

But even though the venue might have changed, the basic tactics of motivating the public remains, essentially, the same.

Give 'Em A Reason:

It doesn't matter if it's a Faceook post or a TV interview, if you're running a call to action campaign, one of your primary messages needs to be that by going to your store, they're getting something special. Here are a few tips to appeal to potential customers or donors:

1. Offer a bargain - This could be a sale, a two-for-one deal, a discount offer. Something that will make them feel like they are getting a deal they can't find anywhere else.

2. Make them feel special - One of the most effective techniques to motivating others is to make them feel like they are getting something totally unique to your business, something they can't find at other stores.

3. Make it time sensitive - Let's face it, if you know you can go to Wall-Mart at any time to buy that cheap video game, then you're less likely to get up off your couch to run down and get that game. But if that game is only for sale for three days, then you know you HAVE to run down and buy it while it's on sale. Consumers need to know that if they wait too long, they'll miss out on a great deal. Only then will they be motivated enough to actually beat down your door.

4. Be transparent - This is primarily for non-profits. When folks donate to a cause, they want to know exactly what their money is going for. Is most of it being eaten up by adminstrative costs? By telling folks what their money goes to, the public will feel better about donating.

5. Tell a story - Again, this is primarily for non-profits. Tell a story that pertains to the cause the pulls on the heartstrings and really clarifies the need of those involved with the cause. Those late night commercials featuring suffering African children is a great example. There is a sense of urgency that kids are dying while you wait, and it lets you know exactly what your money is going to do to help.

Not A Commercial:

Oddly, one of the things that really irritates a lot of folks is being sold online. In other words, you don't want your Facebook, Twitter or Blog postings to be simple advertisements. You still want to post interesting and informative content. But at the same time, you want to let them know that you're having a sale and that the sale is for a limited time only.

How to do this without turning people off? It can be tricky, for sure. But without a call to action, your posts will simply become informative and, essentially, an extension of an awareness campaign.

Here are some examples of some great call to action posts as part of a social media campaign:

"Wouldn't your wife love a night of passion? Why wait until Valentines Day to give her flowers. Say 'I love you' just because. Gerry's Flowers is offering half off on all rose bouquets and arrangements this weekend only!"

"Protect your family this winter. Make sure your car is ready for that first snowfall. All month long Frank's Auto is offering $30 winterizing for you car..."

Do you see a pattern? You're giving people a reason to get down to your business. And it's not just because of the sale or special, you're appealing to something more personal, something that impacts their daily lives. Simply posting something on Facebook that says, "Half off all bouquets" won't be as effective as letting them know WHY they need to buy that half-off bouquet.

Just like an awareness campaign, you still need to grow your network and raise awareness of your organization. But in order to motivate your friends or followers, you'll need that extra call to action aspect that will actually get feet in the door.

The PR side of a call to action campaign is a little trickier, primarily because newsrooms don't want to be seen as advertisers for a particular business. Non-profits have more success in this arena since generally your call to action is getting folks to donate, attend an event or become involved in a cause. You're not selling anything, so your call to action during an interview can be much more effective, yet you still need to create urgency, tell a story and let folks know that their money is going to be impactful for a good cause.

In the end, if your efforts aren't as successful as you'd hoped they'd be, chances are you're not running the right kind of campaign for the goals you have set. Go back and take a look at the kinds of posts your putting up on Facebook or Twitter or in your blog.

If you don't have a call to action, you're not motivating. If you're not motivating, you're not going to grow your business or network. And that is always going to be frustrating and disappointing to any small business or non-profit.

Give 'Em A Break...

2010-10-14T01:19:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. The leaves are falling, the weather takes on a slight chill, footballs are flying and every pitch in baseball takes on major importance. In Colorado, snow-making machines are working overtime in the rush to get skiers on the slopes as soon as possible. Yep, it's election time again and that means only one thing...stressed-out journalists.

I spent fifteen years working as a journalist and I can tell you, this is never a fun time of year. Reporters, producers and editors have been spending months, literally, preparing for one night in early November. By preparing, I'm talking about hours upon hours of reading bills and proposals and municipal codes, not to mention candidate resumes, speeches, background checks and press releases from a multitude of political groups across the spectrum.

I haven't even touched on the hours spent designing graphics, setting up logistics for coverage, such as who will be at the different headquarters, arranging live shoots, creating a schedule, building rundowns and...well, you get the idea. A LOT of work goes into election night coverage...a lot.

Never mind the pressure to get all the facts right on election night as the results being flowing in, and pressure from management to get the big scoop, nail down the big interviews and do it all in such a way that doesn't go overbudget, over-time and in an entertaining fashion that will attract the most viewers.

As you can guess, all that work and no play makes journalists cranky. The last thing they need is someone constantly bugging them with a story that, while interesting, simply has no place in their already crowded rundowns.

Practice Patience:

We've discussed timing in this space before, and this is one of those times where the more you are aware of what is going on around you, the better off you will be when pitching your story. Perhaps the most important thing I've pitched with clients during election season is to practice patience when dealing with newsrooms and reign in their coverage expectations.

The fact is, if your story doesn't have some kind of political slant, it's unlikely you're going to get much, if any, coverage on your local newscast or in your daily papers. This doesn't mean you should take a month off and simply throw up your hands in frustration during October and early November. There ARE some things you can do to increase your chances of garnering earned news coverage, but remember, you have to plan it right, time it right, write it right, and have a little luck as well.

1. Be Relevant - If you're pitching a story, try and find an angle that is political in nature, especially if there is a bill or proposal or particularly heated race. Your best bet is to find a story involving your organization that relates in some way to the big political races. This will offer journalists a different angle to a story they're probably already bored covering.

2. Pitch Early - As election day grows closer, rundowns begin to fill up with fewer and fewer feature stories due to election coverage. If you have a story you'd like to wedge in during October, make your pitch in late September or early October. If you wait until the last week of October, you're chances decrease significantly.

3. Be Personal - This is the time of year when personal relationship can be a real help. It won't guarantee that you'll get coverage, but at least you'll have someone carrying the flag for your story during the daily newsmeetings. Even in newsrooms where you don't really have strong personal relationships, you can improve your chances by personally addressing your release to individuals reporters, producers and editors. One final note: instead of emailing your release, personally hand-deliver your release to each newsroom if possible. Again, this won't guarantee coverage, but trust me, these journalists are being indundated, overwhelmed in some cases, by emails pitching stories, both political and non-political. If they have something solid, in their hands, that they can peruse on their desk, it's harder to simply overlook. Your release may sit on their desk for a bit, but it will be there, reminding them of a story that might be news-worthy later on.

Other Tips:

Another thing to keep in mind is scheduling. One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is scheduling events in the middle of October and early November. Every other year, this is generally fine. However during election years, it means you'll be fighting an uphill battle for coverage.

This leads me to time-sensitive stories. Your best bet when pitching a story so close to an election is to try and make it as least time-sensitive as possible. If you pitch a story that absolutely has to be covered within a small window of time, you are severely limiting your chances. If a newsroom can't find time or resources to cover your story in that time-span, your story will simply be tossed away with no chance to get coverage after the fact. However, if your story has some relevance before the elections, and will still be relevant or interesting AFTER the elections, you set yourself up for being part of an election follow-up story, or be part of the first wave of post-election stories.

But let's assume you either HAVE to pitch a story, or simply feel like you have a great story and don't want to wait a few weeks. In this case, follow the above tips to get your release into the hands of key newsroom players. Then, be tactful and smart when it comes to the follow-up. What you do AFTER you get the release to the newsroom will be the difference between getting your story on the air or in print and being completely ignored.

1. Let's assume you walked your release into the newsroom. Your next step is to wait a day or two and follow with an email. Make it short and to the point. Remind them who you are, what your story is and make your request for coverage. Let them know that you are flexible and available.

2. If you still haven't heard back from them, wait another day or two and give them a phone call. Chances are, you won't reach the individual and will instead get their voice mail. If you DO get their voicemail, again, keep it short, and follow the same instructions as above. If you happen to get a live person, do the same thing as above with a couple of important changes: A) If they politely decline covering your story, don't argue with them. You can point out how your story applies to the current political coverage (if it's relevant) and if they still aren't interested, thank them for their time, remind them that your story will still be relevant AFTER elections and that you'd love to talk about the story after the election dust has settled.

3. Follow up with an email a few days later. After you've left a message on their voicemail or chatted with them directly, send an email, thanking them for taking time to consider your story. Again, keep it short and remind them that your story will still be relevant and interesting after the elections. Thank them for the work they are doing as part of their election coverage and let them know that you understand the pressures they are under. Keep it professional and flattering. They will like the fact that you aren't pestering them too much and respect the fact that you understand the situation. You STILL may not get any coverage, even after the elections are done, but they will remember you the next time you pitch and this, my friends, is how you begin to build relationships with journalists.

Patience, Grasshopper:

In the end, while you don't have to lower your expectations, you may have to adjust them, at least temporarily, while newsrooms focus on the elections. It's perfectly okay to pitch your stories, it's NOT okay to make demands on journalists, despite how good your story may be. Journalists are like elephants...they remember everything. If you pester and cajole and argue, you will become persona-non-grata. Yes, we know that journalists are supposed to be subjective, but they are human, and if you make their lives miserable when they're already overworked, they will make you pay for it later.

Find Opportunity:

This time of year is also a great way to go the other direction and try to make their lives easier. If you are a massage therapist, or dry-cleaning service, restaurant, bar, whatever you do, if you can provide a service to your local newsroom, by all means, offer it. Some journalists will take you up on a round of free drinks for local journalists, some won't.

If you don't want to deal with that hassle, simply order pizzas and have them delivered to the newsroom in your name. You can do the same thing with breakfast burritos, beer, donuts, anything that will make their lives a little easier while they are slaving away preparing for and covering the elections.

Like always, there's no guarantee this will garner you coverage, but at the very least, they will remember you. Even though you might not get much, if any, response to your pitch this time of year, you can still use the elections as an opportunity to build relationships with local journalists. And that is the kind of campaigning that can really pay off for you in the future.

Five Reasons Why Your Social Media Campaign Didn't Work

2010-10-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I posted an entry that received a great deal of interest. If you missed it, it was, "Five Reasons Why Your PR Campaign Didn't Work."

Well, keeping in the spirit of that entry, I've decided to post a follow-up, only this time, focused on Social Media. I know a lot of you are in the process of creating your own social media campaigns, or perhaps you've already done so and are maintaining it daily in hopes that it will drive customers to your door.

But you might not be seeing the bounce you were hoping for. Maybe you're not seeing any results at all. There are a number of reasons for this, some of it requires a simple tweak on your part. However, some issues will require you to completely overhaul either your approach or your expectations.

Let's take a look at the five most obvious reasons your social media campaign simply doesn't seem to be working.

1. You're talking AT your audience, not TO them:
First and foremost, social media works best when it's a conversation. Sure, platforms like Twitter work well when simply trying to exchange links and let people know what you're up to, but for real results, conversations work best. There are a number of ways to initiate a conversation, such as asking questions, or starting a thread about a particular subject of interest. You can also use social media to monitor what others are saying about your organization and respond. If youre just using your platforms to give information and not using to listen as well, you're likely not going to get as much interest from your friends or followers.

2. You aren't expanding your network:
This is a toughie for most folks since it's hard to grow a network online without actually knowing anyone. But the online communities and social media platforms allow for all kinds of connection with folks you've never met before. For instance, when you initially signed up for Twitter, you were prompted about your interests or type of business you are. Most folks skip right past this part of the sign in process, but you should go back and check it out again. It will connect you to individuals and organizations that are interested in the same things you are. Facebook has groups you can join that target your specific audience, as does LinkedIn. Blogs require a little more effort, but you can start linking to other blogs of interest and expand your blog network very easily. Sending a quick note to other blogs letting them know you're linking to them and asking them to link to you takes little time and can help you reach thousands upon thousands of new sets of eyes.

3. You don't have a call to action:
Putting information out on your Facebook and Twitter and blog pages is great. But what do you want readers to do with this information? This is key, because if all you want to do is raise awareness, then you can get away with this. But more likely you want to get people to do something specific like, go to your store, or buy a product or give money for a cause. This means you have to tell them to do it. Simply telling them that you exist isn't enough. You have to tell them to get out or get online and check out a website or drive to your store. People need to be prompted. Sometimes this means offering a special promotion, but at the very least you HAVE to tell them to do something specific in order to start seeing results.

4. You're being impatient:
Again, this is typical of most social media campaigns that don't succeed. While there are some viral campaigns that become internet superstars overnight, they are rare. A more likely scenario is that you'll establish your identity on your platforms and watch as your friends and followers grow at a steady pace. Think of it as a plant that needs to be watered and cared for in order to grow. It takes a minimum of three months online to even begin to reap visible results from a solid social media campaign. If you put up your platforms and expect customers to suddenly be beating down your door, you have to adjust your expectations. It's okay to make adjustments as you go along, but you have to be patient and give it time to really work for you. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will your social media success.

5. You're operating in a vacuum:
This is important, so listen up; Social media works best when used in combination with other marketing and public relations tools. You can build a small network by only staying on your platforms. But in order to really get the bounce you want, you have to add your pages to all of your marketing materials, you have to do some public relations to get your name out in front of the public at large and drive them to your blog or your website or your Facebook and Twitter. Every time you do a community outreach appearance, you have to let people know where to find you online. I know this sounds like simple stuff, but you might be shocked at how many organizations simply believe that by putting up a Facebook page, they'll suddenly get hoards of new customers. It just doesn't work that way. You have to combine it with an organized and targeted PR effort as well as making sure your information is viewable on every bit of marketing collateral and every time you're out in public.

One final note: There are two things that you should attempt to implement into every social media campaign you do if you want to see steady growth and long term results.

1. A call to action - I mentioned this above, but this is so very important. You have to tell people what you want them to do, otherwise, it's just interesting facts that they'll read and move on from.

2. A promotion - Folks like deals. They like bargains. They LOVE it when they feel as if they know something not everyone else knows. You can offer promotions for your social media followers and believe me, those followers will tell their followers and your network will grow. Plus, a promotion is a great way to institute a call to action, i.e., "Get your FREE appetizer, only good till Friday, so come on by!"

If you've been diligent in your efforts with your social media campaign, but you just aren't seeing the results you expected, take a look at the list above and ask yourself if you're guilty of committing one of those mistakes. Also realize that none of those mistakes is fatal if acted upon quickly enough. The beauty of social media is that it's ever-changing and you have the ability to make fast changes on the fly to try a new idea or correct a miscue that may be costing you potential customers.

The good news is that you're already online and interacting with others in the social media environment. And that, my friends is half the battle.

The Confusion About PR

2010-09-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

I had an intersting discussion on Thursay that I had to pass along today. It's a conversation that I've been involved in a million times and one that I think could be the reason why so many small businesses and non-profits struggle when it comes to defining exactly what they want to do when it comes to PR.

The young lady I was talking with happens to be in marketing. Marketing is one of those things that has always seemed a bit like a black hole to me. I certainly engage in marketing through my social media efforts, and I believe marketing is a valuable asset to any organization. However, marketers don't always see social media and PR as viable tools in their arsenal and therefore there has always been a disconnect between PR, social media and marketing.

Case in point: The woman asked me at one point in our conversation, "What do you do?" to which I replied, "I do PR and social media for small businesses and non-profits." The blank stare I received told me everything I needed to know. She really had no idea what I did for a living. Her follow-up question was nearly as classic, "Sooooo...." she hesitated, "You send out press releases and stuff? How do you make a living at that?"

Listen, I'm used to this. My entire life I've held jobs that simply didn't register for most folks. When I told people I was a producer in radio and television, many thought, "Wow, that sounds like a cool job!" And it was. Invariably, though, they would always follow up with, "What exactly does that mean? What do you DO?"

I thought when I moved into PR and social media, that question would be self-explanatory. I was sadly mistaken. The fact is, most people really don't know for sure what PR means. As I thought about this conversation more and more, it dawned on me that this could be the reason why so many small business and non-profit PR efforts fail; they really don't know what PR is.

Obviously, that was one of the reasons why I started this blog. It's important to know what PR is before you can begin to successfully create and implement a PR campaign. And yet, it still amazes me that for so many, PR is simply about sending out press releases. For you loyal readers, you have seen that it's much more than that. However, it's important to know that PR actually encompasses a few different areas, each one as important as the other for small businesses and non-profits.

Media Relations:

When most people think about PR, this is actually what they're familiar with. The image of a PR pro is that of a person who spends their time trying to garner earned media coverage for their client. And while this is important, this is only a part of what a true public relations professional does.

This aspect of PR is actually media relations and it can often be the hardest of the three tasks involved in good PR. Most of what I have written about in this space has dealt with media relations since this is the aspect that most small businesses and non-profits desire from their PR efforts.

Unlike the other three areas of PR, this one requires the most experience and the most patience. This area not only involves putting together press releases, but understanding newsroom dynamics, timing, awareness of current events and a strong ability to be a good storyteller.

There's a reason why the most successful media relations pro's are former journalists. They have spent time in the trenches and understand instinctively how newsrooms operate and how best to pitch a story. If you're simply looking for someone to come in and help you get some news coverage for an upcoming event or promotion, then you should really be looking for a qualified media relations individual rather than a fully equipped PR pro.

However, if you're wanting something more, something along the lines of a fully functioning and interactive PR campaign, make sure that you find someone who does more than just promise extensive news coverage. You want them to talk to you about community outreach, civic outreach, partnerships and public interaction (including online interaction). This is the person that will give you a well-rounded campaign and not one that makes a quick media splash before disappearing.

The Audience:

Before we move on to the other areas of PR, we need to look at the audiences you're campaign is going after. Ultimately, you want the biggest audience you can get. This is why media relations is so appealing. You can reach tens of thousands of potential customers all at once if you get a feature story in the local paper or leading 10pm newscast. But those stories are here and gone in a day or so. Unless you become a regular news darling, you're likely going to only get a single spike in your activity before thing return to normal.

In PR, we're usually dividing up the audience. There's the media audience, the reporters, producers and editors we're pitching our stories to. Then there's the public audience, the ones who, ultimately you want the story to reach, and then there's the wildcard audiece. This audience can be government officials, other businesses or a specifically consumer audience.

Reaching each of these different audiences is best done through different venues. A good media relations person knows how to best reach the media audience. They know how to speak their language and convince them that your story is worth reporting on. And of course, they're using the media to get your story and your message out to the second audience, the public at large. They can even utilize specialty media to reach your wildcard or targeted audience. But a good PR pro realizes that even the best placed news story only give so much bounce. There are other methods that need to be used in order to really make your PR campaign successful.

Community Outreach:

This is an area of PR that often gets overlooked, but it's so vitally important, that without it, your campaign is doomed to failure. What is community outreach? It's very simple, it's getting out into the community and doing something visible, something impactful, something people will remember. This could be as simple as setting up a booth at a local fair, or as complicated as setting up a travelling show that goes from neighborhood to neighborhood to tell folks what you're all about.

In the end, though, the purpose of community outreach is simply to get out in front of the public, potential customers or "stakeholders" as they're often called in PR circles. Whatever you do, you need to make sure you are out in the community and visible. This not only reinforces whatever media coverage you've received, but it also puts a human face on your organization.

As with the media relations aspect, community outreach also has a media component to it. Whereas media relations uses the media to get your message out to the public at large, an effective community outreach program can carry your message to the media. If you want to raise awareness of famine in Africa and you use a powerful community outreach program to visually get your message across, you can stage your event on the steps of the capitol and find yourself surrounded by a handful of television cameras and reporter microphones.

Partnerships:

We've spent some time talking about partnerships before, but this is a third, very important aspect of quality PR. A good PR pro is always looking for ways to leverage your strengths and shore up your weaknesses. This area often falls on the shoulders of the organization's willingness to join forces. I've worked with clients who were dead set against partnering with any other organizations. This was a mistake in my opinion, but the decision was theirs, not mine, to make.

Partnerships certainly have some cons involved, most obvious is the fact that you suddenly have more chefs in the kitchen and you do lose a little of the autonomy that comes with handling your campaign completely by yourself. But I believe the pro's outweigh the con's in most instances.

First, a good partnership opens up your organization to an entirely new audience. You suddenly aren't just talking to folks who might already be aware of you, but you're talking to an audience that might not have ever heard of you. More importantly, you're reaching these new potential customers through a source that these new folks already trust. It's a bit like reading about a new restaurant from a newspaper critic who you don't know, or having a longtime friend tell you about a new restaurant. The critic may love the place, but your longtime friend may have gone there and hated it. Who do you think you'll listen to? That's right, the person you know, the friend who's word you value more than some third party who you don't know.

Partnerships also build your public persona as a whole. In other words, you get the recognition from your own efforts, but then you also get recognition from the efforts of your partner. In essence, you double the impact of your campaign. Of course, you partner is doing the same.

Partnerships can also help shore up any weaknesses your campaign or organization might have in terms of media relations or community outreach. Let's say your organization is great at getting media coverage, but lacks the kind of community outreach impact you'd really like. Your best bet is to find a partner that is killer when it comes to community outreach, but might not have the same media relations reach that you do. This kind of partnership can help shore up the weaknesses of both organizations.

Of course, a quality PR pro goes about finding the right kind of partner for your organization. They do the research, they find potential partners, either in business or government circles that not only have similar goals, but also have the right cultural fit as well. Then they work with both organizations to increase the reach of your message and media relations and community outreach efforts.

Final Note:

In the end, a PR pro wears a lot of different hats. What you get out of your PR campaign really has more to do with what your goals are than what kind of PR pro you bring in. For most small businesses and non-profits, you can't afford to bring in an agency to handle your campaigns. You MIGHT, however, be able to afford to bring on a consultant to help with the efforts that you have probably already began.

If you do this, be sure you have your goals well defined. Do you want more media relations? Do you want to focus on community outreach? Ideally, organizations would be able to handle their community outreach efforts and then only need to bring in a consultant to handle their media relations. However, be aware that all aspects of PR work in concert with each other. Whatever you do, you have to make sure that your media relations, your community outreach and your partnership efforts are all working towards the same goal with the same message. If each one is working separately, it doesn't matter how well you execute your plan, it will still be doomed to fail.

How Social Media Impacted a Local Disaster

2010-09-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day, 2010, many of us spent the day barbecuing, enjoying the great outdoors, or simply recovering from the long holiday weekend. However for thousands living in and around Boulder, Colorado, Labor Day meant something very different.

As a fire ripped through Four Mile Canyon above Boulder, fear was the predominant emotion as families ran for their lives from a forest fire that destroyed homes and changed lives forever.

We've all seen how social media has emerged as a player in regional and national disasters. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and other platforms have been able to deliver information, photos, video and details in the aftermath of earthquakes, tsunami's and mudslides across the world.

But as the fire continued to grow and rampage on Monday and into Tuesday, social media became more than just a way for those living in an around the impacted area to report on what they were seeing or feeling. It also became an invaluable tool for officials to help keep the media and the public informed, coordinate services and save lives in the process.

An illustration of this can be seen from a recent post on the lostremote website:

When the Boulder Sheriff’s emergency alert system failed, its emergency operations center asked that residents use Twitter and Facebook to help spread the word of mandatory evacuations, reports the Boulder Channel 1 Blog. The hashtag #boulderfire has become a lifeline of sorts for many looking for the latest information on the fire, as well as people and businesses offering to help evacuees.

Twitter played a huge role in this effort, as did Facebook and other social media platforms. As the fire grew in intensity and size throughout Monday, thousands who lived in the area begain taking photos and reporting on what they were seeing and feeling. Information was coming in from folks who were literally facing devastation as the fire crept towards their homes, from people who lived in Boulder and could see and feel the impact of the fire. Friends and family of those directly impacted by the fire constantly updated their Twitter and Facebook feeds as they received information from loved ones.

I shot this photo from my mother's house about eight miles outside of Boulder.

Information was everywhere. Newsrooms were using tweets and updates from those in the path of the fire to get up to the minute eye witness reports. Emergency responders were updating the situation as they tried to hold back the flames and public officials used social media to coordinate services as you can see from these shots from a Boulder Emergency Services website and from the KCNC news website.

In total, social media came through it all with flying colors, proving once again, that it not only serves as a depository of fun and entertainment, but also as a valuable resource when it really matters.

5 Reasons Why Your Press Release Didn't Work

2010-09-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of time in this space talking about all of the little things that can make the difference between a successful PR push and one that ends in miserable failure. Hopefully you have been following along and have learned some valuable lessons without actually having to, you know, go out and make the kinds of mistakes that rookie PR pro's make every day.

We've discussed building relationships, crafting your story, making the follow up phone call, writing your release and timing your efforts. We've covered just about everything from A to Z. There are still a ton of tricks to be revealed and insight that will help you succeed in getting your story covered by a local news outlet. But in the end, good PR comes down to some very simple techniques that, if followed, increase your chances of earning news coverage.

I don't do this very often, but I want to share with you an article written by an actual reporter working in an actual newsroom that discusses some of the major mistakes all PR pro's make when pitching a news story. The article comes from the website, "Localnewser.com" and I think it is one of the best written articles about why some stories get covered and others don't.

In a rare move, I'm going to paste the entire article here, because I think it's that valuable. I'll have some analysis after the article and some insight into why these five issues matter so much. In the meantime, read this article, take it in, and then re-read it just so it's ingrained in your mind.

Five Reasons Why Your Release Failed:

So you spent all that time crafting the perfect news release and—full of confidence and high hopes of massive news coverage and a satisfied client—you sent out your releases.
And zippo. Something went wrong. Systems failed. The news trolls (like me) somehow missed the chance to make you happy.
But why? Why would a reporter read a solidly written news release with a beefy story to back it up and not jump at the chance to do a story--a minute and a half on the local news or a few inches of copy in the local paper?
Here are five common reasons why:

1. You Didn’t Make Me Feel Special
We just got off on the wrong foot, that’s all. I’m an overworked reporter and my feelings are very, very easily hurt. I was interested when I saw that you’d sent me a possible story (you thought of me!) and then, quickly, I realized you hadn’t truly thought of me at all. I was just a number to you.
The “Dear Mark” on your cover letter proceeds to suggest that a story I might do—and remember, I’m a television reporter—would be of interest to my “readers.” My what? I don’t have readers. This isn’t a personal letter—it’s a mass mailing. My feelings just got hurt and for better or worse, you’ve started to lose my interest. Now I’m not looking for a way to do the story, I’m thinking of how many other reporters have the same release in their hands. It feels far less special. It feels like wire copy to me now.
Recently, I got an email early on a weekday, tipping me to a potential story. It was fantastic, because I was about to walk into the morning editorial meeting, where reporters are called upon to have story ideas. I hate not having story ideas. So your email was perfectly timed. I felt good. I felt good about you thinking of me. And I was ready to pitch your story.
Then I got into the meeting and another reporter pitched your story. In fact, everybody had gotten your email. I didn’t feel so good about you after that. And for that matter, I was even tempted to bust on the story when the other reporter brought it up. Instead of making me feel special, you made me feel ordinary and I decided to work against your story, instead of for it. Yeah, she's been shopping that thing around to everybody...

2. I Was Ready, but You Weren’t
Okay, so you got me. I read the release and I thought it would make a good story. And my producers (or editors, at a paper) agreed with me. If I’m a television reporter, I may even have been assigned to a newscast immediately—they wrote your story on the newsroom's assignments board in dry erase marker, which is as good as it gets! Pending breaking news, you’re a lock!
And so I called you. I said we wanted to get interviews and shoot some video and do a live report at noon—basically, we needed to go directly from the television station to you, so that we could have a story ready to air in less than three hours.
And you said “today?”
Yes. Today. In fact, now. In broadcast and print, when that release goes out, you better be ready to jump. If you mention an executive who has news, he’d better be ready to do interviews immediately. If you mention a new cattle-combing machine, it’d better be in town, up and running, and ready for cameras.
If you say, “let me make some calls,” I have to go to the producer of the noon newscast and throw cold water on my own story. “Hey, looks like it’s not as much of a go as I thought. Sorry. This might not happen for noon after all.”
Now the noon newscast producer doesn’t like me anymore, and the executive producer wants to know why the story didn’t make the show. When something falls through, news producers don’t think, “okay, cool, we’ll do it tomorrow.” They think, “okay, it’s dead. What else do we have?”

3. You Buried the Lead
Look. I’m in a newsroom that’s about three-quarters the size it was just two years ago. Some of my friends lost their jobs and nobody’s been hired and I have to work a lot harder than I used to. I’m not quite as happy with my job as I used to be, and I’m a bit cranky about that. Short tempered. Irritable. I’m also forced to work fast and I don’t have a lot of time to chat or read.
So your news release—the one your client finally approved—well, it was just too long and too boring for me. It had all the stuff the client wanted in there, all that corporate stuff, but I just read the first two paragraphs and didn’t see a story. It didn't jump off the page and scream why are you sitting there? You're missing a great story!
There was all this stuff at the top about the company and how it was responding to global this and that and how a green initiative something or other resulted in… I don’t know. I couldn’t figure out what the story was.
That’s not to say there wasn’t a story in there. But it didn’t read as a story the way I report stories. It read like a news release.
Put yourself in my shoes. Would you go on the news at six o’clock and have the first thing out of your mouth be the first line in your news release? Would it make any sense at all? Or would it sound like corporate blather? If the top of your news release reads corporate, and not NEWS, you stand an excellent chance of losing me. Because I’m just too damn overworked, tired, and coffee-deprived to do the work for you, sifting down to the fifth paragraph and then thinking of how to translate what you wrote into the language I use to tell stories. So I move on.

4. It’s Like… You Don’t Get Me
I read the release and I liked it. I saw a story in there. I thought it could even be a good story. I told my bosses and they agreed with me. I probably told them all about your story in my language, describing how I’d make it into a kickass television story (or newspaper story).
So I called you. And we weren’t getting each other. It was trouble from the start. You see, as a television reporter I’m always thinking about who I’m going to interview and what I’m going to show. If I can't think of a way to tell that story with images, I'm probably going to think that's a story that's never getting onto the air at my television station.
Maybe it's better as a newspaper story. But newspapers like pictures (and, increasingly, video), too.
At any rate, I called you and said I wanted to do the story and you suggested that I interview your company’s PR guy in the company conference room at headquarters.
That sounded horrible to me and I almost gave up right there. But I said, well, the story’s about your new aircraft baggage loading device that you say will cut airline costs. So let’s meet at the baggage area, you show me the device in operation, we’ll get some great video and interview a few of the crew members who will be working on the machine—baggage handlers (you know, regular people, not spokespeople).
And you freaked. Baggage area? That’s going to be tough, you know, with regulations and stuff. And we’d really rather you didn’t speak with any employees.
And my story started drying up before my eyes. Because a PR guy in a fancy conference room—even with your company’s super nifty logo on the wall in chrome—bores me and gets me in trouble with my boss.
Watch my newscast and see who we interview. Do you see a lot of conference room talking heads? If you don't, then you know a story with spokespeople and handout pictures (no matter how nice your press kit is) just won't be cutting it.
Don’t you get me at all?

5. My Day Changed…and You Got All Offended
So we agreed we had a good story here and I called and you were happy and your client was happy and we both decided to do the interviews with regular people (I know you prepped them—and that’s cool with me as long as they don’t sound like they’re reading lines) and we were going to get a look inside the factory with some great video opportunities. And then—to top it off—you said the magic words: “and we’re only giving this to you.”
Heaven.
And then an elementary school caught on fire. That dry erase board with all the cool stories listed? They grab the eraser sometimes when schools catch fire, or planes miss runways, or mayors turn up in handcuffs. Suddenly everybody in the newsroom’s working the same story.
And our cool factory exclusive gets scrubbed.
I call—really sorry, but we’ve got breaking news… and I’m hoping we can maybe do the story later in the week. (Odds are we’ll be doing a full day of follow-up coverage on the school fire tomorrow)
And you are irritated. You’ve made calls, put things in motion, you know? The company’s switching things up to accommodate the news crew and they roped off a parking place for our live truck and they've moved fast to give them everything a news crew could ask for (even bottled water, for heaven’s sake!) and now… you feel like you’re going to look bad.
So you say fine and hang up and you want to forget you ever pitched me the story.
But here’s the thing. I totally still like the story. I even feel bad and will argue with my bosses that we need to do the story.
But you took the hit with the client (don’t they know that reporters cancel all the time?) and you did damage control and pushed the story somewhere else. But the TV story never happend, and nobody ever parked the big shiny TV truck outside the factory, which would've made everybody so happy. But why?
I thought we had something special.

What This Means To You:

I hope you read this in its entirety and that you took every single reason to heart. In essence this is a short recap of everything this space has tried to convey over the past year. Most of these examples are easily fixed, and yet they are the kinds of things that paid PR professionals do every day! It's understandable that you might make some of these mistakes. I mean, hey, let's face it, these faux-pas are being made by folks who are supposedly experienced PR pro's. That's their job and yet they manage to screw it up on nearly a daily basis.

You have a business or a non-profit to run. How can you be expected to get everything right? The answer is, you don't. You're allowed to make mistakes, you WILL make mistakes, it's a given. Don't stress too much over the mistakes you make, they will happen. The key is to minimize the damage that those mistakes make.

That's why I liked this article so much, I just HAD to post the entire thing in this space. If you follow the advice this space has given in terms of creating your story, putting together your press kit, building relationships, timing your release right and making sure your follow-up is solid, you can overcome a number of superficial mistakes. But the five reasons listed above aren't just superficial oversights. They constitute some major reasons why stories aren't covered by a local news outlet.

Let's start with #1.

Like actors, I've always said that reporter have huge egos. One of the best ways to ingratiate yourself with a reporter is to play to that ego. Producers and editors don't have the kind of egos you'll find with on-air talent. You have to woo them with facts and a good story, but if you make a reporter feel special, you'll have a good chance of having them carry your story into the news meeting, which is vital to the survival of a pitched story.

Here is my one quibble with this point: Unless you're pitcing a story to a reporter that you already have a relationship built with, pitching several individuals in a newsroom is actually a good strategy. I have a few individuals in the Denver media that I have very close relationships with. For instance, if I pitch the local CBS affiliate, I pitch to one person. This is a person that I have worked with for years, a person I have the utmost respect for and a person that I often run stories by to get his opinion of the pitch. When I send a pitch to that station, I send one pitch to him, so he gets it first. I give him the first shot at the story. If he doesn't want it, there are no hard feelings and I simply ask that he forward it to the desk or to others in the newsroom that might be interested in the story.

However, there are a few newsrooms in the city that I don't have personal relationships established. In those newsrooms, I send my releases to three, sometimes four individuals. I send it to reporters, the desk, a producer and an executive producer. This covers my bases. If one person doesn't like the story, I have three others that might like it enough to take it into the newsmeeting.

Point #2:

There is no excuse for this. I have covered this more than once in the past few months. Sending out your release is really just the beginning of your work. If you send out a release, you HAVE to be ready to step up if a reporter actually decides to cover your story.

Remember, you only get one chance with a local newsroom. If you pitch a good story, and they accept it, but you're not prepared to actually follow through with a quality interview, then you're shooting yourself in the foot. Reporters and producers remember when an interview doesn't come through. And the next time you pitch a story, they'll remember that you failed them once and they'll be less likely to schedule you for another chance. If you send out a pitch, you had better make sure your schedule is cleared and you're ready to do what it takes to make sure the interview comes through.

Point #3:

This is a mortal sin when it comes to pitching a story. When I taught PR to college students, one of the biggest challenges I had was breaking them of their 12 year habit of writing thesis statements and english papers. Your first sentence had better be compelling and it had better tell the story immediately. Imagine your first line as the first line of TV story or as a headline of a newspaper atricle. Once you write your first sentence or two of your release, take a moment, then go back and read it out loud. If it sounds like something that a TV story would lead with, then go with it. If it sounds like an english paper, scrap it and start over.

You have to grab them with the first sentence, period. Most journalists won't read past the first paragraph, hell most won't read past the first two sentences. If you haven't captured their attention in that time, your pitch is doomed.

I recently pitched a story involving homeless cats and the financial impact it has had on local taxpayers. I didn't wait until sentence number three or four to get my point across. I stated loudly and unequivocably in the first sentence: "Homeless cats in Denver are costing taxpayers over one-million annually in housing, adoption and euthanization." That's the story and that's the kind of lead that a tv producer can lead with, or a newspaper can make a headline out of.

Point #4:

This point might seem tricky, but it's really not that complicated. This is an aspect that needs to be considered long before you ever send your pitch out to a newsroom. As you're writing your release, you have to consider what kind of visuals are available for your story.

In fact, you should even mention the available visuals in your pitch letter. Letting journalists know what kind of visuals they have to work with can mean the difference between being covered, and being relegated to the dead list.

Plus, and this is important, newsrooms don't take a story and decide to cover it hoping it will work out. They expect you to come through. The best line in the entire article was this:

When something falls through, news producers don’t think, “okay, cool, we’ll do it tomorrow.” They think, “okay, it’s dead. What else do we have?”

I know this was written as part of point number 1, but it applies to point number 4 as well. If you don't have the kind of visuals a journalist is looking for, they may scrap the story and move on to another story. And this doesn't just apply to television anymore. Newspapers, radios and even magazines are using video more and more. Even if they aren't looking for great video, they'll at least want good photos. If you promise quality visuals, and you should, then you have to come through. Otherwise you'll be labelled as a person who doesn't come through and that will make any future pitches that much harder to sell.

Point #5:

Finally we get to the last point. This requires that you have patience and understanding. One of the best things you can do is be amenable to change. By understanding the stress and deadlines and pressure that reporters and producers and editors are under, you'll quickly endear yourself to local journalists.

Be aware that breaking news, especially on the local level, supercedes everything. If you're scheduled to be interviewed and they have to cancel, don't get upset. If you throw a fit, you don't get anything. Trust me, journalists feel bad if they have to cancel a story. They'll do everything they can to reschedule and get the story on at a future date. But if you get angry and throw a fit, they'll let your story just die.

By understanding their situation, you'll build relationships and grow a rapport with journalists you'll want to work with again in the future. We've covered this in several posts here, and being respectufl of a journalists time and limits will go a long way to getting more stories covered in the future, even if it means sacrificing a story today.

As a small business owner or non-profit, understanding and embracing these five tips will go a long way to making sure your story pitch succeeds. And in the end, that's what it's all about. Certainly you have work to do long before you make your first pitch, and the follow up is equally as important. But by keeping these tips in mind, you can definitely increase your chances of a pitch success. And really, in a world and an industry where there are no guarantees, that's the best you can hope for.

Don't Get Hijacked!

2010-08-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing a lot of tell-tale signs on my Facebook pages and in Twitter lately that had me scratching my head. After doing some research, I had an "ah-ha!" moment and decided to share some of my thoughts on what I perceive as a common threat to anyone handling their own PR or social media.

I'm talking about two things here:

1. The Target Boycott
2. Campaign Hijacking

To be fair, even though I started seeing the "Boycott Target" posts on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't completely sure what the fuss was about. Many of the posts were vague, the links were to confusing sites and in some cases, there was simply an icon that represented the Target boycott but with no follow-up information.

I had to go do my own research on the subject. It didn't take long, a simple google news search and I felt I understood the issue. This was clearly an example of social media doing its job. It caught my eye after several postings and forced me to go out and find the information so I would be fully informed.

To that, I say, "Kudos!"

Social movements can be extremely effective in terms of raising awareness and spreading a message. Every day I'm hit with posts and links asking me to remember the starving children in Africa, to honor breast cancer survivors, to give to one organization or another. Sometimes I click on the link, most of the time I don't. Regardless, simply by reading the post, whether it's on Facebook or Twitter, the subject has, at least temporarily, been brought to my attention.

Non-profits can, and should use social media more often than they do to motivate thousands of others who share the same beliefs to help raise awareness. I think I'm pretty much a great example of the common consumer in America, and I can honestly say that while a single posting may not catch my eye, several postings generally will move me to click a link or at least try to educate myself on the issues involved.

This is the power of social media. A single news report can go unnoticed or be missed completely. However if a handful of my friends begin posting on the same subject, I begin to take notice. Something similar happened a few months ago when suddenly my Facebook and Twitter were both inundated with postings about breast cancer. It was something very simple. People started posting what, to me, looked like random numbers and colors. I was confused. There were so many postings that I finally had to ask what the hell was going on. Within minutes I had 20-plus messages telling me it was to raise awareness of breast cancer.

For the next two days, every time I saw a post similar to those that caught my eye, I knew it was about breast cancer. It was impossible to ignore.

Which brings us back to the Target boycott. If you aren't aware of the boycott or the reasons behind it, click on this link to the Minnesota Pioneer Press for some background. Essentially it boils down to a political donation given by Target to an anti-gay politician.

Boycotts tend to be polarizing to begin with. It's an "us against them" situation that will divide people along idealistic lines. But more important than the boycott itself, the originators of the boycott were likey more interested in simply raising awareness of Target's actions. Most boycott organizers understand that boycotts are rarely effective, at least from a monetary point of view. The most successful aspect to most boycotts is that it raises awareness of the actions of the ones being boycotted.

I know that Coca Cola, McDonalds and Disney participate in actions that I find deplorable. I know these things because of previous boycotts against these organizations. These boycotts forced me to look up the issues, do my own research and find out exactly what kind of employment, civil rights or political practices these companies indulge in. And while I still will buy some Coke products, and I've been known to slam down a Quarter Pounder every now and then (I still won't shop at Wal-Mart) I do so with a better understanding of what is going on around me.

If nothing else, the boycott of Target should have raised awareness of the company's support of anti-gay politics. Instead, the movement was hijacked and has become the center of a much larger political fight, one where the intial message has nearly been lost completely.

Move.On's Movement:

A quick note here before we go forward: I do not belong to MoveOn.org, nor any other political activist group. I claim no party affiliation and this blog is not mean to side with any side in the political spectrum. This space is merely meant to observe, educate and inform in the subjects of public relations and social media.

There that's done. I normally have very little problem with MoveOn. I don't dislike their message generally even though I often find myself at odds a bit with their methods of spreading their message. Like some environmental groups or PETA, it's not really the message that outrages folks, it's the delivery. Sadly, the message is overlooked by the stunts pulled by these extremely activist organizations.

Something similar has happend to the "Boycott Target" effort, and it happened as soon as MoveOn got involved. I'll say one thing for groups like MoveOn and PETA; they certainly know how to attract attention. They are masters at getting publicity and raising awareness of a particular issue. Unfortunately, in many cases where these organizations get involved, the message takes a back seat and the organizations become the story.

In this case, MoveOn has created online ads, videos, banners, posts and other collateral meant to raise awareness of the political donations of Target, particularly it's CEO, who is admittedly very conservative. Taken by themselves, these efforts are excellent use of social media and PR. However, when a group as polarizing as MoveOn becomes involved, its opponents immediately mobilize to strike back.

What ensues is a series of name-calling, personal attacks and a clouding of the real issue. The losers in this are the ones that simply wanted to create a grassroots campaign to raise awareness of which politicians Target was giving money to.

Furthermore, MoveOn has a separate agenda than the original organizers of the boycott. MoveOn is deeply involved in politics and is working hard to get progressive or Democratic candidates elected in the upcoming midterm elections. To MoveOn, this is simply one more opportunity to help their cause. To those opposing the boycott or MoveOn, this also is a political battle for an elected seat in government. The actual topic of who Target gave money to and why is being lost in the all the rhetoric.

In fact, the boycott seemed to be working on some level, forcing investors to question the political contributions of the retail giant and even nudging Target executives to the negotiation table with representatives from the Human Rights Campaign. The HRC was calling for Target to pull back it's $150,000 donation or at the very least make an in-kind contribution to a pro-gay rights candidate or organization. But once MoveOn became involved, Target execs pulled away realizing that regardless of what actions they took, they would continue to be hammered by MoveOn, so why make an effort of goodwill at all.

Certainly awareness has been raised and Target will lose some money at least from gays and their supporters across the U.S. But what was meant to be a simply awareness campaign has become a campaign battleground for idealogues and political parties.

On A Smaller Scale:

Hijacking of a campaign happens all the time. Usually it's not on this grand of a scale, but it happens and as a small business owner or non-profit you have be aware of it before you lose control of your good efforts.

We know that nothing happens in a vacuum. Generally when a small business or non-profit gets involved in a campaign, others are either impacted, or involved on some level. Say you own a small bike shop and you create a campaign to encourage more people to ride bikes (and hence buy more bikes or get them serviced more often). Part of your campaign might be that bike riding is healthier or a great way to get in shape. Or maybe you want to encourage a "greener" lifestyle. Either way, your efforts could catch the eye of other organizations that have similar goals.

It would not be surprising to see a non-profit approach you about joining forces to spread the message about a greener or healthier lifestyle. It makes sense and, in reality, it's a good idea to join forces when possible. But beware when you do that the goal of your "partner" might not be your goal.

Your messages may be similar but your goals are different. You want to help bring business through your doors. Their goal is to promote a healthier or greener lifestyle, it doesn't matter if your shop makes money. To them, you're success is secondary to their mission.

This doesn't mean you should take on partners when considering a campaign. In fact, in many cases a partnership can be very beneficial to both parties. You can work together to reach new audiences, fund a larger campaign and spread your message through channels you otherwise might not have been able to use.

But if and when you take on a partner to help with your efforts, make sure from the very beginning that your messages and your goals are compatible. In the end, it comes down to money. The "partner" may be willing to pony up a lot of cash to help fund the campaign, but know that if they do this, they likely will feel entitled to make decisions that you don't always agree with, despite the fact that the effort and idea was yours in the first place.

An Example:

I have a client that is a non-profit and, thus, has a board of directors who sits in judgement of the organizations actions and decides on funding. This non-profit wanted to create a social media campaign with a distinct message and aimed at helping many other, smaller not-for profit organizations that all work towards the same goal.

The problem is, there are members of the board who's goals aren't exactly in line with the goals of the campaign. It's not that they are against the campaign or against the smaller organizations involved, they simply have an agenda that is slightly differet than that of the campaign.

In this instance, the campaign was created with a particular message in mind. The board, however, rejected the message and required a change before funding would be approved. You might have found yourself in a similar position. What did you do?

In our case we made the change, keeping two of the three message elements and finding a way to include the third message element. Instead of giving up on the campaign, we found a way to inject that third message element into the efforts, satisfying everyone involved.

You will always find obstacles in your way whenever you propose to begin a PR or social media campaign. Instead of giving up, find ways around them. One of the advantages of a well-run social media campaign is that you have the power of individuals at your disposal.

Being hijacked isn't the worst thing that will every happen to you campaign, but if it happens, know that your message might very well get lost as you try to regain control. If you absolutely lose control of your original efforts, one of the best ways to regain control is to start a separate campaign. You have the basic elements already as part of your original efforts and it doesn't take much to restart a separate campaign.

In this instance, you can ride the coattails of the original hijacked effort and even become a sympathetic character in the process. By using the awareness raised by the newly-hijacked effort, you can bring the story back to the original message and refocus the story.

New Frontiers!

2010-08-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

You've heard it before, "If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world." This is really just another way of saying, "There are a LOT of people using Facebook these days." As a small business owner or non-profit, it's natural that you see the potential of social media and your heart beats a little faster, your eyes get a little wider, you salivate at the thought of so many potential customers.

With so many users on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and every other social media platform, reaching new audiences seems like it should be an easy task. But as many of you know, it's not as simple as it sounds. To use an old business cliche; reaching new audiences requires you to think "outside of the box," particularly when using social media to do so.

Identify, Target, Pursue:

When you initially enter the social media fray, your first instince will be to simply post your messages randomly to your existing audience. This is fine. It will help you establish a base from which to grow. This is true for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. You have friends, family, existing customers, staffers that will sign up and gladly read your posts. And this is a great way to establish a solid base. The more you post, and the more interesting and entertaining your posts are, the more your links will be forwarded and retweeted and sent out to thousands of new sets of eyes who may not know you yet.

The issue comes when you're ready to take the next step and stop talking to those who are already familiar with your organization and want to branch out to new audiences.

Many clients I work with already have a solid group of followers and friends on their social media sites. In many cases these number in the hundreds, maybe even over a thousand. The problem is, these are existing customers or fans. You're preaching to the choir when you simply maintain the status quo. In order to truly make an impact on your bottom line through social media, you have to reach out to new audiences, speak to those who might not otherwise be interested in your product or service. You have to shout from the hilltop so everyone can hear you, not just the select few that already follow you or are interested in what you do.

In many cases, this means not only revamping your message a little, but also venturing into areas a little out of your comfort level. When making this kind of move, you have to do three things:

1. Target - There are a million different audiences you can target. Do you want to reach a specific demographic, like, say, women 30 to 50? Are you trying to reach a competitor's audience? Are you trying to reach out to an audience that traditionally hasn't used your product or service? You have to figure out exactly who, or what kind of new audience, you want to go after.

2. Identify - Once you have targeted your new audiences, you have to figure out how they differ from your current audience. In some cases the wants, needs, desires of the new audience may overlap your current audience. In this case, you have to figure out why this new audience isn't already using your product or service. Maybe your organization seems too old or stuffy, maybe you come across as too expensive. Maybe you're not viewed as an essential product or service and your new audience can't justify spending money on you during these difficult economic times. Whatever the reason, you have to identify what their needs and desires are and then tweak your message to appeal to the needs and desires of this new audience.

3. Pursue - Like any good hunter, or salesman, you have to go where the quarry is. If you want to reach a primarily female audience, but your friends and followers are mostly men, you have a problem. You have to go where the women are. This means joining groups that cater to women or have a strong female following. This requires a little legwork on your part. Take a Saturday and browse groups that have a large following of the audience you're trying to reach. Sign up for as many groups as you feel comfortable with and then begin posting your message in these groups on a regular basis.

A Brand New Brand:

Another mistake many small businesses make when pursuing a new audience is that they feel the need to completely overhaul their message and image. Again, this is a mistake. Unless you really feel that a massive change is needed, you're better off simply tweaking your message and image to appeal to the new audience. A major change could result in losing some of the loyal customers who are comfortable with your organization right now. A big change could send the message that you're not happy with them as customers and might send them looking for a new organization to do business with.

You have to stay true to your base message. You can tweak your image to appeal to a new audience, but if you have built your image on being dependable, traditional and businesslike, then a change to a newer, flashier, more extreme image might bring in a few new customers, but scare off more older ones in the process. There's no need to completely rebrand yourself when, most of the time, a simple tweak will do the job.

Some Examples:

Here are three examples of organizations trying to reach out to new audiences and how social media has been, or could be, an effective tool.

Non-Traditional Theater:

I spend a lot of my free time performing improv. I love it, it has become more than just a hobby, it's a way of life now. I belong to a handful of groups that perform in the Denver area fairly regularly. Like most big cities, Denver offers a multitude of recreational activities for people to spend their money on. There are movies, plays, outdoor concerts, amusement parks, four pro sports teams, three major college programs (I'm including Air Force, four if you include DU hockey) and, of course the mountains are a big draw in both summer and winter.

Improv groups face a major challenge to draw an audience. Unlike traditional theater or stand-up, the vast majority of people don't really understand improv. It's simply not on the radar for a lot of folks. Like Burlesque, or rollerderby, it appeals to a specific audience. Thus, many of the shows are attended by fellow improvisers. This is great on one level, as it shows community support. But in order to truly grow the improv "scene", non-improvisers need to attend shows on a regular basis.

But how to reach the new audience? That is a question that has dogged every improv theater in town for as long as I can remember. There are really only two improv theaters in town, The Bovine Metropolis Theater, and Impulse Theater. For the purposes of this example, I will focus on the Bovine, since Impulse, while offering improv, is very limited in its scope, providing only short form which people understand a bit better thanks in large part to the show, "Who's Line Is It Anyway?"

Recently, owner Eric Farone took a look at what was popular among the masses and decided to tweak his usual weekend lineup. Instead of the normal sketch comedy or double short form improv shows, he created an improv version of American Idol. It was an improv competition that would crown Denver's Next Improv Star. Week to week, several improvisers would be put the paces of long form, short form, musical improv, etc. And each week a panel of judges would vote one performer off the cast. It was a daring concept and one met with some skepticism in many corners of the improv community.

The show didn't change the ultimate message or image of the Bovine. It is still a theater dedicated to all things improv. But it DID create a format that was readily understandable by the masses. It also brought in guest judges, as well as their followers, to the theater every Saturday night. But the show change alone wouldn't be enough to bring in a whole new audience. That's where social media came in.

One of the first orders of business for the contestants in the show was to create a video about themselves and why they wanted to be "Denver's Next Improv Star." Each contestant posted their video, as did the Bovine and sent it off to friends and family. The videos allowed non-improv followers to get to know the contestants, get a bit of understanding of what the contest was about and showed some of the characters involved with the show. Many of the videos were funny. For those not familiar with improv, they got to see someone who made them laugh, received some information and, in my opinion, the videos sparked interest among those who otherwise might not have attended an improv show.

The campaign worked, along with a weekly blog, written by one of the contestants, numerous messages on Facebook and Twitter and a bevy of quality guest judges, the theater was packed for every show. The best part was that many of those in attendance were first-timers to the theater. Those folks left after the show having seem some great performances, with a little more knowledge and respect for local improv and now the Bovine is on their radar when considering what to do on a Friday or Saturday night.

Even with the success of this weekend show, the theater still struggles at times to draw for the long-form shows during the week. One of these shows includes a Thursday night show that showcases the best improv groups the theater has to offer. The show draws other improvisers, but not so much outside of the community.

Let's think about the potential audience for The Bovine on a Thursday night.

1. Downtown Residents
2. Downtown workers

The theater is smack dab in the heart of downtown Denver, easy to get to for those who live and work downtown. It's unlikely a family living in Arvada is going to venture downtown, find and pay for parking to watc a 90-minute improv show. Many downtown residents are older and most likely are drawn to more traditional theater. The younger ones who live downtown are likely at more traditional bars or working on a Thursday night.

That leaves the downtown workers who are all ages and have a myriad of interests. Why not join forces with a local bar and encourage the workers who go out on a Thursday night to make a night of it. Offer a "Happy Hour" show that starts a little earlier than most of the other shows and offer anyone who buys a ticket gets a free drink at a local bar. Since the theater doesn't serve alcohol, many downtown workers shy away from The Bovine since they want to drink and party. By tying in a traditional happy hour with the show, you might appeal to those who are looking for something different, but still allows them to enjoy a few adult beverages.

The challenge comes in getting the word out once a decision has been made. In this case, targeting a platform like LinkedIn, which caters to a more professional user, might be successful. Or joining business groups, young professional groups and Tweeting the special show at every opportunity will do a good job of getting the word out. It's a simple process, but it requires the theater to expand its reach into an area that they normally don't reach out to.

The Denver Press Club:

As a former journalist, I have spent many, many nights drinking, telling stories and playing poker at the Denver Press Club. For years, though, the club has been a haven for long retired newspaper reporters and old-timers who can still remember when The Rocky Mountain news was an afternoon paper.

Not only was I one of the youngest regulars at the bar, but I was also one of the few broadcasters that imbibed at the club. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the club was, and has always been viewed as a newspaper club. Local broadcasters never felt like they fit in. Worse yet, local PR pro's who are also allowed in, simply felt it was too old and stuffy. And while the new President of the club came in and made it financially viable again, outside of specific events, the club is still frequented by primarily older, retired newspaper men.

I was talking to a local TV personality last Friday and the subject of the club came up. He complained that the club simply wasn't the kind of place he wanted to spend time in, specifically because it still seemed too old, not enough fun, even though he's been asked to guest bartend on a regular basis.

Here's what we know about journalists and PR folks. They like to have fun, they work hard and they play hard. They like to drink. They like to see and be seen. Outside of being able to drink, the club doesn't provide the kind of atmosphere that will attract most broadcasters and PR pro's, most of whom are below the age of 35.

If the club offered a special night specifically for broadcasters, or for PR pro's, complete with drink specials or an extended happy hour, they might begin to make some headway into growing their customer base. But it can't be just one night. It needs to be an every week thing. So, say, every Wednesday is a special for broadcasters (show your TV/Radio press pass or credentials and get dollar beers) they'll start to grow that audience. If every Thursday were set aside for PR pro's, offering a simliar deal, they'd start to attract more young public relations folks as well.

The club already has a communications pipeline to local newsrooms and PR agencies, but they don't have a large social media presence. It would simply take a strong Facebook page and Twitter account, join the TV, Radio and PR groups in town and start messaging the specials regularly. In no time, this new audience, who is already somewhat familiar with the club, will make it a point to check out the club at least once. In this case, the club needs to tweak its image a bit and then use social media to get the word out. Just by using the existing social media platforms of Facebook and Twitter, they could begin to draw customers that have traditionally avoided the club.

Spay and Neuter:

One of my clients is the Animal Assistance Foundation and we're in the process of creating a new campaign designed to reach a new audience for spaying and neutering issues. Up to this point, much of the conversation about spay and neuter has taken place either between others in the animal care field or among Bob Barker fans.

This is troublesome since the conversation actually NEEDS to be among anyone who has a pet or cares about animals. On social media, though, the message has been sent to others who are already aware of seriousness of the homeless pet issue. As the campaign started, we knew who we wanted to reach. We were going after people aged 21-35, primarily females, as a recent PetSmart study showed they were the least likely to get their pets spayed or neutered.

The first order of business was to tweak the image of spaying and neutering. The message remained the same, at it's core level, "Get your pets spayed or neutered." But we had to dress up that message to make it appealing to that particular demographic.

Let's face it, spaying and neutering isn't a flashy or particularly fun topic. Our challenge was to create an interesting, fun image without losing the overall message. We had to identify what the desires and needs of this audience was. These are people who are working to establish a career, they are looking to establish their own adult relationships, they are looking to grow personally and professionally. Money is probably tight and they like to play hard.

We created a campaign that this demographic could relate to on a very personal level. This is a demograhpic that has been inundated with numerous and often conflicting messages about sex and promiscuity. We created a character that was instantly recognizeable and put it into a format that everyone is already familiar with, a sex ed. video.

But as you've notice, creating the campaign is only half the battle. We have created several different platforms to reach a variety of differnt audiences. This includes InkedIn, a blog, Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Youtube. Once the campaign rolls out, these different platforms will hit groups that are populated by those that fit into the demographic. This means hitting profesional groups, social living groups, theater and educational groups, any group that focuses on hitting this demo.

It may sound wierd to post messages about spaying and neutering pets in a group that caters more to the club life or nightlife in Denver, but that is exactly the kind of group that will receive the videos and photos created for the campaign.

In this way, the campaign will reach a group of people that ordinarily would never hear about spaying and neutering their pets.

So take a risk and reach out to new audiences. You don't have to do a complete overhaul to do so. You can bring in more viewers, followers and fans and ultimately more customers by making small tweaks to your message and image. More importantly, it means expanding your scope of friends and followers into areas that you might not have thought of previously. Any audience can work for you if you think about their desires and needs and tweak your social media efforts to let them know that you can meet those needs and desires.

The Meet n Greet

2010-08-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since our last post here, thank you for your patience in checking back as I've been busy working with some clients and taking a bit of a break as Growing Communications heads into what looks to be a very hectic fall. One of the great things about taking a short break, though, is that when you return, there are a myriad of topics to discuss. Today is no different.

A quick side note, and one of importance to every small business and non-profit out there. If you've followed this site for the past year, you know that good PR is more than just sending out a press release. There's a lot of preparation that goes into the effort before you even write your release and there's a ton of work after the release goes out in order to snag that interview and make it successful.

I had a conversation with an acquaintance the other day who mentioned that, as part of her social media consulting business, she also did some PR for her clients. The "PR" consisted of sending out some press releases. That was it. And while that might qualify as PR on some level, it's only one, very small aspect of public relations. As a small business owner or non-profit, you can create and manage your own PR efforts. But if your efforts consist simply of writing a press release and sending it out en-mass to the media, you likely will be wasting your time. If you don't put in the time up front to do your research, monitor your local newsrooms and journalists, figure out your timing, create your press kit and compose a quality pitch letter, your efforts will be hit and miss at best; mostly miss.

Which leads us to today's topic: "The Meet n Greet"

I'm not talking about the usual political definition of the meet n greet, where you venture out into the public, shake some hands and kiss some babies. In PR parlance, that's generally considered "community outreach" and it does have its benefits. But in this case, I'm talking about the media meet n greet.

This blog has continuously hammered the importance of building relationships with journalists in your area in order to help make your pitches more successful. It's important that you know who your local journalists are and which ones are most likely to cover a story that you might pitch. But it's even more important that they know who YOU are.

Building relationships with reporters, producers and editors isn't easy. They are busy, busy people. They work long hours, they are under high stress and they have little time for visits to your office, unless they're already working a story. So the question that gets presented to me time and time again is; "How do I start building relationships with the media?"

There a number of different ways, and, honestly, sometimes you just have to get lucky. You might find the local watering hole where they hang out. You might try throwing a party with free drinks and inviting them to attend. These methods can have some success. But the best way to get to know a journalist is to visit them where they work.

Most journalists are hard to reach. You can't just wander into your local TV station and ask to see the producer of the 5pm newscast or the 10pm anchor or the morning show reporter. It doesn't really work that way. However, if you show up at 4 in the afternoon with a press release and a bevy of large pizzas, you might find yourself in the newsroom, chatting up the assignment editor or exectuive producer. You'll have more success doing this on a weekend, when there are fewer obstacles in the way such as security and a front desk person. But even then, it's a crap shoot.

Tricks like these can work, I know, I've used them and they've been successful. However, there's a better way to get into a newsroom and make a real connection with local journalists; it's called an editorial meeting.

The Editorial Meeting:

Before we go much further, I'll say this; an editorial meeting is generally reserved for non-profits and municipal representatives. If you work with a hospital, a non-profit, law enforcement, the city or state, you likely will be able to schedule an editorial meeting. But private and small businesses can still schedule an editorial meeting, you just have to have a good reason for scheduleing it.

As a small business owner, you're probably not on the radar of most journalists in your area. You have to provide a reason for them to take time out of their busy schedule to sit and meet with you. The best way to do this is to prove that you can provide some value to their newscasts from time to time. You don't have to be the big fish in the pond to provide value, you just have to be able to show that you bring something to the table.

Here are some ways to get your foot in the door and get that meeting scheduled:

1. Bribe them. This is a lot like showing up on Saturday evening with a case of beer, only this time, they know you're coming. If you own a small business, offer to provide lunch or dinner to the newsroom when you show up for the meeting. Trust me, this works more often than not.
Value added = Free food

2. Promise to be short and to the point. Make sure they understand that YOU understand they are under a tight deadline. If you say, "hey, le'ts meet for a bit," you're less likely to get scheduled than if you say, "Could you spare five minutes to meet with me? And I'll bring food." Journalists are nearly always willing to meet for a few minutes, especially if there's free food involved.
Value added = free food + short commitment

3. Flatter them. This doesn't mean you have to tell them that you watch them every night and that you absolutely love their work. That doesn't hurt, but let them know that you came to them specifically because you are familiar with their work and that you wanted them to be the first ones to receive your releases.
Value added = short commitment + first shot at potential quality stories in the future

4. Come to them for advice. This one is a great way to break the ice. Journalists love to complain, and one of the things they complain about the most is incompetent PR pro's. If you approach a newsroom and let them know that you're a small business, that you are putting together a PR plan and you simply want to meet with them, briefly, to get a better understanding of what to pitch, who to pitch to and when to pitch. They will appreciate your efforts and like the fact that you don't want to waste their time. This is a particularly effective way to schedule an editorial meeting.
Value added = establishing a relationship with a small business who understands their needs

5. Be a community leader. As a small business owner, you work everyday with those in and around your neighborhood. You hire locals as employees, you give money and time to neighborhood issues and you get to know the people who live and work nearby your establishment. Because of this, you have a good feel for the needs and the concerns of the people you cater to. For a media outlet, these are all either current audience members, or potential audience members. Either way, these people are important to them. As a community leader, you can provide a newsroom with insight to what is happening in your neighborhood. Plus, if and when a story breaks in your area, you will be an individual they will know and that they can contact for information if need be.
Added value = a reach into a specific neighborhood and a potential news contact in the future

Again, as with any PR effort, nothing is guranteed. Some newsrooms will be very receptive to your editorial meeting request. Others will simply ignore it. And don't get picky. If the third-rated TV station and your community paper are the only ones that agree to meet, schedule the meeting. Don't worry about not hitting the big boys. Starting small is the first step to going big time. Get a few good stories in your community paper and on the third-rated station in town, and the big boys will start to take notice.

Face to Face:

Once you actually get an editorial meeting scheduled, the real work begins. Again, you have to think in terms of what kind of value you can bring to the media outlet you're meeting with. If you just show up and tell them who you are and then leave, you will have wasted your time and theirs. You should have specific questions in mind when you meet and have your value already established in your mind when you meet with them.

Come prepared. This is where your press kit is very handy. If you have press kit already prepared, make sure it's up to date and bring it with you to the meeting. If you don't have one, then put one together. Remember, you want a history of your organization (one page) a brief bio on the important people, some photos, a list of FAQ's, (frequently asked questions) and a sheet with important and interesting information about you and your business or non-profit. You want to leave something behind with those you're meeting with and a press kit is one of the best ways to make sure they remember you.

When you meet with them, you also want to make sure they understand why you're meeting and what they get out of it. Let them know that you have strong ties to the community and that you interact with their audience every day. You should have certain goals in mind when you meet them and you should let them know what those goals are. If it's simply to get in front of them and let them know who you are, then say that. You have to believe you bring something to the table and that meeting with you is not a waste of their time.

Ask questions. When you meet with them, ask questions about what kind of stories they are looking for, are they trying to expand their audience demographics, when the best time to pitch a story, what kind of releases work best, if they take video they don't shoot, etc. These questions will help you put together a better pitch, but more importantly, it will impress on them that you are serious about creating the best pitch possible and that you don't want to waste their time.

Listen. They will talk, they will tell stories, they will provide you with information that you might miss if you're too busy talking about yourself. Certainly this is a time to expound on your many good qualities, but you also have to listen to the journalists you're meeting with, otherwise you'll miss information that could be the difference between a rejected pitch and a feature prime-time story.

As always, come bearing gifts. It doesn't matter if it's food, or a monogrammed pen or drinks or coupons. Bring something.

Don't pitch. This is very important. You're not there to pitch a story. You're there to learn and to teach. You want to learn everything you can about them, and you want to teach them about you. It's an exchange of information, not a pitch. You can tell them about what you do and about upcoming stories you might have in the pipeline, but don't hand them a press release and say, "let's talk about this great story I have for you." They'll patiently wait for you to finish and then see you out the door before forgetting who you are.

An Example:

One of the first things I do when I take on a new PR client is to is to take them around to all the local newsrooms and introduce them to my former colleagues who still work in the business. These meetings don't always result in immediate coverage, but it at least puts them in front of reporters, producers and editors they will be dealing with in the future.

Recently, I took a friend around to all of the newsrooms in town as part of a PR campaign launch. The campaign was a summer-long effort. While there was a story to be pitched, I recommended that the meeting be more general, mostly to talk about the organization, not the story. She baked cookies, wrote a short fact sheet about her organization, including the story release and she tossed in a funny visual trinket that included the message of her organization.

Of the seven media outlets we visited that morning, we were able to get into only one of the newsrooms. We left the packet at the other six with a note asking to set up a meeting. That might not sound very successful, but she managed to schedule a story with the one newsroom we got into. Within a week of meeting with them, she was on the air and her story was being covered.

Since then, other news organizations have picked up the story and in the past month, her non-profit has enjoyed some great coverage from a number of local media outlets. This isn't to say that her one meeting with that one newsroom producer has been the key to her success. She has put in some time and has continued to pitch her story all summer long. But in doing so, she has managed to build relationships with a handful of reporters, some of whom came to her after seeing her story on tv, aired by the newsroom that took the time to meet with her.

Remember, PR is an ongoing effort. You can't just send out a release and expect to suddenly get a ton of media coverage. You have to take time to build relationships and continue to pitch your story. Follow-up emails and correspondence also goes a long way to staying in front of journalists. Once they know you, there's still no guarantee that your story will be picked up. But you certainly have an advantage over those who make a pitch cold, with no relationship with the journalist whatsoever.

As a small business owner or non-profit, an editorial meeting is one of the best ways to begin to build those all-important relationships. Yes, it takes time and yes, you will be denied by some newsrooms, but keep at it. You only need one solid relationship to help you grow your PR efforts. You have to start somewhere and an editorial meeting is, in our opinion, one of the best places to start.

All The News...

2010-08-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. The weather slowly begins to turn cooler, the days start to grow shorter and leaves begin to turn. Sure, it's still 90 degrees outside, but the change is coming, it's inevitable. And just to make sure you don't miss the changing of the seasons, your local news outlets are letting you know in not too subtle ways.

Here in Denver, August means the annual tradition of all things Denver Broncos making the headlines. The newer tradition of following the Rockies' playoff push still hasn't quite caught on; football is still king here in the Rocky Mountains. No one will argue that, but does it really qualify as "news"?

This is a common question I hear from folks, including clients, when trying to determine why and how newsrooms decide on what to report on. We've written on the newsmaking decision process in this space before, but it deserves another look before we go much further.

News is tricky, and even the most seasoned reporters, producers and editors will sometimes miss the boat on a big story or will latch onto a story that ultimately, has no legs. And while news sometimes is more art than science, there is a basic formula that most journalists keep in mind as they decide on what will make the front page, the 10pm broadcast or the hourly updates.

1. Timeliness - is the story happening now, or recently, or is it just about to happen?

2. Proximity - "All news is local" is the mantra often repeated to newsrooms across the country. If a story is local to the audience the outlet services, it has a much better chance of being reported.

3. Impact - How much does the story impact the audience? Is this something that impacts only a few individuals, or is it something that the public at large has a vested interest in?

4. Relatability - This is often called, "The Care Factor" and simply means, how much can the audience relate to the issues or individuals involved in the story.

5. WOW factor - This is where news gets tricky. Celebrities, sports, and all sorts of "non-news" issues fall into this category. Certainly if Kim Kardashian gets married it has little proximity, impact or relatability to most of the audience, but it's timeliness and WOW factor will put this story squarely in the sights of newsrooms all over the country.

It's the WOW factor that often accounts for much of the confusion when it comes to the question of, "What is news". We can all understand when a bank robbery takes place, or a murder happens or the city goes bankrupt, why it is a lead story in most local news outlets. But when Tim Tebow's first (limited) practice of Bronco's training camp makes the front page of the Denver Post, many people end up scratching their heads, wondering how the story qualified for such a massive headline treatment.

The Competition is Tough:

When clients wonder why their story got bumped so the newsroom devote extra time to cover Bronco training camp, I have a simple one-word response; Audience.

Keep in mind that, despite all the noble tradition of journalism, it is, has been and always will be a business. News is in the business of attracting viewers, readers and listeners. Reporting on the simple events of the day might be the truest definition of "news" but it's also a sure-fire way to NOT attract an audience.

Reporters, producers and editors have to keep their audience in mind when putting together a newscast or morning paper. In the end, it comes down to the age-old argument that has raged in newsrooms for decades; Should news report only what the audience NEEDS to know, or should it report on what they think the audience WANTS to know.

In today's world of "infotainment" journalists walk a fine line between the two, attempting to report on the necessary news of the day while still providing entertaining stories that the audience wants to see and hear.

Is the public good truly served by plastering a photo of a 3rd-string rookie quarterback on the front page, with accompanying story right below? Probably not. Is the paper going to sell more copies by doing so? The answer is a resounding yes! Like all newspapers, The Post keeps circulation and sales numbers dating back to the earliest days of publication. Filed under, "not-so-surprising" is the fact that The Post, and The Rocky in its day, sold more copies after Bronco wins and whenever a Bronco is featured on the front page.

Based on what I know has happened to day in training camp (I have a few friends left in local newsrooms) I can pretty much guarantee what tomorrow's headlines are going to be. Elvis Dummervil Out For The Season! The headline will trumpet across the front pages and lead all newscasts. This will be followed by the news of the signing of LenDale While, a former Denver Public School superstar and more news on the QB battle between Tebow and Orton. Look it up, I'm pretty sure I'm right on target here.

So while news of the Broncos' newest QB might have little to no impact on the daily lives of Denver residents, it's clear that there is an interest and that readers have a strong interest and appetite in all things Broncos. Of course, there is still timeliness and proximity, but as far as impact, it falls way short when compared to stories dealing with the economy, public safety and law enforcement.

This is why stories about celebrity screw-ups, football players and teams and water-skiing squirrels makes the news every single day. These are cute, funny, interesting and fascinating stories. They have a WOW factor that really can't be explained in terms of actual news, but the audience wants to see them and so journalists deliver.

In the end, the audience is what matters to newsrooms. Without an audience, a media outlet is doomed, just ask the Rocky Mountain News and the other myriad of newspapers that have folded over the past decade. Larger audiences mean higher ad rates and subscribers, which leads to more money which means a healthy news outlet. In Denver, the Broncos rule and people are interested in what happens to their favorite team. The same holds true in Boston, New York, Dallas, Cleveland...everywhere (except maybe L.A. which seems to be interested in just celebrities in general).

Let's Play A Game:

Just a quick one, mind you. But I'm going to repeat an exercise I used with my students at CU-Denver and one I give to my students taking my seminars today.

I'll give you three news stories, YOU decide which one would make the headline of the daily local newspaper. Assume that you are in Denver (or you could be in any city, just attach the local sports team to the headline)

1. Scientists discover cure for cancer
2. Broncos win Superbowl, Tebow named MVP
3. City declares bankruptcy, many city services to close

Take a moment, I'll wait while you ponder the many possibilities. (hum JEOPARDY theme here)

Done? Okay. I'll give you MY headlines in order and you can compare.

1. Broncos Win Superbowl
2. City declares bankruptcy
3. Scientists discover cure for cancer.

Of course, that's how I believe our local journalists would rank them. In my personal opinion, I'd make the cure for cancer number 2 and the bankruptcy number 3. How did you choose?

Without a doubt the bankruptcy story and the cancer story impacts millions more people than the superbowl win, but the superbowl win is the story that the majority of people will want to read. The cancer story matters, as does the bankruptcy story, but the real INTEREST from the audience is going to be in a recap of the win. This is where the audience "wants" will dictate what story is bigger.

The Impact On You!

What this means, in terms of small business and non-profit PR, is that you absolutely MUST take into account the audience when making your pitch to a news outlet.

It also means you have to keep an eye on the traditional WOW factor stories that your local media covers every year. If you live in Denver, you know that in August and September, local news will dedicate extra time and space to coverage of training camp and pre-season. That space will be eaten up through the season, meaning less time for other stories on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. You KNOW that the big news on Monday (or Tuesday) will be how the Broncos did the night before. This means your story had better be a great one in order to beat out all the other stories battling for the limited time available.

Finally, it means you have to get creative in your pitching sometimes just to get a second look from journalists. While you're always going to have better luck pitching a story with credible news content, there are times when you can use a WOW factor to help your story gain traction and get coverage.

Here's an example:

I am working with a client who runs a cat spay and neuter clinic in Denver. Raising awareness of spaying and neutering isn't among the easiest things to do. There are a handful of ways to grab the public's attention. You can appeal to their wallet, pull on their heartstrings hit them over the head with scare tactics, or you can go the WOW factor route.

While talking to the client she mentioned that she used "cat condoms" as a funny way to help spread the message of cat spaying and nuetering. Of course, they're not real. Cats don't wear condoms. But I was immediately struck by how effective the condoms could be to attract media attention. It was something new, something unique, something funny. More importantly, it was a cheap, easy gimmick that could be delivered to every newsroom in the city without breaking the budget.

The story of spaying and neutering has some real news impact, no argument there. It has proximity, timeliness (although, since the story never goes away, it's more of an evergreen story), impact (due to the money spent by taxpayers on homeless and feral pets) and relatability (who can resist a cute pet?).

But outside of Bob Barker, who really spends their time thinking about spaying and neutering pets? No one, that's who. And getting them to pay attention isn't easy. Newsrooms know this. It's one thing to bring on a shelter representative with a cute puppy or kitten and parade them in front of cameras to push pet adoption, but the visuals for spaying and neutering are, well...they aren't as cute.

But package the message with something funny and interesting like condoms for cats, and newsrooms will get a chuckle and take notice. It's the WOW factor that takes a quality, but uninteresting story to journalists, and makes it worth reporting on. Within just a couple of months since delivering those condoms to the local newsrooms, the stories have started to roll in.

The "Beat The Heat" campaign that featured the condoms along with a set of stills that espoused the vitures of having a spayed or neutered cat as a pet, has created a mini-stir among local journalists and has set the stage for a follow-up story that is more based on actual news content.

The Feline Fix used a WOW factor to establish themselves within newsrooms and will find much more success in the future as they move forward with other campaigns and new pitches. Any small business or non-profit can achieve the same with a little creativity and perseverance.

Knowing the local audience and understanding that using a gimmick or WOW factor can be an effective way to get coverage, will help you in your efforts. This is why, when I work with clients, I always say interesting AND informative. You CAN be both. You can provide content that interests an audience and still provides useful information. If all people wanted was straightforward information, then public radio would be the most listened-to station in the country. But it's not. Not even close.

So start thinking about your organization and looking for fun ways to get your product or service into the public eye. You probably don't have cat condoms to work with, and it's likely you don't have a Bronco QB to help you hit the front pages. But all you need is something different, unusual, fun and creative to catch a journalists attention.

Making Friends, Influencing People

2010-07-29T15:38:00.000-07:00

It's storytime at Real Public Relations! It's the story of public relations "professional" who made a mistake. A really big mistake.

The story comes courtesy of a longtime and very good friend who currently works as a producer at one of the leading TV news stations in Denver. An award-winning journalist and a person who knows exactly what it takes for a small business to garner earned media coverage.

The funny thing about this story is that, up until the very end, the "professional" in question did just about everything right on behalf of the client.

It starts a few weeks ago when the KCNC newsroom receives a press release pitching a story. As it turns out, it caught the interest of the morning news producer and within a short period of time, some calls were made and an interview was booked for the morning show.

This is a big deal for a small business. An interview on a morning show means exposure to tens of thousands of potential customers at one time. A saavy business can leverage a single morning show interview into massive amounts of social media coverage, and, if they're lucky, even more earned media coverage from partner outlets and competitive outlets.

The PR "professional" agreed to the interview at the scheduled time; 6:30 in the morning. In the local morning news world, that's a prime spot. It's regularly among the highest rated time slots for most local morning news programs, which makes sense, since most people are up, have showered and are eating breakfast or catching up on the day's events before they head on out the door between 7 or 7:30am. In other words, the interview slot was good news for the PR "pro" and for the client.

Time passes, a few days go by, there is no follow-up communication from the PR "pro" to the newsroom. The producer, who is already swamped by the daily routine of putting together a daily news program, moves forward planning on having the interview.

The day in question arrives, the producer gets into the newsroom only to find an odd and quite frustrating email in his inbox. The PR "professional" has cancelled the interview with the client. Not because anyone is sick, or due to unforseen circumstances, but, and here's the doozy of it all, the interview was being cancelled because it was, "too early."

Seriously, you read that right. The PR "pro" just couldn't manage to drag themselves out of bed that early in the morning. Certainly, it might have been the client who deemed 6:30 am too early in the morning to do an interview, but either way, the PR "pro" in this case was not serving the best interests of their client.

Bad Move:

Trust me, I produced morning shows in radio and TV for years. I KNOW how early 6:30 am can be. Even as a public relations professional, I have dragged myself out of bed at 4am so I could be at a television station to support my client during morning show interviews. If the decision was made by the PR person, then they should be fired immediately by the client. If the decision was made by the clinet, then the PR person needed to do everything short of kidnapping the client and dragging them to the station for the interview.

There is always the chance that the PR "pro" did everything in their power to get the client to show up for the early morning interview, and if the client simply refused to the listen to the PR pro's advice, then the PR pro should simply drop them as a client.

Yes, this sounds harsh, and in a difficult economy, dropping clients is less than ideal. But a PR person's job is to grab media attention for the client. As a consultant, I always had to remind myself that, ultimately, the final decision rests in the hands of the client. I could make recommendation, but in the end, the client made the final choice.

Certainly clients have made decisions contrary to my advice. It's their right. But I have, and would again, let a client go if they make decisions that are not only against my advice, but downright destructive to their bottom line. Remember, it's not just the client's reputation on the line, it's the reputation of the PR person as well.

I can pretty much guarantee, with a fair degree of certainty, that this business and the person who scheduled the interview, will never get another shot at the KCNC morning show again. In all likelihood, their reputation has also been damaged in other newsrooms as well.

The media, especially local media, is a very small community. Reporters, producers, editors all talk to one another and you would be mistaken if you didn't think that this story has already made the rounds at the other television stations.

Listen, Judge, Go To Bed Early:

There are two lessons to be learned from this episode in regards to small businesses and non-profits.

Lesson 1:
Follow-up, consistency and commitment are essential to a successful public relations campaign.

You are most likely handling your own PR and social media efforts. If you are, that's great. That's the whole purpose of this blog; to help you save money by doing it yourself. You can put together a great story, create a wonderful pitch and pitch letter and make your follow up phone calls in a timely and effective manner. All of this might lead to an interview opportunity. If it does, that's great news. But just as I pointed out in the previous post, just getting the interview is really only half the battle.

You have to be prepared with your messages and appearance. You also have to show up when expected and you must deliver on what you promise a newsroom. If you tell them your event will have hundreds of adorable children for photo ops, then there had better be hundreds of children smiling and happy to pose for the cameras. If not, they'll be disappointed and they'll remember it the next time you pitch a story to them.

The same holds true to accepting an interview request. If you say you'll be there for a 6:30 interview, then be there. If they want you in at 2am, then get there at 1:30. Get to an interview early. Like Vince Lombardi used to tell his players, "If you're on time, you're late." Show up early and show up prepared. Don't get there five minutes ahead of time and then take 20 minutes to change clothes or put on your makeup.

One of the best ways to anger a journalist is to take advantage of their time. They are on tight deadlines. Most likely, they have to file the story within just a couple of hours after talking to you. They might even have other stories to cover or other video to shoot. If it's a live interview, they want to see you in the newsroom, or on the phone line well in advance of the interview time. This eases their mind and saves everyone a whole lot of confusion and panic.

The time to tell a journalist that 6:30 in the morning is too early, is when they approach you for an interview. If you really don't think you can make it that early, let them know. They might scrap the interview completely, but at least you didn't string them along. By the way, never tell a journalist that you can't make an interview because it "inconveniences" you. They'll never ask you for an interview again. They want interview subjects who will bend over backwards for them. Sure, it's not totally fair, but then again, they ARE offering you a chance to introduce your organization to thousands upon thousands of potential customers, for nothing more than a few minutes of your time.

It's only fair that you meet them halfway, and if that means you have to drive to a studio for an interview, or get there hours before you normally get up, then you should do what it takes to make it easy for the journalist.

This also includes other kinds of interview follow-up. Once you get that coveted interview, you need to do a few simple things which will endear you to newsrooms everywhere:

1. Confirmation - Follow-up with an email to confirm the date, time and location of the interview. Some interviews are set up weeks in advance, most are just days in advance. Either way, a follow up email will confirm your commitment to the interview and ease the worries of the reporter, producer or editor.

2. Send information - Reporters, producers and editors like facts. Regardless of the interview venue, you should always send information to the newsroom. This does a couple of things. In the case of print interviews, it makes sure they spell your name right, it confirms your organization's name and services. In the case of radio interviews, you can make sure they have the right pronunciation of your name or business. In the case of television interviews, it allows them to create CG's, or cover graphics, that can be aired during the interview. The same holds true for basic facts about you and your story.

For instance, if you're interview is about a charity you run to help homeless people, you should send them a short list of facts about homelessness in your city or in the U.S. These facts can be great additions to any story. You might have covered them in your interview and just want to make sure the media outlet gets the information correct, or you may anticipate answering these questions during an upcoming interview. In this case, a TV station can, again, put up CG's as part of the interview, a print or radio reporter can use these facts to direct their line of questioning. Journalists love knowledge, and the more they know, the better an interview you will have.

3. Provide Back-up - Every interview you do is an opportunity to show a newsroom you know what you're doing and that you understand how to make their jobs easier. If you can make a journalists' job easier, they'll love you forever, kind of like bringing them beer and food. For TV stations, send photos, for radio stations, send sound files, for tv stations, send ideas about graphics and send video. Once again, the journalist wants your interview to go well so they can meet the expectations of their own standards and those of their audience. This means providing great visuals and information to go along with the story. If you can give them the visuals and information they need to make your interview really sparkle, they'll remember you and be more likely to schedule you for future interviews.

Lesson 2:
If you hire someone for their expertise and advice, listen to them whenever possible.

Let's face it, PR isn't rocket science. Often, it's more like an art. There are nuances that it can take years to get a feeling for. You can, and should handle the basics of your PR campaign. But there will be times when you need an expert. This is when you might bring in a freelance PR pro, or a former journalist. You brought them in for a reason, so listen to them when they give you advice or make recommendations.

You may not always agree with what they tell you. You might be nervous about the direction they seem to be taking your campaign. This is natural. But they have years of experience that you don't have and they have a knowledge of how newsrooms operate that you don't have. If they say a 6:30am interview on a local TV station is a "good get" then by all means, do what you have to do to make it to the newsroom by 6am, awake and prepared to shine.

This doesn't mean you should turn all control over to any "expert", regardless of their credentials. Ultimately, it's your business, your life's work. You want any consultant to work with you, not against you. Expect constant communication and expect teamwork. Working with a PR consultant is a great way to get some quick media coverage for a big campaign. But it will only work if you trust them and feel comfortable enough to voice your concerns to them. It's also important that they listen to you. Too often, I see a business bring in a consultant, spell out exactly what they want, and then the consultant goes off in a different direction. Even if the consultant's motives are good, it shows they aren't listening to you. And that's a recipe for disaster in the long run.

Here are a few tips to making your working relationship with a consultant the best it can be:

1. Ask questions - Make sure you know everything you can know about your consultant. Sit down with them and go over your campaign and ask them for their thoughts. If they appear willing to work with you rather than try to control you, it might be a good fit. Look to see if they answer your questions to your satisfaction rather than talk around the answer.

2. Set your expectations - Make sure you set out exactly what you are looking for. A good PR consultant will have questions for you about what you expect and will want to set parameters up front. An experienced consultant won't rush into any work before they know what they're getting into. Take note of what kinds of questions they ask you.

3. Express Concerns - Once you start working together, you will likely have further questions and maybe even some concerns about their direction. Don't let it go and think that your concerns will pass, they won't. You don't have to be confrontational, but certainly you should approach the consultant with your concerns. A good PR consultant will have no problem listening to your concerns and defending them. Sometimes it's just a matter of perception. Sometimes it's a difference of philosophy, which can't always be overcome. If a consultant doesn't address your concerns, you always have the option of firing them. Make sure there's a clause in any contract you sign that offers an out for differences of philosophy or an out for any reason with a 30-day written notice. You'll have to pay some money, but not the entire contract, plus, if they've done any work at all, at least you'll be ahead of where you started.

4. Don't Lower Your Standards - If a PR consultant ever offers you advice that goes against your standards or ethics, fire them immediately. You don't want to work with a consultant that advises that you lie to customers or the media. You can find out about a consultant's ethics by creating a scenario in which lying to the media would be the easy way out.

5. Listen - When creating a plan or a campaign or a strategy, listen to what the consultant has to say about the best options. Hopefully, they will have listened to you and will work within your budget and stick to your code of ethics. Make sure to ask questions if you don't understand why a consultant advises a course of action, but then listen to the answer. Sometimes they will see an opportunity that you missed, or were unaware of. They also have inside knowledge of newsrooms that give them an insight that you don't have. You may think that a single, huge event that garners a ton of media coverage is the way to go. The consultant might advise a longer-term strategy that takes up less of your time, but is twice as effective. You might not agree at first, but listen to the reasons why that strategy is better than yours. It might just change your mind. Again, in the end, it's your decision, but when you DO make your decision, be sure to take their experience and knowledge into consideration.

You have much more on the line than a consultant does. They don't have the kind of ties to your organization that you do, so it's natural that they aren't as invested in success as you are. But here's what they ARE invested in; their own business and their reputation. Their reputation within the business community matters. More importantly, their reputation within the media community is of vital importance. They don't want to ruin either, so they'll be looking for clients that will allow them to enhance that reputation, just as you're looking for a consultant that will help you in the long run.

If nothing else, whether you're handling your PR by yourself or with a consultant, if you do manage to get an early morning interview with your local TV station. Don't party the night before, get your beauty sleep and make sure you don't cancel the interview because it's "too early" in the morning. The last thing you want to do is become the butt of a joke making the rounds between the local media outlets.

Lights, Camera, Action!

2010-07-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

In our ongoing effort to relate all the important aspects of public relations and social media to small businesses and non-profits, we here at Real Public Relations want to pass on some information designed to make you a movie star! Well, maybe not a movie star, but certainly a TV darling, and if not a TV darling then most definitely an internet sensation.

Learning how to craft your press release and build your social media network is vitally important to the success of your growing organization, no doubt about it. But what you do after you nail down that all-important interview is equally important.

I've written in this space before about producers and reporters constantly diving back into the well of interviewees they feel comfortable with. Once they find a person who is easy to interview, speaks in sound bites and looks and sounds good on tape, they will go back to that individual time and time again.

But what constitutes "looking and sounding good?" It's a combination of things, and, depending on the medium, requires different skills. First and foremost you have to come across as both likeable, knowledgable and trustworthy. That's a difficult combination to pull off, just ask any politician.

Or you could simply take a look at this article that appeared on the InventorSpot website discussing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his upcoming television interview. Click here for the entire article:

Or, you could just look at this video to see how easy it is to screw up a TV interview:

I've been doing media training for over a decade now and I've seen some clients completely destroy all the good effort they put into their PR campaign simply by doing poorly in an interview. It's like I used to tell my students at the University of Colorado at Denver; when it comes to being on television or radio, "anyone can do it, not everyone can do it well." Clearly, Mr "Z" has an issue with his TV image. There's not much you can do about sweating on camera. Some tips include not doing anything phsyical leading up to the interview, certain kinds of make-up will also help. Wearing cool, breathable clothing will also help. However, if you can't overcome your penchant for sweating profusely, then you might consider avoiding TV interviews when possible. It simply makes you look shifty.

In other words, yes, you can go on television and be interviewed. You can probably get through it without any major gaffes or slips of the tongue, or a river of sweat. But you might not get the bump in business you hoped for because, while you did it adequately, you didn't do it well. There's a different between just being interviewed, and being a great interview. And that difference could spell disaster or lead to success.

So, for your benefit, here is a list of tips for being interviewed, whether it's a TV interview, a radio interview or a print interview, if you follow these tips, you'll have more impact every time you speak to a journalist and you'll start to see your business grow.

Television Etiquette:

Television interviews are perhaps the hardest of all interviews for the simple reason that there's a camera involved. Most of us don't spend our lives in front of cameras. It's alien to us and, for many, the addition of the camera makes them uncomfortable. One of the ways to get past this fear is simply to record yourself over and over and over again, until you begin to feel at ease in front of the lights and the camera.

When I media train a client, I always put them in front of a camera early so they can see exactly how they look. Most are shocked by how they appear on camera, much like many are surprised at how they sound on tape. When you go on camera for a TV interview, you can't dress or act like you do during everyday interactions. You want to present an image to potential customers, one that is polished and professional and likeable. You may think you present that image in public already, and most likely you do. But on TV everything is exaggerated, so you have to adjust.

Appearance - There are some very simple rules when appearing on TV for an interview:

1. wear the right clothes: This means no black, white or patterened shirts, blouses, suits or skirts.
2. Your clothes should be pressed, clean and professional. Make sure you match. If you question what you're wearing, ask someone.
3. Women, wear makeup. You don't have to go all Tammy Fay Baker, but wear something because the studio lights will wash out your face and you'll look like a ghost. Make sure you have some color in your cheeks.
4. Men, shave. If you have a beard, make sure it's trimmed. Trim your nose hairs, ear hairs and eyebrows. If you have a wild hair sticking out somewhere on your face, no one will hear what you're saying, they'll only be focused on that hair.
5. Keep your hair out of your face. I know it sounds strange, but people get distracted by things like this.

In Denver, there's a local anchor for the number-one 10pm newscast in town. She is an excellent journalist and a well-liked anchor. She's been on the air for over ten years and has won many awards for her work. But when I ask someone of their initial thoughts on this particular anchor, the one thing that comes up constantly is her hair. When she first started, her hair was, well, awful. it was big and distracting and out of style. For years she has had a pretty fashionable hairstyle, and yet viewers just can't seem to get past her hair. You don't want to become the person that's known as "The guy with the strange tie" or the woman with that awful dress" or "the dude with the funky goatee". People won't remember what you said or what your message was if all they remember is how you looked.

Demeanor - I can't stress enough how important this is to the success of a TV interview:

1. Sit up straight. Don't slouch, don't turn to the side, don't fidget. Put your feet squarely on the floor in front of you, sit on the edge of the chair and push your head back, chest out. It may feel strange, but it looks good.
2. Don't talk with your hands. Again, this is distracting. You can gesture occasionally, but don't let your hands fly around while discussing something your passionate about. This can be hard, especially if you're used to a lot of hand movement when you speak. But it won't take long for viewers to stop listening to your words and start focusing on your flying fingers.
3. Don't talk with your head. A lot of folks like to emphasize their points with head gestures. This makes you look like a ragdoll. If you absolutely have to move while your speaking, bend at the waist, just slightly and try to keep it to a minimum.
4. Don't fidget. Moving around makes you look nervous. Looking nervous makes you look untrustworthy. You want people to believe you, to want to listen to you. If you fidget, you seem unsure and no one wants to get advice or tips or insight from someone who isn't confident in what they're saying.
5. Don't have shifty eyes. This one is a toughie for a lot of people. When you sit down for an interview, the producer or anchor or reporter will tell you where to look. Open your eyes, and look directly where they tell you. Don't look at the camera (unless they specifically tell you to do so), don't look around at other things, just look where they tell you to look. Again, looking around makes you look uncomfortable, unsure and untrustworthy. If you're speaking to a reporter or anchor in person, make eye contact and don't break it. Oh, and don't forget to blink, otherwise you're just staring, and that's not good either.
6. Smile. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but you'd be amazed at how many clients I've had to tell to smile over the years. Smiling makes you seem nice, it makes you seem approachable, it makes you likeable. Try practicing your smile in front of a mirror. Find the one that looks and feels natural and rehearse it.
7. Breathe. Again, it seems like a no-brainer, but I've seen interviewees actually pass out during interviews because they forgot to breathe. I couldn't tell you what the interview was about, but I certianly can remember the individual, because he simply fell off the chair in the middle of an interview. Don't be that guy.

Message - Now you get to focus on what you're saying:

1. It's how you say it. Don't be angry, don't be wimpy. Speak in a confident voice, be passionate, but don't spew words out like you're a machine gun. Be measured and enunciate. Your message won't have any impact at all if no one can understand what you're saying, or won't listen because you're angry.
2. Speak in short sentences. Otherwise known as sound bites. As you're preparing for your interview, try breaking your messages down into a series of 10 to 12 second statements. The shorter and simpler the statement, the more understandable and impactful your message will be.
3. Answer the questions directly, don't answer a question with a question, this makes you look defensive, and don't expand on a question that steers away from what was asked. These things make you look evasive and untrustworthy.
4. Be flexible. You might have an idea of the questions you will be asked beforehand, more often than not, you won't. Just be prepared with your messages and go with the flow. The worst thing you can do is to stick only to your messages. You'll look like a robot with no personality and no ability to adjust on the fly. This won't instill confidence in you from the viewer standpoint.

When I was working at KOA radio, I often covered Denver's Mayor, Wellington Webb. A good guy, but a true nightmare for reporters because he had a tendency to ramble. Often, we'd have to dig through his interviews or press conferences for a nugget of a soundbite. He made our job harder and we never looked forward to his interviews. We much preferred talking to his press secretary, Andrew Hudson, who was a great interview. You want to the one reporters want to talk to, not the one reporters dread talking to.

I understand that this is a lot to take in at once, and believe me, I know it's not easy. Keeping your appearance, your posture, your smile, your eyes all in check while simultaneously trying to speak in short, simple sentences, it's almost too much to think about. Again, you can practice in front of your own camera and then review it to analyze your TV image. You'll only need to see yourself slouching or having shifty eyes or rambling on and on in response to a question once before you realize what adjustments you need to make to look good on camera.

You're On The Air:

Radio interviews are a different kind of beast since you're not as concerned about how you look, but how you sound. When doing a radio interview the length of your answers are even more important. You will rarely get more than a couple of minutes for a radio interview, so you want to get through as many questions as possible. If you take up 45 seconds to answer one question, you're going to be limited to only a few questions. If you limit your answers to 10-15 seconds, you can answer many more questions.

Looking professional, sitting up straight, sitting on the edge of the chair and smiling will also help you during in-studio interviews. There is an energy you can hear in people's voices. If you sound tired, or uninterested, then you will be unintersting to listen to. You want to have energy, be excited, but, again, don't speak to loudly or too fast.

One aspect of radio interviews that is perhaps the second most difficult kind of interview is "the phoner". This is usually a live interview conducted over the phone, however they can also be pre-taped. These are difficult because you're not talking to anyone in person, you're just talking into a phone.

This means you have to listen very closely so you understand exactly what the question is and when you answer, speak slowly, clearly and enunciate. One tip I can give you about phone interviews is this:
Never do a phone interview sitting down. Your energy will be low and it will reflect in your voice. Stand up, walk around and do it in a secluded area. You don't want to be distracted by outside sounds or people. Other than that, simply stay focused on keeping your answers short and sweet.

Headline Grabber:

Newspaper interviews are, in my opinion the most enjoyable and also the easiest. You have a chance to talk to a reporter in a one-on-one situation, you can allow yourself to speak in more detail when answering a question and you don't have the camera, lights or microphone to distract you. I always tell clients to approach a newspaper interview as if they're talking to a friend. Keep your messages in mind, try to speak in short sentences and make eye contact.

Newspaper phone interviews are very much like radio phone interviews, if you can do a radio phoner, you can do a newspaper phoner, no problem.

One thing to remember when dealing with a newspaper interview is that sometimes accuracy gets lost in translation. What you said, isn't always what the reporter might have heard or written down. For this reason, I tell clients to take a small recorder with them when they do a newspaper interview. Record the interview yourself. Most reporters today record the interviews on their own, which is great, but just to be sure, you should also record it just in case you end up being misquoted.

A Few Final Tips:

This is going to sound strange, but one of the most important aspects to having a successfull interview is being relaxed. Yes, it might be hard to be relaxed with all of these rules bouncing around in your head, but it's vital to being a great interview, whether it's on TV, radio or newspaper.

One of the ways to get relaxed during an interview is to simply chat with the reporter before the interview actually takes place. If it's a live interview, in-studio, you'll have a second to chat with the anchor, but not much time at all. In these instances, just remember to breathe and go over your messages. The anchor may ask you a question or two while in the break, if this is the case, answer them, compliment them on their work, don't be afraid of chit chat.

During an interview, you want to be open, but you don't want to be an open book. In other words, you want to answer every question honestly and openly, but you don't want to volunteer information. This is where rambling can get you in trouble. You might say something that leads the interview in a completely different direction than where you want it to go. Just answer the questions, don't start talking about things not related to the question at hand.

We'll discuss the art of controlling the interview in upcoming posts. In the meantime, find yourself a mirror, a camera, grab a friend and start practicing your close-up.

Bring Out The Chimp!

2010-07-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

It doesn't have to be either-or, use both to make your efforts more successful!

An interesting article flashed across my computer screen yesterday. It comes from The Financial Post website and deals with shoppers preferences for how they get information. It sounds a little strange to break down a demographic group into "shoppers" and "non-shoppers" but as you probably know, there are those who like to browse, and then there are those that go shopping with a vengance generally reserved for the ancient "Beserker" warriors of Viking lore.

Here is a clip from the article: Click here to read the entire post.

When surveyed, 35% said they were shopping due to a recently received promotion from a retailer. Of those who did not receive a promotion, 68% said they would have been more likely to visit a store if they had been given one.
“The survey findings reinforce how important promotions are in influencing consumer purchasing decisions,” said Mark Fodor, Chief Executive Officer at CrossView. “It also shows that delivery methods and consumer preferences are across the board, which means that retailers need to be able to communicate brand, product and promotional messaging consistently across channels.”

The survey was conducted by "Crossview" a company that specializes in "cross-channel commerce solutions." Another article, this one from the Information Week website notes the importance of email marketing when it comes to enhancing your social media efforts.

Here is a clip from the article: Click here to read the entire post.

Almost 40% of consumers consult Facebook and Twitter to complement the information, deals, and news they receive from companies via e-mail marketing, according to a new study by ExactTarget. "Consumers don't silo their engagement with brands to a single channel, instead they tend to layer marketing channels on top of one another to meet their different objectives," said Morgan Stewart, principal, ExactTarget's research and education group, in a statement. "The things that motivate consumers to go online initially dictate where and how they choose to engage with brands -- whether that be e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter."

Back To The Future:

What does this tell us as small business owners and non-profits? First and foremost, it tells us that sometimes the older, more traditional methods of reaching potential customers are still very effective. E-mail marketing is basically the electronic version of the direct-mail campaigns run by so many businesses "back in the day".

Most businesses have spent a lot of time building large databases of customers, potential customers, local residents and other businesses. The question is, are they using their databases in a way that will increase traffic? Most likely, they aren't. This is because most businesses are still using these email databases as a simple method to send out information, notices and alerts. This is fine, since it's a simple, cost-effective way to reach your audience. But this strategy fails when it's not used in concert with your social media efforts.

In regards to "shoppers," some of the email phenomenon can be traced directly to organizations such as Groupon, Overstock.com and LivingSocial. These sites send out daily or weekly emails to those in their database alerting them to the "deal of the day" or to the most recent sale on an event, service or product.

These sites can be a huge boost for any business that is featured in their daily email. Their emails reach hundreds of thousands of individuals in cities across the world. And while it doesn't cost anything up front to get a listing, there is always a chance you won't be accepted, and if you are, you will have to offer a fantastic deal price, a portion of which will have to go directly to the listing site.

For instance, if you offer kayak lessons at $50 an hour, you can get a listing on Groupon for $25 per hour. This is a great deal and would likely bring in a ton of customers. But be prepared to pay out about half of your $25 to Groupon. So if you received a hundred purchasers through the Groupon site, that's $2,500. Expect to get a check from Groupon for only about $1,250 or $1,500. Still, it's a great deal for small businesses looking to be exposed to thousands of new customers who may not be aware of them otherwise.

But there are other options for your email marketing srategies, most of which don't cost a lot of money, but will require you to put some time in to make sure it's successful.

All The News That's Fit To Print!

If you've managed to get your hands on a large email database, or if you've built one up over the years, why not use that database to send out a newsletter? Newsletters are a fantastic way to ingratiate yourself with your customers and reach out to new, potential customers in a way that is much more impactful than a simple email ever could.

If done well, a newsletter doesn't just inform recipients of your latest deal. Sure, that's an important element, but the most effective newsletters give a behind the scenes look at your operation, praises specific customers and employees and solicits feedback. You can offer your customers an opportunity to become more involved in your business, provide specials for returning customers and really listen to what your customers like and dislike about what you're doing.

It's important to remember, though that too much can be overwhelming to anyone receiveing your newsletter. Timing and content are very important. Instead of sending out a weekly newsletter that might take up a lot of your time, why not start with a bi-monthly or monthly newsletter. You can include different content in each newsletter if you do it twice a month. Your first offering might provide consumers with your monthly specials, a behind the scenes look, and a fun contest. The second newsletter of the month might provide a free giveaway to a special customer or winner of the contest (along with maybe a customer profile) and a look at something new happening with your business.

Pictures are encouraged and short, simple copy is best. Keep it to a page. You can do this by putting the bulk of the contect in your blog or on your website, placing an opening paragraph in the newsletter and then providing a link which will take them to your website to read the entire article or for more information on the latest special. Add a sidebar to run your contest, or provide fun, interesting facts and MAKE SURE you provide links to your Facebook, Twitter, blog and other social media platforms you're using.

Once you have the newsletter design set and the content ready to go, now you have to find a delivery system. Certainly you can simply plug your newsletter into the body of your regular email and go from there. But there are many email marketing programs out there you can use that will enhance your newsletter both in delivery and appearance.

For many, this means using Constant Contact. But there are others, such as MailChimp, that do pretty much the same thing, without charging as much. Most of these sites allow free useage up to a certain number of emails. After that limit is reached, they start to charge. Take some time to research the various email programs and figure out which one works best for your strategy and budget.

Alert, Alert!

One of the other effective ways to use your email database is to send out alerts or notices. A
local theater in Denver uses this method very effectively, regularly sending out notices for special shows, ticket deals and upcoming classes to their constituents. But these aren't simply text emails. They are, essentially, fully designed flyers, inserted into an email format. They are eye-catching, informative and simple. They provide a link to the website and are sent out on a regular basis.

This matters. If you decide you want to use email as part of your marketing strategy, you have to make a commitment to using it more than just once or twice. You have to send out your emails at least twice a month. I tell clients that sending out emails once a week works best since it doesn't overwhelm the recipients and still keeps your business in front of them.

While newsletters and alerts are great to build customer loyalty, you can also use them to attract new customers. If you offer a service or product that has mass appeal, make sure to ask your customers to forward the newsletter or alert to their friends. You can also include video or fun photos into your emails that your customers will send to their own email list.

One of the best examples of this is Denver's Andrew Hudson's List. What started out as a simple job email, has now grown into a full time business for Andrew, and a successful one at that. The jobs were all quality, they were jobs that often couldn't be found in the newspaper or on other job boards and it actually placed job seekers with employers. I heard about it from a friend who used to receive the weekly emails. I then told others about it, who told their friends about it. It grew quickly and suddenly became a local phenomenon. It now comes out every Monday, offers hundreds of jobs, receives thousands upon thousands of hits weekly and has expanded into a fully developed newsletter and website.

Andrew's list was a draw because of what it was offering. But you can do something similar with your product or service or with a fun video, podcast or photo. Think LOLCats. What started out as a fun site for amusing cat photos has turned into a worldwide hit and made its creator a millionaire. Nothing complicated, just a site with photos that millions of people like to see and will forward to their friends regularly.

Integration!

You can enhance your email marketing efforts by using your social media platforms to help spread the word about your alerts, as well as your newsletter. If folks believe they will have an opportunity to catch a great deal or gain some insight they will sign up for your emails, particularly if it's free.

Post your newsletter links to your Facebook, Twitter your deals, use Foursquare to let folks know about your specials. You can provide links to your website, but more importantly, you can get folks to sign up for your newsletter and alerts simply by asking them to. If they see the deal you post on your Facebook, and let them know that there are other special deals available to those who sign up for your emails, they will join your network and gladly give you their email.

Remember, just like PR and social media, your email marketing efforts don't operate in a vacuum. You get the best bang for your efforts if you use all of your tools in cooperation with each other. Sending out your email alerts and your newsletter is effective, but it's even more effective if you follow up those efforts with postings on your social media sites. It's a matter of numbers and the more people who are aware of your emails and newsletter, the more people who will sign up to receive them.

Social media is a powerful tool, but it becomes almost unstoppable when paired with other effective strategies such as email marketing and impactful public relations. So, get out there, and bring out the chimp...the mail chimp, that is.