International Public Relations

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2012-01-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

We loved being here, but for the latest NettResults blogs, news and views please visit:

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Thanks and see you real soon!

12 media interview tips for 2012

2012-01-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

A media interview is a critical opportunity to convey key messages about your company to customers, key stakeholders and the public. To assure that the final printed, online or broadcast story is accurate and includes your messages, here are twelve guidelines for 2012:

1. Focus on one or two key messages. Reinforce these prepared messages and verbally flag them for the reporter throughout your interview so that they are sure to understand what is important to you. Don’t wait for a leading question to convey these messages – from the very start of the interview use whatever question you are asked to bridge to your messages.

2. Keep it simple. Keep the real audience in mind (you may be talking to a reporter, but your real audience is the reader/viewer). Unless you are being interviewed by a highly technical journal, simplify your messages. Think about telling a story to someone who is not an expert – your mother, a friend, or neighbor. If complex issues or definitions can be simplified, the reporter is likely to get it right and the intended audiences will understand your message.

3. Practice makes perfect. Practice to yourself, in front of a mirror, film yourself (your smart phone will do the trick) and then practice with a colleague or PR professional. Even the most seasoned interviewees can’t wing-it, so ensure you practice before every interview.

4. Tell a story. Prepare compelling quotes or anecdotes in advance. Journalists make stories come alive through good quotes, meaningful anecdotes and images that readers can picture and relate to.

5. Speak for the company at all times. It is never appropriate to give personal opinions, criticize others or make off-color remarks.

6. Never speak off-the-record. Regardless of the rapport that you have with a reporter -- or promises made by the reporter -- keep all of your comments on the record when in the presence of a reporter, producer or photographer.

7. Anticipate tough questions. Decide in advance how to handle them. Discuss difficult issues and questions with your communication consultant before the interview. The direct approach is usually better than being evasive. When you cannot comment or information is proprietary, just say so, but use the opportunity to bridge back to a key message

8. When in doubt, call back. If you are unsure how to answer a question, or need to check facts, get back to the reporter later. Don’t fake it or feel that you should know the answer. Regardless of the reporter’s deadline, take your time, swallow your pride and provide only accurate information. Some questions may be appropriate for someone else – or another company – and not for you to answer.

9. Proprietary information. You do not have to share or discuss personnel or business proprietary information. It is fine to say that you understand the reporter’s interest, but the information they are requesting is propriety or confidential. Once you have said that, immediately bridge to some other related information that you can discuss. This helps take the focus off the topic that is off limits.

10. Offer to help. Refer the reporter to other important sources of information or to experts, particularly organizations with whom you partner.

11. Final facts and fact checking. At the end of the interview give the reporter a business card and offer to check facts or quotes. Offer your mobile phone number. You should never ask to review a story, but it is
OK for you to offer to check facts over the phone.

12. Enjoy. You’re the expert, get your messages across and use even the most sensitive questions to bridge to something positive and enjoy the opportunity to shine a light on the good things your organization is doing.

Social Media, the Journalist, and how PR agencies interact

2011-12-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

Our friends at Cision have just released their 2011 Cision-Newhouse School Digital Influencers Survey. It has some interesting findings and you can read the full research here.

Now, much as we love research and its findings, we do have to identify that Cision's research is often heavily skewed to the bias of selling media lists and the Cision services. That said, we all benefit from understanding exactly how to use social media with the media.

The 2011 digital influencer survey shows that social platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (with the impact of Google+ soon to be felt) continue to revolutionize how those who create digital content do their jobs: how often they post content (“file stories”) and how they identify stories and trends, cultivate and qualify sources, and share information.

But – perhaps even more importantly – it is apparent that social media has empowered anyone with a voice that resonates with a community to build influence and vie for the same attention and audience as traditional media.

These “other content creators” may not be connected to an established news organization or blog, but their “social capital” is so significant that they have a direct impact on consumers and other influencers.

Those who define themselves as journalists tend to have very different (and less positive) perceptions about the usefulness and accuracy of social media.

Yet all respondents agree that social media is a superior way to share stories, connect with communities, and make their voices heard.

Bottom line - what does this mean to PR agencies and organizations that use agencies? Well, PR agencies need to use social media tools to inform/converse with journalists and those writing materials that customers are reading. But they can't rely on them - social media needs to be integrated into journalist outreach.

Power is nothing without Control

2011-12-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

...according to the tire manufacturer Pirelli. And so it is with public relations. Gone are the days when an organization can fully control their corporate message to the media.

In days gone by, it was normal for an organization’s employee handbook to strictly dictate that no employee could speak to the media without prior approval and spokesperson media training. No problem.

Then a few years ago social media popped up. According to a recent piece of research by Altimeter, companies average an overwhelming number of corporate owned accounts – about 178. That is a bunch of people from different departments and around the globe that are speaking on social media platforms, that the media are seeing. And that’s before we count the personal SM accounts of employees who happen to mention their job. So what’s to be done?

NettResults recommends three levels of corporate communication development:

1 - Relinquish a mindset of control - instead ‘enable’. In business school we were taught to foster message control and encourage all corporate representatives to stay on message. Yet today, as multiple business units from support, sales, HR and beyond participate in social technologies, communication is spread to the edges of the company – not just from the PR department. As a result, PR groups have changed their mindset to safely enabling business units to communicate, based on pre-set parameters they put in place through governance, coordination, and workflow.

2 - Roll out enterprise workflows - education programs at four levels. We’ve found that savvy corporations have detailed workflows, including sample language in which employees should respond. Beyond creating these workflows, they must be distributed throughout the enterprise through education programs, and drilled. We’ve found savvy corporations have up to four types of education programs spanning: Executive team, social media team, business stakeholder teams, and finally all associates. Even if the mandate is for rank and file employees to not respond in social on behalf of the company, reinforcing education is still required.

3 - Run mock crises. Lastly, we’ve found a closer relationship with media relations, social media and crisis communications. Savvy corporations are working with agency partners such as NettResults to setup mock crisis drills where they approach a week-long crises in a number of hours in private. Not only does this test the mettle of the organization it provides useful training so companies can respond faster, in a more coordinated approach. We have already witnessed health organizations receiving ‘social-crises-ready’ compliance notices and we expect compliance programs to spread into other industries.

Get ready – take control.

Who are the key decision makers and are the spokes people media trained?

2011-11-29T16:54:00.000-08:00

Every company has a organizational chart - a ladder of power, but how this structure functions during a crisis must be clarified with all the stakeholders in the company; particularly the communications department. A crisis can hit at any time, and the company needs to determine secondary command structures in case key decision-makers are unavailable at the time.

Not only is it important for those to know who need to spring to action (and how those people are contacted) - it is equally important that everyone else in the organization knows they can not speak on behalf of the company or to the press. Something that is best handled in a company employee handbook.

Organizations also need to decide which situations warrant which spokes person, and plan accordingly.

Most importantly, the spokes people need to be media trained in advance. Effective spokes people should receive professional media training and should be well versed on how to deal with the press. An organization's spokes person need not necessarily be the most senior staffers. For example, in some cases, the CEO is not the most efficient spokes person due to experience, knowledge or geographical location.

Why Small Businesses Need PR and How to Start

2011-11-08T07:26:00.000-08:00

An owner of a small (less than $5 million) company asked me last week why companies engage in PR. It seemed so obvious, that I had to go back to the basics...

You know your company does great work. Your employees and clients know it, too. But until you start telling your story-and sharing your successes-with wider audiences, you're likely to remain the proverbial "best-kept secret."

Enter public relations. PR can help a company reach new audiences, achieve top-of-mind awareness, establish a leadership position and enhance image. In fact, some say the only difference between the no-name shops and the big-name firms is PR.

If you aren't already doing PR, you should be. And if you aren't sure where to begin, read on.

1 - Getting Started - First find your PR agency partner. Whether you follow an initial "gut" feeling or engage in a lengthier selection process, chemistry is likely to play a role in your choice of PR consultant. A PR consultant should become an integral part of your team-someone who you'll trust, be comfortable with and enjoy working with. To that end, most smaller firms are likely to prefer working with a small PR agency or sole practitioner in a principal-to-principal relationship. Large PR agencies-while ideal for huge corporations-are unlikely to deliver the level of service you need.

2 - Arranging the Terms - As with any service, there are various ways of contracting for PR consulting. Most agencies and consultants recommend that clients pay a monthly retainer. Of course, you also have the option of hiring them on a project basis with an hourly billing structure. Before you sign a contract, be sure to inquire about what services are included in your monthly fee. Whatever pricing structure you choose, it might be wise to begin with a six- to 12-month commitment. Long enough to get PR going and to test the waters, but short enough that you can make changes if it's not going to plan.

3 - Setting PR Goals - Once you begin your relationship with your PR consultant, it's important to have realistic expectations. For starters, don't expect overnight success. It will take a bit of time for the consultant to become intimately familiar with your firm and to build or update an arsenal of basic tools, such as your background, fact sheet and bios. And keep in mind that many publications are monthly or bimonthly and have long lead times. So even if your consultant makes contact quickly, it will likely take three to six months before you see any results from thier efforts. Above all, experts advise against expecting to garner a certain type of coverage in a particular publication. Rather than creating such limiting goals, focus on building a workable plan that will guide your activities and provide metrics for measuring your success. If a plan is put into place that provides a consistent approach and is strategically focused, goals will be met. The results you get will be equal to the amount of time and effort that's put into it. A consistent stream of pitches, press releases and meetings with the media will produce the best results.

4 - Maintaining Momentum - Even after the initial excitement wears off, you'll need to continually re-energize your commitment to your PR program. That will require frequent, consistent communication with your consultant. PR cannot be conducted successfully in a vacuum. It requires a time commitment from the principal to work with the PR consultant, share what's going on with the firm and actively participate in the process. A PR consultant should become an integral part of the team and be viewed as an investment in the future of the firm. In other words treat your PR effort as you would your most important client. The more attention you give it, the more satisfied you'll be with the results.

5 - Measure - Make sure the factors for success are clear from the beginning, so both the client and the agency know where they are heading and how they are doing against SMART goals. This allows for a meaningful conversation between the client/agency on a regular basis - focused on business requirements.

Good luck! The global economy is dependent upon these smaller businesses, so let's use PR to make them great, create jobs and stimulate growth.

PR and the power of a story...

2011-09-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

I just read with interest the article that Meg O'Leary wrote on PRNews Once Upon a Time There Lived a Plot: The Importance of Storytelling. I've long been an advocate of storytelling in marketing and public relations. It just makes so much sense.

It's worth understanding why storytelling works. It's in-build into our DNA. We grow up listening to stories and frankly they are a darn sight more interesting than 90% of PR copy-writing out there.

A good story is one that touches people in some way. As PR professionals (storytellers), our mission is to involve the audience, make them interact with us and the story, even if it is just in their thoughts or core. A really good story has a sense of truth and resonates with some basic universal aspects of being human.

But it does more than that. We have stories because they:
- Build credibility
- Unleash Emotion
- Permission to Explore
- Influence Group-Thinking
- Create Heroes
- Vocabulary of Change
- Order out of Chaos

There is a simple way to look at good stories. Back in my youth I was involved in a movie production company and was asked to read my fair share of movie scripts. It very quickly became apparent that stories fell into one of two camps - 'usual people in unusual situations', or 'unusual people in usual situations'. Think about it. Think about your favorite book. Think about the last movie you went to see.

I believe there are six tips to think about when creating a story for PR purposes:
- Know your audience
- Keep it simple
- Stay fresh
- Be honest
- Demonstrate credibility
- Spark interest

There are also eight elements that in essence make a good story, the:
- protagonist
- antagonist
- inciting incident
- call to action
- dreadful alternative
- conflict
- quest or progression
- other characters
- transformation
- moral

You also could look at it another way - the 'wow' factor. Forbes had a great article about this written by Brett Nelson in July.

Lastly, thanks to Professor Brian Sturm from UNC Chapel Hill whom in 2007 had the foresight to record one of his lectures. There is a lot of value in the 45 minutes, and the first 8 minutes are fabulous.

Why not write a story today?

Ultimate Power to Shaving-Foam Pies – the good, the bad and the ugly…

2011-07-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

Rupert Murdoch
- listed three times in the Time 100 as among the most influential people in the world
- ranked 13th most powerful person in the world in the 2010 Forbes' The World's Most Powerful People list.
- net worth of US$7.6 billion,
- ranked 117th wealthiest person in the world in March 2011

- ohh, and now part of a media crisis situation and getting shaving-foam pies thrown in his face.

And just incase you missed the news, the news you should be reading, is probably owned by Rup. From the recently closed News of the World and other ‘salubrious’ UK media such as The Sun, to the Wall Street Journal and into broadcasting - Fox Broadcasting Company to DirecTV.

In July of 2011 Murdoch became a prominent figure in the media after widespread allegations that the now defunct tabloid News of the World, owned by Murdoch's NewsCorps, had been regularly hacking the phones of private citizens.

Here’s the warning – even if you own a majority of the media, you can find yourself in a crisis communication situation.

What should be done?

We know the most effective cause of action in a crisis situation is:
Concern – Relief – Reassurance

Well, Rup did show concern & reassurance - On the 15 July Rupert Murdoch attended a private meeting in London with the family of Milly Dowler, where he personally apologized for the hacking of their murdered daughter's voicemail by a company he owns. On the 16 and 17 July, News International published two full-page apologies in many of Britain's national newspapers. The first apology took the form of a letter, signed by Rupert Murdoch, in which he said sorry for the "serious wrongdoing" that occurred. The second was titled "Putting right what's gone wrong", and gave more detail about the steps News International was taking to address the public's concerns.

What did he do wrong?

Another basic lesson in crisis communications is:
Tell it all – tell it soon – tell it truthfully

Well Rup doesn’t get full points on this scale – in fact it took a summons (after a polite request) to get him to appear before parliament in the UK.

But the biggest sin is credibility. Rup just doesn’t have any:
1 – Rups response to a Member of Parliament’s question: “Do you accept that ultimately, you are responsible for this whole fiasco?” Without equivocation, Murdoch replied “No.” He, instead, pointed a finger at subordinates.
2 – He argued that since he ran a global business of 53,000 employees and that the News of the World was "just 1%" of this, he was not ultimately responsible for what went on at the tabloid.
3 – news already out that the phone hacking scandal is the subject of a new book by Guardian reporter Nick Davies and publishers Faber and Faber.
4 – his son is the CEO...

Oh, you interrupt, but wasn’t it great how he expressed it was his most humbling day of his life?

But it takes the HuffPost to really put this in context:

Following several days of coaching by lawyers and PR experts, it must have been really rattling for Rupert and James Murdoch when showtime arrived to learn that the parliamentary committee questioning them would not permit opening statements. Framing, after all, is the name of the game.

To control the package that the narrative comes in is to control the meaning of the story.

No wonder Rupert Murdoch felt compelled to interrupt his son at the top of his first answer to say, "This is the most humble day of my life." That was the frame his team had planned, not some "what did you know, and when did you know it?" storyline that the committee wanted to pursue.

So today we learn to take one of the best examples of ‘framing’ to our next crisis communication scenario.

How marketing messages change post revolution - lessons from Egypt

2011-06-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

As the Wall Street Journal recently covered, there has been an increase in ad spending in certain sectors in Egypt, but perhaps more interesting is the anecdotal evidence in the change of messages that are resonating with consumers.

In the weeks since Egypt's uprising, the television airwaves and Cairo's streets have been filled with revolutionary slogans.

"Build your country!" shout billboards hovering over the city's congested roads. "Develop your country!" urges another over smaller text demanding that Egyptians "Don't stop!"

But the signs aren't the work of revolutionaries. They are advertisements for Snicker's, the candy brand owned by Mars Inc., the U.S.-based confectioner.

Since thousands of protesters ousted former President Hosni Mubarak in a nearly three-week revolt, the enthusiasm for revolution has been redirected and repackaged for television ads, billboards and jingles selling products including hair gel, soft drinks and candy.

A television spot for Coca-Cola Co.'s Coke, which looks similar to a Latin American commercial called "Sky," shows hundreds of kids dressed in trendy clothes climbing to the tops of buildings in downtown Cairo. There, they lasso the sun, pull it out from behind menacing storm clouds and bask in the radiant glory that is the new Egypt. "Make tomorrow better!" the slogan beseeches.

A Pepsi ad urges: 'Think, Participate, Dream, Express who you are.'

Local brands are not to be left behind. A restaurateur renamed his cafe "January 25 Cafe," after the starting date of the uprising. In the middle-class Cairo suburb of Agouza, a billboard for Mink brand hair gel shows a young man with a spiky hairdo. The background of the billboard is an Egyptian flag next to a slogan that reads, "I am Egyptian."

This re-messaging for the Egyptian market has helped to lift ad spending in Egypt for consumer products.

Ad spending in Egypt actually increased to about $329 million in May from $310 million in February, according to data from Ipsos, a regional advertising and marketing research firm.

The revolution was hard on high-end products and large investments. Expenditures on household appliances and real estate between February and May of this year were down 46% and 44%, respectively, from a year earlier.

But in the category of fast-moving consumer goods, Egyptian advertising has increased in 2011. Advertising of soft drinks and snacks and appetizers surged 30% over the same period.

How will the more subtle art of public relations re-package messages in Egypt? We think the answer is obvious.

Why does public relations exist?

2011-06-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hear it from NettResults' official spokes person:

What do you think?

How today’s media is changing Public Relations

2011-06-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

The Huffington Post built a media empire from the digital zeitgeist.

The Huff’s genius involved a nose for water-cooler conversation and an eye for resultant keyword searches. Its unreal ability to dominate the search by re-serving the public what it was already discussing allowed HuffPo to exit for a very real $300 million.

For the sake of comparison, Newsweek sold for $1.

Is Newsweek 300 million times worse than The Huffington Post?

Of course not.

But Newsweek never decoded that hidden strand of The Huffington Post’s DNA: Today’s winners no longer try to make news; they instead try to be nearby when news is made.

And here is the bedrock of where media is changing PR. For PR folks to be successful they shouldn’t try to be the news; they should try to participate in news.

Easy to understand, so how does that happen? We’ve represented many different types of client at NettResults – some have experienced spokespeople and some do not. Here’s what we have learned:

1 – if a company does not have a spokesperson then there needs to be a lot of news around new unique features or advanced product development that the user actually cares about.

2 – better (and less expensive for the company) to have a spokes person.

Next up – how do we get that spokes person to participate in the news?

Back to traditional PR – the ability of an agency to position that spokesperson with the media through introductions, interview and good old-fashioned face-to-face interaction. Through this process, the spokes person gains the ‘credibility’ of the media. Yes, vital – credibility. It doesn’t happen overnight and it is a distinct and almost contradictory PR action than the daily KPI of gaining publicity.

Once credibility has been obtained, it is the job of the agency to keep the media informed on what subject matter the spokes person has preferential insight to – most probably because of their corporate experience. This is how the spokesperson becomes an ‘expert’ in their area of business.

Then, later on in time, when the news is looking like it is approaching the subject that the spokesperson has claimed insight and credibility, it is the job of the agency to showcase that spokesperson. This could be as simple as a one-to-one contact (picking up the phone) or it may be more appropriate to showcase the spokesperson in a one-to-many communication (for example a press release).

Before the spokesperson is ready to reach out to the media and fulfill their spokesperson duty, it is the agency that has to create and curate timely content around the news.

It’s not rocket science, but it does take some medium term planning to achieve success.

Births, deaths and marrages...

2011-05-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

My late grandmother used to have me read the births, deaths and marriages section of The Times every day after lunch (this was before I was old enough to go to school or too young to look after myself in school holidays).

I never really understood why she was so interested... but it turns out (yet again) my grandmother was more in touch with the mass media than I knew and understood exactly what the consumers of media are interested in.

The world's news reads very much like the announcements section of one of those old fashioned paper newspapers... all birth certificates, weddings and obituaries.

The long-form of Obama's birth certificate was all news worthy and took much of the press space until...
The Wedding took over. Whether it was the kiss, Pippa's dress or the Aston Martin, it was all we could talk about until...
The death of the century took over.

So I guess the question is - who's birth, death or marriage is coming next?

Top 10 most common myths about public relations

2011-04-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

When it comes to teaching about Public Relations I often get students asking me questions that I think are really obvious. And then when I go to clients whom have not previously conducted public relations outreach, the questions and prior assumptions move the straight out strange.

So, with a little help from our friends at About.com, it is time to dispel some of these myths in hopes of helping students, business owners and others - avoid serious PR problems.

Myth 1: Any Press is Good Press
Myth 2: PR is All about Press Releases and Press Conferences
Myth 3: Once You Break Through with Publicity, You're Golden
Myth 4: Myth: Publicity is Free and Easy
Myth 5: You Need to Hire an Expensive PR Firm
Myth 6: Good Products Don't Need Publicity - - Only Bad Products Do
Myth 7: Public Relations Can't be Measured and is Therefore Worthless
Myth 8: PR Means Schmoozing and Controlling the Press
Myth 9: Only Ex-Reporters Can Do It
Myth 10: Public Relations is Spin, Slogans and Propaganda

There are many myths and misconceptions about PR that are not only wrong, but it many cases dangerously wrong. What else would you consider to be a PR myth?

2011-03-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

Last month, PR strategist Adam Sherk took 25 of the most overused buzzwords in marketing and PR—he compiled a list of the top 100 and ran them through PRFilter, a website from RealWire that aggregates press releases.

The results: “Solution” led the pack with 243 appearances.

Shortly after he published the post, PRFilter set the record straight: “Solution” did not appear in press releases 243 times; it appeared 622 times—and it was the second most common buzzword.

The most common word is “leading,” which showed its face 776 times—in one 24-hour stretch.

Here’s the full list—compliments of Adam Sherk and PRFilter:

1. leading (776)
2. solution (622)
3. best (473)
4. innovate / innovative / innovator (452)
5. leader (410)
6. top (370)
7. unique (282)
8. great (245)
9. extensive (215)
10. leading provider (153)
11. exclusive (143)
12. premier (136)
13. flexible (119)
14. award winning / winner (106)
15. dynamic (95)
16. fastest (70)
17. smart (69)
18. state of the art (65)
19. cutting edge (54)
20. biggest (54)
21. easy to use (51)
22. largest (34)
23. real time (8)

What's the word you use the most?

Video - is that what it's all about?

2011-03-23T23:30:00.000-07:00

Hear it from NettResults' official spokes person:

Social Media from adorable baby to angst filled adolescent

2011-03-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

Is social media about to experience growing pains?

According to people at Unica this year, social media is no longer the adorable baby everyone wants to hold, but the angst filled adolescent – still immature yet no longer cute – who inspires mixed feelings. All things social continue to hold intense interest, with 53% of marketers currently applying it to their marketing efforts. But as tactics rise and fall, a more sophisticated approach is emerging.

Instead of thinking tactic by tactic, marketers are beginning to think strategically across three major areas of social content: owned (what they create), earned (what customers create) and paid (what marketers spend money for).

And as far as NettResults is concerned, social media can be a grumpy old man - so make sure your have an integrated PR and SM campaign in place. Not only can SM be your friend and help you reminisce about good stories (helping you get the word out), it can also turn around and bite you in the butt in a crisis.

What do you think?

Raising expectations only to kill them...

2011-01-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed how upbeat the ads for airlines and banks are?

Seth Godin points out that judging from the TV and newspaper ads, you might be led to believe that Delta is actually a better airline, one that cares. Or that your bank has flexible people eager to bend the rules to help you succeed.

At one level, this is good advertising, because it tells a story that resonates. We want Delta to be the airline it says it is, and so we give them a try.

The problem is this: ads like this actually decrease user satisfaction. If the ad leads to expect one thing and we don't get it, we're more disappointed than if we had gone in with no real expectations at all.

Why this matters: if word of mouth is the real advertising, then what you've done is use old-school ad techniques to actually undercut any chance you have to generate new-school results.

So much better to invest that same money in delighting and embracing the customers you already have. Then amplify these and use some solid PR to increase the exposure to testimonials and case studies... oh, and suddenly you have a snowball effect - happy customers, more PR, happier customers, better PR...

Maybe customer service and PR departments should be better aligned...

Rolling Stone breaks into Middle East

2010-12-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

With the launch of Rolling Stone magazine into the Middle East, the BBC covers the story and adds some interesting overview of the Middle East media landscape...

Killer messaging for public relations

2010-11-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

Following an outline written in Overpromise and Overdeliver, by Rick Barrera, NettResults uses the following questions to clearly define our client’s brand promise, and thus the message for the public relations we work on.

A winning overpromise — whether it’s brand-new or a rejuvenated version of a previous promise — isn’t born of a sudden flash of inspiration. If it is to truly differentiate you, it must be built piece by piece. Attention must be paid not only to the intricacies of products and services, manufacturing and marketing, but to all the constituencies that must be on board to achieve a break-through. That means current and potential customers, employees, shareholders, distributors and suppliers. After all, you will have to live with the overpromise for some time; align all TouchPoints with it; arrange the entire organization around it; and overdeliver on it. All stakeholders whose suggestions and support have an impact on your company’s success must be part of the conversation.

To begin the journey to a complete understanding of your existing brand promise, consider the questions that follow:

What is the essence of your business? Why was the company started? What was the founder’s vision? What did he or she plan to do better than anyone else? Are you fulfilling that vision now?
This first line of questioning is a way to get the coordinates, to zero in on the real reason so much of your life is being devoted to making the organization you work for work.

What are your brand’s most important attributes? What do customers think of when they hear your company’s name?
Customers’ attitudes have been influenced by word of mouth, by advertising and public relations, by their feelings toward the store where they bought the product or perhaps by a conversation with customer service personnel.

Why do customers buy your product or service? Why don’t they buy your competitor’s product or service?
Asking customers why they buy from you can help to identify the kinds of people who are best served by your product or service. Chances are, they won’t be the ones that were in mind when the brand promise was created.

Why don’t non-customers buy your product or service? Why do they buy your competitor’s?
Learning that some aspect of an overpromise, or of its supporting products and processes, is driving away a substantial number of potential customers should inspire some serious repair work.

What emotions do customers feel when they buy and use your product?
Pottery Barn’s overpromise is more laden with emotion than most because it sells products for the home, a place that people care about deeply. Pottery Barn’s overpromise acknowledges that furnishing and decorating a home can be stressful by presenting the company as a kind of home decorating mentor.

If your brand was a person, how would you describe him or her? In the same vein, how would you describe each of your competitors?
Think about the market in which you sell and your target customers.

How do your employees perceive your brand?
Nothing is more important to a company’s success than convincing employees to invest more rather than less, because what you are after is their discretionary efforts on behalf of your brand.

Putting It All Together
Here are the questions you really want the answers to:
What is your reputation?
What are you known for?
What one thing about your company most matters to customers?

Then build your overpromise around it.

If you don’t like the answers to these questions, you’ll need to think deeply about what you want to be known for in the future and how your overpromise will articulate that clearly to customers and potential customers. You’ll then be able to tackle the work of realigning each of your TouchPoints to overdeliver on your overpromise.

If you need to work on your message and your brand promise, then call us today.

25 Essential PR Bloggers You Should Be Reading

2010-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Many thanks for our friends at PRweb who have produced an excellent list of the top 25 blogs that PR pros should be reading.

As they say, keeping up with what’s new and interesting in public relations news is important. While a lot of the list are SM heavy, our personal favorite is Journalistics. If you just start following one new blog this month make it Journalistics.

You can view the whole list here.

Enjoy!

Get your Mojo on with PR

2010-09-20T13:45:00.001-07:00

In Mojo - How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It (by Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-1401323271) the authors explain exactly what Mojo is (and we though it was not definable). Mojo comes from the moment we do something that is purposeful, powerful and positive, and the rest of the world recognizes it. Mojo is about that moment and how we can create it in our lives, maintain it and recapture it when we need it.

They go on to explain, how our professional and personal Mojo is impacted by four key factors and the questions they ask: identity (Who do you think you are?), achievement (What have you done lately?), reputation, (Who do other people think you are — and what have you done lately?) and acceptance (What can you change — and when do you need to just “let it go”?).

And hence the most obvious segue into public relations. Every corporate client we are work with need to look at:
* What is the company?
* What has the company done lately?
* What do other people (customers, fans, voters, staff, competitors etc) think of the company?
* And, ultimately, when reviewing the media around that organization, what do you need to accept and when do you need to call the crisis communications team in.

De facto, Mojo = PR.

10 Tips on Arabic Culture For Successful Business in the Middle East

2010-08-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

For executives who are looking to build business in the Middle East or professionals looking to move their career or job search to the Arab World, this video gives you a simple overview of Arabic Business Culture in 4 minutes.

Media Training 101

2010-08-19T09:25:00.001-07:00

Why should you have media training?
What will it take to be a successful spokesperson?

All you need to know about media training in under 2 minutes...

10 Reasons to Fire the Client

2010-08-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to write this article for a long time, but of course didn't want to offend any previous client. Now, thanks to The Bad Pitch Blog, I don't need to. A big thank you to Richard Laermer for listing the ten reasons:

10 - You don't trust them as far as you can throw them!
9 - Everything they demand is in direct contrast to what you know to be right.
8 - Client company is on its way down.
7 - You keep sitting in on meetings with them that are at once pointless and breathless.
6 - You get the creeps when an email from this client crosses your in-box.  
5 - You dread their responses to your questions because you know, once again, they aren’t paying attention to you but instead, are following their own agenda.
4 - Getting their bill paid is tougher than the toffee at carnivals.
3 - The client keeps making you think about going into a new profession.  
2 - You daydream about working with their competitor(s).  
1 - The person paying you is sure that everything they do is fantastic, despite having no notion of what fantastic is. And no vision whatsoever.

Read the full article here.

And if you have more to add, we'd love to hear about them.

Five changes in journalism and what that means to the way smart PR agencies are working

2010-08-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our friends at Burrelles Luce for putting the journo insight together. We couldn't agree more... in fact we believe that any good public relations agency worth their salt is changing the way they are working.

1. Long is now shorter. Rand Morrison commented that "Long is shorter than it used to be," at the Bulldog Reporter 2010 Media Relations Summit.

NettResults Takeaway & How Smart PR Agencies are Adapting: Be succinct. Understand your message and be able to share it in a compelling manner with a few key bullet points.

2. Slow is now faster. Stories break on Twitter live as events unfold. Getting a story right is challenged by an increase pressure to get it out.

NettResults Takeaway & How Smart PR Agencies are Adapting: Anticipate journalists' needs and serve as a valuable resource. Maintain an accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive online newsroom or press center. A quick responses and immediate follow up is essential.

3. There is a need to be more resourceful with resources. Cuts in newsroom operations means that journalists are working longer hours, with heavier workloads and a heightened sense of concern regarding job security.

NettResults Takeaway & How Smart PR Agencies are Adapting: Passing along tips and information that will benefit the journalist (publication and readers), whether or not it is for a specific client, will be appreciated and help to build a strong relationship. Likewise, those who are able to help journalists save time by bringing together multiple resources have a distinct advantage.

4. The brand of a journalist is not always limited to the publication. Many journalists now have Twitter handles, Facebook pages, and personal blogs.

NettResults Takeaway & How Smart PR Agencies are Adapting: There are now numerous opportunities to listen, engage, and build stronger relationships with influential journalists.

5. Competition is more competitive. Social media has also increased the challenge of being the first to break a story or add a new and unique angle.

NettResults Takeaway & How Smart PR Agencies are Adapting: Exclusives are more valuable than ever. When you can't offer an exclusive, consider whether you have a special angle or resource to pitch. What value can you offer the journalist to help him or her provide unique value to readers?

What changes in journalism do you think are shaping killer PR?

How to - crisis communications - watch the video

2010-07-12T16:10:00.001-07:00

Interview from last week aired by EO TV (Entrepreneurs' Organization)

Or link here

There is no such thing as bad publicity...

2010-07-12T16:03:00.001-07:00

...except your own obituary - according to the Irish author & dramatist Brendan Behan.

It might seem contradictory that any kind of success might follow from scandal: but scandal attracts attention, and this attention (whether gossip or bad press or any other kind) is sometimes the beginning of notoriety and/or other successes. Today, the often-used cynical phrase "no such thing as bad publicity" is indicative of the extent to which "success by scandal" is a part of modern culture.

BP used to be British Petroleum. Then it reinvented itself as Beyond Petroleum, extending the enterprise beyond black gold and becoming a major investor in new energy technologies.

All that counts for little now that the full extent of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe is becoming clear. BP is now the acronym for Bad Publicity.

No doubt, like in many crisis situations, within the first few frightening hours, BP's lawyers and public relations teams presented to BP's board their views on how the company should respond. It's clear that the lawyers won. "Shift the blame onto someone else." And that is indeed what BP did in the immediate aftermath of the story breaking. BP blamed their contractors.

So, the continued interest/disgust in BP, their actions and their disaster-prone crisis communications begs the question, when does bad publicity become detrimental?

The cost so far:
* BP has agreed to create a $20 billion fund to compensate those affected
* An alleged $50 million on a television advertising campaign
* About $1 billion off their brand value according to some studies
* More than $100 billion in market value
* Stock is worth less than half the $60 or so it was selling for on the day of the explosion
* Oh, and who knows what on-the ground cleanup and PR support is costing?

Three years after the cleanup operation has completed its work - what will be the perception of BP?

When will BP (or will it ever) break even from the costs occurred and the missed opportunity cost? We will probably never know.

Maybe there is such a thing as bad publicity or at least a cost for bad publicity.

How do you value bad publicity?

7 Tips for Tony Hayward to Survive the BP Oil Spill Congressional Hearing

2010-06-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

If Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, and ultimate person responsible for the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf wants to survive the present Congressional panel (heckler disruptions aside), he needs to not only get his message straight, but also get the delivery correct. Just like in any crisis communications situation he needs to work on:

1. Credibility – so that the panel has confidence in the message and believes in him.

2. Appropriate context – for the panel and ultimately the population of the US.

3. Right content – which is appropriate for the population of the US (and no doubt the viewers of the countless other international media following this event).

4. Clarity – so that the message is unequivocal.

5. Continuity – with previous and proposed BP marketing activity.

6. Simplicity – so that the message cannot be misunderstood or misinterpret.

7. Impact – so the media cover the story from BP's angle.

We also know from previous news reports that Mr Hayward is not a night owl (OK, I get he needs to be up early to do business back in Blighty). If I was him, I'd be spending a lot of long evenings anticipating what the panel (and journalist) are likely to ask and prepare my response and messaging in reply. I'd be spending my time exactly how a crisis communications spokes person should be preparing:

Anticipate – Prepare – Rehearse
Anticipate – Prepare – Rehearse
Anticipate – Prepare – Rehearse

While Tony may be one of the most hated people in America (has anyone run him head-to-head with Joran Van der Sloot?) if BP can get their crisis communications right, they could emerge a stronger and more profitable company.

What do you think?

5 Crisis Communication Keys for Smaller Businesses Learnt from the BP Oil Spill 2010

2010-06-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, there is a lot we can learn from the recent BP Oil Spill and the Crisis Communications they have implemented, but for the small (er) company there are five simple foundations to keep in mind:

1 - crisis happens to businesses big and small - and don't think it'll be a calamity (such as a plane crash) - far less serious events lead to a crisis

2 - a crisis is not always your own doing - sometimes you get there due to activities outside of your company, from third parties or just bad luck

3 - speed is vital in a crisis - if you can't act quickly you create a 'media vacuum' that someone will fill - and it won't be pretty

4 - preparation - knowing what your message will be, who will say it and how it will be delivered, is the key to success. A proactive crisis communication plan and media training are not expensive - you can do it yourself or in today's market, ask a local PR agency to help you out - it'll cost little more than a couple of days of consultancy

5 - practice makes perfect - if you practice, or are experienced in dealing with the media, it will be a lot easier when there is a crisis. Getting media trained before a crisis is a vital investment.

10 Secrets to Killer Copy

2010-06-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Whether writing for PR or for business the universal truths we use when writing professional PR copy can be applied to emails, letters, business proposals, speeches and pretty much any written word in business.

We all want writing that’s compelling, interesting, and unique. We need writing that’s magnetic. In short – killer copy. Luckily a few simple techniques can make any piece of writing more compelling.

Here are NettResults’ top ten ways to help you write copy that draws the reader closer:

1. Don’t hedge
“Hedging” is when you go out of your way to cover every contingency in an argument. Example: “Nowadays almost all tech-adapt travelers have at least some sort if electronic book reader.” The hedges are “almost all” and “at least some sort.” These may be strictly true, but it’s soft, flabby wording that lacks impact. Instead: “Tech-adapt travelers love electronic book readers.”

2. Repeat a phrase

Repetition establishes structure and rhythm. Repetition taps into the part of our brain that loves rhyme and meter. Repetition pulls the reader into the flow of your writing. Repetition isn’t difficult to use. Repetition is annoying if overused.

3. No passive voice

Passive voice is when you switch the positions of the subject and object of a sentence. For example: “The man hit the computer” is in active voice; passive voice is: “The computer was hit by the man.” Notice how passive voice uses more words without adding information — usually a warning sign of flabby writing.

The wrongness of passive voice isn’t universal, but wouldn’t it have been killer if I had said that passive voice isn’t always wrong?

4. Brevity!

I don’t care how good your writing is, most people won’t read more than a few sentences. Today’s society affiliates with 140 characters. The best policy is to just write less.

5. Use short sentences

Short sentences are easy to read. They’re easy to digest. It’s easier to follow each point of an argument. Sometimes longer sentences — especially if divided up with dashes — are an appropriate tool, especially mixed in with shorter sentences to break things up. If you think short sentences are incompatible with excellent writing, read Stephen King. Or Hemingway.
6. Provoke, don’t solve

If you’re writing a report that is supposed to cover all the bases, this tip doesn’t apply. But if you’re trying to be persuasive, don’t try to handle every objection in one sitting. Your goal is to get the other person to respond: To ask you about a feature of your product, to challenge your assumptions about a competitor. Don’t solve every problem, leaving no stone unturned; leave them wanting more.

7. Eliminate trash adjectives

Most adjectives and adverbs don’t add information; they just take up space and dull your message. Example: “I’m very interested in quickly assessing all suitable software options.” Remove the adjectives and you get the same message, but sharper: “I’m interested in assessing all software.”

8. Be direct

Pardon me, dear reader, but if it wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience, could I trouble you to do me the favor of applying your obvious considerable facility with the English language to just get to the damn point?

Flowery, respectful and qualified wording is appropriate when you’re asking a waiter to do you a favor without spitting in your food. But it has no place in killer copy.

9. Tell a story

I knew a girl named Sophie who couldn’t figure out why people couldn’t understand the benefits of her software. She had feature and benefit bullet points but they just weren’t sinking in. One day Sophie changed her tactics completely. She wrote up a one-paragraph story about how one of her customers saved $125k by using her software. After that, sales were a lot easier.

10. Write informally

Sure, informal writing isn’t “professional.” And yeah, using phrases like and yeah violates the brevity rule. But it’s usually smart to write like you talk. Being informal helps you come off as a real person.

‘course, it can git to be too durned much, s’don’t go ’round makin’ it hard to just plain understand what in blazes yur talking ’bout.

They say first impressions are most important, and often your written word will be the first impression someone has of you! So take the time and care to make it killer copy.

Do you have any suggestions?

Journalists’ Top Five PR Pet Peeves, and How to Avoid Them

2010-05-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

A new white paper out today by Cision has a simple but powerful message for PR professionals.

There are the generic top 5 peeves that all journalists around the globe seem to have:
(1) Sending generic mass email blasts to journalists;
(2) Ignoring what the journalists or outlets actually cover;
(3) Making unnecessary follow-up phone calls;
(4) Pitching identical stories to competing outlets; and
(5) Not taking “no” for an answer.

Getting over these are relatively simple...

1. Keep it personal
Know the person you’re talking to. Research your target contacts in advance and personalize your communication. Never send a mass e-mail with zero familiarity about the recipient. Journalists who take emailed story ideas want proposals tailored to
them personally. Nothing is more impressive than proving you know someone’s history; at the same time, nothing is less impressive than sending out a blanket press release with no introduction.

2. Know what people cover
Nothing annoys a journalist more than receiving a pitch that clearly demonstrates no knowledge of his or her coverage area. Do your homework, offer interesting information that is relevant to the stories that journalist is working on, and you are more likely to be rewarded with a return call.

3. Be helpful – not a pest
Don’t follow up an email with a phone call. With many journalists’ inboxes overflowing with week-old, unread messages, they commonly complain about being “badgered” by multiple phone calls shortly after getting an email. The best rule of thumb is: If you hear back from a reporter, editor or blogger, he or she is interested; if not, move
on.

4. Be transparent about story exclusivity
Don’t pitch an exclusive story idea to multiple competitors. Let a contact know whether you’re proposing an exclusive story or if the story is being shopped around to various contacts. It’s a good way to maintain transparency and spark interest. Journalists are competitive and a story is more likely to get traction if a journalist knows it’s a scoop.

5. Develop a thick skin if your proposal is rejected or ignored
Not every pitch will get used, but journalists often keep valuable PR contacts on file. Remember that developing a relationship with a reporter, editor or blogger is the best way to score coverage, and it usually takes time to develop these relationships and build trust.

So simple, but still ignored every day.

Do we agree at NettResults with the above points? Mostly...

It is all about relationships. There is no doubt about that. But the "don't call after an email or you'll be a pest"? If you have a good relationship with the media, and call a journalist you know well for a number of things (not just to follow up with a 'did you get my email') then the fine line of 'pest' turns into a 'friendly chat' - and who doesn't like a friendly chat?

Of course the alternative is to just do everything on email and never call a journalist. But how does that develop a relationship?

Note to any client - if you walk into your PR agency and it sounds like the Mary Celeste with perhaps only the sound of finger hitting keyboard, you need to check the validity of your agency's media contacts.

10 steps to creating a winning PR plan

2010-04-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

Coordination and specifics throughout are essential for crafting a winning campaign

Creating a public relations plan takes time, knowledge, and understanding of your company’s or client’s needs and wants. Here are some steps to ensure you capture those elements in the plan-creation process and that you create a relevant and useful plan for your company or client.

1. Know your company's or client's current situation. This is essential to knowing where the company stands, where the company is able to go, what the company's market/industry looks like, and what direction the company is headed. It puts things in perspective.

2. Know your resources. This can be a part of the first step, as it is a part of the situational analysis needed to understand where your company or client stands. This can help you better build your tactics and strategies while considering budget, time, and other resource limitations.

3. Know your objectives and goals. Also essential to the PR plan’s success, you must know where the company hopes to go. Like driving with no directions, a PR plan with no goals or objectives is an aimless action with no knowledge of what could come, or even what results are desired. Be sure that the PR plan's goals are in line with the rest of the company's overall objectives, and ensure that they are clear to all involved.

4. Know and define your target audience(s). This means that you've defined your target buyer audiences and target media audiences. Each audience will need a different message and a different approach. Knowing these audiences will help you to frame your strategies and tactics so you can reach them effectively.

5. List messages and strategies you will use to reach your target audiences. These should be in line with your stated goals and objectives; if not, the plan is off to a bad start. Know that your strategies and messages also must relate to one another; otherwise, you need to address the disconnect.

6. Define the tactics you will use to effect the strategies you've listed. If, for example, a strategy is to enhance a company's brand awareness, tactics could include community outreach, social media use, press conferences, etc. You must define your strategy before addressing your tactics and assigning them to a message.

7. Create a timeline for implementation. This needs to be realistic but challenging. Remember that there should be no lapses in the PR plan as press releases are being sent out, events are taking place, or media are being engaged. There needs to be constant reminder to the public that the company is alive and well, which can be done with a continuous flow of information.

8. Delegate obligations and responsibilities to your team or your client's team to ensure all parts of the PR plan are completed. This helps to ensure that all are on board and know their responsibilities and duties. This is crucial to bringing the PR plan to fruition. This step should be done with everyone involved, so no one feels overburdened or left out. This involvement in the plan’s creation gives everyone a feeling of responsibility for its success.

9. Create measurements of results/success. To know if your plan is effective, create measurements and benchmarks for the tactics you implement. This is a place for the PR team to gauge the success of the plan and to see whether the goals were realistic. Creating measurements can also show what could have been done with the expertise and estimations of a PR firm or team.

10. Review the plan after implementation and conclusion of the plan. This is the time when all who helped to create and carry out the plan can share their thoughts on what went well, what didn't, and what can be done differently in the future. This helps ensure that future plans have a chance of being successful. It also encourages group members to work for the company's success by giving everyone a chance to talk and to contribute to the next plan.

The key thing to remember when creating a PR plan is that every plan is going to be unique and different for each company, and even within the same company, they will be different for each plan objective. Do your homework before creating a plan, and be sure that you work closely with the company or client to make the plan a success.

Mind the Gap

2010-03-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

I came across this interesting take on the 'information gap' interpreted by Jeff Monday.

When we come across something new that is not explained by our previous knowledge or experiences, an information gap is formed. If you are a communicator, understanding how to use this gap will have great rewards. Next time you have to develop company's messaging think about it!

What do you think?

Learning from Dubai's Poor PR

2009-12-09T18:13:00.000-08:00

Define a PR crisis for your organization....

For 'Dubai inc', it could be defined as causing major money markets to fall, having international media 'ridicule' fiscal policy/investments or having your ruler cartooned as drowning in a sea of debt on the front page of perhaps one the world's most respected newspapers.

Such is the past 10 days for Dubai.

What happened and what can we learn from this?

I think it went down something like this.... Picture a boardroom 50 stories high with all glass windows, over looking sun, sand, the beautiful crystal clear coast and major development including infrastructure that will soon be appearing in the Guinness Book of Records. Imagine the smell of coffee, and the obligatory three facial tissue boxes on the large, modern board room table, surrounded by black, ergonomic, modern mesh chairs.

Someone mentions in passing that there is a loan for something like $3.5-billion that needs to be paid by next month, but it's questionable whether money is in the right place to make that happen. "No problem," someone says, "everyone wants a piece of Dubai, we'll just ask our debtors to hold out for another 30 days". Someone more senior replies, "Interesting idea, but seeing as we're asking for 30 days, lets just ask for 6 months - I mean, why not?". Several nods of heads, because that's what you do when someone more senior suggests something.

A couple of faces look to the person who has to think about publicity. "No problem here. Next week is Eid so we'll all be taking it easy for a week and isn't the U.S. celebrating something along the lines of Thanks Giving so Wall Street will be closing early? We'll sent out a note to a couple of the media who always write exactly what we ask them, most media outlets will be on vacation - no one will remember a thing".

Nice idea... except... while that might of worked 2 or 3 years ago, in the dusk of 2009 there have been changes that have even permeated as far as Dubai...

1 - Media is less of a puppet. Days are gone when they simply 'cut and paste' from a release just because it comes from someone important. Many reasons for this - all of them good.

2 - Media never sleeps. Social media resonates 24/7 and the more advanced media groups have reorganized so they can work cross-globe 24/7, irrespective of cultural holidays.

3 - Never, ever, ever create a media vacuum. It's PR101, but if you do not provide the facts and all the facts to the media in a timely manner, the media will get the facts from somewhere else. That somewhere may be less than gracious. That somewhere may include so called experts that known nothing about what they talk. That somewhere might have a grudge to bare. In short - not good.

4 - It all comes out in the wash. Organizations that play it less than 100% clean risk dirty washing falling out of the hamper every now and again... and in tough financial times it can be like someone turned the hamper upside-down. Was always this way, but today's ultra-connected and social society means that no one is exempt and news travels fast.

The lessons are pretty simple really. It's not rocket science and someone should of seen this coming. Maybe they need a new PR agency...

Wow, did Dubai just get a beating in the international press!

2009-12-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

It was felt around the world, but perhaps the most punishing in the ever-cynical British press.

Unfortunately the 'Dubai Machine' was not at its tip-top performance, and whomever was in charge of media on that day must of been out of the office celebrating Eid Al Adha, because they created a media vacuum that the press love as they can make things up and call on non-experienced 'experts' who really have no idea.

Lets set the story straight.

1 - Dubai World is NOT the country. Saying that 'Dubai World' has a $59b financial problem is not the same as saying that Dubai (or the United Arab Emirates) is bust! Dubai World is an investment company that manages and supervises a portfolio of businesses and projects for the Dubai government across a wide range of industry segments and projects that promote Dubai as a hub for commerce and trading. It is not, however, guaranteed by the Dubai Government.

2 - Some might argue that $59b is not a huge sum when compared with some other corporate bailouts (e.g. when Lehman Brothers went into bankruptcy protection, it owed more than $600 billion). In reality, Dubai World still has a lot of valuable divested assets, so their only shortfall is a US$3.5-billion loan, which the company is unable to repay by its December deadline.

3 - Concerns over the fallout from Dubai's debt problems contributed to the main European stock indexes falling over 3% on 26 November. This was followed by drops in Asian stocks on 27 November. However the European stock markets rebounded as investors' fears subsequently subsided as they decided the estimated debt wasn't big enough to trigger a systemic failure in global financial markets.

4 - And pretty much anything else you've heard around this subject is just false. Dubai is as bankrupt as 1920s Germany (The Guardian) - not true. India may take over Dubai as Russian oligarchs shoot at each other on the Burj Dubai (The Independent) - certainly not true. "There are not that many people when you go out shopping, and there are almost no Westerners in the bars and clubs," according to Sarah, speaking to the BBC - we don't know where she's going - certainly not the places this office socialize at! It's not a fiscal Armageddon. It's just not, in global terms, actually that significant.

But what sells newspapers?

The Millennials working in agencies – R U ready?

2009-11-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

Research from over 200 global PR agencies by the University of Oregon shows interesting conclusions that Middle East agencies should take heed of. The Millennials (or Gen Y, Generation Me, The Net Generation, or Echo Boomers) can broadly be defined as those between the ages of 12 and 28 years – in short the younger members of our agency teams.

Gen Y is the most wanted & coddled generation in history. Howe & Strauss (authors known for their theories about a recurrent cycle of generations) summed Gen Y’s up neatly, “they are more numerous, more affluent, better educated, and more ethnically diverse. More important, they are beginning to manifest a wide array of positive social habits that older Americans no longer associate with youth, including a new focus on teamwork, achievement, modesty, and good conduct”.

Why are they like this? Most commonly brought up by helicopter parents (remaining closely overhead, rarely out of reach, whether their children need them or not) with both parents working and more disposable income than previous generations, Gen Y has often been branded as having attention spans less than a goldfish and only being able to absorb information in very short chunks.

Having grown up with the Internet, it's also the first generation that's completely comfortable with technology. And their childhood passion for computer games means they like clear objectives, with a start and an accomplishable goal (games end), knowing exactly where they are at all times (i.e. how many points they have scored).

This is important as there are a lot of Gen Y – 70 million - almost three times the number of Generation X. So what does this mean for the managers in Middle East agencies? Well, if we understand what Millennials want, we can make our agencies run more efficiently. So here’s the top 10 ways to cultivate relationships with Millennials:

10 - Less politics & favouritism. Add more team building events - especially if you also have Baby Boomers in your team.
9 - Keep your promises as a manager. Gen Y has been brought up being given what they expected. If you disappoint they’ll walk.
8 - Understand mistakes. Gen Y sees no harm in making them so have realistic expectations and don’t view mistakes as failures (their parents didn’t).
7 – Give more autonomy & responsibility. But paradoxically don’t expect accountability.
6 - Allow & encourage innovation. Gen Y live for innovation.
5 - Listen, solicit opinions and recognise their influence. Gen Y like to give it and just as their parents did, they’ll expect you to listen to them.
4 - Provide training & opportunities for growth. Gen Y loves to learn.
3 - Prioritise employees’ needs and work out how to provide a work-life balance with home commute options.
2 - Provide fair compensation: based on achievement, workload, level of responsibility, market norms.
1 - Communicate! More regular, recognition, openness, honesty, instructions, feedback & defined roles.

Gen Y like to communicate, so speak to them… you could also email, Tweet, blog, connect over FaceBook and get LinkedIn… but whatever you do communicate.

Crisis Communication - proactive planning

2009-10-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

Explained in 90 seconds:

LEAD & detractors

2009-09-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

It's not exactly rocket science, but one simple method for getting online and embracing social media is LEAD (listen, experiment, apply, develop). This creates a simple road map that will help companies thrive in the online world’s environment of constant change.

We see a lot of work on attracting new advocates, but one thing that I am constantly asked about is how to work with detractors.

The most important thing in social is to address your detractors. Influencers are a combination of advocates and detractors but detractors are 4-8 times more likely to speak than an advocate (yeah, I made that stat up). Understand and disarm your detractors by talking to them.

But should all detractors be treated equally?

First up, we like to differentiate between 'branded' and 'unbranded' social noise makers. Waggener Edstrom define this very neatly... "Branded media has an associated value exchange with its name. Unbranded media has voice and influence, but the name does not (yet, perhaps) carry value by itself. Regardless of whether it’s branded or not, each voice carries weight and influence, from either the edge (unbranded) or the center (branded). And media can move between the two states: X, the gossip guy, started out as a nobody, while Z, who used to be influential, is rarely heard from anymore."

Then it's traditional (yes it still exists) PR methods that need to be implemented to actually make a difference.

Only the paranoid survive.

3 easy steps to extend your social media beyond Facebook & Twitter...

2009-08-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

So you have a handle on Facebook and Twitter. You may even blog a little. Think you have it covered? Sorry – not even close. At NettResults we break social media sites out into three levels:

Tier 1: Register and engage
Del.icio.us
DocStoc
Business week's Business Exchange
FaceBook
Flickr
FriendFeed
LinkedIn
Scribd
SlideShare
StumbleUpon
Technorati
Twitter
YouTube (also Vimeo, Viddler, Revver & Yahoo video)

Tier 2: Set up branded profiles, use as warranted:
Digg
Google Groups
Windows Live Space
Yahoo Groups

Tier 3: Claim your name and monitor
Bedo
Brightkite
Friendster
Gather
Identi.ca
Imeem
Meetup
Multiply
MySpace
New York Times (TimesPeople, NewsWeek)
Ning
Orkut
Piscasa
Plurk
Spoke
Tribe.net

The hard way: go to each site and do what you have to do.
The easy way: call a reputable PR agency such as NettResults and that agency set up and engage social media sites for you.

Three Steps for Positive Crisis Communication when dealing with Online Social Media

2009-08-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

In March, The Home Depot found themselves in a crisis situation due to a picture taken in-store and posted on a blog site. The company had done nothing wrong, and a good-natured employee had done something they thought was customer focused, but it turned out to hurt the company.

Whether it could be a sting of customer complaints on Twitter, a clutch of employees blowing off steam on Facebook on a Friday afternoon, or someone posting company video on YouTube – organizations are increasingly finding themselves in a crisis due to the avalanche of online social media sites. And don’t even get me started on the Dominoes Pizza YouTube debacle.

The threat comes from two groups of people – the harmful insider and the pissed-off outsider.

So what, if anything, should a company do to protect itself in online social media?

1 – Be prepared. First and foremost, this means paying attention to the conversation in places such as YouTube & Twitter, and where possible social media sites such as Facebook. Have people who understand the capabilities and etiquette of the forums.

2 – Don’t overreact. Hyperbole’s the stock-in-trade online. Not every action deserves a company response.

3 – Get in the game. When it’s time to respond, use the medium where the offense took place. Provide value with new information, and be sincere.

This is just the beginning...

Why being a PR professional is like cutting hair

2009-07-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true, to be a good PR professional you can learn a lot from good hairdressers...

Middle East press releases and their use

2009-07-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

The latest research about the media and PR in the Middle East by Media Source makes interesting reading.

The bad or good news – depending on your point of view - is that there are more press releases filling journalists’ inboxes than two years ago. The Arabic and English language media are more closely aligned than previously, particularly in the 0 – 20 and 21 – 40 categories but there is growth across the 41 + categories. This is not really surprising given the enormous growth we’ve seen in the number of new agencies in the region through 2007 and 2008.

Interesting reading for the PR industry – there may be more releases around but more of them are being used. Whereas ‘none’ or ‘less than 10 percent’ stood at 55 percent across all respondents in 2007, this figure has dropped by 11 points to stand at 44 percent. Use of releases has increased markedly among the Arabic language press with 41 percent of them claiming to use a quarter or more of all the releases they receive. Virtually every agency resists the tag ‘press release factory’ but should they, in fact, play up their skill in generating this humble communication tool?

Is Iran the birthplace of citizen reporting?

2009-06-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Whether you watch traditional media or get your news online, it is only thanks to citizen reporters that we knew what was going on during the June riots in Iran.

Ahmadenijad’s forces were doing all they could to shut down social media communication channels; Facebook and YouTube have both been blocked in Tehran. But Twitter was widely used to get the news and images out to the rest of the world (once the mobile network was working).

And for those that don’t follow Twitter, it didn’t really matter – television broadcasting will never be the same again. Fox News was the first one to set aside regular programming and only focus on the photographs and tweets coming into studios. For some hours, it was the only major network broadcasting bring the sights and sounds up people protesting on the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran. It gave Fox an immediate competitive edge with an audience spike as Americans tuned in to keep up with the events.

Fox News chose to go global, while CNN and MSNBC stuck with their usual programming, broadcasting continuous coverage of the escalating political crisis and chaos in the streets with vivid photos and messages from protestors. Eventually, the other stations caught on and changed from the usual programming to focus on Iran events.

Twitter has broken through press censorship in Iran. It’s allowing reports from citizens that would have been suppressed to be exposed to a wide audience. Obviously we have to be cautious in how we react to the information. We must never take everything on face value and ensure that we aren’t being duped by someone manipulating anonymity. However, with the users claiming to be Iranian giving updates with consistent stories, we can perhaps assume that most of these people are offering legitimate and authentic views from Iran. On top of anecdotal stories we’re getting a stream of pictures and videos of scenes on the streets.

Twitter can be a powerful tool.

Too much talking?

2009-06-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

An interesting phenomena is going on - and Time has just picked it up.

All the news is bad. News from the Economy is depressing, 'Britain's Got Talent' is accused with treating contestants badly, 'Jon & Kate, Plus 8' is imploding with cheating and child labor, Brown is being asked to resign, jets falling out of the sky, a man in CA got sentenced to death for starting a fire, Pakistan mosque bomb just killed dozens, China landslide just buried 60 people... I could go on.

At the same time - there is a never ending hunger for us all to get and share the news. In the past few weeks the amount of Tweeting has grown substantially.

As Time puts it - The weather reports keep announcing that the sky is falling, but here we are — millions of us — sitting around trying to invent new ways to talk to one another.

Thoughts?

How to get great media coverage… don’t send a press release

2009-05-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

Those learned soles in PR agencies have forever been touting the advantages to colleagues and clients of NOT sending press releases.

In their research, HubSpot estimated nearly 50,000 press releases are issued every month. Roughly one every 12 seconds. So on to the big question: is it worth it?

Do press releases generate publicity? That really depends on your definition of publicity. If publicity for you is any website that publishes your release, then releases are very effective. If on the other hand you consider mainstream news media to be your target, you’re probably not going to have much luck with press releases.

Do journalists read releases? According to the PRWeek/PR Newswire 2009 Media Survey, 38% of journalists look at opt-in press releases from commercial newswires when researching topics and writing stories, and 27% search the websites of commercial newswire services.

But are press releases the most effective way to generate publicity? The short answer is no. According to the 2009 Media Survey, 90% of journalists prefer email pitches over every other media. If email is the top way that journalists like to receive information, then a press release isn’t the best way to get their attention. True, a release could be excellent supplemental information to use in supplement to an email, but it should replace your pitch. A well-crafted and brief pitch letter sent via email can be far more effective at getting a journalist’s attention.

Tweet - Tweet

2009-05-05T03:08:00.000-07:00

So I’ve given in and am now fully embracing Twitter. I held off face book and hope that between blogging and tweeting my online social network can be fulfilled.

One reason that I embrace Twitter is that I love brevity. If it can’t be said in 140 characters then you shouldn’t Tweet it.

First choice I had to make was whether I was going to Twitter myself or NettResults. I chose NettResults and hope to make it relevant to business followers with a mix of whit and international marketing acumen. By all means let me know how I’m doing.

To follow NettResults on Twitter simply search for ‘NettResults’. Couldn’t be easier than that.

And if you haven’t looked into Twitter then I recommend you do so. Check out what it does, how it works and then get connected.

If you are looking at Twitter from a business point of view, then I highly recommend this article on Macworld - Nine Twitter tips for business.

Tweet tweet.

Multinational Issues in a Multimedia World

2009-05-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready for IPREX's global conference in NYC. This year's theme is "Multinational Issues in a Multimedia World." We'll be discussing social media at Google, the economic crisis at Bloomberg, and how global companies are handling the toughest PR issues at New York University. The main event is a panel discussion starring seven heads of communications for global companies.

What's the most important question we should ask them about PR today?

It's all about relationships

2009-02-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

People buy from people. Information flows better between trusting relationships. And we know we get better PR results when working with a trusted editor/journalist that we have a good relationship with.

The agency’s never ending question is how to build more and more relationships so everyone in your email address book is a ‘relationship’ and not just someone on a distribution list. For the past decade, our experience has been there are four things that can build a PR pro/media relationship:

Think ‘journalist’ – the best way to build any relationship is to understand the world from the other side’s point of view. Never is this truer than with the media. Don’t just call a press contact if you want something. Call then if you see or hear of something that might be of interest to them. Call them if you want to continue a conversation that they have reported on. Call them to congratulate on an excellent piece. None of these may be related to your own press needs, but opening up sincere, honest dialogue will get you better coverage in the future.

Think ‘their title’ – the single most common complaint that journalists make of PR pro’s is that they do not understand the title/show that the journalist works on. Before calling the media, it is imperative that the PR pro has read the title (or seen/listened to the show), understands it and identifies that their client has something relevant to the target group of that media. Without that you are not just wasting time, you’re damaging a long-term relationship.

Think ‘two-way’ – that’s a two-way conversation. Too often an agency pro will call up to pitch a client. That’s just like when you answer your home phone at 7pm and someone tries to sell you new windows. You want to get them off the phone ASAP because you are not looking for new windows – but you can’t get a word in. Agency pro’s need to stop the telesales routine, and instead of talking – try listening. The pitch might not be right for that journalist at that point, but something related my work, or that pitch might tie into something that is coming up in a forward feature.

Think ‘time line’ – journalists live by them. And theirs are written in stone. So your client wants to receive results on a certain deadline, but what drives that? If a monthly magazine goes to bed on the 20th of the month, is there really any point pitching a story in that week 13th – 20th? No. The space will already have been taken up. Similarly think of the time line for daily newspapers. Work to the media’s time line. If your client has something else in mind, then manage that client better.

Just think of the media from their point of view. That’s all it takes to build excellent agency/media relationships. And that’s what leads to excellent media results.

The Downturn’s New Rules for Marketers

2008-12-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

So I just read an article of the same name that was in The McKinsey Quarterly. It explains (and I’m paraphrasing the 11 pages) how the global recession is changing how cash-strapped marketers have to operate in 2009. A ‘reprioritising’ of geographies, consumer segments, b-2-b opportunities, sales & marketing resources, adverting vehicles etc.

To an extent I agree. A reprioritisation of geographies does seem to make sense. I’m sure we’ll see a number of organisations re-org their staff and budgets when it comes it the never-ending central/disbursed models of marketing. I’ve worked client side both in the central office (using centralised budgets) and out in the dim and distant field (where local budgets were fort over and sometimes even measured). Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but for sure a centralised model will save money (but whether it will produce a greater ROI is a discussion for another time).

I am also in agreement that measurement needs to be stepped up and looked at more closely. The era of “oh, lets just sponsor this event because it sounds like a good idea” is not particularly savvy in this environment.

But here’s the thing. It’s really very simple for marketers to cut their budget and prove an ever increasing ROI. The old ad adage is "I know half of my advertising spend is wasted; I just don't know which half." Sod it. Cut half of it – any half - because that’s where the saving needs to come from. Want to know how to still increase your ROI? Then read on…

A large international client came to our agency recently and said they needed to cut their marketing budget by 75% across the board. Every agency they were working with was getting cut – design, media buying, media monitoring, PR, events, POS etc etc.

Our arguments to NOT cut the PR budget but actually increase it included...

1 – A relatively small dollar decrease in budget significantly reduces the amount of PR coverage obtainable.

2 – Unfortunately PR is not like a water tap that can be turned on and off. It’s easy to loose SOV (share of voice), but takes many months to build it up.

3 – The percentage of marketing budget spent on PR is comparatively small. A smaller percentage saving from the advertising or event budget can save an organisation considerably more money and allow PR (which has a low cost and a high ROI) to flourish.

4 – The reduction of monthly PR retainer of, for example, 25% (lets say from $10,000 to $7,500) is equivalent to the same cost saving of one page print advert a quarter in an average industry magazine.

5 – Strategically speaking, many organisations are about to go through a rough time in the media due to a reduction in sales, profit, a falling share price and reduced workforce. No amount of advertising is going to repair the bad press that job losses will promote – the only way to manage this is going to be PR.

So in a time of economic downturn – cut your advertising by 50% and increase your public relations by 25%. Not only will you greatly reduce your marketing budget (by about 45%), you will also safeguard your brand, increase your ROI and in the long term have greater marketing success.

Targeting is the bedrock

2008-11-16T18:34:00.000-08:00

Nothing is more important in PR or marketing than getting the targeting right. Understanding who the right audience is and knowing how to reach them is one of the first things to undertake and will be a key factor on how effective and efficient your campaign will be.

So I read with interest an article that talked of the the targeting potential of LinkedIn last week in Advertising Age.

Highlights from the study:
* 30 million current members
* 8.4 million (24 percent) members are senior executives with a mean salary of $104,100
* 1/3 of members are savvy networkers with an average of 61 connections (the overall average is 38) and personal income of more than $90,000
* 21 percent of members are seeking job opportunities

OK, so we all knew LinkedIn members used the site for business reasons -- vs. the more purely social networks such as Facebook or MySpace – but we didn't know exactly who they were.

Now we do.

Certainly a very aspiring group of people and they are neatly grouped so theoretically easier to target. The problem I have now, is how can PR utilize that nugget of information. Sure some can afford to place a banner advert on LinkedIn – but where is the potential for PR?

I don’t have the answer just yet – but think the question is worth considering…. Please do let me know if you think you have an answer.

Seven rules of crisis management

2008-11-11T15:46:00.001-08:00

OK - so first off I am pretty proud that I'm a co-author on the new Crisis Communications book.

‘Crisis Communication: Practical PR Strategies for Reputation Management and Company Survival’ (ISBN: 978-0749454005)

This new book by the publishers Kogan Page is a joint work by 20 international authors - and that's what I think makes it special.

No company or organization is immune to crisis. A crisis, however, does not necessarily have to turn into a PR disaster. Crisis Communications provides readers with advice on how to limit damage by acting quickly and positively. Moreover, it explains how to turn a crisis into an opportunity by communicating efficiently via a successful public relations strategy.

Crisis Communications is a thorough guide to help prepare an organization for unexpected calamities. It provides information on accountability, planning, building corporate image, natural disasters, accidents, financial crises, legal issues, corporate re-organization, food crises, negative press, media training and risk managers.

As I start the publicity for this book, I am being asked to summaries the 200+ pages into 300 words... so here goes...

1. People - The team involved in managing crisis communications should be fully briefed on who will contact who in the event of a crisis, and which method of contact they will use.

2. Roles and tasks - Have a checklist of what role each team member will fulfil during the crisis, and what tasks they are assigned as the crisis breaks, during the crisis and afterwards. Suggested roles include: briefing members of the board; internal communications and keeping staff informed; media relations; media monitoring; and online monitoring.

3. Messages - Work out in advance the key messages you will want to communicate in a crisis. Don’t bother with corporate messages about visions and mission statements – journalists aren’t interested in these. Think about what messages you want to get across about which journalists will realistically write.   

4. Draft statements and responses - Having template statements ready prepared can help you turn things around quickly when a crisis breaks. Have background facts and Q&As about the company ready and to hand.

5. Speed - You need speed of response, but also speed of thinking and actions to be in control of the situation, rather than panicking to catch up with the media. You want to run the pace of the story your way and have the -media responding to you, rather than the other way around.

6. Control - Work out how you will take control of the story for each likely scenario. The plan should identify media-trained spokespeople who can talk in a crisis. Have some ready-prepared images available. If you don’t, the media may look elsewhere to fill the gap.

7. Practice - Teams need to be familiar with the crisis comms plan. NettResults recommends crisis training twice a year and a simulation exercise at least once a year.

And if asked to define it in 6 words...

Conflict builds character - crisis defines it.

Four ways to gauge the success of your spokesperson

2008-10-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

Beyond owners/C level's own ego, having the best spokesperson representing your organization is imperative. Once the chosen representative has mastered your messages and talked publicly, there are some ways to tell whether they have been successful in the delivery.

• How is the media depicting matters vital to your organisation's interests and objectives? If they are noticing the strategic messages and themes you've created to define your brand, campaign or mission, it demonstrates that your spokesperson has been successful at communicating those ideas. If not, than you may want to re-evaluate your messages or your spokesperson's approach to conveying your objectives.

• Is your spokesperson cited in the story? Being quoted in an article sets your spokesperson up as an expert. Even if the article isn't directly related to your company or brand, a good spokesperson will be able to position himself as an authority.

• What is the editorial tone of a given media piece? Knowing whether the media is portraying your organization or spokesperson in a favourable, neutral, or unfavourable light can provide valuable information on which to plan follow-up messages or campaigns.

• How prominently mentioned is your spokesperson? The content and context of your organizations mention are key indicators in accessing a spokesperson's success at conveying your company's ideas. Among some factors to consider: the position, location, length, and exclusivity of your spokesperson's mention, message, or quotation.

It's a tough call to make - but if they are not doing a good job then more training is needed... or maybe a new person found to fill the spokesperson function.

Being a Good Spokesperson

2008-09-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Regardless of job title, all spokespeople must possess the same basic qualities. In addition to being authorised to represent the organisation, a spokesperson should:

• Resonate with your audience
• Project a good visual presence
• Possess good quality of voice (particularly when speaking live, or on radio and television)
• Maintain a good rapport with journalists
• Remain readily accessible to the media

Although some of these qualities directly reflect the individual's personality, others can be learned and refined over time. Therefore, regardless of the spokesperson's level of experience, proper media training is essential. Conveying key messages and being savvy about how to avoid missteps are skills that can be learned.

A little training can go a long way
A good spokesperson knows how to be interviewed and is aware of what journalists want. Here are just a few points to consider when training your representative to be an effective spokesperson:

Image. How you look can and will affect audience perception. Visual perception accounts for at least 60 percent of how audiences take in messages. At least another 30 percent is auditory, while the remaining is the actual message or what the audience believes is the message (The Spin Project, Broadcast Media and Spokesperson Skills, 2008).

Rehearsal. Practicing before hand helps prevent stumbling and mumbling during the real interview or appearance and helps perpetuate a sense of confidence and authority.

Sound bites. Sometimes all you have is a moment to punctuate key messages, or perhaps a journalist needs only one quote or phrase to set the tone for the entire piece. Your spokesperson should be prepared with snippets.

Control. You may not be able to direct a journalist's line of questioning. However, you can still maintain control of the answers by transitioning them in a way that reinforces the key messages you want to convey.

Email Revolution

2008-09-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Everyone wants a piece of you. So they send you e-mail.

Over 100 real e-mails come in each day. At three minutes apiece, it will take five hours just to read and respond. Let's not even think about the messages that take six minutes of work to deal with.

If you feel the same way, then it’s time to get together; maybe we can start a revolution.

The problem is that readers now bear the burden. Before e-mail, senders shouldered the burden of mail. Writing, stamping, and mailing a letter was a lot of work. Plus, each new addressee meant more postage, so we thought hard about whom to send things to.

E-mail reversed that system in no time. With free sending to an infinite number of people now a reality, every little thought and impulse becomes instant communication. Our most pathetic meanderings become deep thoughts that we happily blast to six dozen colleagues who surely can't wait. On the receiving end, we collect these gems of wisdom from the dozens around us. The result: Inbox overload.

Taming e-mail means training the senders to put the burden of quality back on themselves.

What's the best way to train everyone around you to better e-mail habits? You guessed it: You go first. First, you say, "In order for me to make you more productive, I'm going to adopt this new policy to lighten your load…" Demonstrate a policy for a month, and if people like it, ask them to start doing it too.

1 - Use a subject line to summarise, not describe.
People scan their inbox by subject. Make your subject rich enough that your readers can decide whether it's relevant. The best way to do this is to summarise your message in your subject.

BAD SUBJECT: Subject: Deadline discussion

GOOD SUBJECT: Subject: Recommend we ship product April 25th

2 - Give your reader full context at the start of your message.
Too many messages forwarded to you start with an answer—"Yes! I agree. Apples are definitely the answer"—without offering context. We must read seven included messages, notice that we were copied, and try to figure out what apples are the answer to.

You're probably sending e-mail because you're deep in thought about something. Your reader is too; only they're deep in thought about something else. Even worse, in a multi-person conversation, messages and replies may arrive out of order. And no, it doesn't help to include the entire past conversation when you reply; it's rude to force someone else to wade through ten screens of messages because you're too lazy to give them context. So, start off your messages with enough context to orient your reader.

BAD E-MAIL:
To: Mickey Mouse
From: Minnie Mouse
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Please bring contributions to the charity drive
Yes, apples are definitely the answer.

GOOD E-MAIL:
To: Mickey Mouse
From: Minnie Mouse
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Please bring contributions to the charity drive.
You asked if we want apple pie. Yes, apples are definitely the answer.

3 - When you copy lots of people (a heinous practice that should be used sparingly), mark out why each person should care.

Just because you send a message to six poor co-workers doesn't mean all six know what to do when they get it. Ask yourself why you're sending to each recipient, and let him or her know at the start of the message what he or she should do with it. Big surprise, this also forces you to consider why you're including each person.

BAD CC:
To: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck
Subject: Press Release draft is done
The Press Release draft is done. Check it out in the attached file. The PR agency will need our responses by the end of the week.

GOOD CC:
To: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck
Subject: Press Release draft is done

Mickey: DECISION NEEDED. Get marketing to approve the draft

Minnie: PLEASE VERIFY. Does the release capture our branding?

Donald: FYI, if we need to translate to Arabic, your translation project will slip.

The Press Release draft is done. Check it out in the attached file. The PR Agency will need our responses by the end of the week.

4 - Use separate messages rather than bcc (blind carbon copy).
If you bcc someone "just to be safe," think again. Ask yourself what you want the "copied" person to know, and send a separate message if needed. Yes, it's more work for you, but if we all do it, it's less overload.

BAD BCC:
To: Donald
Bcc: Mickey
Please attend the PR meeting today at 2:00 p.m.

GOOD BCC:
To: Donald
Please attend the PR meeting today at 2:00 p.m.

To: Mickey
Please reserve the conference room for Donald and me today at 2:00 p.m.

5 - Make action requests clear.
If you want things to get done, say so. Clearly. There's nothing more frustrating as a reader than getting copied on an e-mail and finding out three weeks later that someone expected you to pick up the project and run with it. Summarise action items at the end of a message so everyone can read them at one glance.

6 - Separate topics into separate e-mails … up to a point.
If someone sends a message addressing a dozen topics, some of which you can respond to now and some of which you can't, send a dozen responses—one for each topic. That way, each thread can proceed unencumbered by the others.

Do this when mixing controversy with the mundane. That way, the mundane topics can be taken care of quietly, while the flame wars can happen separately.

BAD MIXING OF ITEMS:
We need to gather all the articles by February 1st.
Speaking of which, I was thinking … do you think we should fire Pluto?

GOOD MIXING OF ITEMS:
Message #1: We need to gather all the articles by February 1st.
Message #2: Pluto's missed a lot of deadlines recently. Do you think termination is in order?

7 - Combine separate points into one message.
Sometimes the problem is the opposite - sending 500 tiny messages a day will overload someone, even if the intent is to reduce this by creating separate threads. If you are holding a dozen open conversations with one person, the slowness of typing is probably substantial overhead. Jot down all your main points on a piece of (gasp) paper, pick up the phone, and call the person to discuss those points. I guarantee you'll save a ton of time.

8 - Edit forwarded messages.
For goodness sake, if someone sends you a message, don't forward it along without editing it. Make it appropriate for the ultimate recipient and make sure it doesn't get the original sender in trouble.

BAD FORWARDING:
To: Mickey
Minnie's idea, described below, is great.
---
From: Minnie
Hey, Daisy:

Let's take the new press release and add a picture of the product. Mickey probably won't mind; his design sense is so garish he'll approve anything.

GOOD FORWARDING:
To: Mickey
Minnie's idea, described below, is great.
---
From: Minnie
Hey, Daisy:

Let's take the new press release and add a picture of the product.

9 - When scheduling a call or conference, include the topic in the invitation. It helps people prioritize and manage their calendar more effectively.

BAD E-MAIL:
Subject: Conference call Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.

GOOD E-MAIL:
Subject: Conference call Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. to review press tour details.

10 - Make your e-mail one page or less.
Make sure the meat of your e-mail is visible in the preview pane of your recipient's mailer. That means the first two paragraphs should have the meat. Many people never read past the first screen, and very few read past the third.

Understand how people prefer to be reached, and how quickly they respond.
Some people are so buried under e-mail that they can't reply quickly. If something is important, use the phone or make a follow-up phone call. Do it politely; a delay may not be personal. It might be that someone's overloaded. If you have time-sensitive information, don't assume people have read the e-mail you sent three hours ago rescheduling the meeting that takes place in five minutes. Pick up the phone and call.

11 - How to read and receive e-mail
Setting a good example only goes so far. You also have to train others explicitly. Explain to them that you're putting some systems in place to help you manage your e-mail overload. Ask for their help, and know that they're secretly envying your strength of character.

12 - Check e-mail at defined times each day.
We hate telemarketers during dinner, so why do we tolerate e-mail when we're trying to get something useful done?

Turn off your e-mail "autocheck". Please, please, please – turn it off.

Only check e-mail two or three times a day, by hand.

Let people know that if they need to reach you instantly, e-mail isn't the way. When it's e-mail processing time, however, shut the office door, turn off the phone, and blast through the messages.

13 - Use a paper "response list" to prioritise messages before you do any follow-up.
The solution to e-mail overload is pencil and paper? Who knew? Grab a pad and label it "Response list." Run through your incoming e-mails. For each, note on the paper what you have to do or whom you have to call. Resist the temptation to respond immediately. If there's important reference information in the e-mail, drag it to your Reference folder. Otherwise, delete it. Zip down your entire list of e-mails to generate your response list. Then, zip down your response list and actually do the follow-up.

14 - Charge people for sending you messages.
One CEO I've worked with charges staff members five dollars from their budget for each e-mail she receives. Amazingly, her overload has gone down, the relevance of e-mails has gone up, and the senders are happy, too, because the added thought often results in them solving more problems on their own.

15 - Train people to be relevant.
If you are constantly copied on things, begin replying to e-mails that aren't relevant with the single word: "Relevant?" Of course, you explain that this is a favour to them. Now, they can learn what is and isn't relevant to you. Beforehand, tell them the goal is to calibrate relevance, not to criticise or put them down and encourage them to send you relevancy challenges as well. Pretty soon, you'll be so well trained you'll be positively productive!

16 - Answer briefly.
When someone sends you a ten-page missive, reply with three words. "Yup, great idea." You'll quickly train people not to expect huge answers from you, and you can then proceed to answer at your leisure in whatever format works best for you. If your e-mail volume starts getting very high, you'll have no choice.

17 - Send out delayed responses.
Type your response directly, but schedule it to be sent out in a few days. This works great for conversations that are nice but not terribly urgent. By inserting a delay in each go-around, you both get to breathe easier.

(In Outlook, choose Options when composing a message and select ‘Do not deliver before’. In Eudora, hold down the Shift key as you click Send.)

18 - Ignore it.
Yes, ignore e-mail. If something's important, you'll hear about it again. Trust me. And people will gradually be trained to pick up the phone or drop by if they have something to say. After all, if it's not important enough for them to tear their gaze away from the hypnotic world of Microsoft Windows, it's certainly not important enough for you to take the time to read.

Your only solution is to take action.

Yeah, yeah, you have a million reasons why these ideas can never work for you. Hogwash. Just one can bring some semblance of order to your inbox. So choose a technique and start applying it.

When to target Bloggers in PR

2008-09-11T04:45:00.000-07:00

The Entrepreneurs Organisation recently polled their 7,000 members in 38 countries and asked these business owners:

Is Blogging a valuable business tool for you?

And the results are in…
Yes, and I blog on a regular basis = 36% 
No, but I blog for other reasons = 16%  
No, I don't see the value in blogging = 36% 
Other = 12 % 

A resounding split. A third of the business owner community around the world are interested in blogging. A third not. The rest, not so much.

In our PR work we often come across clients that are targeting ‘business owners’ as their clients. And I expect the EO’s membership criteria is a pretty accurate a target within this category.

So should PR agencies be spending so much effort ‘influencing’ bloggers?

Personally, I think that a PR pro should be conscious of their target audience. If that target audience are, for example, The Millennial generation (16-27 year olds) who grew up with broadband, the Internet and mobile phones and for whom technology has a huge impact on their lifestyles, then bloggers are for sure an important target.

However, if the target includes, for example ‘business owners’ then maybe the weighting of other more traditional media should be seriously considered.

Just an idea.

Writing With Style - Part 3 of 3 - Brevity

2008-09-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

Beautiful things come in small packages.

The public’s desire for brevity is universal. Blame it on MTV, blame it on media as a whole, but if CNN can bring you the “Hollywood minute” to sum up all entertainment news into 60 seconds and Fox gives us “The World in Eighty Seconds”, you can sure cut some of that press release.

Edit your media copy to make it as short as possible. Then edit it again to shorten it. Then pass it to a colleague to get them to shorten it.

Keep it short. Period.

Writing With Style - Part 2 of 3 - Clarity

2008-09-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

There is a too much drivel out there. Pick up 99% of press releases and read the boilerplate (the last paragraph that explains what the company does). Drivel! Too many ‘isms’ and not a lot of sense. Really – most of them don’t actually make sense. Try looking at an online press release service and just read a few.

1. State the wow!
2. Cut the jargon
3. Dress up the message with enhancers
4. Streamline approval

Don’t tell me what the company does – tell me what it offers its customers. It’s not the company that sells the product or service, it is the benefit that customers obtain from it that is your message.

No wow: example

Wow: example

Buzz words are not for media copy. They should be thrown out of the dictionary all together, but seeing as I’m not an editor for the Oxford English, we can together work to get them out of your PR tools.

For a start, lets delete for good – next-generation, core competencies, out of the loop, value-add, think outside the box, results-driven, empower, knowledge base, at the end of the day.

We once had a South African girl that worked for us. She diariesed, theorised and actionised herself out of a job. We could not handle it any more. Don’t use three words if it can be said in one and don’t use words of three syllables if it can be said with one syllable words.

So now that you have cut to the wow, and cut out the jargon, you have some room to clarify even further with some message enhancers. Examples include:

Analogies
If you’re not using public relations properly it’s like shouting to a room of def people.

Antidotes
When the United Nations World Food Program wanted to radically increase their donations but didn’t have much of a budget they approached NettResults. Let me tell you what we did for them…

Endorsements
The Holmes Report recognised NettResults at the Saber Awards as the leading PR agency in the Middle East and Africa region.

Examples
For one of our clients, Creative Labs, we guaranteed the amount of coverage we would achieve week after week - showing that we stand by our service level.

Statistics
Typically we can increase your marketing budget by a factor of five. If your retainer value is $10,000 a month, then we will be getting $50,000 of coverage equivalent – i.e. that is how much it would have cost you if you’d paid to advertise in the same space.

Testimonials
As Amer Farid of Habib Bank AG Zurich says, “We have partnered with NettResults for over eight years now because they not only produce great results, but they are as passionate about our business as we are.”

One last thing to add clarity to your message is to update your approval process. A press release should be like a racing horse and not a camel. The camel is what you get if designed by a committee. Your press releases and press materials are not to be designed by committee. Streamline the approval process. If at all possible keep the product managers away – then it won’t get too techy. The less managers – the clearer the message. At all costs keep the legal department away – they’ll water your message down with their neurotics.

Writing With Style - Part 1 of 3 - Start Strong

2008-08-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

A powerful beginning and end with stick with your listeners
- Oprah Winfrey

It’s well talked about in the PR industry that journalists receive between 50 and 100 press releases a day and use about one a day.

You would have a 1 in 50 or a 1 in 100 chance of getting your story picked up if this was down to chance. Luckily it isn’t. There is a way to beat the odds and get picked up every time.

In Selling the Invisible, marketing expert Harry Beckwith writes about the study of an apple and the pomegranate. When people are shown a series of objects for a few seconds, say a group of fruits like an apple, pear, peach, plum, and a pomegranate, what are they most likely to remember? The first and the last item in the list – the apple and the pomegranate.

The same is true for you PR copy writing. Grab the journalists attention and you’ll get them to actually carry on reading your piece. And this is the first stage of getting picked up.

In journalism, when a headline of a story is buried somewhere in the middle of it, it’s called ‘burying the lead’. It not good journalism.

In broadcasting media ‘The Lead’ is when journalists introduce a story. In television this is typically fifteen to thirty seconds. It’s meant to be so intriguing that you’ll want to hear the rest of the story. If all the leads are good then you’ll watch the entire newscast.

A strong start is relevant for all writing you work on and all tools you produce. For a press release this is really simple. You get a headline – use it wisely. This is not the headline you’d like to see the journalist use – this is your number one pitch to the journalist to get them to carry on reading.

It is normal convention to get into your release – geographical location, date and companies positioning statement. Boring! Let’s break convention. At NettResults our agency standard it to add three bullet points after the heading. Be bold, be provocative, and above all sell the story so the journalist will read on.

How to end? Use the last paragraph of your press release to quote the client in some provocative or newsworthy way. Use the end of your press release format to include a call to action for the journalist, so they can reach you and get further information, images or an interview.

Start strong. End Strong. Be strong.

Patty's Hierarchy of Needs

2008-08-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

If you know SCORE then you may have a perception of retired grey tops with some outdated business acumen. Well after a few months of personal coaching I can tell you it’s anything but. In fact the Score Orange County, CA chapter has amazing members.

This week I attended a session presented by Tom Patty (Tom was part owner and manager of a highly successful ad agency before selling it – some of his best work includes being integral in the Apple 1984 Super Bowl TV advert). All of the presentation was fantastic – more on that another time.

He presented such a clear and concise picture of agency (PR, but could be any retainer based service industry) workings in regards to the client purchasing process that I wanted to share. Tom’s too modest, but I’ll call it the Patty Hierarchy of Needs.

1 – Client fires exiting agency (or is new out of the blocks and didn’t have one)
2 – Searches for the right agency
3 – Shortlist a handful of hopefuls
4 – Pitch (agency side just love this part!)
5 – Account is awarded
6 – LOVE has to be transmitted

Inevitably, the account is lost and the process continues it’s loop. The real question, as Patty puts it, is how long the LOVE can continue.

There are plenty of great examples of agencies hanging onto accounts for multiple years. At NettResults we have accounts for eight plus years, but what is the success of longevity?

For me that question is simply answered. The agency has to ONLY do two things well, consistently month on month:
1 – deliver measurable results with a positive ROI
2 – a positive, mutually respectful personal relationship with the client

I’ve seen many accounts that have one or the other, but not both, and these are not the ones that survive. The few that have both gain longevity.

Continue the LOVE.

The Art of Persuasion… “Social Proof”

2008-08-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

The Background: As we repeatedly point out on this blog, you have to be good at persuasion if you want to be good at PR.

The Find: It’s not news that popularity breeds popularity and people follow the herd, but social psychology research points out that this principle, known as “social proof,” can radically improve results and is often underutilized.

The Source: Tips on polishing your persuasion skills from, ‘Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive’ - by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, Robert B. Cialdini.

The Takeaway: What’s social proof? It’s the psychological term for looking for confirmation from the crowd when you’re unsure whether to act. When I was a student my friends and I would start lines outside of closed doors and see how many people would join the lines. Often we’d get 20+ joining our queue. Why? Social proof.

Business leaders can harness the same principle. A classic example is a recent program written by Colleen Szot that shattered a nearly twenty-year sales record for a home-shopping channel. Szot simply replaced the classic call to action– “Operators are waiting, please call now”– with “If operators are busy, please call again.” Rather than imagining bored operators filing their nails, home shoppers pictured phones ringing off the hook. The implicit message: others must be buying, so should you.

The researchers behind Yes! set out to see if this principle could work for hotels too. Along with the usual environmental message and images of crystal clear water and rolling green fields on the cards asking patrons to reuse towels, the researchers placed a message indicating that the majority of guests already chose to reuse their towels. Guests whose cards subtly employed the principle of social proof were 26% more likely to recycle their towels than those who saw only the basic environmental protection message. That’s a big improvement at no additional cost to the hotel.

The Question: Are there unused opportunities to put the principle of social proof to work in PR?

And the Obvious Answer: Of course there are. Suggesting to one media that your story has already got a good reception from other media may well be useful.

The Art of Persuasion... just Because

2008-07-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

The Background: As you know, good PR is all about the art of persuasion. You are persuading the client to go with your strategy and persuading the media to cover your client.

The Find: Giving a reason, any reason, may help you persuade others to do as you ask.

The Source: Tips on polishing your persuasion skills from, ‘Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive’ - by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, Robert B. Cialdini.

The Takeaway: This is based on research carried out by behavioural scientist Ellen Langer and her colleagues, which involved someone trying to cut in line to use a photo copier.

Langer set up three scenarios:

1 - A stranger approaches someone waiting in line to use a photocopier and simply asks: “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” Sixty percent of people agreed to allow the stranger to cut in line when faced with this direct request.

2 - Next, a stranger made the same request but added a reason: “May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?” Nearly everyone (94 percent) agreed.

3 - Finally, the stranger approached and gave a totally senseless reason for the request, but still employed the word ‘because’: “May I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make copies?” Despite the inanity of the reason, 93 percent of people still complied with the request.

The Conclusion: If you want to persuade someone to publish a story or cover your client’s news, give them a reason. Of course, a good reason is best, but even if you think your reason is less than compelling, this research suggests that the media are more likely to comply than if you had given no reason at all.

Why is giving a reason going to improve your PR coverage? Because the research says so.

Web 3.0 and International Public Relations

2008-07-18T01:35:00.000-07:00

In May 2006, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web stated:

“People keep asking what Web 3.0 is, I think maybe when you've got an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you'll have access to an unbelievable data resource.”

So what does this mean to international public relations?

We’ve hardly got a firm grip on Web 2.0 and already we have to understand and utilise Web 3.0. Well don’t start to get too tense – there is still a wide variation as to what Web 3.0 really is or means. But at this point in the middle of 2008 there does seem to be a trend emerging in the form of the semantic web.

“The semantic web is the extension of the world wide web that enables people to share content beyond the boundaries of applications and websites."

To help appreciate Web 3.0’s applicability to PR, BurrellesLuce suggests we consider the following relational statements:
* PRSA is a well-known organization for public relations professionals.
* Jane Doe is a member of PRSA’s Detroit chapter.
* PRSA publishes a monthly journal called Public Relations Tactics.

It’s easy for humans to process such concepts, but for computers it’s a very different matter. Since computers and machines do not understand syntax and logic the way we do, they are unable to link ideas together. The semantic web seeks to “describe the relationship between things (like A is a part of B and Y is a member of Z) and their properties (like size, weight, age, and price)” in a language recognizable to computers.

Unlike the Internet, which relies on human editing of documents, the semantic web allows information to be digitally pulled from a variety of sources and synthesized with precision.

BurrellesLuce continues to suggest three ways Web 3.0 could improve the work lives of public relations professionals

1. You’ll be able to spend less time searching for relevant information. Web 3.0 will permit you to do what you do best — craft and disseminate your organization’s or client’s messages.

2. More-focused messaging will increase the odds of pinpointed delivery to your intended audiences. The ability for your audience to “pull” the appropriate information as needed (think RSS on steroids) means less “pushing” of your ideas onto a general audience.

3. Reaching the appropriate targets will allow for the development and maintenance of deeper, more-productive relationships.

In an effort to create an interactive dialogue between businesses and consumers, many public relations professionals heavily use online technology, including social media, podcasts, and viral video. For those who are just beginning to take the plunge or who haven’t yet considered doing so, using these communication channels can stir up some anxiety.

With Web 3.0 capabilities in place, PR professionals could, in theory, cross reference data both in and outside a given social network, as well as other sources — helping to zero in on a targeted audience. Each audience member, in turn, could use the same method to find providers most closely aligned with its needs. The high precision and speed offered by Web 3.0 will enable PR practitioners to create closer one-to-one relationships, shedding the one-to-many approach common to traditional outreach efforts.

Which of course all good PR professionals know, means we have to get increasingly personal with the media we interact with. One press release email spammed to 100 contacts is not going to cut it. If you work agency side you have to understand the client deeply, understand the media deeply and marry the two in a personal manner.

4 Generations to Target

2008-07-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

For many public relations professionals, selecting the prime channels to use when reaching their targeted audience can be a daunting challenge. The task is made even more demanding when the intended audience spans several generations. Sometimes targeting generations helps overcome the complexity of multiple international markets... if only there was a good way to target the generations.

BurrellesLuce has released an interesting white paper that does just this.

Broadly speaking, today’s PR audience comprises four generations. Listed below are the generally accepted parameters of each group, and historical milestones that helped to form their worldview:

* Traditionalists (born before 1946) – Were shaped by the Great Depression, World War II, and the Korean War.
* Boomers (born 1947 to 1964) – Came of age at the time of the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, space exploration, and the assassinations of prominent national figures.
* Generation Xers (born 1965 to 1976) – Were young observers of, or participants in, the Watergate hearings, the first energy shocks of the 1970s, the women’s liberation movement, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the first Gulf War.
* Millennials (born 1977 to 1989) – Grew up during a period of large-scale school shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing, rapidly advancing technology, the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, and the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Generational values at a glance

Their research shows that each generation also possesses a distinctive set of core values. These widely shared beliefs and perceptions shape decisions and behaviors.

A generation’s core values should matter to a PR practitioner because they can significantly influence message development. The following lists the core values that are most closely associated with each generation, although not necessarily exclusive. In addition, people born in proximity to the cutoff points may internalize some of the the values that more typically characterize the generation on the other side of the chronological divide:

Traditionalist = Hard work; Dedication; Respect for rules; Duty before pleasure; Honor
Boomers = Optimism; Personal gratification; Team orientation; Involvement; Personal growth
Xers = Diversity; Fun and informality; Techno literacy; Self-reliance; Pragmatism
Millennials = Optimism; Confidence; Civic duty; Achievement; Respect for diversity

Media usage also varies

Not surprisingly, some research* shows significant differences in media consumption by generation. For example, the two older generations spend more time following the news and are more likely to read print versions of newspapers than do the two younger generations.

Another way of slicing the pie:
multi-generational media and life stages

One research model applies terms such as Traditionalist, Boomer, GenX, and Millennial not to an age group but rather to the types of media utilized. Thus, a Boomer who often logs on to social media sites, chat rooms, and online communities may actually align with Millennial values. Similarly, a Millennial who eagerly peruses the printed pages of newspapers and magazines may exhibit core values closely resembling those of their Traditionalist or Boomer counterparts.

Other research has suggested that a generation also can be understood in terms of the stage of life in which individuals find themselves. So in theory, a career-driven Xer who is experiencing all the events associated with that lifestyle could just as easily be a woman in her 30s as a woman in her 50s.

Communications tactics that bridge the generation gap

Ultimately, there is no “one size fits all” medium, as audiences vary widely. However, there are ways to ensure that you are communicating effectively with each of the commonly defined generations.

1. Understand your audience by demographic. A little research can go a long way. Determining the gender, age, and other key characteristics of your core audience is the first step in creating a successful campaign. Your marketing department should have the data to share with you; if not, start to gather it on your own.

2. Shape messages based on audience values. Knowing that Boomers often view themselves as team players who value personal growth while Millennials see themselves as confident individuals with a respect for diversity can help you build messages aligned with each constituency.

3. Use media channels most frequented by your target audience. A large part of getting your message into the right hands involves knowing how and where your audience gathers information. If you’re looking to reach a general consumer audience, you may find beneficial research from analyst firms such as Forrester or Jupiter. Better yet, conduct your own customer surveys and interviews, which will enable you to target your messages with precision.

4. Pay attention to those responding. Cross-generational values and multi-generational media outlets can cause your messages to reach more than just your intended audience. Therefore, you should closely examine who responds to the calls to action contained in your news coverage, in order to properly tailor future messages.

Nice!!!

*The Pew Research Center, The Maturing Internet News Audience, 7.30.06
The Pew Research Center, Generation Online, 12.05
Annual Knowledge Networks, How People Use TV’s Web Connections, 3.11.08

Keep your Press Releases RELEVANT

2008-07-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

A recent study of Journalists in the US (stated in PR Week) found news releases are used by 90% of business journalists as sources for story ideas.

However, as 54% of those same journalists say they also turn to bloggers, press releases must go beyond simple text and incorporate features like links, social media tags, images and when possible video.

Quick technique tips:
1 – DO include links to pages where multiple instances of your key words/phrases reinforce your message
2 – DO place terms in key positions like headlines and first paragraphs
3 – DON’T go link crazy – too many links confuse journalist
4 - DON’T use low res images – opt for high res multimedia that can easily be used (or provide links to high res)

3 simple ways to exceed customer satisfaction

2008-07-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

While we are in the PR business we are also most definitely in the customer satisfaction business.

To exceed customer satisfaction makes them feel good and makes our life easier (happier clients are so much easier to deal with).

From my experience there are three simple ways to achieve this:

1 – Get ahead of the client
Don’t you sometimes know that given a day or week the client is going to ask for something? If you haven’t been offering proactive creative ideas on an account and are worried that the client is going to call you on it, then it is possibly time to get ahead of the client and go on the attack before you have to defend.

The more you work within an industry the easier it is to get ahead of a client.
After working with Creative Labs and them telling us about the convergence of technology and music... We then used the same ’convergence’ story with O2 and Motorola.

2 – Infuse Passion
The one complaint I hear about PR agencies is that they are not passionate about the client or the client’s product/services. Believe me, when I sell into a client I am so passionate that they believe I would do anything for their brand. That is one of the small secrets of sales and it is also a secret of happy PR clients. Use the client’s service/products and learn to love them.

3 – What’s new
It’s something that you should constantly be asking the client from their company perspective. I have had too many meetings with Habib Bank AG Zurich to mention which starts by me asking, “What stories do you have for us” just to be met with silence. When I then ask them to tell me everything in the bank that is new I normally come away with 4 or 5 stories.

The other side of the “What’s New” coin is being able to tell the client what’s new in the region and their industry. You can pick this up very quickly by reading the newspaper a magazine and logging into international web sites.

These three simple concepts will help you make the client happier and will make your life easier.

And everyone in PR wants an easier life.

Social Media & Public Relations

2008-07-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

Social media: a tech term you've been hearing about. FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube, and Kazaa. On the business side, what about LinkedIn, CraigsList, and EBay? They, too, exemplify:

" ... the integration of technology and interaction" (from Wikipedia, a 'wiki' website and yet another example).

This (or any) blog is also a type of social media. We're blogging to have a conversation with someone having a shared interest: you. You can comment back and tell us what you think: you can interact. And our blogging goal is to create a community to connect, share, and for you to come back: we're marketing. But is a business blog worth your investment of time and money? What's the ROI of social media?

Let's take a look at a community, in fact a merging of several communities, by one example: a recent podcast on the ROI of social media marketing. But, before we listen to it, let's peel back its social layers. It is:

* First, it is a podcast, an audio file that can be streamed ('listened to') online, downloaded for later, or (this is important) linked on emails, websites, and blogs;
* Second, this podcast was distributed by IT Conversations: a company that has created a community of people with shared interest in tech podcasts (i.e. a social network);
* Next, this podcast was originally recorded by yet another company, Talking Portraits, with its own online community; and,
* Last, the person being interviewed, Giovanni Gallucci, is an authority with his own community through his blog, The Agency Blog. And, how do we learn he's an 'authority'? That's right, through yet another social community hosted by Technorati.

One podcast. So many connections. So many (potential) ears.

Back to the podcast. It's 41 minutes on the topic of the ROI of social media marketing (SMM). Tom Parish (Talking Portraits) interviews Giovanni G. They are both developers and technologists, and seem to be talking 'to' both providers of SMM services and businesses considering SMM (i.e. you). The first couple of minutes are a bit clunky, but they soon fall into a very informative chat on SMM. Things to listen for:

* The difference between campaign marketing and relationships marketing;
* Short-term versus long-term marketing goals;
* The importance of community trust, and how little control you have over it;
* The commitment required - expected - by your audience;
* That ROI might not be quantifiable, but there are valuable marketing benefits to be gained;
* They use several examples. Here are links to some of them: Mattel's BarbieGirls, Lego, Digg.

Marketing hasn't changed, but these new social media tools introduce some new dynamics. Over the next few months this blog hopes to spread news about how social media is effecting and working in one marketing function - public relations. We also hope to cover other areas in public relations so this blog builds a community of PR professionals. And we hope you will tell us what interests you by adding to this blog.