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Holiday Spirit Can Come When You Least Expect It…
Just ask this guy. Through an interesting twist of fate, the talented team of T2+Back Alley Films helped a Kansas City homeless man have a very happy holiday. Click here to watch the video.
13 Things I Need to Do
Source: TheSharkGuys.com
Lists can be helpful in getting organized and staying on task. They can also inspire others to do the same. (I hope). Tedious as it may be, I’ve made one and wish to share it with you. Those keeping score may feel free to hold me accountable.
So, in the interests of preserving my sanity, gaining more clients and doing a better job, I need to (in no particular order):
- Unsubscribe from just about any email newsletter, blog post notification, advertisement, solicitation for Viagra, etc. I don’t read within two days of receiving it. Too much clutter, not enough benefit.
- Clean up and organize my office. No, really. I need to. It helps me focus. (The cleaning, that is. Once it’s cleaned and organized it’s only a matter of time before it’s back to its normal state of “creative disarray.)
- Get all my receipts, mileage and tax stuff ready. Hard to believe AlexanderG’s first year as a going concern is almost upon me–and that taxes are going to be due. Must scan those receipts and create a spreadsheet of deductions. Ugh. Wish I had one of those cool receipt scanners–though I’m not convinced they are any better than a regular flat bed scanner. Anyone have any wisdom on that? I’d be happy to try one and report back.
- I need to get another 10,000 words of the sequel to my novel written by the first week of 2011. If not the book runs the risk of becoming stale. Don’t want that, and I know at least ten readers are waiting!
- Also need to do the same for the book I’m collaborating on with my pal David. That one is more fun to write right now, but the self-applied pressure of writing something that suits even a kind, like-minded and cool collaborator–as well as myself–can be daunting.
- Follow up on six RFPs floating around out there. I want the clients, and need to make sure they know I do.
- Step up my in-person networking a little more.
- Complete my business plan for Q3 and Q4 2011.
- Thank my current clients for trusting me with their PR, marketing and management consulting needs.
- Speak to groups, seminars or classes at least five times next year. I enjoy it and have a kick-ass presentation thanks to the aid of my friend Al Bonner.
- Work with my strategic partners to create lucrative business opportunities for us all.
- Decide whether I want to get my accreditation or not. (APR or ABC? Neither?)
- Establish working relationships with my new partners at the PR Consultants Group.
So, there’s my list. All doable.
Have you made one?
Check Out My Guest Blog at “PR at Sunrise”
The economy understandably makes you interested in talking with any and all potential clients. Just watch out for ghosts.
“Ghosts ” go beyond kicking the tires, feeling you out on strategy and discussing fees. They’re the potential clients who could also be called “time vampires,” as they want to meet often and then have you draw up a full-blown proposal and/or contract. Then they disappear. You literally get no response.
Read the entire piece over at PR at Sunrise.
The Blurry World of PR
“The boundaries between disciplines had begun to blur,” [Bob] McEwen said in a written statement to the Kansas City Business Journal. “In at least three instances, senior PR people were asked to step up and assume account service responsibilities in addition to their own jobs. So our PR numbers didn’t represent a true reflection of the capability or performance of our PR team. We were just spread too thinly.”
via Nicholson Kovac cuts VP McEwen, CFO Crawford | Kansas City Business Journal.
Welcome to the new world of Public Relations. We “little guys” have been living in this “blurry” world for years. Best of luck to Bob–a stand-up guy if there ever was one.
A Quick Lesson in Building Customer Loyalty
Great machine, too.
Quick lesson in building customer loyalty:
I needed a new computer–my MacBook was fading after three years of constant service.
So, I bought an iMac. You may know that Apple offers a great service: they’ll clone your hard drive from the old puter and transplant it to the new machine, thus saving you hours of torture when you get home.
Okay, that alone is great service. But what’s better is they told me it would take about one business day to do this. I could come back the next day at 5 p.m. to pick up my old machine and the new one– fully-loaded with all my files, programs, music and stuff.
Well, why not? One business day is a small price to pay for the time and effort it would’ve taken for me to do it myself.
That’s not the lesson, though. Here’s the lesson: they called me less than three hours later to tell me my computers were ready for pickup. Not a day later, but a mere three hours later. Do I have to tell you how thrilled I was when they called? When I first picked up the phone I was sure they were going to tell me something was wrong. Nope. They were just finished being highly efficient. I’ve had other good experiences with Apple–and this just reinforced my brand loyalty big time.
Under-promise, over-deliver. Simple concept. Works every time.
High Fructose PR Problem
The folks at PRWatch.org are concerned about the attempts to change the image of the cheap, subsidy-sweet high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) by changing its name; even comparing the HFCS lobby to the evildoers at Philip Morris and worse, Blackwater:
Philip Morris tried to escape its tarnished reputation by re-branding itself “Altria” and the private military contractor Blackwater tried to ditch its bad image by re-naming itself “Xe.” Now the Corn Refiners Association is taking a tip from these companies and trying to re-brand its much-maligned product, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), as “corn sugar.” Consumption of HFCS is at a 20-year low. This might make doctors and nutritionists happy, but it’s bad news for manufacturers of HFCS, who hope to turn the trend around. No longer should we refer to chemical-sounding “high fructose corn syrup,” but instead we should use the fresher, gentler and more natural-sounding term “corn sugar.” HFCS has gotten a reputation as obesity’s public enemy number one, and over-consumption of HFCS and other sweeteners has been linked to a list of chronic health problems. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the name change for food labels, but the corn producers are already working to change public perception of their product. They are running TV ads featuring a down-home family farmer and sweeping shots of nature, and their Web site extolls the virtues of HFCS.
The re-naming could work. In the 1980s, there was an ingredient called “low erucic acid rapeseed oil” which was re-named “canola oil,” and more recently, the FDA permitted prunes to be marketed under the name “dried plums.” In both cases, after the name change, sales of the products increased.
As they say, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still unhealthy, delicious bacon. Dr. Andrew Weil has weighed in:
Instead, in the web age, the name-change petition quickly became an appropriately sticky public relations mess. After just nine days, a Google search for the twin terms “high-fructose corn syrup” and “corn sugar” garnered 143,000 results, and asking social media posters for their own alternate names became a raging meme. I happily joined in, posing the challenge on my Facebook page and Digg profile. Hundreds volunteered tags including “liquid suffering,” “cellulite syrup,” and several that can’t be published in a family website, despite my instruction to avoid profanity.
via Dr. Andrew Weil: Fortunately, ‘Corn Sugar’ Has Become a Sticky PR Mess.
So, PR geniuses, what would you do if the Corn Refiners Association were your client? I think I’d be looking up case studies on New Coke, myself.
Communication Can Combat Workplace Stress
Credit: http://www.controlstress.net/
Who’da thunk it? People are stressed out, and though it won’t cure the economy, communication may be the thing to calm nerves and make people more productive:
The majority of what experts are seeing is overwhelmed workers, often due to downsizing. And while they’re thankful to still have a reason to wake up in the morning, the burden of doing the jobs of two or three people is too much. The problem is, they’re so worried about losing their job that they tend to work many hours, often at the cost of other healthy activities such as working out, spending time with family and friends, and unwinding from the day.
Conversely, some people are feeling underutilized at the office, which leads them to ask whether their jobs are next to be eliminated, whether they’re valued members of the team, and whether they’re not trusted members of the company,” says Lickerman.The solution is simple: Higher-ups need to better communicate with each other and subordinates.
“Communication is dismal in corporate America,” Lickerman argues. “Entry-level employees trust the messages of top-tier management and their direct supervisors. Yet when a company rolls out a new initiative, internal communication is often the last thing they think about.”
Just having real conversations with employees about the state of the company and the security of their jobs can go a long way toward better morale and employee mental health, says Carson, who urges that those conversations should not take place in a group setting.
“Taking the time to check in and having an honest discussion with individuals is key to making people feel like they are respected, valued, and seen within the organization.”That may be especially true for young workers, many of whom are seeing the devastating effects of layoffs on their peers and family members for the first time in their professional lives.
“Unemployment is extremely stressful because the unemployed person may feel guilty and ashamed at no longer being a provider, while other family members can feel angry and helpless,” says Kerry Sulkowicz, organizational consultant, psychoanalyst, and founder and principal of New York-based Boswell Group. “The most important thing to do is to not suffer in silence. Open and honest communication about the stress—and its sources—may be the most important step to reducing it.”
via What Employers Can Do To Combat The Changing Nature Of Workplace Stress – Resources – Portfolio.com.
Whether you think it necessary or not, now is the time to have a (nonthreatening) talk (and listen!) with your employees about what’s going on. You may be surprised at the response.
Google Commands Big Cash from PR-Damaged Brand
Public relations is all about reputation management–your credibility is the coin of the business realm. We’re pretty hard on companies and brands that take a cavalier attitude about their credibility–because once you lose that, it’s all over. Or is it?
Admittedly, we have strongly implied that you can’t buy your way out of a PR disaster, but the oily BP sure makes us think twice:
Before BP could stem the oil gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, it unleashed $100 million in ad spending, largely on network TV, to stem the damage to its image. But it also started spending heavily where it had never spent much before: buying ads in Google’s search results.
How much did BP spend on search? In two months, BP went from spending very little on search advertising — about $57,000 a month — to becoming one of Google’s top advertisers, dropping nearly $3.6 million in the month of June alone, according to an internal Google document obtained by Advertising Age. That pushed BP into the upper echelon of search advertisers, in a league with Expedia, which spent at least $5.9 million in June, Amazon, which spent at least $5.8 million, and eBay, which spent at least $4.2 million.
This is a significant outlay, even for BP, which spent $94 million on advertising in 2009, and $78.7 million in the first six months of 2010 alone excluding search, according to Kantar Media. Search advertisers only pay when their ads convert or get a click, and in June the crisis was still at full-boil, driving clicks on BP&’s ads. But if BP kept spending at this rate, search would’ve become one of its bigger advertising line items by the end of the year, up there with network, cable or spot TV.
[...]
BP’s increase underscores how important Google has become for reputation management, and in the battle for public opinion. In the wake of the spill, Google was a natural first stop for people seeking information, and BP bought up dozens of keywords associated with the disaster such as “oil spill,” “leak,” “top kill” and “live feed” as it vied for clicks with news stories, images of oiled wildlife and plaintiff attorneys trolling for clients.
via What Big Brands Are Spending on Google – Advertising Age – Digital.
According to BP, ad expenditures during the active spill were $5 million per week.
BP’s ad strategy now follows the typical trajectory of crisis PR, he says. It didn’t start out that way. BP was slow to connect with consumers and gulf residents right after the spill. Tony Hayward’s numerous gaffes didn’t help the company’s image, which came across as inept and out of touch. There’s little question that his mismanagement of the company’s public image led to his ouster as CEO.
So how’s the advertising paying off in PR improvement? A recent AP poll says that “some 66 percent of those surveyed continue to disapprove of BP’s performance, down from a whopping 83 percent in June.” Though still dismal, it does look like the ad spending is helping. However, it’s also certainly due to the fact that time has passed and the oil spill isn’t leading the newscasts anymore. The public has turned to the latest Sarah Palin Facebook pronouncement, Paris Hilton’s cocaine possession arrest and even something important, like the president’s new rug.
Sure, we’ve seen the TV ads BP is using to rebuild its tattered, oil-stained image–that was as predictable as a blob of oil on the beach at Destin. But who would’ve thought they would have spent all that coin on Google search ads?
Clearly, the internet is now the 800 lb. gorilla of reputation management, and Google has some serious bananas.
Hat tip to Shelly Kramer for inspiring this post.
