With over 20 years background working with top leaders from all industries … from internationally acclaimed musical artists to unknown brilliant experts … I’ve helped hundreds of experts, authors, entrepreneurs, executives, mavericks, non-profit groups, politicians, musical artists reach millions of people through the use of non-advertising means.
I hope you find my musings on pr, marketing, influence, publicity and current events useful in your own mission to expand your influence by creating a buzz.
If you would like to be notified of the upcoming webinar on HOW TO HARNESS THE POWER OF THE INTERNET, please fill out the contact form.
PR at its Worst
Posted on April 16, 2009 | Tags: pr, public relations
There’s a dark side to PR that no one talks about. And probably, you’re the victim of it every day and don’t even know it. But I believe there’s a lesson here to learn about the power of PR, even when used to manipulate.
I remember as a teenage student moving to Boston and witnessing the skill of a playing-card sleight of hand expert in Boston Garden. For a few dollars you’d play the game of selecting a card and guessing which hand it wound up in after it moved back and forth before your eyes. At a speed faster than the eye could track, what was there one moment was gone the next. What I thought I saw was only an illusion.
In the world of politics, this technique is used to sway populations into believing one set of ideas represents another. It’s PR at its worst.
Take the recent example of the National Tea Party that took place last night at hundreds of venues around the country. In downtown St Louis thousands of people gathered to protest the tax burden being created by the proposed federal budget.
Days before the event, a report was issued by the Department of Homeland Security warning of a growing movement of “right wing extremists.” A footnote attached to the report defined “right wing extremists” to include “groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority or groups and individuals dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”
In other words, anyone who understands that the Constitution calls for a limited federal government that doesn’t usurp state authority or someone exercising their right of freedom of speech is a possible “extremist.”
Without ever referring to the group, this report set in place a chain reaction to discredit the Tea Party movement. It was intepreted on major news outlets and in the end, the uninvolved viewer or reader swallowing their daily news prescription without question, would associate the Tea Party rally with extremists.
In actuality, attendees at the Tea Party in St Louis spanned every ethnic and generation. There were men and women in professional attire, grandparents dressed in button down sweaters and a youngsters in jeans. There were Whites, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Middle-Easterners. As we navigated the crowd, people smiled at one another. These were people you’d find living next door, working at your bank or servicing your lawn.
This was mid-America. Now redefined as “right wing extremists” if one is to use the definition in the DHS report of a group “dedicated to a single issue.” In this case, the issue is tax reform.
This technique to discredit favors no political party. Pitting one group against another is old enough to read about in history books. Its outcome, of course, is to allow power brokers to exercise their agenda while the masses fight each other. Similar tactics were used under the Bush Administration to quell those in protest of the Iraq War by casting anti-war sympathies as unpatriotic. Conservative media icons took the bait and passed the message far and wide. And even what is referred to as “the liberal media establishment” went along. Today, liberal media personalities slander those not in favor of government debt and largesse as out of touch radicals or poor losers. Under Ronald Reagan, these ideals were considered patriotic. Today, they’re “extreme.”
PR tools used at the top of the food chain manipulate press, leaders and populations. Define the strategy, create the messages, publish the messages, ally opinion leaders and repeat the message in as many ways and on as many channels as necessary to change behavior.
The Right does it to the Left and the Left to the Right. Just the other night I watched a conservative talk show host represent his own interpretation of a national news story as fact. The same occurred watching a liberal talk show host do the same. I stopped watching both of them.
It was interesting to note that the one local St Louis network news channel I saw last night carried no coverage of the Tea Party event. Thousands of people peacefully demonstrated on tax day but their lead stories were of a small fire and the flow of traffic at the post office.
Does the “Budget Rolls-Royce” Need a Little PR Help?
Posted on March 24, 2009 | Tags: pr, public relations
Some press are reporting Rolls-Royce’s new smaller, less expensive model is the company’s response to the world-wide recession, even calling it the “Recession Rolls.” The facts are that current economic circumstances have nothing to do with the development of the 200EX.
Rolls-Royce has been working on the smaller, less expensive model for the last few years and announced in 2006 that it would be released in 2010. The car will sell for around $250,000, about $100,000 less than its standard model. Its designer predicted the car would be purchased by those who owned the larger model but preferred to also drive a smaller one, comparing the ownership to having a tuxedo and a business suit.
Since tracking media consumption by ultra high net-worth individuals is difficult, the brand’s PR firm has engaged non-traditional advertising and customer events for its strategy. Fine, but when a company like Rolls-Royce releases a brand new model at the Geneva car show, the PR needs to ensure major press like the Wall Street Journal
Baby Rolls
The poor coverage probably won’t affect sales to that market. But hey, why not have Rolls-Royce PR coverage?
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The Seven Traits of an Expert
Posted on January 22, 2009 | Tags: Commentary
Having worked with over five hundred experts, authors, CEOs and opinion leaders from all industries, I’ve observed they share some fundamental traits. You’ll find these traits summarized below. Read more
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Writing an Ebook?
Posted on January 13, 2009 | Tags: Book Promotion
My publishing company and pr firm has a few ongoing ebook projects. In looking through the work of scores of ebook designers, the best I found is by Doug Eymere. Check out his post here at http://greyote.blogspot.com/2008/12/this-aint-no-sausage-factory.html
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Top 5 Reasons to Switch to WordPress
Posted on January 7, 2009 | Tags: online pr, online public relations
First time website owners or those looking to upgrade their older site won’t go wrong using the WordPress platform. Here’s the Top Reasons to Use WordPress. I’ve avoided the use of tech-speak, so for those tekkies, pardon our avoidance of terminology.
1.The search engines will recognize your site much faster. With other platforms, it can take a while for a new site to be found by Google, Yahoo or MSN. Not so with WordPress. Right out of the box, your site is friendlier to search engines. That means your prospective customers will find you much faster.
2. You can change and update content easily. In the old days, you had your tech person put up your site and considered it done. That doesn’t work today. You need to constantly add fresh content to keep up with the game and WordPress is so user friendly that you can do it yourself. Our clients get a one-on-one orientation tutorial with Trevor, our wordpress wizard. From that point on, adding or deleting content from their site is as easy as using a word processor.
3. Free Training and Support. Unlike the static website platforms that require “html” knowledge, if you want to become independent of any technical help to maintain your site, there’s all the free help you can get online. You can find documentation and online forums where you can post just about any question and get help. Most of my clients don’t have the time for this, so we offer ongoing maintenance support and/or tutorial with Trevor, our wordpress wizard.
4. The design capabilities are unlimited. If you have a static html site right now, we can switch it over to the more search engine friendly WordPress format and keep your same design. The only difference is you’ll have the ability to update it more easily and your site will play better with the search engines. No matter what you want your site to look like, it can be done in WordPress.
5. It’s versatile. Websites have come of age with regard to their ability to influence your offline business. 75% of people now say a company’s website influences their buying decisions. Video, audio, written word, pictures …. all of these convey the message and image needed to influence your prospects. With WordPress, all of these mediums are possible.
Limited Offer ‘Till Jan 31. Right now Online Offline PR is offering a custom designed WordPress site that’s got all of the search engine ready gadgets and tracking gizmos already loaded on it for $1197. That’s like buying a laptop with Microsoft Office pre-loaded. It also includes a walk-you-through- the-site tutorial over the phone with Trevor and the guidance of a twenty-year veteran PR (that’s me). Contact me before January 31st if you’re interested.
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Is Your Website Killing Your Sales?
Posted on January 6, 2009 | Tags: pr, public relations
Using PR tools like positioning and being real to your intended customer is part of ensuring all that effort and money spent to drive traffic isn’t wasted on a site that’s turning away would-be customers.
Per actual survey 75% of web users are making judgments about your organization’s credibility based on your website alone. This is so much easier to see in a brick and mortar business. A furniture store that has inventory set out randomly with no predesigned flow for you to walk and no intended ambiance won’t convey credibility, even if the quality of their furniture compares with Ethan Allen. Today’s website now have the same demanded of them.
The excellent book Web Design for ROI tells much more of the story.
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Authenticity Isn’t Outsourced
Posted on January 5, 2009 | Tags: online pr, online public relations
To create a sticky website, you need content.
To create press releases that generate traffic to your site, there’s got to be news.
To write an article that attracts visitors to your site, it’s got to teach them something.
To effectively use Twitter to get people to your site, it has to compel an idea in a limited number of characters and the link you send them to has to maintain that interest and not betray the interest by bait and switch.
That’s a PR function. It’s why one friend of mine was disappointed with the company he hired to generate online press releases and articles. They’re very good tekkies. But they’re not PRs. They didn’t “get” him and so what they wrote wasn’t authentic. It was churned out copy that made him appear trite.
Like any display of originality, authentic content is hard to outsource.
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PRs and Litigators Have a Lot In Common
Posted on December 29, 2008 | Tags: pr, public relations
I sat quietly at a function recently listening to young man who, by his recent admission to law school, apparently felt qualified to argue with anyone at the dinner table about subjects in which he had no expertise. His parents were of substantial wealth and this apparently contributed to his own estimation of the importance of his opinions.
It made me realize that public relations and litigation have a lot in common. That is, they’re not about bullying people into agreeing with you. You only really succeed if you can persuade someone to see things differently,
In PR, our end result is to present our client correctly to the target audience. We want our client’s position to be favorable and to be accepted, while being accurate.
And, like a litigator whose competence is judged on whether he won the case, good PR work, thoroughly prepared and presented, is rewarded by the audience accepting the message.
Like a litigation attorney, the PR has to gather the facts and present them so they are persuasive and understandable.
Honing your analytical skills takes a bit of practice. I grew up with debate as part of every dinnertime meal. My father was a litigator and he bred four attorneys. I learned that intelligent debate is not a use of force. It’s respectful, informed and persuasive. Denzel Washington’s movie on the subject is a must-see classic display of courteous debate you just don’t see anymore.
My dad would throw out a topic for discussion. If you chose to engage, you were forced to substantiate your opinion with fact and the source of the fact. My dad always chose to assume the position of the other side, presenting facts to make his case. From this activity, I learned a valuable lesson that has helped me get coverage for my clients:
Don’t represent your opinion as fact. Be prepared to substantiate your conclusions. Do not present generalities, such as “everybody knows” to back up your conclusions. And don’t become so emotional about your position that you can’t see the other side. There’s always another side. And …. always know your subject before challenging another.
To do otherwise is something I call “sloppy thinking.” It depends on bullying or some position of authority to get another to comply. And even when they do comply, you’ve not really won them over.
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What Doesn’t Work Online Won’t Work Offline Either
Posted on December 22, 2008 | Tags: online pr, online public relations
In the world of getting publicity offline, you have to have something to say. Otherwise, the media doesn’t care about you.
The online world takes it a step further: it’s personal. To keep up pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, continue blogging, keep up on Twitter and nurse Squidoo pages, you have to invest the time. Most of these require personal communication that’s hard to outsource – unless your PR knows you so well that he/she can speak for you.
So … what do you do? If you’re doing it yourself, pick one or two that you can actually keep up with and make those great. Skip the rest. If you’re not going to nurture them completely, don’t bother getting involved. Seth Godin recommends this in his post The Sad Truth About Marketing Shortcuts.
Think of it like doing publicity offline. If you just wrote a non fiction book and have a limited budget, do talk radio interviews by phone or concentrate on getting magazine articles, if your subject is appropriate.
When you go online, time is your commodity, unless you’re paying an online PR to represent you. Don’t waste it doing things halfway. Slow and steady wins the race applies here.
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Authors and Publicists Are Like Gamblers and Casino Houses
Posted on December 19, 2008 | Tags: Book Promotion
A client and very successful author (he was successful before he became a client) contacted me about a teleseminar he’d just participated in given by a pr coach who was a former national tv producer. He was quite impressed with her.
I don’t take anything away from the valuable experience of working on a national tv show. It allows you to see the back end process of what goes into selecting authors as guests for that particular show.
However, this is limited experience from which to establish a business that coaches authors on how to get book promotion. Every national show is different. Every author’s subject is different and is being released in a different news climate.
Like Vegas, the odds of landing on the bestseller list or even breaking even on a book are not that great. How many people teeming through Vegas go home with bulging pockets?
In the first PR firm I owned from 1990-2004, we booked clients on every major show on every national network. That was quite an accomplishment. However, those accomplishments were built on many rejections. More clients than not were rejected.
I’m sure Vegas gamblers know their odds of winning when they book their trip. I suppose its the hope and the sport that keeps ‘em coming.
The way to eliminate the risk of publishing and promoting a non fiction book is by using it to become a thought leader and attract more clients coming to you. It’s not to make a fortune on the book. If yours does wind up doing both, like David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing and PR, then kudos to you!
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