St Conti Communicator

Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category

Once again David Meerman Scott has posted something very useful to the PR/marketing practitioner in his Web Ink Now post: “Single most essential PR pitching tip” http://www.webinknow.com/2010/03/single-most-essential-pr-pitching-tip.html.

This is a refrain I share again and again with clients, and that’s because it’s so true–for members of the media and for your prospective customers. Even when you are pitching a product, tell your audience what problem (insert challenge or need just as easily) it solves. 

To quote an old advertising adage, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.”

So, go out and share how problems are solved.

CMS Wire recently reported in its “Social Media Minute” that Canada is big into Facebook.  Actually, it reported in   More Figures on Facebook’s Worldwide Popularity that roughly 43% of its population is on Facebook.  I was not surprised to read this.  See, I have to thank a Canadian friend of mine for getting me on Facebook, and, once I was, I found many of my Canadian cousins and friends already very active on the site.  So, go, Canada!  DSJC.

This week two of the email newsletters to which I subscribe had a swimming theme.  That’s appropriate, considering we are at the height of summer.  Each newsletter serves a different purpose for me – one is from Trust Your Journey, which has to do with well being; the other is from Susan Finch, who is a PR/social media consultant (check out the new St. Conti Communications website Susan designed for me).  Yet, they carried a similar message – JUST KEEP TRYING.

It’s been said over and over again, many people are struggling right now, a lot of us.  But, some of us are succeeding, too, even after being dealt tough blows.  How?  Well, by choosing to “go with the flow.”  According to Trust Your Journey and Susan Finch, people are going with the flow in at least two ways:  by changing direction and by taking more strokes.

In the Trust Your Journey newsletter, writer Beth Brownlee relays a story about a woman who fell into a pool as a child and thrashed around until she was saved.  Beth wrote, “My friend said ‘saved’ had a whole new meaning when she realized that the pool’s edge was within easy reach if she had just turned around instead of thrashing around.”  Beth’s point was this:  “…many of us are truly just an arm’s length away from whatever we want to achieve in this life.  We often become so caught up in our struggles that we don’t take the time to turn around and realize the edge of the pool is right there behind us.  It’s just a thought away–like so many of life’s solutions.” 

It’s that idea of taking a step back and looking at a situation from another perspective, changing the way you are seeing it.  When you do this, sometimes a new answer presents itself.

In her Summer Newsletter, Susan Finch makes a different and also helpful point.  Her point is to just keep working away at your goals, even if it’s a little at a time; make progress.  Susan wrote, “As long as you keep moving forward in some way you can make progress in your business (I-DSJC-would also insert “Life.”).  Hats off to all of you who have been embracing social media, adding new elements to your websites and marketing routines….  If you can work in a 15 minute block of time a day or every other day to explore social media, that would be a great start.” 

I agree with Susan, too.  As long as you are making some progress, you can feel good about the fact that you are doing SOMETHING, and you never know where that progress will take you.

Just keep swimming.  It’s bound to be better than doing nothing at all.

I found this quote by Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider of Northern Exposure that nicely sums things up, “A person has three choices in life. You can swim against the tide and get exhausted, or you can tread water and let the tide sweep you away, or you can swim with the tide, and let it take you where it wants you to go. “  Just keep swimming.

DSJC

“All right, you may cross.”  A sprite crossing guard who shepherds elementary school kids to and from my daughter’s school says these words many times each day.  The crossing guard, dressed in what usually looks like a house coat under her DayGlo yellow-green vest labeled “Crossing Guard” and wearing a red baseball cap, the tips of her gray curls just touching her shoulders, is all of four feet, nothing.  Yet, hundreds of people dutifully obey her commands:  “You may cross.”  “Stay in the cross walk.”  “Do not cross until I tell you.”

Standing at the curb, I’ve sometimes thought, “What’s the matter with us?  We can take her.  Just step out and go.”  But, I’ve never done that.  Sure, I’ve seen a few people who have, many of them quickly apologizing and returning to the curb or promising not to do it again as they scurry across to the other side while she chastises them.  See, even the rebellious ones have trepidation over going against the crossing guard.

Perhaps this is because we know she’s there to protect us.  Well, okay, she’s there to protect the kids.  Us adults just get to tag along and are expected to set good examples so the kids don’t get hurt. 

It’s really pretty cool; you know, having a crossing guard, someone to go out ahead of you and ensure the coast is clear; someone who’s been there before and knows the safe way to do it; someone to say, “Don’t go until all is safe.”

It kind of makes one wish we all had crossing guards for other aspects of our lives, someone who could keep us from dating the wrong person, from making uninformed investments, from experiencing many of Life’s pitfalls.  Boy, things would be a lot easier if we all had crossing guards for all that, someone saying, “Stay within the yellow lines,” whenever we even begin to misstep.

But then, we wouldn’t experience the full scope of Life either.  Kahlil Gibran wrote in his book, The Prophet, “Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.  And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears…  The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”  Gibran was right.

So, while I will continue to follow the commands of my daughter’s school crossing guard, I won’t wish for a crossing guard for the other aspects of my Life.  While Ms. Red Baseball Cap with DayGlo Vest is keeping the children and me safe, I want to occasionally make the wrong decision and then deal with the consequences.  We all must want that. 

Challenges make us grow, and, when we get to the other side of a challenge, when we beat the challenge, then we also get to savor the joy of having overcome it.  We get to know self-confidence. 

Decades ago, I read a book by Dr. Susan Jeffers called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway!  It had a profound effect on how I approach Life.  The title says it all:  Yes, acknowledge fear, but just keep going.  Acknowledge that you can do it.  Then do it!

So, now I say to you, “Acknowledge the fear, but just keep going,” not because I’ve taken on the red hat and DayGlo mantle of being your Life’s crossing guard, but because you need to know you can handle just about anything Life hands you, even if you have to first work through the sorrow of some challenge.  Get through it, and you may know joy, too. 

Just… follow the commands of the crossing guard when it comes to getting to and from school.

All right, you may cross.

DSJC.

How do you buy eco-friendly toys? Orange County’s Outdoor Education Center director, Christine Kirk, provided an article to the online parenting site, Root & Sprout, where she shared her ideas for how to make buying green toys one of your New Year’s resolutions. Check it out at: http://www.rootandsprout.com/20701.html.

Now, Root & Sprout put the article under the ”Preschool” heading, but Chris’ advice for buying green applies to anything you buy.  Buy locally made items; buy items that can be recycled, etc.  Click on the link and scroll down to the article.  You’ll see what I mean.

DSJC   

Among my New Year’s Resolutions–besides blogging more frequently–is to read more books.   One book will be World Wide Rave by David Meerman-Scott, the same wizard who gave us The New Rules of Marketing & PR, which you really should read, if you want to understand why and how social media works.

Anyway, World Wide Rave is due to come out March 3.  One of them is mine!

Find out more about World Wide Rave at http://www.worldwiderave.com/ where you will see a contribution by yours truly about the beautiful city of Mission Viejo and one of my favoriate places, Lake Mission Viejo.

If you can’t click over just now, here’s the photo I contributed:

Yes! This photo was taken New Year’s Day to remind me of more than a few of my New Year’s resolutions.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  DSJC.

I have to hand it to Starbucks.  They may be struggling under this economy (like so many businesses), but they STILL know how to get people into their locations and encourage purchases.  I’m talking about today’s offer of a free cup of coffee for those who claim it.  I claimed mine today…, and I bought a cup of Perfect Oatmeal.  You see; I didn’t feel right just walking up and getting a free cup of coffee.  As I looked around for something inexpensive to buy, I spotted a new item – Perfect Oatmeal, and I bought it though it was closer to lunch than breakfast.  No matter.  It WAS Perfect Oatmeal.  So, though Starbucks lost a little on me today with its Free Coffee loss leader, it gained a new customer for something I didn’t even know they had.  That’s Perfect Promotion.  What do you think?  Did you do the same—claim your coffee but bought something else?

DSJC.

No, it isn’t a serve yourself ice cream parlor.  CustomScoop (http://www.customscoop.com/) is a news clipping service that delivers news clip reports via email to my inbox.  I have the option of going online to view my clips, too, but I much prefer the emailed reports.

CustomScoop provides just the level of service I prefer; they are very responsive when I email a specific request.  They occasionally email to see if I am satisfied.  Otherwise they leave me alone, without a lot of upsale effort.  I like that.

In recent years, I have tried and/or used half a dozen news clipping services – from the big boys to the not-so-big ones.  Most are stuck with antiquated billing practices and, well, just too big (read expensive) for their own good.  CustomScoop is just the right size for my media clipping needs, catching all media that post online (which these days is pretty much all that matters), including blogs.  They even offer a limited free service for individuals.

Recently, CustomScoop surprised me – pleasantly.  Though I am fully on board with using the Internet in public relations, I also am known for occasionally suggesting (gasp!) a direct mail campaign using good old snail mail.  These days, snail mail is sometimes the best way to “break through the clutter.”  It’s used so rarely that it is unique (though I do recognize that it is not as environmentally friendly as email.  I will put it in the recycle bin when I am done reading it.).

Anyway, CustomScoop, being the marketing savvy organization that it is, developed a newsletter, a snail mail newsletter.  Yes, they now put together some helpful marketing advice and MAIL it to customers and prospects. 

I’ll have another scoop, please.

DSJC.

chris-sabrina-fennel-bkgnd.JPG 

One of my favorite clients, the Outdoor Education Center of Orange County, Calif., contributes a bi-weekly column called “Seeds to Sprouts” in the Home & Garden section of the Orange County Register.  The column runs every other Thursday online and every other Saturday in print.  I assist with editing and, in a pinch, with photography.  Because the Outdoor Education Center provides educational programming that focuses in part on environmental stewardship for local youth organizations, our photography goal is to provide images of Orange County children in nature.

I am excited to report that my daughter, Sabrina, was the model for this week’s “Seeds to Sprouts” article entitled, “Mini-Gardens For Kiddie Chefs.” 

The article, written by Christine Kirk, talks about herbs that grow naturally in Orange County and ways to get kids interested in growing their own herb gardens at home for use in the kitchen.  It also suggests what herbs to grow and how best to grow them.  To read the article, go to: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/herbs-garden-kids-2104773-kitchen-seeds.  Speaking of growing your own food at home, my son, Alex, was the photo feature of another of Christine’s articles, “Time to grow greens in the garden for salad making,” (not my first choice for a headline).  See the article here:  http://www.ocregister.com/articles/garden-tomatoes-summer-2062960-plants-salad. 

I love sharing through public relations!  DSJC.

If you’re in public relations or are a journalist looking for expert sources, and you haven’t yet heard of HARO or Help a Reporter, well then you are in for a treat.  HARO is great!

And here’s what the HARO man, Peter Shankman (http://shankman.com/), himself asks everyone to post:

As you know, reporters are constantly looking for sources. They’re always writing stories, reporting on something, and always need experts in the field of whatever they’re reporting.Problem is, they don’t often know how to find them.On the flip side, if you’re an expert at something (And come on, everyone’s an expert at SOMETHING,) how do you let the media know you’re available to talk and be quoted when they’re writing a story?

Well, I joined a free mailing list that solves both problems.Basically, reporters send the list owner queries about what they’re working on. (”I’m writing a story on farming, and I need someone in NYC who’s grown a windowsill garden,” or “I’m doing a story on General Electric, and need a financial analyst who covers them.”)

Peter (a rather high-energy, but seemingly decent guy, puts these all queries together, and emails them out, three times a day. There are usually anywhere between 10 and 25 queries per email, organized so you can read all of them in about five seconds. If any work for you, simply scroll down, and email the reporter with your details and why you’re an expert. If they don’t, simply delete them.It’s that incredibly simple. Like most brilliant things are.Oh yeah – it’s all free. The list has over 12,000 members that have joined since it launched three months ago, why not be one of them! Members have been quoted in everything from the NY Times to CNN to the Washington Post to the NY Daily News to Fox News to TV to radio to bloggers around the world.

Sign up here: http://www.helpareporter.com

If you’re a journalist and want to submit a query: Submit it here: www.helpareporter.com/press