pr briefs

Perdido Key’s top crisis communication tool during the oil...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:04:01 -0500

Perdido Key’s top crisis communication tool during the oil spill crisis, the daily video, has been simple to implement, costs nothing, and gives the public exactly what it wants during a crisis: the truth.

tourism marketing, the oil spill and the best PR tool

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:00:00 -0500

Located just across the state line of Alabama lies beautiful Perdido Key, Florida. Just a few hundred yards wide in most places, it stretches some 16 miles, with more than half of it located in state and federal parks. One of the few areas of wilderness remaining in northwest Florida, the Key was on high alert as oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill made its way towards the Florida coast.

As the marketing firm for Perdido Key, we learned early on that the media spotlight was keenly focused on the oil’s impact to the beaches, long before there even was an impact. With potential visitors all over the country watching the news and deciding whether to cancel their vacations, it would be an uphill battle to reassure families that the oil hadn’t made it to Perdido Key yet. At that point our real crisis wasn’t the oil, it was the perception of oil. We knew that we could shout from the rooftops that the Perdido Key coast was still snow white and the waters turquoise, but going toe to toe with the national media coverage was going to be hard.

So we took a different route. Instead of purchasing ad space in the media, we set up an Oil Spill Updates section on Perdido Key’s Web site, and every weekday, someone from the Perdido Key Chamber walked across the highway to the beach and shot about a minute of video footage with a cell phone. With help from YouTube, the videos were then posted to the site, along with the most current information and alerts from several sources. The first month, Web site traffic increased ten-fold.

At first, the Chamber received a few emails that accused them of trying to lie to the public—some people didn’t believe that the beaches were still so white and beautiful! But many visitors kept their Perdido Key vacation plans and the viral marketing began to take hold, with visitors posting their own Perdido Key videos on YouTube.

I’d like to say the oil never made it to Perdido Key. It did, although the BP response team has worked very hard to clean up every day. The beaches are still beautiful here, but occasionally traces of oil still wash ashore. We haven’t stopped posting the videos and information, and it’s still surprising to many who see just how clean the beaches still are. The videos worked because they followed the number one rule of crisis management: tell the truth.

How to: use annotations to promote your brand on YouTube

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:09:00 -0500

If you’re new to YouTube, you may not be aware of Annotations, a new tool from YouTube that can help your videos stand out from the crowd. Catherine-Gail Reinhard recently wrote a great post about Annotations for Mashables, an online guide to social media and one of the top ten blogs worldwide.

There are lots of ways to use Annotations, Reinhard says, from “adding a simple ‘call to action’ that asks the audience to subscribe or do something after watching the video, to creating a series of videos that are linked via Annotations into an interactive game.”

Check out Reinhard’s fun and interactive post to see Annotations in action and learn how the most popular YouTube users have implemented them into their videos.

5 ways to add value to your ads

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:04:00 -0500

Public relations is a top marketing tool, and so is paid advertising. One way to stretch your advertising budget is to “piggy-back” your PR messages on your paid ads. If you’re already paying for ad space on television, radio or in print, here are 5 quick and easy-on-the-budget ways to help your advertising do double duty.

1. For television advertising: instead of producing a full 30-second commercial, consider a 20-second commercial with a 10-second customizable “tag” at the end. Change the tag monthly or as needed to promote your special event, anniversary, sale or promotion, without changing the main part of the ad. While there is generally a charge to change the tag, it’s minimal compared to the cost of producing a completely new one.

2. If you already have a completed commercial, ask the TV station to add a “crawl” that will run along the bottom of the ad. This line of text can promote something new and be changed regularly. *A small charge may apply; check with your station.

3. If you’re advertising in print, a colorful “snipe” or “starburst” that contains information can easily promote your special without changing the rest of your ad.

4. Instead of one full page print ad, consider two half page ads in the same publication, and use one to “lead” the reader to find the second one.

5. Tags also work well on radio ads; have your station produce a 25-second spot and change out the last 5 seconds as you change your promotion.

It’s more important than ever to make your advertising work as hard as possible, and these tips can help you get more bang for your buck.

social network users might be older than you think.

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:02:45 -0500

A recent study conducted by Royal Pingdom shows that the average social network user is 37 years old. If you use, or plan to use, social media marketing to reach a specific target audience, the following information can help you select the right social network to employ:

— LinkedIn, with its business focus, has a predictably high average user age of 44.

— The average Twitter user is 39 years old.

— The average Facebook user is 38 years old.

— The average MySpace user is 31 years old.

— Bebo has by far the youngest users with an average age of 28.

Responding to media inquiries—5 "don'ts" from a journalist's perspective

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:00:43 -0500

Stephane Fitch, Chicago bureau chief, Forbes, participated on a panel of journalists and writers at a webinar, “Responding to Media Queries: How to Stand out from the Crowd,” hosted by ProfNet on Nov. 11, and provided a great list of do’s and don’ts for PR professionals, including:

• Don’t reply to a query with, “What’s the story all about?” He doesn’t know before he writes it.
• Don’t offer an e-mail-only interview. Fitch prefers to talk to the expert via phone or in person.
• Don’t send a “form letter” offering a story. Custom-pitch him, explaining why you think the story is right for him and Forbes. Fitch said he throws away about 95 percent of the pitches he gets, because they’re obviously not targeted specifically to him.
• Don’t worry about “sound bites,” which can be useless. Just tell your story; he’ll find the sound bites.
• Do contact him to set up a coffee/lunch meeting. If you or your CEO is passing through Chicago, let him know. He values connecting with people/companies, and has never turned down an in-person meeting with a PR person who wants to find out more about what Forbes does.

Cheap Tricks—media kit for beginners

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:03:00 -0500

You’ve published a book, launched a new product or started a new company. You want to snag some free publicity from the media but you don’t know how to get their attention. What you need is a media kit, and you don’t have to spend a lot to develop a package that will help put your business in the media spotlight. A basic media kit starts with the following 4 important components, packaged nicely in a presentation folder:

1. Backgrounder: this is a fact sheet of general information about your business.

2. A news release announcing the accomplishment or product you want to highlight.

3. A sheet of testimonials from customers, if applicable.

4. Contact information: name, phone number, email address and Web site.

Some companies include samples of their product or a CD or DVD of photographs to help tell their story. The aim of your media kit is to get the attention of the media, so be creative. For a press announcement about a new waterfront development, for example, we packaged all our media materials into a child’s sand pail with a sticker of the project’s logo on the front. For a very minimal cost, we were able to set our media kit apart from the rest, and the project received wide-spread regional coverage.

the editor got it wrong: can I get a retraction?

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:01:43 -0500

If you’ve ever been quoted in a news article you’ve probably discovered that your words don’t sound quite the same in print as they did when they were leaving your mouth. Reading them the next day can bring all kinds of grief and pain, especially if you were mis-quoted. Should you request a retraction?

My general rule of thumb is to only request a retraction if the information could be potentially hurtful to someone. Most mis-quotes are annoying to the person quoted, but in the grand scheme are insignificant and quickly forgotten. And, since retractions aren’t often printed in large type in the most prominent locations, most times you’ll find that, while seemingly thousands of people read your quote, very few, if any, will notice the retraction.

Mispelled name, wrong title, even an incorrect fact that doesn’t change the integrity of the article—those are generally not reasons to request a retraction. Instead of asking for one, ask the publication to change their archives so that the stored information is correct.

another free pr tool: online community calendars

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:00:00 -0500

One way to extend the mileage from news releases you distribute to announce events is to post event details on public community calendars.

Television and radio station and newspaper and magazine community calendars are great venues on which to post events. But there are a number of other calendars that are available in most markets and should also be part of your distribution list:

— Church Web sites

— Local college Web sites

— Chamber of Commerce calendars

— Local “City” sites

Keeping relevance in mind, your event could also be posted on more specific sites: a pet adoption event could be posted on local humane/pet adoption sites, and a bridal expo could be posted on bride and social magazine sites. The list of opportunities is virtually endless and as long as your event appeals to a Web site’s publics, you should have no problem getting it posted there.

Who are your company's best advocates? 6 traits to seek out

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:00:00 -0500

I was fortunate to hear a presentation this week about building and motivating advocates, given by Terrie Glover Ard, senior vice president of Moore Consulting Group. Important not only to non-profits, advocates are individuals who care enough for an issue, cause, policy or product to influence others to support it. Her company has mobilized advocates in support of everything from Florida tourism to a brand of beer, using social media as the central communication platform.

So how do you leverage advocates, and find those who can help to expand your organization’s of influence? Ard says the first step is to identify the right people to become your advocates, and there are 6 attributes to look for:

1. They have a track record of contributing—they’ve influenced others with past boards, associations and networking circles

2. They are well respected and influential.

3. They are helpful, passionate and trustworthy.

4. They possess strong communication skills.

5. They have existing communication platforms (e-newsletter, blog).

6. They are committed to your program.

Ard says to select your advocates carefully, give them a plan, build two-way trust, provide a platform in which to use their voices (blog, Facebook, etc.) and integrate them with your business by involving them in planning, special events, launches and communication efforts. The result can be an “army of influencers” who can take your message out to a broad circle of potential clients, donors and volunteers.

What's a Facebook fan really worth to marketers?

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:00:00 -0500

What's a Facebook fan really worth to marketers?

crisis communication: 4 critical actions

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:00:00 -0500

I had the opportunity to see a presentation by Doc Kokol, director of communications for the Florida Dept. of Health a few weeks ago. Kokol shared his personal list of things to remember when communicating during times of crisis. During the H1N1 “Swine Flu” scare of 2009, for example, these tips were a lifesaver. His suggestions are simple to apply in virtually any crisis situation when a message must be communicated to the public:

1. Tell the truth, clearly.

2. Tell it all at once.

3. Tell the public what to do.

4. Tell them when they will get more information.

“People receive information differently when there’s a crisis going on,” Kokol says. “They likely feel that the situation is out of their control, so giving them specific things to do— cover your mouth, wash your hands and stay home if you are sick, for example—provides them a way to gain some of that control back.”

5 ways to maximize event attendance

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:25:00 -0500

Constant Contact recently posted a list of ways to maximize attendance at your next event, and here’s a synopsis:

1. Save the date—calendars fill up fast so get your event on your prospect attendees as early as possible. Once you have the who/what/where/when/how determined, send an email or postcard to the guest list.

2. Send an email invitation—6-8 weeks prior to your event, send out an official invitation to your guest list. Make sure that you provide a way for guests to register for the event.

3. Promote your event using social media—if your event is open to the public, use social media marketing to spread the word to customers and members as soon as your invitations go out. Promote your event this way several times a week.

4. Send follow-up reminders—Within a few days of your event, send a follow-up email invite to those on your guest list who have yet to register. Add a sense of urgency to your email subject line, such as “Only 2 days left to register.”

5. Ask for a little promotional help—word-of-mouth referrals are the Holy Grail of marketing so ask attendees to tell their social media friends and followers that they are attending your event.

Read more about these great tips from Constant Contact here.

Why do some messages stick and others die?

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 10:00:00 -0500

Why do some messages stick and others die? :

That’s a question that has been plaguing PR and marketing professionals since the dawn of both professions. It’s not uncommon to spend hours or days or even months crafting the perfect messaging (in your or your organization’s opinion of course) just to have it fall on deaf ears. As communicators, we really only have one goal: make our messages stick. Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath teaches the key components of a sticky message.

Last minute event PR — 6 easy tactics

Tue, 18 May 2010 08:49:00 -0500

It’s not always possible to get a head start on publicizing an event. Obviously, the earlier you can start promoting, the better your chances of securing media coverage. But in absence of a long lead time, how do you promote an event to help ensure its success? Aside from your standard news releases, here are six immediate response PR tactics that can help:

1. Media online calendars. Many radio, television and newspaper Web sites have a “Community Calendar” section on which you can post event information. These are free and provide instant updates to the community.

2. Web site. Post a news release to your organization’s News section immediately including who, what, where, when, how, cost and RSVP information.

3. Blog. Create an event blog, using Tumblr or other blog program, specifically for the event. Register a domain (www.ecohhouseparty.com) for example, just for the blog.

4. Email signature. Add a byline about your event to your email signature, with a hot link to your blog.

5. Telephone on-hold message. Include information about your event on your organization’s on-hold message.

6. Yard signs. Staked yard signs, such as those used for political campaigns, are a cost-effective way to get the word out to drive-by traffic. Give them to your board, employees and organization members.

Use social media to promote your event

Fri, 14 May 2010 08:42:43 -0500

Once you’ve set the time and place of your event, you can post a “Save the Date” notice on your social media networks to announce your event and get the information on calendars. Set up a free event blog that you can link to, or include a link to your Web site’s events calendar with complete details.

Having a Web site (or blog) isn’t a requirement, but it will help you promote all the details of your event and give visitors background information on your cause and mission. You can encourage more attendees by making it easy for them to register and even buy tickets online. There are several free shopping carts that can be added to your blog or Web site to enable you to take secure payments. Google Checkout is a good one to try.

A few easy ways to grow your email list

Tue, 11 May 2010 10:00:00 -0500

Now more than ever it’s important to have a current database of people who are interested in your business. With very little effort, you can easily encourage new connections for your email marketing list.
Give your list a new life with a focused promotional “push”: put a link to your newsletter archive in your email signature, display information in your office lobby, add an automated mention to the bottom of your invoices and statements, and encourage your staff to collect names and email addresses. Hold a contest to see who can compile the most new sign-ups. Gather names and email addresses at your special events.

10 ways to "create" news

Mon, 10 May 2010 10:00:00 -0500

Clients often tell me they don’t have any news to share with the world. Sometimes they don’t understand what’s considered “newsworthy.” Every organization has news to share with the rest of the world. Take a look at this list and you’ll probably find your own opportunities for news releases.

1. New management staff

2. Relocation

3. New service or product now available

4. Company anniversary

5. Special event such as open house, client appreciation party

6. Awards or honors received

7. Merger with another company; acquisition of another company

8. Milestone such as 10,000th client or $1M raised for non-profit

9. Activity in conjunction with a national holiday or observance (such as free pizza for nurses during National Nurses Week or free hearing test during National Hearing & Speech Month.)

10. Board appointments

Communicating during a crisis: 5 things to remember

Fri, 07 May 2010 11:23:00 -0500

In their book Effective Public Relations, Scott M. Cutlip, Allen H. Center and Glen M. Broom write that “Immediate crises—the most dreaded type—happen so suddenly and unexpectedly that there is little or no time for research and planning.” Those words have really hit home during the past two weeks following the massive oil spill off the Louisiana coast that is slowly making its way toward our beautiful Gulf Coast beaches. Fortunately, the windstream has slowed down the spill’s progress and given us time to communicate. Here are some tips on communicating during a crisis:

1. Identify a spokesperson for your organization. Ensure that all employees know to direct any media inquiries to the appointed person. It should be someone in a position of authority who can clearly communicate on behalf of the organization.

2. Be honest and transparent. Don’t evade media questions. If you don’t know the answer, say so.

3. Respond quickly to all media requests. I always say it’s better to answer a hard question than have the reporter ask someone else. You can control your own responses but you can’t control the other guy’s.

4. Communicate from “the inside out.” That is, identify every group of people who are affected by your information and communicate with those who are most impacted first.

5. Keep your employees updated at all times. They are your first line of information and if they are kept in the loop, they can help to get the right message out more quickly.

Most importantly, have a crisis communication plan in place for your company, update it at least annually and ensure that everyone in the organization is familiar with it.

6 principles from '20's still valid today

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:38:24 -0500

Arthur W. Page became vice president of AT&T in 1927. He believed that it was a company’s performance, not its publicity, that was the basis for public approval. Page’s six principles of public relations also supported his contention that a company’s true character is portrayed by its employees. The principles he practiced can still help companies today gain and maintain public approval:

1. Tell the truth. Let the public know what’s happening and provide an accurate picture of its character, ideals and practices.

2. Prove it with action. Public perception of an organizatoin is determined 90% by doing and 10% by talking.

3. Listen to the customer. Understand what the public wants and needs. Keep top decision makers and employees informed about public reaction to products, policies and practices.

4. Manage for tomorrow. Anticipate public reaction and eliminate practices that will create difficulties. Generate goodwill.

5. Conduct PR as if the whole company depends on it. No corporate strategy should be implemented without considering its impact on the public.

6. Remain calm, patient, and good-humored. When a crisis arises, remember that cool heads communicate best.

Sources: Membership Directory, The Arthur W. Page Society, New York, and Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, seventh edition