First Word

OK, one of the challenges in public relations is getting clients to understand that this isn't the fast food drive thru where instant gratification is satiated with a greasy bag of fries. So many of our clients suffer from instant-gratification-itis. We literally will start a campaign and three weeks later, the client is distressed. Where are the reviews? Why am I not on TV yet? What is your plan? I've decided I need a PR education program in place to quell these ever-arising and very unrealistic expectations. Let me put this into perspective for those of you who have never worked in the media. Here is the day in the life ... Editor gets to desk. Editor turns on computer. Email pops up in the thousands! Editor must sift through hundreds of pitches but at the same time, Editor either works on a daily, weekly or monthly and has deadlines. Editor must edit and get feature stories for the issue at-hand out the door to production. Editor is maybe behind schedule that day or a prob...

We got asked a fun question by a client, "What is your favorite part of your job." My response was instantly writing. Malia, of course, admitted the wins on the PR side gave her a charge to which I responded, "Yeah, that gives you an instant boost." I joked that it's like Sally Fields infamous Oscars speech where she cries, "You like me! You really like me." The real reason for the rise is hidden in the satisfaction that your hard work is being accepted by the media as a good job. It's really an ego boost friends. As if we need mass acceptance to know we did a good job, but you know ... it helps. I have to tell you that response is my second favorite thing about what I do. It's the "yessss" moment we in the PR business work hard to achieve. And even better -- this week I had five of those moments! "Yessss!" Want to gleefully cry, "You like me," contact 3L to start your campaign today.

Public relations campaigns can be tricky. We often have prospective clients show up who want us to "guarantee" results. I once had a guy shove another PR agency's one sheet under my nose and point to the "empty" promise of "guaranteed" results. He relentlessly insisted I make the same "oath of results," which I could not do. In PR you cannot promise anything when it comes to the media. If you know anything about the Public Relations Society of America code of ethics, you would know that true accredited PR professionals cannot promise media placements. It's unethical to make those kinds of promises. Why? Because (while most of us would like to believe it isn't so) we don't control the media. Have you heard of unbiased news reporting? Well, if PR pros were able to control the media, everything would be quite biased. As professionals all we can do is pitch our ideas and clients and hope the media likes what they hear. And here is one...

I recently answered a questionnaire about marketing for small businesses. I thought I would share my answers with the rest of you to help other businesses.  1) How important is having an organized and successful marketing plan? What key areas should one think about when developing a marketing plan?   My personal opinion is that a marketing plan is your roadmap really toward your tactics. I think your overall strategies and goals are important but really drive what you are going to do tactically to take action to drive your marketing campaign. The strategies lay out your intention to reach what markets and why -- your goals are your milestones toward results. Your tactics, however, state what tools and techniques will you employ to reach those goals. Without a clear plan, marketing leaders will pursue their marketing campaigns in a much more haphazard and random way -- and stumble toward success or not achieve success at all. 2) What are a few easy online mark...

Yesterday I devised this unique rating system. It's called the "Hand-Slap" system. I decided that for every silly or ridiculous thing I saw someone do with their marketing, PR or book, I would rate it based on how many hand slaps I thought it deserved to let them know a measure of how "bad" it was. And when I say, "bad," I mean bad for business, bad for your image, bad for your brand, and just an all-inclusive bad! A version of this will appear in my newsletter too. So here is the rating systems decoded: 1H = moderately bad; 2H = bad enough to mention; 3H = not good; 4H = should not do it; and 5H = what were you thinking? So, here are some recently reviewed acts that require the slap-down. True Confessions in Memoirs that Include Terrible Deeds = 5H True confessions are salacious and draw people in. They are titillated and want to hear what you're going to confess. It's OK to "confess" stories where you learned an important and val...

Public relations, widely known as the "airy-fairy" stuff, can be difficult to measure. Expectations of one's publicist can range from demands to be get exposure in a specific media outlet (mostly Oprah) or dozens of reviews ... a day. Neither of these requests is reasonable. On the flip side, your publicist should not use the often unquantifiable results as a way to avoid actually doing the necessary work to get you a reachable 1-5 requests per week to feature or review your product. If you're hiring a publicist, here are some things you, as the consumer, can ask for to ensure your publicist is spending the hours they say they're spending -- and leave no question in your mind that your publicist did her best job to serve you. Measurements of Success -- other than a bump in sales this is a tough one. Your product may have been reviewed in many publications but your sales don't reflect it. All you can expect or ask of your PR person is outreach to the media. ...