I spotted this on Buzzfeed this morning. Very simple, yet powerful video from South Africa which illustrates attitudes to violence against women. As it says on the site, don’t condone violence by doing nothing.
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Jeremiah Owyang was kind enough to tap SHIFT Communications among a dozen or so other Social Media thought leaders to investigate Best Practices in Facebook Marketing. The result is a must-read:
(You can count this as more great content from Altimeter Group — yet again offered FREE! Think they’re giving the gang at Forrester and Gartner Group agita, yet?)
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We’ve been on a bit of a hiring binge at SHIFT lately, and as part of that process we’ll routinely tell all our friends on Facebook and Twitter that we’re looking for “rockstars.”
But every professional services firm touts their rockstars, everyone’s looking for rockstars. Look at any number of PR pros’ LinkedIn profiles and you’ll soon grow nauseous at the number of “rockstar” descriptions.
So what makes a PR rockstar? Let’s start with what a rockstar is NOT.
A rockstar is NOT just someone who gets a lot of ink for their clients. Getting a lot of ink for clients is part of the job; it’s tablestakes, really. A rockstar is NOT just someone who does a great job in newbiz pitches. Again, this is part of the job description.
To be sure, you can’t be a PR rockstar WITHOUT getting a lot of ink and impressing newbiz prospects, but these attributes alone are not enough to excel beyond your peers.
The true “rockstar” does their job, and then goes beyond. The rockstar is:
ANTICIPATORY: the rockstar sees around the bend; they counteract “issues” before they become “gripes.” They know from experience and/or common sense how to get ahead of challenges, and they do a good job of sharing that knowledge with their co-workers and peers.
THOUGHTFUL: the rockstar gets to know their clients so well that they can spot trends even before the client does, and can recommend strategies that would allow the client to exploit these industry changes ahead of the pack.
PROACTIVE: the rockstar knows that the Agency has needs above and beyond “account services.” They research and recommend ways for the firm to be more efficient or successful.
CURIOUS: the rockstar asks “why” a lot — not from cluelessness, but from a desire to grasp or grapple with the difficult concepts of-interest to their clients or of importance to the Agency or industry. A curious PR pro is a creative PR pro.
CARING: the rockstar cares about the Agency’s reputation; about their team mates’ workloads; about typos in a memo or newbiz deck. The rockstar cares about “Perfection” enough to strive mightily for it … but also cares enough about their colleagues (and their own mental health!) enough to know that “Perfection” is not always possible.
You don’t need to be a rockstar to thrive in a PR agency. There are myriad ways to show value. You can get tons of ink and/or know every influencer and/or score big in newbiz, and you’ll have a job for life. But that makes you a terrific PR pro, not a rockstar.
Do you fit the rockstar profile? Cuz we are still hiring!
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Corvette are offering its customers a chance to help build the engine on the assembly line. Holy Kaw has an article on the new marketing initiative for the Corvette ZR1 and Z06, which retails for over $100,000. An extra $5k lets car enthusiasts get an extra personal experience by putting the finishing touches to the engine.
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Regardless of the line of business you’re in, you’re bound to run into a few customers who will put your patience and communication skills to test. Some need you to spend more time explaining what you’re doing than actually doing your job, others think they know your profession better than you do, some will take too long to respond when there’s an emergency at hand. But when it comes to public relations and nightmare customers, these are the ones we fear most.
When something’s going on, why bother talking to the PR guy in your company or to the company you pay to handle such issues? Go ahead and make your own statements, release them and then have the people you initially ignored clean your mess. Think of the Cleavland Cavalier owner who decided a post attacking LeBron James was a good reaction to the player’s decision to choose another team.
Attacks, rushed statements, strong words powered by momentary anger, they all damage a company’s image. Once they are out, it is much harder to patch them then it is to take 5 minutes and discuss what you’re about to do beforehand.
You might be the greatest PR agency ever, you might have the best strategy in place and a nice plan to handle everything. Once your customer is in a constant spotlight, if he or she can’t handle statements made on the spur of the moment and has the habit of saying the wrong thing, you’re doomed. Think BP here and the “I want my life back” statement. While honest and heartfelt, no one cared Tony Hayward’s life was not as good anymore when others had died and many more were losing their livelihood and were bound to suffer the consequences of the oil spill for many years to come.
While in the first case we were dealing with a customer that we knew would take PR in his/her own hands and in case two we talked about spontaneous reactions which are harder to control, our third nightmare customer is even more tricky to deal with. It’s that customer who will consult you on the matters at hand, will let you come up with a solution, strategy, plan, methods etc, will seem to agree on the best course of actions and then surprise you by doing the exact opposite. It’s that customer that you spend months with explaining how to write a proper news release to then take the next big launch and release something that goes against everything you have discussed and it is filled with mistakes so obvious even a rookie would pick up. The even better part is when your name and company are sent together with it 
What about you? What do you fear most when it comes to your customers? What other scary types have you run into or heard of?
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As part of our move back to the Bay Area, I needed to have our HD-TV installed on a wall of our living room. Anything that requires a screwdriver in our household requires a call to a professional. I googled around for “home theater installers” and used ServiceMagic to identify a local contractor.
Although I’ve had spotty luck (at best) with ServiceMagic, this time they came through with a quality dude. Once I take a shine to someone, I can’t help but quiz them about how they market themselves: how’s their website doing for them, do they do any PR, do they worry about their online reviews, etc.?
After chatting with our new a/v installer, Chris Hinton (and no-doubt slowing down my own installation in the process!), I did some quick research in front of him…
“You’re lucky your number was the first one ServiceMagic gave me,” I said. “There’s no other way I could have found you!”
“Look at my local Google Results:
“Now check out Yelp:
“So let’s review. You’ve got poor SEO — you don’t even show up in Google’s Local Search results, even though you live around the corner from me.”
“And look at that huge coverage gap in the East Bay on the Yelp map: you could be the top dog in the East Bay when it comes to A/V installation, if you got just a handful of 5–star reviews.”
“And if you’re still not convinced, check out how many people in the East Bay are on Twitter (via Twellowhood):
“These folks are affluent, they’re hanging out online, and you could be interacting with them.”
“For example, once 3D TVs become a bigger deal, a lot of these local Twitterati will want that equipment — and if they know about Hinton Home Theater Installation already, cuz maybe you’ve been tweeting about 3D tv’s and video games, who do you think they will call? Don’t you want them to call y-o-u?”
We’ll see whether Chris takes my advice. Will you?
P.S. – Hinton Home Theaters did quality work at a good price, and Chris is a good guy. If you live in the Bay Area and need some home theater installation services, give him a call (408-823-9857). Tell him Todd sent ya.
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It is great that Michelle Obama is advising US citizens to vacation in the Gulf. There are, in the end, thousands of miles of beaches that the oil has not touched yet. Getting involved in the effort to help local communities and the overall economy while still having a blast during your vacation is something to admire. An example to set that other will follow and make sure people are stronger than the oil spilt in their waters.
“It is vacation time. Folks are looking for things to do with their kids, and this would be a great opportunity to do a few things — help this community, send a different message about the extent of the spill, and also think long term about how the rest of the country can help this economy and the folks down here,” Mrs. Obama said at the Panama City Welcome Center.
But is this PR move still brilliant when the Obamas themselves chose to vacation elsewhere, Maine to be precise? Isn’t taking your own advise proof that you believe in what you are saying and that you are also involved and doing, not just reciting PR speeches carefully crafted for you?
Maybe there is a perfectly good reason why the US President and his family have chosen Maine’s Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park. Then again it’s a weekend mini-trip and the reason why it’s not the Gulf Coast for them as well is unclear to me.
It breathes hypocrisy and actually a poor PR strategy of the White House. I am sure people who knew Michelle Obama was to speak at the at the Panama City Welcome Center cheering for Gulf Coast vacations also knew where the First Lady and her family were planning to go. Couldn’t they connect the dots?
There is a Romanian saying stating you should do what the priest says, not what he does. Maybe it should be extended to presidents and their families as well.
What do you think of all this?
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Got your blog up and running? Swell. Now, who’s gonna read it? Who’s going to leave a comment? Who is going to retweet those carefully-crafted posts?
This is where it gets fun. Harken back — as I often do in this blog — to Forrester’s POST method. People, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics.
Surely you know WHO you want to reach. Now it’s simply a matter of finding out where they’re hanging out. Are they on Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? Yelp? YouTube? Are they lurking on more industry-specific Message Boards? What publications do they read? What blogs do they follow?
These are questions you need the answers to, because if you only do *four things in Social Media, the 4th is: ENGAGE.
I won’t bore you with the umptillion reasons you ought to engage with your prospects (and the people those prospects are influenced by). If you need a refresher course, try my e-book or “Jedi Academy” posts, or read David Meerman Scott’s stuff, or check out Chris Brogan’s blog, or Brian Solis’s book, or Jason Falls’s blog or absolutely anything written by Tamar Weinberg.
The larger point is emphasize that thou shalt reap what ye sow. This is a Biblical lesson too often forgotten by marketers in general and CEOs in particular.
Marketing is a tramp through the mud, while attempting to keep your face scrubbed clean; it’s hard work made to look easy. That hard work entails interacting every single day with the customers, prospects and influencers who converse online, with and around your brand (and, with and around your competitors, too, who are also waking up to this opportunity).
If you are conversing every single day with relevant online audiences, in the right places — and, if every single day you attempt to say or share something relevant to these folks — you are going to drive traffic to your blog and/or other content. If you further impress these audiences when they view your stuff, they will share it, applaud it, critique it, and generally make Y-O-U the topic of conversation.
Engagement will help your brand’s equity grow, from organic cultivation (cost: sweat equity) vs. advertising campaigns (cost: $$$).
Notice how “engagement” — the essence of Social Media — came FOURTH in this series? Before you think about “organic cultivation,” you have to do your spadework.
Let’s see if my own spadework has done me any good? Help me spread the word about this blog, using any of the links below?
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Guest post by Ben Johnson
Have you created a logo design for your business? If not, then you have got to get one. Why? Well, because your logo design gives your business a face. If you create a good looking logo, then your business will look really good. If you create a low quality design, then you will mess up the image of your company. So, it’s your logo design that can either mess up your business image completely or give it a dazzling identity.
To give a good-looking face to your business, you need to create an attractive logo. Once you create a dazzling identity, you will be able to win the trust of your market. How? Remember, your market won’t be able to meet you personally or see you physically – They will only see your logo and try to determine how reliable you are.
So, if your business has a pretty face (logo), you will create a pretty good impression.
Now…To give your business a dazzling identity with a top quality logo design, there are several elements you need to take into consideration to make it a success. Let’s discuss them:
What does it mean? Your logo represents your business, so it must have the right colors to represent your business properly. For example, if you are creating a logo for a hospital, then its color scheme will be light and sober as compared to the color scheme of the logo of an entertainment company. So, you need to keep in view your business and audience before you finalize the color scheme.
Just like color schemes, this is also a very important element of your business logo. If you are designing a logo for charity, then you must consider the mood of such organizations and contributors. It will be wrong to have a clown in such a logo. So, you need to do some research and analyze your competitors first and then determine the layout of your logo design.
Do you think that a complicated logo will make you look more professional? This is a totally wrong perception. Complexity has nothing to do with being professional. Simplicity always rocks and simple logos are always memorable. Do you think that Nike, Toyota, Honda and Target logos are complicated? No, they are not. They are simple and attractive logos and you need something similar too.
Just as flowers attract bees, your logo should attract your target market. If it doesn’t look good, will anyone take notice of it? No, everyone will ignore it. So, to grab the attention of your market, you must work hard to create a visually appealing logo.
The bottom line is that you have got to seriously consider the elements mentioned above to create an attractive and top quality logo design and give your business a dazzling identity.
About the author
Ben Johnson is the Alliance Manager at Logoinn, a custom logo design company. He writes about the effect of design on marketing and brand identity and helps small businesses find design solutions for effective marketing.
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We’ve talked about Social Media monitoring, policy-making, blogging and engagement in the first four of this five-part series. In my opinion, the FIFTH thing you should do, if you do nothing else, is: develop a CONTENT CREATION strategy.
Arguably, “blogging” is part of that content creation strategy, but I am talking about “what else” you are going to produce by way of shareable, compelling content.
“Shareability” is the key here: if you post a video to YouTube or your blog, but nobody sees or shares it, you’ve just wasted your time & money (though at least you didn’t hurt your organic SEO). In other words, the content has to be good, it has to be relevant.
“Content” can take many forms.
If you’re a restaurant, maybe you decide that the most relevant content you can offer is a bunch of coupons to local Twitterati and Yelpers.
If you’re a B2B software company, maybe you decide to demystify your product via a series of 1–minute videos on your 10–best-features.
If you make sneakers, maybe you decide to send your CEO on a world tour to investigate the product manufacturing process, via a series of blog posts, from “rubber sole” (jungles of Bali?!) to “leather uppers” (moo!) to the negotiation of a new retail partnership (ka-ching).
Again, let me say it one final time in this series: follow Forrester’s POST method. People, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics. Once you know WHO you want to reach, you soon realize WHAT makes them tick. You get a sense, by interacting with them, what type of content they respond to, and because you’ve started ENGAGING with them, you’ve got a ready group of prospects and customers ready to help you spread the word.
Now … I’ll bet you thought #5 would be “Measurement.” Maybe that’d be #6. But as important as it is, I cringe a little inside when corporate executives start-off a conversation about Social Media by saying, “First off, measuring the success of this Social Media stuff will be paramount.”
Why? Because if you can’t show off a pretty ROI chart to the CEO, you’ll stop engaging with customers and prospects?
Did you insist on seeing ROI when your parents told you to “Eat your vegetables?”
Create relevant, compelling content and engage in the right places with people who might care about your brand. Add value to the community. ROI will follow.
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