Tag Archives: PR

Telling your nonprofit story

We are often asked “what makes a good news story?”  Interestingly, the answer is in the question.

If you run a nonprofit, you probably have a strong desire to see your organization written about in positive, feel-good ways in the press, online or on television.  Of course you do.  Media coverage brings recognition and often, recognition brings donor dollars.

But what is a good story?  What do the media cover and what do they look for?

Like I said in the beginning, the answer is in the question.  The media look for good stories.

The media are not in the business of promoting nonprofits or any business.  They are in the business of writing stories that are interesting, engaging and will hold their readership or viewers.  That’s why when you structure your message in story form, the chances of it being reported in the press are much higher.

So when you write that next news release, don’t talk about how great your organization is.  Talk about the people you help and how the efforts of your nonprofit are changing peoples’s lives.

You just may get a nice new story out of it.

The PR Plan: Don’t start a campaign without one

Some may recall the American Express commercial with the slogan, “Don’t Leave Home Without It.”  The same holds true for PR and marketing campaigns.  It is foolish to launch one without a plan.

The challenge with marketing and PR plans is they run the risk of all looking the same.  There are standard issues to consider, standard steps to take, standard tasks to perform.  One can go online and find numerous templates for marketing/PR plans to download.  All you have to do is fill in the blanks.

But since the essence of marketing and PR is determining and then exploiting how your company or organization is different, why would you create the same plan that everybody else has?

Creating a plan is easy.  Creating a unique and effective one isn’t.

First it starts with in-depth research into the organization.  A self-analysis or a needs assessment is where to start.  Every organization must ask itself, “who are we,”  “what do we stand for,?”  “What makes us different,?” When these questions are answered, from a consensus of management, staff, volunteers, donors and so forth, only then can an organization begin to create a plan that will be truly effective and convey the right message to the right audiences.

Adding a social component in basic PR in today’s world

In today’s fast-paced, competitive world, what gives company A an advantage over company B?  Well, there are many factors why some companies succeed in an industry and others fail.  It could simply be a better product, better leadership, more effective marketing and messaging and the list goes on.

What we’re seeing more and more today with young start up companies, is most make sure to include a “social component” in their marketing strategy.  In other words, consumers today want to know that the products they buy and companies they support are not in it only for the profit, but also exist to help those in need.

Some may say it’s a marketing gimmick.  Or a way to get publicity.  But if a company invests a portion of its resources in programs and campaigns that help people — whether in this country or around the world — it has to be more than a gimmick.  It usually is something they believe in because it takes time, effort, commitment and funds.  So while it may help their bottom line, if the social component is relevant and effective, it almost always is genuine.

Starting a company is not easy.  It never has been.  But we’ve seen start-ups that have taken off literally overnight.  In the past it would take decades for a company to achieve success, even profitability.  Today the world moves at a faster pace and people make buying decisions in a split second, with the click of a mouse.

Our advice to any for-profit company — whether a start-up or 50 years old — is if you don’t give back to the community or to people in need, you are losing a tremendous opportunity to connect with younger consumers.  And, you’re missing PR and marketing opportunities that only come with giving back.

How to write a PR Firm RFP

In the PR consulting business, we get many RFPs (Request for Proposals).   Sometimes they are called an RFQ (Request for Qualifications).  In either event, the process is simple.  An organization is seeking the right PR/marketing firm and wants preliminary information before either making a decision, or taking it to the next step.

We are always happy to be considered to represent an organization.  When we receive an RFP we first read the document carefully and look at the organization’s website to determine whether we are the right PR firm for them.  We do a lot of things, but we are not right for every organization.  Most, but not each one.

It is clear that much thought goes into the creation of the RFP.  Most are comprehensive and ask the right questions.  But sometimes one comes across our desk that we wish we could have written.  Not because we’d skew it toward our abilities, but because it misses some of the questions that are most important, and places emphasis on areas that are least important.

For example, we get RFPs from nonprofits wanting to know our nonprofit experience.  Being one of our specialties, that is a no-brainer for us.  But not all nonprofits are created equal nor do they all work in the same area.  Just because a PR firm has represented nonprofits, that doesn’t mean they understand every cause.  So it’s important to find out if the firm has ever worked in the area the organization works.

The way this is often done is to ask the firm to describe a similar situation and the outcomes.  Often there have been similar campaigns that a PR firm has undertaken, but every campaign is unique.  If a marketing firm has done the exact campaign for another agency, then what you’ll get is the same campaign that’s been done before.  Don’t you want original thinking?  Why not ask what is the firm’s approach to problem solving a situation, rather than show that they’ve done it before successfully so it can be copied?

The other area that we believe often needs work is that organizations seeking a PR firm want the firm to create and deliver the entire PR plan — with monthly budgeting — before they are on-board.  To ask a PR firm to create the plan without the benefit of knowing more about the client; objectives, is like asking a lawyer to defend a client without meeting them.  Campaigns are created with clients; and without their input it is just something off the shelf.

Last is budget.  It is totally understandable that an organization wants to know the fees a PR firm charges before they hire them.  Or, whether they can create and implement a campaign within the available budget.  But it is difficult to predict to the penny how much time a PR campaign will cost and how the expenses will run.  It is best to speak in terms of time, campaign objectives and so forth that is tied to budget, rather than ask for a budget for a campaign that has yet to be created.

These are just some of the tips we’d like to put out there if you’re considering creating an RFP.

And if you do, we hope you’ll include us in your search.

 

Lamar Odom shows us the new cost of fame

As of this writing, former LA Lakers and Clippers player Lamar Odom lies in a hospital bed in Las Vegas fighting for his life.   This latest life-threatening drama for the troubled athlete started after three days at a Nevada brothel that included lots of drugs and resulted in an unconscious Odom.

When these episodes happen to the rich and famous, the media dig for all the dirt they can get their hands on.  That always includes the “backstory” of what was going on in the person’s life that led him/her to the situation.  In the case of Odom, it really is no surprise.  He has been in the news for years, even after his basketball career ended, because of his role on the reality show ?Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”

Although much has been written about the tragedies Odom faced and lived through — even before entering the NBA — it is being said that his professional basketball career was doomed in large part because of the reality show.  Apparently, according to the gossip sites, no team wanted anything to do with the Kardashians and the show, which demanded locker room access, front row seats for Odom’s former wife and family and on and on.  The Lakers cut him as did the Clippers.  Team management wanted the focus to be on their franchises, not the Kardashian reality show.  Plus, there were rumors that Odom was using drugs and needed rehab.  Too much drama for a basketball franchise worth upwards of a couple of billion dollars.

Some say Odom didn’t know what he was getting into when he marrried Khloe Kardashian.  He soon wanted out of the show, and it took a toll on his marriage.  So he turned to drugs, again, which is not surprising as his father is a former drug user, so the reports say.

Most people dream of fame and the fortune that often comes along with it.  At his peak, Odom was earning upwards of $10 million a season.  But for Lamar Odom, fame seems to have been a curse.  He was a good athlete and had a future if he was able to focus on that.  For some reason the distraction of the show, which put him on a different exposure level, was more than he could handle.

And the result, as of today, are not pretty.

As the old adage says, “Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.”

Crisis PR: Getting the facts vs. taking action

When asked what is the first thing an organization should do when faced with a reputation management, or crisis PR issue, some will say to first get the facts. Others will say take immediate action — the longer you wait the more it may appear like a cover-up. After all, history has shown that the downfall of Richard Nixon was not Watergate per se, it was the cover-up.

In reality, both are true. And both need to be done simultaneously. Getting the facts is critical to devise an immediate plan of action. How can you know what to do if you don’t know what happened? This is easier said than done, as in the world of immediate communication, when every news outlet wants to be first, miscommunication is often the rule. News outlets can be wrong. They are not held accountable. But an organization can’t afford to be wrong.

At the same time taking instant action is critical. For example, if a staff member sends out an offensive tweet, albeit unintentional, there often is no other course of action than to terminate the employee — depending on the nature of the tweet and other factors. Once something is in cyberspace, and the world deems it racist or sexist or insensitive, there is no taking it back. A million apologies and explanations can’t undo the damage. Plus, it is a chance for an organization to show leadership by cutting the crisis off immediately. Then, a plan of restoring the integrity and reputation of the organization can be devised and implemented with the cause of the problem gone.

What is most important is that organizations be prepared for any eventuality. Anything can happen at any time and every company or nonprofit must be nimble enough to act. Acting can mean finding the facts and devising a plan. It can also mean taking immediate action.

There is no one right answer, as every crisis, or potential crisis, is unique; like every organization is unique. So the real way to prepare is not to decide whether you will first gather the facts or take action, but have an internal system that allows you to quickly make the right decision when and if crisis time comes.

Old words with new meanings that we can do without

We PR professionals are in the communication business. Our job is to structure the messages of those we represent and communicate them in the clearest, most understandable words possible.

But every now again, new word meanings creep into our daily lexicon. It’s hard to tell who comes up with these alternate ways of saying the same thing, but some – many – catch on. Before you know it, we all are using the same new-styled wording to convey the same thoughts when the words we have been using for decades have worked just fine.

Perhaps it’s nothing more than looking and sounding cool; like you just bought the latest model sports car so you must know something. But having practiced PR for several decades, successfully, I do my best to avoid the newest and latest lingo because I don’t think it adds to my credibility, and frankly, I think it makes me sound silly.

Here are a few examples: Feel free to add to the list:

Space – No longer do people work in a business or industry, they occupy a certain space. I had a conversation with a nice young person recently who was trying to sell me a service. Every other word from his mouth was the “space” my company occupies. The only space I occupy is my office space and I pay rent for that. That’s the only space that makes sense to me.

Reach Out – There was a time when people would call or contact one another. Today, everybody “reaches out.” I wanted to reach out to you about any openings you may have in your company. You mean you are calling me about a job?” If that person was really current, s/he would have said “I wanted to reach out to you about any space I could fill in your firm.” But I guess there are only so many new-fangled clichés a recent graduate can muster in one sentence.

Different Direction – This has actually been around for a while, and won’t go away. Years ago, as the story goes, Johnny Carson decided to fire one of his writers. He called him into his office and said something like, “I just want you to know we’re taking the show in a different direction.” That was Johnny’s way of firing him. Later, the writer said in an interview that he never knew what different direction the show took, as it seemed the same to him until Johnny retired.

Circle Back — “I’ll tell you a bit about my company, you tell me a bit about your company, and then we’ll circle back to how you can help us.” You mean: After we get the preliminaries out of the way, we’ll get to the point of the meeting? Can we do this while remaining in our chairs or do we have to get up and walk in a circle?

Best – Prior to email overtaking our daily communications, people wrote letters. Yes, with actual paper that had to be folded and put in an envelope and mailed, or in later years, faxed. For as many years as I can remember, letters ended with something like Very Truly Yours, or the ubiquitous Sincerely. Then, when email arrived, people wanted to sound more friendly and started using All the Best. And now, All the Best has morphed to simply Best.

Best what?

It was nice hearing from you, Best, Gary.

You mean All the Best? You mean I Wish You the Best? You mean I Am the Best? Perhaps You are the Best? I never know what best you’re talking about. Please explain.

Hey – I saved my favorite for last. I can’t tell you how many emails I get, usually from people soliciting business or more likely people sending resumes, that begin with Hey! If I am not worth a Hello, then why bother? Colleges should offer a course that teaches would-be PR pros the difference between writing a business email and writing a text to a buddy. If you are asking me, or anyone for a job, don’y start with Hey!! We’re not drinking buddies, at least not yet. And for heaven’s sake, drop the exclamation points unless you are writing for a comic strip.

So hey, now that I have reached out to you, I want to circle back and take this in a different direction because of the space that I occupy. Thanks for listening.

Does Trump’s PR style trump all others?

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump finally made official what he has been flirting with for years.  He declared himself a candidate for president.  And to nobody’s surprise.

It’s also no surprise how he made the announcement and what he said.  To lots of fanfare — as all candidates have at the ready — Trump spoke about the U.S. presidency as if it were a corporation.  He spoke as if he wasn’t running for president of the U.S., but for emperor; in no need of a vice president, cabinet, congress or advisors.

But that’s who he is, and if he changed now it would be kind of a let down, don’t you think?  What we expect of Donald Trump is someone who speaks his mind, is egocentric and a bit of a bully.  Quite a sharp contrast to the presidents we are accustomed to.

The question I would like to raise is whether this style that has been so successful in the boardroom will resonate with the American people.  Are we ready for a president who says he is ready to go eye-to-eye with every other country so we can finally get the U.S. out of debt and in the black?

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Few people are taking Trump’s candidacy seriously.  It is great fodder for late night TV hosts.  But some say whether he is a serious candidate or not, he will undoubtedly raise issues nobody else wants to talk about such as the trade imbalance, domestic jobs and so forth.  The other candidates don’t want to talk about the economy because there are no easy answers and no easy solutions.  Slapping a tax on everything coming into the U.S. is not a new idea.  It was done in the 1980s when Congress limited the number of Japanese manufactured cars into the U.S.  The import quota actually worked because it forced Japanese automakers to build U.S. plants.  Today most of the Japanese cars sold in the U.S. are made in the U.S.

What I am talking about is not substance but style. One reason few are taking Trump seriously is not his message but how he delivers it.  If I were his PR advisor (and I am not) I would encourage him to focus on his ideas and check his ego, bullying, and brashness at the door.   If he truly wants his ideas heard, debated and considered, and if he truly cares about making America “great” again, he needs to make his campaign about issues not himself.  Everything in his announcement speech related to his business and himself.  He needs to talk about the rest of America, not only his net worth and who he is competing with in his hotel and golf course business.

Tone down the rhetoric and up the focus on the issues, Mr. Trump.  If you do, perhaps you’ll be taken seriously and even more important, maybe you will force the other candidates to think about these issues and come up with some ideas (and solutions) of their own. Please follow us for more info and tips on having the quickest lending option for you.

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“How are you” is a dead giveaway

We all get them.  Unsolicited phone calls at home or the office from people trying to sell us something.

The first hint that the call is a sales pitch is the caller ID. But then again, all of us get calls from people we don’t know and it might not be a sales call.  It could be a new client, a friend of a friend or myriad other persons.

But the “dead giveaway” that the call is a sales pitch is when the person calling, unrecognizable to you, starts with “Mr. ((fill in your name)) how are you?

When a stranger calls and asks how you are, you know it is someone who only cares about your health to the extent that you can buy what they are selling.

So why to boiler room sales persons still start with “how are you?”  Everybody knows that they are immediately telling you they are about to make a pitch.

All of use ask one another “how are you?”  And we say it to people we actually know and even perhaps care about.  But even then, we really don’t want to know how people are.  If our friends and acquaintances would truthfully tell us how they are, we would immediately turn around and run away screaming.

It is a polite courtesy greeting, not an in-depth inquiry as to how a person’s like if really going.  So we do it many times a day, hoping for the expected, “fine.”

If asking how someone how they are doing has become simple routine, then why would a salesperson care how we are?

So as a marketing consultant, my advice to all the phone salespersons out there is don’t ask me how I am.  You don’t care, and I know you don’t care.  Yet worse, it is a red flag that I am about to be pitched and a signal to say no.

 

The next favorite CNN crime story?

Justin Ross Harris is a 33 year old man in Georgia who is on trial for leaving his 22 month old son in his car all day.  The child died and Harris is on trial for murder.

The trial has received widespread media coverage from the start, with CNN covering live the “probable cause hearing” where a judge determined there was enough evidence for the prosecution to seek an indictment.

During the hearing, which lasted one day, it was revealed by police that there was more to the story than a father forgetting his child in a hot car.  The Father had searched Google for information on people dying in hot cars, living a child-free life, and legal terminology.  Further, police testified that while his child was in the car in 80+ degree weather, the father was at work sexting either women he had met online.

CNN is all over the story, as it was with Casey Anthony, Jodi Arias and select others.  At the same time CNN ran a story that in 2013 alone, more than 40 children died in cars when parents forgot about them.  In fact, they interviewed a woman who was prosecuted for doing just that and was found not guilty.  So why is the Harris trial getting so much attention?

It almost seems like the major media need certain elements to be in place for them to find a story worth following.  The Casey Anthony story centered on a young, attractive woman who liked to party.  Jodie Aria is also young and very attractive and her story included sex, lies and tremendous violence.  Perhaps it has nothing to do with it, but the case of the other woman who was acquitted didn’t contain sordid details of sex.  Boring TV.

The Harris story now seems to be much more than a forgotten child.  Police allege Harris was leading a secret life by sexting other women, one of which was under age.  Harris and his wife were having financial problems and marital issues.  They took out life insurance policies on their child.  On and on. Almost as if CNN knew all these salacious details before they came out in court.

Unless something dramatic changes, like a plea deal, Justin Ross Harris is about to become the next Casey Anthony story.

And you can be sure that CNN will be there gavel to gavel.