Top 5 PR tips for PRing your business

Don’t you just hate it when you open a magazine and one of your competitors is featured and you just know that they will get customers from the publicity? You ask why were they featured and not me? The answer is a public relations program.

Public relations (PR) is an extremely efficient method of communicating with a target audience – and it doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. Business owners can choose from a variety of simple and cost effective activities that will help achieve their business objectives.

The reason that PR works is that it provides third-person credibility not obtainable through paid advertising. In fact, it is said to have 10 times the impact of traditional, paid advertising, placing you above your competitors as the “top of mind” choice for customers, investors and business partners.

There are a number of elements to an effective PR strategy. The obvious is pitching in story ideas to the publications.  But here are some other elements to a PR strategy you may not have thought about.

1. Embrace Social Media
There is nothing to be scared about; social media is just another form of communication.  Social media allows any business to engage, listen, share and exchange ideas with consumers in ways that have never been done before. Most importantly – it’s free!

When it comes to social media you need to act just like you would at a real life networking event; you need to listen, respond, provide interesting conversation, monitor what people like, provide what people like and most importantly be yourself and inject a personality.

To embrace social media we suggest you start by creating a Facebook page for your business, creating a Twitter account for your business, creating a LinkedIn account and creating a business blog.

Don’t just stop at opening the accounts, you need to participate. If you behave like a bad friend, not sharing or ‘being there’ then you won’t get many contacts. Be open and give it as much time as you can.

2. Network
You can never have too many contacts. From specific association networks to broad business groups, there are so many opportunities for business owners to network, but just turning up isn’t enough. And it isn’t just about getting new business either.

Running a business can be an isolating and stressful experience, but when networking you learn so much about different types of businesses, what is happening in the business community and have the opportunity to share your experiences.

Remember, good networkers also always follow up those they meet. It’s not about getting as many business cards as possible, but connecting with people. Try setting a goal for each event to get two business cards with the invitation to contact them and arrange a coffee meeting to chat in more detail.

3. Write an article
Writing and distributing media releases is just one way of getting media coverage. You can also write an article and pitch it to a publication.

Many publications are stretched for resources and welcome well written articles. You can write an article that positions you as an industry expert and offers topical, helpful information. Ensure it is written in an objective, informative and entertaining manner.

Make sure your article is free from blatant advertisement or advertorial. Research which publications your potential clients read, or simply pitch to your major industry publications.

4. Update your website
Did you know that search engines read articles too? Offering interesting and informative articles on your website is a great way of building credibility and getting people to come back to your site to read them. It is also a fantastic way of increasing your ‘Google ranking’.

The aim of increasing your website’s Google ranking is to feature higher-up in the organic search results that appear on the left-hand side of search results pages, so that potential clients can find your website.

You can write articles that include variations of the main keywords or search phrases people use to search for you, your business, your products and services, and your industry. If you are stuck for ideas on what to add to your website to keep it fresh, think about what has been happening in your business recently. Readers love to read positive things about your business.

5. Get customer testimonials
Getting customer testimonials seems so simple, however many people forget to include them in their PR & marketing strategy. Testimonials help to build credibility and trust for your business and are a very powerful way to position your business as an expert. Including customer testimonials on your website and in marketing collateral can also help to win new business.

Set aside some time to either ring or email your customers to ask if they would mind writing a brief testimonial. If they are short for time, ask them quickly to explain what they most like about your service or product and offer to write it up for them.

Twitter: a crisis communication tool

When a crisis breaks more and more people are beginning to turn to Twitter for answers than ever before. This means that Twitter is fast becoming a critical component in any company’s crisis communication strategy. Twitter is the perfect tool to use in a crisis because it enables you to communicate quickly to the public and to your target audience.

Companies can prepare for a crisis by creating a crisis communication plan. This plan will detail the steps that you should take to prepare for a crisis and how to respond and resolve a crisis effectively. All About Public Relations has provided some useful tips on how to use Twitter for crisis communication and how to include it in your crisis communication plan.

Educate your staff:
Before a crisis occurs it is essential to teach your staff about how Twitter works and how to use it appropriately. This ensures that as soon as a crisis breaks you can formulate a response and get it to your target audience via Twitter as soon as possible.

Make a plan in advance:
You should identify and plan for all the crises that you can foresee and even those that you would never expect. Some crises that may occur include natural disasters, product recalls, hazardous materials, customer complaints and many more. You should create a crisis communication plan that will detail what to do in the event of a crisis, who the spokesperson will be and what your initial response on Twitter will be.

Listen:
It is important to constantly listen and watch the conversations on Twitter. This will enable you to monitor the conversations about your brand/company and become aware of any negative issues that occur. As a result you can then pre-empt a potential crisis and formulate a better response.  

Be Active:
Don’t wait for a crisis to occur before you start engaging with your audience. You should become an active part of the online community now. By creating a presence on Twitter you can develop a network of followers that you know shares an interest in you and your company.

Although Twitter is an effective tool to use in a crisis however, it should be one part of a broader crisis communication strategy.

Read the full article here.

How to be ethical in social media

Transparency
As a business, an expert or professional in any field it is vital to stay transparent. Transparency is something that is sought after in the professional world so why can’t it be sought after in the digital world?

Social media is all about creating relationships with your target audience, forming bonds, communities and creating a better understanding of each key target. If you don’t stay transparent you risk losing all you have built and your reputation could even be irreparably damaged.

There can be no harm done in being honest with your followers – in more cases than not they will appreciate and like you even more for being so.

Anonymity
Everybody has a right to privacy, however in some cases the internet can take privacy a little too far. Anonymity and allowing people to comment anonymously on your website or blog is not consistent with your goal of transparency.

Social media is, in its own way, anonymous enough already. Giving individuals the right to log on as anonymous can pose many problems for your business as well as for your audience.

People seem to feel as though they can say anything they want once they have that anonymity power and although everybody has a right to privacy, allowing people to choose a user name rather than use their real name is private enough for a public website.

Treat others as you would like to be treated
It is known as the ‘Golden Rule’ and is probably one of the most important ethical tips to stand by when it comes to social media.

Think of all the things that people do on social media that you personally dislike – whether it be tweet your work without crediting you, selling your personal details to telemarketers or sending you promotional emails once you have accepted them as a friend.

Chances are if it annoys you then it will annoy your audience, so why do it? If social media is all about relationship building then why would it seem ethical to treat your audience in a way that would make them feel used or annoyed?

Social media is becoming more and more legitimate in both the professional and personal world. Being ethical and having a code of ethics for your social media campaign or even for your own personal social media channels is vital to stay successful.

Factors that determine whether a journalist will cover your story

Journalists are constantly inundated with information on potential stories. So how do they decide which story to report on? PR Daily has provided the answer by revealing the top five factors that drive news decisions in newsrooms all over the world. They are time, speed, space, profit and bias.

Time:
Journalists have never before faced such short deadlines. Many newsrooms are understaffed and journalists feel pressured to produce constant news stories for a variety of news outlets. Therefore if a reporter is required to conduct an extensive amount of research to cover your story, they probably won’t cover it.

Speed:
Traditional media now has to compete with the faster-moving new media by rushing deadlines, abandoning rigorous fact checking and releasing their stories quicker than ever. If your story is long or complicated then it’s more likely that journalists will get some aspect of it wrong.

Space:
Journalists are frequently required to cut down your stories to a very strict word limit or minutes of air time. This means that your long or complicated stories will be incomplete or lacking in detail.

Profit:
Most news outlets are designed to generate a profit. They achieve this by covering stories that will attract the widest-possible audience such as sensationalistic or conflicting events. Media outlets are then able to raise their advertising rates and increase their revenue.

Bias:
Media outlet’s today can be biased towards cheap, easy, and visually intriguing stories. For example stories that are closer to the news outlet’s headquarters or have more compelling visuals are more likely to be covered.

With these top five factors in mind, you can now increase your chances of pitching a successful story to a journalist.

Read the full article here.

Using Twitter for Business: Engaging your customers online

People are often sceptical when we explain engaging in Twitter can really benefit their business. Creating a Twitter account for your business opens up opportunities for communication and attracts new customers for businesses – when managed correctly.  

Twitter is an effective method of reaching your target audience in real time, however having a presence on Twitter and getting your desired audience to follow you are very different things. To get people to want to follow your business’ Twitter account it needs to present a personality and, like all business communications, a strategy for using Twitter needs to be put into place.

Create a personality
If your tweets come across as marketing ploys or if they are really promotional, followers will see straight through you. If you display an honest and interesting personality, followers will recognise that there is a real person behind your tweets. If they see this they might be more inclined to take note of what your business has to say.

To create a Twitter personality for your business:

Hold two-way communication
A common mistake people often make when starting out on Twitter is to broadcast messages rather than watching conversations people are having and joining in where possible.

When people follow you, follow them back and engage with them. You can tweet questions or interesting ideas that encourages a response from your followers. You can also tweet about events taking place in your office or events your staff may be involved in. Show that you’re listening to others by re-tweeting relevant tweets and replying to people.

Don’t use your logo as your profile picture
People find it harder to relate to a company when they use their logo as their profile photo. You can show the ‘human-side’ of your business by featuring actual staff photos on your Twitter account’s profile picture. If you really want to use your logo, position it as the background of your Twitter page.

A good tip for larger companies that have no choice but to use their logo, is to include your first name within individual tweets to keep the messages personal.

Devise a strategy that aligns with your communications plan
Engaging in Twitter should be an element of your business’ communications plan. You should have a Twitter strategy aimed at achieving a specific objective. There is no point having an account simply because everyone tells you, you should.

Factor the following into your Twitter strategy:

Tweeting
Decide what your business wants to communicate through Twitter. Messages do not all need to be specific to your company, followers will find respect your business more if you tweet about news and events within your specific industry.

Start by setting up a few Google News Alerts that will deliver you daily information about the topics you choose. You can then post interesting articles and topics relevant to your industry on Twitter. Ask open questions to engage stakeholders and potential clients and to get the conversation started.

The most valuable tweets are those that that share information about your field and offer comments on topical issues. This will build your credibility and encourage trust between your business and your followers.

Schedule
How often should your company be tweeting? It’s important that this is decided on as part of your strategy so employees responsible for Twitter know how often they should be tweeting. This will make sure that your Twitter presence is consistent on a day to day basis. Three to six tweets a day is recommended however this will depend on the conversations that are taking place on any given day.

Follow your target audience
Many of the people you follow on Twitter will follow you back. Try to follow your target audience by searching similar companies and publications within your industry and follow their followers. Your list will gradually grow over time by adding new people you hear about through others on Twitter. Follow people based on their interests, conversation topics, location, mention of your business or based on who they’re following (ie competitors or other stakeholders).  

If you are transparent and honest your followers will return the favour. Twitter is a pool of business opportunities, enter it with a direction and presence and your business’ Twitter personality will flourish along with your business.

Social Media Strategy Checklist

More and more businesses are using social media because it gives them another avenue to connect with customers.

There are so many social media outlets to choose from, but with all the options, how do you determine which ones best suits your business?

Before you sign up and start tweeting or Facebooking, you should think about the social media strategy. This means taking time to stop and think about what you want to accomplish. It’s pointless to create accounts for every social media outlet without a clear understanding of your objectives.

Here are a few questions to answer and points to think about while creating your social media strategy.

• Describe your business.
  If you can’t describe your business and value you have to offer in a sentence, how will potential new customers know what you do? You will need to do this first.
• Why social media? What do you want to accomplish using social media?
  You need to define your objectives on why you want to use social media. Are you joining to make more contacts within your industry? Do you want to build on your relationships using an online medium? Would you like more engagement from your current customers? Do you want others in your industry to know you’re up to date with technology and trends? Whatever your reason, you’re bound to find an outlet that suits your business; the options are plentiful.
• What social media outlets are best for you?
  There are many different options when choosing social media outlets.  Some options include social networking sites (i.e. Facebook), real-time updates or micro-blogs (i.e. Twitter), blogs, social news websites, just to name a few. You need to examine the characteristics of each social media outlet and see which of those support what you want to accomplish. For example, if your goal was to make new contacts with other business professionals in your industry, perhaps LinkedIn would be an outlet to consider.
• Do you have something to share?
  Social media is about sharing content and information, as well as making connections with others. This connectivity is a way to build your relationships and meet new contacts. Do you have something interesting to share? Do you have news? Do you have information that is relevant and fascinating? Having something to share will encourage people to keep coming back for more.
• How will you drive people to participate?
  You can have multiple social media accounts and link them to each other to expand your business’ profile. Do you have something share? Sharing content and information will encourage your contacts to participate in dialogue with you, whether it’s posting a comment on your blog or inviting others to read your information ongoing participation will lead to more interest. Participation is a two-way street, if you make the effort your customers will too, thus building stronger relationships.
• Prepare to lose control of your brand.
  Putting your brand out there will provoke debates, opinions and comments that might not necessarily be favourable. Are you prepared to lose control of the conversations about your business (even just a little)?
• Who will maintain your social media presence? Do you have resources to keep it up?
  Do you have the resources to keep updating your social media profiles? Will you or someone at your company update content, so your ideas and what you have to share is fresh?
• How will you measure success?
  Do you have a metrics system in place that can measure the effectiveness of your social media activity? Will you look at the quality of each comment made to determine if they’re positive, neutral or negative, how will you rate these? Will you be measuring your profile views or how many followers or subscribers you have? Have any business transactions happened as a result of your online conversations? If your goal was to build relationships with other contacts, are you doing this and are your relationships positive? You need some sort of measuring system to tell you whether or not social media is having a positive effect on your business.

Social media is making a big impact on how we do business. Take time out to think about why you want to use it, what outlets are best for you are and how you’re going to measure success.

First impressions last – create the perfect elevator pitch

Whether you’re trying to gain the interest of a potential customer, trying to get the attention of a journalist or simply explain what you do, having a strong elevator pitch is your key to success.

Traditionally, an elevator pitch is a quick summary that you use in any situation where you need to explain your business or what you do in a clear and concise manner. It gets the name ‘elevator pitch’ because you should be able to get through your whole speech in the time it takes to travel from the ground floor to the top floor in an elevator (30-60 seconds).

Why is an elevator pitch so important?
You only get one chance to make a first impression.  An elevator pitch can help you make the most of these first impressions while making networking situations easier and more productive.

An elevator pitch helps in situations where you might be uncomfortable or get a little tongue tied when trying to explain what you do. It gives you a ready-to-go introduction, which can take a lot of the stress out of a situation. Having a well practiced pitch will present you as more confident and self-assured leading to a great first impression.

What should I say in my elevator pitch?
The point of creating an elevator pitch is to design a statement that explains to someone with limited knowledge of your industry, what you do, how you do it and who you do it for. It should be simple, short, concise and easy to understand.

What are the essential Elements of an elevator pitch?
Your elevator pitch needs to be goal orientated and targeted. Ask youself, what is the reason behind my pitch and who am I talking to? You may need to create a different pitch depending on your different objectives and audiences.

Try to include a hook. This is the element that captures your listener’s attention and makes them want to know more. Try to use words or phrases that strike a chord in your listener.

Where do I start?
1. Write down what you do. Get a pen and paper out and write out what you do in different ways about 10-20 times. Don’t be too particular at this stage as this first step is for generating ideas and getting a feel for descriptive words.

2. Determine your objective. What is the point of your pitch? Do you want to gain a new client, make a sale, enlist support for an idea, or entice a journalist to write about you?

3. Develop action statements. Create 10-20 statements or questions designed to act as a call to action in associated with your objective.

4. Record yourself. Listening to a recording of yourself, whilst daunting can help you be more critical of your performance and help you make a decision on the best approach.

5. Get another opinion. Once you have made necessary edits and perfected your pitch to fit into a 30-60 second time frame, run it by as many people as you can. It helps to do this practice with people you trust that already have some understanding of what you do (colleagues, clients, friends and family), so they can best provide feedback.  

6. Practice, practice, practice. Now you have your final product. Write it down and memorise it so you are comfortable delivering it in any situation.

7. Continue to perfect. There is always room for improvement. Listen for phrases that could help make your elevator pitch more clear and powerful. As you, your business, your goals and your services change you will need to change your elevator pitch to reflect these changes.

How to get more blog traffic from Twitter

Starting a blog can be an exciting time. Spending all those hours writing your articles, picking themes, setting up widgets and choosing key words. So it can be very disappointing when you don’t receive as much traffic to your blog as you would have liked.

One of the best ways to increase traffic to your blog is by sharing it through your social networks such as Twitter. PR Fuel has provided several simple tips you can use to increase your blogging traffic through Twitter.

Tweet your new posts:
Don’t be shy! Twitter is all about conversing with people and letting them know what you’re interested in! If people are following you that means they are interested in what you have to say so let them know you have a blog and you have  posted new entries on it!

Tweet about old posts:
Just because a post is old doesn’t mean it’s dead! That’s the beauty of online – content never dies. Retweet an older post from your blog on a regular basis to keep it fresh in people’s minds. Also, if you’re gaining new followers, when you tweet an old post there is always a chance it will be seen by new eyes.

Install a tweet button on your blog:
Think of this button as a type of ‘call to action’. If a person loves your blog post and they see a tweet button they will be more inclined to share your content there and then rather than having to do all that work themselves. The easier you make sharing for a person – the more they will be likely to tweet your content.

Social media is an extremely powerful yet simple tool to use. Don’t be shy about tweeting your own content use your connections to your advantage and start tweeting today! 

Read the full article here.

Top five business New Year’s resolutions and how to achieve them

It is probably said every year, but this year has flown by and it’s around this time that people begin thinking about what they did – their successes and challenges – and what they want to achieve or do differently next year.

Probably the hardest part of a New Year’s resolution is actually sticking to it – but that challenge is also part of the fun. So here are some business resolutions that should be on your list for next year.

1. Embrace change
The communications and media industry is forever moving forward, stop to take a breath and you’ll be left behind. As a small business it is somewhat easier to adapt to change, however that isn’t to say change is any less challenging.

Change is inevitable but it is also a scary concept. To overcome this fear try to do something new – arrange a meeting a new potential client, start a new blog, attend new networking events – every month for the entire year. It may seem small but the only way to embrace change is by creating it yourself so why not have some fun while you’re at it?

2. Network more
As a business owner it is on your shoulders to bring in new clients. Walking into a room full of strangers and pitching your business is not an easy task, it takes determination, courage and copious amounts of practice.

Achieve this resolution by practicing networking through events and any other opportunity that allows you or your employees to socialise with potential clients.

3. Keep up with new social media platforms

Humans are, by nature, creatures of habit. It is a habit to log onto Facebook and Twitter, update a status, send a tweet, look at the news on your wall and follow a particular Twitter stream. But what about all the new platforms that are coming soon or emerging right now?

This resolution is about trying something new and exploring something foreign. To achieve this, join and explore as many new social networks as you can. Each platform, no matter how similar they all may look, offers different and exciting ways to communicate and exchange information – never judge a social media platform by its HTML code.  

4. Take control of your email account
Sometimes the most daunting part of the day is checking emails. This may sound ridiculous and in actual fact it is! Email is meant to be an efficient, effective and easy mode of communication but now it seems to be one of the main time consumers.

Achieving control of an inbox requires more filtering software and a little bit more discipline. Any e-newsletters that can go through to personal email or aren’t needed at all should be changed and better spam filters should be put in place to ensure majority of your received mail is relevant.

5. Grow
Growth is a part of life and definitely apart of business and this last resolution links back to the first one. In order to grow things must change and vice versa.

To achieve this all other resolutions need to be embraced. Network more, embrace change, keep up with all the changes in social media and reduce the time spent on communication mediums such as email, leaving more time to focus on growing the business, networking and embracing change.

The year 2012 is bound to be an exciting one filled with changes, challenges, successes and learning curves. Starting off with clear set goals and how you plan to achieve them is a great way to enter into the New Year! 

How to media train executives

Nothing can prepare a person better for an interview than practicing with an actual journalist during a media training session.

It’s very rare to receive the interview questions before the actual interview – most are lucky if they receive a theme on what the questions will be based on. However, media training with an actual journalist can really help – especially when it comes down to having to answers those tricky questions.

PR Daily has provided a couple of tips on how to media train executives. 

Be prepared for the unknown:
Journalists will generally start off with a list of questions. Occasionally (but not very often) they will send over the questions for preparation.

However, it is vital you drill into the executives that this is just a guide – the chances of them straying and asking a round of different questions to what has been sent through is very, very likely.
The best skill executives can learn in media training sessions is the skill to think on their feet and provide sufficient answers to the questions that always leads back to key messages.

Lead with a positive:
During the feedback session ensure that you always lead with a positive and suggest ways they can improve on the negative.

Most executives going through media training for the first time aren’t going to get it right straight away so be sure to encourage the good points and help create solutions for the bad ones.

Ask for questions:
At the end of each media training session be sure to leave time to ask for questions. Question time can be the most valuable part of any training session.

You may find that something you think to be basic knowledge is a confusing issue for someone else.

Read the full article here.