Online Profiling: Speaking to One vs. Many

There has been a shift in the methods that defines on-line marketing on customer outreach.  Today the efforts are not so much like using megaphone and getting your message out there as loudly and as noticeably as you can –  so that as many people as possible hear what you have to say and know what your brand is.  It has gone from more of an outreach measured by quantity to a direct and personal message outreach towards an individual. This individual is who you have created the message for. You altered and molded that message for what this person likes, what they think about, what they do in their free time, what kind of family they have, and what they are passionate about. Web technology is now more and more geared to collect personal information about you based on what web sites your visiting, and what you are talking about in your e-mails.  Is it invasive or…awesome? It’s a little process called “on-line profiling” and I vote awesome.  (I would much rather see a Michael Kors add pop up on the left of my monitor than one for Home Depot.) Companies (and on-line brands especially) SHOULD tailor our ads to what a customer likes, especially companies that aim to have an active social web presence.   Cater to your audience, as individuals, instead of using broader advertising and marketing to capture a group.  Sometimes you have to figure out what your average individual customer would be like based on your target group.  What would your ideal customer be like? (Someone that would be most interested in the tool/services/products that you have to offer.)   What music would that person listen to while jogging on a Saturday morning? What kind of connection tools are they interested in on-line? What types of circles do they run in? What are their interests and goals? You use those things to connect them with your brand on a more personal and intimate level. Speak right to the heart of what they want and need. The social media tools that currently exist are rapidly developing to allow marketers  to become much more personally involved with their audience and community.  Eric Imbs talks about how giving the customer an opportunity to choose their favorite color or favorite car, then cater to them based on their choice. He says, “colour is… a much more personal piece of information, which if used properly could make an ad much more targeted and….personal.” Through the on-line profiling that is possible today, we are allowed to get to know our customers at a closer level.  Use this.  Stop shooting for the crowds attention, and connect with your customers on a more intimate level.

Corporate Blogs and Twittering

I have heard arguments both for and against blogging or twittering on behalf of a corporation. According to MediaWeek for the last several years, new marketing experts have implored corporations to “join the conversation,” namely through blogging. The problem being is that currently, several years into the blogging phenomenon, not many consumers trust these corporate blogs.  Personally, there are many corporate blogs I read, trust and enjoy. One of them is the Google Reader blog. I find it informative, personal and easy to relate to in the first person plural tone in which it is written. I think it’s possible to have a successful corporate blogging experience.  AdAge reported that 20% of the Fortune 500 have blogs.   Chris Baggott says, that “almost every one of those blogs are the traditional C-level, Thought Leadership kind of blather.” He claims that people don’t trust the C-level. The only successful corporate blogging approach is one that includes employees, because that’s where the trust factor comes in. Employees are the credible source. Does that mean that we can twitter or blog with a company/brand name if we first explain (in our profiles) that we are (name) blogging on behalf of (company) ??  Is that simple acknowledgement, of an individual actually typing the posts or sending the tweets, enough to earn a consumers trust?

I liked these Five Steps to a Successful Corporate Twitter Presence on how best to use corporate twitter accounts, when you do want to use a brand/company name for your twitter.

1. Listen. It’s easy to set up and subscribe to a search of your brand or company name.
2. Add value. Provide useful content for those that choose to follow you.
3. Only follow when followed or mentioned. Having an anonymous entity follow you is a bit like receiving spam – you don’t know who it is or why you’re getting it. If your following:followers ratio is more than 2:1 then you are probably being a bit desperate.
4. Reply. Respond to every tweet directed at you.
5. Use replies rather than direct messages. Be transparent about what you’re saying to others on Twitter.

Is it a good move to introduce a blog for a personal brand or company if it’s the behind the scenes employees that do the posting and tweeting and own up to it?? Or is this still a risk for consumer mis-trust? What do you think?

7 Interesting Things About Me

Usually I try to keep this blog professional, forward thinking, proactive (for myself), and use it mainly to impart knowledge on the topics that I myself am dabbling in and learning about.  However — this was too much fun of an opportunity to pass up…. David Mullen recent tagged me in a post as one of seven people that he finds  interesting. (I’m interesting — go figure!)  So here are seven things you didn’t know about me…

1.  I went skydiving out of helicopter in Interlocken, Switzerland. By far the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Amazing life changing experience.  If you haven’t been skydiving yet – no excuses – DO IT.  And if anyone out there is reading this and wants to pay the mula for me to do it in San Diego, I’d do it in a heartbeat!

2. I’m religious. I was raised in a Christian home, and in my adult life my faith is something personal and dear to me. I believe in Jesus Christ and am always pushing to make fellowship, service, and missions  a bigger part of my life.  Also – I go to the Rock Church in San Diego.

3.  I have a severe obsession with colored post-it’s and school/office supplies in general. Sharpie color packs, tabs, highlighters, etc.

4. I once got in trouble for vandalism at a Family Camp when I was in Junior High. My girl friends and I decorated an old shack by campsite to be our Girls Club with do-a-dot markers, and our intentions were  misinterpreted to say the least.

5.  I dream of devoting my life to helping others — or what it would be like if I could quit my job and move to a third world country where they struggle with food, clothing, shelter — the basics of survival . One day – when I am more financial stable – I hope to be able to do this, spend all my time, energy and money on service to those who struggle with these life essentials.

6. I adore my family.  I have the most talented, hilarious, and fun-to-be-around older brother and younger sister, and I couldn’t ask for better parents if I made them up myself. My mom is a role model to say the least, a incredibly compassionate woman and faithful and loyal friend. My dad is more hard-working, dedication, dependable than almost anyone I know. I’m incredibly lucky.

7.  Movies are a huge passion of mine. I had an emphasis on film studies in college and enjoyed classes such as Italian Cinema.  One of my all time favorite movies  is The Pursuit of Happyness, it’s an incredible movie based on a real story in which Will Smith plays Chris Gardner, a homeless man  struggling to live with his 5-year old son in San Francisco who later becomes a self-made millionaire.  It’s an amazing story (and Will Smith is incredible in it).

Well, I hope that wasn’t too painful for anyone! Now, according to the rules — here are seven people to participate in the next round that I think are interesting and would love to know more about.

Andrew Finkle

Crosby Noricks

Ryan Graves

Sarah Essary

Justin Thorp

Eric Imbs

Devin Brown

The rules are:

Link your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.

Share seven facts about yourself in the post.

Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.

Let them know they’ve been tagged

Marketing in a Bad Market

Working for a CFP in a financial industry recently has got me thinking of how the current economic situation effects marketing and Public Relations efforts for those who DON’T work in finance.  For a financial planner you have all the more reason to up the promotions during these thought times. But what does it mean for the rest of us in PR? How do we view this situation and keep incentive and positivity for our clients??

In Ad Age’s “5 Tips to Cope — or Thrive — Through Downtown”, they claim that the good news is that remarkable innovation occurs in marketing and media — in the worst of times.  Good thing for us marketers/branders/launchers/and PR folk, we are in the worst of times… (or something like it)!  Time Magazine (which started Fortune) launched at the start of the great depression, and the magazine has made a large chunk of their wealth with magazines which were launched during recession years. Some examples:  Time (1923); Fortune (1930); Sports Illustrated (1954); People (1974); Entertainment Weekly (1990). Also, regarding marketing in a bad economy, Jack Humphrey says that in times like this it is important to get beyond the excuse of “my sales are down because of the economy”.  It’s a false mentality. Instead start brainstorming new and better ways to help SOLVE people’s problems to attract more attention to your products. (Which should become the solving problem products). All you have to do is what the competing products will not do, in order to solve the problem for the customer. While others companies are lamenting the market loss, you’ll be moving forward with marketing and promo efforts. However, don’t market as if you don’t know that customers are concerned about the times. Address the issue. Then help them deal with it. Use your product to capture their attention and ease their minds from chaos that is currently our economy. Identify an aspect of your product/client that positively relates to the economy downturn.  Create a positive light, and then promote it!

Brand Perception: It’s important and here’s why.

Brand perception is incredibly important right now because in this economy consumers are reluctant to buy. They want a brand that they can trust, they know they are getting value from,  and a brand that cares abot them and interacts with them as a customer.  Taking these steps towards building a strong brand reputation via the social web is a big step.   People are purchasing trustworthy brands and seeking out product information to make the best economic decisions. Public relations is the key to garnering this consumer trust.

If public relations can save the day by setting up a strong brand image, a big part of this will mean building an online community – which is a great way to converse with your customers.  It all depends on what you want you’re brand to say. Think about it this way if you could lift your logo and have invisible tag-lines/messages underneath what would they be? What do you want your brands image to communicate to the customer who may be hesitant to buy/trust/get on board? Here are some important underlying themes that I believe brands should adopt (right now especially) in order to be successful with their customers in this economy:

- Your brand should care about the customers.
- Your brand should reach out to them online through your network/community.
- Your brand should take the time to listen to it’s customers/users and hear what suggestions and feedback they might have. USE Twitter, Facebook, forums, whatever just GET INTERACTIVE (they are plenty of outlets).

Brand perception is the key to success.  It’s all about whether or not the customer can see value in your product.  Your job is to see that they do see value and can trust you/your brand.  What extra steps do you think can be made to encourage the trust and loyalty of your consumers by improving the overall perception of your personal brand?

Building an Online Community

Social web presence.  Building a brand on-line. We know it’s an important part of Public Relations and Marketing and Branding. But once we recognize it’s importance, the question is…. how do we do it???

Are you sick of hearing the answer that you need to first find your target audience, talk to them directly, so on and so forth.  If so, you aren’t alone.  While these steps are important building blocks, we are constantly hearing them. We need to know more don’t we?  We need new direction. What is the real NEXT step, what do we do after we figure out who to target, and how do we target them? Now that we’ve realized how important it is to build a social network, how do we do it?  We need to help to figure out how to build a buzz about our brand and create our on-line community.

An important question to ask ourselves is how do we want to disseminate information? Do we want to send mailings, do we want to allow consumers to talk amongst themselves via message boards and live chats? What modes of communication do you want to introduce and build your community around? Blogging and twitter, or forums, e-blasts and pod-casts? What combination of networking methods will work the best and make the most sense for your brand?

Mega Star Media wisely says that you need to consider if you can run the community by yourself, you need to determine what type of resources it will take to build the on-line community that you want. This is important to recognize from the very beginning. Hosting a web presence and on-line network can definitely be a full time job! This may mean hiring someone more equip to take on the task and manage the on-line branding.  If this is financially an option, get in touch with those who know more about social media than you and bring them on board to become a part of your brand/company.  For example companies like SocialDreamium who offers a  collection of tools and services that help you take full advantage of the social web for your brand. Think of it as outsourced community management. SocialDreamium works to grow your audience, and is built to help brands who may be struggling with the how to’s of social networking.

It’s sometimes difficult to figure out what comes next, but in the world of social media, many of us are learning as we go.  These are the first few steps, a couple of important things to think about as you begin launch your brand on the social web. So get out there, get started, and good luck!

Where are the young women?

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to that fact that I am in the work force, I’ve got a social web presence that I am working on strengthening, I feel motivated to continue building my skill set, experiences, and opportunities, and… I am a woman.  I am often talking to my roommate about the fact that we’ve recently lost a handful of friends to marriage at the ripe age of 22/23 and how frankly, that scares us to death.  How could you possibly be ready to settle that early in life? (Now, with all do respect, to each his own, etc, I’m not judging young marriages at all!) That being said, I have seen some young brides sit around at home, trying to figure out what they do with their lives and what they feel passionate about.  Maybe if they felt the pressure of a paycheck and things would be moving a little faster for them…I’m just saying.

I have made some great connections via twitter and other social web outlets and I’ve gotten great advice and encouragement through these connections. (Especially through the lay off and job search phase I just came out of.)  However, sometimes I feel frustrated that they aren’t more young women out there who are fearful, ambitious, and worried about the same things.  Granted, there are a large number of successful women , it’s my age group that I am often frustrated with.  I am blessed to have a handful of great (girl)friends who are in great jobs,  law school, etc and who all performing well.  They are powerful and successful young women – but why does it feel we are outnumbered?

Maybe these are simply the rantings of a someone who has consistently been the youngest in the office, and is about to start work as part of a team of older males.  Either way, I’m learning to fight the self doubt that says, I’m just a young female in this office…  and turn those into positive thoughts that assure me I have more insight and more energy and will be better because of it!!

Negotiating: Pushy and cheap? Or just smart?

I used to think of negotiating as embarrassing. I would duck my head as my friend fought over jewelry prices in Tijuana during a high school trip across the border. Negotiating was this thing my parents would do that would embarrass me, bickering over prices… I thought it was incredibly awkward. (I was the girl who paid way too much for the cute bag from the vendors on the streets of Florence because I didn’t want to have that conversation.)  As I got older I realized that at times, this might be a skill I needed to be confident in.  As I struggled with what is acceptable to say and do as I balanced job offers out of college, friends and family helped me understand how to negotiate in a professional and acceptable manner.  What I’m trying to say here is that I used to feel impolite and cheap but over time I have come to learn how incredibly valuable the art of negotiating really is.

Let’s refresh, negotiation is a dialogue intended to resolve disputes, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, or to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. So the conclusion I have come to is that negotiating is an incredibly strategic ability, one that you will highly benefit from mastering.  Yes, fighting with the sales man at Verizon over the price of the new Blackberry Storm may not be the best choice of practicing your negotiation skills — there are the right times and places to strategically strike a deal.  Andrew Finkle boldly says, “make no mistake about it EVERYTHING can be negotiated.” And I think there is so much truth in that statement. (See his blog for great insight on negotiation as an art.)  The book “Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich: 75 Avoidable Mistakes Women Make With Money” talks about how many woman miss out on bonuses, raises, and benefits because they are timid when it comes to negotiating and asking for benefits that they may deserve (things men often aren’t as shy to ask for).  It was when I read this that I started to realize how important the skill of negotiation would become for me in my career. I have since done my best to never be too shy to ask about perks or benefits that I could be qualified for. I learned this isn’t pushy or greedy, but SMART.

On the other hand, I am by no means advocating using dirty tricks or manipulation because that can undermine trust and damage longstanding relationships when it comes to business negotiations. Playing dirty can obviously harm important business relationships which is why you must always have good sportsmanship when it comes to negotiating in a professional environment. Honesty and openness are almost always the best policies in the working world. Mind Tools: Excellent Skills for an Excellent Career’s Win Win Negotiation article talks about all of this and even goes into detail about how to prepare for a successful negotiation.

Remember the Friend’s episode where Chandler wanted to quit the gym? “I wanna quit the gym!” That was a fun negotiation to watch fail miserably… especially when he ended up staying at the gym and adding a joint checking account with Ross at the bank.  But seriously, the gym is a good example — don’t be afraid to play the game until you’ve been offered a fair deal! I recently went through this while joining a new gym and what did I learn once again? Don’t be afraid to negotiate!

The Perfect Press Kit

The perfect press kit is designed to garner media mention, TV coverage, radio airplay and more. But kits have to be tailored to a certain audience, and sometimes it’s hard to know what to include. What is too much? What’s not enough? What will this particular media outlet think is important? Because your kit is usually going to many different media outlets, it’s important that the kit be adaptable. It should be easy to alter slightly and be tailored to its specific destination.

Providing a Press Kit is just one strategy, and it’s not usually useful alone. Reporters will need to have some prior interest (or at least knowledge) before the kit gets in their hands so that they know how to use the contents. At a minimum, plan on contacting media contacts prior, and ALWAYS after you provide the Press Kit.  Be ready to offer additional information, and elaborate on any pitches/stories you think might appeal to them. Generate a variety of story ideas and have more than one appealing approach to share with them!

Some important things to think about when putting together your press kit.

1. What is the overall goal of the Press Kit?

2. Who is the audience? (If you pitching to a radio station for example, who listens to that station?? Because that’s who they will care about…)

3. What do I want to accomplish? Get specific in defining measurable objectives. If you want to garner media attention, how many articles? In how many markets? This is what you want to accomplish in numbers and percentages!

4. Why should members of the local news media care? Make sure you address this question, why will they care about you are pitching??

A Press Kit will always be more successful if you attach it along with other opportunities. For example, offering to do a live interview (this can be you or someone else you work with who would feel comfortable jumping in front of the camera and talking about what this pitch is all about)! This could also include providing the reporter with special opportunities to go behind the scenes, give a special demonstration, let them see what it’s all about from the inside out. This might apply to a speaker giving a conference, being let in the studio for a radio or TV show, etc. This is likely to draw them in and will go a long way in building relationships with media.

What is included?
Remember to keep the packaging generic. Your company’s name/logo and contact is enough. Don’t include photos that will become outdated quickly. You should also keep the packaging consistent from one press kit to the next, only the inside contents should change.

Press release: There might be more than one if you decide to tailor a couple to different markets.

Executive profiles with bios: Tell them a little about the people at your company/brand, make sure they have all the information on these people they would need to do a piece on them.

High resolution photos: Having a strong visual aspect in your press kit is, I think, very important, a huge selling factor.

Cover letter: It’s always idea to do a cover letter to personalize your press kit to that media outlet if it’s possible, and make sure you are addressing it to the right person!

Corporate or marketing materials for your company: Be careful, as I said before, not to include too many extras, but if you have some strong pieces for a company launch or expansion type of pitch than strong marketing materials could be great item.

Positive media quotes: You can include positive press quotes, if the media has already said great things about your brand, show that off! (These quotes might be best included in your press release, or in your marketing materials.)

Business cards/contact information: Your contact should be on multiple pieces, don’t make it hard for them to get in touch with you if they have questions or want to know more!!

Once you are done compiling — go back over everything and take out anything that seems extraneous to your specific messages. You don’t want anything to take away from you clear vision and objectives for this pitch!

Lastly, when you are delivering this press kit, be enthusiastic but avoid being a nuisance.  Remember that no matter how hard you work at your pitch, be prepared to face some who are disinterested, possibly annoyed, and unfortunately sometimes rude. Hey… we’re in PR aren’t we? Remember, relationships with media take time!

Ghost Blogging: What do YOU think?

One of the things that surprised my brother, Ryan, when he got a glimpse into my job at a PR firm here in San Diego was the normality of ghost writing. He thought it seemed dishonest. It’s an interesting practice that does seem pretty dishonest. (Probably because it is!) As someone who has a passion for A. writing and B. public relations, I have done my fair share of writing for other bylines. There are perks and pains to this. It’s a great way to get writing experience as a newbie in the industry (I should know) and it’s also a fabulous way to watch your writing get ripped apart by those whose edits you can learn so much from (again… I should know). The downside — you would love to take that op-ed you spent days and days editing and use it has a writing sample wouldn’t you? Too bad. Technically, it’s not officially written by you (but rather someone who didn’t see it until it’s final draft). The reality is that ghost writing is going to happen whether we agree with it or not. And I’m not trying to bash a common practice of the an industry I obviously support, I’m just being honest here. (One of my goals for this blog, keeping it honest!) Just because ghost writing is an effective way to accomplish many many goals we set in PR for our clients, doesn’t make it an honest practice. The bottom line is, when someone attaches their byline to words they are saying they agree and can call the words their own — and in this, some honesty is regained. There will always be people that we want to hear from who are simply too busy to get their words out there frequently and ghost writing is part of closing that gap.

Now, when we take that concept of ghost writing and apply it to blogs, do our feelings about it change at all? Is it okay for a team/staff to blog for their company’s CEO? It’s fairly common that bloggers are getting jobs writing blog posts for corporate executives too busy or inarticulate to do it themselves.  So are we learning to accept this? My thoughts are this: What if we want to hear from someone who just doesn’t have the time to connect with us on a daily basis?  Wouldn’t we willingly accept a briefing from their staff or team? After all, who better to tell us what Barama was up leading up to the election than his campaign manager?

While my thoughts, opinion and research on this subject are not even close to being decided or completed… for now my consensus is this: there is a middle ground.  For now I’d have to semi-disagree with this angle of thought — Rory Cellan-Jones quotes Tom Coats in The Business of Blogging, “The value of having a blog as an executive is to have a conversation with the people who use your products, to be part of the community and to talk honestly. To have it ghost-written is utterly pointless.”  I think that while it is extremely important for company or brand’s blogs to maintain an honest and authentic tone the main thing is that the CONTENT of the blog needs to come from Barama himself. However, if our president elect is dictating/interviewing with a staffer who then takes it to the keyboard… if that’s what it takes to get the content and info to me. I’ll take it.

But… what do YOU think???