Posts Tagged ‘blogs’

Copywriting: You Sometimes Really Only Need A Few Inches

Monday, June 4th, 2012

Copywriting: You Sometimes Really Only Need A Few Inches

When I interview someone, I focus on only a handful of questions. This incited some photographers to jokingly complain my interviews lasted less than the time they took setting up equipment. Once, a photographer considered my interview so extraordinarily short, he asked his own questions apparently for no other reason than as an attempt to extend our visit. If someone gave good sound bites from the beginning, I felt no need to ask more questions just to ask them.

This reminds me of reading many blogs, which I begin hoping are rich with useful information. What I often find is a blogger hammering home the same point over and over. Little more emerges than what seems like a high school student’s attempt to impress a teacher by offering a slew of words that in the end say so little.

It’s OK if blogs offer a small contribution of advice. And we applaud bloggers who don’t feel obligated to post a substantial amount of words simply because someone decided three paragraphs just isn’t enough.

Sometimes a good blog emerges in one paragraph. Feeling a need to flood a screen with an excess of empty and repetitive words may one day persuade readers your blog is not even worth beginning.

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Media Training: Talk To Bloggers And Journalists Even If Your Hair Is Full Of Shampoo

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Media Training: Talk To Bloggers And Journalists

 

  1. Pick up the phone:  My phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number and considered ignoring it. Was another financial expert calling to persuade me to allow him to manage my money after talking to him for only three minutes? I picked up the phone. A reporter was calling. He wanted to talk to people who were inspired to start their own businesses by the economy.
  2. Make time:  The journalist called as I was walking out the door. I could have explained I was busy. I didn’t. Cell phones have a cool feature:  They allow you to continue calls without a wire staying connected to the wall. Cell phones have speakerphones. You can drive somewhere, with caution, while continuing a conversation. My phone’s battery was running low. I could have told the journalist to call back. I didn’t. I gave him a new number to call. His battery was low, too, and he needed to call back in about 20 minutes. When I called people for interviews when I reported on TV, individuals and big companies gave me countless excuses on why they couldn’t talk to me. (My favorite excuse was how bringing a camera in their store would disrupt customers.) Make yourself available. If people told me they didn’t have time to talk to me for a news story, I moved on to the next business to interview. I was on a deadline. I didn’t have time to wait and make myself convenient for someone’s schedule. If you want media attention, re-arrange your schedule. Do some quick thinking. Don’t miss an opportunity.
  3. Leave the shampoo in your hair:  When the reporter called back later, I was in the shower, my hair full of shampoo. I turned off the water, left the shampoo in my hair and wiped the suds away from my forehead so they didn’t drip into my eyes or onto the cell phone while I tried to put together coherent sentences. I didn’t tell the reporter to call back. He was on a deadline.
  4. Be open:  I didn’t fully enjoy my last two years as a TV reporter. The environment and the job were no longer for me. I didn’t sugarcoat this. Anyone can draw a pretty picture. PR pros and CEOs shoveled a lot of BS my way when I asked questions. Be transparent on why you made the decisions you made. Being honest makes you real. Being real makes you more interesting.
  5. Be personable:  Some people are very guarded when talking to bloggers or journalists. They sound more like robots than humans. Be personable. I talked to this journalist about his family. We discussed issues important to us. We talked about journalism. I learned he once lived in the same city as Loren. I found out he once lived near where I grew up. Again, be real.
  6. Don’t ignore small media:  The journalist may have interviewed me for a story so small, readers may need a magnifying glass. I don’t care. When I was a TV journalist, I sometimes covered great stories I found in smaller publications. You may see a story yourself the first time on the network news or written by the Associated Press, but sometimes those reports were first covered by journalists in smaller markets. And small blogs, publications or media outlets all have loyal readers, viewers and listeners. You’re not too big for small media … even if your hair is full of shampoo.

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Posted in Media Relations, Media Training, Public Relations | 1 Comment »

Public Relations: How Starbucks brews up customer conversations

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Many companies make it difficult to reach them when you have a comment or problem. You often have to dig deep on a website to find a contact number or email address. Not Starbucks. I’ve always been impressed with how the company goes out of its way to solicit customer feedback and engage in conversations. I was in a Starbucks recently and noticed a small brochure that said, “Share your thoughts with us.” I liked its message: “It’s how we know we’re making your experience at Starbucks the best it can be. So please tell us what’s working, or if there’s anything we could be doing better. Don’t worry. We’ll take it personally.”

Beyond that, I was impressed that Starbucks creates custom feedback brochures for each district that gives customers many ways to provide feedback:

  • Main customer service number
  • http://www.starbucks.com/customer-service/contact (a number of ways to reach Starbucks online, through social media conversations, etc.)
  • Mailing address
  • The name of the district manager (yes – you read that right)
  • The district manager’s phone number (yes, really!)
  • The district manager’s email address (yes, really again!)
  • The store number you visited.

 

Beyond that, Starbucks takes the whole customer feedback and conversation strategy to the next level. Have you heard of mystarbucksidea.com? It’s an online forum that allows customers to share ideas on products, experience and community. Customers can post their ideas, comment on ideas (Starbucks does, too) and vote on ideas to give them points. Starbucks lets you know which ideas are in action via blog posts written by actual Starbucks corporate employees.

Do you know of any companies using great techniques to solicit customer feedback?

See our related post on Costco’s approach to customer feedback.

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Target and Breastfeeding: How To Turn A PR Problem Into A Positive

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

A mom says Target employees humiliated her while she breastfed her baby in the store. To support her, breastfeeding mothers then staged a nationwide “nurse-in” at Target stores. How did the company deal with the nurse-in and media attention? To borrow one of Target’s lines, we “expect more.”

Support Groups:  If an advocacy group contacts your company about an event at your business, quickly answer questions. Post comments on their blogs explaining your position. Support groups frequently feel strongest about issues. They pass on concerns to the broader public that may not be paying close attention. Don’t underestimate the power of such groups. Work with them. Be sympathetic. Surprise them and support their concerns when possible. The groups will share the company’s goodwill with the public and explain how the business is turning a problem into a positive. A group describing its mission as “to change the cultural perception of breastfeeding” says it was tough communicating with Target about the breastfeeding incident. The group says someone from Target eventually called back and summarized the call by releasing a statement. Meanwhile advocates pointed to how Whole Foods handled things when facing a breastfeeding incident.

Facebook: Acknowledge the complaints. Stun the planet and ask people to share stories and post pictures. Respond to questions. Embrace your role in the discussion. Welcome shoppers who may usually favor the competition and prove your company is a different type of business. In the Target case, mothers used a Facebook page to organize. As we wrote this, the page included more than 7500 members. The day of the nurse-in, Target posted on its Facebook page “How long do you leave your holiday decorations up?” Some people used the comment section to discuss the breastfeeding issue.

Twitter:  Target was more on target on Twitter. We read several examples of Target responding to people on Twitter about breastfeeding. Here are examples of the company’s posts to Twitter:

  • We support breastfeeding too. We have a long-standing policy allowing breastfeeding in public areas of our stores.
  • We continue to educate our team members on the policy, and ask guests to contact us if they don’t feel comfortable.
  • Nursing mothers are welcome to breastfeed in our stores, including in public areas, wherever comfortable.
  • We have a long standing policy that allows breastfeeding in our stores and have addressed the Team Member incident.
  • We’re happy to support nursing mothers! Please let us know if you encounter any problems.

 

YouTube:  Post a video. Make clear the services your company offers for, in this case, breastfeeding moms. Video puts a face on your company. A video helps you standout while engaging and educating viewers. Video may capture attention more than any press release. Target has a YouTube channel called Target Theater with more than six thousand subscribers. We didn’t see any videos about breastfeeding or the nurse-in. Watch a recent example of a FedEx video responding to a PR problem.

Pressroom:  Provide news releases and links about the situation. Give phone, email and social media information for contacts specifically handling the situation. Give a timeline of what happened. Recognize what journalists want to see. Target’s pressroom states the “Target Public Relations team is always interested in hearing about how to serve the media better.” We searched but could not find news releases about the nurse-in and breastfeeding situation.

Media Relations:  We read several statements Target released about breastfeeding. We didn’t see a lot of Target spokespeople on air. We saw a Target manager on ABC News saying “Target is a family-oriented company, so if a guest chooses to breastfeed in our store, Target supports it 100%.” Target’s pressroom lists four media contacts. The efforts of those contacts, management and support staff should expand way beyond news releases. Identify managers in geographical regions the company feels comfortable putting on TV. Fly key team members to areas needing help handing media questions. Consider allowing a “pool camera” in each TV market to shoot video of the breastfeeding moms.

A company might win the war of words by drawing up a conservative game plan, taking a few hits and assuming the PR problem will blow over and be forgotten. If you like to do things the way they’ve always been done, feel free to play prevent defense. But PR problems also open opportunities to establish your company as an industry leader while inspiring trust and growing your reputation. Drop the icy and impersonal company language for something thoughtful and sincere and watch the headlines change. Expect more.

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Posted in Media Relations, Public Relations, Social Media, Video | No Comments »

Blahgging

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

I try to read all the blogs I subscribe to even if I fall hopelessly behind. I worry if I skip one or skim another too quickly, I might miss a tidbit of information that could prove significant to success. But in my effort to leave no word unread, I’ve noticed a trend. Some bloggers use one catch phrase after another or drop a lot of industry lingo and never tell me anything useful. I assume the practical advice is coming and it doesn’t. The writer speaks with such confidence and I patiently wait for the payoff. What I get is a waste of words. It’s like writing that high school paper you’re not prepared for and hoping big vocabulary and long sentences will make you sound smart when actually you’re saying nothing. It’s like watching that cleverly scripted movie that just ends without really finishing.

I’m not talking about blogging. It’s blahgging. Blahgging, blahgging, blahgging. I still try to read every blog, but if someone doesn’t get to the point quickly, I won’t read to the end. And if you’re wondering what’s this blog’s useful information, it’s this reminder. Just because someone is blogging and writes as if they’re a professor talking to a student, it doesn’t mean they necessarily have anything important to say or even know what they’re talking about. I call it blahgging. In other words, Internet BSing.

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Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Why use social media for your business?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Some people don’t want to dive into social media such as Facebook, a blog or Twitter. It’s the fear, the fear of coming face to face with people bashing your business. Here’s the thing. People are talking about you whether you listen or not.

“What we’ve got here is… failure to communicate.” Choosing to avoid social media is like choosing not to communicate with your customers. Plus, social media provides instant customer recovery opportunities. It gives you a way to respond, a chance to address concerns and to be part of the conversation.

Even if someone starts off mad, someone on your staff must have the skills to use social media to send them off with a smile. A duck and cover approach only gives your competitors an advantage to step in and start conversations with your customers.

“If you build it, they will come.” Social media is a great way to bring your customers to you. By providing useful, interesting, entertaining information sprinkled with occasional promotional offers through social media outlets, you’re likely to attract and engage customers who are interested in what you have to say. They’re choosing to interact with you.

Social media also helps your customers find you because social media postings show up in search engines results. Plus, research shows that at least 90 percent of consumers start with search engines when they want to purchase something.

“Just do it.” Do it how you want or put in place a social media strategy. It’s also a good idea to start small with one social media tool like Twitter or Facebook. You don’t have to tackle several tools at once. Check out other companies to see how they’re using social media and what’s working or not. Join in conversations.

And, even better, many social media tools don’t cost you anything to use. Why let people talk behind your virtual back when you have the tools to give yourself a second chance?

Do you have social media success stories to share? We’d love to hear them!

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