Apparently, there are quite a few PR Insider readers who know they should be building a following on social networks, but aren’t sure how to get started. Last week’s how-to on Facebook got lots of requests for more.

So this week, let’s jump platforms and talk Twitter. That’s the social network, along with Facebook, credited with helping launch the Arab Spring of protests in Africa and the Middle East last year. If Tweets can topple long-standing dictatorships in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, imagine what they can do for you!

On Twitter, people share their thoughts, observations, calls to action, complaints, photos – anything that can be passed along in messages, called Tweets, of 140 characters or less, including web links. By best estimates, Twitter has about 500 million users. And, like Facebook and other social networks, users don’t build followings by “advertising” themselves and pitching their products, services or books. Rather, they gain and keep followers by sharing interesting, useful and otherwise engaging content.

So how do you get launched? Once again, I turned to our Social Media Campaign Manager, Jeni Hinojosa, to share some basic instructions and tips about using Twitter to build your brand and credibility.

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It’s easy to get up and running on Twitter. Just go to Twitter.com, enter your real name, email address, create a password and click “sign up for Twitter.” On the next page, you’ll be asked for a user name. Give some thought to this. You may want a user name that reflects your brand. For instance, our wonderfully creative, Creative Director, Penny Carnathan, has a gardening blog called Diggin’ Florida Dirt that she works on when she’s not working at the EMSI offices. Penny chose DigginPenny as her user name. A business owner might choose the name of his or her company, e.g. EMSI.

Next, fill out your profile page. Make sure to use your real name here and upload a photo of yourself, so people can put a face to your user name. Businesses may choose to use a company logo. Take care when filling out your bio: The information should share your passion and expertise in conversational fashion and, of course, it should relate to the brand you’re trying to build.

Your bio must be 160 characters, including spaces, or less, so feel free to use Internet shorthand, such as ampersands for “and.”

For example, DigginPenny wrote, “Garden writer for the Tampa Bay Times, former garden writer for The Tampa Tribune (The Dirt), and avid suburban gardener sharing news & tips for Central Fla.”

Next, look for people to follow – people whose Tweets will show up on your home page. This is important; you won’t get followers without taking this step. You can look for people you know by searching for them by name in the “people search.” Better yet, click #Discover – “hashtag Discover” – at the top of your home page.

The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It’s a way to categorize messages. Users include hashtag terms in their Tweets, like #bargains or #travel, to help people searching for this specific information. Penny searched for #gardening to find users to follow. She looked at the Tweets that popped up and clicked on users’ profile pictures to see their bios and decide whether their content would interest her. Then she clicked “follow” to subscribe to their posts.

She could also look for people Tweeting about other topics that interest her – #birds and #sustainable would likely turn up a diverse array of folks who also like gardening.

Once you’re following people, check your home page a few times a day to read their Tweets. If you find one useful or entertaining, click “Retweet” to pass it along. The person who originally posted it will probably thank you – and follow you! And start composing your own Tweets. Depending on your topic, you might share helpful tips; news of upcoming events; links to helpful articles; even personal insights like, “Great day for the beach!”

What you shouldn’t share are pleas to buy, or overt pitches of, your product, book or services. Twitter and other networks are social media – not on-line billboards. You wouldn’t go to a party with a stack of books or business cards and set up a sales booth by the door, right? Instead, you’d circulate, try to be friendly and engaging and, when people ask what you do, you can say, “Funny you should ask! I just published a novel.”

Don’t be afraid to get started – Tweeting might just change your world!

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Now that you’ve had a crash course in Twitter, I hope you’ll feel more comfortable about giving it a whirl. It’s really very straightforward and the potential audience is enormous. The best thing about it? It doesn’t take much to come up with a 140-character message.

#BuildAudience,
@MarshaFriedman

Worthy goals, to be sure, but usually there’s something else they want to achieve and they haven’t taken the time to really think about what that is. It’s the thing that motivates them. It’s the underlying passion that gets them excited and energized. This is the very thing that needs to be identified because it has to be the essence of their message.

Let me share a story with you about three cardiologists who’d all written books and were all clients here at EMSI. (For those of you who are not authors, pretend our cardiologists had each developed a health-care product.) You might think these three men would have similar passions, similar books and, ultimately, similar messages. Not the case! While each ultimately wanted to see his book become a bestseller, their motivations were entirely different.

One had witnessed time and time again the power of simple diet and lifestyle changes in preventing heart disease. He personally embraced this natural approach to health-care and was evangelical in his zeal to share it. His book had low-cholesterol recipes, stress-reduction exercises, and explanations of the effects of certain foods and behaviors on the heart.

The second client’s book was about end-of-life issues. It included ways to make legally binding decisions before illness impairs one’s cognitive ability. The deep-seated passion for his message stemmed from having dealt with his own life-threatening illness – heart disease.

And the third client wrote about taking care of your heart, with a focus on a simple, non-invasive test that can detect heart disease. This doctor’s drive came from having grown close to patients whose hearts were already severely damaged by the time they were diagnosed. He desperately wanted to educate people about this simple way of detecting problems early and getting treatment.

You, too, should understand your unique and self-driven purpose before you embark on “celebritizing” yourself – making yourself an expert media source to get the word out about your book, product or business. Let me help you get started by asking a few questions. Your answers will lay the groundwork for creating a plan to achieve your goal.

1. What’s your vision for becoming an expert celebrity?
   What will you be and do? Picture it. Is your vision to be philanthropic? Do you want to help homeless families in your community or address medical needs in developing countries? You may want to be the real estate agent everyone goes to when they want to sell their home, or the hairdresser who’s booked up three months in advance. Whatever it is, picture yourself in that role. Otherwise, you’re getting on a bus with no idea of the destination.
2. What is your commitment to your vision?
   How far are you willing to go? Building name recognition, getting press coverage, and working your social media networks all take time, talent, know-how and creativity. A very, very few get a lucky break and explode immediately onto the national stage. But betting on that is like betting the farm on a lottery ticket! For 99.9 percent of us, the winners are those who never give up.
3. What is your unique message?
   Now it’s time to zero in on that all-important message. The components are obvious: your education, knowledge, expertise and experience in your field of work or study. What’s not so obvious is that intangible thing, the one that engages your heart as well as your mind. What keeps you reading and researching to learn more? What immerses you so deeply in a project that you lose all sense of time? Maybe it’s obvious; more likely, this will take some thought.

   Short story: I sat next to a financial planner during a flight and we started chatting about his goals. I asked him what made him different; what was the passion that made him stand out from other financial planners. “Nothing,” he said. “I’m very good, but aside from that I’m no different than the rest.” Finally, I asked him, “What books are on your nightstand? What do you read at night before you go to sleep?” His eyes grew wide and he smiled. “How Baby Boomers can reduce their tax liabilities as they start drawing on their retirement plans,” he said. “I love to find ways for them to minimize their taxes and maximize there savings.” And I love to find a person’s unique message!

4. Why will your message appeal to others?
   It’s pointless to embark on this journey unless your message resonates with others – lots and lots of others. In all of the success stories I’ve seen, the individual’s underlying passion was fed by a desire to help others, to touch lives in a meaningful way. Their reward for all their hard work was not just financial, it was spiritual and emotional. (Remember the three cardiologists?) So, how will your message benefit your audience? Does it give them a tool? Hope? Inspiration? If it has no value to others, it will likely die on the vine – after draining your time and effort.

I hope these questions help you identify your unique message – believe me, you have one. We all do. Once you think you know it, write it down. Revise it; analyze it; poke it and prod it. Question it. Stretch it. If it’s sound, it’ll bounce back and still look good.

P.S. If you need more help identifying your unique message and developing a plan, there are additional introspective questions in my book, Celebritize Yourself.

P.S.S.  If you need help executing an effective PR campaign, let us know. We’ve been arranging interviews for our clients on radio and TV, and obtaining editorial coverage in newspapers and magazines for more than 22 years. Plus, we now offer a social media marketing program for select clients, where we do it all for you. If you’re interested in our help, please contact my partner, Steve, at 727-443-7115 Ext. 208, or simply reply to this e-mail. We’d love to hear from you.

• Facebook is one of the easiest social networks to use.
• Getting started requires only a valid e-mail.
• Post a link, photo or comment once or twice a day.

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With half the U.S. population on Facebook, it’s easy to surmise that pretty much everyone who’s conscious and has a heartbeat is posting status updates and “liking” Starbucks.

Online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are fabulous – free – DIY promotional tools. But if half the country is using Facebook, the most popular of these, guess what? Half of us aren’t. And the older you are, the more likely you’re not. According to socialbakers.com, 24 percent of Facebook users are 18 to 24 years old; only 13 percent are 45 to 54. And it goes down from there.

Why all this about Facebook? Because if you’re not using social media, you’re missing a great, big (have I said free?) opportunity to tell people about your product, book or business. The more friends and “likes” you get, the more your audience grows; every person who connects with you is also potentially sharing your message with all of their friends.

Of all the social media, many agree Facebook is the easiest to use. Personally, I think it’s the most fun. I enjoy reading other people’s posts and sharing links, advice, photos and other bits of my life on my page.

Maybe you’re not on Facebook yet because you don’t know how to get started. Or you’ve launched a page, but it’s sitting there twiddling its thumbs because you’re not sure what to do next. If this is you, or if you’re a Facebook vet interested in fresh ideas for content, help has arrived. I asked our Social Media Campaign Manager, Jeni Hinojosa, to give you some tips to get you up, running and “liking” a whole new world!

Here’s Jeni:

To set up a Facebook account, go to www.facebook.com and click “sign up.” You’ll need a valid e-mail account, and you must provide your birthday (which you can hide from the public.) You’ll be guided through the steps for creating a personal profile page, which can be limited to viewing by close friends and family, or can become your public persona. Facebook walks you through all of the steps for creating this page.

Don’t ignore the profile picture! Part of the value of social media is that people can put a face – or an icon that represents you – to a name. If you’re promoting yourself as a means to get the word out about your book or product, I recommend using a self portrait.

Some people create a personal profile page in their business’s name. That’s not a good idea. Facebook users don’t visit these often because there’s little interaction and they tend to look like advertisements. Instead, businesses, authors and entrepreneurs can opt to create a “fan page” devoted to their brand and message.

In the upper right-hand corner of your Facebook profile page, click the arrow next to the word “home.” Then click “account settings.” In the new screen, find the row of words across the bottom right and click, “Create a page.” You’ll see six options; local business is one. If you’re planning a page where you’ll be interacting with users (which I recommend) click “Cause or Community.” Facebook will also walk you through setting up this page, which has features that are different from your personal profile page.

So now you’re up and running. Hooray! Here are some suggestions for making friends and getting people to “like” your page – the keys to growing your audience.

• Let people know you’ve launched a new page. For your personal profile page, search for people you know and invite them to be a “friend.” (They can accept, decline or ignore your invitation; you’ll only know if they accept.) If you’re launching a business or community page, invite them to take a look. These pages don’t get “friends;” instead they get “likes” when people visit and click the little thumbs-up icon in the upper right-hand area. When someone “likes” your page, the content you post will show up on their pages, where their friends will see it and, perhaps, be enticed to visit. (Do not ask for or demand that people “like” your page. It’s not good etiquette.)
• Visit other pages with topics relevant to yours. If you’re promoting a craft beer, visit pub pages, beer-lover pages and others with similar interests. “Like” those pages and interact with the people there by adding your comments to the posts. You can also simply “like” comments and photos – keep an eye out for little thumbs-up icons! All of that activity gets more visibility for your page; if you have interesting things to say, people may return the visit.
• Post status updates once or twice a day. Keep the content on your page interesting to give readers a reason to visit. You might post a link to an article that’s relevant to your topic; you can share a personal experience or useful information; or offer advice. Photos are popular and you can post what you find on the internet or upload your own. When you can’t think of anything at all to say, try finding a fun photo and announcing a “photo caption contest.” That tends to get people commenting.
• Respond to comments and posts by others. Check your page regularly and be sure to respond to any comments or questions. Invite people to add their own posts to your page, and when they do, be sure to thank them and “like” their message or comment.

Once you get going, be careful; social media can become addictive!

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I hope this information makes you feel more comfortable about getting started on Facebook, and more effective if you’re already there. It’s high time you started experiencing how the other half lives!

Your “friend,”
Marsha

]]> http://emsincorporated.com/facebook-offers-friendly-start-for-social-media-newbies/feed/ 0 http://emsincorporated.com/how-can-people-find-you-if-they-dont-know-you-exist/ http://emsincorporated.com/how-can-people-find-you-if-they-dont-know-you-exist/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 15:30:25 +0000 Marsha Friedman http://emsincorporated.com/?p=8262 Article at a glance:
• People can’t search for you if they don’t know you exist.
• Keyword searches return thousands of competing results.
• Media exposure helps point people to your website.

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It pains me to see the hurt and frustration of people who don’t understand why their wonderful book or their cool, new product isn’t selling well. Too often, they conclude no one is interested in their message or that their gizmo falls short.

That’s usually not the case at all; heck, it’s why I went into marketing and PR! The need to market new books and products has been around for, well, as long as we’ve had books and products. The only thing that’s changed is the new media options we’ve added to our strategies.

I was recently talking about this with Joe Thomas of Left Brain Digital, the web developer and marketing consultant who designed our new website and services many of our clients. He said he’s still surprised by the number of authors and entrepreneurs, both new and seasoned, who tell him “I just don’t get it!” when their books or products don’t sell.

Since Joe has a way of explaining things that always makes me laugh, I asked if he’d mind writing about this problem for The PR Insider. He readily agreed. So, here’s Joe:

How To Write A Happy Ending
Or … I Have A Really Neat-o Book or Product, Now Why Doesn’t Anybody Buy It?

I can’t even fathom the number of conversations I’ve had with new clients suffering from a severe case of “I Just Don’t Get It!” disease. The stories of why they wrote their books or developed their products are all different, but the endings are the same: They’re not selling diddly. Squat. Nada.

Before we get too far into the whys and why nots, let me warn you, I am not going to tell you what you want to hear. There’s no magic form for you to fill out to get instant access to my “Special Report,” nor is there a download of secret “For Your Eyes Only” information designed to get you on my mailing list. (My next rant is going to be about buying into the web marketing trap.)

Instead, I’ll go straight to the “why,” which is as complicated as it is simple: People can’t buy what they can’t find.

Most web marketing gurus will tell you that Search Engine Optimization can help direct potential customers to your book or product, and why you should hire them to get you listed front and center. I am not that guy. Oh, I believe in the power of Google, but there are major caveats:

1. Search engines are great if you know what you’re searching for. Type in your name and/or book title into Google and look at the results. You may be at the top of page 1 and even have 22 different listings on the first and second pages. You may get the same results on Bing and other search portals. You might even show up first on Amazon.com, where your book is right there, for sale to the masses. But you’re still not selling many books are you? Here’s the tricky part: YOU know your name and your book title, don’t you? But, people can’t search out your name and book title if they don’t know them.




2. People can search for my incredibly, fantastical keywords, can’t they? Well sure they can – and they do. Let’s assume for a second you have a book and it’s about Politics, Money, Religion, Employment or any number of topics. Now go to Amazon and type in your keywords – you know, Politics, Money, Religion, Employment … You just discovered there are 672,481 books using your Incredibly Fantastical Keywords, right? Now type in those same keywords along with your name and/or book title. Eureka! There you are. I now direct your attention to No. 1 above.
3. Your website is totally gorgeous but it’s not getting you sales. The first part of this quandary is, LOOK AT No. 1, above. Are people actually visiting your site? Have you checked out your server logs to see what your traffic data looks like? You’re probably thinking your webmaster takes care of all that, right? Unless your webmaster is getting a piece of the profits from every item you sell, odds are he/she doesn’t really care. Let’s be honest here, you’re paying your webmaster whether you sell or not. Now, if your traffic data is showing that you’re getting a boatload of traffic but no sales, maybe you need to be more realistic about how gorgeous your site really is. Looking good and converting visitors into buyers are two different things. But before you start blowing up your site, go back and LOOK AT No. 1, ABOVE.

Here’s a bit of free advice: If your marketing plan to reach 100,000 book or product sales is based on people finding you without a clue who you are, keep your day job and forget about buying the fancy car with your profits. You need exposure. You need to get your name and the name of your book, product or business in the news – in newspapers (they all put their content online nowadays), magazines and e-zines and blogs. Get yourself interviewed on talk radio and TV, if you can. Get your social network sites up and active and build a following.

Plenty of people do it themselves. If you find that too difficult or time-consuming, hire professionals to do it for you. There are 5 hundred million thousand books and products for sale online. If you want folks to know what to search for, they have to know that you exist and what you have to offer.

And the happy ending will come.

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Joe makes it sound as easy as 1-2-3, doesn’t he? OK, so maybe it’s not that easy, but if you’re motivated and willing to spend the time getting your name out there, you’ll see it’s very effective. Along with making people aware of who you are, media attention gives you credibility that you just can’t buy.

That’s what I would call a happy beginning!

Get it?
Marsha

]]> http://emsincorporated.com/how-can-people-find-you-if-they-dont-know-you-exist/feed/ 0 http://emsincorporated.com/want-the-best-business-card-ever-write-a-book/ http://emsincorporated.com/want-the-best-business-card-ever-write-a-book/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 15:30:31 +0000 Marsha Friedman http://emsincorporated.com/?p=8250 Article at a glance:
• Writing a book elevates your stature.
• Make your book match the message you want to convey.
• Test-drive book ideas through 5 basic questions.

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Nearly every day, someone asks my advice on the best way to promote their business or themselves. I get the question at speaking engagements, at the office and, yes, sometimes at home. I don’t mind at all, because I’ve always got a good answer:

Write a book.

“A book?” some say — with obvious horror. “I’ve never written a book!”

Precisely my point. But let me back up a bit.

When I started EMSI 22 years ago, I soon realized the clients who got the attention of the media most quickly were those who’d written a book. Not just any book, mind you, but one that aligned with what they were promoting. The apple salesmen who wrote about apples were far more successful getting media coverage than those who wrote about oranges – and those who hadn’t written anything at all.

Why? Because yesterday’s business cards are today’s books. They give their authors immediate credibility, establishing them as experts in their fields. Credibility opens the door to journalists, talk show hosts, bloggers and anyone else creating content for hungry audiences. Who will they turn to as an expert source of information when a mysterious apple worm is destroying orchards? Johnny Appleseed, author of Red All Over – The Core of the Apple Industry.

There are some caveats. A poorly conceived, poorly designed, poorly written or poorly promoted book is worse than no book at all. Your book must capably and professionally represent your unique message – and you.

Not a writer? Not a problem. There are thousands of talented freelance writers and editors out there – especially in the wake of all the newspaper layoffs in recent years – who can help. So don’t worry about that just yet. The first step is planning, and that’s up to you whether or not you will actually do the writing.

Decide on your book’s main idea. The central focus will be what drives the entire project, so it must match the message you want to convey and it must excite you. If you’re bored from the get-go, you’ll likely never see your project through to the end. A great way to test ideas is by running them through these five questions:

1. What message am I enthusiastic about that I want to convey?
2. Who can benefit from it?
3. How will it help them?
4. Why am I the one bringing this idea to them?
5. How can I make my points unique and different from what has already been said on the topic?

Pay attention to your own reactions as you test drive your ideas. Which idea makes you smile? Which excites you creatively? Which hits the essence of what you’re about – what you enjoy, think about and create every day? It may be an idea you never even realized inspired such passion in you.

Consider what you really want to achieve by promoting yourself or your business. Business owners obviously want to grow their business and see it flourish; some people want to build careers as speakers. But often, there’s something deeper driving us and we may not even be aware of it. Taking the time to do some soul-searching to identify your real motivation can help you clarify your message and find your book’s focus.

A real-life example: When I sat down to write Celebritize Yourself, I planned a how-to book on commonly asked publicity questions. But, when I ran that idea through the five-question test, I had trouble with No. 5. So, I asked myself, “What do I most enjoy about my professional life?” The answer was easy: helping people identify and value what’s unique about them and their message. In writing a book about how to get publicity, I realized I needed to explain why everyone has an expertise that should be shared.

It’s never too late to write your book. I know it seems daunting, but remember, the first time you do anything, it’s often a challenge. Remember how hard it was wobbling down the sidewalk on your first bicycle? You may have crashed a few times, skinned your knees and bumped your head, but you got back on and kept trying.

Call on that brave 6-year-old you and start planning your book!

]]> http://emsincorporated.com/want-the-best-business-card-ever-write-a-book/feed/ 0 http://emsincorporated.com/how-to-toss-pitches-that-hit-the-target/ http://emsincorporated.com/how-to-toss-pitches-that-hit-the-target/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:13:42 +0000 Marsha Friedman http://emsincorporated.com/?p=8236 Tips for Connecting with the Media

Article at a glance:

• Print journalists tend to like pitches in writing.
• Keep it short and sweet.
• Don’t rely on a web link to make your case.

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I’ve been saying it for 22 years: Getting mentioned in news stories and being interviewed on radio and TV is the best, most cost-effective marketing strategy.

By positioning yourself as an expert on topics relevant to your product or book, you also gain credibility. This is what I call “Celebritize Yourself.” It’s the boost you need to rise above the competition.

But, how do you get journalists interested in what you have to say? You might offer to write an article or blog post, or provide interesting TV or radio commentary on a topic in the news. Come up with a fresh angle that will add to a news story everyone’s talking about. For example, last year we had a client who wrote a memoir about his years in the Secret Service. Imagine the placements he could get now with all the attention on the carousing agents in Colombia. In fact, he just got an interview last week – on my radio show!

Now that you’ve identified a news story or trend that dovetails nicely with your message and an angle no one else has thought of, all you have to do is get someone in the media to pay attention. That first step can be the hardest – if you don’t know what you’re doing.

A few weeks ago, I asked three EMSI staffers fresh from jobs in traditional media what made them pay attention – or not! – to telephone and email pitches. They came up with so many good suggestions, I shared half in The PR Insider last week, and promised more this week.

Never one to break a promise, I now give you – as the late great journalist Paul Harvey would say – the rest of the story:

• Print journalists tend to like print, so send an email. Everyone’s different, of course, but journalists who choose print over broadcast tend to do so because they’re more comfortable with that medium. Some prefer time to think over a proposal rather than respond immediately to a cold call. Having a written pitch in an email folder may be handier than searching for handwritten notes scrawled during a phone call.
• Keep it short – the more you write, the less they read. No one, journalist or otherwise, wants to read through two pages of text to figure out what you’re asking or offering. Boil down your pitch to a succinct length, three or four paragraphs is good, with the basics. Even better – use bullets to make your points. That’s an easy-to-read format that’s much more visually inviting than blocks of dense text.
• Don’t make them work for it. Providing a link to your website, and little more, is a sure way to get deleted. I know you think you’re saving yourself time, but you’re doing it at the expense of the journalist’s time. It’s the quickest way to lose their attention. Your website may tell your story beautifully, but unless you provide a compelling reason to click through to it, no one will bother. Your pitch should include a brief reference to the issue or trend you’re plugging into; the content you can provide to give the journalist a great story or show; and a phone number where you can easily be reached. Then add that website link.
• Make sure you have an easy-to-remember website address. You should always provide a link to the site in your email, but that’s not necessarily how journalists will always access it. If they want to browse it when they have more time in the morning, or show it to a colleague, they shouldn’t have to go back to your mail for the URL. If they’re interested enough to want to check out the site, they’ll remember key words that should pop it up in a search. Having a site with an easy-to-remember name will help, as will regularly adding fresh content, which pushes it higher in the search results.

Between last week’s tips (if you missed them, you can find them at http://emsincorporated.com/having-trouble-connecting-with-the-media/) and this week’s, you should be all set to connect with the media.

But, I won’t lie; it can be frustrating. If you’re a DIY’er, remember persistence pays. However, if you prefer the help of professionals who know how to craft a pitch and have media contacts coast to coast, keep us in mind. What can be discouraging to you is a lot of fun for us.

Keepin’ it succinct,
Marsha

]]> http://emsincorporated.com/how-to-toss-pitches-that-hit-the-target/feed/ 0 http://emsincorporated.com/when-news-breaks-be-ready-to-rock-n-roll/ http://emsincorporated.com/when-news-breaks-be-ready-to-rock-n-roll/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:30:35 +0000 Marsha Friedman http://emsincorporated.com/?p=8225 Article at a glance:
• For free media exposure, plug into the news.
• Everyone has expertise to contribute. What’s yours?
• Don’t wait to jump on breaking events.

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I heard the news at 5:30 Wednesday afternoon: Dick Clark was dead.

I was stunned; I really didn’t believe it. My Dick Clark?

We went way back, he and I. Growing up in New York, I tuned into “American Bandstand” every day after school. When you’re 12 or 13, it’s not always easy to find a place where you fit in and the resident grown-up takes teenagers seriously. The “Bandstand” studio full of regular kids dancing away to cool new artists was friendly, fun and completely enjoyable. It was the perfect place to escape from worries about tests, boys, and who you’d sit with in the lunchroom the next day.

Which was why, when I heard the news on Wednesday, I was shocked – and saddened.

I had about 5 minutes to indulge those feelings because our office started jumping immediately.

At EMSI, we’re as much a newsroom as we are a public relations firm. To get the best media placements, we closely follow breaking news and trends. We’re constantly looking for issues to which our clients can add context, depth or opinion for journalists. It’s what I always preach to people looking for publicity: Follow the news and plug into it when it relates to your message (more on that in just a bit).

One of our longtime clients, executive producer Michael Uslan – best known for the “Batman” box-office hits – is also a prolific author. In 1981, he co-wrote with Clark “Dick Clark’s The First 25 Years of Rock & Roll.” I may have grown up watching “the world’s oldest teenager,” but Uslan actually knew him.

By the time I’d acknowledged that the horrible news about Clark’s passing was true, our Radio Campaign Manager, Rich Ghazarian, was already on the phone with KNX in Los Angeles getting Uslan scheduled for that very evening.

Ginny Grimsley, our Print Campaign Manager, was putting a fresh spin on his bio to package with a quote from him for distribution to some of her entertainment contacts. The rest of our creative team and I were exploring other media possibilities.

By Friday, Uslan had been interviewed by a few major market stations. Ginny had fielded inquiries from a host of publications, including People magazine, Newsday, Hollywood Reporter, Hollywood.com and Radar Online and had already set up interviews. Unfortunately, Uslan was at a film festival in Nashville and unavailable for live national TV.

It was an exciting few days. Not only were we securing great placements for our client and great content for our media contacts, we were doing it by thinking fast and acting fast.
And yes, you should be doing the same thing. Whether you’ve written a novel or a guide to financial independence, whether you’ve developed a health food supplement or an interactive website, there is always a way to plug into the news. Think about your themes and your message – go beyond the nuts and bolts of your book or product and identify the bigger picture. Stay on top of the news and use your imagination! What can you offer print, radio or TV? How can you comment on your social networking sites?

Three quick tips for plugging in:

• Be ready to pounce NOW. The news is often fleeting, and even when it sticks around awhile, it gets stale pretty fast. The time to offer yourself up is when it happens – not a few days later or next month.
• Round up email addresses in advance. Research various media outlets, TV and radio shows, and journalists who might have a beat relevant to your message. Have their email addresses at the ready so you don’t waste time tracking them down when you need them.
• Be available! Be ready to change your schedule, if necessary, to accommodate interviews. There’s nothing more frustrating to a journalist than being unable to reach you – especially if you’re the one who reached out to them.

Dick Clark’s passing marks the end of an era and the loss of a wonderful American icon. While that saddens me, I’m glad we at EMSI could help contribute to the nation’s understanding of the man and his contributions, thanks to Michael Uslan’s insights.

Rock on,
Marsha

]]> http://emsincorporated.com/when-news-breaks-be-ready-to-rock-n-roll/feed/ 1 http://emsincorporated.com/having-trouble-connecting-with-the-media/ http://emsincorporated.com/having-trouble-connecting-with-the-media/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:50:35 +0000 Marsha Friedman http://emsincorporated.com/?p=8220 Try These Tips for Tweaking Your Delivery

 

Article at a glance:

• Don’t use ‘Please read’ as your email subject line.
• Do your homework before calling or emailing.
• Respect the journalist’s time. 

It’s beyond frustrating to discover that one of the first steps in your media campaign is a doozy.

Connecting with the print, radio or TV person who can get you in the paper or on the air can be like hitting the target at a carnival shooting gallery. You miss so many times, eventually you figure the game’s rigged.

Really, you just need to know how to play.

At EMSI, we have three staffers fresh from jobs in traditional media. Penny Carnathan, our Creative Director/Writer, was a features editor at a major daily newspaper until last year; Alex Hinojosa, Senior Campaign Manager, has hosted national and major-market radio talk shows for more than 15 years; and TV Campaign Manager Russ Handler has decades of experience as a producer and traffic anchor for major-market news stations.

I asked what made them pay attention to some telephone and email pitches in their former jobs and what made them quickly hang up or hit “delete.” They came up with so many do’s and don’ts, we’ll follow up with a part II next week.

First, some don’ts:

• Don’t use “Please read” as your subject line. Journalists and show hosts, and just about everyone else we know, reads email subject lines in order to quickly triage incoming mail. Since “Please read” says nothing about the mail’s content or urgency, it goes to the bottom of the priority list, where it will likely be buried alive. Or, get deleted.
• Don’t fill the upper portion of an email with graphics and whirligigs. It takes time for images to load and more time to scroll through them to get to your message, particularly if your recipient is checking their emails on a smart phone. The time it takes for your graphics may be all the time you get – which means your message is never read.

And some do’s:

• Do research the person you’re calling or emailing. No one expects you to figure out all the duties that go along with esoteric job titles, but you should at least fire your pitch in the general vicinity of the target. That requires checking out the newspaper/TV/radio station’s website. Look for the names of show hosts whose topics and guests align with what you’re offering; look for editors and reporters in charge of the coverage you’re interested in getting. If possible, familiarize yourself with the newspaper or show, even if you have to do that by browsing clips on the site.
• Do respect the person’s time when pitching by phone. Some of the best calls start with an introduction quickly followed by, “I understand you’re very busy, but I’d love to tell you about a new natural health product that might make a great feature story/show segment. Is there a better time for me to call?” Know what you want (coverage? a calendar listing? an interview on Marsha and Alex’s national radio show? J) and describe in a nutshell what you have to offer.
• Do follow up phone calls with an email and vice versa. But don’t call and say, “I’m Suzy Bloozy, did you get my email?” Media folks who are portals to the public get hundreds of emails and phone calls every day. If you’re their grandmother or Don Quixote, they may remember the name, otherwise they likely won’t. And the question makes you sound both naïve and a bit foolish. Better to say, “I’m Suzy Bloozy and I sent you an email (or left a voicemail) about a cool new self-cleaning toilet, the Bloozy Bowl. If you think you might be interested and didn’t receive the information, I’d be happy to resend it.”

If you’ve been firing away and missing the target every time, try adjusting your technique using these tips. Penny says if the person doing the pitching was friendly and professional, she took the time whenever she could to at least listen to a pitch, or read it.

These days, however, she, Alex and Russ say, even more important is respecting the time of the person you’re contacting. Staffing at all the media outlets has shrunk considerably in recent years, meaning those who are left behind are doing double-, triple- and quadruple duty. They are busy!

]]> http://emsincorporated.com/having-trouble-connecting-with-the-media/feed/ 0 http://emsincorporated.com/three-stooges/ http://emsincorporated.com/three-stooges/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:39:13 +0000 Marsha Friedman http://emsincorporated.com/?p=8203 Article at a glance:
• If you hire a PR firm, let it do its job.
• Go ahead and make waves – get noticed!
• Never believe ‘no one’s interested in you.’

The guys I know are all looking forward to The Three Stooges remake opening in theaters this weekend. They think Moe, Larry and Curly’s harebrained schemes, silly missteps, and thwacks, smacks and blindside attacks are hysterically funny.

Heck, I don’t need to go to the movies for slapstick – I’ve got men in my life!  (Kidding, of course.)

Everyone – yes, women, too – can be a stooge now and then. Lifelong “Stooges” fan Alex Hinojosa, our senior campaign manager at EMSI, says if you watch enough of their films, you start seeing their personalities in the people you meet. And just like on the big screen, the Moes, Larrys and Curlys of the world get themselves into loads of trouble. It happens all the time with PR.

The Moe: He’s the client who knows everything. (So why on earth did he hire PR professionals?) Moe will bark and bang and bully to get things done his (or her) way even though he’s never coordinated a media campaign, never worked in radio, TV or newspapers and doesn’t know a tweet from a twit.

He’s the client who insists on rewriting his media pitches because he thinks they should be longer and more detailed. (Succinct communications are what catch the attention of busy journalists and show hosts, but he disagrees.) He insists his angle is much more likely to interest a talk show host, even though he’s never hosted a talk show. Would you perform surgery on yourself? Moe would! And, with disastrous results!

If you’re going to be a Moe, at least get a better haircut.

The Larry: Easygoing and passive, he doesn’t want to stir up controversy or offend anyone. No matter what the medium, he insists on appealing only to audiences and show hosts that already agree with his message, so he misses out on the opportunity to win over new fans – and their friends.

The Larrys are also easily forgotten. If they won’t do, say or write anything provocative during their marketing campaign, they won’t engage their audience, which means few will remember them.

The Larrys tend to quietly go along with everything their PR agency suggests. They don’t ask questions when they have them and they don’t contribute their ideas. Their campaigns may be a bit lackluster, because they’re afraid they’ll bother somebody if they actively participate.

The Curly: He’s the star of the stooges – and he doesn’t even know it. The Curlys are the clients with great stories, powerful messages and a big lack of self-awareness. “Why would anyone want to interview me?” they ask.

In truth, everyone has a great story and a pro will find it and use it. Nothing breaks my heart more than to hear someone tell me, “I was with an agency and I paid them thousands of dollars, but all I got was one mention in a weekly paper in Boondocks, Idaho. No one’s interested in me.”

What a cruel blow to a person’s self-esteem! PR companies that tell you “no one’s interested” are really saying, “We didn’t get results, so we’re blaming you.”

Yes, your message, the energy and interesting content you bring to the media and the quality of your book or product will determine whether you ultimately meet all of your goals. But don’t believe for a minute that no one’s interested in you. It’s simply not true.

From what Alex tells me, the actor who played Curly in the original “Stooges” was painfully insecure in real life. That led to heavy drinking, overeating and other self-destructive behaviors, which took a terrible toll on his health. He suffered a stroke in 1946, never fully recovered and died six years later. Such a sad end for a man who made so many people laugh.

The Three Stooges makes for great entertainment on the big screen, but if you want a successful media campaign, don’t be a stooge!  When you’ve hired a team of professionals with a strong track record and plenty of years in the business, trust them.  Let them do their jobs.

Be ready to participate in your campaign by asking questions, sharing ideas and providing any materials or information that might be useful.

And remember, you do have a story that others want to hear. You’re no less important than the next guy.  Don’t make me knock you over the head with a dead fish for you to believe that!

]]> http://emsincorporated.com/three-stooges/feed/ 2 http://emsincorporated.com/vote-winner-2/ http://emsincorporated.com/vote-winner-2/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:17:13 +0000 Marsha Friedman http://emsincorporated.com/?p=8195 What We Can Learn from Romney and Santorum

Article at a glance:

• Political campaigns are all about marketing.
• Good campaigns include early planning, strategizing.
• Ads can’t buy likeability.

If Mitt Romney were a book and Rick Santorum were a product, how do you think they’d sell?

The pundits say Romney has done a good job positioning himself as a business expert, but he’s falling short on likeability. Santorum’s done a good job of coming across as down-to-earth and likeable, and positioning himself as a staunch conservative. But the latter may also hurt his appeal with middle-of-the-road Republicans.



Both candidates have gotten quite a bit of exposure through “free media,” such as news coverage and the debates, but Romney’s $53 million in TV advertising trounces Santorum’s $9 million.

There’s a reason they call these drawn-out political races “campaigns.” As with marketing campaigns, the candidates have a message they’re passionate about; they hope to position themselves as the best at what they do; they need voters to get to know and like them, and they accomplish much of this through traditional and social media.

At the end of their long road, the prize is a vote; at the end of yours, it’s a sale.

If you’re new to marketing, and all too familiar with the Republicans’ trek to the August national convention (just down the street from us in Tampa!), you can learn from watching Romney, Santorum and their political “machines.” Here are a few comparisons I’ve noticed:

• Planning and organization are vital. The candidates have been strategizing for years; you know Romney had a plan, a budget and a team in place long before he launched his campaign last June 2. Santorum, meanwhile, has suffered because of poor organization; it may even have cost him convention delegates. And so it is with marketing. Even as you’re writing your book or developing your product, you should be pulling together a budget and a plan for positioning yourself in the marketplace. Launch with a well-coordinated splash and a strategy and timeline for keeping the momentum going as long as necessary.
• Learn to delegate tasks. Political candidates are notoriously poor delegators, because they tend to be control freaks (nature of the beast, I guess). But campaign strategists say candidates fare much better when they focus on delivering their message and entrust other jobs to people with a particular expertise, starting with their campaign managers. Likewise, authors and entrepreneurs will be less effective if they’re trying to do all of their marketing themselves, from designing a website to writing a media pitch. If you can’t hire professionals, at least find friends who are.
• Think carefully about your message(s).  If you’re passionate about what you have to share, you’ll have an easier time getting others excited about it, defending it when necessary and speaking knowledgeably about it. As we near the end of the nomination race with Romney holding a strong lead, we’ll notice him broadening his message to appeal to more voters. Whether you’re a candidate or in the throes of a marketing campaign, your message can shift depending on your needs, timing and news events. If you decide to change the focus, be sure your new message is in line with the image you’re trying to convey. (That’s where politicians often slip up!)
• You can’t buy likeability. Romney spent $53 million on advertising and still, more than 10 months into his campaign, he’s referred to as “stiff.” The pundits say that if he wins the Republican nomination, he’s going to have a hard time running against President Obama, who’s considered quite likeable. Voters and buyers both gravitate toward the person or company they feel they know and like, and they don’t get that from advertising. They get the essence of you from you – from TV, radio and newspaper interviews, and social media, where you can show your personality. People can see your confidence, identify with the stories you tell and laugh at your witty comments.

These, of course are just a few elements of political and marketing campaigns.  Doing particularly well – or badly – on just one of these elements won’t guarantee success – or doom you to failure.

There’s one big noteworthy difference between a candidate’s political campaign and your marketing campaign, and it’s worth remembering: In politics, one person walks away with everything. In marketing, there are as many winners as there are people with good books and products.

And you don’t have to spend $53 million.

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