• Don’t lock yourself into one marketing message
• Broad messages make for bigger audiences
• Have a variety of angles for year-round marketing

Imagine if the publicists for The Descendants, the George Clooney movie up for five Academy Awards, had decided to market it as a film about Hawaii.

Sure, I might have gone to see it. It is set in Hawaii and I’m a sucker for those sun-soaked surfs and volcano vistas. And, I’ll admit, George Clooney.

But I made The Descendants a date night with my husband because it was marketed as a movie about family relationships in a time of crisis. The glimmers of tension, conflict and humor in the trailers reeled me right in. (By the way, it’s a great contender for Best Picture!) Hawaii was part of the story, but by no means the whole story, and not even the most compelling aspect.

I bring up this point because many authors and entrepreneurs come to us with their minds set on a narrow marketing angle – like Hawaii for The Descendants. They’re sure that should be the focus of their campaign because it’s the biggest audience for their book.  All too often, they sell themselves, and their book or product, short.

Marketing is about gaining exposure to as many people as possible, and to do that, you’ve got to have a variety of angles in your message that will have broad appeal.

We had a client who’d written a provocative novel about young brothers confronting coming-of-age challenges in a small Oklahoma community. Geography featured prominently, partly because there were lots of killer tornadoes. The author wanted us to concentrate his campaign on Oklahoma and other states in Tornado Alley.

When I looked at his book, I found themes and topics that would resonate almost anywhere in the world: man versus nature, the insecurities of adolescence, sibling rivalry and heroism. The author had researched some of these topics in order to write about them more believably. He was well equipped to discuss his opinions about all the issues raised in his story.

Some business experts write books aimed at a particular demographic: recent college graduates in search of jobs, professionals laid off in middle age, people getting ready to retire. Their advice is insightful, helpful – and usually of value to a far wider audience.

I remember a particularly exciting campaign for an expert with just such a book. She had great ideas for a hard-hit demographic of middle-aged business professionals laid off during the current recession and couldn’t visualize any but that group as her audience. We saw that young people just starting their careers could also benefit from her wisdom.  We broadened her message to include people of all age groups and the media snapped it up.  She was quoted on monster.com, in The Boston Herald and appeared on CNN, among other media outlets.

Finally, when there’s nothing else to use as a news peg, there’s the old seasonal spin. TV, newspapers, radio and even social media love a holiday hook. This week it’s Valentine’s Day; next week it’s President’s Day; next month it’s St. Patrick’s Day and the first day of spring, which even we here in Florida are looking forward to after a weekend of Arctic blasts.

But pegging your book or product only to a single holiday, even if it’s a perfect fit, is short-sighted. Sure, send out a pitch just before Mother’s Day touting your book about your mom’s amazing life, or products that would make a great gift for Mom.  You’re nuts if you don’t! But what are you sending out today? What are you talking about on your social media sites? What are some of the themes in your book that can be used to power campaigns all year long?

Cultivating a variety of messages with broad appeal is the key to reaching your maximum potential audience. Of course, that doesn’t mean neglecting the obvious.

I appreciated the lush Hawaiian scenery in The Descendants and it occurred to me the movie would have theaters there sold out for weeks. That translates to some decent box office – but not the $65 million the film’s raked in.

Getting media exposure means putting yourself out there. It might be chatting live on the air with a radio talk show host, taping an appearance for TV, coming up with posts for social media, or being interviewed by a print journalist.

The first couple times can make you apprehensive, but trust me, that disappears quickly. You realize the interviewers tend to ask the same questions, so there are few surprises. You figure out your best sound bites and the responses that get a nice chuckle, and you polish those up.

But, there are still those first couple of interviews to get through.  To address this problem with my clients, I have them coached by my staff beforehand.  As many of us have had careers in the media we know what to expect and, more important, what the interviewer expects.

When it comes to coaching clients for print interviews, that job goes to our Creative Director and Writer, Penny Carnathan, who has worked as an editor and reporter at major daily newspapers for more than 30 years.

Having logged thousands of interviews, Penny knows what makes a great one great.  And, by the same token, what makes an interview a flop.  I asked her to share her five best tips for not bombing your first time out – and for making sure at least some of what you say gets published.

Here’s what she gave me.

• Do NOT try to pitch, sell or promote your book, product or business: Yes, it may be the reason you’re granting interviews, but if you want to sell something, you should buy an ad. The journalists are looking for you, as someone with a particular expertise, to provide content for their readers. That may be adding another voice to a story with multiple viewpoints.  Or it may even be sharing your  story – how you reinvented yourself after being laid off, or how you managed to write a novel while raising 13 kids. Either way, the goal of the journalist is to write an article that’s useful, informative and/or entertaining. Your goal is to get media exposure: your name and the source of your expertise in front of thousands, perhaps millions, of eyes.

• Try to speak clearly and at a moderate pace: Whether the reporter is taking notes with a pen or a computer, it will be difficult for him or her to keep up if you get excited and start talking very quickly. Not only might he miss some of the brilliant things you have to say, he may (gulp!) make an error that becomes a misquote in the story. Speak at a conversational speed, and if you really want to be a big help, offer to spell any less-than-obvious names you toss out. A good reporter will double-check the spelling, but you’ll save her time by giving her a starting point.

• You don’t have to answer immediately, and you don’t have to answer every question: Most of us would be hard put to respond off the top of our heads to, “What was the most pivotal moment of your life?” If you can’t, don’t. Ask the reporter to give you some time to think about it. By the same token, if you don’t feel qualified to answer a question, it’s far better to be honest about that than to take a stab at a response that makes you sound, um, unqualified. Remember, you’re in control. No one will think less of you if you politely decline a question for which you have no answer!

• Take your own notes before the interview: You likely have a good idea of what the reporter is writing about – and if you don’t it’s perfectly acceptable to ask what the gist of the story is. That gives you time to prepare relevant comments. If they’re looking for tips, list a few on paper in case you draw a blank. That will also help you plan ahead so you can speak concisely and get to the point quickly. Personal anecdotes always add color and interest to a story. Think about whether you’ve got a good short one (short is appreciated!) that will illustrate your point.

• Be prepared to email a high-resolution photo of yourself: Print publications cannot use the low-resolution photos that look so sharp online; the files are too small to reproduce at any decent size on paper. Most require an image that’s 300 dpi (dots per inch). Keep one of yourself at the ready to send via email, if the reporter asks, as soon as the interview is over. Not having it – or not knowing what a high-resolution photo is – could mean a missed opportunity to get your name, book title and face in front of a big audience.

Sound easy? You’re right, it is. So relax and enjoy your interview. Before you know it, a Google search of your name will produce dozens of publications quoting you and mentioning your book, product or business.  That may lead to even more requests, all of which builds your profile and your audience.

• Why radio interviews have gone from one hour to today’s norm of 7 to 10 minutes.
• How radio stations are rated and what this means to you.

Last week I introduced you to our new Creative Director, Penny Carnathan, an award-winning former newspaper editor who shared tips for getting press coverage in this era of changing media. I got such great feedback, I thought I’d introduce you to some of the other members of our team who can share similar insights about the media.

I’ll start with Alex (“Dro”) Hinojosa, who spent 15 years as a talk radio host, as he’s got some excellent insights into this industry, for those looking to use radio to get their message out. As with newspapers, it’s a new age in the world of talk radio.

Alex and I actually go way back. He first came to EMSI in 2007 after working for CBS, Clear Channel and Genesis Communications. He’d worked as a host and also as an executive producer and program director in major markets including Washington, D.C., Detroit, and right here in Tampa Bay. He was with us for only a year before the radio bug bit again in the form of a great job offer from Atlanta.

You know I think of everyone at EMSI as family, so when he first told me of this opportunity, it nearly broke my heart that he wanted to leave us.  But, understanding the mindset of media personalities, I knew he wouldn’t be happy until he got it out of his system. So I encouraged him to go (and quietly sobbed into my coffee).

But I also knew we’d stay in touch and remain friends no matter where he went. I was right.  Alex returned to EMSI last September as our Senior Campaign Manager, now overseeing all of our clients’ campaigns.

I talked to Alex about how the changes affect talk shows and how it can affect you as a potential guest. Our interview ran a bit long so I’ll give you half of it today and come back with the rest tomorrow.

Marsha:  I know radio is going through trials comparable to what the newspaper industry has experienced, with mass layoffs. What do you feel is the impact on AM radio and the talk show format in general?

Alex:  There aren’t as many shows, Marsha, and the hosts that are left wear a lot of hats. Very rarely is a host just a host. He – or she – might also be a producer, which involves booking guests, updating the station Web site, interacting on social media and they might also be in charge of any number of other jobs, like promotions or production. Because they’re really, really busy, if you want to be a guest on their show, you’ve got to grab their attention quickly or you won’t even make a blip on their screen.  The way to do that is offer them an angle and a segment they immediately recognize as a perfect fit for their audience.

Marsha: I would imagine it’s overwhelming to some of the hosts who have to do all that and still focus on getting good ratings.

Alex:  Seems daunting, huh? Because prep time is cut short with those off-air responsibilities, hosts are really looking for topics and guests that will play to their target audience, be engaging and provide good content. They’re not there to sell someone’s book or product – their goal is to keep their audience listening so their ratings stay up.

If a guest helps them out by giving a great interview, well, they’ll likely return the favor by plugging the person’s book and even linking to it from their blog.

Marsha:  On the subject of ratings, we’ve seen big changes in how they’re determined. What do you think of the new PPM ratings system?

Alex: As you know, ratings used to be done through diaries, actually writing down what station or show you listened to over a period of time. Now though, most big markets use PPM – Personal People Meter – which tracks listening in real time with a device those being surveyed actually wear. Ironically, most everyone in radio, except the No. 1-rated station, will tell you those PPMs are inaccurate and that there is no real way to gauge exactly who and how many are listening. But hosts have to pay attention to them because it’s how they’re judged by management.

Marsha: So in the end, no one knows that audience better than the host. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed.

Alex:  Exactly! And no talk show host who is on the hook for ratings will book a guest who’s wrong for his show. Hosts know what their audiences want and they’re not going to invite someone whose topic has no interest for their listeners. If you’re booked, it’s only because that audience is a fit for you and your message.

Marsha:  When I first started this business 21+ years ago, the interviews we scheduled for our clients were an hour and sometimes longer.  Then we saw the interviews go to twenty to thirty minutes, and now they’re shorter than that.  What do you feel the reason is for this change in interview formats?

Alex: The new PPM system is tracking audiences minute to minute, counting the listeners tuning in and listeners tuning out. For radio stations, that means every minute counts. Now the average interview is seven to ten minutes in most cities and if you get more than that, it’s a blessing. But, we’re also seeing as little as three- to five-minute interview segments during morning drive time in the top major markets.  Think about it like this: the methodology for gathering radio ratings is a lot closer to how ratings for TV are tallied now.  How consistently do you see a 30-45 minute interview on TV?  Not often.  Expect the same with radio.  That doesn’t mean you can’t get your message out.  You just have to be more focused and to the point as a guest because hosts are being trained by their bosses to be concise too.  So, preparation and media training are a must!

Tomorrow: The difference between small audiences and big ones; radio and social networking; and a new life for “old” interviews.

Article Highlights:

• Arnold Schwarzenegger’s head-on diffusion and Anthony Weiner’s denial and implosion.
• Lindsay Lohan’s cry for attention.
• Herman Caine’s affair denial that cost him his campaign and Newt Gingrich’s upfront admission that made the issue a non-starter.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot – and this year, there were a few that some media figures would certainly like to.

Now is the time the media looks back on the most significant stories of the year. Since we work with the media, we like to look back on the most significant stories in terms of PR. As comedian Jeff Foxworthy says, “You can’t fix stupid,” but what we can do is learn from others’ mistakes (and successes) to make better PR choices for ourselves.

Now, if as you read this year in review you see some decidedly “un-Marsha” phrases or ideas, it’s because the entire EMSI team contributed to these year-end awards and as media professionals, I felt their contributions were very valuable.

The “I’ll Be Back” Award

This one goes to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his deft handling of the revelation that he had fathered a son with his family’s housekeeper.

After the news came out on May 9 that Schwarzenegger and his wife, TV personality Maria Shriver, were separating, the media speculated wildly on what caused the split.    Rumors of extramarital affairs streamed onto the Internet, with one in particular, about his housekeeper, getting the most attention. On May 17, “Ah-nold” released the following statement:

“After leaving the governor’s office, I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago. I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused.”

And that was pretty much it. There were a few stories here and there about the housekeeper and a Twitter posting from the son, but the story faded in about two weeks. In the meantime, Tiger Woods, who suffered through a nine-month news cycle for his improprieties, assumingly went back and beat his attorneys and PR handlers with a 3-wood while saying, “Why didn’t we do THAT?!!”

Arnold handled his indiscretion with textbook-style directness.  He saw what was coming, issued his mea culpa in a humble and contrite fashion, and got the heck out of Dodge. Corporate Americaand celebrities should take a lesson from The Governator.  And don’t worry about Arnold. He’ll be back in “The Expendables 2” in 2012.

The “This Stuff Writes Itself” Award

This one has to go to former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner. To refresh: The influential Democrat legislator from New York got caught sending women photos of himself in his underwear. It was a scandal so sensational and so monumentally mishandled that, if it had been written as a Hollywood script, no studio would have ever made the movie because it was so unbelievable it would have been deemed too unrealistic for audiences to accept.

First, Weiner claimed the photo was a fake and someone hacked his account. Then he said the photo might have been him, and then he finally copped to the whole thing and resigned from office. It was the news story that wouldn’t end. If only Weiner had handled it like Arnold, the scandal wouldn’t have been so disastrous and he might have “terminated” the bad press sooner.

And his name was Weiner. That was worth the price of admission, alone.

The “I’m Better Now And To Prove It, I’m Going To Take Off My Clothes” Award

It seems there is no more dangerous place in the world than being situated between actress Lindsay Lohan and a camera.

Most recently, however, Lohan felt it would be in her best interests to offer the media an in-depth interview about her recent run-ins with the law and her time in drug rehab. She wants the world to know she’s okay. But she didn’t give the interview to People or Oprah or Diane Sawyer. She gave it to Playboy – along with some cheeky nude photos.

Appearing naked, or even semi-naked, rarely enhances one’s credibility. Just ask Anthony Weiner.

The “How 9-9-9 Became Nein, Nein, Nein” Award

In 2011, Herman Cain turned mishandling the media into an art form.

For awhile, he was the king of the gaffe, making misstatements or failing to remember crucial points, from China’s nuclear capability to President Obama’s position on Libya.

But with each misstatement, hisnumbers continued to rise. Even after a woman came forward with accusations of sexual harassment, Cain was still the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Then came Ginger White, who claimed she had a 13-year affair and backed it up by texting Cain in front of a reporter, generating an immediate call back from the candidate, and promptly putting him on the phone with the reporter.

His denials became increasingly less specific and less convincing until, finally, he withdrew from the campaign.

The lessons he teaches is simple: No matter how far back in the closet the skeletons reside, they will not stay hidden. Assuredly, they will come out.  And if an old girlfriend texts while you’re on the campaign trail, just wait and respond in person.

The final irony was that the next front-runner who stepped in was Newt Gingrich, who came forward at the beginning of his campaign to admit he had an affair during his second marriage with the woman who became his third wife.  But by putting it out front early, by the time Cain’s campaign imploded, the voters had somewhat forgotten and forgiven Gingrich’s affair.  The jury is still out on his long-term viability as a candidate, but if he fails, it’s safe to assume that his marital issues won’t be the nail in the coffin on his bid for the presidency.

It makes you wonder if Arnold is one of his campaign advisers.

The “Power of Social Media” Award

It’s not easy being a celebrity in the media age. The paparazzi are waiting for you everywhere. While it’s one thing when the media steals one’s privacy, it’s quite something else when celebrities offer up their privacy on social media.

That’s why The “Power of Social Media” Award goes to actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher for letting their fans in on their not-so-private conversations of their break-up before they even called their attorneys.

As the media started rumor-mongering about the break-up of the Hollywood power couple, the two exchanged cryptic messages on Twitter that proved the rumors to be true before any kind of announcement about the break-up was made.  And, just to put the punctuation on the power of social media, Moore’s statement about the break-up wasn’t sent to the media by her publicist.  It was posted on Twitter.

And so it was that the two confirmed their split-up and gave fans a front-row view of their family drama.

The lesson is simple: If you use social media to maintain a public, professional profile, don’t let it get too personal. Hollywood mega-stars can get away with a whole lot more than the rest of us – including presidential candidates.

And now, the season begins.

In the office, everyone is hanging around the coffee machine longer and enjoying holiday deserts.  Outside the office, people are caught up in the holiday parties, shopping, food, family gatherings, and enough reruns of holiday programs that they are replaying the Grinch song in their head. They spend a little more time online surfing eBay for gifts and writing emails to associates hoping to put any real work off until January 2.

That’s a major mistake for anyone engaged in or thinking of engaging in a media campaign. The holidays are exactly the time to pop the clutch and put your campaign into overdrive.

The reason is obvious. Although many assume that nothing of any consequence really happens over the holidays, what it really means is that fewer people are competing for those guest interviews on radio and TV and in print. This opens up an opportunity for you to jump in and compete for that media, with fewer of your competitors in that mix. Let’s face it, the media still needs people to interview to generate content.  So, if your competition is not in the game over the holidays, this is the perfect time for you to step in and get the coverage.

Because, even though many companies tend to run silent during the holidays, the media doesn’t. In fact, as we sit there on Christmas morning wondering what store is still open when you’ve run out of aspirin, the media is one industry that doesn’t ever shut down.

During the holidays, turn on the TV.  While CBS might be running reruns of Two and a Half Men, of course, the evening news isn’t running a repeat. And, what about CNN? They still report the day’s news just like any other day.

Same thing holds true for the print media – on Christmas morning and the day after Christmas, your newspaper is still delivered to your front door. And you can bet Yahoo! isn’t recycling content from November.  No, they’re aggregating news from all over the world that was written on Christmas day.

The media works every day of the year – Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Halloween, Yom Kippur, Purim, Kwanza and yes, even Arbor Day. They need fresh content every single day of the week. Their crews may change and shift, their lead people take vacations while second stringers fill in for them. But every day, they broadcast, print, publish and distribute the news. Every day. And their need for content, combined with your competitors’ need to relax, can result in excellent press coverage for you.

You can deck the halls and sing the songs and eat the food that will no doubt be the inspiration for at least one or two New Year’s resolutions. In the meantime, though, consider celebrating the holidays by making them productive. Get yourself in front of the media while your competitors are guzzling eggnog. After all, isn’t success the best holiday gift you could give yourself?

Sometimes the harshest truths are the most important ones.

In public relations, one of the most important truisms revolves around the primary question that the media asks itself as it evaluates the potential stories it may cover: Who really cares?

They ask that question not out of rudeness, but rather out of a genuine desire to serve their audiences. Now, as consumers of the media, we may argue some of their choices of stories (I’m completely mystified with the media’s fascination with the cast of the Jersey Shore, but that’s just me), but we have to remember that the media’s revenue comes from the size and scope of their audiences. If they believe their audience wants to hear about a particular person or story, you can be assured they’ll cover it.

For someone seeking to promote themselves or their business, this question the media asks themselves, “who really cares,” is absolutely paramount, because it reveals one of the most critical and common pitfalls in the PR business. That is, the idea that promoting yourself should be all about you.

The hard fact is that if the media doesn’t already know who you are, they really don’t care about you. They don’t care about your book, your Web site, your company, your product or just about anything you are selling. Of course, their advertising director would love to sell you time or space, but that’s advertising, not PR.

So the key question becomes, how do you get the media to care about you? The answer is you have to demonstrate to them that your expertise and your message will add value to the lives of their audiences.

Now, a lot of self-help authors will think that should be easy, but it’s not. It’s not so much about the fact that you may have helpful advice to offer, but rather that you have different and more insightful advice than the last person in your field who pitched them for an interview.

What’s more, it’s not just self-help folks who have something to offer. We actually have several clients who have written memoirs whose life experiences offer tremendous value to the media’s audiences. Several were survivors of domestic and child abuse, with one of them having been kidnapped by a family member. Their stories put them in the unique position of offering advice on how to recognize domestic abuse, how to prevent it and even how to make children safer from abduction by estranged parents and even strangers.
In those cases, we received a resounding response from the media to talk to those individuals.

Another one of our clients is Michael Uslan, the executive producer of the Batman franchise of films. His memoir detailed his decade-long battle to get Hollywood to take a serious Batman film, well, seriously. His message of perseverance in the face of ridiculous odds resonates with anyone who has ever had a dream they wanted to fulfill, so the media devoured – and is still devouring – his story.

In each of these cases, the media campaign wasn’t about a book or a product or a person – it was about what each of these people could offer the audience as a result of their experiences and expertise. Their advice, backed up by the power of success or the lessons of defeat, was what attracted the media. They didn’t have interviews or outreach that touted their books or their companies, and they certainly weren’t actively trying to sell people anything. They offered themselves as experts in their fields with something of value for the media’s audience. They didn’t sound like an infomercial pitching a product, nor did they sound like a celebrity on a late night talk show telling people to buy their book or watch their movie.

They offered something of themselves for the benefit of others, which is a great way to earn the trust of those media consumers. More than that, they weren’t trying to promote themselves. And here’s the irony that I love so much about the media – in actively not trying to promote themselves, they actually achieved a greater degree of self-promotion. People listened to them, came to like them and wound up becoming interested in what they had to sell, even though they weren’t actively trying to sell it.

Back to answering the media’s question of “Who really cares?” – the secret is to remember the one driving truth of life in the media. It’s not about you. It’s never about you. It’s always about the audience and what you can do for them.

With all the movies coming out in 3-D these days, I started thinking about how a good PR campaign also has its own 3-D elements. Well, really, there are four types of media outlets today – TV, radio, print (offline and online) and social media – so you really need a 4-D strategy (a point I am sure I will be arguing online at some point with a smart-aleck physicist who takes issue with my science).

In PR, unlike movies, 4-D is the only way to go. I mention this because people frequently ask me which of the four media outlets I think is better. I try to explain that each one is effective in its own right, however, as the media feeds off of itself, the most effective PR campaign will include using all elements in a strategy that leverages a 4-dimensional approach.

Here are some ways the different elements of a 4 dimensional PR campaign fit together, kind of like a marketing Rubik’s cube.

Print/Online – I put print and online in the same category because they both encompass written articles, and just about everything that appears in print is repurposed online, so written articles have a dual impact. Most importantly, every article or column that includes a mention of you, your book or your company will eventually appear online in such a way that they will turn up as a search engine result on Google and other news aggregators. For this reason, print/online interacts beautifully with just about every other media.

For instance, when your PR firm pitches you as a guest for TV and radio interviews, some of the more enterprising producers will Google you to see if you are a reputable person in your field. The more articles that pop up on Google or Yahoo that feature you as a source, the more likely they are to recognize you as a credible expert and want to schedule an interview.

In addition, your articles are great fodder for social networks. While you don’t want to be too commercial or promotional in your tweets and Facebook updates, there is no harm in tweeting a link to a news story that might be of interest to your friends and fellow networkers. If you’re featured in it, that’s just a bonus. Every time you get an article that pops up online, you can circulate the links on your social network and drive more views, which also drives your credibility with your peers.

Radio – for so many reasons, this is one of my all-time favorite mediums. One critical reason is that talk radio is a place where you can typically have a more in-depth conversation about your topic than other mediums allow. And now that the vast majority of stations are streaming live on the Internet, the promotional value is endless. For one thing, you can alert your social network followers as to when the interview will occur so they can hear it live. If they miss that exact day and time, most stations archive shows on their Web site, so people can listen whenever it’s more convenient. Before the Internet, shows just disappeared into the stratosphere after they were recorded.

Also, technology is such today that you can download a radio interview off the station’s site (or you can ask the producer to do it for you) to post on your own Web site and distribute to your social network followers.

Another added value is that stations record, podcast and distribute shows via their own social network connections, so this becomes another layer of promotion for you. In fact, just a few minutes ago, we found that an interview we scheduled for one of our clients on America’s Radio News Network (one of the fastest growing networks in the country) featured his interview on the front page of their Web site – an additional avenue of promotion for you.

At the end of the day, telling your social media followers when you’re featured in the news and on the air, makes you more credible to them and will help drive more followers to your social network and your Web site.

TV – TV, as with radio, used to be a fleeting experience, because once the interview aired, its influence was over. Now, many news stations will keep links to your interview active on their Web site for a short period of time after the interview took place. Of course, you always want to obtain a digital copy to post on your Web site, extending that appearance’s shelf life and also for the viewing of decision makers in other mediums who may be vetting you for potential coverage. Nothing screams credibility like an online video of you appearing on a TV show.

Today, some TV producers are even asking potential guests if they have a large social network following, because that makes them more attractive as guests. If you have 10,000 followers, your outreach to let them know about your appearance could drive bigger ratings for the show you’re on. The key thing is to get access to a digital copy and leave plenty of breadcrumbs in your online footprint for people to find them.

Social Media – While building your social media connections has its very own reward, it can also help drive readership, viewership and listenership to every piece of your PR campaign, helping to grow your numbers and brand you as an undisputed expert in your field.

So, when you approach PR, don’t view it as a flat, one-dimensional experience. Put on those 4-D glasses (if they don’t make them yet, they should), change your perspective and watch the results of your PR campaigns grow exponentially.

Best To Let the Media Determine That

In my role as the head of a PR firm, one of the most common misconceptions I see has to do with the superlatives people choose to describe themselves. Now, I’m not referring to how the media positions someone, but rather how someone seeking PR wants to refer to him or herself.

I once overheard my senior strategist, Tony Panaccio, having a conversation with a client about what their tagline should be. It went something like this:

Client: So, what should I call myself?

Tony: I’m not sure what you mean.

Client: Well, when I identify myself to the media.

Tony: Well, your name is Jim, right (not the actual name)?

Client: Yeah.

Tony: So, why don’t we stick with that? It’s short, concise and happens to be, you know, your name.

Client: That’s not what I meant. I was trying to think of something catchy.

Tony: Okay, how about “James?”

It went on like that for a bit, until Tony was able to explain to the client that it’s not kosher to try to “name” yourself to the media.

Taglines can work well for people who have their own radio or TV shows, but for those just breaking into the spotlight, it actually has the reverse effect than intended. The media is a cynical, somewhat sensitive league of professionals, not unlike Tony, actually. When they see a name they’ve never seen before with a tagline they’ve never seen before, it strikes them as odd and out of place. In fact, many will turn their noses up at those self-made designations.

We often get folks who want to attach all kinds of superlative descriptions of themselves in their bios like “genius,” “brilliant,” “guru.”  The point is that those in the media will come up with the nicknames and catchy taglines as they see fit, once they have come to understand that person’s experience is real. They are the ones who get to determine who the gurus are and not the prospective gurus themselves.

Further along those lines, some have tried to attach the terms “groundbreaking,” “innovative” and even “spectacular” to describe their products or their books. The problem is that the media feels they are the ones who will determine if someone or something fits those descriptions. When people are positioned that way as part of a pitch or an article, it can be offensive and it immediately raises the question as to the validity of that designation. That’s why using superlatives about yourself in order to establish your credibility, typically results in exactly the opposite effect.

That’s why I don’t call myself anything like “The PR Mechanic” or “The Marketing Maven,” as others in my industry call themselves. It’s not for me to make those calls. It’s up to you and the media to determine that I’m deserving of some kind of title to show my expertise.

In the meantime, feel free to call me Marsha. All my friends do and you’re far more likely to get my attention.

You don’t have to tell Kevin Reilly, entertainment president of Fox Broadcasting Company, that social media is a good way to market new shows. He already knows.

At the MIPCOM show, a TV and entertainment conference and market held in Cannes, France every year, Reilly said the network is using social media to build awareness of new shows with tremendous success. Reilly gushed over how social media has made shows hits like Glee and New Girl, almost before they even hit the airwaves.

“In a connected world in which individuals have the ability to choose from the best of TV past and present, more and more the audience will rely on filtering mechanisms and social networks to navigate and inform their choices,” he told the crowd in his keynote:

“There is a reason that Facebook just kicked social TV into high gear. As one blogger said: ‘When people start consuming content through Facebook, it enables a new world of friend-to-friend discovery that is potentially worth more than any promo campaign on the planet.’ In other words, better than any network today can provide.”

I read his speech on deadline.com; by the way, it’s a great site to keep track of what is going on in the film, TV and media businesses. Their coverage of the social media explosion, which has included several similar speeches about social media (from the announcement of Yahoo! doing a Web-only TV series and the expansion of Facebook’s strategic deals with, well, just about everyone), is another demonstration of social media no longer being a trend. It’s now clearly part of the foundation of the media. Don’t look now, but TV, radio, print and online just moved one chair down to make room for social media at the grown-ups table.

Think about just what Fox has just done. For their new hit comedy New Girl, Fox pre-released an episode on iTunes and VOD, before the pilot was even aired on TV – and they scored 2-million downloads. Reilly also said that another one of their hit shows, Glee, was the guinea pig for social media. First, they streamed the show on HULU.com before they aired it and all of the songs from the show’s musical numbers were released on iTunes, to provide fodder for social media followers.

But this is the real telling quote from the speech: “The series premiered as a bona fide hit, which I am certain would not have been the case had we marketed it in a more traditional way.”

My point? Simple. If you’re using social media for your business today, that’s good. My advice would be to make sure you are doing everything you can within reason to capitalize on the marketing opportunities it provides.

And if you’re not using social media, you need to start now. It’s where everyone is conversing, sharing information, referring favorite books, products and services, and researching their next purchase. It’s where you need to be.

Irony has a way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it.

One of our clients was at a convention this week, and among his activities, he was hosting a panel on the digital revolution in the entertainment industry. While his credentials in the entertainment business are solid, he has yet to figure out how to operate his new Droid smartphone.

So one of my staff emailed him, pointing out the irony and the client emailed back, “I thought ‘digital’ meant they were going to talk about fingers!”

It started me thinking about the digital revolution in the media as well. With all the new technology available to us through the Internet, including the ability to track Web site visitors from their referring page to our own Web sites and even tracing how long they spend on each page, it reminded me how the emphasis on numbers and tracking have muddied the marketing waters.

Because we now have access to all these numbers and statistics, we can easily lose sight of the fact that the numbers aren’t the whole story. One of the primary differences between advertising and PR is that advertisers can drill down and focus specifically on numbers in terms of audience, tracking each time a pair of eyeballs looks at an ad as one “impression” of that ad.  The more impressions the ad receives, the more the ad campaign is perceived as being successful.

In the public relations arena, it’s impossible to track “impressions.” Media outlets aren’t going to track the exact number of eyeballs on each article – it’s not cost-effective for them to do so.  Besides, offline and online publications already have a yardstick that measures their reach.  It’s a combination of traditional circulation figures that have always been used to track the reach of a printed periodical and the number of unique visitors they get to their Web site each month, which is referred to as Visitors Per Month (VPM).

This certainly doesn’t mean that PR is somehow lacking as a marketing tactic, in comparison to advertising. The equalizer – and in my mind, the puzzle piece that elevates PR above advertising – is the third-party verification that inherently comes with PR. I talk about this frequently, but as the digital side of marketing continues to grow, it’s something all marketers must consider in evaluating the success of a PR component.

When someone buys an ad, it’s like buying real estate. They own that space and they can put practically any message they wish, within reason and within the policies of that particular media outlet. They can make reasonable claims about their company, product or service and use as many superlatives as they wish. They can represent themselves in the most complimentary manner possible. In other words, buying the ad allows them to control the message and how they want their message to be perceived by the masses. But consumers of today implicitly understand that this is the nature of advertising.

According to a global study by The Fournaise Marketing Group, consumer engagement rates from advertising have dropped 19 percent around the world. Here’s what Marketing Magazine had to say about the study:

“The study tracked response and engagement rates across traditional, as well as online campaigns, in 20 countries in the first half of 2011, comparing it to the same period last year. The US and Europe saw the sharpest decline at 23 percent. Online advertising was, on average, 25% less effective than traditional media, with display ads hit by a 26% decline. Fournaise deduced that while the global economic conditions had some effect, the drop was more to do with less effective campaigns and too much focus on ‘creativity,’ rather than customer benefits. In today’s world, where consumers are bombarded with advertising messages, a brand’s actions speak louder than words – and a consumer advocate is far more powerful than a brand one.”

A consumer advocate is more powerful, because a consumer advocate represents third-party verification, someone other than the advertiser to verify the brand’s positive claims. And, that’s what PR delivers with every interview and article, because the media outlets CHOOSE to use their free editorial space to feature that company or expert. Even if they simply quote a company spokesperson on an ongoing business trend, it demonstrates that the media outlet had some level of approval of that company.

That’s why PR doesn’t need the extra digital metrics, because it delivers something that is more important and impossible to measure – trust. That is the real jewel of a PR campaign, far and above the story the numbers can tell.

So if you’re advertising, follow the statistics and tracking data available through your online analytics, but remember that the effectiveness of your ads will depend in large part on how well your marketing campaign has created trust in the mind of your consumer.