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WTF??!!

January 30th, 2012

Since the advent of the Internet and email, we’ve all become experts at using acronyms in our notes.

LOL – “Laughing Out Loud.”

IMHO – “In My Humble Opinion.”

BTW – “By The Way.”

POS – “Parent Over Shoulder.”

Most of these turn up in emails I read regularly although I haven’t seen the last one since my kids were in their early teens. But one that turns up with more and more regularity – and one that I don’t think most people understand – is WTF??!!

Here’s what WTF does not stand for:

It doesn’t stand for “Washington Theater Festival.”

It doesn’t stand for “Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.”

It doesn’t even stand for “Whoa, Timmy Farted.”

And even though it did stand for the Wisconsin Tourism Federation, they realized that they had to change their name because of WTF’s real meaning.

People usually say “WTF??!!” when they encounter something they don’t understand, something they can’t believe.

Did you know the average working person will have 20 jobs before they retire? WTF??!!

Did you hear that 90% of college students are studying for jobs that don’t even exist today? WTF??!!

Did you know that Amazon.com is recommending that people scan products in stores to find lower prices online? WTF??!!

WTF is the quick response to these types of statements, but not for the reason you might think. You see, WTF does not stand for “What The F@%K??!!” I believe that WTF stands for “Where’s The Future?” Because almost every time you encounter something you don’t understand or can’t believe, it’s an opportunity staring you in the face.

“Where’s The Future?” is just another way of asking, “What’s going to happen? What’re people going to need? Where’s the opportunity I can benefit from?” Instead of looking at things you don’t quite understand and wondering Why, it’s time to look at those things and wonder Where? As in where’s the future?

When you feel like saying “WTF?” maybe it’s a hint that you should look at the situation a little differently. Start thinking of “WTF?” this way and all of a sudden things that were confusing become stimulating. Difficulties become challenges. Problems become opportunities. And before you know it, you’ve got the solution.

So the next time someone says, “WTF??!!” you’ll be able to answer, “right freaking here!”

IMHO, of course.

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More political ads coming to a TV near you

January 25th, 2012

CBS interviewed me yesterday on the effect political advertising will have in Florida. Click “play” below and take a look. Sorry about the Chase ad, CBS cleverly embedded it in their link.

 

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WiFi/USB Cufflinks

January 24th, 2012


I am fully committed to traveling light but this is ridiculous! Still, if you have a spare $250 burning a hole in your pocket how can you travel without them? Oh yeah, you’ll need shirts with French cuffs.

Polished Silver Oval WIFI and 2 GB USB Combination Cufflinks feature a 2GB of storage for all your must-have documents and presentations and a WiFi Hotspot, which opens your WiFi to multiple devices.

If you want a set, click HERE.

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Why Write A Blog Anyway?

January 23rd, 2012

One of my favorite bloggers, David Altshuler, wrote a blog explaining why he writes blogs in the first place. As I read it, I realized I couldn’t have said it better myself. So I asked David for permission to reissue his blog, only changing the specific details that pertained to me and my blog. David was generous enough to say yes.

A few weeks ago an erudite reader responded to my column Physician, Heal Thyself: “One question: Do people respond to your requests for comments and answers? It seems your call to action should be a bit higher up in the post and set apart rather than at the end and as part of another paragraph. Thoughts?”

“Do people respond?” The question got me thinking. “Do people respond?” is a subset of “Why do I write these blogs?” OK, so why do I write these?

The reason people go to therapy is not so they can listen to someone suggest solutions to their issues. The reason people go to therapy is so they can get someone to listen to their issues.

Because, in a typical day, no one listens. “But enough about me, what do you think about me?” isn’t the most popular joke of the past year because every one of us has experienced that same boor. “What do you think about me?” is popular because so few of us have the time, inclination or experience to be open to listening.

In this culture there is information overload. “57 Channels And Nothing On” sings Springsteen. Everyone has something to say, most have something to sell. No one is listening. Why are customer service lines so annoying? Because the caller can’t make himself heard, can’t express his needs, can’t get his request acknowledged, let alone resolved. Why are robo-calls so maddening? Because no one is listening. Hang up, sign up for the Do Not Call list or go jump in the lake. Your response will not be acknowledged. That’s why you are mad as hell and don’t want to take it anymore.

Just a few generations ago we were desperate for information. Charles Dickens sent his novels in installments to the States and people crowded the docks shouting, “What happened to Little Nell?” In the western states, a week-old newspaper had great value. Travelers were bombarded for information about “back East.” Today — to the contrary — there is too much information. No one can take it all in. (Not that anyone would want to, mind you. But if even one percent of one percent of the billion web pages were worth knowing about, well, you do the math.)

So why do I write these posts? Because I want to be heard. Why do I ask you to respond? Because (unless I’m very much mistaken) you want to be heard as well.

I want to have a forum for my ideas. Rather than addressing one person at a time in my office, or 3,000 at a time in a speech, I want to reach out to my 11,250 email addresses each week. I’ve been thinking about branding, marketing, advertising, communication, and design full time now for well over 30 years. I want you to know what I’m thinking about and I want to know if what I’m thinking is way off base. I want you to have the opportunity to say what’s on your mind as well. There’s a reason people place their over-turned soap boxes in crowded parks.

Admittedly, I’m more pleased with the “Atta-boys” and the “Yes, Bruce, you’re so right, I never thought of that before, I’m going to change the whole way I build my brand” than I am with the responses that begin “Bruce, you ignorant slut.” But the dissent has been inspiring as well. I’ve been called out a few times and I have learned from my (blatantly public) mistakes.

What else do I get out of these blogs? Discipline. And if there’s one thing my little ADD brain (SQUIRREL!) needs, it’s discipline. Discipline is good for me. I run six hours a week. Surely I can write and think for at least three hours out of the 162 others that I am allotted every seven days.

Emerson said that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds,” (many thanks to Howard Goldman for that correction) yet here I am with my 495th consecutive Wednesday morning at 10:00 am and I haven’t had one response from Ralph Waldo. Although, to be fair, the possibility that Emerson is having computer problems cannot be discounted.

Another reason I write these blog posts is so that I can quote Emerson, Shakespeare, Groucho Marx, Simon & Garfunkel, and (today) Shelley. There is something to be said for the transmission of ideas over the generations. Socrates without listeners has no Socratic method. So with as little irony as possible, here is what Percy Bysshe had to say on the subject of how long I can expect to have my thoughts talked about and responded to.

I met a traveller from an antique land
 who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
 stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown 
and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command 
tell that its sculptor well those passions read
 which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 
of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.

Pretty good, huh?

Poor guy, that Ozymandias. He conquered a bunch of folks, employed some sculptors, just wanted to be remembered.

Maybe he should have published a blog.

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Nine Micro-Branding Tips Under $100 Each.

January 16th, 2012

Last week we talked about how the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) has built a tourism marketing machine by focusing on building the singular Miami brand (you can read that post HERE). Thanks to aggressively pursuing this strategy, recent research shows that the city has become one of the top four destinations in the country.

But as I pointed out, while the change has taken a lot of years, dollars, and effort, there are a number of micro tips and techniques, all costing less than $100 apiece, that you can use to build your own personal brand. I call these practices, “Bill Knows Branding,” or BNB for short.

The Bill in question is Bill Talbert, the CEO of the GMCVB. The BNBs are the list of some of the things Bill does to keep the Miami brand front and center and also to keep his team members and partners motivated to do the same.

Bill Knows Branding Tip #1 — Always wear your brand on your sleeve.

Anytime you see a well-dressed GMCVB team member or partner, you’ll find a palm tree lapel pin in their jacket’s buttonhole. Bill insists that all of his people wear this conversation starter wherever they go. And in case you forget your pin, Bill’s always got a pocket full and hands them out happily, providing the positive reinforcement needed to establish a habit.

One weekend I ran into Bill at a wedding. He asked me why there wasn’t a palm tree glittering from the lapel of my tux. “It’s Saturday, Bill,” I responded. “I’m off the clock.”

“You’re never off the clock,” he said, handing me a pin from his collection. “But you are out of uniform.” Point taken. I now keep a pin in each of my suits so I won’t be underdressed again.

Bill Knows Branding Tip #2 — No one sends personal notes anymore. Except Bill.

Bill is one of the most tech-savvy CEOs I know. But whenever you spend time with him, you can expect a personal handwritten note to show up in the mail a day or two later. Bill knows that as the world gets more and more high-tech, the way to break through the clutter and make a statement is with high-touch. Not a phone message. Not an email. A handwritten letter. With a signature. And a real stamp on the envelope.

And when the news is really important? Bill takes a tip from Michael Gehrisch, CEO of the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI), and sends it in a FedEx envelope. After all, what other correspondence gets brought to your desk the minute it enters your office? It’s a heck of a bargain for 15 bucks, I think.

Bill Knows Branding Tip #3 — Birthdays are only the beginning.

Thanks to Facebook, I received 217 emails on my birthday. Thanks to Bill Talbert’s micro branding techniques, I received one birthday wish a day early. You see, Bill believes it’s not enough to remember someone’s birthday, the trick is to be the first one to remember. He told me that the best compliment he got was the guy who said, “You wished me happy birthday before my mother did!”

But Bill doesn’t only send notes on birthdays. He also sends birthday notes to kids and pets. And he sends notes to his employees on the anniversary of their hires — “Thanks for 12 great years!” All great ways to let people know you pay attention and you care.

Bill Knows Branding Tip #4 — Give away $100,000.

This one costs a whole lot less than you might think. When the Powerball Lottery jackpot heads north of $80 million, Bill buys tickets for his staff. “Here’s a $100,000 bonus,” he says as he hands them out. “If you win, I get half.” It’s a lot of return for very little money.

Of course, Bill runs the risk of his good people leaving when they hit the $100 million jackpot, but I think the odds are in his favor on that one.

Bill Knows Branding Tip #5 – Business cards you can feel.

The next time you see Bill, ask him for his business card. Hopefully the first thing you notice is how colorful and beautiful it is (that was a bit of shameless self-promotion – we designed the brand and the cards). Next, you’ll notice that the card is covered with embossed bumps, his contact information in Braille, to be exact.

How many visually impaired people actually read Bill’s tactile cards? That’s hardly the point. Each Braille-enabled card tells recipients that Bill — and by extension the GMCVB and Miami — is open to all travelers.


Bill says that most everyone who gets his card says, “What a great idea, I’m going to copy it” yet as far as he knows, only one person has, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. “You’ve made me a rock star in Washington,” the congressman told Bill. And all this from some little bumps and for less than 100 dollars.

Bill Knows Branding Tip #6 — We’re in the Good News Business.

Like many companies, the GMCVB sends out weekly newsletters. Unlike most companies, Bill sends his out on Sunday because “people will read things on Sunday morning that they won’t get to the rest of the week.” The news is always inspirational and uplifting to reward people for reading it. “Bad news is everywhere,” Bill says. “We’re in the good news business. People look forward to reading what we send.”

Bill Knows Branding Tip #7 — Anyone can answer the easy questions.

Because the GMCVB provides travel information to visitors, lots of people call the office to discuss their travel issues. And occasionally those people aren’t happy. That’s when Bill gets involved. Let’s listen in on a recent late night complaint about a local hotel and its return call the next morning:

Caller: “I know you’re just a machine, but here’s a problem I’m encountering with my reservation…”

GMCVB Callback: “I’m not a machine, I’m the CEO, Bill Talbert. Let’s see how we can fix your problem…”

As Bill says, “There’s no better time to build a fan for life than when someone’s really angry.”

Bill Knows Branding Tip #8 – Don’t dress for the job you have. Dress for the job you want.

Bill believes that the visual impression you make on the people you work for and with is one of the most important things you can control. “People have too much going on in their lives to remember much about you,” he points out. “So it’s your responsibility to plant the right impression in their minds. And if you look like the person that you want to be, you’re on your way.”

So when Bill reached middle age, even though he already was the CEO of the Miami CVB, he realized that dressing for the part meant looking youthful and dynamic. “I figured there were only two ways to go, up or down. And I’m not interested in looking older,” he says. So out went the somber gray and blue suits and the red ties, replaced by sport coats and sophisticated neckwear. You see, Bill doesn’t just preach his rules, he lives them. And wears them.

Bill Knows Branding Tip #9 — AMATT.

One of the ways the GMCVB, and Miami, benefits from the brand is that there are always new techniques to put to work. “We’re AMATT,” says Bill. “All Miami All The Time. Everyday we’re thinking up new ways to extend the brand — we’re always thinking of new tips. And anyone can use these ideas. But what we do different is that we all do it. We train our people to connect the dots.”

What tips and techniques do you have? If you’ve found some value in what Bill does, why not post some suggestions of your own to share? Who knows, if we collect enough of them, we might start the micro-branding revolution.

 

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The Seven-Step Recipe for Marketing Success

January 10th, 2012

Owen Frager is Chief Innovation Officer of the Frager Creative Group, one of the nation’s first virtual marketing communications agencies serving Fortune 500 brands.

There’s a lot more to interactive digital marketing than eye-catching banner ads, discount packages, and clever domain names.

Marketing gives personality and differentiates for advantage. Marketing creates relationships with customers that go deeper than anything you sell or make. And of course, social marketing facilitates those relationships and drives word of mouth.

2012 is the year to stand out in a me-too online world.

The Seven-Step Recipe for 21st Century Marketing Success:

1.     People don’t buy brands. They join brands.

Interactive marketing is about brand relevance and consumer involvement. Your challenge is to create a sense of identity or belonging while fulfilling people’s expectations of what they will get in exchange for allowing you into their lives.

2.     What’s currently relevant is constantly changing.

Fortunately the Web offers the unique ability to reach and bring together like-minded customers from all over the world.

3.     You can market to one and all.

Any one prospect can be multiple customers: Business services decision-maker, luxury products consumer, grandparent, community leader. Green. Black. Gay.

4.     You can change to be what your customers need.

On the Web you have the unprecedented opportunity to put on a different face to different communities or market segments.

5.     Connecting people to each other connects them to you.

On the Web people search out and share marketing messages they fast forward through on TV. Combining traditional media with the power of the Web, you can turn transactions into relationships and transform your brand into something that people want to be a part of for the rest of their lives – and one generation to the next.

6.     Money can be made without selling anything.

The leadership position is still open on today’s most pressing issues. The socially responsible corporation, Web site or portal that creates a shared sense of common purpose will offer a legacy in providing everyone a place to record how the future is better for our having been here.

7.     Digital is how it all happens.

But digital marketing only delivers its promise when integrated into a larger marketing mix. It takes new thinking to take full advantage of the Internet’s potential.

a.    Cross-promotion that shares costs and extends budgets.

b.    Redirection of advertising dollars to collaborative efforts that raise awareness and sales.

c.     Ideas as themes, products, promotional vehicles, and monetized resources.

Remember, the new model is collaboration, not competition.

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The Power of the Brand

January 8th, 2012

I’m sitting in a marketing committee meeting at the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB). The GMCVB is a very long-term client of ours and a great example of a client who ‘gets it.’

As with most committee meetings, we go around the room and each group stands up and tells their story, explaining what they did over the previous quarter and how they did it.

PR talks about their public relations activities. International talks about their outreach to Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The Film, Fashion & Entertainment committee gets up and talks about, what else? Film, fashion, and entertainment. Meetings and Conventions talks about… (I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now).

But as complicated as the GMCVB and the Miami destination itself are, the overriding theme of the meeting is the strength of the Miami brand.

It seems simple now, but it took a lot of work for the GMCVB and us to convince the power structure throughout our county to narrow our marketing focus from every community and every tourist asset to just five letters: M-I-A-M-I.

The newest Frank Ghery-designed performing arts center? It’s in Miami. The hottest clubs, restaurants, and hotels? They’re in Miami, too. The most important art, marine, and electronica music festivals? They’re all in Miami. Art Basel Miami and Design Miami? (Again, I’m pretty sure you’ve got it).

Thanks to these laser-focused community assets, and so many more, what consumers worldwide have responded to — and what our client understands so well — is that our most valuable asset is our brand — Miami.

How do I know this? Needless to say we analyze and evaluate all the available travel metrics, but I have an experience that hits much closer to home.

Twenty years ago when I’d travel, the people I’d meet around the world would ask me where I was from. I’d answer “Miami” and they’d say “Oh.” Now, two decades later, when people ask me where I’m from I still say “Miami,” and they still say “Oh.” The only difference is the way the say it. The “Oh” of 20 years ago was said the way you might respond to someone who just announced they hadn’t bathed in three months, while today’s “Oh” is said with the wide smile and happy enthusiasm usually reserved for a favorite uncle or a slice of chocolate blackout cake.

Incredibly enough, years of effort, millions of dollars, and the contributions of thousands of partners and participants all worked together to accomplish this goal — changing the perception of five letters in order to go from “Oh” to “Oh!!”

Has it been worth it? The R.O.I. says “absolutely!” Miami’s hotel ADR (Average Daily Rate) is now second highest in the country after New York City. Our hotels’ occupancy rate is also the country’s second highest, trailing only Oahu. More importantly, over the last 10 years, we’ve added a significant number of jobs to the Miami economy. And our visitors’ satisfaction rate – described as how eager tourists are to return – just keeps getting better and better.

All of this is thanks to the belief the leaders of the GMCVB — Bill Talbert, Rolando Aedo, Ita Moriarty, Al West, and the rest of the team – have had in building Miami’s singular brand. By concentrating all of our efforts on promoting a county made up of 36 municipalities and three million inhabitants through a focused consumer experience, we have been able to build a lasting legacy that benefits the entire community and has become the envy of the destination industry worldwide.

You may be wondering how you can benefit from the techniques that have built Miami’s marketing juggernaut. After all, the GMCVB has a multimillion-dollar budget, a well-trained staff, and the support of thousands of community partners. And some of our macro tools do require those kinds of resources. But the GMCVB has another secret up its collective sleeve. And next week we’ll talk about the micro tips and techniques that Miami has used to build its business. None of these micro-moves cost more than $100 and all of them are ideas you can put to use immediately to build your own brand.

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Free Research to Build Your Brand.

January 3rd, 2012

For years there’s been an ongoing debate regarding the veracity of research in the advertising world. On one side of the argument are the research proponents who believe that consumer attitudes and purchasing preferences can be accurately determined through research.

On the other hand are the anti-research critics who believe that the creative process, and our response to it, is too emotional, esoteric, and erratic for us to understand it ourselves, let alone be able to explain it to anyone else. As the anti-research group says, market testing is like dissecting a frog. It’s bloody, it’s messy, and it’s not real good for the frog.

But now there’s a new modality that might change all that. Brought to you by the ambitious folks at Google, Google Correlate allows researchers to use seemingly disparate consumer decisions to generate statistically relevant data. And it’s available to anyone who logs on to the site.

According to the Google Correlate introduction, the service “finds search patterns which correspond with real-world trends.” Using the free service, researchers (and you) can look at a number of ways data relates to other data. Specifically, you can determine:

1.     How search items vary in popularity over time;

2.     Which items have a similar pattern of activity;

3.     An item’s pattern of activity across states; and

4.     How specific searches correlate state-to-state.

What does this mean to researchers (and you)? Quite simply, we now have access to information that can be used to determine consumer activity based not on buyers’ responses to theoretical queries or imagined courses of action but based on their actual and documented behavior.

What can you actually do with Google Correlate? The example Google uses shows how they were able to track the pattern of the influenza breakout as it spread by tracking the volume and types of questions asked about the flu across the country in real time.

NPR reporters Linda Wertheimer and Shankar Vedantam report that by comparing the volume of searches done for liberal news commentators with the searches those same questioners made about food, University of North Carolina researcher Phil Cohen determined that liberal Democrats are interested in “arugula pasta, beets nutrition, beets urine, fake meat, fennel salad, firm tofu, a variety of vegetarian cooking, (and) vegetarian recipes. Something like a Republican stereotype of what a liberal food diet might be.”

Vedantam goes on to postulate, “…when we think about our political orientations, we tend to think that our ideologies determine whether we’re Democrats or Republicans. But…what this research is at least hinting at, is the possibility that our political orientations are really a matter of our identities, are a matter of our cultures. And so if you’re somebody who’s a vegetarian, who likes beet salad, it’s very unlikely that you’re going to be a Republican.”

Whoa! While this assumption does have the comfort of stereotyping to back it up, it does start to move users of Google Correlate back into the argument of whether or not marketing research is accurate and usable. After all, as Google — and decades of scientists and statisticians — have pointed out, correlation does not imply causation. Nor does correlation prove causation. So just determining that people read more Stieg Larsson novels at the same time that the obesity rate increased, for example, does not suggest that Swedish murder mysteries make you fat.

Still, by replacing human inconsistencies with measurable statistics, Google has given us all a formidable and heretofore unavailable research tool. And did I mention that it’s free?

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Physician, Heal Thyself

December 27th, 2011

I was sitting at the table at a conference recently, listening to a world-renowned speaker talking about differentiating business brands. The young woman who raised her hand to ask a question was going on and on about her business problems and her personal problems; how hard it is to run a business, raise small children, travel to see clients, learn all the new technology, keep up with her e-mail, blog consistently, work out regularly, manage her marriage, eat healthy, and keep all her clients happy. Not only that, but the holidays were almost upon us and she hadn’t even started her gift shopping.

What’s her specialty, you might ask? Teaching her clients productivity and efficiency.

As quickly as I blurted out “physician, heal thyself,” it crashed down on me that I need to follow my own advice. The proof was my realization that a number of my recent blog posts all deal with subjects that I am having the most problems with. You see, I thought that I write these blogs for you but the ugly truth might be that I actually write them for me.

It is said that we teach what we most need to learn and my discovery is that that’s true of my business and this blog. And so when I wrote about “How to make money from blogging,” I was trying to think through my own desire to monetize this Internet monster that we’ve created together.

When I wrote “How To Get A Job” I wasn’t actually looking for employment, but instead thinking about how I need to reinvent myself and my agency to embrace technology in this brave new world we’ve all been pushed into.

“I Got Nothin’” was more sincere than anyone figured, but not for the reasons you might think. I wasn’t complaining about anything missing in my life — I am very aware of all of the good fortune I enjoy and I say “thank you” every day. Truth is, I had nothing to write about that week and was feeling the pressure of my self-imposed deadline (Wednesday morning, 10 a.m., no matter what) bearing down on me. My way out was to steal a page from the Seinfeld show and write a blog post about nothing at all.

“What You Can Learn From Sean Hannity” wasn’t a tribute to the pundit’s skills or his politics, but a plea to my readers (and myself) to pick a freaking lane already. While it’s been said that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, it’s also a critical component of branding. And with all my interests and opportunities, I can be the most ADD-addled multi-tasker around. So The New York Times article I referenced, all about Hannity’s commitment to consistency, was a suggestion that what’s worked for him can work for us, too.

The Hannity article wasn’t the first time I dealt with that issue, by the way. “What Business Are You In” was my attempt to pick my lane and figure out what business I’m in — after all, I can choose from branding, advertising, design, speaking, and writing, not to mention our specialties in travel and tourism, health care, and financial services, as well as our extensive experience and infrastructure in Latin America. The Mind Map for my “Define Your Issue” speech was another exploration of the very same issue.

For me, writing really is an exercise in thinking. By putting my thoughts on paper and editing and then reediting them over and over, I get to carefully examine what’s going on in my own head. And by looking back over the roster of published titles, I also get to see what’s been concerning me from week to week. And then, by reading through your comments and suggestions, I not only get to see what’s on your mind but I also get scores of creative solutions from very smart people (thank you).

This collective online think-tank has created a digital mastermind group that benefits not only me but also everyone who gets involved. In fact, there are a number of readers who don’t just read the blog post I email but instead log in to Turkel Talks to read the posts and all the comments that follow. And the best comments generate conversations between different readers, even when I’m not involved. But just like you, I can log in and learn from all the great comments. And most importantly, I often find the answer to my dilemma in the comments you send.

This crowdsourcing has served me well in a number of areas. When I need help with software, I no longer call tech support but instead post my question on Twitter. I do the same when I travel and need a reference or recommendation. And when I have a problem, I blog about it and I look to you for solutions.

Thanks for being there. I feel better already. And please have a happy, healthy, and safe new year.

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How To Generate Buzz

December 20th, 2011

In today’s media-savvy world, one of the most important things you can do to increase your opportunities is to generate buzz. There are a number of activities you can undertake to increase your public perception and generate the kind of buzz that has the potential to expose you and your brand to new revenue opportunities. I say, “has the potential” because the unfortunate reality of this method is that there are no guarantees that generating buzz will generate business. But the other realities are that 1) there is more chance that increased buzz will present you with chances to generate business and 2) you can do a lot of this work yourself so at least your activities don’t have to be expensive.

All of your activities will relate around media — specifically you’ll be dealing with both public media (newspaper, radio, TV news shows, etc.) and private media (blogs and social media sites). Interestingly, the two have a symbiotic relationship — public media will increase your blog readership and your blogging will entice public media to cover you.

Creating the actual blog is easy. Just go to www.wordpress.com and register for a free account. Then contact an administrator to build your initial site and host it for you. You could do that yourself but since you most likely have no idea what you’re doing, I suggest you find someone to help you. You want to look for someone who is knowledgeable, responsive, and inexpensive.

Setting the blog up is the easy part. What’s harder is having something worthwhile to say day after day and week after week. There’s not much I can do to help you with this except to suggest that you’ll grow into it over time as you experiment with what works and what doesn’t and as you begin to find your own unique voice. Things I can tell you from experience is that consistency is critical, shorter posts (two pages max) are better than complicated, multi-part documents, and a personal view or revelation is better received than a pure business-like essay. Most important, be sure to write about things that both interest and help your audience instead of posting updates about what you or your company has been up to lately.

I’m too impatient to wait for readers to find my blog on their own, and I’m neither popular enough nor presumptuous enough to believe people care about what I write enough to search me down, so I chose to send my blog out to an ever-growing list of readers. This adds some expense and effort but I believe it’s well worth it in reader volume. Still, most bloggers just post their data and hope the rest of the world beats a path to their literary mousetrap. I know many bloggers think my technique is akin to spamming but it works for me.

Because my entire strategy is built around getting people to read my blog (and then hire me to speak at their conferences and then hire my firm to build their brands), I use the other social media sites (specifically LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook) to generate traffic to my blog. For that reason, I accept almost every single person who invites me to join their SM rosters and I post to those sites with the goal of generating interest in who I am and what I write about.

To make life a little easier, I use www.ping.fm to send my messages to all three sites simultaneously. To make my Twitter management as painless as possible, I use TweetDeck to segregate both my followers and those I follow so I can continue to accept and “refollow” anyone who wants to follow me while having immediate access to the tweets of those I care most about. And I’ve ended any concern about whom I accept on Facebook by accepting the fact that I use the site for business, not as a personal communication device.

Once you’ve established your blog — both technically and as part of your weekly To-do list — the next activity is to create podcasts and post the videos on YouTube. An oft-repeated statistic is that YouTube is currently the world’s second most visited search engine (after its parent, Google) and soon its volume of searches will outpace Google itself. Because different people consume information in different ways, these video posts can be simple re-reads of your written posts or new content that takes advantage of the video format (you can show examples of your points, for example, or do magic tricks or hand puppets or whatever else you think will add interest).

These activities may seem overwhelming, but they’re really not. They just require a little bit of knowledge, a commitment of time to both learn the techniques and create the content, and the discipline to do them time after time, week after week. But after a couple of months of activity, you’ll have enough critical mass of content established online to undertake stage two — pursuing public media.

Here’s where you’re going to reach out to various reporters and other bloggers to get them to write about you and direct people to your online persona. The easiest way to do this is to simply call them. Consider your public relations outreach to be a daily part of your new business cold-calling activities and set aside the time to establish relationships with reporters and bloggers. Once they know who you are and what you do, they’ll be much more likely to want to include you in their stories and come to you for information.

Here are a few rules to keep in mind when dealing with reporters:

1.    Never lie to them. Even in today’s shifting journalistic environment when standards are dropping faster than a hooker’s panties, most journalists still live and die by their reputations. The worst thing that can happen to a reporter (other than being fired) is for their editor to have to print a retraction because they got something wrong. If you don’t know an answer, either say so or change the subject. Don’t make it up.

2.    Ever notice how reporters tend to quote the same people over and over? Every wonder how you can become one of those people? Make yourself available to the reporter when they want to write about you and when they don’t. Your goal is not to generate lines in the paper or minutes on air but to build a relationship with the reporters so they come to think of you as the expert in your specific field. That way, they’ll use you as a research source and will be much more likely to think of you when they need a quote or an example.

3.    Take them to lunch. These are the four magic words of PR as far as I’m concerned and a great way to establish a relationship that’ll pay off many times over. And, by the way, don’t only take working reporters to lunch. Because their world is so volatile, reporters live in a very unstable environment right now. If they are unlucky enough to be laid off, they find it an added indignity to be dropped by all of the fair-weather friends who used them when they had a public outlet but no longer see any value in the relationship. Remember that many reporters will be back in the public reporting sector sooner or later. They will certainly remember those who were supportive when things were tough. They’ll also remember who stiffed them. Who would you rather be?

Your bottom line should be to generate as much interest in you and your activities as possible. While there are no direct metrics to extrapolate how many blog readers or magazine articles it takes to generate additional income, a good rule of thumb is the more the merrier. Work hard to make your professional persona ubiquitous and it will pay off in perception and interest.

The other day the CEO of one our largest clients was sitting in my conference room discussing a project he wanted us to do for him. While he was talking, his phone rang and he glanced at the screen. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but it’s one of my board members. Pardon me while I take this.” During the conversation, he mentioned to the board member that he was in my office talking to me about the new project. “Oh, you know Bruce?” he asked the person on the phone. “Do you know him from when he presented at our board meeting?” He listened. “Oh, you know him from his blog.”

Here’s the beauty part: My client and I were just talking about us starting a robust social media program for him and now he saw the direct benefit of what we do. I was no longer a vendor selling a service but an expert who clearly practices what he preaches. I don’t yet know what the financial result of the project will be and there’s no reason to believe that we wouldn’t have gotten the project without the unplanned interaction but it certainly helped sell my point of view.

These sorts of things happen to me all the time. With a little work, they can happen to you, too.

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