PRs and Litigators Have a Lot In Common

Posted on December 29, 2008 | Tags: pr, public relations

I sat quietly at a function recently listening to young man who, by his recent admission to law school, apparently felt qualified to argue with anyone at the dinner table about subjects in which he had no expertise. His parents were of substantial wealth and this apparently contributed to his own estimation of the importance of his opinions.

It made me realize that public relations and litigation have a lot in common. That is, they’re not about bullying people into agreeing with you. You only really succeed if you can persuade someone to see things differently,

In PR, our end result is to present our client correctly to the target audience. We want our client’s position to be favorable and to be accepted, while being accurate.

And, like a litigator whose competence is judged on whether he won the case, good PR work, thoroughly prepared and presented, is rewarded by the audience accepting the message.

Like a litigation attorney, the PR has to gather the facts and present them so they are persuasive and understandable.

Honing your analytical skills takes a bit of practice. I grew up with debate as part of every dinnertime meal. My father was a litigator and he bred four attorneys. I learned that intelligent debate is not a use of force. It’s respectful, informed and persuasive. Denzel Washington’s movie on the subject is a must-see classic display of courteous debate you just don’t see anymore.

My dad would throw out a topic for discussion. If you chose to engage, you were forced to substantiate your opinion with fact and the source of the fact. My dad always chose to assume the position of the other side, presenting facts to make his case. From this activity, I learned a valuable lesson that has helped me get coverage for my clients:

Don’t represent your opinion as fact. Be prepared to substantiate your conclusions. Do not present generalities, such as “everybody knows” to back up your conclusions. And don’t become so emotional about your position that you can’t see the other side. There’s always another side. And …. always know your subject before challenging another.

To do otherwise is something I call “sloppy thinking.” It depends on bullying or some position of authority to get another to comply. And even when they do comply, you’ve not really won them over.

What Doesn’t Work Online Won’t Work Offline Either

Posted on December 22, 2008 | Tags: online pr, online public relations

In the world of getting publicity offline, you have to have something to say. Otherwise, the media doesn’t care about you.

The online world takes it a step further: it’s personal. To keep up pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, continue blogging, keep up on Twitter and nurse Squidoo pages, you have to invest the time. Most of these require personal communication that’s hard to outsource – unless your PR knows you so well that he/she can speak for you.

So … what do you do? If you’re doing it yourself, pick one or two that you can actually keep up with and make those great. Skip the rest. If you’re not going to nurture them completely, don’t bother getting involved. Seth Godin recommends this in his post The Sad Truth About Marketing Shortcuts.

Think of it like doing publicity offline. If you just wrote a non fiction book and have a limited budget, do talk radio interviews by phone or concentrate on getting magazine articles, if your subject is appropriate.

When you go online, time is your commodity, unless you’re paying an online PR to represent you. Don’t waste it doing things halfway. Slow and steady wins the race applies here.

Authors and Publicists Are Like Gamblers and Casino Houses

Posted on December 19, 2008 | Tags: Book Promotion

A client and very successful author (he was successful before he became a client) contacted me about a teleseminar he’d just participated in given by a pr coach who was a former national tv producer. He was quite impressed with her.

I don’t take anything away from the valuable experience of working on a national tv show. It allows you to see the back end process of what goes into selecting authors as guests for that particular show.

However, this is limited experience from which to establish a business that coaches authors on how to get book promotion. Every national show is different. Every author’s subject is different and is being released in a different news climate.

Like Vegas, the odds of landing on the bestseller list or even breaking even on a book are not that great. How many people teeming through Vegas go home with bulging pockets?

In the first PR firm I owned from 1990-2004, we booked clients on every major show on every national network. That was quite an accomplishment. However, those accomplishments were built on many rejections. More clients than not were rejected.

I’m sure Vegas gamblers know their odds of winning when they book their trip. I suppose its the hope and the sport that keeps ‘em coming.

The way to eliminate the risk of publishing and promoting a non fiction book is by using it to become a thought leader and attract more clients coming to you. It’s not to make a fortune on the book. If yours does wind up doing both, like David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing and PR, then kudos to you!

Is Your PR Responsible For Everything Said About You?

Posted on December 18, 2008 | Tags: online pr, online public relations, pr, public relations, Reputation Management

It’s one thing when your client makes a fool of herself in front of the camera. If you agree with your client’s statement or behavior, then back her up all the way and repair any misunderstanding afterward with the media. If you think your client’s a fool, then you have no business representing her.

But when a PR is just plain careless or lazy, they’re inept.

A blogger in a niche industry asked my opinion of a situation.

He had requested an interview with a high profile person in the niche industry that he blogs about. The “celeb” had referred his request to her publicist. The publicist told him her client was too busy to interview with him and blew him off.

He wrote something about the celeb anyway … a little humorous banter about a tournament she was playing in.

He learned indirectly that the publicist is quite angry with him, although she has not contacted him.

In this internet age in particular, a PR representing any type of celebrity must be pro-active in managing what’s said. After all, that’s what you’re hired for. If you’re not managing the media contacts on behalf of your client and you don’t like what’s said about your client, then you better raise the bar on your performance.

As far as I’m concerned, this publicist displayed poor manners. If someone is influential enough for the publicist to be concerned with what they write, then nurture the relationship on behalf of your client. If you mistakenly mishandle a media person or blogger in your industry, then amend the blunder with good old fashioned honest communication.

The same holds true, in my estimation, of John McCain’s PR person who cancelled his interview in October with David Letterman. That was a flap of major proportion. Anyone who watches Letterman (as a PR in this position should), would have known the liability of canceling a scheduled interview with him in favor of another. Big mistake. It wasn’t McCain’s place to fix that PR kerfluffle with Letterman … it was the PRs job. And they messed it up pretty badly.

Why Do You Need PR Online? PR is the New SEO

Posted on December 17, 2008 | Tags: online pr, online public relations

Many of my readers are professionals unfamiliar with the online world. So, for their purposes, I’ll define “SEO.”

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” That means what you have to do to make sure your website is found by the people who are searching for your service or product using a search engine. To “optimize” your site means to make it findable by search engines. Since Google is the most used search engine, they’ve set the standard of optimization.

And that is a short answer to a very involved industry.

Ten years ago all you had to do to get found was mainly have lots of your “keywords” all over you site. This practice was called “keyword density” and it placed more importance on writing web copy for the robots to find your site than copy intended to connect with your visitors.

Today all you hear about is “linking.” In the offline PR world, that’s getting people and media to talk about you. In the online PR world, it’s getting other sites to link to yours using words and phrases that reinforce to Google that your site is actually what you say it is.

Like all tricksters looking for a quick way around something, the quest to get lots of incoming links led to “link exchanging” and link spamming by using software to distribute the same article on multiple article directories so there would be lots of incoming links to your site.

As will happen with any trick that doesn’t serve the market, Google catches on. They caught onto this. Now you really need to have income links that are of high quality. That means authentic articles on sites relevant to yours that are themselves legitimate.

So, Google forces quality. Quality content, quality articles, quality information.

If you approach a website editor to post an a quality article and the site is a suitable fit, the editor will post it and give you links. If you find twenty websites that are naturally relevant to yours to accept authentic articles, what are the chances that those webmasters will all select the exact key phrases to link back to your site? That’s right – slim. Google knows that too, according to James Martell.

I haven’t bought any of James Martell’s courses, but he was part of a small group of speakers and panel members at an internet marketing weekend intensive hosted by Ken McCarthy. James has been earning income online since 1999 and is a publisher who thrives on building websites with quality content.

He stressed that, to succeed in the long run, you needed something authentic and valuable to say and let others know about you so they can talk about you too.

I call those the New Rules of SEO. That’s what a good PR does for a client with offline press. Sounds to me like PR has come of age online.

What Makes an Expert an Expert?

Posted on December 16, 2008 | Tags: online pr, online public relations, pr, public relations

Coaching and “Mastermind Groups” are all the rage.

Marketing gurus tout “build a list by being an expert.”

That’s fine, IF you happen to have some very valuable expertise.

If someone doesn’t really have anything valuable in an industry to contribute, why should I listen to that person? Won’t that person have to be dishonest to some degree to their customers about their expertise?

I commonly see limited experience being packaged and sold in courses, tapes and coaching.

I’ll give you an example. There’s a speaker on PR who appears at some of the marketing events I attend. He’s an incredible speaker and salesman. He sells a course on “do-it-yourself PR.”

What qualifies him to sell a course on the subject? Many years ago he had a huge success getting media coverage for himself.

Having gotten media coverage for over five hundred different types of subjects, experts and corporations, I’m impressed with how he has packaged his expertise and credentials. Truly impressed.

But I know enough to know that getting PR for yourself … even national attention … doesn’t qualify you to write the definitive manual on it that “anyone can use …” yadayadayayda.

Lesson? Examine the actual track record of whoever is selling you something.

Are You Attracting the Kind of Customers You Want?

Posted on December 15, 2008 | Tags: Personal Branding

Did you ever study how plants propagate? They actually have to attract certain types of insects (wasps, bees, etc) to pollinate it. Not just any old insect can pollinate any old plant. There are probably thousands of varieties of possible pollinators, from wasps to bees to moths, but each plant can only be pollinated by certain types.

A business needs to be “pollinated” by the right kind of customer for that business. Even mundane products like bathroom tissue, still have certain customers “pollinating” their brand.

It’s called “niching” or “personal branding” or just “branding,” of course. But even within a niche, you have to attract the customers you want and who can pay for your services. You might be the Queen of Breeding Purple Orchids, but if the customer you attract loves purple orchids but can’t pay for them, you’re out of business.

In 1990, when my partner and I first started our PR firm, we discovered that authors and publishers of non-fiction were a great match for our services. At that time, we were one of the only firms booking guests on top talk radio shows, local tv and national tv. When we expanded our client base to include corporations, it no longer was quite the perfect match. So we developed new services more appropriate for that market.

Because we billed only on a results basis, we attracted all kinds of attention. A lot of it wasn’t right for our business model. Getting paid on results is the fastest path I know to finding out very quickly which type of customer you want to attract. There’s no benefit to telling a client you can help him if you really can’t.

That type of billing was unheard of in our industry at the time. It set us apart from other firms and, combined with the fact that we got results, helped earn us a listing in PR Week’s Top 100 PR Firms.

A service business can spin its wheels taking in the wrong type of customer because it needs the business. I believe that’s what makes business exhausting and arduous. By personal branding that allows your prospect to be very clear about what you do and your results, you’ll reduce the problematic clients.

Is Your Message Clear and Definite?

Posted on December 15, 2008 | Tags: pr, public relations

Here’s a flash answer question for you if you watched the presidential debates: What clear and definite position did each candidate relay on how his economic plan would change due to the financial debacle that occurred in the middle of the campaign?

Moderators put the question to both candidates. Neither had a clear and definite answer.

Congressman Ron Paul’s position on every issue he is asked is clear and definite. You know exactly where he stands and what he would do on any issue on any given day.

How does this principle translate into marketing and PR? Out of hundreds of clients we booked as guests on talk radio stations around the country, one stands heads above the rest for getting people to pick up the phone, credit card in hand and order his product. How does he do this?

He has a clear message: The 10 Foods You Must Never Eat. Stay away from these foods. They’ll make you unhealthy. End of story. These 10 foods are are all bad. Stay away. It works.

At The End of Your Appearance, Interview, Blog Post, White Paper, Ebook, the only point that will be remembered is the one that was clear and definite.

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