So...How do I get on Oprah?

Some of the most recurring questions I get from prospective clients are…

How do I get on Oprah?

How do we make this go “viral”?

How do we blow up our follower count?

Yes, it’s easy to read these questions from a distance and dismiss them as deluded, self-involved, and attention-hungry…but  that’s because these questions are deluded, self-involved, and attention hungry.

Nevertheless, these common requests are understandable. Not justified. Not reasonable. But understandable…here’s why:

Social Media has allowed for a lot of talents and brands to occasionally hit mainstream without the traditional barriers to fame and success.

With all the anecdotal successes we now point to as case studies–the Justin Bieber’s of YouTube, the Old Spice’s of viral marketing, etc.–it’s easy to believe immediate attention and overnight success are attainable now more than ever.

The rise of Social Media has helped make “overnight success” so appealing and more seemingly attainable so much so that some mistakenly believe that PR and Social Media Managers are hired to deliver a seat on the Ellen show, viral campaigns, and inflated follower counts, on demand; and usually without much weight on whether a product or company or campaign is reasonably warrants the publicity and exposure being demanded.

Social Media success stories have inflated the probability of overnight fame. The desire for fame and publicity themselves are not new. What’s new, I believe, is the heightened expectation of virtually effortless success.

Why is this important? As business owners, aspiring artists, and other brands turn to PR and social media for help, they expect more results, in less time, with less effort, and less money—because social media is cheap, right?.

Why is being “great” important for PR pros?

PR is often perceived as a profession that suffers from the very thing it attempts to prevent for its clients — BAD PR. Not only is the profession and its services criticized by many as SPIN Doctoring, but even the profession itself is becoming less and less appealing as a career. Rated as the top 7 most stressful job in America (a slight improvement from 2nd Place last year), it’s no wonder curious junior level and entry level professionals drop and turnover faster than they can establish any career. They can barely establish paid benefits in their first employment contracts.

If striving for stardom and public perception on behalf of our clients comes with the territory of the job, how will we ever move pass this Catch-22 stage that never seems to end — of being faulted for the very job we are hired to do day in and day out?  Although it may not sound fair, the perception of the PR profession is our responsibility–as practitioners and professionals–to improve.

I don’t have the precise end-all, cure-all answer, but I do believe the answer lies somewhere in the commitment to greatness over the commitment to fame. We must strive for this not only in our own practice, but we have to also urge our clients towards greatness, and gently steer them away from the one-trick-ponies, gimmicks, monotonous press releases, SEO spamming techniques, SM robots, etc..

This is difficult to do, some say it’s impossible…

But the easiest way to do it is choosing the right client first. Even better is if you attract the right clients to your practice. This is where content marketing and the age of social media can only help todays PR, Branding and Marketing professionals.

As PR and Marketing pros who want to promote a respectable profession, we must be vocal about our genuine interest in what we do, we must share that interest, and even share what we do. PR is one industry that could benefit the most from some transparency.

I’m sure many would disagree with me–I could see their heads shaking now..and you know what?… I don’t blame them.

“Tallulah, you of all people should know that sometimes substance does not lead to success. Sometimes crap floats to the top, the talentless turn to releasing racy videos for big breaks, politicians join Presidential elections sometimes just to sell books…”

and the cynic goes on and on…But that is exactly what we are talking about here — cynicism.

Many, including PR and Advertising professionals, even company executives, even employees,  and even I can be cynical — and can view the world of PR especially as the dirty hand which tries to forcefully, and inauthentically, turn or hyperbolate truths to serve private interest. Cynical. Cynical. Cynical.

However, if there is anything that the recent past has taught us–the influence and recent passing of Steve Jobs, the Arab Spring, and the past results of National Presidential Elections tell us — campaign messages centered on hope and Inspiration trumps Cynicism.

Having pride–conspicuous pride–in our work in PR, Marketing, or any profession, FIRST, is the best way to promote a profession, attract the right clients, and uproot cynicism–both from PR and marketing industries and…albeit slowly, but surely…from the world.

As marketers and business owners, we have to be careful about relying on the outliers, the exceptions to the rule, that illusive promise of blowing up, the viral attention, the overnight success story. We have to be careful about drinking our own cool aid. We have to Forget about Being Big, and Just focus on Being Great, first.

If PR is ever going to get a facelift on its own image as a profession and industry, if we are ever going to retain young talent and prevent young pros from running to the hills, if we are to attract the right clients–let’s leverage the benefits of social media can do for our own practice. Blog about integrity in our profession, vlog about how to properly measure Social Media ROI, and speak about the difficulties we–marketing pros, journalists, and clients face as we all adapt to these changes. Let’s find a middle ground, and make a daily practice of uprooting the weeds of cynicism in our work and in our lives.

Is this too kumbaya? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Photo by Mario Testino

There is a never-ending debate raging in the online marketing space regarding the inevitable doom of email marketing. Some Social Media die-hards contend that email marketing has been on a quick path to irrelevance and will soon be pronounced dead. Email Marketing Service Provider, (Affiliate Link) Constant Contact, recently blogged about Baskin Robbin’s move to completely and unequivocally end its email marketing efforts and rely solely on the internet marketing muscle of its social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter. As you probably expected, Constant Contact was not amused.

Nor were they convinced. They argue, as they have in the past, that email provides a true link to customers and helps bolster and measure (yes, I said the “m” word) social media campaigns.

As a PR & Marketing Consultant, there is one advantage email newsletter campaigns hold over social media programs: Email campaigns are much quicker, easier, and more cost-effective to launch. In fact, you can start one in just 5 days! I did. Here’s how:

DAY 1: Choose the Right Email Newsletter Service Provider

Take time to assess your company’s or client’s needs for this campaign to be a success. Are they particular about establishing a signature design? Or will the provided email templates suffice? Do you have an HTML programmer on deck to customize email design elements? Do they have a list of email addresses who have opted-in to receiving emails from the company?

There are currently two newsletter service giants on scene: Constant Contact & AWeber. Here is a fantastic table wherein the services of each are compared. Most of my clients were more concerned with launching the program as quick as possible, and sending emails immediately without having to request opt-in confirmation ahead of time–features which Constant Contact provides. However, make sure to choose wisely as transferring your customer data to a different provider could lead to unnecessary headache and delays later on.

DAY 2: Clean and Compile your Most Updated Contact List

This is probably the most tedious type of housecleaning you will have to do during the entire launch process, but I must stress, persistence here goes a long way. Checking for misspelled and outdated email addresses in your customer list is the best way to ensure a quick and painless list upload to your service provider’s database, as well as less email bounces to your first email and the ones following it.

Be sure to check the parameters of uploading your contact list. Some providers, like Constant Contact, disallow uploading generic emails like info@ or sales@ mycompany[dot]com to regulate spamming practices. However, Constant Contact and AWeber make the upload process relatively easy, allowing your to customize columns to include data fields such as First Name, Last Name, Company Name, etc.

DAY 3: Create Valuable & Compelling Content

Easier said than done right? Actually, for your first post, not really. Usually when a company or small business decides to launch a newsletter campaign, they have (or should have) something to say. But if your already hitting writer’s block, no fear. Here is what I would suggest:

1. Announce your Newsletter and why you’ve launched it. Is it to keep in touch with your customers? To build a customer community? To deliver exclusive deals to the most loyal customers? This is your main pitch point to why your subscribers should stay subscribed.
2. Deliver the most relavent news in your industry by listing some top headlines. Use links from other news sources.
3. Offer a Coupon or Promotion for your products and/or services.

However, not to add more pressure, but the very first issue of your newsletter is usually the most important one as it sets the tone, aesthetic format, and message for issues to come. Here are the three features to consider cementing down on your first issue:

• Newsletter Title – Aim for something short, catchy, and related to your practice. If possible, insert your company name in the title for later SEO purposes.
• Custom Banner – Today a Custom Corporate Banner is a must. Some use advanced editing tools such as Adobe Illustrator, but as a bare-bones Mac user, I’ve whipped up headers in 5 mins. by using Pages, printing the mockup as a PDF and then converting the file into a JPEG file using the free application, DragOMan. Pull design elements from existing marketing material to keep the look and feel consistent. Have a company logo? Use it. Have a tagline? Use it as a subheader. Over-thinking this step is really the only way you can do this wrong.
• Newsletter Spokesperson – Who is the face of your corporate communications? For sole-proprietorships, this is a no-brainer. For larger enterprises, usually the VP of Marketing or even the company’s blogger are the face of the newsletter. This spokesperson will add a human touch to otherwise cold, direct mail marketing material. Make sure to have a high definition photo or headshot.

DAY 4: Create Online and Offline Outposts for Newsletter Sign-Ups

So you have a list of clean, edited emails which you’ve uploaded on your service provider’s database, but every campaign could always use more sign-ups. By the time you launch your first issue, not everyone will know you’ve launched one.

• Place a Sign-Up box right on your website - Constant Contact allows you to do this instantly and even provides a customizable form in which you can decide what data fields you want your subscriber to fill in while registering, be it First Name, Last Name, Company Name, Phone Number, Favorite Color, You Name It. Don’t get too crazy though: The more fields you require, the less likely they will take the time and risk to register.
• Place a Sign-Up List in your lobby – A low-tech, but standard way of retrieving email addresses that should not be overlooked.
• Place the Sign-Up box link in your corporate email signature – Emails to colleagues and friends could generate business without your having to flex an extra muscle.

Doing these three things will cover your bases for the first week. We will discuss How To Build Your List Beyond the Launch in a later post.

DAY 5:  Send Off your First Newsletter Issue & Immediately Monitor Your Results

First: Pick your Send Day wisely. Many posts, like this one, suggest that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday still top the most popular days to send email marketing. Some have even specified a time of 2 – 3 PM as the target window. Whatever the day, make sure you also plan the frequency of your post so your readers know when to expect your email to pop into their busy week.

Just when you thought you could just hit “Send” and cross your fingers, there is actually so much more you can do to ensure the long-term success of your newsletter campaign.

Measure. Measure. Measure.

This is where the dork marketer in me comes alive. The instant gratification that providers like Constant Contact and AWeber provide are like a quick fix to the results-addicted marketing junkie. With these providers you are able to, within minutes of sending your first issue, measure how many times an email is opened, how many links are clicked, and…the best part…wait for it…WHO is opening and clicking on the links.

This provides a true wealth of information which was never really this accessible or available prior to email. In time you will see how effective your emails are, who your captive audience is, as well as your passive recipients, and plan campaigns accordingly. Did I mention that colorful bar graphs of your results are automatically updated and generated for you? That contact lists can be exported at a click of a mouse? I mean seriously, what more do you want?

The Bottom Line: Like with all online marketing technologies, Email Marketing is a tool, NOT a get rich quick scheme. E-Newsletters require work, continuous planning, and proactive, honest measurement to thrive. Luckily there are third-party service providers that do make the process easy to start. The key is to set clear goals before any campaign launch. What is is it really you hope to earn? Customer engagement? Community awareness? Increase in donation or sales?

Once you have a goal with which to measure your efforts against, master the tools available to you, and go forth with a sense of adventure. Perseverance outweighs perfection in today’s world of digital marketing: Stick to a plan and reap the rewards.

Over 5,000 followers + 1 Tweet = Absolute Bull$#@*

Can you spell “Spammer“?

I found this account two days ago and had to grab a screenshot: Following over 5,000. Being followed by over 5,000. 1 tweet. 6 months ago.

I’m not great at math, but pretty sure that should equal to ZERO AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT.

Here’s a great post I found on the topic written in 2009. The author experiments with two fake Twitter accounts to see how many followers he could swoop up using automated services like Twitterfeed and the now defunct Twengager.

The truth is, however, that it’s easy to point and laugh, but these numbers, especially on Twitter, are being interpreted whether you believe they should be or not. The Following:Follower ratio and the number of tweets are what I look at. I also vet the accounts I’m following and cleanse my Following list regularly.

The best thing to do is be honest with yourself and the nature of your social outposts. I know I have a wider, deeper, and older engagement with my network on Facebook, but meet more new people and follow more industry leaders, celebrities who make me laugh, and pranksters on Twitter.

What’s the meaning behind your number? Better yet, what is the true nature of your engagement?

Simon Sinek spoke at the TED Conference about the “Why” in What and How we do. If you’re interested in Word of Mouth Marketing & PR, you have probably thought many times about how ideas stick and turn a “target audience” fervent and loyal fans. He has a compelling suggestion - START with WHY. I’ve included the video above which I highly recommend viewing, but here’s a quick rundown of the main points:

• Most entrepreneurs start with WHAT they are offering and then state HOW they will perform it differently from their competition, and rarely even speak about WHY in their marketing or messaging. Instead do what Apple did successfully: START with WHY – or in other words – WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN? Apple sells a belief system of challenging the status quo, they “Think Different” and so their products are aesthetically appealing and extremely user-friendly. They just happen to make computers & consumer electronics.
• People Don’t Buy WHAT You Do, But WHY You Do It (I know it’s the title of this post, but he says it hypnotically throughout so I thought it apt to repeat) People don’t buy your products because they believe in YOU, but rather because they believe in what you BELIEVE. Their buying your product is PROOF of what they believe.
• There is a difference between a “Leader” and “Those Who Lead”. People follow Those Who Lead because they WANT to, not because they HAVE to. He gives the example of MLK, Jr. who delivered I HAVE a DREAM speech, and NOT an I HAVE a PLAN speech.

Although I love this lecture, I do think the “Start with WHY” part is something I’ve heard it before, in just different forms. Starting with the WHY is essentially about starting with VALUE. Potential clients do not want to know the technicalities (the HOW), at least not in-depth. They also don’t usually have to be reminded WHAT you do (and I use reminded because if they’re talking with you about what you offer, be it services or a product, chances are they know more or less what you are selling).  However, to close the deal, you must CONVINCE that your WHY is their WHY.

Another reason why you put Inspiration behind that Hustle.

With that said, however, what I find unique about this talk is his point about why people Buy products and why they’ve become loyal to particular Brands. According to Simon, the act of Purchasing a product is a form of PROOF — a type of subscription very visible to the society of the consumer. This is why there are “Blackberry” folk and “iPhone” folk, with both sides usually claiming they just “can’t get” the other, when honestly they are both smartphones. However, the point is the purchase of a brand is a vote, it is a quick personal statement, an identity.

As marketers and social media enthusiasts, we have to think even more persistently of not what our “buyers” are voting on, what will inspire them, how they form their identity from external ques. Instead, we have to start with what genuinely inspires us, what we do, what we love and supposedly, according to Sinek, if you build it, they will come. Through your Inspired Hustle, you will ATTRACT (not Spam, not Direct Mail, not Stalk) those whom you Inspire and may just return the favor and Inspire you.

If you’ve been following my Posterous Blog, you probably figured out that I was away in the Bay Area for a quick business-slash-pleasure trip. The whole time I was a bit anxious – I had blogger anxiety. That nauseous antsy feeling a blogger develops when they know they will soon be detached for long periods of time from their blogging/tweeting/facebooking dashboard. The result from my trip – lots of photos to share on Posterous (which is why I <3 Posterous) but also – silence. Pure silence on my blog.

However, the whole week I had been meeting up with old PR friends, political campaigners who were experimenting with Social Media, and of course family and friends. I was being physically social – you know that low-tech, face-to-face, meet-up-for-coffee conversation. Yeah. That. And it was great.

One of the things I discovered after meeting with different groups is that I knew a lot more Ghost Bloggers than I thought I did.

Read this latest published Entrepreneur article which talks about the black market, hush-hush profession of ghost blogging:

The Ghost Speaks – Entrepreneur.com

The article profiles a 24 yr-old ghostblogger. Here’s an excerpt:

Schofield, 24, is a business world ghostwriter–and the online voice of some high-profile names, including Nick Cannon, Robert T. Kiyosaki and Chris Moneymaker. She is part of a growing army of outside contractors who blog and tweet unseen in the name of ego and entrepreneurship. Writing as her clients, she posts on Facebook and MySpace, or tweets pithy thoughts straight from her iPhone.

As the Internet levels the playing field for sales and services, business ghostwriters like Schofield are becoming an essential part of marketing strategy. Stephen Turcotte, president of Backbone Media Inc., a Boston-area Internet marketing company, estimates that 20 percent of American businesses now have some kind of blog, with about one in four outsourcing the writing–although few will admit to that particular kind of outsourcing. Nevertheless, on Elance.com, a website for business freelancers, demand for ghostwriters surged last year: Its category jumped to the 25th-most popular from 74th over the first nine months of last year.

After reading this, the little devil on my left shoulder whispered that I should go to Elance.com and start whipping up a profile. The angel on my right harked on what was pounded into my psyche during my time at a previous PR agencey: Thou shall not blog on behalf of thy client.

But I ask, is it unethical? I say Yes. But more importantly, is it unavoidable. Most likely, for the few companies who want an active social media presence but cannot “afford” the time, money, and strife to keep these programs up and running on their own.

Let’s be honest. Social Media is relatively new, confusing, and usually time-intensive. Most companies would rather pay a ghostblogger to at least share the load, if not run the entire program.

However, is this a viable excuse? Besides, many of these celebs and CEO’s have actual jobs and lives to run right? Is having an active online presence too much to ask from them?

I wouldn’t be too surprised if some of the Social Media bloggers out there had their own team of writer elves to help with the slack. I have to wonder how many of them create such great content and tweet 40 times a day aaand still find time to send me a newsletter. Should bloggers be honest about who is blogging for them? Or are these “helpers” essentially speech writers?

Ah–so many questions. This is the big elephant in the Social Media space, and I think that as long as everyone’s happy, and while we wait for some ghost blogging scandal to break and convince us otherwise, ghost blogging will persist like sweet black market candy.

I just finished mapping out the PR & Marketing Eco-System for one of my clients, and looked a little something like this:

I wanted to show how I, as a consultant, perceived Online Marketing activities of a given company. The arrows represent how one helps the other entity in the system, either by providing content or traffic. I conclude:

PR & Social Media campaigns repurpose content, leverage media relationships, and enhance SEO. Marketing campaigns typically increase SEO through direct traffic.

I guess you can sniff out my bias here. Not too hard to figure out.

This diagram is, of course, incomplete (we could add twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, other Ad campaigns, other PR campaigns, etc.) and debatable (see below).

I wanted to share the diagram mainly because its elements are highly debatable and the nature of debate and confusion reflect the mood of the Marketing industry today. PR and Ad professionals everywhere are having to evolve to the shifts in their profession, which seem to be merging and blurring the lines of discipline. Relevant questions are buzzing about, such as:

• Does Social Media belong under the traditional PR field or Advertising field?
• Is Advertising Dead? According to this book, it was dead back in 2004.
• Is Social Media merging PR and Advertising, and, if so, does that mean PR and Ad folk alike are blurring their own lines of expertise?

My two cents:

I believe Corporate Blogs, at the very least, are best handled by PR Professionals. I look at blogs as the Living Room Press Conference. The Corporate Blogger is a kind of Mascot, if you will. The tone is not as (or at least should not be as) formal and uptight as a Press Release, and the author is preferably someone genuinely passionate about his or her profession. Not “brand” not “message” not “products” – but profession.

I argue that the PR industry has more practice in conversations, while Advertising is about direct messages delivered top-down. Traditional PR has equipped its professionals with some  inherent skills such as managing crises, garnering buzz for press events, and building relationships with media that are all very useful in Social Media practice.

However, this does not mean that PR Pro’s have nothing to learn from the bright minds of Ad men and women. Viral Marketing campaigns, especially those using video platforms, podcasting, etc. would benefit greatly from Advertising disciplines. Ad agents that know how to research their target markets, produce compelling content worthy of word-of-mouth contagion, and have the social networks in place to launch and sustain a campaign have great potential to succeed.

Maybe the set up isn’t so bad in the end. Sure, there’s a lot of feeling our way out through the hazy demarcation, but would it be so bad if the two disciplines learned the best from one another? I say nay. What’s bad is we learn the worst from the fields, the worst which could be best described as “telemarketer/spammer” techniques: pitching to the wrong reporter, phoning during dinner, email blasting press releases to journalists, viagra-emailing to  your inbox…yeah that kind of thing; these have NO place in the social web. Luckily, the social web filter these bad eggs quite naturally.

Check Out UNICEF’s Field Notes Blog PostOther ways to help us help Haiti
Last year, I had launched a community-based Social Media Campaign to raise funds for UNICEF’s Philippine Typhoon Relief Effort. Great to see UNICEF’s several social media campaigns for the Haiti Relief and such a good way to study how Non-Profits are reaping the rewards of social media outreach. Some of the Call To Action campaigns include:

• Mobile Giving – Texting in Donations
• Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube Advocacy – sharing updates and videos
• Creating a personal donation page
• Adding the UNICEF banner to a personal blog or web page
• Joining the UNICEF Causes Group via Facebook Causes App
• Lighting a Virtual Candle on Facebook which equates to a $5 donation

There’s also one Tweet I ReTweeted today on both Twitter and Facebook, by Ducttape’s John Jantsch, who is also donating to funds to UNICEF:

tell me what you would do for a job if you could do anything in the world $1 a comment to Haiti http://su.pr/1DHVyP RT!

Take a look at these and please feel free to share their blog. Which of these campaigns do you think will make a dent?

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