Do you relate to your customers?
“You’re not Apple.” That’s ok… you don’t have to be. (Though of course, it’d be nice .. shiny new iPads.)
Business 101
Apple’s stuff flies off the shelves, they have an unpaid army of fans and supporters building up their products and it seems everyone wants to write/talk about them. They also spend the $$, as Apple markets themselves brilliantly via retail, advertising, strategic PR, carefully planned events.
Look at their ads: they don’t talk specs and features, they’re not selling. They offer more than just solutions and benefits, time savers and fun, time wasters like Siri, games and social media. They communicate ideas, feelings, usefulness relative to the users.
If you have a good product or service, offer value to others.. then you’re in business, so long as you can communicate that to the right people.
Who, What, When, Where, How, Why?
Answering these questions will write your marketing, PR, communications plan. Hell, throw in a few spreadsheets, sprinkle on the Excel pixie dust, you’ll see a business plan forming.
- Define your brand, focus on your strengths, minimize your weaknesses. Identify those you can help with your boffo products or whiz bang services and go find more of them.
- Don’t run from the competition, study them, learn from them, find ways to do it better. Fat and lazy gets beaten by small and quick, the big guys can get it wrong with terrible customer service story telling – that ignores the customer.
- Figure out where you were, where you are now, and where you need to be. Determine where the fish are biting and what bait to use; if nary a customer is using Facebook, then no you don’t ‘need’ a FB page no matter what some pundit tells you.
It’s all relative
You can have the bestest thingamabobs in the tri-state area, but if no one hears of you, no one ‘gets’ what your doodads can do for them, it won’t matter. Customers search to solve their problems, not to find your solutions.
You can be a great place to work but unless you are involved with your community and people understand your business is more than a line on a resume, you’ll have a hard time recruiting top talent to work there.
Yes start up businesses can not only afford PR, IMO they need that comprehensive approach to communications – focusing on more than just the media. It’s public relations for a reason, because it’s about relationships and communications, relating to the various strategic audiences businesses need in order to succeed.
Stories are for the audience
Who cares from memory chips and data speed when they can have a “so easy, even my techno-challenged F&F can do it” FaceTime chat?
There’s only one Apple. There’s also only one you. Grow your business by telling your story in a way your audiences - customers, as well as media, employees, investors, vendors – can relate to.
Photo credit: History, humor .. also relative, especially for a dork like myself. Very Demotivational.
Big Miracle, indeed: Hollywood almost gets PR right
Interesting if simple feel good movie, I thought Big Miracle did a decent job of showing what “PR” (public relations don’t you know) really does or is. Spoiler alert - which may be unneccessary in an ‘inspired by real life’ movie but I’m adding it anyway - I’m going to give away big parts of the movie.
This isn’t a review: not discussing the acting, the cookie-cutter characters or how bad I thought Drew Barrymore’s hair looked. “PR” and in ways, ‘social’ was all over this movie (much like the modern-day Dolphin Tale) .. so I thought it’d make for a different kinda post.
The Original Filter Bubbles
There wasn’t any social media in 1988. No blogs, no Google, no Citizen media armed with iPhones and YouTube. Media gatekeepers did the filtering.
There’s a telling scene in the movie in which the evening news editor is deciding on what ‘filler story’ gets the last spot, typically something ‘human interest’ flavored. Better than war or jobs, whales sell. Ratings FTW!
Once national interests are piqued, everyone gets involved. The story goes ‘viral’ with impact on different groups, stakeholders ranging from school children to small business entrepreneurs to TPTB at the White House.
The Stakeholders
Greenpeace is the principle supporter of the whales (and antagonist of the business), first getting spurned by the Governor when asking for help. But once the public support is on the whales’ side and the Governor is pitted against them, he’s quick with the press conference to show he’s changed his tune.
As is Big Oil, overtly doing this for the PR value; smile for the cameras as they realize good PR is good for business. Once the whales catch the eye of the White House, the politicians step in and use the military to help the whales as a means of 1) wrap up the Reagan administration with a bigger, shinier bow and 2) pass some of that ‘tree-hugging’ benevolence onto the voting public.
Local eskimos (and whalers) were the interesting group, who stood their ground fairly well vs. the Greenpeace rep. Showing great PR acumen was the wise old grandpa, who assured the others that no matter how well they make their case, “all anyone would see is blood” as he convinced them to help the whales.
Media. I liked how the story is ‘localized’ by kids, schools, business owners hundreds of miles away; smart publicity tactic.
I totally loved that once the story got even bigger, it’s pulled from a junior reporter and given to one more senior, presumably based on his ‘influence.’ But then, he’s outflanked anyway because the cub reporter has the relationships and is more connected to the key players.
The Twist
All these sides collide in some odd strategic alliances and the message is kept as simple as possible: help the whales or they die. In true Hollywood fashion, life surpassed art and threw in some wrinkles:
- The military/Big Oil solution failed, leaving little hope or other options.
- Supporters, swept up in the story, came to the rescue from parts elsewhere.
- The last ditch option: those Red Russian Soviets.
Something for everyone
The movie showed how the different groups stayed on message, while each telling their own version of the story via a little savvy media relations.
- Greenpeace, clearly pro trees and animals and fluffy bunnies; this gave them great exposure and public support (though I thought they didn’t show as well).
- Big Oil is magnanimous, making themselves look less evil, more sympathetic of the environment and more responsive to the people. The little bit at the end made me laugh.
- As the cold war was thawing, pressure was placed on TPTB to look past the water’s edge and do what was necessary. Letting ‘the enemy’ step in and save the day? In an election year?! The Politicos played this to their favor, all ‘peace, love, goodwill towards critters.’
Movies like Glen Gary, Glenn Ross or Thank You For Smoking (fave!) have gotten it right before but it’s rare. At a time when PR is misused, misdefined as just publicity and stunts (ala Sex and the City), it was nice to see a more accurate – if ‘tweaked for Hollywood’ – portrayal of the many different aspects of public relations.
If you see the movie, let me know what you think.
Photos: © 2012 Universal Pictures.
Do you know where your lurkers are?
Lurkers are the silent majority; Creators, loud minority; and curators (or amplifiers) somewhere in the middle. Everyone with a role to play.
Cliques. Diehards. Fandoms. These people comment, who tweet and RT, who blog and reblog – the few that want to be heard. They produce videos for YouTube, presentations on SlideShare. They Stumble (Upon), the Flip (Board), they do more than consume content; they create it – often outside the ‘message control’ of the brand.
Control is a Myth
That ‘frenzy’ of fans pouring on the hype or screaming with hate, they’re the smaller number. See sports, politics, LiveJournal blogs, TripAdvisor. And because they’re the most vocal - even in the minority – they’re potentially the most dangerous.
According to McDonald’s, only a small percentage of tweets of their short-lived hashtag campaign were negative. Even so, pundits have been calling the brandjacking a major fail. Things went out of their control as McDonald’s got more than they tweeted for, but FWIW I’m not sure how this will hurt sales at the drive-thru.
Then there’s the sweet spot you want – vocal brand advocates that are the core of your business. You need to know your business’ Venn Diagrams for core customers and social sharers. More importantly is knowing where the two overlap, to determine what’s best for your brand and why in order to engage effectively. Otherwise, you wake a sleeping, noisy giant that doesn’t like you very much. If you can’t identify your audience, you also run the risk of only listening to that loud minority, missing out on so much more or optimizing would-be customers out of the middle.
Luring out the lurkers
“The trick is to produce the information that ‘consumers’ want to access and hear.”
As marketers, as communicators that’s a top goal: conversion. Turning a lurker into a commenter; getting a follower or fan to reply, share, comment and do more than just ‘like’ us; getting someone to sign up, register and ultimately, to buy.
We do that not just by broadcasting content, but by creating something that they want, by sharing it with them in ways that makes them invest and commit to it, want to share it.
Major minor audience.
There is something here, I just cannot decide what exactly. Is this a call to create? Sure. Certainly a reminder to think about which audience you target, where ‘influence’ really lives; I’m as easily swayed by a well-written Yelp or TA review than I am mainstream media or bloggers.
Mostly this is a cautionary tale not to get blinded by the numbers, good or bad. And to remember than for every fan or hater, there’s probably 10 times as many lurkers out there. Waiting to become your biggest nightmare or greatest fan.
How do you lure out the lurkers, get them more involved?
Resolutions are hard. That’s a good thing.
3 for 5 I guess on the 2011 Resolution Scoreboard.
Bionic Blogging, Check. Terrific Tweeting, I like to think so. I stayed even on LinkedIn, not more not less. I got out of the office and comfy clothes for a little ‘real world’ local networking but not enough. Revamped website and lighting the SEO on fire with superior biz managment, tragic fail.
The Year that Was
If the economy was rebounding I certainly saw no signs of it. Most people I’ve talked to are just as reluctant to part with any money, make any moves. (I’ve got a nice rant cooking.) They want all the emails and inbound marketing and ‘free publicity‘ and social media juju – right now! – still don’t want to work/pay for those great expectations.
The Year that Will Be
Like many a person making resolutions this time a year, motivation isn’t the problem. It’s understanding the goals and objectives. It’s a matter of prioritizing change and making this part of my life forever, not just this year.
Less is more blogging. Twice a week isn’t a hard and fast rule; if I’m not feeling it, I won’t force it. I engage enough, share enough, so I’ll take off some of the pressure.
More me. I have to find a way to incorporate more examples, what I know, what I can do. I’m a generalist, working with all kinds of small businesses – B2B, B2C, in Atlanta and parts elsewhere. Did you know I’ve worked with franchisors in the past? Surprised Adam Toporek with that one.
No more Cobbler’s kids’ shoes. My blog is part of my portfolio, part of my networking and social strategy is to drive traffic and deep-pocketed clients to my website, then damnit – I need to WILL roll up the sleeves, learn more WordPress and redo the website. Something with some SEO and hopefully, a functioning RSS feed.
Hire Me. The resume, it’s gotta get updated. Why? Whether it’s for a full-time gig or a consulting job, my resume, CV, fact sheet needs to be right. See also the LinkedIn profile.
Go forth and conquer. Find opportunities, don’t wait for them to find me. Get out and ask for the sale. Be more assertive, aggressive. This will be the toughest, without a doubt.
Live healthier. This is not some bullshit short-term thing targeting a random weight-loss number; for real this time. I’m too young to be this old. I will opt for the flight of stairs, a 30-minute walk or one less coke a day, do what I can to live and be a little healthier.
Get it Done
I know I’m not the only one who’s struggled, so this isn’t a whine. (Wine, maybe.) Nah, this is just the first of many hard looks at realignment, recalibration (go team!) that will continue throughout the year. I’ll be back every three months to update you – and myself – on my progress.
Hat tips to Paul Wolfe, Judy Gombita, Neal Schaffer, Neicole Crepeau, Mike Zavarello and many more for their help and encouragement. Here’s to 2012, I’m coming for you.
If it’s too loud, I’m too old
Background music is supposed to be that, in the background. But everyone who wants to ‘entertain’ me – ball games, restaurants, cruises, etc. – blares it too loud for my taste.
Guess I am old
I’ve hit the point when I watch games on mute because the sounds of the stadium are too loud. I can’t hear the commentary or really follow the game. You’d think TV producers would learn to turn down the ‘ambient’ background mics when their pundits are blathering.
I just kinda hate ‘noise.’
I turn down the TV during action moments when the sound effects for punches, explosions, car crashes are at eardrum bursting levels. (Then there’s the dialogue I can barely hear and I’m tempted to turn on the closed captioning.)
The “Serenity” deck on the lovely Carnival Dream was anything but. Designed to be outside the spa, alas it is also adjacent to the open lido deck pool and water park. Science lesson: sound travels, even over ‘noise-reducing’ earbuds. This adult only retreat is better on older refurbed ships, where it’s more isolated. And I can hear my music – or nothing except the water and the slurping of my frosty beverage.
WTH does this have to do with marketing or PR?
Many business are too noisy with their marketing and sloppy social media: endless tweet streams, Facebook alerts that never shut up; sinful public relations that hypes the wrong messages or sends off-target pitches shotgun-style; emails polluting our inboxes with spam; and my personal peeve, automated sound or music when I get to the website.
It’s noise pretending to be of value, faking it as ‘content.’
Would you notice if the marketing volume was turned down? Would it make a difference?