Creating good marketing karma
According to Free Dictionary the definition of karma is the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person’s existence, regarded as determining the person’s destiny. Beth Hodgson’s last post about the boomerang effect – what happens when you get even more traffic by sending it to others from your blog - stirred up some comments about how karma works in the blogosphere. (Thanks Jorgen for kicking that discussion off and I’d love to hear YOUR stories too!) It got me thinking about my clients, and how their attitudes and actions affect the kind of PR results they get. Read on to find out how MUCH karma affects results.
Face it, PR is weird. No matter how much experience I’ve gained, I can never predict 100% whether an angle or hook will work. It depends on a complex set of circumstances, from a house fire stealing a local camera at 5 in the morning, to a CNN producer needing a shot of cute kids when I just HAPPEN to have an event with cute kids going on that day. Why did the National Underwater Hockey Championship garner top media placements while an important study on obesity barely got noticed? I don’t really know for sure.
I had a car dealer client who wanted to spend some money on local community events just to be a ‘good neighbor.’ He loaned cars to small events, donated money, even visited the local animal shelter. Although there were dealerships for this car brand all over the city, people drove from as far away as SOUTH DAKOTA to buy a car from this guy. And he never complained if something didn’t turn out well for him. He just felt he should contribute to the greater good in his community because it was the right thing to do. (A footnote..he sold the dealership for a ton of money. The new guy was kind of cheap…and business tanked!)
What if it is karma? If we include our business partners in our media pitches because it’s the right thing to do, would we get more media in the long run? If we look forward to every interview with enthusiasm and interest, no matter how small the outlet, , will we get more interviews in the long run? I think so. When my clients are enthusiastic about opportunities they always get great results. Hubris, miserliness, any negative attitude almost always translates into bad results.
So what’s the takeaway? Attitude and energy create much better results no matter what story. I’ve donated 10% of my time to charity since my business started. I had a bit of a slowdown last year, but I’ve still never had to do a single marketing piece to promote my business. Karma works for me. How has it worked for you?
Tags: Beth Graddon-Hodgson, Blogging, blogging for small business, Bonnie Harris, Marketing, marketing karma, Public Relations, public relations karma, small business promotion, social media, Wax Marketing
June 18th, 2010 at 9:01 am
I agree 100%. If you as a business owner or executive are feeling miserly, you have to put on your actor’s face and play the happy and enthusiastic community member until your good mood returns in earnest.
Your article reminds me of the flip side of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is not substitute for a good business plan. For start-up businesses, you have to have both.
June 18th, 2010 at 9:07 am
That’s a great point about needing enthusiasm and good plans, without one the other is not helpful. I think it goes deeper and it’s about attitude…if you’re out to make a buck that’s going to create much different results than if you truly believe that your product, service or book will help others, and you’re really trying to contribute to the greater good.
June 18th, 2010 at 11:40 am
A couple of years ago “link sculpting” or “PR sculpting” was a buzz in the SEO world, but Google has clamped down on that. Matt Cutts has said that linking out to good sites will not syphon PR from your own pages, so on my blogs I don’t mind linking out with dofollow links and I don’t see it hurting the rankings one bit.
June 18th, 2010 at 11:52 am
agree with san diego
June 18th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I’m like you, Bonnie. I’ve never turned to traditional marketing – that’s not to say online activities that setup that karma can’t be strategic, but if you’re putting something out there that does contribute something positive, it does come back. Businesses can be built almost entirely on recommendations,or simply exposure from those things that you’d do anyways!
That’s why I love the way the internet is growing, along with social media. Whether you’re putting information out there, yourself or your experiences or something else – you are giving something to others, and for the most part, that seems to be all it takes! Social media now is also another way for people behind businesses to show they do have a heart and show the simple things they they may do to help others.
Great post!
June 18th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
I definitely agree with San Diego SEO about the PR leakage issue. People have been afraid to give their visitors quality links to other places that can help them, because of the old notion that page rank would be subtracted from your page and credited to the page to which are are linking. These days, I have found the opposite to be true. Google seems to reward pages the provide quality relevant links to their users. Not only that, but your outgoing links convey page rank juice to the web pages on the receiving end of the link as well. I get that Wax Marketing was making a larger point about public relations karma, but San Diego SEO brings up a good example where we can show with quantifiable detail how doing right by your colleagues on the internet gives rewards to both you and them.
June 18th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Brazzell, I think it’s really interesting how the nuts and bolts of Internet marketing – something that really has been created more or less by a collective consciousness – reflect the broader philosophy that you what you get is the result of what you give.
June 18th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
I too agree with your views. For startups enthusiasm is very essential.
June 21st, 2010 at 1:33 am
Nice one!
Most onine business fail because people’s motivations are “making money” instead of “helping others.”
Ironically, those who focus on a product or service that helps others, are rewarded financially. So yes, I totally agree with karma in this sense.
June 21st, 2010 at 7:13 am
I get that Wax Marketing was making a larger point about public relations karma, but San Diego SEO brings up a good example where we can show with quantifiable detail how doing right by your colleagues on the internet gives rewards to both you and them.
June 21st, 2010 at 11:28 am
Ah, great to see I kicked off a converstation (didn’t realizeit myself!). Karma is great and I say it works the best when you least expect it, you just have to trust the that the law of reciprocity will deliver.
June 21st, 2010 at 11:46 am
Jorgen hopefully folks are hitting YOUR blog too after this..another karmic lesson. (Readers it’s a GOOD one http://jorgensundberg.net/ )
June 22nd, 2010 at 7:42 am
A lot of business owners would want to make their businesses be known to their target audience right away. And yes, there’s a lot of strategies that can be used so that they can hit their goal. But then again, it wont matter if you have a good traffic for that certain period of time because most probably, that strategy is beyond the normal norms. So to be safe, why not follow the normal and right ones. In the end, both the owners and target audience would have a win-win situation.
June 22nd, 2010 at 2:38 pm
I think it’s great when people give, especially when positive PR is a side-effect instead of being the cause. I prefer spending at a business if I know they are giving to others and not just lining their pockets. Not to derail the topic, but I love your picture of the Dai Butsu.
June 24th, 2010 at 6:20 am
i wish i had good karma! I do have the odd positive but most of the time its like flogging a dead horse. Oh well, best keep trying!
June 24th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Chris; i’m open to thinking it’s the effect of goodwill and my excellent networking skills. I guess I’ll find out about my karma for sure when I see those pearly gates!
June 25th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
All you need to do is to implement the best practices of SEO on your website, and then just have your finger crossed.
June 26th, 2010 at 1:42 am
Nice article – I wonder what the karma is for people leaving comments on blog sites. In many cases (myself included) people are trying to get backlinks to their own site by leaving comments to blog pages. Admittedly I have read some pretty good articles and have expanded my thoughts as a result and hopefully contributed to some discussions I wouldn’t normally have.
June 29th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Good article, I’d agree it seems that the more positive somebodies outlook is the more successful they are. Is it Karma or just the way that person views life and how people view him? I think the latter.
July 1st, 2010 at 1:12 am
I am 100% agree with you.Passion is most important.
July 3rd, 2010 at 5:12 am
Marketing is the core of every business. If we have a very good marketing plan and capable of executing the right marketing campaign. I am sure any business can become success.
July 7th, 2010 at 8:49 am
thanks for a great post, although marketing is very difficult to do for me
July 7th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Mahmudin, what’s the hardest part for you? perhaps we can answer it in the blog!
September 17th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Hey I found some fast pagerank tools, may be seo friends would like them.
seo41.com/pagerank-checker.php
seo41.com/internal-pagerank.php
one is bulk page rank checker that can check 1000 of pages PR with single click and another is internal PR checker to check pagerank of all internal pages on a website.
There is lot more helpful things for search engine optimization…..
September 26th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Giving a little can mean you get a lot back and not necessarily in monetary terms. I believe all businesses should give something to their community, it may not win you customers but it says you care and you want to have an active role, it does not have to be much either. People will notice if you are only doing it for publicity and then it backfires.
March 1st, 2011 at 7:51 am
[...] once wrote about how marketing karma could help or hinder your business. I think I’m going to have to solve this [...]
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:22 am
thanx for good post and article.