I  had coffee with a fairly new client today. We had a great talk that included his experiences with a previous PR firm. Although he spent thousands of dollars he didn’t get his expectations met. And so at the end of the contract he was discouraged and the PR firm had a dent in their reputation. Now it’s up to me to redeem his belief in our industry. You know what? I may not do that much differently from the old firm except that I refuse to ‘do the dance.’ Here’s what I mean.

PR is a squishy, unpredictable business. You can make a quick phone call one day and land a huge fish or you can spend three months sending elegant pitches, following up on time, and get nothing. Most business owners know that but you can’t help worrying when those placements aren’t coming in…after all it’s your money. Here’s where the problem starts. Many PR firms decide what they need to do at this point is make you feel good. They come in with some great charts, reports on the flurry of activity that’s going on, hints at big things that may happen….you know…it’s THE DANCE. You feel really good after the meeting but then a week later nothing’s changed and you worry again. And worse, you start to feel like a nag for asking all the time.

I’m telling you, trust your gut. This isn’t rocket science and it’s really easy to see if things aren’t going well. If your PR person is good, they’ll be knocking at your door looking for new angles or trying to expand the media list, or even trying new channels. If things aren’t working, they’ll tell you and ask for your help to find more interesting hooks.

If they’re not so good, or a traditional firm that’s just interested in adding up retainers each month they’ll do the dance. So when your meetings start to look something like this…

it’s probably time to look elsewhere.

A decade ago I sat in meeting after meeting in Silicon Valley hearing about the new economy and how the ‘old school’ IT companies were dead. It’s so funny to me now, listening to all the social media experts and Web 2.0 pundits say that ‘traditional PR is dead.’ I venture to say that lazy people hope by saying traditional PR is dead, maybe they can make it so. After all it’s a whole lot easier to sit in your jammies and tweet and facebook the night away than it is to call Patty Neger at Good Morning America to find out if she likes the latest book you’ve sent her. Believe me, I would much rather be trading snarky barbs with folks like @CLE84 than getting rejected for yet another story idea by a crusty print reporter.

Social media, bloggers, news sites….these media types are gaining influence by the minute it’s true. But until they start to generate millions of impressions within four minutes there’s no way they will ever replace traditional media. I would argue that new media is just as important and in many cases can lead to mainstream media…but don’t believe anybody that tells you they’re sustaining national media attention without a traditional PR strategy. I’ll never forget the hotshot social media expert at last fall’s Inbound Marketing Summit who  told the audiencethat PR agencies were obsolete and a worthless waste of money.  At the same time he had one of the biggest NY public relations firms on a huge retainer. (Thanks John Cass for the tip!)

Just like like in the heyday of the dot com bubble, people tend to think that great technology can alleviate the need to do the basics…and it never will. No matter how many Twitter followers you have, or Facebook fans, or how many places that Foursquare has made you the mayor of…you’re still going to have to pick up the phone and make a pitch to seal the deal.  Sorry folks, there’s no way around it.

I am a huge fan of Problogger . The latest post has some of the best writing advice I’ve seen for blogs. Here’s a recap of the 8 tips, but be sure to read the entire article.

Write to a specific person. Doesn’t have to be a real person, just has to be a specific person. Think of it like this. You wouldn’t write the same way to your best friend Peggy as you would to your Grandma Dot. You wouldn’t write the same way to your neighbor Jim Hanson as you would to your brother Fletch. Get specific about who you’re writing to and get on with it.

Write the way you talk. I’m not saying go all crazy and use a bunch of street slang and shorthand. But if you can’t read it out loud without stumbling and tripping everywhere then it’s probably not written in the same way you speak. Fix it.

Use simple language. Most people on the web have a grade school reading level. A handful will be at college level. Very few will be beyond that, so save that particular style of writing for the text books. Keep your writing simple and easily understandable, and it makes it easier for people to relate.

Tell a story, make it funny. Or heartwarming. Or motivating. Or some other suitably rousing emotion. The point is, stories engage and when you pair it with emotional triggers… you’ve got a winner!

Relate to your readers. Use words and language that lets them know you understand where they’re coming from and that you’re just as human as they are. They really like that. It’s when they start thinking you’re an alien that you should probably start to worry a little. Just a little.

Make it easy to read. Big fat paragraphs with long run on sentences send your readers screaming to people who DO know how to write properly. Break it up, use bullets, use subheads, even use occasional pictures to help break it up and engage your reader more.

Sleep on it. Don’t publish something at midnight, it’s a sure bet you’re slap happy and exhausted and that 10 mile long article on social prosperity is nowhere NEAR to being as compelling and engaging as you are currently deluding yourself into believing.

Finally, enjoy it! Write about what fascinates you. What you’re passionate about. Write about what you love. When you write about things that are important to you, it becomes clear to readers with every single new word they read, that what you’re saying is important to you. Therefore it becomes important to them!

Bart the Dumpster Dog

I realized right away that @bartthedog was gaining followers at a much faster rate than @waxgirl333 , my twitter handle. Not to mention the fact that he has more than ten times the number of Facebook fans for his Bart the Dumpster Dog fan page. Neither of us are megastars in the social media stratosphere (yet!) but I thought taking a look at how @bartthedog pays attention to his social media might give you an idea of how he’s added more than 3000 followers in such a short time – with very little effort.

1. Bart has a GREAT back story. Not everyone can say they were rescued starving and frozen from a dumpster on an Indian reservation.

2. Bart has a unique and consistent voice. This is probably because I have anthropomorphized Bart and his brother for the past three years to such an extent that I’m fairly fluent in Dog.  His followers call him “cutey” and “sweetie” and “lovey” so I guess it doesn’t matter that he’s over 90 pounds – his voice is crystal clear to them.

3. The dog lover niche, particularly for rescued dogs, is really strong, if not zealous. I told a car dealer once that if he supported his local humane society in a big way he’d have more customers than he could handle and I was right. One woman drove from South Dakota to Minnesota to buy a car from the guy – for helping rescued animals.

4. Bart’s not selling anything. He’s just a friendly guy that sends out tweets about interesting dogs for adoption on petfinder, cool doggy news and stuff he’s been doing lately.  He’s also very good at RT’ing information for animal rescue groups, so there’s a certain altruistic side to the boy.

5. Finally, Bart is always positive and never controversial. He doesn’t take sides and has no politics.

I started Bart’s accounts as a way to test some of the programs and apps for Twitter and Facebook, not to grow his profile.  Before long he’ll be writing a book and signing pawtographs.

In honor of being incredibly lazy this week, here’s one of my fave 2009 posts – the last Friday of every month I’ll throw a repeat of one of the more popular posts, just in case you missed it!

Because I’ve worked with a pretty wide range of celebrities – from Ralph Nader to Bode Miller -people sometimes call to find out how much it would cost for a celebrity to attend their event, endorse their product or contribute to their non-profit cause.   No matter HOW GREAT your product is, or how important your cause, stars generally don’t do anything for free unless its for their own foundation (or for George Clooney). The good news is that almost any celebrity can  be booked if you have enough money. Here are a few tips for figuring out how to find someone, how much they cost and what the process might be like.

First, find out who reps the star. The easiest way is to buy a subscription to Who Represents an online listing of virtually every celebrity’s agent, publicist and manager.  Although some people like to go through managers first, I always call the agent. Agents are usually straightforward, no BS types who will give you prices and explain the ins and outs of back-end deals and endorsements.

Have a good idea of how much  you have to spend before you make the call. Do your homework or you’ll get blown off pretty quickly. Don’t call asking for Brooke Shields if you’ve got $5000. Stars not only require fees, they also require first class airfare, accommodations and drivers.  I priced former Vice President Al Gore once…he was $300,000 for two hours. The client assumed with such a hefty fee that Mr. Gore would stay for dinner  after his appearance. Not so. Like any celebrity, Mr. Gore was only going to show up for his scheduled appearance. Expect to pay anywhere from $5000 for a local celebrity to $25,000 and up for a two hour appearance from a B-lister, like a reality TV star or athlete from a niche sport.  For A-listers, expect prices to start well into six figures for an appearance and for endorsements be ready to talk about upfront fees, and a portion of the back end.

Make sure your product, service or event is a good fit for the celebrity. Their personal brand image is just as important as your product brand image. I pitched a deal recently for a company that needed a senior spokesperson with credibility and a trustworthy image. No offense, Warren Beatty, but we’re going to look at folks like Bob Newhart and Betty White.

When you call an agent, GET TO THE POINT QUICKLY.  Don’t spend a lot of time introducing your company or product. Be quick about it. A few years ago I got Mark Ervin at IMG on the phone to find out how much Shaun White would cost for an autograph signing.  Although I expected to get Mr. Ervin’s assistant rather than the legendary agent himself, I made sure I was to the point. I got all the information I needed. (By the way, thank you for your graciousness, Mr. Ervin)

I got comedian Kathy Griffin’s agent on the phone once and because I wasn’t wasting his time with unnecessary information, this agent actually spent 30 minutes explaining how typical back-end and licensing deals worked for stars like Ms. Griffin.  He also helped me get to some celebrities that were closer to my client’s price range and when I dropped his name I got immediate attention!

After you get someone in your sights,  be patient with the contract process and make sure you understand everything. Most agents are also attorneys and can and should take time to explain every clause thoroughly .  It may take some time and you’ll have to work out details that can seem very nit-picky and even annoying. But remember, if at any time a celebrity rep feels you won’t be treating this person like royalty, you’re done. Accommodate any requests as much as you can and it will make a world of difference. Don’t haggle over something that may cost a couple hundred extra dollars.

Once the contract is finalized, remember that a happy celeb will do a much better job for you. I investigate hotel rooms, plan secure exits, find out the celeb’s meal preferences, and make sure their favorite brand of water is readily available. I’ve done anything from making sure the New York Times is in their room every day (and we were in Iowa) to finding out what their favorite M&M’s were, and leaving a stash in their room. You’ve got to have every step of a celebrity’s experience planned out and managed to perfection. It’s always a good idea to hire an experienced publicist or talent coordinator to make sure everything runs smoothly.  (If you’re not sure who to use, call a local publisher. They’ll know who the best folks are.)

A quick note – athletes are a bit easier to engage during their off-season and often don’t have as much going on as actors or other entertainers. Sports agents like Lowell Taub at CAA can find out pricing on any athlete at any agency and those deals can work fairly easily.

Finally, don’t assume you can do as much PR as you want. Have the interviews and any possible media worked out ahead of time. There’s nothing worse than having a reporter show up that doesn’t get a chance to sit down with the star. Again, this is why an experienced publicist can be so helpful and worth every penny.

Getting the right celebrity can be a huge boost for your product or service but be aware of how much time and money you’ll spend to make it work. I would love comments about celebrity appearances YOU’VE hosted – nightmare stories are always fun but we can always learn more from what you did right!

Thank you to professional writer and blogger Beth Graddon-Hodgson for giving us the insider info on how pro bloggers work…and how to pay them. Check out her website or follow Beth on Twitter

As many companies jump on the blogging bandwagon, they’re faced with one major dilemma as they wonder “what the heck do we pay these people?” The problem is that there are companies and independent writers who have set standards that go to two extremes – those who accept bottom dollar rates just to get the business, and those who gouge their clients for all that they’re worth. With this in mind, most companies have the wrong idea about reasonable payment.

There is no right and wrong when it comes to paying bloggers. Industry standards are dictated over pricing trends from the past few years since professional blogging services are a relatively new offering. Blogging is also a very vague term that is used to describe the writing and posting to a blog; but depending upon what’s going up there varying levels of effort can be required.

There might be no distinct figure about what you should pay your blogger, but here are some things to keep in mind when you’re looking to hire someone and when you’re negotiating rates.

• Make sure your needs and wants are defined – what will your blogger be responsible for posting on your blog? Will they simply be including short, informative pieces with one or two online resources required? Will they be doing longer investigative pieces where they require original sources? Will they be responsible for interviewing industry professionals and compiling information? Will there be more extensive SEO techniques applied and in-depth keyword research required? If only one style of post will be used; one standard rate should be reflective of that. Otherwise, expect your blogger to set a rate or rate range for each style.
• Expect a flat rate – most bloggers will quote you a flat rate per post versus an hourly or monthly rate. This makes it easy to track and sets clear guidelines. Once you’ve agreed upon the posting schedule this will help you to budget accordingly.
• Determine how reasonable rates are by looking at it on an hourly basis – I believe in setting middle of the road rates that are affordable to my clients regardless of the size of their business, but also those that are reasonable for me and my writers taking on the project. I find the best way to look at it is to break down the rates on an hourly basis. If you’re doing a series of short 250 word posts, estimate how long you expect it to take. If it’s possible to do within a half an hour, $20 or $30 per post might not sound like much; but the blogger will be happy because that could break down to $40-$60+ an hour. Plus, those are rates that you can fit into your own budget as a business.

If you do the math and rates seem too low, you might feel like you’re getting a good deal but then you’ve got to consider who you’re working with. There’s a big difference between bloggers who know they’ve got to set affordable rates when dealing with businesses or all sizes and revenue levels, and those who are just desperate to rake in the work because of lack of experience.

The care and feeding of your blogger is essential, because once you’ve found the right one the benefits to your business are extensive! Don’t be afraid to ask questions and understand why their rates are what they are. Remember, the rules to blogging payment are being written as we go along since it has a short history as a professional service and true industry standards have yet to be set.

Beth Graddon-Hodgson is the founder of WriteSourcing..  They offer a range of professional writing and editing services, with a focus upon blogging and SEO usage to increase the online presence of businesses big and small.

I got so involved with answering comments on my Toyota post I neglected to write a new post before I took a long weekend. Interestingly enough, that’s the time I’ve gotten the most comments! Thanks to everyone who is reading this blog – please don’t hesitate to ask if you’d like to exchange links or do a guest post. I am grateful and honored by your interest in the Wax blog. Back at it tomorrow…I’m going to dump all my secrets now. I promise!

Bonnie

100 million years ago I worked as an executive at a publicly held tech firm. We knew that in order to bury bad news (ie a poor quarter) we would send the release out at 4 pm on Friday. By the time Monday rolled around there would be two to three more days of news covering ours.   Now more companies have become much more ingenious ways at burying their bad news – rather than addressing it properly. (For more on that, read my post on  “Crisis Communications in a 2.0 World“)

Wondering how they do it? Here are just a few methods I’ve seen. Comment with more examples, please!

1) Flood the Internet with alternative messaging. Piling on the social media releases, blogs and Twitter posts can help bury a negative opinion or story quickly by using SEO. Studies show about 60% of Internet users click on a result in the first page. Keeping that page inundated with positive information – particularly if it appears to come from sources that are not your own – can easily bury negative opinions. I agree with the Online Marketing Blog, though, that using this to address a real crisis is not a long-term fix.

2) Bury it on a holiday. At the end of 2009, a story came out about Goldman Sachs selling mortgaged-based CDO’s to clients and at the same time  selling the securities short themselves. Goldman Sachs supposedly made it quite hard for reporters to reach executives for comment and further blocked the story so that it came out Christmas Eve in the New York Times. Thereafter it’s received little press.

3) Make it impossible to fact-check the article. Although bloggers can write pretty much whatever they want, traditional media still needs to check facts in order to run with a story. Keeping CBS or as in Goldman Sachs “allegedly” keeping the New York Times from verifying aspects of a story can bury it too.

4) Divert the issue.  Although most of the messaging surrounding the Toyota recall focuses on sticky floor mats, the real problem may be the pedal or as Steve Wozniak asserts, it could be a computer glitch. (If you haven’t heard, the Woz ’s Prius gets stuck at 97mph while in cruise control) Although Toyota states there “may” be a problem with the pedal in its latest update, much of what we’ve seen in our media is concerning the floor mats. The Woz asserts its a software problem, not a pedal or mat issue. Since the main issue is sudden acceleration – something we haven’t seen in any of Toyota’s messaging – this is probably a good example of a diversion tactic.

5) Lie. It almost worked for Martha and it definitely worked for OJ.

Bottom line is that the organizations with true investigative journalists are dwindling. TV and print media no longer has the budget to spend months on uncovering stories ala Watergate. Companies have learned the game and crisis communications firms have become much more adept at the spin.  And that could be a very bad thing for us.

Toyota announced a recall of more than 3.8 million vehicles last week and today announced it was halting production on eight models.  Ah, responsible Toyota, right? Think again. This is a great example of how a powerful public relations teams, with the weight of advertising dollars behind them, are able to smother news that the public really needs to know. Toyota’s PR department has been pumping out misinformation on this issue for months now and it makes me ashamed of my profession. In December, the Los Angeles Times reported that Toyota had been covering up these problems way back to 2003.

The issue is that the accelerator on these models can stick. Here’s a bit of background on this stuck accelerator…the problem has been apparent to Toyota since 2007, according to USA Today and other publications. Toyota issued a statement yesterday that said the problem had not resulted in any deaths. Yet tell that to the family of highway patrolman Mark Saylor, killed with his family last August after his accelerator stuck on his loaner Lexus. That story was all over the news, as were four other incidents resulting in deaths. Even yet, in November of 2009 Toyota issued statements that blamed the problem on bad floor mats.

But we really aren’t hearing about that too much until this week when national TV news picked it up- could it be because network news relies so heavily (or did) on car manufacturing advertising? It’s not a stretch. Back in 1993 a Dateline producer rigged a Pinto to explode for a segment. Well, that’s been happening for a long time according to Walter Olson and the National Review. It’s part of the ‘magic of TV’. But with the Pinto, unfortunately GM decided to pull its weight with NBC. The producer was exposed and fired for something the rest of his colleagues had done for years.

I’ve only had to lie like this once for a client.  I felt like crap and I’ll never do it again. Somebody needs to blow the whistle over at Toyota and it should be one of us flacks that does it. I realize that it’s the corporation’s responsibility to be honest, but in this case the messenger should bear a great deal of the blame as well. And that’s usually the public relations department.

Comments? Do you think Toyota covered this up?