The Wax Blog

Photo courtesy of space.com

The celebration of your business, book or product launch is an important milestone. But, before you send the invites, erect the banner, string the streamers and open the bubbly, there’s a few simple points to consider that will make your event worthwhile. (more…)

Ever wonder why some people get instant press and others languish? Despite all the reasons you hear (bad publicist, bad timing, dumb media, war, famine, smallpox outbreak..) it’s because their pitch is not nearly as interesting as they think.  If you think you don’t have to read this post because you KNOW this doesn’t apply to you…you probably need to read this post. So bear with me… here are the top five reasons why pitches get ignored:

1. Unless you’re Einstein, you have not thought of this first. YOU may think it’s unique but if you went to the bookstore (yes, the actual bookstore not Google or Amazon) you will likely find at least three books on your topic. If you do a product competitive search you will find tons of people with the exact same idea/product/service. It’s inevitable.
2. Your pitch is a sales pitch. Nobody wants to hear the features and benefits of your stuff. They want a news story. I don’t care if your widget is the fastest/best/easiest/prettiest/etc. It’s the story BEHIND the widget that may or may not be interesting.
3. Nobody has heard of you – even if  you’re a big shot. Sorry, but there are thousands of people trying to get on Ellen/Oprah/Today show…etc. Even if you’ve started a multi-million dollar company or rock out on your local TV station every Friday – national media has never heard of you. Keep your ego in check and realize you are probably one of many.
4. You think if you keep calling/emailing/texting/twittering/faxing they’ll finally say yes. A NO means NO. The more you ignore the NO the more you will be ignored yourself. And get a reputation as a whiner/bully/stalker/insane person.
5.  You can’t tell your story well. If the person doesn’t “get it” in one sentence you’re out of there. Go back and revise your story and tell this “elevator pitch” to a million people until you’re sure they get it right away.

If you’re frustrated with your PR efforts, take a minute and be honest with yourself. Do you think you’re more unique than you are? Have you done your competitive analysis? Are you trying to sell your product/service/book instead of finding the real hook behind it? Are you taking 15 minutes to get someone to understand what you’re talking about? Really assess where you’re at, go back and get creative. There’s a unique aspect to EVERY client I work with…and there is in your business too. You just have to take the time and exercise the humility to find it!

I’m going to preface this post with a disclaimer that I used to be a sportswriter for Hooters Magazine. ( Yes, Hooters the restaurant has a magazine. ) Okay, now that’s out of the way I’m really astonished that there’s so much brouhaha about Ines Sainz and her alleged harassment by members of the New York Jets. In the interview posted below with Joy Behar on CNN, she says she’s not that upset. The “busty Spanish reporter” (as Pat Fogarty describes her on his SportsGrid blog ) must be used to it…she’s dressing to show off her assets. I would assume she would assume that people would then notice said assets.

My question is not whether it was ok for football players to act so immaturely toward Ines Sainz…clearly it’s not and even if she was in a bathing suit they should have shown restraint.  My question is whether dressing provocatively affects how seriously others view you anymore? Or does dressing in skin-tight jeans and low cut tops – even during your CNN interviews as seen below – become part of a personal brand? Erin Brockovich certainly used her cleavage and sex appeal to get information that perhaps would have been denied a buttoned-up attorney. Brockovich even did a New York Times interview at a store that sold sequined thongs.  Women love Erin Brockovich…so why are they trashing this reporter all over the place in comments online?  Here’s a sample comment from someone called “shejoy” in the Washington Post

“…The reporter with her boobs popping out of her shirt should be quiet she dressed that way for a reason. Did you see her on the morning news? T&A all the way for her morning news appearance and I couldn’t understand a word she said, yet she wants to be taken professionally for her interview skills. Gimme a break!”

I’m of two minds here…the ex-corporate professional says if you want to be taken seriously dress seriously. But the ex-Hooters writer – who met a lot of VERY smart girls in VERY skimpy outfits – says if that’s the way you want to dress, you go girl.  But I’m curious…as people who are interested in public relations and ‘image’…what do YOU think? Have you changed your personal style to get farther in your chosen profession?

Here’s the CNN interview with Joy Behar…

I was emailing with a virtual colleague of mine about a young media consultant who is known for having thousands upon thousands of Twitter followers. In fact, that’s her primary presence online. We were wondering whether this person’s Twitter stardom would turn into lucrative consulting deals. After all, how much of you intellectual capital can you display in 140 characters? (Those of you who follow me on Twitter during American Idol season might think it actually does the opposite.)

It’s a question that demonstrates how great success in one social media network may not translate to more business for you. And that’s why it’s so important to find the right social media tools to work your campaign, not necessarily the most popular ones.  (If you’d like to know how I feel about many company Facebook pages, you can read my post on that subject here.)

So for the fourth post in this series on writing an actionable social media plan,  instead of thinking about “should we do twitter and facebook” ask yourself, where are my customers engaged in social media? If you’re B2B, it’s probably not on Facebook. If you’re launching a book, what better place to be than Facebook, where you can set up a fan page and tell all your friends about it? Think about your customers, or readers, or whomever you are trying to reach. What are they using right now? Restaurants, bars and other social types of places better get have a presence on  geo-based social media like Yelp and Foursquare. Consultants, I’d suggest having an informative blog that really demonstrates your knowledge of your industry. Whatever you choose, don’t try to be everywhere. Pick a couple of networks that you think you can easily manage and go from there. Just as a quick primer, here is the social media that seems to work well for my clients in different industries: (more…)

I ran this post early last year and thought I’d update it with a few more ways to be a ‘good nag’.

The biggest pet peeve I hear from the media is when people ask them “hey did you get my email?” Granted that is a pretty stupid question – but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called a journalist because I KNOW he or she would want the story only to hear “yeah, send it again it must have gone in my spam file” Or – “Oh I was on vacation and had too many messages so I just deleted them all.” So how do we make sure the journalist or producer got what we sent without appearing like a needy, nagging spouse? (more…)

I’m a little tired of hearing about the wonders of social media and the stunning achievements of the PR 2.0 world. Anybody who’s ever done the hard work of promoting in online video knows that for every thousand views, you’ve got a ton of leg work. Those “Susan Boyle” moments just don’t come around that often.

I may get called a Luddite for this, but there simply isn’t a better public relations tactic than the good old-fashioned STUNT. Jay Conrad Levinson may have coined the term ‘guerilla marketing’ to try to make it seem like a fresh concept, but ever since the first beauty pageant to find Miss Dove soap, creative stunts and promotions have made the difference for brands. And by combining those stunts with the power of online promotion, you’ve got a wicked good strategy.  What better example than the Old Spice campaign…many would say this was a red hot viral campaign but really, it was a clever promotional idea launched with an ad campaign, but fueled by strategic use of Twitter and YouTube to make it seem current and new. That’s the beauty of integrated marketing.

Most people think big promotions have to cost quite a bit of money, but really it just takes a creative idea. London-based Taylor Herring Public Relations is arguably one of the best agencies in the world at truly creative, unusual promotions. Taylor Herring provides public relations for events like movie premiers and television shows, as well as  PR for major brands like Honda and Google. But what they, and their online division also do very well, is create unusual experiences for their audiences that might be eyebrow-raising, but still fit the image of the brand. And although they are the people that created the world’s first ‘live’ TV commercial, the campaign that got my attention was one they did for a comedy channel’s stand-up season on UK television. Instead of something huge, they thought up the idea of simply finding the world’s oldest jokes and created a “Historical Humour Study” including the oldest jokes and one liners. Complete with a resident professorial expert, the idea was contained in a simple press release. Yet it was so unique, the agency garnered millions of impressions for its client. (You can read the entire case study on the Taylor Herring site here)

Here are a few simple tips that you should follow when planning your own ‘stunt’: (more…)