The Wax Blog

It’s clear that today’s media environment has made placements in print magazines more and more challenging for the Average Josephine. Although the blood loss may have slowed, magazines have reduced editorial pages significantly over the past few years. Of the pages that remain, many are forced to promise coverage to advertisers in order to stay afloat. Add to that the fact that most editors are doing 3x the job they used to because of staff cuts, and it’s a tough challenge.

Yet print magazines still remain (in my opinion, certainly not everyone’s) an important part of many media campaigns. Getting an editor’s attention can be key to promoting your product, book or service. In the last couple of years, we’ve started doing things a little differently here at Wax…and I’d like to share some of the creative ways we get an editor’s attention. (more…)

This year I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a gig for Hansaton USA, the newly launched US counterpart to a major German hearing aid manufacturer. The assignment included the normal launch release activity, trade public relations and I also added a small amount of time for blogging and social media. Hansaton USA sells to hearing aid dispensers and audiologist so although consumer awareness is important, their primary goal is to reach their business customers. Twitter was more of an afterthought in the campaign, a way to drive traffic to the blog, perhaps get a bit of SEO and maybe find a couple of audiologists.

Instead of being a footnote, I’ve found a way to maximize Twitter’s ROI for B2B companies in a way that a) takes very little time, b)creates a warm lead for sales and c) increases goodwill between Hansaton USA and major influencers in the industry. Here’s how I backed into what has become an effective tool in my B2B communications arsenal.

Part of the problem with social media campaigns is that typically people start out with lots of zeal and run out of gas really fast.  Wise magazine editors and television producers will tell you it’s really hard to come up with fresh new content on a monthly or weekly basis. Try coming up with it daily for your social media! In this post in a series on building an actionable social media plan we’ll show you how to create guidelines for social media that turns your daily head-scratching for ideas into an easy process.

As you know, your blog is both the landing pad and the launch pad for your social media campaign. Your blog topics will help drive the rest of your posting activity on other networks and help create your own personal brand. So it’s important to brainstorm a list of topics…and more importantly categories of topics…that you want to write about. First you should read Beth’s post on picking topics for your blog.  Now read on to figure out how to plan your topics efficiently and with a minimum of time. (more…)

(more…)

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’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…)