Stupidly simple PR for small businesses

Take a break from creating newsworthy angles for your client and take a look at this tactic taken from Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing manifesto.

"It was just before a storm when she came up with this PR tactic and public service. Why not announce their closing like kids schools do when the weather gets bad? Most everyone listens to the news during a storm and every time they get a really big storm, Margaret's computer training company has to think about calling off classes. Also, calling students by phone takes time and money.

Margaret put together a local media list and send out the "school" closing notice. She let customers know they could stay home for the day and she got many mentions in the local media."

Stupidly simple, has anyone tried this? Does it work? Could small businesses benefit from releasing statements to the radio announcing that the shop is closed but you have setup a special customer hotline for orders.

Being controversial to score hits

A thoughtful piece on Inc.com. Be sure to read it. I want to discuss this snippet about using controversy as a PR tool:

"When it comes to making news, you have to recognize that one of the key elements of a compelling article is conflict. Businesses that are willing to acknowledge adversity can reap enormous PR rewards. Being covered in the media--even if the portrayal isn't exactly perfect in your mind--always confers more credibility on your business than even the most clever ad. Unfortunately, companies often shy away from making a pitch that reveals their vulnerability. That can be a big mistake."

I can recall many occasions when clients decided not to pursue a newsworthy course of action because it was controversial. They perceive controversy as "risky". In a way it is. If you or your company take an opposing view to someone else you risk being on the opposite side of popular opinion and also upsetting stakeholders.

However, when done right it can gain repeated widespread publicity and position your client as a thought leader in their niche.

How many PR stories can you spot?

I've taken this BBC News screenshot to illustrate how many of today's major UK news stories are generated by PR.

Everything story I feel was generated by a PR person(s) is marked by a lovely green dot. I managed to spot 27.

What do you think?

Can you find any more?

A good day to bury bad PR opportunism

Tom Murphy points to a press release every PR should read.

This really is "good day to bury bad news" territory. Product PR and national tragedies really don't mix. More so, attemping to take advantage of any national tragedy will (and is) creating negative PR for both the agency and client. See Peter Shankman, BadPitchBlog, Tom Chandler and Opinionated Marketers.

However we have been harsh to only single out US Netcom Corp. Many of their rival companies have done exactly the same thing (only slightly better written press releases). See:

Rapid Notification Critical in Emergency Situations

FM-Based Digital Alerting Available for Universities

Emergency Text Messaging Service Available Free to Universities Nationwide Following Virginia Tech Tragedy

What amazes me is the logic behind these releases. If you can't see your press release appearing in a newspaper (which, realistically, it wont when it's written like that) then it's not worth distributing. Did any of these writers honestly expect the journalist would print such a piece?

It's too easy to criticise without offering a better course of action. So lets take a stab at how these companies should have approached the situation. The issue here is not Virginia Tech, it really isn't. It's what emergency notifications plans are in place at other schools, Universities and similar establishments (aka prospective clients). There is going to be considerable debate in the future about how such establishments respond to emergencies - and that's the debate you need to be part of. So begin compiling your unique take and ideas - even if it doesn't directly reflect what your service does. Don't be afraid to mention competitors neither.

Perhaps also consider not using a press release at all. Consider speaking engagements/arranging a conference, a survey of the response times of different education establishments, inviting journalists or prominent education figures to a demonstration of response times of your product.

It would also be prudent to investigate how different establishments respond to emergencies and how contacting parents of young school kids differs from contacting students. Both in the means of communicating and the communication itself.

Any other ideas? I'm working on the assumption they haven't reached out to the media before - which might well have resulted in the media coming to them for quotes.

Where do PR pros take their holidays?

I've just arrived back from 10 days spent in Morocco, and I'm thinking - is their any common theme about how/where PR pros take their holidays?

I ask this because of my entire trip, I loved the three days spent in desert close to the Algerian border. Which is ironic because I dreaded going into the desert. It was only the uncompromising demands of my girlfriend to spend some time in the desert which persuaded me to go. Why would anyone want to pay to be in the middle of nowhere?

Because it's so quiet. I can't begin to describe how refreshing it is to be in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sands and silence, or to wake up at 6am to watch the sunrise. It was an incredible experience. I'm very tempted to book another holiday in the future with the sole intention of spending an entire week in the desert. But would I have liked the desert as much if I didn't spend so much of my life processing information?

Sadly after a journey involving three coaches (two of which broke down), five taxis, one plane and even a camel I get to stare white-faced at the online bank balance, red-faced at a fully-spammed inbox and green-faced at the half-eaten pizza left in the fridge.

So I loved my holiday, the desert especially. My advice is if you want to visit Morocco (especially Marrakesh) do so quickly. It's coping with rising tourism at the moment, but it wont last long. Please forgive the obvious hypocrisy in advising people to visit Morocco before it becomes 'too' touristy.

I would love to know about other destinations PRs have found to get away from the information vortex.

Brief update from Morocco

So after spending 3 fantastic days in Marrakech we took a six hour train to Meknes in the East of the country - craftily skipping Casablanca and Rabat.

Since arriving in Meknes we've explored the old medinas and various palaces, and will tomorrow head to Fes. Which is a much bigger town with huge markets and plenty of culture. After Fes we're planning on a nine hour bus journey to Merzouga in the Sahara. We intend to spend a night there before embarking on a dangerously ambitious camel trek into the desert - camping with the camels.

Few thoughts:

1) The Marrakech market at night has a better atmosphere than Las Vegas.
2) Moroccan tea is sweet, but quite a wonderful creation.
3) Taxi drivers will say anything to get you to pay more :-(
4) Don't let your girlfriend pick up the wrong bag from the airport - seriously!

Words of widsom from Meknes, Morocco

For those that aren't aware, i'm currently on holiday in Morocco until the 22nd. I was planning for continuous updates along the way, but terrorists have a nasty habit of blowing up Moroccan cyber-cafes.

Time allows for a few quick words of wisdom.

1) In Morocco you learn to negotiate. Quickly. Generally aim for 1/3rd of the asking price.

2) Don't let your girlfriend pick up the wrong bag at the airport. It's hassle trying to take it back.

3) Everything is much, much, cheaper here.

More to follow when blogging is less life-threatening.

The death of the press trip

Offering free trips is a common PR tactic to get coverage. PR company offers to cover the expenses of a freelance/staff writer in exchange for coverage (albeit sometimes unwritten). Everyone's happy. Journalist gets a free holiday, PR company gets a hit, client gets increase in sales from coverage.

Travel journalism, especially, relies upon reporters experiencing what they have to offer. However in these greener days is the extravagant press trip coming to an end?

Yes. According to Claire Dodd in today's Guardian.

Parry receives an offer of a foreign trip every week from PR companies looking for her to cover their products. One company, Rio Health UK, has been taking groups of journalists to the Amazon for the past 20 years to look at the plants used to make its products.

[...]The Times started off setting its emissions two years ago and has reduced the number of short-haul flights its writers take. It has even started turning down offers of travel from PR companies, such as that lunch trip to Majorca, which it feels it cannot environmentally justify.

So what's the solution? The easy answer would be regulation. Place limits on the number of flights journalists/publications can take, and the number that PR agencies can offer. This would force PR agencies to put more thought into their trip and how they best use their budget.

It would also make the PR agencies look at other ways of PR. Looking at social media perhaps, how existing companies are talking about their trips, engaging with potential customers, browsing interest groups. There is some great word of mouth potential here, potential which needs to be utilised.

Google $1 salaries makes perfect PR sense

Does anyone else think that this story about Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin only being paid a salary of $1 is some very clever PR?

According to Brandchannel, Google is the world's favourite global brand - followed by Apple at 2nd, YouTube (Which Google owns) in 3rd, Wikipedia 4th and Starbucks at 5th. Over the years Google has been expanding beyond just a search engine and into pretty much everything tech. This includes e-mail (Gmail), Advertising (Adsense), blogs, desktop software packages, maps, shopping and an almighty lot more. A full list can be found on Wikipedia, a company with which Google has a curious relationship.

Google is anti-corporate, which becomes a problem for a company growing as quickly as Google is. Recently Google has been suffering some media backlash with headlines including "Google wants to take over the world".

Releasing this story about the company salaries now makes perfect PR sense. For the record this is the 3rd year they have only been paid $1, it's just the first time they've bragged about it. This story reflects the view at the top that the founders aren't worried about making money (who would be when you're worth nearly $30bn) and are still the anti-corporate company we love.

Direct Mailers - send money if you want my attention

I received a letter this morning from World Villages for Children.

Attached to the letter was a yellow, hand-written, post-it note and 12p (in the form of two 5p coins and one 2p coin stuck down with tape). Also included was a donation form and a freepost envelope in which to send it back. This letter was one of the cleverest direct-mail campaigns i've seen in some time. It began:

"I am forwarding to you 12p because I am desperate, and must take the risk that some people may choose note to send the coins back to me."

The letter then continues to explain that the writer, Sister Michaela of a Children's village in Guatemala, really needs the money to keep her children's village open. She explains the case of a young child, Dion, with a horrible history who, like many other of her children, risk being evicted into poverty if I can't donate £10.12p - (cue the 12p) - which it costs to feed, care and education children for a week. If I do send this money, they promise to send me a colourful bag of six little 'worry dolls'.

I like this letter a lot because it works on so many levels. First the money gets my attention. I want to know why any company would send me money. I discover this money is coming from the people who need it most. They ask if I can send it back, and explain why. There's a strong guilt element if I refuse to send the 12p back to her, but if i'm going to do that it lets them know that a) The letter reached the right person and b) I read the letter and followed its instructions. Almost.

Which leads to the next point. If i'm going to make the effort to send the 12p back, I might as well fill in the form asking for a one-off donation of £10 right? Next, the letter reads well, it makes sense. The cost (£10.12p) sounds specific, more honest than just £10.

Finally I get a reward, these colourful 'worry dolls' which I could put in the house. "What are they for?" "It's for the Guatemalan children i'm helping through my charity work!".

Next, the freepost return envelope is always a good idea. Us students don't come by stamps, envelopes or even pens and papers, easily. If I was going to pick one slight hole in the letters logic, it would be that the currency in Guatelama is the quetzal, not the pound sterling. But that's just being picky.

On the whole this is a very clever direct mail campaign. Let that be a lesson to other companies sending me mail. If you REALLY want my attention, include money.

A PR Quiz

Sally has posted a PR quiz. I wish I noticed it before she posted the answers. For the record I got 7 out of 10. In my defence, I misread question 1 and disagree with question 9 entirely.

Sally followed this up a with a proofreading test. I scored less well on the proofreading test, spotting only 6 of the 10 errors.

I would advise all young PR types to give both tests a go. If only to be aware of the tough writing examination they might face when applying for a job.

Charity challenge events are a stroke of PR genius

This February I participated in the first ever charity challenge event organised by Computer Aid International. The event, a gruelling 400km cycle journey across Kenya, helped raise money to equip over 20 Kenya schools with PC laboratories. This meant that thousands of children every year can learn IT skills.

On the final day the head organiser mentioned in passing that he wasn't sure they would do another charity challenge event. He felt had he used the time spent organising this trip, into his traditional fundraising work, he might have been able to raise more money.

Indirect benefits

Whilst this might be true, I couldn't disagree with the conclusion more. These charity challenge events are a stroke of PR genius.

When you sign up for a charity challenge event you receive a fundraising pack, which includes the typical ways to raise money for a charity. This includes advice on hosting fundraising events, how to ask friends/family for neighbours and, most fantastically, a DIY PR kit. Which is where public-generated PR comes in to play. It includes information about how to write a press release, how to arrange radio interviews and plenty more.

Public-generated public relations

So say a charity has 30 people participating in an event, that is 30 people which then become the charities PR department. Generating news-worthy local media stories/angles, interviews, hosting events which raise awareness of the charity and spreading an amazing amount of word of mouth. Recent innovations like Justgiving website and blogs allow people to use technology to spread it further. This is the sort of brand ambassadorship that any other company would kill for.

Competing with natural disasters

This allows charities to raise awareness and generate considerable PR not by going after the big hits in national publications, but by going after the long-tail of local/regional/online coverage. It allows charities like Computer Aid International, which doesn't use starving children or natural disasters to raise funds, to compete with those that do.

Admittedly it also helped in Computer Aid International case that a fair few journalists from major IT-sector magazines went as well. But it would be a terrible shame if they failed to recognise the value of this coverage.

Working in the twilight

It's Easter holidays at University now, I don't go home for holidays, but I do lose any sense of routine. Which usually means waking up late morning and working into the early hours. I find this a much better time to get work done.

I'm currently busying myself with some copywriting projects for apt marketing & pr, University work, a couple of pitch ideas to various publications and planning for my trip to Morocco next week.

Also, in truth, there isn't an almighty lot going on in the blogosphere at the moment, and i'm trying not to be a blogger who posts just to keep up the post count. I try to avoid echoing other news, so alas no debate on PR degrees or blogging deaths threats here.

Actually the death threat story does highlight the complete lack of attention attached to cyber-bullying. Especially in schools, where in this MySpace/Facebook world teachers could benefit greatly from checking up on comments between students and identifying possible problems.

In other news David Sifry has released the latest state of the blogosphere report. There are now over 70m blogs. This compares to just 55,000 active podcasts recently reported by Business week (up to 13% from 11% of the entire population in listeners from the previous year according to marketwatch).

Why is podcasting lagging so far behind? Is it technological boundaries? Lack of talented podcasters? Or less advertising money being thrown at podcasters?

Why I don't watch television

I took this screenshot some time ago to help illustrate the prime reason why I don't watch television anymore.

Does anyone see anything worth watching?

However my housemates have been very impressed by Virgin Media's content on demand.