THINKing

How To Be A Great Radio Guest

Radio - despite changes in media habits - still is a great way to get in front of a lot of people. As a radio talk show guest on a national program, millions could hear your message. Talk radio listeners tune in about 20 percent more than the average radio listener.

Being a great guest takes some work on your part. Let’s review what you must do in order to attain great guest status.

Be Available. Journalists of all stripes complain about not being able to reach sources when they need them. With radio, it is not just a 9 - 5 job. The great radio guest will show up whenever he or she is needed.

Be Conversational. This goes beyond your ability to carry on a good conversation. You must speak clearly, concisely and in terms the average listener understands. Start throwing around business-speak like “that’s not in my wheelhouse” and get booted off the show before it starts. In fact, don’t talk like that when you are not on radio!

Be Ubiquitous. It was true when I was in radio and it is still true today, radio people follow their print brethren. If you have been quoted by a news magazine or newspaper, radio producers are more likely to have you on. And, help producers locate you. Make sure you have an online presence and that you have your media clips accessible so producers can determine if you are the right source for them.

Be In The Moment. If you are out pitching yourself, take advantage of the news cycle. If there is nothing happening currently that ties your expertise into the topic of the day, then wait. Your day will come.

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Front Page Coverage - That’s What I Want!

Does everyone in business seem to think all you have to do is call the local daily paper and they come out to do a page one profile of your business? With all the downsizing, it’s hard enough just to get the media to open your emails or take your calls. Getting a front page story just because you want it: priceless.

I was talking with a prospect once who tossed this off as if it was no big deal, “of course we’d like to have the paper come down, meet our principals and do a profile of our business.” Another one wants to become a “rock star-type celebrity” in his industry.

Well, I’d like to win the lottery, but at least I know I have to buy a ticket first in order to be in the running.

Got any thoughts on this subject?

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5 Best Posts - January 2010

We had some very popular posts in January - some old and some new. I thought I’d share them with you.

1. 8 Ways To Use Twitter Lists
2. Twittering Journalists
3. Be Relevant
4. When Billboards Go Bad
5. 7 Ways To Kickstart Your 2010 Marketing 

What’s your favorite?

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Twitter Lists: Twittering Journalists

Finally, Twitter is offering a lists function. None too soon.If you need more info on Twitter lists, Mashable is a good resource.

We set up the My Creative Team Twittering Journalist wiki last year in order to develop a directory of journalists who were using Twitter. This was not an ideal solution, but it was good enough at that time. With the new Twitter list, we can move that wiki online. This makes it easier on everyone to follow twittering journalists.

We have established a USA Twittering Journalist List and a Canada Twittering Journalist List. They are not yet complete, but feel free to begin following them, and let us know if there are other journalists you are following who should be on the list. Next on our agenda, media outlets using Twitter.

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Top Content

In case you missed some of our posts, here are the top five read of all time:

Twittering Journalists

Top 10 Story Starters For Blocked Bloggers

Newspapers: Dig The Grave 

When Billboards Go Bad

It’s The Relationship, Stupid

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Aligning Metrics

Years ago, I worked with a Fortune 500 company on an integrated marketing communications program. It was integrated everywhere except with sales. And therein lies the rub. Our marketing metrics were highly successful, but our sales metrics weren’t. Let me explain.

We were telling consumers to call the company for a free in-home survey because we discovered that if the company’s representative got into the home for the free audit, they sold - on average - five additional products or services. The program was wildly successful. The media relations part of the program targeted at local newspapers was an incredible success. The morning the story appeared in The Charlotte Observer, we almost broke the company’s telephone system we had so many calls requesting the free survey.

The company’s field representatives balked at doing the surveys because they were being incentivized for selling one certain product. The agency and the company marketing folks did not know this before the program was launched. We had even done a presentation to company managers - sales included - but no one thought to mention this small detail.

Here’s the funny part: each free survey resulted in a nearly 70 percent success rate for selling this product. Didn’t matter to the field reps. If the lead wasn’t for that product, they didn’t want to go on the call. Period.

Did the brand take a beating because of this? Oh, yeah. Did the company change its approach. Not on your life.

This is so typical of large corporations. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.

Lesson learned: a well conceived marketing program can fail if everyone is not heading in the same direction.

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Links - 7/10/2009

Here are a few things we’re reading today:

AP Works Toward Universal Online News Format -  The Associated Press, along with fellow non-profit The Media Standards Trust, unveiled a digital news “microformat” to effectively encapsulate the content and key meta-data of every news story online.

Bing’s Growth Accelerates - Microsoft is gaining ground with its search engine Bing, but Google still dominates the market. Microsoft’s Bing grabbed 5.25% of the U.S. Internet search market in the four weeks ending June 27, while Google captured 74% of the market, according to data released by Hitwise.

Evian’s Babies Take Internet By Storm -  Evian’s break-dancing babies have become an instant viral success — which is just how the bottled water company likes it, since there’s no TV media buy planned for the U.S. to support the new ad campaign, themed “Live young.”

Everything You Need To Know About Twitter You Learned From Your Grandmother -  Sure, it can help to utilize the growing number of Twitter tools available as well, but if your Twitter grade isn’t as high as you’d like it to be, you may want to take some tips from grandma.

I’m On Someone’s Media List -  THINKing has written about this before. Now, Rodger Johnson takes on the topic of PR people sending totally off-base pitches and news releases to bloggers and newspeople.

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Talk To Me, Don’t Pitch Me

Hey lazy PR people! Now that I have your attention, don’t send off-target information for inclusion in this blog, OK? Just like Valeria Maltoni at Conversation Agent, I get too many press releases from lazy PR people who can’t take the time to figure out what it is that I write about. To them, I’m just another name on the distribution list. Blast away with the shotgun and you are bound to hit something.

Come to think of it, I don’t really want press releases. Send me a short email with your idea for THINKing. I’ll read it, I promise. And if it is on-target, I’ll do something with it. Same holds true for people wanting to do guest commentary for THINKing.

Any PR people - lazy or otherwise - with a different idea? Tell me.

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Everyman 1, Influentials, 0

Back in the 20th Century, you might remember, PR people were advised to determine who were the influentials in their market and spend the majority of their efforts reaching these elites. The theory was that if you reached these centers of influence - the media or someone who could influence popular culture - you could develop more targeted programs and avoid a mass approach. Approaching influentials was less expensive than mass communications.

The internet changed all that. Information and influence have now been democratized. Like the corporate world, culture is less hierarchical and has fewer layers.We now have a cheap way to reach a mass audience. That’s not to say there is no place for influentials in your marketing program. Although, Duncan Watts disagrees. He thinks it is a waste of money to try to target what Malcolm Gladwell called “tastemakers.” But that is a story for another day.

The media is losing much of its power and its mass appeal thanks to its lockstep liberal media bias and the rise of citizen journalism. I still think PR pros can utilize the media to help reach key audiences, however there are new ways to spread your message. Blogs and social media like Facebook and Twitter are the new media PR practitioners need to master.

Guy Kawasaki has some excellent advice for anyone who wants to master these new tools for profit. You’d be well advised to read and put his thoughts into practice.

By Harry Hoover

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Communicating In Tough Times

I didn’t need a new Nielsen study to tell me that a financial institution can improve customer confidence through advertising. It only makes sense. If the bank has the money to advertise, the perception will be, that it has the money to pull through hard times. Could be a totally false perception, but there it is.

The study shows that,

When asked about their own banks, insurance companies and investment firms, 55% of respondents who said they had seen more advertising for their financial institution reported having “complete confidence” in the financial health and soundness of their financial company and only 18% said they had “little or no confidence” in their company. However, among those who said they had seen less advertising, only 18% had “complete confidence” in their financial company and 45% said they had “little or no confidence” in their company. Overall, a minority of respondents said they had “Complete Confidence” in their financial institutions.

So, you see, not advertising leads to the reverse perception that you are on the way out of business. Again, it may not be true, but perception becomes reality.

For a PR guy like me, the best news is that editorial coverage is more important than advertising in communicating the health of a financial institution. Here’s what the study found about factors that would increase confidence in the safety and soundness of their financial institution:

• Reading positive stories in the press about that institution (44%)
• Seeing regular advertising for that institution (25%)
• Receiving regular mail or email offers from that institution (25%)
• Regularly seeing internet offers/advertising from that institution (21%)

This holds true for any business, not just financials. Agree? Let me know.

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