Category

Communications

Oct 10
Love0

Learning to Read the Room

By Communications

So much of what we do in public relations and communications is about developing relationships. Whether there’s a need to create new customer relationships, or cultivate loyalty with existing ones, all the business we do boils down to what’s happening between the people involved.

We spend a lot of time encouraging clients to listen carefully to their audiences 00 to pay attention to what’s going on with the people with whom they engage and rely on to make a living, or raise funds, or keep a thriving business going.

It’s stunning then, to be witness to an example of someone who has failed, utterly, to read the room. Taking a moment in a business setting to gauge the tension, to size up the tone and play it safe by being professional and not overly familiar, is a good strategy. This close to a very heated presidential election is not now, nor is is ever a time to inject politics into a business conversation. Unless your business IS politics, leave mentions of the candidates, their positions and most certainly your views out of any meeting, or the chit chat before and after a meeting as well. How often do we need to be reminded that religion and politics really have no place in this kind of interaction!

Being overly familiar is a tough line to walk as well:

  • Don’t go for a hug when a handshake will do
  • Don’t try to be funny if you’re not naturally funny, and if you find you’re the only one laughing, stop immediately
  • Smiling is better than a polite chuckle. Laughing when you don’t get the joke or approve of it can cause a real problem later: don’t.
  • If tensions are high, ask questions, and maintain objectivity. Gather information before you dive in.

 

These are important skills to learn and they take time. In your next professional gathering, observe the interactions and try to identify those who fail to listen and pay attention — those who are NOT reading the room. What do you see? What impact do you think it has?

 

Oct 07
Love0

Should We Use LinkedIn or Facebook to Promote our Business?

By Communications

Social media is pretty useful when it comes to getting the word out about your business. Too often, businesses try to spread themselves too thin, however, trying to manage a Facebook page, a LinkedIn page, a Twitter account, an Instagram account, a Pinterest profile, all on top of a website! It can be pretty overwhelming.

We really encourage organizations to take a look at what they can really invest time in keeping active. If it’s ONE TOOL, that’s fine. And if, truly, all they can manage is keeping content on a website fresh, then DO THAT, above all.

From there, it depends on the kind of business you have, and the audience you attract.

If your customer base is other business people, please focus your efforts on LinkedIn. You’re going to attract many more of the right audience members than you will with the shotgun approach of trying to pull in people from Facebook who are largely there for personal, not professional reasons.

If you have a consumer facing business, by all means, please keep your Facebook page active by being helpful to your audience. Be warm and interesting. Share information. Celebrate your community.

From there, the tools differ based on the kind of product or service you offer. But above all, stay focused on fewer tools and do a better job with the ones you use, first and foremost the platform your business owns: your website.

 

Jan 14
Love0

What to do When Your Campaign Accidentally Goes Viral

By Communications, Crisis Communications, Social Media

There’s really nothing that can prepare you for that moment when you pick up your phone and/or  log in to Facebook and see 8,000 new messages. Just yesterday, you think, we were trying desperately to get 300 likes on our page!

It’s the stuff some companies dream of. It’s a nightmare for most.

The thing is, you’re not going to know when your campaign is going to take off like wildfire. You may be pretty sure you’re going to get some attention, but you don’t really think it’s going to be Snuggling Baby Goats attention.

It doesn’t matter — it’s still worth the time to do a little preparation — a bit like the conversations people are having about the nearly $2 billion Powerball jackpot and how they would spend the money if/when the win. (Buying baby goats!)

Know these four things:

  1. To whom you will turn to help manage the overwhelming number of messages across all channels. This must be a trusted, experienced individual. Do not throw your intern under this bus.
  2. To whom you will turn to increase production/meet demand, etc. How big could you scale, if necessary?
  3. If things go viral in a bad way (you mess up, a terrible review gets major attention, etc.) what will your apology say, and how will you make it right? Write that message now, leaving blanks to fill in later, of course,  long before you need it.
  4. What will be your strategy when people are mean, overenthusiastic, threatening, troll-like, etc? If it’s to turn the monitoring of comments over to the person identified here under number one, that’s OK. Shutting down and disappearing might feel like the right action in the short term, but don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. The flames will die down, a new viral story will emerge, and you don’t want to be in a position to build your audience from scratch. Hang in there.

And if it happens to you suddenly, and you have no idea what to do, and you don’t know any of the four things, just give me a call.

Jan 13
Love0

What I’ve Learned in Five Years as an Entrepreneur

By Communications

In January of 2011, after 14 years of working for other firms, I opened my own. I was nervous but determined. Five years seems like a worthwhile anniversary to celebrate; a benchmark that in small entrepreneurial business means “you’ve made it.” Here are some lessons I’ve learned in my first five years as a small business owner:

  1. The conversations you have today may result in business eight years from now. Lead time can be very long, so keep having those conversations and meeting new people.
  2. Don’t waste time with worry. There are better ways to spend time! There was a single day in my second year of business that two large clients ended their engagements. (They were both restructuring.) It was a panic-inducing shock, and I’ll admit, I spent a full 24-hours freaking out about it. And then I stopped, and got busy finding new work. I’ll never kill that kind of time with worry again.
  3. Get the signed contract and, especially if there’s some concern about client cash flow, a deposit. I was royally stiffed by a client in the second year of business (it was a bad year, all around. I got divorced, too, and going through that kind of personal trauma while trying to run a business is unbelievably hard). And you know what? I am GLAD now, because that experience taught me such valuable lessons. I also found the courage to fight back and won, a feeling not as gratifying as not making a mistake in the first place, but a relief all the same.
  4. Eat breakfast. This is probably a life lesson, in general, but a morning routine that includes getting some protein in my system (and, possibly some caffeine as well) makes it possible for me to rock through a morning without being distracted by something as boring but insistent as hunger.
  5. Delegation is critical to success. When I find myself doing something I know another team member could do better, for less, I stop and turn it over. It took me awhile to get to that point but now delegation is much more routine. I can recognize much earlier what MUST be done by me, and what should be assigned to another (eager) team member.
  6. Take care of your people. My firm is run as an S-corp of which I am the sole employee. I like it that way and plan to keep it structured like that for the long haul. I have contract employees — freelancers — who do client work such as editing, writing, researching, web development, graphic design, SEO, etc. I do my best to keep them as busy as they want to be, with work they enjoy. I try to pay them as fast as I can. And if it’s a good year, and they did especially well, there’s a little something extra for them. I’ve been able to provide work for people who are good at what they do, and who enjoy the benefits of working a flexible schedule from home (or wherever they are). I’ve worked with a dozen or so contractors over five years and have developed a wonderful, dependable team over that time.
  7. Take time off. This was harder to do early on, but I’ve achieved good balance with this and find that a break now and then really resets my energy. I’m not much impressed with people who humblebrag/complain about how busy they are and how many hours they work. I am impressed with people who recognize that time with friends and family, time for self-care, time to think about the big picture and progress toward goals is just as important as earning a paycheck.

I’m so grateful to the clients I’ve worked with since the earliest days of 2011. I’m so appreciative of my team members who have made so much of this business possible. I’m excited about the future and know how rare it is to get to a fifth anniversary (and beyond) through a recession and other obstacles. It’s great to feel confident about the future of this business, and delightful to have you paying attention along the way. Thanks for reading, and for being here to learn along with me.

Oct 19
Love0

How How to Use E-mail to Impress Your Customers

By Communications

 

 

I’m in the middle of a run of pretty bad customer service experiences. I’ve bought two laptops, one DOA, that had to be returned immediately, then had a devastating Rent the Runway experience that had me running out the day before an event to buy a formal gown. Not cool.

Then, shopping for a gift for a family member on uncommongoods resulted in this:

 

Untitled

 

I love the clarity of communication, the notice that there will be four e-mails from them, and what they’re telling me along the way. It was just what I needed to see to restore my faith in online retailing and customer service. Way to go, uncommongoods!

What can we learn from this? Be clear, be brief, and tell customers what to expect. I appreciate this and the no-nonsense approach to getting this done. Think about how you’re e-mailing customers. Are you telling them what to expect? How about how often they should hear from you? Making a promise like that, then keeping it, can go a long way toward brand loyalty. Now, if uncommongoods only sold laptops and formal gowns . . .