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Simplifying Public Relations

Posted on 13 September, 2011 by Cindy Ronzoni

The Salvation Army Knows How to Relate On All Fronts - That's Good PR. Flickr credit: Tojosan

Yesterday I was interviewed by at third-year college student for an assignment in one of her public relations classes. I do about a dozen of these a year for various students and I love how each one is always different. This particular student wanted me to define what public relations is…and so I threw it back in her court to answer first. She gave a very intelligent long answer about like its caring for a brand and communicating messages effectively through the use of journalists. But I told her my answer was in the title. Public Relations is just that. Public – Relations.

KEEP PR SIMPLE

It’s all about how you relate to the public, the media, colleagues, companies…public relations is about relating in any form or fashion. It’s really that simple.

Public relations professionals are only as good as their contacts and as good as their strategies for spreading a message. And that’s why social media is the perfect complement to public relations. Success on that platform deals with how well a person can provide engaging content.

Sometimes when looking for an answer, its right in front of your face. PR people often forget that at the end of day that it is how well we are able to communicate to others how they should write about whatever we are representing. Therefore, for anyone starting out in the PR field or for those who are responsible for that area in their job, they should heed these simple suggestions.

TIPS FOR PR SUCCESS

(1). Don’t ever assume people will write about your product. Great content will get covered if its story is told interestingly for coverage.

(2.) A press release on its own is never a good strategy for pick up. Distributing press releases over a wire will not garner top-notch results, because you need to send it to a targeted list of people whom you know that cover that sort of product. It’s a left-right punch.

(3.) Relationships are the key to any business. Therefore, build up your followers and fans so that when you need some help in starting a movement, you have a terrific base to start from and grow upon. Keep meeting people online and in person – every connection made does present some opportunity.

Yep, it’s that simple. If you know how to relate to others, then you are on your way being a success in public relations. That’s my PR tip for the day.

Cindy Keeps It Simple

Cindy Ronzoni is a public relations veteran who has been building media relationships her entire career. She often speaks to college students and provides seminars to train small business professionals. In all her efforts, she exhorts simplicity in all that she does.

How Not Improving Can Help Your Business

Posted on 29 August, 2011 by Cindy Ronzoni

Why Mess With a Greatness

Did you happen to catch today’s Wall Street Journal front page feature on paper clips? Yes, I just wrote paper clips.

At first I thought this was an odd, boring choice for a story selection, and I pondered why this premier publication would devote prime real estate to such an ordinary product. It didn’t take me long, a couple of sentences, to get its point. I learned that a paper clip is rare because it has withstood its classic design for over 100 years. How many things can you say that about?

This thought led me to further thought about whether we should keep certain things that work well alone and stop slapping “new improved” stickers on just about everything that gets sold or consumed.

DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE NEW AND IMPROVED?

I mean we’ve all heard this statement before, if it ain’t broken don’t fix it.

I don’t like that statement – but, in this case it certainly applies. Paper clips are still as relevant today as they were the day they were introduced into the marketplace in 1903. Sure, you can add colors to them or designs or coat them in plastic. But at the end of the day is there any better tool to fix papers without leaving a mark, to un-clog glue bottles or clean under your finger nails in a pinch?

With that being said, are there things about your business or the work that you do that you shouldn’t improve upon because they work well?

A CLASSIC BUSINESS PLAN

Here’s what I would say about my PR business. No matter what new whiz-bang social media tool that comes out, I don’t want to lose personal connection and phone calls. My business success lies in having connections with real people, journalists, and I’ve built up those relationships through the years by having conversations with them over the phone or in-person. That’s really my business secret, my paper clip, if you will and one that I hope to never change.

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Social Media Day What A Success!

Posted on 1 July, 2011 by Cindy Ronzoni

Thank you Orange County Register for hosting a Mashable Social Media Day event.

How did you celebrate #Mashable’s Social Media Day? I celebrated it with my local social media club, Social Media Mastermind of Orange County (SMMOC) at the Orange County Register. For those of you who know me, you know that I love to support journalists and their publications, therefore, it was a win-win for me to be at the OCRegister.

Kudos to everyone who was involved at this local gathering. Employees at the paper, like Kevin Sablan, did an amazing job of lining up speakers, equipment, parking access and food vendors. The content that was provided was definitely “remark-able” and hopefully, a good time was had by all.

YEAH FOR SOCIAL MEDIA DAY

To help give you a flavor of what our day was like, I put some pictures together and produced a short video. The best thing about this day is the fact if you couldn’t make it to any event – you could still participate by following on the dozens of twitter hashtags that cropped up representing social activities throughout the world. It’s now becoming one of my favorite days of the year.

Enjoy!

Foursquare Needs Some PR and PC Cleaning

Posted on 9 December, 2010 by Cindy Ronzoni

Foursquare is getting a potty mouth

How were you punished when your mom caught you saying a “not so nice” word? Did she make you wash your mouth out with soap? Did you get sent to your room or were you grounded for a week?

FOURSQUARE’S BLUE-NESS

As I was using the geo-tagging, hyper-local service Foursquare today, my eyes stumbled upon names and words that I normally do not like to read – and I was offended.

I know some peeps will call me old-fashioned with this post – and I do understand freedom of speech – but I never expected to see what I read today and the volume. For you see, I simply wanted to check into my local grocery store this afternoon on Foursquare and in doing so I had to scroll through so many crazy dumb names before I landed on Vons. Such places were listed like “Whore House,” “Sexy room,” or the “Sex Cave,” etc., etc., etc. I even noticed that someone in my vicinity listed her home as “the town drunk lives here!” What’s wrong with people?

I’ve noticed this happening for some time, but it wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. Try searching the word “whore” on Foursquare and you’ll be astonished what comes up! You will see what I mean.

There's Always Some Rotten Apples that Taint A Good Thing

With potty mouth taking over this platform, I would like to recommend Foursquare start to enforce some policies where certain terms (i.e., whore) are not appropriate and thus are banned from the service. Other services do watch what’s posted, like Facebook and myspace. Sometimes we have to police people for themselves.

I do like Foursquare and have enjoyed it, but if it continues to get more and more vulgar, I will stop and recommend others do so as well. It’s getting quite the potty mouth lately. Have you noticed it too?

FOURSQUARE MAY NOT BE GOOD FOR BUSINESS

I have a been a giant fan of the application and think it is a tremendous service for businesses. I would hate for it to become a place where childish blue humor hangs out. I’m all for creativity…but seeing ho and drunk and sex all over the place isn’t good for business. For what business wants to be listed being near “the town drunk?”

Note to Parents: In addition to checking in on your kids Facebook comments, also check about how they have listed your crib on Foursquare. You may be surprised what they’ve labeled your lovely home as and more specifically, their bedroom.

I wish Foursquare would issue a badge for good behavior on Foursquare! Now that’s an idea I would endorse.

Cindy

A Peek Inside is Good PR

Posted on 5 December, 2010 by Cindy Ronzoni

One of my favorite television shows is CBS’ “Undercover Boss.” The main reason why I like the series is that I find it fascinating to have access to an “insider’s” peek into the operations of familiar companies. One episode that caught my attention was when they profiled “Subway.” I eat there regularly and was astonished to see how fast they make the sandwiches and the precision…I mean they list how many pickles are in each sandwich. In another episode, I enjoyed seeing how DirecTV’s customer service is handled and another about how “Lucky Strikes” bowling centers came into being.

Need a PR Boost, "Undercover Boss" wil Help

Tonight I got another insider’s look..this time from the award-winning CBS news magazine “60 Minutes.” Reporter Lesley Stahl interviewed Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg, and as such, we got a few shots inside the operations of that company. And since they did show us how the company is set up, I absolutely loved it. I mean they showed us that Mark sits out in the open in a bull pen of tables. No corner office for him. It was pretty cool seeing how massive the company has become and watching how incredibly fast all the coders or “hackers” type.

As a social media consultant, I was thrilled to watch the segment and learn that they are launching a new look tomorrow. Zuckerberg wants Facebook connections to learn more about each friend and thus, has revised the front profile page to include more features.

To learn more about the new features, this “60 Minutes” piece will describe them for you. To view it, click here.

This “60 Minutes” piece also got me thinking about how brilliant a PR move it was for Facebook to let the public have an inside look into a service which is very personal to its users. In fact, I would say that every company should allow “Undercover Boss” to feature them in an episode. Why? Because it’s great PR. By watching these episodes, I feel like I “know” the company better. Like I’m a former employee. I now feel like I have vested interest and I root for them.

And I must say, with all the problems that Facebook has had of late with privacy issues, this interview that “opened up” the company to the public’s view was brilliant. Kudos to the corporate PR team. By seeing Mark’s office surroundings, it did help make the company feel a bit more personal and well, human, since there’s no phone number listed for the company. It’s almost impossible to call Facebook.

That’s it for now.

See ya on the Book!

Does Your Marketing Firm Really Provide PR?

Posted on 17 November, 2010 by Cindy Ronzoni

Social Spread Media, Cindy Ronzoni PR Veteran, 310-880-1961

PR Departments Should Have Media Contacts/Relationships

In this day and age, the lines between marketing, social media and public relations are all converging and blurring. Many firms say that they do all three, but do they?

This post will help you determine if the firm you have hired to handle your PR can execute on your goals.

The idea of this post came when I was surprised to learn that a well-known marketing guru said that his company also handles PR. This executive is an amazing marketer and new media influencer, but I would have never thought that I could hire his company for PR. And although, he is extremely talented and a thought leader, I think that he and I have a different public relations definitions.

Wikipedia defines it as such: Public relations (PR) is a field concerned with maintaining public image for businesses, non-profit organizations or high-profile people, such as celebrities and politicians.

Why Are You Hiring a PR Company in the First Place?

So the question that you need to ask yourself first is this: What are your reasons for hiring a PR company?

Are you hiring a firm to:

A-Handle a crisis that is being played out in the media or has the potential to become public?
B-Build your community base on the Internet
C-Write press materials and/or media kit
D-Pitch your company to the media
E-Organize media events, press conferences, trade shows
F-Compose executive speeches and talking points
G-Create messaging
H-Develop media strategies across platforms
I-Design advertising and handle media buys
J-Build the companies image
K-Pitch executives for speaking engagements/celebrities for red-carpets and award shows
L-Corporate Blogs

Believe it or not, but how you answer those questions above will help you determine if your marketing firm really can handle PR functions.

Public Relations Defined

As a 20-plus year public relations veteran, my definition of publicity is the following: a PR firm not only creates and maintains public images, but also works with the media. My definition is that a PR company should be able to pitch your product and get it placed in the press. A PR company also can promote your company through social media.

I am sure some marketing agencies believe that they provide PR services because they create media strategies, however, they do not pitch the media. Yes, strategies are a function of PR, but make sure if you want a company to pitch media, they have media contacts.

A Party Works Best when Marketing and PR Unite

To help you decide what areas a PR company and/or marketing firm can handle – please see the list below. Per the list, I’ve noted which items are best handled by either a PR or marketing firm or both.

A-Handle a crisis that is being played out in the media or has the potential to become public? (PR)
B-Build your community base on the Internet (Both)
C-Write press materials and/or media kit (PR)
D-Pitch your company to the media (PR)
E-Organize media events, press conferences, trade shows (PR and/or Marketing – they work well in tandem)
F-Compose executive speeches and talking points (PR)
G-Create messaging (Both)
H-Develop media strategies across platforms (Both)
I-Design advertising and handle media buys (Marketing)
J-Build the companies image (Both)
K-Pitch executives for speaking engagements/celebrities for red-carpets and award shows (PR)
L-Corporate Blogs (Both)

In summary, if you want media coverage, make sure the firm you are hiring has solid press contacts and has examples to show you.

Do you have any PR questions? Please comment below.

Cindy

The Importance of Controlling PR Messages

Posted on 5 November, 2010 by Cindy Ronzoni

When Changes are Made, Is Everyone Aware that Needs to be Aware?

How many people at your company are allowed to directly communicate with the media and customers? For some corporations that possess customer call centers the numbers can be in the hundreds. And perhaps for you, the answer is just one. You’re the chief cook and bottle washer – and that’s OK — for this post today addresses the need for clear communication no matter the size of the company.

Communication Messages Need to Be Planned Ahead

With that, I would like to address the need for every sized company to have a six-weeks communication plan in conjunction with your media strategy.

What’s a communication plan? A communication plan is document that spells out what messages you want to promote for the next six-week period. For instance, in the case of timeliness, the next six weeks in real-time includes Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas events. Therefore, a company that provides services should plot out in advance what discounts, promotions, special offers and other such things are to be conveyed to the customers via advertising, PR and/or social media during that period. This plan helps your company stay on track or stay on message.

As an example, if you offer spa treatments as your service, perhaps on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) you could offer a 25% discount on foot massages for weary shoppers. Or on the day before Thanksgiving, you could offer $10 off on a pedicure, so your customer’s hands look wonderful as they stuff the turkey!

These messages are important to your business and as such, should be a part of your marketing and/or business plans.

Now the next question is, how do you convey these messages to those who interact with your customers? Is every layer aware of your objectives so that they can clearly communicate the message?

Don’t Forget the Layering Effect of Messages

When you are the decision maker it’s very easy to switch gears and make changes without thinking about how it effects the rest of the company. What may seem like a good idea to you, make not to your head of marketing. The head of marketing has a very involved media plan that she’s implementing that is in motion. One change could absolutely topple a beautiful, synergistic launch of a product.

Per the diagram below, I’ve outlined how many layers go into communication departments. In most companies, PR and/or Corporate Communication departments have substantially less staff than does marketing. And when dealing with social media, depending on which department is responsible for its duties, either PR or Marketing, it’s imperative that a plan is in operation that can quickly filter down any changes in messages to all involved in interacting with the public. One bad message can shoot down the best intention of efforts. Therefore, it is crucial that the persons involved with implementing the messages are always kept informed.

Stay on Message - PR Tips, Cindyronzoni.com, social media

It's Important to Remember to Alert Everyone Involved of Changes in the Message

Stay on Script

On movie and television sets, there is a person who’s main responsibility is congruency. This person makes sure that the set is the same, the clothes, the hair, the lighting, etc. matches from take to take. For instance, if there’s an apple in the scene and at the end of the scene it has two bites out of it…the head of congruency makes sure a fresh apple is in this particular scene for every take and that at the end two bites are taken out. A script supervisor does the same. That person makes sure that the script is followed word-by-word and that any changes in it are recorded thusly.

And that’s the new job you must do if you are engaging with customers over such things as Facebook. You must make sure that the staff responsible for answering comments on Facebook is aware of your script. They must know that your $10 discount on pedicures is only for one day only and not offer it the entire weekend. You are in charge of congruency and the script up keep. You can do it for the only way to be a great communicator is to communicate.

I’d love your thoughts on this topic. I do plan to address the need for a communication plan tomorrow when I speak on a panel at ProductCampSoCal. The panel is called Social Marketing Panel: The Social Spectrum- Social Strategies for Both Large and Personal Brands and I be on the panel with some of the industry’s best brand practitioners, including Scott Schang of Broadview Mortgage; Stacey Harmon of Harmon Enterprises, Kirsten Wright of Wright Creativity and moderator Mel Alcaro, author of The Social Media Marketing Essentials Guide For Small Business Professionals.

PR AND SOCIAL MEDIA GO HAND IN HAND

Posted on 31 October, 2010 by Cindy Ronzoni

Social Media Conferences Provide Valuable Education

I’ve been asked to join a panel on Saturday at ProductCampSoCal addressing this particular topic: Social Marketing Panel: The Social Spectrum- Social Strategies for Both Large and Personal Brands. I am joined on this panel with some of the industry’s best brand practitioners, including Scott Schang of Broadview Mortgage; Stacey Harmon of Harmon Enterprises, Kirsten Wright of Wright Creativity and moderator Mel Alcaro, author of The Social Media Marketing Essentials Guide For Small Business Professionals.

In preparation for this panel, we gathered together last weekend to talk about what we wanted to address and as such I wanted to give you all a little precursor to what I would like to convey in the hour discussion. I will be speaking from the point of view that public relations is an integral part in any branding process. That’s the hat I’ll have on Saturday and it’s one I’m comfortable wearing. But, from what I experienced from our pre-meeting is that this is going to be an information-filled panel chock full of valuable take-aways. It will be a panel not to miss.

Did you know that if you participate in social media, then you are also doing the function of PR?

Yep, that’s absolutely true. By putting yourself or your company out there, exposing it to the public (consumers) and allowing them to comment back…you have now opened yourself to handle customer service and public relations. Whereas, a few years ago, if a company wanted to advertise say either on radio or TV, an ad would run and it would be static. The call-to-action was simply buy the product, not comment on its performance. With social media, you are now giving your customers a pipeline to express their views and opinions about your efforts. And when social media is done right and people become engaged that’s when you need to ask yourself if you are ready to hear what they have to say, even when it isn’t nice or sometimes untrue. However, once a comment appears that is negative against your company, that’s when you need to put on your PR hat and ask yourself questions such as:

How are you going to handle the complaint if its legitimate?
Will you take the comment offline?
Will you remove it completely?
What will you do if it becomes viral?

Social Media Isn’t for Everyone

I believe a company, nor matter the size, needs to take a hard look at whether or not it has the bandwidth to take on social media. Social media isn’t just having a Facebook page and updating it occasionally. To do it well, a strategy must be made, social policies need to be thought out (i.e., how you will handle off topic comments, trolls and negativity) and a staff must be in place to “listen” to what others are saying about your company online. It’s not something you simply can assign an “intern” to handle. It must be supervised by an employee who understands your product and one who understands messaging.

The Internet is Chock Full of Helpful PR and Social Media tips

If you are not prepared to start interacting with your customers online, then its best not to utilize this communication platform until you are ready. By not entering into social media at the moment, it one of the wisest decisions you can make until you feel confident.

Social media isn’t easy and one that requires a learning curb. However, to help you understand if its for you there are workshops, meetups, clubs and camps like ProductCampSoCal that can help you navigate these waters and often at no cost.

It’s well worth the investment.

If you are attending the conference, be sure to say come and say “hi.”

Socially,

Cindy

RELAX INTO YOUR PR PITCH

Posted on 28 October, 2010 by Cindy Ronzoni

Huff believes relaxed teams win - that's true for PR too.

No Job Is Worth Stressing Over

Since the best PR practitioners are those who can land a major media pitch, I thought it was fitting that today’s topic was a result of a Wall St. Journal article I read this morning about the thong-wearing first baseman of the World Series San Francisco Giants Aubrey Huff. The article did get my attention because it was about a thong-wearing MLB player, but the “undies” issue was not what sparked my interest. It was this quote he provided.

Huff said, “I never really heard of an uptight team that wins.”

Huff’s statement is true in so many regards and applicable to many professions.

You can’t argue with the fact that people do their best work when relaxed. I know I do, don’t you?

With that being said, in the public relations field it is extremely valuable when a person is pitching that the pitch should be in a cool, even tone as opposed to a fast, rapid fire, loud breathless ramble. The latter is usually conceived as one of a desperation. And that’s not good for you or the reporter or the client you are representing.

STYLE COUNTS

We’ve all been thrown pitches that we are not familiar with from time to time. This often happens when we’re helping out a co-worker who has a giant list of calls to make, and therefore, we innocently “pitch in.” We have been prepared with a script of what to cover and we make our calls. And usually, on these calls, we may come across as yes “reading a script.” This isn’t good either.

And as I’m writing this I saying to myself that I must remember this tip as well. The best service you can provide your client/company is when you are comfortable with what you’re communicating and can do it in a relaxed manner. Even though you may have over 100 calls to make by noon – each call needs to appear fresh, enthusiastic, unique, interesting, etc. You need to present an up beat tone throughout the entire phone process even when you hear that dreaded beep meaning that it goes to voice mail. If it goes to voice mail, it’s a long shot if it will be get heard – but your chances of having a reporter listen to it greatly increases if you have a vibrant, welcoming pleasant tone.

How do you do in this area? Are you relaxed when you make your best sales? Or do you sometimes let the stresses of your job pressure your performance?

I think Huff’s on to something here. This calm attitude sure worked for his team in the first game against the Texas Rangers. The Giants clobbered them 11-7.

Can you guess which team was more relaxed?

PR and Social Media are Powerful Together

Posted on 15 October, 2010 by Cindy Ronzoni

Actioned Packed Day at Blogworld Expo 2010

I truly witnessed something new in PR at the Blogworld conference. It happened at yesterday’s keynote Blogworld Expo session featuring moderator Brian Solis and Content Producer Mark Burnett, the guy behind such hits as THE APPRENTICE and SURVIVOR.

Mark Burnett Productions is producing a new documentary series for Discovery’s TLC channel focusing on Alaska as seen through the eyes of Sarah Palin called SARAH PALIN’S ALASKA. With that being said, I don’t which came first – Burnett accepting to speak at Blogworld or TLC pitching Burnett to speak. I’m guessing Burnett agreed to speak and TLC found out about it and then took that opportunity to promote the new series at the conference.

Whatever the case, I thought it was brilliant. Excellent work from a cable network’s PR department. Hats off to the executives who engineered this event. It was a spot on tie-in and worked well within the session.

Burnett Stole The Show with Exclusive Footage

Burnett talked about his entire body of work and career and then at the end brought up this new series. Moderator Solis told us that we were going to be given an exclusive. I’m used to this sort of thing since I am in the TV business, but the others thought it was a real cool moment.

The exclusive was seeing the first video from the series. Since Blogworld is streaming its keynotes, they do not want attendees to stream live – for that reason and because it slows down the wi-fi. So it arranged for @stevegarfield to post the first video of the show on his YouTube channel. We were asked to all tweet it.

Here was the tweet – RT @stevegarfield: Sarah Palin’s Alaska on TLC from Mark Burnett http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7xnvXMHxGE #bwe10

My fascination with this story wasn’t the exclusive video, but was the statements Burnett said afterward. He said he didn’t know if he would be able to provide the exclusive for as you know, TV use vs. Internet broadcasts are entirely two different beasts with different rights issues. When he said that I immediately knew that he has been having a legal nightmare for weeks trying to promote the series on YouTube. For you see, the music rights became the issue. It’s extremely difficult to buy the global rights to commercial music. And likewise, I’m sure TLC really wanted to break the video on their air. So I bet there were many lively debates inside TLC.

Stickers a TLC Rep handed out to the audience

Nevertheless, it happened and it was marvelous. Kudos to Burnett and TLC for taking the risk on this endeavor. It’s wonderful that a cable network understood the power of social media and the power of a roomful of bloggers.

Now that’s what I call great PR. Let’s hope more exclusives come to the web.