The Buzz Factoree | Your Story. Buzzed.

Pump up your LinkedIn profile for dramatic results

February 14, 2012

by Gail Kent

If you’ve been neglecting your LinkedIn profile but you’re ready to get it in shape, there’s good reason to do so.

Studies show your profile is nine times more likely to be viewed with a photo and seven times more likely to be viewed with past experience completed.

Other ways to improve your profile are to customize your profile page URL to improve your “searchability,” to increase the number of connections you have to at least 50, to complete the skills section [...]

How to fix a “Google problem”

February 14, 2012

by Gail Kent

Rick Santorum has a Google problem.

With the Republican primary in full swing, you may have had the occasion to google Rick Santorum, and if so, you probably got quite a surprise when you landed on a top-ranking site for his name. The site was launched in 2003 after the then-senator from Pennsylvania compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia, prompting syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, who is gay, to “memorialize the scandal” by soliciting reader suggestions for slang terms for [...]

The surprising storytelling format that is 51% more effective than text

February 14, 2012

In the ’50s they were the medium of superheros and the bane of parents trying to get their kids to do their homework — the comics. Yet it turns out that comics, cartoons or other graphics are not the big time wasters that parents and teachers thought.

“The funnies” have enjoyed a Renaissance lately, with entire “graphic novels” being published as full-length books and growing in popularity. You can even earn a master’s degree in graphic illustration. Now instead of taking [...]

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Facebook Timeline allows everyone’s personal story to unfold from birth to present day.

January 10, 2012

Daddy and me.

If you’re like me, you’re got albums of old photos tucked away showing baby pictures, high school and college graduation, wedding pictures, the birth of your children and other significant events. But nobody other than you ever looks at them — and you only see them once every five or 10 years when you’re cleaning out boxes or moving.

Now there’s an online record of all the important dates in your life — a place where you can [...]

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Free social media magazines debut (with a free downloadable book for entrepreneurs to boot)!

November 4, 2011

It was only a matter of time until somebody turned social media into magazines. A company called Worldmedia has done it, and the distribution model is free and online.

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From the Shankman Files: What Happens When Your Offline Behavior Doesn’t Match Your Online Persona

March 7, 2010

“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.” – Machiavelli

The blogosphere has not been so adoring of Peter Shankman over the past week. It seems that others have experienced the same unfriendly side of the social media darling that I encountered about a year ago.

Shankman, the entrepreneur behind “Help a Reporter Out,” better known as HARO, has amassed more than 100,000 subscribers to his free list of queries from reporters looking for experts to quote [...]

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Fish Where the Fish Are – And That’s at Facebook

February 17, 2010

Businesspeople constantly tell me that they don’t have time to “do” social media. I get that, believe me. But with “inbound” or attraction marketing costing 60 percent less than “outbound” or interruption marketing – otherwise known as “traditional” marketing, can you afford not to engage in social media and other online marketing tactics?

If you only have time for one social media application, it should be Facebook. That’s because, according to a Neilson Company survey, Facebook users spend an average of [...]

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What Small Businesses and Non-Profits Can Learn From the Toyota, John Edwards and Tiger Woods PR Debacles: Take Two Aspirin and Call Tylenol in the Morning.

February 5, 2010

It’s amazing to me when — over and over – companies, politicians and celebrities convince themselves that they will get away with doing the wrong thing by covering up the truth with lies and excuses.

A month ago, it was Tiger. Last week, it was John Edwards again center stage as his former wingman released a tell-all book. This week Toyota is in the hot seat. And in this case, much more is at stake than a golf career or a [...]

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How to Successfully Develop a Media Pitch for Your Small Business Story

December 28, 2009

(Third in a series)

The first thing you need to know about pitching your story ideas to the media is that just because you’re interested in a topic (your business), that doesn’t make it newsworthy to the media. You’ve got to find a compelling “angle” for your story, or it will never get ink.

Does your idea fit any of these categories?

A unique service or product;
The first, the biggest, the most or least expensive;
A “comeback” or overcoming adversity story;
A connection with an [...]

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Where to Find Stories in Your Business That Will Get You Media Attention

October 29, 2009

(Second in a series.)

When clients hire us to promote their business, they usually have the idea that we’ll be able to convince not only the local newspaper, but also the New York Times and USA Today that their small business is worthy of a 20-inch feature on a section front with several nice, big pictures.

They think that a PR firm can pull magic strings or wine and dine the right people, and suddenly the client will become media [...]

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Storytelling: The Best Way to Connect With Customers and Prospects

October 23, 2009

(First in a series)
If you have a child (or have ever been one!) you know how mesmerized they are with stories. I remember begging my dad for a story, and he was great at entertaining my brother and me, while making them up as he went along.
A hunger for stories doesn’t end when we grow up. Just look at all the media we consume through TV, movies, comic books, literature, radio, magazines, the Web and beyond.
Newspaper reporters call their articles “stories,” and indeed, the best ones are.
We all still love a great story. If you can master storytelling, you can influence people to buy your products and services, build your reputation as a leader and inspire loyalty among employees.

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How Focusing on Your Customer’s Pain Helps Overcome Price Objections

October 12, 2009

(Last in a series on sales.)

When I was growing up in the late 60s and early 70s, my mom worked in a sock factory in North Carolina. On some days, she put labels on the socks identifying them as government orders to be shipped to soldiers in Vietnam. On other days, she ironed little bunny ears on the same socks – at three times the retail price – to be sold under the Playboy brand.

Mom was incredulous. Labels meant [...]

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The Secret of All Sales and Business Success – Do This and You Don’t Have to Worry About Closing the Sale Ever Again

October 5, 2009

(Second in a series on sales success.)

Here’s the secret of successful businesses: Become a shrink.

I don’t mean you need a sheepskin, but you must learn to care about people’s problems and needs and effectively respond to them.

So how do you do this? You must ask each customer a series of questions to find out what their problem is.

Such as:

“How are things going in your business?”

“Where are things breaking down in the office?”

“What is that problem costing you now [...]

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Why You’re Not Selling as Much as You Would Like (Is Anyone?)

October 3, 2009

(First of a series on sales)

When Saturday Night Live spoofs former President Bill Clinton, they’ll frequently use one of his most famous lines, “I feel your pain.”

Recently I attended a workshop at my local Chamber on how to close a sale, which was a reminder in the importance of finding the customer’s pain.

You probably learned in Psychology 101 that everything we human do is motivated by two basic emotions: pain and pleasure. As Mickey Boyer of Sandler Training [...]

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23 Surefire Ways to Market Yourself as an Expert

September 24, 2009

The Internet has made this the Golden Age of marketing. The Internet has made it possible for you to become recognized an expert not only in your own backyard, but just as easily on the national or international stage. Because of the Web, the world is flat.

To market yourself as an expert, there are two main tracks you can take [...]

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Blogging is an exercise in consistency and hard work

September 6, 2009

The problem with missing a few times when you would normally post on your blog is that those few times so easily turn into a few weeks. Just like exercise, you miss it at first. But then, you get used to not having it, and then it takes a lot of effort to overcome inertia.

I allowed myself a blogging break for a very good reason – I was very ill and eventually in the hospital – but then [...]

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How to Earn Visibility for Your Business by Holding a Drawing on Twitter

July 4, 2009

I’ve been on Twitter for some time, but I’m just now starting to realize the power that it has to promote a business.

What I’m learning is that most of the power is in the Twitter tools. Just having an account and posting a few tweets a day isn’t going to do much for you, but it is the place to start to get your feet wet.

Yesterday I heard about a cool tool that automatically selects a random winner from [...]

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Great Tools and Resources for Driving Traffic to Your Blog

June 12, 2009

Writing a great blog is only the beginning. You have to market it to get followers and subscribers. It’s not easy, but there are some tools that can help.

Free:

Promote it on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter sites by adding links to your posts. In some cases, you can do this automatically from your blog, but often these don’t provide the same visibility options as posting it manually, which allows you to comment.

On Facebook, add your blog to NetworkedBlogs.com and invite [...]

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Let’s Get Irrational for Small Business Marketing Success!

June 1, 2009

In the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator test, I score as an ENFP, and my husband is an INTJ. In others words, we’re complete opposites, proving that opposites do indeed attract (and disagree!).

What’s more, I am at almost the 100 percent level on the “feeling” end of the “feeling-thinking” continuum, an argument he likes to pull out when we are “discussing” the costs vs. benefits of a purchase.

“You aren’t logical,” he says, all Spock-like and superior. “Remember … you got [...]

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Fat Mail is Phat: Erica Robertson Talks About Getting the Most From Direct Mail at BizFit, May 21, 2009

May 30, 2009

Fat Mail is Phat: Erica Robertson, BizFit, May 21, 2009 from C. Gail Kent on Vimeo.

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The Art of the Referral: How to Network and Get People to Pass Along Your Name

May 29, 2009

The Art of the Referral: Guy Manchester at BizFit, May 21, 2009 from C. Gail Kent on Vimeo.

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Put Your Word-of-Mouth Marketing on Steroids

May 26, 2009

Putting Your Word-of-Mouth Marketing on Steroids from C. Gail Kent on Vimeo.

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If You Build It, They Won’t Come — Without Marketing

May 16, 2009

You may remember the movie staring Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams, in which he builds a baseball field in the middle of a corn field because the ghosts of old players tell him, “If you build it, they will come.

That idea worked well for a Hollywood movie, but it doesn’t work in business. Repeatedly I encounter start-up owners who have spent every penny they have on developing their product or a Web site and then have nothing left besides [...]

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Tone Up Your Small Business Sales Technique: Erica Robertson at BizFit

May 11, 2009

Tone Up Your Sales Technique: Erica Robertson at April BizFit from C. Gail Kent on Vimeo.

Free BizFit programs will help YOUR small business during this economic downturn. If you're near Newport News, Virginia, please be our guest!

Marketing for small businesses is the theme of the “lunch and learn” BizFit workshops from noon-1p.m. Thursday, May 21 in Oyster Point Park, Newport News, VA.

The event will be held at the Financial Security Management/Liz Moore & Associates Building on the corner of Thimble Shoals [...]

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Get Great PR by Doing a Good Deed: It’s Called the Law of Reciprocity

May 6, 2009

PR happens when people say good things about you because you have done good things for others. Simple. It works on the basis of the Law of Reciprocity. It means what goes around comes around — in a nice way. About a month ago, I found out that my friend Beverly Shepard was offering a reward of up to $6,000 to anyone who could help her find a marketing or PR job anywhere in the U.S. As I posted earlier, [...]

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Low ‘Calorie’ Tips for Promoting Your Small Business

May 2, 2009

Low Calorie Tips for Promoting Your Small Business from C. Gail Kent on Vimeo.

This talk was presented on April 16 at the first BizFit "lunch and learn" event in Oyster Point Business Park in Newport News, Va. The next BizFit will be from noon-1 p.m. Thursday, May 21, in the Liz Moore Realty Building at the corner of Thimble Shoals and Cannon boulevards. The events are free, but RSVPs are recommended. Call (757) 873-4991 to reserve your spot. Bring [...]

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Blogging for Every Communicator: Breakout Session at Virginia Press Women Conference

April 28, 2009

Blogging For Every Communicator from C. Gail Kent on Vimeo.

Emily Battle, reporter with The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, and Kristen King, copywriter and consultant, speak at the 2009 Virginia Press Women Conference on April 25 at The University of Mary Washington. They share tips about their blogs and tips for creating and maintaining quality blogs.
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The Buzz Tip of the Week #7: Get Free Publicity Leads

April 27, 2009

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Do these seven things to write a great speech, says Michelle Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s speechwriter

April 26, 2009

Facts are important, but to really move an audience you should include a human story in every speech, said Megan Rooney, a speechwriter for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Previously, she was the speechwriter for Michelle Obama for the final stretch of the Obama for America campaign.

Rooney spoke at the Virginia Press Women conference in Fredericksburg on Saturday, revealing an insider’s view of working as one of only a few women speechwriters for top-level Beltway officials. She spent five [...]

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The Buzz Tip of the Week #6 Get Your Product Reviewed on BlogFriendlyPR

April 14, 2009

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Build Awareness for Your Small Business While Getting or Giving Help

April 12, 2009

If you want to gain some visibility for your business, and you’re willing to barter or offer something for free, there’s a great resource you might check out called “The Haves & Needs List.”

Sign up to receive the daily email at Business Helping Business, where you’ll get a simple list of products or services that businesses are willing to give other businesses, or a request for things needed by other small businesses. It’s free to subscribe to the list [...]

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The Buzz Tip of the Week #5: Using the Concept of Lagnaippe

April 7, 2009

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The Buzz Tip of the Week #4: Save Time by Repurposing Your Content

March 30, 2009

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How to Create Hot Story Pitches to Gain Scads of Media Attention

March 28, 2009

(Part II of The ONE Thing You Must Do to Get Publicity for Your Small Business)

If you are in a technical field or one involving highly specialized knowledge — such as accounting or engineering –- it can be challenging to interest the traditional media in your business.

Consumer media are only interested in stories that are relevant to the average person. If it takes you longer than 30 seconds to explain your pitch to a reporter, it’s unlikely that your [...]

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The Buzz Tip of the Week #3 — Online Publicity

March 23, 2009

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The One Thing You MUST Do to Gain Publicity for Your Small Business

March 20, 2009

Small businesses crave publicity. Probably the number one question I’m asked as a PR practitioner is “how can I get more publicity?”

Often businesses think that the media should write profiles about them simply because they exist and they “want to get the word out.”

Sorry. It doesn’t work that way.

Your business may be the most important thing in your life, but unless there’s a unique angle that you can explain simply and directly, it’s not newsworthy. And by [...]

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The Buzz Tip of the Week #2 — Facebook Advertising

March 16, 2009

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If You’re in Business, You Need a Blog

March 15, 2009

It's taken me long enough, but I finally started a blog. And you need to do it, too.

I had a lot of excuses: I didn’t have time. I wasn’t sure I had anything worth saying. I wanted one branded to look similar, but not identical, to my Web site, and I couldn’t do it on my own (I pulled my hair out trying to set mine up on every platform out there).

I paid a Web developer to set up a custom heading [...]

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The Buzz Tip of the Week: You’ll Flip Over the Flip Video Camera!

March 1, 2009

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In Life and in Marketing: When You Get Hungry, Don’t Eat Your Seed Peanuts

February 19, 2009

Eating your seed peanuts is like spending your marketing money on office supplies.

When I was a little girl living in rural North Carolina, my family always had a big garden. Once my mother was planting peanuts, dropping the seed into the long rows my dad had dug. Following a safe distance behind her, I picked them up and ate them as fast as she could plant them.

Fortunately my snacking was discovered before my parents covered the furrows and waited [...]

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Bad Times are Great Times for PR

February 15, 2009

There are many unique opportunities to enhance your business image during an economic crisis.

PR is a bargain compared to the cost of advertising. Firms that maintain their visibility during tough economic times not only ensure that they will remain viable now, but also gain a competitive advantage when the economy recovers.

This is the time to communicate value and stability. Consumers are still spending, though they are more discriminate with their money. They want to know that they are receiving the [...]

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25 Random Ways PR Can Help Your Small Business

February 7, 2009

I’m guessing that, like me, you’ve been hit up with requests on Facebook and other social media to post your “25 Random Things About Me.” So far I’ve resisted delving into my mental scrapbook for personal trivia about my fourth grade pursuits.

However I decided to use the format to see if I could come up with a list of 25 ways that PR can help small businesses. Once I got going, it was easy! I bet you can add your [...]

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Why I Love PR: A Sentimental Look at My (First) Three Decades in the Field

March 30, 2010

Running is a great time to get in touch with things that you don’t ordinarily think about. Like why you do what you do for a living.

Just yesterday I was thinking about my career trajectory, and how I started as a journalist. I was in J-school at the University of North Carolina when Sam Ervin was running the Watergate investigation, and one day I ran into him and his entourage when I was crossing campus to grab a bite to [...]

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Get Your Business Planted in the Front Yard of Your Customers’ Brains

April 10, 2010

The cherry trees and dogwoods are blooming so brilliantly along one street in my city that I feel like a bride going down the aisle when I drive through the middle of them.

That got me thinking. I don’t notice these trees any other time of the year. They just do their job, standing there holding soil in place and sucking up some of the carbon created by humans and their machines. And yet, because they are so glorious during a [...]

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Six Things the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop Taught Me About Why You Should LOL in Your Business

April 21, 2010

I had the good fortune last week to attend the largest humor-writing workshop in the country, the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop.

There was a lot said about how the business end of selling your humor writing, but – as far as I know – nothing was said about how and why to put humor in your business.

As least, not directly.

Top-drawer speakers includedGail Collins, New York Times op-ed columnist, former editorial page editor and author; Bill Scheft, a lead writer for David Letterman and [...]

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For the Birds: What I Learned From Robins About Decision-Making

April 27, 2010

On Saturday I discovered a melon-sized bird’s nest hidden in the rhododendron. So that’s what those robins had been up to I had seen hanging around the deck several months ago!

Neither seeing nor hearing any birds nearby, I pulled the branches back so that I could peer into the nest and saw four bright blue-green eggs about half the size of my thumb. Three were perfect, while the fourth had an irregular hole in the top, appearing to have been pecked.

What [...]

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Marketing Means Never Having to Say It’s Just Too Hard to Do

May 2, 2010

Remember the old Listerine mouthwash commercial? “It’s the taste you love to hate twice a day.”

There are lots of things in that love-hate category for me, such as exercise. I hate to exercise; I love having exercised.

Some days, like today, are harder than others. I started out on a run, but after only half a mile, I was spent. I walked-ran for the remaining distance. Other days, I can run four or five miles and feel like I have wings [...]

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Giving to get: Great PR, great business and great philanthropy

May 19, 2010

I’m often frustrated by people who express a desire to “get some free PR” when what they mean is that they want a positive article about their business in the newspaper or a story on the 6 p.m. news.

And as often as not, when probed as to what they’ve done — or are wiling to do — to deserve such coverage, there’s a shrug or blank stare, as though simply wanting it should be enough to qualify. Or, there’s the [...]

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Going for Broke

June 28, 2010

Sometimes I envy people who can plod through life, staying on a safe course their whole lives.

I’ve wished that I could just watch situations play out without having to get involved.

In the past, I’ve vowed to take on various responsibilities, promising to myself – and my family – that I would not get emotionally involved. That I could just do my time and move on.

But I can’t. I’m just not bent that way.

If I could, I probably would have a [...]

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How to Buzz Your Image, Name Your Own Price for Radio Promotion, Support Public Radio and Write it Off on Your Taxes

March 30, 2010

Ah, glorious spring. Flowers are blooming, the shorts are coming out of the drawers, and public radio is interrupting your favorite drive-time shows every 15 minutes with those annoying fund drive announcements.

But if you are a PBS and NPR junkie, you put up with it because you love Morning Edition, All Things Considered, All Tech Considered, Car Talk and all of the other sublime and quirky wonderfulness that keeps you sane in traffic. I consider it mental floss because it keeps the [...]

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Who should talk to the media in a crisis? BP wants to know …

August 4, 2010

HOUMA, La. – Coast Guard Capt. Joseph Paradis, commanding officer of Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Morgan City, La., briefs Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, on the Deepwater Horizon incident, Wednesday, April 28, 2010. Staging areas are being set up along the Gulf Coast to actively identify, target and protect environmentally and economically sensitive areas. Photo by Marc Morrison.

We’ve all watched the horror of oil spewing into the Gulf and BP’s missteps in handling the crisis. Remember the [...]

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How to Get Great FREE Photos, Art, Videos and Music for Your Blog and Other Uses

August 10, 2010

2,500 Creative Commons Licenses from qthomasbower

If you are blogging your great stories to your peeps — and you should be — are you using photos to liven up your posts?

A great photo, cartoon or illustration can help you make your point in with much more eye appeal. But if you’re a regular blogger — and you should be — using stock photos can get expensive. And sometimes stock photos are just so, well, stock.

There’s a terrific way to get [...]

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How to Get the Media to Come to You

August 16, 2010

Gain media attention for your business through Online PressKit 24/7.

To get media coverage, you not only need to have a great story, you need to make it easy for the media to find you and access your information. Having an online press kit is a great way to do that.

Drew Gerber of Publicity Results! and PitchRate.com has developed Online PressKit 24/7, the secret weapon to getting media coverage.

Drew is conducting free teleseminars that highlight how his PR firm, Wasabi Publicity, uses [...]

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Case Study: Zappos — How to Create and Tell a Unique Corporate Story

August 19, 2010

Creating a successful company no longer means wearing three-piece uniforms and conforming to somebody else’s idea of what business is. Today, branding is not about outspending your competition’s advertising budget.

It’s about standing out. And to stand out, you have to break rules. Be fearless. (I would say, “go rogue,” but that phrase has been spoken for.)

When you create a strong brand, creating a memorable story is easy. Opportunities to tell your story begin with your employees and radiate outward. Your [...]

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Getting to Yes: The Fastest Way to the Head (and the Pocketbook) is Through the Heart

September 2, 2010

Stories touch our hearts, and our hearts are where decisions are made.

We like to think that we’re all so smart and rational. We study the facts. Do careful analysis. Construct decision trees. Build matrices that reveal the ROI on this option and that.

Then we make a decision based on pure intellect. Right?

Wrong. Researchers have shown over and over again that emotions are not only an important part of decision-making, but are critical to the process. In fact, one neuroscientist, [...]

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Get Yourself a Story Like This

September 2, 2010

Connections form stories, and stories form connections.

Here’s what I mean by telling a story.

This came across my computer this morning, and to tell you the truth, I’d read it before. It had made an impression on me the first time I read it, back in December when Jon Morrow wrote it for Copyblogger, which I subscribe to. (If you don’t, you should.)

Now Jon is marketing his own blogging course, and he referenced this article about how to stand [...]

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Learn How to Tell Stories From the World’s Great Religions to Market Your Business

September 10, 2010

Want to know how to market? Study how religions use stories.

Regardless of your religious beliefs – or even your lack thereof – stories shaped who you are today.

Perhaps you learned Bible stories from your grandmother’s knee. Devoured Greek mythology. Read stories about Muhammad retreating to a cave in the mountains for reflection outside Mecca, or about Buddha sitting under the lotus tree seeking enlightenment.

The purpose of this post isn’t to argue which of these might be the true path [...]

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How a Simple Site and a Great Story Launched a Million-Member Business

September 30, 2010

Don’t miss the special reader offer at the end of the post!

FreeBirthdayStuff.com is not only a business, but a ministry and a passion for Celest Benn.

Celest Benn was attending a child’s birthday party where she lived at the time in Scottsdale, Arizona when the remaining adults gathered on the patio to relax around some refreshments.

Someone commented that everyone celebrates kids’ birthdays, but once you become an adult, the party is over. OK, maybe there’s the occasional party when you [...]

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‘Story Marketing’ is the Secret Behind Abe’s Market: Selling Natural Goods by Showing Real People Behind the Brand

October 13, 2010

The Web has made it possible for mom and pop businesses to recapture the advantages of the corner store, where everybody knew your name. The Internet has leveled the playing field so that small businesses not only have a chance to beat large impersonal corporations.

One example of this is Abe’s Market, an online business that opened a year ago, which sells natural, organic and eco-friendly products from more than 180 small businesses around the country. The founders, Chicago entrepreneurs Jon [...]

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How to Improve Your Stories and Communicate More Effectively With Your Customers (or Anyone) by Using Metaphors

November 12, 2010

We’re all specialists today. That’s great for developing the next new thing, but terrible for the art of communication.

Because we hang out in “micro-cultures,” or groups of people that have the same interests, backgrounds and jargon, we don’t know how to communicate well to the “outside world.” The only people who seem to “get” us are our coworkers. (And even that’s iffy.)

As in Carl Sandburg's poem, "Fog," great metaphors help us see concepts more clearly.

So, how do we explain [...]

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How to Improve Your Writing by Creating Your Own Great Metaphors, Get Famous, Retire Early and Die Filthy Rich*

December 3, 2010

A pretty gull can be the basis of a memorable metaphor.

(Continued from Part One)

Great headline writers are the poets of journalism.

As a former journalist, I learned to appreciate those who could turn a clever phrase that served as the capstone for my stories (note: reporters don’t write their own headlines – that’s done by copy editors).

One of the best uses of a figure of speech that I’ve ever read was a headline on a story published probably 35 years [...]

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Launching a New Story With an Old Brand — Old Spice Continues to Win With Ad Spoofs

December 17, 2010

Old Spice was your Daddy’s aftershave until hunky Isaiah Mustafa became the Old Spice guy in the shower, reviving the 71-year-old P&G brand and increasing its sales by 107 percent. At one point, the short videos, which were launched on social media in addition to TV, were so popular that 87 were produced in one day in a secret location in Oregon, with copywriters producing content in real time as the cameras rolled.

Wow. That’s trust. But it was a [...]

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Finding a Story Under an Exit Ramp: Homeless Man’s Life Changes Overnight

January 7, 2011

We love redemption stories.

That’s why when panhandler Ted Williams, who lived under an exit ramp in Columbus, Ohio, became an overnight sensation because his golden broadcast voice garnered him a slew of job offers, we cheered for the underdog. It’s a heart-warming story that gives us hope in humanity.

Williams had been a radio station announcer in the ’90s, but fell on hard times. He lost his house in 1993. He admits he had previous problems with drugs and alcohol and [...]

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The Storytelling Secrets Oprah Uses to Have Audiences Eating From Her Hand

January 26, 2011

When you’ve got a big secret to tell and you’re the queen of daytime TV, it doesn’t take a lot to get huge ratings. But Oprah didn’t veer from the winning combination that has made her a phenomenon beyond anything seen on TV when she announced Monday that she had learned recently about the existence of a half-sister.

By now every sentient being in the country knows that Oprah’s mother gave birth to a baby when Oprah was 8 years [...]

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What IS a Story? Kendall Haven Provides a Scientific Definition (Yes, Scientific)

February 4, 2011

Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story

There’s a wonderful series going on over at the blog, A Storied Career that you really should read. This is a terrific site — by Kathy Hansen – on traditional and postmodern forms of storytelling that you should check out. But the interview series she’s been running this week has been particularly good.

This week she’s been running multiple day interviews with story guru Kendall Haven, author of the acclaimed book, [...]

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While Trying to be Cool, Some Businesses Prove That There IS Such a Thing as Bad Publicity

February 11, 2011

There were big problems for Kenneth Cole in Twitterville recently.

The notion that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and that just as long as the press is talking about you, it doesn’t matter what they say, is just plain wrong when it comes to branding your business through story. Unless, of course, your business IS defined by a tasteless story.

A lot of the cool kids tell bloggers and social media wannabes that the most important thing today [...]

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How to Turn Your Social Media Contacts Into Customers and Clients

February 15, 2011

Like an iceberg, the most important aspect of social media — strategy – is below the surface.

A lot of people jumped on the social media bandwagon because it was the cool new toy without having a clear strategy.

It reminds me of the time about 25 years ago when desktop publishing came into being. Everyone said that it would put designers out of business, because you could do it yourself. What happened for a while was that businesses executed some [...]

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Five Ways You’re Losing Business With Bad Design

March 5, 2011

Often small businesses will rush out to their corner print shop and get the cheapest business cards and stationery printed and throw up a web page and wonder why they’re not gaining any traction after six months. Or a business that’s been around for a while will decide that they can finally “afford” a new logo. Or even worse, a company may decide that it’s going to stick with the logo that the 12-year-old daughter of the founder drew 50 [...]

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Storytelling Makes Business Personal and Connects People to Your Brand Through Emotion

April 29, 2011

Infographics are a huge trend these days. Guy Kawasaki has a terrific one on his site that explains all the great things that storytelling does for business:

Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post

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Spreading negativity is NOT PR, and it is unethical

May 17, 2011

Just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's ethical.

Perhaps you’ve heard by now the report that Facebook hired the international PR firm Burson-Marsteller to spread negative stories about competitor Google. This type of behavior is neither public relations, nor is it ethical.

Burson-Marsteller has been experiencing a public backlash for its part in the affair, including postings on its Facebook business page, which it originally got caught deleting, making matters even worse.

For it’s part, Facebook said “no smear campaign was authorized [...]

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Seven things Oprah’s last show can teach us about storytelling

May 30, 2011

Everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows that Oprah ended her 25-year TV show last week. And as she said at the beginning of the show, there were no cars or trips given away as there were on some of her more spectacular shows. No big Hollywood stars jumping on sofas. No makeovers.

There was just Oprah on a simple set, doing what Oprah does best — connecting with her audience. And it was brilliant.

Oprah called it her “thank [...]

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“How can I get more business?” The one thing you should do that will shock you.

June 18, 2011

This may sound like a fairly basic question, but it is the bottom line in marketing. How CAN you get more business?

There are many ways to answer the question, and yet there are no easy solutions — otherwise we would all be in business and everyone would be rich, and there would be no need for marketing and PR firms like ours, right? Well, I could give you a very long answer about researching your target market, developing your USP [...]

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QR codes communicate information quickly

August 9, 2011

If you’ve been seeing curious square bar codes on signs or business cards lately and wondered what they are, they are “Quick Response codes” (QR codes). The digital code, which can be read by a special app downloaded to smart phones, can hold or share thousands of characters of information.

There are many free online sources to obtain the codes, such as Kaywa. You can improve your Facebook fan page “likes” with QR codes by using them with Likify. There are [...]

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Storytelling: Why it works for business

August 10, 2011

“One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.“ — Joseph Stalin

Find your brand story and you have found the starting point for an authentic PR and marketing program.

As humans we have a deep need for stories. They help us make sense of the world, bringing order to chaos. Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. We identify with characters who deal with conflicts that we can imagine ourselves facing, and we want to see how [...]

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How to find journalists to pitch on Twitter through Muck Rack

August 11, 2011

Image via CrunchBase

We recently discovered a cool site that has multiple useful features if you’re interested in following or contacting the media for PR purposes. It’s called Muck Rack, and it’s a Twitter tool that does any number of things. It:

captures the tweets of journalists and posts them on the site;
lists journalists on Twitter by beat and news source and allows you to either follow them individually or en mass;
lists popular links;
allows you to subscribe to a daily newspaper [...]

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Is social media effective? Here’s what chief marketing officers say.

August 12, 2011

In a survey conducted by Marketing Sherpa, 62 percent of chief marketing officers say that social media is a promising tactic that will eventually produce ROI, and they are investing conservatively in it.

Twenty percent of organizations are already realizing ROI, and they are continuing to invest in social media. Another 15 percent said “social media is basically free, so let’s keep it that way.”

Only three percent were completely pessimistic, saying social media was unlikely to produce results and [...]

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How to tell stories in business to get your message across

August 13, 2011

When you want to make a point to your employees or customers, tell them a story! We are hard-wired for stories — it’s how we make sense of the world. We’ve listened to stories from the time we were children, and every culture — including every business culture — has its own set of stories.

So how do you tell a good story in a business setting? How is it similar and different?

Telling stories for business is like telling stories in [...]

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High-impact tools to promote your meetings for success

August 14, 2011

We’ve been using Meetup.com to promote our own series, called Hampton Roads Buzz Builders, which help folks learn about ways to promote their businesses. If you haven’t worked with Meetup.com, you should definitely check it out.

Image via CrunchBase

While Meetup.com isn’t free, it’s not terribly expensive — about $15/month or less if you pay for more months at a time. The site “pushes” meeting notices to the mailboxes of people who have indicated an interest in finding Meetups on specific [...]

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Ready for mobile marketing? We can help!

August 15, 2011

Mobile advertising is growing exponentially.

Whether you’re a retailer or a professional, mobile marketing — marketing messages delivered by mobile phone — is a great way to stay connected to your customers and clients and to bump up sales quickly.

With mobile marketing, there are no spam filters, ignored messages or automatically trashed messages. Once a customer subscribes to your text message program your messages are delivered straight to their mobile phone.

Compared to e-mail and paper coupons, text coupons enjoy a [...]

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Need free social media or software training? Check out Grovo.

August 16, 2011

Image via CrunchBase

Do you ever wish there was an online place you could go to get some quick instruction on all those social media sites or an answer to a software question? Well, there is, and it’s free — at the basic level.

Check out Grovo. It has short video instruction on dozens of sites, from Facebook, Twitter and Google to software such as Firefox and Basecamp. Premium memberships are $9/month or $99/year, but there’s a lot of content available [...]

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Eight tips for writing a story like a famous best-selling author

August 17, 2011

Kurt Vonnegut

There are many forms of stories. Journalists call their articles stories. We call the tales we read to children or tell around the campfire stories. Fiction writers call their non-book-length works “short stories,” and, of course, novels are simply long stories.

Regardless of the form — whether fiction or nonfiction — the same techniques apply. And whether we are writing stories to entertain, inform or market and brand our businesses, good storytelling techniques work across the board.

Kurt Vonnegut, best [...]

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How to fix a simple Facebook mistake you are probably making that is hurting your business

August 18, 2011

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

If you’ve been on Facebook very long, you know it is famous for frequent changes. In the last round of changes, Facebook redesigned profile pages, and in doing so, automatically hyperlinked the employer field to automatially generated “community” pages. These community pages are littering Facebook, often confusing people with doppelgänger pages by the same name.

If you have a business/fan page on Facebook in addition to a personal profile, your auto-generated community page is an [...]

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Get someone to write your Web site or dance in a hotdog suit for five bucks

August 19, 2011

Image via CrunchBase

You gotta see this. If not to hire someone for $5, then just to see what people are willing to do for $5. Seriously.

Go to Fiverr to get your LinkedIn profile reviewed, content written for your Web site, a voiceover recorded, a limerick written, a difficult decision made or a dance done in a hotdog costume — all for $5 each.

I paid $5 for 10,000 visits to my Web site to improve my page rank, and Google [...]

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How to get presidential communication tools — for free!

August 20, 2011

Use a free telepromter to speak as well as the President.

If you do a lot of speaking and would like to do it flawlessly, you might take a leaf from President Obama’s play book and use a teleprompter. This one is free and is as close as your computer.

CuePrompter.com is a free teleprompter/autocue service. Your browser works like a teleprompter and no extra software is needed. You can use it while you’re recording a video on your computer so [...]

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The surprising things you will — and won’t get with news releases

August 21, 2011

One of the main purposes of press releases is to increase your Web site's SEO.

One of the great things you can do with your stories — at least the very best ones — is to get media attention. Often we get inquiries about sending out news releases for businesses with the expectation that they will result in feature stories in local or even national media.

There are pricey PR services that provide media lists of thousands of journalists’ email addresses, [...]

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Seven sites that connect you directly with journalists looking for people like you to interview

August 22, 2011

Journalists use free sites that send out queries to find sources to interview for their stories. Experts in a variety of subjects can gain publicity by responding to the queries.

Numerous Web sites are available — some recent and some that have been around for years — that connect journalists working on stories with sources or experts on various topics. Some charge a fee for the service and others are free. Here are a list of some of the most [...]

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How to fix your Facebook page when you’ve messed up: converting your profile into a business page.

August 23, 2011

Image via CrunchBase

Nothing says “newby” faster than using a Facebook profile page as a business page. Not only that, but it violates Facebook rules, and you run the risk of it being shut down.

In the past, the only way to fix the problem was to take the page down and start over with a business page. In the past few months, Facebook has engineered a process that allows you to transition your profile page to a business page. To [...]

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Google+ offers real benefits over Facebook — don’t get left behind

August 24, 2011

Google+ promises to be another important social media site and could challenge Facebook.

Google+ is Google’s new social media site that has set records as the fastest growing social media network in history. It has amassed 25 million users since it launched, and it still hasn’t “gone public,” meaning you need an invitation to join.

It’s not just another Facebook — there are some real differences:

With Google Circles, you organize groups of friends according to tags: friends, family, business associates, etc. [...]

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How to make irresistible story pitches that the media will love

August 29, 2011

To get media to pay attention to your business, you've got to provide something that is newsworthy to the media. Stop thinking about YOUR needs and think about the media's needs.

I’ve never had a client who didn’t believe that their business was so exciting that reporters should be clamoring to tell their story to the world. That’s understandable. Whatever business an owner has undertaken is inherently fascinating to them.

Unfortunately, most people are so close to their business, they have [...]

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How to create your own online newspaper in less than 60 seconds

September 2, 2011

Create multiple topical papers to brand your business with social media.

If you’ve got a Twitter or Facebook account or an RSS feed from a blog or other source, you can create a daily online newspaper/blog on any subject with a few clicks. Not only that, but you never have to touch it again, and it will republish to either or both your Twitter or Facebook accounts.

The site for this is paper.li. There you open a free account and start [...]

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Use repetition to help make your point effectively in speeches or business writing

September 30, 2011

In standard business writing, repetition is wordy and detracts from clear communication. But when trying to persuade, such as in a speech, sales materials or advertising, using repetition with skill can make the difference between ordinary and memorable communication.

If you heard President Obama’s speech last month about The American Jobs Act, you will recall that he repeatedly challenged Congress to “pass this jobs bill right away.” Martin Luther King’s famous speech repeated, “I have a dream.”

John F. Kennedy was [...]

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Zemanta makes blogging and maintaining your Web site a snap — for free!

October 3, 2011

Zemanta is a great addition to your blogging arsenal.

If you blog or maintain a Web site, you’ll find that the Zemanta widget is a huge time-saver when you write your posts or articles.

Zemanta is a revolutionary new platform for accelerating on-line content production for any Web user. Any text (a blog post, article or web page) is directly “read” by Zemanta.

Zemanta combs the Web for relevant images, smart links, keywords and text, instantly serving the results to the user [...]

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Serious about telling your story? Create your own app.

October 5, 2011

Tell your story better by creating your own custom app. Now it's cheaper — and easier — than ever.

There are approximately 350,000 apps in iTunes and 65,000 in the Android marketplace, according to a recent post in Mashable. Yet as a small business, you may find that your own app would be just the thing to set your restaurant, yoga studio or independent bookstore apart from the crowd.

Can’t afford to pay $10,000 to a developer to make one for [...]

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Saying goodbye to Steve Jobs, storyteller extraordinaire

October 12, 2011

What is left to be said about the death of an icon such as Steve Jobs? The reaction to his death has been more like that of a rock star than a corporate titan. That, perhaps, is because of Jobs’ skill at storytelling. Nobody could generate excitement over a new product launch like Steve Jobs. He didn’t just build products, he unleashed dreams. You might take a look at this Slideshare program, “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs,” for ways [...]

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Does social media work? It does if you put down the mouse!

October 17, 2011

To make social media work, you have to take it to the next level. Once you’ve made a contact online, you’ve got to go offline. Make an appointment to meet for coffee or lunch.

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A scary Facebook story starring YOU … just in time for Halloween!

October 27, 2011

Just when you were getting used to the idea of Facebook having your personal information out there for the world to see comes Take This Lollipop, a hot new Web site that is making the rounds just in time for Halloween.

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A cool pen that 007 would be proud to carry — and will make your work life easier.

November 1, 2011

A colleague recently introduced me to new technology that I’m finding extremely helpful with note taking. It’s called the Echo Smartpen, and it is a pen and recording device in one.

Read the full article →

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  We are former journalists and award-winning PR pros who help businesses and non-profits find and tell their stories. While we expertly pitch stories to print and broadcast media to gain local, regional or national visibility, we do much more. We create research-based branding campaigns. We write killer web copy, design online marketing campaigns and execute social media strategies. We'll even train you or your staff to use social media and online marketing to handle it internally. Whatever your PR and marketing challenges, we’ll help you tell your story to buzz your brand.
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