In today’s guest post, Karen Southall Watts once again forces us to face the truth — no matter how painful — so we can achieve our business and personal goals.

The challenge of time management is not new. Increasing pressure to “do more with less” is the hallmark of modern life. At some point everyone faces issues about how much to do or how to prioritize the items on their to-do-list. And the resources we need are all around us. There’s a wealth of information on the internet (much of it free), thousands of self-help books and CD’s and legions of gurus willing to tell us how to get it all done.

So, what’s the problem?

Often we merely give into our excuses. It’s time to confront those ideas, thrash them and move on.

Excuse #1 – I work better under pressure.

Uh… no you don’t. The science simply does not back this up. Intense pressure and worry, like what you feel when you are about to miss a deadline, triggers the body’s limbic system. This is the part of your brain that sets in motion the famous “fight or flight” response. Once the body and brain get focused on survival you can forget about creativity or systematic organization. The fact that you sometimes manage to scrape by does not mean you are turning out quality work or managing your time effectively.

Excuse #2 – I shouldn’t have to do this.

Sometimes in my workshops I call this “magical thinking”. Many people resist learning to be more efficient because they feel they are being over worked or treated unfairly. It’s hard to get things done when you feel that “it’s not my job.” Not making an effort and waiting for the system to change is totally unrealistic. However sometimes people think they can out wait a boss, a client or a policy they don’t like. They refuse to try time management strategies because they are hoping and waiting for the rules to change.

Excuse #3 – I HAVE a system; I know what’s in all these piles.

If you find yourself defending your mess or your methods, that’s a sign of trouble. True, we are all individuals and have different personal styles for work. However, when you start making this excuse ask yourself who you are really trying to convince. Do you really know where everything is? Try giving yourself a test. Make a list of four to six important pieces of information you should be able to find (tax returns, client numbers, vendor contract, sales letter template etc). Now…try to find them within 15 minutes.

Excuse #4 – I really don’t spend THAT much time watching TV, surfing the web, snacking, texting, chatting  or posting to Facebook.

There’s a reason almost all time management books, seminars and workshops begin with some type of “record your typical day” exercise. Most of us simply do not realize how much time we spend in mindless activities that contribute nothing to our personal or professional success. If you’ve never done this, it’s time to give it a try. Social media and the arrival of smart phones have made this an even more attractive excuse. Think about it. If you are never, ever disconnected from information input and you’re constantly interacting with your online community, how do you have time to do anything else?

Excuse #5 – I’m too busy putting out fires.

Emergencies happen, but for most of us our jobs or businesses do not revolve around crisis control, or at least they shouldn’t. If you are constantly in emergency mode then either you or your staff needs to review prioritization. Not everything is urgent. Ask yourself if you’re addicted to the rush of saving the day. Be brutally honest. Unless you are a first responder (police officer, fire fighter, EMT) then you should not be too busy with emergencies to improve your time management skills.

It may seem harsh to strip away our favorite excuses, but in today’s competitive environment no one can afford to waste time.  Pour yourself a cup of bravery and confront these excuses and put them in the past.

Creative Commons License photo credit: h.koppdelaney

Karen Southall Watts is an entrepreneurship and management coach who focuses on practical and effective solutions for professionals. Karen offers workshops and one-on-one coaching. She is the author of the ebook, Sex is Good for Business: A Workbook for Couples in Business Together. Follow Karen on Twitter or find her at www.karensouthallwatts.com. Karen also teaches Business Ethics and writing at the community college level.

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In a previous post, we talked about the different factors that form your overall online reputation.
In this post, let’s talk about the actual tools you can use to monitor how your online reputation is doing.

By using these tools regularly — daily in fact — you’ll know:

• what PR, branding and marketing strategies are working

• what your prospects and clients are saying about you and your competitors online

• what makes up the current discourse about your market or industry

Think of these tools as your way of keeping your ear to the ground and your finger on the pulse of your industry.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool that lets you know how well your website is doing. Among other things,  you’ll know how much traffic you’re getting, where they’re coming from, what keywords they’re using to find you through search engines, and what specific pages they’re looking at.

A cool new tool is Google Analytics’ real-time reports. You’ll know how many visitors are at your website Right Now, what page they’re reading, how long they’ve been there, and more.

With Google’s website optimizer, which is also free, you can split test different versions of landing pages so know which ones work best with your prospects.

Data from Google Analytics will help you optimize your website so you can provide content that resonates with your prospects and turns them into leads and clients.

2. Hootsuite or Tweetdeck

Hootsuite and Tweetdeck are two of the most popular Twitter dashboards that let you manage your social media activity. You can link them to your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts as well, so you only need to open one application to administer your activities in different social networks. Note that Tweetdeck is a program you download on your computer, and Hootsuite is accessed by a web browser and so is hosted “off” your computer which means team members can also access your account if you are co-tweeting with someone else for example. Both have apps for your iPhone or other smartphone and the iPad as well.

These applications aggregate your messages and retweets, but they also provide so much more. You can set up columns, for example, to display all mentions of a particular keyword or hashtag. This lets you monitor what people are saying about your brand, your competitor, and other relevant topics.

But there’s more. Hootsuite, for example, gives you a report so you know which of your tweets got the highest number of clicks and which influencer is talking about you. Use these results to learn how to write compelling tweets and links.

3. Google Reader or other RSS Reader

With over 60 new blogs created and nearly 100,000 new tweets posted every minute, how do you keep track of online content? With your Google Reader or other RSS reader.

Subscribe to the RSS feeds of the top blogs in your industry, Google blog and news search results for your product name, company name, names of executives, and top keywords. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds for Twitter search results. Sometimes these results are different than what you’ll see on Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. By using an RSS reader as well, you can capture everything.

4. Hubspot Grader

Hubspot’s Marketing Grader looks at the various factors we’ve talked about and gives your website and social networking efforts a grade. Along with a free report, you’ll get recommendations to improve your online marketing.

Use the Hubspot Grader every six months or so to see if your score is improving.

5. Email Marketing Analytics

The final tool for you to use is the reporting mechanism from your email marketing provider like Mailchimp, Aweber or one built into your shopping cart. Your email marketing software will tell you how many of your recipients opened your emails, and how many clicked on the links in your emails. You can experiment with different types of subject lines, days and times for sending messages, and email content to maximize your email marketing results.

These are the 5 tools you can and should use to monitor and continually improve your online reputation. They will help keep your online PR and marketing machinery running smoothly.

Do you currently use them? What information has been most valuable for you? Are there other tools we and our readers need to be aware of? Do share! Post a comment below, or  connect with me on either Twitter or Facebook.

Image by Patrick Hoesly

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What if your media pitches always stood out from the pack? What if the editor’s eyes perked up every time they saw an email from you? You can bet this would improve your chances of getting coverage.

In this post, we’ll go over a few things you can do with your media pitches to make journalists and editors love them.

What journalists want in a story pitch

1. Sent to the right person

Journalists and editors love it when your story pitch is aligned with the beat they’re assigned to. A PR newbie mistake is sending out a pitch to any reporter they can find, or all 26 reporters at the target magazine. Either go to their website, or pick up an actual magazine and flip through the pages to see which journalist has written a story similar to one that you want to pitch. Do they cover entrepreneurs who are role models? How to solve a business problem? Companies that “do good”? Product reviews? News?

To compile a good mailing list, take note of what topics each media professional writes about. If you’d like to purchase media lists for lifestyle, women’s or children’s products, you can check out this company. My team recently tested their media lists and while there were a few errors (wrong email address), it was a worthwhile purchase as it saved us hours and hours of research time and very quickly resulted in media stories coming up for a client in People Magazine and Woman’s Day.

2. Compelling subject line

Your email subject line can make or break your story pitch. If it’s unclear, confusing, or boring, the journalist won’t even open your email. While clients or companies can’t always claim to have the “world’s first” of anything, identifying what’s unique in your offering, or how a certain market will benefit from your product or service and distilling it to one sentence can be great for clarifying your overall key message.

Try using a question they may be intrigued to read the answer to, or “great story on xyz” referencing specifically a story they wrote in the past.

Examples: “How should you spend your first marketing dollar? “ or “Who is benefiting from the postal strike?”

Like anything, you’ll have to test to see what works. One of my team members recently reached out to a reporter for Forbes on Twitter first, and then sent an email with the casual headline: “Some ideas for you”

In the email itself, she simply asked if he was open to hearing about two technology companies we worked with, and described them with one sentence each.  Total length of email = 5 sentences including the thank you line.

His reply was this:

“Honestly neither are interesting to me immediately, but I’ll be damned if this is not the best most honest pitch I’ve seen since I started working at Forbes. I’m sorry we can’t work together right now.”

The lesson is this: Don’t be discouraged by reporters saying no. Even if you have a good story to tell, relationship building takes time, and “no” usually just means “not right now.”  You can bet next time the reporter gets an email from Jackie, he’ll be opening it up.

3. Have quotable quotes or statistics

Reporters like to round out business stories with a neutral third-party – industry analysts or industry experts. Having statistics that support your business model, target market or validate your product add interest and save journalists additional research they may have to do for a good interviewee. Make their job easier!

Quotes also give you the opportunity to present opinions, observations, or assertions rather than just facts.

If you’re a small business owner, you can also use customer testimonials to show their experience of your company or product. Just make sure to get permission to quote your customer and if possible have their contact details – the journalist may want to interview them further.

And finally, don’t make the journalist work hard to find you. Your name, telephone number, and email address are a given. Why not add your company website URL, Twitter handle, and your business Facebook page?

Putting these elements in your media pitches will help you come across as a valuable resource for journalists and you’ll soon be a media favorite.

Which of these elements was new to you? Did I miss anything?

Share your suggestions in the comments below. Or connect with me on Twitter or Facebook.

Image by Walt Stoneburner

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We’ve written quite a bit in this blog about the importance of PR metrics in  monitoring and implementing successful PR.

However, while numbers and measurements surely have their place in your PR management, there are “soft,” non-numerical indicators that are worth looking at, too.

These are signs and symptoms that help you see whether your PR is going the right way.

Below, we offer you the…

7 Signs You Could Be Doing Better in PR

1. When you send out a press release or media pitch, your phone doesn’t ring.

Is there anything worse than not getting any reaction at all to your press releases or pitches? If this happens all the time, take a close look at:

• how newsworthy your pitches are

• the effectiveness of your press releases and media pitches

• the quality of your media list

2. Your interview skills are rusty.

When was the last time you were interviewed by a journalist or blogger in your industry? Can’t remember. Yeah, it’s been too long. If your pitches aren’t effective, it’s no wonder your coverage has been sparse and your media skills have suffered.

Don’t wait for interview opportunities. Always have your key messages burned into your memory. Practice in front of the mirror, or with employees. Use your “sound bites” at meetings or conferences. You never know when the next PR opportunity will come.

3. You don’t have a media list, or it hasn’t been updated in the last month.

With media organizations downsizing, it’s easy for your media list to get old and stale. Make sure the contact information in your media list is updated.

Another bad sign is if your media list includes only journalists in traditional media — radio, TV, newspapers and magazines — and don’t include bloggers, podcasters and vloggers.

Another thing to watch out for is a media list that does not include your contact’s social media profiles, such as Twitter handle, LinkedIn page, Facebook page, and personal website.

4. You don’t know what’s being said about your company, product, or your competitors.

There’s no excuse for you not to know what’s being said about your business and your competitors. It’s easy enough to stay on top of these things: Sign up for a Google alert for your company name, product name, and names of executives (and those of your competitors). Or populate your RSS reader with search results of these keywords.

5. Key journalists in your industry keep writing about your competitors (and not you).

If your company or product is new in the market, this is understandable. But if you’ve been around at least a couple of years, journalists who regularly cover your industry, especially local media, should recognize you by now.

If you keep thinking that you are the “best kept secret” in your industry, brainstorm some newsworthy activities or pitches you can make, and send them out ASAP. Building relationships take time, and the time to start is now.

6. You still don’t have a social media PR plan.

You can no longer ignore social media. It is here and it’s here to stay. It may seem like additional work for you, but in truth it’s easy to integrate social media into your traditional PR plan.

Need help? Download this complimentary social media PR guide.

7. You respond defensively to negative PR and customer complaints.

Social media has made it easy for everyone, including disgruntled customers, to publish their views on your product. If you react to negative publicity by being defensive — or worse, hostile — then you’re doing your image more harm.

Monitor what’s being said about you, so you can respond to complaints in a timely fashion. Take the discussion into a more private medium, such as email. And resolve the issue as quickly as you can.

As an example, a client had an unhappy customer who didn’t receive a product in the timeframe promised. The customer broadcasted a complaint over Twitter. By acknowledging the customer’s complaint quickly and looking into the situation, our client showed the public that they cared about their customers and are committed to doing right by them. We didn’t have to give anything more than an apology and making sure the package was indeed on its way, and the promised product arrived a few days later.

This is how negative PR becomes positive PR, because that same complaining customer has become one of our client’s biggest fans, constantly re-tweeting our client, posting photos on the client’s Facebook wall and singing their praises publicly.

Any More?

What other warning signs of failing PR have you seen out there? What’s one thing you could you be doing better?

Share them below, or let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

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Even though the public relations industry is changing fast, some things never change.

That includes the need to write a clear, compelling, and relevant press release.

Unfortunately, while press releases are straightforward, factual and objective, they aren’t always easy to write. In fact, if you’re used to writing other pieces — advertisements and fiction for instance — you’ll be at a disadvantage when writing press releases.

Below are some of the most common mistakes I’ve seen on press releases.

7 Worst Mistakes to Make on Your Press Release

1. Errors

In this era of the spell checker, it’s quite unforgivable to have spelling mistakes on your press release. Other errors include typographical errors, grammatical errors and — gasp — factual errors.

Granted, spell check is not 100% fool proof. That’s why you ask at least one extra pair of eyes to read the press release before sending it off. It also helps to read your press release out loud.

If you need help with grammar, pick up a copy of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style, or refer to the many grammar resources available on line, for free.

Finally, double, no, triple check your facts and numbers, to make sure they’re accurate.

2. Not Being Newsworthy

Press releases are supposed to help journalists report on news. The following are generally considered “newsworthy”:

• immediate – it happened recently or is happening right now
• new or novel – it hasn’t happened before, or we’d never known about it before
• near – it happened right here
• high impact – it affects a lot of people
• conflict – David vs Goliath, man vs machine, nature vs nurture, and others
• awe-inspiring – it’s an unusual achievement

If your press release does not have these newsy elements, then it will be ignored, no matter how well written it is.

3. Being Overly Promotional

A press release needs to be as informative and objective as possible. Don’t write it as you would the copy for your print ad. Delete anything that sounds hypey or salesy.

4. Writing in the First and Second Person Point-of-View

Press releases should be written in the third-person point of view (POV). Don’t use “you,” “we,” or “I,” unless you’re quoting someone. This is the convention journalists and editors are used to, so stick to it.

5. Forgetting Your Contact Information

Each press release should have your contact person’s name, telephone number, email address, and website URL, at the very least. Omit this, and you might as well never send that press release.

6. Writing a Boring Headline or Title

Journalists receive dozens of pitches and press releases every day. This means yours needs to stand out. Do this by crafting an attention-grabbing and compelling headline. However, stay away from hypey headlines.

7. Not Having a Call to Action

Press release writing isn’t copywriting, but one thing they do have in common is the necessity of a call to action. End your press release by telling the reader what to do next. Examples: Visit the Acme website, download the free report, ask for a product sample for review, email marketing contact at…, and so on and so forth.

Those are just seven of the mistakes I often see in press releases. Next time you write a press release, look at this list first before sending it out. Give yourself enough lead time so you can show the press release to other people to help you catch mistakes, hype, and other undesirables.

Are You Guilty?

Have you made any of these mistakes? Did I miss other press release mistakes that you’d like to share?

Let me know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. Or connect with me on Twitter and Facebook.

photo credit: Alex E. Proimos

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Public relations professionals need to keep our finger on the pulse of the media. But with so many changes happening, and the speed with which information travels, it’s hard to keep up.

Fortunately for us, Vocus, maker of cloud-based marketing and PR software, puts out an annual State of the Media Report. These reports give a summary of big changes that took place in media in the previous year, as well as trends to look out for in the year ahead. The 2012 report is now available for download, for free, here.

Below are some of my take-away insights from the report:

Insight:  Newsrooms are shrinking and journalists are expected to do more than ever

With budget cuts making news staff smaller than ever, journalists who do have work are left with many tasks to complete. They’re also forced to cross over from one medium to another, including digital media.

Action:

Do whatever you can to make the journalist’s job easier. Provide information — but not too much — and make them available in different formats. Create photos, videos, and slideshows and other multimedia materials to support your key messages.

Insight:  Increasing digitalization of traditional media also increases the demand for content

Nowadays, journalists don’t write a story and get done with it. They’re often also expected to update the story as new developments unfold.

Action:

Be a useful and trustworthy resource in your industry and market. Keep abreast of the latest developments, using social media tools, because they are faster than traditional media. Be the one who gives the journalists in your beat the latest news.

Insight:  Journalists are using social networks, particularly Twitter, to get real-time feedback and updates on stories

More and more journalists are becoming social media savvy. They know Twitter and other social networks are the best way to get the fastest news and stories from the ground.

Action:

Be social media savvy yourself. Connect with relevant journalists on Twitter, and monitor their streams. Be ready to respond and offer help when you can.

Insight:  Bloggers are the new journalists and broadcasters

I may make many journalists angry by calling bloggers “journalists.” But the truth is, bloggers reach large audiences, and, more importantly, the audiences of successful bloggers TRUST them.

Action:

Reach out to bloggers who reach your target audience. Read their blogs, find out what types of content their audiences enjoy. Find ways to make it easy for bloggers to create those types of content.

Hit Or Miss?

Do you agree with these insights and action points? What do you think is on the horizon for media, and how will those changes affect the way we do PR?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know by posting a comment below. You can also reach me via Twitter or Facebook.

PS: There’s more to learn from the Vocus State of the Media Report, including two electronic gadgets you should invest in (Hint: You may already have them, but how well are you using them for PR? See page 15 of the report). Sign up for your access to this free report here.

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One of the best ways to keep abreast of any expertise is to populate your RSS reader with feeds from high-quality blogs.

Below, I share the 10 blogs I think would be most helpful to PR professionals or business owners who do their own PR.

I culled this list from AdAge Digital’s Power 150 blogs, a ranking of the top English-language marketing blogs. Each blog is scored depending on quality of content, as well as how frequently the posts are shared in various social networks.

Let’s get started!

Social Media Examiner

Because PR work must now be part of your overall social media strategy, learn how to use social media from the top blog on the topic: Social Media Examiner. SME covers the full spectrum of social media tools and resources. Their posts are practical and immediately actionable.

Copyblogger

Copyblogger is all about delivering quality online content — a critical element of all PR and content marketing. Each post is a model of how to create content for the web. No wonder it’s hugely popular.

Brian Solis

Brian Solis is an author and thought leader in new media. If you want to be ahead of others in understanding how new and emerging media will change the way we do things, then read his blog regularly.

Marketing Pilgrim

What began as a blog on search marketing now covers everything about Internet marketing and online advertising. The posts are short, evidence-based, and compelling.

Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

If you want to learn more about tracking and analyzing your web metrics, then better go straight to the source. Avinash is the author of two books, Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics: An Hour a Day. Posts include detailed tutorials with screenshots. Best of all, you can ask him questions if there’s something you don’t understand.

HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog

HubSpot, the company that offers marketing automation software, also puts out tons of high-quality content on all areas of inbound marketing: SEO, blogging, social media, lead generation, and analytics. Don’t just read this blog. Watch and learn from everything HubSpot does.

PRNewser

This is the highest-ranking PR blog in AdAge’s Power 150. It covers PR news, events, research, pop culture, and even jobs. A fun blog to read.

PR Squared

Another PR blog that ranks high in the Power 150 list, this blog covers not just PR, but also social media and marketing.

Dan Zarrella

If you want to base your PR and online marketing on hard numbers, then Dan Zarella is the guy for you. He actually counts and analyzes clicks, tweets, and other actions related to social media. Want to know the best time to blog? How to get more people to click on your tweets? Read this blog.

Spin Sucks

Written by PR and marketing consultants, this blog is all about communication, social media, advertising, entrepreneurship, search engine optimization, and marketing. The posts are light reading and sometimes brutally honest. It’s good to know someone’s willing to tell it like it is.

If you want to see the complete list of AdAge’s Power 150, you can do so here.

Which blogs do you regularly follow? Which ones do you think should be included in this list, even if they didn’t make the Power 150?

Share links below! Or let me know via Twitter or Facebook.

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Social media has become the new arena for PR. And the characteristics of social media, which continue to evolve as users shape it, are changing the way we are doing PR. Expect the PR landscape to shift and change quickly. If you don’t keep up, you’ll get lost.

Social media is changing the way we connect with journalists, as well as our prospects and customers. It’s placing new demands on companies and PR professionals — demands that require new skills and expertise. In some ways, PR is getting easier because of social media. But in other ways, it’s also becoming unfamiliar, strange, and even scary.

In this post, I’d like to point you towards several key ways our PR work will change this year, as we harness social media for PR.

5 PR Shifts To Make In 2012

1. Learn how to pitch on Twitter and other social networks

Traditionally, we used and relied on the media pitch to capture a journalist’s attention. Our pitches came in the form of an email, fax or phone call script.

The media pitch as we know it may be approaching its demise. In its place, you need to learn how to pitch to journalists and editor on Twitter and other social networks. Can you pitch a story in under 140 characters?

You can bet this changes the way we approach journalists, develop and nurture relationships with them, and pitch to them. Social media make it easy to connect with media, but it also makes it easy to turn them off. We’ll have more on tips about this in future posts.

2. Leverage Google+

When Google launched it social networking platform, many business owners and marketers whined, “No, not ANOTHER social network!”

But we can not ignore Google+. It now has 62 million users and is predicted to have over 400 million users by end of 2012!

Aside from the huge audience you can reach on Google+, it’s important to remember that Google is still the largest search engine, and it’s definitely flexing this muscle to make Google+ THE place to be. with “Search plus Your World,” Google search results can now generate personalized results for you, if you’re a Google+ member. These personalized results are sourced from Google+ content (posts, photos, etc) shared with you, to the exclusion of content from Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.

Late last year, Google+ allowed companies to create their business profiles. If you haven’t created one yet for your business, it’s probably time you did.

3. Use the right metrics to show PR’s effect on prospect generation, conversion, and revenue

Social media can help us measure the impact of our PR efforts, so we now have no reason to get stuck with measuring outputs. The better we can tie our PR efforts to our company’s bottom line, the better buy-in we can get from the C-suite. Read this recent post on PR metrics for some useful tips.

4. Become a publisher

Social media allows us to bypass traditional media outlets and reach out to our target market directly. Your company’s blog and everything else you post on your social network accounts are all content you control. Think less about putting out content that pitches your products and services, and more about what kind of content your target market is actively searching for, will use, and will share.

5. Be willing to lose control of PR and branding

You can no longer control what gets said about your company, products, and employees. In fact, think of everyone, from your rank employees to your CEO, as a spokesperson. Your prospects want to know the people behind the product, so let your people be themselves online. Some tech companies let their engineers blog, with great results in terms of increased web traffic, engagement with prospects, lead generation, and thought leadership.

And don’t forget your customers. They will tweet or post a Facebook photo about your product, and there’s nothing you can do about it — except listen and be responsive (not defensive).

This means you must get comfortable about relinquishing some control to others, while still keeping your pulse on what’s being said about you. Having a social media policy in place will help ease the transition into more democratic content creation.

Are You Ready for Social Media PR in 2012?

The immediacy, interactivity, and viral features of social media are now spilling over into PR. How are you preparing yourself and your company to ride this change and even make the most of it?

What aspects of social media PR are you anxious about? What aspects excite you?

Let me know in the comments below. You can also reach me on Twitter or Facebook — I’d love to know your thoughts.

photo credit: Hamed Saber

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Sleeping allows us to refuel and restore our bodies. Sadly, we often deprive ourselves of needed sleep time, thinking that reducing this time is the only way to achieve more during the 24 hours that we have at our disposal each day.

But what if our sleeping time could help us save time during the workday?  Would we then permit ourselves to enjoy a full night’s sleep?

Time management expert Kathryn McKinnon has provided us with a strategy to make sleep work for us during the workday in her best-selling book entitled Triple Your Time Today:  10 Proven Time Management Strategies to Help you Create and Save More Time!

Kathryn introduced me to the possibilities that lie within this concept in her answer to a question that I posed to her on LinkedIn.  She said the following:

We have, on average, 20,000 thoughts each day. Unfortunately, about 80% of those thoughts are negative. That means you spend a lot of time thinking unproductively. It’s your negative thinking that gets in the way of accomplishing what you want to do because these thoughts create doubt and fear, which then create hesitation and inaction. That means it takes you longer to accomplish your goals–in short, it takes more time.

If you . . . let your mind go to work for you, your mind will spend that time, while you’re sleeping, finding a way to deliver a solution to your problem.

Triple Your Time Today gives step by step instructions on how to utilize this powerful strategy. A combination of focusing on the positive things that have happened during the day just before “lights out,” suspending judgment on the ideas that surface upon waking, and journaling are the keys to success – they tap into the well of creativity that each of us possesses. I have already begun to implement it with positive results, and have also noticed that I’m sleeping better at night.

What would it mean for you to get more rest at night and enjoy greater productivity during the day? Read Triple Your Time Today and find out! You’ll get great value from Kathryn’s sleep strategy and from the other nine time management strategies presented in the book as well.

Kathryn will be my guest on a free teleseminar on February 9 to discuss this concept more fully.  To join us, visit GettingOverOverwhelm.com and enter your name and e-mail address so that you can receive the call-in details. (Note: I am not an affiliate of Kathryn McKinnon and have no financial stake in Triple Your Time Today.)

About the Author: Monique Y. Wells is the Paris Muse of Time Management™.  She helps women solopreneurs and women who work from home “get over overwhelm” so they can enjoy less stress, more income, greater job satisfaction, and have more time to spend with family and friends outside of work – guilt free!  For information on how you can get help getting rid of overwhelm in your business, visit her website at GettingOveroverwhelm.com.

photo credit: Casey David

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Ever wonder what PR metrics really mean?

Gone are the days when the success of PR is measured only by outputs: number of articles published about our company; number of people who were reached by the publications, TV programs and radio shows we appeared in; etc. The problem with these metrics is, we’re never really sure exactly how many people we’ve reached and, more importantly, what effect such exposure has had on consumer behavior.

Even Advertising Value Equivalency or AVE (the cost of editorial coverage if you were to pay for it as advertising space) is far from an accurate measure of exactly what results our PR efforts bring. The only thing you find out with this metric is, you probably spent way less for that exposure through PR than if you had paid for it in advertising.

Pretty impressive, but the next question is, so what?

The integration of social media with traditional media in PR has made measurement much easier. We can now trace exactly how many people clicked on a particular link and, upon getting to our landing page, how many took the action we wanted — whether it’s signing up for an email list or placing an order.

Yet social media measurements aren’t perfect, either. We still can’t capture “more favorable attitudes” or “increased awareness” towards our product or service, for example. That’s because knowledge, awareness, and attitudes don’t always translate into behaviors we can observe and measure objectively.

Given that there is yet no perfect way to measure the impact and effectiveness of PR, we can’t lose sight of the fact that we can at least make PR measurement more meaningful.

That is, we can measure and track those metrics that help us get to know our prospects and customers better, determine what works and what doesn’t, and have a reliable basis to make future PR, marketing and business decisions.

Our Approach to Measuring PR

In my own experience with clients at Cross Border Communication, the key is first understanding the business outcomes you need to produce. Pick that outcome apart into its underlying components.

This exercise can turn something as intangible as “building awareness” into a concrete objective with observable benchmarks, such as increase in social discussions, improvement of search engine ranking, number of downloads of a white paper, proliferation in the use of our hash tag, etc.

Therefore, metrics are meaningful because they support our PR/marketing and business goals. It becomes clear why we’re measuring something, and what the metrics mean in relation to the results or outcomes (vs outputs) we want to accomplish.

Developing some discipline around measuring the metrics that describe our benchmarks and tracking the data over time can give us powerful insights and market intelligence we can use to improve future campaigns. Company executives can also better understand and appreciate the results PR has generated.

How Do You Measure PR?

What have you been doing to measure the effectiveness and success of you company’s PR? How do you feel about the metrics you currently track?

I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below. You can also send me a message via Twitter, or post a comment on our Facebook page.

photo credit: aussiegall

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