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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Merriam-Webster defines “reputation” as:

“overall quality or character as seen or judged by people in general”

Nowadays that reputation is increasingly informed by what people see online. Use of the yellow pages is going down. Google is way up. People ask for opinions on Twitter before they would pick up the phone to get their best friend’s opinion.

So while you used to invest resources to make sure your business cards, stationery and signage reflected your image and good reputation, now you must use turn your attention to your online reputation as well. Little things online speak loud and clear about the quality and character of your business.

Below are 5 little-known factors that affect your online reputation:

1. Company Website

If your company doesn’t have a website, it’s as good as non-existent. But it takes more than slapping on a website to form a good online reputation. Your website must look nice, of course, and be readable and all that. But it also needs to have updated content. The contact information should be clearly visible. Visitors should see the people and faces behind the company. Anonymous websites give off a fly-by-night aura.

And forget the static company website that’s the online version of your brochure. Nowadays, people expect companies to provide useful information. This enhances your reputation as an authority in your field. And makes prospects know you care about them. This is what a blog is good for.

2. Social Networking Profiles

Aside from your website, your social networking profiles also reflect on your online reputation. First off, look at the user name you’ve chosen. If it’s not your company name or your personal name, make sure it’s not something silly or nonsensical. And then there’s the issue of your avatar. In some cases you don’t have a choice but to use your company logo. Otherwise, avoid anything confusing or vulgar.

Lastly, pick your friends. The people you follow on Twitter, your LinkedIn connections, your Facebook friends, and the Facebook pages you follow all reflect on you. Choose them wisely.

3. Social Networking Updates

This may be obvious, but it’s too important to leave out of this list. What you tweet about or post on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+ all affect your reputation. You have to be especially mindful if you’ve synchronized your different social networks together. For example, you may forget that your Twitter tweets are automatically published on your LinkedIn profile. Then you absentmindedly tweet, “Beer starts flowing in an hour!” That would be a huge turn off to your professional network on Twitter.

You may have also linked your Twitter account with your YouTube account. If this is the case, you’ll automatically tweet every time you upload and favorite a YouTube video. Make sure your YouTube activities are relevant to your Twitter followers. Or unlink your accounts.

Be purposeful about your social network presence, and make sure each of your updates are aligned with your goals.

4. Search Engine Ranking

How you rank for your top keywords also affects your online reputation. If you’re not in the top 10 of the search engine results page (SERP), you’re pretty much not in the big leagues.

Another important SERP to look at is the type of web pages that come up when you search for your company name and/or the names of your executives. If one of them is a blog post with the title, “Acme’s Blue Widget Sucks – Don’t Buy!” then that will affect your online reputation.

5. Comments in Blogs and Forums

Online comments made by your company executives and employees on blogs and forums also affect your reputation. I’ve seen people leave snarky comments, or even pick a fight online. This doesn’t look good, even when there’s a good reason for it. These comments never read in a good way. And, remember, these are web properties you have no control over. So you couldn’t go back and delete them afterwards. They may even rank well in SERPs.

This doesn’t mean you should restrict employees from participating in online communities. But do remind them to think twice, three times, or more, before publishing anything when they’re angry or upset.

How’s your online reputation?

Looking at the factors above, how’s your online reputation doing? Are there areas where you can do better? How can yo use social networks to improve your reputation?

Tell me about your Aha’s and action points below. Or connect with me on Twitter or Facebook.

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It’s good to learn from other people’s mistakes — so we don’t end up making them ourselves! In today’s guest post, Rachel Hyun Kim writes about 2012′s worst social media failures, and what we can learn from them. Take notes!

Social media is a constantly evolving process, with no formula set for a perfect campaign. While cheap, far-reaching, and sharable, social media is not without its potential downfalls. Unfortunately, many individuals and companies are learning this the hard way. Take a tip from the following failures, and make sure that your company learns from the mistakes of the following examples:

McDonald’s #McDStories

In mid-January, McDonalds launched a Twitter campaign involved the hashtag #McDStories, asking users to post nostalgic stories on Happy Meals. However, this campaign quickly took a whole different meaning, as users would use the hashtag to share horror experiences and shock tales. From poor work conditions to appalling food quality, McDonald’s campaign turned negative attention back to itself.

The Takeaway:

Social media campaigns always contain a measure of risk, where perception from users cannot be controlled. McDonald’s suffered from this, with the hijacking of their hashtag campaign. While companies, to some degree, can attempt to anticipate reaction from customers, at times it is simply impossible. In general, companies need to prepare contingency plans, and have a strategy for when social media fails.

Woody Harrelson’s AMA

On February 3, 2012, Woody Harrelson hosted a Reddit AMA, where users can ask questions to individuals who have a unique story or occupation. While AMAs are generally used to promote thoughtful dialogue and discussion, Harrelson’s AMA took a different approach. Reddit users quickly got the impression that the movie star was simply using the site for marketing purposes, and lashed out. Immense backlash was fired against Harrelson, his publicists and his upcoming movie, and Harrelson became infamous in Reddit history.

The Takeaway:

The main reason why this campaign failed so spectacularly is because of Harrelson’s failure to understand his audience. Reddit, a social news website, possesses a dedicated audience that is sensitive towards marketing attempts.  With AMA threads, users expect an honest dialogue, providing an open forum between the host and the audience. When using a social media platform, it is vital that you carefully understand the community and how they work.

Chris Brown’s Post-Grammy Tweets

One of the winners of the 2012 Grammys was R&B singer Chris Brown, who won an award for Best R&B album. After the Grammys, Chris Brown celebrated his victory on Twitter, sending out tweets to his followers. But instead of thanking them for their support, he instead focused his updates towards his haters, bashing them with disparaging remarks and F-bombs. Given the singer’s already shaky reputation, these tweets have further solidified the controversy around him.

The Takeaway:

Given the shareable nature of social media, public perception and reputation can change at the drop of a hat. A single tweet can quickly spread to others, whether it is good or bad. By posting such remarks, Chris Brown turns fans against him and have them commenting on his temperamental nature. While Chris Brown has recently stated that the tweets were made by one of his entourage, the negative effects of the online outbursts still remain.

Toyota’s #CamryEffect Campaign

During the Superbowl, Toyota planned a major Twitter campaign meant to promote the Camry. Creating a number of Twitter accounts labeled @CamryEffect1 through @CamryEffect9, Toyota intended to engage users by directly tweeting them. However, this had the opposite effect: users accused Toyota of bombarding and spamming them with unsolicited messages. Though Toyota quickly suspended the accounts, this campaign still resonates as an example of a failed, large-scale endeavor.

The Takeaway:

In Toyota’s case, mass spamming was not the main problem, though it definitely added to their woes. Instead, it was the content itself that caused the uproar. In order to engage users, tweets need to be interesting and intriguing, motivating users to retweet the message. However, the content used in the #CamryEffect campaign gave a self-serving and promotional impression The bland, spammed messages and poor timing became a recipe for disaster for the major automobile company.

What lessons have you learned from these social media fiascos, that you will apply in your own social media and PR efforts? Do you know of any other bombs that we can learn about?

Share them here.

Rachel Hyun Kim is a writer for Resource Nation, an online resource that gives advice such as B2B lead generation to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Rachel has written on a variety of topics, ranging from VoIP phone systems to background checks.

photo credit: Shaylor

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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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In today’s guest post, Juliette Schmerler lists seven commonly missed opportunities for exposure, both online and offline. Does this list inspire you to try a new marketing platform?

There are undoubtedly a number of marketing methods that your business is NOT using at the moment to improve your visibility with potential customers. Unfortunately, too many businesses feel that if they have a website, they have done enough to make themselves visible. The truth is, today’s businesses need to make use of many methods in order to make it easy for their customers to connect with them.

Here are just a few methods which are commonly overlooked, but can bring a lot more exposure to your company:

Email Newsletters
Email newsletters allow you to regularly communicate with your customers. Newsletters can be a great relationship builder as you can inform your customers of everything from product and service changes to industry news or some great tips to benefit them. If you continue to provide them with quality information, you will build trust and remain actively in their thoughts when they are considering a purchase. Writing and sending a regularly published email newsletter is one of the best ways to establish and maintain this contact. Just be sure to give valuable information and avoid being overly “salesy”.

LinkedIn
By creating a profile on LinkedIn, you (as the owner) and/or your business will most certainly increase your visibility. LinkedIn is a popular social networking site, organized in ‘connections’. A LinkedIn profile allows you to showcase your expertise as the company owner, as well as create a company profile outlining your products and/or services. You can begin to connect with other professionals and expand your network substantially. Invite your customers and prospects to connect with you through LinkedIn and be sure to participate in the ongoing conversations taking place in various groups.

Vehicle Decals
Branding your business by creating a uniform feel across your website, business cards, and sales material is a great start and where most businesses end when it comes to branding. However, putting a decal or sign on your vehicle is another great way to increase visibility and get noticed. This is one of the quintessential guerilla marketing methods, and is incredibly under-used. As an owner of a business, you need to be marketing constantly and always looking for new ways to capture new prospects. What is more captivating than a well-designed decal or sign on your vehicle, clearly identifying your brand? You are driving all over to meetings and errands anyway. You may as well get some marketing use out of it.

Facebook Business Page
With the surge in popularity of social network sites such as Facebook, there is no longer any excuse for not having a business page. Facebook users are one of the largest and most active social groups on the web today. Most users will access their accounts numerous times throughout the day to view their news feed. Creating a Facebook Business Page gives you one more place to inform both current and potential customers about your products and services. With the very viral SHARE option on Facebook, users can easily help spread your information to their friends quickly, giving any great content the ability to go viral in a very short period of time. Invite people to connect with you, be active, and respond to questions and posts from Fans. You may want to set aside a few minutes each day to add new posts and information and respond throughout the day to customer questions. Doing so will greatly add to your overall reputation and increase visibility tremendously.

Mobile Websites
The sales of smart phones, tablets, and other mobile internet connected devices are growing tremendously. In a few years, it is estimated that there may even be more internet users on mobile devices than on laptops or PCs. As a business owner, you can take advantage of these trends by creating a mobile website or making sure that your current website is mobile friendly. Many sites may look great on a desktop or laptop, but look incredibly bad when accessed from a the smaller screen of a mobile device. In fact, some cannot even be accessed at all. Most consumers are now on the go and their smartphone is their only link to the internet. What happens when a customer is out and about and wants to find a good Italian restaurant or a great shoe store nearby? She is going to pull out her mobile phone and do a search. If you do not have a properly formatted site, you will lose that consumer and the sale will go to your competitor.

Video Marketing
A large portion of current internet traffic is video. After 5 pm, video represents more than 50% of all internet traffic and this trend is not slowing down. People are consuming more and more video content because it is instant and easy. Creating even a simple video for your business can help bring visibility in this market. If you are already creating content for a newsletter or blog, you are half way there. You can easily convert your current content to video, add some background music and distribute the same message to a new, and very active, audience. Not feeling savvy enough to create this type of media yourself? Outsource the project to a marketing firm who is proficient in creating such content and get results without the need for the tech ability.

Google Places
Take advantage of Google’s free “Places” services. By listing your business here, you will be able to be found when your prospective customers search for local results. In fact, Google is becoming more and more ‘local’ oriented, and actually prefers to give folks targeted results. Best of all this listing is totally free! You can sign up quickly with just a few steps and dramatically increase your local visibility.

These are just a few of the ways your businesses can increase its visibility. Higher visibility means more prospects turn into customers, repeat customers and even fans.

Juliette Schmerler is the founder and Creative Director of Sparktank Creative, a boutique design agency that helps businesses reach their ideal clients with powerful branding, print and online tools. Learn more at:  www.sparktankcreative.com

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Lady Gaga is a celebrity phenomenon. She rose to stardom on the wings of social media and has achieved so much in little time compared to her predecessors. Consider this:

• she has over 20 million Twitter followers
• almost 50 million people have liked her Facebook page
• she has won 5 Grammy Awards, among many other music awards
• in 2011, Forbes named her the #1 most powerful celebrity and #7 on its list of most powerful women
• she is estimated to have earned over US$90 million as of August 2011

If that’s not enough, the University of South Carolina has created a course, “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame.”

Clearly, we can learn a thing or two from someone who has accomplished so much. What can Lady Gaga teach us about getting PR in a social media-driven world?

7 PR Tips You Can Learn From Lady Gaga

1. Start with a good product

Lady Gaga is not the greatest singer who ever lived. Her songs are not the best ever composed. But there’s no denying her talent.

She is classically trained in piano, and has played lead roles in school plays throughout childhood. She also writes her own music, designs her clothes, and masterminds her marketing.

PR Lesson:

It’s much harder for PR to succeed if the product is poor to begin with. But start with a good product, a product that customers would actually pay for and there’s no telling where you can go.

2. Stand out from the competition

From her meat dress to explicit videos, Lady Gaga is not afraid to shock and stir controversy. As we’ve said before, controversy is always newsworthy fuel for PR.

PR Lesson:

Don’t be afraid to ruffle feathers if it means being true to your brand.

3. Have a message and speak it boldly

Lady Gaga’s music and fashion choices all say the same message: Be yourself, accept who you are, including your weirdest quirks. This consistent message has resonated with her audience and turned them into wildly loyal “monsters”.

PR Lesson:

Know what you, your brand, and your product stand for, and shout it from the mountaintops.

4. Give up control

Unlike other artists, Lady Gaga allows everyone to post her music all over the Internet without asserting her copyright. As her music earnings show, this wide online piracy hasn’t hurt her earnings at all.

PR Lesson:

Once you create content and unleash it to the world, you often cannot control who uses that content. This is not always a bad thing – by others spreading your content and your message far and wide – you might reach your sweet spot of paying customers, much faster.

5. Make your own news

Perez Hilton, one of the entertainment media who first took notice of Lady Gaga, says she caught his attention through a video she made herself, independently of her record label.

PR Lesson:

Don’t rely on traditional media gatekeepers and producers to publish content about you. The tools are available today for anyone to create their own content. Keep your content platforms — blog, YouTube channel, Facebook page, etc — fresh with new updates and relevant content. Time and time again, I see that it can take just one “tastemaker” or “influencer” to make a brand’s marketing content go viral (which can then translate to sales).

6. Reach new audiences through partnerships

Famous as she is, Lady Gaga willingly shares the limelight with the likes of Tony Bennett, Elton John, Cher, and Beyonce. No doubt these collaborations helped Lady Gaga reach new audiences and make new fans out of them.

PR Lesson:

Reach out to businesses that complement yours, so you can widen your audience reach. While you may be set about who your target customers are, partnerships allow you to tap into audiences you’ve never thought of, who would buy your product or service – if they just knew about you.

7. Persevere

We tend to think of success stories as happening overnight, without realizing all the time and hard work it took for the success to happen. Few know, for example, that Lady Gaga started out playing in small lounges in NYC.

PR Lesson:

Don’t get discouraged if at first you don’t see results from your PR efforts. The seeds you plant now, especially in social media, will bear fruit eventually, and for many years to come. That said, it’s essential to keep track of what does work and keep doing more of it.

What Did I Miss?

These are only some of the PR lessons we can learn from Lady Gaga. I’m sure there are many more.

What other lessons do you think can we learn from Lady Gaga to help us improve our PR? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Or let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

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For over 20 years, we’ve been fortunate to be part of many product and company launches, with many lessons learned.

Earlier this year, we helped our client Glen Canyon Corporation earn over 30 feature articles and 150 news release postings within a span of 60 days, resulting in exceptional lead generation for them. We began pro-active outreach to media and analysts just two weeks prior to the first news release and executed the company’s formal launch at an industry trade show.

While every company is unique, our experience has shown us there are key elements essential to the success of every start-up’s PR launch:

• Establish the company’s core message(s) and positioning.

Who are you, what do you do better than anyone else and for whom?

Every start-up needs to go through this painful but necessary exercise. Many companies believe they are ready to launch without solidifying what their core competencies or value propositions are. Once we developed key messages for Glen Canyon, we took short sound bites from the messaging to create pitches, advertising creative and other marketing materials that will carry the company through any form of communication. If you’re already on the fifth revision of your company’s first news release, key messaging is probably the ingredient you’re missing!

• DRAFT a LIVE launch strategy and plan.

Dynamic and flexible – every start-up’s motto.

Note that ‘draft’ and ‘live’ are key words. At every start-up launch, variables always arise. Dates are the most notorious moving target and so is the actual availability of core offerings. Creating a strategy, goals and objectives, and an aggressive tactical plan puts the entire team marching towards the same result. Our PR team looked at the industry calendar, seeking the best time and place to first announce the company and present itself to the market. We found DistribuTECH 2012 where key media and analyst targets will be in attendance. To create buzz and excitement, we staggered the release of news announcements leading up to the event.  We raised awareness and interest levels even before they hit the event.

• Understand that launching a company has hard costs.

Be wise where you pinch your pennies.

We know that every start-up watches its checkbook like a hawk. You can spend millions of dollars getting your word out but you can also spend as low as $25,000 to $60,000 for a professionally driven 3 to 6 -month launch program. It all depends on what elements you wish to include in your launch.  With our clients, we not only agree on a budget, we also set goals we want to reach and suggest ways to measure the effectiveness of the program at the end.  That way, you’ll really know if your campaign succeeded and that you got what you paid for.

• Know what your competitors are up to.

They’ll actually help you do your job better.

Even if they are not ‘direct’ competitors, there are always competitors that exist on various levels.  Do some online research and see what they are up to!  By researching Glen Canyon’s competitors, it not only helped our positioning, we also gained insight on the key events in their industry, which publications we should be pitching and advertising in and which editors and reporters we should pitch our story to.

When doing your competitive research, think along the lines of reverse engineering.

• If you’re new and no one has heard of you, pro-active PR is a MUST.

Don’t be a wall flower. Ask someone to dance with you.

While we knew having an impactful first news announcement is helpful, we also knew we were coming in from the cold and no one will be waiting for our news. So, we used the ‘newbie factor’ to get our foot into the doors of targeted media and analysts looking for new material, innovative ideas and angles – a story that will shake up the competitive landscape.

It may sound old-fashioned but the time-tested PR tactic of making pre-announcement or briefing pitches via email, followed up by a telephone call is still very effective.  We were prepared with our pitch and supporting material when we made those phone calls – and offered up the company executives for briefings and press presentations. More than two months later, we are still getting requests for briefings from that initial outreach!

• A press release is not a term paper or a product data sheet.

A press release is an appetizer to your company’s yummy main course and dessert menu.

Don’t jam everything in there and drown the core messages. A press release is a hook with a call to action: To get them to want to know more about you. It only takes a few seconds for a reporter or analyst to make the decision whether to pick up what you have to say, so make the most of your headline, subhead and first paragraph.

We were careful not to cross the line of appearing trivial, so we learned the aches and pains of the industry in order to craft a substantial news announcement that grabs immediate attention.

• The buck does not stop after the launch.

You can’t have a baby and just let it raise itself.

Finally, don’t stop your PR program right after a successful launch. If you do, after a few months you will wonder, “Why did they stop writing about us even though we haven’t stopped sending news releases?” If no one is maintaining the relationships, keeping the stream of news and communications alive between your target media/analyst and your company, seeking out opportunities for coverage – you simply fall off the radar.

Sending news releases out on passive mode doesn’t work. To remain at the top of everyone’s radar, you must maintain some kind of constant visibility after the launch and continue your outreach programs, even at the most basic level.

What lessons have you learned from your own PR launches? Care to share some of those lessons with us?

Leave a comment below, or let us know on Twitter or Facebook.

“Cross Border Communications represents a new standard in professional service in connection with the implementation of a PR and marketing program.  Unmatched!  Cross Border implemented a startup full-feature marketing communication, trade show and identity presence in just a few weeks with great success!”

John Heibel, CEO, Glen Canyon Corporation

Liz Estrella-Basilio is PR professional and the managing partner of Elena Verlee at Cross Border Communications. Together with Elena, they work with start-up to multi-million dollar technology companies who want to get their story heard in traditional, digital and social media.

She recently revived her Twitter account and will be out on the prowl to find those who are truly #FollowFriday-worthy on Twitter. Follow her at @lizestrellab.

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Today we have a guest post from Karen Southall Watts, who tells us to be courageous and ask ourselves the toughest questions about our business. Doing so may not be pleasant but, trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

You’re tired or cranky. The office seems overly noisy but not productive. Something seems off, but you aren’t sure what.

It happens to all entrepreneurs—the time comes to look in the mirror and ask some tough questions.

Don’t shy away. Just face yourself and you can move on to greater success.

How are my finances—really?

Sometimes the thrill of running the business overshadows the reality of the balance sheet. As you move through your business every day, the pressure to get things done, or the temptation to do something new and interesting, can distract you from the essential bottom line: Businesses need to make a profit.

When customers aren’t coming in and bills aren’t getting paid it is simply human nature to ignore the situation and hope things will get better. Resist this urge. Being busy is not an excuse to skip the regular and careful review of your accounts. If you aren’t making money it might be time to revisit your business plan and strategies.

Can I take criticism or absorb advice?

One of my personal guilty pleasures is watching “Tabatha Takes Over” on television. Tabatha Coffee, a famous hair stylist and salon owner, evaluates, renovates and resuscitates struggling businesses, while we get to watch. It never ceases to amaze me that so many owners, who have asked for her help, refuse to listen to the expert advice they are getting—for free.

What I find even more amazing are entrepreneurs who pay for expert help from accountants, publicists, consultants and others, who also ignore advice.

Successful entrepreneurs must be fast and flexible. You must be willing to act on solid expert advice as well as the feedback from your clients or customers. If your reaction to constructive criticism is making excuses or getting defensive you are missing out on opportunity.

Should I still be wearing all these hats?

During the start-up phase it’s common for entrepreneurs to do everything from presentations to investors to taking out the garbage. As success begins to kick in the time comes to delegate.

The same happens every time you expand. The same issues around delegation pop up again and again, even for those of us who know better.

Are you tired all the time? Are you spending time doing tasks far outside your true talent “sweet spot”? Have you said, “If I don’t do it myself, it won’t get done”? Be honest. Your focus should be on the core mission of the business. Failing to delegate or micromanaging after you hand off a task will drain your energy.

What’s my next step, and why am I not doing it right now?

I can’t tell you how many coaching conversations begin with the phrase “I know I should…” Entrepreneurs by nature are innovative, creative and dedicated. Often there’s only a moment between the big AH HA for a new product, service or strategy and excited execution.

Then sometimes fear gets in the way. It can happen slowly; you simply don’t do the next step. You have a vague sort of stuck feeling. The business is okay, but in your heart you know it could be much better.  Do whatever you need to get unstuck: join a mastermind group, hire a coach, call a colleague, have a staff retreat. Just do it.

Take a long, hard look in the mirror. Ask the tough questions and take action, and the next time you glance at your reflection you will see a happier and more content and successful business owner.

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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