PR – relaciones con los medios y mejores prácticas

Son dos artículos, uno sobre the best way to issue a press release; el otro con tips para prenseros. Quienes consideren muy obvias las respuestas, lean la nota del autor al pie del ultimo artículo… o manden algo mas inteligente!
Fuente: india pr blog

Best media relations practices by PR professionals

 
What is the best way to issue a press release? What time of the day do we issue a press release and on which day of the week? How do PR professionals pitch for a story and what are the most-preferred options? Recently we conducted an online survey ‘Media Relations Best Practices‘ on this blog and it was responded to by around thirty PR professionals and journalists who are readers of this blog. Here are the results:
Q. Issuing a press release – which of the following is the most effective? Please rank according to your preference: (Phone call is taken as given for all)
Rank – Practice – Average score out of 6 (the lesser the score, the more preferred it is)

1. Email and hand delivered – 2.00
2. Hand delivered and fax / Fax and email – 3.23
3. Hand delivered – 3.36
4. Email – 3.42
5. Fax – 4.67

Q. Following up on a press release on the phone -which of the following is the most effective? Please rank according to your preference:
Rank – Practice – Average score out of 3 (the lesser the score, the more preferred it is)

1. Explaining the significance of the announcement in the release – 1.31
2. Providing additional info – 2.25
3. Offering an interview with the spokesperson – 2.33

Q. Pitching a story – Please rank the best methods that work:
Rank – Practice – Average score out of 5 (the lesser the score, the more preferred it is)

1. Email pitch note and talk on phone – 2
2. Call up the journalist directly – 2.21
3. Email pitch note and meet the journalist – 2.71
4. Meet the journalist directly with the pitch note – 3.12
5. Use yahoo/gmail/msn messenger – 4.50

Q. Best time in the day to issue a press release- Please rank the following:
Rank – Timing – Average score out of 5 (the lesser the score, the more preferred it is)

1. 2pm-3pm – 2.07
2. 12pm-1pm – 2.50
3. 3pm-4pm – 2.87
4. 11am-12pm – 3.29
5. 5pm-6pm – 3.93

Q. Best day of the week to issue a press release – Please rank the following:
Rank – Day – Average score out of 7 (the lesser the score, the more preferred it is)

1. Wednesday – 2.62
2. Tuesday – 2.69
3. Monday – 3.14
4. Thursday – 3.41
5. Friday – 4.36
6. Saturday – 5.21
7. Sunday – 6

Q. Press release most likely to get picked up by the media – Please rank the following:
Rank – Subject – Average score out of 10 (the lesser the score, the more preferred it is)

1. Partnerships/tie-ups – 2.50
2. New business / Investment – 3.33
3. Earnings/reports – 3.37
4. Product launch – 4.33
5. Trends – 4.81
6. Awards – 5.50
7. Office & branch openings – 7.00
8. CSR Initiatives – 7.53
9. Others – 9.42

Q. During media interaction of our clients, what behaviors of ours are most appreciated by the media and the client? Please rank the following:
Rank – Practice – Average score out of 5 (the lesser the score, the more preferred it is)

1. Occasionally give our inputs – 1.59
2. Siting quietly/ making notes – 2.59
3. Trying to explain better what the spokesperson says – 2.69
4. Cracking jokes to lighten up the tension in the air – 3.50
5. Others – 4.25

Q. What makes a press release/ press conference/ pitch note work the best? Please rank the following:
Rank – Factor – Average score out of 4 (the lesser the score, the more preferred it is)

1. How important the announcement is – 1.59
2. How famous the company is – 2.25
3. How famous the spokesperon is – 2.75
4. How influential the PR agency is – 3.50

…to be continued.
 
 
15 media relations tips by PR professionals and journalists

 Here is a list of select media relations tips from PR professionals and journalists who participated in the recent online survey ‘Media Relations Best Practices‘ on this blog. Check them out:

1. Stick to the facts, understand what is news and what is not.
2. Journalists are rated on the basis of exclusive stories they generate everyday. If you can give a journalist several exclusives, you would be the star PR person.
3. When journalists doing negative stories want quotes from top client bosses, PR people should be able to help. If you can do this, you will have the journalist eating out of yours and your clients’ hands.
4. Get to know the editor very well, then some amount of any ‘not so important’ news or story can get into the print.
5. Develop credibility amongst the media persons.
6. Media relations should be based on a strategy and not a knee jerk reaction.
7. Expect the unexpected from the media but still try and understand them more.
8. For an event, try to identify the right journalist and provide clear details in their required language. The PR professional should stop calling continuously if they know the event will not be covered by the media.
9. Know your client’s business and the announcement that you are pitching, in detail, before contacting the media.
10. Never sell a story while journalists are approaching their deadlines. Chances are that they may not be interested in talking to you as they need to rush to file their stories.
11. Give the journalist your client list.
12. Take appointments before meeting journalists.
13. Just try to step into the shoes of the journalist before initiating anything.
14. Friendship and sharing good stories from time to time is the best combination.
15. Give space to journalists…feed them precise and newsworthy information. Be prepared with an option always.

This post is the concluding part of the results of the Media Relations Best Practices survey. While many of the results and tips might seem obvious to a seasoned PR pro, I have put them up nevertheless so that perhaps a newcomer in the industry might benefit from it. A big thanks from my side to all those who have participated. Sharing our knowledge among ourselves is one great way, I think, through which we can take forward the best practices of the profession.

La fórmula de la innovación

Hola.
En la Infobrand de diciembre leí un artículo sobre Tom Kelley… lo googleé y esto fue lo que encontré. Copio dos notas que levanté (la primera en inglés, la siguiente en español)
 
Resalto estas frases:
– «Innovation begins with an Eye (que suena como la letra i) es decir mirando y observando», no es una luz pero está relacionado con lo que ya leímos de Seth Godin sobre el «Zooming».
– It’s easy to dismiss something that we don’t really understand, and because it is so easy, we do it routinely.  Innovation, for example, is arguably the best approach we have for managing the risk of today’s uncertain business environment.  It is a powerful way of looking at work, and yet we have done it a great disservice.
We continue to confuse the idea of creativity (or more appropriately, invention) with innovation.  While one is about developing great ideas, the other is about translating those ideas into action, so we can create value for customers and the organization.  They are not the same thing, but we think they are, leaving us free to wrongly dismiss innovation as too soft and not essential to day-to-day operations».
 
 

1- PRIMER ARTÍCULO
 
The Innovation Equation: An Interview with Tom Kelley
Source: Executive Update
Feature
Published: December 2001

Innovation takes the concept of «new» a step further by adding «value» to the success formula, believes Tom Kelley, one of the major creative forces behind the success of IDEO design firm and author of The Art of Innovation. The best news? According to this Executive Update interview, any organization can become innovative — if it develops the right culture and leadership.

 

 

It’s easy to dismiss something that we don’t really understand, and because it is so easy, we do it routinely.  Innovation, for example, is arguably the best approach we have for managing the risk of today’s uncertain business environment.  It is a powerful way of looking at work, and yet we have done it a great disservice.

We continue to confuse the idea of creativity (or more appropriately, invention) with innovation.  While one is about developing great ideas, the other is about translating those ideas into action, so we can create value for customers and the organization.  They are not the same thing, but we think they are, leaving us free to wrongly dismiss innovation as too soft and not essential to day-to-day operations.

Given our shared confusion, it is hardly surprising that association professionals pay little or no attention to innovation.  In an effort to bring new clarity to innovation’s opportunities and challenges, Executive Update turned to Tom Kelley, author of The Art of Innovation and general manager of the world-famous IDEO design firm. For more than 20 years, IDEO has guided hundreds of clients through a strategic innovation process that has led to the creation of thousands of new products and services.  Kelley was a speaker at last month’s Center for Association Leadership Center Experience Conference, where he delivered his straightforward message:  innovation does matter, especially today, and those who choose to ignore it assume even greater risks.

 

EXECUTIVE UPDATE:  What is the art of innovation, based on your experience?

KELLEY: The key element of the art of innovation is treating life as an experiment — living with the idea that you need to continuously try things as opposed to just sticking to the knitting.

 

In talking about this, we often put the words «creativity» and «innovation» together, sometimes using them interchangeably.  How do you view the difference between creativity and innovation?

I actually tend to shy away from the word «creativity.»  You will see it on the cover of the book, but I would not have put it there.  The publisher gets to write all of the cover text.  I tend to use the word «innovation» a lot more than the word «creativity,» and the reason is that creativity seems like an inherent trait.  It is very easy for people, especially businesspeople, to say, «You know, I am not really very creative.  I don’t do that kind of thing,» and for them to just close the door on the topic.

But «innovation» sounds like something that can be learned — something that can be acquired — so I find it is a less frightening word, especially for businesspeople, and they are more open to embracing it.

 

Another challenge around this is that people attach the adjective «innovative» to a lot of things, and it often becomes simply a buzzword with no meaning.

People are starting to use the word «innovative» when they previously would have used the word «new.»  I think the distinction we should make is that anything that you do that is different is «new,» but innovative is new in a way that adds value.   I think it is a fair question to ask, «Is this truly innovation?   Does this add value?  Or is this just some new feature that is built on because somebody thought they could do it?»

 

IDEO had an interesting experience with «Nightline» that you talk about in the book.  Can you describe what that was about?

Sure.  The crew from ABC News came in and said, «We want to see innovation happen.»  So on Monday at 9 a.m. they gave us a topic — grocery shopping carts — and we had until Friday at 9 a.m. to recreate this product category to demonstrate innovation.

We went through all the steps we normally go through; we just did them incredibly quickly.  We went through the «understand» and «observe» phases in just one day.  We watched people shopping.  We met a guy who fixes shopping carts for a living.  I actually went to a shopping cart buyer to figure out what he looks for.

Then we went into the «visualize» phase the morning of the second day.  We start prototyping things, and some of the carts are really stupid.  They are all really ugly because they’re all done in one day.  We’re talking about foam, cord, and wire — the cheapest, quickest materials we could get.  The next step was to evaluate and refine.

We looked at what we had, which was a pretty broad range of prototypes.  We asked, «What here is of any value to people?»  Then we narrowed it down to the stuff we think people are interested in. There are safety issues.  There is the shopping process to consider.  And then we narrow it down to refine the final product.  That happened basically Thursday night from about 5 p.m. until about 8 a.m. Friday morning, while the paint was still drying.

Then we showed it to the ABC News people.  The highest-risk portion of the whole show was when they wheeled the thing down the street to a grocery store and showed it to real humans—shoppers and store managers—and said, «Hey, what do you think?» We were pretty vulnerable at that moment, and then they said nice things.

 

As an organization composed of pathological innovators, what new things did you learn about innovation as a result of this intensive experience?

Well, two things.  We learned that it is possible to do something like this in that kind of time frame, so we have offered that service much more to clients because we have greater confidence, having done it once, in our ability to do it.  Now, when you are done, you don’t have a product that is ready to ship, obviously, but you do have a blast of new ideas, and clients really tend to like that.  That was one of the things.

Second, it prompted us to expand our IDEO University service.  More and more people came to us and said, «Look, I don’t have a product or a service I want you to work on.  I just want some of your distilled culture.»  IDEO University is a one- to three-day event that gives clients the essence of our approach in that very short period of time.

 

You have talked about thinking about «innovation» more as a verb than as a noun.  As a practical matter, what does that mean for someone inside an organization who is trying to really move an organization forward?

The smartest person in the world sitting at a desk cannot figure out what new service they could be offering because they are the providers of the service.  They are not the consumers of the service.  You need to get out and ask people questions.  There is not that much magic in the innovation process.  It is the willingness to take some personal risk, to try some things you haven’t tried before.

One of the classic cases I use in the book is Charles Schwab.  He had this one big innovation at the beginning, which was discount brokerage.  His subsequent innovations looked kind of stupid.  Each of them failed in its own way, but in the process, he did a few things that were great.  For example, he got everybody in the organization to say, «Hey, we are going to try some stuff. Hey, guess what? That one didn’t work. We are going to try something else.»  He created a culture of innovation.

There also was some luck involved in this.  Schwab brought in software people who made those failed products who just happened to be really agile at doing the online stuff when that became available.  He positioned himself, having first been the innovator in the discount brokerage, to be the innovator in online trading. I believe he would never have been the leader in online trading had he not been practicing with all of those failures along the way.  He succeeded because of his willingness to go forward when he was not having great success.

There is a Winston Churchill quote about that: «Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.»  That is certainly true of the Charles Schwab story.

You folks at IDEO are very successful at innovation because this is really what you are all about.  How much of successful innovation is about technique and how much of it depends on organizational culture?

It certainly is in large part culture — so then the question becomes, «How much can you shift the culture?» Technique alone will not do it.

I think one of the real tests is what the CEO says right after a failure, because all the window dressing in the world won’t fix it if every time somebody makes a misstep they get called on the carpet or fired or whatever.  It says to employees, «Never mind what I said about risk-taking. You still get canned if you make a mistake.»

That is one of those critical moments where you have to figure out what is important to the culture in the long run. What you want is a culture in which you reward big successes and big failures, and you only punish inaction.  I recommend that people find a way to start small and pick a group to change, and then let that group act as kind of a virus to infect the rest of the organization.  That is one of the best ways to make cultural changes.

 

Everyone is talking today about how knowledge is the new major factor in achieving productivity. How does the flow of knowledge fit with the innovation process inside an organization?  How do you see those two things connecting?

It is the synthesis of knowledge in the organization that in many cases allows you to innovate.  In our client work, we do a bunch of interviews and observations.  Then we let that all rest in our head and try to find a way to make some spark come out of that.

Organizations should allow serendipity to happen, because I believe that all of the magic is at the intersection of disciplines now.  You cannot win the game just by having better engineers or better marketers than the people down the street.  You can’t win. Someone is always going to come along who is better.  The magic is at the intersection between anthropology and engineering and marketing or whatever, where you cluster things in a different way, and you say, «Hey, here is something people need that they didn’t know they needed.»

 

 

2- SEGUNDO ARTICULO

 
Tom Kelley, CEO de IDEO
“La innovación tiene mucho que ver con la pasión”

 

El creador del Mouse se presentó en ExpoManagement 2007 y explicó a los ejecutivos presentes los principios básicos de la innovación.
Kelley hizo hincapié en la importancia de innovar para poder crecer en los mercados y así superar a los competidores que se “queden esperando” sin hacer nada por progresar. Aunque que afirmó que no todos pueden ser creativos: “La innovación tiene mucho que ver con la pasión”, afirmó. “Muchos sufren el efecto de ‘la Reina Roja’, como en el cuento de ‘Alicia y la Reina Roja’, en donde las protagonistas corrían pero sin avanzar. Por eso yo les digo que no es suficiente avanzar sino que hay que hacer un doble esfuerzo al hacerlo”, agregó.

Acto seguido, enumeró los tres principios básicos de la innovación:

1.- Factores humanos. Si queremos innovar, la forma de hacerlo es conociendo la psicología de nuestros clientes y la de nuestros competidores. Siempre hay que abordar problemas nuevos. Para esto, hay que contar con los empleados que sean capaces de percibir cuáles son las necesidades de nuestros clientes. Al final, el consumidor nos los va a agradecer.

2.- Prototipos. Hay que utilizar el sistema de ensayo y error. Esto es avanzar al éxito a través de fallas. No importa el tiempo que nos lleve intentar: Tenemos que tomar riesgos. No traten de garantizar el éxito a la primera vez. Hagan sus experimentos lo menos costosos posible y rápido en el tiempo para probar y probar. Los prototipos deben ser de bajo precio, así vamos a poder hacer varios hasta lograr el que alcance las necesidades de nuestros clientes.

3.- Diseñar buenas experiencias para los clientes. Tenemos que centrarnos en las experiencias de los consumidores con nuestros productos, ya que ellos son los que van a hacer que la marca sea exitosa o no. Diseñen mejores experiencias para los clientes. Hagan cosas que sirvan para su bienestar pero al mismo tiempo que su experiencia sea placentera y grata.

HSM Argentina, 2007

 

 

Fotografía de reconstrucción

Copio link a la web de Melanie Pullen, una fotógrafa que reconstruye imágenes de escenas de crímenes como fotografía de moda. Para su trabajo se basó en una investigación en el departamento de policía de Los Ángeles y en la base de datos de un juez de instruccion de esa misma ciudad.  
http://melaniepullen.com/
 
Y como siempre es bueno ver si alguien más hizo o hace algo relacionado. Les paso tambíen link a los trabajos de Izima Kaoru (creo que bastante mejor que Pullen). 

http://www.galerieandreasbinder.de/galerien_muenchen/izimakaorugal.htm

A continuación, extractos de diferentes notas sobre el trabajo de Kaoru.

Desde 1993 que Izima Kaoru crea escenas de sofisticada violencia.”Landscapes with a Corpse” o “Paisajes con un cadáver” es el título de este proyecto, para el que hizo a actrices y modelos famosas revelar su fantasía acerca de una muerte ideal. La primera pregunta: ¿Con ropa de qué diseñador te gustaría estar vestida si murieras? Las fotos, planos generales y primeros planos, muestran las escenas de los crímenes (o de las muertes naturales), no como algo fatal e irreversible, sino como una especie de ceremonia muy elegante e hiper estetizada.
Kaoru’s images have always had a film-like structure: long shots with bodies that seem to melt into the setting alternate with others that show close-ups of the wide-open eyes of the victims. Yet there is never a real story, only clues, suspicions, allusions: the unlocking of a tale whose mystery will never be revealed. Even the glassy eyes of the models no longer look onto anything or anybody. Perhaps they symbolically look death in the face and continue to live within that explosive moment, with the absolute risk that signifies the extreme contact with ‘diversity’.
 
 
 

La famosa listita de propósitos

Por: Marina Kempny

Se va diciembre y llegan las tarjetas de navidad y año nuevo, el «felices fiestas y una muy feliz navidad» en las firmas de los mails, la fiesta de fin de año, las comidas de fin de año con los del área (la tuya, la vecina porque hay buena onda, la del piso de abajo porque no sabés por qué y te lo preguntás una vez sentado frente al morocho con gel que no tenías idea que existía), el after office con tus amigos del laburo, las cervezas con tus ex compañeros de tu empresa anterior, otras cervezas con tus otros ex compañeros,el amigo invisible de navidad…
 
Y en el medio, charla va comida viene… se termina la cerveza del vaso y uno reflexiona sobre el año que pasó, pensar en el nuevo, armar un plan de vida, empezar un proyecto, tener un hijo, plantar un árbol…
 
Three New Year’s Resolutions for Brands

The Goals Are Simple: Eat Right, Exercise and Spend More Time With Family

By Denise Lee Yohn
Advertising Age
Published: December 20, 2007

Whether spurred by human nature or love of ritual, it’s a time-honored tradition to set some goals for the New Year.
Perhaps companies should adopt the practice as well. The New Year brings a reason to look at your business afresh and commit to making some changes. Brands deserve particular reconsideration.

So in the spirit of new beginnings I suggest the following New Year’s resolutions for brands. In fact, the concepts behind the most common resolutions made by people — spend more time with friends and family, eat right, exercise more — apply to brands as well: 

1. Spend More Time With Friends and Family (Prioritize Brand Relationships)

People prioritize relationships, particularly intimate ones. That’s because relationships are stronger, more meaningful and more satisfying when people really know each other.

In the same way, a brand’s relationships are its priority. Its most important relationships are with its customers.

Customer intimacy is not new; the way it should be achieved, however, warrants reconsideration. New technologies have given rise to new ways companies can engage with their customers — but most of these approaches miss the point. By soliciting ads from «users» or deploying Second Life characters, marketers are simply engaging customers in the communication of the brand, but not with the brand itself. This is akin to pursuing a deeper relationship with a friend by resolving to talk about her more.

Instead, companies should pursue customer intimacy by combining detailed customer knowledge with operational flexibility so that they can respond quickly to almost any need, from customizing a product to fulfilling special requests. Database algorithms and customer analytics aren’t as sexy as YouTube campaigns, but they yield fertile insights about how to influence purchase consideration. Championing operational changes that make it easier to serve unique customers’ needs engenders their loyalty.

So in 2008 let’s resolve to pursue true intimate brand relationships, not simply intimate communication. 

2. Eat Right (Focus on Internal Integration and Alignment)

Whether to atone for holiday bingeing, lose extra pounds or ward off disease, eating right is often at the top of New Year’s resolution lists. People vow to be more conscientious about what they put into their bodies. Likewise companies would do well to turn their attention inward when it comes to brands.

In most cases internal stakeholders — managers, employees, channel partners — affect brand perceptions far more than do external efforts, such as advertising or promotions. That’s why internal brand integration and alignment should be a goal for the coming year. Let’s ensure that a clear, consistent, common understanding of the brand is shared among all internal stakeholders.

At the highest levels of the organization, the brand should align and inform the executive team’s decision-making. That senior management understands and supports the brand values, attributes and competitive positioning is usually assumed — incorrectly. To counteract the resulting silo mentalities, senior leaders should engage in focused brand work sessions in which managers set and commit to strategic decision-making criteria and operational agendas for delivering the brand.

Front-line employees should be informed, inspired and equipped to interpret and reinforce the brand appropriately. New media can transform the way companies engage their employees. Interactive video «games» can be used to simulate real-life scenarios. Internal social-networking sites would allow employees to post blogs, videos and other content to convey brand ideas and examples. Let’s direct the innovation and fresh thinking currently applied to external marketing communications to internal efforts.

Nourishing your brand through internal integration and alignment will make it leaner and stronger. 

3. Exercise More (Execute Your Brand)

As January gym memberships and ab-blaster sales attest, come the first of the year many people start an exercise program, resolving to get off the couch and get in shape.

Improving brand impact requires a similar bias for action. Companies seeking to maximize their brands often turn first to the usual suspects — name, logo or advertising. But these serve only to express the brand, and brands produce the most results through brand execution. It’s like the difference between saying you have a personal trainer (which sounds really cool) and sweating through an hour of near torture with one (which actually produces results).

Strategic brand execution — whether it involves entering a new market, developing a new line of business or implementing new service policies — is hard, resource-intensive work. It begins with identifying brand opportunities through brand diagnostics, competitive audits and market research.

Implementing tools that facilitate brand delivery is the ultimate brand-execution regimen. Tools such as brand guides, partner tool kits and decision trees simplify and support the daily decision-making of bringing a brand to life.

Brands are like muscles: The more you use them, the stronger they become. Exercise is a great New Year’s resolution for both.

No list of New Year’s resolutions would be complete without the resolution to make them stick. While the record of annual commitments we make to ourselves may be less than stellar, I’m hoping we might have greater resolve when it comes to brands.

We can afford to go easy on ourselves because we’re pretty sure we’ll have another chance next year. With brands, the future is less certain. 

 Denise Lee Yohn is an independent brand consultant. Clients include Sony, Jack in the Box and VF Corp.
 
 

Sobre otakus y ser entusiasta

 Por: Marina Kempny

 

Creo que nunca les hable del otaku; pensaba que sí pero lo googlee en Australinos y no lo encuentro… así que en caso de ir repetido, nunca viene mal un poco de otaku para nuestros lunes… y para nuestras rutinas laborales.
Primero copio algunas definiciones de OTAKU (Seth Godin), y después va el artículo by el mismo Godin sobre ser un entusiasta.
 
1- QUÉ ES OTAKU
 
Para Seth Godin, Otaku is a Japanese word that defines something that falls between an obsession and a hobby. According to Seth, “Otaku describes something that’s more than a hobby but a little less than an obsession”.
People with otaku are your passionate early adopters. Why do sneezers HAVE to tell people about exciting offerings? Because they have an otaku for them. Sneezers are consumers with otaku, a Japanese term that Seth Godin uses to explain why some people will drive across town to try a ramen-noodle shop that got great reviews. If they have otaku for your product and they think it’s a great product, they will sneeze it to others.
 

«There’s a Japanese word I’m borrowing here: otaku. An otaku is a person with a special kind of an obsession. There are thousands of people who are hot sauce otaku. There are no mustard otaku. Krispy Kreme is another example. In Wichita, Kansas, a Krispy Kreme opened at 3 in the morning. Television stations broadcast simulcast. When you got there, you didn’t just buy one, you bought two dozen. What do you do with two-dozen Krispy Kreme? You spread them around. You do the advertising for them. The product spreads».

 

 

2- ARTICULO

 

Are you an enthusiast?
Depending on his area of expertise, an enthusiast cares about the answers to the following questions:

«Paddle shift or stick?»
«SACD or DVD-A?»
«Cherrywood or carbon fiber?»
«Pho Bac or Pho Bang?»
«PowerBook or iBook?»
«Hearthstone or parchment paper?»
«Habenero or chipotle?»
«Linen or organic cotton?»

I’m an ethusiast. As you may have guessed, I am every marketer’s dream. I am an enthusiast in not just one, but a bunch of areas. I get magazines with names like The Rosengarten Report and catalogs from Garrett Wade.

Enthusiasts are the ones with otaku. We’re the ones who care about what marketers are up to. The ones who seek out new products and new corporations, the ones who go oops, sorry, another enthusiastic topic jumped in there Anyway, we are the ones that will spread the word about your innovation, tell our friends and colleagues about your new Purple Cow.

It’s not just consumer goods. Enthusiasts read the Harvard Business Review and get excited about a new consulting firm or a new technique. Enthusiasts read the classifieds at the back of Advertising Age to figure out which ad agencies are doing well. Enthusiasts decide who gets elected President of the United States.

Plenty of marketers have decided that they need to be obsessed with these otaku-filled piggybanks. Some of them have even rented, or better yet, collected lists of the most profitable subsets of these populations. And yet, most of them fail.

I think they fail for the very same reason you often fail in getting the enthusiast in your life the perfect Christmas gift.

Enthusiasts don’t want you to hand them a gift certificate. (They’ll figure out how to get the money for the thing they really want). Nor do they want you to give them a gift and say, «the man at the store said you’d like this.» While you may satisfy our short-term craving for more, you also remind us (the enthusiasts) that you’re not on the bus.

Enthusiasts are ENTHUSIASTIC! This means we want to spread the word. It means we want other people to «get it» as well. We want the organizations we buy from to be one of us, to care as much as we do about the experience and the products and the process. We want our friends and fans not just to buy us a stick-shift warmer for the Ferrari, but to research it first, to compare the different warmers, to understand the trade-offs and make the same (obvious) choice that we would.

When you take a chowhound to dinner (that’s what cheap but authentic restaurant enthusiasts call themselves), she wants to know that you care as deeply as she does about the choice not that you picked the closest one listed in Zagats. When you make a product designed for a videophile, he wants to know that you’ve spent as many hours staring at the flat screen as he does.

Visit Steve Deckert’s site at Decware and you’ll have no doubt that he’s one of you (one of us?). It’s different than buying from some invisible technology conglomerate. That’s one reason it’s so easy for little companies like this to do just great with the early adopters with otaku. We buy from him because he’s like us. He’s an enthusiast too.

So, what should you do if you want to sell to an enthusiast? Or buy a Christmas present for an enthusiast? She’s not going to make allowances for low price or great service or kindness. She’s going to be picky. She’s going to be aware of the tradeoffs. And she’s not going to go easy on you. If she did, she wouldn’t be an enthusiast, would she?

What you’ll need to do, I’m afraid, is become one. If it’s important to you to deal with people with otaku, you’ve got to get some. Sad, but true.

SACD or DVD-A?

Fin de año en la oficina

Ask Brad: «How Hard Should I Party at the Office Holiday Shindig?»

By Brad Karsh

Published: December 03, 2007

There are a few things you should know before embarking on the office-holiday-party season: 1. «Open bar» does not mean «all you can physically drink and still stand (or not).» 2. Never slow dance to the song «Shout» with a co-worker half your age. 3. While it may seem cool at the time, come Monday morning no one will be impressed with your ability to defeat the entire mailroom staff in shirtless arm wrestling. 4. Keep the «office» in «office holiday party.»

Yes, that last point is one that many, many people forget come December. Remember those Bacardi ads with the headline «Accountant by Day, Bacardi by Night»? The visual showed the wilder side of a mild-mannered office employee. For some reason, many employees in our field take on a new mantra come fruitcake time: «Account Executive by Day, Low-Grade Moron at the Holiday Party.» Don’t be that person.

Of course, it’s OK to have a few drinks and even let loose during the annual bash. And while the office party is, indeed, a chance to build personal connections with your boss and colleagues, you don’t need to walk up to the CEO and chat about the latest CPM adjustments in the first-quarter scatter market. Just remember the fine line between having fun and being stupid. You do have a reputation to protect.

Here, then, are a few rules to party by:

1. ALCOHOL CAN BE BOTH DELICIOUS AND FUN, BUT IT CAN ALSO BE YOUR MORTAL ENEMY.
It’s OK to imbibe. Depending on your tolerance, it’s even all right to have a few drinks. But beware of going overboard. No one wants to wipe your vomit off the CMO’s new sport coat.

2. WHAT HAPPENS AT THE OFFICE PARTY DOES NOT STAY AT THE OFFICE PARTY.

What may seem perfectly appropriate at the time may end up as a disaster come Monday. You don’t want to be known as the guy who swung from the rafters trying to emulate a chandelier. It’s doubtful the office management will be saying at an HR meeting two months hence, «Hey, let’s promote chandelier boy to account supervisor — he definitely has the maturity and judgment to take us to the next level.»

3. THERE’S THIS THING CALLED SEXUAL HARASSMENT.

I can vividly recall the sordid picture of 50-something married male executives draped over our newest 23-year-old female employees, slow-dancing to a song that was never meant for slow dancing. Those 50-something executives weren’t with the company much longer.

Remember that reputation thing we talked about before? Don’t destroy it, and don’t risk offending other people at the company.

4. DON’T FEEL THE NEED TO PARTAKE IN THE DEBAUCHERY.

You’ve had a drink or two and decided to stop. But your boss and coworkers are still going strong, and you are being branded a puritan. Will you lose credibility by not partaking? Probably not, but if you’re worried, you can always pull the «vodka-tonic» trick and carry a 7-Up in a cocktail glass with a lime and stirrer. (Just don’t overdo it, lest you be mistakenly branded a lush.)

All of this is not to say that holiday parties shouldn’t be a lot of fun. Just stay in control.

www.jb-trainingsolutions.com

Nuevas reglas de PR

Paso un mini e-book sobre las nuevas reglas de PR, ahora en la era post internet.

No sé qué onda el autor, pero me pareció lógico lo que decía y además me enteré sobre los servicios de páginas como www.businesswire.com, www.prweb.com, etc. que no sabía que existían…. nacionales hay??

 

– Leer el libro (en pdf)

– Unas líneas para motivarlos o desmotivarlos a leer el libro de 22 paginas: «Before the web, everybody knew that the only reason you issued a press release was to get the media to write about you».

Atencion de cuentas | guerrilla marketing para consultores

Atención de cuentas aplicado a conseguir clientes, a vender tu servicio profesional, a llevar adelante tu negocio.

Envío un e-book (en verdad es una guía, como adelanto a un libro) sobre guerrilla marketing, pero aplicado al laburo de quienes brindan servicios profesionales. Por eso mismo me pareció interesante. Se trata de guerrilla marketing para consultores (de hecho la web es guerrillaconsulting.com).

 guide_to_guerrilla_marketing_for_consultants

Cold Emailing

Hoy nos tomamos un café con Ken Yarmosh. Tiene un blog de «marketing innovations», según lo autodenomina… no lo conocía la verdad, pero me parecieron buenos sus artículos, y tiene anunciantes grosos (de la talla de at&t, dell, the new york times…).

Creo que el tema de hoy va mucho con la onda de «charla de café» que podes tener con potenciales clientes, con jefes e incluso con amigos… Considero que leer el artículo sirve tanto a los Australinos que tienen agencia propia y necesitan venderse ante un prospect, como a los que quieren vender una idea o proponer un proyecto a sus jefes…

 

Y esto último lo resalto… la importancia de leer e investigar (be learners) y proponer nuevas cosas en la oficina… a mi me llevó bastante lejos la práctica… aunque en la marcha tuve que aprender a escribir los mails de propuestas de manera tal que fueran leídos (podría haber sido un buen seminario en la facultad: cómo escribir o comunicar una idea a tus jefes con éxito)

 

Termino con tanto preámbulo; be learners este viernes con un artículo de Cold E-mailing, el cd de The Best of Ennio Morricone y una tarde de sol es ppplén di da.

 

LO ULTIMO, RESALTO EL PUNTO DOS QUE ME LLAMO LA ATENCION (justo lo que odio de las propuestas que me llegan cada día, chamuyo chamuyo chamuyo). DESPUES ENCONTRE UN COMENTARIO ABAJO SOBRE EL MISMO ITEM.

 

Cold E-mailing, SalesGenius, and Start With A Lead eBook

I reviewed Brian Carroll’s book back in June and as such, turned to him about a question regarding prospecting tools somewhat recently. My question, does «cold e-mailing» work?

Brian pointed me to this thought by Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies (and fellow DTM Contributor):

So does e-mail cold calling work? Yes. If done correctly it can be a highly effective tool in today’s market. Here are some guidelines to follow to do it right:

1. Personalize every message.
Decisions makers must know immediately that the e-mail was written just for them. Mention your research. Highlight a triggering event. Reference a referral.

2. Tie your message to their business needs.
Don’t talk about your company, products, services or solutions. Nada! Not one word about this. Instead, focus on their issues, concerns, problems and challenges.

3. Keep it short and sweet.
You have less than 20 seconds to capture the decision-maker’s attention. After the first couple sentences, they decide if they’ll delete it, forward it or respond.

4. Make it readable from the preview window.
Most people do a quick scan of their messages in the preview window before opening them. If your message is longer than this, make it shorter.

5. Start a conversation.
Your goal is to engage decision makers in an online discussion. In order to do this, they have to give them something they can respond to. Ask a question, invite them to a webinar, see if they’d be interested in an information resource on your website. Focus on creating the dialogue.

Cold e-mailing can be more effective if you have additional tools in place. One that recently caught my eye was SalesGenius. SalesGenius provides a way to track e-mail to see who has and who has not opened it. They include a nifty Outlook plugin too.

If you are looking for ways to generate leads, Brian’s book is full of great tips. He’s also made an eBook freely available for those interested.

 

Comments

Point number 2 is especially important to me. The second I see something being promoted, especially with the word «solutions» (they need to stop using that word) in it, I stop reading.

People aren’t interested in you or what you have, they’re interested in themselves and their problems and issues.

Addressing those, without selling something, is the key, as the point is making.

Posted by: Gary Bourgeault (thealphamarketer.com) | August 25, 2006 at 08:44 PM

Article Marketing

Envío un artículo sobre Article Marketing. Genial eso de que «marketing» siga dando como para pegarle cualquier palabra ¡! Pero independientemente de eso, me pareció muy interesante el tema.

Lo saqué de gente que hace PR en internet (muy bueno dado que acá no vi todavía que alguien tomara ese rubro para dar específicamente servicios de PR digital); sin embargo considero que puede servir para el mundo off line tambien. Lógicamente, para las agencias de prensa/PR/asesoramiento/ETC mas que avisos gráficos o comerciales se entiende que lo mejor es posicionarse como líderes de opinión o referentes en algo puntual. Y el uso de internet de hoy lo está haciendo bastante más facil al tema.

 

El artículo en cuestión está más que nada referido a lograr posicionamiento on line y visitas a tu web site, pero de nuevo digo, podemos tomarlo para todos los demás ámbitos.

 

Va.

 

Sales Lead Generation Tips:

How to Build Your Own Hyper-Responsive Prospect List with Article Marketing

(Dan Janal)

Article marketing is the best sales lead generation technique on the Web today.

Unfortunately, many marketers writing articles on the Web fall short in their sales lead generation efforts. They simply can’t get people to visit their websites. This is a critical fallacy that will render your article marketing campaign worthless. You must get people to visit your website and join your mailing list. If you don’t, you are wasting your time, money and energy.

Sure, it is great to write articles displaying you as the expert in your field. And, yes, it is nice to post articles that help the world in general. But if your goal is to use article marketing as a sales lead generation technique that builds your email list, you might be falling short if your articles don’t have a call to action that grabs readers by the throat and pulls them to your website.

How do you do this? You must have an irresistible offer so people will come to your website and identify themselves.

Once you capture your prospects’ names and email addresses, you will be able to create a sales-winning relationship. If you don’t do this critical step, you’ll never have another chance to sell to these people. Here are four irresistible products or services to help prospects make the critical decision to visit your website and give you their email addresses:

• Special reports. Don’t confuse this with a newsletter. These are 3-5 page reports on a special topic. It should include your own insights that prove you are the expert.

• Quizzes. People love to take quizzes. Create a quiz that has 10 yes or no answers. Design questions so that people will see their pain. This sets you up as the expert who has products and services that can help them. Here’s a great site that features a quiz. http://kisstheorygoodbye.com/quiz/quiz.php. Take the quiz and then see how Bob Prosen leads you into learning about his book.

• Free 15-minute consulting session. When offering this free service, be careful of tire kickers who want free advice and won’t ever buy. Here are three easy steps to conducting consulting sessions properly. 1. Get the person to clearly state the problem. 2. Show how your background can help the person. However, don’t give away your best thinking at this point. Think of this as a get-to-know-you session, not a high level exchange of ideas. 3. Ask for the order to get them to buy your books or consulting services.

• Offer a free chapter in your book or a free sneak preview to your information products including software, DVDs, CDs and MP3s. People will get hooked and buy your products. This tactic will overcome your prospects’ fears of the unknown. People can get a good feel for your products. The most important part of writing articles is getting people to visit web site. If you offer these tactics, you will build your list and get more names for your sales funnel.

About the Author: Nationally recognized online publicity expert and Founder of PR LEADS, Dan Janal can help build your list in 6 months. For more free tips and information that will help you snag more leads than you ever thought possible, go to: http://www.articlemarketingexperts.com/articlenewsletter