PR Effectiveness in a Virtual World

18 Jun

Communication definitionJune is Effective Communication Month—as if we could ignore effectively communicating the other eleven months of the year! However, it is an excellent opportunity to get back to the communications basics and discuss how some of the time-tested tools and strategies for PR effectiveness  might be applied to successfully communicate in the virtual world of the Internet.

According to Clifford N. Lazarus, PhD, there are a number of tools used in establishing and maintaining effective communication.

  • Make Sure You Have the Other Person’s Attention. On the Internet, getting a visitor to read, or at least browse, your web page or email message is the objective. Unfortunately as early as 2007, the average person visited over 130 web pages per day, and in 2011 (according to the Nielsen Norman Group), “the average stay on those pages was just 10-20 seconds,” which means visitors are usually reading less than one-quarter of the text on any particular page.
  • Maintain Eye Contact. In the world of the Internet, this means keeping the visitor on your page long enough to make them a potential customer. Once you have crossed that 10-20 second threshold they are more likely to stay longer and explore your site.
  • Be Direct and Honest. Remember you have a small amount of time to capture and hold a visitor’s attention.
  • Good Communication Involves Clear And Concise Messaging. Content and design should complement each other. People are as easily turned off by dissimilar messages. And the sheer volume of options available on the Internet, will make sure visitors move on if they do not feel comfortable on your website.
  • Ask For Feedback and Listen To Ensure The Intended Message Was Received. There needs to be an electronic equivalent to the phrase “are you following me?” Comment opportunities on web pages and visitor/customer feedback options, will provide ways for your company to receive crucial responses and amend or clarify your content and tone.

Is your company having a hard time crafting an effective content strategy? We can help. Contact 2GC today.

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Fixing One Smile at a Time

14 Jun
Back row, L-R: Michelle B., Letti H., Suzanne Z., Allyson W., Lesley F., Mike D., Justin L., Adrienne H., Michael C. ; Front row, L-R: Sandy A., Mohini P., Gabrielle A., Dee Dee C., Lani D., Marlene T.

Back row, L-R: Michelle B., Letti H., Suzanne Z., Allyson W., Lesley F., Mike D., Justin L., Adrienne H., Michael C. ; Front row, L-R: Sandy A., Mohini P., Gabrielle A., Dee Dee C., Lani D., Marlene T.

Last year, I wrote “Get Involved Beyond the “Work” and Reap the Rewards” and shared three great client experiences involving community giving. Being able to help those experiencing a difficult time in life is always rewarding regardless of the scale. This year, I participated in with my client Smile It Forward. It’s a self-funded non-profit organization (created by a small group of like-minded dental professionals for the sole purpose of giving back), assisting local dentists and practices with a day of service, by providing free basic dental care for individuals who seek assistance from charitable organizations.

Smile It Forward logo (Custom) (Mobile)What Smile it Forward provides are all the tools it takes to host a successful event. The team creates an event page and promotional flyers, then posts the details of the event on the Smile it Forward website including date, time, location, forms, follow-up care, etc., so the dental office is not overrun with calls. To date, there have been two successful events for the new charity.

Their first event partnered with the Central Christian Church Food Pantry, which distributes 850 bags of food to help feed more than 2,500 families throughout Southern Nevada monthly. Three dentists and assistants from different practices participated and provided four fillings and 14 extractions totaling more than $5,300.00 in free dental care.

 

Dr. Dee Dee taking a patient to the exam room

A patient heading to the exam room

The second event, four local dentists and assistants connected with HELP of Southern Nevada’s Shannon West Homeless Youth Center. Practitioners performed 29 x-rays, nine tooth extractions, 17 fillings, applied fluoride on 17 patients and sealant on 32 teeth, totaling close to $10,000 for 26 deserving young adults.

A Shannon West Homeless Youth resident receiving dental care

A Shannon West Homeless Youth resident receiving dental care


The center provides services for at-risk youth that are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless. Motivating residents towards reaching self-sufficiency, the youth center provides the training and skills to further their education, employment, social and life skills. Last year, the youth center provided intensive case management, substance abuse counseling, mental health referrals, educational assessments and vocational training to 342 unduplicated youths.

The goal is to encourage the hundreds of dental offices across Southern Nevada to support the community and get involved. I know I’m glad I did.

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Marketing Strategies: Then & Now

9 Jun

Then & NowFor business owners, if you’re not keeping up with technology you’re getting left. The speed in which technology evolves and advances is stunning, and a comparison of marketing strategies then and now proves that point emphatically. MediaBistro offers the following points of illustration (visit their website for a cool graphic including even more ways things have changed):

Computers
Then: desktop with dial-up modem        Now: laptop/tablet/smart phone with Wi-Fi

News Information
Then: reporters                     Now: bloggers
Then: press conferences      Now: Twitter chats
Then: news clips                   Now: news links
Then: evening news             Now: Twitter
Then: TV                                Now: YouTube

Marketing
Then: focus groups              Now: Facebook friends
Then: live demos                  Now: video demos
Then: user feedback            Now: social media chatter
Then: product shots            Now: Pinterest                                          

This information highlights the growing influence of Twitter, in particular, though all areas of social media are growing rapidly. Savvy business owners know how to use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others to reach their customers and create “buzz” for their products and services.

Managing a social presence can be confusing and challenging at times, and TwoGirlsConsulting is ready to assist you. We can help you connect and communicate with clients, plan community outreach events, and offer public relations strategies specific to your business.

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Four Essential Elements of Content Strategies

30 May

Contnet Is King Gold Crown-There is no generic plan for content strategy that you can apply to all projects and clients. Instead, there are general principles and theories you can use to create a meaningful and effective message. The principles may seem basic but following them will guarantee you create information that is useful.

1.  Content Is Appropriate
Select content that is appropriate for your business, your users and in the right context. Content appropriateness takes into account users emotions, cognitive conditions, and their goals. Remember how the message is going to be delivered, which can affect the style, structure and amount of information that you publish. For example, wording is much different for a flyer versus an email. Another example, a user is looking up your company on their phone versus the full website. One good rule to follow is to always allow users the option to see more content if interested.

2.  Good Content Fulfills Goals
No one who writes content sets out to write information that is ineffective, boring or confuses people. Any web search will bring up lots of pages that never get read. In order to avoid this, make sure the content that you’re providing accomplishes something. Typically, content that is specific will produce better information. Evaluate your subject against its purpose and make sure you have an overall goal in mind with what you want to accomplish with your content.

3.  Center Your Content On Your Users
Think about the wording, jargon, and the graphics being used within your writing, and double-check to make sure it fits your users and not your internal team. Mission statements, heavy-laden industry terminology or internal organizational charts aren’t very useful to many users. With so much information available to consumers, your content has to be able to grab the customer’s attention and keep it.

4.  Use the 3 C’s When Writing Your Content
Clear, consistent and concise are three words to keep in mind when strategizing what information you’re going to use. Make sure your writing is clear and free from grammar and spelling errors; and is easy to understand. Consistency comes from keeping the tone and style similar. Concise is one of the most important elements. More is not always better. This goes back to evaluating the intentions of your subject and if there isn’t a purpose for the content, then you probably do not need it.

Creating effective content can be challenging and overwhelming. Contact us for assistance. TwoGirlsConsulting will help you develop, evaluate or edit your content.  

 

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Four Ways to Demonstrate Thought Leadership

28 May

Red Illuminating LightbulbEntrepreneurs can be divided into leaders and followers.  Followers might be sufficiently competent and reliable, but leaders are the ones who command the most attention and respect.  They set trends, make breakthroughs, and consistently demonstrate authority and creativity in a given field.

To promote your business and set yourself apart from the pack, you’ll need to exercise thought leadership, proving to others that you can address the pressing problems in your field, offer a unique and compelling perspective, and yield a profit from your foresight and authority.  These days, many people on the Internet and other media call themselves thought leaders; to distinguish yourself from them, you’ll have to go beyond talking about how you’re a thought leader and actually give proof of it.

What are four ways to demonstrate thought leadership?

1) Engage In a Public Dialogue about the Burning Questions in Your Field

Publish articles, both in trade journals and in magazines geared towards the public, where you make predictions about where your field is headed and the issues that need to be addressed.  Participate in conferences where you present ideas and receive feedback from others.  Write about some of your wilder or bold plans in blog posts to attract interest and a steady following, along with some healthy debate.  Your communications must be rich in substance and crafted in such a way to attract and hold attention.  With time, you’ll build a body of work that proves to others you’re a thought leader in your field.

2) Promote Your Accomplishments

Don’t be modest about your achievements and credentials.  You can promote your accomplishments effectively without coming across as a braggart.  Send out press releases announcing creative or compelling information about your company, such as a new product or service, or a new way of doing business.  Secure interviews with journalists and bloggers who can write a profile on you and help you broadcast your message and your achievements to date.

3) Listen and Learn

A good leader pays attention to other people whether they’re business colleagues, competitors, or customers.  What’s important to them? What are they saying? Read and think about what’s going on in your field, and look beyond it as well; key innovations can arise when people synthesize information from multiple fields.  Don’t automatically dismiss or attempt to silence those who disagree with your views.  You can have your own firm opinions while still maintaining an open-minded attitude. People will respect you for this.

4) Get Endorsements

Your business will receive a significant boost if you get the endorsement of well-known figures in your field.  These are people who already have a strong reputation, have broken new ground, and others look up to them.  If they mentor you, collaborate with you, or otherwise endorse or spotlight your work, your own reputation as a thought leader will strengthen significantly.

Demonstrating thought leadership requires meaningful public engagement, compelling communication, and active networking.  Contact us to discuss effective ways to promote yourself as a thought leader and strengthen your reputation.

 

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What’s My Organizational Culture?

19 May

organizational cultureIf you want your company to be successful, you must have a good understanding of your organizational culture. Culture is the common values, beliefs and most importantly the behaviors within your company. Culture is how your employees interact with one another, what they feel is important at work, or how effective your employees are at getting tasks completed. Generally, there are four categories of culture: networked, mercenary, fragmented, and communal. Different forms of organizational culture are for different environments and different types of companies. Understanding which culture best defines your organization will give insight into if your company is being the most effective it can be. A company’s culture can be buried, hidden and hard to examine but here are the definitions of each type of culture.

 1)      The networked culture values friendships, relationships and helping your coworkers when they need it. In this type of environment, people like and care about each other, they display empathy and are informal with one another. Conversations around the water cooler and break rooms are common and meetings typically start with asking how everyone is doing. Job responsibilities can get a bit blurry in this type of environment because everyone helps everyone, team meetings and decisions are important and no one likes to say no to their friend. Leaders thrive on being liked and appreciated and so often times the downside to a networking culture can be lack of productivity or lack of accountability.

 2)      The Mercenary culture is the opposite of a networked culture. In this type of environment, individuals are focused, determined and highly motivated to complete job tasks. A common driver within this environment is increasing revenue. These organizations expect more than 40-hour weeks, making things happen no matter what, hitting goals and work is about work. Often individuals who thrive within this environment are those who see networking as a way to obtain information, advice, or insight but not as a friendship. A highly positive aspect of this type of environment is the types of goals that are set. For example, the manager might set the goal to increase new memberships by 30 percent by a certain date. Goals are defined, clearly outlined and expectations are set in the beginning.

3)      The Fragmented culture is both low on the networking scale and the mercenary scale. People aren’t typically friends with their co-workers but often don’t have a drive to increase the company’s bottom dollar either. They work at a company but for themselves. In some instances, this type of environment, employees feel like they have freedom, flexibility and fairness. Common beliefs within this type of culture are to make you valuable and judging on the quality of work. Often companies with this type of culture are law firms, reporters, or academics.

 4)      The Communal culture is the culture that is most appealing to most managers but is one of the most challenging cultures to maintain. It’s a networked and a mercenary culture combined. Employees are friends but also want to be driven and successful. In this type of environment, friendships are abundant and so is productivity. Often in start-up companies this type of culture is prevalent because they’re small and they hire their friends who they know will work hard. Employees love working for the company and love their coworkers but they also are passionate about increasing company earnings and making things happen. Communal leaders tend to be inspirational, visionary and have a lot of charisma.

 There are several different characteristics that are used to examine your culture including how the office spaces are set up, how people communicate with one another, how effectively time is used and how people express themselves at work. There are several different tests that we can use to help you identify what culture your company is working within. Once you identify what type of culture your organization is, you get a better understanding of how to market and communicate your product and your services. Contact us today to have a cultural analysis completed.

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When Bad Things Happen to Good Businesses: Reputation Management

12 May

executive media trainingYou have developed your business so it delivers what people want when they want it. Not only have you established your product and services, you have also advertised and promoted your company effectively through traditional media like newspapers, radio, and television, as well the Internet. As a result your business is growing and prospering.

However, the unexpected happens. It can be a natural disaster such as a flash flood or having a defective product slip out the doors to the public. Or perhaps, an irate customer or group of customers threatening to sue your company.  Challenges to the health of your business can take a variety of forms. Nevertheless, you will need to be ready to deal with them.

When bad things happen, the media might be coming to you. They will come at a time that will not be convenient and will ask questions. This will be a time when all the good work you have done in creating and developing your business can be threatened.

It is at those times you need to be ready to deal effectively with both the media and the public. TwoGirlsConsulting can be a crucial asset for you during those times. From effective executive media training, to handling and advising on how best to deal with media and the public, 2GC can help you weather the storm intact. Reputation management during times of crisis is one of the many things we can do for you.

TwoGirlsConsulting is committed to helping you grow your business and make it successful, while helping you avoid the misfortunes a business can face. Contact 2GC for more information on how we can accomplish this for you.

 

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