The Little Book of Big PR

Jennefer Witter

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780814434376
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Relaciones públicas

Whether you're an established company or a cost-conscious start-up, this helpful guide tells you all you need to know to be able to use public relations effectively as a business-building tool.

As an entrepreneur, you need every helpful tool you can get your hands on to build your business. And if you know the tricks of the trade, perhaps nothing can gain more attention for your small business and build your company's credibility than a good, old-fashioned public-relations campaign.

Drawing on the expertise gained during her long career in public relations, Jennefer Witter shares simple, smart, and budget-friendly methods for getting your business noticed, including what she calls the seven key elements of public relations:

• Self-branding
• Media relations
• Social Media
• Networking
• Speaking engagements
• Cause-related marketing
• Selecting a PR agency

Complete with real-world case studies and sample content (such as media pitches) to use as-is or to modify to fit your own specific needs, The Little Book of Big PR will provide you with the expert guidance all entrepreneurs need to grow their business to new, attention-getting heights.

CHAPTER 1

Self-Branding

We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in
business today, our most important job is to be head
marketer for the brand called You. —Tom Peters¹

This chapter has the longest introduction and the fewest number of tips, but read it carefully. This chapter is critical, as it will influence the other chapters in this book: This is why I selected it to be the first one.

Self-branding is an effective tool to communicate who you are, what you do, and how you differ from others. This chapter provides you with the context you need to get the most out of self-branding. I won’t kid you—the self-branding process is a long one with multiple steps. So, while this chapter only has four tips, it’s the one with the greatest amount of work for you to do.

Before we dive in, let’s define self-branding to ensure we are on the same page when discussing this tool. The best definition I have found in my research defines self-branding, or “personal branding” as it is also called, as follows:

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. … The personal-branding concept suggests … that success comes from self-packaging. Personal branding also involves creating an asset by defining an individual’s body, clothing, physical appearance and areas of knowledge in a way leading to a uniquely distinguishable, and ideally memorable, impression.²

Self-branding is relatively new and is generally considered to have been first identified in a Tom Peters Fast Company article written in 1997.³ I used to work in high-tech PR back in the 1990s, and in that field, the CEOs were strongly identified with their company brands. This was a first, as before then, few C-level executives became the identifying faces for their companies. (Anybody remember the name of the head of Procter and Gamble twenty years ago? Exactly.) Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Lou Gerstner, Fred Smith: all are immediately identified with their companies—Apple, Microsoft, IBM, FedEx, respectively. I noticed in the early 2000s there was a change, so to speak, in that more C-suite executives built their own brands while they were still within their companies. This is as important for a budding entrepreneur as it is important for an established business owner who wants a strong public association with his or her company, one that complements and furthers the organization, but does not dilute it. Think Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic.

Self-branding has multiple benefits:

It acts as an identifier as you develop and/or move your business to the next level.

It provides you with a distinct advantage over your competition by highlighting your uniqueness.

It assists in opening doors and building the bottom line.

There are several well-known “self-branders,” as I call them, out there who use different elements to highlight their own brands. When you think of Cher, you think of her clothes; Bethenny Frankel, her acerbic wit; Oprah Winfrey, her passion; and Joe Scarborough, his political views. Cher was profiled on CBS Sunday Morning, where several minutes were devoted solely to her wardrobe selections and how they defined her. Frankel’s verbal quickness made her a standout among the other women on Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise and eventually led to her own nationally syndicated TV talk show. With Winfrey, you just feel her passion for the projects in which she is completely engaged, from OWN to Lee Daniels’ The Butler. And Joe Scarborough’s small-government conservative principles are the foundation of his popular show on MSNBC, Morning Joe.

The following tips will help you to create your own selfbrand and make it work for you.

TIP #1

I call it “umbrella-ing.” If you’re the CEO of your company, you need to create a self-brand that supports your company brand. It can be an element that you own and expand upon. Developing a self-brand that is at odds with your company will cause confusion and lead to mixed messages.

TIP #2

Take the time to finish the self-branding process. It will take a while, but do it, because it’s worth the time to plan and focus on what you want your brand to be and stand for. FYI: This is the longest tip in the book, as it has several sections to it. Be sure to review each section, as they are interrelated and will have a definite impact on the final results.

There are six steps in the process of self-branding. They are:

1. Define Your Objective. What do you want your brand to accomplish? I usually advise my clients to work backwards. Before you do anything else, define the goal. Then start taking the steps to realize it.

2. Conduct an Audit. You may be surprised at how you see yourself and how others see you. An audit will bring that to the forefront. You need to bridge the gap between reality and perception in order to be successful in creating your self-brand.

For an audit, select between twenty and thirty people to interview. They should be a mix of business associates and clients. Approach them in an email, explaining your request and the purpose of the project. Here’s a sample message you can use:

Dear (insert name):

I am in the process of conducting an audit for which there is a dual objective: learning how I can enhance my services to you; and identifying areas for improvement.

The audit will be a series of brief questions for which you will have the option to respond either by email or in a phone interview. The time you devote to the audit will not exceed fifteen minutes. I know you are very busy!

Please let me know by (insert date) how you would prefer to address the audit and we’ll take it from there.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

A MUST… Give your targets the option of emailing responses or doing a telephone interview. People are busy, so providing them with alternatives will be appreciated and may help to increase the number of respondents. Be sure to let them know the entire process will take a short amount of time, as few will want to participate if they think it will be labor-intensive.

Let all targets know that their responses will be anonymous. Have a third party handle the interviews. It can be awkward if you’re the one asking the questions and you want your subjects to answer without hesitation and with honesty.

A MUST … The person doing the phone interviews must listen, not just take notes. The responses may provoke a question not on the list and unintentionally provide additional information. The interviewer must be proactive in ferreting out as much as possible during the call. The more information received, the better.

My recommendation is to keep the list of questions short. Here are some suggested questions:

What does (name) do? (This may sound pretty basic to you, but the answers may be revealing.)

What value does he or she bring to the table?

What can (name) do differently?

What can he or she do better?

List three adjectives to describe (name).

Anything else you would like to add?

You can customize the list with a couple more questions, but limit it to no more than ten.

Once you get all the information, compile the material and review it. What is being said? Are there common threads? What surprises you? Are there areas of opportunity that you need to explore further? I think a good way to review is to list all of the responses to each question in one document. That way, everything is captured in one place and you don’t have mounds of paper to sift through. Once the material is compiled, read everything in one sitting. If you need to jot down notes as you read, do it. Let the information sink in. Then read it again. This way, you will become familiar with the material and will catch anything you may have overlooked.

A MUST … You need to be able to accept the findings of your audit. Realize that any criticism you receive is constructive and meant to assist. While the comments may be hard to hear, they will help you grow and strengthen your areas of weakness.

3. Do Your Research. Go to a search engine like Google and see what is being said or written about you. In addition, look at social media, especially LinkedIn. This is an especially good way to see how others view you. Take a look at your LinkedIn endorsements. Who is endorsing you and for what? In which ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Self Branding
• Chapter 2: Media Relations
• Chapter 3: Social Media
• Chapter 4: Networking
• Chapter 5: Speaking Engagements
• Chapter 6: Cause-Related Marketing
• Chapter 7: Selecting a PR Agency
• Endnotes
• Index
• About the Author
• Free Sample Chapter from The Art of War for Small Business by Becky Sheetz-Runkle