by Stephen Abbott
Principal, Abbott Public Relations
1. Use Keywords. Identify keywords that you will include in your posting or tweet that will help relevant publics find you and absorb your message. For the most part, this will be easy to do, but doing a little research may pay off – by getting you more hits. Use "search" in twitter to discover if these words are being discussed, including the tenses of those words (i.e. past tense, present tense.)
2. Be Relevant. Write about something your readers will find relevant and interesting. If I don't care about what you’re writing about, I won’t read it. It’s as simple as that. Relevancy within your profession is easy to find. What is going on that people can relate to, understand and gain relevance from?
3. Tie into Trends. What’s going on right now that has relevance to you and your business? My profession, public relations, can be tied into many trends on twitter. For example, when ex-House Majority Leader Tom Delay was sentenced to 3 years in prison, it was a top trend. I tweeted about how PR cannot help someone if they aren’t repentant. It’s not a cure-all, and used the trending phrase “ex-House Majority Leader Tom Delay” in the tweet.
4. Be Timely. Not all postings will be about an event, or trying to tie into trends, but as in writing news releases, timeliness may be vitally important to making your tweet or posting relevant. If your posting and tweeting about something that’s months out-of-date, chances are you'll be seen as out-of-date and even out of step. If it’s not in the news RIGHT NOW, especially on twitter, it’s not something about which you should be commenting.
5. Don’t Stop. Some companies 'try' social media and then stop tweeting and posting for 6 months, a year, or never come back. That’s a waste and risks losing the momentum they built up by engaging with others in the first place – not to mention losing the goodwill they earned by engaging with their customers! (And by the way, that’s what it's all about – being social.) Keep to a regular schedule, and assign a person or team to continue tweeting, posting on Facebook and blogging as close to daily as possible.
Ask Abbott Public Relations how we can be your social media content providers. For as low as $50/month, we can get your small business or organization into various social media environments. For more information, visit http://www.abbottpr.com
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday, January 03, 2011
How Abbott PR Can Make Public Relations ADD UP in 2011
By Stephen Abbott, principal of Abbott Public Relations
Public Relations remains a mysterious and nebulous concept for many, though it's actually not a mystery at all. It's an art and a science, applied to business and personal situations to address and solve problems that, if they're left to fester, can have a deleterious effect on one's reputation. That, in turn, can lead to reduced respect, reduced influence in one’s profession and, perhaps most crucially, reduced sales of one's products and/or services.
I've used the acronym "Add Up" as an example of how I approach public relations on behalf of clients and illustrate the process APR uses on their behalf.
Analyze the situation. Jumping in without even rudimentary analysis of the situation is like jumping into a lake one has never seen before – foolish, and possibly dangerous. A situation analysis in PR usually includes discussions with all of the relevant publics involved, be they management and owners, employees, customers and other stakeholders involved in some way with an organization, company or community. This helps the PR professional learn all the facts on the ground that could be leading to problems that may be contributing to a decline in reputation.
Determine problems. Being able to name a problem is a first step towards solving it. This is true in one's personal life and of course it's true in business as well. Once the situation is fully analyzed, PR professionals can then research the problems as they truly exist and begin to understand what PR tools and tactics will need to be addressed, which is the next step ...
Diagnose the situation. Doctors use their analysis of a patient's health to determine a diagnosis. In the same way, PR professionals can use the analysis and problems that arose in the early stages of the process to come up with a diagnosis, allowing them to move forward to the next stages.
Understand publics. Without an understanding of the publics who will be affected by the messages to be used to address problems and issues, we can't be as effective as we otherwise would. Some PR practitioners don't get this, and end up "shouting from the rooftops" to get their message out, thus possibly squandering all the previous effort in researching and diagnosing problems. Instead, a clear, targeted message is planned and prepared to go out to clearly identified targets. This is absolutely essential for the success of any PR campaign.
Present the campaign to publics. All of the research, analysis and planning leads up to a campaign that is presented to predetermined publics, i.e., those who will most benefit from and be positively influenced by messages that enhance the client’s reputation and standing in the community, their ability to continue to grow or expand, or other goals that can be measured over time.
This final "implementation phase" utilizes tools and tactics of the PR professional that best meet the needs of the campaign at hand. This expertise, along with the ability to comprehend and work through the previous steps, is why it's best to hire a PR professional to enhance, change and manage your reputation.
Public Relations and the enhancement of reputation it can bring with an effective PR campaign is vitally important to the continued success of your business, organization or personal fulfillment. The accomplishment of business goals is tangibly connected to maintaining good relations with publics your business interacts with daily, as well as creating inroads with those who will become clients and customers in the future.
Contact Abbott Public Relations to learn more about how your reputation can benefit from Public Relations in 2011.
Public Relations remains a mysterious and nebulous concept for many, though it's actually not a mystery at all. It's an art and a science, applied to business and personal situations to address and solve problems that, if they're left to fester, can have a deleterious effect on one's reputation. That, in turn, can lead to reduced respect, reduced influence in one’s profession and, perhaps most crucially, reduced sales of one's products and/or services.
I've used the acronym "Add Up" as an example of how I approach public relations on behalf of clients and illustrate the process APR uses on their behalf.
Analyze the situation. Jumping in without even rudimentary analysis of the situation is like jumping into a lake one has never seen before – foolish, and possibly dangerous. A situation analysis in PR usually includes discussions with all of the relevant publics involved, be they management and owners, employees, customers and other stakeholders involved in some way with an organization, company or community. This helps the PR professional learn all the facts on the ground that could be leading to problems that may be contributing to a decline in reputation.
Determine problems. Being able to name a problem is a first step towards solving it. This is true in one's personal life and of course it's true in business as well. Once the situation is fully analyzed, PR professionals can then research the problems as they truly exist and begin to understand what PR tools and tactics will need to be addressed, which is the next step ...
Diagnose the situation. Doctors use their analysis of a patient's health to determine a diagnosis. In the same way, PR professionals can use the analysis and problems that arose in the early stages of the process to come up with a diagnosis, allowing them to move forward to the next stages.
Understand publics. Without an understanding of the publics who will be affected by the messages to be used to address problems and issues, we can't be as effective as we otherwise would. Some PR practitioners don't get this, and end up "shouting from the rooftops" to get their message out, thus possibly squandering all the previous effort in researching and diagnosing problems. Instead, a clear, targeted message is planned and prepared to go out to clearly identified targets. This is absolutely essential for the success of any PR campaign.
Present the campaign to publics. All of the research, analysis and planning leads up to a campaign that is presented to predetermined publics, i.e., those who will most benefit from and be positively influenced by messages that enhance the client’s reputation and standing in the community, their ability to continue to grow or expand, or other goals that can be measured over time.
This final "implementation phase" utilizes tools and tactics of the PR professional that best meet the needs of the campaign at hand. This expertise, along with the ability to comprehend and work through the previous steps, is why it's best to hire a PR professional to enhance, change and manage your reputation.
Public Relations and the enhancement of reputation it can bring with an effective PR campaign is vitally important to the continued success of your business, organization or personal fulfillment. The accomplishment of business goals is tangibly connected to maintaining good relations with publics your business interacts with daily, as well as creating inroads with those who will become clients and customers in the future.
Contact Abbott Public Relations to learn more about how your reputation can benefit from Public Relations in 2011.
Friday, August 13, 2010
GOP Candidates Must Have Big, New Ideas to Win Primaries and in November
Big Ideas capture the imagination. They change lives. They change countries. They can even change election campaigns that are drifting aimlessly, five weeks before Election Day.
But first, they must be articulated by courageous Republican candidates for office. I don’t see that happening much here in New Hampshire.
In the new film Inception, a character says, “Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed – fully understood – that sticks.”
It sticks in elections, too. It sticks in the voter’s minds. It resonates, and sinks deep into the subconscious. Consider:
"It's morning in America." - Reagan correctly identified hope and change - and optimism - as what would win against a bleak Carter-led nation.
"It's the economy, stupid." - Carville and Begala correctly understood the mood of the nation during a horrible recession. The Washington GOP elites didn’t. So we lost.
"Hope and change." - GOP activists ridiculed this as “the hopey, changy thing.” I said it was foolish to ridicule hope during a near-depression filled with misery. Regardless of how inept Obama’s policies turned out, he had this advantage during the election, and it worked.
"It's not Ted Kennedy's seat, it's the people’s seat." - Underdog Scott Brown electrified his Senate campaign with this one line, smashing the idea of inevitability and opening voters to his message.
These themes, backed by powerful Ideas (some better than others) resonated. And yet, campaigns here in New Hampshire aren’t talking about New Ideas, but instead opt for the same, old slogans.
Examples? "Lower taxes" and "More jobs" are okay as slogans, and nice as concepts. All Republicans agree with them. But that's the problem. No candidate simply spouting slogans can break out and be noticed. Slogans aren’t fleshed out. Will these slogans create jobs? What's unique? Where are the New Ideas?
NH Democrats in 2006 and 2008 won by adopting these innocuous, me-too concepts. Voters trusted them twice, in part because the GOP failed nationally and statewide to impress them with new and better ideas to back up the slogans.
Being Idea-less, some candidates are being advised to simply spout slogans and run an Idea-less Primary, relying on spending lots of money on TV and getting “face recognition” alone to get attention. This is a rather weak strategy.
Candidates don’t need a million dollar TV strategy. They need million dollar ideas. The ideas will generate coverage and recognition.
They must capture the voters’ imaginations with the power of these Ideas. They need Great Ideas and must deploy them correctly to run transformative, memorable, winning campaigns.
Winning candidates will say to primary voters, "Here's something new, different, and consistent with Republicanism. THESE are the BIG, NEW IDEAS that will win us the election in November!"
And these Ideas can’t be backward-looking ideas that seek to return us to the 1950s (or 1760s) or try to turn the GOP into big-spending mini-Democrats. 21st Century voters won’t stand for either approach.
So, what are these Ideas, exactly? I can certainly suggest a few directions. But when a candidate calls me and is willing to listen, I’ll be there to help them effectively articulate their own Great Ideas.
Stephen Abbott
Abbott Public Relations
www.abbottpr.com
603-341-0372
But first, they must be articulated by courageous Republican candidates for office. I don’t see that happening much here in New Hampshire.
In the new film Inception, a character says, “Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed – fully understood – that sticks.”
It sticks in elections, too. It sticks in the voter’s minds. It resonates, and sinks deep into the subconscious. Consider:
"It's morning in America." - Reagan correctly identified hope and change - and optimism - as what would win against a bleak Carter-led nation.
"It's the economy, stupid." - Carville and Begala correctly understood the mood of the nation during a horrible recession. The Washington GOP elites didn’t. So we lost.
"Hope and change." - GOP activists ridiculed this as “the hopey, changy thing.” I said it was foolish to ridicule hope during a near-depression filled with misery. Regardless of how inept Obama’s policies turned out, he had this advantage during the election, and it worked.
"It's not Ted Kennedy's seat, it's the people’s seat." - Underdog Scott Brown electrified his Senate campaign with this one line, smashing the idea of inevitability and opening voters to his message.
These themes, backed by powerful Ideas (some better than others) resonated. And yet, campaigns here in New Hampshire aren’t talking about New Ideas, but instead opt for the same, old slogans.
Examples? "Lower taxes" and "More jobs" are okay as slogans, and nice as concepts. All Republicans agree with them. But that's the problem. No candidate simply spouting slogans can break out and be noticed. Slogans aren’t fleshed out. Will these slogans create jobs? What's unique? Where are the New Ideas?
NH Democrats in 2006 and 2008 won by adopting these innocuous, me-too concepts. Voters trusted them twice, in part because the GOP failed nationally and statewide to impress them with new and better ideas to back up the slogans.
Being Idea-less, some candidates are being advised to simply spout slogans and run an Idea-less Primary, relying on spending lots of money on TV and getting “face recognition” alone to get attention. This is a rather weak strategy.
Candidates don’t need a million dollar TV strategy. They need million dollar ideas. The ideas will generate coverage and recognition.
They must capture the voters’ imaginations with the power of these Ideas. They need Great Ideas and must deploy them correctly to run transformative, memorable, winning campaigns.
Winning candidates will say to primary voters, "Here's something new, different, and consistent with Republicanism. THESE are the BIG, NEW IDEAS that will win us the election in November!"
And these Ideas can’t be backward-looking ideas that seek to return us to the 1950s (or 1760s) or try to turn the GOP into big-spending mini-Democrats. 21st Century voters won’t stand for either approach.
So, what are these Ideas, exactly? I can certainly suggest a few directions. But when a candidate calls me and is willing to listen, I’ll be there to help them effectively articulate their own Great Ideas.
Stephen Abbott
Abbott Public Relations
www.abbottpr.com
603-341-0372
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