Seven PR Lies Business Owners Tell Themselves
September 9, 2009 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Wright Ideas
This article will give business owners ideas for publicity. Publicity is the forgotten part of marketing for most business owner. There are action items, easy steps people can take right now to create more publicity.
Lie #1 — I don’t need to do any publicity for my business
This lie is dangerous because it shortchanges your advertising budget. Publicity helps your ads go further because people will see and recognize your company name. Clients will feel good about being a customer because the media is showing them how smart they were to choose your company. The publicity keeps you top of mind, even before people need your services. Business owners should be continuously doing publicity while marketing their services, even when they are too busy to take on new customers.
Lie #2 — Any publicity is good publicity
Remember that publicity will change how people see you. Deal with negative issues assertively in the media.
Lie #3 — Reporters don’t like being reminded over and over
Pitching to reporters is a practice that had to be done. You need to let them know that there is a good story without being pain. Reports have deadlines and a lot to choose from. Make your story seem interesting and change it up for the seasons. You never know when YOU will be the story they need. Being a resource for a reporter and reading their columns is always a plus.
Lie #4 — All that time spent on Twitter is Publicity
So, you’ve been spending a lot of time on twitter and gathering thousands of followers because someone told you each tweet is it’s own web page. Social marketing is a great way to start relationships and find reporters. However it’s not the only way. Reporters are using twitter to put information out. Trying to pitch them with only 140 characters is a feat only for the most experienced publicists. Sometimes a Google alert will catch your name; however, only people on twitter who follow you will see that tweet. It’s not wide spread enough to do you any good.
Lie #5 — There is such a thing as a free lunch
Everybody would like to get something for nothing. However the free online PR distribution services only place your press release or media release as I Like to call them, online. If someone comes across it fine. It is not really sent out to anyone. It can create a link and some traffic back to your site. It does not compare to the traffic you will get if there is an actual story written about you.
Lie #6 — I’m an expert, I don’t need to update my skills
No matter how much experience you have, how many degrees you have, or how well known you have become — there is always something new to learn. Publicity is constantly changing and you need to pay attention to what is going on. Even those who delegate PR to professionals need to know what works and what does not work, in order to avoid spending money with someone who is not effective. Take time to learn a little bit about publicity and marketing each year and how they work together.
Lie #7 — What works for [Big Name Business] will work for me.
It’s easy to believe this lie. You hear, or read about how someone else achieved success and assume that the same steps that he or she took will work for you. We all love to learn from someone else’ success. You have to realize that they rarely tell the entire story. They never tell you about the connections they already had in place, or the amount of money spent on their grass roots campaign. Take the ideas and cut them down into something you can afford to do. Keep in mind that you do not know the entire story, so when something does not work, you will realize you may have missed a step that you were not aware of.
Action Items
Action Item: Create a publicity calendar for the remainder of the year. Plan and financially budget to do something everything month.
Action Item: Read your local newspaper online and make a note of the reporter who would be perfect to write about you.
Action Item: Take Twitter off your list of publicity and place it on your social marketing to do list.
Action Item: Invest in a media release that will be sending out to media.
Action Item: Create PR from big ideas. Do something you can afford to execute.
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Inner City Green Program
August 30, 2009 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Watch the Show Here!
Join Us as we explore the real information for Urban Dwellers on how to live green! Prachel Carter tells us about her IC Green program!
http://www.soulstice.net/icgreen.html
You can have this program in your community too! Give her a Call!
ARC LOAN same day approval
August 10, 2009 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Wright Ideas
ARC Loans with instant approval are not here yet. Why not? The government has specific requirements for ACR loans. By signing up with some shady lender who promises with impossible, you can lose a lot of money and time trying to get the ARC loans. The horror stories are just beginning.
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Karen has a business that she has been struggling to keep above water. She saw an ad in the newspaper for a place that helps you see if you are qualified for the ARC Loan. For $150 bucks, they would look over her business and tell her if she qualified for it. She ‘read’ into that. She assumed they would help her with getting an ARC Loan. She went into the office paid her fee and filled out paper work. This began a long line of endless paper work. Distractions from her actual business caused delays and even less income.
She was told there were a few corrections she needed to make in order to be able to apply for the loan. The company offered to make the corrections for a fee. The fees were running close to $3,000 after 45 days. The company then offered her to apply for an ARC loan with loan application fees of $1,500. She paid that and was not approved.
Unhappy about this outcome, she complained, however the company had done everything they said they would do. They never disclosed who the company they were applying to was, so she had no direct recourse. The first mistake is that she never had a clear understanding of ARC Loan requirements in the first place. She started off thinking they would save her time and money from research. That could have been the case; however, since the company had a direct connection to making changes, they may have led her astray in order to bill her.
I am hearing from people daily about their experience with ARC loans. The names are changed; the stories are starting to be very similar. Being armed with knowledge is important:
Grab your free audio cd on ARC loan information at
http://wrightplacetv.com/arc-loans
