Good Press, Bad Press

Can bad press be good press?

I think so. One of the main purposes in using public relations is to generate awareness. And, in this day and age, people are even more in tune with creating their own opinions than ever. Trusting the press isn't the first thing they do when they read a story. In fact, if something negative is written, it may have the opposite effect - people take it as positive because they mistrust the press!

So, if you have something negative written about you:

1. DON'T stress and freak out.
2. DON'T contact the writer/paper and yell at them!
3. DO contact the writer and thank them for writing and offer a time to meet and give them more information.
4. DO share the story with friends, supporters, etc. and ask for their feedback. Perhaps encourage them to write a letter to the editor.
5. DO include that writer/paper in further PR correspondence.
6. DO use it as a learning experience about what the public wants to hear and how information is interpretted - THAT is the power of PR!

Burlington's Old North End

Burlington's Old North End has always been endearing to my heart, and many others who choose to reside and/or do business there. When I first moved to Vermont in the spring of 2000, I moved into the Old North End in an apartment I lived in for seven years. Just recently I moved to launch my public relations business (with a more suitable office space and opportunity for expense consolidation) to yet another area of the North End - closer to the core.

When I first learned about it in Seven Days, I joined The Front Porch Forum. The Forum, which really fosters a valuable online avenue for neighbors to communicate, is where I found out about the newly created Old North End Arts and Business Network. I immediately sent in my $25 one year membership fee, excited about the opportunity to get my business and personal passions involved in the community I live in! Prior to this networking opportunity, my "North End" involvement includes power walking through the neighborhoods, meeting Melodie Bean at Vantage Press where I will certainly bring any print work, attending the local pancake breakfast at Lawrence Barnes School, and enjoying one of my favorite watering holes and music venues, Radio Bean. Oh, and I split my local shopping needs between Waggy's, Dave's Old North End Variety Store, and Radio Deli.

Anyway, last night I attended my first Old North End Arts and Business Association (ONE Arts & Business for short, ONE=Ward One) meeting at the lovely coffee shop, Viva Espresso. The brainchild of Burlington's community-minded real estate folks at Redstone, ONE Arts & Business is something I feel is much needed in the Old North End as a powerful opportunity to bring the community together, a vehicle to offer marketing potential for the businesses in the North End neighborhoods, and a great first step in making efforts to highlight the history, diversity, and vitality of Burlington's North End - surely the most eclectic part of nationally renowned eclectic city!

A group of us branched off to form an event committee charged with the task of creating a spring event to encourage visitation, shopping, and enjoyment of the Old North End. We meet next Tuesday, December 11th from 4-5 pm at The Bobbin Sew Bar & Craft Lounge and I encourage anyone reading to share with anyone you think might be interested in joining the committee!!

I am so excited about the opportunity to offer my public relations skills and my artistic flare to my community and am sure there will be more on such endeavors to come!!

A PR Pet Peeve

I love what I do. I love being able to help people share their business, experience and energy with their targeted audiences. I also take my profession seriously and feel it is very important to work with clients to find what is newsworthy and timely to talk to media about. I shun clients from engagement in "shameless self promotion" since the key of public relations, in my opinion, is to find what is newsworthy and share it with the media without expectations and with respect of their busy jobs. My ultimate goal is for a media contact to cover a client's news in a timely manner, but even more important is to build solid relationships with media contacts. I have worked hard to cultivate good, trustworthy relationships with media contacts so they feel they can call me to get information, regardless of who my clients are and so when I contact them, it is for a reason that they or their audiences may have some interest in. I understand that media folks are busy, working on deadlines, trying to meet a variety of demands, and don't have enough hours in the day to often get done all that needs to get done.

What creates my pet peeve is when I continuously get no response from some media folks when I have good, valid, and newsworthy reasons to be in touch with them. I work very hard to not be a flashy, stick-up-my-bum, sales oriented PR person. And while I understand media folks work in a very fast-paced, deadline driven environment, everyone has stresses to deal with and deadlines to meet. In my opinion and upbringing in respectful business practices, there is no excuse to blatantly ignore people and provide no response to emails or phone calls. Rudeness sucks. I mean, everyone is just trying to do their jobs, so we can enjoy our lives outside work. And, I wish people in general would not judge others by their business position - you never know who you can enjoy a good beer with!

Maybe these will be my general wishes for humanity this Christmas. Don't judge, respect others, and realize everyone is just trying to make it in this crazy world.

Business Conference at Topnotch

I have been slacking on the blog front - my apologies! But, this Thanksgiving morning, before I power walk, make pies, and head off to dinner, I thought about what I am thankful for - and my success thus far at opening my own public relations business is certainly at the forefront. With that thought I'd like to bring you all back a few weeks to the Women Business Owner's Network (WBON) Fall Conference I attended and offer some thanks to the women I most associated with at the conference by giving a few other small business shout-outs!

First, I'll say the conference was held at Topnotch Resort in Stowe. What a fantastic location! I don't frequent Stowe often; it is a bit swanky for my tastes. My skiing also stays at Bolton Valley, Smuggler's Notch, or Sugarbush (where my pass is this year!) And I always thought Topnotch was just another over-priced "resort" in Stowe. I relent - this place was worth it and I should learn to not judge! I managed to take a few pics with my disposable camera, which certainly doesn't do the place justice, but we were busy at the conference and I took these while finishing Harry Potter on a private patio outside the lobby. If anyone reading this is planning a conference, large or small in the near future, especially one for Vermonters - bring 'em to Topnotch - there's something special about doing "work" in a place many people who bring money to this state spend their money.

I always enjoy attending WBON events so I can catch up with those women who are also friends in my personal life. Danielle Livellara is one! Danielle is a financial advisor with Smith Barney and was also a speaker at the conference (the theme was the financial side of running a small business). Danielle is smart and with-it and always gives me great advice and knowledge I need since I am a publicist, NOT a financial analyst! She doesn't have a direct website to link to, but if anyone wants to schedule a free consultation with a trusty gal, call Danielle at 802-652-6074!

Danielle's good friend and woman I have met before at these events is Jen Stanley, owner of Stanley Technical Services. Jen is a technical writer who I hope to work with soon! I write publicity materials. Jen writes all the big stuff that no one wants to write - annual reports, manuals, catalogs, and all that stuff that technical folks need to make into English for everyday folks to understand. Her website is www.stanleytechnical.com - check her out! Here I even have a conference shot of myself, Jen, and Danielle!

My roommate while staying at Topnotch in absolutely fabulous rooms I must say was Carrie McDougall, owner of Cultural Crossroads, a wonderful travel service for people to go on worldwide tours that include access and private tours to some of the most renowned historic and cultural locations across the globe. You must at least check out her website to see what some of these tours are - www.culturalcrossroads.com - and share with friends you think would be interested!!!

I also spent some time chatting with my new bookkeeper, Diana Jones of Double Entry Bookkeeping, who I scheduled a meeting with the very next week. I can purchase QuickBooks through Diana and she will give me a tutorial and help me set it up for my public relations business and will help me prepare my taxes! Double whammy!! Maybe that's why it's Double Entry? Either way, if you or someone is in need of such services, I highly recommend Diana. The website is www.doubleentrybookkeeping.net.

Happy Thanksgiving all!!!

Trends

When I first started studying public relations, I quickly learned what I consider to be the three cardinal rules of PR in what makes something newsworthy and if it can't fit into one of these three categories, then leave it and move onto the next thing. The "news" that someone wishes to promote can be considered news and therefore "pitched" in some manner if:

1.) It solves a problem
2.) Can offer useful tips
3.) Identifies a trend

It is with trends I want to touch upon this week. It is imperative in the marketing world to keep up with trends. Trends allow you to tie your product, service, idea, "news" into the larger picture by connecting it somehow to a trend, which is what makes it newsworthy to the media.

Some examples would be relating a product to a certain season or a way of life, such as being green. Or, offering a service and tying it in to a similar service popular on the national level. Or, positioning an event with a well known movement. Or, connecting a concept to popular lifestyles or recreation.

Trends can be local, regional, or national and using trends can help a local item of news become newsworthy on a national level and vice versa. It is important to note trends have nothing to do with what you wish a trend to be, it is what the existing trends are and using them to your advantage - a great opportunity to get creative!

Here are some trend resources - both for talking about trends and for you to browse to discover trends yourself:

- National Consumer Trends:
www.trendwatching.com
www.dailycandy.com

- Vermont Trends:
burlington.craigslist.com
sd.blogs.com/802online
candleboy.com/candleblog

Any trends out there people would like to comment about?

New Magazine in Vermont!

And its GREEN!!!

I feel like such a reporter today instead of a Vermont public relations practitioner. Coming very soon to a newsstand near you is the Central and Northern Vermont edition of the Green Living Journal. Yippee!! The magazine is being published by Vermont magazine industry veteran, Ellen Shapiro, most recently seen as an account manager at Vermont Woman magazine.

Green Living Journal is "a practical journal to friends of the environment." There are currently editions in Southern Vermont and Southern Oregon, and now Central and Northern Vermont with Ellen as the Publisher! The magazine operates as a whole with structure and general content publishing "news you can use" articles on organic gardening, green building, health, eco-careers, outdoors, socially responsible investing, eco-notes, Q&A, book reviews, and environmental issue topics. But, the magazines are independently published so they are tailored to the specific geographic regions they reach which allows content to be localized while offering the backbone of an established magazine group (Green Living Journal started in 1990).

Sounds like a win-win to me! The website is www.greenlivingjournal.com and look for the Central and Northern Vermont edition soon! And be sure to look through for a blog column written by me! If you'd like to reach Ellen for marketing opportunities with the magazine, email her at ellen@greenlivingjournal.com.

Constant Contact

Yes, in marketing, of course people should have "constant contact" with constituents. What I am talking about, and actually wondering about as well, are email marketing programs such as Constant Contact, a company that provides such services as newsletter distribution and other email based communication programs.

I highly recommend such programs for newsletter distribution, however, in my direct business, that is not something I currently offer. I may, if I sign up with an email program like Constant Contact. I heard about Constant Contact at the latest monthly luncheon for the Burlington Chapter of the Women Business Owner's Network - one of my favorite self employed business activities and organization I might add. Every time I go to a WBON event, I learn such valuable and helpful information for operating my independent public relations agency - RachelCarterPR. (I've decided I like the one word identity.)

Anyway, the reason I am interested in a potential email marketing program is for press release distribution. I can see how it would be a plus on one side with eliminating annoying formatting issues and being able to include photos without attachments. However, editors get so much email, that will the majority of them even bother to click the button that allows newsletter content to be read? And, furthermore, they haven't subscribed - email marketing is anti-spam and while there would be an option to unsubscribe, they never subscribed in the first place and the last thing I want to do is annoy the press. For this post I need advice - anyone have any???