Handling Bad Publicity

Unfortunately, bad publicity happens.  You and your franchise or company are not perfect.  How many times have we all heard the old adage, "there's no such things as bad press," or at least some spin off of that phrase?  Is that true?  Well, perhaps, but as a Franchise Public Relations Agency, we try our best to keep our clients out of any bad publicity.  If you find yourself or your franchise catching some backlash for a bad move, consider the following steps to help recover:

(1) Develop a plan: Developing a plan should come before you ever encounter a crisis.  You should always be prepared for battle.  Have a step by step strategy outlined and when the time comes and you need to implement it, you will know exactly what steps to take.  Always plan ahead!

(2) Choose a spokesperson:  Appointing a spokesperson is another step that should probably be taken before your franchise or company receives bad press.  Your franchise or company's spokesperson should be someone that is capable of staying calm during media enquiries, can handle pressure and will respond well to difficult questions.  

(3) Keep people informed (to a point!):  This is a tough one!  You've got one of two options typically: A- to speak out or B- stay silent.  The tough part is knowing which way to go.  If you're facing extremely bad publicity for something major, you may want to stay quiet until you've thoroughly thought about how you will address the media and the public.  Typically speaking out is the best way.  Speaking out gives you the ability to try and put out the fire surrounding your franchise or company.  Saying the wrong thing could seal your fate, so proceed with caution.  

(4) Press statement: Preparing a well-thoughtout press statement could really serve you and your franchise or company well during times of crisis.  Why?  Reporters have a knack for finding a story with or without explanation from key members of the company they are writing the story about, so take the initiative to get them the information they are looking for before they create a story with incorrect information.  

(5) Post an explanation: If you feel that it is safe to take matters into your own hands, then use your website to post an explanation.  This will allow you to get your side of the story across to the public directly.  Let the public hear your side of the story.

(6) Find some positive in the negative: While enduring bad publicity, try and find some positive through all the negative.  Perhaps there's a good news angle waiting to be uncovered.  

(7) Consider a PR Firm:  If you and your franchise or company are not currently working with a great public relations company, consider doing so.  A great public relations firm can help you successfully navigate the waters of both good and bad press.  A PR agency can help you complete all of the steps listed above.  

Looking for more tips on how you and your franchise or company should handle bad press?  Feel free to leave a comment or contact us.  

Product Promotion: Key Factors

You’ve got a great product and you’re looking to do some public relations or product promotions to help spread the word.  Identifying your need for production promotions is the first step, taking the leap is always easier said than done.  You may not believe it, but there really is an art to product promotion.  No, there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong to promote your product, but some ways are alot more effective than others.  Here are a few things to focus on when promoting your product:

Know Your Target Audience
Before you can do public relations or promotions, you must understand who your target audience is.  Ask yourself, "Who is my target audience?" If your only answer is "Women," you are not digging deeply enough.  You need to know multiple things about your target audience such as gender, age group, income level, occupation, etc.  The list goes on and on.  The more you know, the better off you are.  Knowing your target audience will help you form strong strategies and tactics to help promote your product to the group of people who will be interested in it the most, which is after all, the main goal.  

Brand Messaging 
Part of good product promoting is emphasizing your branding message.  Your business’s product promotions should use brand messaging to emphasize the key points of what your brand and products can deliver.  Your brand messages should match your products.  For example, if you stress that your products are of “top quality” then your product needs to match that.  Your brand message must succinctly tell what the brand's promise is and creates desire for the brand's products or services.  Messaging helps customers understand what a brand's value is.

Product Descriptions: Features and Benefits
One of the most important parts of product promotions or even doing public relations for a product is how you describe the product.  When you are pitching your product to an audience, how you describe the product is crucial.  Your description ultimately needs to sell your audience on your product.  It has to make them feel compelled to purchase.  The description you give has to be motivational.  Part of the description is telling the story of the product.  The story needs to connect with the audience and keep them interested.   

Differentiation
Good promotional efforts do a great job of differentiating a product from anything else out there on the market.  This could be a very difficult feat.  So many products promise incredible results and very keenly, people today see right through it.  To push through the crowd of competitors you must show what makes your product different and better than all the rest.  How you explain your product's features and benefits should be the ammo you need to get people interested.

Delivering The Message

One of the most important parts of any promotional effort is delivering your message in such a way that it not only captivates an audience, but it sells the product.  When a message is well delivered you have the opportunity to increase your product or service's sales and create the all important brand advocates.  Brand advocates are people who are a fan of your brand and the services or products you sell.  Brand advocates help push your brand and your product.  Think of a popular brand and think of the people who endorse that brand.  It can be quite powerful and this should be what you look to create.  

Looking for more tips on product promotions?  Feel free to comment below or contact us.  

Tweet About This... NOT That!

If you frequently read our blog then by now you are probably all too aware that utilizing Twitter is important to your business or franchise.  As a Franchise Public Relations firm, we cannot stress the important of being social media savvy enough.  Our social media consultants say they frequently hear people say, “they don’t know the first thing about tweeting,” or that “they have no idea what to tweet about.”  Perhaps that is valid.  What should you tweet about on behalf of your business or franchise?  Also, what should you as a business or franchise owner or employee avoid tweeting about?  Quite honestly, this answer is not always straight forward.  Here are a couple things we suggest tweeting about and a few things we suggest avoiding:

Tweet About This

(1) A simple reply: Replies are a great way to form relationships with people, so reply when you can and strive to build great relationships via social media.  Replies can be a supportive gesture or a great way to share a similar experience.  Think of a reply as one of the best ways to show people that you are interested in them and what they’re tweeting about. 

(2) A good retweet: See a really great tweet from one of your followers?  Why not repost to show your appreciation for their great tweet.  People love being retweeted, so share some love and retweet a great post when you see one and who knows, perhaps someone will kindly return the favor and retweet something great that you post.  

(3) The play-by-play of an event: If you’re attending a great seminar, expo or charity event, why not post some play-by-play updates to let followers know what’s going on.  The play-by-play tweets provide a great newsfeed on your page and will give followers great knowledge of what happened at the event you attended. 

(4) Posting relevant photos: Photos have a way of keeping people interested.  Posting the right kinds of photos can really get people interested in your franchise or company, products, and services.

(5) Asking questions:  Questions are a great way to do a little market research.  Want to know what people think about a certain product or industry?  Ask away!  You never know, you may get some great responses that may help you sell your own product or services.

(6) Blog posts: Whenever you post a blog, post a link to the blog on your social media pages.  This will help bring your followers, friends or fans to your blog.  If you’re looking for more blog involvement, posting links is a great way to share.  Make it a habit of posting a link to your new blog post on your social media pages right after the blog is posted. 

Don’t Tweet About This

(1) Begging for retweets: There’s nothing more annoying than people begging for retweets on Twitter.  You shouldn’t have to beg for a retweet.  If you’re putting out good content, then you shouldn’t have to beg anyway.  Avoid doing this at all costs as it’s a surefire way to lose followers.

(2) Constant foresquare updates:  People do not need to know where you are 24/7.  Refrain from constantly posting foursquare updates.  That has the tendency to annoy people more than attract them.  Besides, what does that update tell people about you or your franchise or business?  Not too much.

(3) Tweeting about how many followers you have: We’ve all come across tweeters who brag about how many followers they have.  Bragging, in general is never such a great idea on Twitter.  Remember, the goal is to attract new followers and obtain current followers—not to repulse people. 

If you want to build a positive online identity for your franchise or company, social media is a great tool to help you do that.  Just think before you post.  If you have more comments or questions on tweeting, post a comment below or contact us.  

Google+: Awesome Features

As a Chicago PR Firm that is heavily immersed in the world of franchise social media, there’s nothing we enjoy more than discussing social media sites and explaining what each one has to offer.  The official social media site of Google, Google+, offers users a variety of features that a lot of other social media sites do not.   Google+ was created with the intention of utilizing all of the main features of some of Google’s top products including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Search, and Google Maps.  Let’s discuss a couple of Google+’s key features:

(1) Google+ Toolbar: Once you set up an account with Google you are signed into Google and have access to the Google+ toolbar.  The toolbar appears on top of any Google service you might be using. The toolbar gives you instant access to any of Google's services, which of course includes Google+.  

(2) Stream: Similar to Facebook's news feed, Google+'s stream is a central location for all the content that is shared by people you are connected with through Google+.  All sorts of information can be found on stream like videos, links, images, and maps.  

(3) Hangout: The hangout feature is for live social networking and gives you the ability to connect with people who are online at the moment through instant messaging.  You also have the option of connecting live through video chat or doing a group conversation as well. 

(4) +1: Have you been noticing little +1's all over the place yet?  Google+ has popularized the +1.  The +1 gives your stamp of approval on something you see on the Internet.  Want to give support to a local business?  Give them a +1 to show your stamp of approval.  It reminds us a bit of the "Pin it" button for Pinterest as it acts similarly, but we like the little feature.

(5) Circle: Circles are a way that you categorize and essentially, organize your social contacts.  This might just be our favorite Google+ feature.  Circles give users the ability to group their contacts into various circles such as family, colleagues, friends, or hobby.  Here's the best part: You can share with each group different information.  Perhaps there's something you only want to share with your hobby circle that you don't want to share with your colleagues.  That's okay, having separated your contacts into different circles makes it easy.  You can also change what each circle can see when looking at your personal profile.  Share what you want with who you want to share it with.

(6) Sparks: Sparks are meant to show areas of interest.  Google+ gives users a wide variety of topics to choose from and as you see things you are interested in you can simply add them to your Google+ profile.  If you decide you want to remove a spark topic later, you can simply delete it by subtracting it. Users have the ability to share sparks with others in their circles.

Not all social media is created equal.  While most sites have similar features, some sites really do offer the user a little something out of the ordinary.  We love talking social media, if you have comments or questions feel free to comment below or contact us.  

Successful Event PR

Most public relations experts are skilled in creating successful event PR.  Successful event PR, which includes but is not limited to special events or press conferences, can have a powerful impact on an audience when it is done well.  The main goal of any type of event PR is to inform the public (consumers and media), share thoughts and ideas, and give good information.  Here at All Points PR, we definitely know a thing or two about how vital creating successful PR can be for our clients.  Let’s start by breaking down the main 2 types of events by what they are and how they can be successful.

Special Events

Special events do not necessarily have the same connotation for everyone. Special events can range from once-in-a-lifetime occasions  or recurring events.  A once-in-a-life occasion occurs only once and can include for example a business’s 20^th anniversary as a company.  Recurring events can include an employee Christmas party or an employee recognition ceremony.  The concept of what a special event is might vary, but the PR surrounding it stays the same.  The PR for a special event must, above all, be newsworthy.  You do not want to create a special event, try to pitch it to the media, and have no one be interested or even want to attend.  The whole goal is to generate interest, press and get people interested and get people attending the event.   If it is not an event for the mass public to be apart of (like that company Christmas party) then you must still be able to show why it's an important event.  Perhaps your company is combining the company Christmas party with a charity auction.  Now that can easily become a newsworthy story and timely if promoted at the right time.  

Press Conferences

The press conference is one of the most popular PR event methods. It is the main method used to promote PR efforts.  While the press conference can act as an event itself, its main job is to promote any and all PR efforts you are pursuing and will be pursuing.  A press conference is a quick, efficient way to get out a message to the public and media.  Instead of contacting journalists one by one, a press conference enables you to speak with multiple journalists all at once.  The best part is that you lead the show.  Journalists are giving you the stage, so make sure you are well-prepared.  

Making Events Successful

As a Chicago PR Firm, we know how important throwing a successful event can be.  No matter what type of PR event your doing, there are some surefire ways to make it successful.  Here are a few tips:

(1) Identify need for event:  Your PR plans for you company should take into account the need for an event and how the event ties into the company's overall objective and goals.  The event needs to fit in with the big picture strategies you have previously identified for your company.

(2) Plan, plan and plan some more!:  No matter what type of event you’re doing, one of the best ways to make your event successful is by planning your event out in great detail.  Creating backup plans is necessary as well.  Before you take that first step, you should identify beforehand how you are going to proceed before you act.  And remember, there's no such thing as too much preparation.

(3) Work closely with the company employees:  Work closely with company employees to make sure you are telling the whole story.  Get employee feedback and facts to help thoroughly understand the event you want to promote.  Make company employees the resource for your event.  They can help you identify the details that need to be incorporated for the event, the business's goals, who the target audience is and what tactics you should work with and avoid.  Employees are a great source since they tend to have all the details needed to make your event go off without a hitch.  

(4) Be flexible:  If plans need to change to make the event happen, be flexible and have backup plans.  Remember, the end goal is to make your event happen, so do whatever you need to do to make that happen.  Adapt your plan to meet any challenge or problem that could arise.  

(5) The follow up after the event:  Follow up after the event is necessary to continue to create buzz around your event after it is happened.  You don't want your event to suddenly be brushed under the rug right after is has ended.  You want to keep the buzz going, so follow ups are key.  In the after event stage, you also need to evaluate the event.  From here you need to measure and analyze results, just like you would do with any PR campaign.

If you're looking for more tips on creating successful event PR, feel free to comment below or contact us.  

Top 10: PR Tips for Your Business or Franchise

Recently we’ve been thinking a “Top 10” blog was in order, so why not base this “Top 10” on all things PR.  As a Chicago PR Firm we have learned some great tips and trick along the way on creating successful PR for clients.  We’d love to share more than 10 with you and writing this blog, we are sure we’ve already and will continue to share a whole lot more than just 10, but for now, here are some of our top PR tips:

#1- Be human: People want to do business with other people—not robots void of any personality.  People want to do business with people they can relate to and really, people they like.  Be yourself and you are likely to attract the right kind of customers.

#2- Use SEO to the best of your ability:  Search engine optimization (a.k.a. SEO) is the process of utilizing keywords that fit with you business and building association between those words and your website in the hypothetical eyes of search engines.  Find out what your customers search and choose keywords accordingly.  Search engines will notice your relevant content and reward you with high search engine rankings, ushering in a slew of customers.

#3- Be great at problem solving: Let’s face it, most consumers can care less about who you are as a company and what you do.  At the end of the day, consumers know what they want and what they need.  They know the problems they need to be solved, so be great at problem solving.  Nothing can hook potential customers more then ushering them that whatever problem they have can be fixed by your company and your company only.  

#4- Create great content: One of the best ways to get noticed today is by putting out good content.  It’s like karma—put good out into the world, and get it right back.  If you believe in that sort of thing!  Put extra effort into making sure you are creating good content and good results are bound to come your way.

#5- Utilize video: Never underestimate the power of a great video.  Videos, especially when well done, are a great way to reach consumers and the media.

#6- Become the authority: Whatever you are in the business of, whether it’s law, medicine, marketing, etc., become the authority.  There’s no better way to gain respect and business then to become the authority on your subject.

#7- Just say no to spam: Spamming the media with press releases and PR pitches just doesn’t work and in fact, it can get pretty irritating, which is opposite of the point of a press release.  The goal is to get your release or pitch read and written about, not tossed away.  Just say no to spam.

#8- Commentary:  Check out blogs, forums, and chat rooms relevant to your business and provide some of your input and expertise.  If you want people to know that your company exists, get commenting.  

#9- Be persistent with follow ups:  Stay on top of your follow up calls and emails to the best of your abilities.  We all get busy, there's no question about that, but part of great public relations is being consistent and following up.  Follow ups are the best way to secure a story.

#10- Social media savvy: If you've been avoiding social media sites like the plague, think again.  Social media sites are one of the best, if not the best, way to broadcast your message to the largest possible audience.  Become social media friendly.  

If you’re looking for more great PR tips, keep on reading our blog or contact us.