Message development: 6 steps to creating messages that make a difference

Message development is an essential step in your publicity planning process and yet, many of us forget to spend any time being thoughtful and strategic about what we want to say when we're interviewed by the press. You've heard the cliche: "Failing to plan is planning to fail." That's especially true with media interviews. How will you make sure you communicate the key points about your project, mission, product, service, book, organization, whatever if you haven't given careful thought about what you really need to get across in your precious time with that journalist?

If you aren't clear about your messages each time you communicate with the media, your publicity will be less effective. Message development for all types of businesses and organizations involves six steps:

1. Define the issue. Take into account what your audience knows about the topic and what you bring to the discussion. What makes you different, special, better with regards to the issue or topic? Gather any relevant statistics, too -- you might need them to help make your point.
2. Create draft messages. Brainstorm possible messages, but remember: You want messages that resonate with your audience, not your staff. That's why knowing your audience -- and what they do and don't know about the topic -- is important.
3. Test draft messages. Don't test them in the workplace. Try them out on people you want to influence. Listen carefully to their responses and take their input seriously.
4. Refine the messages. What language seemed to resonate with the people in your test or focus group? What language confused them? Where did they get confused? Take all of this into account...and try again.
5. Test again. The repeat testing is important because you want to be certain that your key messages are appropriate and can influence the behavior you're looking for.
6. Adjust again. Keep making changes -- and testing -- until you're confident that you're using language that will generate the reaction you want.

As you work on your messages, make sure they:

• Contribute to your goals.
• Resonate with the people you want to influence -- even if this means they don't resonate with you.
• Get used in interviews in some form. If they don't, work on them some more.

Once your messages are final and you're confident they communicate what you want them to, work them into media interviews, press releases, Web site text, social media communications, marketing materials, etc. You might need to massage them to meet the needs of these different communication vehicles, but stay as true as you can to the language because you know it works.

What's the best message you've seen?

Word of mouse: 10 ways to master nonprofit guerrilla social media

My guest blogger today is colleague Chris Forbes, co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits. Chris and I met in the virtual world several years ago when he reviewed my two publicity books on his blog. I'm now happy to reciprocate, putting a spotlight on his book (I like it so much that I provided a "blurb" that appears on the inside).

Chris writes here about social media for nonprofits, but his ideas can apply to small businesses, solo-preneurs, authors, and others. Here's what he has to say:

Guerrilla marketers know a good deal when they see one. And social media is a very good deal for guerrillas because they focus on reaching individuals instead merely selling their ideas to markets. With a little time, energy, and imagination, nonprofit guerrillas deepen their relationships with their clients and supporters and increase the frequency of exposure of their message to the people they want to reach by using social media. To get the most out of social media, it is important to make strategic use with a plan. Below are 10 ways your organization can master the use of social media.

1. Message: In order for your message to have any impact for your cause, it has to contain your message. A funny or interesting video, even if it becomes a very popular online phenomenon, is useless to your nonprofit if it doesn’t get people to take action.
2. Meme: The message of your viral outreach needs to be easy to grasp without explanation and easy to pass on to others.
3. Meeting: Find the media that your target audience likes to use and go where the people are. Media researchers estimate 60 percent of adults belong to a social network, but most only belong to one. Spread your virus in a variety of networks.
4. Manage: Funnel the contacts you make in social media toward your Web site or blog. Make your Web site the second tier of your social media strategy. The third tier is when people register with your site. Mobilize the people who sign up on your site to take action and help spread the message.
5. Material: Give people the content they need to pass along your viral marketing. Provide assets for your audience to make their own videos, allow them to put their picture in an e-card, do anything that helps to put themselves into the story line and send to their contacts.
6. Mobilize: Make it easy to pass your content through word-of-mouse. Choose the video tools that allow you to embed your videos directly into Facebook, blogs, etc. Social bookmark tabs need to post you link and teaser copy into other sites.
7. Medium: Make your content a good match for the medium. Long videos will not be watched as much as shorter ones. Break up paragraphs in articles and write lead sentences remembering they may also serve as the teaser copy for the links when they are visible on other sites.
8. Marketing: Your content needs to have links back to your sites and copy that promotes your organization. Don’t leave the “More Info” section blank; include good copy using your key words and links.
9. Metrics: Watch the statistics. Check not only how many people view, forward, or tweet your content, but track how many click through and take the next step with your message, too.
10. Momentum: Start the ball rolling by forwarding your content to the networks of your intended target. Leave room in tweets for people to “re-tweet” (RT). Prime the commenting by starting the first comment on links and posts you put in other networks. Push your virus into new networks until it takes off on its own.

What's the most effective social media tactic you've used? Why do you think it worked?

How to announce your book with an e-mail blast

What’s the best way to announce your book via e-mail?

I’ve received quite a few book announcement e-mails lately, including some that were trying to achieve “Amazon best-seller” status. Sadly, most of the messages were not very compelling. More often than not, they were self-congratulatory (“I’ve achieved my dream!”) or self-serving (“If you buy my book on Amazon at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning, my book might become a best-seller!”). Some were brief: “My new book is out. Here’s a link where you can buy it.” Others were rambling. None of them told me why I’d want to buy the book – what was in it for me, the reader.

I don’t want you to repeat the mistakes I keep seeing in my inbox, so I’m sharing seven tips that will help authors with any level of marketing experience write a book announcement e-mail message that isn’t obnoxious, annoying, offensive, or downright sad :

1. Start with the text from your back book cover. It should tell us why we will want to buy your book, right? You might need to massage it to make it more personal, since e-mail is such an informal means of communicating.
2. It’s not about you. It’s about the person you’re writing to. Tell me what your book will do for me. Will it educate, inform, entertain, enlighten? What’s in it for me? How will your book improve my world, help me improve someone else’s world, or help me forget about my world?
3. Include a link where we can purchase the book. Seriously – you’d be surprised at how many messages omit this.
4. Forget the “help me make my book an Amazon best-seller” plea. Unless you are my total BFF, I don’t care if your book is a best-seller. All I want to know is whether I’ll like or need your book or whether I know someone else who would like it. If you feel compelled to be focused on that best-seller-for-five-minutes-on-Amazon plan (and my newsletter readers know how I feel about these campaigns), at least share information about your book, too.
5. Don’t come on too strong. You might suggest that it makes a nice gift, but don’t tell me that I “should” buy it for everybody on my holiday gift list. 
6. Ask me to share your news with my networks. If I know people who will want to know about your book, I’ll help spread the word. But sometimes I need to be reminded.
7. Remember that the quality of your announcement reflects the quality of your book, so make it as high-quality as you can. I received one this week that looked like a ransom note, with multiple fonts and sizes. And I know this wasn't what the author intended. You don't need to have a professionally designed, all-HTML'd-up message, but you do want something that reflects the quality of your book.

Send your announcement to as large a list as you can assemble, remembering that some people will be more interested in this news than others. And some are just naturally better at sharing and forwarding. And whatever you do, make this just the starting point for your book launch. There's lots more you could -- and "should" -- be doing.

Have you ever purchased a book based on an e-mail blast announcement? Why?

"Be your own book publicist" course for authors runs September 6-October 1, 2010

I teach an e-course called "Book Publicity 101: How to Build Book Buzz" that helps authors learn how to be their own book publicists. It addresses the biggest challenges most authors encounter when they realize they have to handle their own book publicity and promotion. They are often overwhelmed by the prospect of getting the word out because they don't know where to begin and would rather be writing than promoting.

The typical author:

• Struggles to figure out what to do first to promote or publicize the book.
• Is uncomfortable with promoting and would rather remain in the background.
• Doesn't know which activities will have the greatest impact on the book’s visibility.
• Hesitates to use social networking tactics because they're not sure how to.
• Doesn't quite understand why and how to schedule a virtual book tour.
• Isn't sure how to approach and pitch traditional media outlets in the most appropriate way.
• Might not be clear about the book's target audience or how to reach it through the media.
• Wants to do as much as possible to publicize a book without spending thousands on a publicist.
• Hears that getting on radio helps sells books but doesn't know how to do it -- or if it's a good idea for the book.

If any of this describes you, I can help you get over, under, or around all of your obstacles in this interactive and engaging four-week online course running September 6-October 1, 2010. It's taught in an easy-to-use forum where you will learn, practice, implement, and grow. Because you can come and go according to your own schedule -- whenever it's convenient for you, not me -- this option offers you maximum flexibility and learning potential.

Learn more about this very affordable and interactive course here (you can see testimonials from happy students there too); send me a note with questions.

 

Don't confuse NewsBasis with ProfNet or HARO

I recently learned about a new service that links journalists with sources. It's in Beta mode now, which allows test users to provide suggestions for making it more useful. I signed up as a journalist to use this service, NewsBasis, because I wanted to see how it worked and how it might differ from other services that are currently available, including ProfNet, a paid service, and HARO, a free one. I was intrigued enough by the site to invite founder Darryl Siry to do a Q&A here and he obliged. Here's our conversation.

What, exactly, is NewsBasis?

NewsBasis is a communications platform for journalists and companies to enable for effective and efficient media relations.

What is your goal for the service?

I'd like to be the standard technology platform for media relations, whether you are a journalist or on the other side of the table. We have a ways to go and lots of features to develop before we get there, but we are off to a good start.

How does a journalist use it?

Journalists can use our service in several ways:

1. They can search our database for expert sources and company points of view, to find sources or story angles
2. They can post specific requests to engage users. Users are notified based on their saved keywords or based on how the request matches their profile.
3. They can use the platform for researching articles using the real time media notification and annotation functionality.

How does a publicist or corporate communicator use the service?

PR folks and company folks can use the service in the following ways:

1. Embed their points of view in articles so that journalists can discover them when they search
2. Respond to specific requests from journalists that match their interests or where they can be valuable
3. Fill out their profiles so that Journalists find them in searches and NewsBasis can automatically route relevant requests to them.
4. Discover relevant news articles in real time using our media notification service (in the "news" tab)
5. Use the private annotation and sharing capabilities to collaborate within their teams.

Clearly, this service has more features than others. Why do you offer them – did you survey journalists about their needs, and did they request them?

It's a combination of my personal experiences and feedback from journalists, corporate comms folks and PR agency folks.

Do sources (companies, PR firms, etc.) pay a fee to access the journalist requests and if so, how much?

The service is free during the Beta. Eventually we will announce pricing for corporate and PR users but we expect the price to be very reasonable.

From what I can tell by clicking around the site, it uses a passive system. By that I mean that sources need to come to the site and search for opportunities they can contribute to. In contrast, other journalist-source matching services like ProfNet, HARO, and ReporterConnection push the queries out to the sources through e-mail messages. Tell me more about why you don’t connect your journalist and source users by e-mail. 

We want to focus on relevance above all. If you are a corporate user of NewsBasis, you can set up saved keywords so that any requests that match your saved keywords are routed to you by email. You can scan all requests on the site if you'd like but I think a better approach is to set up various keywords and make sure your profile is complete and very descriptive so you will be notified when something relevant is posted.

The site requires users to install Google Chrome. Why? Are you concerned that requiring that extra step will discourage some users who won’t want to install the software?

It doesn't require that you install Google Chrome - what it was doing was recommending to Internet Explorer users that they install a small program provided by Google called "Chrome Frame" to allow our application to work better in IE. Admittedly, this has caused some confusion for users and we are working right now to make this step unnecessary. Still, we think that everybody should use Chrome or Firefox, since they are far superior to IE and operate on open standards.

What’s the most important thing that publicity seekers need to know about NewsBasis?

That NewsBasis is not HARO or Profnet. It is a very different service that allows you to embed you or your client's point of view directly in articles. This is a powerful way to promote your thought leadership program or get your messages out.

Similarly, what’s the most important thing that journalists should know about it?

That NewsBasis is a resource that will make it easier for them to get their jobs done more easily and effectively.

+++++++++++++++

I can't offer an opinion of the service because I haven't used it yet to find sources, but I'll note that it's more complicated and has far more "layers" than ProfNet, HARO, or ReporterConnection. I think those layers and features will be more appealing initially to very tech-savvy users. Those who are uncomfortable with technology might find the options intimidating and not take advantage of them. To sign up as either a journalist or a communicator hoping to connect with reporters, visit http://www.newsbasis.com/.

Viral "epic nervous breakdown" video helps startup get distribution

Counter to what many think, your business is never too small for major media exposure. That's why I like stories like this one about Vital Energy, an energy drink created by a couple of recent college grads who have been selling it into stores themselves. These guys created one of the funniest product videos I've ever seen and, as hoped, it has gone viral, with more than one million online views. The video is going to be featured on a TruTV cable show and is being considered for MTV's Pranked.

Haven't seen the "epic nervous breakdown" video starring the (poor) mother of one of the founders? (She is a friend of a friend, who tells me the mom is normally pretty calm.) Here it is:



Most of the press surrounding this adventure has been in the trade and local media, which is the ideal mix for the company at this stage. Local media exposure is crucial to getting local distribution, particularly in Wegmans supermarkets. Starting locally helps them get the bugs out of their systems and learn as they do. If the guys can get the drink into their local Wegmans stores, they can probably get it picked up in other Wegmans supermarkets throughout the Northeast.

The trade publication exposure supports their distribution efforts. They don't have much much conventional consumer media exposure yet, but that's OK -- before they get on Good Morning America or Regis & Kelly, they should have much more widespread distribution.

I suspect these guys have a lot to learn yet about product manufacturing, distribution, and marketing, but their product video is sheer genius. Congratulations to them. I hope they enjoy fabulous success and are in a position to mentor other young entrepreneurs in the future.

August 6, 2010 is deadline for Nonproft PR Awards

The entry deadline for the Nonprofit PR Awards is August 6, so act quickly to submit your entry in categories ranging from from media relations to crisis management to corporate partnerships. This year's winners will be honored on November 3 at the National Press Club and featured in a special awards issue of PR News.

The awards are open to all associations, nonprofits, government agencies, NGOs and their agency partners.

The awards program is sponsored by PRWeb and presented by PR News. Please take a moment to thank them. Sponsors make the world go around.