Polly's Power-PR

How to handle apologies can be a touchy subject. In a recent issue of Inc. Today's Small Business News, there was an interesting item entitled, "Meet the apologizers," which referenced a Chicago Tribune article," Airlines employ professional apologizers." Featured in the article is Fred Taylor, Jr., official apologizer for Southwest Airlines Co. His job is to apologize within 24 hours to passengers on any flight where they were inconvenienced. Inconveniences range from mechanical delays to passengers who go berserk. According to the Tribune article, Southwest has been operating this apology program for ten years and "CEO Gary Kelly said it makes good business sense to talk to customers after a bad experience, particularly in a competitive landscape." Southwest airlines has a lower rate of complaints than any other major U.S. airline. Do you know what your clients think about your service? Do you talk to or survey your customers on a regular basis to determine their level of satisfaction? Keeping in contact with your customers, particularly after a bad experience, makes good business sense and it's good PR!

Advertising Age reported on August 23 that Edelman, a traditional PR agency, had won out over a digital shop competing to produce a digital campaign for Ben & Jerry's. Says Michael Bush, who authored the article: "Like every other marketing sector, the PR industry took a beating in 2009. But unlike the last major downturn in the PR business, which was brought on by the dot-com bust and 9/11, the industry is experiencing a much quicker rebound this time around — and a good part of the credit might (go) to social media. With marketers looking for both social-media and digital guidance, PR has seen increased and broader assignments from current clients, closer relationships with CMOs and a much bigger pipeline of new-business pitches." Who says old PR Pros  can't learn new tricks?

Tired of the summer TV reruns, I stopped at the Red Box while I was grocery shopping and brought home the movie, "Ghost Writer." WHEW! Roman Polanski's film is a dark depiction of the ghost-writer's profession. It' s also a dark depiction of Martha's Vineyard and in stark contrast to the sunshine and happy crowds shown as backdrop to President Obama's summer visit. While watching the film, I was fighting writer's block and thinking about my next blog post. The subject of ghost-writing for blogs keeps coming up… most recently, I'm told that Gina Watkins of Constant Contact gave it a thumbs-down in a presentation to the Loudoun County Chamber. Without arguing the pros and cons of ghost-writing, I feel that honesty in the message is of primary importance in a any type of writing for PR purposes. As Polanski's film demonstrates, deception can be a dangerous business, PR-wise or otherwise.

Being a PR person is never dull. With each client, there is something new to be discovered. Recently, I learned about Moxibustion, a technique used in traditional Chinese medicine. My client, Dr. Owen Liao of Whole Health Medical Center in Alexandria, VA, was demonstrating the technique for Vicky Hallett, health and fitness editor for the Washington Post Express. Moixibustion involves placing tiny moxa-sticks of incense on a person in their cold spots – to simulate the blood flow or the flow of Qi (energy). Dr. Liao also demonstrated his acupuncture technique. Have I piqued your curiosity? Vicky will be writing about her experience in the Express. More to come….

NewsChannel 8 has rebranded itself as TBD TV. I'm not sure what this will mean to the PR community. I'm still in mourning over the cancellation of Washington Business Tonight, which offered local businesses, small as well as large, their four minutes of fame. Apparently, Let's Talk Live is still alive and well, moved back from noon to 11 a.m. But Let's Talk Live is about lifestyle and entertainment, not business. Long-term implications of these changes to be determined (TBD).

PR  is about telling stories and story opportunities are everywhere, even in your own backyard. Kay and Tom Horst enjoy outdoor living year-round on their new screened-in porch, created by Michael Sauri of TriVistaUSA and featured on Bob Vila's Website The Horst's porch is slide #6 of 13 porches showcased on the site of home improvement and remodeling guru Bob Vila. The new porch, which adds 330 square feet of living space to the house, sits on top of the framing of an old two-level deck. The porch roof spreads outward and upward like the wing of a butterfly, creating a high ceiling for air flow, aided by two exterior-grade ceiling fans. Sauri used a "cricket," a saddle-shaped projection in the middle of the roof, to shoot rain water into up-sized gutters on the sides. With the new roof, the Horsts can enjoy the vista of the woods bordering their property.

I agree! Honesty is the best policy in interpersonal relations and in your relations with the media. If you are not honest with the media, they will sense this and they won't listen to you.

I heard Steven Gaffney speak Friday at Margaret Walpole's Metropolitan Business Council. An expert on honest interpersonal communications, Gaffney spoke about Five Principles to Grown Your Business and Improve Relationships. A big subject for a 20-minute speech!

Here are Gaffney's five principles for honest communications:

1. We train and condition people in how we want to be treated. "We encourage people to lie," Gaffney said, if we are not honest about our feelings, if we are inconsistent in our communications and if we are defensive.

2. Model the behavior you seek in others because of the law of reflection, aka "the Golden Rule."

3.Input determines our output. The five people you spend the most time with determine your outlook, he said.

4. Be clear on your negotiables and non-negotiables.

5. The power of appreciation. If your honesty is always in a negative vein, people will stop listening. Take time to express your appreciation.

I appreciated Gaffney's speech so much that I bought his book, "Honesty Sells." Stay tuned…. Also, I want to express my appreciation to Margaret Walpole for presenting another inspiring program. The MBC meets the last Friday of every month. Plan to attend on August 27.

If you are targeting a columnist at a major publication to write about your client, be patient. Persistence is the cornerstone of Power-PR. Making a major hit for a client can take anywhere from four months to a year. In today's Washington Post is an example of a major hit for my clients, Matt and Judy Curry of Curry's Auto Service. They are featured in Tom Heath's "Value Added" column 

To pitch a story to a major business columnist, you need to have a good story about a company that has some traction. Present facts and figures to tune up your presentation. And you need to stay in touch. Keep sending reminders. Consider the old marketing adage: the Rule of Seven. A prospect has to see your marketing message at least seven times before that prospect will take action.

Tom has been writing his "Value Added" column for about three years now. He is the only writer on the Washington Post whose domain is local business. I'm not talking about Capital Business, where he writes another column called, "Capital Buzz." I'm talking about the A Section in the Washington Post.

I told Tom I was going to write a blog post about his column and asked him, "What kind of stories are you looking for or what makes a good pitch to you? I am writing the blog from the PR perspective. I thought I would talk about persistence…."

"My motto: Persistence is everything," he said.

Jennifer Abernethy, social media expert and author of the Complete Idiot's Guide to Social Media Marketing, discusses how social media can help you develop two-way communications with your clients and prospects:

"Maybe you simply want another way to build relationships with your current clients and new prospects. Now, this is a great strategy as well. By doing this, you engage in more two-way conversations with your clients and prospects using social media platforms. It gives you an opportunity to listen more and understand what your clients are thinking about."

You might consider the social media tools – Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook – as hearing aids!

Having just recovered my hearing after a sinus infection and a bumpy flight on a commuter airline, I thought I would share my perspective on listening, especially power listening.

I went to visit my daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren in Charlotte, N.C. Because my ear was clogged, I tried even harder than usual to listen, especially to my grandchildren. Because I don't see them that often. Because I want to be part of their lives. When I was rearing my three children, I didn't always have time to listen. I was too busy doing. "That's all right," my daughter said. "We didn't listen to you either – just kidding!" But she's right.

The lesson here is that we need to stop and listen. Not just to our families but to our clients. We need to practice power listening. According to the Free Online Dictionary, power is "the ability or capacity to perform or act effectively."

 Power listening is the precursor to Power-PR.

Today, we are subjected to the proverbial information overload. Unless we practice power listening, we will never know what is important to our clients . In order to communicate with our clients, to influence them or sell to them, we need to know what media they read or watch, what works or doesn't work for them and what moves and affects them. Once we gain that perspective, we will be more effective in our communications. Then we can practice Power-PR.

Thanks, Jennifer!

Gene Weingarten has another winning column in today's Washington Post Magazine: " A digital salute… to online journalism." The rapid advance of online media is both good and bad for us PR professionals. Yes, we can all self-publish. That's good. But as newspapers continue to constrict, it becomes harder to get our stories published in the print media and reader potential is reduced. So we experienced PR people have to resort to keywords and phrases and celebrity name-dropping. Thanks for the suggestion, Gene!