Today, I spoke with Richard Laermer, who is the author of five bestselling books including his latest one called 2011: Trendspotting. In this interview, Richard spends a lot of time explaining how public relations has changed, from the early days till now and helps us prepare for the future. He also touches on the different mediums we can use to help get the word out, how marketing has evolved and why personal branding is important right now. This interview is the longest interview I’ve ever conducted, but both Richard and I feel that you’ll get a lot out of it and learn something new.
From someone who uses Twitter, blogs, email newsletters, books, speeches, radio and TV, which do you value more than others? What is the easiest way for you to get the word out to your audience? 
I love Twitter – and it took me a while to realize how much fun 140 characters can be, especially if you do it all PERSONALLY and don’t let the auto-demons take over. I really think my own audience appreciates the @laermer personality because it’s – me. I also love to write books, but I think in the future my books will be chapter-pieces that people can subscribe to because, besides the publishers of Punk Marketing – out next month in a spanking new paperback – Harper Collins – I cannot trust that too many of the other publishers will be around much longer. They all seem to think printing product by people with platforms (that’s a lot of Ps) is more important than real writers’ works. Harper is proving that if you write something and push it – which they are doing – you can have an audience. My job is to make sure people know it’s out there!
The way to get the word out is to be relentless and never assume that even one person knows your product exists. It’s too easy to get caught up in “didn’t you see me in the Times the other day?” cause no one does. We are too overwhelmed to see anything so it’s your job to make sure the proverbial prospect sees everything. You do it. Relentlessly!
In your previous best-selling book Punk Marketing, how do you describe the evolution of marketing and the transfer of a corporate brand to a personal brand (and customers)?
Online research of business and persons represent big, big business. We’ve seen the ramifications of what can happen when you leave our virtual identity unprotected – people are just starting to learn the extent to which the internet can be used to learn about a person and track interests. I’d like to think that if you’ve ever googled yourself, an employee or a potential date that you have given some thought to how much your personal brand helps or hurts. But beyond the troubleshooting aspect of protecting your virtual identity, it is surprisingly easy to create or tweak your online persona to better market yourself or our business to potential googlers (or anyone searching for more information about you).
The largest markets of people who have something to gain from pushing a personal brand are potential employees and students, if you’re planning on doing a job search you should plan on your potential employer doing an internet search – are you familiar with what they will find? Businesses and executives that spend their time creating amazing sites but then overlook other sites in which they could make a bigger impact with a little extra effort. Blind dates!
Most people think of themselves as part of a bigger corporate entity and forget that it’s all about you – that in effect you are always the cog that greases your own branding wheel. It’s about how to create your own little piece of fame to rise up above the competition! Today you have to realize that the personal brand is much more important than ever, and no matter how committed you are to an enterprise in the end it’s your own sense of who you are and how you handle that that will in effect make you fail or succeed.
As the co-blog author of “The Bad Pitch Blog,” what is the single worst pitch you’ve ever heard?
I received in August what can only be classified as the worst pitch (and dumbest idea) (and most greedy letter) that I have ever gotten. And this time, unlike the ones you guys forward to Kevin and me, it came directly TO me. Which makes me think that the two people behind it were not only naïve, but also fabulously stupid.
I tried to get in touch with these folks to get some questions answered and although everyone they CC’d was wildly writing each other dumbfounded about receiving it, the twosome who hit the enter key and unleashed the following on the world –ultimate pitch for something not deserved –never wrote back.
So here’s to Liz Flowers and Scott Bland – let’s call hem BLAND FLOWERS – who though it sounds likely did not make this up, and who are receiving the BPB’s brand new honor of WORST PITCH IN THE WORLD. And incidentally, there’s not a whiff of the PR “specialty” to be found anywhere here.
From: Elizabeth Flowers [mailto:[email protected]]
Subject: Wedding Sponsorship
Hello, My name is Liz Flowers and my fiancé’s name is Scott Bland. We are a “not your average couple,” looking for a “not so average, ‘think out of the box’ type company” who would like to obtain some great exposure while truly showing pure generosity.
We will be getting married on November 15, 2008 at half past one o’clock in the afternoon at Cornerstone Harvest Church in Lima, Ohio. Our wedding is going to be an “open ceremony,” which means anyone can attend!! Cornerstone has well over two thousand members. Mind you, this does NOT include our families and friends that will be attending that are outside of our church. We do not desire the most extravagant display, but we do desire a day that will be memorable for anyone that attends while being able to start our lives together debt free!
With Scott being an inner city teacher for over 15 years and myself being a contracted administrative assistant, we are not gracing the covers of Forbes magazine, and on an average, the cost of a wedding is around $15,000 to $20,000 dollars.
With that being said, we are seeking sponsorship in exchange for media coverage and targeted publicity. Here’s how this would work…
We have built a wedding website that every guest will receive information on. The wedding site, www.scottandliz.org, not only features information about our special day, but will also feature an established page/link specifically for those companies that would like to take part in this offer. Your company will be able to offer our guests special discounts, if you choose, and a link to your personal business site! In addition, other ways to garner publicity are at the event itself:
* There will be mention of your business name in our programs.
* Your Business Name will be displayed on our church media screens
* We will place your business cards on the tables at our reception.
* Our DJ will have a special “sponsor toast.”
* We will do our best to obtain media coverageThis would be an exceptional venue to showcase your business and demonstrate your company’s generosity. Our guests on average will be young, single, and or married professionals, which is a perfect target audience for your business!!
Our goal is $10,000, which we believe, is very doable since it is close to the end of the year and would be a great way to write some things off. Also, our wedding date of Nov 15th is 2 weeks away from THEE biggest shopping day of the year! Wouldn’t it be great if your business were at the forefront of consumers’ minds?
Thank you in advance for your consideration!!
If you would like to take part in this sponsorship program, call me at XX, email me at [email protected], or simply go to www.scottandliz.org and click on “Wedding Sponsors” for details on where to send your gift.
Appreciatively,
Liz Flowers and Scott Bland
Ok, now let’s review:
- Besides the bad typos “THEE” biggest shopping day and a bunch of others that are Palin-worthy phraseologies, I want to rant about the fact they even sent it!
- ARE THEY KIDDING?
- Why should they get sponsorship as opposed to the million other wedded couples?
- The line “we are not gracing the covers of Forbes magazine” makes it seem like because they are not famous it makes them worthy. Dudes, maybe if you’d GOTTEN some press and had one angle that differentiated yourself besides “We’re worthy” of Wayne’s World paraphrasing, you might make sense.
- Most of all, when you think about the nerve it took to write this, calling themselves “the perfect target audience for your business” means these mental midgets have no idea what business—or email—or requests—or life…is all about.
What are 3 ways we can prepare for 2011 today?
- Be responsible more than ever – truly.
- Learn how to write.
- Find what you think will be the one city, one friend, one vocation, and one idea you will stick with – and plan to do so.
Do you think the “thrill of the chase” makes PR obsolete? There has been running commentary on this, which was originally raised by Steve Rubel and then Robert Scoble, Brian Solis and others chimed in.
You asked if PR is now obsolete? I think this a lot today but then again it occurs to me that people are necessary for a few reasons. In years past, the “science” of our industry was seen as a sham that we could put over on whoever contracted us. We did our jobs and, as long as we were charming and insouciant, most clients seemed to think we were in the way or a nuisance. Keeping clients happy was once a cakewalk. Write up press releases with some good words in them, get the messages right, pick up some ink, pat yourself on the back…rinse and repeat.
Then poof! All of a sudden, everyone became aware of the capabilities and value of real PR. The media began to tell their readers and viewers how much spin they receive. That stopped the coasting of our PR colleagues: No one can do what was once de rigueur, that “my report reads fine so I’m doing well” kind of PR. There is a need for fewer of us because so few can prove (read: provide proof of) the value-add for the profession.
Once those who employ us figure out they can do it themselves en masse, we might as well face facts: They’ll find a way to get someone who’s already being paid to do what we proclaimed only we could do. Or, to paraphrase Sandra Bernhard, without us, they’re suddenly NOT nothing. I remember 1990 like it was yesterday. My colleagues at Columbia Business School (I was PR Director) as well as the Stepfordish public-affairs director thought what I did was special and incomprehensible: ‘Richard got us on the front page of the Journal and the Times on the same day. However did he do this?’
No way any cynical businessperson would say that today. Our media friends write about how PR fit into their stories with such fervor it’s hard to imagine why anyone who skims papers or half-watches the tube doesn’t say, ‘Man, this PR thing sounds pretty darn easy to me.’ Another suggestion is that we start a new type of PR-speak that only the natives understand. Marketing speaks in a foreign language–why not us? But I’m trying to avoid doing something that can be undone.
We damaged ourselves by forgetting how much of our work is suspicious to the paper-pushers in our lives, but I see a way we might live again: The best, or most sensible, manner in which we can jump back into the ‘necessary’ bin is to provide, just like PBS, education with the entertainment. Maybe it’s time for us pros to hold the hands of our employers and customers, and display our wares so that we are not only great to work with but we’re also able to provide a learning experience in a subject everyone wants to learn more about. Could we prove our worth by just not talking about ‘found stats’ all the time and, instead, spending our daydreams imagining what it’s like to be the people we’re promoting? As we get more involved in the daily business happenings of C-level types, we ask tons of relevant questions and provide serious knowledge.
Here’s a two-fer: You find out more for your files and offer a more- than-cursory learning experience. And now the business types get an acute whiff of what we do. The people who think they can ‘do’ PR discover that our business successes are hard-won via thought and sweat; that is, we bring something to the proverbial table that only PR execs are knowledgeable about. We become the visionaries our elementary- school teachers wished for us.
PR News magazine has spent the last few years saying ‘get more involved in the business dealings of all clientele/managers.’ I say ‘go one step further. Teach.’ Make the curious see that you have the keys to knowledge. By providing education up and down the line, we can put a stop to the naysayers from assuming what we do is obvious. That’s a step toward keeping our jobs on tap, our revenue flowing and our clients engaged. It’s nothing less than a newfound sense of urgency for PR.
Then finally: This whole “simply don’t want our help” idea is complete egotistic crap. And I know because with the conglomeration of print and other media, and with bloggers always looking to be sure they aren’t missing the next new thing, everyone wants something – but it has to be real and without bullshit (that is, given to them with caveats included). Here’s my feeling on how good media relations – not the old PR – works.
PR firms have long acted as if campaigns require their expertise. Even as CEO of a PR firm, I tend to think otherwise. If you’re savvy and energetic, you can do your own PR without any special skills. All you really need is information that teaches you how to stay “on top.” I have started to really live by the double-edged credo: a) it’s not brain surgery and b) it can be fun.” “Fun” may not be a term that you associate with PR, and yet your PR emanates from your passion for what you do.
So how do you stay on top?
First, ask yourself, “What’s the most interesting thing about my business/organization/endeavor?” Be objective.
Next, connect that interesting, fun subject with a person, place, or event relevant to today’s world. Perhaps your company’s diesel serves as fuel for the light construction equipment that’s building a local nature trail. Maybe your profit-making jelly arose from your citrus-obsessed CEO’s dream in which the sun was a giant red grapefruit. (OK, maybe not, but still…) By exploiting such connections, you’ve completed the most crucial phase: finding a hook.
You’ve got a hook! Now research those media contacts that would be most interested in your story and pitch them. You must do so passionately, persistently, and, most of all, professionally. If you think you’ll annoy the media then STOP. Reporters need PR people. We give them stories. Even though members of the media may be busy, prove to people that you’re the real thing, and this genuine, concerted approach will open ears. You will establish yourself not only as a source of useful information, but also as a person in a helpful relationship.
Often, the most important part of the PR cycle involves what happens after the pitch! It’s all in the follow-up. Say that last sentence a few times. Please. Provide the specs for your diesel-powered diggers on time. Call to ensure that your contact got the samples of grapefruit jelly that you had couriered. Even write thank-you notes to those who cover your story. Do everything you can to keep up your end of the deal. Hopefully, after all your hard work, you’ve got buzz. As I always put it, “People are talking about you; your story is in front of the news.” Time to celebrate!
But you can’t afford to relax. You must finish the process. My own aggressive vision of PR (which has annoyed my agency’s weaker clients over the years) has us contacting other people, many larger audiences, with the same rapid-fire message. A diesel-powered nature-trail story could go in a national nature magazine as an example of a petrochemical company promoting environmental conservation. Or a jelly success could fill a human-interest slot on regional cable. We continue to spin and release interesting information to the press and others who act like media!
On top of that, you are constantly linking up reporters and experts on different topics as a means of “source filing,” as I like to name this. With source filing, you position your company as an expert in fields related to your business. You recommend your fuel company’s CEO as a speaker about the need for more park lands. You mention that your jelly company spokesperson could tout the health benefits of citrus in general. Source filing capitalizes on your PR successes to broaden your influence and generate even more PR.
A lot of what I’ve been teaching in classes at other agencies in seminars sometimes makes people feel woozy and slightly mind-boggled. Sure, the steps are simple enough, but the pitching, spinning, and source filing can never end. Staying on top is really the art of maintaining “relationships.” Being ongoing, dynamic, friendly, and mutually informative makes a relationship between businesspeople and media work! Do the hard work of forging the initial connections, and your contacts will help you out. You will network your way to PR success.
What happens if you are not up to the challenge? There is selling shoes. A lot of PR people think they need to depend on others to make the whole shebang work for them. It’s like something in them says: “I will use my colleague’s contacts,” or “I don’t really know if this angle works, or “Maybe I’ll wait and see.” In end—no. You need to get up off your butt and do it yourself! There’s a reason the my other business book is called Full Frontal.
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Richard Laermer is a frequently-quoted authority on media culture and hype, Richard Laermer is a PR visionary, former journalist, and author of five bestselling books including 2011: Trendspotting, Punk Marketing and Full Frontal PR. As a blogger he pens the infamous industry watchdog Bad Pitch Blog and does his best to combat insanity on Huffington Post. His PunkMarketing.com is among the marketing industry’s favorites and he contributes to several other blogs on a constant basis. Laermer’s work as a reporter dates to 1979; his columns, reporting and reviews have been published in The New York Times, New York Daily News, Reuters, USA Today, New York Observer, People, US Weekly, Chief Executive, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Editor & Publisher, and others. He founded RLM PR in 1991 after a stint as PR Director at Columbia Business School.
