Jendi Coursey

As you think about your marketing and promotion for the coming year, consider who else serves your clients. I’m not talking about your direct competitors, but rather organizations or individuals who provide a related or complementary product or service.

If you are aware of a something that you genuinely believe would benefit your clients, why not publicly promote it? Promoting someone else says to your clients, “I’m looking out for you.” And I guarantee the folks who provide the product or service you promote will see you favorably.

In my line of work, I help with clients on public relations and communication strategy. This often spills into related areas like marketing and advertising that require graphic design, photography, and web design. It helps my clients when I say, “I know a great graphic designer. Her name is Karen Adair, and she owns DG Creative. Or, “For commercial photography, I think Cat Vibert can really help you tell your story. And, “If you need a web design that is both functional and visually appealing, I always call Marc Carson.” (I really do recommend these three people. They are amazing at what they do.)

You can informally promote a related business, or you can team up and agree to a mutually beneficial cross promotion plan. Be aware that you’re putting your reputation on the line when you promote someone else’s stuff, so be discerning. But as long as you choose well, you can actually enhance your own reputation when you enhance someone else’s.

If you’d like to learn more about how to do this, let me know.

As you contemplate goals for next year, why not create a whole year’s worth of social media content at the same time? This will actually save you time and likely result in better posts. Rather than trying to come up with brilliant social media posts when you’re too busy or too tired, you can create a year’s worth of posts and get them scheduled in a single afternoon.

If your social media marketing efforts are a collaborative endeavor, create a Google Docs spreadsheet and invite contributors to add organizational events/promotions. When you’ve collected this information, you’re ready to start. You can either schedule posts right in the social media platform or create a spreadsheet with planned posts.

I usually begin with the easiest posts: those related to major holidays. While you’re wishing everyone Merry Christmas, you can also include information about when you’ll be closed. For example, you could post: “Merry Christmas! We wish you a happy, healthy holiday with family and friends. We’ll be closed December 25-26 and December 31-January 1. We look forward to serving you again in the new year.” That same afternoon, you could plan the post for the first week in July: “Happy Fourth of July! We’ll be closed July 3-4. Enjoy your Independence Day celebration.”

You get the idea.

Next, take a look at your organizational calendar. Does your business have seasonal promotions? Plan the posts for them now. If you’re in the health care industry, you can provide useful information about flu shots in the fall and immunizations in August. Each month has different health observances, so piggy-back on those to share timely, relevant messages. If you’re in education, the school year offers plenty of opportunities for pre-planned posts, from back-to-school nights to parent-teacher conferences to school board meetings. If you’re in real estate, you can recommend seasonal home maintenance tips.

Regardless of your industry, always post information from the consumer’s perspective. Instead of describing your services, your posts should explain how you meet consumer needs–share information about how much better your consumers’ lives will be once they use your service, attend your event, or take your advice. Describe the problem you’re solving and then demonstrate how you solve it.

I highly recommend using engaging photos or images with each post. Most of us are attracted to interesting visuals. Even if your text contains the funniest, most heart-warming, or most profound message, without a picture it will often get missed.

Bing.com  has a great way of allowing you to share images without running afoul of copyrights. Once you enter a keyword image search, a little menu across the top of the images (under the first image bar) appears. It includes image size, color, type…and license. If you click on license, you’ll see options like, “Free to share and use.” These filters help assure you don’t inadvertently steal someone’s image.

Like I said earlier, you can create a spreadsheet with planned posts and enter those posts at the beginning of each week (or each month), or you can go ahead and schedule a year’s worth of posts so they populate on the predetermined date in the social media platform of your choice. Then, when you’re feeling inspired, you can add posts to augment what you’ve already planned.

By creating a social media calendar ahead of time, you don’t have to come up with witty remarks and engaging posts under pressure. And because the pressure’s off, you are far more likely to come up with those witty, engaging posts. If you need help getting started, let me know.

Most journalists pride themselves on checking their facts and informing the public about all manner of information. However, mistakes happen and in the world of digital media, the old proverb holds truer than ever: a lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still getting its pants on.

So what can you do?

First, stay cool. While it can be frustrating and expensive to correct misinformation, attacking the person who made the mistake rarely has the desired effect. When was the last time you bent over backwards to help someone who yelled at you or embarrassed you in front of others? So, take a deep breath and be polite.

The nature of the mistake and the public response should guide your next move. Mediabugs.org categorizes journalistic mistakes as follows:

• Error of Omission
• Ethical Issue
• Fabrication
• Faulty Statistics or Math
• Headline Problem
• Misquotation
• Mistaken Identity
• Other
• Photo/Illustration Error
• Simple Factual Error
• Typo, Spelling, Grammar

Clearly, some of these are more damaging than others.

If a story includes a factual error, a typo, or some other black-and-white mistake that’s relatively easy to correct, most reputable media outlets will print a retraction and correct the online version of the story. To facilitate this, call or email the journalist and outline the error. If you have documentation supporting your position, share it.

If a story misses a critical fact, it’s still important to share this with the journalist, but it’s less certain as to whether the media outlet will print a correction. As journalists scramble to keep up with a 24-hour news cycle, they sometimes go to press before they’ve collected all the salient facts. The hope is that by bringing the omission to the journalist’s attention, he or she will, at the very least, use the new information if the story continues to develop.

Almost regardless of the mistake, it’s important to get the corrected information out as soon as possible. Depending on the severity of the mistake, informing the journalist is only the first step. If the mistake threatens your reputation, get in touch with your stakeholders directly to share the facts (see my article on how to develop clear, concise messages). Consider using social media, advertising and other media outlets to tell your side of the story. Hold press conferences. Schedule radio interviews. Make a YouTube video. Find reputable surrogates who will share the truth for you, and who will strongly defend your integrity.

Please note that I said, “Almost regardless of the mistake… ” Before you go completely nuts, pounding your chest and excoriating the folks who got the story wrong, make sure it is not your bruised ego making a mountain out of a molehill. Sometimes, it’s best to let a little correction run and leave it at that. You don’t want to draw more attention to the mistake than would have occurred otherwise.

How many times has someone asked you to describe what you do, what you’re promoting, or what you believe in, and you fumble the opportunity? If you aren’t prepared to answer, it’s easy to fail. What people are often asking (without asking) is “What’s the IMPACT of what you do, what you’re promoting, or what you believe in?” They want to know why it matters, and how it affects them.

Let’s use my communications work as an example. What do I do? I do a lot of writing: columns/blogs, press releases, marketing plans, and website content. Are you bored yet? I am.

If I have the length of an elevator ride to share what I do, it’s gotta be interesting. I try to figure out what it is about my work that would be valuable to someone.

To the experienced CEO with too much on his or her plate, I could say something like, “By ghost-writing your blog, I help broaden your influence, establishing you as the expert and thought leader you are. I can take your ideas and use your voice to connect with your audience. That leaves time for you to do what you do best.”

I like the direct, concrete approach, but there are many great approaches. Using advice from one of my favorite marketing books, Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick, I recommend incorporating several of the following attributes into your elevator speech: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, an emotional appeal, and/or a great story.

If you’d like help developing your elevator speech, let me know.