Listen to your customers

There are many different responses to customer and staff complaints—some better than others.

Over the years, we’ve seen people who wanted to incorporate every idea that came their way to ones who wouldn’t listen to a word anyone said.

In the past, an unhappy client told some 10 people about their negative experience.

Thanks to the Internet, if someone hits a nerve today that 10 people could be 1,000, 10,000 or more.

For one city in California, two complaints is all it takes to get someone’s ear.

For one state, it only takes five letters on a particular subject.

For forward-thinking business people, one complaint—one person upset enough to make waves—should be enough for the company to question how to do it better.

When people are willing to listen to their customers, it not only creates better service—or a better product—but keeps up with a fast-moving market.

Because if your business doesn’t do it today, someone else’s will tomorrow.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity (916) 455-4790 or visit us at www.dellrichards.com.

Use your USP in your public relations

When I first began doing public relations, I had got a lot of dentists as clients.

At the time, dentistry was an even harder sell than it is today. To cope, my staff and I looked at what made the dentist really unique—not just in their work, but in their life.

Tying the hobby to the work, we pitched the dentist whose eye for detail showed up in his award-winning duck decoy carvings as well as his cosmetic dentistry and another whose drive for excellence led to four black belts in martial arts—and a reputation for being on the leading edge of his field.

We got a ton of press from this “Hollywood-style publicity,” more than we would have pitching sealants and implants.

Even though this type of marketing worked for others, we never used it for ourselves.

We were very creative people with many unique interests, but we concentrated on our professionalism, not our USP.

When I began studying fire arts, I never dreamed I’d be using fire as a unique selling point.

But, then a mutual friend introduced me to a member of the mayor’s staff because we both loved fire.

The connection opened a whole new realm for us, not only in our work, but in our marketing.

For the first time, we realized we should be publicizing our own unique interests because doing fire arts shows I’m disciplined, fearless and creative in a way that words never could.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity (916) 455-4790 or visit us at www.dellrichards.com.

Mistakes that wreck credibility with journalists

Journalists use a very specific writing style. Errors will wreck your credibility.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes people make and how to fix them:

First references always include the title. Obama may be used in a headline, but not in copy. The first reference is "President Obama".

Everyone else needs their full name and complete title: “Rachel Iskow, Sacramento|Yolo Mutual Housing Association Executive Director”.

Another example: “Mary Smith, a Sacramento resident”. The explanation depends on the subject of the story.

After that, use “Iskow”, “Smith” or ”S|YMHA”.

Description: For nonprofits and companies, you also need a sentence that explains what it does. Keep your audience in mind, however.

For trade journals, S|YMHA would be “a multifamily developer”. For mainstream media, it would be “an affordable housing developer” or “a housing developer for modest-income families.”

The most common mistakes are errors of upper and lower case. Use lower case for everything after the first reference: The “executive director” or “the nonprofit”.

Two other common errors:

“Over and “under” are for objects; “more than” and “less than” are for numbers.

“Last” is for the final one. “Past” is for this past week.

If in doubt, use the Associated Press Stylebook.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity at (916) 455-4790 or visit us at www.dellrichards.com.

Good article on handling social media crises

Since we recently wrote about a client who was concerned with Internet users posting information about them, even positively, we found this interesting article from LinkedIn on how to deal with social media issues, especially negative ones that apply to all media, including print and broadcast.

Some of the tips from "How to Deal with a Social Media Crisis and Prevent a Catastrophe," by Juan Sanchez, community manager at Waggener Edstrom, were:

Monitor your brand constantly,
Figure out what's going on before you react, but
React within 24 hours using the same medium, and
Have the CEO or someone responsible do it, and
Get the help of influencers.

Also, use SEO to push the good links in other media and, finally,
Think opportunity to engage with your fans.

For the full article, visit http://tinyurl.com/3zpk8ee.

For more information on our services, visit Dell Richards Publicity at www.dellrichards.com.

Give great word-of-mouth

We are currently doing publicity for a local event—pitching stories to editors and producers of print, television and radio as well as handling advertising content and a special supplement for the local weekly.

Due to budget constraints, we chose not to handle the social media, but we are involved with most of the media content.

On Wednesday at 4:15 p.m., a Facebook event page went out to 18 people, who shared it with 2,000 friends.

By 7:05 p.m., we got invited to the event, completing the circle.

On Thursday morning, a little more than 12 hours after, 194 people had responded “yes,” they were attending.

Twenty-four hours later, more than 3,000 people had been contacted with 400 responding “yes” or “maybe”, 114 saying “no” and nearly 2,500 awaiting response.

Less than one week later, the contact numbers were up to 4,000 with more than 1,000 replies.

With a usual event attendance of 8,000, it will be interesting to see what the Facebook numbers are by the event six weeks from now.

When an social media takes off, inviting guests and checking on responses creates word-of-mouth that reinforces interest and excitement.

While Facebook does not necessarily work as well for issues such as credibility, it can be a very useful tool if people get involved.

For more information, call us at 916.455.4790 or visit us online at www.dellrichards.com.