SWOT more than mosquitoes this summer

Everybody hates strategic planning...at least that is what I’ve heard. Most think it a dull and boring, dry exercise in tiny details. It can be an exciting look into a company’s future.

Many years ago, I learned a technique that is very popular and is a very simple way to begin your steps towards a strategic plan for your business.

It’s called SWOT analysis. The acronym stands for:

Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats.

The simple premise is that if you can enumerate all conditions that fit each of the categories you can begin to see your company or organization as a whole. You can understand that if you, “went away tomorrow” who would miss your services? You can comprehend you’re your competition’s offerings compare to yours. You can begin to be certain that your offerings and products fit your company’s reason for being.

Sure there are certainly more sophisticated planning processes, but this has worked well for me when working with clients.

The key is complete honesty with yourself, colleagues and all who participate in the analysis. The best experiences I’ve had with this include inviting each participant to list their observations under each category. Then everyone comes together to bring all their observations to the group.

Participants can then look at each item against the goal of the company and primarily the needs of the company’s customers/users. They must come first because if their needs aren’t being met, then the company will soon be out of business.

Generally work groups are then formed to create strategies to apply to each weakness, opportunity and threat.

Just realize that unlike mosquitoes, you can’t simply squash your issues.

Photo credit to mhoey at fickr creative commons

What do weddings and public relations have in common?

Planning--or at least they should. Because my son is getting married in a week, my mind's been on all the aspects of planning the rehearsal dinner, what I'll wear, what my husband will wear, how and when we'll travel to the wedding, and where we'll stay. I've been working on this for a long time as have the bride and her family, as well as the groom. We're so excited about this event and what it means for all of us.

I've heard of an old saying that is abbreviated PPPPPPP. Boy is it true.

Your company's public relations/special events should be planned just as a bride plans her wedding. You should think carefully before making the commitment to undertake a PR program and then you should plan diligently. And, just like a bride, you should use lots of check lists.

Everyone looks forward to the Big Day. If you are opening a new branch, store, adding a new product line, promoting or laying off staff, you need to be prepared.

Think of what message you want to communicate and why, who cares and why, what will they want to know, will they need to be invited to an event and if they are invited, do you include them on every party of only the main event.

Don't leave anything to chance. Think each and every item through and prepare ahead so that you won't have to react, but instead can act. And on the day your big news breaks, you will be prepared.

**Photo credit: William P. Smithem; Bride on her wedding day at the Francis Beidler Swamp in Dorchester County. Thanks, Bill. For more of Bill's website designs.

Rooftop Bar Invites Ladies for Martinis, Music, and a Good Cause

Calling all charitable fashionistas: The Rooftop Bar and Dress for Success are partnering for a Little Black Dress Party June 18, 2009, starting at 5:30 pm. All ladies who arrive in a black dress will receive a free martini, and those who donate an item of clothing will be entered into a raffle to win a new dress from Utopia, courtesy of The Rooftop Bar and Vendue Inn.

There will be live music by Meeting Reid, and the full bar menu will be available. All donations benefit Dress for Success, a nonprofit organization that provides women with the professional attire needed to thrive in the workplace. Relax on the rooftop while socializing in style, cleaning out the closet, and helping a great organization.


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About The Rooftop Bar:
Located in the heart of Charleston by Waterfront Park, Rooftop Bar is the ideal spot to enjoy picturesque harbor views while sipping your favorite cocktail with friends or grabbing a bite to eat. Open daily from 11 am – 12 am. 19 Vendue Range, Charleston, South Carolina 29401

When is a plan not a plan?

It happens all the time. A client seeks and retains a marketing and PR firm for their counsel and implementation of plans.

The professional researches the market, analyzes the situation and drafts a plan with a unique selling proposition and positioning. The client reviews the plan and determines that only one of fifteen items is important to them; however, the fifteen items are all interdependent and support the client’s stated goal. The PR / marketing professional reformats the plan, frequently offering guidance that as reformulated the results may not meet the client’s goals. The professional ultimately implements the items that the client authorizes and then results aren’t what the client seeks.

Whose fault is this? The client’s or the professional’s?

When a client pays their hard earned dollars for PR and marketing advice, and then ignores what they’ve paid for and won’t undertake the campaign the way it is presented we should reformulate. The client must understand that reformulating the plan costs time and money...and many clients don’t feel they have additional amounts of either to sustain a second round of planning.

Not every client has all the resources to undertake everything we plan. We create plans that meet a client’s stated goals and resources. However, it is exasperating when we spend our time, wisdom, experience, energy and knowledge writing a plan that is ignored.

So, going into the planning process the client must be absolutely frank about what they can afford, sustain, and ultimately what budget resources they have to focus on their goal.

If you are a business who would like to retain a marketing and PR firm, analyze what and why you want to work with a firm. Understand what resources (money, personnel) you have and then be forthright with your prospective firm. Understand that when you tell your prospective counsel what you need, want and can pay for and then reject sound advice you have just wasted your money.

As professionals we must make sure we comprehend what a client is asking of us. Often we’d love to give them an “all in” project where every initiative we can think of is included, but if the client didn’t ask us for that we’re wasting our time and their money.

A successful marketing and PR initiative is one that is carefully crafted to be of use, return results and fit the budget. If the budget isn’t adequate to gain the desired results, let the client know that you can’t assist them. It’s hard to say, “No, thank you.” but sometimes it is worth it.

Freeing the creative spirit

With the stress in the work world we can forget that ours is a creative profession. One that requires demands renewal. Most of us worry daily about the source of the next client, the next project. We forget the old lesson, "each day is sufficient unto itself." The stress wears away at our source, leaching the qualities we need to be productive.

Each day I take time to enjoy the quiet of the early morning hours. I ride my bike, rock on the porch and sip coffee while reading the paper. This is when I gather the forces together that allow me to work daily.

But sometimes we need more. We need a cleansing that comes from intense connection. For some this is religion, or friends or poetry. For me it is sharing life with my friends. Connecting with the universe in a way that gives me understanding of the humanity that we share. Other times is is in my garden. Or watching the birds that thrill me as they visit the flowers I grow.

Creativity is like a garden. There is a wildness and a cultivated aspect to the best of both. A good gardener does all the hard work so that she can relax and enjoy the prospect across the beauty she's coaxed into being.

Finding that manner of releasing your creativity by either work, relaxation, exercise, or sharing with friends is important. For me it is primal. I can neither work or write without it.

Southern Living editor tells it like it is

On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of sharing dinner with Pat Wilens, associate features editor at Southern Living. Her beat is South Carolina. Pat shoulders the large responsibility of making sure the news their readers want is included in the magazine.

Who is their reader? She is a professional or working woman in the South or who cares about the South. She is someone who enjoys caring for her family, her home including her garden and traveling across the South. Their reader retreats into the magazine at the end of a long day. She likes to dine out and to cook, to garden and to decorate her home. Pssst...Pat says we should look for more about home style in coming issues of the magazine.

At my urging, Pat agreed to share some of her pet peeves and insights into her life as an editor. Most of them boil down to the oft given advice, read the publication, and don’t waste the editor’s time.

The key to what is appropriate or interesting to their reader lies in the SL reader profile. Southern. Female. Of, by or from the South. Nothing else makes the cut. Period. You can understand Pat’s frustration when she gets calls from publicists in California hawking a California spa or restaurant.

As an editor, Pat is often up to her elbows in stories that are all written by Southern Living staff so her time is very limited. SL is one of the few publications that is totally staff produced.

“Why do PR people call, interrupt my work to ask me if I’m interested in a story?” “It’s their job to figure that out. For example, a PR person called to ask if I’d write about their client’s real estate development. Why don’t they figure out that this is not news? That’s advertising.”

Another peeve is PR people who don’t read the publication. “I have one PR person who calls me regularly to inquire how to have something listed in the calendar of events. Every time she calls, I gently remind her, ‘as it is written in the magazine...’” It’s hard to imagine that this publicist had done this more than once. From Pat’s tone I understand just how frustrating it is for her to try to school PR people in their jobs. She has her own to do.

Pat also shared her pique with book publicists. The magazine has little space for book reviews or publication notices. Occasionally they may have space for a few paragraphs about a book that might appeal to their readers. However, Pat says that publicists often send books that have no appeal to the readers of Southern Living. The fate of these books is the landfill, something that obviously distresses book lover Pat. They used to take books to the local library, but are now forbidden to bring more. There is no space at SL for all these unrequested books. So, to the landfill with them. On the rare occasion when she’d like to receive books, she’s invited publishing houses to send via e-mail or mail a few paragraphs about the book along with a cover image, but none have taken her at her word.

Recently a children’s book publicist sent an exquisite package via FedEx. Pat said, “She must have thought I’d really need to get this box overnight. It contained a beautifully printed piece about the book, a release and the book.” Pat’s voice rises as she questions, “Why did they send me that? We don’t write about things for children. We write for our readers’ interests, but not about what to read to their children.”

Pat provided a bit of insight into the changing world of magazine publishing. The downturn in the economy has changed advertiser’s frequency and placement choices making it harder to project when a story may be included in the magazine given changing page counts. She often will prepare more stories than make it into the publication, meaning some may wait longer for inclusion.

I shared with her how clients often push PR people to do things we know are incorrect, but demanded by the client. Such as send news to publications when we know that is not a target. We often are pulled between two ends-client and media.

Publicists who work in large firms have their own set of challenges as I understand it. Large firms bill for each release and so they pull large queries of media contacts from media databases and send materials to each, which increases the billing.

Pat and I enjoyed getting to know one another and coming to understand each other’s challenges just a bit better. We parted knowing that by my sharing this with you via this blog, we publicists can do our jobs better.

PR not always about your products, events

Many people fall into the trap of believing that PR is only about gaining earned media placement for a company’s products or news events.

There is another side of publicity and that is using the information about your leaders and staff to humanize and set your company apart.

As an example, a local video production company has a photographer who is interested in documenting a small social business which is taking medical supplies to Ghana. Sharing information about the photographer’s search for funding and the skills that he will use to document the project can support the cause and expand the image of the company in the minds of consumers.

I’m not suggesting that you exploit your staff, but that you seek opportunities to offer information that really opens up what people think of your business. If your CEO is a singer who performs at the local coffee house on open mic nights, use the angle of how a CEO with a variety of interests makes a better leader.

Gaining earned media is more than just telling us that you’ve just hired a new Director of Marketing. Seek out the interesting information about your staff and share it with the media. We are all more than just our titles and functions. We are the people who make up the company, not the human resources. So, share the interesting information about those who are the life of the company.

photo courtesy of lorri37 on flickr creative commons