“Aha! Foiled Again!”

[Adapted from the "Curses, foiled again!" expression originated by the classic "ROCKY & BULLWINKLE" cartoon show...and with apologies to and acknowledgment of: the Northwest Minneapolis, MN, and Dartmouth, MA, hair salons of the same "Foiled Again" namesakes, also foiledagain.biz stationery and foiledagain.net custom foil stamping, and the "Foiled Again" CD and song and group, the Facebook page, and the Derby, England, "Foiled Again" Fencing Club. Ain't Bing wonderful?]  

With so many contemptuous disingenuous manipulative self-serving business souls running around out there, your odds as business owner of being “taken” by someone, escalate –it seems to me– in proportion to the growth of your reputation for integrity.

I’m referring to the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” types, the kinds of prospective partners and clients or customers who are masters of deception. They are disarming; they pick up on and exploit your enthusiasm; their false commitments seem credible.

Beware Falsified Authenticity!

The motto, slogan, branding line, t-shirt, bumper sticker that best represents the behaviors of these business impostors roaming the planet –and liberally practicing falsified authenticity– might be best expressed in three words:  Promises Not Kept.

Every business owner and entrepreneur has run across people in this category who inevitably cost them large amounts of “learned my lesson” time and money. Some may simply swindle you out of advances, commissions, or expense money. Some may actually be bold enough to bilk you and then take you to court, even blackmail you.

The business world is not just one big happy place!

Sadly, the business world is not just one big happy place filled with genuine people walking high moral ground who are anxious to help everyone in their path take a giant step closer to nirvana.

That’s not to suggest that utopia is impossible to reach; it’s simply an unlikely business destination for many.

It’s also not to suggest that most business leaders aren’t authentic; I believe they are! Or that they don’t practice goal-setting aimed at making the world a better place, I believe most do!

It’s the “one rotten apple” theory that every business owner and manager needs to be constantly and forever on the alert to avoid, because the associated risks of dissing the possibilities can bring down any business literally overnight.

Here’s the least you can do when you feel the least bit uneasy about someone who works him or herself into a position of significant influence and/or compensation (e.g., hiring or promoting someone to a key position, retaining an outside consultant or creative service or professional advisor, considering an investment or operations or financial or marketing partner, etc.):

• Do due diligence. Don’t stop with routine questions or reference calls. Ask references for references and talk with them (“Who else in your organization might I speak with who worked with this person when she was there?” is often a productive and revealing route to take).

• Be suspicious of offers that seem unbusinesslike, until proven otherwise.

• Have a meal together. Ask. Listen. Observe. Note the ways an individual deals with others (e.g., foodservice personnel? people at the next table?). Arrange to be interrupted and see how on-track the person stays, how agitated he responds (or reacts?) to the interruption.

Worried about these kinds of steps seeming too tricky? Worry instead about misreading someone because you put blinders over your good intentions. We’re talking here about the destructive minority who manage to infiltrate almost every business at some point.

They are people who are typically skilled communicators, who can be good at deception — even eye contact, handshakes, mental hand-holding and back-pats.

If you choose to let them set you up be a pawn (fill in the blank) . . . 

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

First and third OR

first and reverse?

Given the enviable place to have runners when you’re up (first base and third base), you might think tonight’s post is another baseball story, or first down and a reverse hand-off in football . . . Sorry, sports fans: This one’s about an unusual car, and your unusual business decisions . . . but that’s getting a step ahead; let’s get back to the car. 

I once had a choice of gear combinations for a car I was purchasing. I needed something to get back and forth to college, back and forth to work, and back and forth to parties (some things never change!). A friend of mine, Joe, had THE car for me!

It was an all-black 1954 Sunbeam Talbot 90. Now you may think that sounds like it should be on  the kitchen counter for blending your okra and lima bean smoothies, but it was a car – a classic luxury vehicle in England in its heyday.

It had a sunroof, leather interior, rumble seat, running boards along each side, a hidden pull-out bar in the back, fog lights, six hidden compartments, and barely a mark. It was only a few hundred dollars “because it had a little gear problem,” but ”had to be seen,” Joe said. He was right. It was a dream car. Almost.

The “little gear problem” meant I would have to make a decision. I could have only first gear and third gear, OR only first gear and reverse gear. Hmmm. First and third meant revving the thing up to 20-25 mph (which sounded like a dozen weedwhackers in flight), and then quickly “pop” it into third gear (it had “Synchromesh” for gear shifting with some ease) and cruise along, having completely by-passed the missing second gear.

OR . . . I could have first gear and reverse gear – always a good thing, said Joe, in case I ever needed to back up! I asked about speed, but was advised that “something had to go” and I could only have one or the other. With first and reverse, I would of course be able to parallel park, and get out of sticky situations (a date’s driveway?) without having to get out and push.

I could floor it in first and get to the weed-whacker noise level, then pop it into neutral and coast to a crawl, then pop it back into first and floor it again, etc. I took first and reverse. My decision didn’t please a lot of other drivers, but I couldn’t imagine never needing to go backwards.

Has your business been forced to go backwards in this economy? Were you prepared for it? Were you barreling along going forward when you first saw the telltale signs of government incompetence rewarding big dumb companies for doing everything wrong instead of smart small businesses for doing things right? Did you have to shake your head like a wet dog? Are you still?

Decisions that plan for future disaster (building an underground bomb shelter, investing in emergency crank-up radios with every news item about increased awareness of terrorist “chatter,” taking a loss on eBay for your world series ticket options for the Cubs and the Mets) are not always the best to actually implement, but thinking through contingency arrangements is always a good thing.

Developing an exit strategy for a brand new business is like having a pre-nuptual agreement. It seems like a stupid negative influence at the moment of highest positive attitude. It flies in the face of gut instinct. But it is not a bad idea, and it will almost always be of primary concern to any person or entity who is investing in the new business. 

Leave your self and your business “wiggle room.” You may not need to build a bomb shelter, but you’d better know where to go  and when if the business/market/industry or profession you’re involved with, or your state/region/nation continues to step deeper into an economical abyss. Have a plan. Keep it in your pocket. But have one. You might need to back up a little some day. 

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Do You Hate

What You Love?

 NOTE: This blog article was originally posted two years ago in August, 2008. I have elected to repeat it here today because it touches on some sensitive leadership issues that have surfaced for a number of small business owners I’ve heard from recently.

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

What keeps small business

owners awake at night?

With appreciation for the inspiration for this post to Meredith Bell info@2020insight.net (publisher of a great free weekly self-development newsletter titled GOLDEN EGGS), based on yesterday’s conversation with Meredith about what keeps CEO’s awake at night.

As recently as three years ago this past May, a respectable study identified worrying about the caliber and extent of employee skills to get the jobs done that needed to be done (I’m paraphrasing here) as the number one reason that CEOs were unable to sleep at night.

But the economic impact on business was nowhere near as catastrophic at that time, and consumers were nowhere near as rambunctious.

Today’s business owners and managers are losing sleep over the inability of their business’s marketing efforts to keep up with the break-neck speed of change in the consumer marketplace (and slightly slower-to-respond industrial and professional service marketplaces). Wasn’t it just yesterday that $137 Kindle electronic readers were $400?

Without belaboring what’s prompted all the consumer scrambling for better greener quality with better warranty coverage at lower prices and faster delivery with improved customer service –because everyone is acutely aware of the maddening pace of information access and exchange– suffice it to say that marketing tools, methods, approaches, and people must rise to the occasion.

The place to start is at the point of word creation. If the words you use to market your business don’t work, nothing else can work.

If the words you’re using aren’t doing the job, it doesn’t matter how dramatic your graphic designs are, how friendly your website is, what fantastic salespeople you have, how terrific your operations are, how low your overhead is, how many awards you’ve won, or how spectacularly your products and services perform.

It doesn’t matter.

What does matter are the words you use to get your prospects and customers to be aware of and buy into all of those assets of yours.

Business owners need to be evaluating their market performance daily, not quarterly or monthly, or even weekly.

In this centrifuge of market activity — unless you enjoy being thrown up against a high-speed spinning back wall, anything less than some form of daily analysis will not leave you enough time to adjust today what did or didn’t happen yesterday.

This doesn’t mean you need to get yourself caught up in some kind of delirium and start behaving like The Mad Hatter. It means you need to keep a sharper eye on the changes that are taking place, even as you read this, and be prepared to make adjustments if and when and as they become necessary . . . not a month later. 

Except for branding themes and policies, marketing words can be changed in a day! If your words are not doing what you need them to be doing this morning, change them tonight.

It’s true that one word is worth a thousand pictures. Not convinced? Consider how many images your mind can produce when you see or hear any of the following words:

• AMERICA
• TODDLER
• GORGEOUS
• STRESS
• FREE
• HAPPY
• HOME
• NOW
• HEALTHY
• NEW
• LOVE
• WATERFRONT
• BIRTHDAY
• PUPPY   

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Do your business messages 

reach out and grab? 

Do they win meaningless awards?

Or do they just lurk quietly in the

shadows, sucking their thumbs?

Time and again , the slick-talking, 3-piece-suit, hot-shot marketing and ad agency “experts” came swooping and swaggering down into small town America from big city America, and stuck it to star-struck, bedazzled small business owners who learned the hard way that all that’s written doesn’t sell!”

                                                                    

Do your business sales messages sell? Have you been blaming the economy, the competition, the weather and your spouse for lousy words that simply don’t cut it?

Do the words and images your business uses to sell your products and services reach out and grab your ideal prospects and turn them into loyal customers? Or do they stand timidly in the shadows of your business entrance, with their thumbs stuck in their mouths, muttering quietly to themselves about how great your company is?

If your words aren’t getting the job done, you have a copywriting catastrophe, and you are paying dearly for it!

If the words you are using to market, promote, publicize and advertise your business are not attracting attention, creating interest, stimulating desire, prompting action, and promoting satisfaction, you have a copywriting catastrophe. And you are paying dearly for it with more money, time, and effort than your business can afford.

First, you have to ask yourself if the person or entity who’s creating and producing your business messages has the right kind of skill, experience, and attitude to put you front and center on the competitive stage you most want to dominate — your neighborhood, your community, your state, region, industry, profession, nation, planet, or cyberspace.

Next, you need to outline or bulletpoint your goal issues. Be specific, flexible, realistic, and have a deadline.

Then go shopping. But battle-hardened advice would suggest that you avoid flashy Las Vegas-style or upscale “boutique” organizations that ooze out of high rent districts in favor of down-home, in-the-trenches wordsmiths with lots of business background (but not necessarily in your specific industry or business specialty), lots of diverse success stories, and a clear positive attitude.

You want a person or team that is more interested in making sales for you than in winning awards for her/him/themselves. You want a person or team that sees the long-term promise of a relationship with your business and is willing to put a meaningful chunk of fee compensation on a performance incentive basis. A bonus for demonstrated results puts a fire under most butts.

Great copywriting will do more than win sales. It can ignite innovative thinking and create revenue streams. It can reassure existing customers while bringing new ones to your door. It can motivate employees and suppliers alike. The right words can renew. revitalize and pump up entrepreneurial spirits. But, sorry, they can’t make your coffee for you. Cream and sugar?

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

~~~~~The TXTMSG

Line in the Sand~~~

Are you really sure you understand your target market?

Are you still selling what you’ve always sold the same ways you’ve always sold? Are you using the same best sets of words in the same tone of voice? Still giving the same premiums and discounts and “special” offers, the same warranties and reassurances? Still emphasizing the same benefits and features?

If your answer to any of these questions is leaning even just a little bit toward yes, odds are you have either gotten lazy, have not been keeping up with the times, have not been sizing up your target market the right way, or you’ve been spending too much time in Disneyland.

Let’s eliminate the first and last choices and assume you are being conscientious, but have maybe lost touch with some of what’s going on in your customer (buyer) and consumer (user) markets (which of course are sometimes one in the same and sometimes different). Consider this:

They seemingly cannot

                                       

function for more than

                                    

a  couple of minutes

                                 

without looking to see

                                  

if they are receiving a

                                      

text message.”

                       — Fred Hertrich, Professor of political science, Middlesex (NJ) County College,   describing one of the prevailing winds in today’s college student population – to underscore: 1) the frustration of many teachers trying to deal with rooms full of distracted people and 2) the necessity of today’s faculties to communicate with students electronically.  

(East Brunswick, NJ, Home News Tribune, 8/21/10)

Has the prospective customer or consumer you seek most to influence crossed the line of electronic literacy? “But,” you say. “I’m not selling electronics!” Perhaps, but you are selling to people who are either electronics-literate or not.

Computer savviness is no longer the guide (unless you’re selling to nursing home residents) because everyone knows something about computers. The place where the line is drawn in the sand is:

THE TXTMSG LINE

Most older-than-45 people can and do use cell phones, check websites, visit blogs, send emails, search Bing and Google, and purchase online. Most know how to use WORD and many use Twitter and Facebook. But very few of these folks text message because they grew up in a different world.

Older Americans learned that “correct” and “proper” communication depends on neat handwriting and that spelling, punctuation, and grammar are paramount ingredients. Lax email messaging is about as far as these folks will comfortably stray. Texting is to them like “Emails Gone Wild!” and too “teeny-bopper” cult-like to be able to relate to.

Well, that may not mean anything to you, unless you’re targeting 20-somethings or 60-somethings, who clearly will not respond positively to the same old kinds of messages delivered in the same old ways. It’s not a bad idea to periodically step back and reassess what you’re saying to whom, and how you’re saying it.

Think of it as a

GR8 NU WAY 2 C HOW UR MAKIN UR PT.

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Nine “Do Not” lessons

learned from 30+ years 

of sales-winning advertising

I know, accenting the negative isn’t always the best thing, but if you know what NOT to do, it’s a lot easier to figure out what you can and should do. I don’t pretend to know what you can and should do, but I sure can tell you what I’ve found out that doesn’t work (and throw in a few hints about stuff I know that works better!).

Here’s the scoop:

1. Do NOT advertise that you have integrity, or even about what wonderful integrity-inspiring things you or your business have done. When you conduct business at all levels with a high-trust approach and attitude, you will gain or boost a reputation for integrity that speaks for itself!

2. (…and this is really #1): Here is the single most difficult marketing, advertising, sales and PR challenge to face for all businesses everywhere (yes, you did indeed read that right: “all businesses everywhere”)– ready for this? — Do NOT promote how great you are to the rest of the world. Nobody cares. Well, maybe your mother cares, but nobody else does.

3. Do NOT get too cutesy. Readability must come before cleverness in font (lettering) use and treatments (Italics, boldfacing, spacing, underlining, shadowing, using a horseshoe for the letter “U” or crossed swords for “X” or an egg for “O”…etc.). And don’t trust a designer to worry about readability; most have no training or experience in how to design with and around text, especially branding lines.

4. Do NOT emphasize product and service features. Nobody buys features. People buy benefits. Make sure your marketing, advertising, sales, promotion and PR efforts focus on benefits — on answering the question, what’s in it for me?

5. Do NOT buy into fancy dog and pony presentations that stress how the work a creative service provider individual or organization or group or team can do for you will put you head and shoulders above the rest of your industry or profession. Get rid of creative service providers who seem more interested in winning awards for themselves than in making sales for you. Use performance incentives.

6. Do NOT ever accept a media rate that’s printed on a “rate card” or “rate sheet.” Think of it as the asking price for a house just put on the market this morning. Media people who aren’t willing to work with your budget aren’t worth your time and consideration. There are always other ways to market your business.

7. Do NOT try to hand-off advertising/marketing/PR responsibilities to someone who works with you because they articulate well or can write a mean email. And don’t try to do it yourself unless it’s what you specialize in. Remember that there are two success keys involved: writing skill and psychology expertise. Persuading customer and prospect brains is what it’s all about. 

8. Do NOT communicate too little or too much. Ask prospects and customers what they think the right amount of information is. Have someone who’s experienced at it run a focus group for you to get these answers, and to test alternative marketing approaches. 7 target market representatives for an hour works for this purpose. Give each a $20-$25 value reward for their participation.

9. Do NOT “settle” for ads, commercials, websites, landing pages, blogs, brochures, news releases, or social media executions or strategies that don’t feel right! If you don’t feel sure about something, remember it’s your business. Your gut instinct is your best decision maker.   

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Twitter is for extroverts.

Facebook is for introverts.

 Businesses can’t be introverts.

As of two weeks ago, according to Google, there are 500 million Facebook users. According to anyone engaged in social media, Facebook is an IN-bound media vehicle. This means simply that visitors, friends, customers and prospective customers must come to you to visit your profile, your friends, your photos, your comments, your network, your “wall.” All good stuff if that’s what you seek.

Interestingly, Google also reported at the same time, that there have been 20 billion (with a “b”) Tweets (message postings) on Twitter. Again, according to social media gurus, Twitter is (conversely to Facebook) considered an OUT-bound media vehicle. This means Twitter users are reaching out to the world with their Tweets instead of (like Facebook users) trying to bring the world to them

If you run a small business (unless it’s minuscule, and caters, for example, exclusively to a neighborhood), odds are that Twitter represents a better investment of time for marketing some aspect of your business than Facebook. Yes, Facebook affords an additional personal touch for many businesses, and there’s nothing wrong with using both when you can afford the luxury of time.

But consider this: If you already have a website, you already have an IN-bound media vehicle, and it’s one over which you have total control… and you can personalize it as much as you choose, including being able to orchestrate ongoing discussions, exchanges and commentary, even in fact as much as Facebook, if not more.

For healthy and maximally-productive promotion of your business:

• Focus your energy on developing your own website with your own blog (or have somebody write one for you because the more active your blog is the more activity your site generates and the farther up you move in search engine rankings).

• Realize that your website will never and should never be done. Accept the fact that the best websites are those that continue to change and reflect the changes in the business and industry or profession they target and the marketplaces they cater to.

• Supplement your ongoing site development efforts with ongoing investments of time and creative energy in launching ongoing Twitter Tweets.

• Avoid getting snookered by all the social media and Twitter “experts” out there of which there are probably a hundred trillion or so (and these are probably mostly people who spend all day at it and so proclaim themselves advisors, coaches, consultants, and pros). 

• Learn the best mix the same way you learned your business — trial and error, and maybe enlist some trusted, proven experience businesspeople who are top marketing writers with a creative flair who can help you get started, or re-started.

So, you can find me on Facebook because I like to keep in touch with family and friends, but not because I have the need to spend hours “socializing” on the Web or because I think Facebook will help my business. It won’t.

You can find me on Twitter every night because I have built a very selective following of people who are interested in business and marketing and leadership and selling and self-development and communications and creative writing. When those people like what I have to say on Twitter, they visit my blog.

When they like my blog, they visit my other sites. When they like what’s on my sites, they call or email me and that’s how I build a prospect and customer base. In other words, use Twitter as your outbound vehicle (combined with emails and ads or whatever you choose) to get visitors to your inbound vehicle, your website. Why shuffle people into Facebook as an extra step to visit your website?

Shuffled visitors often fall by the wayside.

Don’t you?  

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“Keep your eye on the ball!”

It’s what good coaches tell 

every batter and entrepreneur!

Concentrating hard on everything that’s right in front of you as much of the time as possible is a tall order for every ballplayer and every business owner.

It is a physically, mentally, and emotionally draining pursuit, yet focus has proven time and again to be the single most important quality to possess (beyond having a burning desire), in achieving big-time success.

Of course, having a burning desire is the motivational fuel that usually accounts for having a sharp focus to begin with.

In other words, if you truly want to win the game more than anything else in the world, you will undoubtedly make outstanding plays and you will get hits no matter how great the pitcher is. Whether or not others on your team are as committed — and if those commitments outweigh the opposing team commitments — will determine if your team wins.

When you have your own business, your “team” is your staff of employees. If you lead they will follow. Hmm, heard that before, huh? But it’s true. The hitch is in the words, “if you lead” because saying one thing and doing another doesn’t cut it for leadership. And we all know how far the screaming Little League coach gets with impressionable young players.

Then there’s the other team you’re up against — the competition. And herein lies the one-way, downward chute into oblivion for too many high-spirited entrepreneurs: gearing themselves and their energy and their businesses to the competition. They need instead to gear themselves, their energy and their businesses to the market they target and the marketplaces they’re in. 

Everything else is an ego-based, self-aggrandizing waste of time, money and energy.

Even one-one-one competitors — boxers, tennis players, swimmers cannot enter the arena focused on the competitor and expect to win. Yes, they need to review competitive strengths and weaknesses, and they certainly need to have a fix on the ring, court, pool they’ll be competing in. There’s no discounting the importance of these awarenesses.

But FOCUS has to be on what’s INside, on gathering personal strength and drive, on desire, on gumption, spunk and determination. When business owners and entrepreneurial leaders can bring that spark mto work every day and nurture the spark they see in others, they will find it very difficult to fail.

We’ve all read and heard that stuff on calendars and posters and Tweets and the bottoms of emails . . . all the warnings and words of encouragement and lectures and reassurances, and what does it all mean? 

The bottom line seems to be that if you can’t feel the courage for focusing on success somewhere deep down in your gut, and if you can’t know in your heart that you can and will make a difference in this life, maybe you should reassess what you’re doing and not be absorbing all that stress. Because halfway efforts produce halfway results and halfway results produce stress. And stress kills.

Winning in sports and winning in business is never easy because — in the end — keeping focused means that you are really only competing against your SELF!                                                    

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Business media coverage

doesn’t start and stop

  with a news release! 

If your business isn’t getting the kind of news coverage you would like, maybe you’re giving too much attention to what your news release says and not enough to those who decide its newsworthiness.

Whether or not your news release prompts media coverage has first to do with how newsworthy (and UN-self-serving) it is. Second, it will only get meaningful placement attention when you (or whomever you designate) give(s) meaningful appreciation attention. This doesn’t mean fawning over or patronizing reporters and editors. It means appreciating their situations and responsibilities.

In the past 90 days, over 30,000 journalists have changed their jobs, their “beats” or their places of work.

 (Source: www.MyMediaInfo.com)

So regardless of how stellar and airtight your perfectly worded and formatted presentation may be, this is an industry where writers and editors may have other things on their minds besides your news release.

                                                                             

In most cases, you will not break through the clutter with an email or printed page and a half of sensational news about your company’s products, services, activities, or ideas. It will take more than that. The word here is empathy — putting yourself in other’s shoes. Maybe you think you shouldn’t have to do that as a matter of business practice.

But consider that media people (as much as we may justifiably bash the network TV anchors and often extremist editorial board behaviors) tend to be sensitive beasts. They are caught in the middle of the need to balance legitimate value stories with the illegitimate ones that will sell more newspapers and magazines and more broadcast airtime to keep enough revenues flowing to pay their salaries.

Yes, of course there are always online avenues of news exposure. Some of these — for example, www.PRWeb.com and online granddaddy, www.PRNewsWire.com, charge fees.

www.BizBrag.com does not charge anything for basic release posting and release email services.

Combined with Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and other less significant players, these news release outlets can be highly productive channels.

In fact, over 50,000 traditional journalists now use Twitter on a regular basis. (Source: www.MyMediaInfo.com) But, still, for really big news coverage, many continue to look to major media coverage as the difference between news and N E W S.  

Okay, so do you think a single news release delivered to the Wall Street Journalfrom any lower level name awareness than Mr. Goldman or Mr. Sachs is going to get your new WhizBang Production Facility on the front page? On ANY page?

Public Relations requires Media Relations.

The best business coverage only happens 999,999 times out of a million because relationships are established and nurtured. 

Like every other industry and profession, there are “tricks of the trade” you need to know in order to make your efforts pay off.

It cost money to learn and apply these secrets. Many PR firms charge $10,000 to $20,000 a month to play the PR game for you, but a good PR Coach (who will help you play the game yourself) shouldn’t be more than $1,200 to $2,500 a month (including writing a monthly release!).

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!