Authors and business people often go to extremes to publicize their book or product launch. Sometimes, the most successful method can appear in front of them. Take for example, book publicity. It is the one of the toughest cases to crack. Each year, at least 50,000 authors are published in the United States. Tens of thousands of authors publish electronic books. Most fail to get noticed. Very few achieve any of their goals as authors – to build up readership.
Here’s a way to get the word out and polish off your book before it hits the stores: sampling. Major corporations utilize focus groups, pollsters and other marketing experts to build up their brand name. This is similar to planting seeds to get a garden or orchard to grow. The more seeds you plant, the better your chances to grow vegetables or apple trees. As an author, you can use sampling or “seeding,” to build up awareness of your book. During the publishing process, we discovered a clever way to attract readers, and at the same time, we can upgrade our book.
Continue
If public relations tactics like special events, brochures, broadcast plugs and press releases dominate your answer, you’re missing the best PR has to offer.
Such a budget would tell us that you believe tactics ARE public relations. And that would be too bad, becauseit means you are not effectively planning to alterindividual perception among your key outside audienceswhich then would help you achieve your managerialobjectives.
It would also tell us that, even as a business, non-profit orassociation manager, you’re not planning to do anything positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of yours that MOST affect your operation. Nor are you preparing to persuade those key outside folks to your way of thinking by helping to move them to take actions that allow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed.
So, it takes more than good intentions for you as a manager to alter individual, key-audience perception leading to changed behaviors. It takes a carefully structured plan dedicated to getting every member of the PR team working towards the same external audience behaviors insuring that the organization’s public relations effort stays sharply focused.
The absence of such a plan is always unfortunate because the right public relations planning really CAN alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors among key outside audiences.
If this sounds vaguely familiar, try to remember that your PR effort must require more than special events, news releases and talk show tactics if you are to receive the quality public relations results you deserve.
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Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 1145 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2005.
Managers: Let’s Call a Spade a Spade!
Brochures, broadcast plugs and press releases – don’t call them public relations. Call them what they really are, valuable tactical devices which public relations calls upon from time to time to move a message from here to there.
Nothing more, nothing less, and certainly not public relations’ Mother strategy which (1), marshalls the resources and action planning needed to alter individual perception leading to changed behaviors among a business, non-profit,or association’s most important outside audiences. And (2), goes on to help a manager persuade those key folks to his or her way of thinking,
then (3) moves them to take actions that allow their department, group, division or subsidiary to succeed.
The management reality behind such an achievement is the underlying premise of public relations: People act on their own perception of the facts before them,
which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and
moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is usually accomplished.
The good news for those managers is that the right public relations planning really CAN alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors among key outside audiences.
You may be such a manager. If you are, try to remember that your PR effort must demand more than special events, news releases and talk show tactics if you are to receive the quality public relations results you deserve.
Continue
Authors and business people often go to extremes to publicize their book or product launch. Sometimes, the most successful method can appear in front of them. Take for example, book publicity. It is the one of the toughest cases to crack. Each year, at least 50,000 authors are published in the United States. Tens of thousands of authors publish electronic books. Most fail to get noticed. Very few achieve any of their goals as authors – to build up readership.
Here’s a way to get the word out and polish off your book before it hits the stores: sampling. Major corporations utilize focus groups, pollsters and other marketing experts to build up their brand name. This is similar to planting seeds to get a garden or orchard to grow. The more seeds you plant, the better your chances to grow vegetables or apple trees. As an author, you can use sampling or “seeding,” to build up awareness of your book. During the publishing process, we discovered a clever way to attract readers, and at the same time, we can upgrade our book.
Continue
