Posts Tagged ‘Listen’
Unreal expectations from public relations
As a public relations consultant, clients have asked us to make sure that a reporter gives us in advance all the questions they’ll ask during an interview, or to preview the reporter’s story in advance, or to edit the journalist’s story.
Listen to your PR pro.
We often find ourselves having to help clients comprehend that just because you are in business, doing what you are supposed to do in your specialty, and are successful at it; there is no reason to write about your company. Except, if you are using ground-breaking new technology that advances the industry, or is dramatically more profitable, or has landed Oprah as a client…and then you probably should not be talking about your clients.
This article from Susan Young makes the point that unrealisstic expectations from public relations firms’ clients often cause issues.
When you hire a PR pro, you have done so because you recognize that you either can’t or don’t wish to manage your company’s public relations program. If your PR counsel tells you that you need to be doing something newsworthy, listen to them. That’s why you are paying the PR firm.
*Photo courtesy of Paul Bridgewater on flickr creative commons
Related Posts:
Posted in 
Tags: How are customers like E.F. Hutton?
Does your marketing start a conversation or do you preach to your customers? Do you ask them what they think, what they want and what they like? Do you offer them a forum where they can share their thoughts with you? When they speak, do you listen?
Remember the classic commercial for E. F. Hutton? The video said, “When E.F. Hutton talks…people listen,” and showed the room falling quiet and everyone cupping their ear toward the speaker or getting up out of their seats to get closer to the representative of E. F. Hutton. Well, we all ought to be substituting Customers for E.F. Hutton.
Related Posts:
Ask your users what they think
Everyone is writing and designing for authenticity and transparency. And they should be. These are the primary reasons our customers are engaged. Customers expect to have opportunity through blogs and customer service portals to tell manufacturers and merchants what they think of the products and services purchased.
The days of just pushing a message out based on what we think our customers will like is so dead. I must always be about pull now.
Today Ad Age posted a story of how Harley Davidson got out among their users and learned what customers are saying about the fear laden atmosphere. The result is the new Harley campaign, We don’t do fear–Screw it, let’s ride. Three things struck me about the campaign, first it’s bold and in sync with the projected personality of Harley owners; the other is that they got out to “interacting with customers at rallies, races and rides” and then they listened.
I think listening is the hardest discipline in business. It’s so easy to tell our customers what they should think, it’s harder to listen to their honest thoughts and have the courage to shape our company and our products in response to our users.
Businesses that succeed will be the ones who listen, shape, listen some more and continue to evolve based on what the customer tells them. Hey, it’s all about connecting!
