We have had the pleasure of working with Trump University on their search engine optimization for a few months and are now also managing their pay-per-click and public relations efforts.  When I say it has been a pleasure, I really mean that they are probably the best client to work with because they truly listen and implement our thoughts and ideas as well as take the time to stay educated and proactive with all of their marketing efforts.

We were recently tasked to draft some press releases to spread the word about their entrepreneurship and real estate courses as well as to increase traffic and links to their site.  We ran two press releases earlier this week and have seen great results so far in a short period of time as site conversions for the past month spiked to their highest point in the last two days.

We are very excited about the results of our efforts and so is Josef Katz – VP of Marketing for Trump University.  He just posted a blog post (see the link below) lauding our public relations efforts and giving advice to anyone engaged in dispersing press releases on the web.

Are you creating great press releases that are also well optimized for the web?  If not take Josef Katz word for it that “Not All PR is Good“.

I can still remember the morning about five years ago as if it were yesterday. My cell phone started ringing at 7:45 am on the way to the office…it was my mother-in-law.

Of course I think the worse, and quickly answer, expecting news I really didn’t want to hear that early in the morning. Instead, I was greeted by a very cheerful “mama” who was “just beside herself” because my sister-in-law’s husband–Doug–was on The Today Show!

What?! Now, as a public relations professional, of course I’m drooling at the thought of how lucky he was to be on national TV and a prime morning talk show too! How did Doug do it? and why? He was a self-employed videographer doing business mainly in Texas.

As the story goes, Doug was in New York City visiting my sister-in-law who was working on a contract job with a large financial institution. He flew up to visit her, and since he’s a semi-pro golfer, decided to take his golf clubs with him and get in a few games while she was work during the day. Well, that morning Doug was up early, and since he had plenty of time on his hands before going over to Long Island for his tee time, he decided to take in a few of the New York City sights before hitting the greens, and took his golf clubs with him. A communications major, Doug wanted to stop by some of the stations, and headed towards NBC’s studios. Well, Bryant Gumbel was outside the studio doing his broadcast, and then he saw Doug walk up in his shorts, golf shirt, golf socks and sandals, his bag of clubs slung on his back. Now, how many golfers do you see strolling through downtown NYC?

Not only did Bryant almost scream when he saw him, the cameras turned on Doug and he and Bryant started to have an impromptu conversation. Since I saw a replay of the footage, it was funny: Bryant looked like he wanted to drop the mike and go over and just “yak it up” with Doug. He asked Doug if it was Big Bertha in his golf bag, and when Doug pulled it out, Bryant went over to look at it. Well, in the end, Bryant finally asked who Doug was and where he worked. Guess what: Doug was able to plug his business on national TV. For free! For a small business owner, that’s a big advertising win! Doug later landed a tryout for a new cable TV show that was being filmed: a golfer who wandered around the world playing on the best golf courses. Well, he didn’t get the role (it went to another guy from the Dallas area!) but he still got a potential lead out of his few minutes on TV.

So, what’s the morale to this story? I’m not going to recommend wandering around New York City with golf clubs strapped to your back. But, what you can do is when you’re in a position to get some coverage with your local TV, radio or newspapers, grab the chance and make the most of it! When you’re at a community event, a trade show, or any place that you’re in a “positive” role, then get in there and get your free publicity….and get noticed!

~Deb Decker

Or will it the press release adapt to the network age?

In the past, the press release was written almost exclusively for the news media. A former journalist, I can remember receiving press releases in the mail (some with hard print photos or illustrations, and even VHS videos!), over the fax, on disks, and even sometimes in person. Now that I’ve dated myself, let’s take a short walk down memory lane……

With the birth of the internet, press releases soon were distributed via email to the media, customers and other targeted audiences. Soon online news services were formed. Today, press releases are search engine optimized press releases. Not only are they used by the media for news stories, but now directly drive revenue. The paid newswire services have turned the press release into a social media press release by establishing partnerships with social media start-ups like delicious and technorati, making it easier for people to find news and information that may be interesting to them. Thanks to the internet, today’s press release is made to all kinds of stakeholders, democratizing the news distribution process.

What about blogs and podcasts? Some PR professionals are insistent that news distribution will be solely through blogs and podcasts. For a company, blogs and podcasts will build their company’s presence, reinforce it’s brand, and drive up revenue. But talk to the media, and you soon learn that they don’t want that to happen. Blogs are good sources of public opinion, and additional information regarding a certain topic. Podcasts: the media does not have the time, nor luxury, to watch numerous podcasts and have to glean information out of them for their stories.

So, will the press release go by the way of the Stone Age? No. The press release is here to stay. It’s just evolved a bit and plays a bigger role in the growth of companies, and how business is done around the world!

~ Deb Decker

….spilling into a customer’s lap as they leave your drive thru.

While McDonald’s definitely had a major reputation management problem after the customer sued them for scalding coffee spilling in her lap, their traditional crisis communications plan moved away from just conducting interviews with the print, TV and radio media, and included online reputation management. A few years ago, McDonald’s could have easily turned to traditional media to get their message out to a majority of their customers and rescue their reputation and business. But, that was a few years ago.

McDonald’s was savvy and realized the majority of their customers were not reading newspapers, listening to the radio or watching TV: instead they were online, and blogging. Now they had another issue to deal with: online reputation management. Bloggers are writing 24/7. And they’re located worldwide. And emails and blogs are distributed quickly. You better be ready, and you better be quick when you have a crisis situation, because time is of the essence when you’re dealing with online reputation management.

Now, let’s look at another crisis communication situation that didn’t involve spilled coffee, a plane crash or high-rise explosion. This crisis evolved online through the use of negative blogs and a vicious email campaign.

At an undisclosed university, a senior-level class of students was studying online communications and its effect on businesses and other participants. They were assigned a project to develop an online communications program that involved blogs and emails, identify a “subject” company that they would discuss in their blogs and emails, and track the effect of these communications on their “subject” company’s reputation and growth. After researching various fast-growing companies, the class picked out a privately owned company that printed and sold art gallery-quality giclee prints. While not a multilevel marketing scheme, this company did sign up independent distributors who sold the art via web sites and at local events. Within two years, the company had grown into a multi-million-dollar business.

The communications students picked this company because of its online presence and rapid growth. Next step in their project: blogging and emailing misinformation about the company. Then the students monitored the online distribution of this misinformation, and watched the affect it had on the company’s growth. While this class project was supposed to teach the students the importance of online communications, this exercise backfired. While the students definitely learned the reach online communications has, and its powerful impact businesses and more, the final outcome was not what they had expected: the quick death of a very successful company. By the end of the semester, the company had not only lost its clients and distributors due to false acquisitions and misinformation, but they were forced to file bankruptcy.

When the owner of the company was finally able to find out what had happened, it was too late. Unfortunately, if he had an online crisis communications plan in place, he could have attacked the students’ negative blogs and emails with targeted, positive blogs and emails that would have maintained his company’s reputation and kept him out of bankruptcy court!

Lesson learned for both McDonald’s and the now-bankrupt art distributor: if you have a crisis communications plan, make sure it includes social media! But if you don’t have a crisis communications plan, you better act quick and get one in place. With the scope of the Internet and number of people blogging and emailing, you can’t risk one email going out that can turn into a reputation management nightmare.

~ Deb Decker