By Gloria
"You're pretty connected." That’s what Neil Cavuto, Fox Business Network host, said to Patty Briguglio on television today. He’s right! PR is all about real relationships and honest connections with the public. In fact, MMI’s promise to its clients is to help them start big conversations and make powerful connections.
Our clients understand the value of PR. You know, a company may offer the best products and services in the business, but if the public is unaware of its existence, that company will fail to grow.
And speaking of companies that fail to grow, you’ve gotta hand it to Patty and the points she made for small business tonight on CNN and Fox News. Patty took the reins in the interview with John Roberts on Campbell Brown's CNN news show. When she talked about the company health insurance concerns of owners of LLCs and S corporations, Roberts said, "It's all Greek to me," and he turned to CNN's Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi for help. Velshi corroborated everything Patty said, emphasizing that the government must be careful not to discourage the growth of small businesses. Many small business owners, like Patty, are afraid the president’s health care plan will slam them with higher taxes.
Patty nicely sidestepped Roberts' invasive question about the amount of her company payroll, too. She’s media savvy and knows how to stick to her talking points. That just wasn’t an appropriate question for the airwaves.
Friday, July 31, 2009
My Fifteen Minutes of Fame With President Obama
By Patty
I had my fifteen minutes of fame on Wednesday when I attended President Obama’s speech on health care. I was able to ask the president my question of choice on the issue. My question was this: What current long-term social program created and run by the government should we look to as a model of success and one that we as taxpayers should be confident that a new government-run health care system would be better than the current system in place? In other words, what are you going to do differently?
The president was genuinely concerned about my question. He looked me directly in the eye and even allowed me a follow-up question. I was really impressed when he approached me at the end of the meeting and assured me that any tax increases I would see as a result of health care reform would be offset by the tax credits I would receive. I told the president I would hold him to this, shaking my finger in the meantime, and he shook his finger right back, saying that he would be accountable. From this exchange the now "famous" New York Times front page photo was born. I assure you, I was not disciplining the president. We really were having a good conversation and laughing. I think he is extremely charismatic and I understand the passion that people have toward him. I really do believe that he is concerned about health care reform and the American people.
I don’t want to be presumptuous, but rather than having a beer with the president, I would like to sit down and have a glass of my favorite pinot grigio with him to talk about some of the fears that small business owners have regarding health care reform. I would love to give him a few public relations tips to help him sell health care reform to the American public. As Sue Stock of the News & Observer mentions in her .biz blog post, I will be sure to avoid wearing white another if chance to meet with Mr. President comes after Labor Day.
I had my fifteen minutes of fame on Wednesday when I attended President Obama’s speech on health care. I was able to ask the president my question of choice on the issue. My question was this: What current long-term social program created and run by the government should we look to as a model of success and one that we as taxpayers should be confident that a new government-run health care system would be better than the current system in place? In other words, what are you going to do differently?
The president was genuinely concerned about my question. He looked me directly in the eye and even allowed me a follow-up question. I was really impressed when he approached me at the end of the meeting and assured me that any tax increases I would see as a result of health care reform would be offset by the tax credits I would receive. I told the president I would hold him to this, shaking my finger in the meantime, and he shook his finger right back, saying that he would be accountable. From this exchange the now "famous" New York Times front page photo was born. I assure you, I was not disciplining the president. We really were having a good conversation and laughing. I think he is extremely charismatic and I understand the passion that people have toward him. I really do believe that he is concerned about health care reform and the American people.
I don’t want to be presumptuous, but rather than having a beer with the president, I would like to sit down and have a glass of my favorite pinot grigio with him to talk about some of the fears that small business owners have regarding health care reform. I would love to give him a few public relations tips to help him sell health care reform to the American public. As Sue Stock of the News & Observer mentions in her .biz blog post, I will be sure to avoid wearing white another if chance to meet with Mr. President comes after Labor Day.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Measure the Effectiveness of Your PR Plan
As you begin to execute your personal public relations plan, you will want to gauge its effectiveness. For instance, you will want to know whether wire services or syndicates are publishing your news releases. A clipping service can scan thousands of newspapers, trade publications, magazines, and Web sites, finding where your story has been published. Some will manually clip published pieces and provide them to you. Others are primarily Web-based services that deliver clippings to you in electronic form.
Google Analytics is a free application which tracks hit counts, unique visitors, page views and many other metrics to accurately measure Web site traffic. You can use Google Analytics to improve Web site performance and to track your social media campaigns, gauging the effectiveness of your blog posts, your tweets or Facebook Connect, for example. It’s important to know who arrives on your Web site as a result of social media and whether that traffic is converting into increased sales.
Are you winning the awards you set out to win? Have you been appointed to a board yet? How many news releases have you sent out? Only you can gauge the effectiveness of some of your efforts. It’s a good idea to document each achievement on your personal public relations plan, then replace that goal with a new one.
Google Analytics is a free application which tracks hit counts, unique visitors, page views and many other metrics to accurately measure Web site traffic. You can use Google Analytics to improve Web site performance and to track your social media campaigns, gauging the effectiveness of your blog posts, your tweets or Facebook Connect, for example. It’s important to know who arrives on your Web site as a result of social media and whether that traffic is converting into increased sales.
Are you winning the awards you set out to win? Have you been appointed to a board yet? How many news releases have you sent out? Only you can gauge the effectiveness of some of your efforts. It’s a good idea to document each achievement on your personal public relations plan, then replace that goal with a new one.
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