One person who is a great online communicator is business coach Judith Morgan. I have always admired how she sticks to what she enjoys when it comes to successfully promoting and marketing her own businesses, so this month I've asked her to reveal some of her secrets...
Judith, tell us about your business overall and your new project.
My new project is called TheMillionEntrepreneurs, T1ME for short. www.TheMillionEntrepreneurs.com - its a global community/tribe for self-employed people, small businesses, start-ups, the newly redundant, the prematurely retired, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, those who have reluctantly chosen to work for themselves and those who wouldn't have it any other way. Our mission is to provide free resources to members to help them become more successful at it fast, to offer a community to relieve the isolation and a peer group enabling you to feel "normal" and to speak with a voice to get us the recognition which is long overdue. Just think what would happen if we all went on the dole!!
I know that you have quite an ambiguous feeling towards PR and that for a long time you weren't sure you even wanted to do it, what changed your mind and made you want to put your head above the parapet?
Social media marketing. The fact that we can take control by doing it ourselves. As you know, Paula, my ambivalence was always about being instantly available to journalists who work to very tight and short deadlines and if I couldn't instantly free up the diary space, I'd missed my opportunity. Also, I was aggrieved that we would often pay for PR and then the journalist or publication would not be able to attribute our contributions and sound bites by getting our URL correctly printed and appearing in the piece. All that work and nothing in it for us.
Social media marketing changes all that and with Twitter, Facebook, blogging etc.. if puts the control firmly back in my hands. If the link doesn't appear or appears wrongly, its all my own fault!
Tell us about the promotional and PR activities that you do. I already know you run an Internet radio show, for instance, tell us more about that..
I love audio. I love meeting Entrepreneurs and listening to their stories and sharing them with a wider audience. Since Internet radio is in effect a podcast, in 15 minutes online together you and your interviewee can create something which will work virally online on the web and turn into a quick inspiring/learning platform.
I love Twitter for how quick it is and blogging for how well it brings people to my website. I love how instant the Internet is all round - you get instant results and feedback, no denying what you are selling is working or not. I'm just trying to get my head round Facebook after watching The Virtual Revolution on BBC and discovering that Facebook is now a "country" with a population larger than the States so we ignore it at our peril.
How much time do you spend on promotional activities?
Every waking moment I am not actually delivering service to my clients. Its the first equal most important thing I do in all my businesses. I have a marketing plan for each business and I focus on that very much.
What PR activities have you found work for you, and which ones don't?
I have worked recently with two women who told me they had both found a client through Twitter. I don't think I have done that yet but blogging this week has brought me three very useful contacts alone. I'm too new into Facebook to know whether or not it's done me any good, but I am confident the time invested in learning how it works will pay off - with those numbers, its got to. Twitter is the second largest referrer of traffic to my websites and that's so quick and easy to achieve. Keyword rich blogsites on specific topics are starting to work well. For instance I am somewhat knowledgeable about Lease Options and this week, that site has brought me three leads alone, and very valuable ones at that.
What do you enjoy least about PR and promoting yourself?
The somewhat grinding relentless of it never being "done", i.e. you can never rest; you've got to keep on keeping on.
What's been your highest point so far PR-wise?
RDF Television asked me to consider being on Secret Millionaire. I politely declined and put them in touch with Gill Fielding instead. The rest is history! Gill grabbed the baton and ran with it.
And your lowest?
Online forums and the horrible battering one takes on there from naysayers and negs. I don't read it but I know it goes on.
What have you learnt about PR over the years?
What little I know about it, Paula, I've learned it all from working with you, interviewing you and reading your book, attending your workshop. I did also work with a PR company way back when I was an accountant. These days PR is often spin. I must say I am still mistrustful although I have seen our mutual clients do very well with it, just by following your book to the letter. Good on them.
Can you link a rise in turn over with PR?
In one business, a small mention in a magazine which was read in dentists' waiting rooms years after the event - that stood us in very good stead and continued to bring us clients years for probably as much as four years. You can hit pay dirt with it and a lot of the stuff which really works seems "flooky". The social media marketing is very important to my business, vital really. So the answer is an unequivocal yes because I don't do anything offline at all.
What advice do you have to give to someone starting to do their own PR and promotion?
Grab a copy of your nice pink book, read it tonight and put it into action tomorrow. Its what I really like in a book these days, i.e. you really can read it in one sitting of a couple of hours and use two or three ideas instantly and they will make an immediate difference to your PR strategy, enabling an immediate start for little or no cost. We can all do our own PR.
What are your plans for the future?
To build my community of one million global entrepreneurs and build a business which serves that market, helping, supporting, inspiring, connecting. To spend the winters abroad in the Caribbean and to write and speak more.
Many thanks to Judith for her thoughtful answers. You can listen to Judith's radio show here
For a free PR resource pack and ten day trial of our media request service click here
Judith, tell us about your business overall and your new project.
My new project is called TheMillionEntrepreneurs, T1ME for short. www.TheMillionEntrepreneurs.com - its a global community/tribe for self-employed people, small businesses, start-ups, the newly redundant, the prematurely retired, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, those who have reluctantly chosen to work for themselves and those who wouldn't have it any other way. Our mission is to provide free resources to members to help them become more successful at it fast, to offer a community to relieve the isolation and a peer group enabling you to feel "normal" and to speak with a voice to get us the recognition which is long overdue. Just think what would happen if we all went on the dole!!
I know that you have quite an ambiguous feeling towards PR and that for a long time you weren't sure you even wanted to do it, what changed your mind and made you want to put your head above the parapet?
Social media marketing. The fact that we can take control by doing it ourselves. As you know, Paula, my ambivalence was always about being instantly available to journalists who work to very tight and short deadlines and if I couldn't instantly free up the diary space, I'd missed my opportunity. Also, I was aggrieved that we would often pay for PR and then the journalist or publication would not be able to attribute our contributions and sound bites by getting our URL correctly printed and appearing in the piece. All that work and nothing in it for us.
Social media marketing changes all that and with Twitter, Facebook, blogging etc.. if puts the control firmly back in my hands. If the link doesn't appear or appears wrongly, its all my own fault!
Tell us about the promotional and PR activities that you do. I already know you run an Internet radio show, for instance, tell us more about that..
I love audio. I love meeting Entrepreneurs and listening to their stories and sharing them with a wider audience. Since Internet radio is in effect a podcast, in 15 minutes online together you and your interviewee can create something which will work virally online on the web and turn into a quick inspiring/learning platform.
I love Twitter for how quick it is and blogging for how well it brings people to my website. I love how instant the Internet is all round - you get instant results and feedback, no denying what you are selling is working or not. I'm just trying to get my head round Facebook after watching The Virtual Revolution on BBC and discovering that Facebook is now a "country" with a population larger than the States so we ignore it at our peril.
How much time do you spend on promotional activities?
Every waking moment I am not actually delivering service to my clients. Its the first equal most important thing I do in all my businesses. I have a marketing plan for each business and I focus on that very much.
What PR activities have you found work for you, and which ones don't?
I have worked recently with two women who told me they had both found a client through Twitter. I don't think I have done that yet but blogging this week has brought me three very useful contacts alone. I'm too new into Facebook to know whether or not it's done me any good, but I am confident the time invested in learning how it works will pay off - with those numbers, its got to. Twitter is the second largest referrer of traffic to my websites and that's so quick and easy to achieve. Keyword rich blogsites on specific topics are starting to work well. For instance I am somewhat knowledgeable about Lease Options and this week, that site has brought me three leads alone, and very valuable ones at that.
What do you enjoy least about PR and promoting yourself?
The somewhat grinding relentless of it never being "done", i.e. you can never rest; you've got to keep on keeping on.
What's been your highest point so far PR-wise?
RDF Television asked me to consider being on Secret Millionaire. I politely declined and put them in touch with Gill Fielding instead. The rest is history! Gill grabbed the baton and ran with it.
And your lowest?
Online forums and the horrible battering one takes on there from naysayers and negs. I don't read it but I know it goes on.
What have you learnt about PR over the years?
What little I know about it, Paula, I've learned it all from working with you, interviewing you and reading your book, attending your workshop. I did also work with a PR company way back when I was an accountant. These days PR is often spin. I must say I am still mistrustful although I have seen our mutual clients do very well with it, just by following your book to the letter. Good on them.
Can you link a rise in turn over with PR?
In one business, a small mention in a magazine which was read in dentists' waiting rooms years after the event - that stood us in very good stead and continued to bring us clients years for probably as much as four years. You can hit pay dirt with it and a lot of the stuff which really works seems "flooky". The social media marketing is very important to my business, vital really. So the answer is an unequivocal yes because I don't do anything offline at all.
What advice do you have to give to someone starting to do their own PR and promotion?
Grab a copy of your nice pink book, read it tonight and put it into action tomorrow. Its what I really like in a book these days, i.e. you really can read it in one sitting of a couple of hours and use two or three ideas instantly and they will make an immediate difference to your PR strategy, enabling an immediate start for little or no cost. We can all do our own PR.
What are your plans for the future?
To build my community of one million global entrepreneurs and build a business which serves that market, helping, supporting, inspiring, connecting. To spend the winters abroad in the Caribbean and to write and speak more.
Many thanks to Judith for her thoughtful answers. You can listen to Judith's radio show here
For a free PR resource pack and ten day trial of our media request service click here
posted by Paula Gardner at
6:40 PM
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