PR Blog

A perfect storm of the good kind is brewing and if you haven’t already noticed it’s pointing to a year of colossal momentum for the Hispanic public relations industry.  In 20 years of working in Hispanic PR and media, I have never seen the momentum I’m witnessing for Hispanic PR and it only has a little bit to do with the promising expectations about the 2010 Census. 

Barely four months away from the  historic Hispanic PR & Social Marketing Conference in Dallas (May 10-12) here are some key factors that I believe will take our industry to new heights in 2010:

The Hispanic PR Industry is finally organizing itself nationally.  One of the most exciting developments in 2010 is that the traditionally L.A.-based Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) is finally expanding its footprint and focus.  Naysayers be damned, HPRA is on the verge of announcing a major new chapter in the East coast and it’s expected that more chapters, clubs and events will take root nationwide.   This is a very significant development for its no secret that that the unique value proposition, credibility and interests of Hispanic PR can only (yes ONLY) be fully represented by an organization fully devoted to Hispanic PR.  Sure HPRA has some growing pains ahead but what makes 2010 different is that FINALLY many of us who can help HPRA are involved in the process of growth and evolution.  Over the next several months we will see some huge, organizing-building momentum for HPRA and if you are marketing pro thinking about which organization to support with your membership I would encourage you to give special priority to HPRA.  

Even as its results surprise some, the conclusions of our four month-long Hispanic PR Census will elevate our industry. Even though it’s only a two-minute long survey our Hispanic PR Census is helping our industry gather invaluable insights about the composition of Hispanic public relations and social marketing.  I’ve peeked at some of the extremely preliminary data and I can assure you that the emerging stories that data is yielding will be empowering to say the least.   Participating in the Hispanic PR Census is one of the most important, easy things we can all do for this industry as a lot of discussion is going to surge as a result of this Hispanic PR Census.

The Hispanic PR industry conference will firmly establish our industry’s unique value proposition.  For many years our industry has struggled to find a conference agenda completely and comprehensively devoted to Hispanic PR.  That’s what we aim to do in Dallas and the best part about this conference is that IT’S NOT for Hispanic PR pros.  This conference is specifically being created for marketers in corporate, non profit and government sectors who want to get case studies and actionable advice relating to Hispanic PR and social marketing.  We’re confident that our 20-member advisory board will unveil a conference agenda next week that has never been available in any Hispanic marketing conference because ours is all about Hispanic PR and social marketing. 

Hispanic social marketing will help fuel strong growth for Hispanic PR.  The topic of Hispanic social marketing has been one of the Hispanic market industry’s biggest taboo topics because only a few dare state the obvious: Hispanic social marketing generally should be classified under Hispanic PR.  (More about that soon).  This is why the national conference takes Hispanic social marketing head on.  Every facet of social marketing entails strategic communications (conversations) that are best tended to by Hispanic PR pros regardless of whether they work in a PR, advertising or digital marketing firm.  Don’t settle for anything different because Hispanic social marketing IS NOT about technology.  It’s fundamentally about strategic conversations. 

Advertising agencies will increasingly get into the Hispanic PR game.  One of the trends I think holds a lot of promise  for the industry are the number of ad agencies (Hispanic and non-Hispanic alike) that will increasingly get into Hispanic PR.  Hispanic ad giants like Vidal Partnership and Bromley Communications have been doing this well for years, of course, but it now seems that partly because of  Hispanic PR’s rise and the budding growth in Hispanic social marketing, more ad agencies will get in the game.  Hispanic PR firms needn’t fret because you know what you’re best at and this type of activity will only create more opportunities. 

Hispanic PR will be key to winning many grassroots political contests this year.  The political stakes are as high 2008 for Democrats and Republicans alike courting Hispanic voters this year.  For Democrats Latino voters are now more critical than ever because the recent senatorial loss in Massachusetts shows they need to shore up their key voting bases.  They need solid turnouts in the coming elections.  For Republicans, all they need is a Just Enough Strategy.  Republicans know the Latino vote is far from swinging back to their previous historic highs but if they can do Just Enough to steal some Hispanic votes, it may be Just Enough to take some races.   The 2008 election (which we will study in-depth at the upcoming conference) offered lessons about how to effectively use PR messaging and media relations tactics to get Hispanic voters.

A great focus on diversity in America bodes well for Hispanic PR.  The election of President Obama has brought out nation’s growing diversity to the forefront but the real fruit of that reality is only now starting to be felt.  From my vantage point I thought this would be immediately true in 2009 but in all honesty I don’t think it took root quickly because it needed time to sink in.  2010 is different because more time has passed for our culture (and our corporate boardrooms) to assimilate the reality.   This means more companies will pursue diversity hiring not only because it’s “politically correct” but because it’s part of the reality of winning and keeping market share in business, politics and other arenas. 

These reasons and several more (did I mention the U.S. Census?) point to a prosperous year for Hispanic PR.  Keeping looking at this space for continued insights and more reasons to cheer for Hispanic PR, the hottest Hispanic marketing discipline of 2010.

The vast majority of agencies believe spending on mobile advertising will increase over the next two years, a study has shown.

Analysts at the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) announced that almost all the marketers surveyed felt the channel is set to expand.

In the Marketer's Internet Ad Barometer poll, 86 per cent of respondents reported that spending on mobile advertising has grown in 2009.

A further 97 per cent of marketers predicted the platform will experience additional growth in 2010 and 2011.

One-third (33 per cent) of businesses are using the channel as part of their overall marketing strategies, the EIAA found.

The organisation said: "Mobile advertising continues to be 'one to watch' over the coming months, attracting considerable current and predicted investment."

It releases the Marketer's Internet Ad Barometer report every six months. In its review of the first half of 2009, EIAA showed that 30 per cent of firms were using mobile advertising.

If you’re seeking to develop a strong following to your site or want to promote your brand, blogging is one of the most effective and efficient ways to achieve your goal. Here’s why:

 

1. Building Significant Search Engine Traffic Will Take Time

New blogs generally take several months, at least, before they gain enough trust from search engines to produce any type of significant flow of traffic. If you are planning to focus on search engines as your primary source of traffic, you would be well advised to also focus on some other sources of traffic, especially in the early months.

 

Building a blog that is search engine-friendly is critical if you want to maximize search traffic, so take care of that from the start and focus on creating great content that others will talk about and link to. Want ideas? Talk about what you are most passionate about and share your unique perspective.

 

2. Consistent Posting Is Key

Most bloggers need to keep publishing new posts in order to keep traffic at a certain level. Some bloggers are able to generate large amounts of search engine traffic to older posts to the point that traffic will be fairly sustained without new posts, but this is pretty rare. New posts keep subscribers coming back, they keep social media votes coming, and they keep adding new pages to search engine indexes.

 

Posting consistently doesn’t mean that you have to post every day, it simply means that you need to publish content on a regular basis, whatever that may be. Almost every blog that successfully creates traffic is posting with some consistency.

 

3. Repeat Visitors Should Be the Goal

Yes, it’s great to see an impressive number of unique visitors arriving at your blog, but how many of them will be back? Repeat visitors are the lifeblood of blogs. Subscribers, of course, are most likely to keep coming back, so focusing on subscribers is typically a good thing.

 

Repeat visitors will not only help to improve your overall traffic flow and stats, more importantly they will be your most responsive visitors in terms of comments, social media votes, sales, and just about anything else. As they keep coming back and reading your blog, you will be earning more of their trust and your network will grow.

 

4. Links Help In Several Ways

Building inbound links is a priority for most bloggers, and for good reason. They drive click-through traffic from other blogs, they increase your exposure around the blogosphere, and they help to boost your search engine rankings. Link building is often prioritized because of search engine rankings, but the other factors should not be overlooked. If you blog in a competitive niche, recognition and exposure will be critical in convincing visitors that they should pay attention to you. Getting a few links from respected blogs can help with search engine traffic, but the added credibility that you get can be just as important, especially for newer bloggers.

 

5. Networking Is Critical

All successful bloggers are surrounded by a strong network of other successful bloggers. This is something that I didn’t really think much about before I started blogging, but I quickly came to realize the importance of networking.

 

A strong network will provide you with friends and colleagues that can be a help when you need some advice, they can provide links to your blog, they can give you social media votes, they can be an inspiration and encouragement to you, and they can even wind up being your partners in future projects. Being a strong networker is all about being willing to help others and being proactive in meeting others.

What Tiger Woods Should Do with the Media to Rehabilitate His Image 

It’s not easy being Tiger Woods today. His personal life is a shambles, his family is shattered and his public image is DOA. While it’s easy to feel absolutely no sympathy for the golden boy whose sins cost him dearly, we need to remember something important.

Tiger Woods is not an individual. He is a $100 million marketing corporation that provided for the livelihoods of marketing people, advertising professionals and consumer product manufacturers – not to mention the business of golf itself.  Without Tiger’s ability to drive endorsements and commercial viability, many people may even lose their jobs and some firms may be forced to cut back.

So, what could Tiger Woods possibly do to control the devastation of his image? Well, the simple truth is that he is way beyond damage control. The goal posts on his potential rehabilitation have been moved a few thousand yards away from its original line of scrimmage. The best he can hope for now is to set up a comeback a year or more down the line.

Still, it’s not impossible. Like many celebrities fallen from grace before him, there is a chance he could re-emerge as the powerhouse he once was. First, he needs a strategy.

The secret to Tiger’s potential comeback isn’t the golf fans, the media or even his fans – it’s women.  I would venture a guess that many men are, unfortunately, less likely to think about the immorality of his actions than about how stupid he was to get caught. Of course, these men likely keep their opinions to themselves when in the company of their wives and girlfriends who wouldn’t take kindly to the idea that their men are in any way sympathetic to Tiger.

Which is why women are the key to his rehabilitation. If he can get back in the good graces of women, who are shocked and outraged by his lack of fidelity to his wife, he actually has a chance at making a comeback at some point.

The key to getting women to respect him again is to get in front of the media and perform a sincere, heartfelt mea culpa. He needs to have at least an hour of airtime, if not more, to answer questions and reveal everything that happened in his own words. He needs to be interviewed by a female journalist for the interview to carry any credibility with women – Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer or even Barbara Walters. These are women of substance who will be sensitive enough to his need to tell his own story, but stand firm on their need to ask tough questions and not allow him to skirt the tougher answers.

He also needs to do the interview without coaching or any previous knowledge of the questions. His answers need to sound sincere, but more than that, they need to be sincere. Any level of rehearsal will be detected by the interviewer and the viewing audience. He needs to be genuine, and any guilt or remorse he displays needs to be real and palpable. He won’t win anyone over with that interview, but he will set the stage for an eventual comeback. Moreover, the interview will feed the media beast. As long as he continues to decline interviews and only communicate with the media in a one-way fashion using printed statements, the media will persist. He can hide behind the gates of his home in Orlando, or on his yacht in Palm Beach, but the media will not go away until he feeds them the real story. The interview can be the last word on the issue, much like interviews given by former President Bill Clinton and actor Robert Downey, Jr. who were then able to move onto continued success in their respective fields. 

But that’s not all Tiger has to do. Internally, he needs to clean house. He has a staff of handlers, attorneys, and PR people who completely failed him. Granted, as the client, Tiger probably still called all the shots from the start, but it is their responsibility to guide their client to success, and they failed.

He also needs to align himself with a group that teaches values.  He needs to talk to young men about the consequences of infidelity and the virtues of commitment. Whether it is faith-based or not doesn’t matter. Tiger was of such superstar status that access to him was very limited. He was on a pedestal created by the media, but that pedestal is gone. Much like a political candidate, he needs to talk to real people, face-to-face and discuss his failings as a way to help others defeat their own inner demons.

At the end of the day, it will be a long road for Tiger Woods, but it doesn’t have to end there. He still has the ability to turn things around and to stage a comeback at some point. But that will never happen unless he honestly changes his ways, faces the music and takes responsibility for his actions in a very public way.

Corporations who failed to do so suffered similar fates. After the Exxon Valdez oil tanker crashed and spilled millions of gallons of oil across Prince William Sound, they tried to hide the fact they put an alcoholic captain at the helm of the ship.  As a result, people drove past Exxon gas stations and the company’s earnings and stock price suffered for years. It took them much longer to regain the lost market ground because they failed to take responsibility and get past the media storm. It’s basic crisis PR management, and the rules are as immutable as the law of gravity itself.

The media only delivers against the expectations and desires of its audience, and as long as people want Tiger to answer the question of “why?” the media will continue to ask the question until it is answered by the only person who knows.

I debated whether or not to share my thoughts on this sad tale…but with two decades in the public relations field, I felt there were important lessons for companies, as well as other high-profile individuals, to take away from Tiger’s fall from grace.  PR is much more than simply the creation of fame. It is also crisis management when a corporation – or individual – makes a devastating mistake.

Warm regards,
Marsha Friedman
Marsha Friedman, CEO
1127 Grove Street, Clearwater, FL  33755
www.emsincorporated.com