According to Newsworks.com, orchestra president Allison Vulgamore said, “We actually have not marketed our concerts very well, and not spent sufficient funds on marketing.” The article continued to say that “Insufficient marketing is one of many elements causing the orchestra to come up short” and that “…organizations such as the orchestra tend to focus their marketing dollars on subscription sales because it’s more efficient, but they will have to change with consumer patterns.”

Can you imagine waking up one day and realizing you have to shut down your business because you didn’t tell anyone about it? That’s what happened to the Philadelphia Orchestra. It, like many other organizations and businesses, “saved” money on PR and marketing but eventually disappeared in the public’s eye. It’s like an athlete wanting to save water and then realizing on race day that she’s not hydrated enough to compete.

If you’re in a situation where you’re having to cut budgets, think carefully before you eliminate monies for PR and marketing. If done right, PR and marketing can help businesses achieve their goals, including making money. Invest in efforts that connect your business or organization with your consumers in the right way at the right time, and those efforts will pay off.

Social networking has been a part of the customer service and shopping experience at Kukui Grove Center for over a year.  Our presence on Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, and other social media sites has allowed us to expand our online reach, beyond traditional website capabilities, to build relationships and communicate with our customers about services, sales, merchants, and community events.

We utilize social media to increase Kukui Grove’s advertising exposure at every opportunity.  After a year of creating a database of online followers and fans, we decided to test Kukui Grove’s social media reach initially by promoting a new Toddler Thursday event via our Twitter and Facebook pages. The results were amazing!  Attendance increased each week.  Recently, we garnered our largest turnout of more than 81 toddlers thus, providing valuable entertainment for our weekday consumers and increasing pedestrian traffic for our merchants.

Social networking is changing the way we do business everyday.  Kukui Grove has received great benefit from social networking, and we are certain that your business can too.

Here are a few of my tips on using social media:

• Clarify your objectives, develop a strategy, and execute appropriate tactics.
• To increase traffic to your social media site, always include who, what, where, when, and why.
• Partner with neighboring businesses to promote special offers.
• Create an online “code” that only your followers will know to track store sales, purchases, etc.
• Promote your social networking presence through email blasts or one of your current advertising vehicles.
• Negative feedback is okay. Plan a strategic response to negative and positive feedback before responding.
• Lastly, the most important thing is to listen and engage — it’s social! Don’t be afraid to speak, ask, and “mingle!”

Visit Kukui Grove Center at www.kukuigrovecenter.com, www.Twitter.com/KukuiGrove, www.Facebook.com/KukuiGroveCenter, and http://kukuigrovecenter.posterous.com.

Now think about this in the larger context.  King Auto launched a school contest to create a :60 TV commercial for their company.  The commercials were to be made by Kaua`i students.

How many targets did they hit through this one tactic? They got local kids and their families invested in their company.  Where do you think they’ll shop for their next car?  Smart.  King Auto Center also engaged the general community in the contest by allowing them to vote for their favorite commercial online for the “Kaua`i Choice” category.  Smart.  They ended up with a great selection of TV ads for which they didn’t have to pay any production costs.  Smart.  The one cost to King Auto Center was the monetary prizes given to the winning schools, so this money actually went right back to benefit education in our community.  Smart. When the winning spot airs, it will engage the friends and family of every child who participated in making the commercial. Smart.

Next time your company has a need, think of a win-win way to achieve your goal.  Be creative, think at a grassroots level, and figure out how you can get as many people as possible involved in a fun, positive way.  That’s smart public relations.  Kudos to King Auto Center for being all-around smart.  And, kudos to all the students that worked so hard to produce the ads!

Starbucks

Keep it current, Starbucks.  This fact sheet is dated February 2008, kind of old.  Also, Starbucks has gone full boar into the major social media venues from Twitter to Facebook and yet the company’s social media contact information is missing from their fact sheet.  The graphic quality is also poor and not up to par with the company’s top-notch image.  Another brand mismatch is the tone.  This full-on corporate fact sheet is cold and businesslike and seems apart from the Starbucks’ brand of being a fun, friendly, warm place.

Gap

This fact sheet has a nice, easy-to-read layout that looks consistent with their image, but where’s their contact information or even a link to their website and store locations?  It seems incomplete and stops before the bottom of the page.

Gatorade

Gatorade’s fact sheet contains good information, including some unexpected facts like the athletes they sponsor, but it’s dated 2006, much too old to be considered current.  It’s also a bit long at two full pages, though we like that it has all of their product web addresses at the bottom.  Links to those addresses would be even better.

St. Jude Medical

We like how this fact sheet is integrated into the company’s website and the reader can choose whether or not to click on the PDF version or not.  The links on the left and right to the fact sheet topic areas are all active, making it user friendly and the use of web links allows them to make the fact sheet brief while supplying a lot of information.  The only down side is that the PDF version of the fact sheet didn’t open up in our browser so we’re not sure if it contains the same information that’s available on the website fact sheet.

Before creating or revising your company fact sheet, take a look at other companies’ fact sheets to see what works and what doesn’t and let that guide you in perfecting your own.

For more information on fact sheets, see our recent blogs.  Also, do you need to create a fact sheet for your business and don’t want to start from scratch?  Purchase our topic- and industry-specific fact sheet templates, and customize them for your business.  Every fact sheet template includes a pre-set format and valuable tips for your industry or topic.

I must tell you that we are doing well here at Dean’s Beans during this rough economic time, and we want to count our blessings. So we would like to send a free pound of coffee to someone you know, family, friend or loved one, who is going through a hard time due to the economy, to help smooth the transition.  This may seem a little off the wall, and I hope that you take this in the spirit it is given (not just a chance to give your rich brother-in-law some free coffee). So here is the deal:

Send me an email. Let me know the name and full address of your friend in need, and maybe tell me what happened (downsized, fired, business went down) if you feel okay letting me in on that.  Then tell me what coffee you think he or she would like and if it should be ground or whole bean.  We will send the coffee, no charge for coffee or shipping, with a little note that says someone you know cares about you. I am thinking it will be anonymous, but if you want your name, we will add that, too.

No marketing material, no gimmicks, just a little give back to some friends in need.

Chicken skin, huh?!  There are a few things to learn from this, besides the charitable example the company is setting in these tough economic times.  Notice that the email came directly from Dean’s Bean Founder Dean Cycon himself, and notice the message’s tone.  It’s friendly, straightforward, and heartfelt.  So often those of us in the business community translate “professional” into being cold and staid.  It’s not the case here. In fact, the opposite is what will help us communicate evermore effectively.  Make it personal and  keep it warm.  That’s how you’ll make customers, clients and people in general love and want to do business with you.