Press Pass:

I’m just about to head over to “The Stevie’s” where Lauren Berger, a.k.a. “Intern Queen” and fellow Entrepreneur.com blogger, and I are going to meet up. We are both up for the “Best Young Entrepreneur Award,” so this should be fun! TodaysMama is also a finalist for “Best Website of the Year.” All of the awards fun aside, Vegas is fabulous and I’m doing some good entrepreneurial multitasking…I’ve worked in 3 other meetings today and have 2 more set for tomorrow. The best part about multitasking in Vegas (no, it’s not the nickel slots) is the great restaurants! Looking forward to more Cheesecake Factory tomorrow…

To end on a PR note, whenever you’re up for award, you should have a short (30-second) acceptance speach prepared. Usually they will let you know in advance to have something ready. Let me re-emphasize–short! I’m sure I’ll see lots of great examples tonight. I’ll be back with more good Stevie Mojo shortly!

disclaimer: forgive spelling and grammatical errors, I’m blogging from my phone . . .

My last post was about the value of awards - and I kicked out a question to my “board of advisors” for the blog. Krista Parry responded with some great advice:

“My feedback is that awards are a great way for companies to create buzz! It allows you to write a newsworthy press release. All media outlets like to report on awards, especially for local companies. I would recommend that each entrepreneur look for awards in their specific industry first. This may be the best place to start. If you are a female, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is a great organization and they give awards to female entrepreneurs each year. You can find their site at nawbo.org.

Once you win the award send a press release to your local and industry media lists. watch your sales grow!”

Krista Parry is the Marketing and Communications Director for Park City Mountain Resort, a top-ten resort in North America.

Some of you may not have considered local and national awards as a form of PR but it is a great one! In the past I thought that awards were strictly flattery, an excuse for executives to get together and talk about themselves. I couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

It is in reality another great excuse to talk about yourself, but it stretches beyond the “pat yourself on the back� type of stuff into your business circles and best of all into the community. In the end it strengthens your reputation across the board.

I had been hesitant in the past to get involved with entering awards because I didn’t see it as a good use of my time. I had a million other things on my to-do list, and putting together award applications was not one of the tasks that I reveled in.

In the Spring I entered our local Best of State competition – and we ended up winning the Innovation in Small Business Award – which not only came with honors, but free office space, utilities, legal and accounting counsel, 100 hours of intern work, and more for ONE YEAR. Totally worth my time!

It also gave me another excuse to talk about my business with the media and we got 2 or 3 quick and easy media mentions in business sections and publications in the community. It was also a swanky night out (I hadn’t had to buy a formal dress since Senior Prom) and great networking with members of the business community.

I just recently entered TodaysMama in the Stevie Awards for Women and was just notified that we have been chosen as finalists for the Website of the Year and Best Young Entrepreneur awards. I’ll keep you posted on what happens in Vegas!

With most awards, they give you a standard press release that you can customize and blast to your media lists in addition to logos and honors that you can post on your press page of your website. This not only saves you time putting them together yourself, but gives you another excuse to stay in touch with the media that you wouldn’t have had if you had not gotten involved.

Now of course – I’m giving you my two-cents on the handful of awards we have entered to win, but we plan to continue and find that it has been more than worth our time. The best place to start? In your own backyard – keep an eye out in your community for local business and community awards. Be sure to subscribe to local business email blasts and magazines as you will most frequently get updates, details and deadlines through them. As with most other things, start small, prove it locally, and then branch out nationally.

P.S. As I logged into post – I noticed that this little blog won the Totally Fabulous Award from another blogger – Thanks! ☺

Public Relations as defined on Dictionary.com:
1. the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.
2. the art, technique, or profession of promoting such goodwill.

Seems simple enough right? It seems like PR really crosses into every action taken in most companies.

In my mind, absolutely everything ties back to a central message(s) that you want to portray to your customers and community at large. Every act should echo what you want people to think and feel about your company and brand. As businesses we want to be consistent, recognizable and branded.

Our marketing plans and PR strategies should be intertwined with each other. If we want to be consistent and united in our messages, why then do we compartmentalize the two departments who should be playing together so nicely and whose mission is so similar. I’ve actually sat in meetings with other companies before where the line in the sand is drawn neatly between the Marketing Department and the Public Relations Department. I’m actually going to take that a step further and say that it was more than a line in the sand — they were in totally different sand boxes.

As an entrepreneur, I want to be effective. I like it when people are on the same page and moving the same direction. I like to think of my business as a really big sandbox where we all play together. (only a mother would throw down that business analogy)

I want my marketing efforts and strategies to echo our PR messaging and agendas. If I’m planning an event, an ad campaign, or some other type of marketing outreach – I think it’s essential for those addressing PR to ask:

• Is there a press release/media pitch/story to tell here?
• Are there media partnerships and opportunities at any level?
• Is our messaging consistent – are we communicating our message effectively?

If I’m mapping out my core messages and strategy for communicating it effectively to the public in the “Public Relations Department�, of course I want the marketing minds asking:

• Is there an opportunity to do an event in the community?
• Is this something we can work into our advertising effectively?
• Are we echoing these messages in our marketing efforts?

For many of you – coordinating these two departments is pretty easy . . . you ARE these two departments. Some of you may actually have these two departments up and running in your business. Either way, if there is an opportunity to unite these two groups of people or these two mindsets what you end up with is a more focused marketing and communications strategy and one big happy sandbox!