Media

IN THE BOX PODCAST

Episode 47: Scarcity Marketing, Media Relations, Ducks In A Row, And More (Podcast)

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast we discussed how to use the media when you’re starting a business, what constitutes a selfie and how it’s terrible, why scarcity marketing still works, how to deal with the Monday blues, and if our ducks will ever be in a row (what do you think?).

Episode 47: Scarcity Marketing, Media Relations, Ducks In A Row, And More

Media – One tip on how to effectively use the media if you are starting a business?

Selfie – The selfie: Good? or bad?

Scarcity – Why do you think scarcity tactics still work when we sell? Don’t you think people have gotten over that?

Ducks – Will our ducks ever be in a row?

Bonus – One way to deal with a bad case of the Mondays?

 

Stay Positive & Subscribe Here To Listen

Your Media Control

Your Media Control

Garth Beyer

Media Control

You have media control. You know that, right?

I touched on it when I wrote you’re a marketer now.

Being a marketer and having media control. They go hand-in-hand.

You might consider your landing pad as the media you control. Or perhaps it’s your email signature.

If you’re letting someone else dictate your control, you’re holding yourself back from progress. If the small efforts you make on Twitter aren’t moving you forward, then control some other media where your tribe resonates more.

If the three minutes you spend on LinkedIn isn’t getting you closer to an end goal, put the three minutes elsewhere (perhaps just brainstorming a better place to spend them).

Is shooting off the 140-character-half-thought worth it? Do you have control of the TV or does TV control you? Where are you spending your time?

Sometimes media platforms do work against you, so it goes with any endeavor in work; where there is forward movement, there will always be friction. But most friction is self-inflicted. Media control is the exception of the don’t put your eggs in one basket adage. When you do, you increase the friction, you move forward slower, and you get burnt out.

 

Stay Positive & Build A Home Base Instead Of 100 Huts

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You’re A Marketer Now, Get It Right

You’re A Marketer Now, Get It Right

Garth Beyer

New Age Marketing

Marketers used to rent eye-balls, they used to take out a loan for a potential audience, they would buy media space to shotgun market. That was marketing at its most traditional. That was marketing when the masses mattered, when there were only 3 television networks, when developers hadn’t come up with a way to block pop-up ads yet.

When I write you’re a marketer now, I’m not knighting you a marketer, I’m reminding you that you’re a marketer now, as in, you’re a marketer in the 21st century, as in the post-renting, post-loaning, post-shotgun marketing world of it.

Now as a marketer you own eye-balls, you own an audience and you own media space in a niche location. The success of your marketing is dependent in how you find those looking for you, treat those who already find you, and provide for those who frequently visit your home; be it your blog, your catalogue, your YouTube account or some other space your tribe gathers.

Marketing involves ownership, and ownership is scary. The stakes are much higher for marketers than they were 10 years ago. You can’t blame the mass for not clicking your ads, you can’t blame the lack of newspaper circulation for the decreasing sales numbers, you can’t blame Facebook for preventing your video from going viral. If some effort of yours is unsuccessful, it’s your fault. More ad space, bigger banners, extra magazine inserts won’t help.

Getting marketing right involves taking care of what you own.

For many that starts with understanding that you have ownership of an audience and a space.

 

Stay Positive & Remember My Favorite Aspect Of Marketing: You Get To Choose What You Own

And here is some bill the cat for you.

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Storytelling In The Digital Revolution

Garth Beyer

Being a digital native, using the term new media does not feel accurate. While it may be new to other people, it is perfectly normal and expected to me. However, the world does not consist entirely of digital natives and the media must account for this. They do in the sense of utilizing and incorporating storytelling into all forms of media. Every TV program, radio station, YouTube video, and E-version of a magazine use storytelling to not only gain the attention of you and me, but to maintain that attention. Rushkoff, who spoke in Digital Nation explains how everyone is multitasking now. Rarely does a person focus on one specific thing intensely; they are all over the place! It is our inability to focus which requires the new media to use storytelling.

It seems that when media uses storytelling, it is the only time when a person is face-to-face with technology, which they can actually focus on one specific thing. You can find examples of this in every medium of media. On TV, you can watch the speeches given by Romney, Anne, Michelle, Obama and others. Most people who do watch those speeches are not doing ten other tasks at the same time. Why? Because each of the speakers go up and tell a story, they get your interest, they offer a plot, rising action, a climax and so on.

Why is this so effective? Because storytelling has been around since the beginning of man. Before scripture was invented, people communicated and entertained each other through storytelling. It is in our nature to be attracted to storytelling and the media knows this. However, not all media knows it and this is where we get the distractions; the ads, the pop-ups, the proclamations of people who interrupt our lives. “It may be decades until we know what living in a state of constant distraction will do to us,” says Rushkoff. He is right in the sense that we are living in a state of constant distraction, but since the media utilizes storytelling in all that they communicate effectively, as long as we continue to subject ourselves to that type of media and not the type which only acquires are attention for a few moments, we will be safe.

If the media and storytelling are so vitally important to our lives and society in general, we better be paying attention to the right kind of media. It is almost as if media’s storytelling ability makes us grow or destroy us. Since storytelling holds such persuasion over our daily lives, how do we know what storytelling is right and just? This is my biggest fear. The new media direction of storytelling is an absolutely great thing overall, so long as the storytelling persuades positive action. Going back to the example of our presidential candidates and ladies speaking on TV, their speeches were inspiring, positive, and radiating love for one another and our nation. However, we can look at the type of storytelling that is occurring in another country to find that the particular storytelling the media is producing creates negativity, arguments, and even wars. I suppose you can go so far as to say that our quality of life is dependent on the media’s quality of storytelling.

Learning From The Music Industries Failures And Recent Flailings To Stay Alive

Garth Beyer

I’m guilty.

Being a millennial, I have to accept a sliver of the blame for the continuous downfall of the music industry. However, going into the world of journalism, print media, and digital PR, I hope to apply what I learned from the downfall of the music industry so that other media industries can adapt and overcome.

I am not applying what I have learned to specifically save any piece of a media industry. No. I am aiming to create a new business model for them to adapt and prosper with. I’ve understood a few factors that I think other media industries can learn from the music industry to help them progress through the 21st century.

The first is that there is a lack of great music which often gets confused with “commercial.” You can find great music all day every day, there is evidently a surplus. That’s because so many musicians try to be great in the commercial sense. When really, when a musician releases music that is remarkable, worth talking about and passing to a friend, then you have great music. Other media industries need to realize what it is that gets talked about. Is it the products they create for the mass, the commercial, the revenue?  Or is it the products they create for the passionate individual, the human inquirer, and the loud mouth?

A second factor involves looking at how musicians are making their money, not how the music industry is making money. Most musicians make little to nothing from selling CD’s, selling their work on iTunes, or any other form of technological distribution. They make their money from playing at venues, going on tour, collaborating with other musicians to play at a huge festival, and asking for direct donations from fans (most recently utilizing Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sources which I call devotedfanfunding). They don’t sell music anymore, they sell an experience. Once other media industries realize that producing content isn’t what will get them to survive, we may see them pick up and push forward, refusing to meet the same demise of the music industry.

The last variable is built from the previous experience concept. Other media industries must focus either on an individual or small group of like-minded individuals, tribes. You can no longer market to the mass; it’s proven ineffective, especially in the music industry. Think about all the music that is out there, presented to billions of people, yet the music industry is still crumbling. The factions of the music industry that are prospering are those groups which have faithful fans. People come together to connect with other fans, synchronously sing the lyrics, and exchange what next event of the musicians they will be going to. It’s the tribes that are keeping the music industry alive, shifting, and possibly raising it back on its feet.

Other media industries need to realize these paramount shifts, these core variables if they wish to keep their industry going.

One Thousand And One Nights (Of Media)

Garth Beyer

If you’re looking for a great story-teller, there is no one other to look to or compare to than the unbelievably talented Scheherazade (Shuh-Hare-uh-zahd). This goddess of storytelling delayed death by one thousand and one nights simply by telling stories. She did what every reporter, journalist, and center of the media dreams of, and for the same reasons; neither wants to die, be fired, or be humiliated. So what means of attack do they use against death in all its shapes and forms?

Storytelling.

How important is storytelling?

For the eBook I have written called Start Schooling Dreams, I had asked Karthik Puvada, creator and writer of BeThePurpleCow, if he could add just one class to the school curriculum, what class would it be? Immediately, he responded “Storytelling”. I was not satisfied with his single word response, so I pried more to get the following;

“Martin Luther King, Jr.  Steve Jobs. Gandhi. Mark Twain.  Pablo Picasso.

What’s one thing they all have in common?  Yes, they were geniuses in their own fields, but they also were brilliant in something else too.

Storytelling.

They told influential stories all throughout their lives. The stories that defined them. The stories that captivated millions of people around them. Some ended up as iconic books, some as revolutionary civil protests, some as incredible gadgets and some as legendary paintings. But they were all various forms of stories, more importantly ideas.”

You may now be wondering what this has to do with media. Since the introduction of media, the stories of Scheherazade and the incredible world changers that Karthik used as examples have only been amplified. That is what the media is capable of doing with a story – it amplifies it. Storytelling in the media takes on the cumulative effects theory in the sense that the urge for you to consume what the media is presenting is built up to the point of consumption rather than occurring immediately. Just as well, it can shift your views, beliefs, judgments and even your character as easily as it gets you to consume a product.

Like the stories of Scheherazade, the media uses all five elements of story to make a successful impact on your beliefs.

Exposition: the introduction of the topic the media is presenting

Rising action: the media provides specific information to the audience to build tension, suspense, and intrigue

Climax: what the media truly wants you to know and approve

Falling action: what the next steps are for you to take

Resolution: taking those actions and resonating them

Extraordinary storytelling and utilization of the media to amplify it can make you a legend, a millionaire, an artist, and a leader of social change.

My question to you is would you rather watch and listen to Steve Jobs tell a story or a misinformed underpaid reporter? Your answer shows exactly how good storytelling in the media affects what media content you consume.

10 Lessons About PR You Won’t Learn In School

Garth Beyer

Last night I was honored to listen to John Mose, Senior Vice-President of Public Relations at Cramer-Krasselt in Milwaukee, give a presentation to PRSSA Madison Chapter. The next few posts will be highlights of the presentation with my own commentary for an added texture.

1. Writing is important. Really.

You can land a position by presenting writing examples. You can get promoted by writing up proposals. You can get honored by writing the best press releases. You can be respected for writing media pitches. You can have the advantage of knowing what writers want to write about by being one yourself. Writing is everything.

2. Clients care about details.

You can skip the details when you are writing a plan out because you know them. You can skip the details when you pitch to your boss because your boss knows that you know them. You can’t skip the details when you pitch to your client because regardless of any title or background you have, your client won’t care. They want the details.

3. Understand and consume media. Read!

If you’re like me, reading all the articles in a newspaper is hard. The idea of opening a magazine to have my eyes blasted with absurd and uninformative ads repulses me. One word: literature. Other than that, I love reading articles online, but my eyes can only stand looking at the screen for so long. I’ve written about adaptation and this is when you have to get used to consuming all that you can. I’m making progress, you can too/need to.

4. At an agency, you are the product on shelf.

“Companies don’t cut the product that makes money.” – John Mose

5. PR can’t solve everything.

I’m leaving this up for debate. I have yet to meet a PR Professional other than John to say this. PR Specialists – being one myself – live by the adage If there is a will, there is a way.

6. Better to be fast than perfect.

My spin off of this that I have tweeted a few times, and rarely do I ever tweet something twice, is Be first, but be right first.

7. Be ready to sell some aluminum siding.

Similar to the next lesson; you never know what you may have to sell.

8. Know difference between a good-looking horse trough and an ugly one. You have to go out and be, do, or buy some crazy things.

You never know what you may have to do.

9. It’s okay to have non-traditional experience if you can make it interesting.

Took a year off? No problem, make the reason why fascinate me. Spent that last six years working a job that has no respective value? No problem, find and share what value it did hold. Every topic that you believe will work against you on your pursuit of becoming a PR Specialist, find how to make it interesting.

10. Study something else.

It’s time to confess something to you.

Everything you have read so far on this blog has come from experience, self-learning, or books and classes that are not directed at PR. I have to say that any and all future posts will be of the same context.

John advocates that you study something else, something you are passionate about, because the real world is the education center for PR. I couldn’t agree more.

(HT to John Mose)