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Business briefs: Turning around bad word-of-mouth

August 8, 2011 By rjones Leave a Comment

Don't get screwed by word-of-mouth

If you ever get caught with your pants down, you’d better have a good story.

That’s my takeaway from a little online dust-up with Waiters In Boxers, a California company that provides … well, just what the name says.

Last week, reporter Chad Brooks profiled Waiters In Boxers as part of his “Funny Business” series for Business News Daily. After reading the story, I had to tweet my two cents’ worth, and several others quickly joined in the conversation, raising questions about the viability of this particular business model.

I figured that was the end of it until a few days later, when I received the following reply to my tweet:

@PenPointer @JeanetteBND maybe look at the actual concept not how it was re-written in bnd from chad brooks perspective :) much love!

Fair enough. Maybe this business model was more sophisticated than it seemed at first glance. I probably should take a closer look at their story, so I clicked through to the WIB site and found … not much of anything. I mean, lots of pecs, lots of abs, and lots of underwear, but nothing to change my mind or reverse a negative first impression.

Talk about a missed opportunity. Even negative word-of-mouth is a good thing, if you can turn the attention to your advantage. If Waiters In Boxers were my client, I’d urge them to do a quick A-B-C analysis of their site:

  • Anticipate customer objections. If there’s an issue you need to address, then hit it head-on, or risk raising more red flags in customers’ minds. For instance, WIB wants to assure visitors that their service won’t be “as tacky and tasteless as what others have done.” Huh? Now I’m really uncertain about this. More details, please.
  • Be yourself. Don’t hide behind the corporate “we.” Put a face on your company, make it personal. With WIB, I imagine a creepy, Hugh Hefner type behind the scenes. But maybe that’s all wrong. Maybe the company was started by a young woman who couldn’t find what she wanted for her bachelorette party. Maybe it was a hard-working waiter who was looking to create new opportunities for himself and his friends. When you personalize your story, you make it easier for customers to identify with you — and harder for critics to stereotype you.
  • Choose your content carefully. Words and pictures matter. WIB wants to convey a sort of fun, wholesome image, but the content often communicates just the opposite. Beefcake photos and constant repetition of the word ‘sexy’? That just says “objectify me.” Instead of pecs, I’d recommend personality: Show the waiters in T-shirts and include a brief bio that turns them into living, breathing human beings. Not only would it change the whole tone of the site, but it might also encourage potential clients to get in touch for additional photos.

Here’s the naked truth: You can’t stop the critics from talking about you, but you can change the conversation by telling your side of the story more effectively.

Photo credit: Thomas van Ardenne via flickr CC

Filed Under: Communications Tagged With: , ,

Biography building block #3: Drama

August 5, 2011 By rjones Leave a Comment

(Note: This is the third installment in an occasional series. Earlier posts can be found here and here.)

shakespeare, drama, business biographyIf you’ve ever endured a mumblecore film or forced yourself to slog through 100 pages of Proust, you understand why drama is indispensable to a story. Without drama or conflict, there’s no forward motion, and you’re stuck with the status quo, which is Latin for “boring.”

A business biography that focuses only on your personnel and products is every bit as dull. The solution: Spice up your storyline by letting customers know about some of the hurdles and hardships your company has faced.

That’s not to say that your business biography needs to read like a soap opera in order to be interesting. Drama comes in many forms, and even small conflicts can drive a story forward. Chances are you’ve experienced the drama of:

  1. Recession. Everyone knows the pain of the last few years, and shuttered storefronts are proof that small businesses felt the pain, too. When you share your story of survival, customers will feel more inclined to stick with you during the good times.
  2. Competition. Big-box stores may have low prices, but mom-and-pop shops have emotion on their side. You’re David in this story, so share how it felt when Goliath came to town. Don’t worry about bringing the giant down. Just standing your ground makes you the good guy, and it makes for a great story.
  3. Disaster. Fires, floods, earthquakes — nobody wants to experience that kind of drama, but when disaster does strike, be sure to make it a part of your business biography. It worked for Trae Wieniewitz, who uprooted his financial planning service following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, moving hundreds of miles away to Knoxville, Tenn., where he didn’t know a soul. Initially viewed as an interloper, Wieniewitz used his survivor story to help connect with the locals, and his business grew seven-fold.

Drama works because it humanizes the players and gives us someone to cheer for. We identify with struggle. We connect with emotions such as fear, uncertainty and disappointment.

You don’t have to be a Shakespeare to harness the power of drama; you just have to be honest, vulnerable and human. For instance, take Erika Kotite, the founder of a brilliant and beautiful online magazine called Toque. I’ve enjoyed Toque from the start, but it took this newsletter item to get me truly emotionally invested:

Toque was hacked two weeks ago. Seems a gang of phish-farmers decided they wanted to harvest some bank customers and chose one of my sites as control central. It was like having bad case of head lice: miserable and damn hard to get rid of.

In her newsletter, Kotite recounts the struggle to get Toque up and running again, shares some of the lessons learned, and then closes with this:

Adversity builds character, crisis tests resiliency. Although worn out from the drama of resuscitating Toque, I am gratified to realize that it’s well worth saving.

Kotite’s little drama won’t make the evening news, but it will likely make readers rally to her cause — and therein lies the power of a story well told.

Photo credit: tonynetone via flickr CC

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Telling your story on Twitter

August 4, 2011 By rjones 1 Comment

I confess to having a love-hate relationship with Twitter. It can be a huge time suck, it’s more demanding than a crying baby, and it tends to encourage a certain superficiality in communication and relationships.

For all its drawbacks, however, I’ve slowly come to accept that Twitter might just be the single best place on the Internet for telling your story.

How’s that again, you say? Everyone knows that you can’t pour out your heart, share your resume or write your biography in 140 characters — and that’s precisely why Twitter is such a great storytelling medium. The maddening, arbitrary limit of 140 characters forces us to dole out the details slowly, a bit at a time, just like we would in real life.

Or just like we should in real life. We’ve all met people who never learned when to shut up about themselves, and we know from experience how tedious those folks can be. Yet too often we do exactly the same thing in our business communication. The result? Websites and social media profiles that read like a dense, self-congratulatory application for “Who’s Who.”

Zzzzzzz

With its 140-character limit, Twitter helps to enforce the rules of good communication, like the helpful friend who kicks you under the table when you’re monopolizing the conversation on a double date. With Twitter, you say something brief, put it out there, and then sit back and listen to what others are saying. Compared to reading through a long “About” page, Twitter is actually a far more natural, conversational way of learning about someone.

The key to telling your story on Twitter is to reveal yourself little by little, dropping in occasional revelations throughout the online conversation. Sure, people will miss many of the details, but that’s okay — you’re not that interesting, anyway.

What percentage of your tweets should be “all about you”? In much of social media, the 80/20 rule seems to work, but I actually think 20% may be high when it comes to Twitter. A couple of tweets a day is probably enough; over the course of weeks and months, those daily hints will add up, and casual followers will start to get a good idea of what you’re all about.

One final note: There’s an interesting discussion at Tech ‘n Marketing about how to decide which of your followers is worth following back. Hillel Fuld  says that bios and interests are two of the five criteria he uses, but researching that kind of personal information often requires you to leave Twitter, which can be a pain.

If you want to tell your story within Twitter itself, try giving readers an easy way to follow that storyline. I’ve started experimenting with the hashtag #aboutpenpointer. Anyone who looks at my timeline can easily pick out my more personal tweets, and they can do a quick search if they want to know more.

I think the #about[yourhandlehere] hashtag is an easy solution for teasing out biographical tweets from the rest of your timeline. But I wonder if anyone else has found a better way — or if you think such a step is necessary at all?

Photo credit: wiselywoven via flickr CC

Filed Under: Social media Tagged With: , ,

How to get publicity of biblical proportions

July 28, 2011 By rjones 2 Comments

What does this story remind you of:

A burned-out Internet entrepreneur decides he wants to spend more time with his family, so he opens a small retail shop that sells and services Apple products. He makes a decent living, eats lunch and dinner at home every day, and life is generally good — until Apple announces plans to open one of its sleek corporate stores in the same sleepy Georgia town.

Rather than run away, the entrepreneur fights back. He adds more services, more workshops and five times the number of accessories carried by the typical Apple store. Lo and behold, the giant fails to crush the little guy. In fact, PeachMac grows to a mini-chain with five locations.

Even if you weren’t brought up in Sunday School, the words “David and Goliath” might spring to mind. I couldn’t help but think of the analogy this morning as I read the story of scrappy little PeachMac and its improbable battle with the retail giant. That got me thinking about other stories that resonate far beyond the church pew — and the lessons they might hold for business communicators.

David-vs-Goliath is one of those universal stories that everyone can relate to. We’ve all felt like “the little guy,” so we love it when the giants fall. Customers aren’t immune to that feeling, and neither are reporters. Everyone wants to see the little guy win, which means you can’t lose by emphasizing the David-and-Goliath aspect of your story.

Here are three more biblical phrases that have found their way into common usage, along with suggestions for applying the universal themes to your own business story:

  • The patience of Job. Sounds vaguely familiar, right? In case it’s been a while, Job was the one who lost everything through no fault of his own. Even in poverty, sickness and personal tragedy, he never lost his faith — and in the end he was vindicated with more than he ever had before. How it applies to you: Everyone loves a comeback story. Rather than hiding your hardships, make them part of your narrative. If customers can identify with your struggles, they’ll be more eager to contribute to your success.
  • Walking on water. This phrase comes from the story of Jesus walking across the waves to save his followers who seemed certain to perish in a storm. How it applies to you: Everyone wants to believe in miracles. Sometimes success can be so fast or so improbable that it boggles the mind. That makes for a great story — provided you handle it with care. Walking on water should be slightly bewildering, even for those who have done it. If you appear to take it for granted or take full credit, you’ll just come across as arrogant, and your reputation will sink like a stone.
  • A good Samaritan. The biblical good Samaritan took pity on a robbery victim who had been ignored by previous passersby. He interrupted his own journey and spent his own funds nursing the man back to health. How it applies to you: Everyone loves a “good guy.” We identify with people and organizations that help others and make the world a better place. Find tactful ways of establishing your Samaritan credentials and letting others know what you’re doing. Just make sure it’s sincere — no one likes somebody who exploits the less fortunate.

I’m sure there are plenty more examples I’ve overlooked, plus similar stories from other faiths. Feel free to contribute below.

Photo credit: humancarbine via flickr CC

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When to share, when to shut up

July 27, 2011 By rjones Leave a Comment

Sometimes on the tennis or volleyball court, I’ll get a shooting pain in my left knee that forces me to stop and bandage up. When my opponents ask what’s wrong, I always give the same reply: “Old soccer injury.”

That answer is 100% accurate – even if it’s not 100% complete. I did tear my ligaments playing soccer and spent weeks hobbling around on crutches. What I don’t normally tell people is exactly how it happened.

I’m not especially proud of the rest of the story, but it may hold some lessons for business owners who wonder how far they should go in sharing their personal tales.

My friend Mike Figliuolo over at thoughtLEADERS convinced me to spill the beans in a guest post for his blog, so please head over there for all the embarrassing details.

Just promise you won’t think less of me.

Photo credit: jbelluch via flickr CC

Filed Under: Communications Tagged With: , , ,

From Draco to Domino’s, we all love a redemption story

July 26, 2011 By rjones Leave a Comment

I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan. I never read the books, never stood in line for opening night, and never dressed up as my favorite character (though I do think Maggie Smith rocks her pointy witch’s hat).

Still, as I watched the final chapter on Saturday, I was surprised to get a little lump in my throat at the redemption of Draco Malfoy, Harry’s schoolboy nemesis. Evidently I wasn’t the only one: Draco has always been a thoroughly despicable character, so when he showed a flash of humanity near the end of the film, the audience literally erupted in applause.

I thought about Draco again last night when I went down to Times Square to check out the new Domino’s billboard. For many years, the giant pizza chain was a sort of villain in the industry, well known for its mediocre product and awful service. That kind of reputation could have led to a death spiral, but Domino’s set out to re-write its story, and the Times Square billboard might just mark the final stage in its redemption.

Here’s the deal: When customers order a pizza online via the Domino’s app, they have the option of entering feedback that streams to a giant digital billboard at one of the busiest intersections in America. Good or bad, the comments appear within an hour for all to see (edited only for profanity and relevance).

That kind of transparency would be risky for any company, but it’s especially dangerous given Domino’s checkered history — and therein lies the genius of the campaign. Domino’s tale of redemption offers four lessons for any business seeking to turn over a new page:

  1. Fix the fundamental problem. No amount of marketing can change the fact that your pizza tastes like cardboard. Domino’s changed its recipe first, then followed up with research to make sure it had a hit.
  2. Admit your mistakes. Domino’s faced its reputation head-on, with blunt ads that focused on its shortcomings and asked customers for a second chance.
  3. Make a grand gesture. Think you’ve licked the problem? Do something dramatic to make a break with the past.
  4. Outsource your storytelling. Domino’s could purchase lots of ad time to tout its turnaround, but customer reviews and endorsements are far more effective. The same goes for the press: Reporters love a redemption story as much as anyone.

Mistakes happen in every business. Technology fails, quality slips, customers are overlooked. The good news is, those failures don’t have to be your whole story. New chapters get written every day, and even the most passionate boos can turn to cheers.

Just ask Draco Malfoy.

Photo credit: VirtualErn via flickr CC

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In a world of rulers, how do you measure up?

July 21, 2011 By rjones 1 Comment

When I was a kid, my mother used to stand me up every so often against the doorframe in the kitchen, press down with a ruler on top of my unruly blond hair, and notch my growth over the past several months. Next to each hash mark she carefully wrote the date, then got out the yardstick to record my exact height.

Measuring success in businessWithout fail she’d say something encouraging like, “Oh my, look how you’ve grown!” and when I looked at that yellow-painted doorframe, tattooed with hash marks and numbers, I could see that she was right.

My sense of pride was usually short-lived, however. I was a scrawny kid and not an especially fast grower, so my progress in the kitchen was quickly forgotten when I stepped onto the playground. Cary and Bill and Robbie towered over me. Heck, Susan and Marcia and Missy towered over me, too.

Fourth grade can be murder on your self-esteem.

Some people say that nothing really changes after high school, but I find that my own insecurities go back much further. As a business owner, just when you feel like you’re growing at a nice clip, along comes another newfangled ruler to remind you that you’re still the littlest kid on the playground:

  • Klout
  • Blog Grader
  • Google Analytics
  • Facebook fans
  • Twitter followers
  • Feedburner subscriptions
  • Blog comments
  • Likes, retweets, shares, stumbles, diggs …

The list goes on and on, the comparisons are inevitable, and the “badges” keep multiplying.

Suddenly it’s fourth grade all over again. I’m no longer taller than Rich, Melissa just hit her growth spurt, and I never get picked for basketball.

Mommy!!!

The good news is, all of those kids who were once my rivals are now my friends. We weren’t actually competing at all — just groping toward maturity, finding our way, establishing our true selves. It’s hardly a race when everyone is headed in a different direction, and you can’t measure happiness in inches or pounds.

I have to remind myself of that lesson frequently, because there’s always another score, grade or graph offering to measure my progress against some perceived rival. I’m as competitive as anybody, but I’m slowly learning that “winning” is all about how you count. I can’t eat Klout or pay my mortgage with Likes. Analytics are helpful for some things, but no one bothers to chart how often I smile each day — or how often I make my clients smile.

By the way, my parents still live in the same house I grew up in, and my mom has steadfastly refused to repaint that kitchen door. Every time I go home, I can see exactly how far I’ve come, and all those notches remind me of the growing pains along the way. At 5’10″, I didn’t turn out huge, but I’m healthy and happy and I don’t have to shop in the big-and-tall section, so life is good.

When someone finds a way to measure that kind of satisfaction with my business life, I’ll be the first to sign up, because that would be a badge worth displaying.

Photo by flickr user Mike Miley

Filed Under: Lifestyle Business Tagged With: , ,

Kicking off the antipreneur movement

July 19, 2011 By rjones 12 Comments

Time to open the gates on entrepreneurial identity

I know, I know: That headline violates my own gripe about bastardizing the word “entrepreneur,” but maybe it makes the point that the word itself has got to go. No one really loves the term to start with, outside of the publishing company that owns the “Entrepreneur” trademark and occasionally sues those who cross some invisible barrier to trespass on its intellectual property.

I say, let’s avoid that particular property, but right next door let’s build a public park so open and welcoming and useful that no one would see any point in straying beyond the gates of Entrepreneurland.

Tim Berry, one of my all-time favorite business bloggers, says he’s ready to “make a movement” out of this. If he’s onboard, I think we’re off to a great start. The only problem is, before we can have a movement, we have to decide exactly where we want to go. There’s bound to be some debate on this, but here is what I would hope to accomplish:

First, if we’re going to choose a term to replace “entrepreneur,” it probably needs to be a real word — something already in the dictionary and firmly in the public domain so that it can’t be fenced off by linguistic squatters in search of a quick buck.

Next, as long as we’re replacing a long, awkward term, it follows that the new word should be easy to spell and relatively short, befitting the limitations of Twitter and the frustrations of a virtual keyboard.

Finally, I would argue for a term that’s as broad and inclusive as possible. Language adoption relies on usage, and you don’t gain users by excluding people. The best term is one that encompasses all the different varieties of those we currently call “entrepreneurs” — founders and buyers, tinkerers and turnaround artists, profit seekers and social visionaries.

With all those criteria in mind, I wonder if “venturer” might be the term we’re looking for. According to the Random House Dictionary, “venture” is defined as:

  • (n) an undertaking involving uncertainty as to the outcome, especially a risky or dangerous one
  • (v) to take a risk; dare; presume
  • (adj) of or pertaining to an investment or investments in new businesses

“Venturer” isn’t a made-up word; it’s listed in the dictionary, with roots that trace back to 15th century Middle English. Given that history, I can’t imagine that any court would uphold a trademark claim.

What do you think? Does “venturer” capture the essence of what we’re all about? Is it the kind of term that we can embrace and standardize as an open-source alternative to “entrepreneur”?

If you like the word “venturer,” then here are two simple steps you can take to help speed its adoption:

  1. In the comment section below, show your support with three little words: “I’m a venturer”
  2. Any time you’re tweeting about a small-business topic, use the hashtag #venturer. When it becomes a trending topic, others will start to take notice, and we’ll have an honest-to-goodness linguistic movement underway.

And if you don’t like the term “venturer”? That’s fine too, but please feel free to suggest an alternative. As long as we can come up with something — anything — that’s better than “entrepreneur,” I promise to get behind the movement.

Photo by flickr user KTDEE

Filed Under: Rants & Raves Tagged With: , , ,

5 reasons we need a new term for “entrepreneurs”

July 15, 2011 By rjones 10 Comments

French cuisine

I’ve decided that I’m sick of writing about entrepreneurs. Not sick of the topic, by any means, but sick of the word itself. If ever there was a term that outlived its usefulness, this would have to be it. With all the smart people out there writing and thinking about the topic, surely we can come up with a better term for people who innovate, take risks and start something new.

I can think of at least five good reasons why the word “entrepreneur” is all wrong:

  1. It’s French. Not to be jingoistic here, but France probably isn’t the first country you’d associate with the scrappy, independent spirit of startup businesses. French is totally appropriate when discussing food (escargot) or sexual affairs (rendezvous), but for small business? Not so much.
  2. It’s ridiculously hard to type. In 20 years of writing about the topic, I’ve probably typed the word “entrepreneur” 20,000 times — and I still transpose letters almost every time. The computer keyboard simply wasn’t designed for a word with so many e’s and r’s in such close proximity.
  3. It’s not Twitter-friendly. When you type the word “entrepreneur” in the middle of a sentence, with a space before and after, you’ve already used 10% of your 140-character allotment. Throw in a Thai or a Russian name in the same tweet, and that’s pretty much all she wrote.
  4. It’s been thoroughly bastardized. Mompreneur. Solopreneur. Intrapreneur. Herpreneur. Lefthandedredheadpreneur. Okay, I made the last one up, but you get the point. Enough already.
  5. It’s just begging for a lawsuit. This is where things get serious. As BusinessWeek reported recently, EMI, the company behind Entrepreneur magazine, has a history of suing entrepreneurs who use its trademarked (!) term. While I’m a big believer in intellectual property, this seems like a classic overreach. If EMI really believes that its long, awkward, oft-bastardized French word is worth a constant stream of cease-and-desist letters, then maybe it’s time to devalue that word by finding something better.

So there you have it: plenty of good reasons why it’s high time to find a substitute for “entrepreneur.” The problem is, I don’t have any brilliant ideas for what that substitute should be. I kind of like “venturist,” which is 25% shorter than “entrepreneur,”  much easier to spell — and sounds vaguely Latin rather than French.

I might actually start using “venturist,” although I’m not exactly wedded to it. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think — any brilliant ideas for updating the rickety, litigious term “entrepreneur”?

(Photo by flickr user prisme06)

Filed Under: Rants & Raves Tagged With: , ,

5 ways to get a reporter’s attention

July 12, 2011 By rjones Leave a Comment

(Note: For part 1 in this series, please click here.) press, media, media relations

It’s not yet 9:00 on a Tuesday morning, and I already have more than 150 requests this week from reporters seeking input on stories they are writing. I’d say 100 requests per day is pretty average, and the emails from HARO and Reporter Connection come five days a week. So the math is simple: If just 1/2 of 1% of those queries are applicable to you and your business, that’s more than a dozen chances every month to share your story with a much bigger audience.

How big, you ask? So far this week I’ve seen requests from USA Today, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, NBC News and TheStreet.com, just to name a few. That, as they say, is the kind of publicity that money just can’t buy.

Naturally, plenty of other business owners have caught on to this little secret, so you’ll have to work hard to ensure that your reply stands out from the rest. Based on 20 years of writing for the small-business press, I have a few suggestions for doing just that:

  1. Wait for the right opportunity. Reporters are usually very specific about what they’re looking for, so there’s no point in responding if your story doesn’t fit their criteria. You’ll only waste your time, get discouraged and quit too soon, before the perfect opportunity comes along.
  2. Be specific. Every time I post a query as a reporter, I get multiple replies along the lines of: “I have a great story to tell you; please contact me for more information.” Uh, thanks but no. I’m getting dozens and dozens of replies, and I can’t possibly follow up with every one. The ones I do follow up with are the ones that show they understand my angle, and they have the kind of information I’m looking for.
  3. Offer anecdotes. The No. 1 rule of good writing is, “Show, don’t tell.” That means reporters are looking for anecdotes rather than sermons or platitudes. If you want to catch a writer’s attention, give a concrete example from your experience as a business owner. Leave the sermonizing up to the consultants and B-school professors.
  4. Offer additional resources. Most journalists — aside from Larry King — like to do their homework before conducting an interview. If you give me details about your website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter stream and so forth, I’ll probably be more comfortable about contacting you.
  5. Start small. The best-known media outlets always get the most responses to their queries. You’ll stand a better chance of getting noticed if you reply to posts from lesser-known blogs, regional magazines, industry journals and so forth. Bonus: The audience may be smaller, but they’re usually better targeted and more engaged.

If all of this sounds like a lot of work, then give yourself a pat on the back — you’re a very discerning reader. Keeping up with queries and sending well-crafted replies can be a time-consuming task. Yes, the payoff can be huge, but it probably won’t come right away, and you may run out of steam before you start seeing results. At the outset, try limiting yourself to just one story per week. That should help you get the hang of the process without risking burnout.

Can you hire a professional to take care of all this for you? Sure, marketing and PR firms can monitor daily feeds, alert you to the best opportunities and approach reporters on your behalf. Just remember: The higher the retainer fee, the less pressure there is on the agency to actually produce. The best arrangement is a nominal monthly retainer, plus an additional fee each time a media outlet picks up your story.

At PenPoint Group, we’re not actively taking on new clients at the moment, but I’d be happy to share our fee structure with any business owner who’s trying to collect some baseline pricing data. Just contact us here for more information.

(Photo by flickr user Simone Ramella)

Filed Under: Communications, Marketing Tagged With: , ,
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