September 24, 2024 • 17 mins
Unlock the secrets of powerful public relations for small businesses with our special guest, Laura Dolce, the director of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel Chamber of Commerce. Discover how even the smallest news—like promotions, product launches, and anniversaries—can make headlines and breathe new life into your business. Laura explains how lean newsrooms are hungry for ready-to-publish stories and offers actionable insights on crafting compelling press releases. Tune in and give your small business the PR boost it deserves!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly
podcast prepared by the team atPaper Trails.
Owning and running a smallbusiness is hard.
Each week, we'll dive into thechallenges, headaches, trends,
fun and excitement of running asmall business.
After all, small businesses arethe heartbeat of America and
our team is here to keep thembeating.
Hello and welcome to SmallBusiness Big World, our weekly
(00:23):
podcast talking about all thingssmall business.
Today, my guest is Laura Dolce,the director of the
Kennyburn-Kennyburn Port ArundelChamber of Commerce, and we are
going to talk about publicrelations for small business.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We are.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Thank you for joining me.
I'm happy to be here Before weget going.
Don't forget like follow sharerate review Anywhere you listen
to podcasts.
We're there.
If you have any questions forus or for Laura or any of our
guests, feel free to email us.
Podcast at paper trailscom andwe will get in touch with you.
All right PR.
I feel like this is a foreigntopic for a lot of small
business people, right?
I think we're not very good attuning our own horn.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So what?
What do you have to do to benewsworthy?
What types of things in a smallbusiness can small business
owners talk about to the press?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I think, first of all , there's a lot that goes on in
businesses that people don'teven think of as newsworthy.
I think you know, every timethere's a promotion, throw it in
the paper, you know, put aheadshot out there.
I think if you're changingsomething up, adding a product
line, adding a new service, youhit an anniversary, whether it's
one years or 21 years orwhatever.
(01:26):
I think a lot of times thepress themselves nowadays are
really, really lean and sothey're delighted to get content
from somewhere other thanhaving to send a reporter out.
They're delighted to get photosand put that stuff in.
And business reportingespecially a lot of papers just
don't have business reportersanymore, business reporting
especially a lot of papers, justdon't have business reporters
anymore.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So, particularly speaking to the lack of
workforce in that reportingfield, we know the newsrooms are
smaller than they ever havebeen, right.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
God, yeah, what catches a reporter's attention,
I guess what's going to reallymove the needle and say, oh gosh
, we're going to do somethingwith that.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I mean, I think something unusual.
I do think something like ananniversary.
I mean they're not going tocome out and do a story if you
have a promotion.
They might have a story if youhave a new president or a new
CEO, but if you've got somethingnew, something cool, you've got
a big anniversary.
You can contact the pressdirectly.
A lot of times, do a good pressrelease.
You send that press release outand chances are they're either
(02:24):
going to put it in the way it isor they're going to call you
because you've taken the time towrite up what's interesting
about it?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
What should be in that press release?
What should go in there?
What should you send them?
How should you send?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
it First of all.
I would always send it as aword attachment.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Not a PDF.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Having been on the other side, I can assure you
that if you send a PDF, it'sgoing to take so much longer to
get that in the paper becausesomeone has to type it in.
So, for God's sake, send it.
Even if you send it in the bodyof the email, send it in a way
that people can cut and paste it, because no one has time for
that.
Always send a photo.
Photos are terrific, both to getthe reader's attention but also
to get an editor's attention,because again, they're looking
(03:04):
to build a page around photosand you want to get that in
there.
So contact name, phone number,email O is important, because if
you send that out into theworld but people have follow-up
questions or they think, wow,that's a great story, sometimes
they don't want to have tosearch for you or figure out who
sent it to them.
You know, put a headline thatgrabs people's attention at the
(03:26):
top and then you know you don'thave to get super complicated.
There's a lot of greattemplates online that you can do
a press release.
Our chamber will do it with youor for you.
So I mean that's always anoption if you're part of a
professional organization.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, what is that?
What is a press release?
What's the format?
I mean, you've got your quickheadline right.
Grab the attention, write aboutwhatever you're talking about.
Then is it put kind of an aboutthe business.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Just in general, I like to put an about the
business at the bottom, if I canyou know, like a full bio of
the business I put at the bottom.
But you might say your headlineis ABC company ads.
I don't know.
You know brand new line of, youknow, three-headed monkey toys.
And then you've got kind of thetown and then you know the
announcement, like today, youknow, president of ABC company
(04:15):
announced that they're, you know, adding these brilliant new
lines of three-headed monkeytoys in time for the holidays.
And then you'll have a quote,you know, from Joe Blow and
it'll say we're so delighted tobe, you know, adding these
three-headed monkey toys.
Blah, blah, blah, said Joe Blow, ceo of ABC Company.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I think the Wall Street Journal is going to pick
this one up Exactly.
If you see this on Christmaslist, you'll know why.
So yeah, Hasbro is coming afterthe three-headed monkeys.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And then after that, you know, oh yeah, a little bit
more about the company.
You know, abc Company has beenin business for 30 years, is
known for its two-headed snaketoy, and you know blah, blah,
blah Employees you know 300people.
Whatever, I think, some of thatimportant information that
you'd want to see in the paper.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
How do you, what about you know, I guess?
How do you show your expertiseand offer expertise to reporters
Like, if you're, you know, Idon't know, let's, let's say,
reporters looking to write astory about you know, flooding,
right, we had a flooding thing,right.
And they reached out to you asthe chamber director and said,
you know, hey, who's an expertin this, right?
(05:18):
And you said, hey, here's threeinsurance agents and here's a
you know cleaning company orwhatever, right, and they
reached out to them.
How do you, how do you putyourself kind of on that
resource list?
How do you get in touch with,how do you stay connected with
these reporters when they'relooking to write a story about
something that you might be anexpert on?
And then that's truly a newsstory and not necessarily a rah,
rah, rah, all about me story.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, every reporter has asource, you know, and I find
like, when we get new reporterswhich we do frequently here I
reach out.
I reach out, I tell them, Igive them my cell, I tell them
like, hey, if you need anythingor you're looking for business
ideas or whatever, here's howyou contact me.
I think you can absolutely dothe same.
I mean, as a journalist,especially with the storms and
(05:57):
things like that, I'd bedelighted if three companies
sent me a little email and saidhey, by the way, you know, we're
experts, we cleaned up afteryou know five hurricanes or
whatever.
And I think that's.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So don't be afraid to reach out either.
No, no, be a little proactive?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I do.
I think a lot of people areputting together a virtual
Rolodex and they might not useyou this time, but next time
something happens they're goingto say oh yeah, I've got
so-and-so's number, I'm going togive them a call on that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
That's interesting.
I never thought about being soproactive, I guess, in terms of
those news type stories and howyou manage that.
So that's a good one.
How do you stay?
Who do you send these thingsout to?
I mean, most locations have alocal paper, even if it's just a
weekly or something.
We have our regionals and somebusiness magazines and do you
just plaster it out there.
Do you just say, hey, these arethe 10 that I'm always going to
(06:45):
send to, or is there a strategyaround that?
Do you think for press releasesor anything like that?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, I mean we have a media list that we've created
and we know that here'sespecially our local people.
So for a general press releasewe do have kind of a list of
like.
I'm not going to send that tobroadcast unless it's something
really big or really cool, likeif it's in a big event, then
I'll send that to broadcast.
But other than that, if it'sthings like a promotion or
whatever, but if you've got yourthree-headed monkey launch and
(07:11):
it's in time for the holidays, Iwould send that to broadcast.
I would do a little homeworkand figure out where that's
going to go and which is theright department.
I always look for the newsdepartment.
I always look for an editor, ifI can, a producer.
Even Sometimes the emails thatsome of these media
organizations give you, likethese info emails, they could go
to the ad department.
(07:31):
You don't know where they'regoing.
There's probably some underpaidsecretary dealing with all those
.
So you want to get it in theright hands right from the
beginning.
You know local papers.
It's often either the localeditor or the local reporter who
every week is struggling tocome up with something.
So you know you could send it tothem or both you know, but if
it's yeah, if it's somethingreally cool though and something
(07:52):
super visual, then I wouldabsolutely reach out to the
radio or tv stations and, youknow, get some additional stuff
on top of that.
We do a lot of print for thingslike business, because you
don't get quite as much businessstuff on tv, I think.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
But so what about things?
I know there's going back tookay, being a little more
proactive.
There's things like Help aReporter Out, right that's one
of the services out there thatyou can subscribe to.
That reporters go out and sayhey, I'm looking for someone
that knows about three-headedmonkey toys, right.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, I mean I have been a reporter using Harrow.
I mean that's definitelyvaluable.
I still think that unlessyou're looking to put together
kind of a bigger, broader piece,maybe on like a regional or
national level, your localreporters might not be using
that as much.
I think people at biggerorganizations know about that,
(08:44):
Probably not your local person.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So that's why being proactive is really important
Right, and being connected isimportant right.
That's interesting.
So you talked about the chamber.
What is the chamber?
You guys at the chamberobviously are really well versed
in this as formal journalists.
So how do you, you know, howare you helping members with
this type of stuff?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean, a lot of what we do especially is with new
businesses.
They've just come to an areathey really want to tell you.
You know, kind of here's whatwe just opened.
We do this, we're going to havea ribbon cutting and obviously
we take photos of that.
But we just had a small mammalvet open and they really wanted
to do a press release.
(09:23):
And you know, sometimes I'll getsort of the very basic, but
they sent me some really coolmaterial about how they decided
to be small mammal vets becausethey had a bunny in college and
this bunny inspired and it wassuch a cool.
So you really got to puttogether a really cool press
release from that.
So sometimes those coolanecdotes or something just that
sets you apart is really fun.
Um, we always ask them to kindof just give us the basics.
(09:45):
You know, tell us when you'reopening where you were before,
what exactly services you'regoing to offer, kind of
straightforward stuff that you'dwant to see in there.
So if you want readers to know,if you want consumers to know
and you're sending it to themedia, put everything in there
you want them to know.
You know you can't guaranteeeverything gets in, but on the
(10:06):
chance it is.
Put everything in there.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
You want them to know , do you send one photo?
You send a couple photos.
What's the, what's the standardand I always send one.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I try not to do more than a page or so for a press
release because, again, you knowno one has time to go through
three, four pages.
If you've got some really coolphotos, like the vet, for
example, say it's like you knowthe two of you partner standing
in front of your business,that's great.
But if you have a really coolbunny shot, because you know,
it's a specialty, or a shot of abunny having surgery or
(10:36):
something.
Yeah, I think you know that'salways a little more interesting
.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Right, I want to catch attention.
Just like any type of marketer,you want to differentiate and
catch that attention.
So one of the things that Ithink we're all bad at is kind
of tooting our own horn, andsometimes I don't even think
about it.
Right, I was talking to ourmarketing director today and
we're currently trying to rankas one of the best employers in
the state.
(11:00):
Right, there's a big surveythat's going out and today they
went out.
So we're, you know, we'reworking on that and I'm not I'm
duly influencing my employees,don't worry.
Uh, hr association I knowthat's a big rule.
We're not doing that, uh, butit's.
You know, I have this thing inmy mind that main biz only
features the people that are onthis list.
(11:20):
Like, I feel like we've triedto submit stuff to certain
publications and I just feellike we don't have the
credibility.
So we're trying to.
This is one of the ways we'retrying to build credibility and
you know, and that's kind of anoutside the box kind of PR type
thing Just saying, hey, listen,if you're getting recognized by
outside organizations, you know,one of the things that we
always look for are thereindustry awards that we can
(11:41):
nominate ourselves for, orthings that we should be
applying for that are anopportunity Again, because those
are things, those are pressreleases right, those are ways
to get in front of other folks.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And it builds credibility?
Yeah, absolutely, and I thinkthere are a lot of companies
that are really good at doingthat.
I just wrote up something forone of those, for one of our
member companies, this week, andI think people shouldn't be
afraid to ask.
Ask your number one client, asksomeone that you work with in
the community, ask someone youserve on a board with, ask your
chamber, like, hey, could youwrite a letter of recommendation
?
Could you kind of put this outthere?
(12:13):
Could you give me a quote forthis?
Because we're applying for XYZawards.
I do think that the awards arenice to have.
I mean, it's great to have themcluttering up your office, but
it does give you a differentlevel of credibility and they
generally have their own PRbuilt into them, which again
it's kind of a double bonus,right?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Again, because those types of things when they say,
hey, we're announcing the awards, guess who won the award?
Right, you want to be on thatlist.
So that's just anotherdifferent way to kind of promote
yourself that I don't think alot of people think about.
Again, I'm not good about iteither.
I was talking to John today.
I'm like I'm really bad attooting my own horn, but we've
got to think about that if wewant to continue to kind of grow
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
And I think you should.
I mean, you can look at some ofthe companies that do it well,
like the one I talked to thisweek.
They do it well.
They're in hospitality, they'vewon many, many know, I don't
know, yeah, but there's, youknow, the payroll expert of, you
know, the state of Maine, butthere's awards in every industry
.
Exactly, there's, you know,industry associations.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Even if you're, you know, you become the chairman of
an industry association orsomething, you know someone,
something big like that happens.
You know we have a nationalassociation that we're members
with, um, you know.
I think there's a lot that canbe said about that.
So, but yeah, so what's the onetakeaway?
If you're gonna say, hey, mrsmall business, you need to
think about when you're thinkingabout pr basic, if you had one
(13:37):
thing, only one thing, you coulddo, what would it be from a pr
perspective?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
oh my gosh.
Um, I mean, I guess, tutor onhorn, learn.
Learn to get yourself out there.
Learn to put yourself out there.
Even if you send 10 pressreleases and not you know, one
of them gets picked up.
You haven't wasted anything,but maybe a few minutes for each
and you're out there, and if itturns into a bigger story,
(14:02):
that's kind of invaluable andit's free pr what's the?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
is it all news or all publicity is good publicity?
I don't believe that I was justgot checking that.
I don't know nowadays socialmedia?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
no, I don't think so.
Yeah, no, and I think that's abig part of pr people don't
think about like crisismanagement that's a whole other
podcast, but really, really,quick.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I mean I think you know we've we've been there
where there have been businessesthat have been caught in some
sort of controversy right.
And the paper is reaching outto them.
You're not reaching out to them, right?
They're reaching out to you andyou know, I guess my advice
would be don't ignore that Neverignore it.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
You want to control the narrative you want to print.
You want to tell them what youwant them to know.
You don't want them to hear itfrom 10 people who have a
completely different skewed,perhaps, view of what happened.
You know you want them to getthe truth and even if it's bad,
talk, talk.
You don't.
You can work with someone elseon a statement, even if it's
just a statement you send, butdon't ever be silent, because
(15:01):
when you're silent, people fillin the blankss.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Right, and you have certainly helped some business
in the community with that.
You know, with controversiesand things, so that's been and
you're right.
I think once you make thatstatement, you've found even if
it's just posting it to yourFacebook page or whatever wow,
okay, people actually arehearing your side of the story
and 99% of the comments on theone I'm thinking of were very
positive toward the business.
Right, that gosh, we understandthat there was this crazy
(15:25):
person that caused a stink andyou know we still love you.
Right, maybe you screwed up,maybe you didn't, you know.
Okay, if you did, we forgiveyou and that's real life, right,
and we move on.
I mean that's.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It's the same for Google reviews, yelp reviews.
I mean with the businesses thattook the time to say yep,
you're right, we fell short hereand here's what we're doing,
and we took it to our managementteam and boy, we've made
changes.
Great People respect that andthey're willing to give you
another shot, rather than thepeople who just ignore it or
fight with people even worse.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Those are the most entertaining.
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, for the rest of us to read Well good, well,
that's kind of a quick PR 101.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I think the good, the bad and hopefully not the ugly
for most businesses.
But if that does happen, find acrisis manager communications
person right Exactly To help youmanage that.
Hopefully it's not too too bad,but well good, Well, thanks.
How do folks get in touch withyou if they want to chat with
you further about?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
this Director at GoKennabunks with an S at the
end com.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Perfect, so reach out to Laura if you have any
questions.
Well, all right, don't forgetlike follow share rate review.
We are everywhere online allthe socials, all the podcast
channels, and we will see younext week.
Thanks everybody.
Thanks for listening to thisweek's episode of Small Business
, big World.
This podcast is a production ofPaper Trails.
(16:47):
Payroll across all social mediaplatforms and check us out at
papertrailscom for moreinformation.
As a reminder, the views,opinions and thoughts expressed
by the hosts and guests alone.
The material presented in thispodcast is for general
information purposes only andshould not be considered legal
or financial advice.
By inviting this guest to ourpodcast, paper Tra,
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly
podcast prepared by the team atPaper Trails.
Owning and running a smallbusiness is hard.
Each week, we'll dive into thechallenges, headaches, trends,
fun and excitement of running asmall business.
After all, small businesses arethe heartbeat of America and
our team is here to keep thembeating.
Hello and welcome to SmallBusiness Big World, our weekly
(00:23):
podcast talking about all thingssmall business.
Today, my guest is Laura Dolce,the director of the
Kennyburn-Kennyburn Port ArundelChamber of Commerce, and we are
going to talk about publicrelations for small business.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We are.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Thank you for joining me.
I'm happy to be here Before weget going.
Don't forget like follow sharerate review Anywhere you listen
to podcasts.
We're there.
If you have any questions forus or for Laura or any of our
guests, feel free to email us.
Podcast at paper trailscom andwe will get in touch with you.
All right PR.
I feel like this is a foreigntopic for a lot of small
business people, right?
I think we're not very good attuning our own horn.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So what?
What do you have to do to benewsworthy?
What types of things in a smallbusiness can small business
owners talk about to the press?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I think, first of all , there's a lot that goes on in
businesses that people don'teven think of as newsworthy.
I think you know, every timethere's a promotion, throw it in
the paper, you know, put aheadshot out there.
I think if you're changingsomething up, adding a product
line, adding a new service, youhit an anniversary, whether it's
one years or 21 years orwhatever.
(01:26):
I think a lot of times thepress themselves nowadays are
really, really lean and sothey're delighted to get content
from somewhere other thanhaving to send a reporter out.
They're delighted to get photosand put that stuff in.
And business reportingespecially a lot of papers just
don't have business reportersanymore, business reporting
especially a lot of papers, justdon't have business reporters
anymore.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So, particularly speaking to the lack of
workforce in that reportingfield, we know the newsrooms are
smaller than they ever havebeen, right.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
God, yeah, what catches a reporter's attention,
I guess what's going to reallymove the needle and say, oh gosh
, we're going to do somethingwith that.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I mean, I think something unusual.
I do think something like ananniversary.
I mean they're not going tocome out and do a story if you
have a promotion.
They might have a story if youhave a new president or a new
CEO, but if you've got somethingnew, something cool, you've got
a big anniversary.
You can contact the pressdirectly.
A lot of times, do a good pressrelease.
You send that press release outand chances are they're either
(02:24):
going to put it in the way it isor they're going to call you
because you've taken the time towrite up what's interesting
about it?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
What should be in that press release?
What should go in there?
What should you send them?
How should you send?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
it First of all.
I would always send it as aword attachment.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Not a PDF.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Having been on the other side, I can assure you
that if you send a PDF, it'sgoing to take so much longer to
get that in the paper becausesomeone has to type it in.
So, for God's sake, send it.
Even if you send it in the bodyof the email, send it in a way
that people can cut and paste it, because no one has time for
that.
Always send a photo.
Photos are terrific, both to getthe reader's attention but also
to get an editor's attention,because again, they're looking
(03:04):
to build a page around photosand you want to get that in
there.
So contact name, phone number,email O is important, because if
you send that out into theworld but people have follow-up
questions or they think, wow,that's a great story, sometimes
they don't want to have tosearch for you or figure out who
sent it to them.
You know, put a headline thatgrabs people's attention at the
(03:26):
top and then you know you don'thave to get super complicated.
There's a lot of greattemplates online that you can do
a press release.
Our chamber will do it with youor for you.
So I mean that's always anoption if you're part of a
professional organization.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, what is that?
What is a press release?
What's the format?
I mean, you've got your quickheadline right.
Grab the attention, write aboutwhatever you're talking about.
Then is it put kind of an aboutthe business.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Just in general, I like to put an about the
business at the bottom, if I canyou know, like a full bio of
the business I put at the bottom.
But you might say your headlineis ABC company ads.
I don't know.
You know brand new line of, youknow, three-headed monkey toys.
And then you've got kind of thetown and then you know the
announcement, like today, youknow, president of ABC company
(04:15):
announced that they're, you know, adding these brilliant new
lines of three-headed monkeytoys in time for the holidays.
And then you'll have a quote,you know, from Joe Blow and
it'll say we're so delighted tobe, you know, adding these
three-headed monkey toys.
Blah, blah, blah, said Joe Blow, ceo of ABC Company.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I think the Wall Street Journal is going to pick
this one up Exactly.
If you see this on Christmaslist, you'll know why.
So yeah, Hasbro is coming afterthe three-headed monkeys.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And then after that, you know, oh yeah, a little bit
more about the company.
You know, abc Company has beenin business for 30 years, is
known for its two-headed snaketoy, and you know blah, blah,
blah Employees you know 300people.
Whatever, I think, some of thatimportant information that
you'd want to see in the paper.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
How do you, what about you know, I guess?
How do you show your expertiseand offer expertise to reporters
Like, if you're, you know, Idon't know, let's, let's say,
reporters looking to write astory about you know, flooding,
right, we had a flooding thing,right.
And they reached out to you asthe chamber director and said,
you know, hey, who's an expertin this, right?
(05:18):
And you said, hey, here's threeinsurance agents and here's a
you know cleaning company orwhatever, right, and they
reached out to them.
How do you, how do you putyourself kind of on that
resource list?
How do you get in touch with,how do you stay connected with
these reporters when they'relooking to write a story about
something that you might be anexpert on?
And then that's truly a newsstory and not necessarily a rah,
rah, rah, all about me story.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, every reporter has asource, you know, and I find
like, when we get new reporterswhich we do frequently here I
reach out.
I reach out, I tell them, Igive them my cell, I tell them
like, hey, if you need anythingor you're looking for business
ideas or whatever, here's howyou contact me.
I think you can absolutely dothe same.
I mean, as a journalist,especially with the storms and
(05:57):
things like that, I'd bedelighted if three companies
sent me a little email and saidhey, by the way, you know, we're
experts, we cleaned up afteryou know five hurricanes or
whatever.
And I think that's.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
So don't be afraid to reach out either.
No, no, be a little proactive?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I do.
I think a lot of people areputting together a virtual
Rolodex and they might not useyou this time, but next time
something happens they're goingto say oh yeah, I've got
so-and-so's number, I'm going togive them a call on that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
That's interesting.
I never thought about being soproactive, I guess, in terms of
those news type stories and howyou manage that.
So that's a good one.
How do you stay?
Who do you send these thingsout to?
I mean, most locations have alocal paper, even if it's just a
weekly or something.
We have our regionals and somebusiness magazines and do you
just plaster it out there.
Do you just say, hey, these arethe 10 that I'm always going to
(06:45):
send to, or is there a strategyaround that?
Do you think for press releasesor anything like that?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, I mean we have a media list that we've created
and we know that here'sespecially our local people.
So for a general press releasewe do have kind of a list of
like.
I'm not going to send that tobroadcast unless it's something
really big or really cool, likeif it's in a big event, then
I'll send that to broadcast.
But other than that, if it'sthings like a promotion or
whatever, but if you've got yourthree-headed monkey launch and
(07:11):
it's in time for the holidays, Iwould send that to broadcast.
I would do a little homeworkand figure out where that's
going to go and which is theright department.
I always look for the newsdepartment.
I always look for an editor, ifI can, a producer.
Even Sometimes the emails thatsome of these media
organizations give you, likethese info emails, they could go
to the ad department.
(07:31):
You don't know where they'regoing.
There's probably some underpaidsecretary dealing with all those
.
So you want to get it in theright hands right from the
beginning.
You know local papers.
It's often either the localeditor or the local reporter who
every week is struggling tocome up with something.
So you know you could send it tothem or both you know, but if
it's yeah, if it's somethingreally cool though and something
(07:52):
super visual, then I wouldabsolutely reach out to the
radio or tv stations and, youknow, get some additional stuff
on top of that.
We do a lot of print for thingslike business, because you
don't get quite as much businessstuff on tv, I think.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
But so what about things?
I know there's going back tookay, being a little more
proactive.
There's things like Help aReporter Out, right that's one
of the services out there thatyou can subscribe to.
That reporters go out and sayhey, I'm looking for someone
that knows about three-headedmonkey toys, right.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, I mean I have been a reporter using Harrow.
I mean that's definitelyvaluable.
I still think that unlessyou're looking to put together
kind of a bigger, broader piece,maybe on like a regional or
national level, your localreporters might not be using
that as much.
I think people at biggerorganizations know about that,
(08:44):
Probably not your local person.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So that's why being proactive is really important
Right, and being connected isimportant right.
That's interesting.
So you talked about the chamber.
What is the chamber?
You guys at the chamberobviously are really well versed
in this as formal journalists.
So how do you, you know, howare you helping members with
this type of stuff?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean, a lot of what we do especially is with new
businesses.
They've just come to an areathey really want to tell you.
You know, kind of here's whatwe just opened.
We do this, we're going to havea ribbon cutting and obviously
we take photos of that.
But we just had a small mammalvet open and they really wanted
to do a press release.
(09:23):
And you know, sometimes I'll getsort of the very basic, but
they sent me some really coolmaterial about how they decided
to be small mammal vets becausethey had a bunny in college and
this bunny inspired and it wassuch a cool.
So you really got to puttogether a really cool press
release from that.
So sometimes those coolanecdotes or something just that
sets you apart is really fun.
Um, we always ask them to kindof just give us the basics.
(09:45):
You know, tell us when you'reopening where you were before,
what exactly services you'regoing to offer, kind of
straightforward stuff that you'dwant to see in there.
So if you want readers to know,if you want consumers to know
and you're sending it to themedia, put everything in there
you want them to know.
You know you can't guaranteeeverything gets in, but on the
(10:06):
chance it is.
Put everything in there.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
You want them to know , do you send one photo?
You send a couple photos.
What's the, what's the standardand I always send one.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I try not to do more than a page or so for a press
release because, again, you knowno one has time to go through
three, four pages.
If you've got some really coolphotos, like the vet, for
example, say it's like you knowthe two of you partner standing
in front of your business,that's great.
But if you have a really coolbunny shot, because you know,
it's a specialty, or a shot of abunny having surgery or
(10:36):
something.
Yeah, I think you know that'salways a little more interesting
.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Right, I want to catch attention.
Just like any type of marketer,you want to differentiate and
catch that attention.
So one of the things that Ithink we're all bad at is kind
of tooting our own horn, andsometimes I don't even think
about it.
Right, I was talking to ourmarketing director today and
we're currently trying to rankas one of the best employers in
the state.
(11:00):
Right, there's a big surveythat's going out and today they
went out.
So we're, you know, we'reworking on that and I'm not I'm
duly influencing my employees,don't worry.
Uh, hr association I knowthat's a big rule.
We're not doing that, uh, butit's.
You know, I have this thing inmy mind that main biz only
features the people that are onthis list.
(11:20):
Like, I feel like we've triedto submit stuff to certain
publications and I just feellike we don't have the
credibility.
So we're trying to.
This is one of the ways we'retrying to build credibility and
you know, and that's kind of anoutside the box kind of PR type
thing Just saying, hey, listen,if you're getting recognized by
outside organizations, you know,one of the things that we
always look for are thereindustry awards that we can
(11:41):
nominate ourselves for, orthings that we should be
applying for that are anopportunity Again, because those
are things, those are pressreleases right, those are ways
to get in front of other folks.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And it builds credibility?
Yeah, absolutely, and I thinkthere are a lot of companies
that are really good at doingthat.
I just wrote up something forone of those, for one of our
member companies, this week, andI think people shouldn't be
afraid to ask.
Ask your number one client, asksomeone that you work with in
the community, ask someone youserve on a board with, ask your
chamber, like, hey, could youwrite a letter of recommendation
?
Could you kind of put this outthere?
(12:13):
Could you give me a quote forthis?
Because we're applying for XYZawards.
I do think that the awards arenice to have.
I mean, it's great to have themcluttering up your office, but
it does give you a differentlevel of credibility and they
generally have their own PRbuilt into them, which again
it's kind of a double bonus,right?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Again, because those types of things when they say,
hey, we're announcing the awards, guess who won the award?
Right, you want to be on thatlist.
So that's just anotherdifferent way to kind of promote
yourself that I don't think alot of people think about.
Again, I'm not good about iteither.
I was talking to John today.
I'm like I'm really bad attooting my own horn, but we've
got to think about that if wewant to continue to kind of grow
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
And I think you should.
I mean, you can look at some ofthe companies that do it well,
like the one I talked to thisweek.
They do it well.
They're in hospitality, they'vewon many, many know, I don't
know, yeah, but there's, youknow, the payroll expert of, you
know, the state of Maine, butthere's awards in every industry
.
Exactly, there's, you know,industry associations.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Even if you're, you know, you become the chairman of
an industry association orsomething, you know someone,
something big like that happens.
You know we have a nationalassociation that we're members
with, um, you know.
I think there's a lot that canbe said about that.
So, but yeah, so what's the onetakeaway?
If you're gonna say, hey, mrsmall business, you need to
think about when you're thinkingabout pr basic, if you had one
(13:37):
thing, only one thing, you coulddo, what would it be from a pr
perspective?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
oh my gosh.
Um, I mean, I guess, tutor onhorn, learn.
Learn to get yourself out there.
Learn to put yourself out there.
Even if you send 10 pressreleases and not you know, one
of them gets picked up.
You haven't wasted anything,but maybe a few minutes for each
and you're out there, and if itturns into a bigger story,
(14:02):
that's kind of invaluable andit's free pr what's the?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
is it all news or all publicity is good publicity?
I don't believe that I was justgot checking that.
I don't know nowadays socialmedia?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
no, I don't think so.
Yeah, no, and I think that's abig part of pr people don't
think about like crisismanagement that's a whole other
podcast, but really, really,quick.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I mean I think you know we've we've been there
where there have been businessesthat have been caught in some
sort of controversy right.
And the paper is reaching outto them.
You're not reaching out to them, right?
They're reaching out to you andyou know, I guess my advice
would be don't ignore that Neverignore it.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
You want to control the narrative you want to print.
You want to tell them what youwant them to know.
You don't want them to hear itfrom 10 people who have a
completely different skewed,perhaps, view of what happened.
You know you want them to getthe truth and even if it's bad,
talk, talk.
You don't.
You can work with someone elseon a statement, even if it's
just a statement you send, butdon't ever be silent, because
(15:01):
when you're silent, people fillin the blankss.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Right, and you have certainly helped some business
in the community with that.
You know, with controversiesand things, so that's been and
you're right.
I think once you make thatstatement, you've found even if
it's just posting it to yourFacebook page or whatever wow,
okay, people actually arehearing your side of the story
and 99% of the comments on theone I'm thinking of were very
positive toward the business.
Right, that gosh, we understandthat there was this crazy
(15:25):
person that caused a stink andyou know we still love you.
Right, maybe you screwed up,maybe you didn't, you know.
Okay, if you did, we forgiveyou and that's real life, right,
and we move on.
I mean that's.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It's the same for Google reviews, yelp reviews.
I mean with the businesses thattook the time to say yep,
you're right, we fell short hereand here's what we're doing,
and we took it to our managementteam and boy, we've made
changes.
Great People respect that andthey're willing to give you
another shot, rather than thepeople who just ignore it or
fight with people even worse.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Those are the most entertaining.
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, for the rest of us to read Well good, well,
that's kind of a quick PR 101.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I think the good, the bad and hopefully not the ugly
for most businesses.
But if that does happen, find acrisis manager communications
person right Exactly To help youmanage that.
Hopefully it's not too too bad,but well good, Well, thanks.
How do folks get in touch withyou if they want to chat with
you further about?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
this Director at GoKennabunks with an S at the
end com.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Perfect, so reach out to Laura if you have any
questions.
Well, all right, don't forgetlike follow share rate review.
We are everywhere online allthe socials, all the podcast
channels, and we will see younext week.
Thanks everybody.
Thanks for listening to thisweek's episode of Small Business
, big World.
This podcast is a production ofPaper Trails.
(16:47):
Payroll across all social mediaplatforms and check us out at
papertrailscom for moreinformation.
As a reminder, the views,opinions and thoughts expressed
by the hosts and guests alone.
The material presented in thispodcast is for general
information purposes only andshould not be considered legal
or financial advice.
By inviting this guest to ourpodcast, paper Tra,
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