Sunday, December 20, 2009
Run your business like a flea for 2010
I am quite sure that the title of this blog is a little off beat but stay with me for a second.... I realized the other day that fleas have a very strong strategy after doing a little homework on them due to one of my animals having them and I have been in full on warfare with the fleas ever since.
If we take the flea approach to business management we would discover many valid points related to a strong business strategy and operational management discipline. So here are the fleas rules of engagement:
1. Persist - Never ever ever give up. The name of the game for any business owner or any person in business for that matter is sheer persistence. Persist on a given target no matter what the obstacle is and you WILL achieve your goals. Fleas persist and persist and persist putting their enemy into apathy and winning small victory after small victory until their opponent is in defeated and most likely moves or burns their house down.
2. Growth - Focus on ways you can grow, always. How can you expand your company, expand your team and spread your reach as far as possible. Always focus on aggressive growth targets and never contract. Strength in numbers. More staff, more clients, more market share, more awareness, more PR, promotion, advertising etc. Fleas always grow and spread until they have dominated and taken over the desired territory
3. Speed - Do it fast! Don't hesitate for anything. Don't delay decisions. Make fast decisions and even faster actions. Speed is the secret to your expansion. Slow actions relate to slow thinking and a slow company that gets sluggish. Be fast, use speed as your ally and be nimble. Fleas don't hesitate to pounce on their target, they move fast and grow fast quickly taking over what was once a virgin territory to attain their victory.
4. Attack your targets - Focus on what your targets or goals are and attack them head on. Don't get distracted. Write them down and focus on what you are exactly going after. Be relentless with your targets until they are attained and checked off. Fleas focus on what they are going after and attack with ferocity in numbers to completely take over the target (cat or dog)
5. Become resistant to attacks - Develop a level of immunity. Don't let attacks on you bother you or hurt your momentum. It's all business and part of the game. You will get attacks from competition or complaints from clients or other means of attacks. Don't let them phase you. Become resistant and continue to grow and expand regardless of the attacks. This will knock your enemies into complete apathy which will allow you to grow more. Fleas become incredibly resistant to sprays or shampoos or anything for that matter that tries to stop them.
6. Work in teams - Always work in teams. Work well and coordinate with your team. Business is a sport - treat it that way. Build your teams, encourage your teams and develop your teams skills. Take your targets down as a team. Make sure your entire team understands and acknowledges the agreed upon goals and work together toward them. Fleas are experts at working in teams that build and build until they have completely taken over the target.
Here is to a prosperous 2010 with a flawless application of the flea management principals.
Cheers
-Robert Cornish
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
It was a great experience since I deal with the Internet every single day as do most of us.
I have found over and over that many people have mixed up concepts, mistaken the Web for the Internet or just generally didn't have a full concept of what it is and how it works.
My advice to you is to take the time to read the entire Wikipedia page about the Internet, it will dramatically improve your undertanding of it and help clear up any concepts you had that may have been inaccurate.
-Robert Cornish
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Social Media Press Kit: Next Gen
The NEW Social Media Press Kit is here. We have added a "Text Me" feature that allows anyone to send you a text message to your mobile phone instantly and you can reply directly to their phone. This new Social Media Press Kit has ever feature you could need to network yourself or your company, illicit communication from prospective clients, provide all the information one could need about you or your company while making you and your company completely social media ready.
We also re-vamped the Social Media Press Kit site that explains the kit itself in detail, you can view that site here,
The Social Media Press Kit also comes with an email signature button that will help gain attention for you every time you send an email.
To learn more about the Social Media Press Kit, get in touch
Richter10.2 Media Group
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Hire a firm or do it myself.....
- What is the learning curve
- Who is going to handle it and aren't they already busy doing what they should be doing
- If you hire someone, what is the ramp up, how much will it costs and is it comparable?
The reality is that while many things sound like a good idea to "handle in-house" - you most likely will way under-estimate the time and money involved.
You should always spend you time and money on your core competency only - which is whatever it is that you do best. The other stuff should be left to specialists like accounting firms, public relations agencies, ad agencies etc. Why work harder when you can work smarter?
Be realistic when looking at initiatives within your company and estimate the situations correctly before making bad decisions related around the "idea" of saving money. It's easier to pay the money and spend your time making more money anyway. Don't waste precious time and resources on initiatives that you really shouldn't be spending any time on
-Robert Cornish
Friday, December 4, 2009
Web PR Co. Richter10.2 Launches New Strategic Introduction Services
Richter10.2 specializes in using every available cutting edge internet tool and platform to create a footprint for clients online that goes well beyond a simple website. Using their line of custom sales and information products, coupled with sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other popular destinations, they organically help clients build up a thriving network of the exact audience they want to reach.
“In today’s technological society, where the internet fits in your back pocket and people are being bombarded with messages every hour of their day, it’s difficult to know what will impinge,” says Robert Cornish, Chief Executive Officer of Richter10.2 Media Group. “Our new Strategic Introduction Service positions the client perfectly to create interest in the exact demographic they’d most like to reach. This is the laser guided missile approach that is fast replacing the old shotgun methods of traditional marketing and PR.”
About Richter10.2 Media Group LLC
Web PR (http://www.richter10point2.com) company Richter10.2 Media Group, LLC, was established in April 2008 in Clearwater, Florida, by co-founders Robert Cornish, CEO and Wil Seabrook, COO. They are a new media PR agency. They build strategic online PR strategies that use new media as a platform to communicate with their clients’ target public in order to build authentic relationships and create business opportunities. They are focused on gaining the maximum amount of attention for each client while utilizing every tool available to make their client known to the exact target audience most likely to need that client’s products and services. Their mission is to make strategic introductions and causatively put their client together with their target public audience so a profitable opportunity can occur. For more information visit http://www.richter10point2.com/our_firm.asp
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
It's Christmas Time..... Promote
It’ that time of year again when companies frantically try tio wrap up sales, collect income and push statistics for the year end bonuses, expenses and overall revenue numbers. Although it is such an improtant time of year, consistently I have found companies to become slow and lazy around this time. They seem to be hard to reach and have developed a bad case of procrastination…. The line “We will look into this after the new year…” seems to come up all too frequently…
Now is the time to promote! Get the word out and get in front of your target market fast! Saving all of your money and not spending money is not a strategy! Your focus should be on how to get in front of your target market audience to stay on their radar and close deals like crazy before the end of the year. Your company, your people and the entire economy is dependant upon large amounts of production, sales and revenue around this time of year so my strong recommendation is for you to promote. Promote your brand, promote your company, promote your products and services, promote in order to get new reaches, new sales and new revenue before the year is out.
If you have been operating in lazy mode or procrastination mode, my advice is to knock it off, pull up the socks and get into action now! While you wait for next year… there are thousands of companies and people making it happen now….this year!
Happy Holidays!
-Robert Cornish
Friday, November 27, 2009
Business Etiquette
I have personally found that more and more people are willing to be rude and obnoxious via email without thinking about the consequences of what they are typing. So, I would like to put forth an idea..... imagine that one day you become the president of the USA or any country for that matter. Now imagine being scrutinized by the public which results in revealing past emails that were nasty to past business contacts. You would be judged by the way you deal with people and how you may deal with key contacts such as foreign leaders or the public at large.
You really never know who is going to one day see your emails and how you conduct yourself in business so my advice is to maintain your personal PR with everyone you deal with. Be polite, cordial and friendly. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Grant others respect. These points will take you a long way in life and business. Hopefully this blog article reaches those who need it most.
Warm regards,
-Robert Cornish
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Let's Clarify the Goal....
Creative ideas and bright ideas are absolutely vital however, they must push forward the end goal – sales and revenue. In this day and age this is not a nice thing to have, it’s a must. That sounds like a simple thing to say and a common and basic knowledge but I see examples everyday that are clearly off-course and not forwarding client goals.
Here’s an examples:
A Facebook widget or video game – look, I like to have fun as much as the next guy and I am guilty of downloading a game or two on my iPhone for sure but here’s the thing… what is the clear goal for the Facebook Game? How are you measuring it? Are you getting reach, interest, sales? There were many many many bright ideas during the 1995-97 period for dot com companies and ideas that sounded cool which distracted millions from the actual goals of what a company must do – which is produce sales of their product or service and generate revenue. It’s not a negotiable point.
The job of any PR agency, marketing firm or advertising agency is simple – create an idea, execute a strategy and communicate with the clients target public audience in order to make the client known to them, create interest and generate actual reach that can be used to assist the sales team and further the company growth and revenue. That’s it! If you have been sold on something other than this, well then they probably are creative geniuses but they are not serving your best interest.
Now is the time to get back to basics while the shift of traditional media continues to become less effective and new media is the vital way to communicate with the massive audiecne that is online using the interest that is now intertwined into every aspect of their lives from laptops to iphones. We must focus on people, relationships, what they need and want and how to communciate with them, service them better and build, cultivate and nurture those relationships in order to generate long term clients.
If you focus on the audience and the clear goals of your company to drive sales and revenue your PR, Marketing or Advetrising efforts will be dramatically improved. Don’t lose sight of the goal. Every tweet should have the goal in mind. Every facebook post should reflect the goal. Every blog article, press release, banner ad, video, photo gallery etc should have the goal clearly in mind and being systematically executed.
-Robert Cornish
Richter10.2 Media Group
http://www.richter10point2.com
Monday, November 9, 2009
Attention = Income
image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystalflickr/190713106/
The concept of attention is a drastically underestimated element in most companies, CEO's and business people's mind. While gauging ROI for a given promotional strategy be it marketing, advertising or PR, many people fail to take into account the power of attention and what that means to the company and why it is absolutely an intrinsic value item that must be looked at to calculate ROI.
The amount of attention a company can attract will directly relate to how well that company does. To the degree that you have "heard of" a company will dictate how well they are doing.
Have you ever heard of GE? How about Virgin? Geico? BMW? They all get a huge amount of attention for their brands. They are all a "heard of" quantity. Yet I speak to companies daily that won't allocate funds to their brand and attention in order to become a "heard of" quantity because they can't figure out the ROI. The fact is that their target public audience may need or want their products or services right this second but - they have never "heard of them". These companies are failing to get a sufficient amount of attention in order to become a known quantity.
Get attention and you will gain clients, customers and revenue, period.
You can never get enough attention. It's something that must be pushed and expanded week after week. Your public audience needs to know about you. They need to "hear about you". If they don't, it will be rather difficult to cultivate new business.
The amount of attention you are attracting will affect your bottom-line. Get the word out! Put your company in the spotlight.
The ways to do this are unlimited with the internet these days. Here are a few ideas:
- Social Media
- Blogs
- Videos
- Press Releases
- Photos
- Events
- Status Updates
- Comments
- Websites
- Bookmarking
- RSS Feeds
- Advertisements
- Recommendations
- Mobile Apps
- Communities
To the degree that you are failing to fully utilize the above, you are missing or losing business and hurting your bottom-line revenue.
Make a point to expand the attention you get week after week and watch your sales and revenue grow
http://richter10point2.com
Friday, October 30, 2009
Social Media FAQ
We have found there is a lot of confusion among companies on the use of social media, what the ROI is and how a company can effectively leverage these tools as a strategy to improve their bottom-line.
Here are the answers to the questions -
What is Social Media?
Social Media is a coined term describing the websites, content and user experience involved with sites like myspace, facebook, twitter, youtube, wordpress, linkedin and other online platforms that revolve around interaction between users. Whereas information used to be a one way flow online (the “web surfer” reading page content or watching videos and looking at photos), Social Media thrives on users interacting with each other and with the author of the page or site’s content.
How can Social Media help my business?
Never in history has there been such a massive treasure trove of millions of people’s personal preferences, interests, hobbies and demographic information captured and organized and easy to browse. The “shotgun” approach of sending your message out far and wide and hoping it sticks with the right people is now being replaced with the laser targeted method of reaching out only to those individuals who are most likely to need and want your company’s products and services. Even while traditional media is shrinking and people are finding ways to aggressively and successfully avoid traditional marketing methods, social media is expanding exponentially, and if you work with professionals to position your company and your offerings properly, there is an opportunity to connect with your target demographic in ways never seen before.
Ok, I'll bite...What services do you provide?
A complete list of our products and services in easy to watch, short video format can be found at http://richter10point2.com/buildyourown. By filling out the form at the bottom of the page letting us know the particular services you’re interested in, we can customize our proposal to meet your specific needs.
What will a Social Media Press Kit do for me?
A Social Media Press Kit, or SMPK, is a fast, inexpensive and simple way to get your feet wet in the Social Media universe. It acts as a virtual business card, a sales and information platform, and a launching pad for your comprehensive presence on the web. Not only does our design team brand and build your SMPK around your company, but we do the same thing on five of the world’s largest social media sites, giving you everything you need to start taking advantage of all social media has to offer.
Isn't Social Media just for kids with too much time?
This may have been the case a few years ago, but there has been a sea change in the way people communicate. For a quick and entertaining look at this phenomenon, feel free to watch the short video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8
I do web marketing. How is this different?
Marketing is, by definition, a one way direction of promotional activity, getting information about your products and services into the hands of prospective clients. Web PR encompasses every aspect of how you look and are perceived online. Think of a large cocktail party. “Marketing” in this context would be a good looking business card handed out to anyone interested in your services. “Web PR”, to follow our analogy, would be choosing the tuxedo, getting a great haircut, showing up on time, remembering your hosts’ names and engaging in witty conversation to the point where offering up your business card is a natural progression rather than something abrupt and unprofessional. Most businesspeople operating in the Social Media universe are not making the effort of PR before they clumsily attempt to hand over that business card, with less than stellar results. Your virtual identity is fast becoming your most important identity. We help ensure, in every way, that your online presence is in lock step with your corporate image, your latest products and services, and your vision for your company as a whole.
What’s the difference between being on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and what Richter10.2 delivers?
The defining difference with Richter is that we go well beyond creating social media pages, adding content and adding fans. We dive into creating a comprehensive strategy that coordinates the various tools as a platform to communicate with a given audience with the intention of creating reaches from that audience that help our clients develop business and revenue.
We use social media as a platform to communicate and engage our clients’ target audience effectively. There are many, many ways to use these tools as a platform to communicate and open up business avenues if used effectively.
Social media is simply a platform to communicate, while PR is how that platform is used to build relationships, start conversations and cultivate reaches. A Ferrari stuck in a garage isn’t doing anyone much good. We not only build you a world class platform by hand but we actively use it to a professional standard on your behalf.
What exactly do you mean by "Web PR"?
Web PR is using the internet to make your company and your products, your services, and your good works well known using every available online medium. This can include your website (redesigned or built from the ground up), a comprehensive social media presence including text, video, photos, blogs, etc, optimized online press releases and any other medium currently employable by our creative team. For a video overview of our various offerings, simply go here: http://richter10point2.com/buildyourown
So what makes Richter’s strategy effective?
We develop a program that defines our clients’ goals and objectives, their target public audience and what the strategy will be. We come up with creative ideas to use social and new media as a platform to communicate with that audience and make it the most effective to attain the clients’ goals.
The difference between simply having a presence and executing a comprehensive, coordinated strategy is that a new media PR strategy works most effectively when all of the tools and platforms are used in coordination with one another.
The first keys are to identify a target public you are trying to attract, then specifically build a following and follow that given target public in return. From there you can start communicating with that target public audience to activate them, start buzz, gain interest and reach.
Here is an analogy between a traditional newspaper and new media:
Twitter is like a newspaper headline. A newspaper headline has always been the key element that grabs attention and causes someone to read more or buy the paper. So if one were to write the Twitter copy like a newspaper headline, to grab the attention of the target public and include a link to an article, press release or blog that discusses that topic further, this would be part of an effective strategy to attract interest.
A blog could be considered the newspaper article itself which provides interesting information and content that communicates to the reader (target public). From the blog our goal might be to get the reader to subscribe to the blog or to get them to reach further to go to the website. The blog might also have videos from YouTube or photos from Flickr to keep the reader’s interest and help to generate reach.
If the reader goes to the website, it should be new media like, which means engaging, simple and communicative. The website should have photos, crisp videos that communicate the company’s products or services and cause conceptual understanding and interest from the viewer. Ultimately the goal of the website is to cause an email reach or a telephone reach or instant message via Skype.
All of these new media tools would be coordinated with a comprehensive strategy to be in sync with one another...
If we were highlighting a product launch....
The blogs would be talking about it....
Twitter would have news headlines with links...
Flickr would have a photo storyboard demoing the product...
YouTube would have a trailer or teaser that is crisp and clear to explain the product...
A digital press release would be launched about it on Reuters, Google News, Yahoo News, etc, and distributed to the target public...
The Social Media Press Kits and Social Media Press Room would be updated with all news and information about the product...
The website would have the blogs, press release, videos, photos, etc, with the latest information about the product launch...
All of the status messages on all of the various sites would be a buzz about it causing comments, replies and interest....
All content, blogs, videos, status messages, news, photos, etc, would be coordinated with the Facebook fan page....
What the heck is Twitter?
Twitter is a “micro blog”, allowing you to post short messages frequently to your subscribers. The uses for this are as limitless as your imagination. Many businesses use it to broadcast short term specials, to make major announcements, or as a sort of “newspaper headline” with links to more detailed information on another site.
Wouldn't it be cheaper if I got some kid to come and do this stuff for me?
Undoubtedly. You can also hand over your entire PR and marketing strategy to your niece or nephew and save a bundle. For obvious reasons, that’s not the approach we’d recommend. Given that social media is fast becoming an integral part of any major company’s PR and marketing strategy, hiring professionals to handle your presence is one of the smartest investments you can make in this incredible, emerging technology.
So why doesn’t it make sense to handle this “in-house” or with our marketing or traditional PR person?
We have found the 2 biggest problems our clients face are:
• While our clients want to use new media as a strategy and know it’s a vital space to be in, they typically don’t have the time to commit to what is required to pull off a successful strategy because they are BUSY with their regular day to day tasks.
• Secondly, because this medium is so new and changes so incredibly rapidly, they simply don’t have the know-how for what is needed to pull off an effective strategy, and neither do their in-house marketing or PR people.
Richter works based on a team strategy, which means we don’t have ONE person creating ideas, executing strategy and attaining your goals, we have our ENTIRE team comprised of press release people, bloggers and micro-bloggers, video people, photographers, social media developers and strategists, client liaisons, email managers, graphic designers, web developers, consultants... you get the idea....
One person cannot possibly handle and have talent and expertise in all areas.... which is why we have a team strategy.
With that said, if our clients tried to build an in-house team, the costs would out-weigh the benefits, amounting to around 3-10 times what it costs to be a client of ours.
What if I want to SEE what will be done before moving ahead?
While this may sound like a logical step before leaping in and becoming a Richter client, the facts are that Richter sells ideas and creativity as well as New Media PR know-how which is not a tangible item.
As an analogy, one wouldn’t approach an ad agency to have them do work for their company and ask to see the ad first before signing on with them. Obviously, the ad agency would not begin work without a client commitment.
We are happy to share case studies, examples of our work, our client list, etc. Investing in this emerging technology is a leap of faith on the part of any business. Our top priority is giving you the most thorough, professional presence possible online. It’s our passion, our creativity, and our ability to capture the spirit of each client’s products and services in a way that strikes a chord with their audience that sets the standard for what we consider to be a successful campaign.
How much are your services?
Everything we offer is 100% customized to the client. You will find us to be the opposite of “high pressure” salespeople. The most enjoyable part of our work is thoroughly getting to know each client and their business and coming up with the most creative, innovative ways to use Social Media and Web PR to improve the statistics of that business across the board. Feel free to contact us for a zero obligation quote: http://www.richter10point2.com/contact_us.asp
What kind of ROI can I expect?
The beauty of social media is that the statistical metrics of the work are built into the platform- you start with 20 contacts on Twitter and we build that up to 5000, etc. Social Media is not a 30 or 60 or 90 day marketing push that has a quick investment and a quick return. This is a paradigm shift in the way you find, reach out to, and interact with your customer base. We create the most comprehensive and professional presence possible using the most cutting edge online tools, and then we grow your networks organically over time. The uses of this platform and these networks of prospective clients are as limitless as your business model will allow, and the implications for improving customer service, launching new products and generally interacting with your clientele cannot be overstated. We have seen over and over again that clients who invest in this area see immediate spikes in web traffic, interest and ultimately reach from prospective clients. This is an investment you literally cannot afford to pass up. Businesses not making the effort in this medium now risk being relegated to the stone age in the next few years. Whether you work with a company like ours or not, for 99% of businesses out there, investing in Social Media is simply not optional.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Fundamental Change
I am not sure too many people and professionals fully understand this. I deal with many companies, CEO’s and CMO’s on a daily basis and across the board there seems to be some level of awkwardness and discomfort with the rapid changes.
Over the past 100 to 200 years there have been very workable and fundamental ideas related to how marketing, PR and advertising basically worked and reached a specific audience. There were specific rules and methods to execute strategies that had workable formulas such as positioning, how to write ad copy, how to grab attention via posters, billboards and TV commercials etc. Basic marketing fundamentals like what the typical percent of response will be from a marketing campaign via direct mail etc.
While all these methodologies worked extremely well all the way up to close to now, unbelievably.... they no longer do. These methods and ideas have run their course and have essentially gone through the stages of infancy from the beginning idea to maturity to dated and now obsolete. It’s incredible to even think about and seasoned professionals clearly seem uncomfortable about it. Speaking to an experienced CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) who wants to still work off of and hang on to these old ideas can be rather frustrating as they try to apply something that is obsolete to a new way of thinking.
So what is relevant?
With New Media (social media etc) the way to communicate and engage an audience is different. It’s a conversation. It’s on-going and most of how the audience wants to be reached or is receptive to is being decided by the audience - not the marketing, advertising or PR firm. This is a very authentic and transparent approach. We aren’t trying to “spin” a story, we aren’t trying to scream a message and button word at the audience to get a response and we aren’t trying to have the audience see a message 7-9 times so they will “act”. So what are we trying to do?
We are focused on using new media tools (social media) as a platform to communicate with a specific target audience geared toward your company and use PR to build relations (relationships) with that target audience in order to spark conversations, increase word of mouth, generate buzz and result in interest and reach for the companies products or services via acceptance from that target audience.
We are authentically reaching out to get involved with the audience and make a company known to them to build awareness, brand loyalty and stay on the target audiences radar to in turn increase the sales and revenue.
I am sure you would agree that people are more inclined to do business with companies the 1. Know 2. Like 3. Feel Comfortable With 4. Trust 5. Have a Relationship
Think this through for a second, think of a company you do business with or a person you do business with and then think about why? I am betting it’s because you know them or have a relationship with them or you personally like them or trust them. These ideas are the very essence of why new media (social media) is so powerful. It aligns with the basic way people buy and how sales typically occur.
Now I am not at all talking about spamming people on social media sites or being the “salesperson” that annoys everyone on facebook! The idea here is to make it natural and in a PR way that encompasses engagement, conversations, building new connections, making yourself known and ultimately building real relationships from a given target audience that is desirable to your company that will result in interest and reach for the company and therefore sales and revenue.
It’s not easy. It takes time and know how but when done correctly, it’s the most effective strategy you or your company could possibly apply in today’s market - just ask the audience!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Social Media, PR, Relationships and Sales
2. Sales is about people and cultivating relationships with those people
3. Social media is a platform, new media PR consists of how we use that platform effectively to build meaningful relationships geared toward the goals of interest, reach and sales.
A little shameless self promotion...
Web PR Company Richter10.2 Media Group Reports Triple Digit Growth
CLEARWATER, Fla.--(Business Wire)--
Web PR (http://www.richter10point2.com) company Richter10.2 Media Group LLC,
reports triple digit growth in an economy where many are closing their doors.
The privately held company is a leader in creating and utilizing cutting-edge
social media strategies to help clients achieve their goals, which in this
downturn includes customer growth and using social media to actively engage a
specific target audience.
Richter10.2 Media Group reported this week that sales revenue has increase 400%
and client growth has increase 1428% since its first month of operation in April
2008. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, they also have offices in Los
Angeles, Cape Town, Phoenix, and Toronto.
"The only way that I know to increase customer base is through the sales cycle.
Any sale is made through generating interest, which is the result of being able
to effectively `get in front` of a prospective customer either through a phone
call, referral, email or in person. So the idea is, how do you get in front of
your target prospects to make an introduction and gain interest in your product
or service?" says Robert Cornish, CEO and founder of Richter10.2 Media Group LLC
(http://www.richter10point2.com).
"The fact is, the internet is one huge networking and prospecting pool! Why
bother looking elsewhere? Millions of prospective clients are online and in the
social media space. We are effectively creating and using the latest social
media strategies to reach our clients` target audience and build relationships
that result in reaches for their product or service, which can then be converted
into sales revenue. This is how we`ve been able to achieve our triple digit
growth at a time where others are struggling," concludes Cornish.
Web PR (http://www.richter10point2.com) company Richter10.2 Media Group, LLC,
was established on April 1st, 2008 in Clearwater, Florida, by co-founders Robert
Cornish, CEO and Wil Seabrook, COO. They are a new media PR agency focused on
gaining the maximum amount of attention for each client while utilizing every
tool available to make their client known, reaching out to millions of
prospective clients. Their mission is to make strategic introductions and
causatively put their client together with their target public audience so a
profitable opportunity can occur. For more information visit
http://www.richter10point2.com/our_firm.asp.
Richter10.2 Media Group LLC, Clearwater
Robert Cornish, 1-727-447-3600
robert@richter10point2.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Personal Contact
The value of personal contact in this day and age is incredibly high. So many businesses have automated processes and have lost touch with people, relationships and what clients, consumers and customers really want or need.
Yes - it's a little time consuming to add a personal touch. I can't tell you how many "out of the office" email replies I get, automated phone messages and thank you for contacting our company auto messages. It seems most businesses have lost sight of what PR, relationships and ultimately sales is all about - people and personal contact with those people
If you are looking to grab someone's attention, take the time to find out a little about them and make your message personal. As an example, I went to San Francisco this past week and went to a small niche cupcake boutique called "Kara's Cupcakes", it is a fantastic cupcake shop and so I grabbed a business card. When I came home I made a point to send them a simple introduction message to introduce our agency to them and in the message the first line read something like this - "I spent the last week in San Francisco and stopped by your store in Ghiradelli Square, I loved your cupcakes and wanted to introduce our agency to you.....
Personal attention and contact gets's noticed and stands out more than anything else. It also get's a far better response!
This requires someone who understands PR and how to make relations with companies and people. PR and relationships are the powerful foundations that can dramatically improve your sales. Try this the next time you are prospecting another company or person and figure out how to add a level of personal touch to make your communication authentic.
-Robert Cornish
Find out what we do ... http://richter10point2.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Relations Sales
First I wanted to discuss sales. I deal with companies both large and small every single day and have found uniformly that sales is a weak area for those companies. Many companies have been trying to create sales using tricky marketing, smartly targeted advertisements, funny or witty campaigns to hopefully grab attention etc. However, sales is and always has been and will always be about relationships. You have to reach out to the target public (audience) that you want to sell to, make yourself and company known to them and build a relationship somehow to then develop into a sale once you have authentically discovered what that person or company truly needs.
I see time and time again that companies and people are being sold on widgets, marketing ploys etc to hopefully stay fresh in their prospective clients minds and then hopefully that will do the trick and they will magically buy from them. While some of these methods may work to grab attention, there is no avoiding the fact that if you want to sell any person or company, you must 1. truly understand that company or person to understand how revenue flows, what the problems are and how to solve them and 2. you must build a relationship with the person or company that is authentic and built around trust.
Sales happens to be one of our strong suits as a company and I can attest that I follow these actions:
1. Seek the target market I am going after to make a connection somehow
2. Make some kind of introduction to work toward creating a relationship and starting a conversation
3. Really address the prospects needs and wants and work to learn about the prospects company to understand how they make income, what works, what doesn't etc. Typically by the time I am done this step I feel the prospects company could hire me for sales the next day and I would smoothly start selling for them. Know them that well and you will close them.
4. Build the relationship - be authentic (in other words, be yourself) and work to maintain a very open communication with the prospect. Don't just jam your ideas down their throat, listen and engage in a lot of back and forth conversation.
5. Address the problems accurately and propose the solution to work toward agreement both ways. Once you can come to an agreement based on what is being proposed, you can then comfortably ask for the sale.
Our agency works on these points everyday and because of this we can deliver our services to our clients far better than most creative agencies due to the fundamental difference that we don't just create smart campaigns or pretty graphics for our clients, we intimately understand their companies, how the revenue flows, how they make sales and what the key problems are. From there we can cater entirely to them using new media as a platform to attain their goals and objectives with a clearly laid out strategy that is built around real world practicality - sales. We know that the reason any company invests in any PR, marketing or advertising strategy is to boost sales and revenue which would be impossible to attain unless their was a crystal clear understanding of how they sell and how revenue is created for that company.
But the secret behind sales is relationships. You can't make a sale if you haven't first made relations with a target public. It's not an overnight thing, building relations is authentic, it's transparent and it takes time. Go and try this out to fine tune your sales strategy and you will see for yourself that if you 1. identify a target public you would like to go after and 2. make relations with them and build your pipeline making relations with people and companies developing these relationships into sales one by one, you will see your income dramatically improve.
If you have any questions about how to build relations with a target public, feel welcome to contact me directly http://whywebpr.com/robertcornish
Monday, July 6, 2009
Highlight Your Company – What Is a Social Media Press Room?
So, I’m sure you have heard the buzz about the Social Media Press Kit, one of the newest and most advanced tools to maximize your business presence on the Web. Now there’s an even more comprehensive tool that works in conjunction with the Social Media Press Kit – the Social Media Press Room.
The Social Media Press Room is a dynamic information and resource center for companies, products and services. All of the vital information that relates to the company can be accessed here including press releases, blogs, videos, social media and new media pages, real time Twitter status updates, company bio and links to Social Media Press Kits within the company. This is a cutting-edge press room for the digital age, providing all of the information and resources anyone could want or need about a company and its products and services.
It is built directly into the company website with a simple navigation link to the full press room site. Use the Social Media Press Kits for individual sales agents or top executives in your company, and then have a Social Media Press Room representing your entire company for the maximum amount of Web and PR presence. The purpose of this tool is to fully highlight the company.
Get your target public's attention through all of the top social media sites on the web, with one main “room” linking to them all.
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
Thursday, July 2, 2009
10 Ways to Wake-Up in the Morning and Get through Your Work Day!
You know the feeling. That alarm clock goes off, you press the snooze (even though you know that only means that you’ll have to make your shower five minutes shorter), rush out the door and hopefully make it to work on time. The feeling seems unavoidable. As well as after your lunch break at work, when the clock reads 2 pm and you know that you have a few more hours of work to do, but you just can’t help feeling lethargic and annoyed at the thought of having to stay awake.
So what do you do? I have found some simple ways to get you through your work day and arrive at work in the morning feeling fresh and awake.
1) Don’t Eat Dinner Right before Bed
If you have the munchies before bed, a good thing to have is a little bit of fruit or some tomato juice. Something light and fruity. You don’t want to eat an entire meal right before you go to bed because the digestion process takes awhile. Try and leave a few hours in between your last meal and your bedtime and see how you feel in the morning.
2) Leave the Curtains Cracked
Leaving the curtains a little bit open will let some natural light into your room in the morning, which will help you wake up. The natural light can be strong but soothing.
3) Wake Up To The Smell Of Coffee
Get a coffee machine that has a setting for automatic brewing. Set it for a few minutes before your alarm clock goes off and when you wake up you will have a refreshing and lovely smell of freshly ground coffee in your room. Get fresh coffee beans!
4) Stretch Every Extremity
Stretching your arms and fingers out for about 15 seconds right after you wake up will help more than you think. It will get your blood circulating again in your body and helps you feel more energetic.
5) Eat A High Energy Breakfast
You would be surprised how just skipping your first meal of the day affects your energy level. You need to eat breakfast to get your metabolism going and to tell your body you are awake and ready to start digesting food again and making energy for your body. You can drink a protein smoothie, or some complex carbohydrates like a bowl of oatmeal or whole grain cereal topped with some fruit and skim milk.
6) Eat Protein Throughout The Day
Eating protein with your lunch will give your energy levels a boost. Snacking on nuts will also give you more energy, because they are high in protein.
7) Listen To Some Good Music In The Car
Find some good music, and get together an assortment of CDs to play on your way to work in the morning. Turn up the volume. If the weather permits it, open the windows instead of turning on the AC. The fresh air will wake you up, with the sound of the music, and get you ready for the day.
8) Take A Break
Take a break from your work desk when you’ve been sitting for a long time. Walking around to get a little exercise gets your blood flowing and can make you feel refreshed.
9) Chew Sugar-Free Peppermint Gum
There is something about the strong flavor of peppermint that makes you feel refreshed.
10) Cold Water
Cold water is refreshing, especially when it gets hot outside. Keeping your self hydrated throughout the day, and starting with a cold glass of water in the morning, will keep you refreshed and awake. Drink a cold glass roughly every hour, and splash some on your face when you need it.
Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Social Media Tip of the Week #2 – What is Twitpic?
Recently, I found a really cool new Twitter tool that got me so excited I just had to write a blog about it! Twitpic। It’s how you Tweet pictures.
As you know, the thing about Twitter is that, unlike Facebook or Myspace, you can only have ONE picture, and that’s your default। How frustrating! Well, now with Twitpic, you have a whole album online that you can Tweet and share with other Tweeters.
Now, what kind of pictures would Tweeters most like to see tweeted? Breaking news, humorous ones and Twitpics by celebs were some of the top viewed. Like on-the-scene twitpics of a shuttle launch! (click here) Or the king of Twitter, Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) tweeting his own photos, of course. (click here)
Now, you can start using Twitpic to expand your Twitter influence।
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Social Media Tip of the Week #1: What’s the Best Type of Photo to Have on Twitter?
I’ve been doing some research and have found that if you want the most traffic to your Twitter site, you need a good, eye-catching photograph of yourself.
What type of photo is eye-catching enough that you will be looked at first over other Tweeters?
When you first register on Twitter, you are provided with an avatar. Everyone gets the same avatar. What is all-too-common is that Tweeters will leave that up instead of providing a real picture. The Tweeter is then a “faceless entity” on a huge Social Media Site and easily gets lost in the crowd.
Your image is the first thing people see when they decide to follow you – or to not follow you. It should be, ideally, a recent photo of YOU. It can be your brand’s logo, but if you are going to be the sole person using the account, then you should have a picture of yourself. Seeing a real picture of you gives others the feeling that they know you. Also, don’t change your photo too often – other users tend to see the image before the name, and you can get lost if you change your image too frequently.
So the moral of the story is - get other Tweeters to notice you by providing a fresh and recent picture of yourself.
Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Monday, June 22, 2009
The Social Media Press Kit – The World’s Most Dynamic Virtual Business Card
If you think that Social Media, as represented by blogging, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, etc।, is only a personal or social pursuit with no room for making money or corporate involvement, you are clearly still living in 2002.
The Social Media population has been greatly increasing over the years। Twitter, the famous microblogging site, has grown an astonishing 1328% in the past year alone. With applications promising to “Increase your Twitter followers by eleventy-billion in seconds”, it’s no wonder Twitter is spreading like wildfire.
There has been a paradigm shift in the way that promotion and marketing is reaching the public। Social Media is not only supplementing mainstream media, but is actually replacing many traditional media avenues. With RSS feeds and Social Media bookmarking sites, there is hardly a need to read the newspaper that so conveniently arrives on your doorstep, and the public apparently agrees, as evidenced by the shuttering of or the exclusive focus online by some of the country's oldest papers.
For businesses struggling to find their footing in the ever-expanding social media landscape, there is some good news: there is a simple way to take advantage of this whole evolution and integrate your business with Social Media, build your public relations and get the maximum amount of presence on the Web. With the Social Media Press Kit, which is a microsite designed to showcase you and your company to your target public audience, the doors become open to the Social Media world. A cutting edge Web PR firm (one of the few companies in the world dedicated exclusively to this new field), Richter10.2 Media Group, has created this tool to help you capitalize on the world’s most popular social and business networking sites. It is an instant communication tool to maintain constant rapport with your target demographic from anywhere in the world.
To learn more about the best practices in Social Media and how they can help expand your business, visit www.whywebpr.com.
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
What is a social media press kit?
To find out more-watch this short video! By clicking here.
Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The “Secret” of Social Media, by Trevor Eisenman
Helping people design a useful Social Media internet strategy to generate interest and reach for their business is what I’m all about. And since most of my clients weren’t born with a smartphone in their hands, there are usually a few key points to clear up about Social Media right from the beginning. After all, Social Media is a relatively new topic. Or is it?
If you step back and take a look at how information moves in Social Media, it’s quite different than “Traditional Media.” Back in the day, most people got their information from newspapers or magazines. The direction of information is from the few (the writer or publisher) down to the many. We’ve all seen this in action in our daily lives, maybe to the point of not even noticing it anymore. Got a favorite newspaper columnist or TV show host? One single person communicating to possibly millions of people with little interaction between the communicator and the listeners.
As we step into the Social Media arena, the direction and flow of information is between the readers and the writers. The interaction (thanks to the internet) tends to be instant and the ripple effect from this sharing of information can spread far and wide. With the users of Social Media able to contribute news and information to anyone willing to listen, we now have a conversation. Just like the conversations you are already having at the local coffee shop or at work.
With the recent buzzing and tittering by the media about Twitter and Social Media in general, it’s no wonder business owners may feel forced into using these internet-based communication tools, or perhaps risk missing sales opportunities their competition is getting instead of them. Not being familiar with the landscape, many make that sometimes fatal error of confusing Social Media with traditional advertising.
But remember: traditional advertising is the few pushing out information to the many. No matter how you dress it up, advertising never was and never will be the same thing as a conversation. Advertising flows up and down, and conversations flow back and forth. If you are blasting everyone you know on social media with your marketing or business message continuously, ask yourself: who am I talking to? If the answer is everyone at once, you might be in advertising mode unintentionally.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s OK to let everyone know what you are doing in general. You’ve gotten those letters at Christmas where a relative runs off a bunch of copies of the family “newsletter” and sends it to everyone? I like reading those. It’s just an update, a catch-up session. But when 90% of the people connecting to me on Twitter are saying the same message (“Want to get 16,000 followers on Twitter?” sound familiar?), we’ve crossed over that thin line between conversing and advertising.
So what’s the secret to this Social Media thing? It IS faster than mailing a letter or a postcard. More interactive than TV. Cheap to boot! Seems like the perfect advertising tool. But to use Social Media as just another advertising channel misses the hidden power of Social Media. What is that hidden power? It’s so painfully visible, so obvious. It’s something I call “Commonality.”
It’s where you and I share a common interest, or have similar background. It’s liking the same funny movie, or both growing up in the South with fried chicken, or having visited the same restaurant in Europe. It boils down to this: if you and I have something in common (no matter what it is), we understand each other better to that degree.
If you have a pet dog, and I have a pet dog, we instantly understand each other that much more, and, to the degree that we understand each other, we are enabled to create a personal, lasting, and genuine friendship. Social Networks facilitate this instant understanding because you can share so many aspects of yourself in a quick glance.
Ever get a friend request on Facebook from someone that doesn’t even have their picture posted and hardly anything listed on their profile? Little hard to cozy up to, isn’t it? Kind of like getting a “friend” request from a statue. Cold.
Social Media is a breeze, really. Express who you are. Make it personal (but not TOO personal!). The more you describe yourself, or rather, profile yourself, on these social networks, the more aspects there are to resonate with for someone who doesn’t yet know you. I know I prefer to do business with someone I like and trust. Would you like and trust someone you’d never met before, but who showed up on your door with a slick advertising message? Didn’t think so.
Does all this seem hard? It’s not, because if you have already been in business (and thus sales) in any capacity, you’ve already been using Social Media. Ever strike up a conversation with someone at an after-hours party? Did they eventually ask you what you do for a living? If you have, you’ve already got practice in Social Media. I’ll bet you’ve even gotten a few new customers that way. Now it’s just a matter of moving that same conversation to an online platform like Facebook or MySpace. It’s the individual and friendly (another word for social) conversations that will forward your business message, because people will like you, and even more importantly, understand you on a level they aren’t even aware of themselves. Powerful stuff.
Social Media Networks are a fun, useful way to share the individual that is you with the rest of the world. The steps to participating are as follows: Join, listen to the conversations that are already happening, participate where you are interested or can be useful to others, give where you can, and be prepared to receive what others give you in return. In this way you can organically build a genuine community of new friends, customers and goodwill that may last a lifetime, no matter what business you may find yourself in down the road.
Win an iPhone via Twitter??
For 30 days, squarespace.com is giving away a 3G iPhone every day. The contest may be entered by anyone, and includes simply having a twitter account.
For the next 30 days, (actually, 28 now because the contest started on June 8th) all you have to do is insert the hashtag "#squarespace" into one of your tweets, and one of those lucky winners will be chosen at random.
I'm sure it helps if you hashtag all your tweets in one day, and just keep tweeting "#squarespace, #squarspace, #squarespace." But the point of the contest is also for tweeters to get creative.
I see this whole thing as quite genius, really. Social Media is really taking on its reputation as a very popular marketing strategy, and is the way to gain presence on the web. Because-lets face it-if you’re reading this you most likely have a Twitter or a Facebook or a Myspace account. So using Social Media in Squarespaces’ new campaign to gain web presence is working-how could it not?
So if you don’t have a Twitter account, get one-pronto! And go get yourself an iPhone.
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
Skittles tasting success with the latest Social Media experiment?
Skittles has relaunched their website so that it is essentially a Twitter search for the word "skittles".
Visitors to Skittles.com are now directed to the Twitter search result for the term “skittles” and invited to navigate their way about Skittles’ social web presence by using the flash navigation menu that overlays the page. (Their homepage is now a Facebook page.)
We have experienced a lot of controversy on the Skittles new Social Media campaign. Some think that the “colors of the rainbow” have experienced an epic fail on launching this new campaign but as reported by Marketing Pilgrim in a recent post, the Skittles web site traffic experienced a “1332% increase in web visitors on March 3rd.” Pretty impressive considering only one day had passed since Skittles launched this social media experiment, which was quite a risk.
A consideration that I am hearing a lot is that, what about the ordinary people that aren't as experienced with Social Media? And is Social Media really a way to represent a corporate website like Skittles?
Buying a piece of candy is an impulsive thing. You’re not buying a car or a house or something that you will need a lot of information on about the product and the price. Skittles is just a sweet, innocent and colorful candy, with a huge corporation. Do they really need an informative ad on their product? Not really. They are focusing on building their presence on the web, and Social Media has proved to be the way to do that. And are there really any regular web users who have never heard of social networking and the most common web apps?
I suspect not. So, after all, great work Skittles.
Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
Dunkin Dounts National Donut Giveaway Day!
Twitter: Male-dominated Social Media
It was found that an average man was almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman.
Robert Cornish
CEO
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Thursday, May 21, 2009
Starbucks uses Twitter in their online/offline Social Media Campaign
Since I’m on a roll with Starbucks and coffee, (I had my double cappuccino this morning with non-fat milk-see last blog), I thought I would research how Starbucks Coffee Company is using social media.
Starbucks already has a strong presence in social media. You can visit their Facebook, or if you are a Twitter fanatic you can find them there. Starbucks Twitter account has over 185,000 followers and the Facebook page has nearly 1.5 million fans.
Starbucks has recently launched “the biggest marketing effort it has undertaken,” according to the New York Times. The coffee company is displaying posters in major cities, and then challenging people to be the first to find and tweet a picture of their posters. Starbucks has other social media initiatives planned for this campaign. One is a contest for store employees to submit headlines for future ads and YouTube videos with coffee experts talking about Starbucks coffee. Starbucks’ social media presence gave it an advantage over competitors with gigantic ad budgets because its fans wanted to talk about it online. The idea for the Starbucks photo contest came from watching what people already do on Facebook and Twitter.
The reason for companies building this presence, I observed, is that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are ways of reaching many of your clients and building a relationship with them-and that’s what we call PR. It’s the building of a relationship with the public. You want to engage in interesting topics with blogging and microblogging using sites like Twitter where you have to express an entire thought in only 140 characters.
The largest coffee company in the world seems to be catching on.
Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.richter10point2.com
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Starbucks latte abuse: Enough already!
We all know that hardly anyone can survive the workday without their morning coffee. For me and most of the people at the office, nine-thirty rolls around and it’s like clockwork that we get up and make our daily trip to Starbucks.
I was picking up a hazelnut cappuccino, not my normal order, but about once a week I decide to go all out and also added a cheese croissant on top of that. Anyways, I realized that I spend approximately $1,500.00 a year on coffee. That’s with only one cappuccino or latte a morning, if I add a cheese croissant one morning a week I end up spending an extra $200.00 a year. Now, some other people in the office are more dependent on the caffeine to get them going and end up having about three orders a day at Starbucks which winds up in them spending approximately $4,350.00 a year on coffee orders from Starbucks-cheese croissants not included.
There is also another point, and that is the calories that add up in these drinks. Weigh your options and keep in mind that a grande cappuccino with non-fat milk is only going to cost you 93 calories, compared to a grande latte with non-fat milk that is about 168 calories. Every pump of flavored syrup is 20 calories. So, by this point you may be thinking you will just go with an iced Tazo chai-think again. A grande iced Tazo chai with non-fat milk is going to be about 213 calories.
So, it’s not all bad, by cutting down to one order from Starbucks a day and being smart with your options, you can consume less than 100 calories and you can save.
The morale of this short story, and the real point of this all is: cut down on the caffeine, not only because it can be hazardous to your health, but also to your wallet.
Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.richter10point2.com
Monday, May 18, 2009
#Googlefail, get your news from Twitter!
So yesterday in the office everyone was freaking out because the Internet wasn’t working. It was lagging and nobodys email was going though, and basically driving us all crazy because 99% of what we do is on the Internet. There are probably about ten or fifteen active computers in the Office and they were all having problems. So we thought, it must be something wrong with the connection. We tried turning on and off the Internet connection, resetting it a few times, thinking that it would help, but no luck. So when someone finally got onto their Twitter account they saw that the trending topic of the day was #googlefail.
Now, if any of you are reading this and you arent already Twitter fanatics, you are really out of the loop. (get a Twitter account, pronto!) Instead of messing around on our computers all morning and turining on and off the connection and being totally in mystery as to why it was so hard for everyone to send an emial from our Gmail accounts, we could have eaisly figured it out just by looking on our Twitter accounts at the status updates. “#googlefail.”
So, basically Im saying that Twitter is apparently becoming a source of breaking news, or at least it’s going to tell you when somethings wrong with your Internet connection.
Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group