LT Public Relations

Steve Mazan is one funny dude and a budding comedian who is on a mission . . . He’s ‘dying’ to get on David Letterman.

The word dying is used as a double entendre here . . . He’s eagerly (and deservingly) aiming to be on the Late Show, but Mazan was literally dying.  You see, three years ago, the comedian was diagnosed with an incurable form of liver cancer.  Doctors gave him a worst case scenario of five years to live.

That’s when Mazan decided to get busy livin’. 

Today’s blog isn’t intended to pull at your heart strings or hit your funny bone (but it just might).  Rather, today’s blog is about applauding Mazan’s goal and how he’s using grass-roots public relations efforts to raise awareness about his comedic talents and his quest to perform on Letterman.

Mazan created a very resourceful Web site (www.stevemazan.com), developed a complementary site about his desire to be on Letterman (www.dyingtodoletterman.com), and has appeared a couple times on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. “That’s officially one hour after Letterman,” Mazan said. “So I’m one hour away, basically.”

Check out his Ferguson appearance . . .

You see, public relations is all about communicating and being crystal clear on what you want–and using all the appropriate mediums to tell the story of your product, service or talent.

Steve Mazan knows what he wants, and is being smart about how to draw attention to it.

Let’s hope the folks at David Letterman ’stand-up’ and give him a shot.

Thank you, everyone. You’ve been great. Try the Mazan.

This week has been a doozy for the folks at LT Public Relations . . . as we represent many banks and bank associations across the nation, we are in the thick of communication mode (we raised the national communication alert color to RED).

From last night’s JP Morgan Chase acquisition of Washington Mutual to “bail out” discussions, we are all in extraordinary times and may never see this kind of unprecedented activity again (let’s hope not).

As public relations professionals who specialize in professional and financial services companies, this is where we, as LT Public Relations, must step up.  There’s no PR manual or “how to” guide for this type of financial crisis. But we do know the most important thing a bank (or any company) can do right now is communicate–and communicate often.

As professional communicators, these are certainly tough times.  But it’s during the tough times we learn the most.

So pay attention, PR folks, and get in the game now.  These are challenging times, but they are much more rewarding when you’re on the field than on the sidelines watching others play.

Are we too busy to blog? Yes, but as we just said, this is the time to communicate.  We’ll blog as often as we can during these tumultuous times.

To keep our vocabulary fresh and to better understand the roots of words, we (LT Public Relations) receive Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day.

Today’s (9/22) word is FLACK–a verb meaning to provide publicity; engage in press-agentry.

Although this word is rarely used in the public relations profession, its definition got us thinking about how the word flack or publicity is most of the times synonymous with PR. 

What irks the majority of us public relations professionals is that our profession is usually synonymous with being a publicist (entertainment PR)–moreover, the goal is to “get publicity” and generate buzz about the entertainer, movie, etc.

At LT Public Relations, the PR goal is to communicate the news of our professional and financial services clients and showcase how their respective products, services, and professionals can BENEFIT their target audience.  

Unlike publicity, this form of PR is raising awareness.  The difference, really, is who benefits.  Let’s look at the general differences.

Publicity or flack - generating buzz so to attract more attention for the good of the entertainer or entertainment medium (e.g. new cd).

Public relations -  Communicating an organization’s news (i.e. news during positive and negative times) to inform and highlight how the product/service benefits the target audience.  It also means managing the perception of the organization with the public.

There is obviously an underlining reason that both usually use publicity and PR–to increase business (or stave off negative perceptions). But the big difference, again, is who benefits from the news.

So, publicity and public relations are really two different beasts.  Disagree?  Please drop us a line (comment here or pr@ltpublicrelations.com).

Wachovia’s CEO Bob Steel is LT Public Relations’ new hero (or maybe it’s Wachovia’s public relations department). 

Why? On a day of horrific financial news (e.g. Merrill Lynch takeover, Lehman Brothers crumbling, etc., etc. etc.), Wachovia had the guts to go on air and provide a sembelence of composure during a turbulent, gloomy time.  Do yourself a favor and watch this eight minute clip (http://www.cnbc.com/id/26720573)  on CNBC’s Jim Cramer’s Mad Money.

It would have been easy for Wachovia to sit on the sidelines like almost everyone else and wait for the proverbial storm to blow over.  Instead, like a good leader, Wachovia stepped up. 

It stepped up to provide some understanding to what is going on during this crazy economic environment.  Wachovia is a financial institution that provided the news–instead of just the media providing the news.  Wachovia’s Bob Steel seemed cool and collected when answering challenging questions about “what’s going on?”

During the Mad Money interview, Mr. Steel came across as honest and transparent–yet encouraging. Yes, we’re in serious do-do–but we’re not dead.  We’ll have to go through a tough time–but we’ll make it through just fine.

The real kudos to Wachovia is that Bob Steel came across as a leading voice during an obvious time of uncertainty.  It’s like a good mayor during a time of a city’s catastrophe.  A good mayor takes center stage and communicates to his/her people about the situation and provides scenarios and solutions. 

As we see it, Bob Steel was a mayor today and provided valuable, reassuring information to his existing and prospective customers.

Well done . . . Keep it up Wachovia!

At this week’s “Demo” show in San Diego–an event to unveil the latest cool new products and services–one company emerged that might have serious ramifications to the public relations world . . . SpinSpotter.

As described by the company, the SpinSpotter software (or Spinocular) surfaces specific instances of bias and inaccuracy in news stories so users can see, edit and share the spin online. 

Basically, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article,  users with the software can flag and comment on questionable content using a guide to potential inaccuracies and biases created by a panel of journalists compensated by the company.  However, only people with the Spinoculars program installed on their computers will see others’ comments.

The system is designed to deter misidentification of bias and inaccuracy by allowing users to vote on whether a news story was appropriately flagged.

This seems very Wikipedia-ish, but with a better intention.  Instead of changing the meaning of a person, place or thing–Spinoculars offers users the ability to change the news for the better.

It might be a long time before public relations professionals or corporate communications folks use this system to correct inaccuracies or erroneous information, but what a wonderful, useful tool this would be to set the record straight on bad reporting of a company.

LT Public Relations will be monitoring the developments of SpinSpotter’s Spinoculars to see if this is a viable PR tool or just a bunch of, well, spin.

Last week, Microsoft announced that as a part of its new $300 million marketing campaign and image makeover (That’s right, $300 million!!) it plans to put its own customer-service representatives at retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City to help people with their PC purchases.

They’re calling these customer-service folks, “Microsoft Gurus.”

At first we (LT Public Relations) thought this was a deplorable public relations move because it was too similar to Apple’s “Genius Bars.” Also, the initial thought of having “gurus” at a store to peddle products seems like a very lame idea that might turn-off would-be-PC-buyers.

But then we thought about the potential positive buzz these gurus would attract and we applauded the campaign for its fundamental public relations efforts–The objective of offering these gurus is to better communicate Microsoft’s products ease-of-use. 

When customers go into one of these major retail stores to buy a PC (which now comes with standard Microsoft products and Windows Vista), they usually leave the store with the uncertainty that they’re going to be lost the moment they turn the power swithch on.

The gurus will be able to translate the technology to a language customers feel comfortable with–immediately putting them at ease.  When a customer is at ease with a product, the higher the chance they will tout the product.

Yes, it’s a huge $300 million investment–but one Microsoft desperately needs now in the wake of the negative PR they’ve received since their launch of Vista and other head-to-head combats with their competitors.

Bottom line, the “Gurus” is a positive public relations move and an even more positive message Microsoft needs to constantly send out to its existing and prospective customers.

It’s a well known fact that banks and credit unions don’t typically get along. As illustrated in this credit union YouTube, banks are perceived as faceless, soul-less monsters that don’t care about their customers.

Conversely, banks have been attacking credit unions for a whole host of reasons ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act into law in 1934 to “promote thrift and thwart usury.” Bottom line, banks are convinced that because credit unions are not-for-profit, co-op structures and are exempt from most state and federal taxes, they have an unfair advantage and have spent a lot of effort, plus an outrageous amounts of lobbying money to legislate credit unions out of business.

Well, the mudslinging on both sides ain’t workin’. The PR campaigns that advocate one over the other (see this YouTube commercial similar to the Microsoft vs. Apple debate) seem foolish and really need to stop.

At LT Public Relations, we represent both banks and credit unions alike. We sometimes see merit in both of the arguments, but see it as a colossal waste of time for each to tackle this issue on who is better. The customer (banks) or member (credit unions) will ultimately decide which is best for them.

Public relations for banks and credit unions should be focused on why their financial institution might be a good fit for the member/customer and continue to strengthen their respective individul bank/credit union brands.

Can’t we all just get along? It’s a big sandbox for everyone to play. Now someone get out the shovel and get rid of the B.S.

This weekend’s (8/31/08) Statesman Journal (Salem, OR) had an interesting column about how to bolster careers by Andrea Kay–author of “Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers.”

Although the article’s focus was primarily on changing careers, Kay brought up a noteworthy point that applies to the world of public relations . . . “Fine Tune Your Radar.”  She outlines the significance of the radar’s frequency and what causes a radar to pick up signals. 

She quotes Peter Schwart’s book, “The Art of the Long View“—-”A radar device sends out a high frequency signal and waits for objects to bounce the signal back.  When something unusual shows on the display screen, you pay closer attention.”

As it pertains to public relations, we translated this to mean that when a company truly wants to get on a target’s radar and grab attention, a company may have to send out different frequency settings.  In other words–be unique in the way you send out news. 

If there’s no punch or pizzazz to the information or how it’s being distributed, how in the world will the news be picked up on anyone’s radar?

Yes, this is a simple analogy, but one that is overlooked ALL THE TIME.  To get on your target audience’s valuable radar (and stay on the radar), you must do it uniquely and often.

Contact LT Public Relations so we can help you get on the right “wavelength” and more importantly, get you on your target audience’s “radar.”

   I want to give a big shoutout to Van and Bill at SCORE. They coached me from start to now on most of my prodjects. Northwest Hotdogs is the business and it’s grown from one location to two locations and looking for a storefront. There’s so much good to say I don’t know where to start. I do business plans now, projections, cashflow, things I never knew how to read before I met Van and Bill at SCORE. I’ve been going to SCORE for 3 years now and my BBQ sauce (Harry’s Q the sauce) and rub mix (Harry’s Q the rub) are in topshelf stores in Portland Oregon and spreading fast to Eugene Oregon and Salem Oregon. Later I will post a list of the stores because they are growing so fast I can’t remember the names. My website will show you more about me and my business. I also cater and thats been a booming business for me lately. I love SCORE, can only speak great things about SCORE and everybody over there. They always got somebody on hand that will help you in all aspects of business and if they don’t know at the time, they will find out and get back to you. When I make it to the big time, I will suport SCORE in anyway I can, because they have done so much for me. To get to my website: www.northwesthotdogs.com please visit and see how hard work and SCORE have blessed me.

Harry D. White  /  Owner: Northwesthotdogs