Public relations isn't something most people starting an online business think about. Why is it so important to someone in an Internet-driven business?

Too many people that run online businesses serious shortchange themselves by only concentrating only on online marketing channels and ignoring the broader offline world of their prospects. Why pursue PR? Because no other marketing method delivers so much impact for so little investment of time and money.

Online marketers should consider PR for two simple reasons: to achieve visibility and to establish credibility. Regarding visibility, prospects are influenced by mediums other than the Internet. They read newspapers, magazines and listen to the radio. To reach your market niche comprehensively, you need to explore ways to reach your prospects beyond the Internet. It will help you drive traffic to your web site.

Establishing credibility and visitor trust is a real challenge for online businesses. As we all know, consumers are more skeptical than ever. You can't just tell your visitors to trust you, you must show them you are trustworthy. PR can help you do that.

When you read about a business in the newspaper or hear about it on the radio, chances are you immediately elevate that business above its competitors. It has solidity and credibility. Anyone can publish an article online, for example, but not everyone can publish the same article in a magazine.

On the web, it's hard to know who's for real. Personally, I'm almost always more likely to spend my money with web sites that demonstrate credible links to the offline world. I immediately feel less skeptical when I see web sites that have been profiled in newspapers, or web site owners who publish articles in magazines and newspapers.

Ultimately, becoming slightly famous is about earning a place of trust and distinction in the minds of your best prospects. A total public relations mindset--that embraces not just online PR but offline channels as well--will help you build the "trust" factor into your business.

A key element of the Get Slightly Famous marketing strategy is getting published. But if you to break into print with contributed articles about your expertise, take note. Beginning writers have a hard time understanding the difference between a genuine, workable story idea and what is merely an interesting topic. You need to know the difference if you want to get published.

Magazine editors hate to see queries that are little more than amorphous topics. "I'd like to write a story about marketing” is not likely to win an assignment unless you narrow it down, establish a specific angle and tie the subject to the concerns of a specific readership.

Now for some definitions:

Topic vs. Story Idea. A topic is a vague, universal entity that does not, in itself, constitute the subject for an article.

“Employee Management” is a TOPIC…vast and formless. “Should Employers Be So Tight-Lipped About Former Employees” is a focused story idea and the possible subject of an article. “World Hunger” is a topic, whereas “What Is UNICEF Is Doing About World Hunger in Ethiopia” is a STORY IDEA, a narrow portion of the encompassing topic “World Hunger.”

Focus. This is how you will tackle a small-enough part of your subject to write about within the confines of a magazine article. The length of the article determines focus. For a 500-word article, your focus must be laser-sharp—covering one tiny aspect of the subject. A 2000-word article on the same subject would have a larger focus and a book a much larger focus still.

Slant. This is the way your idea will be directed to the interests of a magazine's readers. A slant is a particular way of looking at a topic. Specifically, it's the way readers would look at a topic.

Few ideas are original; it's usually only the SLANT and FOCUS that makes them different. It narrows the field by restricting itself to the concerns of that particular audience. Then it narrows the field still more by addressing only some examples that illustrate your point.

In the real world, slanting a subject is the equivalent to walking around a building and seeing it from different angles and perspectives. Slanting enables you to see your subject in a variety of ways as targeted audiences demand.

Summing up. FOCUS insures that you don’t bite off more than you can chew.  SLANT enables you to look at your topic from different perspectives. The end result is a STORY IDEA, which is a focused, slanted article topic drawn from an overall TOPIC.

Today, a corporation’s reputation is indelibly linked to that of its leader. Regardless of the size and complexity of the organization, the person in charge sets the tone, defines the style, and becomes the company’s public face. CEO reputation is becoming an essential component of successful companies’ overall branding strategy.

A CEO’s reputation and brand is increasingly important to the bottom line of companies of all sizes and industries. Employees, customers, shareholders, analysts, and the media all monitor the CEO for insights into the corporation’s culture, values, and commitment to what the brand represents.

A recent study by global communications consultancy Burson-Marsteller indicates that the CEO’s reputation is responsible for approximately 50% of a company’s reputation, directly translating into achieving key business objectives and increasing sales.

The survey noted that based on the reputation of the CEO:

95% decide whether to invest in a company
94% will believe in a company under pressure from the media
93% would recommend a company as a good alliance/merger partner
92% maintain confidence in a company when the share price lags
88% recommend the company as a good place to work

In the Burson-Marsteller survey, credibility claimed a top position among factors driving CEO reputation. Thought leadership is one way earn credibility. CEOs who develop executive branding campaigns driven by thought leadership report that the exposure they receive is more credible than advertising, delivering a powerful, credible impact within their marketplaces and organizations.

Booklets are quick to write, inexpensive to produce. A booklet is one of the easiest ways to distill your wealth of knowledge down to a manageable form. A booklet can be mass produced for less than a dollar, and sold anywhere from 3-10 times that amount. Booklets are natural “keep around” items and to balance out an existing product line.

According to booklet expert Paulette Ensign, the easiest and most popular booklet format is a “tips” booklet. Decide on a topic and title (such as “151 Travel Tips”) and jot down every fact and snippet that comes to mind around your title. After a while, you will have accumulated the contents of your booklet. Group tips into headings, followed by a table of contents.

Unless you are a proficient desktop publisher, hire a graphic designer to produce your booklet. The most popular format is 8.5” by 3.5” that fits easily into a regular envelope. Shop around for printers, getting estimates on 500 to 1000 copies, or consider publishing your booklet electronically.

Electronic booklets are also becoming a great way to attract highly targeted web site visitors. Learn how Jim Jenkins of Creative Visions Consulting uses an electronic white paper on team building to get his business message into the hands of hot prospects in Fortune 500 companies.

PR is one of the most highly effective ways to establish your business in a market niche. Placing articles in trade, business and special interest publications is a relatively easy place to begin your PR efforts.

The key to placing articles is to package your ideas as news rather than sales pieces. It is important to avoid self-serving articles that are thinly veiled advertisements. When done correctly, published articles provide highly credible media exposure that can quickly help your business become a known and trusted entity among your best prospects.

Instant Credibility. In a competitive world with a lot of companies vying for our attention, it’s hard to know who’s the best. Media exposure provides proof of who’s real and who isn’t. Media exposure delivers tremendous credibility—it’s an independent validation of your credentials in an increasingly distracted and distrustful world.

Make Selling Easier. Because of the media's indirect indication of ability, prospects that hear about you through public relations are largely pre-sold. Moreover, reprints of articles you've written or been quoted in, and copies of audios or videos of media appearances, make excellent marketing materials that are less expensive, and more convincing, than anything you create yourself.

Establish & Maintain Your Expertise. As an expert, you undoubtedly possess special knowledge that sets you apart from others. Don’t take your knowledge for granted!

The media are hungry for outside experts to help them write their stories. The media need you inside perspective and your knowledge can be leveraged to gain targeted media exposure.

Editors of trade and business magazines are always on the lookout for experts and will happily give you from one to three pages of prime magazine space if you can address the needs of their readers.

The common image of a successful business or entrepreneurial venture is characterized by rugged individualism: a highly independent visionary goes it alone, equipped with wits and god-given business savvy, and makes a fortune through bravery, guts and gumption.

The truth is that most successful businesses succeed with the help of others. Today, more and more businesses are strategically reaching out to customers, vendors--even their competitors--to forge mutually beneficial strategic alliances that reward everyone involved.

Partnering makes great business sense.  As a recent issue of the Economist stated, alliances now account for 18% of the revenues of America’s biggest companies. This is because strategic partnerships help businesses get better results in a variety of ways than they could on their own.

Reasons to partner with others to advance your business become apparent once you understand the benefits.

•    Increased market share & access to new markets
•    Access to new technology
•    Shared marketing and operations expenses
•    Improved customer service
•    Cost savings
•    Increased reach and market clout

Partnering can help you advance many business objectives. The trick is seeing how others within your circle of interest can be leveraged to pursue shared areas of mutual concern for mutual benefit.

To learn how how to put strategic partnerships to work in your business, read my post Strategic Partnerships in Action at the Get Slightly Famous blog.

To benefit from media exposure you must see yourself as a partner in the news making process. Although your primary objective may be to promote your firm, you must always remember that you are not entitled to news coverage. Achieving results from your media marketing strategy is about being useful to reporters and editors, andputting reporters’ needs above your own. This mindset will benefit you over time as your become known as a valuable media resource.

The media are loyal to one thing—their readers. Their overarching mission centers around the stories they deliver to their audiences.

Journalists are not obligated to use the sources they interview. So even though you may spend time helping a reporter with a story, you may not get mentioned in the final piece, or your quote may appear in print without mention of your company. This sometimes happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

But your helpfulness will not go unnoticed. Editors and reporters remember their sources—especially if the sources are help them make their jobs easier. Help the media create the best possible stories. Position yourself as a helpful media resource in every way you can. This attitude will reward you many times ove and ensure that media coverage comes your way.

I live in San Francisco. For years, I've found it amusing to see a handful of all-over-the-map restaurants selling everything from pizza, donuts, espresso and chop suey...all offered on cluttered signs as part of the same menu!

Although I find it funny, even absurd, someone within these businesses must assume a strategy like this: "If I have everything anyone could possibly want under one roof, customers will have no choice but to give me their business.”

Not surprisingly, this is a flawed strategy. I never see many customers around these places. Why would anyone go out of their way to get their pizza and morning coffee from a business that specializes in neither?

These businesses lack a Brand Umbrella: a central, unifying theme that holds their business identity together. Unfortunately, many businesses present themselves to the world in the same unfocused way as these all-over-the-map restaurants.

Could you be confusing your marketplace with an unfocused message? If so, you may be losing business because people do not clearly see the benefits you provide or how you differ from your competitors.

Why Branding Matters

A Brand Umbrella holds your entire slightly famous marketing strategy together. When done effectively, brands enable you to:

• Differentiate yourself from your competition
• Position your focused message in the hearts and minds of your target customers
• Persist and be consistent in your marketing efforts
• Customize your services to reflect your personal brand
• Deliver your message clearly and quickly
• Project credibility
• Strike an emotional chord
• Create strong user loyalty

Small-business branding is about getting your target market to see you as the preferred choice. It’s not just about what you do; it's about what you do differently from everyone else.

Get Focused

Effective Brand Umbrellas are created around a distinct market niche.

A niche gives your marketing message a natural, sharp focus. The more you specialize, the easier it is to create and sustain a powerful Brand Umbrella, and the more your market will see the value of your services because you speak directly to their unique situation.

Avoid sending an unfocused message in your marketing by bundling disconnected themes, items, offerings, services together. To do this risks sending a message that you don't do any activity particularly well (a jack of all trades, master of none).

Identify your niche category or the overall industry or consumer segment you wish to serve, and create your Brand Umbrella with an eye on what members of your prospective niche have in common.

To get the media interested in your business, you have to see the value of your expertise, or tell a story that makes readers interested. Stand back from your business and determine what makes you unique. It’s a matter of determining what’s distinctive about what you do or what you know, and approaching the media with a carefully crafted pitch or introduction.

There are numerous ways for your small business to get coverage. You can, for instance:

• Alert the media to story ideas within your industry
• Position yourself as an industry expert or commentator
• Organize and promote a public event
• Tie your business to current issues
• Write articles for trade publications
• Showcase an unusual aspect of your business.

When handwriting expert Bart Baggett decided to make handwriting analysis his career, he embraced the media, studying newspapers, magazines, and radio and television programs to find out what types of guests were in demand. Then he looked for ways to tie his professional abilities to specific media. His strategy paid off. At the height of the O.J. Simpson trial, he sent out a news release about Simpson's handwriting that resulted in several timely media interviews. He later appeared on Court TV to discuss Timothy McVey's handwriting, and was recommended by the director of that program to CNN. A feature in Biography Magazine led to stories in the London Times, the Dallas Morning News, and others.

Resource: Get Slightly Famous--In Print "Starter Pack"

Many entrepreneurs think that selling to the widest possible market is the likeliest path to success. The problem is that the "take all comers" approach is not very effective as an overall marketing strategy; marketing becomes expensive when everyone is a potential prospect.

Today's small businesses share a fiercely competitive playing field. Combined with information overload, this means that it's harder to stand out when you have a generic message. If you are merely a "management consultant," a humble "business coach," or a nondescript "financial advisor," you risk fighting it out over price with competitors who offer identical services to yours.       

To rise above the fray, you need a compelling business message aimed at the right people. You need to cultivate your own Super Niche.

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