The Wax Blog

26 Mar

Posted at 11:09h in Public Relations, Small Business by
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[caption id="attachment_1182" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Chinese symbols for fame"][/caption] Woo woo alert!! Readers, since you're so enamored with the Feng Shui tip about wearing red underwear to give you energy on TV, I thought I'd provide five ways to use the ancient Chinese art of feng shui to improve the results of your PR campaign. Think this is weird? The Chinese often refuse to erect a new office building in China until  it's been certified for Feng Shui. Here in this country, folks like Roger Green and Carole Hyder are in high demand for their feng shui workshops and consultations. When I did Carole's PR, people used to line up out the door at her book signings. First find the area of your office or home on what they call the Bagua that is the "fame" area. (It's basically the back middle area of your office) Then it's time to decorate.

23 Mar

Posted at 17:02h in Small Business, Social Media by
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When starting a blog for your business the first thing you need is a topic. Obvious, perhaps, though you’d be surprised to learn the number of people who don’t think establishing a topic is essential. There’s a belief that if you just start writing, people will come. That might be true when writing a personal blog, but it doesn’t apply in business. With a business blog, you need to ATTRACT your audience. With a personal blog, you’ve already got people who have a vested interest in what you’ve got to say. Just because you work in a specific industry and have knowledge of your craft doesn’t mean you’ve got a voice that people want to listen to just for the sake of it. You’ve got to give them something to lure them in and keep them coming back. That all begins with picking the right topic.

16 Mar

Posted at 09:31h in Small Business by
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[caption id="attachment_1150" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Beth Graddon-Hodgson"][/caption] After Beth Graddon-Hodgson wrote her last guest post I realized there wasn't much out there in terms of advice for companies wanting to use blogging as a marketing tool outside of SEO. How do ou REALLY use a blog to inject your brand voice into the growing global conversation? I'm very pleased to tell you that Beth has agreed to write a weekly post for the Wax blog on topics concerning just that...how does a business use a blog to their best advantage? I can't wait to learn more. You might wonder about Beth's experience blogging for business...I asked her to tell us a bit about herself. You can also follow Beth on Twitter

09 Mar

Posted at 11:21h in Public Relations, Social Media by
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A decade ago I sat in meeting after meeting in Silicon Valley hearing about the new economy and how the 'old school' IT companies were dead. It's so funny to me now, listening to all the social media experts and Web 2.0 pundits say that 'traditional PR is dead.' I venture to say that lazy people hope by saying traditional PR is dead, maybe they can make it so. After all it's a whole lot easier to sit in your jammies and tweet and facebook the night away than it is to call Patty Neger at Good Morning America to find out if she likes the latest book you've sent her. Believe me, I would much rather be trading snarky barbs with folks like @CLE84 than getting rejected for yet another story idea by a crusty print reporter.

26 Feb

Posted at 13:59h in Public Relations, Small Business by
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In honor of being incredibly lazy this week, here's one of my fave 2009 posts - the last Friday of every month I'll throw a repeat of one of the more popular posts, just in case you missed it! [stextbox id="alert" color="000000" bgcolor="17e8e8"] A product, service or book is probably the greatest thing in the world - to its creator. But when an editor or producers says "pass" it's the publicist who has to tell the client. Sometimes ZERO  media are interested. And for anyone who has written a book, started a business or provided a service, that can be a pretty personally hurtful message no matter how carefully it's couched. For me, it's the equivalent of having to tell clients "your baby is ugly" 95% of the time, without hurting their feelings. Nearly impossible.

16 Feb

Posted at 10:42h in Social Media by
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Thank you to professional writer and blogger Beth Graddon-Hodgson for giving us the insider info on how pro bloggers work...and how to pay them. Check out her website or follow Beth on Twitter As many companies jump on the blogging bandwagon, they’re faced with one major dilemma as they wonder “what the heck do we pay these people?” The problem is that there are companies and independent writers who have set standards that go to two extremes – those who accept bottom dollar rates just to get the business, and those who gouge their clients for all that they’re worth. With this in mind, most companies have the wrong idea about reasonable payment.