Joe the Plumber Listens to Raleigh Public Relations, Finds a PR Firm

Two weeks ago, we wrote that Samuel Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the Plumber of Presidential election race fame, should hire a publicity team. He didn’t need anyone to keep his name in the news — the Republican campaign and several national media outlets took care of that — but we did argue that he might benefit from retaining a public relations firm to act as his personal filter.

Since that post, Joe the Plumber, who has been stumping at rallies for Republican Presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, has seen a great deal of media placement — and for the most part, the vetting process hasn’t treated him well. Reporters uncovered a less-than-perfect background with unresolved tax issues. He has even been accused of being a GOP shill. His interview with Shepard Smith of Fox News, where one might expect a warm reception, ended poorly; Smith felt compelled to issue a disclaimer repudiating Wurzelbacher’s claims about Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s position on relations with Israel.

Wurzelbacher’s move to hire a PR team is wise but perhaps ill-timed. The best time to pull that trigger would have been when he decided to inject himself into the national discussion by showing public support for McCain.  Fortunately for Joe the Plumber, the aspiring writer (and perhaps politician?) has accrued substantive political capital during the run-up to Election Day. As Nov. 4 comes and goes, Wurzelbacher will need to keep that momentum rolling if he wants to remain in the public eye.

Does your company need a public relations firm?  MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm in Raleigh, NC.  Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens Found Guilty

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has had a tough several months.  After being indicted for failing to disclose gifts from certain VECO executives this summer, Stevens pushed for a quick trial to be completed before the Nov. 4 elections.  This past Tuesday, Stevens was found guilty of all charges.  The maximum sentence is 35 years, although it is unlikely he will serve an extended prison sentence.  Stevens is still continuing his campaign to be re-elected to the Senate but the verdict is a substantial setback and Stevens has dropped 8 points in the polls.

Stevens wins the PR Fail of the Week, not for being found guilty, but for his statements on the stand and recorded conversation where he expressed that he may have to serve some jail time.  The people around Senator Stevens, namely his lawyers and aides, should have better prepared Stevens for the stand and strictly forbid him talking about the case in public or over the phone.

Does your company need a PR firm?  MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm located in Raleigh, NC.  Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

Related Links

Jay Cutler’s PR Fail of the Week

AIG’s PR Fail of the Week

Wal-Mart prepares for holiday season during hard times

As the global economic crisis moves further towards the holiday season, one American institution as well-known as turkey on Thanksgiving is making changes to keep consumer spirits high.  Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will not only be rolling back on prices this season, but U.S. growth and expansion as well.  The franchise is scaling back on building new stores and shifting its focus to remodeling existing locations and improving the customer experience during the upcoming shopping frenzy.

The shift arrives just in time for the lowest consumer confidence levels in years to sweep the nation and no doubt send weary messages to shoppers.  Wal-Mart hopes to retain its faithful customers by offering friendlier service, cleaner stores and faster checkout.  As always, Wal-Mart will continue cutting prices on hundreds of items to help loosen the strain many have been forced to put on their wallets.  Christmas shops featuring wrapping paper and other decor will also begin popping up in stores this season.

Many retailers are growing doubtful of sales this year, but Wal-Mart is entering the holiday shopping spree with high hopes.  While many of its competitors have already seen the downfalls of a shlowing economy, Wal-Mart has positioned itself perfectly to overcome this year’s spending slump.  Sometimes to get big rewards, you mus first think small, and redirecting their focus will surely put Wal-Mart on top.  Let’s face it: recession is here and in full swing.  It would be foolish to believe that the end to our economic struggles is just around the corner, but Wal-Mart is combating these hard times by taking a look inside and revamping the good thing they’ve already got going.

More companies should take a lesson from Wal-Mart and use this time to restore their own mission.  While expansion and big spending might not be in the best interests of your organization, it’s a great time to redirect your energy to building back up customer confidence.  Wal-Mart has caught on to this idea and will more than likely be prepared to bring excellenct service and happy holidays to shoppers this year.

Does your company need a public relations firm?  MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm located in Raleigh, NC.  Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

Social Media Expands Outside the Tech Industry

Everyone is talking about social media and Web 2.0 these days.  Who owns it and how we measure ROI are prominent questions.  It seems a given at this point that social media is, and will continue, changing the face of the public relations and marketing industries.  It remains to be seen where these changes will lead.  This humble post will not attempt to answer these big questions about social media, but instead look at a growing trend.  Social media is moving beyond the technology industry into other consumer-based industries.

A perfect example is the restaurant industry.  Upscale restaurants are delving into blogs and social media sites like never before.  Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse in North Hampton, Mass. is an upscale steakhouse with a wide variety of Argentinean cuisine, with steak, of course, being the highlight.  They have an solid website, but the lion’s share of the content is being displayed on their Prime Cuts Blog, a blog about the different cuts of beef and how to best prepare them.  Additionally, the steakhouse is active on Yelp, and many other social media websites.  How has it worked for them?  This is a quote from Justin Levy, one of the partners who owns the steakhouse:

“…since we turned our focus to social media, attracting inbound links, more Internet marketing/less print advertising, etc., we have seen an approximate 30 percent boost in sales (year to date) in a time where a lot of restaurants are down 10-20 percent.”

Social media is a logical step for the restaurant industry, as it’s reliant on consumer participation and attitudes.  Eventually, business-to-business industries will embrace social media, but they are reluctant to do so and probably will not until it has proven its effectiveness in consumer-based industries.  There is a definite first-movers advantage in social media, however, so get your business off the sidelines and into the new world of social media.

Does your company need a public relations firm?  MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm located in Raleigh, NC.  Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

Related Links

PR Firms Digg Their Clients

Twitter Users Totally Tweet

5 Social Media Sites for the PR Professional

Campaigns For Governor Powered By Visibility

With all the hubbub surrounding North Carolina’s “battleground” status in the Presidential race, a residual amount of public attention has shifted to our in-state races, opening the door for some lively debate about who is more fit to take exiting Gov. Mike Easley’s place.

The News and Observer’s Under the Dome blog, always an excellent read, has been compelling to follow as of late.  The chatter between Republican candidate and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory and Democratic hopeful and Lieutenant Governor Bev Perdue, as well as Libertarian Mike Munger, chair of Duke’s political science department, has reached a fever pitch.

Unless you have been living under a rock — or maybe you just love TiVo — you’ve been privy to watching an inordinate amount of political ads, mostly jostling between McCrory and Perdue. It’s the most readily-apparent sign that North Carolinians are living the “battleground” life (we feel you fellow swing states).

What does it all mean for the gubernatorial race? Good things, hopefully. An increase in media and public attention should create a stronger watchdog element; candidates might be wise to scale back on displays of aggression, but by the same measure, some might want to take the opportunity to stand on a soapbox. McCrory, Perdue and Munger have run their campaigns pretty even-handedly, with little in the way of interruptive controversy, so expect the latter. With less than a week until the polls close, the battle might just be getting started.

Does your company need a public relations firm in Raleigh?  In North Carolina?  Visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

Related Links

Raleigh NC| Obama To Speak In Raleigh

Raleigh NC| Chevy Chase Criticizes Sarah Palin For SNL Appearance

MMI Associates, Inc.

Candidates Court North Carolina Voters

Presidential candidate Barack Obama will speak in Raleigh tomorrow at the Halifax Mall on North Salisbury St.  The event is free and open to the public.  The doors open at 10:00am and the program is set to begin at 11:15am.  Both Senator McCain and Senator Obama have crisscrossed the state over the last several weeks as North Carolina has transformed itself into a battleground state.

The candidates and their running mates must be getting used to spending time in North Carolina.  John McCain was in Fayetteville yesterday night and Sarah Palin was in Greensboro earlier in the month.  Joe Biden spoke to a crowd of 7,500 at Meredith last Thursday and Michelle Obama will be in Rocky Mount and Fayetteville tomorrow.  With only seven days left before the general election both candidates are calling on supporters to vote early.  Early voting in North Carolina began on October 16 and will end November 1.

From a public relations standpoint both candidates are doing well getting their message out.  Daily campaign stops as well as a multiple ads running from both candidates keeps the election on our minds.  Negative ads still continue from both parties but appear to have done very little this year to sway independent voters.  This is a new wrinkle in politics and it will be interesting to see if the effectiveness of negative ads continues to decline in future elections.

Does your company need a public relations firm?  MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm in Raleigh, NC.  Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

Related Links

Obama Returns to NC (compliments of MyNC and 30Threads)

Presidential Candidate Campaign Trail (Google Map)

Does Joe the Plumber have a PR firm?  He should.

5 Social Media Sites for the PR Professional

There has been much discussion recently in the public relations industry about new media, specifically Web 2.0 and social media, and how it is impacting the industry.  There has also been substantial discussion on which social media web sites are important enough to join.  This discussion runs the gamut from people asking us to join every social network (impossible) to people saying that social media is not yet relevant in business today (stuck in the 80’s).  I find both of the extreme viewpoints rather naive so I’ve listed, in no particular order, the 5 social media web sites that all PR professionals should join:

1) Digg: Digg is a web site that aggregates popular and current stories from across the Internet.  It is an essential web site for the PR professional because Google and other search engines consider the web site to be highly authoritative (one of the main criterion when determining search engine rankings).  By digging client’s web sites and blogs you can substantially increase targeted web site traffic to your client’s site.

2) LinkedIn: LinkedIn is not specific to the PR professional, but is a must for all businessmen and women.  LinkedIn is essentially a Facebook for the business world.  I use it as a place to store all of my networking contacts, above and beyond Microsoft Outlook.  It is also an excellent resource when you are on the job hunt.

3) Twitter:  That Twitter is even being mentioned on this list is a sign of how quickly social media can change.  A month ago I would not have added Twitter to this list.  While there is still a relatively small number of users, Twitter has become an undeniably useful business tool.  We can send traffic to our client’s web sites and we can track what other users are saying about our clients.  In a month’s time, Twitter has come from completely off the radar (barely knew what it was), full circle to the point where I tweet at least three times a day.

4) Flickr: Flickr is a social networking web site for photos and photographers.  It is an excellent venue for pictures from events.  Flickr is useful as a public relations tool because images are also found in search engine results.  If the image’s title and tags are appropriate, Flickr can be a powerful web site traffic tool.  The applicantions for real estate and architecture clients are endless.  And the list goes on.

5) StumbleUpon: StumbleUpon (SU) is a social network and tool that allows users to “stumble” to web sites relating to your interests.  For the PR professional it is useful because you can submit sites to SU.  Once you’ve submitted a web site, SU will funnel visitors to your website with similar interests.  SU has become a necessary tool for raising web site traffic, especially on new web sites.

Does your company need a public relations firm?  MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm located in Raleigh, NC.  Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

Related Links

PR Firms Digg their Clients

Twitter Users Totally Tweet

Green Tip of the Week

The Green Tip of the Week is something that we started once a week at team meeting.  They center around ways to improve efficiency in your office and home environments.  We have enjoyed these tips of the week and hopefully you will as well.

The Green Tip of the Week this week is to avoid using cover letters on your faxes whenever possible.  Seventeen million trees per year are cut down to supply fax paper in the United States.  Not every fax requires a cover letter.  If it is an interoffice fax or if the person is waiting for it on the other end, consider not using a cover letter as it will save paper on both ends.

Does your company need a public relations firm?  MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm located in Raleigh, NC.  Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

NFL Coach’s First Post-Game Conference Leaves Niners Fans With More Questions Than Answers

Fans of the San Francisco 49ers, who were back in familiar territory with a 2-5 record coming into Sunday’s game, might not have been surprised by the decision to fire head coach Mike Nolan Oct. 20. The move to promote assistant coach Mike Singletary, who also served as linebackers coach, was met with some relief.

But Singletary’s first game at the helm, a 34-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, saw the coach bench starting quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan for backup Shaun Hill. He later sent tight end Vernon Davis to the locker room early after Davis drew an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty during the fourth quarter.

But both instances took a backseat to Singletary’s post-game press conference performance. The coach appeared both confident that his practices would shape up a chaotic team and bewildered that the early implementation of those practices hadn’t slowed the Niners’ tailspin at all.

Lively, off-script press conferences certainly are nothing new to football. (My personal favorite: Come after Mike Gundy. He’s 40!) And there are promising flashes of legit regime change in Singletary’s tirade. But Singletary should take a cue from the old politician’s advice and stay on message. Implementing sweeping changes is great, but if improperly articulated, they’ll fall on deaf ears. Plenty of coaches have come and gone promising discipline to wayward teams, only to fail in actually establishing some tangible evidence.

Running an NFL team seems an awful lot like running a political campaign. Your most ardent supporters want to hear a well-crafted approach, and Singletary’s rambling conference, even if fundamentally sound, didn’t quite hit the mark. He will have to work harder to sway perceptions both in the locker room and out of it.

Does your company need a public relations firm?  MMI Associates is a full-service public relations firm located in Raleigh, NC.  Please visit the MMI Associates website for more information.  Any questions?  Give us a call at 919-233-6600.

Related Links

PR Fail of the Week, Oct. 24

Raleigh PR| Losses Add Up for Red Sox Fan

MMI Associates, Inc.