Instead of going crazy, though, it’s best to calm down, step back, and try to think your way out of this press release hell. “Writer’s block” is usually caused by writers simply freaking out and shutting down. After a while of sitting staring at a blank page, it seems like nothing will ever come – and if you keep thinking that way, it never does!

So instead of going nuts it’s time to think outside the box. Beat press release hell with some of these suggestions.

Take a New Approach

When writers get writer’s block, they sometimes forget that the way they approached the draft isn’t necessarily the ONLY way to approach it. There are always a million ways of approaching a press release (or an article, or story, or whatever you may be writing at the time). Sticking to one if it isn’t working is just plain silly.

Say your press release is announcing a new product being released from a relatively new company. Naturally you set out to talk about all the stuff the product does. But after a while you realize that what you have is a little dull. Not because the product is boring, but because what it does isn’t drastically different enough to be interesting on paper.

How to approach it from another angle? Since it’s a new company, why not tell a little of its story in the press release too? There could be some real gold there – why did the designer choose that particular color, what it has to do with the CEOs life story, etc.

Reformat

Another thing that can get your creative juices flowing is a change in format. Now, press releases are pretty strict on formatting, and you can’t throw in pictures or videos or crazy tables or anything. But what you can do is play with what you have.

Is your first sentence a powerful attention-grabber? If not, and you can’t think of anything, just forget it. Go for just a few words – “New. Innovative. Comfortable. The new iPillow is here.” If a sentence isn’t working, try something else entirely.

Instead of lumping a list of things into a paragraph form, create a small bullet point list. This works doubly well as it also gives readers’ eyes something to latch on to as they scan the page.

Real News

If you’re absolutely stuck on your press release, it may be time to ask yourself an important question: are you writing about a real news item? Is the press release relevant at all to any media outlet in the world?

Many companies make the mistake of sending out a press release for absolutely anything to see what sticks. Any tiny bit of “news” coming out, they think, could make a great press release, so they write about employee promotions and warehouse address changes.

But sit back and take a look at what your press release is about. Would you read about this in your local newspaper, or would you skip right over it over breakfast? If the answer is the latter, it may behoove you to wait for a real story comes up before trying another press release.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? How did you get out of it?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download a free copy of the PR Checklist – a 24 point list of Press Release Dos and Don’ts here: http://www.ereleases.com/prchecklist.html

When you’re dealing with the media, especially during a disaster or backlash, it sometimes feels like things are getting “curioser and curioser” with no end in sight. Eventually it’s almost like you’ve been tumbling your whole life and the rabbit hole goes forever. There are some lessons you can learn from Alice and her experience, though.

Tumbling

The worst part about falling down the rabbit hole when a disaster strikes is how long it takes to finally land somewhere. After the initial news story comes out about, say, your product encountering a critical failure, you start the slow ride down. While the initial wave of problems and reports may only take a day or two, it might as well be forever.

In the meantime you’ll spin and turn in mid-air, waiting for something to finally happen so you can land. It may not be on your feet, but you’ll land eventually. In other words, you’ll come to a point where the flow of bad press and stories stops and you can work on healing.

Shrinking Down

The garden Alice sees is unattainable until she does a few things to open the door. Likewise, your company healing from the bad experience won’t happen until a few things happen.

Alice had to shrink herself to reach the key to the door. Your business must also shrink – at least when it comes to the day to days. Things aren’t quite the same as they were before you encountered your disaster. Those people who bought your product only to have it completely fail on them won’t be happy with “business as usual.”

So you have to shrink down your operation to get back to the basics. You’ve got to let everyone know you’re working on what went wrong and how to make amends. Shrinking down to a more manageable size means you’re getting back to what you started with in the first place.

Growing Huge

In the next part of the rabbit hole story, Alice eats the piece of cake in order to grow big enough to get through the door to the garden. However, she grows just a little bit too much and bangs her head which makes her cry.

Your business has to rebound somehow. After you shrink down and fix everything (broken product, customer orders, public opinion), it’s time to grow back up, better and bigger than ever. However, where Alice went wrong is she grew too far too fast. Had the admittedly magic cake given her the opportunity, she could’ve grown a little slower at the correct rate.

Try to learn from Alice’s mistake when your business is rebounding from a disaster. Your natural instinct may be to do as much as you can in as little a time. However, this might not be the best plan, and could just lead to more tears!

What’s the worst disaster your business has suffered through?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download your free copy of the Beginner’s Guide to Writing Powerful Press Releases here: http://www.ereleases.com/insider/beginnersguide.html

1. Pictures of Your Product

Since Pinterest is a totally visual platform, most of your efforts are going to revolve around pictures. And one thing that can draw Pinterest users to your online business is through pictures of your product.

However, you can’t just stick pictures of your latest findings or inventions and expect people to rush over and buy them. In fact, the opposite may happen: they’ll run away and never come back, as they weren’t expecting to receive a sales pitch. You have to intertwine these photos with pictures of other interesting things your visitors will enjoy.

2. Be Creative with Your Pinboards

Going along with #1, try to be as creative as possible with your various pinboards. You may be tempted to include your new shampoo line in a “hair care product” pinboard. However, not only will it probably get ignored, it may get totally lost in the shuffle.

However, if your bottle is bright orange, there’s now something interesting about it. Take an awesome, vibrant picture of it and place it in an “Orange Explosion” pinboard. Now there’s a reason for your visitors to check it out.

3. Make a User Pinboard

People like to talk about and look at themselves, it’s true. Heck, it’s basically why social media is invented. We pretend it’s all about connecting with other people, but a large part is announcing to the world that you exist.

Help your visitors achieve this by posting a User Submitted Pinboard. Users can send in pictures of themselves using or holding your product in creative ways. You may even be able to turn it into a contest!

4. Creative Uses

Speaking of creative uses, it’s part of your job to convince future customers they can’t live without your product. One way to do this is to literally show them how many uses your product has on Pinterest! Make several Pinboards that show off the many ways customers can use your product. For example, maybe the shampoo is also good for cleaning windows (hey, it’s been known to happen…). Now you have an opportunity to show people with great hair and an entire gallery of clean, sparkling windows!

What’s the most creative Pinterest pinboard you’ve come across?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab three ebooks, including My Facebook Formula, a free report on Facebook and why you should be using the largest social network for your business, here: http://www.ereleases.com/insider/freebooks.html

Now having said that, what a lot of small businesses fail to realize is that all it takes is one or two unintentional faux pas to negate all your hard work and make your customers distrust you. Here are a few things you may find yourself doing that could cause this to happen.

1. Poor communication. It’s a busy world; you won’t hear me denying it. And the more our marketing efforts succeed, the busier we become. But a negative side effect of this calculated growth is that it’s easy to let our procedures and communication falter in the process. So when you jump from 5 clients to say…30 clients, suddenly those prompt return phone calls may slow down a bit. Just remember that much of that trust you built up with your first clients was founded on the open communication lines you fostered. Once a client sees them closing, you can bet the seed of distrust is planted and taking root.
2. Jargon. Time and time again I see companies fail in the way they speak to customers. Whether it’s simply how you’re used to speaking about your industry or you are looking to assert your expertise, it’s easy (and dangerous) to get caught up in throwing out those multi-syllabic words or acronyms. But rest assured that your clients will be anything but impressed. What it ends up doing is making you seem all high and mighty, as well as making your client feel left out of the loop. Instead, get down on their level and speak in their own language.
3. Complex contracts. Have you ever sat down to do business with a company only to find their contract too long to even begin to read? At that point, how did you feel? First of all, you probably felt a little apprehensive to sign. Secondly, you likely just wanted to get the whole thing over with. So you slapped your signature on there, crossed your fingers, and prayed that you were not getting screwed by signing away your life’s rights. What you probably didn’t realize is how you lost a bit of trust for the company in the process. Look, plain sentences work just as well as long drawn out ones steeped in legalese. So do your best to shorten your contract down to only what you NEED to protect your business transactions.
4. Unprofessional web presence. Let me get right to the point here. Nothing screams scammer like a template website full of pop ups and Google ads. Do yourself a favor and pay money up front to have a decent website built for your company!
5. Overpromising. Ever got that feeling that an offer was just too good to be true? What happens then? Either you just walk away because you know you’re going to get a knife in the back, or you proceed with your guard up. Consider this: yes you want to offer something different than other companies. But you don’t want to overpromise to the point that you sound suspicious.

What other things have you found will cause customers to distrust you? Share them with us.

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download a free copy of the PR Checklist – a 24 point list of Press Release Dos and Don’ts here: http://www.ereleases.com/prchecklist.html

1. Contractors give you options. Hiring a new employee isn’t easy. First there’s the search. Then there’s all the paperwork and all the training. Not to mention finding a spot for them in your office. Now what happens once you’ve done all the work to get them situated, but then you aren’t happy with their work? It’s even harder to fire someone than it is to hire them. Not to mention the time and money involved in finding a replacement. But when you outsource, you have more options. You can do business with whoever you want for as long as you want. You simply are not tied to anyone.
2. Outsourcing is cheaper. Sure those huge companies can afford to have a billion people on staff. But not you. As a small to medium-sized business, it’s important for you to stay lean. And that’s exactly what you’re doing when you outsource. Rather than add a new employee to your staff which forces you to pay startup costs, office space, insurance, and other benefits; you simply pay someone either hourly or by the project. No insurance, no self-employment taxes. Just a simple, straightforward fee.
3. You get expertise. I know what you’re thinking: “Well, I could pay someone ten bucks and hour for social media marketing, which is much better than the rate I’ll pay to contract it out.” Sure, but what kind of work will you get at that rate? Look, social media isn’t something you need to hire a college kid to do for his summer job. You need someone who knows the ins and outs of social media. Someone who understands how to reach your target market and build your brand. Someone who has been down this road before many times. Only then can you launch a successful social media campaign.

Of course, all of these benefits will be lost if you don’t do your homework before hiring a social media agency or contractor. With so many out there trying to get your business, know that not all are created equal. In other words, one contractor may do a fabulous job at a fair price, while another may have no real clue as to what’s going on but charge you an arm and a leg anyway.

Finding the Right People to Outsource To

How can you pinpoint a social media marketing agency worth hiring? Look for:

• References
• Successful campaigns
• Mid-range prices
• Solid copywriting
• Flexibility
• Timeliness

Do you handle your own social media marketing or do you outsource? Tell us about your experiences!

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab three ebooks, including My Facebook Formula, a free report on Facebook and why you should be using the largest social network for your business, here: http://www.ereleases.com/insider/freebooks.html

If you can’t make your mind up
We’ll never get started…

Please don’t tell me
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

Whether you first heard it redone by alternative band Cake, as the theme song to delightful British comedy “Coupling,” or even the original Cuban version by Osvaldo Farres, you undoubtedly felt the irritation the singer felt by never hearing a definitive answer.

Does this ring a bell? Making hard, cold decisions every day can become a little daunting, especially if they’re unpopular. But the alternative is worse – if you never make your mind up, nobody can get started on their jobs!

Don’t let your coworkers and teammates sing this woeful song to themselves every day at work.

Being Decisive

Look, I know being decisive can take a mental toll sometimes. When you make firm decisions, you’re effectively cutting off at least one idea from coming into fruition. If two people approach you with ideas and you can only choose one, the “loser” may get their feelings hurt. For most business owners with a conscience, this can be a problem, especially if everyone in the office is friendly.

But that’s only one way of looking at it.

Look at the situation more like this: by not making a decision, you’re stringing two people along for way longer than needed. When you say “perhaps” to both those ideas, knowing that only one can make it, both those employees are going to feel like they’re going to “win.” And when one doesn’t, those feelings of rejection can be multiplied.

Even worse, nobody can do their jobs!

It’s just like love: peel the Band-Aid off quickly. Sure, someone will be upset, but they’ll quickly move on, especially if they believe in the project and the company. If you strung along two different potential significant others, wouldn’t you feel awful? Then why are you doing it to your coworkers?

Being the Boss

Whether you’re actually the boss or not, if you’re the one making decisions then you are officially a BOSS. And what do bosses do? They make decisions.

Actually, when you break it down, that’s what bosses are paid to do: make decisions. When others have difficult saying yes or no, bosses take the initiative and do what it takes to move things along. So if you’re feeling yourself wavering all the time, you need to bring out your inner BOSS.

How do you do that? When a tough decision comes up, practice making one much sooner than you normally would. Obviously you need to take time to discuss and mull over things – not everything can be a snap decision. But instead of holding that third meeting to discuss the situation, make a decision after the second so your team can hurry up and get to work.

How long do you take to make decisions?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Grab your free 160-page copy of the Big Press Release Book – Press Releases for Every Occasion and Industry here: http://www.ereleases.com/insider/bigbook.html

1. It’s #3

Pinterest is now the third most popular social media site on the ‘net, right behind Facebook and Twitter. No, not #3 among women, or #3 with Etsy sellers or anything like that – #3 TOTAL. In March alone they boasted over 104 million visitors, with Twitter getting 182 million and LinkedIn coming in at #4 with 86 million. Considering they just opened shop in March of 2010, it’s rather remarkable growth.

2. A Lot of Women Visitors, But  …

Pinterest gets the reputation of being a lady-fest, and for the most part it’s true. However, it’s not exactly as skewed as you might first think. Earlier this year, the numbers showed that the percentages were close to 65% women, 35% men. Not 50/50, but not quite the estrogen fueled crowd everyone says it is! It shows there’s definitely a huge market on Pinterest for anyone who loves pictures of random things that are teal or made of ceramic.

3. Loads of Time

Facebook has the market cornered on visits, definitely. However, there’s one area Pinterest has them beat: time spent on the site. The average Facebook user only spends 12 minutes checking out what their friends are doing. Over on Pinterest, it’s up to almost 16 minutes, just behind Youtube at 16.5! The numbers are assuredly skewed due to the ease of Pinterest’s mobile version, where you can just scroll … and scroll … and scroll …

4. Growth from the Midwest

While we normally associate tech growth with an area like California or New York, Pinterest’s growth can be attributed to the Midwest. From there it swiftly spread to all over the country and is now taking over the world. Shows if you capture the Heartland you’ve got the rest of the nation’s heart, too!

5. They Actively Discourage Self Promotion

Businesses looking to send traffic to their stores and websites are faced with a problem: Pinterest etiquette dictates that users don’t self-promote. As a result, it’s forced many a business to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how they can successfully shift people from Pinterest to the checkout line without crossing the imaginary promotion border. The key is to keep it simple, light, and fun, just like the website itself.

Have you used Pinterest yet? Why or why not?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download your free copy of 7 Cheap PR Tactics for Success in Any Economy here: http://www.ereleases.com/7cheaptactics.html

Don’t blame me – talk to your customers. They’re the ones saying it. They want to buy more of your stuff, but something’s holding them back. Fixing the following three elements of your business could make the difference between losing sales and whistling all the way to the bank.

1. Your Website

For too long your customers have put up with broken links, stretched pictures, and confusing shopping carts. They’re here to say they simply won’t put up with it one more day. It’s time to take a look at your website and fix everything that’s broken!

Check every link. Readjust and reload every warped picture. In fact, just go ahead and find new pictures, or take some new ones yourself. Go over your shopping cart procedures and test how confusing it is. You’ll be surprised at all the errors you find, and hopefully discover ways to fix them.

2. Your Customer Service

You think your customer service is up to snuff, and maybe most of the time it is. But sometimes it utterly fails, and those are the times you really need to study what goes on. Because when the going gets tough, and everyone needs help at once, the agents won’t be able to keep up.

The best way to amend your customer service is to listen to the first word in the phrase – your customers! They know what’s wrong as they’ve been through the process. Open up your ears and listen to the complaints, as there will be some good advice contained in there.

3. Your Brand

You spent what you perceived as a long time developing a brand for your company. The problem, though, is you spent all that time on the WRONG brand for your company. Currently, your mascot is a roadrunner, as you think everything about your company is speedy. But that’s not entirely the case, and your brand really should reflect your dependability more than speed. A Labrador for the mascot, perhaps?

Really take your brand seriously. It’s not just some random stuff you come up with to design your color scheme around. Your brand is what people talk about when the industry you sell within comes up. If your brand is weak, you have no identity, no public face. A strong brand that’s properly associated with your company can stir conversation and inspire people to buy from you simply because of recognition.

What are some other things you could improve on for your customers?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download your free copy of 7 Cheap PR Tactics for Success in Any Economy here: http://www.ereleases.com/7cheaptactics.html

The more communication there is between potential customers, the more companies need to be aware of that conversation. Unfortunately, early practitioners decided to try and shape the conversations people were having.

Luckily today businesses are (generally) more honest, and PR agents changed their ways over the years. But it’s always good to remember how we got here.

Early Days

Have you ever heard the term “spin doctor?” No, not the 90s pop-rock band. A spin doctor is someone who can take bad news and make it good – and vice versa. Usually, politicians have one or two PR pros on staff who are really good at this. They have to be, as the other guy is spinning news the other way just as hard as they can!

Unfortunately, this term also originated in the early days of public relations. There were some pretty big corporations and industrialists back in those days, and they weren’t always up to 100 percent good. Again due to mass media communication, journalists were able to investigate and stir up interest in what these corporations were doing – and if they were doing it on the up and up.

Feeling nervous, these mega-rich companies would hire PR pros (like Ivy Lee) to send out “the real facts” on whatever was getting leaked at the time. For instance, if they caught wind a journalist was going to report on bad working conditions, the PR department could cook up a quick campaign saying just the opposite, more than likely with fake “worker testimonials” and a few pictures of pristine working conditions for good measure. This would all go out before the journalist’s story would air, effectively killing it.

Spin also involves “burying” a bad story when a bigger story breaks. For instance, United Kingdom government press officer Jo Moore got into trouble when it leaked she sent an email during the September 11^th attacks saying “it’s now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury.” This practice is as old as PR and still continues to this day.

But times did change. And it shows when people like Moore get into trouble for trying to get away with activities like that. The public won’t stand for it anymore, for one, and PR pros nowadays struggle to uphold a good reputation. They know PR today is more about trust then lying and manipulating, and they don’t want to betray their new position in the world.

That may have come from the origins of public relations, and a desire to overcome the industry’s less-than-stellar roots.

Still, we haven’t completely risen above. What are some of the most egregiously “spun” stories you’ve ever encountered?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download a free copy of the PR Checklist – a 24 point list of Press Release Dos and Don’ts here: http://www.ereleases.com/prchecklist.html

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/memestate/2423932267/

However, it’s a very necessary skill to acquire, as there are several reasons why your customers should never know about your struggles. So no matter how tough things get, you have to be like Journey and “Don’t Stop Believin’!”

Confidence

When your customers buy from you, they’re not just purchasing an item. What they’re really doing is letting you know they trust you – they have confidence in your store and what you’re selling. This is especially true if what you sell is a specialty item – they wouldn’t buy it if they thought you were going to disappear in a few months!

To honor this trust, you must return the favor. This is done by not betraying them when the tides turn a bit. I’ve seen some companies start posting quite negative things on their social media outlets when their store hit a rough patch. This doesn’t honor that trust relationship, it just makes the customer nervous.

Recovery

If you let yourself start to feel the effects of the downturn your business has come under, then you may start to believe things are really that bad. When you start to believe there’s no hope and no future, then you won’t put in the necessary work to fix things. It becomes its own self-fulfilling prophecy!

Instead of dwelling on the bad and crying over “woe is me,” refocus all that energy on fixing your problem! This way you don’t have to keep your chin up as it will already be high in the air from all the sales you’ve been making.

How to Keep Believin’

Staying positive is well and good, but how do you exactly go about doing this when things look so bleak? It’s all about how you present yourself.

For instance, you may not realize you’re desperately grabbing at straws when you start posting random deals and coupons on Facebook. Your customers will probably pick up on it, though. If you’re not normally accustomed to tossing out specials, then it comes off as strange. They’ll know it’s because your store is in trouble.

Instead, come up with a solid plan to win back old customers and acquire new ones. Don’t just toss out deals until something sticks – create a solid battle plan that results in real sales. This can also help you focus your energy on fixing your business rather than wallowing in its demise.

What are some ways you keep believin’ in times of stress?

This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download your free copy of 8 Shocking Secrets Press Release Distribution Firms Don’t Want You to Know here: http://www.ereleases.com/landing3.html