by JasonPedley on June 15, 2009
Quite often, we find that PR opportunities come out of less-than-stellar moments - a company hit by disaster uses the opportunity to show the media how the company puts employees first, or a celebrity turns a drug arrest into a PR opp by donating $100,000 to a drug rehab program.
But this one’s a little more down-home…or NEAR-home, rather.
It seems that Mr. Joseph Carnevale, 21, of Raleigh, N.C. likes art - especially that kind of art that gets made from raw materials he didn’t pay for. In this case, those materials were three road construction barrels that he proceeded to cut up and turn into what appears to be a hitchiking statue.
Well, unfortunately, a company actually owns these three barrels, and police caught up with Carnevale to let him know this - in the form of an arrest and two misdemeanor charges. $360 worth of damage and one super-awesome piece of art later and I’m wondering… what happens now?
If you’re Hamlet Associates of Climax NC (I did not make that up FTR) you’re probably going to let justice run it’s twisted course and move on.
But what if they seized this opportunity. I mean, what happens to that piece of art? Why not attach a sign to with a message about construction zone safety? Why not have Carnevale make 10 more and parter with the DOT…take the statues to public school and have road safety days. Or bring the statue to public events to educate the public about the dangers of speeding in construction zones. While I don’t totally agre with Mr. Carnevale’s atistic methods, I do think there’s a way to turn these lemons oranges into lemonade orange juice.
There’s a PR opportunity in just about anything if you dig deep enough.
*photo source: thesmokinggun.com
by JasonPedley on May 17, 2009
You really didn’t think that my first five tips on improving your productivity were going to be enough, did you? Here are five more…
1. Set yourself some goals. This is critical…especially when you’re in charge. Whether you’re at the top of the ladder for your company or just starting out, you won’t always have somebody giving you that push you might need to improvement areas you’ve identified. Goals act as your roadmap 
and help keep you on-course for getting more done. Goals also keep you focused on the future, which helps me decide what things on today’s to-do list are more important than the rest.
2. Be willing to be challenged. You don’t need a boss or coworkers to be challenged. All you need is the desire to be better. Whether you’re challenging yourself to write four blog posts a week instead of three, or making $100,000 a year instead of $50,000 - none of it will ever happen if you are open to the challenge. Being open to a challenge is a mindset - not something you write down on a piece of paper. Challenge yourself with realistic goals, too. Don’t go easy on yourself - since nobody else will.
3. Live for today, and see for tomorrow. What I mean by this is that there are things that MUST be done today…it can be easy to get stuck in the sea of work without being able to see far enough over the waves to know what direction to head. Long-term plans help you make short-term decisions so that you’re constantly heading toward your goals (see #1).
4. If you’re going to surf, do it all at high tide. Checking your Facebook profile here and there for five minutes at a time and responding to a few Tweets here and there throughout the day can really add up. Do it all at once. Give yourself enough time to respond to a certain number of Tweets, catch up with Facebook or whatever else you do online. But just be sure to stick to the amount of time you give yourself. Set a timer if you have to.
5. Look back on every day. Before you turn the lights out in the office, take a look back and see what you did, what you didn’t to and what you should have or could have done better. Don’t let a day pass without doing this. Sometimes self-reflection is difficult, but we all see ourselves in hindsight - it’s how we look at things. If you look back and it’s painful because you slacked off on Facebook all day, then good. That pain is a signal to change something. Incorporate your reflections into your daily goals and long-term goals, too.
Until next time…
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Jason Pedley is a professional SEO content copywriter based near Raleigh, North Carolina with clients around the world. Contact Jason Pedley today - mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.
by JasonPedley on May 14, 2009
Being more productive in your business is a big deal these days. Here are five way that will bring you closer to that goal…
I think we’ve all been there - looking for new and better ways to be productive in your business. The good news is, there are PLENTY of ways to do that you do in a more productive way. Here are five to get you started:
1. Create a daily to-do list for your business. I do this myself and even blogged about it before - it’s that effective. Keeping yourself
and your business on-task is an integral part of productivity and success. If you want to achieve the most you can in a single day, setting a list of the most important tasks will help. Not only will a to-do list help you see what you need to do, after a day of tackling those tasks, you can look back and see everything you got done. For me, nothing looks better than turning a to-do list into a ta-da list.
1. b. Ok, part of creating a list is actually putting things on a piece of paper (I use paper and the Stickies application on my iMac). But, the bigger part is actually putting things on your to-do list that support your business goals and your business productivity. “Get milk” does not go on this list. That’s for another list.
2. Turn off your email. Ok, I’ll admit, I’m not the best person to be giving this particular piece of advice, but I find that when I turn my email off (close the program, don’t just shut off audible and visual alerts) I get much, MUCH more done. The immediacy of email is perceived. What I mean by this is that the person who sends you email does not know you are are at your computer. They don’t know you have it open, they don’t know you see that their email is in your inbox…see where I’m going with this. Only YOU truly know when you get an email, so don’t think that by turning your email off, you’re turning anybody away. You aren’t- and you’ll boos your business productivity at the same time.
3. Break up with a whole bunch of people. This means Twitter, Facebook, MySpace…the list goes on. I recently unfollowed, unfriended and dumped a whole lot of people - roughly 200 to be more specific. Another thing I did was follow people in the right spaces. For example, if someone who gives out great business advice is not a friend, I follow them on Twitter. If I have a friend who has no business relationship with me, I generally ‘friend’ them on Facebook. as for MySpace…I don’t use it. I have one friend on it. But seriously, cutting ties with 200+ people = liberating…for your soul and your time.
4. Know where your time goes. Maximum productivity in your business means knowing where your time goes. You have to identify what your investing your time on, spending your time on and WASTING your time on. Wasting time on Facebook? Twitter? Something else? Don’t walk away from #4 thinking you have to defeat, hide, squelch or quit your time wasters. They key here is to identify them - and then decide what to do with them. Maybe you need to work around some of them because they are an integral part of who you are. Only you’ll know for sure.
5. Get a whiteboard and use it to keep track of your to-do list. My to-do list is on my white board…you can see it in this post. It’s slightly encrypted so that only I know what things mean, but you’ll notice that there are a handful of things that are circled in red. Those are the ‘hot’ items to do. I’ve also got the list broken down into clients and ‘JP’ - that’s me. I circle tings on both sides of the so that I’m working on things that build me bank account and things that build future business opportunities. A whiteboard’s price tag is small when compared to the organization and in-your-face effect you’ll get from it.
Until next time…
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Jason Pedley is a professional SEO content copywriter based near Raleigh, North Carolina with clients around the world. Contact Jason Pedley today - mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.
by JasonPedley on April 6, 2009
Working as a freelance SEO content copywriter has brought me clients from all over the world. But no matter who the client is or what they sell, they all have one thing in common:
They all have some kind of supporting material that’s available to me before I start a project.
They don’t always know it before-hand, but it’s there. Sometimes I have to pry to get it. Supporting material can include:
- Case studies
- Previous versions of websites
- Press releases and other PR material
- Interview transcripts
- Testimonials
- Product spec sheets
- Customer lists
- Advertising
Believe it or not, some of these things can seem irrelevant to clients at first, but once I explain who and why they’ll be used, the client usually thinks up a few more items to add to the list.
So what does this do to help me and the client?
Well, first of all, some of these things in the list could be found online with a little bit of digging. But digging equals time, and we all know that time equals money. So if a client has a set budget, they probably don’t want to waste it on research that they could easily do on their own.
Secondly, everything on that list helps me write better SEO content. Every detail, every insight, every interpretation of what I’m writing about helps. So, in essence, this material saves me time from deciphering what I’m writing about as well as what it all means.
Lastly, with more supporting material, I can possible get better insight into what keywords people might use to search for my client’s products. This would obviously be supported by concrete keyword research before writing any SEO content.
Jason Pedley is a professional SEO content copywriter based near Raleigh, North Carolina with clients around the world. Contact Jason Pedley today - mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.
by JasonPedley on April 3, 2009
I have no idea, but if you know how old your online audience is, this slide show might help:
