Welcome Everyone. My name is Meghan Callahan and today I will be reviewing the book Full Frontal PR: Building buzz about your business, your product, or you by Mr. Richard Laermer.
Let’s begin with a short biography of our author Richard Laermer. Mr. Laermer is known to be an authority on media culture and hype. He has written five best selling books including 2011 trendspotting, punk marketing and the book we are discussing today Full Frontal PR. Laermer is the founder and CEO of RLM Public Relations which is a full-service PR firm serving a variety of clients with the tools from Full Frontal You can visit Richard’s website, Bad Pitch Blog at www.badrelease.com
Full frontal PR discusses different ways to generate word-of-mouth buzz about your company, produt or yourself. These were a couple tips Laermer discussed. First of all, Be the first to coin a great new phrase and put it out into the world. Try to get influential and hip people to start using this new phrase and voila you’ve got word-of-mouth buzz. Next we have turning a name into a verb. The best way I can explain this is through google. People don’t say, please search the web for data on this and that, they say to google it. This is a method that makes consumers consider your trademark sonomous with field you are in. Next is simply taking it to the streets, or guerilla marketing. You want to create a buzz among the people and the best way to do this is through the people. Laermer says this can be as simple as a sticker campaign. But you also want to think of unconventional ways of getting your brand or product noticed.
One concept that I really liked about this book is that Richard gave tips for the public relations practioner. One idea he suggests strongly is keeping up to date on worldly affairs. In the business of public relations this is incredibly important as you are the eyes and ears for your clients. You must know what is going on and what trends are popular, Next richard discusses the importance of keeping good graces with the media. There are some strong stereotypes about the relationship between PR practioners and journalists. The truth of the matter is we need them just as much as they need us. This is a balanced relationship that with care can grow into an amazing asset. The final tip seems self-explanatory but it must be noted that confidence in this business is absolutely key. Laermer notes that at first you may have to fake your confidence, but eventually, genuine self-confidence will flourish and make you the best you can be. He finishes up this point by saying, “Show glamorous Passion and well, Just go for it”
So, as I said earlier, it is incredibly important to have good meaningful lasting relationships with journalists. So here is Laermer’s five tips to a reporters heart. Number 1 Be courteous, this is pretty self-explanatory the old adage, treat others as you want to be treated works well here. Second, do your homework. Research the newspaper or magazine and several reporters to find the one that fits your story best. You don’t want to bother a sports journalist with a bridal event. Number3, never exagerate. Our jobs as PR practioners are to get the information out into the public, not to lie and spin stories. Number 4, Don’t ever, ever, lie. The same point I just made applies to this rule. Finally, always follow-up. Journalists are busy and their work is incredibly timely so following up is a must.
I was surprised that Richard says in his book that controversy, unless it gets you thrown in jail can be good for your press book. I have definitely heard the saying all press is good press but I didn’t really think it was true. Laermer says it is just getting your companies name out there, again he is talking about buzz.
I was also surprised to hear Richard recommended handwritten Thank you notes to reporters after a good interview or article. In this day and age I just thought this medium was passe but there is something endearing about a handwritten note and, again, relationships with journalists are imperative.
Laermer discusses the fact that time and time again we find that a huge adversary to the PR practioner is fear, even very accomplished individuals. He suggests a few techniques to remove the fear factor but this is something I believe deserves further attention. I would like to see if there are workshops to improve confidence and swagger as Laermer refers to it. We spend so much time writing press releases and putting together lists while in college but why are there no classes focusing on confidence in sales. I wonder.
Well here we near the end of the presentation. I would like to say that I do recommend this book to those aspiring to become part of the public relations field. While some of the book you may find you already learned in intro to PR or PR writing there are some great real-life examples in this book.
Thanks again for tuning into this presentation and if you have any questions about Full Frontal PR or just want to chat please feel free to contact me! Bye!
![Richard Laermer ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)