Last summer I donated a social media consulting session ...]]> I love silent auctions. Bidding on donated items is fun, especially if you’re the winner. At the event, charities or organizations raise funds and awareness. And, donating items to be displayed online or at an event is good publicity. Everybody wins: the organization raises funds, your business gets promoted and the winner gets a service they need. Ideally, you will reach new prospects and the auction winner will become a client.

Last summer I donated a social media consulting session to Biz Bash, an event that takes place this year on June 3 from 5:30-8:30pm at The Murphy, located at 50 E. Erie in Chicago. I got to know Lynn Hazan of Lynn Hazan and Associates, who does a terrific job of heading up the Windy City Biz Bash Auction Team who says, “The Biz Bash auction brings together buyers and sellers in a fun and creative environment. It’s easy to talk with people, especially when they are bidding for your donation! The bidders love getting items that may not necessarily be available to the general public. Everyone wins, the donor, bidder and BMA!”

Thanks to Pon Angara of Barkada Creative, assistant BMA auctions chair, for the background information for this post.

Surprisingly, to me, my 2009 social media consulting package turned out to be a popular item. I enjoyed working with the branding agency that placed the top bid. It was their first BMA event and mine as well.

In thinking about what to donate to Biz Bash this year, I came up with 10 silent auction donation guidelines for business based on my many years of experience as an event planner, silent auction enthusiast and PR consultant. Matching your business to the organization’s member demographics or charity’s cause is really the first step. Look for opportunities to grow relationships.

10 Silent Auction Donation Guidelines for Business

1. Partner with a charity or organization that will promote your donation and involvement. Once a group called to ask my business for a donation. I said what do businesses get? Nothing was the answer. Oh, well, here’s what I think you should do, I said. Do you have event communications? Yes. Mention them there and at the event. How nice to see that this group now lists businesses along with their logos in all pre-event communications.

2. Package your donation to fit the event, both in terms of price and presentation. Silent auctions often display lavish baskets. Dropping off a shopping bag of stuff is impolite. Donate the frames that display certificates and baskets you use for packaging.

3. Consider donating art, tickets, or gift certificates to a restaurant or spa instead of services. Services firms might donate a night on the town package, which is simple to put together, may get higher bids and has no service strings attached. I’m thinking of the time someone donated a winter’s worth of snow clearing worth hundreds of dollars. The package sold for $125. Would it have been better to put together a warm up winter gift worth $125?

4. Set a deadline for professional services and be willing to extend it once or twice. I like to set mine within three months of the event. If you can, find out who purchased your services and for how much. Contact them right after the event to thank them and schedule the service.

5. Be absolutely clear on what you’re giving away – number of hours, appointments, etc. Don’t let the donation scope creep out of the agreed upon range. Position the package as an introductory consultation to determine whether or not you want to begin a business relationship.

6. Think about donating several smaller prizes instead of one jumbo package that most likely won’t get what you’re asking for. More prizes get you more attention. Ask the event planners about expected bidding ranges and minimum bids, though.

7. Are you an artist and a business owner? Show off your artistic side by donating a piece you’re willing to part with. Every time the winner looks at your art, they will be reminded of you and your business.

8. Go to the event, especially if you’re offering a bigger prize or your company will get good exposure out of being there. This is a huge opportunity that most people miss. You might even ask for a minute or so to thank the attendees and let them know if they have any questions – at all – about what you do you’ll be standing right by your prize to answer them.

9. Write compelling copy. Draw people in with a headline or a question. Then, list the benefits and features of winning. Add in a short bio and giveaway a book.

10. Promote your involvement via your social networks and company communications. BMA Chicago asked if I would consider writing a post about attending their 2009 BizBash. I said yes. Why? The event is well run, has a great reputation and gave my business good visibility. Here’s what I’m donating this year.

Social Media Espresso – One Strong Shot, Straight Up
Go from “I don’t get it” to “I’m working it and it’s working!!”
Tired of taking seminars, going to meetings, reading blogs and thinking without clicking? Then, it’s time to take strategic action! In this laser-focused 90 minute session, you’ll find out where to locate your people and how to become someone everybody wants to know on LinkedIn, Facebook or twitter. Wake up to what social media can do for you – personally and professionally. Session may be conducted in a conference call. You keep the recording. Must be redeemed by September 30, 2010. Choose one primary platform: LinkedIn, Facebook or twitter. Includes review of existing profiles based on the Wired PR Works approach. Value $500

About Barbara Rozgonyi . . .
Founder of Social Media Club’s Chicago chapter, Barbara leads CoryWest Media, LLC a marketing and communications consultancy founded in 1990. Package includes a copy of “Success Secrets of the Social Media Superstars” by Mitch Meyerson to be published by Entrepreneur Press in summer 2010. Barbara is the author of the LinkedIn chapter and was named one of the top 30 PR experts to follow on twitter by ereleases.com.

Can’t wait to get the package? Check out over 730 marketing and PR articles on Barbara’s blog, http://wiredPRworks.com and subscribe to weekly social media updates at http://savvysocialmedia.com

Written by Barbara Rozgonyi, publisher of Wired PR Works, CEO of CoryWest Media, LLC and founder of Social Media Club Chicago who loves to help businesses develop digital relationships.

If you’re on our email news update list [powered ...]]> Do you know what RSS stands for? Do you care? You do, if you want to get news delivered somewhere to you automatically online. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s like ordering online subscriptions to blogs, news sites, twitter updates or any content that has an RSS feed. Sounds kind of fancy to have your own syndication system when you think about it, but every blogger and person on twitter does.

If you’re on our email news update list [powered by aweber: affiliate link], you get emails twice a week: a weekly blog collection on Tuesdays and a personal communication that doesn’t appear anywhere else from me on Thursdays. What most people don’t know, and I forget to tell them, that you can subscribe to all of my updates with RSS distribution. I wish every email provider offered this service. How many times have you had to go back and mine your inbox for news from a community group?

Once you order your RSS subscription or feed, it has to have a place to go where you can find in online. Lots of people like to use Google’s reader to organize their feeds. Some people follow hundreds of blogs so they like to have a system that lets them choose favorites and share like Google’s reader does. Here’s a video from Common Craft about how RSS works.

Even if you have a feed reader [AKA RSS newsstand], you might still like to get your feeds in your email inbox. And, there is way to do that – as long as you have Outlook 2007. Some bloggers also offer email updates. Here’s a video that walks you how to sync your RSS feeds with your Outlook 2007 inbox from Robert Imbriale.

I like the way Robert shows you exactly how to set up your Outlook Inbox to receive blog feeds. Every time you click send/receive any recent blog or news updates go directly into your Outlook 2007 inbox. You can monitor all of your RSS and email activity all on one screen. Thanks to Robert for telling me about this resource so I could share it with you.

How do you manage your RSS feeds?

What I like about this format:

Professional Speaker Recommendation for Barbara Rozgonyi’s How to Build Your Business with Online ...]]> Groups give speakers get all kinds of gifts: flowers, chocolate, gift certificates. One of the best “gifts” you can give a speaker is a recommendation. Although I use critique sheets for reviews, it’s not often that a get a group review like this one from West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs.

What I like about this format:

• includes group comments
• talks about usable ideas
• gives ideas on how to expand the presentation

Professional Speaker Recommendation for Barbara Rozgonyi’s How to Build Your Business with Online Networking for Women Entrepreneurs

Thanks so much to everyone in the group who wrote the following recommendation:

West Suburban Woman Entrepreneurs would like to acknowledge Barbara Rozgonyi from CoryWest Media. She joined us January 15, 2009, at William Tell in Countryside to share her wisdom and insight about “How To Build Your Business With Online Networking.”

The WSWE Speaker-Evaluation opinions about her presentation were all in agreement: Barbara definitely met our expectations! Her program gave insight on the timely topic of online networking. Her material was useful to our current business needs. Her presentation style was interactive, engaging, and thorough. She was friendly, focused, exceptionally knowledgeable, and relaxed. She inspired and motivated members and their guests, many of whom reported they plan to sign up for or update their listings in online networking communities like “LinkedIn.”

Some comments that WSWE members shared include:

• Great information for those not familiar with the topic

· The handout allowed audience to focus on the speaker. (Many) liked the size and content of handout.

• “Great speaker and great topic for today’s techno savvy consumers!”
• Speaker presented ideas for every level of experience

The most usable ideas gained from his presentation were:

• Taking small steps to implement this way of networking
• How to set up for a new user
• Reserving individual domain names
• Forming accountability groups
• Suggested action steps and accountability groups

If we had more time or if we could have added something more, our members would have appreciated:

• Walk through a sample “LinkedIn” setup
• How to specifically use sites to stimulate business

We recommend Barbara to any professional group seeking to educate and inspire its members.

Sincerely,

Members of WSWE ~ West Suburban Woman Entrepreneurs ~ www.wswe.org

Are you an event planner? How do you recognize your speakers?

Thanks so much to Mary-Lynn Foster and  George Krueger for interviewing me as a The Bigg Success Expert Session guest.

It was fun to talk about how to promote your business for free as a radio show guest.

You can listen to the preview for free and I’m pleased to let you know you can purchase the entire The Expert Session interview at a very reasonable price.

Get your copy of The Bigg Success Show Expert Session with Barbara Rozgonyi ...]]>  

Thanks so much to Mary-Lynn Foster and  George Krueger for interviewing me as a The Bigg Success Expert Session guest.

It was fun to talk about how to promote your business for free as a radio show guest.

You can listen to the preview for free and I’m pleased to let you know you can purchase the entire The Expert Session interview at a very reasonable price.

Get your copy of The Bigg Success Show Expert Session with Barbara Rozgonyi on how to promote your business for free as a radio show guest.

Here’s the promo . . . didn’t they do a great job? I love how they package their experts.

In the Expert Session, Barbara shared so much more. She gives a tutorial on setting up Google Alerts, tips on alerts you might want to set up and an example of how to do it. Even better, she doesn’t use “techie talk!”

She also talks about:

• how to be a trend setter

• how to tap into the virtual water cooler to listen in on conversations about your industry

• what you need to promote yourself to radio stations

• the most important words to tell a radio host that guarantees you’ll get more calls

• what you should have in your promotional package

• and much, much more in four tracks of about ten minutes each

Your Turn

What other publicity topics would you like to know more about?

Looking for tips on how to be a radio show guest and get free publicity?  Here’s the short answer: you need two things- a hot topic and a station. This post previews my upcoming interview with Mary-Lynn and George on the Bigg Success Show. Bigg Success is the how-to, can-do place for people on the move.

Before my interview, I listened to Mary-Lynn and George interview Seth Godin about his new book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. ...]]>

Looking for tips on how to be a radio show guest and get free publicity?  Here’s the short answer: you need two things- a hot topic and a station. This post previews my upcoming interview with Mary-Lynn and George on the Bigg Success Show. Bigg Success is the how-to, can-do place for people on the move.

Before my interview, I listened to Mary-Lynn and George interview Seth Godin about his new book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.

In the interview, Seth says:

“A tribe is a group of people that are connected by a common goal, a common language, and common rituals. Usually they have a leader and a movement – they’re trying to make something happen.”

Being on the radio is one way to reach your tribe and make something happen – as a leader who represents your tribe’s movement. It’s not all about building credibility and influence for you, it’s about representing, listening and responding to the voice of your people.

To prepare for the call, I drafted this outline – try replacing target prospect with tribe profile in your marketing plans.

Goal: become a regularly featured expert on a few high profile radio shows whose audience demographic matches your target prospect. tribe’s profile. Start out by being a guest – and work your way into being a show host.

Two Things You Need to be a Radio Guest: Hot Topic + Station

3 Ways to find Hot Topics: news, trends, talk – to find them, change into a . . . 

Newsmaker – see what’s making news and quote sources

Trend-setter – research what’s hot, where

Talk-tracker – see who’s talking about what and where

Turn to twitter’s search engine to search for your tribe’s hot topics in real time.

Tuning Into Your Audience: Getting on the Air

3 Steps to Stations: list, listen, connect

When the interview is up, I’ll be back to post a link.

Your Turn

How does your tribe use the radio to communicate?

Two years ago today on September 19, I wrote a post called PR Takeaways: Talk Like a Pirate Day. At the time, there were 130 Google News searches for talk like a pirate day. Today’s count: 340 talk like a pirate news stories and counting.

Google’s even getting in on the act. Hat tip to Steve Rubel for tweeting about it; that’s how I found that Google is going ahoy.

steverubel Cool. Google Pirate launches for Talk Like a Pirate ...]]>  

Two years ago today on September 19, I wrote a post called PR Takeaways: Talk Like a Pirate Day. At the time, there were 130 Google News searches for talk like a pirate day. Today’s count: 340 talk like a pirate news stories and counting.

Google’s even getting in on the act. Hat tip to Steve Rubel for tweeting about it; that’s how I found that Google is going ahoy.

steverubel Cool. Google Pirate launches for Talk Like a Pirate Day! http://www.google.com/webhp… 12 minutes ago from TwitterBar

Have an iPhone? You can get your iPhone ready with a talk like a pirate app. 

While you’re at it why not join a social network for pirates?

Still checking on the tattoo requirements for this one.

No iPhone? Watch this video to learn how say five A’s so you’ll sound just like a pirate.

What’s the PR lesson here?

Silly wins. Silly gets links. Silly is fun. Silly snags promos in other places. Silly is viral. Silly gets newscasters to talk like pirates. Silly gets the gold. 

That’s the pirate piece.

Social media loves viral stuff.

So do the search engines – and the media.

When I last published those words, it was incentive enough for the pirates to come over and plunder my blog with comments.

Your Turn

What say you about bein’ a pirate matey?

After writing about Google’s Chrome comic book, I asked Brad Shorr, who frequently writes about business humor and is a business cartoon writer to guest post and talk about  . . .

Why Don’t Companies Use Cartoons in Their Marketing?

By Brad Shorr, guest author

As a business cartoon writer, this question crosses my mind more often than I’d like to admit. Naturally, I think cartoons are a superb way for a company to market itself, strengthen its brand, build customer ...]]>

After writing about Google’s Chrome comic book, I asked Brad Shorr, who frequently writes about business humor and is a business cartoon writer to guest post and talk about  . . .

Why Don’t Companies Use Cartoons in Their Marketing?

By Brad Shorr, guest author

As a business cartoon writer, this question crosses my mind more often than I’d like to admit. Naturally, I think cartoons are a superb way for a company to market itself, strengthen its brand, build customer loyalty, drive home its message, and draw serious attention to its print advertisements, Web pages, newsletters, blogs, and intranet pages. Custom cartoons are inexpensive as marketing expenses go, and quite a bit of fun to develop.

So again, why aren’t companies jumping on the cartoon bandwagon? (BTW, I’m not talking about my cartoons specifically, mind you. Cartoons in general are not commonly used in B2B or B2C, regardless of the sector.)

1. Grim determination. Business is serious business. Whether a company is manufacturing space shuttle components or yo-yos, management takes things like sales and marketing rather seriously. Managers are seldom in a frame of mind to think funny.
2. Not thinking like the customer. Customers don’t take your products and services as seriously as you do. Customers have their own problems. One thing you can give them is relief from the daily grind. That’s why YouTube gets more hits in an hour than any super serious corporate Web site gets in a month.
3. Risk aversion. Companies don’t like taking chances. They don’t like trying something unless everybody else is doing it. A lot of companies talk about wanting to be different, to be groundbreaking, to be trendsetters. Mostly that’s malarkey. They only want to be different as long as it’s safe, which is hardly ever.
4. Trivialization. Companies feel funny spending their hard earned cash on something silly like a series of cartoons. Management might think cartooning will trivialize their business.

Now, depending on the situation, some or all of these concerns might have some validity. Certainly, any communication strategy has to reflect the values and aims of the company putting out the message. But if increasing brand awareness and customer loyalty are part of the equation, cartoons and other forms of humor ought to be considered. GEICO didn’t get to be number one because its policy riders were well written.

Image credit: © Word Sell, Inc. via flickr

What do you think? Have you ever considered using cartoons in your clients’ marketing or your own? Why or why not?

Brad Shorr lives in the Chicago area and is president of Word Sell, Inc. He helps organizations strengthen their online presence with business blogs and compelling Web content.

Brad writes extensively on his own and many other blogs, mainly about writing, online marketing, entrepreneurship, sales, and business humor.

Contact Brad about business cartoons for your business or organization.

Searching for popular blogs to follow? Yahoo’s Blog directory lists blogs by category. Shown here is a screen capture I took this morning. At the time, Wired PR Works was number one. So . . . I told my newsletter subscribers about it. [Apologies to my newsletter readers for letting this news get me too carried away. You'll be pleased to know my ego is back in check.]

And then . . . I decided to take a look at ...]]>

Searching for popular blogs to follow? Yahoo’s Blog directory lists blogs by category. Shown here is a screen capture I took this morning. At the time, Wired PR Works was number one. So . . . I told my newsletter subscribers about it. [Apologies to my newsletter readers for letting this news get me too carried away. You'll be pleased to know my ego is back in check.]

And then . . . I decided to take a look at the link a few hours later. As of this moment, I’m number eight; former two is now seven and former three is now eleven. Click on the web page graphic to see the PR blog list. Yes, that’s right, there only 18 PR blogs listed.

More than most people, I know the shelf-life of a top-ranking: sometimes you can measure it in seconds.

What I want to know is how can the blogs switch places so dramatically an quickly? Yahoo answers the blog popularity question by saying the order is determined by Yahoo’s search technology.

If you’re looking for a.) blogs to follow or b.) directories to submit your blog to, check out Yahoo’s blog directory guide.

Last night while I sat in a friend’s driveway watching The Blues Brothers on a 16′ x 14′ screen, I got inspired to take a new look at the movie. This time, from a fundraising perspective. In the movie, two brothers – Jake, John Belushi and Elwood, Dan Aykroyd – go on a charity-driven mission to raise the back taxes needed ...]]> Here in the U.S. It’s Labor Day weekend, a time to celebrate the last few sweet bits of summer.

Last night while I sat in a friend’s driveway watching The Blues Brothers on a 16′ x 14′ screen, I got inspired to take a new look at the movie. This time, from a fundraising perspective. In the movie, two brothers – Jake, John Belushi and Elwood, Dan Aykroyd – go on a charity-driven mission to raise the back taxes needed to save the orphanage where they grew up. Roger Ebert described the movie in his review of The Blues Brothers  as the Sherman tank of musicals. See for yourself . . .

Charity PR: Fundraising Lessons from The Blues Brothers

1. Come up with a unifying and motivating tagline – “We’re on a mission from God” [movie's taglines]
2. See the light – look for guidance around you, what do you need to illuminate?
3. Appeal to alums – who’s benefited from your organization and how can you get them involved?
4. Set a target goal – in the movie, it’s $5,000 in 11 days
5. Have a worthy cause – take up a piece at a time
6. Get a band together – choose talented people who play/work well together
7. Host an event – people love to get out and be together
8. Pack the house – decide to fill the venue to the rafters
9. Lead the chase – accelerate efforts to be visible and the first
10. Ignore all obstacles – stay focused on what’s ahead, don’t look in the rear view mirror
11. Mount a huge loudspeaker – blare your message out so everyone can hear it
12. Don’t be afraid to mix with the high society crowd – drop in and fit in where they are
13. Attract attention – entice people to follow you
14. Be flexible – keep back-up plans ready to go
15. Leave the stage with the show going on – let the crowd keep rocking your message for you
16. Take advantage of opportunities – look for uncharacteristic places to reach out and connect
17. Be a crossover artist – seek out people and places that might be part of your community
18. Drive a cop car – supercharge your efforts to vault over obstacles and lead the pack
19. Wear sunglasses – shade the glare so you can see the bright side
20. YOUR TAKEAWAY HERE

Your Turn

What’s your top Blues Brothers takeaway? What have you tried that works consistently?