The pandemic shifted so much. My PR firm, Wasabi Publicity, was founded in 2002. After eighteen years of Wasabi’s success and thirty years of conducting PR campaigns (yes I started doing PR when I was 20 – it’s how I put myself through theater school), I thought I’d never see a shift so dramatic that I’d actually change the way I was doing PR. Then the pandemic hit and the country sheltered-in-place St. Patrick’s Day week. Immediately all PR campaigns had to change direction. Clients left. New clients called. We started to pivot, as all successful businesses do. The one thing we changed was the launch time of our PR campaigns. Three weeks turned into one week, even days. Upon reflection, when you rush a process, there is always a compromise. For some clients, results still happened. For others, the rush didn’t always work to their advantage. There is one thing, though, I wish all clients had done before calling us. It is the number one mistake most authors, experts, businesses, and nonprofits are making: there is no place to link to their expertise; a bio that works for the press.

WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH YOUR BIO? ?

I won’t name this client, however, when we onboarded her, I was horrified to see her “about page” on her website and worse, her LinkedIn profile. Because we were bypassing the three-week process to develop exceptional media materials, I told her in the intake call, I needed a place to point press to her bio so they could see her expertise.

Y’all, even her website’s “about page” didn’t have her title on it. Worse, her LinkedIn page had no photos of her nor highlighted her exceptional experience … and it was exceptional. For sure, the press wanted to speak to this expert. Sadly, I had nothing to point to. I charged her with correcting that in 24 hours. Here were the immediate tasks I gave her:

  1. Add a photo of your face to the LinkedIn profile. Add another photo from the field so press can see you in action doing what you do best.?
  2. Shoot a YouTube video so press can see you have a face, speak well, and can talk about something other than yourself. (I interviewed her on Zoom to make this happen quickly.)
  3. Add a title to your “About Page” on your website and for sure, make your title superior to your team beneath your photo.?

Like the pro she is, all these tasks were completed within 24 hours and we were off to the races, pitching the press. Within six weeks she was mentioned in global news syndicates.

So, learn a lesson from this. Chances are that your bio needs work. After all, it’s the first impression people see of you online. This Friday at 1 pm eastern, I’m sharing my PR secrets, like bio tweaks, plus:

  1. The differences in bios print and broadcast press seek.
  2. Breaking and seasonal story ideas in all news cycles.
  3. Essential media materials for your online press kit which I encourage everyone interested in media coverage to complete BEFORE a pandemic starts ?.
FREE FRIDAY PR COACHING COMMUNITY: JOIN US! ?

Join me this Friday. If you care to do my #21DayPRActionChallenge in July, start at any time. You can download the workbook at PitchRate.com, “21 Day PR Action Guide: The Who, What, When and Where To Launch a Successful PR Campaign.” Even if you completed the challenge in previous months, do it again with a new PR campaign. Your business is always changing so should your PR campaigns! If you’re curious about past challenges, here’s a summary and preview from my last blog entry. 

?? Register for this Friday’s call here! 

I can’t wait for you to meet the community already registered for the call. They’re made up of entrepreneurs, information officers, authors, publicists and other creatives. It’s just a wonderful place to meet others and workshop any creative idea you’re working on sharing with the world. Join us. I truly look forward to the calls and I’ve heard many DIYers do too.