What PR Professionals Can Learn From This Girl Scout

This past President's Day, 13-year-old Girl Scout Danielle Lei decided to set up shop outside of a San Francisco medical marijuana clinic, The Green Cross. Needless to say, her Girl Scout cookie sales skyrocketed. With the help of her mother, Lei sold over 117 boxes of cookies in just two short hours. What's more? She sold 37 less boxes during the same two-hour period in front of a Safeway the following day.

Now how does this relate to public relations you ask? It's all about knowing your audience and catering to their needs. More often than not, a PR campaign will be unsuccessful if an audience is not clearly determined. Knowing your audience is the basis for every other decision made in a PR campaign. What platform should you use to reach out? Would social media be effective for this campaign or would print be more helpful? Where is the best place to set up my Girl Scout cookie stand? These are questions that can only be answered by first pinpointing who your campaign is trying to reach.

Lei and her mother did that very effectively when setting out to sell their Girl Scout cookies this year. "It's no secret that cannabis is a powerful appetite stimulant, so we knew this would be a very beneficial endeavor for the girls," said Holli Bert, a staff member at The Green Cross, in an email to Mashable. Not only did the Leis choose a key demographic of customers, but they did so by thinking creatively.

The answer to the lofty, "So who is my audience" question, isn't always black and white. Because that is left up to the discretion of the PR practitioner, it leaves a lot of room for interpretation. When developing a campaign, be open and flexible when determining your audience. You may be closing off your campaign to an entire demographic that could really respond to the message you are trying to convey.

Have you ever had an experience where an audience could make or break your efforts? How did you handle it? Share below!

Ways To Embrace Your Audience

Blogging is about interaction.  While it’s great to deliver fantastic content, or have a brilliant style of writing, it’s seemingly useless if you don’t have strong followers to communicate with.  The purpose of blogging is to convey information to your readers and encourage conversation.  It is imperative, then, as a blogger, to make those who interact with you a part of your community.

Getting readers to engage with your blog seems easy, right?  Well, it can be.  There are several tips suggested toward effectively embracing your audience.  I thought it would be fun to explore a few. 

1. Encourage Comments and Forums

While it may seem “Blogging 101”, comments and forums are the simplest means of obtaining audience participation.  You have to get your audience talking, and encouraging comments is the easiest way to do so.  For example, your entire post can be based on a question (i.e. “Why Do We Blog?”).  Questions lead readers to interpret their own opinions on what you have just written and will encourage them to form their own opinions.   Comments and forum space are a rudimentary principle that should be engraved in the minds of all bloggers.  

2.  An “Ask The Author” Box

Utilizing an ask box unites your audience with yourself as the writer.  If audience members need clarification on misleading information or want a comment answered, an ask box is the best go about doing this.  Readers can get their questions directly answered from you, which translates to more audience interaction as a communal effort. 

3.  Utilize Social Media

    Ah yes, but where would audience interaction be without good ole’ social media?  While it’s easy to get confused by all the various social media platforms available, as long as you focus on the “social” part of it all, you’ll do just fine.  If you receive emails, tweets, or comments from readers, ensure a response is granted.  Include a personal touch by utilizing RTs and replies , keyword being personal.  You want your readers to WANT to come back to your site.  As social media relationships grow stronger, your audience gets wider!

While you’re working on actively engaging your audience it’s also important not to lose sight of yourself and your vision as a blogger.  Don’t get too wrapped up in whoever you think your audience wants you to be.  Make sure you maintain true to your values.  That’s why they came to you in the first place. 

This guest blog post was written by PRowl Staff Member Emily O'Connell.

Pinter-what? Can Pinterest Appeal to Men?

I know from experience that many hours of life can be lost in the depths of Pinterest browsing through wedding dresses, recipes, and more, but do they exclude men?

While DIY crafts and cute pictures of puppies might not appeal to the other sex, Pinterest needs to start promoting their pin-board based site to men in order to keep their already huge audience growing. Here are some ways the site can harness male users:

• Balance content. Instead of being barraged with things women are interested in, it needs to be known that they can access workout tips, brands they may like and just plain cool things to look at.
• Filter. Depending on what you are interested in viewing, the site allows you to filter results based on what you choose. With this feature men can avoid "girly" things that could quickly turn them off from the site.
  
• Interaction. A lot of user communication is limited to the "repin" but this doesn't mean that there isn't room for growth. Not only does the site connect you with your Facebook friends that have accounts, but you can see their boards and follow things that you like as well as comment on their posts.
  
• Be resourceful. Even if men aren't on the site for their own personal enjoyment, Pinterest can be a great resource to see what their family and friends like and even give them a clue as to what activities they would enjoy. Also, with Valentine's Day coming up, what guy wouldn't want a guide basically telling him what his significant other wants?

Are you on Pinterest? Do you think they effectively reach men?

Customizing your Social Media Approach

When you think social media, most individuals or companies will assume if they have a Facebook fan page, Twitter account and maybe even a blog, they'll be A OK when reaching their audience. Wrong! In order to effectively use social media, you need to first identify your goals rather than creating these pages that could end up with little to no interaction.

Focus on your objectives when engaging in conversation with your audience and always keep in mind the brand you want to promote with every post. Whether you are an individual, or posting for a company, it will be beneficial to create a social media policy. This way everyone will be on the same page, and messages will remain clear throughout posts. Create boundaries with your social media interaction, and only participate in conversation if it is appropriate with the objectives you have established.

When you are initiating conversation, don't just push information on your audience. Make your content interesting and engaging to encourage their participation. For companies it is smart to drive traffic back to the main website so that their audience knows where they can get an abundance of information at one place. For individuals that have their own website or blog, they would take the same approach.

After you have started to establish your presence on social media sites, monitor your viewers, who is engaging in conversation, and how often. When you first start out don't bombard your audience with tons of posts, keep it simple and frequent to gradually build up legitimate, credible sources for your followers.

Do you effectively use social media? Which outlets generate the most conversation?