If the ship had a crisis plan to handle such an emergency, it sure didn’t work very well.

The panic and chaos that ensured when Costa Concordia began to turn on its side was exacerbated by a crew that seemed unsure of what to do. News media reports have now surfaced that the ship’s captain—who as of this writing is behind bars—waited more than an hour after the vessel hit a rock to issue an evacuation order.

Frustrated by the captain’s inaction, some crew members began helping terrified passengers get to lifeboats. However, a number of the crew reportedly left before all the passengers were safely evacuated. Even the captain allegedly abandoned ship before hundreds of his passengers escaped.  Survivors have described the incident as “like something out of the Titanic.”

One would naturally assume that the chances of a disaster like this taking place in a modern ship cruising along in good weather near shore are pretty small, but one also would assume that should an accident occur, the captain and crew would be well trained and prepared to handle it and make sure passengers got off safely before fleeing for their own lives. Now, however, confidence in the entire industry is shaken.

Henry Kissinger once observed that “A problem ignored is a crisis invited.”

The problem for Costa Cruises, which owns the Costa Concordia, started long before the ship capsized. A thorough crisis plan and regular disaster drills for the crew would likely have resulted in more decisive action and an orderly evacuation, which may have saved lives and prevented injuries.  A captain who failed to perform his duties due to incompetence, complacency or being incapacitated should have been one of crisis scenarios.

In fairness to Costa Cruises, it may have had a crisis plan and may also have routinely practiced various scenarios with crew members. But clearly the plan was inadequate and flawed because something went terribly wrong.

The only thing worse than not having a crisis plan is having one that is not communicated, reviewed or tested by those who ultimately will have to implement it.

You don’t have to own a luxury ship to need a crisis plan. Every business and agency, even small ones, should have a what-if plan that is regularly reviewed and updated. For example, if a hurricane, earthquake, tornado or fire wiped out your office building, would you have a back-up plan to minimize disruptions to your employees, clients or customers?

If you don’t have a plan to deal with these and other emergency situations, I recommend you take action rather than sitting back and hoping for the best. Get started on a crisis management plan this month—and when you’re finished, make sure your plan is communicated to employees so that know what to do and how to respond if a disaster strikes.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

As I’ve found time and time again while working with clients in an array of industries, once a story is done by one news media outlet, others media tend to notice and want in on the action.

Having someone from your agency or business repeatedly quoted in media outlets on a particular topic can go a long ways toward positioning that person as an expert. It’s hard to overstate the value of becoming a trusted source for reporters and the benefits such positioning can garner.

Organizations that make PR a priority through an intentional, ongoing effort to get their names in the marketplace can gain a significant competitive advantage, especially when it comes to new business development.

But in order to manage time, resources and activities in the most productive way possible, it’s vital to have a written PR plan to provide focus, direction, coordination and clear targeting for your efforts.

Without one, PR activities will manage you, and they may lack focus and consistency. Or, they will simply fall off your radar as the tyranny of the urgent takes over.

A good starting point is to nail down as specifically as possible what it is you want your plan to achieve and how you will go about it.

People sometimes use terms such as a goals and objectives interchangeably, so when you’re ready to establish you PR goal, objectives, strategies and tactics, it’s important that everyone is speaking the same language and sharing the same meaning.

I’ve found the following football analogy helpful when thinking through what needs to be accomplished:

Goals are broad and intangible, so the team’s goal could be to become the best high school football team in the world. Because there are no world playoffs at the high school level, the goal couldn’t be measured.

Objective: To win the game. An objective is specific and measurable. In this case, winning is the primary objective.  A secondary objective may be to enable a player to gain enough yards to break a school record or to score a certain number of points.

Strategy: The other team is bigger, but we’re faster.  Therefore, we’ll utilize our superior quickness to achieve the objective (i.e. to win the game).

Tactics: The specific plays we will run throughout the game, especially those that favor quicker players. You also could think of tactics as the action plan.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Whether the PR plan is designed to stand alone or be incorporated into a broader marketing plan, identifying and understanding your audiences is critical to success.

Customers have different informational needs than employees, and a regulator will ask much different questions than a supplier. Likewise, a local reporter will be especially interested in the local angle of a story and what it means to the community, while trade and national media will focus on the “big picture” aspect of the same story. Even then, trade media will have different informational needs than national consumer media.

Some audiences are obvious, while others may be more challenging to identify. Depending on a number of factors, a PR plan may address a relatively small, targeted audience or more diverse, fragmented groups.

Whatever audiences end up in your plan, you’ll need specific strategies, tactics and messaging to effectively reach each segment.

When creating a public relations plan, it’s helpful to find a method for categorizing audiences to you make sure you don’t miss one. The following is a method I’ve used to segment audiences based on their links to an organization:

Enabling links – publics that set policies or goals and may control assets.

• Board of directors
• Government regulators
• Congress

Functional links – audiences with a direct link between the services the organization performs and the product(s) it produces.

• Employees
• Suppliers
• Users of products/services

Diffused links – individual members of a public who do not belong to a formal organization but share a common interest.

• Community residents
• Minorities
• News Media
• Environmentalists
• Voters

Normative links – publics that share the organization’s goals and values.

• Religious associations
• Professional societies
• Competitors

Always keep in mind that diffused links can quickly fuse by organizing to take action (over a common problem or opportunity) and can cause major headaches for you and your organization.  Unions, coalitions and environmental groups are prime examples.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Your organization’s blog also gives you continuous opportunities to demonstrate that you:

•       Are an effective communicator

•       Have the ability to solve problems

•       Are well connected within your industry

•       Know about important industry developments and trends

There are three basic approaches to business blogging:

1. Become a subject matter expert (SME) who provides fresh thinking, insights or commentary on a topic.

2. Make the blog a news channel that reports information readers may not yet have come across.

3. Create a blog that’s a mix of the two—part SME and part news channel.

There’s nothing wrong with using your blog as a news source, but ask yourself this: Is a prospective customer or client going to be more impressed with someone who is current on the latest industry buzz or with someone who’s creating it?

“The benefits of being an SME depend on the specifics of the industry, but the universal benefit is differentiation. And differentiation usually equals more business. For example, it could mean more leads or the ability to charge a higher hourly rate for consulting, speaking, or training,” writes Mark Faggiano, founder and CEO of Brand5, an Internet marketing consulting company.

I’ve been blogging for nearly three years now, and my content has been a mix of PR tips, insights and commentary combined with PR news. But after reading in Mark’s excellent article in Social Media Today about ways to become a subject matter expert on Twitter, I’ve challenged myself to apply his advice to blogging by focusing on creating more original content and less reporting of news throughout 2012.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Whether you handle PR for a business or ad agency, Blogger LinkUp helps you attract the attention of bloggers. It’s similar to HARO, which stands for Help A Reporter Out. HARO is a wonderful resource page where reporters can post stories for which they are looking for experts to interview. More than 50,000 journalists use this service – as do a whole lot of PR people looking for media outlets to present their clients’ or executives’ areas of expertise.

BloggerLinkUp connects bloggers looking for help with guest posts with people who are looking to get links and exposure by writing guest posts. There also are opportunities to have products reviewed by bloggers and to get in touch with bloggers who do interviews and need sources for stories.

All it takes to join BlogerLinkUp is to submit your name and e-mail address. Once or twice a day, Monday through Friday, you’ll receive e-mails listing bloggers looking for expert sources; requests for guest posts; bloggers and web masters offering guest posts; and PR reps and others seeking reviews of products. When you see a request that fits, you simply respond directly to the requester.

Here’s a list of guest posts requests from this morning’s e-mail:

 1) The Top 5 Things I would Show Visitors to My City

2) PR5 Comic Math Blog Wants Guest Posts

3) Need quality articles on personal finance

4) Looking for Guest Bloggers for just about any topic.

5) Christmas Apps for iPhone & iPad

6) Beauty Guru’s and their Favorite BeautyTip

7) Any travel subjects are welcome

8) Replicating His Love

9) Ways to lose weight and get healthier

10) Apps for “Your Topic”

11) Cat lovers and your stories

12) PR4 literary blog looking for guest posts on book reviews, author interviews and articles about the publishing process

13) Guest Posts for Green Living, Home Remodeling, Design & Construction Blog

14) Beauty, Wedding, Fashion, Health, Celebrity Posts Needed

15) Florida Holiday Vacation Blog

16) Looking for articles on Career Change, Family, Addiction or Assertiveness

17) Looking For Personal and Business Insurance Guest Posts

18) PR3 High Traffic Blog looking for Guest posts on Social Media, affiliate marketing, Freelancing, Internet Marketing etc

19) Need online monetization ideas?

20) Guest post for Tech Blog

Blogger are an important communication vehicle for reaching niche audiences, and I believe they will become increasingly important in the future. BloggerLinkUp can help you stay on top of blogging opportunities and ensure you or your clients aren’t missing out on important conversations.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Several weeks ago, I delivered the manuscript for my latest ghostwriting project to the publisher. I’m excited about the prospects for this book because it chronicles the story of a woman who overcame a great deal of adversity to reach the top echelon of one of America’s best known, best loved beauty organizations.

Sue’s transformation from a shy, insecure young lady to into a confident, successful businesswoman who reached the top of her profession will encourage, motivate and inspire women of all ages. Throughout her book she reveals the success principles and life lessons that changed the way she thought and lived.

Women interested in running their own direct-sales businesses in particular can learn a lot from Sue’s expertise and experience.

But beyond its compelling content, I’m encouraged about the prospects for this book’s success once it’s released because of Sue’s marketing savvy, her people skills and her built-in network.

As she speaks to various groups, she weaves in snippets from her book and “pre-sells” it by generating interest and collecting contact information so that she can get in touch with prospective buyers as soon as the book is released.

Sue has also learned how to use social media effectively to network and talk about principles she’s learned over the years, which she describes more fully in her book.

Once it’s published, her book will become a “calling card” that opens doors to additional speaking engagements, media interviews, blog tours, etc.

And that’s one of the strongest reasons for ad agency principles and small and medium business owners with expertise in a particular niche to write a book: they can use it as a calling card that establishes instant credibility. A book differentiates them from competitors, positions them as an expert and opens doors to new opportunities that may not otherwise be available.

But, like Sue, they have to be willing put in the time necessary to make their book a success. Otherwise, it might not be worth the effort or financial investment.

“It is easier than ever to get a book into print, but it is more difficult than ever to sell it,” says Michael Hyatt, chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh largest trade book publishing company in the U.S. “As a result, marketing is not something you can afford to leave to others. You must take responsibility for it yourself.”

That’s even more the case for a self-published author who is relatively unknown and lacks a significant platform. Getting attention is a big challenge, and it requires patient and persistence. On-and-off or half-hearted marketing simply won’t cut it.

Want to learn more? Here are some helpful publishing resources:

AMarketingExpert.com blog

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing

Michael Hyatt’s Intentional Leadership blog

John Kremer’s Bookmarket.com

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

The challenge of managing change and remaining relevant is highlighted in a new IBM study of more than 1,700 chief marketing officers.

•       According to the executive summary, “One of the most surprising findings to emerge from our study is the degree of consensus among the respondents. No matter where they work, their industry, or how large or successful their organizations are, CMOs are facing many of the same challenges and most feel underprepared to manage them.”

The number one area in which CMOs report not being prepared (76%) is the explosion of data.

•       “CMOs are . . . overwhelmingly underprepared to take charge of the growing volume, velocity and variety of data,” the executive summary notes.

PR can help CMOs mine data to unlock perceptions, preferences and concerns, but understanding customers, stakeholders or citizens is not enough.

An organization has to take action based on what it learns—and do so more quickly than its competitors. That’s where PR can play an especially helpful role.

“PR firms in general are quite adept at leveraging change, especially those who have shifted their models and strategies in recognition of the importance of digital, online, social, and mobile communications,” writes Jim Weiss, CEO of WCG, in PRWEEK.

He continues: “We are increasingly seeing the role of communications, and PR pros within companies and organizations, taking on a broader remit than ever before because communications are happening online in real-time where multiple stakeholders are seeing them all at once . . . Responsiveness and transparency with relative speed and immediacy have always been qualities the best PR professionals possess.”

Whether connecting with a reporter on deadline, responding to an irate customer using social media to vent his or her displeasure, or dealing with an actual or impending crisis, reacting quickly (yet responsibly with facts in hand) has long been a forte of the PR profession.

In the age of digital media, smaller companies and ad agencies not only can compete against much larger competitors, but often times do so more nimbly and effectively. Those who are prepared to lead this critical PR function will ensure they remain relevant to the companies or clients they serve.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Try doing a survey. CareerBuilder and Dunkin’ Donuts recently surveyed 4,700 U.S. employees to see which jobs had workers consuming the most coffee. Not exactly a hard-news story, but it’s an entertaining and interesting one that got a lot of attention for both companies.

The release of the study coincided with International Coffee Day.

It turns out that marketing/public relations professionals rank number two in overall coffee use, just behind scientists/lab technicians.

Other major coffee consumers include education administrators, editors/writers, healthcare administrators, physicians, food preparers, professors, social workers and financial professionals.

Not surprisingly—at least to us coffee drinkers—nearly half of all U.S. workers claim that they are less productive without coffee. (On second thought, that actually sounds low to me.)      

Surveys can be great attention-getters, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money to conduct one and publicize the results. Nor do you have to be with a big company to get noticed.

My friend and colleague Michael Gass, who specializes in helping ad agencies with new business development through social media, often conducts online surveys and polls through his Fuel Lines blog, where he reports and comments on results.

In addition to gathering opinions and data through your blog or Facebook, Survey Monkey is a cost-effective, easy-to-use polling tool.

Once the results are in, you can then share them:

•       On a company or agency blog

•       Through an article

•       Via news release distribution sites such as Business Wire, PR Newswire or PRWeb

•       By pitching them directly to reporters and bloggers as a trend story

Try timing the release of your results to tie into a relevant holiday or observance for added news value.

Chases Calendar of Events has a wealth of information about events, holidays, festivals, observances, famous birthdays and anniversaries taking place each day throughout the world. During certain times of the year you can even submit suggestions to Chases for new events or special days, weeks and months.

So, if you don’t find a special day to coincide with the trend you want to feature, make up you own and celebrate it!

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Just as you can build on local or trade-specific news media coverage to go to the next level, doing guest posts on some lesser-known blogs may help you get coverage on an A-list blog.

Here are 7 tips for presenting guest-post ideas to bloggers:

1. Do your homework. Research sites to find ones that are viewed by your target audience and develop a short list of places you’d like to approach. Alltop, Google Blogsearch and Postrank Topics are helpful resources to find bloggers who write about your topic.

2. Become familiar with the blog’s style, personality and content. Just as you should read a publication or watch/listen to a program before pitching it, read several posts on the blog you are targeting and make sure what you have in mind fits into one of its categories. See if you can bring a fresh perspective to a topic or address a something that hasn’t been covered recently or at all.

3. Establish your credibility. When contacting a blogger, include information about yourself and your credentials to write about the topic you’re proposing. Even if you are acquainted with the blogger, it doesn’t hurt to remind him or her about why you would be a good person to address this topic.

4. Get to the point. A good media pitch letter is brief, engaging and quickly gets to the point. Use that same approach with bloggers, and don’t waste their time. The more targeted and creative your pitch, the better your chances of success.

5. Make the blogger’s job easy. Rather than asking the blogger about topics he or she would like you to write about, suggest a couple of good ideas that would be of interest to the blog’s audience. Offer to provide images, video, URLs and whatever else may be useful.

6. Write to help the audience succeed. Once you have approval to submit a guest post, focus your writing to the specific audience you’ll be addressing. What challenges does this audience face, and what advice can you give them to help them overcome these challenges? What opportunities may they be missing that haven’t been previously covered? Are there trends or new research results you can discuss?

7. Don’t be pushy. It’s fine to see if you can get a timeframe of when, if ever, your guest post will run, but don’t hound the blogger. If you don’t get a positive response or you don’t get a response at all after a couple of inquiries, move on—and keep in mind that you may have an even better pitch next time.

Joan Steward has an excellent blog and an e-newsletter called The Publicity Hound that provides useful PR tips.  Because of the popularity of her blog, she often gets approached for guest posts.

Her advice: “Pitch a blogger the same way you’d pitch a journalist. Let them know, without coming right out and saying it, that you’ve read their blog. You know the kinds of topics their audience loves, and you have an idea that’s a perfect fit. Also, explain your area of expertise and why you’re the best person to write about it.”

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

“…besides clichés, superlatives, and meaningless terms such as ‘cutting-edge,’ using poorly worded quotes will have reporters hitting the delete button before they read your third paragraph,” writes Laura Hale Brockway, author of the writing and editing blog impertinentremarks.com, in Ragan’s PR Daily.

She offers four tips for improving quotes in releases:

1. Trash those lazy verbs. Laura recommends replacing them with clear descriptions of your customers’ needs and how your product (or service) meets them. To which I would add: just be careful not to sound too promotional or sensational.

2. Keep them conversational. Quotes are more believable if they sound like something a person would actually say if you were talking with him or her.

3. Can you paraphrase? She contends (and I agree) that you can often improve a suggested quote your client or an executive gives you by paraphrasing it or breaking it up so that the quote is short and punchy.

4. Step up your interviewing skills. If you’re interviewing someone, ask for real-world examples, metaphors, epiphanies, etc. Doing so is likely to uncover interesting details that might otherwise be overlooked.

The more a news release looks and sounds like an article in a publication written by a journalist, the more likely it is to be taken seriously—assuming you’ve done your homework and targeted the right media outlets and reporters.

In my experience, quotes are often add-ons to news releases, and they aren’t given the time and attention they deserve. Ad agencies and their clients will benefit from taking a few extra steps to improve the quality of their quotes, and thereby improve their chances of them getting on reporters’ radar.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.