PATRON SAINT PRODUCTIONS, INC. ~ CHAT TRANSCRIPT ~ Patron Saint Productions, Inc. Online Publicity Chat Series Topic: Session #9: Chat Tours Guests: Steve O'Keefe, author of "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" Date: March 18, 2004 Hi, Tatyana. Hi, Steve. If you're the only person who shows up, we're canceling! Hello. Where is everyone? Hi, Michael. We're wondering the same thing. I guess I'll get more than my two cents in today. Apparently, I'm not the only one who went on vacation! Let me give it another minute, and then I'll get started. Apparently, many still are. Hi, Michael, welcome. Hi, Tatyana. Sometimes, when a big news story hits, the Internet gets so much traffic it makes it hard to access chats. Not sure if that's a factor today. Not a problem here. I recently switched to a cable modem. Good move. Okay, any questions about previous material before I launch into chats? Not that I can think of. Then here goes: Many people question the value of promoting through online chats. Today, I am questioning it myself. Chats typically have these problems: * Low attendance (ahem) * Technical problems * Stilted nature of communication * Doesn't have the impact of audio or video talk shows * There's little control over audience behavior * Scheduling a chat tour can be painstaking * Many sites now want payments to rent chat rooms. With all these problems, it's a wonder that people still do online chats. One other problem that is not on my main list: Whenever I tell a publisher I want to put their author on a chat tour, they think I'm talking about dimly lit rooms where geeks make grunting noises throughout the night. That is, chat has a little of that "singles bar" connotation. But I'm putting clients on auditorium-style chat, not just lobbing them into chat rooms. More on that later. Welcome back, Tatyana! Thanks, sorry, tech difficulties. Let's look at some of the benefits of doing chat. Benefits are that chats create a compelling reason to visit a web site: * You're either there or you miss it, and reading transcripts is not the same thing as participating * Host sites get traffic, content (transcripts), and often revenue because many sites are able to charge ad rates based on traffic * They are an excellent way to quickly build awareness of a new product, service, or event * No travel requirements for the guest * Minimum time involvement for the guest * Often generate a database of attendees who can be contacted again later * Usually result in permanent content installations at host sites (support materials) * Perhaps the biggest benefit of chat tours is: They lead to net-acceptable news releases and postings. In other words, even if few people attend, if you get good publicity for the program, it's worth it. Okay, any questions so far, Michael or Tatyana? Has it worked out for you? In other words, do you find a good residual? Michael, for these chats in particular, or for my clients in general? In general. In general, yes. Let me give an example and make it more real. I booked a client into a 10-week talk show at About.com. Each week, the authors of "How to Be Cherished" discuss a different topic from their book. The chats are hosted at the Women's Issues forum on About.com. You might want to look at the promo that is running there now http://womensissues.about.com. Each week, between five and 10 people attend the chats. That turnout is rather small, and not worth it on an hourly basis for the client. But they are getting front- page promotion for 12 weeks on one of the highest-traffic sites for their target audience, which is "women of a certain age" who are having relationship problems. Each week, they install a supporting article (excerpt) at the web site. These articles will stay up indefinitely, each one selling the book for years to come. So, between the promotion they receive at that site, the leave-behinds, and the event calendar listings, they are getting great PR for the book. Does it require "renting" the server space or bandwidth? Michael, we don't pay rent to About.com. Most sites who have chat facilities will host these programs for free. They like having one more reason for people to visit the site. So the primary value of producing a chat tour is in the promotion you get for the tour, not the attendance. If Publishers Marketing Association newsletter prints my chat schedule, that is valuable advertising for me -- for free -- in front of my target audience. Maybe I should learn more about the technical aspects required. Okay, let me talk tech. When you are looking for partner sites to host the chat, the tech is very minimal. The Public Relations Society of America was going to host this chat program, but decided not to about a month before it started. Another web site asked to host the program, but they didn't have chat facilities, and weren't willing to add them in time. So I went to my fallback position of hosting the chats on my own site. But, usually, you pitch existing venues. Let me talk a little about how to pitch them and how to book a tour. I create a "Chat Profile" for the guest, which is a simple web page, and use that to solicit hosts. There is a template for this document here on the site, and an example in the Campaigns section of the site. The profile says: * Who is the guest * What is the subject of the chat (should be something that can reasonably be tackled in an hour -- in other words, narrow, not broad, and compelling) * Related links (host sites will usually install links back to your site(s)) * A promo paragraph * Sample questions * And artwork The promo paragraph is already written, so a host site can just copy and paste it onto its own site. The sample questions are used by the moderator to break the ice, or if things get slow. The artwork usually include: jpeg of guest, product artwork, maybe a logo link, or banner artwork. The idea behind the chat profile is to make it brain-dead simple for the host site to participate. Once the profile is polished and approved, I use it to pitch chat hosts. I find chat venues related to the topic of the chat, then scour those sites for the names and e-mail addresses of the people in charge. Those names can be very difficult to find. Of course, you look in the staff box, "About us" section, chat pages, etc. Often, I find the names I need in transcripts from previous chats. If I can't find a contact e-mail address, I'll follow the "Advertise with us" link -- you'll always find a good e-mail address in there! -- and ask for assistance booking a chat on the site. Sometimes they'll hit me up for money to host a chat, but I usually decline. What is a good term of time for a chat tour? Ten weeks? Or less, or more? I try to book three different venues in the same week. A tour is best when it's compact. A 10-week program is less of a "tour" and more of a "talk show." I think that having a talk show on the highest-traffic site used by your target audience is the most underrated marketing tool available. High-speed access is easing chat tech problems. And there's nothing like having a continuous presence on the sites your audience uses. And what number of participants is a minimum for those? Michael, as far as the number of minimum participants -- three? That's what we have today. Regarding the tech end, how do you host it at your own site? Michael, on the tech end, my ISP offers a chat add-on for $12/month. So I rent the room. It's cheap, but it's not the best software available. On an annual basis? No, I can rent month-to-month, but I just pay all the time, whether I use it or not. It's part of my monthly bill. Sounds good. What are the software glitches? We ran this series at Yahoo Groups for a year in a free chat room. Every group at Yahoo has chat capabilities and starting groups there is free. But Yahoo inserts objectionable advertising into the group, and I'm boycotting them. Also, its tech support is dismal (since the revenue is so small). Good. I've recently joined one, and that advertising is very intrusive. More people were getting locked out of the chats than could access. I hear that! On my current platform, I start having troubles when more than 20 people want to get in the room. Supposedly, the software supports 100 connections, but I start noticing problems at 20. Also, people accessing from AOL have a heck of a time getting on and staying on. But that's true of almost any web-based chat interface. I should say a few things about staffing chats. When you do chats on top venues, such as ESPN, MSNBC, AOL, Yahoo, they usually provide some staff, including a HOST and a MODERATOR. Sometimes there's a PRODUCER above them -- that's someone who decides on the programming but seldom participates in the actual chats. Then there are a GHOST TYPIST and the GUEST. Let me explain. What's the main difference in duties of a host and a moderator? A host usually rules the room, asks the guest questions, and accepts or rejects audience questions. Hi, Valda! Welcome! Oh my God! I was out shopping! Sorry. Welcome, Valda! We're talking about chat tours. A moderator usually greets people, runs paste bombs (announcements), bounces malcontents and troublemakers, and keeps things orderly. I use ghost typists for all my chats... What are the ghost typists? They log-in using the guest's ID, read questions to the guest over the phone, and type the guest's replies. So, the chats I produce are done like "phoners": radio phone interviews -- from the point of view of the guest. The guest doesn't have to know anything about computers, how to type, or even be *near* a computer at chat time. They just have to be near a telephone. That's convenient for them. Michael, I've gotten some of my best chat stories as a ghost typist. I once typed for Kara Swisher, tech columnist for the Wall Street Journal. She was driving in her car in San Francisco, I was logged-in under her name in Houston, the chat was hosted by CompuServe in Virginia, we were answering questions from people in New York and Japan... You gotta love the Internet some times. Very impressive! One guest, a famous day trader, did his chat from the bleachers at his son's baseball game in Chicago. I was tempted to type in "You're blind!" when he would yell at the ump! Ghost typists make life easier. They charge about $50/hour. My book has a good description of their duties. They're a life-saver, overcoming tech hurdles in a single bound, dodging thorny questions, keeping it moving... Then a "pseudonym" author could chat, and the public still wouldn't know who it was. Okay, Valda, I saw you sneak in. How did you know my birthday was coming up? Well, I got you a bathroom rug and three dish towels, and a lamp. You shouldn't have. Valda, absolutely right! Right about the author, not the merchandise! Chats are great for celebrity guests who don't want to travel, put on their face, or deal with stalker loonies. There's a lot more I could say about chat tours, seminars, etc., but let me make a couple more small points, and wrap this up. First, you need to book a tour about three months ahead: It will take a month to line up three good venues, and two months to get adequate promotion. If you don't get the promotion, the chats aren't worth it. Another thing is the ultimate chat experience: The Zipper Effect. It results from having two threads of discussion going on simultaneously: Michael asks a question. I respond. While I'm responding, Valda asks a question. As I'm responding to Valda, Michael asks a follow- up question. You get this back-and-forth motion, dodging between to lines of Q&A. That's when a chat really takes off. You can feel the energy level rise, and no one leaves the room. I've done chats on AOL with as many as 5,000 people. It's chaos! But if you get that Zipper Effect going, it's a high like no other talk show delivers. When Tatyana cleans the transcripts, she "unzips" the chat returning it to two coherent dialogues. Anything special about promotion specific to the chat format? Valda, regarding promotion, you need to make sure the venue installs the promos! There's no value in a chat no one knows about. Sometimes they can drag their feet. If I get close to show time and there're no promos on the site, I start hounding the hosts on a daily, hourly, minute- by-minute basis: Get those promos up!!! You'd also like it if they plugged the chat in their e-zine. Some sites will send out news releases -- nice! And there're lots of "event calendars" on the web where you can self-install a chat schedule. Daily newspapers, weekly newspapers -- these will often list online events. Valda, I like chocolate-covered dried cherries, next time you're shopping instead of chatting. OK, I'll remember that. Are they becoming more popular? Michael, they went through a down phase as sites cut their staffs after the dot.com meltdown. They've been coming back lately, though. Look at TV. Talk shows have compelling content. It's a natural. Let me hit on that ultimate marketing strategy again. I did an Alternative Medicine chat for the Dummies books people, and put this author, Dr. Dillard, into a chat on iVillage. He was smart enough to go back to iVillage after and pitch a show to them. He became the "alternative medicine" guru on iVillage with a weekly program there. Let's see, half a million people a day see the promos for Dr. Dillard and his book. What chance does he have of dragging that much traffic to his own site? None! The smartest marketing strategy available today is to become an expert with your own show on high- traffic sites used by your target audience. You take baby steps to get there -- first an article, then a chat, then a chat series, then a show -- but once you get there, it's golden. And all the chats become potential content for future books... Any questions before I duck out for the summer? When's YOUR next book? I pitched a publisher last week. With any luck, I'll have something out next year. Thank you all for joining our last chat. The transcripts of all chats are on www.patronsaintpr.com, Resources/Chats/Chat Transcripts. I'll upload the transcript of today's chat within a couple of days. Also, tune in to the site for other training opportunities. Much thanks to you both. I've really enjoyed it, and learned a lot! Thank you, Michael and Valda -- my loyal students this term! I really get a lot out of doing these -- sharpening my sword, so to speak. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Tatyana! Have a good summer writing... Best of luck to you in all future endeavors! Hope you had a happy Saint Patrick's Day (Patron Saint of Book Publishers). Wishing you a happy Saint Joseph's Day Friday -- he is the Patron Saint of Fathers and stands for "keeping your promises." It was really enjoyable for me to moderate these chats. Good-bye, everyone! Hope to "see" you again... From everyone at Patron Saint Productions, thanks for participating! See you in the fall! I'm not a father, but I'll remember the cherries... Live long and prosper. __________________________________________________ ABOUT THE GUEST STEVE O'KEEFE is the author of the outdated classic, "Publicity on the Internet" (Wiley, 1997), and the updated new book, "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" (Wiley, 2002) -- based on over 1000 online campaigns. Steve pioneered many online marketing techniques which are now considered standard practice. Steve's writing has appeared in over 100 publications including The Wall Street Journal, Harper's, Internet World, PR News, Outside, Small Press, Salon, Curio, NetWorth, and HotWired. Steve is a member of the adjunct faculty at Tulane University where he teaches online public relations. He is Executive Director of Patron Saint Productions, Inc., a publishing consultancy specializing in online marketing strategy, campaigns, and training. __________________________________________________ ABOUT THE BOOK Complete Guide to Internet Publicity: Creating and Launching Successful Online Campaigns by Steve O'Keefe Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2002, ISBN 0-471-10580-5, 436 pages, softcover, $34.95) Available in most bookstores online and off. "Nobody knows more about making a splash on the Internet than Steve O'Keefe. And no book reveals better how to do it than this one." -- Fraser P. Seitel, Author of "The Principles of Public Relations" "Steve O'Keefe's book is, by far, the most comprehensive Internet publicity book available. It's a tool that any business owner or publicist needs to read to conduct an effective online PR campaign." -- Lorilyn Bailey, CEO, NewsBuzz.com "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" is the bedrock reference book for designing and implementing online publicity campaigns. The book takes a "how-to" approach, with detailed instructions for planning the campaigns, creating the materials needed, launching the campaigns, dealing with any problems, and measuring the results. The instructions are highlighted with anecdotes culled from hundreds of campaigns conducted by the author and other Internet publicity professionals. Chapters include: 1. The Power of Internet Publicity 2. E-Mail News Releases 3. Online News Rooms 4. Discussion Group Postings 5. Newsletters and Direct Marketing 6. Chat Tours 7. Online Seminars and Workshops 8. Web Site Registration and Linkage 9. Contests and Other Fancy Promotions 10. Syndicating Your Promotions 11. Building an Online Publicity Operation "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" is a goldmine for those people responsible for online publicity operations, whether as managers, professionals, instructors or students, including such professions as marketing, advertising, web site design & construction, e-commerce, direct marketing, and customer service. The book and companion web site both include templates for all the campaign materials described, and time-saving resources to help locate target audiences online. This book is essential to anyone charged with promoting a product, service, company, person, or web site. Order your copy today. __________________________________________________ Copyright ©2004 by Patron Saint Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Please request permission before duplicating or distributing this document. 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