“I’m the best real estate agent in town! Why can’t anyone understand it?” (Frustrated Charlotte Realtor)
Michael Bloomberg, the current mayor of New York City, rose to fame as the founder of Bloomberg, LP. His company builds and maintains data terminals for members of the financial community who need access to real-time financial data. He built this from nothing to a $10B+ company in around 20 years. He’s obviously an astute and extremely successful businessman who knows a thing or two about providing data, both to his clients and to the press. Let me explain.
Bloomberg knew that favorable media coverage was extremely important to growing his business. So, he had to find a way to ensure that all (or at least most) of the news about Bloomberg, LP was positive. Other than threatening reporters, it was hard to see how he could force them to write what he wanted (ie, good stuff). It looked like a dice game; any reporter could write whatever he wanted and could not be influenced by anything he had to do with his company. For example, the reporter might have had a breakfast that didn’t go down well with him or his ex-wife might have had the maiden name “Bloomberg,” which would result in a negative story. How could you increase your chances of positive coverage?
Well, he hired a staff whose only job was to work with the media. Don’t all companies do this? Yes, but he went a step further. When reporters called, their staff asked them what they were writing about, who they wanted to talk to, and what angle they were looking to take. When reporters showed up at Bloomberg LP headquarters, a packet of information on the topic they were seeking to cover (all pro-Bloomberg LP, of course!) awaited them.
In this packet of information, and what set Bloomberg apart, was an article (already written!) on the subject they planned to write about. Your staff would say something like, “We know reporters are busy and have a tough job with all these deadlines and whatnot. So we thought we’d make it easy for you. Feel free to use as much of the article provided as you like; there’s no need to reference our work. It’s yours to do as you please. Use the article in its entirety, if you wish! We won’t tell anyone.” And as the story goes, most of the reporters used parts of the article in their stories, and sure enough, some of the reporters ran the entire article verbatim.
“Ummm…I’m not a billionaire and I can’t afford to hire a writing staff. It’s a great article though!” Thanks, but the point of the story is twofold:
- You can largely control information about you in the public domain; just write positive things about yourself and get indexed by search engines.
- You can make it easier for people to find positive information about you; just provide it to every customer you meet! This can be on your business card, email signature, or company brochures.
When people Google your name or the name of your real estate company, what comes up? How is your Linked-In profile? What are you tweeting regularly? How do customers tell how “good” you really are?
Don’t make people do the work of drawing a conclusion about what type of agent you are. Give them the conclusion you want them to have about you (in a simple format). It worked out well for billionaire and mayor, Mike Bloomberg! Will you let it work for you?