About a million years ago, I was a guest on TV ‘Morning Show with Regis Philbin and Cathy Lee Griffin’. I was so thrilled and excited, it was considered a big deal to be on TV in the first place, never mind on one of the highest rated TV shows! Getting the word out about Fantasia Home Parties was not so easy back then—there was no internet! Imagine: no email, no YouTube, no Facebook, no blogs, no instant CNN news, no instant ANYTHING! If you wanted to get someone’s attention, you either had to pay huge sums of advertising dollars on TV, magazines, or newspapers or pay just as much for a press agent to get the attention for you.
Amazing how things are changed in the past 14 years or so. Perhaps the most amazing part is not the the loss of printed media power or dilution of the giant network TV, no, no!
The amazing part is that you, along with the rest of us, are the actors, the reporters, the writers, the critics and the interactive audience of a huge, throbbing, boiling, bubbling, and ever-expanding sphere that is fed by us and is feeding on us.
Geez..you would think I was talking about The Borg in Star Trek, and yes, “You will be assimilated!”
Even for those of us who say “I don’t do the web”, or “I refuse to check my email everyday”, etc, that part of the sphere knows how to present itself to you. Inaction doesn’t mean nothing will happen or that you are really not doing anything…it just means that something or someone else decides for you.
The good news for us business professionals: you are your own press agent.
If you look and behave professional, confident, excite and are exciting, fun and are fun to be around, then that’s your news story that the Borg populus ‘read’.
The good news is that you can control how you present yourself to the world as a business professional and owner. If you don’t control how your present yourself, then I repeat: the world will decide for you.
Even better news: you have limitless and practically cost-free resources literally at your fingertips:
*free press releases, reach any and all media
*free images, free video & movies (you can make your own & advertise for free like on YouTube)
*free comments and feedback, get free advice, give free advice, find experts, become an expert, set yourself up as an expert
*free blogs, free news feeds
*free writing, free email
*free web pages (essentially your billboard to the world or any mini-worlds of your choosing)
*free social group networks and networking (and you don’t even have to buy cocktails or lunch!)
*free information…it is endless.
You control the press agent…what is the image and story you want to get out?
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