Beelines

What Small Businesses and Non-Profits Can Learn From the Toyota, John Edwards and Tiger Woods PR Debacles: Take Two Aspirin and Call Tylenol in the Morning.

It’s amazing to me when -- over and over – companies, politicians and celebrities convince themselves that they will get away with doing the wrong thing by covering up the truth with lies and excuses.

A month ago, it was Tiger. Last week, it was John Edwards again center stage as his former wingman released a tell-all book. This week Toyota is in the hot seat. And in this case, much more is at stake than a golf career or a political future – lives have been lost.

According to the Los Angeles Times in December, “A peerless reputation for quality and safety has helped Toyota become the world's largest automaker. But even as its sales have soared, the company has delayed recalls, kept a tight lid on disclosure of potential problems and attempted to blame human error in cases where owners claimed vehicle defects.”

The Times reported that incidents of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles were involved in accidents causing 19 fatalities since 2000, “more deaths from that problem than all other automakers combined.”

So when Toyota announced a recall of more than 3.8 million vehicles last week, and this week announced it was halting production on eight models, this did not make them the good guys, ala the 1982 Tylenol case study. Far from it. 

Toyota knew since 2003 when their own tests on the Sienna minivan showed that a plastic panel could come loose and cause the gas pedal to stick and possibly cause the vehicle to accelerate out of control, according to the Times. They redesigned the part in 2004, but did not recall tens of thousands of vans that had been previously sold. It wasn’t until safety officials investigated that Toyota acknowledged that the part could come loose. Finally a year ago, Toyota recalled 26,501 vans, calling the replacement part, “an additional safety measure.”

The Times investigation went on to list numerous other ways in which Toyota either allegedly paid off people who had complaints about their vehicles racing out of control rather than allowing law suits to go to trial or bought the cars back and branded them as lemons. At one point, Toyota blamed the problem on gas pedals trapped by floor mats.

At a time when Toyota stood to gain from the demise of the American car industry, Toyota’s sterling reputation for quality and reliability has been dealt an enormous -- and maybe fatal blow (no pun intended). So what should Toyota have done?

Let’s look again at the famous Tylenol case that is, literally, a textbook case on how to do crisis communications the right way.

After it was discovered that someone in the Chicago area was lacing Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules with cyanide and replacing them on store shelves, resulting in seven deaths, Johnson & Johnson:

• Immediately issued an alert, via national media, not to consume any type of Tylenol product and not to resume using it until the extent of the tampering problem could be determined.
• Stopped production of Tylenol and all advertising.
• Withdrew all Tylenol from the shelves in Chicago and the surrounding area.

After two more contaminated bottles were discovered, Tylenol realized the vulnerability of the product and ordered a national withdrawal of every capsule, even though there was little chance of discovering more cyanide-laced tablets. In doing so, they showed that they were unwilling to risk the public health and safety.

Six months later, they unveiled a redesigned bottle with new triple safety-seal packaging -- a glued box, plastic seal over the neck of the bottle and a foil seal over the mouth of the bottle -- at a press conference.

As a result of its proactive response to the crisis, Tylenol was seen as an unfortunate victim of a crime, and the brand was even stronger than it had been beforehand.

So what can small businesses and non-profits learn about how to handle their own crises? The same lesson that works for large brands works for small brands.

• Act quickly, decisively and truthfully to inform the public of any danger and take immediate steps to prevent further injuries.
• Don’t make excuses – even if it isn’t your fault, you have to accept the responsibility. Your lawyers may tell you otherwise. But you may win in the court of law and lose in the court of public opinion.
• Don’t try to cover it up. It won’t work in the long run any way, and the cover-up is usually worse than the original issue. Admit there’s a problem, apologize and come up with a plan for how you are going to fix it now and prevent it in the future.
• Communicate early and often with your stakeholders – your employees, customers, clients, donors, etc.

The bottom line? The smart thing -- and the profitable thing in the long run -- is the ethical thing.

 Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcclave/ / CC BY 2.0

How to Successfully Develop a Media Pitch for Your Small Business Story

 
(Third in a series)

The first thing you need to know about pitching your story ideas to the media is that just because you’re interested in a topic (your business), that doesn’t make it newsworthy to the media. You’ve got to find a compelling “angle” for your story, or it will never get ink.

Does your idea fit any of these categories?

• A unique service or product;
• The first, the biggest, the most or least expensive;
• A “comeback” or overcoming adversity story;
• A connection with an upcoming holiday;
• A local angle on a national story or trend;
• The solution to a common problem;
• A humorous or entertaining situation;
• A historical perspective, particularly with a local connection.
• An informative or educational story.

This is far from an exhaustive list, but it’s important to consider your story idea from the perspective of the reader or viewer and ask “why would anybody but me (and my family and friends) care about this?” Be aware: it is not the media’s job to promote your business.

You should also ask publications for their editorial calendars. This provides helpful insight into what the newspaper or magazine will be featuring at various times during the year. If you own a wedding planning business, for example, and you discover that a city magazine’s March issue is dedicated to the bridal industry, your chance of interesting the editor in “Ten Tips for a Stress-Proof Wedding” just increased significantly.

Once you have reviewed all the editorial calendars of the targeted publications, considered upcoming holidays and brainstormed all possible angles, develop a calendar that will allow you to plan your pitches for a year in advance. When you are targeting a specific issue or holiday, consider that magazines – including local ones – work many months in advance. Even newspapers need weeks for “enterprise” stories, or stories that are not breaking news, especially now that newsrooms are staffed much leaner than in previous years.

It’s important to think through your story idea carefully before engaging the media so that your idea has the best possible chance of hitting pay dirt. Thinking like a reporter – rather than the business owner – is the best way to do this.

(Next: Contacting and pitching the media.)

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waldoj/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Where to Find Stories in Your Business That Will Get You Media Attention

(Second in a series.)

When clients hire us to promote their business, they usually have the idea that we’ll be able to convince not only the local newspaper, but also the New York Times and USA Today that their small business is worthy of a 20-inch feature on a section front with several nice, big pictures.

They think that a PR firm can pull magic strings or wine and dine the right people, and suddenly the client will become media darlings. I’m sorry to disillusion you, but it just ain’t so.

The power of PR firms boils down to knowing how to find, develop and pitch a story. It doesn’t hurt to know who to call and to have a relationship with the reporter on the other end of the line, but by far, the most important aspect is the story itself. And seldom will that be a straight feature about the business itself, unless your business is highly unusual or has done something phenomenal.

That doesn’t mean that your “Joe the Plumber” business can’t get ink – on the contrary. You just need an angle. By angle I mean a unique point of view from which to tell the story.

Don’t think about what you would like to see in the media but rather what would be relevant to the media’s audience. Will your story entertain? Enlighten? Educate?

When you consider a story topic, ask yourself, “so what?” “Why would anyone care?” “What is the take-away?” If your idea is nothing more than a puff-piece that makes you look good, unless you’re Bradgelina, it’s a dog.

Look at your business from all sides. Break it down into components, as though you were taking apart a car, piece by piece. Examine every possibility. Often the most interesting stories are in the details rather than in the big picture.

Conduct a media audit, or survey, of all aspects of your business, making a list of ideas that you generate from the following possibilities:

Your employees – With small business, you can talk to each employee. Find out what your employees’ interests are outside the business. Do they have unique hobbies or volunteer activities? Did they do something noteworthy in the past? Has an employee won an award? Been promoted? Gotten into the Guinness Book of World Records for making the longest chewing gum wrapper chain? Regardless of the story, you can link it back to your business because the employee works for you.

Your customers – If yours is a high-touch business that impacts people’s lives, there are often great stories that show how your product or service changed their circumstances or made their lives better. If yours is a business related to health, education, or other human service industry, it’s a natural for this type of story, but there are many others, as well.

Your industry – Are there trends going on that are making national news? Whether they are positive, negative or just interesting, they provide you an opportunity to become a resource for the media and to enhance your visibility. When the housing market crashed, the media looked for experts in real estate, mortgages, finance and related businesses to comment on aspects of the crisis on both a national and local basis.

Your products and services – Is there something new or different about what you do? Is your product being used in a new way? Have you made an old product – such as the upsurge in popularity in black-and-white Converse tennis shoes – suddenly cool again? Be honest – everyone likes to think that what they do is unique, but few really are.

Your business processes – Have you developed a cutting-edge method for production, or are you making your products the old-fashioned way like your grandparents did? Are you marketing your products in a unique way?

Yourself – Have you won an award? Gotten elected to a position in an organization? Accepted a volunteer appointment? Are you making a speech? Running for public office? Earned a degree? Won a new client? What professional advice can you provide? How can you use that in a story?

There are a million stories in the Naked City – look for them!

(Next: What to do with your great stories once you identify them.)

Photo by umjanedoan.

Storytelling: The Best Way to Connect With Customers and Prospects

 
(First in a series)

 If you have a child (or have ever been one!) you know how mesmerized they are with stories. I remember begging my dad for a story, and he was great at entertaining my brother and me, while making them up as he went along.

A hunger for stories doesn’t end when we grow up. Just look at all the media we consume through TV, movies, comic books, literature, radio, magazines, the Web and beyond.

Newspaper reporters call their articles “stories,” and indeed, the best ones are.

We all still love a great story. If you can master storytelling, you can influence people to buy your products and services, build your reputation as a leader and inspire loyalty among employees.

Think of Garrison Keillor and his popular “A Prairie Home Companion” or Paul Harvey and “The Rest of the Story.” They both use stories to capture your attention, and then they promote their sponsors with commercials sprinkled through the programs.

Why are they so successful? Because people feel connected to them on an emotional level. They become our friends, and we trust them. We grant them authority, whether they are selling mattresses or stereo speakers. 

But you’re not a Garrison Keillor or a Paul Harvey? No worries. You can find, write and tell your own stories, and generate your own following. Why should you bother? Because stories convey meaning and value in a way that advertising and marketing copy can’t. They engage us. They move us. They make us fans.

Good stories are what motivate journalists to write about you. They can be used on Web sites or promotional literature in the form of testimonials to show how your product has solved a problem for customers.

Good, honest stories in your newsletter or even at the company picnic make your employees glad they work for you and inspire them to work hard to achieve a common goal. The most successful politicians use storytelling to build rapport, and the most successful business leaders do, too.

What exactly makes a tale a story? Consider these lines from one of the most beloved hymns of all time:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found.
Was blind, but now I see.

The reason we love this song – beyond the simple but beautiful melody – is because it tells a complete story within those four short lines. Your story doesn’t have to be long, “shaggy dog” story. Let’s take a closer look at the various aspects:

• It is intensely personal and self-revealing.

• It connects with us on an emotional level.

• It tells us how life used to be (the problem), what happened (the crisis or conflict that causes a change), and how it is now (the resolution). Novelists call this the story “arc”; it hails back to classic literature and Aristotle’s tragic fall from grace.

So how can you use stories to help your business?

(Next: Where to Find Stories in Your Business That Will Get You Media Attention)

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/way2go/ / CC BY 2.0

How Focusing on Your Customer’s Pain Helps Overcome Price Objections

(Last in a series on sales.)

When I was growing up in the late 60s and early 70s, my mom worked in a sock factory in North Carolina. On some days, she put labels on the socks identifying them as government orders to be shipped to soldiers in Vietnam. On other days, she ironed little bunny ears on the same socks – at three times the retail price – to be sold under the Playboy brand.

Mom was incredulous. Labels meant little to her. But to most people, brands indicate value.

The point here is not so much about branding, as important as it is in marketing, but to emphasize how value is subjective. It is – to large degree – determined by the customer.

There’s no such thing as intrinsic value, thus making the answer to the question, “how much is this worth?” different to each person. What one person considers a rip-off, another may view as a bargain.

So how do you overcome price objections when attempting to close a sale?

First, understand that in most cases, it’s not about price, it’s about trust. We overcome price objections because we have earned the customer’s trust. When we focus on the pain of our customers, empathize with that pain, and then demonstrate how our product or service will alleviate the pain, then price is less important.

One way to uncover the real objection is to say: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a no and 10 being yes, where are you now? When you get an answer, ask: What does it take to get to 10?

Or: I’m hearing you say that you have Pain A, Pain B and Pain C, and you have the budget for this, and my product fulfills your needs. I’m not sure that I can, but if I can get you a discount, what’s going to happen?

When we flush out the real objections, often we find that we haven’t thoroughly understood the customer’s pain and shown how our product is the solution to that pain. Price isn’t an objection when the pain of the problem exceeds the cost of the cure.

Sometimes, it isn’t. But when we show an authentic concern for the customer’s pain and see our role as one of giving rather than taking, then price becomes much less important.

The Secret of All Sales and Business Success – Do This and You Don’t Have to Worry About Closing the Sale Ever Again

 
(Second in a series on sales success.)

Here’s the secret of successful businesses: Become a shrink.

I don’t mean you need a sheepskin, but you must learn to care about people’s problems and needs and effectively respond to them.

So how do you do this? You must ask each customer a series of questions to find out what their problem is.

Such as:

• “How are things going in your business?”

• “Where are things breaking down in the office?”

• “What is that problem costing you now in time and money?”

• “How is this affecting your team’s productivity?”

• “What is causing you the most stress in your life right now?

• “What do you need to help you reach your personal financial goals?”

• “How is this problem at the office affecting you personally?”

• “What would it feel like to get rid of this problem?

Explore such questions and ask “why?” to answers that seem vague, until you get to the core feeling -- usually pain or the need to avoid it. Then – and only then – can you determine if your product or service can fix their pain.

If it can’t fix it, you must tell them! You will gain good will and credibility if you turn down a prospect when your product or service is not a good fit. Instead, refer him or her to another business, and this person will tell everyone they know about you – how you helped them solve their problem. It’s magic!

But, if your product meets the need, then present your solution in terms of how it will fix the pain. Stress benefits rather than features. For example: “You’ve told me that you’ve been embarrassed by your mismatched widgets. This widget is yellow, and it will match all of the other yellow widgets in your home and you can feel great about how it looks.”

We don’t usually do this when we sell because we are focused on our pain. Our need to meet a quota, make a commission or build our business. Even if we don’t communicate it verbally, we communicate it nonverbally by being pushy or overly nervous. If we are genuinely concerned about our customer’s welfare instead of our own, all of that disappears as we focus on the other person.
 
(Next: How focusing on your customer’s pain helps you overcome price objections.)

Why You’re Not Selling as Much as You Would Like (Is Anyone?)

(First of a series on sales)

When Saturday Night Live spoofs former President Bill Clinton, they’ll frequently use one of his most famous lines, “I feel your pain.”

Recently I attended a workshop at my local Chamber on how to close a sale, which was a reminder in the importance of finding the customer’s pain.

You probably learned in Psychology 101 that everything we human do is motivated by two basic emotions: pain and pleasure. As Mickey Boyer of Sandler Training explained, we’re pretty simple creatures at our core. We make all decisions based on avoidance of present or future pain or to obtain present or future pleasure.

As business owners or sales reps, what we must do to be successful is to tap into one of those motivators. Sounds simple, right?

Then why do we develop “elevator speeches” that sound like: “I market integrated, multi-level solutions for matrix organizations experiencing cyclical financial impact from market instabilities”?  Such a “speech” doesn’t uncover pain, it causes it!

In fact, we can’t “sell” anything. We can help customers “buy” from us by providing solutions to their problems or by offering a product that will bring them pleasure, but we do not have the power to sell them anything.

The problem is that we often think we know what their problem or desire is, and we treat them as though we do. But the truth is that frequently the customer hasn’t even admitted to themselves what their problem is, so how can we assume to know?

At this point you may be thinking – “Hey, wait a minute. I’m not a psychologist. I didn’t go into business to do solve people’s problems; I started my business to sell stuff.” If this is you, here’s my prediction: You will fail.

(Next: The secret of all sales and business success) 

23 Surefire Ways to Market Yourself as an Expert

The Internet has made this the Golden Age of marketing. The Internet has made it possible for you to become recognized an expert not only in your own backyard, but just as easily on the national or international stage. Because of the Web, the world is flat.

To market yourself as an expert, there are two main tracks you can take – you must do one of two things, and preferably both: write or speak. Here are 23 ways you can market yourself by writing or speaking.

Write:

 

1. Define your niche – usually the narrower the better. What do you already know a lot about and/or are interesting in knowing more about? Build on that.
2. Start a blog. Write often, but at least weekly. Have a sign-up on your blog for a newsletter so that you can collect email addresses.
3. Send “blogletters” by allowing visitors to subscribe to receive your posts via Feedburner or Feedblitz.
4. Start an ezine using online software such as Constant Contact to share your knowledge with those who sign up at your blog. Use your ezine to market your business or to share information about your interest.
5. Write short articles including tips about your specialty – 300-500 words each. You can use these articles many times over!
6. Post your articles on article marketing Web sites. There are hundreds. Some of the best are ezinearticles.com and ehow.com. Link back to your blog and/or Web site from your bio.
7. Offer to write articles for your professional organizations’ newsletters and ezines, read and comment on blogs in your specialty and then offer to write guest posts, offer articles to trade media.
8. If you’re not on social media sites, you should be. At a minimum, post your profile with a good photo on LinkedIn and Facebook. You should be found in these locations. To make these really pay off, you should be active. Get into interest groups. Make contacts. On Facebook, start a business or fan page to market your business. Connect your blog to your Facebook page so that your content is marketed there. If you get adventurous, learn to use Twitter.
9. Write white papers or e-books. These are longer than an article – usually at least 30-50 pages, sometimes 200 pages. You can sell them, but if you are trying to promote yourself as an expert, give them away from your blog or Web site. The fewer roadblocks there are for downloading them, the more successful they will be as marketing tools.
10. Toot your own horn when you win an award, get a new job or client or do something newsworthy. Write a press release and send it to the local media and trade journals and upload it to a reputable news release distribution site such as PRWeb.com or EReleases.com. The prices vary according to the type of distribution you want.
11. List yourself in online expert guides such as ProfNetExperts.com and Yearbook of Experts at ExpertClick.com. Include your credentials, expertise and contact info.
12. Put an online media kit on your Web site (DO NOT invest in a paper one or send one to the media – this is passé. They will wind up in the garbage, where most of them went before the Internet). Visit the American Marketing Association Web site for tips on how to create a media kit. There are also benefits in creating an off-site media kit. Consider PressKit24-7, which will help attract the media to your story.
13. Write a book and get it published through a traditional publisher. If you can’t get a publisher, carefully consider self-publishing (note: this isn’t always a good idea. Marketing a self-published book is not easy.).
14. Get others to write for you! Ask your clients or those with whom you’ve served on committees n professional organizations to write testimonials for you. LinkedIn is a great way to get testimonials that you can then use on your blog, Web site or in other ways.

Speak:

1. Seek out speaking opportunities with your organizations. Kiwanis and Exchange Clubs need speakers every week and there are numerous clubs in every city. After you speak once, the word gets out and you’ll be invited to others. The Chamber of Commerce is also open to speakers that have info that will help their members.
2. Get a simple video camera, such as the Flip, and record your talks and put them on your blog.
3. Vlogging: Set up your Flip camera on a tripod or use your computer video camera to record short videos in which you give tips about your specialty. Put them on your blog and/or Facebook.
4. Podcasting: sign up for a free account on BlogTalkRadio.com. You can have your own Web radio show as often as you would like. Host guests that you interview or speak on your specialty. Promote on your Web site, blog and/or social media.
5. Pitch yourself to the media. They may not do a story, but if they know you are available, they may call you for a comment when they are doing a story in your field and they need an expert.
6. Get media training. If you are going to be interviewed frequently – especially by broadcast media -- you need to know how to conquer the sound bite. Hire a media training consultant or attend a workshop. Also gain insight from PublicityHound.com’s one-hour teleseminar “How to Be and Expert Spokesperson the Media Love.”
7. Sign up for free services that send queries from reporters working on stories on various topics. There are many national services including www.reporterssource.comandwww.pitchrate.com. If you are in Hampton Roads, Virginia, sign up for Hampton Roads Media Connectionz, sponsored by The Buzz Factoree, LLC.
8. Use your blog and/or Web site to market an online teleconference on your specialty. There are free services that allow you to talk to numerous people at the same time, record your call, and then post it on your site. Look at FreeConferencePro.com.
9. Hold an online Webinar using Web-based software such as WebEx.com or GoToWebinar.com. Rates vary according to number of participants. You can sign up and use DimDim.com for free for up to 20 participants.

 

Can you add to the list? Comment below!

 

Five reasons you MUST have a picture on your social media profile – especially if you’re in business

I’m amazed at the number of people who still don’t have their pictures on their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or other social media accounts.

 

You don’t just need a picture; you need a GREAT picture – preferably one that communicates who you are as a person – not just a stuffed shirt kind of picture, unless you ARE a stuffed shirt kind of person. It doesn’t have to be a professionally shot photo, though that is optimal.

 

You can get good results by working with a digital camera or a camera phone. Experiment with different angles rather than the straight-on typical mug shot. While it’s great to show yourself enjoying your favorite hobby, make sure the picture is close enough to show your face clearly.

 

Why is a picture so important?

 

1. Like it or not, your picture is worth a 1,000 words on your profile. The more you can personalize your presence on the Web through photos, videos, podcasts and your own written words, the easier it is for people to connect with you. They don’t want to see a shot of your dog, a flower or what you looked like as a baby. They especially don’t want to see the generic silhouette.
2. Business people who use their logos instead of their photos tell me that they don’t understand the “rules” of social media. First, social media is just that – social. That means it’s about people. You can’t form relationships with businesses; you form relationships with people in the businesses. You aren’t helping your business by being faceless. And secondly, your logo belongs on a Facebook business page – not a profile page. If you have a business, you need both.
3. People don’t trust you when you don’t have a photo. I have a personal policy of not accepting friend requests from people I don’t know without a photo because of a previous problem I had with a man who didn’t have a profile picture. When you don’t have a picture, it’s easy to pose online as somebody else. Why take the risk?
4. Your photo becomes your avatar across all of your Web real estate. People begin to recognize you when you have the same photo on your Web site, blog, Facebook, Squidoo and Ning sites. Your avatar becomes your personal online brand.
5. It’s just plain unprofessional not to have a current picture on your profile. You’re expected to have business cards when you show up at a professional meeting, and you’re expected to have a decent picture on your social media profiles.

Look, I know you have a million other things to do that you think are more important. I get it. I have a business, too. And some of those things probably are. But getting a great picture to help you connect with your customers and potential customers is pretty darned important.

 

So go do it.

 

Photo by Vincent Chaigneau.

Blogging is an exercise in consistency and hard work

The problem with missing a few times when you would normally post on your blog is that those few times so easily turn into a few weeks. Just like exercise, you miss it at first. But then, you get used to not having it, and then it takes a lot of effort to overcome inertia.

I allowed myself a blogging break for a very good reason – I was very ill and eventually in the hospital – but then the weeks rolled by, even when health returned. Blogging, like exercise, must be a habit, or you’ll lose what you’ve worked so hard to earn. It takes dedication to build consistent readers and good will, just like it takes dedication to build muscles and stamina.

It’s never easy to start over once you’ve let yourself slide into bad habits. Nobody likes digging out the running or walking shoes for the first time after weeks of lethargy. And it’s equally hard to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) the first time you’ve allowed yourself to play hooky from your blog. There’s only one thing to do.

Start slowly.

You wouldn’t try to run a marathon after you had lain around the house for two months, and you can’t expect to write the killer blog that will catapult you to 1,000 readers after you’ve been AWOL from your blog for weeks.

Make a contract with yourself that you will do it regularly.

Like exercise, blogging must be done regularly to be effective. There’s never one “perfect” post. One post that says it all and serves as the last word on any topic. Even if that were the case, search engines love new content, which means new posts on a regular basis. And if you’re using your posts as quasi-newsletters to your subscribers through Feedblitz or Feedburner, it’s the reliability of them showing up in their inbox that provides the marketing value.

Don’t expect overnight miracles.

It takes training the right way for a long time to get in top physical shape. And it takes blogging and marketing your blog for a good while to build a sizeable audience. Success is cumulative.

Like getting buff, blogging is hard work, but the results are worth it. A blog is the hub of your online presence. Even if you’re on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, as I am, you need to have a blog that allows you to develop deep content, share your expertise, and build a community.

So now that I’ve talked myself into blogging again, I think it’s time to go find my athletic shoes.

*Photo by Kevin Dooley

How to Earn Visibility for Your Business by Holding a Drawing on Twitter

I’ve been on Twitter for some time, but I’m just now starting to realize the power that it has to promote a business.

What I’m learning is that most of the power is in the Twitter tools. Just having an account and posting a few tweets a day isn’t going to do much for you, but it is the place to start to get your feet wet.

Yesterday I heard about a cool tool that automatically selects a random winner from among multiple retweets. Here’s how it works.

You make up a tweet that includes an offer. In my case, it was: “Need a professional press release for your biz? I’m giving 1 away valued at $340 on 7/10. Just RT this message!”

After posting this, I immediately received two retweets. But that was it. Hmmm. I was hoping it would go viral and I would get thousands! But no.

So, I sent it out again. Got a few more. But I realized that I needed a more systematic approach.

Then I went to Tweetlater.com and set up an account under the trial professional version (you get six days for free under the professional version). There I could schedule various versions of the tweet to automatically publish on a recurring basis.

The reason for changing the tweets slightly is because Twitter frowns on issuing multiple identical tweets, treating them as spam, and may block or take down your account if you are excessive. I developed six versions of the message, careful to keep a core part of the phrase the same, then set them up to republish once a day at various times over the next six days.

Voilà! This morning I had a bunch of new retweets waiting for me!

Now here’s the cool part. Next Friday, when I’m ready to award the prize, all I have to do is go to Tweetaways.com, get and reenter a Tweetaways “key” via direct message, enter my Twitter username and enter a “qualifying phrase,” which is why I made sure that I did not change the core part of my tweets when I loaded different versions of the tweet.

When you click on the button, Tweetaways sorts out any duplicates, automatically selects the winner and posts the winner into your twitter stream as an @reply and as DM to you! This keeps the contest fair and square, removing any possible bias on your part, should anyone challenge the outcome.

Cool, huh?

So what can you give away to draw attention to your business?

P.S. If you'd like to enter the contest, go follow me on Twitter @thebuzzfactory and find my tweets!