Texas Back Institute of Plano recently featured on WB33 with unique new ‘AdaptiveStim’ implant. Device uses “Wii” motion sensor technology to ease chronic back pain.

Kodak filed for bankruptcy because – as we all know – the leadership failed to keep current.

Client Grand Homes CEO Stephen Brooks on the steps the company took to survive a down economy and difficult housing market. www.grandhomes.com

http://www.chick-fil-a.com/

Masters of Aikido, Judo and TaiJiQuan all leverage the inertia, strength and mass of their opponent to win the match – and small business can do it, too.

How?

By hyper-focusing on the client to build a brand that actually competes with major national brands. As a small business owner, you can over-deliver the tailored, neighborhood-specific, home-town features of your product or service that the big boys across the street cannot offer. That kind of specialty stands out! That helps develop a powerful local brand.
National chains cannot hope to know your customer as well as you do! So leverage that ‘disadvantage’ against the powerhouse national company!

Sorta like Pace Picante Sauce advertising that the competition came from “New York City”!
Yikes!

Yes we all know that Pace is owned by the Campbell Soup Company, and they don’t exactly fit the “small business” label, but even leveraging even a perceived strategic advantage is powerful stuff.
…and of course Texans want to buy their salsa from people in Texas who ‘know salsa,’ right?

My point is, big national companies rarely get to know customers by name, sponsor local high school athletic teams, send store managers to speak at local Rotary clubs, or give their store managers the authority to speak to local media without approval from the “corporate headquarters”.

But you can.

We followed that approach with one of our clients. A small independent pharmacy with no real advertising budget or media footprint. And right across the street – fierce competition from one of the “big boys”!

It’s Texas Star Pharmacy in Plano, Texas.

The owners – Mike and Donna Barsky – wanted to build their brand and expand their client base despite the proximity of a major national chain pharmacy nearby. How did they do it?

By leveraging the opponent’s ponderous weight as a tool! Senior pharmacist Donna Barsky is a marvelous speaker and writer. So she wrote articles and gave educational talks to local civic groups.
With decades of pharmacy experience, she was able to explain complex medical topics to local newspaper and TV reporters, and offer media interviews on health issues at the ‘drop of a hat’ – with no big bureaucracy to navigate for approval.

During flu season, they offered low-cost vaccinations at a local church.

We taught them how to start blogging, podcasting and developing content for YouTube. (She was a natural!)

They offered home delivery, one-on-one counseling for drug compatibility, longer hours, competitive pricing – and every customer got a hug!
Yes, that’s right. Donna’s a hugger!

How could the pharmacy giant possibly compete?

Over the course of the last year, Donna Barsky has been covered by local or national media at least 60 TIMES! And business has grown about 30%! And now they’re opening a new location!
This stuff really works.

A hyper-local focus. Listening to the client and putting their needs first. Becoming a resource for local media. And developing content for yourself (articles, videos, podcasts).

So borrow a page from the Judo Master and make your ‘strategic disadvantage’ into a powerful weapon.

Grand Homes CEO Steve Brooks likens his company

Answer: Of course! It’s a tool. Just like any other technology. If it’s a legitimate way to reach out and contact another human being, then why not?

Yes, you will offend some journalists who don’t consider their personal Facebook page or Twitter account to be an acceptable avenue for business. Too bad.
Most working journalists are desperate for good story ideas, regardless of the source.

And journalists have been using Twitter and many other SM platforms for years now. There are plenty of resources to help journalists “crowd-source” stories and to help everyone else find Tweeting journalists.
Here’s a great article in Mashable: “The Journalist’s Guide to Twitter”

The best resource referenced in the above article is Muck Rack, which offers a real-time feed of journalists’ Tweets. I just checked, Jake Tapper, ABC’s Senior White House correspondent, is tweeting about the TSA.
Pretty cool.

We need to stop treating social media as some weird new animal and recognize that it is simply a new family of channels. Some of us use them, some do not.
In the same way, a hundred years ago the telephone was a bizarre new contraption that seemed odd and inappropriate in a professional setting. Out of place. A waste of time. A distraction.

But over time, we grew to like the convenience of Mr. Bell’s invention and the tremendous advantages it delivered.
Twitter is the same. Certainly NOT for everybody. But for some, a really helpful tool and an amazing new platform by which to connect people instantly.

So if you find a reporter Tweeting, Tweet back! But follow appropriate Twitter etiquette, please:

(First, make sure that this reporter would be interested in covering your story. Is it something he or she has covered before? If so, proceed.)

6. …but add that you want to make sure HE has it FIRST!

Then just wait for the response.
If nothing shows up, no real harm done, and you’re on to the next Twittering reporter:

1. Compliment her first on the AMAZING work that she does…

Social Media is a powerful tool. Use it.

Why?
The powerful pipes of Ted Williams, homeless radio announcer who’s become the year’s first YouTube rockstar of 2011.

In the unlikely event you haven’t heard, Mr. Williams was homeless earlier this week, hawking handouts on a Columbus highway. A self-confessed substance abuser and absentee dad, he had all but given up on his former career behind the microphone. That’s when a Columbus Dispatch videographer, on a whim, shot a clip of Williams using his golden baritone.

“When you’re listening to nothing but the best of oldies, you’re listening to Magic 98.9!”

The video went up on the Columbus dispatch website, then Youtube, and then PR “lightening” struck – as the short video drew millions of views. Viral pixie dust. It’s competely unpredictable. But amazing when it happens. Soon the Dispatch newsroom was fielding phonecalls for Williams, which led to local interviews, then a spot on the Today Show this week, then the offer from Kraft foods to provide the voice-over for the company’s iconic macaroni and cheese products tonight on ESPN.

Here’s a preview of the spot:

Kraft Mac & Cheese Ad w/ Ted Wilson Voice-Over

The company already had a mammoth publicity campaign surrounding it’s ‘Huddle to Fight Hunger’, an outreach to provide 20 million meals or more to a hunger relief organization. But this swift move has quickly dwarfed the rest of the positive pub in free mentions alone. (Was anyone planing to TiVo the Fight Hungar Bowl? Heck, had anyone even HEARD of the Fight Hunger Bowl – before Williams made media magic happen?) Kraft comes across as a company that cares, that is engaged in public discourse, that wants to do more than talk, and that is nimble and smart enough to do the right thing on short notice. Plus… every recent mention of Kraft is completely free of charge. What CMO wouldn’t be pumped over such a coup?
Williams recorded four TV spots – some of which will be seen during the Golden Globes next Sunday on NBC.

Kraft Brand Manager Noelle O