Podcast appearances and mentions of cheryl snapp conner

Dive into the world of strategic communication and storytelling with Jeff and this week's guest Cheryl Snapp Conner, a seasoned expert in PR and business communication. Throughout the episode, Jeff and Cheryl share valuable insights on how businesses can effectively tell their stories and navigate the complex landscape of modern communication. Cheryl shares compelling examples of companies that have mastered their messaging, as well as cautionary tales of PR missteps. They emphasize the critical importance of proactive communication strategies and authenticity in brand messaging while exploring the evolving role of social media in corporate communication, offering practical advice on handling crises in the digital age. The episode provides thought-provoking perspectives on measuring communication effectiveness and aligning PR efforts with overall business strategy.

Join us on "The Coffee In The Greenroom Podcast" by VIP Ignite, where we delve into the art of public relations and personal branding with Cheryl Snapp Conner, CEO of SnappConner PR and Content University creator. This episode is a treasure trove for actors, models, and musicians, providing expert insights from Cheryl on establishing and maintaining a compelling public image. Learn how to strategically manage your media presence, the importance of consistent messaging, and effective communication techniques. Whether you're with VIP Ignite or Truth Mgmt, this podcast is your guide to mastering the PR world and making a lasting impact in the creative industry.REGISTER FOR OUR NEXT ONLINE, NO-COST AUDITIONhttps://www.ammsociety.com/CHECK OUT VIP IGNITE'S FREE MODEL AND ACTOR BOOTCAMPhttps://vipignitesummit.comFOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT VIP IGNITE https://vipignitelive.com/CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/vipigniteliveCHECK US OUT ON INSTAGRAMhttps://www.instagram.com/vipigniteCHECK US OUT ON TWITTER:https://www.twitter.com/vipigniteCHECK OUT THE HOLLYWOOD MINDSET WEBSITE HERE:https://www.hollywoodmindset.comCHECK OUT THE COFFEE IN THE GREEN ROOM PODCAST HERE:https://www.coffeeinthegreenroom.comCHECK OUT THE VIP IGNITE LIVE PODCAST HERE: https://www.vipignitelivepodcast.comCHECK OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING HERE:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLzqEyOGiBnMwTyocXsmB8oyki-Sz22zT

Join us on "The Coffee In The Greenroom Podcast" by VIP Ignite, where we delve into the art of public relations and personal branding with Cheryl Snapp Conner, CEO of SnappConner PR and Content University creator. This episode is a treasure trove for actors, models, and musicians, providing expert insights from Cheryl on establishing and maintaining a compelling public image. Learn how to strategically manage your media presence, the importance of consistent messaging, and effective communication techniques. Whether you're with VIP Ignite or Truth Mgmt, this podcast is your guide to mastering the PR world and making a lasting impact in the creative industry.Support the showREGISTER FOR OUR NEXT ONLINE, NO-COST AUDITIONhttps://www.ammsociety.com/CHECK OUT VIP IGNITE'S FREE MODEL AND ACTOR BOOTCAMPhttps://vipignitesummit.comFOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT VIP IGNITE https://vipignitelive.com/CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/vipigniteliveCHECK US OUT ON INSTAGRAMhttps://www.instagram.com/vipigniteCHECK US OUT ON TWITTER:https://www.twitter.com/vipigniteCHECK OUT THE HOLLYWOOD MINDSET WEBSITE HERE:https://www.hollywoodmindset.comCHECK OUT THE COFFEE IN THE GREEN ROOM PODCAST HERE:https://www.coffeeinthegreenroom.comCHECK OUT THE VIP IGNITE LIVE PODCAST HERE: https://www.vipignitelivepodcast.comCHECK OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING HERE:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLzqEyOGiBnMwTyocXsmB8oyki-Sz22zT

ABOUT THIS EPISODE Cheryl Snapp Connor is one of the most influential women in the tech industry and has been a powerhouse entrepreneur since 1989. Today, she is the founder and CEO of SnappConner PR, the developer of Content University™, and she is a trustee and member of the Utah Technology Council's Executive Committee. She has contributed to, as well as featured and recognized by numerous publications including Inc. Magazine and the Forbes Entrepreneurs channel.   Most recently, Cheryl has been named as one of the world's Top 20 Business Thought Leaders to Follow by ClearPoint Strategies in 2014, and since 2008, she has been listed in Signal Peak's v100 list every year. Cheryl is a powerhouse entrepreneur, thought leader, and an inspiration to thousands of women across the United States.   Please welcome Cheryl Snapp Conner to the show!    Links:   http://snappconner.com/ http://www.inc.com/author/cheryl-snapp-conner http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/#16c473d1c7a0 https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylsnappconner https://twitter.com/CherylSnapp https://www.facebook.com/snappconner?fref=ts https://www.linkedin.com/company/snapp-conner-pr https://twitter.com/snappconner

Marketing is a part of the business strategy that a lot of people ignore or treat as a separate silo. Guest, Cheryl Snapp Conner, begs to disagree and puts emphasis on marketing as a vital part of the business. Cheryl is the founder and CEO of SnappConner PR and the creator of Content University™. She joins host, Michelle Seiler Tucker, to share with us her expertise and give some great insights, tips, and tricks into how we can do marketing and next-level PR, especially in this time of disruption. What is the difference between PR marketing and media? How do we write content that is effective on social media, and that could get to Inc., Forbes, and other great publications? How can you find the right marketing firm for you? Cheryl answers these questions and more, guiding you on your PR to get the results you desire for your business.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here’s How »Join The Find Your Exit Community today:seilertucker.comFacebookTwitterLinkedInInstagramYouTube

When you look for someone who can give you advice and guidance, you want someone who has been doing it for a long time, and who is an expert at playing big in their industry. My guest today, Cheryl Snapp Conner, checks both of those boxes, and has an incredible depth and breadth of experience in the PR world. Cheryl has been recognized as a thought leader by Forbes Magazine, INC Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine, among her many accolades. Today's conversation is a opportunity to learn about the past, present, and future of PR from a true expert in the field. “So many people think that there's not such a need for formal public relations, because—“hey I can post, I can be present anywhere I want to be.” Well that may be true, but without strategy and foresight, you may be painting yourself right into the grave.” What You Will Discover How technology has shaped the PR industry over decades Why strategic planning is central to successful PR Important insights to help your business thrive Resources Learn more about Cheryl's work at https://snappconner.com/

In this episode, Cheryl Snapp-Conner dives into the ways in which we can be "mental strong," as she calls it in her viral Forbes article.

When is the right time to hire a PR firm? Today, Cheryl teaches us the answer. It varies by company, but generally, every organization should do it's own PR for as long as it can. You hire a PR firm for strategy and connections. Plus, many writers would rather talk to the CEO and founder, over a PR firm. Remember, Cheryl writes about how to hire a PR firm without hiring an agency. You can find her on Forbes. When the time comes that you should hire a PR firm, be metric driven. Know what the job you're hiring this PR firm to do. And make it driven by metrics. Follow Cheryl on Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/#5d119dec72ee , for even more great advice. Or check out her company, here: http://snappconner.com/

When is the right time to bring on a business partner? In general, Cheryl is in favor of business partnerships. She does say sometimes we pursue it too soon. She's also heard more bad stories than good ones. Often we recruit business partners because we aren't confident in our own abilities. That's the wrong reason to recruit a business partner. You also have to remember that you're not only partners with the partner, but also you're a partner with their spouse. In Cheryl's mind, most ideal partnerships last for 3-5 years. People get comfortable and are unwilling to change. We often need a new starting point.

Ever wondered what the biggest PR mistakes are that people make? Learn more today with Cheryl Snapp Conner of Snapp Conner PR Company PR and personal are interrelated. People that put out personal opinions that reflect on the company, like the founder of Lulu Lemon that made a comment that was insensitive and didn't represent the brand proposition and values of its customers. Over disclosing, making promises that you can't keep is another big PR mistake. Over exaggeration is an example of this. Practice the hardest questions. Always take PR training. If you're a company, don't talk about release dates and miss them. Learn more about Cheryl here, http://snappconner.com/

Meet Cheryl Snapp Conner, and her new business idea. Back in 2007, Cheryl started her own PR agency. She has years of entrepreneurial experience not only working for herself but some of the top entrepreneurs in Utah and on the West Coast. In this episode, she explains how she'd create a writing business to help CEO's get more exposure. She likes this because it is something that every CEO needs to do. It has a high price point. And her third reason for liking the idea is that she's not dependent on new and media publications to run her PR stories.

Having difficulties knowing whether to build a personal or a corporate brand? On this episode of How to Start a Business, Cheryl Snapp Conner teaches us how to perform this balancing act. Learn more about Cheryl and her company: http://snappconner.com/

What is Content University? Learn how to become an influencer, and write content that helps build your brand and grow your business. In this episode, Cheryl Snapp Conner teaches us how. Sometimes we create content that oversells our product. Other times we aren't putting the needs of the reader first. This and other mistakes will prevent your content from really taking off. Learn more about Content University, here: https://contentuniversity.com/

Looking to start a PR firm? Do you want to grow your company? We asked Cheryl Snapp Conner, what her first 100 days would like if she had the chance to build her company again from scratch. Would she focus on sales? Would she focus on recruiting a team? What would the first 100 days look like? On her first 100 days, she had pent-up demand. She'd focus on finding the ideal customer, and go get them. She reveals that the ideal customer is often not what you think and that it takes a lot of time. It took her some time, that the smaller companies are not ideal. That it's best to let them go on their own as far as they can before she gets involved. Learn more about Cheryl here: http://snappconner.com/

Meet Cheryl Snapp Conner, as we learn how to start a PR firm. She had a minor in English and worked at a tech company that went through four acquisitions and an IPO. She learned it was better to work on her own, then for a large corporation. Learn more about Cheryl and her company: http://snappconner.com/

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Champions Never Tell - (Part 2) with Cheryl Snapp Conner

Champions Never Tell - (Part 2) with Cheryl Snapp Conner

Nonprofit Marketing with Geo Ropert Interview Transcript   Hugh Ballou: This is Hugh Ballou and Russell Dennis co-hosting this episode of The Nonprofit Exchange. Hello, Russ. Russell Dennis: Good happy Halloween. Good to see you both. Hugh: As we are recording this, it is Halloween in 2017. You might be listening to this in another century. We are creating episodes for posterity. Russ, we have been on this journey for quite a while. Thank you for hanging in there and being my co-host. Russell: It's a pleasure. I meet so many interesting people, like Geo, who is here to talk to us today about marketing. And a lot of nonprofits don't think they have to do that, but you have to get your message out. Hugh: You spoiled the surprise. We were going to surprise them. Geo Ropert: I might as well hang up now. Hugh: Geo Ropert, welcome to The Nonprofit Exchange. Geo: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I am certainly honored that you asked me to join you, and I am really looking forward to this today. Hugh: I looked at your resume, and you have been holding out on me. You haven't told me all that good stuff. We generally start out asking people to talk about themselves. In a little snapshot, the things that are related to PR and marketing. Then after you talk about yourself, what's your background in this really complicated, for those of us who don't know it, what's your background and what's gotten you here? After you do that, distinguish between PR and marketing. I know people confuse marketing and sales, but they also confuse PR and marketing. They don't know where sales fits. If you can sort that out. But first, give us a snapshot about Geo. Geo: I have 20+ years in the public relations and integrated marketing community. We'll talk about that as you had asked. I am accredited in public relations, which means I hold a national certification that less than 10% of PR professionals throughout the country have. I have won awards for my work, and I have been- It really is my passion. I love to communicate. I love to help businesses and organizations share their message across platforms, everything from traditional to new digital and social. I work especially with businesses and nonprofits to really help them be able to tell their story and for them to be the ones that people pay attention to when they speak, when they produce content, when they get out there to their audiences. I have worked in the nonprofit field. I have probably a little more than 10 years working exclusively for nonprofits, both 501(c)3 and 501(c)6 organizations, so I've spent a lot of time really in the trenches with those communities and have learned a lot and have really been able to translate that knowledge to help out organizations, especially nonprofits. That is where my passion lies: helping those folks be able to engage their audiences and gain the support and the resources they need so that they can do the good work that they do. If you want to talk about public relations and marketing, while they are similar, they are very different in the sense that public relations really has to deal with the side of a business that is the brand. It's the storytelling, it's the reputation-building, it's the work that is done to create buzz, if you will, to create information and knowledge. It's meant to educate and inform audiences so that they can understand what a business is, what they stand for, their mission, their vision, their values, their culture—all those things are public relations. Marketing, on the other side, is a staff function that is really about the promotion of products and services that the company has. If you are talking about selling widgets or if you are talking about having your organization that helps feed hungry children or protects kids from danger, these are the things that marketing does. It's getting out the word on those products and services. They work together intimately, but in most cases, people see that as different. I've been working in the realm where my belief is the industry has been changing to more or less meld those two together because it really is about communication, and the way we communicate today really blurs the lines sometimes. It is effective in both of its aspects. Hugh: Actually, you need to have a good public image or your marketing won't be helpful. Geo: If your reputation is shot, you could have the best products in the world, but nobody will buy them. Hugh: People also confuse sales and marketing. Sales is another animal. Do you want to give us a sound bite about what's different about sales? Geo: Sales is the process that marketing is geared to do, to make people aware of what those products and services are, the benefits they have for them. Then sales is the close. That is where all the process of engaging interesting, getting clients to pay attention and come to your website or make that phone call to your business, everything then is left to the folks in sales to close that deal. Hugh: We are going to focus on the marketing piece. We have had other experts on this series over the years. Cheryl Snapp Conner owns a large PR agency in Salt Lake City; she was here several months ago and is very eloquent about her field of PR, doing press releases and getting that image out there. The niche that is marketing, that's moving people toward understanding why they need goods and services—charities aren't in business for selling things. I'm using the word “charity” instead of “nonprofit” for this conversation. Why would a charity need even think about marketing? Geo: Because there are—let's see how many there are—over a million public charities in the United States alone. Those are a lot of voices out there, each vying for the attention. Hugh: Four million. 501 somethings. Churches and government. There are a lot of variances. Geo: I'm sorry. I had a million public charities. You're right about the four million. Everyone is clamoring for the attention, the pocketbooks of folks who can support their causes. As much as each of them are involved in very important and very worthwhile endeavors, there is a limited pie out there of funds and resources that are available. The ones who can tell their story the best, who can communicate what their audience is most effectively, are the ones who are going to succeed and be able to advance their causes where the others are basically struggling. I think we see more of the majority struggling than those we do being successful. Hugh: Absolutely. There is a fallacy out there, and it is exposed in Dan Pallotta's TED Talk, The way we think about charity is dead wrong, and he has a book to follow that up. The TED Talk says the fallacy is that nonprofits, he says charities, cannot spend money on marketing. That is taboo. I believe- Russell, we don't agree with that, do we? Russell: I disagree completely because a lot of people in nonprofits, especially if you are talking about a social worker or teacher, have difficulty talking about the value that their organization provides. It's a value proposition. A lot of people look at it as bragging when in fact it's just telling people that you are doing good work. Marketing is important. A thought just crossed my mind. I came up with a question because I know that reputation management and getting the word out there about what you're doing are separate but melded together. I was wondering what Geo thought is the right balance between PR and marketing. Geo: I think if you are looking for a balance, you really want to integrate them both effectively. I don't think you put one on top of the other in the sense that of course you have to have your brand identity established and visible and strong. People need to recognize it and know what you do, who you are, what you stand for, and what you do to benefit the community. That really is the telling of the story if you want to in PR. In marketing, it's telling people exactly what you do, why it's important that they support your cause. You say, “Well, we don't have products or services.” Most do. They have some type of service. They provide some type, whether that be support or education or advocacy. All of those things really fall into the marketing side of it. What a lot of nonprofits- You're right. They talk about marketing and PR and spending money on it as a taboo thing, that it's not something they should do. I agree. It is completely the wrong idea to have because unless you are spending money on your voice and getting your message across to people, you are going to be one of the majority that are having a huge amount of trouble keeping your funding sources alive, keeping your organization alive. That is one of the problems I see. What I also see is that many nonprofits- I can't tell you how many times a month I get approached by organizations that want to get support, but they are not able or willing to pay for it. They expect to have it for free, pro bono services. While I do believe in helping my community and I support an organization that I work with every year, sometimes intensely, unfortunately I have bills to pay. I have to be able to afford to keep the business running. Getting them to understand the value of PR and marketing, and marketing especially, is sometimes the hardest thing to do. Once they can really grasp that, and it comes from the leadership down, the executives, the board of directors, once they can understand that you put money into marketing is going to have a return on that investment and is going to grow the donor base, it's going to grow the support base, and they can see that, then it starts to make sense to them, and they are more willing to invest in actual professional services and, if not, investing in the tools and software that are able to accomplish that. Hugh: Geo, what's an appropriate amount as far as a percentage? Is there any kind of benchmark? You mention something that triggered this. We use the word “nonprofit,” and we go into this scarcity thinking that we can't pay for anything. We can't pay good salaries, we can't pay for services, we can't allot money to marketing, we can't spend money talking about the goods and services, the good that we do, the impact. That is what is going to drive sales. Sales is donations. Sales is for churches, synagogues, it's evangelism. It's growing your numbers in the 501(c)6s, the membership organizations. Why is it important? What is the impact of our work? We are telling a story. Go back to this. You started exploring about stories a while ago. Where does that fit? There is two questions in here. How do you figure out what's an appropriate amount to designate in your budget to marketing? What kind of information do you- You can't tell people everything, so you have a limited budget. If you grow the revenue, then you can grow that marketing budget in tandem with that. How do you decide what to market? How much to spend, and what is the story you are going to tell? Geo: According to the numbers I've seen out there, there was almost $400 billion given to charities last year alone. Of that, we would expect, as a business does, to spend a minimum of 10% at least on the marketing efforts. You could figure that is about $39 billion that would go out to help communicate that story, that message. That can fluctuate anywhere from on the low end to 5% on the high end to- Some of them are spending up to 15% if you look at charitable organizations and the nonprofit organizations, the 501(c)6s. What they do, the good ones, is they tell a consistent story that resonates. They have a mission. They focus on the mission in their campaigns, in their public relations and in their marketing campaigns, with a singular, strong message. You could have an organization. Maybe you do three or four different things, but your main mission needs to be conveyed and clear. What happens is oftentimes people say, Well, we do this, we do that, we help these folks, we help those folks. It confuses the message. There are millions of messages going out every day that we are being bombarded with. If a message from an organization comes across in three or four different ways, how are we going to be able to focus on that? It takes a minimum of seven times for somebody to see your name to recognize it, to see your message and recognize it. Unless they see that message seven times, maybe in a slightly altered way but still the same consistent message, the chances of traction are slim to none. Hugh: I have to think about that. What do you think, Russ? Russell: In terms of income, if people are spending money, they are going to want to know what I am getting back for this. How important is it to show a return on generating income? Is there a typical amount for nonprofits in terms of looking at return on investment with those dollars that they invest? Geo: I think what you do is you look at the 5-15% of your annual revenue as a baseline maybe to say, Okay, this is where we are going to start. What happens in nonprofits is they base their marketing revenue on those numbers, and if the numbers go down, so do their marketing efforts. Where I believe that you need to be consistent and strong and you have to have a budget set aside. It's not overhead to me. It really isn't considered an overhead expense like executive salaries and rent and those kinds of things. It is an expense that helps to generate revenue. If revenues start to decline and you cut way back on your marketing dollars, you might as well just expect those numbers continue to decline. Whereas I think good marketers and executives who understand their value of effective marketing are more apt to say, Okay, let's put in a substantial and usable amount of revenue into our marketing efforts. If we continue to do that and our mission continues to be strong and delivered across the right platforms, we are going to grow our revenue, we are going to grow our support, we are going to get the things we need to get. Hugh: I saw some evidence—Russ, that's a good question—during the last so-called recession that businesses cut way back on their marketing budgets, but the few that didn't kept market share and actually increased market share during that recession. Russ, I'm sorry, I interrupted you there. Russell: Just in your reply there, you hit on what I call the magic dirty buzz word, and that is overhead. People are in the frame of mind that anything that you spend beyond the actual delivery of those services is overhead and that you got to put the squeeze on that. You can't have a huge overhead. Marketing and PR is important. When a corporation goes out and spends money on that, they applaud them. They go out and hire superstar marketing people and superstar executives to run the organization. They pay them good salaries, but they draw in huge amounts of money. Nobody ever questions that because they can see that value. When a nonprofit or social profit tries to do that, it becomes taboo. It leads to what they call overhead. I don't think they are doing this, that marketing and PR among other things and fundraising are bad ways to spend that money. You have to have a good structure to have a good solid program. When it comes to marketing and PR with nonprofits, what are the biggest challenges that you see nonprofits having when it comes to actually taking it up, doing it, and doing it well? Geo: The thing I see is the lack of knowledge, the lack of experience, to do that job. Oftentimes, a lot of nonprofits will say, You are the reception today, and this afternoon, you are going to be our chief marketing officer. Very little knowledge of what it entails. This is a profession. This is something that people go to school for to get educated. Some of us have spent many hours a week, let alone throughout the year, honing our skills, growing our education to do that. That is one of the things. Another standing is the available vehicles to us for marketing. There are so many, but they have to be selectively chosen based on the type of audience that you have, the type of response that you want to get, and also basically the areas that you want to focus your attentions on. It's one of those things where so often I see, and people have sat down with some folks in the last couple of weeks and they said, “Well, we want to market our agency. We want to market our organization.” I said, “What's your budget?” “We don't have one.” “Good luck.” As much as you can get something, you can get free press donated. Media is great about supporting causes, local newspapers, publications, digital sites that will do that, but you still got to pay for things like Facebook advertising, social media advertising. You have to pay for websites and development and maintenance of those. There are costs to the things that you print and your direct mail costs. If everybody would give it away, it's wonderful, but I am also reminded that you get what you pay for. If you think you are going to get something free from these people, they will get it to you when they get it to you. They may not be there. They are probably not as deeply invested as somebody whom you pay, even if it is a modicum of money to at least value their services, their expertise. That is what I try to push people to understand. Spend a little money, and you can make a lot of money. Hugh: It's not really cost; it's an investment. Geo: Absolutely. Hugh: Going back to Russ's question on ROI, we have the old- There is another way that comes up here: advertising. Is advertising part of marketing? Geo: Yes, advertising is one of the vehicles we use to market. If you are going to spend money on advertising, that is part of your marketing budget. Return on investment, that is something that you want to set up with the organization. I think that's part of the goal-setting strategy for any organization is: Okay, what are your revenue or support goals that we want to have this year? Then back those numbers out and say, Okay, we believe that we're going to raise $3 million this year. We are going to spend $300,000 of that in marketing and PR services and software and vehicles and print and digital and creative costs and those kinds of things. It's very clear. An organization that has a track record can easily look at their data and say, Okay, we spent this amount of money on Facebook this year, and that got us the best return on our investment. We went over to Instagram or YouTube, and those didn't necessarily perform as well. We will allocate our resources where they work best. There are so many tools out there right now to be able to gauge what your efforts are doing. They are very measurable. We rely on them now. We can't just walk into a client and say, “We have an ad or an article in your paper. It has a circulation of 200,000. We multiply that by 1.5, and that is your average viewer.” No, now we can actually measure who sees the ad, who responds to it, who interacts with it, and we can trace them all the way from initial interest through that final check being written or that volunteer sign-up being taken care of. Hugh: That's really good. One of our sponsors at SynerVision is the company that prints our magazine Nonprofit Professional Performance, Wordsprint. Bill Gilmer has been on this show and on a panel that we had on PR a while back. His research is in the area of direct mail because he is a print house and a mail house. His statistics are very profound about when people get something in their hand. His research says it's 30% the message, 30% the person, 30% a regular rhythm, and only 10% the appearance. He has years of documentation. The donations don't only remain consistent with the donors, but they go up because people understand the impact of their money, the return on life, ROL. Their return on their investment is the return on people's lives, the impact. He calls that top of mind marketing. What does that term mean to you? He backs it up with an email. Joe, you got a magazine yesterday, did you look on page four? That doubles the open rate. His research almost without exception is that the donors remain engaged and remain donors because we have done more than ask for money. We have told them the impact of the work. That is part of your message in PR and marketing. Go back to top of mind marketing. Are there other ways besides this really valuable way? That is Wordsprint.com. For more information, you can go there. Geo, top of mind marketing, what is that, and what are other ways you can do that? Geo: Hugh, you mentioned one of the key things. People say direct mail and print advertising is dead. It is not. It is still one of the most effective ways to communicate, especially in the fundraising side for charitable organizations. Everybody has to go to their mailbox. Mail arrives every day. They look at that mail, and when that mail catches their eye, it is more likely to stay on the counter or on the table. It's whereas our digital information that we share comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Unless you're consistently putting that message out across the platforms that are available, they are great, and they do an enormously good job getting attention. Again, it's fleeting. I am a big believer, especially in getting messages across that people will read the direct mail, look at it, remember it. It's that visual imprint. It is great. What I always look at is a mix of marketing materials and methods in order to get the point across and to enforce it. If you see in the mail, and the next thing you know you have it on your website or you are looking on Facebook or one of your other social media sites and you see that message repeated again, that's seven times. How many times do you see it before it finally clicks and you say to yourself, “That is an organization I want to support?” You are absolutely right on sharing the value of their investment. What is that return to them? You can do it visually so much more easily than any way, shape, or form when you have it right there in front of you. You have pictures and stories and words that convey that mission and vision. Hugh: I am going to toss it to Russ. He is the one who asks the really hard questions. Russ's area, one of his areas of brilliance, is helping charities think about their funding options, how they get funded. Russ, relate it to what he was just bringing up and what we have been talking about. There is a relationship to getting more donors, keeping donors, raising donations through what we are talking about. I am going to toss it to you for some comments and questions if you will. Russell: I think this is part of what comes in when it comes to the fear of how much you spend. There are so many different channels out there that people are focused about which ones to use. The answer to that is it really depends on where your audience is. At my age, they like getting stuff in the mail; they can hold onto it. But if you are reaching out to younger people, they may be in social media, they may be on websites, they could be anywhere. I think if you tailored a channel to where your donors are coming from, you meet them where they are. It takes a little bit of homework to figure that out, but at that point, you can really target your dollars to where you want them to go. That is where people get overwhelmed. I think they should be working from their strengths and whatever works best. That may be direct mail and Facebook for some organizations; it may be Instagram and email if they have a younger audience. Talk a little bit about how you gauge that and how you help nonprofits figure out what the best mediums are for them. Geo: There is a lot of data out there on the demographics of every person on Earth right now. I like to say that with the analytics and data we have, we know what coffee you drink, when you wake up in the morning, what color pajamas you have, and what car you are driving to work. It's all there. We have become a very sharing society that we basically give it away and let people know who we are, what we do, what we like, and what we don't like. You were asking about what works. There is a 2016 Content Marketing Institute report on the nonprofits in America. Believe it or not, in-person events are still the largest and most effective way for nonprofits to get their message across and to gain supporters. That personal one-on-one touch-and-feel that people have in a personal interaction is still the most important, followed by illustrations and photos, e-newsletters, videos, social media content (interesting that it only ranks fifth out of the most effective tactics) followed up by case studies and those kinds of things, a lot of data and information and background information that people look for. It really is imperative that you have someone who understands how to read demographics, how to interpret those, and be able to take those and say, Okay, our group from 35-54 is mainly on this type of media or reads this type of publication or attends these functions. All of those have to be wrapped up. You have to get a real good understanding of who your audience is. That is the only way you are going to effectively market and spend your money. Again, you can throw that wide net out and put it out in a newspaper. It may have a circulation of 200,000, but only less than 1% of those people could be target audiences for you. You just wasted 99% of your budget right there to reach the 1% that is actually going to care. Russell: There is a lot of data out there on that. It is really easy to get lost in the weeds. What would you say are the most effective marketing strategies organizations can use to grow their share of that donor base or other supporters like volunteers or board members or advisors? Geo: Understand your market. Know what appeals to them. Know what their hot buttons are. Where do they have their most care? In business, we talk about the citizen brand, where you create the culture and a mission and a vision that reflects your audience. That is becoming an interesting thing to follow in the way that all organizations are operating is to say to their people: What is important to you? That is important to us. It really helps to create a stronger bond because people today want to know what is in it for me. How are you going to make my world better through your work? Even in a charitable organization, they are still saying that. How are you going to save the animals or save the rainforest, or how are you going to protect abused and neglected children? What is your culture going to do that is going to get me to want to write that check or volunteer my time and efforts? Russell: Those are brilliant reasons for reaching out repeatedly because you don't always have to have an ask. You can ask questions and find out what is important to them. You can take that language and recycle it and return it back to them in their solution. Geo: Exactly. The three important things to do when you are communicating, especially in the public relations realm, is to inform, educate, and entertain. You are able to do all of those things even with a charitable organization because you inform them of your mission, you educate them and show them what their results are of their support, and it is okay to entertain, too, because not every message has to be, We are in a terrible situation. Our clients are destitute. Our planet is falling apart, whatever that may be. It's also okay to take a lighter side, show how the organization reaches out in the community, show what some of the folks do in their daily lives, show behind the scenes of what this organization does in their daily work. Create that. Again, you want to create that personal feeling. You want the person who you are targeting to feel like those are the same people that I am, and I want to be with them. All three of those, if they are done properly and in the right percentages, you have an extremely effective message platform that works. Russell: Live videos from your events where you see people having a good time. What could be more fun? People can say, “Hey, I want to go to the next party these guys throw.” Geo: Video is hands-down the most important thing that people see nowadays. It has the largest effect. As I am sure is well-known, we have less of an attention span than a goldfish of less than eight seconds. Text doesn't do it. Photos are okay. But you put something on video, and that's why Instagram is growing and Facebook is such a volume. Facebook Live is the go-to platform for people to put their messages out there and all the video capabilities that Facebook and YouTube and Vimeo and theses platforms have. They have realized the importance that video has in marketing and public relations efforts. Hugh: So there is a lot of dynamics that come to mind. Russ, we have interviewed several people on this topic. It's like the quote Williams said, “Music did not reveal all of its secrets to only one person.” We can take marketing/PR and substitute it in there. I am hearing some different things. What about you, Russ? Russell: Every time I talk to somebody about this, I learn new stuff. There is a lot to grasp. There is a lot of approaches. Like anything else, different people resonate with different people at a different level. Hugh: I am sorry to interrupt you, but there is so much to cover that we can't just cover it in one podcast. The other people had really valuable stuff; you're not just contradicting them. You are filling in some of the cracks that we don't have time to deal with. Russ asked earlier how we measure the effectiveness of your campaign. I had somebody we're talking about. I wanted to introduce them to Bill Gilmer for this direct mail piece, which he is so successful at. They said, “Oh, I tried that last year, and it didn't work.” I said, “You went to the gym one day and that didn't work, either?” I stole that from Bill. Bill says flat-out, “You have to do this for two years four times a year in order to see tangible results.” We get in there and want to see success overnight. That is not reasonable, isn't it? Geo: No, it isn't. When we sit down with a client, I tell them that it's going to take us six months to be able to honestly make an impact in what we're going to be doing for you. We need six months' minimum. A year is what we really like. Those efforts are going to take time to gather steam. Developing and distributing content takes time to get it out there, to use it in all its various forms. We are very clear. We can measure on a daily, weekly basis everything that you want to know. We can tell you what's happening, but we can't tell trends until we are able to see some data come in. I just started with a client, and we are doing Google AdWords. I think we're going to have a great return. Can you tell us what we're going to be doing as we go every week or so? Yes, we can, but we are going to be testing various messages. We are going to find out if that message resonated or if we changed a few phrases, that one worked better. Then we are going to work on that and test another one. Eventually, after a while, you have got the data to back up and say, “These key words work. These key phrases are what are getting people's attention and are causing them to react and take action.” Anybody who wants it overnight is not going to get it. You really need to understand that because otherwise you are just spinning your wheels. You are throwing money at the next thing the next day. If one doesn't work, we'll put money here. No, let's refine what we are doing here because this is the platform that our audience is on. Let's make sure we work to create the messaging that is going to be effective. Hugh: You spoke about live video as a platform. You have spoken about direct mail. That's a platform. Speak about some of the choices for platforms on digital marketing. Geo: Digital is like the wild, wild West. There are over 242 social media sites, and those don't include the dating sites. Just in social media alone, you have a plethora. Those are general social media, industry-specific, interest-specific, all kinds of platforms. Right now, the digital platforms that nonprofits and charitable organizations are using and that have the most effect is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterest, in descending order. Those are the platforms that are available in a social media sense. You also have your website, which should be the hub of all of your marketing materials. All of your social media should direct back to your website. That has to be a very fluid and dynamic piece of work that is easy to navigate, easy to understand, clearly defines messaging, benefits, features, all of those things that any business and organization is going to want to put in front of folks. Then you have your digital platforms, your blogs and digital publications and those areas where you can use your message to get out articles, white papers. You can place ads within most digital publications that are attuned to your audience. They are all out there right now. As I said, you can really focus your marketing dollars where it's going to be best and you will get the phrase return because the data on each of those platforms is very clear. You don't have to guess about what's going to happen once you're there, as long as you understand that it's the place that you're supposed to be. Hugh: When I work with charities of all kinds, I suggest they have someone internal that has the communications hat on. When they hire a person like you to build out their marketing campaign or their donor management correspondence, there needs to be somebody that is focused on bringing in all the data to one point. Somebody like you can be more effective in helping the organization. I find so many people working in charities that are underfunded are overworked and stretched. Imagine without the right data you can't be fully effective, can you? Geo: No, not at all. Nor would you expect to be. I wouldn't want to walk in and be thrown into a situation where I wasn't given the tools or data. If you are the receptionist in the morning and you are the marketing person in the afternoon, I consider that a waste of money. You might as well just break me a nice check and let me go play golf because that is about what you're going to get out of that person. It's nothing against them; it's just they don't know how to do it. When my firm comes in and works with a nonprofit, I bring a team of folks. I have the web designers, the writers, the social media experts, the AdWords experts, the graphic designers, whatever that organization is going to need. I am able to put the team together and only for what they're going to ned. I am not keeping a full staff and having to pay salaries for people who aren't working on that particular project to keep the company running, which I believe helps the nonprofits out because they get exactly what they need. It's on time, great time, great service. That is what I think makes a difference. We get in there, and as I always look at it as a partnership, business or charitable organization. I call them partners. It's not only for the partners I work with to produce, but it's also the folks I work with because I want to be their partners in marketing and public relations and be a part of their success and help them to reach their goals. When I am doing that, I am as intimately involved in their organization as they are. I learn everything about it. I get data, I get history, I get nuances and rumors and innuendos and anything else they want to share that can help me to better understand how to operate so I can help them do what they really want to do, which is grow, succeed, and serve their communities. Hugh: Russ, we are in the last part of our interview. I am going to toss it back to you for some comments and questions, if you will. Russell: One thing that came to mind is that you do have a lot of these smaller shops that don't have the staffing or funding. What kind of tools could someone like Hugh or I give to an organization that is in this situation that would empower them enough to gather enough information that you would actually be helpful to them? Geo: There are a lot of free and very inexpensive software platforms that you can use for data analysis, data gathering. Google Analytics is #1. You can go to your website and once you set up your Analytics code, you can see exactly what kind of traffic you are getting to your website, where it's coming from, how long they're there, what kind of pages they visit, so you can determine your strengths in messaging. Facebook Insights is another one where if you are putting out Facebook campaigns, you are getting data back on the users. There is plenty of remarketing and other tools that Facebook has that don't cost you anything. It's just the cost you are paying for placing your ads. A customer relationship management software program is critical for every organization, especially when you are talking about data and analytics. A couple that are great that I've used is HubSpot. There is a free version of it, which is not as robust as their full system, but it allows you to be able to capture names and email addresses and then also to share that with your email system, like MailChimp or Constant Contact. You have CRMs like SalesForce or Zoho. All have a cost to them, which you have to consider when you are putting your marketing budget together. The software platforms you are going to use to analyze your data. You have to keep all of these things in check and in mind and find the one that is going to work best for you. There are a ton of fundraising management tools that are online that can help you out. SalesForce, Raisers Edge, Donor Perfect. I like Salsa. It's a really robust system that is fairly inexpensive, but it gives you the opportunity to manage your donors online and your messaging to them. A couple of free ones that I've seen work but have not tried yet are Donor Manager, Metrics, Donor Box, and Civic RM. Those are all free. They have different capabilities. You go online and can pull up a web search and say “Free fundraising software.” You will get a list of all of those that are there. There are a lot of great resources that compare them and show the pluses and minuses. Russell: One of the things that comes to mind because a lot of it is sofware-driven. If you are a nonprofit charity, you can register on the Tech Soup platform, and you can get licenses for commercial software at a reduced rate. That is an important thing for nonprofits to do because you can spend a ton of money on software. Geo: Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Companies do, but they are bringing in millions and millions of dollars, and that software is their life blood. I's critical now. You can't do business without knowing where your information is coming from and where your customers are coming from. Hugh: Amazing. There is a lot to know about this topic. I think we are going to wrap up here. Geo, we have covered a lot of the topics that we had thought about covering. Is there an area we haven't asked you about that you want to give us some data in before we do a wrap? Geo: One of the things that we work on as we are working with clients is: What is important to you? The results are interesting. This comes back to, and I have to agree with what happened in the Content Marketing Institute survey in 2016. Engagement, brand awareness, and developing client loyalty are the top three things that content marketing and marketing efforts are going to do or the goal of those for an organization. They want to get their base engaged, they want to raise that brand awareness, and they want those folks to take that action, to join that organization, to be there not just for that one check, but to be there for five to ten years down the road. Look at when you are setting up your PR and marketing efforts, make sure you establish some very clear goals as to what you want to achieve from them. Getting your name out is great, but what happens when you do that? What then do you want to happen? How do you want in sequence your efforts to move forward? If you start with the brand exposure, how do you then make sure that that becomes an engagement effort, and then how does that translate to getting the folks to say, “You know what? I am going to find out more about the organization and write a check and sign up to help out.” Hugh: That's awesome. That sounds like a good summary statement. What do you think, Russ? Russell: Absolutely. What do we want people to know, feel, and do? It just comes back in so many ways, but that can't be overemphasized because that is the whole kit and caboodle. If you're not there, you will never reach the people you want to get to. Geo: Never. It's easy to miss them if you don't know what you're looking for. Hugh: Geo Ropert, Ropert and Partners is your company. Thank you for sharing this information. I have learned a lot today. Russ, it's given me some ideas for us to move SynerVision in another direction. Russell: There is a lot of information people need so they can be good clients. There is a bit of an art and science in the pro bono. Like Geo pointed out, it's not for something you need yesterday. You have to be clear on what it is that you want out of that engagement. Even as a pro bono client, you have to in some ways behave like a paying client. That is another discussion. Geo, thanks for all the brilliant information you have provided. There is so much out there to take into consideration. But the main thought I want to leave people with is that you can't afford not to talk about what you're doing. You can do the best work in the world, but if nobody knows about it, nobody sends you a check. Geo: No. No, they do not. If you know any nonprofits that need some help in PR or marketing, give me a call. I can help out. Hugh: You will give them a free consultation, won't you? Geo: Absolutely. The consultation is free. The work isn't. Hugh: We'll put your link in the notes. Geo, thank you so much. Geo: Thank you, Hugh, and thank you, Russ. It was great to be here. Russell: Thank you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cheryl Snapp Conner, public relations specialist, Forbes contributor. author, and founder of Content University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How she accidentally became a national columnist, Cheryl Snapp Conner shares her tops tips on making thought publishing work for your business. The one thing you must do. ThinkLikeAJournalist.com See the show notes.

Hugh: Greetings, it's Hugh Ballou. My guest today has been a really wonderful friend. She knows how to write the right message. The first time I met Cheryl Snapp Conner, she interviewed me. The next thing I knew, there was this article about me online on Forbes. She understood what I do. When people asked me what I did, I just sent them to that article because in one hour, she got it. We have an important topic to talk about today. Instead of wasting time telling you today about Cheryl, she is sitting in her office today in Salt Lake City, SnappConner PR. Cheryl, welcome. Cheryl: Thank you. Happy to be here, Hugh. Hugh: I have all kinds of people on this interview series, and I am going to ask you the same question I asked them. What makes you qualified to talk about this topic? Tell me what the topic is. How are we going to tell people what this subject is? Cheryl: We are going to talk about communications, which is essentially everything. I am an expert in communications. It's how I make my career. What a fortunate thing. It was only my minor in college. Most people are not aware of that. I had a different major topic. It was the minor that saved my career bacon. I thank my entire career and every gray hair I have earned in the field of communications. It matters. It is what has been essential to my career, how I have supported my family, and how we have developed our business. It is the core of every business. I have been an advocate and proponent of what we call thought leadership communication. From the very core, it was not always known or understood. Even in the earliest days of technology, where I got my career start, it was vital. If you think about those early technology products, they did not have an audience. There were IT people who attempted to communicate to each other, but that was only so useful. In fact, the very reason I was hired by my first technology job—actually second, I was an editor for IBM—but Novell, the leader that premiered local area networking, had a concept in place called networking of PCs. People who needed it or could benefit from it didn't know what it was. I was specifically chosen as someone who could communicate well and didn't understand a thing about technology so I wouldn't have lost my ability to talk about these topics in a way that the general public could grasp and understand. Press releases, not that helpful. Feeds and feeds of something people don't care about or know about anyway is not going to help. We began by telling the stories of real businesses: law offices, medical practices, education organizations. What do you do? What was the problem? What were your choices? The kind of things you tell your best friend. As you make this decision, who did you have to convince? How much did it cost? If you did this over again, what would you do better next time? Those are meaningful discussions, and that helped. The same is true for every company since. Every entrepreneur has a topic. They have things they are experts in that others could be very pleased to know about. Hugh: I invite people to go to Forbes and search Cheryl Snapp Conner. You have a whole series in this entrepreneur channel. Those articles are just so helpful. You really helped me understand what communication is all about, especially with words. You talk about being outside of the technology so you could talk about it differently. Our audience is social entrepreneurs. They are running a business, and we are so intimate with everything that we don't know how to tell people about it. It seems silly, but we don't. It's the same thing with churches and synagogues and local charities. We do great stuff, but the world doesn't know about it. You are sitting in SnappConner PR. Is it snappconner.com? Cheryl: Yes, snappconner.com. But if you just Google my name, you will find it quite easily. Hugh: You have a team of highly skilled entrepreneurs. You are strategically placed in a very nice facility, a very good, warm, friendly workplace. I was quite impressed with you and your staff when I visited last week. There is also a gap between the professional agency that does it for you and how to raise the bar on creating our own. That is a passion for you: helping all those people who are out there and don't need a full-time agency as they aren't ready for one. Content University. Cheryl: The legions of entrepreneurs, particularly social entrepreneurs, shouldn't hire an agency, as they can't afford it yet. But they do need a bit of savvy. If they do what they can that is free or very low-cost, that is what they should do for as long as they possibly can. Get the help where it is truly needed. Don't over-spend. That applies to every entrepreneur. Too many will either ignore communications and PR entirely because they feel like they will do that when they become profitable, and then they never do. Or they make mistakes that are just costly or hard to recover from. Or they go whole hog and spend way too much money on the wrong things. That is a waste in another way. In part, it is a waste of the impact you could have had if you used the investment more frugally and with more savvy in the first place. Hugh: Well put. These leaders run a charity like a community foundation or a purpose-based charity; they run a church or a synagogue; or they have a small business. We are thinking outside the box. We are doing something innovative. People need to know either to buy from us or to be volunteers or donors for our organization. What is the single most important thing to learn about developing and publishing content to make sure that their vision is really clear? Cheryl: I am so glad you asked. There is one thing, but that one thing has two components. One is to really pan down your message and understand it yourself, to verbalize it in the best way possible before you begin. If you think about it, your messaging—and I have a template that I provide free of charge for anyone who'd like it—if you have the best words possible to express what you do and the value proposition for those who should participate, that is a big key. Do that first. If you are in the press two or three places, you have probably moved the needle right there so long as those places are credible and the message is consistent. If your message was random or, heaven forbid, conflicting in those places, you could have done a negative to yourself. Think about how frustrating it is for someone to be in my chair and ask, “Hugh Ballou, what do you do?” And if you paused and said, “If you have an hour, I could tell you. Anything less than that and I would be selling it short because it has so many facets,” you'd be absolutely right, and I'd be absolutely annoyed. I would not be able to walk away and write that article. I would say, “Figure it out. Come back and send me a note when you've got it figured out.” Having that message clear, which we have a template for, and—this is the golden rule of communications—think about your readers, your listeners first. So many people just can't get over this author's ego. It's my voice, it's my persona. I need to be true in my authentic voice. Nobody cares what you dreamed about on your motorcycle trip, even if it was inspiring, or your innermost thoughts about Martin Luther King. Yes, again, inspiring, but your readers care about what's urgent and high-priority to them. That could be that they want to make difference in an area you are passionate about. Okay, tell them how. Give them something to grasp on. Give them something they can do, something they can know, and a way for them to get on board that is not a hard sell but an invitation that allows them to go as far as they'd like. Another aspect of getting over that ego is thinking about where it should appear. Maybe your ego and your credibility would be well-served if you are an author for Forbes. That is great, but the people who say, “I need that. What's it going to take? Hook a fella up. Make that introduction because I need the credibility of the masthead next to my name. I need that marketing megaphone.” That is the very reason that publication would flee from your presence. They are not there to provide you with a marketing megaphone; they are there to serve their readers, just as you should be. So yes, maybe several articles, like the one you gave the interview to me for. That is an anchor. That is a great thing. For the bulk of your communication, put it somewhere where people can more readily engage with you on LinkedIn or Medium, where legally and appropriately you can put a full italicized paragraph (so you are not misleading people that it is a part of your article) that lets them know what they can do next to reach you, engage with you, and subscribe. Plus, people who get onto those platforms are ready for a dialogue. They didn't have to go register for a profile on a magazine where they are kind of semi-nervous or embarrassed and their comment is likely to be, “Nice article. Thank you.” They are ready to engage in a dialogue, and they are more than halfway down the path to getting on board and actually doing something with you. There is a gentleman I wrote about recently. You can find my article about him; his name is Benjamin P. Hardy. Hugh: I saw that one. Cheryl: One of the three most-read writers on Medium. 50,000 subscribers that he gained in a period of 16 months. He made some mistakes in that process, which he was open about. That is key, too, that he was authentic about it. What he did and how he did it, he gave me in this interview. That is gold information. Golden information. One of the things he said is while he has been published in Fortune, Business Insider, and Huffington Post, that is not where he got his subscribership. 99+% came from Medium. Isn't that interesting? Hugh: Fascinating. I heard a couple of things there. One being a Scottish Presbyterian, I heard the word “free.” Could you send me the link? Or send them to where they can download the document. Also, I heard “consistency.” That is something we as entrepreneurs are not very good about. If we want people to buy our product or service, or we want donors to stay donors and raise our donations, we need to be sending them consistent content about what is happening. I encourage leaders who are building organizations to have what I call “advocates,” people who are so important that you send them updates. They are successful people who are in a position to connect you to other successful people. They need information. We call that top-of-mind marketing. They remember you because you stayed in touch. Cheryl: I call that influencer marketing. Hugh: I love it. Cheryl: Those advocates have power; it's exponential. Everybody wins. They win if they share valued information, and if you are the conduit of that, everybody gains. Hugh: What we talked about in my interview in 2013, I reframe leadership as influence. People think that a conductor is a dictator. We cannot influence people with a little white stick, but you can influence them, too. Leadership is influence. Being able to articulate that in words is a great gift. This is so helpful, thank you. How do we measure results? We send stuff out, and it just goes out there. How do we know it's working? Cheryl: There are multiple metrics. In the final analysis, it's going to be the growth or success of the program. But to know where I am specifically getting my best return for the efforts I am making, there are multiple things you could consider. One would be increasing subscribership. In the case of Benjamin Hardy, he noted that even when he was getting 10,000 new subscribers a week, a lot of them were passive participants who were interested and compelled by what he had to say, but that was the extent of it. So he developed a process. First of all, he recognized that when he had a really viral, home-run article come out, several hundred thousand people would be hitting his website. He said that his website sucked, he was not prepared, and he had no way to gather in the traction. Now he has learned. Instead of sending people direct to his homepage, he sends people to a landing page that says, Here is how to subscribe. If you do, you can have my free e-book. His e-book is really good: Slipstream Time Hacking. He put a lot of thought and energy into that book. It is high value. Give something of high value when people subscribe so they are compelled. In his case, he sends people five email notes in sequence after they have subscribed, describing five of the principles he considers important for productivity. On the sixth mailing, he sends them an invitation to purchase his first product. It is an intro course that is $19. It teaches his seven productivity principles but does so in a high-level way. It's not like he is giving away a store of everything he could provide. It is high-level, but it is high-value. People get on board and have purchased something. Now he has an active, engaged audience that he knows. For example, he is a big proponent of the principles of Stephen R. Covey. Those were an influence for the most viral article he wrote. While he doesn't have a business or an agenda yet, he knows that he will, and he knows that it is a foregone conclusion that he will need to write, so he is honing those abilities. He is 28 years old for one thing. With that massive audience that he has amassed, those who have subscribed and those who have purchased something, whatever book he introduces next is ordained to be an instant best-seller.  Imagine what you could do with that level of influence. What kind of change could you enact with that power behind you? Hugh: When I work with people building out these enterprises, we redefine leadership as influence. Underneath that is building relationship. I will also tell them that underneath communication is building relationship. What you have just described is him building relationship with a tribe of people. Cheryl: He has. Hugh: We tend to want to rush and get to the sale rather than creating value for people. That is what I heard you say in that. He has created some unique value for people who are now poised on the edge of their seats for the next piece. Cheryl: Another influencer, Dean Graziosi, is in the area of real estate. But there is social entrepreneurship in some of his thinking and some of his offerings. His motto, which I love is, “Provide insane value.” Insane value, isn't that cool. Because he has been successful in doing that, he has attracted people. It's inevitable. When you get that much traction, there are going to be a few vocal people who disagree, who have a bad day and need a hug, or maybe who are just plain turkeys. He says never to ignore that vocal minority. Listen to them. While it is painful, what is the kernel of what they said that maybe you should learn from? Consider that. Consider the source, but also consider that maybe there was a kernel of a message in there that you really did need to hear. That is a little humbling, but important as well. Hugh: I like to go another step and have dialogue with them. Sometimes it's not the words that is the meaning, but something behind the words. Understanding building relationship and value in that communication. Cheryl: Sometimes they just want to be heard. They know that you heard them, that you cared, that you listened. Maybe that's enough. Often it is. Hugh: You don't have to debate the issue. Just say, “Thank you.” Getting over ourselves, as you said earlier, not everybody is going to hear us the same way, and that is so helpful. You mentioned earlier thought leadership. Digging deeper, what separates that? Do organizations have more than one thought leader? Cheryl: That term maybe is jargon to some, but the term “expert source” is another. “Influencer” is another that everybody understands. Thought leadership would mean that you are somebody with authority who is regarded, who has a following that respect and anticipate and listen to what you say. In fact, there is good reason for there to be multiple thought leaders in an organization. For one, suppose there is only one thought leader, who is the CEO, and the CEO leaves or makes a misstep. Think about that. If there are multiple employees, there is another name for that kind of phenomena that not everyone understands, but I think it is powerful: the term is “employee advocacy.” Yes, if there are people in your organization that not only are allowed, but also are invited or compelled to join with you, they gain authority and skills that make them promotable, and they are magnifying your message in a way you could not achieve on your own. I have told this story a few times, but I think it bears retelling. A Salt Lake organization had a successful IPO. A new Global Vice President of Communications comes in who is a powerful woman. She observes around her that her sales VPs were publishing on LinkedIn unbeknownst to anyone; they had gone rogue. Not because they were trying to be rebellious, but because it was working. They were gaining sales. Imagine how much better and safer that could be, now that they have SEC requirements to think about. But if they are given the ammunition to keep their brand and message consistent, it saves them the work of having to reinvent every wheel to decide what they are going to write about and share. One individual I so admire is John Bowen. He works with financial coaches. He conducts an extensive study every six months so the people he councils and teaches are not having to think, “You have taught me what to do. I need to think of a topic.” It's handed to them. It's golden. Now they are walking within the brand, but they are creating their own influence, those power relationships, in a very effective way. There is research currently that shows brand advertising. If you see me holding a Diet Coke, you would think I like Diet Coke, and you'd be right. That is not as effective as account selling, where you have a relationship with an individual or there is an environment of trust that is a head start of what you want to do next with that individual. Foster that, and foster as much of it as you can. It's also a reputation protection. If that message is told consistently by multiple people, and you will understand this, there is a polyphonic sound that occurs. There is an orchestra of outcome, not a lone voice. That is powerful. If somebody makes a mistake, we are human, and gets into a reputational mess, you are better protected that way because the whole organization and message did not come down on the back of one flawed individual. Hugh: You have a symphony or choir of high-performing individuals, which you nurture. That is why I have reinvented leadership because what we have been taught is not working, is not right. You have time constraints today, but I wanted to talk about Content University, your passion behind that, and content marketing. Cheryl: We developed a program. The editor I wrote for for four-and-a-half years at Forbes, when Forbes moved headquarters, he took the jump into entrepreneurship and joined my team. He developed with us a curriculum. It's not a lengthy curriculum; it's ten lessons. My thought was: How could we put Tom Post in a box and provide that kind of counseling to everyone because they can't afford it? We made it affordable. That program, which we have on a video book, online, and workshops with people, be it either in person or via Zoom as well, is $1,000. Thought leadership in a box. Every person or organization can manage that. It is honestly less than the price of one article you would engage with an agency to write for you, let alone get it published. Most people can complete that training in ten hours or less. We do provide some direct coaching with them to help make sure they succeed. At the end of that, not only have they completed an exam that gives them our certification—we are working with Hugh to see if we can get an Advanced Continuing Education credit for as many verticals as possible—and a completed publish-worthy article that we would help that individual publish if needed so that they know what to do with it. Even as valuable as a great piece of writing is what to do with it to advance your vision, your mission, your business. That is available and low-cost. The last thing is our Snappington Post newsletter. Any of our columns or website will tell you how to subscribe to that. It's free. That word you love. You just have to subscribe to it. It won't over-burden you. Every other week, we will send you an email of the articles we have created of value. We are going to start to add to that the best of Content University, the best writing that comes out of our constituent base. Hugh: That's great. We just don't know how to tell our story. That is priceless. Contentuniversity.com? Cheryl: Yes. Or Content U. Either way. Hugh: Cheryl, as we wrap up here, I want to invite you to give people a tip that is going to help them revise or rethink their whole communication strategy. But first, it's snappconner.com or contentuniversity.com or contentu.com. Cheryl's articles can also be found in SynerVision's Nonprofit Performance 360 Magazine and lots of other places that are important on the web. Google her name and you will see some amazing articles. Just a few that she has referred to are important to learn from, but there are many more. As we wrap up this great interview, I am inspired and want to go write something. As we wrap up this interview, what is a tip you like to leave people with? What do you like to tell people so they can go out and do something different? Give them a good tip. Cheryl: You can do it. One of my favorite writers I met on LinkedIn, Chris Spurvey, 14 months ago had never written a thing in his life. Nothing. He became a best-selling writer of a self-published book. In the first 30 days, which was in last December, he sold 10,000 copies of his book himself. It's Time to Sell by Chris Spurvey. Follow his story. I wish I could say he was a Content University graduate, but he intuitively discovered the principles and used them. He writes and shares freely how he did that. You can do it. If he can do it, you can do it. Hugh: Cheryl, you are wonderful and amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your tips and your time today. Cheryl: Thank you, Hugh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Interview with Cheryl Snapp Conner

Cheryl Snapp Conner is founder and CEO of SnappConner PR and creator of Content University (TM). She is a popular speaker, author and national columnist on business communication and PR. In addition to heading her PR agency from Salt Lake City, Cheryl writes for Forbes, PC Magazine, Inc and the HuffingtonPost and is a guest contributor for the Wall Street Journal.  She’s the other of Beyond PR: Communicate Like a Champ in the Digital Age. ClearPoint Strategies has named her one of the world's Top 20 Business Thought Leaders to Follow.  Cheryl is giving to all our listeners a FREE COPY OF Definitive Guide to Thought Leadership! Go to her website to download To Contact Cheryl : www.snappconner.com http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/#598b801c1c7a

Become a thought leader in your field. Wouldn't you love to learn how? Join us on this podcast with Cheryl Snapp Conner, owner of Snapp Conner PR and developer of the Content University. Cheryl will share with us the key importance of boosting your presence on the internet in the right way, and the keys to becoming a respected thought leader in your industry.This show is broadcast live on W4CY Radio – (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (http://www.talk4radio.com/) on the Talk 4 Media Network (http://www.talk4media.com/).

VoiceAmerica Broadcasts Live from CEO Space in Las Vegas. CEO Jeff Spenard, VP of Operation Ryan Treasure, Senior Executive Producer Winston Price and Ken Rochan from The Umbrella Syndicate interview all the change makers from the event. Tune in and hear the Speakers, Faculty members and attendees tell there stories. This is the premiere event for Entrepreneurs and business leaders.

On this episode of AMPLIFIED!, Ken and Gisella will be talking with Cheryl Snapp Conners about how she got to where she is today. Cheryl Snapp Conner, founder and managing partner of Snapp Conner PR, the most progressive PR firm in the Intermountain region, and a driving voice behind the concept of authentic and high quality content as a catalyst for PR and marketing goals. Conner is a popular keynote speaker, a contributor to the Forbes Entrepreneurs channel and a guest contributor to WSJ. She is author of the Forbes eBook Beyond Words: How to Communicate Like a Champion in the Digital Age. We will be asking questions about business, PR, marketing, trends, etc.

On this episode of AMPLIFIED!, Ken and Gisella will be talking with Cheryl Snapp Conners about how she got to where she is today. Cheryl Snapp Conner, founder and managing partner of Snapp Conner PR, the most progressive PR firm in the Intermountain region, and a driving voice behind the concept of authentic and high quality content as a catalyst for PR and marketing goals. Conner is a popular keynote speaker, a contributor to the Forbes Entrepreneurs channel and a guest contributor to WSJ. She is author of the Forbes eBook Beyond Words: How to Communicate Like a Champion in the Digital Age. We will be asking questions about business, PR, marketing, trends, etc.

Cheryl is the Founder of Snapp Conner PR, and a driving voice behind the concept of authentic and high quality content as a catalyst for meeting optimal PR and marketing goals. She is a popular keynote speaker and the Author of the upcoming book Beyond Words: How to Communicate Like a Champion in the Digital Age.

All entrepreneurs want to get their branding message out. Take it one step further and get the upper hand over your competition. Engage your most undervalued asset—your voice—and advance it as your strategic weapon. Cheryl Snapp Conner is founder and managing partner of Snapp Conner PR with more than 26 years of experience in public relations. In addition she is a regular Forbes contributor, a published author and highly sought speaker. She recognized early in her career the power and impact of clear communication and the ability to leverage content to influence and engage clients. Instead of hype and self-promotion to capture and retain prospective clients in her niche market, Cheryl relies on thought leadership, experience and expertise, and her voice. Cheryl has been able to create her own platform and inspire many other like-minded entrepreneurs. Attesting to her popularity, a recent article she wrote for Forbes Magazine had over 10 million views. You don't want to miss her presentation!

Cheryl is the Founder of Snapp Conner PR, and a driving voice behind the concept of authentic and high quality content as a catalyst for meeting optimal PR and marketing goals. She is a popular keynote speaker and the Author of the upcoming book Beyond Words: How to Communicate Like a Champion in the Digital Age.

May 14, 2014 - Read the Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1jETx8D. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. While tech entrepreneurship continues to be dominated by men (see Cheryl Snapp Conner’s piece), women appear to be playing a larger role in the crowdfunding ecosystem. Note that Sally Outlaw, included in this article, is one of my clients. There is a growing list of influential women leading the crowdfunding industry. Sara Hanks, CEO of CrowdCheck, Jilliene Helman, CEO of Realty Mogul, Jenny Kassan, CEO of Cutting Edge Capital, Lesley Mansford, CEO of Razoo, Sally Outlaw, CEO of Peerbackers, Danae Ringelmann, Co-founder of Indiegogo, Joy Schoffler, CEO of Leverage PR, and Joanna Schwartz, CEO of EarlyShares will all join me for a live discussion about the crowdfunding industry.