As we enter the holiday season, my heart is filled with gratitude for all the things that come together to make magic happen at Olive.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the ethos of Olive. She has grown to be something so much bigger than me. We have the honor of serving so many different clients and communities and it is truly a privilege. Often people ask me what differentiates Olive and the truth is I really don’t know.
Afterall, I haven’t worked at a different agency for a really long time and while I get amazing feedback from our clients and partners, perspective can easily shift for so many reasons. The truth is that every agency has something uniquely special about them.
In an effort to draw on our uniqueness without minding what everyone else is doing, I shared this with my team and I want to share it with you.
If you take the “i” out of Olive and bump the “o” in its place, you get “love”. I want Olive to be a place that communicates through love. By love, I mean, I want us to continue to be the heart part of business… the humanity piece. I want to work on projects that amplify powerful people, brands, communities, and projects that bring out the goodness of the world.
When I started this career path, I didn’t even know what public relations was and I wanted to go into business and/or journalism. The idea of “if it bleeds, it leads” just didn’t sit well with me and I decided I wanted to find a career that would focus on taking up airwaves with positive uplifting news. I’m so fortunate to have achieved that.
So, as I think of Olive, I think of all the ways we help to elevate the visibility of important and joyful things that make life better. Sometimes it’s serious and sometimes it’s light, but it’s always positive.
In today’s landscape, so much has changed. A lot of people think it doesn’t work as well as it used to and if you hear someone say that, get really curious. When has it ever not been important to have a positive relationship with the audiences an organization or business serves? If it doesn’t work, what they are really saying is that what they are doing isn’t working. At Olive, while we focus on the heart part of business, we do it with precision and experience. We know that you can do a lot more good if you do it strategically, and so we don’t take a “see what sticks” approach. Instead we take a “let’s imagine the perfect outcome first” approach and we work backwards.
If you are finding yourself in the rut of “it doesn’t work”, you may not be asking the right questions. Here are the questions we start with to get our clients on track:
- What have you been doing? It’s good to recap how you have been spending your time and energy with marketing and public relations. Many people have adjusted their strategy to an all-social media effort. Let me tell you… things have changed, and they will continue to change. In the beginning, it was fairly easy to build an audience on social media. Businesses could have a lot of success building an audience with consistent posts and no advertising. Then around 11 years ago, the platforms started to require a combination of posting and advertising. Today, you are lucky if only 2% of your followers see your content and let’s not mention how few people can discover you who are not in your network. The truth is that your strategy is dated if you are using social media only.
- What do you want to achieve? As I said above, we are big on targets. This is especially critical today. Consumers have so many tools to control what information they let in. Once you have a vision of what you want to achieve, you need to identify who will help you achieve that vision. Once you identify who, you need to ask yourself what the best way is to reach them. You need to be specific. Casting a wide net is a thing of the past.
- What action can you take now to get things moving? So often people get overwhelmed at this stage. Small deliberate steps with pauses for celebration can really help you to get things moving.
- What can you do in-house or with your existing team and/or what resources do you need to get to the next level? There is an agency that is perfectly aligned with where you are. If you want to achieve great results, we recommend working with a skilled team. This is a very time-consuming part of business, and relationships matter. When you decide what to outsource, start talking to your friends about who they recommend. Good people work with good people. Find someone in your network who is thriving in the areas you want to improve and get their recommendations.
- What areas are you uncertain about? Who do you know that can help you? Every business owner is challenged to find an area that really is not their greatest skill. If you don’t know a lot about something, ask for help. Start by understanding it better to learn what questions you should be asking. You can follow the same advice as above and ask someone who is thriving.
- What is your timeline? Success comes step by step and sustainable success takes time. By creating a realistic timeline, you give yourself a winning start. You can always get guidance from trusted professionals on timelines. For example, if you are going to embark on a media relations campaign, lead times are critical, so you want to be realistic about what you can expect. Same thing about partnerships. Different organizations have different approval processes and lead time can be essential. Additionally, in assessing the general time of investment to achieve goals, it’s better to be modest in the beginning and adjust for success.
We would love to support you in getting to the heart of your business to reach the right audience and to achieve the vision you have created. As you relish in the spirit of the season, we hope you take time to think about what you are grateful for. If you are still reading, we are so deeply grateful. And the truth is… we are also grateful to the others that stopped reading too. They are probably busy trying to figure out their next move. Wishing you and yours happy holidays!