Telling stories.

Call it public relations, marketing, community outreach, or business development, telling stories is the bottom line.

How are you telling yours?

Do people trust you? Admire you? Want to do business with you?

When we tell your story – in front of the people you want to reach and through methods that make sense for you – we help you:

• Attract customers

• Make your existing clients feel proud to be associated with you

• Attract media attention

• Boost your reputation in the communities you serve

• Present a consistent story in all of the methods we use

What we bring to the table that other agencies cannot is history – your own history as part of telling your story, to be sure, but we also get you engaged in the history of the communities you serve in ways that benefit your business or organization, you personally, and the communities themselves.

I like to call this part matchmaking. What are you interested in personally? How can we find the right match for you in the historical community?

This is legacy building stuff, as well as good business sense.

People don’t normally think of “history” as a strategic business tool, but it can be.

Let’s talk, and put our professional team and historical network to work for you!

A whole lot of small businesses took a hit during the past few years. Many suspended their marketing all together. Some cut way back, but continued to do what they’d been doing for years on a smaller scale.

Now that the economy is improving, those old ways just aren’t working! Yellow pages, newspaper ads – that’s just not how people find you any more.  Local people find their local business online through Google (we know this, don’t we?). And that means professional services, trades, restaurants, retail, health and beauty services – you name it. The Internet is the future, but I keep meeting small businesses and nonprofits who are just not “there” in the ways they should be.

In a recent teleseminar I attended with business coach and online marketing guy Kevin Wilke I learned the astounding statistics that:

•  $2.6 billion per month in sales results from local online searches for local businesses

• 83% of shoppers research a local business online before visiting the business

• 98% of shoppers choose a business that comes up on a Google search (I mean, really, when’s the last time you even made it to page 3?).

Chances are, you are already paying for marketing that’s not working as you would like it to.

And that’s where we can help. We can provide a whole lot of content and strategy that can put you “top of mind” online.

What does this have to do with HISTORY?

Back to my title.

Healthy Local Small Businesses = Healthy Local History

• The more money you make, the more you are able to be generous in your community.

• Most of the small business owners I know are “from here,” and they love their local history. If they are “from away,” they’ve chosen to locate in a historical community for a reason.

• As part of an online strategy, an involvement with local history can get you media attention through a PR campaign (all online), a more strategic website, lots of content, a special event, an appearance at an event – the list goes on. On-line, and off-line – but everything that’s off-line IS online.

As a small business owner or nonprofit director, you do not, and you should not do this stuff yourself – and that’s what stops most people. They think they do, they don’t have the time, or it’s too much to learn right now.  I understand!

But how much business are you missing out on by NOT being easily findable through Google searches?

How much is your local community missing out on by not knowing about you, and by not enjoying your success and generosity?

Leadership on "history."

I've been thinking about it a lot since this past Sunday, when I participated in a panel discussion at the Ipswich (MA) Museum about a local oral history project called "People and Place." This is a MODEL project for any community to follow. The book, exhibit, talks, and articles that resulted are the best I've seen. Terri Unger and Lucy Myers, the project directors, did outstanding work and gave a gift to their community that will last forever. I encourage you to buy their book and see what I mean!

In a conversation I had that afternoon with one of the donors, a bank president, I suggested that EVERY community where his bank branches are located should do a version of this project.

And that got me to thinking about leadership.

Too often, people who don't have a degree in history think they aren't qualified to "do history." WRONG!!! We all have a role to play!

How can you provide "historical" leadership in your community?

I know an attorney in Salem, MA who is organizing the first-ever statue of a (historical) woman. I know a real estate developer in Boston who commissioned a history of a 100-year-old social services agency he directs.

The examples go on and on, but what about you? What needs to be done in your community, and in the communities your business serves? Please dive in!

As always, I am happy to discuss before you do....

Be well, and be in touch! 

Bonnie    

Wow. Talk about a missed opportunity!

I just got off the phone with a colleague and friend who was instrumental in starting an oral history project here on Boston’s North Shore complete with book, exhibit, and special events.

One of the companies that sponsored the project – I won’t name names! – happens to be where roughly half of the elderly people interviewed had worked decades ago. This is a wealthy company, and they gave a very small amount. But here’s the thing. They also didn’t take advantage of the PR opportunities the project presented!

We must think of these kinds of situations as more than about writing a check. Both sides need to win. This company could have held an open house for the interviewees and their families, promoted it on their website, Facebooked or placed ads about their proud support, written a story for their newsletter – it’s a long list of PR and marketing opportunities that would have gotten them all kinds of media coverage, happy customers and staff, and new clients.

This article below goes into lots more detail. I hope you enjoy it!

Where are the opportunities for you to partner with a history project in ways that benefit your business, the project, and your community? I know they are there!

Should we “need” special designation? No. But 1) if not, we would get lost, and 2) these months provide opportunities for celebration, education, and marketing – and that’s where you and your organization or business can benefit.

Yesterday, I gave a talk about my forthcoming book for the Cambridge (MA) Center for Adult Education and I was so thrilled with the audience’s response. Wonderful questions and comments that will help me make it better!

One of the women I discussed was Lydia Maria Francis Child, and I’ve shared part of her story at this link including lessons learned from her about courage, communication, and conviction – still relevant today!

How can she inform and advise us as business people? As civic leaders? As educators?

My talk was/is about connecting these dots – and about encouraging YOU to join this work! In fact, here are links to some articles that give you a number of ideas on HOW to get involved, and HOW the work will benefit your business, organization, and community.

I hope you enjoy them – and let’s brainstorm about specifics!

I am often asked about women’s history, Well, that’s interesting, but who cares? Beyond the entertainment value in telling stories, Why does women’s history matter? What does it mean? What can it do for me? Why should I support it? Here are some answers to those questions, offered during National Women’s History Month (March), because women’s history not only matters it carries with it a contemporary urgency.

First, with rare exceptions, women’s history is simply not being taught below the self-selected college level. Especially in public schools, where testing and corporate operating models have gained so much ground in recent years, women’s history is considered superfluous. Girls and young women are not learning about the centuries-old, hard-won journey that brought us to where we are in 2012, nor do they know who provided leadership. One result of this omitted information is the loss of a collective female identity. Another is the loss of a powerful and endless source of pride, not to mention hundreds of role models who are inspiring examples of what can be achieved.

Too many of today’s girls and young women still struggle with low self esteem, the deeply rooted believe that they “can’t,” or that certain obstacles are insurmountable. Too many struggle with money problems, the inability to stand up to a boss or romantic partner, or to take better care of their physical and mental health. We women are still taught to put everyone else first, and then we beat ourselves up when things don’t go well for us. These behaviors have been centuries in the making, and studying women’s history shows women and girls that it is not their fault – yes, they are responsible for their lives, but the context in which they find themselves now is not their fault.

There is comfort in having this knowledge, and in having role models to study, emulate, and help us find a way to succeed. Girls and young women must be able to imagine a healthy, happy, productive future for themselves that does not depend on their attachment to a man. What’s more, finding ways to have girls and young women do their own research to uncover and tell the stories is incredibly empowering. Not only will their original work add to our collective body of knowledge, but they will likely adopt their subject as a friend and mentor, albeit historical, who will always be on their side.

Those of us women involved in women’s history are filled with gratitude for the ballots we cast, the education we have access to, the jobs we hold, the businesses we start, and the kinds of relationships we deserve. Truly, there is joy in “doing” women’s history.

Individuals, businesses, and organizations that support women’s history send a strong message to women and girls: You matter, and we care about you. We simply cannot leave women’s history to the schools because they are not and cannot do the job. This is not the fault of teachers, but of the “teaching to the test” requirements that are thrust upon them. Instead, we need a community-wide response from the private and public sectors to sustain women’s history.

From a strictly public relations and marketing standpoint, telling women and girls “We care about you” is an appealing message. Supporting women’s history boosts a business’s reputation, and allows its customers to view the business in a new way.

A business (for profit or nonprofit) or individual could sponsor a school project or guest speaker; find tour guides, researchers, or authors and back them; contact the cultural organizations in their community and ask how they could support an exhibit, lecture series, or special event; host an event at their place of business or local historical society, where guests enjoy a program and special discounts for women in honor of National Women’s History Month.

These are the kinds of creative (well-publicized) initiatives that will demonstrate leadership on women’s history in the communities a business serves or where an individual resides. Women customers, members, donors, colleagues, employees, and neighbors do pay attention -- for themselves and the girls and young women in their lives. Those girls and young women could be profoundly impacted in ways you may never know about, but take action anyway. Women’s history matters, and your good works will come back to you.