Marketing Series Coming to a (WV) City Near You

Alright – time for some news about something I’ve wanted to talk about for awhile, but was kind of “embargoed” against doing so.

For those of you not aware of the term “embargo,” I can empathize. The first time I sent out a press release, I had no idea what I was doing. More often than not in life, I have learned via trial by fire, which makes for a toasty, charred backside. By dumb luck, persistence, or some combination, I got an actual editor from a real publication (Time?) on the phone. I explained to her that we had a press release coming out and I wanted to give her early notice, but that they could not yet print anything. She said, “You mean it’s embargoed?”

Well, I had two choices: 1. bs my way through it. This probably could have easily been done, since her tone clearly indicated an affirmative response was appropriate. Or 2. say “huh?”, tip my head to the side, and let her hear the rocks fall out and hit the floor.

Of course I chose #2! “I’m kind of embarrassed, but this is my first time doing anything like this and I don’t know what that means.” She then very politely explained to me that “embargoing” a press release means floating it out there to news editors (or these days, bloggers) so they could have advance notice to do a story before the general public gets wind, but that they can’t actually release any stories until a certain date. And then she wrote the most beautiful story about my press release and asked if she could be the future Mrs. Seibert.

All of that is true except for the last sentence. She didn’t take my follow up call and probably laughed with her friends about the rube she just got off the phone with. Or I think too much of myself, she forgot about the call as soon as she hung up, and went about her day. Just like Second Thoughts (Anyone know where I can find this video online?).

West Virginia Marketing Series

So back to my current news. Some partners and I are putting on a pretty progressive executive marketing workshop series around West Virginia this spring all over the state: up North in Wheeling and Morgantown, in the eastern Panhandle in Martinsburg, and on down to Charleston and Huntington.

Among the techniques discussed will be search engine reputation management, blogging, social media, and a lot of other forms of marketing and client relation tactics. We have some special guest speakers lined up and a really solid day, complete with live feedback on the marketing efforts of people in our audience. I’m sure I’ll speak about this more over the coming days, but in the meantime, check out the site to learn more: Next Generation Marketing.

Oh, and if you’re reading this post, Time reporter…call me. Please? I just want to know what I did wrong. Like you’re so good. Who needs you anyway? Not me. No sir, not Justin Seibert. I’m doing just fine. (Seriously, I’m here for you – call, email, twitter, smoke signal.)