Customer Service: Taking PR From “Good” to “Great”
A couple of weeks ago, Zoë Siskos of Social Media Group asked me if I wanted to test-drive a new Ford Escape. Not being a journalist or a car/A-list blogger, I was flattered but curious, and my first reaction was: “Sure, but why?”
Zoë’s goal (ergo, her agency’s) for her client was to get “non-car oriented people in Ford cars to test them out.” Nothing else was required from me: no blog post, nothing. I wasn’t going to be paid for this, and the gas was on me, but insurance was taken care of.
Now, I’ve done my agency time and I know how the whole word-of-mouth thing is supposed to work. But I’ve met Zoë, like her, and one of our cars was due to go into the garage that week, so I thought: why not?
I’ve never had a particularly good perception of the brand, a view that I’m sure has been colored by my husband’s vivid memories of being regularly stranded, years ago, in England due to a Ford Escort that would reliably overheat. We’re a Toyota family, and we like it that way.
Balancing the PR Bubble
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I tweet quite a bit. (Today I apparently crossed the 8,110 tweet-mark without realizing it). But every now and then, I’ll “go dark,” as they say in the theater.
You’ll hear from me once, maybe twice a day. Sometimes I just don’t have anything to say; sometimes I don’t come across conversations I want to engage in. And sometimes I happen upon conversations that are so negative or ridiculous or (enter your adjective of choice here ______ ) that I just need to turn it off for a bit.
What I’ve realized, though, is that when I go dark, I am making my own little attempt to break out of my Twitter bubble. Because there are other bubbles that need attending to.
Please, don’t get me wrong. I love Twitter, the new connections and relationships it has helped me forge, and the incredible amount I learn through it each day.
But there are a lot of other bubbles that are equally important to me; my “IRL” bubble of people I’ve met and worked with over the years, my IABC bubble, my email bubble… you get the drift.
Filed under Communication, Public Relations, Shonali Burke, Social Media, Twitter | Tags: communications, daily show, david gregory, ellen degeneres, iabc, jon stewart, nbc, Networking, Public Relations, today, Twitter | Comments (12)To ABC or Not, That is the Question
A couple of weeks ago we started talking about accreditation on Twitter (at least, I did). I serve on IABC’s Accreditation Council so, clearly, think it’s a good thing. I was curious about what others thought, so I asked my networks why they had pursued, or were pursuing, accreditation, and what value they derived from it.
What’s the Value of Accreditation?
The response overwhelmed me, not just by how many there were, but by how strongly people feel about accreditation.
There were a few recurring themes: curiosity as to whether one “measured up,” validation of one’s approach to communications, and value in staying involved with process by being a mentor or grader. On LinkedIn, Mary Hills, ABC, who’s director of marketing for the Council said:
Filed under Career, Communication, Public Relations, Shonali Burke | Tags: accreditation, amy mengel, bill spaniel, communications, dora smith, education, iabc, jason king, jotw, mary hills, maureen ryan, mba, ned lundquist, pr, Public Relations, Shel Holtz, sue johnston, Training | Comments (26)
