Making The Most Of A Twitter Chat

Huddle, huddle, roil and muddle

I remember the first Twitter chat I attended. It was #journchat, one of the first, if not the first, Twitter chats created.

Image: Maria Johnson via Flickr, CC 2.0

It drove me nuts.

The stream moved so quickly, it was really hard to keep up with what was going on. And if there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s being able to keep up with several things at once or, as the jargonites would put it, “multi-task.”

And if I’m being honest, some of the tweets people shared seemed so puerile, I said to myself, “Do they really work in public relations?”

Hey I can pull a Simon Cowell with the best of ‘em, though I try – for the most part – not to. And I suspect you can too.

As I started participating in more chats such as #pr20chat, #soloPR and then starting my own (#measurePR), I’ve come to learn a few things about how to make the most of a Twitter chat.

And that puerile is as puerile does.

So, especially if you are new to Twitter chats, I hope this will be helpful.

No barriers to participation

The beauty of Twitter is its democratic nature. Press conferences are held for the media. Professional development conferences are held for professionals in their fields.

But a Twitter chat? It’s there. It’s open. Anyone can participate if they jump on to the hashtag, regardless of whether they specialize in that particular field or not.

As a result, you have the potential for all sorts of comments – from seasoned professionals in the field, to curious onlookers or folks who dabble in the biz.

So no, all tweets will not be equal.

But I think that’s a great thing, since it gives us an opportunity to hear from many different voices… some of whom might become clients, if you’re nice to them.

What you can do: be willing to share (or re-share) information that might help explain the topic at hand to them, and point them to additional resources if they are interested in learning more.

I do this by keeping links to the introductory #measurePR post, as well as to the MeasurePR category on my blog handy. Then, when someone asks, “What is #measurePR?” I can give them a much better answer than I would be able to in 140 characters and the moment.

Resource bingo

Alex Talbott put it best:

Echoing Alex’s thought, Jodi Gersh said on Facebook:

And John Friedman:

This is one of the best things about Twitter chats.

When you go back and look at the transcripts, you’ll find people share a wealth of resources… blog posts, websites, and most of all, their own thoughts, often artfully captured in a perfect sound bite.

Most of the Twitter chats I’m aware of take place for an hour or so. But the great thing about them is that that hour is jam-packed with so much additional information, you could pretty much download all the additional resources shared during the chat and make it your own little handbook.

What you should expect: that the chat moderator(s) will provide a recap of the chat. All that I know do.

If they don’t, go to the WTHashtag page for the chat, like this #measurePR WTHashtag page, and pull a transcript for the chat. Save it as a .PDF file, and you’re good to go.

Bonus tip: sometimes WTHashtag acts funky and doesn’t catch all the tweets, especially if you let a couple of days go by before pulling the transcript. So try to do it as soon as the chat ends.

The other thing you can do is to go to Twitter Search, plug in the hashtag, and save all the tweets that were generated during the time of the chat.

This is a PITA, and I’m not talking bread, but it gives you a record of what was said.

Props to Kellye Crane for reminding me of this during the most recent #measurePR with Don Bartholomew.

But wait! There’s more!

The other thing that’s smart to do is, when the transcript is generated, look for any URLs that have been shared during the chat. If they’re resources you will find useful, bookmark them (I use Delicious or Evernote) for future reference.

Rules of engagement

This is an easy one.

What you should expect: anything and everything.

Like I said before, it’s Twitter. Anyone can jump in, jump out, and pretty soon you have the hopscotch and Hokey Pokey rolled into one.

Image: Philippa Willitts via Flickr, CC 2.0

All together now: you put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right…

This is actually a lot of fun, if you’re prepared to deal with it.

What you can do: make sure that you’re including the relevant hashtag with your tweets. A good way to do this is to participate in the chat using Tweetgrid or Tweetchat, which automatically include the hashtag with your tweets.

This way, you’ll see interesting tweets from Twitter users you might not be following, but who are also using the hashtag to participate in the chat.

By doing so, you can engage with them, continue your conversation outside of the chat, and the next thing you know, you’re on a plane to Alaska.

Bonus tip: most chat moderators will number the questions, e.g. Q1, Q2, and so on.

When responding to specific questions, start off by saying, “Re Q1,” or “A1,” etc.

You will help the moderator out immensely by doing both these.

First, because unless you include the hashtag with your tweets, they won’t be indexed in the transcript/search.

Second, numbering your answers helps others understand what specifically you’re responding to, as well as the moderator, which will help her (ok, “or him”) point you to previous answers that may help you get up to speed (if you’re asking a follow up question), as well as additional resources that help you out.

This is some of what I’ve learned by participating in, and moderating, Twitter chats. I’m sure there’s much, much more, because I’m not Simon Cowell, and I don’t know everything.

What have you learned about making your Twitter chat participation more effective and useful? Do share!

Social Media ROI v. Impact: Don’t Confuse The Two

What exactly is ROI?

What is social media ROI?

Image: Mark Smiciklas via Flickr, CC 2.0

Is ROI or “impact” more important? Or are they equally important?

Should companies starting out in social media be concerned about ROI?

These were the questions we discussed on yesterday’s #measurePR chat with Don Bartholomew, aka @donbart.

It was terrific.

As Sean Williams said,

Don is a refreshing blend of theory and practicality when it comes to demystifying what seems to remain one of the most puzzling questions in the social media and measurement worlds.

At least, Sean said something to that effect, but I can’t find his exact tweet, so let’s assume I’m not misquoting him… too much.

Here are some of the tweets from yesterday’s session:

That’s meant to be “think,” by the way.

The key point that Don, Sean, and a few others were trying to drive home is that ROI is ROI is ROI.

It is not “value,” and it is not “impact.”

Update at 11:42 am: Don just corrected me, saying, “… one could argue ROI is a form of Impact, but Impact is not ROI.”

He’s right, and that’s what I meant, and should have said.

Back to your regular programming.

When we start trying to redefine “ROI,” we are opening a can of worms. Because the C-suite understands ROI as something very specific.

If we’re then going to try to change that definition, it can’t end well.

Focusing on Impact, on the other hand, makes a lot of sense, because here you’re starting out with measurable objectives (tired of that phrase yet?!).

Once you do that, you’re going to track your program(s) to see if they result in those measurable objectives… which should be created with some kind of impact on the business/organization in mind.

Do have a read through the transcript of the #measurePR chat with Don; there are some real nuggets in there.

The conversation was so interesting, that Don agreed to come back for Round 2 of the SM ROI discussion.

So save the date: Sept. 14, 12-1 pm ET.

If it makes life easier for you, you can RSVP for #measurePR with Don, Round 2, on Facebook.

It would be great to get some questions from you, so that we don’t have to repeat everything we discussed yesterday.

Will you send them along, either by leaving a comment below, or by shooting me an email or DM?

Don and I hope to see you there!

Taking A Bow On BNET

Exactly a week ago, something really really really good happened to/for me.

Even though I couldn’t officially spill the beans, I had to tell my friends (of course).

They were equally happy for me and, I suspect, a little frustrated that it would take me a week to come clean. This was my Facebook post that day:

A week hence

Now, that day has come, and I can officially tell you…

Today marks my debut as a BNET blogger.

Woo hoo!

In case – just in case – you’re not familiar with it, BNET is “the hub of the CBS Interactive Business Network, which

” … provides working professionals with the advice and insights they need to get ahead in today’s workplace. It isn’t a site for those who merely punch the clock: It’s for business leaders—of today and the future–who believe in the meaning of work and who know that nurturing excellence in their staff and their organization is the true measure of success.”

A lot of media properties make similar claims, but having been a regular BNET reader for a while, my personal opinion (and you can decide whether it’s humble or not) is that BNET provides real value for those in, and who care about, business.

So I’m absolutely THRILLED to bits about this!

Image: Ross Hall via Flickr, CC 2.0

My first post ran today: Are you listening to – or shouting at – your customers online?

Those of you who interact with me on various social networks know that this is a pet peeve of mine; when organizations don’t understand what a “two-way street means,” and instead opt for what I call the Billy Mays approach.

Do have a read, and if you like it, please share it, Facebook “like” it, Stumble it…

In other words, do pass it around to those you think would enjoy it, much as we share crudités at parties. They’re just enough to whet our appetite for more without making us feel engorged and sated.

Dude. Let’s make this the broccoli of crudités!

Because if you do, then I have a real chance at staying on as a blogger for BNET for a run of more than a few weeks.

And who wouldn’t want that?!

So. Please read, share, and let me know what you think – good or bad. If you have ideas for more posts (I’ll be posting once a week for the next few weeks, primarily on PR and social media), please let me know.

My crudités and I will thank you!

Ghost In The WMATA Machine

Something spammy this way comes

As someone who occasionally has to ride the DC area public transit system, I signed up for email alerts from WMATA, the transit authority than runs the oft-plagued system.

Since yesterday, I’ve received 22 email “alerts” from them.

Not one of them has anything to do with delays or the lack thereof on any of the Metro lines.

Instead, they invite me to:

… take advantage of “killer prices” on certain prescription drugs,

… help (someone) steer clear of possible suicide, and – this is the best -

… enlarge an anatomical appendage I do not possess.

They’re pretty funny, actually.

I’ve been deleting them without clicking through to the oh-so-tempting URLs they contain, but am waiting to see if something even more creative comes around.

I’m assuming that there is a ghost in WMATA’s machine

or that Dr. Evil has hijacked WMATA’s email alert system, which is actually quite helpful … when it works.

I tried tweeting @wmata, but with no joy.

Guess I shouldn’t be surprised since they use Twitter to primarily broadcast information on line disruptions.

Because, of course, that’s how we should ALL be using social media… as a form of one-way communication!

(You know I’m joking, right?)

I’ve tried to let WMATA know by filling out their “contact us” form, but don’t expect a reply to that any time soon.

I did, however, ask @unsuckdcmetro if he (she?) had heard anything about this.

Turns out, I’m not the only one whom Metro delays and fare hikes apparently have sagging.

Now WMATA just has to find out about it. And fix it.

Oh!

Another one just came through.

It says:

“Stop sending harassing messages. No more emails from you.”

Guess I’ve been put in my place.

Image: DC Metro People via Flickr, CC 2.0

The MetricsMan Comes To #measurePR

What’s a Twitter chat on measurement without a Metrics Man?

Fortunately, Don Bartholomew of Fleishman-Hillard - whom you may know as @donbart on Twitter – will rectify that this coming Tuesday, when he joins us to chat about social media “ROI.”

Ah, ROI.

If there’s a term that strikes more dread into the hearts of PR pros than the words “Child Catcher” did to those of Caractacus Potts and Truly Scrumptious… well, I haven’t come across it yet.

Whaaa? “Who’s the Child Catcher?”

Consider yourself enlightened.

Homework

While you certainly don’t have to, I think it would be helpful to you (if you’re planning on attending the chat) to read up on some of Don’s writings, particularly his post on social media ROI angst.

Here he says, among other things:

Point Number One:  As a practical matter, the majority of social business efforts will not result in true ROI (in the short term).

In fact, I would guess far less than half will.  Maybe less than 10%.  But that doesn’t mean the social business effort was not successful, or did not create significant value for the brand or organization.

It simply means the primary objectives of most social business efforts are centered on concepts like community-building, engagement, listening, and participating in conversations.  It is difficult and expensive to attribute financial value to these areas.

To use the old saying – the ROI on these sorts of ROI efforts is not good.  Traditional public relations, branding and reputation programs suffer from some of the same challenges.

So when a study like the one published by e-Marketer* suggests ‘only’ 16% of social business programs are measuring ROI, while many are surprised it isn’t higher, it actually sounds a little too high to me. I wonder how respondents were thinking about and defining ROI.

Now, there’s a lot more there, so instead of getting discouraged by the bold type, go read the whole thing.

Also check out Olivier Blanchard’s excellent post and presentation on social media ROI for associations & non-profits.

Ready? Warmed up?

Excellent.

See you on Tuesday, then. You can RSVP for #measurePR with Don Bartholomew on Facebook (might be handy as a reminder) … or just show up! 12-1 pm ET; use #measurePR to join/participate in the conversation.

And if you have questions you’d like Don to field, do shoot them to me via email or Twitter (DM) ahead of time, or just leave a comment below.

Image: Kemp Edmonds via Flickr, CC 2.0

From WTF To KPI: PR Measurement In Acronyms

A couple of days ago, I had the pleasure of presenting a webinar on measurement aka demonstrating the business value of public relations for PRSA.

I say “pleasure” because it was. It was perfectly organized, I had no trouble with the webinar platform, and it was fun.

And I didn’t have to put on fancy clothes or fancy shoes to go do it.

I love webinars!

Here’s the deck, in case you’re interested. Download/embed away.

Couple things

I was hoping to show the Old Spice video titled “Questions” between slides 20 and 21. That’s why the following slide is titled “Answer.”

Also, there are several recaps of the P&G campaign focusing on its results that use W+K’s video case study, but I couldn’t use that either, because the platform we used for the webinar didn’t support video.

So here it is. And the Digital Buzz Blog has an excellent recap of the entire Old Spice social media campaign (which I did pull from, with all the appropriate credits, in my presentation).

I know what you’re thinking.

“Does she have to keep using acronyms in her presentation titles?”

Image: Phil Shirley, Creative Commons

Well… yea, kinda.

If I’m going to grab you by the collar, sit you down and make you pay attention to something as potentially dry and overwhelming as measurement, I better make it fun.

Right?

Hopefully I did.

Ted Nguyen upped the game by recording an audioBoo (WTF?!) of most of the Q&A of the webinar.

Kewl!

So, there you have it.

Whadja think?

Psst: Can you believe how many images you find when you do a search on Flickr for WTF?!

AWESOME.

Five Productivity Tools for PR Pros

A few months ago, I wrote a piece on communicating effectively with a virtual workforce for IABC’s monthly e-zine, CW Bulletin.

You see, I’ve been there, done that.

Silent Night

The night was silent. So silent that she could almost hear the dark, as it enveloped her in its belly.

“It’s time,” she heard it whisper.

She turned just a smidgeon, but enough to allow her to press the pillow just a tad closer to her ears in an effort to block out Dark’s unwelcome reminder.

“It’s time,” she heard again, this time more forcefully.

Friggin H, she said to herself, with not a little irritation.

“You can cuss me all you want, but it’s time, and this is the last time I’m going to tell you.”

With a sigh, eyes squeezed to try and wring the sleep from them, she arose, shaking her head ever so slightly, to begin the necessary rituals of ablutions, packing and boarding a train that would take her far away from her loved ones, but closer to her daily bread.

Image: rubyblossom., Creative Commons

To Love Yet Not

OK. That’s a little dramatic, but I went through that every week for two years since my job (before I went out on my own) was in New York, not DC.

I loved my job and most of the people I worked with. But the weekly commute was tough, there’s no denying that.

When I wasn’t commuting, I worked remotely – much as I do now – so I needed to find ways to connect with my team, which grew rapidly over the years, and keep them motivated… without wasting time.

And that led to the article.

Cha-cha-change

Of course, things have changed a lot in just a few years. We have so many more tools at our disposal that we’re spoiled for choice.

Here are five productivity tools I really like; a couple that I included in the aforementioned article, and a couple more. If you haven’t tried them yet, have a go.

1. Tungle

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Tungle. When people use it instead of email to schedule meetings, it really saves time.

I’ve been including it in my e-signature for a while now, and have incorporated it into my website as well as this blog (you’ve probably noticed the Tungle widget on this blog, even if you haven’t used it).

Check it out and I’m pretty sure you’ll become a fan.

2. Plaxo: contacts, calendar and e-cards

As a social network, I think Plaxo is pretty dismal, no matter how much it tries to Face-Twit-book-terify itself.

Its strength, to me, lies in its original offering, the “universal” address book which allows you to keep your contacts current even if you switch jobs, i.e. email services, and so on.

Now they’re offering a direct sync with Google (beta) if you’re a premium user (read, give them money, currently just under US $60 a year).

I am, which means I can keep my contacts current in both places, which will be useful should I ever stop using Google Contacts. GC also syncs with my BlackBerry, which means I really do have my contacts at my fingertips (I don’t know why Plaxo still doesn’t have a way to sync with BlackBerry’s directly).

These are great time savers – remember when you had to export your contacts as a .CSV file, import them, snore…?

The other thing I really like about Plaxo’s offerings are its ecards. I use them all the time to schedule and send mostly birthday greetings to my friends, family and business contacts, which is another way of networking with a twist.

This was one of the reasons I signed up for Plaxo’s premium service some years ago.

I figured the resulting selection of additional ecards (you’re limited in your selection if you use the free service) would more than offset what I would otherwise pay to actually buy a card, mail it to someone, etc.

I also now use Plaxo to make and send our own holiday cards, which has cut down significantly on holiday postage.

Yes, I send a lot of cards.

I don’t like their default settings, which make your card “social” (i.e. anyone in the recipient’s Plaxo network can see it) v. private (which is what I always select).

It is also nuts that Plaxo itself doesn’t know when I’ve already scheduled ecards and keeps emailing me reminders about various birthdays, etc., coming up.

But that aside, the ecards are cool.

3. Boomerang for Gmail

This is something I’ve just started using and I really like it. Essentially, Boomerang for Gmail lets you draft and schedule emails to be sent at a particular time.

This is an excellent way of ripping through your work when you’re on a roll, yet not scaring people into thinking you’re a sleepless work demon when they receive emails from you at 2:43 am.

You can also decide when you want to respond to email by telling Boomerang when you want to “receive” it, i.e. read something that’s already come into your inbox.

I’m not quite sure how useful this is since, if I’ve already read it, chances are I’ve already decided whether or not I’m going to reply to it, whether it’s spam, or whether I label/star it, etc.

But I’ll go with the flow.

Right now, BfG is in beta, which means you have to sign up for an invite code either via Baydin’s website or request one via Twitter, and be patient as they work through bugs. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

When I did this, I got my invite code in a couple of days. I tested it almost immediately and after a couple of missteps – I had a pop-up blocker that I needed to disable – it worked perfectly.

Note: if you look at your draft after you have saved and scheduled it, it will NOT work. So don’t do that.

Their customer service is also pretty good; when it wasn’t working for me, I emailed them and got a reply almost immediately from their CEO.

Nice!

4. Toggl

If you need to track your time for your clients or projects, want to move up from a basic spreadsheet but don’t want to lay out a lot of cashola, try Toggl.

It’s easy, free (up to a point) and lets you track multiple projects, clients, etc., including those that are billable and those that are not.

Even if you don’t have to track your time, it’s still a good exercise to undertake. Doing so lets us see how we spend our time… assuming we are disciplined and truthful about it.

And this can help when negotiating or renegotiating client agreements (or when you need to push back on a client who’s demanding too much, though we all know we NEVER do that).

Bonus: it helps identify holes in your time management skills, including the amount of time you spend in/on social media.

Plus, you’ll have an answer for when someone asks you, “Just how much time DO you spend on Twitter?”

5. Google Docs

Another of my fave G-suite applications, because it lets me share and update documents in real time with as many people who need to be involved, without the pain that inevitably comes with people emailing each other different versions of a document that you have to keep saving and re-saving.

5. Evernote

I still like and use Delicious to bookmark stuff I come across on the Interwebs, but I find myself increasingly using Evernote because of the little notes I can write to myself.

This could be something I plan to send to a client, a cool blog post I want to use in a Weekly Roundup, or just something neat I have no idea what to do with at the moment, but I know I’ll want to come back to.

If you use Seesmic, you can also save items from your Twitter and Facebook streams.

I don’t. Hmpfh.

I realize this is a bit of a Google-heavy list, but many of the folks I know depend on the suite for their work (and more).

And if you don’t, hopefully you will find at least a couple of these useful in your daily work and play.

What productivity tools do you use frequently? Will you share below?

Hail Whale

Maybe it’s time for the fail whale to get social.

Image: Seb Fowler, Creative Commons

I’m Not A Twit Or A Twerp, I’m A Tweep

Catching up on my RSS reader (I’m woefully behind), I came across this post from Dirk Singer’s Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.

It looks at an eMarketer assessment of why regular Twitter users, though relatively small in number (when you compare them to Internet users overall), make the platform I love – and many still love to hate – important:

A common answer to ‘why Twitter, it’s not a mass market tool?’, is ‘because the people who do use it matter.’ The influence over numbers argument.

That’s backed up by an ExactTarget study, reproduced in emarketer. US Twitter users in April 2010 were far more likely than general Internet users to post to forums (75% vs 25%), blog (72% vs 14%), comment on blogs (70% vs 23%) and post ratings / reviews (61% vs 20%).

The eMarketer article also says:

According to 360i, 75% of marketers’ tweets are informational, suggesting brands are responding to what consumers want—though they largely neglect to participate in conversations. Such deeper engagement might help them harness the power of frequent Twitter users across their other social activities as well.

This, it seems to me, is a lost opportunity for marketers or, for that matter, for any brand. Twitter is at its best when used as a conversational platform, rather than a means to push out information.

Because we tweeps? We like to talk.

And we’re not “twits,” thank you very much.

Nor are we twaddles or twerps, btw.

And then, what “happens on Twitter” really doesn’t stay on Twitter, but seeds several other platforms and networks ultimately supporting the company’s business objectives.

Unless, of course, what they’re saying (and/or doing) really sucks. In which case they need to relearn the whole conversation thing.

Virgin America is a company that gets this. So does Southwest. So do many others, but they’re still relatively few and far between.

So, dear marketers. Please start talking to, not at, us.

Because, doncha know, what happens on Twitter doesn’t stay on Twitter.

Image: John Roberts, Creative Commons

Business Bootcamp for PR Pros: Network With a Twist

On networking for business

We see, hear, read ad nauseam about how we should network to grow our businesses.

Image: USACE Europe District, Creative Commons

Too often, though, I think people take that to mean going to innumerable tweetups, happy hours and the ilk. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen over-commit themselves to multiple networking events on the same night.

The end result is usually that they’re tired, over-extend themselves which they later regret, and sometimes do things they later feel sheepish about.

I, by the way, NEVER do things I later feel sheepish about.

I embrace my sheepishness from the get-go.

At any rate, I think networking events and tweetups are great.

I go to those that I can (I went to one last night and had a great time) but, frankly, I am a no-show at several more.

I know what you’re thinking. “She’s anti-social!”

Not at all.

And those of you who’ve met me know this. It’s not that I don’t want to meet new people—I love meeting new people.

I just recognize that there is a threshold beyond which some events are not productive for me, personally or professionally.

And if I’m not feeling my best at these events, you’re not going enjoy meeting or talking to me either.

See? Quite logical.

Networking with a twist

Outside of the gazillion networking events our calendars get crammed with—and there are some terrific ones out there—here are three ways to network with a twist that will grow your business.

I’ve experienced all of these at one point or another in my career, and again in rapid succession this past week.

I was so taken aback by how this “twisty networking thing” really works, that I went “Whoa!”

My dog, who knows exactly how to keep me in line, said, “Whatever, you’re not that special,” rolled over and went back to sleep.

Thanks a bunch, Suzy.

So I wanted to share. ’Cos I am like this only (a genius Indian saying we can all thank Channel V for).

1. Stay on the recruiter radar.

Usually we don’t think of recruiters as possible clients or as part of our business development process.

This is pretty stupid because good recruiters are some of the most connected people in the industry. They have to be. Their livelihood depends on it.

I’ve come across my share of bad recruiters, but the good ones are like gold.

Why? They understand the importance of networking and paying it forward and usually have memories longer than elephants.

When you make a good impression on them, they remember you.

Sometimes they have project-based work come their way – and don’t you want them thinking of you when it does? Or, they leave their recruitment firms and end up sourcing new hires for a new firm.

Helloo!! That often includes consultants and independent practitioners.

So: If you had a good rapport with them, connect on LinkedIn, Twitter and any other social networks where it makes sense. Make sure your profile stays up to date and “feed” your profile with your Twitter feed, blog posts, presentations, etc.

I believe this is particularly important for LinkedIn, though I think you should do a periodic sweep of all your networks, to make sure the information about you is up to date.

Be of help if they approach you for a search they are conducting. Connect them with someone you feel confident recommending.

One day – and I can’t tell you when, but I can tell you that it will happen – they will come back to you with a project that’s right up your alley and bingo! You have a new client.

2. A the LinkedIn Q & A.

There are a couple ways of doing this (possibly more, but these are two I’ve seen).

The first

is to join a group and mine its discussion forums, contributing thoughtfully when you can… and I don’t mean plugging your blog posts with scant regard to how spammy that might seem.

The second

is to set up an RSS feed for questions related to your area of expertise that are being asked on LinkedIn (and as you probably know, you can get alerts for your group updates, as in the first option above, sent to your email as well).

Just select “Answers” in the drop-down menu to the left of the search box, find the topics you’re interested in, and then click on the RSS option, as at left.

Yes, you will invariably find some that make you grit your teeth and wonder why so-and-so-with-usually-a-quote-unquote-decade-or-two-of-experience-or-so-they-say is asking something so basic you wonder whether she even understands what the dictionary definition of “expert” is.

But maybe there’s an educational opportunity here that could result in social karma down the road.

If you find what you think are really silly questions, though, ignore them, as well as the questions that are thinly veiled attempts at getting free consulting advice.

But those that are genuine requests for advice or sincere attempts to learn more? Go for ’em.

Just make sure you’re really adding value to the discussion at hand.

Bonus tip: if you find that 23 other people have already beaten you to the punch, don’t bother, unless you really have something original to say. Stay alert for the next opportunity and get in there as quickly as you can.

3. Be a volunteer leader.

Now you’re thinking, “Hang on. There’s nothing new about that. Isn’t business development and building their network the main reasons people volunteer with an association in the first place?”

Maybe, but it wasn’t for me. Every time I’ve gotten involved as a volunteer with an association, I’ve done it because I really enjoy the service aspect of it.

(That’s me at an IABC/DC Metro event with @amylizmartin and @SunainaTweets.)

What’s important is to really do stuff. Not just show up.

When you’re active and entrepreneurial in your voluntary leadership role, something funny starts happening.

Your colleagues on your board…

give you unsolicited recommendations.

People you’ve never heard of…

reach out to you because they recognize your commitment to the profession.

New business leads…

are forwarded to you from listservs you ordinarily wouldn’t have access to—and sometimes they’re even followed up by personal introductions made for you.

Why?

Because they’ve seen you in action.

They’ve seen your leadership style and your ability to manage an often far-too-large team.

They’ve seen how you handle conflict, and whether or not you try to come up with solutions.

They’ve experienced whether or not you really encourage creativity (regardless of what your resume says), whether you’re willing to say “no” diplomatically when the need arises, and whether you’re willing to give credit where credit is due.

All. These. Are. Things. Clients. Look. For. In. Their. External. Partners.

The key to all of this, of course, is to keep it real.

Be nice to people. Don’t indulge in SSP (shameless self-promotion). Make and maintain good relationships without expecting anything in return.

It will surprise you how quickly you come full circle.

Those are just three subtle ways of giving a new dimension to networking that will keep your business development funnel open and build your client base.

What has worked for you? Do share, I’d love to know.

In PR, a Good Roadie Goes a Long Way

A night out

A couple of weeks ago, we went to see a live show at one of our favorite spots around Dallas. We like it because the atmosphere is a little laid back and the bands that they book are pretty solid.

This night was no exception – the music was interesting and the overall performance was enjoyable.

At least, the part of the performance that we caught.

You see, the sound levels were just WAY OFF.

Even though we watched one of the band members “test” their levels to a point that was satisfactory (to them); and even though they asked for some corrections on their levels during the show… they never quite made it work.

In fact, the more they fussed around with it all, the worse it got.

It’s not like they were holding their microphones upside down (yes… upside down)…

But the sound quality was so bad, we ended up leaving after four songs… and we weren’t the only ones leaving.

Here’s the thing, PR pros.

We don’t work around with sound levels or do mic-checks before a show.

But we do serve the “roadie” role from time to time by providing support for a “featured act.”

This could come in the form of making copies for a client presentation; getting an editorial calendar for a pitch; or even physically cutting and pasting a news article to make it look nice for a client that may not have access to the piece itself.

These “little” things go an exceedingly long way when done right.

Truly.

Because if any of those “little” things come out sloppy, EVERYONE in your team (top to bottom) looks sloppy.

And you lose trust. Rightfully so.

Would YOU trust your money; your time; your IDENTITY with a team that can’t handle being a “roadie” from time to time…?

Roadies make shows happen.

Plain and simple. Doesn’t matter how great your music is.

If you don’t have someone handling your equipment, levels, lights, etc. correctly, you’re only prepping for a bad show.

Image: Mike Schmid, Creative Commons

With more than 14 years of public relations experience, Narciso Tovar is president and founder of Big Noise Communications, that runs on Method + Moxie. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Rhonda, and has a strong track record in media communications, both “old” and “new,” with organizations such as Vonage and the Wall Street Journal Online. One of the most energetic young voices in social media, you can easily connect with Narciso on Twitter.

Measurement Smarts… Or Mata Hari?

Are we smart about measurement… or unwittingly being Mata Hari?

Image: Bob Bobster, Creative Commons

Yesterday’s #measurePR chat was VERY interesting.

Philip Sheldrake of Influence Crowd was our guest, and we focused on the ethics of measurement; here’s a recent post that tells you how and why he came to be on the show, er, chat.

Before I could get to it, Philip wrote up a great recap of the chat, so I’m not going to try to improve on what’s already excellent.

You can, however, view and/or download the transcript of #measurePR with Philip Sheldrake, if you’d like.

What I couldn’t stop thinking about, after we ended the chat, was how clueless we PR pros are when it comes to actually understanding the motions that lie behind various tracking mechanisms.

As Philip puts it:

“The simple fact is, the vast majority of PR practitioners have next to no idea how the Internet or the Web function (yes, they are different), and therefore have equally little comprehension of how the social monitoring and analytics services they are being sold may compromise their reputation amongst consumers and all stakeholders when, inevitably, the digital shit hits the digital fan.”

The Wall Street Journal did a terrific job recently with a series called “What They Know,” which “documents the new, cutting-edge uses of [this] Internet-tracking technology.”

Even if you’re not a subscriber, you should be able to look at the report online if you follow the link above.

And if you haven’t already read the report, be warned – it might frighten you.

“But we’re not advertisers”

No, we’re not. But what about the solutions we use, that use tracking methodology, to measure the success (or failure) of our outreach and campaigns?

What about when we partner with media outlets for campaign promotions?

What about the nifty plugins we love to play with on our sites and blogs? I have a number of them on here myself, such as the Apture toolbar and the LinkWithin widget.

Yes, I really like what they do for my blog, but what are they doing for/to you?

Do we really know understand they work, other than the pretty charts and graphs that can be served up to us on like a smorgasbord for the metric-addicted?

Image: Richard Hemmer, Creative Commons

Clearly, I’m not intentionally putting anything on here that I think would endanger your privacy.

And I, personally, have never and will never use data collected online to sell you something, or put you on some list that you didn’t opt in for.

I make that clear on my website, but I should check back with my site designer to make sure it’s up to date, and I have to make that clearer on my blog. Two to-dos for me already.

Do we really know?

Are we unknowingly selling our clients or organizations a load of cookie-crap?

And what happens if we are?

And what happens when they find out?

And what… and what… and what?!

Maybe they’re all perfectly innocent. But we should know.

I was so struck by Philip’s thought-provoking writings and the discussion that I chewed up Joe Hackman‘s ear with much of the same shortly after we ended the chat (Joe and I had planned to talk any way, but I bet he didn’t expect this).

As an IT guy-gone-social, he completely got where I was coming from. We didn’t resolve anything, but I expect much more discussion with Joe, Philip and hopefully many others on the topic.

Now, I don’t think all tracking is bad.

But we’ve got to know how it’s being done and whether or not it’s something we’d buy into if the shoe were on the other foot.

If you already know more than I do – and I suspect there are many of you who do – will you share your thoughts and resources below?

More on privacy:

• Privacy subtleties of Gmail, from Brad Templeton (not a brand-new article, but still worth a read)
• Using the Internet safely, from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Influence: From BS to Best Practice

I “met” Philip Sheldrake a few weeks ago when he started participating in #measurePR.

Who’s Philip Sheldrake?

According to David Meerman Scott, he’s “the independent expert on [social media analytics] tools.”

You’ll have to scroll down to the comments to see that, but David’s post is an excellent read too, so I think it’s well worth your time.

He is founder and partner of Influence Crowd, LLP, (photo used with Philip’s permission) and “works with organizations to improve their sensitivity to their publics and become more effective and efficient in their proactive and reactive interaction.

“He helps organizations sustain this advantage by identifying appropriate performance measures facilitated by the new marketing technologies, and integrating these into the organization’s business performance management scorecard.

“Philip founded and leads the Influence Scorecard™ initiative, attracting the involvement of US thought leaders such as Katie Paine and Ted Shelton, established the PR industry’s first foray into Web 3.0 with the foundation of the work on the PR Ontology For Feelings About Things.”

Ethics in measurement

One of the discussion points that rears its head frequently during the chat is the efficacy of several of the social media monitoring tools out there.

It usually starts off with someone mentioning or questioning AVE (ad value equivalency) which most of us recoil from like the Energizer bunny on steroids.

That usually leads to someone debating how good (or bad) the latest social media “measurement” tool is.

And, frankly, most of them are ridiculously bad, but they’re couched in pretty graphics and some form of endorsement from social media “gurus,” so they get breathlessly circulated around the Interwebs.

Pretty and easy? Maybe.

But is it ethical

for companies to come up with these tools to make a buck, regardless of whether they’re sound or not?

I don’t think so, and that was one of the points I raised when I talked about measuring social media value the WIIFM way.

I think it was during one such discussion, that Philip sent me the following tweet:

I thought this would be a great topic for the chat, so that’s what we’ll be focusing on tomorrow.

If you can, do go through this excellent presentation from Philip on influence. It won’t take long and it will help set the stage for tomorrow’s discussion.

And I’d also recommend you read his post on browser history and unethical social media metrics.

See you then!

Weekly Roundup: A Tryst With Destiny

Today is India’s 63rd Independence Day (image: Rupal Vaidya, Creative Commons).

In tribute to my country of birth, this edition of Weekly Roundup focuses on writings by, from and of Indian authors (or authors of Indian descent).

1. Innovation and HR’s quest to be strategic, by Gautam Ghosh.

Why: Gautam is an excellent and prolific writer (and friend). He’s managed to parlay his social media savvy and business smarts into the realm of human resources, an area not typically known for either (sorry, HR people, but there you have it).

2. The age of surveillance from The Comic Project.

Why: First Saudi Arabia, then India, made the news by threatening to clamp down on RIM’s BlackBerry service. Anyone interested in transparency – what we deem one of the pillars of social media – should read this post.

3. The ideas of India, by Shashi Tharoor.

Why: A former diplomat, politician and prolific author, Tharoor is anything but shy when it comes to sharing his ideas. And he’s taken to Twitter like a tar ball to tennis shoes. Especially if you’re unfamiliar with India’s history, you should read this.

4. Day 831, by Amitabh Bacchhan.

Image: Kanishka Gangopadhyay, Creative Commons

Why: If you’re unfamiliar with Bollywood (it’s been around much longer than Slumdog Millionaire), the “Big B” is one of the most iconic and influential living Indians.

Think Tom Cruise and JFK rolled into one, then throw a crown on top. I’m not kidding.

The son of Harivansh Rai Bacchhan, one of India’s most beloved modern poets, AB shook the Indian silver screen once he climbed the Bollywood ladder, becoming not just everyman, but the quintessential angry young man.

Apart from being a terrific actor, he’s a gifted writer, both in Hindi as well as English.

This particular post is a poetic look at time and change. And if you can read Hindi, it’s even better.

5. The “Yes, and… ” culture, by Anil Dash.

Why: What if instead of saying, “No, but…” we said, “Yes, and…”? That’s what Dash of Expert Labs fame muses on here.

6. What can Steven Slater learn from a pillow fight on board Lufthansa, by Arun Rajagopal.

Why: first, Arun’s a friend of mine. Now that that disclosure’s out of the way, this is an interesting and different take on the entire Jet Blue ballyhoo.

7. A tryst with destiny, by Jawaharlal Nehru.

Why: I believe this is one of the finest speeches ever written, and given by Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister, as the clock approached midnight on August 15, 1947.

Here’s a short clip:

What other great writings have you found from Indians and the Indian diaspora? Do share in the comments section below.

Happy Independence Day.

Bookmining on Twitter

Stuck for reading material?

Image: David Pritchard, Creative Commons

Just ask your social networks for their recommendations.

I had a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble that was burning a hole in its sleeve.

I have a habit of using gift cards to get gifts for others, but this time I decided to treat myself.

W00t!

Look at some of the great recommendations I got (and am still getting)

on Twitter:

and on Facebook

I ended up buying:

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (I heard about it on NPR and have been wanting to read it),

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, who is one of the best Indo-Anglian writers EVER,

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee-Divakaruni (ditto on the Indo-Anglian author thing, and because I think her take on the Mahabharata might possibly be better than that of Peter Brook’s), and

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, which Leah Betty mentioned on Twitter while we were chatting:

And the $50 covered them all (including tax, free shipping).

Double W00t!

So now I have four great books coming my way, and a whole host of others to add to my “must read” list, especially when I need a new book fix.

Yes, I know I could use the library, but I’m one of those people who likes to keep the books they love.

They become some of my best friends, and there’s nothing like going into your home library and sitting down for a cuppa to get reacquainted with characters you haven’t seen in a while.

Just another way social media makes my life better.

So what if you’re not saving the world?

My social networks didn’t help me save the world today, or save a dog.

But they added immense value by opening up my world just a little bit more.

And it’s only by inhabiting an open, forward-looking world that we can progress, not one that shutters and bars the doors to change.

Thank you, SM; and thank you everyone who gave me such great suggestions.

I’m here because you are.

Still Just Another Day

When I wrote yesterday would be not just another day , I had no idea how right I was.

Because it was not just another day.

I was literally five minutes away from heading to the Emergency Social Data Summit when a storm hit our area.

And what a storm.

The whistling wind would have put a banshee to shame.

Rain (hail?) clattered on the roof like the devil’s hooves in the middle of an Irish jig.

Trees bent as far as they could go without breaking, then spun around, over and over again, like something out of The Exorcist.

And then the power went out.

An electric line came down right at the end of our block, which was cordoned off for pretty much the entire day so that no one unwittingly electrocuted themselves.

Instead of being five minutes away from heading to #crisisdata, I ended up light years away due to a crisis of nature.

So I missed a summit on using social media during a crisis… due to a crisis.

Pretty ironic, huh?

I also missed an IABC/DC Metro event that I’d really been looking forward to.

My day was shot.

The power came back on today. So I spent my day cleaning up, getting branches hauled away, throwing away food that didn’t make it into the ice chest (and some that did) – again – you get the picture.

I’m relieved

we made it safely through the storm without having too much havoc wreaked on us.

But I’m completely and utterly disgusted

at our electric company, Pepco‘s seeming utter lack of a crisis communication plan – and its apparent cluelessness at how social media can help during a crisis – has me in awe.

Their crews on the street? Different story. Polite, patient and present.

Which is more than I can say for the organization’s communications.

It started when…

Hold on.

I’ve contacted Pepco to see if they have another side to the story, since maybe, just maybe, they’re doing utterly fabulous work on the communication front that I don’t know about.

So we’ll get to that next week.

For now, it’s just another day.

Not Just Another Day

If you’re like me, right now you are sipping your coffee (or tea), reading your morning paper (or more likely, scanning your RSS reader), making a mental checklist of everything you must take care of today.

Just another day.

Image: Lance Johnson, Creative Commons

If you’re like me but on the other side of the world, you are winding down after a hard day’s work, figuring out what to cook for dinner (or what takeout you’ll order), stretching your bones that ache after a day of sitting in front of, and staring too hard, too frequently, too long without interruption, at a brightly lit screen.

Just another day.

Just another day can change in the blink of an eye.

A public relations professional

takes a wrong turn in unfamiliar terrain and a mini-triathlon turns into a narrow escape from a broken neck.

An aspiring singer

steps out of her car to escape the swelter of a malfunctioning air conditioner and is shot to death.

An account manager

traveling on a routine business trip dies in a terrorist attack, his last words memorialized.

As I head to the American Red Cross’ Emergency Social Data Summit this morning, I expect to hear many more stories like these, and how social media – the ephemeral thread that binds us all, whether we like it or not – adds a previously-unimagined dimension to crisis and disaster response.

It will not be just another day.

Even if you’re not there in person, you too can join by following #crisisdata on Twitter, keeping tabs on the Emergency Social Data blog, or watching the livestream on NextGenWeb.

It will not be just another day.

What Roosters, Forks and Bad Measurement Have In Common

Bad measurement, meet rooster (and fork).

Ah, measuring communication success.

It can be like…

Locating a needle in a haystack.

(Wouldn’t you think they’d stop hiding the ruddy needles in the ruddy haystacks by now?)

Smuggling daybreak past a rooster. I wish I’d come up with that one.

Image: keepps, Creative Commons

Catching water with a fork, as Alan Chumley of Carma mused.

You see what they all have in common, don’t you?

It is practically impossible to be successful, that’s what.

So, during last week’s #measurePR chat, we talked about how to get to that point of success, including:

Whether or not there’s more pressure on us to measure our work

Whether we should be focusing on something other than “ROI”

Bemoaned SNOS (shiny new object syndrome)

And even Shel Israel chimed in on how sometimes the obvious targets aren’t really what we should be focusing on

Hmm. I think a #measurePR chat with Shel on the ROI of pants might be in order, don’t you?

I found it neat that the discussion moved from beating up on AVEs (which, don’t get me wrong, I’m always happy to do) to really starting to look at the value that PR (and in my book, that includes social media) can bring to a business.

All in all, we had a grand time, party favors were handed out, wars were won and the rooster lived to crow another day.

And because I’m so devoted to keeping you posted on the ins and outs of our little chat community, I saved the entire transcript of #measurePR – the Alan Chumley edition for you to read, download and salivate over.

WTHashtag’s been doing a fairly decent job of capturing most, if not all the tweets, recently, so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that becomes a WTTrend.

I hope we’ll see you next week, when Philip Sheldrake will be joining us from across the pond (and if you don’t already, you can follow Philip on Twitter to get ready).

Remember: August 17, 12-1-pm ET.

And thank you, as always, for participating in the conversation.

The Carma of MeasurePR

I’m pretty stoked that Alan Chumley of Carma International will be our guest on #measurePR this coming week.

Alan’s a frequent participant in the chat, contributes great information, and perhaps featuring Carma will result in good karma for all of us.

Heh, I couldn’t resist.

We’ll be chatting on August 3, 12-1 pm ET; just use #measurepr as your hashtag on Twitter to follow/participate.

And if you have questions you’d like Alan to weave his grey cells around, please do email or DM them to me ahead of time (ahead of time really helps).

To get your grey cells in shape, here’s a measurement Q&A with Alan for your reading pleasure. All emphasis, etc., is mine, not his:

What has shaped your philosophy on measurement?

Before starting in the industry, I completed an undergrad degree in urban planning.  (Long story).

Me: clearly we’ll have to wait for Alan to give us that story…

So while the content of that degree is now useless, the rigor and process of planning isn’t. I took a post-grad certificate program in PR and set off to work for big blue chips.

The recovering planner in me became increasingly uncomfortable with the gap between a brilliant communications plan and the flaccid metrics gauging success.

It felt a bit like trying to catch water with a fork.

Image: Segle’s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

So, back to school again.  This time to do a master’s in communication and cultural theory:

where I developed a healthy skepticism for overly simplistic and very dated theories of PR. That a person reached is a person influenced, for example.

And that the audience (if there is such a thing) receive, process, react to, repurpose or even subvert just about everything that comes their way in a far more complex way than practitioners expect.

What is your philosophy on measurement?

I’m a big believer in both the practical and ideal role that research and measurement can and should play in communications and a big rejector of the notion that research and measurement stifles creativity.

Me: thundering applause!

There’s plenty of room for both right and left brain, artist and scientist in our profession. Practitioners that can comfortably and capably use both sides are the ones you want working in your company or on your account.

Alan goes on to describe the “10 pillars to his philosophy on measurement”:

1. Research IS measurement and measurement IS research. Co-enablers and co-dependent. Good pre-campaign formative research puts you in a more measurement-friendly position for the post-campaign evaluative stuff.

2. Communications objectives have got to:

a. exist;

b. be measurable; and

c. be closely linked to overall organization/business objectives.

3. As an industry we’ve got to move well past measuring simple outputs. That goes for all of us, not strictly the measurementerati who preach as such.

4. There is no singular standard for measurement just as there isn’t a singular standard objective for all communications plans.

Launching a new chocolate bar and lobbying for legislation are very different animals.

Singular set of standard best practices and guiding principles, sure. We have those. Have for moons.

The Barcelona Summit drove that forward in a formal, visible and vocal way just recently. Now this industry has got to adopt them.

5. Approaches to measurement have got to be flexible and evolutionary.

6. We need to be looking at the total measurement picture in a way that considers all tactics, all audiences. From plain old media content analysis up to stakeholder relationship measurement and all points in between.

7. Measurement has got to be based on sound research methods.

8. Measurement is a long-term commitment. We need to look at trends over time not strictly snapshots in time.

9. Measurement must be budgeted for.

10. Common barriers and objections (excuses, really) are surmountable.

So… now that you’ve peeked into Alan’s mind, why not hear it from him directly next Tuesday?

If you’d like to, you can RSVP for the Alan Chumley edition of #measurePR right here. If you prefer not to, that’s fine too. Either way, do show up.

A Dog, A Man And Crocodile Tears

‘Nuff said.

Of Early Adopters, Tenons and Henry Wood

“Technically mocking isn’t a sport… yet… though I have made a proposal for the 2020 Olympic games.” ~ Brian Meeks

This is the final post in a three-part interview with Brian Meeks, who goes by the moniker “Extremely Average.” In Part I, Brian talked about why woodworking makes him a better writer, and stinking in the dark room. Part II saw him discussing why he hasn’t decided whether or not Mrs. Johnson was evil. My questions continue:

Tell me a little about your use of social media, personal and professional.

Professionally

I manage the social media and customer relations for a company from Vienna, Va.  It is ironic that 3 weeks after I moved back to Iowa, I should get a job 30 miles from my old home.

For PreferredVendor, I focus on building relationships within the Human Resources and Recruiting industry.  PreferredVendor is a SaaS (Software as a Service) company, which means we offer tools to help people manage their recruiting.  It is my job to promote the company, handle customer issues, and generally stay on top of all things social.

Personally

I have been involved in the social media industry for four years now. My first three years were in the virtual world of Second Life, where I made my living building spaces for corporate clients. It was during this time in SL that I discovered Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook etc.; I believe I started during or near the beta for all three of those.

My connections in the virtual world industry were always on top of the new stuff coming out, and that helped me discover each of them.

I remember when I first joined Twitter, it was novel and I thought it was fun. I didn’t know how to use it as a tool for networking, building relationships, and helping people find one’s blog.

I wish I had better understood its power early on, but I guess I got there eventually. There are still many people who don’t use this platform, so I consider the people using Twitter for marketing to be early adopters.

I love “Henry Wood Detective Agency.” It reminds me of a cross between “Moonlighting” and Alexander McCall Smith’s #1 Ladies Detective Agency. How did it come into being? Are you going to publish it?

That is high praise indeed. I loved Moonlighting and #1 Ladies Detective Agency, so perhaps they are sneaking into Henry’s world. Thanks so much.

As for how it came to be, when I first started the blog, I tried to avoid just giving a run down of what I was working on.

Many of my posts were stories with little bits of woodworking in them, and those bits were about what I had done that day. Henry Wood started out the same way.

The early chapters always related to what I was doing in my shop. The pictures were of my current project, which became Henry’s project. I felt that all the one off stories needed to be supplemented with a longer piece. So I started Henry Wood.

The response has been remarkable. I am, as of the writing of this response, at 22 chapters.

I think that if Henry makes it to 70,000 words, I will likely try to put it up on Kindle, Sony Reader, and the iPad. If he solves the mystery sooner than that, I may not.

I had delusions of grandeur with my novel that I mentioned, but haven’t done a thing with it.

So it is likely he may live forever on the blog and never venture out into the world. I would like to publish it though; it is more a case of me knowing how I tend to procrastinate with stuff of that nature.

What else do you like to do, other than writing and woodworking?

I love sports, especially Tennis, Baseball, College Football, and Mocking.

Technically mocking isn’t a sport… yet… though I have made a proposal for the 2020 Olympic games.

I feel I could be a world class mocker.

Last words?

I feel that if I added anything else, the people who have made it this far, would likely unsubscribe from your blog and curse your name, so I will simply finish with, “Thanks for Reading my Blog.”

It should be noted that “I can’t be trusted.” I said I was done, and yet I am still typing.

Dreadful.

There is one more thing, now that you mention it. I have a second blog, which I don’t do much with, but if you are interested, it is at http://socialmingler.blogspot.com.

Ok, now I am done.

Image of tenons © Brian Meeks, used with permission.

Brian Meeks used to make his living in the virtual world of Second Life, where he built spaces for corporate clients under the name Ecocandle Riel.  When the economy went south, he turned to Social Media and does this to feed and clothe himself.  In his free time, he does… well… social media… and publishes the blog Extremely Average. He can be reached by email at ExtremelyAverageOne (a) gmail (dot) com, or by carrier pigeon at the house with the big tree out front. You can also connect with him on Twitter.

MeasurePR: The Thud Heard Around The Interwebs

A thud for chucks and chicklets

This week’s #measurePR chat was a riot.

The day started (for me, in Alaska), with finding that the oh-so-awesome Lee Odden mentioned the chat as one of the top (in his opinion) Twitter chat for marketing and PR chucks and chicklets.

OK, he didn’t say C&C. That’s all me.

I thought it would be more fun than saying “marketing/PR/SM professionals of all shapes, sizes, hues and gastronomic proclivities.”

Though now that I read that last bit back, that seems pretty cool too.

I know. Whatever.

So anyway. Here I am, looking at the gorgeous mountains I can see from my hotel room in Anchorage, catching up with everyone on Twitter, when I notice a spurt of tweets hashtagged #measurePR.

“What just happened?” I says to myself.

“I don’t know. I suppose I’ll have a look.” says Me to I.

“You better make sure they’re not giving away the farm,” says Myself, not to be outdone.

So Me, Myself and I looked at what was going on, and found Lee’s post with 5 tips on Twitter chats plus 8 marketing & PR chats to follow.

Wow! Cool!

And then the pressure started building.

What if today’s chat was a bust?

What if there was a surge of new attendees and they all wanted their money back?

What if everyone forgot the Barcelona Principles were adopted before they’ve even had a chance to go from toddler status to teenage angst?

Fortunately

the day continued uneventfully.

And the chat was great; thanks in no small part to Johna Burke of BurrellesLuce who graciously sat in as the featured guest.

Johna is a powerhouse of a practitioner, who has a knack of framing issues in an easy-to-understand way.

And since I started #measurePR, I’ve been trying to ensure that a range of voices belonging to movers and shakers in the field are heard.

This week’s chat didn’t disappoint. Here are a few nuggets from it:

There were many new participants this week, which I was thrilled about. You can read and download the entire transcript of the MeasurePR chat with Johna, if you like.

Go on, don’t be shy.

And do mark your calendars for our next chat, which will be on August 3, 12-1 pm ET.

All you have to do is log on to Twitter shortly before that time and follow/participate in the conversation using the #measurePR hashtag.

And if you have PR measurement-related questions (“What shoes are you wearing today?” doesn’t count), please send them to me via email or a DM.

See ya.

Now I have to go put Myself in her place.

Image: Brajeshwar Oinam, Creative Commons

Words, Meet Mouth

Words.

We think them.

We write them.

We hear them.

We say them.

We sing them.

Words.

Image: Hello Turkey Toe’s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

They are the stuff we humans are made of, ever since speech was invented (which itself is up for debate).

They are so much a part of our lives, they often become trite.

Yet for us communicators, they are our coin; what we use to demonstrate our knowledge of our craft, our proficiency at our trade, our ability to help our organizations and clients transmit the core of their businesses to the people they want to reach.

Speech writing is perhaps one of the most delicate aspects of our craft.

Because not only do speech writers have to be good writers, they have to, in a way, be John Malkovich every day.

They have to write words that others will utter, but write them in a way that seems wholly natural in delivery – at least, that’s what good speech writers have to do.

Which means getting into the minds of those they are writing for. They have to not just think like a reader, but think like a listener.

I imagine no one knows this better than Matt Teper, Vice President’s Biden chief speech writer.

Last week Matt spoke to IABC/DC Metro (disclosure, I’m current chapter president), and gave us a fascinating look into what a typical day in his life is like.

He didn’t exactly say this, but my guess is that the word “typical” has temporarily been suspended from Matt’s vocabulary, and I’m pretty sure you can guess why.

After the meeting, Matt sat down with me to chat about what communicators who write for others – for a living – can do to kick their work up a notch or two.

Here it is.

What do you think of Matt’s tips? Do you have others to add?

From French Credits To English Grammar

“It is possible that Mrs. Johnson wasn’t evil, though I am not willing to say for sure at this juncture.” ~ Brian Meeks

This is the second in a three-part interview with Brian Meeks, who goes by the moniker “Extremely Average.” In Part I, Brian talked about why woodworking makes him a better writer, and stinking in the dark room. My questions continue:

You’re clearly a skilled writer, anything but “extremely average.” Do you have a background in professional writing, e.g. journalism, or are you one of those natural talents we all wish we could be?

That is very kind of you to say. My background is in numbers. I have a degree in Economics from Iowa State University. I don’t believe I have ever gotten above a “C” in any class relating to English or writing.

I recall in 8th grade trying to learn how to diagram sentences from Mrs. Johnson. It was a nightmare.

I didn’t learn what verbs and nouns were until I started studying French. After spending a summer in France, in 1995, and obtaining a bucket full of French credits, I had a basic understanding of English grammar.

Though I now knew the difference between an adverb and an adjective, and could use a semi-colon on occasion, I still didn’t enjoy writing.

My feeling was that writing was something one did when their evil 8th grade English teacher was punishing them.

For some unknown reason, in March of 2009, I started writing.

I wrote a novel in about 21 days.  I believe it has around 78,000 words.

It is rubbish. Nobody has seen it. I did it just to see if I could.

I am not sure if that was when I got bitten by the wordsmithing bug, as a few years before I had started writing horoscopes for friends at work. This was probably the first time I wrote something I enjoyed. Each one usually ended in tragedy, they would have been more aptly named ‘horror’ scopes.

The blog started on Jan 2 of this year. I was bored, and felt compelled to write about woodworking. (Image of a business card holder © Brian Meeks, used with permission).

I have written every day since then, and done a few guest blog pieces, so I am at around 190 blog pieces year to date. I find writing to be a joy.

It is possible that Mrs. Johnson wasn’t evil, though I am not willing to say for sure at this juncture.

Can you share some dos/don’ts on good writing, especially for those who are in the business of communication?

That seems like a good question. Sadly, I am without formal training, so I am not sure how many do’s and don’ts I could come up with.

In fact, only one springs to mind,

don’t get your writing advice from a middle aged, untrained drivel writer, who mostly tries to figure out ways to include monkey, cheese, and Boutros Boutros-Ghalis into as many posts as he is able, without being pummeled and buffeted about the pate by his annoyed readers.

Another bit of advice, now this makes two, I am on a roll, try to avoid using all of your favorite words that nobody has heard of.

I believe I have used, ‘aft gang agley’ three times this year already, it is becoming problematic and I may need an intervention.

Another great don’t, try to avoid using; “I digress” in 83% of your posts. I don’t know how many times I have used it, but I am sure that it is well above 83%.

So, as you can see, I am not one to take my own advice. A 12-step program for writers may be in my future.

There are several blog posts and bloggers who write about blogging “musts” and “mustn’ts.” You seem to break many of those “rules.” What’s your take on good blogging?

I am new enough to blogging that I am not familiar with those rules. I have read that one must keep it short.

I think that it is conventional wisdom to try to stay between 400-800 words. I find that if I am on a roll I will hit 1,300.

I also don’t worry about filling my blog with SEO words. It may be a blogging mistake, but that is who I am.

If there were other rules, I would love to know about them, and be happy to address each of my violations in mind numbingly dull detail. So feel free to lob a few more my way.

Brian Meeks used to make his living in the virtual world of Second Life, where he built spaces for corporate clients under the name Ecocandle Riel.  When the economy went south, he turned to Social Media and does this to feed and clothe himself.  In his free time, he does… well… social media… and publishes the blog Extremely Average. He can be reached by email at ExtremelyAverageOne (a) gmail (dot) com, or by carrier pigeon at the house with the big tree out front. You can also connect with him on Twitter.

From Old Spice’s Nose To Dilbert’s Ears

Was Old Spice Guy responsible for today’s Dilbert strip?

More than enough has been written about the campaign; I don’t have to chime in. But you might enjoy reading a few posts that I thought provided a slightly different take on the campaign:

• Shel Israel’s Old Spice becomes a meme
• Valerie Maltoni’s how a good social media execution is your best PR
• Heather Whaling’s a company culture lesson from Old Spice social media

Enjoy your Sunday. And if you can’t be the Old Spice man, you can at least try to smell like him… or be on a horse.

North to Alaska

In a couple of days, I’ll be heading to what I’ve always thought of one of the most fascinating places on earth: Alaska.

Image: Travis S.’ Flickrstream, Creative Commons

“Alaska?!” you ask.

“Why?!” you sputter, flavoring your morning coffee with a healthy dose of envy, I imagine.

It all began when I met Mary Barber at the 2009 PRSA International Conference. Mary and I had corresponded on Twitter (is it weird to use that word in conjunction with Twitter? I don’t care.) and made a breakfast date to finally meet IRL.

You know what it’s like when you really like someone online and then you meet them in person and you go, “Oh, no…”

Nothing like that.

Mary’s a wonderful person and seasoned PR professional. Since then, we’ve become good friends, chatting often not just on Twitter, but the phone, email and Skype.

Since I love traveling, I’d mentioned to Mary I’d love to come to Alaska… perhaps even to do a presentation to PRSA Alaska on measurement which, you hopefully know by now, is an area of PR I’m committed to.

Next thing I know, I’m booked to speak to PRSA Alaska.

Being energetic, erstwhile and entrepreneurial, Mary did a Skype interview with me on what I plan to share.

In a nutshell: strategy rules, measurement rocks and … um. Oh well, it’s in the video, if you care to take a gander.

Give me a break. I’m 40. I’m allowed a junior moment now and again.

So I head out on Monday for a week, to let Anchorage and Fairbanks take me by storm, which I’m quite looking forward to.

Being supremely organized, Mary and her cohorts have put together quite an itinerary that includes:

• The World Eskimo Indian Olympics opening ceremony, for which I’m told the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company donated tickets
• An Alaska Goldpanners v. Mat Su Miners baseball game, courtesy Flint Hill Resources
• A trip to Santa Claus House in the North Pole (OMG, I’m so excited!)
• A train ride from Fairbanks to Anchorage on the Alaska Railroad, which takes about 12 hours and is supposed to provide breathtakingly beautiful views, courtesy the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and the self-same Alaska Railroad
• Salmon. Lots of salmon.
• Hopefully, moose. No, not to eat, to see. Seriously, what are you thinking?!

It’s ok. I’d be envious too, if I were you.

I promise to take as many photographs as I can to share, if I’m not overwhelmed by just how gorgeous everything and everyone is.

I can’t thank Mary and everyone at PRSA Alaska and the companies who pitched in to make this a trip of a lifetime enough for this incredible opportunity to meet new people and see a part of the world most of us never will.

(Yes, I know that sounds a little like “it’s an honor to be nominated.” Whatever.)

And I hope those who attend my session see that strategy trumps all when it comes to PR, that measurement really isn’t that difficult and AVE is evil, and, er… oh well, whatever the video said the third thing is.

Hey, I said I’m 40.

I’d love to come to your neck of the woods, if you think you’ll get something out of it. Will you let me know?

How Woodworking Makes Brian Meeks a Better Writer

“The sheer volume of dreck which my fingers spew forth has helped me to become, albeit only slightly, a more polished writer.” ~ Brian Meeks

This is the first in a three-part interview with Brian Meeks, who goes by the moniker “Extremely Average.” I stumbled upon Brian’s writing on Amplify (how’s that for social media references?), and was fascinated by what he writes about and the way he writes it. So I asked him:

I’ve searched in vain for the almost-obligatory “About Me” on your blog, but couldn’t find it. You’re like Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery. Who are you?

Obviously I have done a poor job of site design, as I have hidden it in the top right hand corner.

I am, at my core, someone who is fascinated by all that I see. The blogging has become a new passion of mine, but it is not the first. It is a bit of a running joke among those who know me well, what is “Meeks’ current hobby?”

I have, at various points in my life, been interested in chess, badminton, table tennis, and once tried to teach myself Korean while secret shopping for KFC and Taco bell, out in the pan handle of Oklahoma.

There have been other interests, photography being one, which has held my attention since I was 16.

My photography teacher said, “Brian, you take a nice picture, but you stink in the darkroom.”

It was with that encouragement that I focused on time with the camera, and avoided chemicals and red lights. Fortunately for me, the age of Photoshop arrived and digital became the way to go. So now I am able to have the joy of the darkroom without the horrible results.

I love art as well. When I lived in DC, I was a docent at the Corcoran Gallery, which is the 3rd oldest gallery in the U.S. This opportunity was a joy and let me learn more than I ever could from books.

Speaking of books, I love them, not as much as I love an accidental segue, but quite a lot.

I like how they look on the shelf, the joy of reading them, and the wonderful insights one can gain from wondering around their pages.

There is more, but at this point, I am as tired of writing about myself as I am sure you are of reading it.  So I will move on.

Your blog is subtitled “My Journey in Woodworking.” Is that your profession? Hobby? What’s your “real” job?

That is a great question. No, my profession is in social media.[Woodworking] is purely a hobby, one that takes a long time to learn, but is very satisfying.

Image of chiseling a mortise © Brian Meeks, used with permission

I had wanted to take up woodworking for about 20 years, but never lived in a place with adequate space for the requisite tools and such.

When I moved back to Iowa from DC, in July of ’09, I decided it was time to start. I began by building a workbench, and moved on to some saw horses based upon a design by Krenov, and next built a router table.

It is my intent to focus on building projects that will aid me in woodworking, and as such, develop my skills without worrying about the mistakes, which one who is new is apt to make.

“Extremely Average” seems to be a fairly new blog. Did you blog elsewhere before EA? Why do you blog?

Yes, Extremely Average was started on Blogspot Jan 2, 2010. I think it was sometime in March when I purchased my domain and moved everything to the current location, the site with the hidden “about” section. I believe I have 3 or 4 posts out there in cyberspace somewhere under Ecocandle, though I can’t say for sure.

I tried blogging out 3 years ago, for about 2 weeks, but never considered trying to get people to read my blog.

The environment is much different today; even a neophyte will get some traffic. I am thankful that I have Google Analytics to help me watch the traffic and learn how different approaches help add eyeballs.

Of course, many things I have tried have failed miserably, but even a failure can help one learn.

I blog to motivate myself to keep progressing at woodworking, which motivates me to keep progressing at writing (I don’t think my computer considers “blog” to be a verb, and it is giving me some guff).

It is a symbiotic relationship; without one, I doubt if I could do the other as well.

If I stopped blogging, I would likely spend less time each week woodworking. If I stopped woodworking, my weekly writing would drop off. I believe I am writing around 10,000 words per week.

The sheer volume of dreck which my fingers spew forth has helped me to become, albeit only slightly, a more polished writer.

Title image: Ross Mayfield, Creative Commons

Brian Meeks used to make his living in the virtual world of Second Life, where he built spaces for corporate clients under the name Ecocandle Riel.  When the economy went south, he turned to Social Media and does this to feed and clothe himself.  In his free time, he does… well… social media… and publishes the blog Extremely Average. He can be reached by email at ExtremelyAverageOne (a) gmail (dot) com, or by carrier pigeon at the house with the big tree out front. You can also connect with him on Twitter.

How The UK’s NHS Broke Into Social Media

This is a guest post by Bryce Keane

Reaching out… touching me… touching you…

Over the past month, much like the many months before it, I have been listening to and absorbing a wide variety of stories on social media and how various brands are using it – for better or worse – to reach out to new audiences.

I happened to be browsing one of the UK’s preeminent social media news outlets (and a personal favorite of mine for breaking stories in the world of social media and business) – Reputation Online – when I came across a story that struck a chord with me.

The story focused on the first-ever “Twitter-view” to be conducted with the NHS Salford’s Head of Communications, Karl Brookes, by Reputation Online’s editor Vikki Chowney (pictured above).

Now, for any North American readers out there who may be unfamiliar with the NHS, it’s the UK’s National Health Service, which is completely publicly funded.

That means that any resident of the UK can basically receive a vast majority of medical care for free. Sounds pretty good, right?

Not exactly.

As you can probably guess, the NHS is at the mercy of successive governments in terms of ongoing funding levels, often publicly criticized for lack of available resources, and always under scrutiny (especially when it comes to any form of external communications efforts) as to where the public funding that is available is going.

However, this is what makes this – their first-ever (and pretty darn brave if you ask me) foray into the world of social media – just too darn interesting to pass up.

I was lucky enough to sit down with Reputation Online editor, prolific music blogger, social media expert and all round “digital native” Vikki Chowney, and ask her a few questions on what makes this such a different, interesting and ongoing social media initiative.

As the editor of RO, what makes the NHS’ adoption of Social Media a unique story when compared to other Government entities?

Well first of all, the fact that they are actually using social media properly.

They have not just set up a Twitter account and Facebook page for the sake of it, but are using these channels to engage both stakeholders and members of the public alike and keeping everything updated regularly.

Secondly, they are proactively talking about it and encouraging people to get involved. And finally, they have done their research.

In an earlier article, prior to the Twitter interview, the NHS Salford contacted us about a survey they had done showing only a third (36%) of the 148 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England were found to be active on Facebook, and 28% on Twitter.

However, during the interview, it also emerged that they had also found that 20+% of residents were asking that they communicate with them electronically which was the driving force behind it all.

Editor’s note: See? Research drives good communication!

What did you find to be the main points of interest to emerge from the “Twitter-view”?

Well, following on from the NHS’ initial research, I was fascinated to learn that not only was this an organically generated and implemented idea from NHS staffers in the first place, but that they are staffing it entirely with an internal team rota, based on existing resources (with those that are more keen tending to chip in), with a focus on leveraging a lot of the good work that the NHS does that often goes unnoticed.

This is particularly pertinent because, traditionally for any publicly-funded government entity, any kind of external pro-active communications work has been frowned upon due to the inevitable public demands to know where the money is coming from.

By internally generating this idea and implementing it, they have found a way to pro-actively open themselves up to, and engage with, a wide variety of stakeholders without requiring any extra funding or agency fees etc.

What’s more, if the interview is anything to go by, it’s working. We expected to only have a few digital industry people taking part over the course of the hour, but ended up with a headcount of 262 tweets from 66 participants.

I was also struck by how well thought-out all the questions were, which to me shows some very promising early signs of real engagement with a growing target audience.

This is no doubt a progressive move for the NHS. But as the publicly-funded national health care provider for the UK, it regularly deals with issues around (limited) funding from the government and criticism from the public for limited resources/availability of those resources.

What are your thoughts on whether this will open up the NHS to a veritable “Pandora’s Box” of public complaints about day-to-day issues? And, if so, how would you see the NHS handling such a situation?

At the beginning of the interview we did have a few negative tweets about both the editorial credibility of the interview and, of course, where the money was coming from to pay for this social media push.

However, I was impressed with the professionalism shown by Karl when dealing with these, and in the end we were actually able to bring a few participants around – but again this was a direct result of them doing their research and knowing how to implement properly within the constraints of being a government entity.

I think that the NHS will definitely open themselves up to public complaints about lots of the day-to-day stuff with this.

If there is one thing that we’ve learned here it is that if you reach out to people and offer them something of value they will respond.

I personally received some criticism from readers about why the interview was conducted on Twitter, which some thought only appealed to a niche community. But if we go back to the point about offering value, it is important to remember that with SM the NHS can deal with any complaint one-on-one, but it’s also public, so that information has the potential to benefit many.

One of Karl’s responses that really stood out to me during the interview was that, “There are always reasons for not doing something, but true innovation occurs when people have the courage to try these things,” and “The #NHS should always be communicating via forums that people use. We should be where the audience is.”

You mentioned an article earlier on the “low uptake of social media within the 148 PCTs in England.” Do you think this initiative is a) sustainable and b) will see increased usage across the entire NHS in future?

I think that with any social media initiative, you have to start somewhere. The fact that an organization like the NHS has an internal “Just Do It” attitude to this is certainly encouraging.

Since the interview I have been told that a number of NHS bodies have since stepped forward to support the roll-out and I am hoping that articles like ours and yours will get people talking.

Aside from that, time will tell, but I will definitely be keen to see where it goes from here.

If you’ve been reading this: what do you think about this initiative? Do you think social media is the right forum for bodies like the NHS?

Do you think it’s sustainable? Could you see, or do you know of, any other health care bodies adopting a similar approach around the world? Please do share your thoughts.

Bryce Keane is an international communications professional with experience managing a wide variety of communications campaigns in both the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. Originally from Melbourne, he now works in London as an Account Manager for Mulberry Marketing Communications. His experience includes devising and executing local, national and regional campaigns across a variety of industries, from Agri-Business, to Government, to Corporate Social Responsibility and Technology. He has a keen interest in exploring issues that affect the global communications industry, and is always interested in hearing from other communications professionals with thoughts, feedback or just for a chat. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

When Extremely Average Is Anything But

I’ve been thinking a lot about good writing lately.

Trying to read it as well, but thinking about it even more. And I have a feeling – no, I’m certain – you can blame Ann Wylie for that.

Ever since I attended this brilliant woman’s wunderbar writing workshop a few weeks ago, I’ve been trying to pay attention to not just the words I use, but the picture they paint – not just figuratively, but literally.

Are they readable? Do they draw you, gentle reader, in?

Am I using the optimal number of words in a sentence (14), and in a paragraph (42) to draw aforesaid gentle reader in?

Am I using alliterative triads to their fullest potential? (Paragraph 3, Sentence 4: yes, I am).

I jotted down my impressions of Ann’s workshop a few days ago, and if you haven’t been able to attend one of them as yet, I strongly recommend you do so. It will change not just the way you write, but teach you to think strategically about writing, and when was the last time someone did that?

With Ann’s words of wisdom swirling in my head, it’s become even more difficult for me to not assess, in two or three seconds, the visual representation of words on a page, or a screen.

You see, I’m an avid, but impatient, reader.

If a wicked turn of phrase grabs me, I devour it. If the most brilliant prose is prosaic, I dismiss it.

With Ann’s readability tips having been granted green card status by my brain, I feel as if I’ve been given carte blanche to ignore anything that’s not immediately readable with a haughty, “I wonder what Ann would make of that!”

And then comes along someone who throws the mechanics of readability out the window, simply because what he writes is So. Frigging. Brilliant.

Let me introduce you to Brian Meeks, who goes by the moniker “Extremely Average.”

Ha. Average, Brian is not.

I first came across his writing when Lisa Byrne Amplified a post of his with this pronouncement:

With such a compelling headline, how does one not click through?

And then, I come across this, which Brian wrote as a guest post, titled “The Top 7 Things I Hate About Top 10 Lists“… on a building blog, no less.

It begins:

James Henry Winston, III always wore finely tailored suits, lived alone in a flat in London, and drove a vintage Jaguar.  He liked history.  He didn’t like change.   The sound of the metal lock clicking as he entered the flat always brought a level of comfort to James, as he liked security.

Once, a few years back, the cleaning lady who came every Monday and Thursday had left the door unlocked.  Though nothing had been disturbed, he had felt uneasy ever since.  And Mrs. Poleridge had been dismissed.

The locked door though comforting was offset by the feeling of horror which overcame him when he saw the tiny overcoat hanging on the 4th hook in the hall.  It was on this hook he had expected to hang his umbrella.  For a moment he was more concerned with breaking his routine and with being forced to use the hook next to it than he was with regarding the probability that someone was in the flat.

See what I mean?

The beginning of the post has absolutely nothing to do with social media. But it’s so interesting, that it draws you in, 14-words-to-a-sentence-or-not.

I’ve become fascinated with Brian’s blog which is about, of all things, woodworking, with a healthy dose of Dick Tracy thrown in for good measure. Read it. You’ll see what I mean. And I defy you to not want more.

I couldn’t tell

if Brian is a professional writer who enjoys woodworking, or a professional woodworker who’s a gifted writer, or neither, or both.

Fortuitously, we struck up a conversation on Twitter, and then on email, and turns out he’s …

Well, I’m going to share what I learned from him in a three-part interview over the next few days. Look for the first one on Thursday.

Working in PR, I come across good writers every day. But this is a great writer and gifted storyteller. I wish I could write like him.

And I know Ann would approve.

By the way, I have no idea why I picked Christina Castro’s Creative Commons-licensed image of Spiderman to illustrate this post. It just felt right.

The Real Reality Stars

Now this is a reality show I’d watch any day.

Thanks, Kami Huyse, who pointed me to this via her client, Baylor Health Care System.

Audrina, Snooki, Bethenny – are you taking notes?

Why do I even know their names? Sigh…

Introducing Bryce Keane

Let me cut through the press release crap.

As of July 2010, I’m thrilled that Bryce Keane will make a monthly appearance on Waxing UnLyrical.

Who is Bryce Keane?

He’s this really, really, REALLY smart dude I happened to come across on Twitter several months ago. I forget what the exact circumstances were, but I think Bryce was listening in on a Twitter chat I was doing, and asked if he could pick my brain on something.

Normally, I rear up like a rattlesnake on coke when I hear that phrase – because it’s led to far too many conversations that go nowhere – but Bryce did it so nicely, that I said “yes.”

Next thing you know, we’re chatting on Skype and feeling like old buddies.

And then Bryce organized a tweetup for me when I was in London earlier this year.

Aww.

Seeing as how Bryce is a displaced Aussie in London, I thought it would be cool to have his perspective on the business of communication… as well as the perspective of someone who’s very much a Millenial (which I, decidedly, am not).

This is also Bryce’s first shot at blogging, so I hope you’ll join me in cheering him on as he takes tentative-to-become-surefooted steps across the blogosphere. Just as Kami Huyse did with me, though I’m nowhere near surefooted as yet.

This is what Bryce has to say about his forthcoming stint here on WUL, and I promise I didn’t pay him to write this:

I came to know Shonali through the wonderful, and ever-evolving world, of social media (followed by a fantastic “offline meeting” during her recent visit here in London for her birthday). Since then she has become something of a digital mentor so I’m sure you will all understand how thrilled I am to begin my first foray into the wonderful world of blogging here on her fantastically informative blog.

I am also looking forward to getting to know all of you, and hopefully bringing some unique perspectives from the UK comms industry on various issues and stories affecting all of us from key ‘movers and shakers’ over here.

Having said that, I would also like to encourage all of you to always feel free to get in touch with feedback, comments or if there is an issue or person you would like to see covered here – just let me know, and I promise I’ll do my best to make it happen!

Welcome, Bryce! And remember, other than commenting on Bryce’s posts, you can always reach Bryce on Twitter.

More on mentoring and brains:

• The indefatigable Jim Ylisela on why you don’t have to be indefatigable to be a good mentor
• Kami Huyse on why giving your knowledge away can make you a superstar
• Why the phrase “pick my brain” makes Christopher Peterson feel like a chicken bone

Looking At Social Media Value The WIIFM Way

I came across an interesting post on the value of a Facebook fan today, via Todd van Hoosear and Dave Fleet (h/t to both of you).

Augie Ray, who posited this on Forrester’s blog, said:

It is a question I hear several times a week:  What is the value of a Facebook Fan?  I’ve seen answers ranging from $136.38 to $3.60.  I can’t blame vendors, agencies and consultants for trying to answer the question – the hunger from clients is so great that anyone promising a simple answer is likely to get attention.  The problem is that there is no simple answer to such a complex question. In fact, it may be best if marketers approached this question as if the answer is zero — unless and until the brand does something to create value with Facebook Fans.

Augie goes into great detail, so I urge you to read the entire post. Equally interesting are the comments, ranging from “heck yea” to “hell no.”

As I read through the comments, my thoughts kept coming back to this: how do we define value?

Dictionary.com has 19 – count ‘em – definitions of the word “value” as a noun. These include:

- relative worth, merit, or importance: the value of a college education; the value of a queen in chess.

- monetary or material worth, as in commerce or trade: This piece of land has greatly increased in value.

- the worth of something in terms of the amount of other things for which it can be exchanged or in terms of some medium of exchange.

- equivalent worth or return in money, material, services, etc.: to give value for value received.

There are several more, including definitions for music, sociology, etc. For those of us who work in PR, they’re probably not as relevant as the others (but maybe that’s just me).

If we strip through the different definitions – many of which assess value in transactional terms – it seems to me “value” is basically another word for WIIFM.

For example:

“What’s the value of my IABC membership?”

Translates to: why should I spend $300+ a year to basically pay the salaries of a small staff of an otherwise volunteer-run (i.e. non-paid) organization, if I’m not going to get something out of it? Learnings I can apply in my work? Business leads? Speaking engagements? Greater visibility within a community that matters to me… and how is that going to help me professionally?

“What value do I get from spending two-three hours a day on Twitter?”

Translates to: am I getting cheap thrills out of gaining more followers (let’s admit it, no one wants to LOSE followers)? Am I making new connections that add value (there’s that word again) to my life? Am I finding new business opportunities? Partnership opportunities? Media who’d be interested in my clients? Learning from people I ordinarily wouldn’t come into contact with?

“What’s the value of giving up an entire wall in my office to my husband’s 5′x4′ framed poster of David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth?”

Translates to: was it worth giving up that much potential bookshelf space to make my husband happy? (Answer: yes, and it helps me to look at it periodically through the day to remind myself there’s life outside of work).

Here are some of the answers I got from a quick Twtpoll:

Whichever way you look at it, we get value from something because it does something for us. WIIFM.

As Augie says in his post, we can’t really blame companies for asking that question when they embark on a Facebook fan page or, really, any activities. They’re watching the dollars; the business has to do well, or else they’re history.

And we can’t really blame companies that come up with these “calculators” any more than we can blame spiritualists for producing ectoplasm, as they did in droves at the turn of the century; there’s a demand for an easy fix, and they’re fast to capitalize on it by catering to that demand.

That doesn’t mean it’s ok. Even though I plugged it a couple of days ago, you should read Sean Williams’ post on the theater of the absurd in social media metrics.

This is a graphic I use in my classes at Johns Hopkins (you’re welcome to use it if you like, just attribute it to me, please). It’s a very simplified way of looking at non-profit communications, certainly, but I’ve found it gets the point across:

If we look at social media efforts with the same lens, isn’t that what businesses are trying to do?

Yes, they’ve accepted that they can’t engage in one-way communication any more, but the whole point of adopting social media is to build relationships using these new tools and networks (and that word again connotes relationships) that result in outcomes that are beneficial to their businesses.

Those outcomes are business’ WIIFM. For fans/followers, it’s the value they get from interacting with these businesses. That’s their WIIFM.

So it means diddly-squat if your Facebook fans are worth $3 or $136, unless you’re planning to sell them, and I think that would be pretty dastardly.

If you haven’t engaged enough with them to motivate them into doing something, what’s the point of that “media value”? How is that adding to your bottom line?

If you can provide value to  your fans – answer their WIIFM – they will help you put your money where your mouth is – and that’ll be your WIIFM.

At the end of the day, isn’t that what’s most important?

More fodder on measurement:

• Don Bartholomew provides relief from your social media ROI angst
• An IPR paper on guidelines for measuring the effectiveness of PR programs and activities
• My presentation at PRSA’s 2009 International Conference on practical solutions to measurement conundrums

Image: Sam Agnew, Creative Commons

MeasurePR: The Barcelona Edition

We had a great #measurePR chat today. Katie Paine, who helped me kick off this series, came back after a while, and it was great to have her talk about the Barcelona Principles, social media ROI “calculators” and the like.

If you’re wondering what the Barcelona Principles are, here’s what Don Bartholomew has to say about them:

“…The Second European Summit on Measurement held last week in Barcelona has come and gone, but its impact may be felt for some time to come.  The Summit was organized by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and the Institute for Public Relations.

The most notable outcome of the Summit was the creation of the ‘Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles’.  The Principles were debated and voted upon by about 200 delegates representing 33 countries and five global PR and measurement organizations (AMEC, IPR, PRSA, ICCO, The Global Alliance).  David Rockland, Ph.D. chaired the debate.

Here are the ‘Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles’:

1. Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any PR programs.
2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality – cuttings in themselves are not enough.
3. Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity.
4. Social media can and should be measured.
5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media results.
6. Business results can and should be measured where possible.
7. Transparency and Replicability are paramount to sound measurement.”

If you believe in good PR measurement, then the concept of focusing on outcomes is not new to you; nor is the acknowledgment that AVE is a pretty cruddy substitute for good measurement.

What’s really impressive about this is that 200 delegates representing 33 countries and five global organizations came to this conclusion (IABC seems to have been noticeably lacking).

Wow.

That’s a pretty impressive start; now we have to see if everyone is going to walk the talk and implement them.

Katie talked about how PR professionals can start living by the Principles (I feel like going down on my knees every time I type that) in their day-to-day practice of our profession, and much more.

She also gave us a link to a nifty spreadsheet she uses to calculate the ROI of conferences and speaking engagements, so check it out (remember, one size doesn’t fit all; if you like the concept, adapt it for your own needs).

And we had some laughs as well, though we managed to keep Sean Williams from burning a hole in his laptop at the mention of the “theater of the absurd in social media metrics.”

Check out the entire transcript of MeasurePR: the Barcelona Edition here, and don’t forget to join me in a couple of weeks when Johna Burke will be the guest on #measurePR – and yes, I will be bringing it to you all the way from Alaska.

So please do save the date: July 20, 12-1 pm ET, join on Twitter using #measurePR. If you like, you can RSVP here.

Posts you should read, bookmark and save in your time capsule:

• Katie’s Barcelona Principles checklist
• Neil Malcolm on why AVE’s the “dodo” of PR measurement
• The above-referenced posts by Sean Williams on social media metrics and Don Bartholomew on the Barcelona Principles, respectively.

Image: Wolfgang Staudt, Creative Commons

How Do You Say “Good Morning”?

One of the most important things you can do in social media is to say, “Good morning.”

Image: Mahesh Khanna, Creative Commons

It’s amazing who will respond, and what they’ll respond with.

Chuck Hester, for example, puts out a daily CHUCKle. Like this one from a few days ago:

Heh heh.

Today I saw Mike Schaffer saying, “Good morning, good morning to you,” which immediately reminded me of the song from “Singing in the Rain” (one of my all-time favorites).

Sorry about the closed captioning; it was the only embeddable version of the song I could find on YouTube. On the flip side, you’ll be able to sing along.

So I asked my tweeps which “good morning” songs they like the best, and got a range of answers. Here are just a few:

First, what a great way to expand my play list.

But more importantly, I find it a refreshing way to start my morning; by connecting with people I may not actually have met, but who are an important part of my extended circle online. And I get to know them just a little bit more by a simple interchange, after which we all go off to start our days (or, in some cases, nights).

These are people

Whom I might actually (I hope!) run into IRL one day… like I did Mary Barber.

Who might become business partners or clients … like Shashi Bellamkonda.

Who might become – and this one’s my favorite – good friends … like Mary, Shashi, Jill Foster and so many others.

And all of that from a simple “good morning” on Twitter.

So – how do you say “good morning”?

How To Think Like A Reader With Ann Wylie

Yesterday was a bit of a red-letter day. It was my husband’s birthday (and he thanks you kindly for all the good wishes, both here as well as on Twitter), which is a pretty big deal in and of itself.

Over and above that, though, IABC/DC Metro (y’all know I’m current president, right? Disclosure and all…) hosted a very special event: a three-hour writing workshop, sponsored by Johns Hopkins University (additional disclosure, I teach there) and Marketwire, with the renowned Ann Wylie, who promised to teach us all to “Think Like A Reader” and “Cut Through The Clutter.”

I’ve been a fan of Ann’s writing and teaching for years, but this was the first time I got to meet her in person.

Quite frankly: she’s amazing. She’s friendly, down-to-earth and has a fabulous dress style (and her hair is pretty fabulous as well).

As you may have seen, I live-tweeted a fair amount of her workshop (with Ann’s permission). There were so many nuggets that it’s tough for me to give you all of them, but here are a few:

• “Irrelevant information is not benign; it hurts. It costs attention, and that’s one thing no one can afford to spill.”
• “Would you put a stamp on it?” That’s a good rule of thumb to help you decide whether to send a communication or not.
• The definition of a paragraph: cover one idea, and then hit “return.” So think about packaging your information into smaller ideas.
• “Go from we to you. Stop talking about yourself. ‘You’ is the most re-tweeted word in English.”

If you haven’t already, you should definitely sign up for Ann’s writing tips via her free e-zine or, better yet, Revving Up Readership. And no, she didn’t ask me to say that; I really think you should.

Here are a few more tips from the master. I’d say “mistress,” but somehow that doesn’t feel right…

Catching Up With #measurePR

The last couple of #measurePR chats have been interesting. A few weeks ago, we resumed our chat via a “community” edition, i.e. where we literally just chatted about measuring our favorite subject, PR. There weren’t any guests, or any set agenda – just… us.

Image: Proctor Archives, Creative Commons

You can get the June #measurePR community chat transcript here.

Then, last week, we were extremely fortunate that Lee Odden was able to join us, to talk about the confluence between SEO and PR measurement.

I can’t imagine you don’t know who Lee is. He’s an all-round brilliant (and nice) guy, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, and one of the people who doesn’t just get PR and SEO, but the measurement aspect as well. So it was really great that Lee was able to take time out of his busy schedule to join us.

Here are a sampling of tweets from the chat:

And perhaps my favorite:

Check out this great resource (among many) that Lee gave us: top 10 SEO tips for PR professionals; you can download the full transcript of #measurePR: the Lee Odden edition here.

And I hope you’ll join us next Tuesday, July 6, (12 – 1 pm ET) when Katie Paine, the undisputed queen of measurement, will return for an encore performance at #measurePR.

See you then!

DMC10, Twitter and The Blue Ball

Earlier today I presented at the 2010 Digital Media Conference, put on by PotomacTechWire and DigitalMediaWire.

My panel focused on “Twitter and the Media,” and included luminaries such as Rohit Bhargava, Jodi Gersh, Kevin Dando and Chris McGill. If ever a panel made me feel smart…

It was a fun afternoon, for which I prepared by downing copious amounts of the delicious tomato/basil soup on hand. And I hope those who attended got something out of it too.

For me, it was great not just to meet/reconnect with my fellow panelists, but to see folks like Mike Smith, Liz Shea, Ashley Houghton and Stephanie Wonderlick.

We talked, as you might imagine, about various aspects of Twitter. And while I enjoyed all the comments, something Chris said particularly struck home:

Twitter is for everyone… even if all you do is use it to listen.

If you think about it, that’s really true. You can use it to gather intelligence, keep on top of your brand… and you don’t have to be an active user to do that.

Now, if you’re consider Twitter as a marketing tool, then yes, you have to really dive in and not just listen but engage, converse, yada yada yada.

And all that is stuff I say all the time.

But if you’re not ready to do all that, at the very least you can use it to listen.

I do think you should be smart about the social platforms you decide to use, and that’s what yesterday’s webinar/post was about.

If you don’t know what your goals are, you’re going to have a tough time figuring out how to reach them.

But if you’re just getting started… why not just listen for a while?

You might be surprised by what you hear.

The Blue Ball

After the panel was over, the beauteous Jodi (and she really is beauteous) gave me a personal tour of Gannett and USA Today‘s properties in NoVa. Here’s the famous “blue ball:”

Happy weekend!

From “Check” to “Checkmate”

Today I had the pleasure of presenting a webinar for Ragan Communications, on smart communication strategy in the digital age.

This is a topic I speak on pretty often, and the more I do it, the more I’m convinced about something:

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

So now we have social media tools at our disposal. So what? The thinking behind good communication doesn’t – or shouldn’t – change.

If you have your fundamentals right (i.e. goals, measurable objectives, strategy, tactics), then all you really need to do is incorporate social into your overall communication strategy, keeping the focus the same.

And I don’t mean to belittle social by saying, “all you really need to do.” What I’m trying to stress is that you shouldn’t let your awe of the tools get in the way of something you know how to do… and do well.

On the other hand if, in times past, you weren’t focusing on how your communication plan was going to help your business/organization achieve its goals but were doing something because it was cool/your boss wanted you to/, then basically you were flying by the seat of your pants.

Which perhaps took you to climes fairly salubrious on occasion; but, I daresay, more often than not you landed with a thump and wondered WTF went wrong.

Anyway – that’s the point I try to drive home whenever I speak or teach on this topic, and that’s what you’ll find in this deck.

If you already know it – excellent! and you don’t have to bother going through it.

On the other hand, if you don’t, or are new to the communication field, it might help you. And you can always let me know what you think/ask more questions by leaving a comment below or tweeting/emailing me.

Heck, I’d love it if you left a comment below/emailed/tweeted me ANYWAY. What’s life without a little conversation?

On Pontification

Quick heads-up: tomorrow I’m doing a Ragan webinar on social media and strategic communication in the “age of now.” (They didn’t say that last bit, I did.)

Friday, I’ll be at the Potomac TechWire Digital Media Conference East, on a Twitter-related panel with luminaries such as Rohit Bhargava and Jodi Gersh (hashtag #dmc10).

Hey, I can try to pontificate with the best of them. I might not beat ‘em at their game, but you can’t knock a girl for trying, can you?

Hope you see you at one – or both!

Image: Inayaili de León, Creative Commons

Of Hard Drives, Hallelujah and Trust

Well, it’s finally done. My old hard drive is dead and I will shortly be giving it a funeral service. But, as they say, it’s an ill wind that blows no one any good.

Let me bring you up to speed.

As you may have followed, I had a bit of a meltdown last week, when my hard drive crashed. Having (stupidly) not backed up my data recently and being between laptops, I was ready to do anything – anything – to get my data back.

When the Geek Squad didn’t come up to snuff, I turned in desperation to Arthur Zilberman of LaptopMD, who was referred to me on Twitter by Janet Falk. Even though Arthur and I are not in the same physical location, I felt comfortable enough with him to ship my drive off to NYC, to see if he could retrieve what I needed.

I heard from him last night.

The bad news: my drive was in the 30-odd-percent of drives he receives that he can’t do anything for.

The good news: he works with a company in Canada that could probably – but no promises – retrieve my stuff.

The bad news: It would probably cost me $1k+ (factoring in customs, etc.).

The good news: This is less than what it would usually cost me, because of the connection we made through aforesaid Twitter.

(This is starting to sound like one of those bad news/good news jokes, isn’t it?).

Anyhoo, I told Arthur I’d think about it and get back to him today. Then I came home (I was teaching my summer class at Johns Hopkins when he called yesterday) and talked to my husband about it.

“What should I do?” I asked.

He sagely said, “If you can’t live without it, that’s a good price.”

Thanks, hun.

Having had a few days to calm down (and working on my beautiful shiny new MacBook Pro 15″, take that, Mr. PC), I realized that what I was freaking out most about was a particular document on the drive. Almost everything else could be retrieved since, at one point or another, I’d emailed it to someone… and all those emails are captured in my Gmail account.

And this morning, I found I had that document in my email.

Hallelujah!

(You gotta watch that video, btw, it’s hilarious.)

So I called Arthur this evening and told him I was going to pass. He was delighted for me, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

So, the good news: I’m (almost) back on track.

(I promise, there’s no bad news … at least, not now).

All this got me thinking, though.

I had such a bad experience with an organization that I have physically had dealings with, that I sent one of my most valuable possessions to someone I’ve never met, simply because he was referred to me by someone whom, again, I’ve never met, but whom I trust, because of her online reputation and dealings with me, limited as they have been.

In turn, I transferred that trust to Arthur, and his consistently reassuring and down-to-earth communication with me did nothing but bolster my trust in him.

And when I decided to go another way, he didn’t try to stop me; he was happy for me.

I’ve never met Arthur Zilberman. But I entrusted my digital life to him. And if ever I need someone to dig me out of a digital hole, Arthur will be the first person I call.

Can you say that for your company, brand, or PR agency?

In other words…

Got Trust?

Image: Tony Mann, Creative Commons

How Did I Land On Elm Street?

That nightmarish image you see? That’s how I felt last night… though I’m a little better today.

I was having a perfectly good day, chugging along with work, getting ready for the first-ever Women Grow Business Boot Camp, looking forward to today’s #140conf: DC, and maintaining a relatively sunny disposition despite the three-hour power outage we had.

Then, my hard drive crashed.

The laptop hung. I shut it down. When I tried to restart it, it started singing. I kid you not. “Doo-doo-doo-doo… ” I thought there was a bird in my office or inside my computer. Can you picture me whipping my head wildly from side-to-side to find the perpetrator?

Ugh!

And then up comes a black screen that tells me it’s not seeing any internal devices. Um, WHAT?!

I spent several hours going through the motions of trying to get it going, running diagnostics tests, etc. When I got on the phone with Dell (the manufacturer) and described the problem to them, they said it sounded like my hard drive was fried. There was no way they could fix it – since they couldn’t even get into my computer remotely.

At this point you’re probably wondering why I was freaking out so much. Computers crash all the time, we get them fixed, and we’re ok since our data’s backed up, right?

Um. I hadn’t backed up in a while. Never mind how long.

I know. That was a stupid situation to be in and it will NEVER happen again; but yesterday, I was in the position of having no access to my recent files and a ton of work to get through.

My next step: call the Geek Squad, to see if they could set me up with an emergency appointment to try and retrieve my data. I called, and spoke to I forget how many people, my desperation growing by the minute. I was ready to give them my first-born child (if I had one) if they could have fit me in last night. I spoke to a ton of “Agents,” gave them my zip code over and over again, stressed how critical a situation I was in, and…

Let me tell you something.

Contrary to the image it portrays, the Geek Squad does not swoop into its batmobile, leap tall buildings in a single bound and show up at your doorstep before you can say “vuvuzela.”

No, it makes a note of your problem and tells you someone will call you back within an hour (which they didn’t). Then, when you call them back, they tell you they’re trying to reach the “field manager” by sending them an email, but s/he hasn’t responded yet.

Seriously? And this is their “9-1-1″ service?

With my nerves jangling louder and louder every minute, I did what I always do – turned to Twitter. Within minutes, Janet Falk (whom I’ve never met IRL) had connected me with Arthur Zilberman of LaptopMD. At first I didn’t think he could help me, since he was in New York and I’m not, but I finally got on the phone with him.

Arthur was so reassuring – without making false promises – that as a result, my hard drive is now on its way to him, and tomorrow I’ll know whether or not he can retrieve my data (can everyone cross their fingers and toes, please?).

The good thing in all of this is that since almost all of my “stuff” is online, I can access most of my files. And Google is a lifesaver; I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if I didn’t have Gmail, Google Docs, Google Contacts, etc.

The other ray of sunshine peeking through is that my new MacBook (yes, I’m switching to the bright side) is apparently on its way to me as I type. So maybe, just maybe, it’ll get to me at a decent hour today and I can set it up & get back to work on a normal-size computer (though I’m very grateful this little netbook’s allowing me to continue with work).

My Twitter and Facebook peeps have been marvelous in keeping me going – in fact, I would never have found LaptopMD if it hadn’t been for Janet and Twitter. And Ragan Communications put a big smile on my face today when I saw they’d included yesterday’s post on how Edmund Cude uses mobile to rent apartments in today’s PR Daily. Thank you, Jackson Wightman, for making that happen.

So it’s not all bad, eh?

But I never want to visit Elm Street again.

Image: Kaptain Kobold, Creative Commons

How Edmund Cude Uses Mobile to Rent Apartments

While we were walking around St. John’s Wood, London, a few months ago, I came across this sign.

I hadn’t seen anything like that before, at least in the U.S., so I did a double-take. When you think about it, though, it makes perfect sense. Texting is on the rise among “older people” in the U.K., as reported by MediaWeek a while back:

The research claims texting is becoming more prevalent among older people, with 44% of 35 to 44-year-olds and 14% of 45-plus ages sending more than 30 text messages every week.

However, texting still remains the most popular among 25 to 34-year olds, with 40% of this age range more likely to use their mobile phones for texts rather than talking.

Conducted by Tekelec, a provider of mobile messaging solutions, across three groups; under-35s, 35 to 44-year-olds and 45-plus, the study shows texting is more popular among women than men.

So: you have an affluent neighborhood, the rise of texting among the age group that’s most likely to be able to afford living in said neighborhood, and texting being more popular with the gender that’s more likely to actually look up the real estate.

In that context, that sign makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

I asked my networks if they’d seen any creative uses of mobile/social media here in the U.S. Jason Falls put me in touch with Mike Whaling, who has an interesting post on how apartment companies can use Foursquare – but I haven’t actually seen any of this in action (then again, I’m not in the market for an apartment).

Via Google Buzz, Renee Revetta said:

You know what gets me about this? It’s so simple. It takes the behavior of Edmund Cude’s target market, puts it together with its penchant for technology, and delivers a call to action that’s quick and easy to implement.

From the horse’s mouth

Thanks to my cohort, Bryce Keane, I was able to get in touch with Edmund Cude after returning to the States, and Alex Vinter, a manager with the company, told me a little more about their approach to this form of marketing (all emphasis/italicization mine):

“The texting service was launched only recently. It triangulates the potential Tenant’s location and send them to top matches within the area and links to the relevant properties. It also registers their details on the system. We contact the potential Tenant during the week, to discuss their preferences and register them exactly for what they are looking for.

“Even though it’s a fresh new service, we have received lots of inquiries. From our property sources currently it accounts for 2% of all inquiries. Incidentally, a further 2% of inquiries come from callers who see boards on properties.

“This is roughly the same amount of inquiries from one of the large referral websites we use, of which we pay a subscription to, so that’s great news. Furthermore, it’s just launched and there will be more and more boards with this information on soon, so we expect enquiries to rise.”

How much does this cost?

“The costs are quite minimal to run day-to-day; it did obviously have the set up costs and the IT expertise behind that. Each prospective Tenant that sends us a text is charged at their normal standard rate, and we are charged a similar amount to return information to them via the same medium.”

How do prospects respond?

“The prospects respond well to the calls and appreciate the service. If they are not for whatever the reason, we take them off the registration system straight away. I have not come across a case where this has happened though!”

Can you say “good customer service,” anyone?

Why they’re doing this

“We decided to use this as it registers their interest on our computer system in real time. It also gives them instant feedback to their interest. Most potential Tenants do not leave a message registering their interest, so this really is important. The more potential Tenants details we have, the better rents we can achieve for our Landlords and the urgent properties can be let faster.”

What about mobile applications?

“We are trying out some new ideas in regards to possible mobile applications and other uses of mobile technology to make it easier for Tenants to access our available properties. But nothing is due to be released at the moment.”

What’s working?

“In terms of marketing, I think the most important thing we do well and which directly helps our business is by registering all callers and registering their requirements in the best detail possible. They are then called often to update them with new properties and to keep our lists up to date.

“This allows us to generate viewings as soon as new properties become available, rather than advertising and waiting for the enquiries to come along. This proactive approach, allows us to give us a very low void rate on all our properties and get the best return on our client’s investment.”

What’s the goal and ROI?

You can see from Alex’s comments this approach is all about ROI. Elaborating further:

“Our goal, as always, is to give the best possible service levels to our clients (the Landlords). If we can capture information for as many potential Tenants as possible, then we stand a much better chance of doing this. Hopefully also, by showing this proactive approach and using different methods, then more Landlords will choose to use our service, which in turn drives our business to grow.

“The success will be judged on how many inquiries are received; these have been initially promising and partly depend on how many boards we actually have out there, which would not be for 100% of our recently or currently available properties, because of certain restrictions in London on which properties can and cannot have boards attached to them.”

Now, that’s smart measurement. None of this AVE crap.

How else are they using social media/networks?

“We have recently launched our own Landlord portal on our website, where Landlords can log into and find out a various wealth of information about their portfolio/properties.  I think the next step is moving into some other popular mainstream ways to get our name out there, like Twitter, Facebook and possibly a blog version of our quartile newsletters.”

Pretty cool, huh? Why isn’t everyone doing this, or some version of it?

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so do chime in. And Bryce, thank you so much for helping me get in touch with Edmund Cude. I owe you one.

We All Play in the Same Sandbox

Guest post by Narciso Tovar

Early on in my career, much like everyone else in PR, one of the things that I was called to do was get some editorial calendars together.  This was right around 1996 and 1997, and since these kinds of things weren’t online just yet, I had to talk to the editorial assistant to get that information.

Even though this was a very timely task (especially since these were faxed back, providing the additional chore to make sure that these faxes came though clearly enough and, if so, enter in all of the data), I actually liked doing it.

At that time, I wasn’t really allowed to speak with anyone from the press; so, conversing with a “fellow grunt in the field” was great for me.

I saw it as a way to speak with someone at TIME Magazine, ComputerWorld or Forbes…!

Turns out, I was right.

Because, you see those editorial assistants I spoke with

• at Forbes turned out to be a feature writer at ABC News a few years later
• at ComputerWorld soon became a news editor
• at TIME ended up at Fast Company as a writer

Not that I had really planned on it, but since I was nice to those people when I was asking for the stuff that was easy enough for them to pass along, it paid off. I was the fella with the interesting name that actually treated them like a human being.

In truth, I treated them the way I wanted to be treated. I saw the game as well as they did and knew enough to know that being a good person went a long way.

So, PR pros, new & old, play nice.  You may very well be in a different part of the sandbox this time next year – the part that has you dealing with “widgets” instead of “knobs.”

Who knows, there may be a writer that you’ve been cordial to who’s in the same boat.

With more than 14 years of public relations experience, Narciso Tovar is president and founder of Big Noise Communications, that runs on Method + Moxie. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Rhonda, and has a strong track record in media communications, both “old” and “new,” with organizations such as Vonage and the Wall Street Journal Online. One of the most energetic young voices in social media, you can easily connect with Narciso on  Twitter.

Mumbai and Montreal: Connected At The Hip

As you read this, I’ll be dashing to the airport to take off for Montréal.

Wikipedia tells me it’s famous for being one of the “world’s most livable cities” as well as Canada’s cultural capital. I remember it fondly as the home of Cirque du Soleil (a one-time client; image: Naoki Nakashima, Creative Commons) and one of the most charming cities I’ve ever visited… all of eight years ago.

So it’s with a great deal of anticipation that I’m heading there today, to speak at Webcom Montréal.

My cohort is Claude Malaison, with whom I first connected on Twitter during the Mumbai terror attacks.

We’ll be talking about our experience during what must rank as one of the most eye-opening uses of social media (and I don’t mean by us, but by everyone who leaped onto blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the like) to connect across cultures, time zones and languages.

We were bound together by a shared horror of what was happening, coupled with the urge – I believe in most of us – to do whatever we could to help share useful information that might somehow help those on the ground.

Because that’s all we could do from a distance.

I think it’s pretty amazing that Claude and I developed enough of a rapport that he’d ask me to co-present at this conference. See, this is how not to lose a girl with one tweet. I’m really looking forward to meeting him offline.

If you’ll be at Webcom, please do let me know so that we can make a connection as well. Because that’s what it’s all about.

How To Lose A Girl With One Tweet

A few days ago, my pal Geoff Livingston tagged me in his meme, Ways to Increase Your Twitter Following Ethically.

When Geoff tags, you play (image: ClintJCL‘s Flickrstream, Creative Commons). But given the folks I was tagged with, such as Ike Pigott, John Haydon, Lauren Vargas, Allyson Kapin and Shashi Bellamkonda, all of whom I hold in high regard, I was left scratching my head as to how I could contribute without being repetitive.

Today, I had the perfect experience to set me off.

The last few days, I’ve been on the receiving end of tweets from complete strangers, demanding I follow them. How? By sending me an @ message saying, “FOLLOW ME!”

Er… why? Because you say so?

I got so irritated after receiving several of these in a row, I ranted on Twitter:

Apparently I struck a chord, as you can see from some of the responses I got:

@PerfectPitchPR told me this would be a great “rant” post, so, PPPR, this one’s especially for you.

Don’t be a carrier

To pick up where Geoff left off, there are ways to get people to follow you, just as there are ways to make people scatter wildly every time you approach as if you were the carrier of a deadly airborne virus that would cause havoc among the unlucky recipients’ gene pool.

And sending an @ to someone you’ve had no interaction with whatsoever saying, “FOLLOW ME!” is the online equivalent of punching your fist through someone’s window and narrowly missing their nose. Not to mention it’s mind-numbingly gauche.

Here are some other ways to turn people irrevocably off to you, on pretty much any social network as well as IRL:

Pick a fight on Twitter with someone you don’t know, and about something that’s really not important, in the hopes of “engaging” them. People hate rubberneckers.

Send them a Facebook friend request that says nothing about why you’d like to connect with them. So you were one year behind me in high school? So were a lot of people. That doesn’t mean I want to share my online space with you.

We didn’t hang out in high school; why would we start now?

Ditto re: LinkedIn.

Breathlessly retweet EVERYTHING someone says. That’s not flattering, it’s stalker-like.

Put them on an email list – because it’s easy to find their contact information – that relentlessly bombards them with badly-written press releases and email newsletters. What happened to the concept of asking permission?

Numbers are just numbers

We seem to shout ourselves hoarse saying this, but the number of followers, friends, or connections you have matter not a whit if you’ve bought them, bullied them into submission, or bamboozled them.

All they are, then, are numbers, that don’t mean anything, because you haven’t bothered to take the time to develop a connection. Sure, you’re not going to become best friends with everyone you connect with (and I don’t know why you’d want to).

But why not do all the things that sound so clichéd – engage, listen, contribute – to actually develop those connections into relationships?

It’s really easy to lose someone with one tweet. It’s really tough to bring them back.

PR Pros: Protect What Is Important

One of the things I love about Eddie is that he is both lovable and loyal – he’s never really met a human that he doesn’t love, while, at the same time, he’s never backed down from the ‘monsters’ behind the front door… at least until they come inside.

And even though Eddie is great about loving family and strangers once we invite them in, his initial reaction to protecting the family is what impresses me.

There’s a lesson for PR professionals here: Protect What’s Important.

Your Client’s Reputation

If it comes in the form of an interview or in the process of getting some news out about the company, we, as PR pros, must protect our clients.  We do this in media training, as we streamline their messaging and when we push back…yes…when we push back.

Just because a client may think that they have something that comes close to being worthy enough of being featured in the Financial Times, that doesn’t necessarily make it true.

Sometimes we have to save our clients from themselves.

Your Own Reputation

Much in the same way of protecting a client from putting out some lackluster news, we cannot allow this kind of thing to happen for ourselves either.  Think about it. The moment we start presenting members of the press with “ho-hum” news from any of our clients (even a brand name one), they start putting you in the “look at it later” pile (or, even worse, “ignore” pile).

We have to be ready and willing to push back on bad ideas.  Our clients hired us not just because of our expertise, but because of our counsel – our advice is just as important as setting up an interview with USA Today.

Moreover, like my little corgi, we have to differentiate between what’s worth fighting for and what requires drawing a line in the sand.

Don’t get caught up in the chaos or drama of your team or client – not everything is as imperative as saving kittens from a fire (even though they may think it).

So, we should keep ourselves and our teams in check.

While we may not be in the business of saving lives, it’s safe to say that we’re certainly in the business of saving a brand’s livelihood.

Image: Joel Goodman, Creative Commons

With more than 14 years of public relations experience, guest contributor Narciso Tovar is president and founder of Big Noise Communications, that runs on Method + Moxie. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Rhonda, and has a strong track record in media communications, both “old” and “new,” with organizations such as Vonage and the Wall Street Journal Online. One of the most energetic voices in social media, you can easily connect with Narciso on  Twitter.

Working Through Time and Space When Measuring PR

Yesterday’s #measurePR chat with Jen Zingsheim was terrific. It might not have had the velocity of last night’s #pr20chat (more on that later), but we had a lot of new folks on the chat and quite a bit of fun too.

Jen “reported for duty” exactly on time (that’s what a military upbringing will do for you) and we had a great conversation on making the time to measure, prioritizing and how to kill AVE.

Yes, that old beast reared its ugly head again. Try as we might, we don’t seem to be able to get away from it.

If you’re getting up to speed on #measurePR, you can catch recaps and transcripts here. Here are some of the tweets from yesterday’s chat that:

Inserted clarity into the discussion

Gave practical advice on tracking

Can you see the butter dripping from my mouth?

Reminded us we need to keep the proverbial big picture in sight

More smart advice

And more hilarity

You can grab the complete transcript of our chat with Jen here. Will you add to the discussion by leaving a comment below?

#measurePR will take a break in May and be back on June 8 with (drum roll, please) the fabulous Lee Odden! That’s definitely one you don’t want to miss, so do mark your calendars: June 8, 12-1 pm ET.

See you then!

Resources for you:

Marshall Sponder aka the Web Metrics Guru

An IPR Gold Standard paper, by Dr. Jim Grunig & Linda Childers Hon, on measuring public relationships you should treat like gold

You can learn more from Jen at the CustomScoop blog, Media Bullseye , or on Twitter

Image: Steve Collins, Creative Commons

Measuring PR With Jen Zingsheim

Tomorrow Jen Zingsheim of CustomScoop will be gracing #measurePR to chat about all things PR measurement (disclosure, I’m a happy CustomScoop client).

Jen isn’t being featured on the chat because I’m a client; if you’ve been following the chat, either live or through the transcripts, you’ll see this is the first time she’s the featured guest.

I asked if she’d be interested in talking about measurement because I think she’s really smart about it. And because she loves animals and was one of my “let’s find Darby a home through social media” cohorts. And because she plays really good April Fool’s jokes. Yup, I fell hard for that one.

So here are the three questions Jen will be answering on Tuesday:

How do you carve out time to measure, and what gets priority when you’re busy?

How often do you step back and ask what your data means?

How do you wean people off of “old media” metrics like eyeballs & AVE?

I know this isn’t a “bricks-and-mortar” event, but if you think you can join (12-1 pm EDT on Tuesday, May 11), please do “RSVP” here (and thanks, Justin Goldsborough and Heather Whaling for giving me the idea of creating a Facebook event for the chat).

Then just sign on to Twitter shortly before 12 noon ET tomorrow, and follow along and/or participate in the chat using the #measurePR hashtag. You can certainly use Twitter Search, but I find it easier to follow along in Tweetgrid, Tweetchat or by simply opening a dedicated search column in whatever Twitter desktop application you like to use).

Do you have other questions you’d like to ask Jen? Please leave them in the comments below, or email/DM them to me.

See you tomorrow!

Photo © Jen Zingsheim, used with permission.

To Mama, With Love

With all the noise leading up to Mother’s Day, it was interesting to learn (to me, at least) that it’s not really a Hallmark holiday. At least, that’s not how it started.

White carnations

A certain Anna Jarvis, who hailed from Webster, W. Va., created the holiday as we know it in memory of her mother, though there are several historical precedents to honoring one’s mother.

She was initially laughed at, ridiculed and generally mocked, but she persevered and the day became a reality in 1914.

Old Anna was not happy with how her homage to her mother turned out. (She wanted people to give their mothers white carnations to wear.)

Image: Clyde Robinson, Creative Commons

She ended up a strong opponent of the holiday, and both she and her sister spent their family inheritance campaigning against what the holiday had become… dying in poverty.

Ulp.

One way you can do something different for your mom today

… is by supporting the To Mama, With Love campaign, by creating a “heartspace” for your mom.

This “collaborative online art project”, powered by Epic Change, honors moms across the globe and raises funds to invest in one remarkable Mama who dreams of building a home for children in her village.  Funds raised will be invested in support of Mama Lucy Kamptoni (@MamaLucy), a once-poultry farmer in Tanzania, who sold her chickens and used the income to build a primary school that now provides a high-quality education to over 400 children in Arusha.

Mama Lucy’s next goal, which To Mama With Love seeks to fund, is to build a boarding facility on campus so that every child who attends her school has a place to call home.

The folks at Epic Change told me this costs an estimated U.S. $50,000; as of yesterday, there were over 200 moms honored and over $11K raised.

What you can do

There are a ton of corporate supporters of the campaign, and I’m sure they, Mama Lucy and Epic Change would be delighted if you’d support them as well (and that will go a long way in helping them reach their goal).

But if you don’t want to do that, will you at least create a heartspace for your mom? What a great gift.

This is my heartspace for my mom. I created it not just because I think this is an incredibly cool thing to do/campaign, but because my mother has been/is an educator, and has, for years, been “mom” to more kids than I’ll ever be able to count – through her teaching career, volunteer work and through her simply oh-so-big-heart that knows no bounds. I think she and Mama Lucy would get on famously.

What I’m going to do next is share this on Facebook in the hope that my friends will donate in her honor and/or create their own heartspaces. I have an amazing circle of friends, who’ve often helped me out. But even if they can’t donate (I know times are tough), I hope they’ll honor their mothers in whatever way they can; every day, but especially today.

Thank you Mom, and thank you, Mama Lucy and Epic Change. I believe Anna Jarvis would have been proud.

MeasurePR: WTTranscript?!*&!

WTTranscript?!

It’s been over a week since the last #measurePR chat, and you’ve probably been looking for the transcript.

Well, thanks to WTHashtag, I haven’t been able to post the transcript, because it missed a significant portion of the tweets.

I know. That’s the price of free, right?

I did manage to capture screen shots of the chat via TwitterSearch, but they’re not in chronological order… well, they’re in reverse chronological order, which means you’ll have to read them down → up, instead of up → down… and you’ll have to read them page by page. Believe me, it’s the only way you won’t go crazy.

But then again, that’s the price of free.

I even asked Matt LaCasse how he managed to oh-so-beautifully post the #cookchat transcript to his blog, and apparently he C&P’d from WTHashtag… which missed most of our #measurePR tweets.

I know. I KNOW.

The price of free.

For what it’s worth, here you have ‘em. A recap of last week’s #measurePR where we talked about whether or not PRWeek cares about business outcomes (thanks, @MediaMiser, for that terrific question), welcomed @frugalista, @JohnFriedman and @prTini to our ranks, and shared our favorite PR measurement resources with each other.

• Page 1
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Remember, down → up, not up → down. Just pretend you’re reading Japanese (or Hanunó’o – thanks, Lorne Pike) … without the pretty characters.

Image: Okinawa Soba, Creative Commons

What’s next?

Next week, Jen Zingsheim of CustomScoop (of which I’m a happy client) will be chatting with us. I, for one, can’t wait. Whaddya want to ask her? Leave a comment below or tweet me!

The Sales Pitch From Hell, And What Sales Can Learn From PR

A couple of months ago I received what has to count as the worst pitch/follow-up to me, to date.

Image: Thomas Hawk, Creative Commons

Surprise surprise, this wasn’t from a “PR person” or “flack;” you know the kind. It was from a sales assistant at a provider of chapter management services, which I was unlucky enough to receive because of my involvement with IABC/DC Metro.

Here’s what happened.

A lady (I’m just going to call her K__) person called me in February to talk about S__ (the company) as a replacement for our current chapter management system. Since I had no idea who she was, and was unfamiliar with her organization, I asked her to email me the relevant information, following which I’d get back to her.

She did as I requested. When I received the information, I circulated it among my board, and was then surprised to find she hadn’t just called me, but several board members, one of whom wondered how she had his work number (my guess was that she probably pulled it off the chapter website). One of them told me he’d do the demo, so I thought, great, that’s it.

Then, she called me again, a few days later.

Was there an introduction, i.e., “I’m K__ of S__ and I spoke to you a few days ago…”?

No. Just, ” “This is so & so” – no affiliation, nothing.

I don’t think I’m in the minority when I say I can’t really remember every single K__ (insert common girl’s name du jour) I come across in the course of my day-to-day work… especially a sales person I’ve never met.

The stated purpose of her call was to tell me I’d get an email from her re: the demo, because the person doing the demo had suggested (according to her) that she email me.

Hmm. OK.

I received this new email – which again she sent to multiple people on our board – and I told everyone else on my board not to worry because we knew who was doing the demo.

Then, I got another email a couple of weeks later… which wasn’t sent just to me, but to several IABC chapter leaders (we were all cc’d, not bcc’d).

Jaw, meet floor.

Image: Clément Seifert, Creative Commons.

That did it. Here’s the email I sent back, without the names (since I, at least, try to care about people’s privacy):

K__,

You’ve emailed and called me so many times about this now, that I have to say this – please stop.

I appreciate you are trying to generate business for S__, but as a seasoned PR professional, I am giving you the following free advice, which you are welcome to take to heart or disregard:

1. With this particular email, you included my email address on a cc list and not a bcc list, which is potentially a privacy violation. That is not a good business practice. It doesn’t matter whether or not everyone copied here is connected to IABC; it is not a good business practice.

2. It is a TERRIBLE idea to email someone, then call to let them know they’ll get an email (as you did with me) and then email to confirm they got an email – or several, because by this time, the person on the receiving end is thoroughly confused. Have you ever read the Bad Pitch Blog? Your job function may be characterized as sales, but sales come from good PR – and this is not good PR.

3. When reaching to [my chapter], it seems you reached to pretty much anyone you could find on our board list, and I know at least one other of our board members was confused, possibly irritated, at receiving the call from you. Never pitch multiple people at the same “outlet” (in this case, organization) at one go. Start with one and if they refer you to someone else, take the direction they give you. Do not try to hit several people at the same time, because all that’s going to happen on the other end is confusion and an irritated President (or, if it were the media, editor/writer).

4. You have already confirmed with me that our chapter’s [relevant board member] is attending one of your presentations – so why on earth was I included on this email? It would point to the fact that you need to “hit” certain people up again without keeping track of your prior communications with them. Again – not a good PR practice (or business practice).

Essentially, you have now turned me off so much to S__, that it’s going to take some amazing cost savings and increased functionality over what we currently use for us to consider you. I will certainly see what [relevant board member] has to say about your service, but after this, please do not pitch us again – if we’re interested, we’ll get back to you.

Let me repeat this: please do not pitch me – or us – again. At least until Dec. 31, 2010, which is when my term as chapter president ends.

Good luck with your work,

Regards,

Not 10 minutes had elapsed, but I got another email from her, this time to the person from our chapter who’s doing the demo and I, to reconfirm the demo.

That one I just let go.

Guess what? They didn’t get our business.

Not only that, but there were several chapter leaders on that cc list who were greatly irritated by her as well and I’m guessing S__ didn’t get their business either.

I didn’t get an apology from her (my email was probably the culprit). What I did get, about a month later, was another pitch from S__, though from a different person.

You can imagine how that went.

Salespeople, listen up.

The folks who write press releases aren’t the only one’s impacting your company’s PR. You do too, sometimes far more directly than they do. And you might want to get some PR 101 lessons from them (and believe me, they do much more than just writing press releases) before blasting emails to anyone you can find online.

I get that you have quotas to meet, and perhaps a portion of your income comes from the sales you generate, and I don’t blame you for trying to bring home the bacon. That’s what all of us do, every single day.

But with every email you write, every phone call you make, you have a choice to start building a relationship bridge with the person on the receiving end… or destroy it before you’re even off the line.

I also understand that perhaps you don’t have the budget for a dedicated PR function. But even if you don’t – no, especially if you don’t – you need to educate your sales force that relationship-building is something you have to be in for the long haul… and treat it as such. There are enough resources you can avail of to educate your team (and if you’re in a pinch, I’ll give you a break on my consulting services, as I’m sure many other PR pros would be happy to do).

And oh, you know those times you mess up (because we all have them)? A short apology goes a long way in mending that broken bridge, assuming, of course, that you’re interested in mending said bridge. If you’re not, no worries. There are plenty of other fish in the sea.

PR and sales are a lot more closely-related than you think they are.

Everyone, not just those in PR, can learn more from:

• Marshall Kirkpatrick on 5 PR Pitches: The Good and The Bad
• The Bad Pitch Blog
• Mark Weiner on the PR-to-Sales Connection

Dilbert on Press Releases

At least I’ve never had to do this.

Why “Like” Is a Four-Letter Word

“Like” is the four-letter word that outdoes them all.

I’ve been trying to figure out why I reacted so strongly to Facebook’s announcement that their “like” button is the new green.

OK, they didn’t exactly say that, but that’s what it amounts to, doesn’t it?

From now on, you won’t be able to “fan” a page on Facebook, you’ll “like” it. (Hello, Mashable, didn’t you get the memo?) You won’t become the fan of a brand, you’ll “like” it.

Image: Alba Danés, Creative Commons

When you go to CNN.com, for example, you’ll be able to see what other people have “liked;” when you shop, you’ll be able to see what your “friends” “like.” And so on and so on, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

The best commentary I’ve found to date on this development is Robert Scoble’s. If you haven’t already, you should read it.

I get the pros for businesses and the cons for individuals.  Heck, Google’s already taken over the world, why shouldn’t Facebook have its shot at it? So I’m not really going to bother with the whys and wheretofors of it. It’s here and it’s probably not going anywhere.

What sticks in my craw a bit is how ubiquitous the word “like” – and its implications thereof – has become.

Where did our passion go?

As a consumer, I don’t “like” Elvis. I LOVE Elvis. And Elvis Presley Enterprises benefits.

As an independent PR practitioner, I don’t “like” Tungle. I ♥ it big time. And Tungle benefits.

As a content-sharer, I don’t “like” Google Buzz, even though it forces me to use the word to signify appreciation for something someone’s shared. I hate it. And Google… well, Google doesn’t really care what I think.

Certainly, Facebook didn’t invent “like.” Stumbleupon‘s been doing that for a while, though at least they had the decency to add an exclamation point after, thereby giving it some pizazz.

But if all we’re going to do is get folks to “like” stuff, then we PR and marketing practitioners have our work cut out for us.

Because we need our audiences to do more than “like” us/our clients; we need them to be so motivated that they’ll actually DO something, whether it’s share, email, sign up, buy, donate, or take whatever action(s) it is we need them to take.

Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way. Here’s what some of my Tweeps had to say:

To me, “like” is the four-letter word worse than many other four-letter words. Because it’s just… so… insipid, as Kathy Moore tweeted.

Seriously, with all the brainpower at its disposal, could Facebook not have come up with something better?

My friend Desi del Valle summed it up best in an email. She gave me permission to share this with you, so here it is:

What say you?

Measuring PR: Data Is Just Data Without Actionable Intelligence

We had a great discussion at #measurePR last week, when Chuck Hemann (the “oldest 30-year-old” Sean Williams knows) was our featured guest. It’s tough to recap all the nuggets shared, not just by Chuck, but very briefly, we focused on measuring social media.

These were the three questions we (primarily) discussed:

1. How do we use monitoring and analytics tools to inform benchmarks for social media campaigns?

2. Is there a “right” suite of tools to utilize?

3. Is there a new model of measurement/research in PR because of the explosion of social media?

Here are a few of the tweets:

As Chuck pointed out, the “right” suite of tools depends on what you want to measure – everything’s relative. There was quite a bit of discussion around SAS’ new measurement offering, but getting back to the chat at hand:

… and this gem:

“Data is just data without actionable intelligence informed by that data.”

Image: Kaptain Kobold‘s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

That, to me, sums up why smart measurement is so important, and how I hope this Twitterchat helps you.

I was really happy that Roxanne Papagiannopou, Alan Chumley, Richard Bagnall, Kristin Wadge, Kellye Crane, Pritesh Patel and Mary Barber all joined in; they’re not just friends but folks who add great value to pretty much any discussion on PR issues. But it was also great to see some new “faces” there, and I hope that will continue to grow; so do spread the word, won’t you?

Here’s the complete transcript for last week’s chat or, as I like to call it, #MeasurePR: the Chuck Hemann Edition. And if you have questions for next week or an upcoming chat, please let me know – you can tweet me, email me or leave a comment below.

And if you work in PR measurement and think you’d make a good guest, let me know that too (except if you’re going to pitch AVE, ‘cos then, don’t bother)… but seriously. I’d love to have you, just let me know.

What Darby Taught Me About PR

It was about a year ago that my husband’s family (and therefore mine) went through the traumatic experience of learning that one of the uncles tragically passed away very suddenly while on vacation abroad.

Dealing with death is never fun.

While the family started coming to terms with their loss, I tried to put my PR background to good use: to find our late uncle’s “orphaned” dog, Darby, a home, using social media.

If you’re just tuning in to the Darby saga, you can catch up on my posts from last year here, here, here, here and here.

One year later, our uncle and his affairs are at rest, and Darby did indeed find a new home. Certainly this was huge for me on a personal level.

On a broader level, though, this entire experience does have some good takeaways (and some reinforcement) that I wanted to share:

1. Social media can be incredibly powerful.

If I hadn’t been blogging and tweeting, and asking others to do so, Megan Drake would never have picked it up for her column, and KOIN-TV wouldn’t have seen Megan’s story and brought Darby into Portland’s homes.

2. Traditional media is far from irrelevant in the 21st century.

No matter how many people were tweeting and re-tweeting about Darby, a traditional TV newscast was the catalyst we needed. If you read my first post on Darby, you’ll remember that was one of things I was hoping for.

3. Online communities can be extremely effective, even if they’re made up of IRL “strangers.” Some of Darby’s most avid fans on Twitter were people I’d never met. It didn’t matter. They cared about her fate, so they acted. The secret is to give them something to care about.

4. If you give people the tools to work with, and ask them to do something, they will.

I could have written my blog, tweeted about Darby and left it at that. I didn’t; I asked everyone I knew to re-tweet, forward emails, joined every relevant online group I could think of (and was even made the owner of one, which threw me a little!) and kept asking people to spread the word. Most importantly, there was a central location – this blog – for folks to get information from and get in touch with me.

5. There’s no substitute for elbow grease.

Yes, SM allows us to communicate instantly. Yes, we have the potential to reach millions of people with a single click. But we still have to write, to call, to reach out and follow up for it to result in something. At least “ordinary people” like us do; and the Seth Godins of the world had to at some point as well (which is how they became the Seth Godins of the world).

What would I have done differently?

Hindsight, as they say, is 20-20. For the most part, I don’t have any regrets about what I did or how I did it. The only question I ask myself is:

Should I have started blogging Darby’s plight earlier?

If you look at the timeline of the Darby posts, the first one ran on May 11, 2009. This was about two weeks after we first heard the news. At the time, I spent the first few days figuring out what paperwork needed to be done in order for me to move ahead with getting Darby adopted, and making/sending a ton of calls and emails.

I don’t regret how I spent this time in the slightest – it was very important that we have our ducks in a row – but I also waited to see whether a few promising leads would work out. They didn’t, which started putting me into panic mode. And that’s when I started blogging, tweeting (including setting up Darby with her own Twitter account), etc.

You could say that this particular rear view mirror is pointless; we found Darby a home and that, at the end of the day, is what mattered. However, if we’d started this cycle of information even a few days earlier, it may have saved us not just time and money, but Darby’s state of mind, which was deteriorating by the day. Fortunately she made it… but what if she hadn’t?

The bottom line

A year later, and even though I have had no contact with her or her new family post-adoption (and believe me, I’ve tried), Darby still reminds me of what powers public relations.

It’s people.

At the end of the day, regardless of whether you’re in B2B or B2C communication (or any other acronym you want to add to the list), you’re dealing with issues, products, services, whatever – that all affect people.

So you must find a way to make what you’re trying to say (your “messages”) relevant to those people (i.e. your “audiences” or “publics”), in order for them to take the actions that will, hopefully, result in you achieving your desired outcomes. You have to do so cohesively and in a timely fashion.

You have to be consistent… and you have to keep going. If a particular tactic isn’t working, you have to try another. And you can only do that if you’re keeping track of your progress. Which means you have to have measurable objectives in mind, which should inform your communications. Which are by, to, for, and of… people.

Funny how public relations works, isn’t it?

Photo of Darby by the brilliant and talented Susan Ragan, used with permission.

From Personal Relations to Public Relations

I had the good fortune to be a presenter at Social Commerce Camp DC in February, thanks to Shashi Bellamkonda and Kikscore. As I was looking through my deck, it occurred to me it would probably make for a good series of posts on PR best practices for small businesses:

Working “The Ant Principle” Of Public Relations

PRs: Are you the Grasshopper or the Ant?

When it comes to creating tales that have a good moral lesson to ‘em, Aesop is a fella that almost immediately comes to mind.  He is credited as authoring such fables as The Lion and The Mouse, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and (drum roll please) The Ant and the Grasshopper (also known as The Grasshopper and the Ant or The Grasshopper and the Ants).

The reason I dig The Grasshopper and The Ant is because it provides a strong message about the value of hard work and preparation.

Image: dierken’s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

If you don’t know it, here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

The story is about a grasshopper that pretty much spends his summer days singing away, while the ant (or ants in some editions) work and toil to store up food for the winter.

When winter comes around, the grasshopper finds himself in a bit of a pickle, dying of hunger. He eventually finds himself going to the ant, begging for food, only to get sent away and chastised for his laziness and lack of foresight.

A little harsh, yes; but one could say he had it coming… which still seems a bit mean. This is why I’m so grateful for Disney providing a much “nicer” version of the tale as a Silly Symphony…

Ahh, yes—there’s big value in that little tale.

Which brings me to this question: why, oh why, do we allow ourselves to act like the grasshopper when it comes to dealing with the press?

While we’re not dealing with the threat of starving to death, the danger of ruining your reputation and company’s brand is very real.

Whether your interview is slated to last 5 minutes or 50, things can go awry in 5 seconds.

This is no exaggeration.

What you may think is a throw-away comment can sink your corporate ship in a jiffy. This is why it will serve you extremely well to be like the ant when it comes to preparing for an interview.

When you have a game plan, it

• Ensures Consistency
• Reminds You About What You Can/Cannot Say
• Limits Surprises – doing your homework better prepares you for different types of “encounters” you may have with the media.

What to plan for:

Type of interview: having an on-camera interview calls for a different kind of game plan than having an interview on the phone.

Know their story angle: among other things, this will give you an idea on the types of questions they may be asking.

Know the Interviewer: if this person is known for getting to the “personality” of a company or digging into the origins of a corporate culture, it will most certainly make you prepare for your time in a different way.

Know the media: because doing an interview for the Financial Times is going to be a little different than having a face-to-face with “Good Morning America.”

While using this “ant principle” may not keep you from messing up an interview or inserting your foot in your mouth, it will give you a level of preparedness – even if your prep time only lasts 5 minutes.  Because, unlike the grasshopper, you will have, at the very least, given yourself a level of comfort …however big or small that may be.

What do you to adhere to this “ant principle” in your work?  How do you keep your “inner grasshopper” at bay?

With more than 14 years of public relations experience, guest contributor Narciso Tovar is president and founder of Big Noise Communications, that runs on Method + Moxie. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Rhonda, and has a strong track record in media communications, both “old” and “new,” with organizations such as Vonage and the Wall Street Journal Online. One of the most energetic voices in social media, you can easily connect with Narciso on Twitter.

Making A Big Noise

I have some big news (well, for me) to announce today. Starting tomorrow, I’m thrilled that Narciso Tovar, principal of Big Noise Communications that runs on Method+Moxie (you should read it if you’re not already doing so), will be writing a monthly guest post for this blog. My (and yours) very first columnist!

Why?

As is wont to happen in this age of digital media, Narciso and I have never actually met (IRL).

We got to know each other on Twitter, and I’ve enjoyed reading his take on PR, especially those posts of his that have a pop culture twist. His tweets are refreshing (I mean, Who Else Do You Know Who Takes The Trouble To Tweet Like This?) he has a great sense of humor and, more than anything, his joy for life and our profession shines through. If that weren’t enough to seal the deal, we both love Corgis.

So do watch this space every month (around the 15th or so) for a new spin on PR from Narciso; and for once, I’m using the word positively and deliberately.

For those of you who may not know Narciso, here are his “seven things you may not know,” in the spirit of the meme that went around a while back:

1. He can do a great Harry Carray impersonation.

“Once my wife, Rhonda, realized that this little fascination of mine could be used as a source of fun for kids on Halloween, she made certain that I had my own pair of oversized glasses for the night.  We spent Halloween a few years back with me escorting a group of nieces and nephews as Harry Carray (full out – with the gray hair, loud tie, etc.).  About half of the parents got it, while the other half were a little confused…but were pretty ok with it as soon as they realized that the kiddos were enjoying it.”

2. Narciso once crashed a wedding at the World Trade Center in NYC.

“We had a few friends come in from London for the week and had been promising them a visit to the observation deck.  On one of the last few days they were in town, we made a trip to the Twin Towers to get a look-see at night.  As we made our way inside, we noticed some folks really ‘dressed to the nines’ and saw that they were actually really excited about where they were heading.  Seizing the opportunity, we followed them up… like we were part of the group.  Soon after, we were dancing the night away and enjoying some spectacular views from the Windows on the World restaurant – it was a great night for us all in Manhattan.”

[Wedding Crashers flashback, anyone?]

3. He plays a mean short stop.

“Seems like playing the sport for about 10 years did that… I actually had one of my coaches say that I was graceful in how I could scoop up a ball and hurl it to first base…oh, yes…it’s true.”

4. Narciso had his head shaved once for kid’s cancer.

“With Rhonda and one of her cousins watching nearby (on the set of Good morning America), I had my head completely shaved to help raise money and awareness for kid’s cancer.  It was part of an effort that a group of Wall Street executives agreed to do in exchange for raising money on St. Patrick’s Day.  There’s even a VHS copy of that footage with me winking to the camera as they shave my head bare somewhere.”

5. He dreams one day of being a Blue Man.

“Even though there’s a height requirement that I will never (ever) reach, I still hold on to the idea that there will, one day, be a time when they’ll stretch a bit and open up the ‘Blue Man’ requirements to have a ‘shorter’ Blue Man…a fella’s allowed to dream, right…?”

6. Narciso really is the Screen Actors Guild’s best kept secret.

“From hawking products for Dairy Queen to delivering a Shakespearian sonnet; or playing a singing rooster to acting in a post-modern show; it can be safely said that I ‘deliver the goods.’”

[Both would-be thespians. See - we have so much in common!]

7. He is crazy about his tri-color Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Eddie.

“What’s not to love? This little guy is sweet, loyal and even looks like a member of the family: he’s got a long torso and short legs.”

Narciso, I’m thrilled you’re on board. I know Eddie will keep you in line.

Image of Narciso & Eddie © Narciso Tovar, used with permission.

Internal Doesn’t Mean Unseen: Sean Williams on #measurePR

How’s this for going back in time in the age of now?

My second guest on #measurePR (all the way back in February) was the inimitable Sean Williams.

If you’re a measurement geek and don’t know him… you should. Not only does he have one of the brightest minds in our field, he has one of the brightest minds, period. I was lucky that Sean was willing to take some time out of his day to sit in on the chat when it was just a couple of weeks old, and he shared his thoughts on measurement, PR and ROI.

Since Sean teaches on Tuesdays and was  held up joining the chat, we chatted among ourselves for a bit, and shared our pet measurement peeves. Not surprisingly, the continued use of AVE, lack of benchmarking and “quantity v. quality” were common causes of angst.

Because it’s been a while since this specific chat took place and I didn’t grab screen-shots of the tweets immediately after, I can’t show them to you (if you know, and can show me, how to do that, I’ll be indebted to you forever). But here are some of the interesting/noteworthy points raised during the chat:

1. Lindsay Allen, on the value of proprietary formulas such as Cision’s “publicity value: “… they… wouldn’t/couldn’t tell us much about how it’s calculated since the formula is proprietary.” To which Sean replied that it needed academic review (which, IMHO, all formulas – btw, does anyone use ‘formulae‘ any more? – should be).

Sean went a step further to say his biggest pet peeve was proprietary methods, of which he wants one, so he can make money (don’t we all?!), but he’d want it independently reviewed for accuracy and value.

Rebecca Denison, whom I’ve profiled before, perceptively pondered whether folks sign on for a proprietary formula because it’s better than nothing and they’re under pressure to do so.

2. I asked Sean for his take on the difference between AVE and “weighted media cost,” to which he posited an extremely diplomatic answer. For what it’s worth, I think highly of the folks who authored this paper, but am still making my mind up about the measure.

To learn more about WMC, I suggest you read this paper on the Institute of Public Relations’ site, Katie Paine’s opinion (y’all know she’s my guru, right?), and Sean’s own musings on the subject.

3. Sean reminded everyone to do something so simple it’s unbelievable that most don’t: Set Measurable Objectives.

The second #measurePR chat transcript is yours for the asking.

Do have a read through when you’re at a loose end (or, as I like to say, in your copious free time). I think you’ll enjoy it.

What I can share, though, is a video of Sean talking about measuring internal communication, which I grabbed when I was in Cleveland a few weeks ago speaking to IABC/Cleveland (which rocks and you should join, if you’re in the area, btw).

And if you’re interested in internal communication, you should follow #icchat, which Sean hosts along with Susan Cellura. How’s that for a bonus?

Enjoy! And do join us from 12-1 pm ET tomorrow when we’ll be chatting with Chuck Hemann on measuring social media.

Image: Adam Groffman, Creative Commons

Riding the Social Media Measurement Waterfall

Image: Hamed Saber, Creative Commons

I’m tickled pink (and not just because that’s the color of the Elvis hoodie I’m sporting today, a little like this one) that Chuck Hemann will be our featured guest on the next #measurePR Twitterchat (have you marked your calendars? April 13, 12-1 pm ET, follow/participate on Twitter using the #measurePR hashtag).

Chuck Hemann, a 2010 Society for New Communications Research Fellow, is currently a social media associate for WCG, a global media services company focused on the corporate and product marketing and communications needs of leading healthcare companies. If you don’t already, you should follow and engage with him on Twitter.

When I was in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, Sean Williams (another research and measurement rock star, who was featured on the second #measurePR chat), said Chuck was the “oldest 30-year-old” he knows. Now, I don’t know if that’s how old (or young) Chuck really is, but you can see where Sean was going with this remark.

Much like Rebecca Denison, I was curious about how and why this young man with an old soul developed this passion for PR measurement. Here’s what he had to say:

“About 5 years ago, a colleague of mine at Dix & Eaton gave me a copy of Katie Paine’s “Measuring Public Relationships.” At that point I was just starting at D&E and was brand new to public relations research. Sure, I had conducted research while in graduate school, but primarily my background was in political science/political research.

“After reading through the book I knew that this was the right career move for me. I, like Katie (and so many others), share a love for research and analytics. Determining the starting point for our campaigns, and then whether or not we executed against those goals gets me excited to come into work every day.

Now, with the explosion of social media my focus has shifted from traditional PR research to social media research. This includes a heavy dose of monitoring, but also use of Web site analytics and search platforms (both free and paid).”

So what are we hoping to talk about that will get Chuck’s juices flowing? Well, a few things:

First, and probably foremost, how do we use monitoring and analytics tools to inform benchmarks for social media campaigns?

Second, is there a “right” suite of tools to utilize?

Third, is there a new model of measurement/research in PR because of the explosion of social media?

Chuck is hoping for an interactive discussion so let’s get it rolling! Do join us: Tuesday, April 13, 12-1 pm ET. And don’t forget: #measurePR is the magic hashtag!

How You Say It Matters Too: Lessons on Blogging via Geoff Livingston

A couple of days ago my friend Geoff Livingston threw the blogosphere – at least the PR/SM one – for a bit of a tizzy when he announced he would no longer be writing regularly for the extremely popular Buzz Bin.

This, Geoff said, is why:

“Why, you ask? I have run out of things to say (image: Elyse Patten, Creative Commons). I found last summer when I wrote the “for me, social media is dead” posts that I had run out of things to say. As we moved on to a group blog format again, Mondays were still a struggle to add something new to the conversation.

“Two years ago, I ended the Now Is Gone blog for similar reasons. I feel like I am repeating myself. For example, while you may think FourSquare is a great new thing, I already blogged about it eight months ago! Yes, there’s room for continuing coverage, but… You get my point.”

Several months ago, the Buzz Bin saw a change when it became a CRT/tanaka (Geoff’s former employer which acquired Livingston Communications) property. And then he told us that come 2010, he’d be starting anew; we now know that new venture as Zoetica Media.

Having had the pleasure of getting to know Geoff a little over the course of the last several months, I can tell you one thing: the man does not run out of things to say.

Moreover, what he does say, he puts across in a unique fashion.

I’m not going to argue with Geoff – after all, if he thinks he’s run out of things to say, who am I to question him?! – but I think we can all take classes from him on how to say things when we blog, regardless of whether those are our personal or professional blogs. Here are three (and there are many more) that have particularly touched me:

Nothing strikes a chord like brutal honesty.

Check out Geoff’s post from 2008 on his five worst professional mistakes. He goes into quite a bit of detail on his career progression, examining not his highs, but his lows, sharing what must have been agonizing moments from his past. For example:

We’ve all made mistakes, and they’re never fun to remember. When we’ve made particularly bad mistakes, the most we can hope for is that the sting of memory recedes with time. And Geoff not only goes into them, but shares his lessons learned, with equally brutal honesty.

Takeaway: When you share pieces of your life with others – and if you have the courage to do so frankly – it makes you more approachable and personable… and it helps to engage your readers. Look at the number of comments Geoff got on this post. If blogging is about two-way conversation, Geoff nails it.

Use multimedia to a fault.

I thought what Geoff did to raise money for cancer research – getting himself tattooed at SxSW – was a great approach to personal fund-raising (I think the queen of it has to be Beth Kanter, who’s inspired several people, Geoff and myself included, to generate support from their communities for causes they care about).

What Geoff does really well, though, is incorporate different media into his posts. He’s an avid photographer, plays with just about every tech tool you can think of and uses them, and even brings you video of himself in what must have been, at the very least, an uncomfortable situation.

Takeaway: the more ways you give people to understand what you’re trying to say, the greater the chance of them actually getting it. By now everyone should have gotten over their fear of creating visual content, what with Flickr, Flipcams, et al. This stuff is easy to do. Do it.

Be generous to a fault.

A hallmark of Geoff’s writing is that he links liberally to other posts and online references. Look at this post of his on sponsored media.

There are eight (count ‘em) links to other posts, including an image credit, as well as a screenshot of comments he got on Facebook when he posited the question there.

This isn’t rocket science, but we often forget to do this – or don’t take the time to do it.

Guess what? When you link that liberally, people appreciate it. Which increases the chances of them linking back to you and engaging with you. And if you use images you’ve sourced online to add some zest to your post, always, always make sure to give the photographer his/her due, after making sure the image is licensed in a way that allows you to use it.

Takeaway: People are generous by nature. Being generous to a fault when you’re blogging is one of the greatest virtues you can have. And if you haven’t as yet figured out Creative Commons, now’s the time to do it.

As far as not having anything to say goes… Geoff will still be talking. He’s just going to do it his way, in a different place. And I, for one, couldn’t be happier that you can’t shut him up.

I could go on for a while, but those are three of the greatest gifts Geoff has given us. What would you add? Which other master bloggers have inspired you, and why? I’d love to know.

GLEAM: A 5-Letter Guide to Polishing Your PR

A couple nights ago I sat in on #tweenPR, a Twitter chat targeted towards mid-level PR practitioners as the chat’s official mentor. I’m grateful that Nicole Nolte and Suzie Linville, creators of the chat, consider me mentor material, though one might reasonably ask what gaping hole exists in the development of afore-mentioned mid-level professionals that they felt the need to create this.

Read the explanation? Excellent. I don’t need to go into it then.

This week’s chat focused on the ABC’s (Assets, Benefits, Challenges) of managing junior-level employees. My answer? Make your junior team members GLEAM (image: photon’s Flickrstream, Creative Commons).

As in:

Guide

Listen

Empower

Attribute

Motivate

This seemed to strike a chord, as you can see from these retweets:

As I thought more about this, it occurred to me that you could take this same acronym and apply it in your day-to-day PR efforts for the benefit of your clients and/or organizations, not to mention yourself:

Guide

Ninety-nine percent of the time, when organizations seek outside counsel, it’s not because they lack PR skills in-house. What they really want is for you to provide an unbiased evaluation of their efforts, gently steer them away from temptation (shiny new toy, anyone?) and make sure they’re not losing the wood for the trees.

As a PR practitioner, it’s critical that you serve as a guide.

Not a  “yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir” kind of agency. But a real guide who focuses on your client’s goals and measurable objectives, and delivers the know-how that enables them to achieve said objectives.

Listen

Think you’re the only one who had a bad day? The only one who had to dance around office politics? Think again. You’re far from being the only one to endure being left out of the loop, or trying to figure out ways to get ahead.

Chances are: your client is too.

So if you’re lucky enough to build up a rapport with your client and it’s clear she needs to vent – listen. Without talking.

I know it’s difficult, because we PR people seem to have a gene that’s geared towards trying to fix everything we come across (must be that measurable objective thing). But seriously – just listen.

It shouldn’t surprise you, but if you’re an effective listener, you’ll enable those talking to you to figure out exactly what they need to do. And the bonus: you get to wear a halo for being a problem-solving genius… without doing anything, not to mention possibly glean information on the work situation you’re involved in that can help make your strategies more effective.

Empower

Now you’re scratching delicately smoothing your head, wondering just how you can empower your clients (image: S. M. Ameli, Creative Commons). After all, they’re the ones who pay the bills, they’re the ones who keep things moving… right?

Right. But also not-so-right.

If your clients didn’t hire people like you to help them along, they wouldn’t be able to do all the great stuff they do, which enables them to pay your bills. And the best way to make sure they keep doing that? Empower them.

If they’ve hired you to perform a particular service for them… show them how you do it. If you serve as in-house PR counsel, make sure you pay as much attention to your internal audiences as you do to your external audiences. Educate them so that the next time they have to make an important decision, they know they can count on you for honest, supportive advice.

Show them what you’re doing, why it’s important and tell them how they can help.

Your most effective ambassadors are the ones you empower. Which means you must serve not so much as a director, or consultant, but as a collaborator.

Attribute

When you’re on the outside, most of the time you’re worried about getting credit for what you’ve done (come on, admit it). You’re the one who came up with that bright idea, not the other agency. (How else will you keep the account, right?)

But what if you all came up with the bright idea? Or what if – shock and awe – your client was the one who came up with the idea in the first place?

Give them the credit. More than that, make sure their supervisors know they’re the one(s) who came up with said bright idea. I’m not usually a fan of reply-all emails, but this is one case where you can use it well to blow someone else’s horn.

It’s not just generous, it’s the right thing to do. And it will serve you in good stead. Because when it comes time to renew the contract, guess who’ll put a smile on the client’s face?

Motivate

Across the board, human beings respond well to positive reinforcement (check out this extremely interesting deck on psychology and social media). This is not to say we should over-justify what we undertake.

But when was the last time you did something happily (image: Sean Dreilinger, Creative Commons) because someone yelled at you?

Or because they told you how much you sucked?

As PR practitioners, part of our charge is to educate and motivate those we work with to do better, quicker (or more efficiently) and wiser, to paraphrase “Citius, Altius, Fortius.”

So help your clients (or your “in-house clients”) be better, more educated, and more productive. In other words, motivate them to do their job better – and they will help you do your job better.

The Bottom Line

If you put a gleam in your client’s eye, chances are that gleam will bounce right back off of you. That won’t just make you a happy practitioner, it’ll make you a proud one; and what better reward could you ask for?

What do you think? What’s your mantra for PR excellence? Do share by leaving a note below.

More from:

• The Institute for Public Relations on ethics and PR
• Danny Brown on helping yourself to help your clients
• Lest you thought I was getting too Pollyanna-ish, the 5 myths of managing up

The Terrible Twos: Keeping Up With #measurePR

When I started the bi-weekly #measurePR chat on Twitter last month, I had no idea how it would do.

Yes, I could tell there was a need for it (conversations in several chats I sat in on turned in the measurement direction), and yes, I’ve done a little work in the area – but even if you hope and plan till the cows come home, you never really know if they’ll deliver the milk, do you?

OK, that’s my terrible analogy for the day.

Taken off it has. From some terrific guests, to being adopted as “the” hashtag for conversations related to measurement, #measurePR is almost like an infant running towards toddlerhood – “terrible twos,” anyone? – before it realizes it can’t actually run (image: Tomás Fano, Creative Commons), it’s still crawling.

Part of this running/crawling thing means that I’m left with so many thoughts swirling around in my head at the end of each chat – or when I listen in on related conversations outside of our regular chat window – that I’ve done a terrible job of capturing them. So I need to do better there.

But it also means that you can find a wealth of PR measurement-related resources, thinkers, and sharers, indexed by the hashtag.

I’m going to recap some of our past chats in greater detail (promise!), but in the meantime, here are downloadable transcripts for the previous chats to date:

• The first #measurePR Twitterchat on Feb. 2 featured Katie Paine (of which I managed to do a recap, which you can read here) who, I’m sure you know, is @kdpaine on Twitter;
• The second #measurePR chat featured research and measurement powerhouse Sean Williams, who tweets as @commAMMO;
• Richard Bagnall and Kristin Wadge were a “twofer” in the third #measurePR chat; can I just say how lucky the folks at Metrica are to work with them? They’re @richardbagnall and @kristinwadge on Twitter, by the way; and
• #measurePR #4 was the “community chat,” where the community led – and answered – the questions.

Today we have a terrific guest who’s taking time out of what I know is a very busy day to chat with all of us, Kami Watson Huyse (@kamichat) of Zoetica Media. Kami’s bio and credentials are so prolific I wouldn’t be able to do them justice here, but suffice it to say she rocks PR, social media, measurement and pretty much everything in that area.

Please join us from 12-1 pm ET on Twitter today (remember, the chat is bi-weekly, not weekly); use #measurePR with Tweetgrid, Tweetchat or your search method of choice to listen or participate in the conversation. See you there!

IABC/DC Metro to Host the Wonderful Ann Wylie

Cross-posted from IABC/DC Metro’s blog, Capitol-Cast.

This kind of news is too delicious to keep to one’s self, so here goes: we’re thrilled that renowned writing coach, Ann Wylie, will be visiting Washington, D.C., early summer to do a half-day workshop for IABC/DC Metro on the wonderful world of writing.

Ann’s a fixture on the speaking circuit, at the stratospheric level, that is. She’s won more than 60 communication awards, including 2 Gold Quills, has been designated an “IABC Recommended Speaker” for her top ratings at IABC International conferences, and serves as the Public Relations Society of America’s national writing coach.

If you subscribe to her newsletter, Revving Up Readership, you know just how terrific she is. Or, you may have caught her at one of IABC’s or PRSA’s international conferences… and she probably left you wanting more. New or senior communicator, Ann’s tips are timeless and workshops enthralling.

And *we* get her to ourselves for a bit. W00t!

Date, etc., tbd, but we’re looking at late June/early July, so please check our website often for updates. Space is likely to be limited for this premier event, so once it’s announced, make sure you sign up quickly.

3 Questions to Ask – and Answer – When Launching a Twitter Chat

As founder of the #measurePR Twitter chat, I was invited to, and participated in, #chatmixer last night (party image, David Domingo, Creative Commons).

The idea was to bring together folks who routinely participate in specific chats, in an online/Twitter “mixer,” in an effort to widen their Twitter circles (would that be Twircles?) – hence the choice of #chatmixer as a hashtag. Truth be told, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, though Justin Goldsborough, Heather Whaling and Valerie Simon were meticulous in their planning.

Turns out, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. It had a great party feel to it, and the last time I can remember the feeling of Twitter being such a party solely due to an effort like this (i.e. not related to an offline event) was the “kindness party” last year. I don’t even remember who organized that, except that Kim Wells brought it to my attention, and I had a whale of a time.

A chat is born

Anyhoo… during the course of #chatmixer, a new chat was born: #cookchat. (I cannot wait for that one.) And a few different people mentioned they were interested in starting chats as well.

This can be a very smart thing to do, especially from a marketing point of view.

But as with all bright ideas, you should play devil’s advocate and batter the heck out of your bright idea before you launch it. Better you find the holes in it & mend them before anyone else does, right?

First, read these excellent posts on participating in (by Jeff Hurt) and running (by David Spinks) a Twitterchat.

Now, just as when designing a PR strategy, here are three questions to ask – and answer – when launching a Twitter chat.

1. What gap will this chat help to fill?

If you look at What the Hashtag?! (now part of What the Trend™), you’ll see it’s currently tracking 9,900 hashtags. While not all of those are chats, that gives you a sense of just how many hashtags are out there.

Image: skipnclick‘s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

The primary reasons people participate in chats are, first, to learn something and second, to extend their networks. So if your chat is to be successful, it must fulfill these two desires.

If you look at this handy-dandy spreadsheet that Robert Swanwick created to track regular chats on Twitter, you’ll see a few chats that are fairly similar, as well as those that are quite unique.

There’s certainly nothing wrong in several people having the same conversation, albeit with different hashtags – it happens all the time. But if you want to give your chat a shot at succeeding (more on what this means in a bit), try to make it unique.

This is what Sarah Evans did with #journchat, what Kellye Crane did with #soloPR and, I’d like to think, what I’m doing with #measurePR.

What do the people you want to reach want to talk about? If you can answer that question – particularly with an answer that no one else has come up with yet – you’re off to a good start.

2. What will make this chat attract its target audience?

The quality of a chat – which is what will determine the perception of the chat and hence its profile – is dependent on who participates. You can design a great chat, but if you don’t have engaged, thoughtful and thought-provoking participants, it might end up being a one-hit wonder.

How do you bring the right people to the table?

Figure out what time of day and how often you’re going to hold the chat (this is particularly important if yours is not the only chat of its kind around)… and sustain it. Don’t set yourself up for failure; if your other commitments preclude a weekly chat, make it bi-weekly (or monthly, if you dare).

Whatever you decide, be consistent, since that is what will build your audience and community.

What you’re essentially asking people to do, as you build your chat community, is give up something else – work, family time, a movie, pizza – to devote their attention to your chat. Over and over and over again.

So make it easy and desirable for them to attend – that will go a long way in making it worth their while.

3. How will this chat become recognizable and identifiable?

Let’s face it, we in the social media sphere have the attention span of gnats. And I say that with no disrespect to gnats (image, Kaptain Kobold‘s Flickrstream, Creative Commons).

Like anything else in the branding space, repetition rules. So once you’ve figured out the name and aim of your chat, brand it well.

I’d go so far as to say, message the heck out of it.

Choose a smart, easy-to-remember hashtag that’s as short as possible; you want to make the most of those 140 characters of Twitter-estate. Register it on WTHashtag and add it to your bio.

Brand your chat frequently, but consistently. Because if you don’t, someone else might, and that will leave you considerably unhappy.

Which brings me to success – what does a successful Twitter chat look like?

It could be the dominant player in its niche with thousands of participants; it could be an extremely engaged conversation that leads to genuine discovery for a small but passionate group.

It could be the place where thought leaders in your field congregate; it could be people pitching you to be “on your show”; or it could be the generic use of your hashtag in conversations with a related theme.

Whatever the measure of success, you’re going to have to define it based on why you set out to build it… and if you really want to be successful, define this at the outset. I haven’t yet come across a Twitter chat that’s being sustained purely for fun, even if it was launched impulsively; if it builds, there’s a great deal of time and effort being put into it.

So figure out what you want to do with the chat, as well as what you want the chat to do for you (and it’s ok to want the chat to do something for you, that’s what business is about).

When you begin at the end, there’s a much greater likelihood you’ll get there.

What do you think, am I off the mark or on the money? If you’ve implemented successful tactics in launching and maintaining Twitter chats, please share them in the comments section below. All 9,900 hashtags (and growing) and I will thank you.

This Is What 40 Looks Like

There’s a terrific post over at Women Grow Business today on “the incredible disappearing woman” by Liz Scherer, one of WGB’s regular contributors. As editor of WGB, you could accuse me of being biased, and I suppose that would be understandable… though not, IMHO, accurate, but that’s neither here nor there.

When I read through Liz’ post, these words of Gloria Steinem when told she didn’t look 40, as relayed by Mollie Katzen, struck a particular chord with me:

“This is what 40 looks like.”

What an incredibly empowering phrase.

I celebrated my 40th birthday this year with as much pandemonium as I could muster. My community was incredibly generous, helping me raise money for a cause particularly dear to my heart. And then I had an absolutely amazing time in London, UK, as part of my belated “birthday blowout.”

Complete strangers have been exceedingly kind to me, such as the British Airways employee who, as part of the rigorous screening on our way back to the US after my delayed b’day celebration in London, cocked her head at me and said, “… are you trying to make ME feel old?” (when I told her the reason for our trip).

Still, as a woman who’s no longer on the “right side” of 30, I can’t help but wonder sometimes…

… am I over the oft-referenced hill?

Was my grand proclamation of my age this year a set up for encountering ageism in the workplace when I don’t hold all the cards I think I do now?

Truth be told, I don’t know. Perhaps these words will come back to bite me some day. But this I do know, 99% of the women I encounter really do grow better as they age.

Perhaps it’s a question of “growing into my skin,” as I told a former boss of mine 10 years ago, when she asked how I was adjusting to life in the US after moving from India.

But if I could turn back the clock, I would, right?

No. I wouldn’t. Whatever I’ve been through, whatever I’ve done, have made me who I am today, and have put me in exactly the right place at the exactly the right time.

You can call that new-agey, if you like, but that is really how I feel.

I’ll say it loud and I’ll say it proud. This is what 40 looks like.

In Perpetual Motion: Reflections On a 2.0 Vacation

That’s me coming out of a London phone booth on Heddon Street last week. If any David Bowie fans are reading this, they’re nodding their heads; and if the rest of you are scratching your noggins wondering what I’m going on about, here’s why Heddon Street is legendary to Ziggy Stardust fans, of whom my husband is king (and therefore, by association, am I queen).

In perpetual motion

You’re also probably wondering why I chose a photo that’s a bit fuzzy to illustrate this post. I did so because it captures me in motion, and that’s what our vacation (which was wonderful) felt like.

We were in perpetual motion, as we took in the Globe, Abbey Road, Lord’s, Abbaworld (awesome!), some great restaurants and the whole point of going to London in some very crappy weather – to see Elvis Presley in Concert as my “milestone birthday” celebration. (After all, when you’re in one of the world’s most vibrant cities for five days, you want to do as much as you can.)

It’s also how I think of life today. Ever since getting back to the U.S., I’ve slowly been getting back to my “real” life, which was blissfully suspended for a week. And real life in the 21st century moves very, very fast. The kind of thing we say we want to get away from… which is why we go on vacation, right?

Kinda sorta. While we were traveling, I did keep my Blackberry close at hand, but I didn’t send too many emails from it (at least, I’d like to think I didn’t, though my colleagues at IABC/DC Metro are probably snorting right now).

So while the vacation was meant to be a getaway, I didn’t really “get away” as much as I could have… but was that a bad thing?

The 2.0 vacation

Because of my BB, for example, we were able to minimize how much paper (directions, addresses, etc.) that we carried with us while we were traipsing across the city. A green vacation… after a fashion!

And I was able to stay in touch with my Twitter peeps thanks to Ubertwitter. One of them, Howard Riefs, introduced me to the fabulous Tom Aikens, who very kindly made a reservation for me at Tom’s Kitchen (which you really have to go to when you’re next in London). The best eggs benedict I’ve eaten in a while, not to mention the best loo sign ever. Check it out:

They also told me how much postage I’d need to mail in some bill payments that I’d forgotten to drop off in the mad rush before we left. Staying connected helped me find one of London’s three remaining post offices (or so someone said) and take that load off my mind.

Because we had mobile connectivity, we were able to find some really dinky record stores – the kind that only take cash – that my husband’s been dreaming of going to.

And I was able to meet up with friends like Richard Bagnall and Ved Sen, and meet IRL tweeps such as Kristin Wadge, Russell Pearson, Bryce Keane and Sheema Siddiqui (the latter of whom organized a #shonalitweetup – love it!)

Whether we like it or not, hyper-connectivity is part and parcel of our lives, especially for those of us who live in the social media plane. Yes, that’s sometimes tiring, even irritating… but it can also be incredibly helpful.

So while it’ll take me a little time to get back into full 2.0 work mode, I’m grateful to the 2.0 world for adding dimension to a vacation that was a once-in-a-lifetime event for us.

You might call it a 2.0 vacation.

Moving from “Buzz” to “Business”: Social Commerce Camp DC Is Coming Up

Why bother with PR?

One of the things that yours truly focuses on in her, er my, “day job” is the business use of public relations – or, in other words, why bother with “PR” if it’s not going to impact business indicators? Far too often, I see and hear people assuming the raison d’être of “PR” is to “create buzz.”

I won’t belabor the point here but in a nutshell, it’s not. Effective PR is designed – and implemented – with a view to helping an organization achieve its business objectives. In other words, it really is about managing the relationships between an organization and its “publics,” and thus impacting the bottom line.

Which is why I’m excited to be a part of Social Commerce Camp DC this weekend (Saturday, Feb. 20); a free educational event that is geared towards small businesses and entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses and are looking for the tools to get them started.

Now, it’s a half-day event so no, you won’t be writing an encyclopedia on small business after attending, but what you should definitely walk away with is an understanding of how to use “social” to jumpstart your business (or kick it into high gear). And yes, PR is a part of that, and that’s what I’ll be focusing on.

Here’s the agenda

• 8 – 9 am:  Continental breakfast , registration and networking
• 9 – 9:45 am: Social Media 101 for Small Business, with Shashi Bellamkonda , Social Media Swami, Network Solutions
• 10 – 10:45 am: Creating a Killer Social User Experience with your e-Commerce Site, with Steve Fisher, browncoatsmovie.com
• 10.45 – 11.15 am:  Check your Twitter account/ blogging time
• 11:15 am to 12 noon: PR Tips and Best Practices for Small Business – Shonali Burke (me!)

Major props to the sponsors: Mayer Brown, Network Solutions, Kikscore and  MyBusinessAssistant.com.

Will I see you there? Remember, it’s free, so come on out. You can register here.

Image: Daniel Broche, Creative Commons

Cross-posted from Women Grow Business, of which I am editor.

Help A PR Pro Out: The Michael Clendenin Edition

I know I’ve been talking (or having other folks talk) about job hunting, do’s and don’ts, etc., quite a bit lately. Honestly, I can’t help it; given this blog is all about “personal” musings on our business and our lives, it really is a reflection of what’s going on with, in, and around me.

Even though I’m not looking for a job myself, I’ve been helped countless times by both friends and strangers (who then become friends… what a wonderful world!) when I have been in the market – and the least I can do is pay it forward.

So when Arik Hanson and Valerie Simon asked me to be a part of a wonderful initiative: “Help a PR Pro Out” or #HAPPO for short, where several of us PR pros are going to do our bit to help our colleagues in the job market make excellent connections – and hopefully, find a great job – on February 19 – of course I said “yes.”

You’ve probably already heard the buzz online, but if you’re still getting up to speed, here’s the 4-1-1 on the HAPPO website itself.

Today’s #HAPPO Focus: Michael Clendenin

Specifically today, I want to tell you about a good friend and an excellent communicator, Michael Clendenin. Mike was most recently with Freddie Mac (yup) and is now in the job market. Having known and worked with him in a volunteer capacity at IABC/Washington (he’s on my current board of directors too) I can tell you that not only is he one of the most patient people around, he’s a really smart guy too; and whether it’s through sheer persistence or the luck of the Irish, invariably manages to pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat when most needed.

Please – if you have, or know of, a senior-level communication position in the DC market, will you contact Michael? Or leave a comment below so that he can get in touch with you. And thank you in advance for your time and thoughts!

And now I’ll let Mike speak for himself. Please help this PR pro out!

Of Cabbages and Kings and Measuring PR

We kicked off our first Twitterchat on measuring public relations yesterday, with the “queen of measurement” herself, Katie Paine. From 12-1 pm EST, we had an incredibly lively and vibrant discussion that surprised even me, the organizer – and I should know not to be surprised by anything on Twitter by now!

You might wonder why I borrowed from “The Walrus and the Carpenter” in titling this post. The thing is, Mr. Carroll’s poem is so full of beautiful whimsy, I can’t help but think it reflects some of the chaos we are still dealing with when it comes to measuring PR.

I write and speak often on this but really… why are we still going round and round in circles about something like AVE (ad value equivalency) which is essentially a measure of output when we know what’s really important to the C-suite is focusing on outcomes? Fortuitously, I stumbled across Pritesh Patel’s post on the subject of AVE as I was pulling this recap together, so do give it a read.

If I have one mantra when it comes to measurement – that’s it. Outcomes outcomes outcomes. Repeat after me: OUTCOMES.

But this recap isn’t (just) about me. So in that vein, here’s Sean Williams’ recap, which also looks at the AVE debate (or paroxysm, as he calls it). Below are some of the highlights of the chat, and you can find the entire transcript here.

The four questions posed were:

• What are the most common mistakes in measuring PR?
• How does a newbie get started in “smart” measurement?
• How has the PR measurement landscape changed over the years, or has it?
• Can you recommend some educational resources?

Here are just a few of the gems, and not just from Katie:

And those are just a few. I do hope you’ll read the transcript and share your thoughts via a comment below, or on Twitter using the #measurepr hashtag.

Katie – thank you so much for kicking off the inaugural #measurepr chat; I hope you’ll be back often as the featured guest!

A quick note on how we’ll proceed: these chats will take place every two weeks for now; if we see a great urge to increase (or decrease the frequency), we’ll do so, but for now, if you’re interested in PR measurement, do mark your calendars for the next one (February 16) from 12-1 pm ET, and every other Tuesday following.

And remember – we want to get your questions answered – so if you have questions you’d like to have discussed at a future chat, please email them to me at sburke (a) shonaliburke (dot) com – or, of course, you can always tweet me.

Until the next time – keep chatting and keep measuring!

More resources:

• The Institute for Public Relations has great resources on measurement
• I created a Twitter list of folks I think are leaders in measurement, so you might want to check them out
• As our featured guest, I think it’s only right to point you to Katie’s website and blog
• A presentation I made at PRSA09 on measurement, which may particularly help those of you at non-profits/with low or no budget

Image: Quinn Dombrowski, Creative Commons

Five Ways to Land a Job in Social Media

This is a guest post from Chuck Hemann, someone I’ve enjoyed connecting with in the online world, and whom I very much hope to meet offline soon. Read on for great tips on landing a job using, and in, social media.

Social media jobs are popping up around every corner, and so are the people looking for those jobs. Unfortunately, the economic downturn took a heavy toll on the PR profession. Jobs aren’t as available for the experienced, or entry-level, professional. Because of the dearth of opportunities, many pros have taken to the Web in an effort to network and potentially land a new career.

If you’ve ever connected with me online or offline, you’ll know that I recently accepted a social media associate position with WCG, global media services company focused on the corporate and product marketing and communications needs of leading healthcare companies. I have enjoyed my current role as manager of research and online reputation for Dix & Eaton, but was hoping to land something more social media-focused.

If you currently have a job, or are recently unemployed and looking for something new, or even a recent college graduate who is trying to break into the workforce here are five tips that helped me land my job in social media.

1. Identify your niche

Social media may be new, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a host of cottage industries within the space. Are you interested in measurement/monitoring? Are you interested in community management? Are you interested in SEO? For me, that space was in monitoring and measurement so I made sure I got to know the folks from Radian6, Katie Paine, Don Bartholomew, Ken Burbary and a host of others you can find through my Twitter lists.

Do not try to be all things to all people. The end result will be you’ve spread yourself too thin, and probably not become noticeable in any one category.

2. Identify the “influencers”

I usually hate the term “influencers” as there’s really no standardized method to determine who’s truly influential, but in this case it makes sense to determine the 10-15 people in your niche that you’d like to read, and interact with. A Google search for any of the topics I’ve mentioned above will certainly help in that process, but don’t be afraid to ask. Use LinkedIn forums or Twitter or your own blog to ask people who they find influential.

3. Take a position

One of the pieces of advice I give to entry-level pros, and even more experienced professionals, is take a position. Nobody likes the guy/gal who waffles (unless you’re Switzerland), so figure out what your position is on the hot topics within your niche and express them.

Is this potentially dangerous? Sure, but prospective employers are looking for the ability to articulate and defend an argument. My first opportunity to do that on a large scale came when Jason Falls allowed me to share the approach to social media listening that I helped cultivate here at D&E on his blog. Search for those same opportunities within your niche.

4. Engage those “influencers”

Social media, regardless of the particular tool, does not come with an engraved invitation.

You either take the time to get to know the folks who are influential or you don’t. I haven’t “met” a person yet who is unwilling to engage people who engage with them. Take the time to get to know the influencers in your space and then engage them where they live.

5. Take it offline

Your online interactions can only take you so far. At some point, you need to meet the influencers in your space in real life. Whether you meet them at a conference, a tweetup, or just strolling through their neck of the woods you’ll no doubt gain more value from the relationship after you’ve met them in person. I’ve had the opportunity to meet many social media folks over the last two years and wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world.

These are just five things that worked for me. If you’re interested in other takes on landing a job, I’d encourage you to check out the posts from Teresa Basich and Lisa Hoffmann, both of whom have recently started new jobs in social media.

If you’ve recently landed a job in social media what worked for you? Do share!

Chuck Hemann, a 2010 Society for New Communications Research Fellow, is currently the manager of research & online reputation for Dix & Eaton, a communications consultancy with specialized expertise in social media strategies and tools. On February 15, Chuck will begin a new role as social media associate for WCG, a global media services company focused on the corporate and product marketing and communications needs of leading healthcare companies.

Image: Laurie Nadeau, Creative Commons

Who’s Guilty of Tweet-itis?

Even for someone with a thin skin when it comes to micro-blogging and Twitter in particular, I thought this was laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Image: Mark Smiciklas, Creative Commons

Getting on Board with Women Grow Business

Thanks to my (wonderful) friends, this particular cat got out of the bag before I could untie the strings, so I’m going to make this short and sweet (though I’ve been dying to tell you for a while): I’m really excited to be taking over the reins at Women Grow Business, an amazing community hosted by Network Solutions to help women do exactly that: grow their business.

With content from leading women entrepreneurs on a variety of subjects, Women Grow Business has really made a name for itself in an extremely short span of time, thanks to a great many people, but particularly, I think, because of Shashi Bellamkonda and Jill Foster; it’s the latter whose able hands I’ll be taking over WGB from.

Because of their efforts in building a vibrant, thriving community, WGB has received so many accolades, it’s a little mind-boggling: one of Forbes’ 20 best marketing and social media blogs by women, to name just one, not to mention Jill herself being listed by Forbes as one of 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter (and whatever your opinion about Twitter lists, you have to admit that’s a pretty cool one to be on).

Fyi, Shonali Burke Consulting still lives

Quick aside: in case you were wondering whether I’m giving up my consulting business – no, I’m not. Shonali Burke Consulting is alive and kicking and open for business. Hey, that’s what Women Grow Business is all about, right?

Back to WGB

So, anyway. I’m pinching myself because I can’t quite believe I get to do this – but I need your help.

Women Grow Business will not remain, or grow from, the amazing community/community blog it already is if women entrepreneurs and business owners don’t join in.

So please, visit me over at WGB, send me ideas for guest posts, let me know how you’d like to be involved. Follow us on Twitter and stay tuned for more developments online as well as offline, that we’d love you to be a part of.

Thank you for the incredible warmth and happiness you’ve shown to me today, and I’m looking forward to growing this wonderful community with you!

Scones, Sparkle and Sharing at DC’s First Social Media Breakfast

I attended my first Social Media Club (DC) event yesterday – a “social media breakfast,” which was founded by Bryan Person (read more here) – and the inaugural event of its kind in DC.

Wow – what a great time. First of all, it was sold out (well, it was free, but if you wanted to share in the extremely tasty, hot breakfast, you had to shell out $10, which I think is a deal). Teaism‘s cup was running over, if you’ll pardon the expression, of social media maniacs. And we’re a hungry bunch, in more ways than one, so we were eager listeners when Andi Narvaez, who was running the show, kicked things off.

Speakers Geoff Livingston, Shashi Bellamkonda and Alex Howard were fabulous, as was the organization by Andi and her cohort, Rachel Rule. I had a terrific time being a “head of table,” along with Mike Schaffer – and we were even at the same table, which was great. Among others, I got to meet James Walker, Lorna Webster (all the way from Fredericksburg, Va.), Ashley Settle and catch up with Kim Oser (we were all at the same table).

Though I’d meant to post this much earlier, in a way I’m glad I didn’t get a chance to do so, because I’ve found some terrific recaps of the event, such as in Shashi’s Examiner column and Alex Priest’s excellent writeup.

As you’ll read, the speakers all agreed on mobile being a top trend (and you can see how this is a theme in Geoff’s recent post over at Mashable on the Haitian earthquake implications for non-profit organizations).

Shashi made an excellent point (out of many) about integrating social media into your websites (“people aren’t going to come to your site to talk about your product/brand”), and Alex ripped through so many trends (including geo-location, niche networks, privacy – or the lack thereof – and real time) in his Prezi presentation, I felt like a benevolent hurricane had blown through the room. Fortunately, he’s allowed us to embed his excellent presentation, so have a look (tip, watch it in fullscreen mode, it’s much more fun).

Our table had an amazingly free-flowing discussion once the speakers wrapped; we covered everything from how businesses are using Foursquare, to governance of the Internet, to the successful integration of different applications. In fact, they pretty much had to throw us out (ask Mike, I’m not kidding). It was a great way to start a day (and week).

By the way, I’ve seen a few disappointed tweets from folks who didn’t know it was happening. Folks, if you subscribe to SMC-DC’s blog, and/or follow their tweets (#smcdc), and/or join their LinkedIn group, you’ll know when the next one is, won’t you?

The Real A-ha Moment

For me, the real “a-ha” moment was the engagement that we all shared, and the clear enjoyment we had in meeting each other, particularly when so many of us only knew each other from Twitter.

So in my opinion, while social media and online networking clearly has new and exciting heights to scale, I think we’re also going to see a resurgence of offline interaction in the days, months and years to come. Because all the trends the speakers spoke about had one thing in common, no matter how cool they were – they enable us to make better connections with each other.

The online world making us more human? Who’da thunk it.

If you were at #smbdc, what did you think? Did your table have other conversations you’d care to share? Do tell!

Image (cc) courtesy Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, Network Solutions

Chicago Helps Haiti

There’s some pretty hectic social media-with-a-cause activity going on in Chicago today.

In case you hadn’t heard, the Chicago Red Cross has had a telethon going since 5 a.m., which will continue until 11 p.m., to raise funds for Haiti. They’ve been promoting it pretty aggressively via both MSM as well as social media, integrating various outposts, such as Twitter and YouTube very well. You can donate here, or check out their live blog here.

I love when non-profit organizations are smart about their use of media to further their mission.

But I love it even more when a single person does it.

If you’re plugged into the PR/SM bubble on Twitter (and I say that affectionately, because it’s a bubble I enjoy bouncing around in), you’ll know Kate Zimmer, whose zest for life and PR smarts shine through those 140 characters, regardless of which pickle she says she’s in at any given time.

Pretty much single-handedly, Kate has pulled together an amazingly collaborative event in Chicago, entitled “Wake of the Quake,” and which is aptly hashtagged in the social media sphere as #chihelpshaiti.

It kicked off January 18 and will run through the 24th; during this time, participating restaurants in the Chicago area will enable patrons to add a donation of $1 (or more) to their checks to support the Heartland Alliance (and yes, it’s a tried and tested charity, I know I’ve been making a lot of noise about that lately). And tonight, they’re also holding a fundraiser and after-party to keep the goodwill and, hopefully, dollars flowing.

Using social media to do this is no longer ingenious; but I do think it takes tremendous strength of spirit and staying power to be the primary driving force behind it, and pull off an event that is clearly well-organized – look at the number of restaurants participating! – and is bringing the community together for an extremely deserving cause.

I asked Kate to tell me why she did this, and this is what she said, via email:

I had the idea as I was watching the news and seeing the Twitter feed about #Haiti early Thursday morning, one week ago. I really felt that someone should do something to help raise money for a local charity that is contributing to the Haiti relief efforts in a big way and, with the influence that some of us have on Twitter, why not use that as the method to motivate people to gather together to organize, produce and promote a local event? Everything was done via social and electronic communications!  The Chicago Twitter #ChiHelpsHaiti team didn’t even talk on the phone until 9 hours after the initial tweets and DMs went out!

Kate’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by the media. The Chicago Tribune picked up on it last week, check out this great write-up in Chicago’s Philanthropy Examiner, and it’s listed not once but three times on ChicagoBusiness.com (which is powered by Crain’s).

I hope to catch up with Kate in the next couple of weeks to see if this drive was a success (and how she measures success), and what lessons we can learn as PR professionals from her (though I think a few are already self-evident).

For now, though, I just want to take my hat off to Kate. Ms. Zimmer, I’m proud to call you “friend.”

I’d love it if you joined me in trying to help Kate; there are so many ways to do it. You could leave a comment for Kate below, help her spread the word on Twitter or Facebook, blog about it or donate to the Alliance’s emergency fund for Haiti. If you’re in the Chicago area, showing up at tonight’s event or eating at one of the participating restaurants. We’d be so grateful.

http://www.chicagoredcross.org/general_calltoaction.asp?CTA=5&SN=249&OP=9170&SUOP=9171&IDCapitulo=VF223FBDFD

Haiti: Aftershocks of a Different Kind

You should read this terrific post that Geoff Livingston has written for Mashable on social media lessons from the Haitian earthquake. There’s a ton of food for thought there.

But I’m following the Wyclef Jean/Yéle Haiti story closely and today saw this report in Gawker.

While I’m not jumping to conclusions (I’ll leave that to the appropriate authorities), I do think there are enough valid questions to make me think that non-profits should be extremely concerned about the long-term impact on fundraising.

Which, let’s face it, determines whether they get to carry out their mission effectively or not.

Here’s how I responded to Geoff’s post:

Nice post, Geoff. I think the other really important lesson here is that while the immediacy that social media allows is breathtaking, it is equally, if not more, important to do your research before using these channels and committing to a path, because it could potentially have far-reaching consequences. I write this in context of the Wyclef Jean/Yéle Haiti “rumblings,” which are growing louder by the day (and as you know, did a brief post on this last week). Day by day more organizations are bringing Yéle Haiti on as a recipient of fundraisers, telethons, etc., yet there is justifiable speculation as to the workings of this organization.

Please understand I am not pointing a finger at Mr. Jean personally; I have no doubt he has the best of intentions. But the desire to do good and administering effective relief operations are completely different things. If it turns out that all is well with Yéle Haiti, no one will be more relieved than me. But if not, a very many people will feel let down, which might, in turn, affect fundraising initiatives for non-profits, particularly of smaller/upcoming organizations; and possibly even the way they use social media in the future.

What do you think? Am I over-thinking this? Nothing to worry about? Please share your thoughts, over at Geoff’s post, or below, or both.

Image: IFRC/Eric Quintero

The Scorsese School of PR

I’m delighted that today’s post is a guest feature by Narciso Tovar, who reminds us the silver screen has more than a few lessons for communicators.

Filmmakers come and go – some have the staying power to make a real career out of it, while most fizzle out after a few films.  As a lead player in cinema, until you’ve earned some street cred in the business, studios and executives look for any kind of upward trend in your work – even though you were well-received in your last feature, you could very well tank (hard) in your next flick.

This is why veterans always tell newcomers that you’re only as good as your last picture.

One filmmaker who has earned his stripes (and then some) is Martin Scorsese.  He has not only made a career out his cinematic ventures, Mr. Scorsese has made his name synonymous with brilliant movies.  And even though he’s got some interesting eccentricities like never really wanting to go to Central Park and is listed as one of 50 people barred from entering Tibet, Martin Scorsese can teach us a thing or two in PR.

Martin Scorsese is:

1. A consummate student – his knowledge of films is encyclopedic and his mastery of various techniques is remarkable…the guy served a tour of duty at NYU and taught the likes of Oliver Stone and Spike Lee.  Moreover, Mr. Scorsese’s love of films has led him to establish The Film Foundation to promote the preservation and appreciation of film history.

Regardless where you may be in your career, there is ALWAYS time to learn something new in PR.

Yes, you have to stick to the basic tenets of public relations…and, yes, you have to be a strong writer…but there will always be a new way to skin that communications cat – it’s our job to find out how we can leverage their power for our company / client(s) and be smart about using these tools…wisely.

2. A guy who doesn’t take himself too seriously – how many other film legends can you say would be even open to the idea of being a shark character in an animation film, poke fun at his own eyebrows or take some fun jabs on national TV about his fondness for film reels.

Be it from our clients, bosses, colleagues, whatever – working in PR can be a bit stressful.  There’s a lot to handle and it has to be done in a timely manner – now more than ever.  Who the heck has time to breathe…?…YOU DO.  This is not rocket science and it’s not like we’re working on a cure to end world hunger.

Yes, it’s important, and yes, there is a great deal of value that we bring to the table; but the work we do is not so imperative that you can’t take a break or get some perspective by having a laugh or two at your own expense.

3. Always trying new things in his work – from directing Michael Jackson’s Bad video, to a film like The Age of Innocence and then onto Casino takes a tremendous amount of stretching…not only from the dynamics of the actors he had to work with, but from a storytelling perspective as well.

Hold fast to the tried and true methods of communicating your ideas, both internally and externally; but explore these new social media devices that are well within your reach.  Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, CrowdCampaign – they are easy to use, manageable and effective in communicating your client’s /company’s message.

So go out there and be the ‘Good Fella’ in your PR team.  Keep refining your methods & approach… never get ‘too big for your britches’ and keep yourself in ‘sponge mode’ – there’s always more to do in the Scorsese School of PR.

With more than 14 years of public relations experience, Narciso Tovar is president and founder of Big Noise Communications, that runs on Method + Moxie. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Rhonda, and has a strong track record in media communications, both “old” and “new,” with organizations such as Vonage and the Wall Street Journal Online. One of the most energetic young voices in social media, you can easily connect with Narciso on Twitter.

Announcing #measurepr

I had a terrific time on Twitter today. Sean Williams organized a Twitterchat with Katie Paine and myself as a precursor to our respective visits to IABC/Cleveland, and we had a good old time chatting about measurement, PR, social media and the like.

You can read the entire transcript here, if you’re interested.

I sit in on quite a few chats every now and again and the one topic that always seems to come up is measurement. I figured a regular chat on measurement, especially as it pertains to public relations, might be worth setting up.

So I’ve created the #measurepr hashtag and hope that anyone who’s interested in discussing the ins and outs of PR measurement will join.

For now, we’re going to start with a bi-weekly chat, every other Tuesday from 12 – 1 pm ET. We’ll kick off the first one on February 2, and the esteemed queen of measurement, Katie Paine, will be our featured guest.

Do mark your calendars, and join me. If you have questions on PR measurement (which will encompass both “old” and “new” PR), drop me an email, leave a comment below, or tweet me. I’m looking forward to it!

Image: anion‘s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

Go Social, Give Wisely

The way philanthropic organizations have been mobilizing social media in recent years to raise funds isn’t really “shiny new stuff” any more. Still, the recent waves of donations after the earthquake have been coming at lightning speed.

In light of that, I’ve been intrigued by The Smoking Gun’s scrutiny of Wyclef Jean’s charity, Yéle Haiti (also reported on in today’s Washington Post). Having run communications for the ASPCA during some critical events in the animal welfare arena, I know how generous people can be with their money when tragedy strikes, even when they don’t have a lot to give. I also know how important it is that that money reaches the right hands.

I honestly don’t know what the deal is with Mr. Jean’s charity and am not going to play a guessing game. If you’ve been following the story, you can view his video response on YouTube, which Mashable picked up pretty quickly (h/t Lindsay Allen for finding it for me). I do think he is to be commended for springing into action so quickly after the earthquake hit and being a very public face for the poorest nation in the Americas.

What I will say is that regardless of who you’re going to give your money to, you should do your research and give where you trust that your donation will be wisely used.

Charity Navigator is a good place to start, and usually my first stop when I’m researching a non-profit organization (you can read their take on Yéle Haiti and why they don’t currently rate it here).

GuideStar is another resource, and there are some terrific blogs and writing out there on philanthropy, such as Tactical Philanthropy, which Wendy Harman of the American Red Cross directed me to.

Also understand that while you might give your money immediately, it will take time to reach those who need it most – it’s not an instant process, as Wendy, who answered a few questions related to the organization’s efforts in Haiti for me, explains:

Q. A couple of days ago, the American Red Cross confirmed $5 million in donations from a texting campaign. However, today’s Wall Street Journal reports that “it could be weeks, if not months, before any of that money actually can be used… the money won’t be routed from most U.S. wireless carriers to relief efforts until cellphone users pay their phone bills.” Is the ARC making this delay clear to potential donors? Does this have any impact on your operations? And how successful are campaigns such as this, in your opinion, to more traditional fundraising methods such as telethons?

A. We can now announce the public has donated $12 million in $10 increments from texting “Haiti” to 90999. It will take more than 60 days for these exact donations to get to the American Red Cross. In the meantime, we know how much has been pledged and will use existing funds from our International Response Fund to distribute the donations immediately.

This text campaign has been a supplement to existing fundraising channels such as donating online, calling 1-800-REDCROSS, mailing, telethons, etc. The ease of text messaging and the automatic $10 donation has helped raise awareness for the need for funds because it’s also so easy to pass around via twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.

Q. How is the American Red Cross using social media to help Haitians in their time of need?

A. We’re proud of the social media philosophy and program we’ve had in place for a couple of years – we empower social media tools and the community on the social web to fulfill our mission. Many times we provide critical information for people who are affected by disasters. In the case of the earthquake in Haiti, we’re concentrating more on providing information to everyone in the United States who wants to help, and keeping everyone updated on how this tremendous outpouring of support is impacting people in Haiti.

Q. Is it working?

A. I hope so!

Q. Some of us in the communication field feel we can’t “do anything” to help in times of crisis. Do you think that’s true? If not, and we can indeed help, what can we do?

A. The best thing you can do is keep this story in the news. All attention is here now and for sure there is a dire emergency happening right now but make no mistake: this will be a massive long-term recovery operation and we could use your help in continuing to keep the people of Haiti in the minds of the public.

***

I’ve been trying to help spread awareness of the Red Cross’ efforts as well as those of Hope for Haiti, which 12for12K is partnering with (HFH is rated by CharityNavigator, by the way), as have many of the people I know, online as well as offline. As Wendy says, that’s the one thing that we communicators know how to do, so let’s keep doing it. And to everyone who is – thank you.

Do you have tips to share on giving wisely to charities? Any other thoughts you’d like to share? I’d love to know.

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

With IABC/Washington’s first chapter meeting of 2010 coming up next week, I thought it would be interesting to see what our moderator, Daria Steigman, had to say of the communication changes over the past decade (h/t Geoff Livingston for giving me the idea from the final BlogPotomac). That’s what our meeting’s focusing on, or “looking back, looking ahead,” as its title goes.

I know Daria will have a lot more to say come next Thursday, but in the meantime, here’s a peek into her grey matter to get you thinking. And I hope we’ll see you next week – it’s not often that Shashi Bellamkonda (Network Solutions), Torod Neptune (Waggener Edstrom), John Taylor (Sprint Nextel) and Paul Sherman (Tech Wire Publications) gather under the same roof. Early bird registration ends Jan. 12, so hurry, hurry, hurry!

What, in your opinion, is the most dramatic change we’ve seen in the communication landscape since 2001?

I tend to think that Web 1.0 and the democratization of access to information changed the landscape in the 1990s. That said, the arrival of Web 2.0, and the ability for everyone (or anyone) to be a content creator, publisher, and sharer of information transformed the communications landscape in the first decade of the 21^st century. If you think about some of the key developments and the tools we take for granted, they weren’t around when the century started. If you did a timeline of some of the key platforms, you have 2003 (WordPress, MySpace, LinkedIn); 2004 (FaceBook, Flickr), 2005 (YouTube), 2006 (Twitter).

How has this impacted you as a communications practitioner?

It’s clearly had an impact on how we do our jobs, but it has had less impact for me on how I approach it. Perhaps because I came out of the public affairs arena, I’ve always thought about audiences in buckets. By this I mean that no organization has One Audience—but instead multiple stakeholders. And while you need message consistency across your audiences, you need different language and different approaches to reach different people.

While I’ve always thought of this as “duh,” I’ve been surprised in recent years that so much of the social media conversation has been around this very topic.

From a day-to-day perspective, the biggest changes may be the speed of information and the volume of business intelligence that we need to track. It’s also the enormity of the task.

It’s not like blog posts and videos are replacing old-school marketing, because not everyone’s using social tools or using them the same way. So our jobs are just getting bigger.

At the same time, I’ve been really pleased to see the conversation move away from siloed work stations (i.e., public affairs, public relations, media relations, marketing, customer service, and so forth) to how these must be integrated for an organization to be successful.

As a business owner, I have to add one more transformative element: the democratization of access to people. These same tools that allow us to share our stories also enable us to identify and engage with people across the globe.

Is there anything you miss about “the old days”?

Not really, because I think that this shift to a more level playing field vis-à-vis access and information is a social good. And while some rail that we’re all spending our time online, I actually believe that this technology is making us less isolated.

Our communities may no longer be bounded by geography, but they’re just as strong.

What’s next?

Data, data, data. Data-driven research has always been critical, but we’re just starting to harness the enormous amount of information that is all around us. Two other big trends are mobile (of course) and real time. Real time is going to be increasingly important, both in the data context and also for reputation management.

Daria Steigman, founder of Steigman Communications, has been helping companies and other organizations tell their story for over 20 years. She’s also the author of a bimonthly column and a blog that both focus on the business of running a business, entrepreneurship, communications, social media, strategic thinking, and Independent Thinking.

Mirror Image: Carol Green