The normally uneventful National Prayer Breakfast held this week brought scrambled eggs with a side of controversy.  Per The New York Times, the event’s longtime sponsor known as The Fellowship  supposedly supports proposed anti-gay legislation in Uganda.  So the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), asked President Obama and others not to attend the breakfast to downplay the sponsor’s reported overseas agenda.  Like last week’s fuss over the unseen Super Bowl/Tim Tebow anti-abortion ad, the tactic of opposing viewpoints publicly promoting their disagreement over an issue prior to its occurrence isn’t one I’d recommend.   If CREW advocates want coffee, go to the National Prayer Breakfast.

The virtual Cup of Joe Award from EveryDayPR spotlights our pick of the week for a public relations performance –  good, bad or ugly.  If you’d like to make a nomination, contact shart@hartpr.com or www.Twitter.com/susanhartpr.

I’m one of those people who interprets words in their most literal definition, which can be good or bad if you write for a living. Case in point:  A friend tells me about her part in a play about the Old South and says, “Everything will be fine as long as we take care of the black dishwasher in the back.” For the life of me, I could not understand what an appliance could possibly have to do with anything.

To my writing colleagues, I pray you’re not afflicted with TWTOL (Translating Words Too Literally) Syndrome. Although TWTOL can date back to childhood (I remember being strapped in the back of the station wagon on the family vacation, and my parents told me to keep my eyes peeled for a Dairy Queen – I started crying at the thought of peeling eyes), I’ve learned to work with it and around it. I even credit TWTOL with some of my professional writing abilities, especially in regard to projects like speeches and internal communications. For instance, there’s no such thing as a free cholesterol screening if the employee has to pay for the results (seems obvious to me, but some CEOs just don’t get it). Then again, I’m the person who goes into all-out panic mode if the Bible says you must wear a purple robe to get into heaven, as in what shade of purple –  light purple, dark purple, something in between?  Should the robe be floor length or cocktail length, short sleeves or long sleeves? It never ends.

If you also have TWTOL Syndrome, take advantage of your literal perspective on words and weave that into your writing. And above all, have fun with it!  My literal sense of translation has provided me countless moments of both laughter and embarrassment. Like the time I saw the sign that said “Watch Batteries Repaired.”  Since I needed a new battery for my watch, I went inside the store. When the clerk took my watch to the back I called out with genuine disappointment in my voice  ”But I thought I could watch.”

I don’t see a change any time soon. By “see,” I mean “predict,” not “visualize.”

I find the controversial CBS/Tim Tebow anti-abortion ad very interesting.  The 30-second spot scheduled during the Super Bowl hasn’t even hit the airwaves, yet groups on both sides of the abortion aisle are firing away.  The situation and/or the strategy of publicizing the news-before-the-news can serve as a great promotional tool for the key message – in this case, don’t get an abortion.  However, I’d advise opposing viewpoints to this issue to develop a strategy to implement after the ad instead of before. As it is now, all the hype will likely make many Super Bowl viewers stay put during the commercials just to see what all the fuss is about.  One virtual Cup of Joe to those groups and individuals who aren’t following my advice.

The virtual Cup of Joe Award from EveryDayPR spotlights our pick of the week for a public relations performance –  good, bad or ugly.  If you’d like to make a nomination, contact shart@hartpr.com or www.Twitter/susanhartpr.

This is the last of the three-part series on social media.  Abbie S. Fink, vice president/general manager of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, talks about how her clients have benefited from using social media.  Abbie and I met years ago when I hired her in an agency capacity.  Thanks to social media, our relationship has evolved to one of great friendship and professional respect.

Abbie S. Fink of HMA Public Relations

Q:  How have HMA and its clients  used social media?

A:  HMA’s staff embraced social media a couple years ago, starting with our blog. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter  last year. We began introducing the idea of social media to our clients about 18 months ago. We started with LinkedIn and blogging, easy points of access. For those who want more, we’ve added Facebook and Twitter to the mix.

Q:   How have HMA and clients been able to promote/generate name awareness, particularly for nonprofits?

A:  Our not-for-profit clients really have been the ones to actively participate in social media. They have found social media to be a low-cost way to connect with potential consumers, donors, media, etc. to promote their mission, events, etc.  Strategies are developed, and together, we deliver on those strategies.

Q:   Have you been able to quantity the impact of social media on the agency and/or its clients?

A:  That’s a tough question — anecdotally we know that social media is impacting our business and our clients’ business. This is a new service offering for our clients, something that they are interested in pursuing. The challenge is still the ROI in terms of actual measurement. Using search and other tools we are able to look at mentions, what people are saying, and other forms of information gathering. In the not-for-profit sector, we can show increases in donor participation. Other things like website hits or blog comments are other ways to view impact.

Q:  What do you see as the future of social media for agencies like yours?

A:  Social media is here to stay. What may change is the form in takes — today it’s Twitter, next year it might be something else. For agencies like HMA to stay relevant in the space, we need to be embracing it, using it, learning about it and then sharing that expertise and knowledge with current and prospective clients.

Q:  If you could give one piece of advice to organizations using social media, what would that be?

A:  Engage, converse and have fun. Social media is an excellent way to develop and maintain relationships — like no other form of customer/client engagement, social media lets you engage with your brand’s users.

Thanks so much to all the social media professionals who participated in this Q&A series.  If you have questions or suggestions regarding this topic, please send e-mail to shart@hartpr.com or directly contact any of the experts in this series. And if you like what you’ve read, please consider subscribing to EveryDayPR by clicking the Subscribe button at the top of this page.

Since 1995, Royal Caribbean has been docking off the north coast of Haiti. Since last week, the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince has been reeling from a devastating 7.0 earthquake.  Should the cruise ships temporarily suspend stops to their private Haitian beaches, or should they continue the status quo even though Port-au-Prince lays in ruins less than 100 miles away?  Royal Caribbean decided to continue its stops and simultaneouly deliver relief supplies. In his blog, Royal Caribbean President Adam Goldstein justifies the decision with basically an “it’s the economy stupid” approach.  The move has prompted bashing by some media and unsettling comments by some passengers.  I’m on the coffee fence with this one.  How many virtual cups of joe do you think Royal Caribbean should get for its public relations performance this week?

The virtual Cup of Joe Award from EveryDayPR spotlights our pick of the week for a public relations performance –  good, bad or ugly.  If you’d like to make a nomination, contact shart@hartpr.com or www.Twitter/susanhartpr.

This is the second in our series on social media.  Gini Dietrich of Arment Dietrich in Chicago talks about how her agency and clients get started in social media.  Gini’s background in social media comes from positioning her agency as her top client, which quickly led to professional presentations and speaking engagements on social media.  Most recently, her blog, F.A.D.S., was named One of the 30 Best Blog Posts on Social Media I’ve Read in 2009 by A New Market Commentary.  If she’s not working, she’s thinking about work during her daily cycling.

Q.    Once organizations decide to use social media, how can agencies like yours help them get started?
A.   Our philosophy about social media is that you’re now able to participate in conversations happening online about you, your company, your
employees, and your competition. We help our clients use social media to enhance the relationships they have with customers, employees, and
prospects. And we look at four main goals:

*    Brand awareness

*    Brand loyalty

*    Talent recruitment, and/or

*    Prospecting

When an organization decides it’s time to jump on the bandwagon, we help them set up listening tools, we help them monitor the conversations, and
we make recommendations for when and how to join the conversations.  A lot of the time we spend with companies is looking at benchmarks and
then setting goals that drive increased dollars from the social media efforts. We coach, we brainstorm, we generate new ideas, we watch what they’re doing, and we make recommendations for changes or shifts.  Getting started is the easy part…we make the rest of it more manageable so they maintain a presence and are consistent, even during their busiest times.

Q.   What are some good ways to monitor social media?
A.  I love a few free tools:
* Set up Google alerts, if you haven’t already. You can create alerts for the company, your name, your competition, and the industry. It
allows you to monitor what is being said online and decide when and how to join the conversations.
* Set up social mention alerts. Just like Google alerts, it monitors what people are saying about you online. But the difference is that social mention looks only at the social channels so you start to receive information, such as tweets and comments on blogs.
* TweetDeck, Hootsuite or another desktop application allows you to set up searches. Like Google and social mention alerts, you can search different terms, but here it populates a column anytime anyone says anything on Twitter. It’s an easy way to monitor in a very time efficient manner.

Q.  How have your clients used social media monitoring as part of their overall PR plans/strategies?
A.  We’re seeing a shift with each of our clients – they’re not using it just for overall PR plans. They’re using it across the business – PR, marketing, sales, advertising, HR, customer service, and in the C-suite.  If there is a customer complaint on one of the social networks, customer service can respond to it instantaneously and fix a problem that otherwise might turn into a crisis. HR is using it to recruit talent they wouldn’t otherwise have access to without an expensive head hunter.  Sales is using it to network with prospects without having to make a cold call or go to a trade show. They’re networking 24/7. The C-suite is using it to demonstrate thought leadership, provide value, and build brand loyalty. And PR is using it to develop better relationships with all influencers, including bloggers, reporters, customers, employees, candidates, shareholders, and prospects.  This shift now allows us to do our jobs via additional dollar line items – some of our budgets come from marketing, some from sales, some from HR, and some from PR.

Q.    What do you see as the future of social media for service providers?
A.   Unlike anything before, social media allows service providers a way to spread a message quickly, to put out fires, to start fires, to become industry leaders, and to reach audiences around the globe. This is less about the canned messages we’re accustomed to writing. It’s less about training our executives what to say and what not to say. It’s less about picking up the phone and pitching stories to reporters. It’s less about designing extraordinary and expensive events. Once PR firms realize this, they’ll be able to help their clients have better relationships; build communities to drive revenue; create tribes of people who care about their products or services and are willing to tell their friends; and interact in places you never thought possible.

Q.    If you could give one piece of advice to organizations starting to use social media, what would that be?
A.   If you do only one thing, listen. It’s the foundation to social media, but also to communication and interaction with other human beings. Set up Google and social mention alerts – they come directly to your e-mail as often (or as little) as you like. And download a desktop application (such as TweetDeck or HootSuite) and create searches in there. Then open your application once a day and quickly scroll through your search columns to see what people are saying.

Next week, Abbie Fink of HMA in Phoenix talks about how to benefit from social media.  And if you like what you’ve read today, share the content via social media, of course.

News Flash:  TV’s bad for you.  A new study from Australia shows that people who watch more than four hours of television per day have a 46 percent higher rate of death and an 80 percent higher rate of heart disease. Even those who regularly exercise are at a higher health risk if their bodies are sedentary for extended periods of time.  Three virtual cups of joe to these Aussie researchers for their work, particularly since I have no idea what television programming exists that’s worth that kind of time.  

The virtual Cup of Joe Award from EveryDayPR spotlights our pick of the week for a public relations performance –  good, bad or ugly.  If you’d like to make a nomination, contact shart@hartpr.com or www.Twitter/susanhartpr.

EveryDayPR kicks off a three-part Q&A series on social media with various experts from across the country.  The first of our series begins with Mark W. McClennan, APR, vice president at Schwartz Communications and chair of the Northeast District of PRSA.  I first met Mark at the 2009 Counselors Academy in Palm Springs.  Mark is one of the few professionals I know who can effectively communicate about how technology can be a meaningful part of an organization’s business strategy.  He’s also a lot of fun to be around.

Q. Why should organizations consider social media, especially when today’s economy is calling for people to do more with less?

A. I think that is a very telling question. That is like saying, I am so busy that I don’t have time to go the dentist. It may save you money in the short term, but long term you are looking ad greater expense and two root canals. Social media impacts every business. From the local plumber who is getting praised or savaged on his town’s Wiki, to the largest consumer goods company that is using it to find out what consumer want and launch new products. If you care about talking with your customers (or potential customers) and what to know what people are saying about you, you need to be involved.

Q.  How do organizations know what to do first – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.?

 A. With all due respect, that is the wrong question to ask. The channels aren’t the key things. In fact, in 5-10 years, the channels we know today may all be gone. Remember AltaVista and Earthlink? One of the biggest mistakes people make is asking “What’s my Facebook strategy?” The questions you need to ask first are:

a) Who am I trying to reach?

b) Why am I doing it, and what do I want to accomplish?

c) How does this support my overall corporate strategy?

d) Which channels and tools will best support the strategy?

Josh Bernoff says it better than I ever could in his book Groundswell, but basically, if you start the discussion with which channel to do first, you have already lost. And just because your competitor is using a certain channel, doesn’t mean you need to be. If you copy off the kid in the class who gets a D, you will get a D as well. Start with the basics and build from there.

Let me give you an example. I work with a health care IT company that makes software for doctors. We had been monitoring social media for a time (think of Twitter and Google Blogsearch as free business/competitive intelligence). We integrated social media as part of our overall communications strategy. One channel we identified was Facebook. Why? Because the client’s primary research showed that 75% of medical students spent a good deal of time on Facebook, with a small minority spending more than 40 hours a month (scary). We also knew they were receptive to information via that channel and that medical students tended to stay loyal to technology they used in school. So we knew it made sense and supported our business strategy.

Q. How much should organizations expect to invest in social media in the initial phases?

 A. I always tell my clients to start small. You can always grow your campaign and engagement. But if you run out of steam or reduce your engagement, you look like a worn out strip mall where half the storefronts are vacant. Research and planning will tell you how much you will need to invest to reach your own goals. Keep in mind, the majority of the cost may not be direct capital outlays, but is likely to be the time invested by your staff or agency.

Q. Where do you see the future of social media?

 A. Five years ago I was a social media skeptic. I was a tech-early adopter and was active on message boards, blogs etc., but I didn’t see any communities or channels that would influence the purchase of a $20 million piece of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Then I had an epiphany. Social media lets us do what good PR people have always wanted to do. Engage customers, conduct two-way symmetrical conversations and listen in on other conversations. A company seeking to build a concrete plant has always sought to do local grassroots engagement and has wanted to know what people are saying. Social media makes it cheaper, easier and quicker. 

Social media is as evolutionary to public relations as the Internet was in the early to mid 1990s. I remember when email pitches were a novelty and you had to conduct costly focus groups and polling. Now I speak with key reporters via IM and Twitter more than I email them, and I have better insight into many customer segments for less money.

Q. If you could give one piece of advice to organizations considering using social media, what would that be?

A. Start today. Listen. Even if you don’t join the conversations, you need to know what is being said about you, your market and your competitors. Social media engagement is essential to strategic communications.

Next week Gini Dietrich of Arment Dietrich in Chicago talks about how to get started using social media.

As a Christian, I applaud Brit Hume’s outspokenness this week in offering Tiger Woods some personal advice on a spiritual level.  As program host Chris Wallace asked the non-qualifying, open-ended question of what panelists predicted to be next for the golf pro, it shouldn’t be that surprising that Hume offered an atypical response. 

However, as a public relations counselor, I would advise Hume to strengthen his point by incorporating his personal experience into the discussion.  As painful as it may have been, Hume could have brought up his son’s 1998 suicide about which Hume is quoted in 2008 as saying, “I want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done…I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died, I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me.”  personal context around it.  in which it was stated.   Two virtual Cups of Joe to Brit Hume for being authentic, even if it did spark controversy and maybe a much-needed dialog on the attributes of different religions.

The virtual Cup of Joe Award from EveryDayPR spotlights our pick of the week for a public relations performance –  good, bad or ugly.  If you’d like to make a nomination, contact shart@hartpr.com or www.Twitter/susanhartpr.

Only 12 percent of people actually acheive their New Year’s resolution, that annual commitment people make to typically improve something about themselves. Loose weight, exercise more, save money, quit this, start that – these top resolutions are all in the name of making our external bodies better.

I’m all about maintaining a healthy lifestyle (I actually eat brussel sprouts), but here’s a thought:  Instead of primarily focusing on our physical bodies, how about resolving to change something internally? Instead or in conjunction with trying to eat better, try to treat others like you want to be treated.  Want to move your body more?  Volunteer to help someone in need of some household chores.  Need to quit a bad habit?  Replace it with a good one like compassion.  

Let’s face it – 2009 won’t go down as the best year for many of us.  And considering the lackluster success rate of New Year’s resolutions, it’s time for an internal focus. Let’s start 2010 off with resolving to change something that matters – ourselves.  Personally, I’m resolving not to be so quick to judge.  What do you want to internally change about yourself?