Thank goodness at least one member of the Obama family understands the importance of communicating with all major networks, regardless of their editorial stance. Michele Obama was a guest on the Mike Huckabee Show on FOX, the very network that former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn had disavowed. Focusing on her key message to fight childhood obesity - the First Lady made a savvy media choice by accepting Huckabee’s invitation to talk about her efforts. Three Virtual Cups of Joe go to Michele Obama for just getting it.
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.
Marathon runner, medical sales rep and longtime hubby Gary Lawrence wrote today’s guest blog. Feel free to share your thoughts by clicking on the Comments button.
Today a Congressional panel questioned Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda and other senior executives about the recent issues related to the automaker’s cars. This is an interesting event from several perspectives. First, I question the sincerity of this panel. Second, I am astonished at the hypocrisy of it all. We have a group of Congressmen doing nothing but grandstanding in an attempt to gain a photo opportunity that makes them look tough while they themselves have an all-time low approval rating. Third, who died and made these Congressmen auto manufacturing experts?
Yes, problems happen. It is how often they occur and how they are resolved that really matters. Unlike American car manufacturers, Toyota has an outstanding record for reliable and safe cars. Everything I have seen tells me that Toyota has taken full responsibility for its manufacturing issues and is doing everything possible to correct these issues, satisfy consumer needs, and ensure such issues won’t happen again.
Toyota employs 200,000+ people in this country, as well as positively contributes to our economy. Conversely, Congress is directly responsible for negatively affecting our economy and overseeing a 10% unemployment rate. Our “public servants” should be very careful in their attempts to publicly embarrass Toyota executives as this panel’s demonstration of hypocrisy and holier-than-thou attitude are sickening to watch.
In the “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know” category, Southwest Airlines took a rare brand beating last week for kicking off an overweight passenger who happened to have 1.6 million followers on Twitter. Film director and best-selling author Kevin Smith initially purchased two seats for himself, changed flights that only had one seat, but said he still managed to fit into the seat with belt buckled and armrests down – the key criteria to determine a person’s likelihood for ejection. Even so, the airline said he had to leave. And that’s when the fat hit the fan.
Southwest ejects big guy; big guy fights back
Smith started telling his followers on Twitter about his experience vowing to never fly on Southwest again, the airline began backpedaling also on Twitter, and the short-lived, but intense war of 140 characters ended with apologies and vouchers (which Smith declined) from the airline.
This is an excellent case of the importance of having a good reputation and an ample supply of goodwill BEFORE a crisis happens. This is also another example of the power of a social media tool like Twitter, but that’s for another post. While Southwest suffered a slight bruising over the incident, its ability to recover quickly is commendable, as in they were few legs to this story. Southwest has the fewest customer complaints of any airline; its airfares are affordable; it doesn’t charge you for wanting to take your own clothes with you to your destination; and it’s still profitable. Yes, last week’s incident with a man of many followers was wrong. But in its totality, Southwest does a lot of things right.
Three lessons for Southwest: keep doing the right things, apply policies consistently, and be careful who you reject, especially if they have more Twitter followers than you do, and a new movie about to debut. Are there other lessons that need to be added?
Sean Penn. A decade ago, just hearing those two words made my knees weak and my heart palpitate. He was that hot. Then he went too political for me. But I saw him this week talking about helping earthquake victims in Haiti. A co-founder of the Jenkins-Penn Haitian Relief Organization, Penn gave examples of the volunteer group’s effectiveness, including providing direct medical care, shelter and food to thousands in such an organized manner that I wonder why others aren’t following suit. Although repeatedly pushed by the notoriously unprepared Larry King to respond to hot political topics, Penn didn’t bite. He stuck to his relief message. Good for you, Sean. You deserve three Virtual Cups of Joe for taking a totally humanitarian approach to those in need.
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.
Social media guru, HARO founder and skydiver Peter Shankman might want to add entertainer to his resume. The marathon runner’s recent presentation to PR and advertising professionals brought lots of grins and giggles, as well as some sound advice. Following are some of the high points.
* Definition of Social Media – the ability to screw up with a larger audience in a much shorter amount of time.
* Living in your parents’ basement in Staten Island is pronounced “purgatory”.
* Only the stupid forget everything they’ve learned about something when something new comes along.
* Four keys to social media: transparency, relevance, brevity and staying top of mind.
* Testing social media: If it works, continue; if it doesn’t, stop.
* The biggest mistake by social media users: not listening.
* The audience(s) control the direction of a company, not the company. See Amazon.
* Embrace the concept of mobility.
* Learn to write; have a point.
* If you’re in PR, you should be in social media as part of what you do, not another thing to do.
At the end of the day, social media is customer service; your service is so stellar that other people are doing the public relations for you. Good stuff.
I’m a huge women’s advocate, but I’m also big on keeping things in perspective. So when NOW President Terry O’Neill responded to the Tebows Super Bowl anti-abortion ad by saying it glorified violence against women, I was stunned. At the end of the much-ado-about- nothing ad, the Heisman Trophy recipient fictitiously tackles his Mom with both popping up in hugs and smiles. Per the LA Times, O’Neill states “I am blown away at the celebration of the violence against women in it,” she said. “That’s what comes across to me even more strongly than the anti-abortion message. I myself am a survivor of domestic violence…I think CBS should be ashamed of itself.” No, Terry. You should be ashamed of yourself for desperately looking for something to discredit when it just isn’t there. You don’t need coffee; you need water to wash down a chill pill.
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.
As an avid reader and a professional public relations counselor, I highly recommend reading to improve your writing. As reflected in my first post on this topic, reading expands your vocabulary and gives you new insights, among countless other benefits. I discovered the following from this winter’s reading, which included Can We Do That?!, The Seamstress, Inside the Revolution to Dominate the Middle East and Called to Greatness. CAUTION: I believe in the “garbage in, garbage out” philosophy so I read mostly history and non-fiction.
1. Former Muslim PLO sniper and anti-Semitic Tass Saada became an evangelical Christian after moving to the U.S. and now serves as a peacemaker in the Gaza Strip.
2. Think differently. Normal people often get ignored. Be a bit above normal.
3. One major hit does not retirement make.
4. Hitler ordered German auto makers to produce a cheap people’s car called the People’s Car, aka the Volkswagen.
5. Immunity can be deadly, especially the spiritual kind.
6. Originally from the French word, homme d’armes, gendarme refers to members of a uniform police force.
7. Budapest has the highest number of Jewish citizens per capita of any European city.
8. ALWAYS confirm what your client tells you.
9. Crises, by nature, are pretty darn disrespectful.
10. The creature doesn’t tell the Creator what to do – it’s the other way around.
What have you learned from reading lately?
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.”
