Everyday PR

I have a friend who found out the bride called off their wedding via e-mail.  Another friend who was TUI (Texting Under the Influence) broke up with her boyfriend via her Blackberry.  Just last week, I was electronically lamblasted by someone who doesn’t even know me regarding a volunteer project.  Is avoiding other human beings supposed to be one of the purposes of today’s technology?  Are relationships with other people taking a back seat to greater familiarity with keyboards and “Send” buttons?

In "Up in the Air" Clooney's character understood the importance of face-to-face communication.

I know. I’m a dinosaur. I was late to the technology dance.  Even so, 2009 was the Year of Yearning and Learning for me, so I got on the social media bandwagon for the sake of my clients and my knowledge.  So I’m not completely archaic.  And while I agree that technology is great for targeted business communications, family emergencies and useful for staying in touch with people (don’t get me started on the quantitative aspect of followers and FB friends), I still don’t understand why the people in the above situations couldn’t pick up the phone or better yet, talk in person, especially over something like an engagement.

For some, maybe their choices reflect a broader issue of confrontation avoidance, which has never been a problem for the Hart lineage.  As physician and Buddhist Alex Lickerman put it, “Electronic media transmit emotion so poorly compared to in-person interaction….it blocks us from registering the negative emotional responses, which provides us the illusion we’re not really doing harm.  Unfortunately, this also usually means we don’t transmit these messages with as much empathy, and often find ourselves sending a different message than we intended.” Look at George Clooney’s character in “Up in the Air” where he rightly explains to his boss that bad news must be communicated face to face.  He knows that the importance of one-on-one human interaction and how the impersonality of technology negatively impacts an already negative situation. 

So if grown-ups already are hiding behind technology about significant relationship issues, what does that say to the next generation that is practically conjoined with a computer?  How will they develop the skills necessary to have an intimate relationship with someone, much less carry on a functional  conversation? 

At the end of the day, healthy relationships with human beings – not computers –  are an essential component to quality of life.  In the “if you have something negative to say to me about this blog or anything else, say it to my face” category, call me.  Your comments also are welcome.

Ironically, we will be talking next week about how to get started in social media.  Stay tuned.

If you halfway recognized the take-off of the headline, then you know that this 1969 hit by Zager and Evans basically talks about the demise of human beings to make way for more technical and mechanical lifeforms.  It’s not exactly a warm and fuzzy tune with lots of rainbows and puppies. However, it does give one reason to think about technology and its impact on people and relationships.

I’m the first to admit a reluctance to jump on the social media bandwagon. I scoffed for months at the notion of wasting my time and precious energy, a la Tracy Chapman.  But goal-setting, client service and hunger for knowledge won out, and I jumped on board, which brings me to the $64,000 question:  How effective can social media be in the future if communicators end up being the only ones communicating with each other? Let me answer the question by repeating the lessons I learned about various tools of social media like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.:

1)  One of the first people to advise me in navigating the social media map is Walter Lim of Cool Insights in Singapore.  When asked how do people grow their blogs, he simply said reciprocity. 

2)  Get involved, network, and watch trends on Twitter, says Internet marketer Maria Gordon.

3)  Copyblogger’s Jonathon Morrow says the more interesting the blog content is, the better. 

4)  Retweets are all the rage, per John Moore of the Social Ecosystem Lab.

5)  Public relations practitioners lead the social media revolution in most organizations, according to the 2009 Digital Readiness Report.  

So at the end of the social media day, are we, as public relations experts, just trying to sell one another on the products and services of ourselves and our clients?  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a great advocate for social media.  I’ve seen how clients and friends have grown their businesses and relationships, and I’ve experienced such growth myself.  But I’m also a strategist. Hence, the $64,000 question: How effective can social media be in the future if communicators end up being the only ones communicating with each other?   

All thoughts, predictions and arguments welcome.

While I continue to enjoy and participate in some key blogs, I’ve recently discovered a few others that I think you’ll enjoy as well.

The 26-Hour Day - How I missed Lisa Gerber’s blog, I’ll never know.  Based from her Idaho mountain lifestyle public relations office, Lisa’s take on nearly everything includes a zest for life, a love of nature and a writer of good prose. She has vineyards for clients, for goodness sakes. I love her.

Lisa Gerber offers mountain lifestyle PR services. This includes wine.

Lucid at Random - The name alone rocks.  All-around-communications pro Kim Phillips (she writes, she designs, she crafts, she strategizes, she knits, she runs, etc.) posts some of the most interesting information on her recently launched blog.  From the symbolism of fonts to examples of effective branding, she engages AND informs.

Tricky Waters - Another great blog name, this one from Clay Morgan.  You may remember him as a recent guest blogger on this site.  Clay creatively navigates the nuances of writing with specific how-to suggestions from organizing to specializing.  He should know; he’s a lifelong writer.

Spin Sucks - Everybody who HASN’T heard of this blog from Chicago’s Arment Dietrich, raise their hand.  That’s right – no hands. Also known as The Fight Against Destructive Spin, this hot-off-the-press-updated blog literally demonstrates all things technically new in blogging.  I’m honored to be a guest blogger for Gini and her team.

Second Spot - A new blog just launched by colleague Bob Reed, this is a destination blog that collects and shares your favorite or almost favorite place on earth.  Check it out before you make any travel plans.

What blogs would you recommend?

Welcome to guest blogger Clay Morgan, editor and publisher of two community newspapers, one in Middle Tennessee and one in southern Kentucky. While one newspaper is a twice weekly in print and the other a weekly, both operate as daily newspapers online. His insights on the increasing use of social media – particularly in a crisis – are invaluable.

While Nashville media did an excellent job providing news and information about the recent flooding, the media itself garnered some deserved attention within the trade.   Yet another aspect of the media deserves some praise. Across Middle Tennessee, small town newspapers and radio stations worked tirelessly to provide hyper-local information about the flooding to their local readers – information not being found elsewhere.

As an example, the staff of the Macon County Times, based in Lafayette, TN, produced more than 20 local stories in a two-day period, and eventually posted more than 40 stories – all pertaining exclusively to flooding in Macon County. Staff also uploaded dozens of photos, many obtained from readers through Facebook, which is quite a change for small-town, rural newspapers.

At the Times newspaper, several members of the newsroom were cut off – physically unable to gain access to Macon County. However, they leveraged social media, particularly the Times’ Facebook page, to obtain photos, anecdotal information and on-scene accounts of the flooding and damage throughout the county.

The factors I believe critical to the success of this reporting effort – all by a newsroom with an average age of 24 and a managing editor who’s 27 – were two things.

1)     Commitment – A commitment was made by management and staff from top to bottom to a web-first reporting policy.

2)    Information Gathering – A clear understanding that social media, with all its marketing power, is also an outstanding tool for gathering information.

The results? Several dozen stories and photos and more page views in two days than the web site normally gets in three weeks.  The stats speak for themselves.  As one reader commented on Facebook after the flooding, “Great job !! I have found that when I need to know something quickly…I jump right to FB and Macon County Times is right there with the needed info.”

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.

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.

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.

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.