Where Do You Stand?

If you’re a regular “Where Do You Stand?” reader, you may have noticed that I’m a rather, shall we say, conversational writer. Some would attribute that to my country hick Southern heritage, while others might accuse call it unprofessional unconventional. On a number of occasions, I’ve been asked to “fluff up” a document or “give it some of that emotional stuff you’re good at.”

Now I could take this personally and consider it a knock to my professionalism (and a massive ego blow), but since the sky in my world is a lovely shade of chartreuse, I’ll take it as a compliment. And here’s why.

In the communications arena, we’ve been given incredible power - the power of using just the right words to start or add something valuable to a conversation. If our words achieve superpower status, they evoke the response we’re hoping for: choosing a certain school or hospital, supporting a company’s employee program, learning the facts about a controversial issue and overcoming a bias, or contributing to a worthy charitable cause. 

The problem with this power is that so very many people have the chance to try their hand at it, especially today. We’re practically conversing in our sleep these days (and I’m sure some dream-sucking brain wave iMind device is just around the corner), so it’s more difficult than ever to bring the power of words to life. To have an impact, our words need to do much more than appeal to logic (sorry, Dr. Spock) and be grammatically correct; they need to make people care.

Our words need to have passion and feeling and conviction to rise above the chaff. To achieve superpower status, though, they also need truth. While the former makes for good reading/listening, the latter separates the hucksters (and let’s face it, most politicians) from those whose words can make life better, healthier, easier, more exciting, more meaningful and more fun. The challenge of taking my writing to higher levels and mastering that superpower is why I love my job - and why I’m trying to come up with a great “X-Men” mutant name for myself. (”Thesaurus” has kind of a nice ring, huh?)

So the next time you want something “fluffed,” bring it on. I’m not ashamed to say that if you give me the facts and some good reasons why people should care, chances are I’ll write something that will make the people you care about laugh, cry, get motivated, get healthier or just generally get better.

And chances are, I’m the only writer you know who’ll work while in a superhero suit. Or at least a mask - I need a couple more months at the gym before I break out the full suit. Anyone know the number for Halle Berry’s trainer?

I work part-time for Standing Partnership, which (for me, at least) means I’m in the office two days a week reveling in my “adult” time working away and the other three days enjoying “mommy time” with my two little Princesses (yes, that is a deliberate and well-earned capital P). I keep my laptop open on my kitchen counter and glance at emails as I pass through during the day, just to stay up on the latest…and because I’m a bit obsessive that way.

Given my OCD, I thought it would be a great idea to update my cell phone to a snazzy little Smartphone. I had visions of being a multitasking queen - fire off an email while the Princesses hit the playground, catch up on my favorite blog while waiting for dance class to end, play on Facebook edit an important work document while hiding in the restroom hanging out with other moms during a playdate.

Are you laughing at me yet? Yeah, I totally deserve it.

You can imagine what happened next. I nearly broke my nose walking into a playground while texting someone. I missed the announcement about dance recital shoe color because I was reading a blog entry, thus causing what my family now refers to as the “Great Tap Shoe Meltdown of 2008.” And, I’m now looking for new playgroups but am finding them all mysteriously “full” - I think I’ve been blacklisted.

Here’s what I learned from this experience:

1) Verizon will kindly take back said Smartphone within 30 days with no hassles. (Love you, Verizon!)

2) Boundaries are a good thing.

Every one of my clients - and everyone at Standing - has my cell phone number. They can call me anytime, 24/7, and I’ll take the call. I’ve talked with clients while at home nursing babies, giving baths and participating in tea parties. But, do I really need to have email at my fingertips round the clock? Does it really help my clients to scan RSS feeds with one eye while keeping the other on the kiddos? Was I more productive with constant access to everything I need to work?

For me, the answer was no. In fact, I think I even got a little less productive, because I was trying to do everything at the same time - and doing none of it very well. My clients deserve all of my attention when I’m at work or when there’s a crisis, just as my family deserves all of my attention when I’m not at work or when they have a crisis - even if that “crisis” is a skinned knee or broken heart (we take “So You Think You Can Dance” very seriously around our house).

So, if you really need me - or if you know of a very forgiving playgroup willing to accept a mom with a slightly dented tiara and a busy cell phone - give me a call. I promise I’ll be there.

…our fearless COO, Melissa Lackey (who we’re convinced never sleeps), has written an article for PR News’ “Crisis Management Guidebook, vol. 2″ now available from the PR Press. With the intriguing title “Winning the Most Serious Game in Town: the Reputation Championship,” it’s relevant to anyone wanting a game plan for building and maintaining a company’s reputation. Congratulations on the inclusion, Melissa!

Yes, the words “annual report” do tend to make communications professionals collectively bang their heads on their keyboards…but it doesn’t have to be that way. No, I’m serious. Stop laughing hysterically. You’re starting to scare me.

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking to about 70 members of the St. Louis Community Service Public Relations Council (CSPRC) regarding annual report production. I enjoyed it not only because they laughed at my references to Monty Python and Jimmy Buffett (which makes them way cool in my book), but also because annual reports can actually be…gasp…fun to do.

Hear me out before you call me a freak - read through my Top 10 Annual Report Tips, then judge for yourself. (Bonus tip: play some Buffett in the background while you’re reading - it automatically makes anything you’re doing more fun.)

1. KISS (Keep It Simple, Sweetheart!) Don’t set out to write “War and Peace.” Just hit the high points.
2. Be true to your brand. Make sure your annual report reflects your brand. If you don’t know what your brand is, I’d suggest defining it before you go any farther. Go. Now. I’m serious. You’ll thank me later.
3. Repeat after me: audience, message, measurement. Ask yourself three questions: Who are you trying to reach? What do you want them to know? How will you know if they got your message? Answer them, and there’s your strategic plan for your annual report. (See, I told you this was fun!)
4. It’s a thesis, not a last-minute term paper. Make a production schedule and stick to it.
5. Your cousin Martha and her snazzy new digital camera do not equal professional photography. Don’t try to cut corners here. It won’t be pretty, in any sense of the word.
6. It’s a storybook, not a financial textbook.With nonprofits, people want to hear all the ways their donations are making a difference. With for-profits, people want to know you’re being good corporate citizens. You can’t convey that message with dry numbers (apologies to all the CPAs out there). Tell your story in words and photos, and find the heart of your organization. Yes, it’s there - go find it.
7. It’s impossible to love your donors/board/executives too much. People like to see their names in print. They like to see pretty photos of themselves (see #5) even more. 
8. Give a sneak peek at future goals. Letting people know you have a strategy for future growth is a good thing. They’ll trust you much more if they think you know what you’re doing. This has worked for countless political candidates (notice I said “think you know what you’re doing”), and it’ll work for you.
9. Make it Googleable.If you post your annual report in pdf on your Web site, it’s not searchable. Post it as an html document, and put a link on your home page.
10. Save some trees - go digital. You can print annual reports on demand these days - no more finding 10 boxes of old annual reports to throw out (might as well throw cash straight into the wastebasket), and no more need to take out whole forests to print your report (see #1, BTW). And, do you even need to print hard copies to send out to everyone on your list? Send a link through email or RSS (or heck, even Twitter) - you’ll increase traffic to your Web site and earn kudos from conservationists. It’s a win-win, people.

Any other tips to add?

Standing Partnership has a cool office - elegant, organized and with a beautiful “treehouse” feel due to the view most of us have of the mini-forest right outside our office. 

At least I thought we had a cool office - until I saw these. Bonus points to Google for featuring a corgi (my furry friend of choice) as the doggie model in their photos. 

Cathy, I’m thinking our next office really needs a small roller coaster…or at least some killer bumper cars.

Yeah, I’m going there.

So you’ve probably heard about Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, Mark Penn, being dumped by the Clintons (oh, I’m sorry - he quit on his own - uh-huh) after pushing for a trade deal with Colombia - a deal that Hillary strongly opposes. And that Penn, besides having a political consulting firm that’s earned mega bucks from the Clinton campaign, is also CEO of Burson-Marsteller, which was hired by Colombia to help educate legislators on the trade deal.

Confused yet? Apparently Penn was - enough to blatantly disregard the conflict of interest that my five-year-old would recognize. (Granted, she’s five going on 40, but still.)

Despite the best efforts of honest and ethical public relations professionals - of which there are many - the PR industry doesn’t have a good reputation. The average Joe thinks we’re flacks and spin doctors, doing and saying anything our clients want to make a buck. Ethics are given lip service at best and are completely thrown out the window when the price is right. When we have industry “leaders” like the CEO of one of the world’s largest PR firms pulling a stunt like Mark Penn did, why would anyone think any differently of us?

Sometimes it seems as if the Google vs. Yahoo! battle is almost as heated as the Alabama vs. Auburn intense near death smackdown friendly rivalry. I actually prefer Google, for the simple (and admittedly simplistic) reasons that I find Google easier to navigate, I like the ease with which I can use their services, and I like to see the fun things they do with their logo on holidays (yes, I’m easily entertained).

Yahoo!, however, has decided to up the ante with a couple of new offerings - Yahoo! Buzz and Yahoo! Shine. As Yahoo! Buzz explains, it’s like other social content websites such as del.icio.us and Digg, but it’s unique because it “also takes into account things like trends in search queries on Yahoo! Search, and the number of times that content is shared with friends over email.” Maybe I’m just being dense, or maybe it’s too early to tell, but I haven’t noticed that the Buzz is significantly different from other social content websites, although I am enjoying The Buzz Log.

Yahoo! Shine targets women with easy-to-navigate content on everything from fashion to parenting to food, along with blog entries from people like Immigrant Magazine columnist Bobbi Miller-Moro and (apparently) random bloggers (given what’s there, they may want to rethink this strategy). Shine is well-designed and draws from a number of popular women’s magazines including Self, InStyle, Cosmopolitan and Prevention for stories and video content. I’m still trying to figure out how astrology fits into the content (and why astrological content appears in women’s magazines but not men’s), but Shine is something I’ll check out again.

And for the record, I also prefer Alabama…unless they’re playing Arkansas.

In a perfect world, every single one of our clients would have a crisis communications plan. No, the Standing staff isn’t part of some crazed doomsday cult predicting disaster at every turn (although if you flip around our website fast enough, it can look a little psychedelic.) We’ve just had too many frantic midnight or weekend calls from clients (or imminently-about-to-be clients) saying, “You know when you asked us to prepare a crisis plan in advance of a crisis, and we said no? Yeah, we really should have done that.”  

Crises happen. And, being crises, they usually happen with alarming speed and when you least expect it. My children’s preschool just weathered a serious crisis - one of their kitchen helpers was arrested on child pornography and molestation charges. Although not involving any of the kids at the school, it still could have destroyed the stellar reputation this school enjoys.

Fortunately, they had a crisis communications plan ready to go (and no, Standing didn’t write it - I’m not tooting our own horn here). School administrators personally called every single child’s parents a full two days before news of the arrest hit the media to alert everyone. They brought in a counselor to talk to any parents or children who needed one and stayed late every night to talk with concerned parents. They then followed up with a letter outlining their cooperation with the police investigation, a reiteration that no child at the school had been harmed, the cell phone numbers for every administrator to ensure they could be reached at any time, and a list of the additional steps they’d taken to further strengthen school security and employee oversight.

As a parent, I was grateful for their professionalism and comforted by their intensive efforts to work with the police and ensure no child at the school had been harmed. As a communications professional, I was thrilled to see they had a plan, that they worked the plan, and that the plan worked - not one child was removed from the school, and they actually had an increase in new enrollment calls the week after the story broke, with many interested parents saying that the way they handled the crisis gave them even more confidence about the school’s safety.

If that doesn’t convince you, check out author and Fast Company co-founder Bill Taylor’s great blog on the really dumb things that happen to really smart business leaders. Notice I said just “really smart.” The smartest business leaders have a crisis plan ready to go when those really dumb things happen. 

Our President and CEO Cathy Dunkin is not only Standing’s fearless leader, she’s also a kick-butt hockey player. How good is she? Good enough to co-host, along with former St. Louis Blues player Kelly Chase, the  “Ladies & Left Wings” hockey basics training event on Saturday, March 29th at the Scottrade Center.

If you’re a hockey fan of the female persuasion and want to learn more about the fastest game on ice, or you just want Cathy to teach you how to knock someone into the boards, check it out!

Standing’s ”outstanding” (sorry, couldn’t resist!) sabbatical policy was just featured in this St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, along with some - ahem - interesting opinions on the concept of corporate sabbaticals by experts from the Society for Human Resource Management. With all due respect to the HR people, I think in this case they’re missing the point. Are there short-term costs involved with giving sabbaticals? Sure. But, smart companies - Google comes to mind - know that short-term investments in people means long-term loyalty, increased productivity and heightened creativity.

And what does that translate into? For Google, domination in its industry. For companies like Standing, happy employees (like my recent sabbatical-taking colleague Julie blogged about) mean happy clients - and happy clients means a great reputation that brings in more clients. Which means? Yep, that’s right - profits. Which makes everyone happy.

See, smart business is also fun business…and we’re having a lot of fun at Standing! How about you? Are you having fun at your business these days?