Where Do You Stand?

Recently I attended Bulldog Reporter’s PR Universtiy “Social Media Bootcamp” for PR professsionals. I’m still digesting all I learned and trying to experiment with a few things to keep them the top-of-mind.  One (of many) tools trainer Sally Falkow demonstrated was Nielson BuzzMetrics’ Blog Pulse. This site has several intriguing tools (and I’ve only begun to explore them myself) that help measure the visibility of blogs, the frequency of blog posts by keywords, how blogposts generate ‘conversations’ across mutliple sites (and where those conversations are taking place) and much, much more.

Here are just a few ideas I had on how I might use this site: Say one of my clients wants to know who the influential bloggers are on a subject…enter a keyword and see who pops up by ranking, track their conversations to other sources and keep an eye on what they post. (Yes, I know Technorati does some of this too). Now let’s imagine I need to know how much blog volume takes place on a subject. Enter a keyword (I entered Brett Favre, who I just love) and presto! a graph pops up indicating in early March and early August people were talking about Brett. (Hmm, no surprise there.) If I click on a date, I can find out what people were saying about him. Nice little tool to keep an eye on conversations, competition and communicators (bloggers). 

For now, the services I explored are free.  Let’s hope they stay that way.

In a July 21 article titled “Flexible schedules work best when thought out, detailed,” Chicago Tribune reporter Barbara Rose looks at the pros/cons of flextime in the business world. She points out that rising fuel prices may be spurring some organizations to be more flexible about - flexibility.

I’ve been flexing at Standing Partnership since 2002. I generally work four days a week and try to work from home a couple of days out of the month.

The key words are “generally” and “try.” In order for this to work for my employer, clients and me, I have to be flexible too. That might mean taking a call or an assignment on my day off, or adjusting my days to meet a client need.

Making sure this works for my colleages is equally important, so once a year we survey all employess (about many things) and include questions about how flex schedules are working.

We also make sure that our office hours are covered during normal business hours. Today, that means a colleague and I have volunteered to answer the office phones since we have the option (during summer Fridays) to allow the staff to leave early if they have completed their assignments and are not otherwise needed.

What are some ways your business is adding flexibility to its work week?  What’s working? What’s not?  Gotta run - the phone’s ringing!

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.

When things go wrong, you have an issue to manage.  But, prompt positive action can turn the situation around — or, at least, nip it in the bud.  Circuit City just demonstrated this.

Mad Magazine published a parody Circuit City ad, poking fun at things like the price of flat-screen TVs and hard-to-find Wii gaming systems.  Apparently, someone at headquarters ordered Circuit City stores to remove and destroy the magazines, and the Consumerist Web site posted both the fake ad and the real e-mail.

Jim Babb, in Circuit City’s corporate communications office, fired off a note to the Consumerist, reporting that the censorship directive had been reversed and he’d apologized to Mad’s editors.  By displaying a sense of humor, his quick response and tone headed off an issue:

Speaking as “an embarrassed corporate PR Guy,” I apologized for the fact that some overly-sensitive souls at our corporate headquarters ordered the removal of the August issue of MAD Magazine from our stores. Please keep in mind that only 40 of our 700 stores sell magazines at all…

In addition I have offered to send the MAD Magazine Editor a $20.00 Circuit City Gift Card, toward the purchase of a Nintendo Wii….if he can find one!

“Someone with a brain stopped the madness,” reported the Consumerist, posting Babb’s e-mail.  The site continued:

Let’s evaluate it on the 3-step system for fixing corporate gaffes:

1. Admitted they were wrong
2. Stopped doing the wrong thing
3. Made a material gesture of apology

Check check and check on all three, plus points for speed. You go, girls.

In comments on the post, The Consumerist’s readers also gave the company points for wit, style and speed.  Red faces removed and chuckles all around. 

It’s better not to have the problem in the first place, but when you do have a problem you still have a chance to set things right. 

Serious issues require a serious response, but when the issue is about humor it helps to be able to laugh at yourself.

One of the newest trends currently emerging in the traditional publishing world is the cross-niche, global magazine. Apparently, reading up on culture, society, international affairs and everything in between in one compact publication is where readership is going – or, at least where publishing houses want us to be. Illustrating this point is the lot of new publications that are seamlessly merging a wide variety of topics into one package. Take for example, a personal new favorite of mine, Monocle magazine, from the publisher of the widely successful Wallpaper magazine.  

Monocle, as described on its Web site, “is a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design and is developed for an international audience hungry for information across a variety of sectors.”  Further blurring the lines, its publishers call it “more of a book than a magazine.”  Monocle maintains a high level of quality content through its extensive network of bureaus all managed from central command in London and is presented in a simple design chock-full of interesting photography.

In our increasingly interconnected, global world, these new media outlets are tapping into a new truism – connecting to the global community is accessible, important and relevant. What happens in Mumbai may not affect your daily life, if you are in say, Minneapolis; but what Monocle does well is its ability to open your viewpoint to new ideas and trends that can easily be translated to your work or personal life. 

As I was driving to work listening to KWMU I heard a statistic on American Public Radio’s  Marketplace Morning Report that surprised me:  According to a poll taken in April by the Conference Board, fewer than 40 percent of Americans planned a summer vacation this year – the lowest measurement of planned vacation in 30 years. Perhaps more startling to me was that the average American worker earns just 14 days for vacation in a year. I went online and found this CNN report listing the U.S. second to last (above Vietnam) for minimum paid vacation.  Reviewing the list was interesting.  For example, I know my Canadian in-laws that work for the government receive four – six weeks paid vacation per year – something not represented on this chart.

Fortunately for me, I’ve been at Standing for nearly 10 years and have earned four weeks of vacation.  But what about those who, for a variety of reasons, have to change jobs every three-or-so years?  Is two weeks of vacation adequate to maintain a high level of productivity, job satisfaction and still address the needs at home?  In today’s economy, are people willing and able to take vacations? What do you think?

An apologetic J. Crew e-mail to customers and newsletter subscribers hit inboxes this morning. The company has been having some internal issues that resulted in the mistreatment of online and catalog shoppers over the past few weeks. Sometimes it’s best for a company to own up to its own shortcomings. Rather than exacerbating a negative reputation, by acknowledging fault and sincerely expressing regret, a company can manage their reputation in hopes of earning back a client’s trust. J. Crew’s simple (yet sincere) note is moving them back in the right direction after some sort of breakdown.

Remember SHIFT’s social media release template? When it came out in May, 2006 it was all the buzz – the New Big Thing in PR.

But what happened when the template was released? Was it successful? Were PR practitioners using it? Most importantly, did journalists (and all members of the media, social and traditional) like it?

What we saw across the PR industry was this: firms scrambling to fit the template, to integrate the practice of using social media releases into their client work.

Not to be outdone, Edelman worked up their own version, calling it StoryCrafter. Again, nothing new here but it sidesteps the suggestion that the document has to LOOK a specific way (as SHIFT’s template does, with rounded corners and graphics to indicate links), or, necessitate the creation of a .pdf document – an obstacle that creates a whole new series of issues (design needs, attachments, no linkable URL, not uploadable to wire services, etc.)

You’re not going to see a lot of releases out there using these very specific “social media templates” – it’s not because there aren’t any early adopters out there – its because they haven’t been adopted.

Some reactions to SMRs: from IABC and Shel Holtz, from TechCrunch and from Tom Foremski.

The concept behind the social media release, the ideas that generated its creation have definitely made it. It’s de rigueur to link externally from releases to other sites, including blogs. It’s common and absolutely recommended that you include links to the online media kit, the Flickr site, or a YouTube video that corresponds with the release’s news. Link to the audio, share the photos and include (if you’re pitching to a savvy audience) social bookmarking tools such as Del.icio.us.

But don’t feel as if you need to create a document that looks just like SHIFT’s release. Chances are, your recipient won’t see it and if he/she does, they won’t have any idea what they’re looking at. What’s important is to create a release that is linkable and has its own, unique URL – you can do this by using the wire services for distribution, by posting the release on a client’s Web site or better yet, a blog or by creating a release in Google Docs.

Outside of the SHIFT mold, here are some examples of social media releases that work (and note that it’s only really big consumer groups doing this):

The Ford Focus
HP

The point I’m trying to make here is this: the components of a social media release are important – I think we all get that – and need to include some or, ideally all of these elements:

• Hyperlinks to relevant content or sites
• Technorati tags
• Social bookmarking options like Del.icio.us, so your news can be shared
• RSS feed from the wire service and/or, ideally, the client’s own Web site
• Links to additional resources (if they exist and are relevant) such as logos, media kits, audio, video and photos

Beyond that – it doesn’t need to should not be a .pdf or “match” the original SHIFT template – at all. It’s all about linkable content, and making sure the media (whether they’re traditional media or citizen journalists) knows what to do with it when they get it.

If you’re like me, you’re anxiously awaiting and counting down the days until the Olympic games begin. In preparation for 8/8/08, several members of the Standing team will be entering a little competition of our own. No, we won’t be traveling to Beijing, but rather Fenton, Mo. Nonetheless, our Standing team, a.k.a. the KickStands, will be suiting up and charging the kickball field (and crossing our fingers to not break any bones!) in hopes to bring home the gold.

As part of our commitment to the St. Louis community, we will be supporting one of our community partners, Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition (FACC), by participating in its Second Annual Kickball Tournament. All proceeds of the tourney will help raise money to find forever-loving homes for foster children in the St. Louis metropolitan community. If you’d like to donate to this worthy cause, send your donation to FACC, 111 N. 7th St., Suite 402, St. Louis, MO 63101.

If you’re looking for a good laugh and fun entertainment, stop by Fenton Park, 1215 Larkin Williams Road, anytime between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Wish us luck!

This spring, I was given the opportunity to serve as a judge for the Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Awards. We call these the “Oscars of our industry,” and I’m pleased to say that Standing Partnership has earned two Silver Anvils: one for our work with Ranken Technical College on an integrated communications program and the other for Mercy Health of Northwest Arkansas for crisis communications - and one Award of Excellence for the St. Louis Children’s Hospital/Healthy Kids at Play community relations program.

It was valuable to be “on the other side of the table.” This peek into the world and work of other agencies and organizations afforded me two insights - first, that the public relations industry is doing great work for large corporations and small companies, for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations across the country. The second, and more important to our clients, is that after spending eight hours pouring over 22 entries, I was reminded of the expertise, industry knowledge and high-quality counsel that Standing Partnership provides our clients every day.

A few months ago, we tallied the results of our annual client survey, and while having a shiny silver statuette to display in our trophy case is a wonderful accomplishment, the real reward is knowing that our clients trust Standing Partnership to protect and enhance one of their most valuable assets - their organizations’ reputations.