From Journalism to PR

It wasn’t that long ago, well, only 22 years that I graduated from the University of
Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism certain I would retire as a TV news correspondent.

At the time, the civil war in El Salvador raged on and I had ideals of covering that conflict; but instead worked in Lubbock for a quick six months after graduation. Newsrooms were also increasingly becoming computerized.

As technology progressed, I could never envision the change it would affect on journalism. More often than not, I was rushing from crime scene tragedy after another, focused on my presentation for the 10 p.m. news while Silicon Valley tekkies were formulating blogs and about to give birth to Facebook and Twitter.

Now, four years into my PR career, I have found a real willingness and camaraderie among PR practitioners to help newcomers and freely share information. It’s truly the economy of giving.

Leaving TV news was easy but so was the transition into public relations.

Shortly after leaving TV news without a job, I walked into my first PRSA mixer. The late Marilyn Potts, PRSA Chapter president, took me by the hand and began introducing me to members. Marilyn told me, as did Kami Watson Huyse, that public relations is about forming “relationships.” I’ll always remember showing Kami a masterful campaign we planned for the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. Kami looked at it and said, “That’s nice. However, you can have the best campaign in the world but it won’t mean anything if you don’t have relationships.”

As my former colleagues transition out of TV news, or anyone interested in public relations, I really encourage attending PRSA functions. Introduce yourself; let people know you’re available. Ask people how they did it and what they’d recommend.

I really enjoy public relations and PRSA. I have much to learn, but in my brief time in public relations, I have travelled the globe, literally.

You don't have to be the gregarious sterotype of PR practitioners, either. Even the more subdued have found success in PR. In short, network and keep asking questions. It’ll be your first foray into another honorable and wonderful profession as you form lasting relationships.

Sizzlin’ Summer Session for Members

Every year, just prior to the last day of school, I ask my son to write down the five things he “must” do this summer. Two years ago, his list included having a community picnic with our neighbors up at Inks Lake, making a trebuchet with his dad, and going out to breakfast on a Saturday.

This year, we’ve been so busy, we haven’t yet had time to sit down and make the list, but it occurred to me that this would be a great thing to do from a professional standpoint. But don’t despair that you’ve got to compile the list all by yourself, or that you will be forced to go canoeing with my family this summer. The board of the San Antonio chapter is one step ahead of you.

We’re calling it “Summer Session” because, if you’ve ever taken a class at summer school, you know that you want the “light” version in which you don’t have to think too much.

Here’s what we’re cooking up in this summer session for PRSA members:

Sizzlin’ New Skills is a feature in which members who have transitioned into the field will share things that surprised them or for which they were unprepared.

Lessons Learned – based on the very comical topic which Monica Faulkenbery, APR, used in her Del Oro award speech, you’ll hear from professionals on what to do AND NOT DO!

Bright and Shiny Things – Here is where you will get the inside scoop on the members who were awarded La Platas or El Bronces, and find out what made them enter that campaign or tactic….just in time to start measuring your results for next year.

Try This will be a section about new tools for our profession.

Summer Session begins Tuesday June 23 and will be “in session” for ten weeks, every Tuesday and Thursday.

Wait for the bell!

Talking PR Strategy with Legal and IT Departments

There has been a lot of ranting over the years about the opposing views of a company’s PR counsel and its attorneys. PR staff in a crisis would find themselves having to stand by silently while CEOs listen to lawyers telling them to say nothing, admit nothing, help no one. They’d talk of the risk of lawsuits. While the risk of reputation loss was not even factored in to the equation.

I’ve never faced this myself. But – like you I’m sure – I’ve heard the arguments that typically call lawyers short-sighted and put the PR folk in the helpless role.

That’s why I found a recent live podcast recording by For Immediate Release so refreshing. They focused on the issue in a more balanced and constructive way. For Immediate Release is hosted by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. Their guests for this show were attorney Jim Golden and crisis expert Helio Fred Garcia. They talked about the relationship between attorneys and communicators and how it should change.

Part of the change they recommended was for the PR person in the room to come in talking about strategy rather than tactics. Don’t bring in a press release and ask about message points. Rather, instruct the CEO about reputation risks to the business for different stakeholders. Think like someone in the C-suite should be thinking.

The funny thing is that this is the same advice that some of my PR friends need to get through to their IT teams. I cannot believe how much leeway IT staff are given by CEOs to make what are really business decisions. Technology is a tool for business. And in our context, it is a tool for communications. We do communications to reach organizational strategic goals – not to be cool and never to put the organization at risk. It is IT’s job to make those tools available and to make them work for the organization.

I know I am ranting here – and it is not about my own situation (where there’s no reason to rant). I am ranting on behalf of some colleagues I know through PRSA. On at least three occasions in the last few months, I’ve had folks tell me of the trouble they are having getting their work done because of technology tools that are not available to them. In one case, the rationale was the out of pocket cost was too high. But clearly no one had not added the cost of wasted staff time caused by using the inappropriate tools. In another case, IT staff really don’t have an understanding of the particular tool in question, so their assumption is that it’s risky. In the third case, the IT staff are… well let’s just say sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

In all of these cases, the technologists are talking tactics, not strategy. But the paradox is that they get the ear of the CEO because when the network shuts down, the company shuts down.

Perhaps where I’m headed with this is that we each need to find a way to talk about strategy that is immediate and crystal clear. There’s no time to craft flow charts. With social media today and the 24-second news cycle, when a crisis hits, we don’t have days and days to argue with attorneys or with IT folk about the best response. We have minutes. And while we are focusing on strategy, we need our technology tools to help us handle the tactics.

Try Using Delicious

On Thursday, I led a quick demo of the free online tool, Delicious. I urge you to give it a try if you haven’t already. It’s benefits start with the small-level of personal efficiency to the larger-scale of media relations support and community building.

Here are some steps to get you started:

1. Set up a free account.

2. Follow the instructions to put the Delicious button on the toolbar of all the computers you use: home, work, etc. (this is critical and won’t mess with your computer).

3. Start bookmarking web sites as you find them over the next few days. For blog posts, remember to bookmark the particular story by clicking on the title or the date stamp before clicking the Delicious button.

4. Notice how many people are bookmarking (or “tagging”) the same sites you are tagging.

5. See what other sites they are tagging. This can help you in your research to find new resources.

6. Notice the other key words (or “tags”) they are using. This can help with your search engine optimization and news release optimization later.

7. Create a purpose-built Delicious page way to support a campaign you are working on. (See mine as an example: http://delicious.com/idra)

Below are some previous posts I’ve written and some by other folk for other good ideas.

Using Delicious in Public Relations

Lesson Four: Using Delicious

PR-Squared’s “Social Media Tactics” Series … Using del.icio.us for Thought Leadership
by Todd Defren

How I use del.icio.us for public relations
from the PlugIN to the conversation blog

Six Reasons to Use Delicious
by Cindy Stephenson on her PR Perspective blog

10 Years Later the Cluetrain Manifesto Still has Poignant Message

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Cluetrain Manifesto. This little book predicted the future we are in now. The Cluetrain Manifesto consists of 95 revolutionary theses. The first is it’s most famous, “Markets are conversations.”

The Cluetrain authors stated: “It’s all about disruption, and the people taking back control of what they pay attention to.”

They call on us in organizations to speak with a “human voice.” #68 speaks to us in particular: “The inflated self-important jargon you sling around – in the press, at your conferences – what's that got to do with us?” People don’t want to hear that you are leveraging your resources to focus on your core competencies striving toward excellence.

I’m not really going to try to summarize the whole manifesto. You can read it online yourself or at least get an overview by reading the 95 theses. Plus you can see how bloggers from around the world are commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Cluetrain Manifesto today.

Much of the Cluetrain Manifesto was a bit frightening to the business world. The authors are quite clear that things are going to be different. And wow, were they right!

Communication has become easier for individuals. And in many ways, it has become more complicated for organizations, particularly in this transition period we are in.

What I find particularly interesting is that many of the ideals presented in the Cluetrain Manifesto are at the core of effective public relations and communications. While we often get a bad rap when our mistakes are so visible and our successes so seamless, PR is a truth-telling business. That means telling truth to customers, employees, reporters and communities. It also means telling truth to our bosses. Figuring out what the truth actually is requires listening. Effective communication requires listening.

Number 78 on the Cluetrain list says: “You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention.” This new world of social media is not about pushing our finely-crafted messages to the masses through in more channels. It’s a tool for listening and responding… to individuals.

So today, let’s applaud the Cluetrain Manifesto authors – Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger – for telling it like it is.

Lesson from Domino's: Don't Wait Yourself to Death

As Beth mentions in her post, “The Dark Side of Social Media?” communicators worry that the Domino’s episode will cause more companies to avoid social media. But this kind of crisis can happen whether or not you are using social media. Others are.

But your response can be much more effective and immediate if you are already using social media -- this is if you decide to respond at all.

So what do you do when your company is attacked online? If your organization has a large consumer base or perhaps a strong regional one, like a sports team, then this is really something you need to think about.

A PR representative from Domino’s told Ad Age early in the crisis that they weren’t going to respond publically yet, if at all, because they didn't want to "alert more people to the story." And, of course, by waiting, the Domino’s story became huge. Frankly it was easy to predict after looking at the video that it was going to spread. In three days, there were more than 1 million views of the main video on YouTube (there were multiple versions posted). That’s roughly 1 million people being disgusted by what they saw happening in a Domino’s kitchen.

At about the two-day point, Domino's hosted its video response. Doing its own You Tube video was a smart tactic. And while there were some production issues, the content almost hit the mark. The CEO said “we’re sorry” [check], he said “here’s what we’ve done about this incident” [check], and he said “here’s what we’re doing to keep it from happening again” [almost check]. The problem was the CEO’s focus was on the individual store where the video was shot. But those 1 million viewers were worried about their pizza no matter which Domino’s store it was from and employees were still feeling unheard.

There have been many commentaries offering ideas about how Domino’s should have responded. I’ll just say that a good rule of thumb is to find out where people are talking about you and join in to the conversation. In this case, Twitter was buzzing. There were tons of tweets sending people to the icky video. And there were tons of rumors. If people are talking about your organization negatively on Twitter then you need to be on Twitter answering accusations and dealing with rumors. If they are on Facebook, you need to there. See Beth’s other tips as well.

My lesson for today is don't wait.
• Don’t wait until the bad news hits major news media.
• Don't wait until you have all the facts straight.
• Don't wait until you know who is saying what.
• Don't wait until you have got the permission from legal.
• Don’t wait until you are an expert in social media.

Waiting can bring down your organization.

Participating and responding online can turn bad perceptions into good ones that last.

The Dark Side of Social Media?

Domino's nightmare holds lessons for marketers
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-04-15-kitchen-pr-dominos-pizza_N.htm?csp=usat.me

"It's a PR nightmare scenario: A national fast-food chain has to respond to a video, spreading rapidly online, that shows one of its employees picking his nose and placing the result in the food he's making."

It's not a new story. Businesses and even charities have always had to deal with rumors of mismanagement, non-management, or criminal activity. There's even a saying attributed to Mark Twain, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” But in the wired world the lie can go around the world twenty times while the truth is trying to turn off the alarm clock.

What does this mean? It doesn't mean "stay out of social media." For one thing, it's obvious - as the news story points out - that "just about anyone with a video camera and a grudge can bring a company to its knees with lightning speed." Keeping your organization off the web won't protect it from malicious or irresponsible posters. It does mean, "stay vigilant." It means, "monitor the Internet for mentions of your company." It means " have a contingency plan in place to reply to this kind of attack." And it means, "get your story out first": if the social media sphere is already used to seeing your presence there, they are more likely to check your web site, your blogs, your Facebook/MySpace/
Twitter page for the accuracy of rumors, and to refute them.

Lessons everyone can learn from Domino's misfortune:

"• Monitor social media. Big companies must actively watch Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social sites to track conversations that involve them. That will help uncover potential crises-in-the-making, says Brian Solis, a new-media specialist and blogger at PR2.0.

"• Respond quickly. Domino's responded within hours. 'They responded as soon as they heard about it, not after the media asked, "What are you going to do?"' says Lynne Doll, president of The Rogers Group, a crisis-management specialist.

"• Respond at the flashpoint. Domino's first responded on consumer affairs blog The Consumerist, whose activist readers helped track down the store and employees who made the video. Then it responded on the Twitter site where talk was mounting. 'Domino's did the right thing by reinstituting the trust where it was lost,' Solis says.

"• Educate workers. It's important that all employees have some media and social-media training, says Ross Mayfield, co-founder of Socialtext, which advises companies on new media.

"• Foster a positive culture. Workers who are content and customers who like your product are far less likely to tear down a company online, PR guru Katie Delahaye Paine says. 'This would be a lot less likely to happen at places like Whole Foods.'

"• Set clear guidelines. Companies must have clear policies about what is allowed during working hours — and what isn't, Doll says. 'It won't prevent everyone from breaking the rules, but at least they'll know what the rules are.'"

Local PR Firm Leaders Discuss Adapting to Tough Times

The San Antonio Express-News ran a front page business story today about the local PR agency business. Reporter William Pack interviewed local PR leaders Al Aguilar, Katie Harvey, Steve Atkins, Ernest Bromley and Tess Coody. He also interviewed Trinity professor J. Charlene Davis.

The story discusses declining budgets and new opportunities that are appearing as a result, as in use of social media.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/local/PR_firms_adapting_to_tough_times.html

Resources from Today’s PRSA San Antonio Luncheon

At our luncheon today, we were treated by a presentation by Alan Weinkrantz focusing on "Applying Public Relations Methods for Successful Social Media Initiatives." As he said, his PowerPoint is posted on his blog here: http://alanweinkrantz.typepad.com/

For those of you who were interested in the demo on getting started with Twitter that I lead before the luncheon, here are some links for resources. They are Delicious web pages that contain links to articles and web postings about using Twitter, how-tos, how-not-tos, case studies, Twitter tools, etc. Just click on the tag called Twitter on the right-hand side to filter the list.

http://delicious.com/prsanantonio
http://delicious.com/clgoodman

If you are already on Twitter, or when you are, follow me at http://twitter.com/clgoodman and follow Alan at http://twitter.com/alanweinkrantz.

Switching from Jott to Reqall

Two months ago, I led a mini-demo session at our PRSA chapter meeting about Jott. It’s a great tool that turns your voice message into text. However, Jott now charges for the service. There are now three paid plans ($3.95 per month, $12.95 per month and $6.95 per minute) and no free ones.

So I promised to look for an alternative.

Enter Debi Pfitzenmaier. She uses Reqall. I’ve tried it out and agree that it’s a great free alternative to Jott. There is also a plan that is $2.99 per month for added features. But even the free one gives you more time to record: 30 seconds a pop.

So I still recommend you use a voice to text service like this to make your life easier. But now I recommend you save money and use Reqall. To see a list of a few other services like this, see “SpinVox Translates Voice-to-Text Service Into A $100 Million Round.”

At Thursday’s luncheon, I’ll lead a mini-demo on getting started with Twitter. We could easily do a half-day session on this tool. But these sessions are only 10 minutes, so this will just focus on getting started. Hope to see you there!

Flacks & Sacked Luncheon Lends Support to our Recently Laid-Off Journalists

More than 80 local advertising and PR folk hosted a lunch to lend moral support to at least 40 of our laid off journalist friends and to help them find new opportunities, hopefully in San Antonio. Many of the journalists were formerly at the San Antonio Express-News, which took a big hit a couple of weeks ago, despite being – as I was told – a profitable paper. A couple of folk at my table had been “copyboys” more than 35 years ago (though had left and returned since). There were many great minds in the room.

This creative and thoughtful event was organized by Michele Autenrieth Brown and Debi Aronson Pfitzenmaier. From what I can tell, they primarily used Facebook and e-mail to notify folk of the details. Alamo Café was gracious enough to agree to serve as the venue for this loud crowd.

It was great to see the faces of so many people who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. And many PR folk and journalists met each other for the first time after spending years working together via phone and e-mail.

The San Antonio PRSA Board just announced it is offering free job bank access to our journalist friends in the media affected by the economic downturn and subsequent layoffs. (There is never a charge for posting job openings.) Access to the job bank is also free to PRSA members. For more information go to our web site: http://www.prsanantonio.com/job.aspx

Kudos to Michele and Debi for giving us a forum to support our journalist colleagues!

And let me send a special thank you to our journalist friends for your years of dedication to truth and meaningful storytelling for the benefit of our community. Best of luck to you as you craft your next chapter.

24 Top Social Media People You Should Know

One of the best things about being a member of PRSA is the generosity of spirit that all members seem to possess. I haven't met a member yet who wouldn't come to the aid of another member with a problem or issue. That must be why I gravitated to this group! It reminds me so much of the song I learned as a Girl Scout years ago, called "Pass it On."

This week, another group with a tremendous generosity of spirit were honored by the Austin American Statesman during the area's premier networking event, SxSW or South by Southwest. The Statesman took nominations for the Lone Star State's top social media figures and called it the Social Media Awards (though many of the honorees suggested jazzier names to the sponsors!).

To say that our state is big is silly -- just look at the real estate on any classroom globe. But to say that our state is big on social media is worth shouting about. Here's a complete list of the honorees and how you can find them. Some were surprising, like Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams' use of social media to keep constituents informed. Or David Guenthner, whose nomination was linked to his in-depth reporting on public policy issues.

It was good to see some familiar faces nominated as well. Kami Watson Huyse, former San Antonio chapter member, and Bryan Person, who recently spoke to the chapter in a professional development seminar were also lauded at the Sunday afternoon event.

Some new people that I will be watching as a result of attending the awards are Michelle Greer, who was the overall winner and was described as the geek's geek and who has also used social media to help raise money for causes. Also, J. R. Cohen, a coffeehouse owner in Houston, has a devoted customer following and a way for them to Tweet their orders in. He, too, has social causes in mind with his social media efforts.

One thread ran through the entire awards presentation: generosity is alive and well and living in social media (and PR!) in Texas. Take some time to learn about these 24 newly famous Texans.

TV News Directors Pack the House

Most everyone is troubled by the layoffs facing print journalists.
It’s a tough time in newsrooms everywhere including San Antonio.

The news directors from the ABC, CBS, and NBC San Antonio television affiliates discussed the impact the economy is having on local coverage. The PRSA San Antonio luncheon was a record-breaker with 96 people attending to hear the news.

I was surprised just how easy it was to get the news directors to agree to meet. However, one news executive did tell me before the luncheon that discussing the news before the May ratings book makes good business sense.

News directors (seated left to right in photo) included:

• Jim Boyle, ABC Affiliate, KSAT 12 News
• Kurt Davis, CBS Affiliate, KENS 5 Eyewitness News
• Aaron Ramey, NBC Affiliate, News 4 WOAI

In a nutshell, these highly competitive news execs said emerging technologies are forcing them to change. Social media, especially Twitter and Facebook are powerful
influencers today, the news directors said.

TV stations have taken a big hit after their steady revenue source of car dealership ads dried up. However, the was no mention at all of possible job cuts.

So far, it seems, everything’s stable in TV land.

Hard times hit our friends in the press

Everyone probably knows by now that the Express-News staff suffered major layoffs yesterday.

We pitched stories to them and their work often helped make us look good to our bosses and clients, so a bunch of PR professionals, led by Debi Pfitzenmaier and Michelle Autenreith Brown, wants to do something to help the reporters transition to the next step, whatever it may be.

Here's how it will work:

Much like what was done in NYC when Wall Street started the massive lay-offs, a small group of people led by Debi Pfitzenmaier are trying to coordinate a Flacks and Sacked lunch.

A PR person reaches out to a victim of the lay-offs who they know or pitched, invites them to lunch and covers the cost of the lunch along with their own. In turn, the reporter has a chance to network.

The event has been tentatively scheduled for Monday, March 23, at 11:30 a.m., place TBA. If you are interested, e-mail Michelle at mbrown@gdc-co.com to RSVP. If you have already invited a reporter, please let her know at that time. If you would like to help but don't feel you know anyone well enough to invite him or her, let Michelle know that too and she will match you with someone.

I've been on both sides of this fence - the laid off and the left behind. In either case, you are left wondering if (or when) the next shoe will drop, and just how big it will be. If you are one of the laid-off, it really helps to know that your friends are thinking of you.

What's in an Embargo?

This was the topic of discussion today at our chapter's quarterly breakfast for senior practitioners. I absolutely love the chance to meet with my counterparts as it offers us a chance to take each other's pulse on professional matters.

Today's topic was no exception. And was provided by our breakfast ninja, Christie Goodman, APR. Christie got the idea from discussion featured on several PR blogs after Tech Crunch reported they would no longer honor PR practitioners' embargo stamps on press releases.

There's a fabulous explanation here in Shel Holtz's blog about the entire issue and what it means to the PR community.


For the uninitiated, an "Embargo" stamp on a press release is used to limit the reporter's first use of the information. Shel's post details their history, so I won't rehash it here.

Our discussion today turned to who's using it in San Antonio? Our group of 10 had widely diverging uses of the practice. One seasoned health care professional said that they were absolutely necessary when submitting research project results to the major medical journals. This need evolved from the desire to get complicated information into the pipeline and respect the long lead time of many magazines. A trade industry professional said the same thing, but that he hardly used them anymore. An agency PR director shared his former financial public relations experience in which large volumes of information for year-end reporting would need an embargo just for reporters to digest it all. One association professional had obsserved others using them just to get people to press conferences. The "breakfast gang" agreed that this was an abuse of the system. Others at the table had rarely used them.

The common thread in this discussion among all this morning focused on the importance of building trust and relationships with the reporters who cover your "beat" or industry and the clear need to define what the embargo was designed to achieve for your organization. All in all, it was a lively discussion, but we'd like to hear more. What's the practice in your PR world?

Twitter Users Demonstrate the Power of Interpersonal Networking with Worldwide Twestivals

Something amazing happened two weeks ago. Volunteers around the world organized a massive fundraiser using Twitter as their primary communication tool. As a result, 202 cities across the globe held Twestivals, bringing together the Twitter community for an evening of fun and to raise money. The money is still being counted, but so far they’ve counted – are you sitting down? – a quarter of a million dollars raised for charity: water.

It started in London as an idea to tie a “tweet-up” where local Twitter users get together informally to meet face to face to a larger cause. They chose charity: water, a non-profit organization that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

The majority of the cities’ events were planned in less than two weeks, with no brochures, no television spots, no billboards, no Superbowl ads.

Visit the Twestival web site to see the list of cities, learn more about the charity, and keep tabs on similar events.

You can also hear a great interview with the founder on the For Immediate Release podcast, episode #420.

But tell me this, if volunteers directed by no organization can raise a quarter of a million dollars in a few weeks with no seed money by merely using Twitter, what creative things can you be using Twitter for?

The Media in Transition - Social Media Breakfast San Antonio

Traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television are expanding their online audience engagement. Participating in social networks is just one of the new strategies being implemented by savvy publications and television. Join us Wednesday morning as we hear from some innovative members of the San Antonio media who are spearheading the charge into the social networks.

Speakers

• Donna Tuttle (@writeontime) of the San Antonio Business Journal

• Laura Lorek (@lalorek) of the San Antonio Express News

• Elaine Wolff (@emwolff) of the San Antonio Current

• Joe Ruiz (@joeruiz) of KSAT Channel 12

Social Media Breakfast San Antonio

• Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2009
• Time: 7:30-9am
• Place: The Magnolia Pancake Haus (210-496-0828)
• Address: 606 Embassy Oak, Suite 100 San Antonio, Texas 78216 [map]
• Registration: Register on Eventbrite, as tickets are limited

Questions about this event? Contact Jennifer Milikien or Jennifer Navarrete.

Demo Today Presented about Jott

At today’s PRSA chapter luncheon, I presented a brief look at Jott, a voice-to-text service that records your voice message and sends it to you in a text e-mail. This was the first in a series of mini-demonstrations PRSA will be offering free prior to our luncheons. Following is a recap of what we looked at today.

Why use Jott?
Send reminders to yourself.
Dictate things you want to write.
Send text messages.
Send e-mail messages to others.
Send messages to lists of people.

How to sign up
Fill out the registration form.
Use the cell phone you will be calling from.
Use the e-mail where you want the emails to go.

Features
You can view and listen to your messages at the Jott web site.
E-mails come with the text version and a link for the recipient to listen.
Build a contact list.
Get ok first before adding their cell phone numbers.
There are Jott feeds that you can get to listen to news and updates from certain web sites.
There are aps for your Blackberry or iPhone.
Create tasks in Outlook.

Pricing
This service is no longer free, now that Jott is out of beta. But there are three payment options, so you can choose the best for you. Go to the Jott web site for details.

Next month, we’ll see how to set up a Google homepage and how to set up news feeds

Sharing With Students

We care a lot about students at PRSA. We support two student chapters, one here in San Antonio, and one in the Rio Grande Valley. Coming up this month is our semi-annual Shadow Day event with the UTSA chapter. While details are still being finalized and will be available later this week on PRSA San Antonio's Web site, today a Twitter post caught my eye. David Mullen of Communications Catalyst is developing a shopping list for PR students he's meeting with next week. Read his post titled What Advice Would You Share with These College Students . There's a lot of great information about do's and don'ts that should be part of every student's vocabulary. Come to think about it, they should be in every practitioner's vocabulary too. Share it with a student today and we will all become better practitioners.

Finding Blogs in Your Industry or Market

One of the first steps in a blog monitoring or a blogger relations campaign is to create a list of blogs in your industry that you want to follow. You can’t possibly watch them all. So how do you prioritize those blogs?

Jason Falls has demonstrated how he created a list of education blogs for a client that his firm was working with. Even if you're not following education, the process that he describes is really useful. He even ranked the blogs based on an engagement score.

So go to his blog post, “Determining the Top Education Blogs” and see what he did. If you are working in education or with clients focused on education, Jason has generously made his list available to everyone who wants it.

Jason also has a post, “How To Pick The Right Blogs For PR Outreach,” where he provides a presentation called, Not All Blogs are Created Equal,” he made recently to the Blugrass Chapter of PRSA.

For an added dose, listen to the interview of Jason by Eric Schwartzman for the On the Record Online podcast. They talked about how organizations should and should not get into social media. It's an excellent interview.

San Antonio Joins the Social Media Breakfast "Franchise"

On Wednesday, January 21st Social Media Breakfast San Antonio will hold it’s first meeting. Founder of Social Media Breakfast, and recent transplant from Boston to Austin, Bryan Person will be on hand to kick off the event and will speak on the topic "Humanizing Business Through Social Media."

I had the opportunity to meet Bryan in Boston in October when I attended Chris Brogan's "New Marketing Summit" and found Bryan to be a fabulous resource on social media as well as someone interested in passing that knowledge along to those interested in learning.

Bryan and I discussed the opportunity to expand his Social Media Breakfast into San Antonio, and when I then discovered Jennifer Navarrete (organizer of the San Antonio Social Media Club) was also interested in starting a breakfast, I knew it was time to move!

Join us on Wednesday, January 21st at the Magnolia Pancake Haus from 7:30 to 9 a.m. to help us kick off the fun in style. Seating is limited to 20. So, be sure to register for your seat and breakfast from the Magnolia Pancake Haus.

Resources for Learning about Podcasting

Here is some information about new resources available about podcasting.

Trafcom News Podcast 79: The Podcaster's Toolkit
Donna Papacosta’s latest podcast episode outlines the “podcaster’s toolkit” in less than 20 minutes. Her web site includes links to all the resources she mentions in the podcast.

Podcasting 101: How to connect with targeted, passionate listeners
Shel Holtz will be leading a 90-minute webinar on podcasting on January 27. An earlier webinar he led is what helped me get IDRA’s Classnotes started. I recommend it. There is a fee of $209, and the session is sponsored by Ragan Communications.

Cleaning House When the Calendar Turns

It happens every year, usually around Halloween. The overwhelming piles of paper, files, news articles to read, and other minutae from a year’s worth of projects begins to aggravate me. I move them around from left to right on my desk, sometimes buying fancy containers from one of those organization stores to make ti look better. After a month of rearranging and, occasionally, even purging some of the paper with repeated trips to the recycle bin, I start to get serious. I go on all-out binges, saying ‘who needs this?’ to myself or ‘why did I save that?’ and ‘what on earth was I thinking when I stashed this in the drawer?’ and suddenly, the cleaning goes into high gear.

By Thanksgiving I usually move a trash can into my office. This is when the high gear “chucking” begins. After completely purging the paper nonsense of the current year, it’s time to start on the electronic files. Delete, delete, delete, what do I need all this little documents for? Why are there 3 versions of the same release? What on earth are all these empty folders doing here?

Before you know it, it’s December and I have removed the professional dust bunnies and am laying the groundwork for a new year. I can go off and celebrate the holidays with a clean conscience, knowing I am ready for the challenges of the new year. In case you haven’t yet mentally gotten your year started, here are a few questions to ask yourself as you clean house:

1. Does anyone else but me care about this project, paper, document?
2. If this project were in a time capsule, what would happen when it’s opened in ten or 100 years?
3. Do you want to tell your grandchildren about it?
4. Is it worth submitting for an award?

If not, then let the “chucking” begin. Happy New Year!

Podcast Interview with Michael Cherenson, PRSA’s chair-elect for 2009

You may remember the recent visit to our chapter by Michael Cherenson, PRSA’s chair-elect for 2009. Now he's been interviewed by Shel and Neville on their For Immediate Release interviews podcast. It's an excellent interview, and as usual Michael does not hesitate to answer the tough questions.

Listen now online or download the audio file to listen on your iPod or mp3 player.

Don't Miss FreelanceCamp San Antonio on Jan 31

If you are a freelancer or independent practitioner, you may be interested in San Antonio’s first FreelanceCamp. This is an unconference for freelancers, entrepreneurs and independent business owners. What’s an unconference? It’s an open, participatory workshop event where the agenda is set by the participants. Thanks to the help of sponsors, this event is free.

It will be held on January 31, 2009 from 9:00 to 4:00 at Radius Café (across the street from the Municipal Auditorium) in San Antonio. I attended a similar event, PodCamp San Antonio, and found it useful and easy to share ideas with peers.

As the web site describes, FreelanceCamp will be a day of “user-generated sessions on a variety of topics regarding business, habits, techniques, how-to’s, success stories, all shared by both the new and veterans of the freelancing world…There’s something for everyone no matter what industry you’re in.

The organizers are Luis Sandoval Jr., Alysan Delaney-Childs, Jennifer Navarrete and Angelica Sandoval.

See the useful flier here or go to the web site now to sign up.

Insights for PR Firms in a Recession Environment

Tough economic times will affect many industries. Some will be hit hard, but experts predict others, like health care, will weather the storm just fine. I’ve come across several stories trying to anticipate the effect on the public relations profession. I’ve never worked for a PR firm, but if we just look at that sector of our profession, there are some interesting prospects. I want to share two with you.

First, a recent episode of the Inside PR podcast focused on actions agencies can take when confronted with an economic downturn. The three people in the conversation (Terry Fallis , Martin Waxman and Julie Rusciolelli) are all with agencies, and part of their conversation points to opportunities agencies can take advantage of when companies reduce their in-house PR staff (sigh) and turn to agencies to take on some of that workload.

By the way, Inside PR is a podcast that I have strongly recommended you listen to before. I still do. It’s insightful and entertaining.

Second, Joseph Thornley, CEO of Thornley Fallis, posted a story, “Managing through the coming recession,” from an agency exec’s point of view. It presents some strategies that those of you in similar positions might want to consider.

Reflections on the PRSA International Conference in Detroit

Posted on behalf of Trisha Box, PRSA San Antonio's Vice President of Programs and Chair of Gift of Guidance Program

I recently had the honor of attending the PRSA International Conference in Detroit after winning the "Eat and Win" program hosted by our chapter. It was a privilege to be among 3,000 PR practitioners from around the world representing corporate America, independents, non-profits and many PRSSA students. Speakers like Craig Newmark founder of Craig’s List, Bob Lutz with GM, and an author and former sports anchor Mitch Albom were all engaging and educational. The many sessions to choose from offered to succeed in today’s economy and especially how to jump into social media.

I was also proud to represent San Antonio by serving as an assembly delegate. We discussed important trends and issues facing our profession. I attended our district meeting where I met members from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

Next years’ conference is in sunny San Diego on November 7-10, 2009. With the ever changing economy, I highly encourage everyone to consider attending the 2009 conference to educate yourself on our ever changing profession and be a bigger value to your employer or client. Put in your '09 budgets, if you register by the end of the year you get this year’s price. See www.prsa.org.

Thanks again to the 2008 chapter board for hosting me and for voting me as an assembly delegate to represent our chapter.

Trust and Reputation in Public Relations

Today PRSA San Antonio members were treated to a presentation by Mike Cherenson, APR, Chair-Elect of PRSA and Executive Vice President of Success Communications Group. Mike is a second generation counselor, who grew up "doodling his ABC's on news release stationery."

Mike's lively presentation included numerous research examples about building and maintaining reputation, a particularly timely topic as our nation struggles with the effects of the federal bailout and an uncertain economy. Cherenson explained that public relations practitioners are the keepers of trust and repetition in a company and the CEO should be its chief trust officer. He offered a formula for the group: Reputation equals expectation plus credibility plus authenticity.

Cherenson advocates that social media is empowering more and more to join in on the conversation, but cautioned that in this age of "infodemics" it is difficult to sort out fact from fiction. Infodemics is defined as the combination of rumor, truth, fact, propaganda and interpretation. This presents new challenges for managing an organizations' reputation.

He offered a useful analogy called the Credibility Bank. Organizations make deposits each time they doing something good or well. Withdrawals, on the other hand, are made when wrongs go uncorrected. He sugggested all practitioners should develop a score card and share it periodically with their CEO. His advice to practitioners hoping to build trust among their many stakeholders is that the simpler the message, the easier it is to reach your audience. Mike's presentation will be available on the chapter web site.

Update: Kami Watson Huyse shares this video interview with Mike Cherenson on trust and reputation. Enjoy!

Photo of Mike Cherenson courtesy of PRSA Member Randy Escamilla

Election Retrospective: The Power of Political Words

Like millions of Americans, I watched the election coverage last night. Beyond the sheer wonder of the computer interfaces, integration of social media, and the usual political speculation, one basic of our culture and our democracy stood tall. The power of words. The defining moment for me last evening was two moments, actually. First, John McCain's eloquent concession speech, delivered with humility and grace. You can read his speech or watch the video of his speech.

It made me recall the basics of what drew me to public relations in the first place, the writing part, and how cool it would have been to be someone's speech writer. Then, before too much more time passed, President-elect Obama took the stage more than half a country away and delivered another powerful speech, which you can read or watch .

Many social media folks and media watchers are referencing the words of the evening, including Michael Sebastian at Ragan.com.

The power of words is evident all around us, and, thanks to Web 2.0, we can read, view, listen and comment on the words that will define our next four years.

Check Your E-mail Release for Spam-like Issues Before You Send It

Another PRSA member forwarded this link to me. It’s so cool. With this tool, SiteSell’s SpamCheck, you can just test a news release or advisory before you send it by e-mail. You’ll quickly get a report telling you how likely it is to get caught up in spam filters.

I tested one I sent a couple of months ago and was happy to get a low score of 0.2. It says that any score under 4.5 is great. The really cool part is that it tells you the precise problems it identified so that you can fix them if you choose.

Note that this tool does not keep you from spamming reporters with mass irrelevant messages. We have to tend to that ourselves.

PRSA Byline Blog Comment Policy

Given our chapter's recent programs related to social media, one of the messages that came through clearly was the need to have policies. We realized that for this blog, we had posted a policy for our blog team members, but we hadn't posted the one for commentors. So here is our official policy.

PRSA Byline Blog Comment Policy
We want to hear from you and encourage comments, critiques, questions and suggestions. We ask that you simply stay on topic, respect other people’s opinions, avoid profanity, offensive statements, illegal content, and anything else that might otherwise violate our standard terms and conditions.

Please understand that we reserve the right to edit or delete comments for any reason we deem appropriate. Obscene, racist, and otherwise objectionable comments will be deleted at the discretion of the moderator. If you do not provide a valid e-mail address, we reserve the right to delete or not publish your comment.

The opinions expressed here are not necessarily the opinions of PRSA and we assume no responsibility for such content. Please do not post any private information unless you want it to be available publicly. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

Professional Development

Hi - I'm the incoming chair for professional development, and I'm looking for your help.

If you didn't attend yesterday's workshop on Social Media, would you please add some comments to this post and let me know why?

If you did attend, would you reply and let me know what you did and didn't like?

Would everybody let me know what you'd like to see as professional development for the upcoming year?

Thanks!

Beth Graham

Blogging 101 with Bryan Person

Live from the Seminar!

Our last speaker this afternoon is Bryan Person, social media evangelist at Live World. Bryan kicks off by asking the questions....why should you blog and, more interestingly, who shouldn't blog. He cautions that if you are afraid of negative feedback, you may not be a candidate. However, Bryan looks at this type of feedback as an opportunity to learn about your company.

Goal-setting is an important component of launching a blog... so now, here's a theme with all of our social media presenters today. If you don't have a goal, none of these strategies and tactics will be successful for your organization. Light bulb! All PR practitioners should be setting goals, no matter what tools you choose.

Preparing to blog is an important step. Visiting and subscribing to blogs that interest you is important research. Also, people who visit your blog can find you and contact you. Targeting your readers is very important and your blog need not have a huge audience to be successful.

Creating content is the most important part of your blog. Bryan suggests that you raise your industry up with your content, particularly by creating original content and not recycling content. The more you generate, the more you can be found in search engines. Bloggers should have opinions and take a stand, particularly on issues. Visuals can really help draw people into your blog.

Promoting and building your blog is key to its longevity. Bryan hosted a lively discussion about whether ghostwriting a blog by a CEO or organization representative is a good practice.

Quality in content needs to be followed by quantity....the average blogger should post 3 times per week at a minimum. Bryan gave numerous examples of good blogs in the public relations industry, including Slice and PR Squared .

As with all today's speakers, Bryan urged the participants to maintain transparency. Another theme which all our presenters have stated throughout today's seminar.

Amended on October 8, 2008 to add link to Bryan's presentation.

Christie Goodman shares her Podcasting Strategy

Live from the Seminar!
Have you ever thought about who you might reach with podcast? A podcast is merely an audio program that listeners can download or save from and to a source. Many companies use podcasting for training, professional development, to humanize a company, reach out to fans or influencers AND can unite an organization that is challenged by distance. This is a real niche in social media. Christie is giving us a myriad of examples, from education to barbecue secrets. Her first piece of advice is to plan, preferably a written plan. Listening to a variety of podcasts can prepare you -- try what interests you and what is part of your industry. Some of the early podcasts Christie recalled were very rough and lacked polish. Goal setting is a critical step to success. Christie advocates asking yourselfsome questions: 'what do you want to accomplish?' 'Where do you want to be when you're done?'This community expects transparency and an informal style of conversation. They do NOT want someone to read to them.

The podcasts used by Christie's organization, have become a great resource for teachers. Some are still getting monthly downloads even after a year or more. These are obvious of topical interest, according to Christie.

The planning process for Christie include frequency of show, show length and format. She uses teachers and other professionals who are well-schooled in presenting to audiences, so they know their subject matter and minimizes the preparation she does as a PR professional.

Podcast content needs a predictable pattern, which includes music, interview introductions just like a radio show. One challenge for many organizations is the temptation to edit the interviews too neatly or an onerous approval process. The executives in Christie's organization have empowered her to manage the project and actually don't review the audio files until they are posted to the organization's Web site.

There are many ways to generate feedback on podcasts, which Christie also shared. What is interesting to note, is that this group lays down the audio on a digital audio recorder that is about the size of a deck of cards. She does engage professional editing to put music and ins and outs on the track.

Christie and IDRA are a great example of how to use new technology on a budget.

Kami Watson Huyse on Building Social Relationships

Live from the Seminar!
When Kami shares her expertise with our chapter, we all learn from it. Full disclosure: Kami and I have shared time on the PRSA San Antonio Board and she has a professional relationship with my company. She was also named the chapter's Public Relations Professional of the Year at this May's Del Oro awards.Read Kami's blog The key to utilizing all -- or any -- of these great technical tools, is to identify who your stakeholders are. Stakeholder identification is THE MOST BASIC task in public relations, so why should it be any different for online communities? Kami is talking about the four stages of engagement in building social networks. The first is to listen and take the time to learn about your community (formerly, audience!). The second stage, participation, is truly empowering for public relations practitioners. This enables you to truly have two-way communications with stakeholders. If you do your homework right, you will be engaging those who can influence or affect your business or organization. The third step is contributing to the community by providing content, sharing experiences and resources. The final step, evaluate, is the only way public relations practitioners can create value for their programs in today's business environment. What you evaluate can vary -- it could be interest, it could be attitude or could be some form of action. The valuable information in today's seminar is unbelievable!

Seminar photos today courtesy of Randy Escamilla, using his new IPhone.

UPDATE: This is Kami's Presentation

Building Social Relationships: Beyond Blogger Relations

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: blogger relations)

Monika Maeckle, Business Wire on New Press Releases

Live from the Seminar!
Monika Maeckle, vice president of new media for Business Wire is speaking right now about how to think differently about your press releases. Instead of a static document, press resources need to be enabled for searching and sharing. ONe of the easiest things a practitioner can do is to highlight items within the release using the usual formatting tricks in Microsoft Word. Boldfacing or italicizing text as well as using bullet points and subheads allow for better integration into search engines. Embedding links into releases is an easy and powerful tool to build credibility. Providing graphics, photos or videos -- in link form, of course -- will make your news more valuable to the reader. Now that Google is enabling its searches with photos, graphics and maps, this gives the press release writer the chance not only to tell their story, but to show their story. As Monika observes, press releases are traffic pointers. They should be pointing people to places they want to go and things they want to see. Business Wire hosts numerous, free webinars to assist practitioners with trying out all these new techniques. Check it out!

Social Media Cannot be Ignored

Live from the Seminar!
The big takeaway from Geoff's presentation today was you cannot ignore this medium of social media. Social media is categorized by its very nature as a COMMUNITY, not an AUDIENCE. This is a concept that is very difficult for many public relations practitioners to accept. But it is a message we must take back to our organizations, our CEOs, our nonprofits, our schools and our government agencies. Our stakeholders are online and we need to meet them online, on their terms, in their timeframe. Geoff is firmly entrenched in these communities and we can learn a lot from him.

Geoff Livingston speaking at PRSA San Antonio chapter today

Live from the Seminar!

Today, we're hearing from Geoff Livingston, who was introduced to us as a social media "guru." He is sharing with us about the fractured nature of communications today. Just launching a blog doesn't cut it anymore. You have to dedicate time and resources to build social media and networks. Livington is urging the group to let strategy guide the communications plan, using the traditional method of determining objectives and then selecting the tools to accompany those objectives. THEN, decide if social media fits into the plan. As Geoff says, don't let the nomenclature get in the way of understanding.

Watch for more from the seminar later today.

Some First Steps for PR Folk to Engage with Social Media

Let’s say you’re a high-level PR professional. A boss or an owner. And you’ve avoided dipping into these new-fangled social media things for some logical reason like the time required or because the way you’ve been doing things has been working fine.

Let me share some practical reasons you may want to give social media a try.

Blog monitoring – You need to know what people are saying about your company or client. By monitoring conversations on blogs, you can get a jumpstart on issues that could otherwise blow up. Dell reports that they get a three-week heads-up about issues before they hit the mainstream media. This is something you can do for free. And it’s a minimum. Later, you can learn to participate in the conversations to build the brand, enhance reputation and dialogue with influencers. A key audience to be monitoring is the reporters you are likely to work with. Many are bloggers themselves.

Social networks – Let’s focus on Facebook. Why on earth would you want to set up a Facebook page? Because reporters are there. They are communicating with their audiences and their sources there. I’ve even heard of one who will only pay attention to pitches he gets via Facebook, not e-mail or phone. Again, it’s a minimum. You don’t have to reveal your family secrets on your page. And you certainly should keep it professional. Later, you can use Facebook and other networks to connect with your company’s or client’s key constituencies who are there. Again, it’s free.

Social bookmarking – Services like Delicious are highly useful tools to support your media relations or community relations work. I’ve posted some how to’s on this subject before. See the last post for links. And yes, it’s free.

Twitter – Using Twitter can be powerful for public relations. The thing is, you will not understand its value until you sign up and start using it. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Twitter is not the only service of its kind, but it’s the most popular. It’s where many journalists are. It’s where portions of your audiences likely are. People will tell you it’s addictive. But that means they aren’t using it well for their business. You can. But it’s all theory until you set up your account. And guess what. It’s free.

If you try any of these tools, the worst that can happen is you won’t find them useful and you’ll stop using them.

Our chapter is holding a full-day professional development session specifically on this topic to demonstrate ways to get started or expand participation. I’m sure there will be more posts about it in the coming days.

So here’s the bottom line. Social media is not merely an additional vehicle for distributing or even exchanging information. It is not a trend. It is a manifestation of social change that we are in the midst of.

Should Twitter be Used in Church?

Two news stories came to my attention this week, both involving the micro-blogging tool, Twitter. New technologies always stretch our boundaries, and these two stories are no exception to that observation. And, they point out a traditional struggle for public relations practitioners, the ballance between an individual's right to privacy and the public's right to know.

Case #1
The Rocky Mountain News recently decided to assign a reporter to cover the funeral of a three year old on Twitter. The child died after being hit by a car driven by an illegal immigrant with an arrest record. After the initial horror of thinking --what if that were my child?--I thought about the stress of having to relive the event electronically. But that's not the central issue here. The central issue is whether the public's right to know about the funeral was justified by the live streaming of events during the funeral OR if the family's right to privacy was more important. INterestingly enough, the coverage was given a thumbs down by media watchers as being bland and uninteresting.

You can read about the coverage and follow links to other parts of the story here:
http://poprl.com/1JX

Case #2
On Friday, the San Antonio Express News ran a story on Imagine Fellowship, a local church which uses Twitter during its services, allowing the participants to Twitter about the sermon, with the comments appearing on a giant screen behind the pastor. Imagining I was in the pastor's place, I thought how harsh the criticism could be and how distracting while trying to speak. Again, though, the broader issue seems to be the line between individual privacy and public information.

As these new technologies can enhance our productivity and broaden our reach, we must insure that they don't also interfere with individual rights.

P.S. I would link to the story, but the Express-News Web site is horrendously hard to navigate if you try to find a story more than 24 hours after it appears.

Update
A nice person from the church sent me this link to share: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/religion/Blest_be_the_tweets_that_bind.html

Quick Options for Finding Blog Coverage of Your Client, Company, Product, Etc.

I got an e-mail from a friend the other day who was looking for quick suggestions on how to monitor blog coverage or conversations. I thought I’d share my answer with you and you can add your suggestions as well if you’d like.

There are three big services – free. I use the first two all the time. I’m going to check out the third. Just like free media monitoring, it’s beneficial to use more than one source.

Google blog search http://blogsearch.google.com
Blogpulse http://www.blogpulse.com/
Technorati http://technorati.com/

The advantage that Technorati has over the others is that it somehow calculates a ranking for each blog which can help you determine which ones to target. The disadvantage is that its searching capabilities have declined significantly in the last year. So you will miss some important ones if this is the only service you use.

A really good paid service that I've tried and loved is Custom Scoop. It does media monitoring including blogs. You get an e-mail each morning listing and linking to all your coverage for each search term. You can do a free trial through: http://www.customscoop.com/fir (FIR just stands for the For Immediate Release podcast, one of three PR/comm. podcasts I don't miss.)

Communication Tools ~ What Do You Use?

Communicate, it's what we do. We communicate to build relationships with our clients, colleagues, publics. We, as public relations professionals, build relationships as part of our living.

We all use different tools to do it; but, I was surprised by a recent Twitter poll asking if people still use the telephone to communicate (as opposed to just email, Twitter, and other social media). I don't know if I'm out of the norm, but I spend a substantial portion of each day on the phone. I call my colleagues, I call reporters, I call assignments editors, I probably make 15 calls a day.

Obviously, my answer to the question of using a telephone for relationship building was a resounding, "Yes!" But, am I out of the ordinary? Do you use a telephone still?

If you don't use the telephone, how do you make contact with your publics? As hard as I try, I am not able to see everyone I need to touch base with in person; and as friendly as I think I am, email just doesn't convey a friendly chat as well as a voice. So, what do you do to make contact? While I won't be giving up the telephone any time soon, I'd like to hear what others do to stay in touch, to build relationships.

Social Media Case Studies

The Society for New Communications Research has released a new research study, New Media, New Influencers and Implications for Public Relations, and made it available free online. It gives case studies of several companies regarding their use of social media. Here is the description from their web site…

Social media case studies and strategies from the American Red Cross, Blendtec, The Coca-Cola Company, Emerson Process Management, the Mayo Clinic, MARC Research, Quicken Loans, and the Seattle Union Gospel Mission highlight this research study by the Society for New Communications Research. The report also
features detailed findings from a survey of communications and marketing professionals focused on changing patterns of influence resulting from social media and other new communications technologies. This study was made possible by a grant from the Institute for Public Relations & Wieck Media.

And don't forget to sign up for our chapter's professional development session on social media!

How Employee Online Behavior Affects your Organization -- PRSA Luncheon Program

Today (Thursday) our chapter holds its annual luncheon in recognition of PRSA’s ethics month. Our focus is on how employee online behavior affects your organization – both sides of the story. I'm so grateful to our panelists, Kelly Smith, assistant superintendent for technology services at Northside ISD, and Jenny LaCoste-Caputo, education editor for the San Antonio Express-News, who will discuss how employee online behavior away from work can affect your company and how you can encourage employees to communicate online without putting you at risk.

Below are links to further information related to today’s discussion.

San Antonio Express-News Education Blog
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education

PRSA Ethics Information
See the PRSA Member Code of Ethics (in English) http://www.prsa.org/aboutUs/ethics/preamble_en.html

See the PRSA Member Code of Ethics (in Spanish) http://www.prsa.org/aboutUs/ethics/preamble_sp.html

See other resources, including advisories and case studies http://www.prsa.org/aboutus/ethics/

Samples of Policies
"What Employers Need To Know About Employee Blogging"

Blogging Policy Resources on the New PR Wiki

RUN, Don't Walk to the Chapter's Professional Development Seminar

If you're anything like me, every day I become aware of more tools and technology, many of which can help me in my professional life. BIG CAVEAT: there's very little playtime in each day's schedule to afford me the opportunity to learn about all these tools. So if you're reading this blog and looking for more, then RUN, don't walk to the San Antonio Chapter's Professional Development Seminar: New Media is Now! The details can be found here.

One thing I truly benefit from as a member of PRSA, is professional development. I know I can't afford those pricey seminars in exciting locations like San Francisco, Chicago and New York that frequent my mailbox, but the lineup of speakers for our San Antonio sessions, will guarantee that your investment will be worth it.

Start off the morning session with Geoff Livingston, author of "Now is gone: a primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs." The morning session will be filled with reasons why you need to go forth in this brave new media world.

At lunch, hear Monika Maeckle, Business Wire's vice president for new media development on launching the online conversation with web-friendly press releases. By early afternoon, you will be ready for some meaty "bytes" from an array of qualified speakers.

Kami Watson Huyse, APR, and the chapter's PR Professional of the Year and editor of Communications Overtones, will talk about building relationships with online stakeholders. She will be followed by Christie Goodman, APR, on starting on the podcasting technology. Our final speaker will be Bryan Person, who will get you started on blogging basics. (Once you have a handle on that, this chapter could use a few ambitious bloggers!).

At the end, we will share best practices and ask each other questions before wrapping up. Bring your laptop, an open mind and learn how to use del.icio.us to access course materials and background information. If you can't join us, watch this space for information on joining our Twitter group. I hope to see you there.

Ten reasons to love customer case studies

Case studies tell true stories about how your products or services helped customers solve their problems—and they do so in a format your prospects can easily relate to. In fact, customer case studies represent one of the most effective ways to boost the impact of your B2B marketing communications program because these problem/solution stories help build your company’s reputation, expand your presence in trade publications and on the Web, and aid the selling process.

Here are ten reasons you should consider adding customer case studies to your marketing arsenal:

1. Build credibility – As objectively written stories of how actual customers benefited from your company’s products and services, published case studies carry high credibility with readers. Technical details and photos add to their believability.

2. Reach primary and secondary target markets – Case studies are readily accepted by trade and Web editors because they provide valuable information for their audiences. This means that you can reach secondary markets and vertical markets where you can’t afford to advertise.

3. Generate inquires – Experience has shown that published case studies are as good or better at generating inquiries and Web site visits as advertising. These inquiries give you additional sales opportunities.

4. Demonstrate results – Case studies give you an opportunity to actually demonstrate how your products benefit a customer. By following a problem-solution format, these features show how your product or service increases productivity, improve quality, saves money, etc.

5. Third-party endorsement – When a case study is published by a respected trade publication or Web site, it carries an implied endorsement from both the customer and the editorial staff. Editors are endorsing your product and company by giving you access to his or her readers.

6. Displace the competition – Since editorial space in trade publications is always limited, every article of yours that gets published eliminates an editorial opportunity for your competition.

7. Integrate advertising messages – By choosing the right customer applications for your case studies, you can support your overall advertising effort by multiplying exposure to your key marketing messages.

8. Create future editorial opportunities – When you provide editors with a regular supply of case studies over time, editors will begin calling on you with additional editorial opportunities.

9. Employ the same content for multiple uses – Once developed, case studies provide a myriad of opportunities for leveraging the material. They can be placed in a single publication, mass distributed to a variety of publications, printed as a sales handout, produced as a downloadable feature from your Web site, and used as fodder for various product and corporate brochures.

10. Low cost, high returns – Case studies represent one of the best ROIs of any B2B marketing communications tactic. Development costs are generally modest, and when you can create something of interest to editors and readers, the editorial space and Web exposure you gain is free.

Kami's Blog Now in the Second Round at PR Week

Congrats to Kami Watson-Huyse, APR, for making it to the second round of the PR Week competition for the "most worthwhile" PR blog. See my previous post, "Two Days Left to Vote for Kami’s PR Blog."

You can vote for Kami's blog, Commuications Overtones, until 5:30 est, Friday. She won't win any prizes. But it's fun anyway.

Get Olympics Update from the Ground

We’re in the middle of the Olympics. Coverage on TV and the “official” Internet sites are heavily structured to either make it easy for you to see what’s interesting to you or to limit your viewing to highly-filtered, corporate-money-making controlled content – depending on your point of view. (The official site is at http://en.beijing2008.cn/.)

But thanks to social media, you can find out what’s happening in real time from people who are there as spectators. Here are just two easy ways.

1. Tweetscan.com lists all the Twitter posts (most recent first).

Go to http://www.tweetscan.com/ and type 080808 into the search field. (080808 is the tag or “keyword” that Twitter users are using to indicate their post is about the Olympics.) You’ll see current posts (called “tweets”). The ones with the boxes were created in other languages. You do not have to be a Twitter user to use Tweetscan.

2. Qik is a free online service that lets people stream video that they are shooting from their cell phones or video cameras in real time.

Go to http://qik.com/event/105/olympics-2008/day/10 to see videos.

3. Youtube has set up a page dedicated to videos about the Olympics.

Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/BeijingOlympics2008

Two Days Left to Vote for Kami’s PR Blog

Yes, this is a shameless plug for our own Kami Watson-Huyse, APR. I know, I know, she has practically moved out of the country (Houston). But she has remained a member of the San Antonio chapter. And she was, after-all, our Del Oro PR Practitioner of the Year.

But this isn’t really about Kami. It’s about her blog, Communication Overtones. Out of hundreds of PR blogs in the country, hers is one of 32 in the running for best PR blog in a competition being held by PR Week. It’s PR Week’s 10th anniversary, and they have decided to honor “one of the most important technological advancements in content distribution of the past 10 years” – the blog.

Each blog competes with one other in a sort of elimination tournament. And there is only two more days to vote for Communication Overtones.

But don't take my word for it. If you've never read her blog, go check it out. It's really insightful and creative.

The second cool thing is that this contest presents you with a list of 32 PR blogs to take a look at. You may find a few that become good references for you or that you want to engage with. Once you’ve identified a few, subscribe to their newsfeeds through an iGoogle page so that you can receive their headlines in one place.

The Demise of List-Making? I Hope So!

It’s a ritual most public relations practitioners are familiar with – building a list of contacts for a client or building a list of influencers for an event. List-building is the first step to relationship-building in our profession, and while it is foundational, it is also tedious, thankless and instantaneously obsolete.

I frequently get contacted by someone new in travel media or a far-away print publication and they say “Put me on your list.” So which list do they go on, for how long and how much contact do they really want to have with me?

Should this outlet get our annual press kit mailing or are they interested in seasonal events or a 25-word listing about hours and days of operation? So, now you know. I have at least three lists. Okay, I have more than that. In fact, we have so many different lists that we have to organize them into a folder called “Media Lists.” And it is SO yesterday.

So why do we do it? First of all, as creatures of habit, we have to do it. Second, if we don’t add to the list, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs.

But list-building gets in the way of network building. If there’s one thing social media is teaching us, it’s that the two-way conversational nature of this medium makes network-building so vitally important. And list-making is so one-way.

Enter Peter Shankman and HARO, which has been featured here before http://prsanantonio.blogspot.com/2008/06/help-reporter-out.html. I heard about and joined the HARO network when it was at 10,000 members. That was early this summer. Now, at 22,000 strong, it’s a list that is less about WHO is on the spreadsheet and more about who needs to CONNECT with whom. While the three times daily e-mails hit all 22,000 members, the unwritten rule is ever-present. You will not approach a media person on the queries list if you don’t fit the request. And so the dialogue begins and we, as public relations professionals, begin the process of “how can I help you do this story?” The connections are far more meaningful than any traditional list.