More Lemonade from Lemons

If you've had an e-mail account for any time at all, some well-meaning person has almost undoubtedly sent you a version of this story:

FWD: Free Neiman-Marcus Cookie Recipe
This is a true story... Please forward it to everyone that you can...You will have to read it to believe it....

My daughter and I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas & decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie". It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe and the waitress said with a small frown "I'm afraid not." "Well" I said, "would you let me buy the recipe?"

With a cute smile, she said "YES". I asked how much and she responded, "Only two fifty, it's a great deal!" I said with approval, "just add it to my tab".. Thirty days later, I received my VISA tatement from Neiman-Marcus and it was $285.00. I looked again and remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250.00".

That's outrageous!!!

I called Neiman's Accounting Dept. and told them that the waitress said it was "two-fifty," which clearly does not mean "two hundred and fifty dollars" by any POSSIBLE interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge.. They would not refund my money, because according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe - we absolutely will not refund your money at this point." I explained to her the criminal statutes which govern fraud in Texas. I threatened to refer them to the Better Business Bureau and the State's Attorney General for engaging in fraud. I was basically told, "Do what you want, we dont give a damn, and we're not refunding your money."

I waited a moment, thinking of how I could get even, or even try to get any of my money back. I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250.00, and now I'm going to have $250.00 worth of fun."

I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250.00 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus... for free..She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this" I said, "Well you should have thought of that before you ripped me off", and slammed down the phone on her.. So, here it is!!! Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250.00 dollars for this... I don't want Neiman-Marcus to ever get another penny off of this recipe....[a chocolate chip cookie recipe follows]

- About.com Urban Legends, http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/fooddrink/a/cookie_recipe.htm

[Let me just say that the spelling, word usage and punctuation are the original author's, not mine.]

Further, if you have been on the Internet any time at all, you should also already know that this story is an urban legend (in fact, it has been around for at least 50 years and originally dealt with a recipe obtained from the dining car waiter on a train.)

So imagine my delight when, in the course of doing some research for a news release, I found this on the Neiman Marcus web page:

An urban myth is a modern folk tale, its origins unknown, its believability enhanced simply by the frequency with which it is repeated. Our signature chocolate chip cookie is the subject of one such myth. If you haven't heard the story, we won't perpetuate it here. If you have, the recipe below should serve to refute it. Copy it, print it out, pass it along to friends and family. It's a terrific recipe. And it's absolutely free. [Followed by the recipe for the NM cookie.]
http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/service/nm_cookie_recipe.jhtml

It's truly refreshing to see a company with such a great sense of humor about itself. Anyone who might have thought Neiman Marcus a little stuffy, a little snobbish, would almost have to be disarmed by this clever response to a widely-circulated, but absolutely untrue story - a response that is all the more remarkable for its low-keyed, good-humored attitude.

And Neiman's keeps its eye on the ball, ending the recipe page with this brief, unobtrusive plug: "Visit our Restaurant section for more recipes along with information on cooking classes, catering and restaurant details."

Honestly, wouldn't you want to do business with a company with this much class?

January 2007 Luncheon: Do Your Communication Programs Measure Up?

There is a myth circulating among PR professionals that measurement is hard and expensive.

The truth is that measurement can be both or neither.  Meaning, in its elemental form, PR measurement is simply listening to those stakeholders that mean the most to an organization and adjusting accordingly.

You can conduct very expensive and complicated measurement schemes, but an immediate source of measurement could be much more simple.  Talk to your marketing, development or IT department and you may find many measurement resources that are closer than you think! For instance, does your organization or company…

• Survey customer sales and/or service?
• Survey donors?
• Track visitors to your Web site?
• Have a Secret Shopper service or other quality control mechanism?
• Track visitation to events, seminars or occasions?
• Have an industry organization that does measurement/research valid to your organizational objectives?
• Have a database of key stakeholder information that could be cross tabulated in Access or another program?

If so, then you may have the start of a measurement tool for your public relations program. Using this already existing information to conduct your research and apply evaluation is often called secondary analysis.

In addition to secondary research sources, there are many low and no cost ways to start measuring your communications programs. We have developed a list of resources to help communicators start to evaluate their public relations programs:

Free and Low-Cost Online Tools

• Google News Archive Search: Find articles all the way back to the 1920s to present day in real time. Of course, the results won’t include walled publications like the Wall Street Journal. 
• Google Alerts: Subscribe to Google Alerts to get up-to-date information about your company or competitors via e-mail or RSS feed.
• Google Analytics: A free service to help you get detailed web statistics for your website or blog
• WebTrends: A more robust paid analytics tool used by many large corporations to track sales and other behavior on a website
• Technorati: The "Google" of blogs, Technorati is a great way to track what is said about your company
• Google BlogSearch: Google's answer to Technorati is also a great way to track what is said about your company on blogs
• Survey Monkey: Free for small surveys and affordable for larger ones
• Zoomerang: Can also put together a valid survey sample from their databases and have non-profit pricing
• Free Polls for Your Website: A list of services that provide free polling and surveys that are embedable in a Website or Blog
• Yahoo Search Marketing: Mostly commonly used in advertising, but you can sign up for a free account and use the tools
• Wordtracker: Finds popular keywords to use in web text and press releases
• PRWeb: A press release service that allows an organization to put up a number of search engine optimized press releases for minimal cost

Books About PR Measurement

Primer of Public Relations Measurement, by Don Stacks. Find it at Amazon or in the San Antonio Public Library (PRSA SA donated several volumes)

Measuring Public Relationships: The Data Driven Communicators Guide to Success, by Katie Paine (177-page book)

The Focus Group Kit, by David Morgan and Richard A. Kruegar

Web sites with PR Measurement Resources

• PRSA PRC Search: Free for members and $4.99 for articles and $7.99 for Case Studies for non-members
• PRSA Accreditation Section on Research: Includes PDF handouts and information
• Institute for Public Relations: An organization dedicated to PR research that includes original research, case studies and other measurement resources.
• KD Paine’s Measures of Success Site: Sign up for a free copy of the e-newsletter “Measures of Success”
• Angela Sinikas: Angela includes a section with free measurement resources as well as ones you can get for a fee
• Kami Huyse’s Social Media Measurement Links: A collection of links to relevant posts and resources about measuring social media

Some Particularly Helpful Articles

Research Doesn’t Have to Put You in the Poorhouse: You don't have to spend a fortune or go broke when designing and carrying out public relations research and measurement projects. To save money, consider piggyback studies, secondary analysis, quick-tab polls, internet surveys, or intercept interviews. Mail, fax and e-mail studies are good for some purposes. Or, do your own field research.

Southwest Airlines Case Study: From February 2004 to April 2005, Southwest Airlines was able to directly track more than $2.5 million in online ticket sales to optimized press releases

Guidelines for Measuring Relationships in Public Relations:

By Linda Childers Hon and James E. Grunig have found through their research that perceptions regarding an organization's longer-term relationships with key constituencies can best be measured by focusing on six very precise elements or components of relationships:

1. Control Mutuality
2. Trust
3. Satisfaction
4. Commitment
5. Exchange Relationship
6. Communal Relationship

Interview with Katie Paine

We will leave you with an interview conducted with Katie Paine outlining her Six Steps to PR Measurement

This is also cross posted to Communication Overtones blog.

Photo by bvincent1013

Attention editors & customers! – Media relations at a tradeshow

By Robert E. Sheldon, APR, Public Relations Director, Creative Communications Consultants, Inc. (and PRSA San Antonio president elect)

Power Gen International, Days 2 & 3

Making sure you get key editors to the show booth is a straightforward matter of inviting them and then making sure that their time and attention will not be wasted. Getting customers to visit the booth is much the same problem: you need to extend an invitation to key customers who will be attending the show and then make their time worthwhile.

Other exhibitors at the show also try other methods of getting people into their booths. Not far from the Cummins booth, another generator manufacturer has stationed very attractive female models (known in the business as “greeters”) at the corners of the booth to attract attention. They DO attract attention – but I observe that it is mostly furtive glances from men as they pass by in the aisles. They’re pretty, but they are not the technical experts the customers are looking for.

At another large booth, a card-shark magician puts on a display of slight-of-hand that is quite amazing. He draws a large crowd of people throughout the day, entertaining them with humor and skill. Like the pretty women in the other booth, the ploy attracts attention – but for all the wrong reasons. In much the same way that pretty women have nothing to do with generators, card magicians have nothing to do with them either. The lesson seems clear: you’ve got to build booth traffic for the “right” reasons – and yet manufacturers continue to confuse sex and entertainment with substance. Of course, the trick is finding interesting and exciting ways of drawing attention to a client from the right prospects – and that includes editors.

Handling surprises

On the final day of the show, I have four editor visits scheduled and several unconfirmed meetings. The editors show up and the meetings go well as they did the day before. Towards the end of the day, a publication editor from the UK stops by. At the end of our brief meeting, he asks whether he can return in an hour with a video crew and interview a Cummins expert on the new products. The publication with the intimidating title – Cogeneration and On-Site Power Production – is a very important global magazine in the power industry that also has a good web site. The web site is now featuring short videos in addition to editorial content, and the editor wants to shoot a two and a half minute segment on Cummins for their site.

Luckily, one of the top Cummins experts is in the booth and I convince him to submit to the impromptu video interview. After quickly reviewing key messages with the expert, we shoot about 10 minutes of questions and answers for the segment. My expert does a wonderful job and I make sure the company logo also appears in the background on several of the shots.

YouTube for techies

The lesson here is that the Internet is opening up new and exciting ways of communicating with narrow markets and audiences – it’s like YouTube for the techie set. Only, the payoff will be greater awareness of my client and its products. Additionally, the details are still important -- putting your best foot forward, supporting the brand and the marketing messages. This is the value we bring to our clients.

By the end of the show, I had met with 13 key editors and had gathered a handful of article ideas for future follow-up. I will summarize these for my client after I get back from the show.

In general, trade shows are very expensive communications mediums for companies. The investment in space rental, booth graphics, materials and manpower is substantial – which makes it doubly important to get the most you can out of the opportunity. This means making as many customer contacts as possible and enlisting the help of key publication editors to leverage publicity in the months following the show. In the week after the show, we will mail out the press kit to key editors who did not attend the show and follow-up with the attending editors to answer questions and encourage use of the materials we distributed.

Katrina’s legacy – where are the people?

There were two large conventions in town this week, but I could tell immediately that the city was not crowded or as vibrant as I remember from the recent past. It’s already been more than two years since the devastating hurricane that flooded New Orleans, and yet the “recovery” is still trying to get started.

My downtown hotel faced empty office buildings in the front and the back. Through the dingy windows I could see that most of them had been gutted, leaving visible empty ceiling tile grids and dangling wires. The problem, according to the hotel people, is that so many people have permanently left the city that there is no one to rent office space to. Restaurants were doing an okay business, but many are still closed or have reduced hours because they can’t get employees -- because there is no housing.

The French Quarter, untouched by the flooding, was nonetheless almost barren of people the few nights I ventured there. I remember Bourbon Street flooded with people in the warm evenings in years past, but not now.

The recovery will happen, of course, but apparently not as soon as everyone would like. Everybody you talk to agrees is it simply sad – a bittersweet backdrop to an otherwise successful week.

Thinking like an editor

By Robert E. Sheldon, APR, Public Relations Director, Creative Communications Consultants, Inc. (and PRSA San Antonio president elect)

Power Gen International, Day-1

Any kind of media relations is an exercise in getting into the mind of the editor – understanding what he wants, understanding what his readers want, and knowing the kind writing that is appropriate for that publication. Most of these trade publications are aimed at educating and informing their readers about the latest products, latest technical and market trends and how various problems are being solved in the field.

The material we provide to these editors can never be a blatantly commercial for the client – unless it’s a simple announcement for a new product. Features or application stories need to have substance that transcends the client’s identity and provide a lesson in engineering, design, problem-solving or analytical skills. News releases need to be objectively written with facts clearly stated and opinions or analysis attributed to a company spokesperson. Materials that don’t follow these simple precepts end up in the “round file” instead of the editorial columns.

One-on-one meetings

On the first day of the show, I have visits scheduled for six editors representing such publications as Power Engineering, Utility Products, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, Worldwide Independent Power, Modern Power Systems and Distributed Energy. While these titles may seem boring to the average lay reader, these trade publications reach important niches in the power industry and are read by tens of thousands of design engineers, consultants and building owners who own or operate on-site power systems. In addition, each one of these publications also has a web site which is an equally important outlet for content. In fact, the web is even more content-hungry that printed publications – a fact that is becoming clearer with every passing month. Getting into their editorial columns on a regular basis assures my client of a steady stream of inquiries from potential customers, as well as all-important brand name reinforcement.

What you want editors to do is to have their editorial columns fairly represent your client in the marketplace. There is no way to prevent an editor from giving your client’s competitors their due, but without a proactive public relations program and a steady stream of suitable editorial material, your competitors may be the only companies mentioned in publications. Through inaction on behalf of your client, you will create an editorial vacuum that the editor will fill with somebody else’s news and information. Gone are the days when editors had staffs that actually went out and got news!

When an editor arrives for a meeting, I first of all thank him for all the editorial coverage my client has received that year. Next, I hand off the press kit and then preview the four new product announcements and draw their attention to a new technical feature in the kit that explores the topic of noise control of generator sets. If the editor expresses interest in any one particular product or topic, I introduce him to one of several experts in the Cummins booth to help answer technical questions.

Staying on-message

As the Cummins expert explains a topic, I listen carefully in order to insert leading questions to the expert so we can be sure that the key marketing messages get mentioned. The engineers are experts on their topic, but they usually need guidance in staying on-message. That’s an important part of my job – helping to interpret or translate all the high-tech information for journalists while making sure that our intended marketing messages are conveyed.
There is often no predicting what editors will be interested in – and it often depends on what they are thinking about for their next issue. Before the day is out, I have gone through this routine for all six editors and reaction to the material has been very positive.

Customer traffic in the booth is light on the first day because many attendees are still registering and are busy standing in long lines outside the hall. But, by later in the day, we get busier. In addition to wanting to find out “what’s new,” customers also bring questions about their individual power problems and there is a constant scramble to find this right Cummins expert to handle the questions.

The first day goes very well and I even have some spare time to walk around the show floor in search of other potential clients.

Media Relations Power-Play

By Robert E. Sheldon, APR, Public Relations Director, Creative Communications Consultants, Inc. (and PRSA San Antonio president elect)

December 10, 2007 – New Orleans, LA

For about the eighth time in as many years, I’m off to a trade show called Power Gen International, the premier world conference for utilities, industrial power users and manufacturers of power generating equipment. This time it’s being held in New Orleans – the first time I’ll have been there post-Katrina.

As in the past, I’m attending the show on behalf of Cummins Power Generation, the world’s largest manufacturer of diesel engines and the number-two supplier of power systems based on reciprocating engine technology. Caterpillar is number one in reciprocating engine power systems in terms of number sold, but Cummins excels at so-called mission-critical power systems – systems that provide standby and emergency power for hospitals, data centers, banks, fire and safety and government facilities.

My purpose for going to the show is to hold one-on-one meetings with key engineering trade editors who will also be attending the show. I primarily do “marketing public relations” for Cummins – which uses the news and information value inherent in products to gain editorial space, generate inquiries from potential customers. By getting editorial coverage of Cummins products, customer applications and technical topics, there materials also educate readers and build credibility for Cummins as experts in the field.

The number of editors attending this show (that draws up to 35,000 visitors from around the world) varies from year to year. One of the primary sponsors of the show is a magazine called Power Engineering – a techie but much-respected publication that draws engineering readers from the utility, electrical, electronic and industrial manufacturing market segments. As is the case with other trade shows that are sponsored by media, some competing publications are barred from attending. But, by and large, the media covering the power industry are well represented at the show each year.

Getting Ready

In preparation for the show, I first met with my client to get an overview of what was going to be introduced and displayed at the show. It turned out that several new generator products and generator control systems were going to be featured. These new items were not earth-shaking enough to deserve a press conference, but they did inspire a press kit that I would be handing out in my editor meetings.

Editors are busy at these shows with more than a thousand exhibitors seeking to get publicity for their products or services. Which brings me to the invitation letter that sent out to nearly 40 editors about three weeks before the show. The personalized e-mail letter invited editors to stop by the Cummins booth during the two and one-half days of the show and view and discuss the new products. The letter included brief (and hopefully tantalizing) summaries of the various new products in an effort to emphasize that we had information that would be of special interest and importance to their readers.

Editors are looking for “what’s new” at trade shows and don’t care much about what’s old. If the publication is product-oriented, the editor’s interest will be focused on new products. If the publication is more issue-oriented (say, those directed at upper management at utilities or industrial segments that use a lot of power), the editors will be interested in my client’s take on industry trends or how technology is changing the search for solutions.

The editor’s looking for new product information are the easiest to satisfy. Those looking for industry trend information have to be dealt with specially by usually arranging an interview with an appropriate representative from my client. While such interviews don’t inform readers about new products, they do raise the awareness of my client as an industry leader, which, in turn, builds credibility for my client in a very competitive marketplace. When you sell power systems costing millions of dollars apiece, it helps when your potential customers have confidence that they are dealing with an industry leader.

Of the 40 invitations that went out, I received prompt responses from about ten editors – which is about normal. As Cummins is a major player in the power generation industry, even editors I didn’t contact will tend to find the booth and seek out any press information that may be available. By the end of the two and one-half days, I expect that I’ll have met with somewhere between 10 and 15 editors.

Tomorrow will be the first day of the show.

Marketing to College Students who are "Clueless" about Marketing

There was an interesting article in AdAge recently about 10 things college students don’t know about marketing. The article was titled, “Millennials: Clued In or Clueless” (Nov 19, 2007, registration required). According to the author, Carol Phillips, college students don’t know that the “average household income does not support a cleaning lady” or that “retailers, not manufacturers, set the price.”

The article describes each of the 10 briefly and provides – in one or two sentences – the implications for marketers. It’s a useful piece for a 101 on marketing as well as for getting a better glimpse of today’s college students.

The only one I raised an eyebrow about is the one that says college students don’t know “it’s illegal for ads to lie.” Granted, I am a GenX and am thus highly skeptical of ads. And I majored in advertising – knowing I would never be an advertiser. But come on, no lying in advertising? No stretching the truth even a little? No misleading claims? No pretending the blue blade cuts better or that the right beer can get you girls?

Well, I feel so much better now. I can keep my finger off the mute button when the TV commercials come on. I can even let my kids watch them.

So that’s why the sun was shinning brighter today (cue sappy background music).

Here’s why PR folk aren’t up to speed about social media

I think I’ve figured it out. PR folk have not jumped on the social media train as quickly as we could have because learning about social media for PR purposes takes time, a lot of time. It takes resources. It takes learning about how to apply certain tactics to certain strategies. It takes learning about the ethical implications of using social media. It takes money and other resources. It takes learning how to use the technology.

I know, I know. We’re not supposed to focus on the technology. But you have to know something about it. You have to know how to use certain tools yourself. For example, it’s easy to set up a Twitter account (I just did last week, yeah!). But how do you use it for a larger communications effort? In another example, it’s easy to create a Delicious account. But how do you create a separate ones for particular PR efforts. I’ve attended several workshops, but none were hands-on.

Then there are the biggies: How do you know which blog platform to start with? How do you edit audio for a podcast? How do you set up a new RSS feed on your company web site?

There are places you can go to take a class on how to use word processing and graphics software. There are designers you can hire to create a web site for you. And there are generous bloggers like Todd Defren and Bryan Person, who provide detailed steps on certain topics.

But for some things, we need more direct instruction. When I started my first job in D.C., my boss paid for a designer to spend three hours teaching me to use PageMaker. That was all I needed to get going. Of course I learned more as time went on. But that initial, focused instruction changed the learning curve dramatically.

So that’s my first point: Technical how-to (here’s a business opportunity for anyone who’s looking).

My second is about the time. I coordinate a podcast for my organization. Here’s what I had to do to get it running (based on my own estimates).

• Take two multiweek webinars = 16 hours
• Buy and read or scan three books = 6 hours
• Listen to podcasts about podcasting = 20 hours
• Write a plan, build a staff team, hold meetings about goals, get approval = 30 hours
• Work with internal IT folk about technical needs and processes = 10 hours
• Figure out web site features, designs, SEO, etc. = 20 hours
• Research outside consultants = 15 hours
Total = 117 hours

In the end, we hired a consultant to help us with other technical details like setting us up in iTunes and registering us with directories (in addition to editing the podcasts, working with music, and recording intros and outros). If we hadn’t done that, we would have had to figure out those details too.

My organization was willing and able to spend resources and staff time for this learning process. But if I worked for an agency, how would that be done? Much of this legwork would have to happen prior to connecting it to any particular client project. How would that be billed?

As much as we like to say social media has a low barrier to entry, this just isn’t true in using it for public relations. Time is money. And if you don’t take the time to do your homework, you can screw up royally -- on your client’s dime.

So, we either have to all become like the early adopters and spend much of our free time and our work time on trial and error, or we can be deliberate about providing hands-on training for our PR employees. That will require seeking it out when it’s not knocking at your door.

When something is important to your business, you do what it takes to make it happen

PRSA San Antonio Senior Practitioners Breakfast

If you are a PRSA San Antonio member with more than 15 years experience in public relations or a past chapter president, I hope you will plan to attend this breakfast on Thursday.

The topic is: The Fight Against Fake News

Description: In the context of FCC fines for use of video news releases on the one hand and fake news conferences on the other, how do public relations professionals build trust in our profession? How do these news stories affect our practice?

Date: November 8, 2007 ~ 7:30 a.m.

Location: Mama's Cafe #2 on Loop 410 and Nacogdoches, San Antonio

Even though this event is free, RSVP so we can reserve your space.

Co-Blogger Kami Interviewed for Podcast

As you may have heard, our own PRSA board member Kami Watson-Huyse, APR, was instrumental in integrating social media into the PRSA international conference last week. She and Eric Schwartzman gathered up a team of heavy hitters to live blog the event, post photos, record videos and produce podcasts during the conference. It was a pretty impressive feat. If you couldn’t attend the conference, you can still get a taste of it at the conference blog.

What I am really excited about, though, is the series of interviews conducted at the event that Eric will be releasing. I’m sure you can find them somewhere on the conference web site. But I know you can hear them through Eric’s On the Record Online podcast (which is a good one to stay subscribed to).

The first interview he released is of Kami to boot. And it is a really good interview. (Yes, Kami is my friend, but I really mean it.) Among other things, she talks about the importance of using social media as a tactic in ways that tie it to the overall goals of the program.

So click over there now and listen!

Rock star bloggers and bylaw amendments

By David Snowden, Assembly Delegate for PRSA San Antonio (and former chapter president), October 20, 2007

At today’s assembly, I had the honor of sitting next my fellow San Antonio chapter delegate and a social media rock star – Kami Watson-Huyse, APR. While she was busy “tweatering” with her motley crew of hot shot blogger friends, I tried to figure out the real issue behind Bylaw Amendment #1, which would have changed the way PRSA national board positions are determined.

Today, the majority of the positions are aligned with various regional districts. The proposal would have done away with the district representation and turned the majority of the board positions into “at large” positions. There was actually a lot of debate on the issue. Some say the new model will allow for a greater pool of talent to be considered. And others, well, I’m not sure exactly what they were trying to say, but there was a lot of debate on the issue.

Here’s what it looks like to me… It looks like the contingent who’s advocating for the new bylaw really wants to run the PRSA national board like a corporation with all directors working on behalf of all members. The old model is almost like a form of representative government where most of the board members are there to first represent the interests of their districts, and second to work on behalf of the entire membership. Is one model really that much better than the other? I don’t know. But, to tell you the truth, I like the idea of having a representative from my district on the board. And since the bylaw amendment didn’t pass, I guess that’s how it will be in until next year when this issue comes up again.

Of course, there were lots of other issues discussed. Military PR practitioners were honored and so were the PRSSA board of directors, but the most informative time for me was getting rock star blogging advice like:
• “You can’t hire a 20-year-old to run your social networking program just because he knows how to navigate Second Life.”
• “Big companies should start their social networking programs by testing the waters with small projects.”
• “The biggest challenge for big companies wanting to participate in the social networking space is overcoming the internal culture that often wants to control the messages.”

The list goes on and on… thanks Kami.

Lesson Five: Online Social Networks – A Review

Lesson Five Review: Next Installment of Learn About Social Media from Your Desk

Here’s a review of what we’ve covered to date about online social networks.

Social Networks: Lesson 5 in Learning About Social Media from Your Desk (Sunday, August 05, 2007)

Data on Social Networks (Wednesday, August 08, 2007)

ABCs of Facebook (Sunday, August 26, 2007)

Business Use of Online Social Networks (Wednesday, September 05, 2007)

Some Social Networks Are Bad for Your Reputation (Tuesday, September 11, 2007)

A Social Network Just for Communicators: MyRagan.com (Monday, September 17, 2007)

If you’re fairly new to this blog, let me explain that I started this series of “lessons” about tools of social media in January. I had planned on doing a different subject each month. But most subjects simply required more time. Below are links to the summarizing posts for each topic:

• January: Exploring Newsfeeds and Webfeeds (RSS)
• February-March: Getting Acquainted with the Blogs
• April-May: The World of Podcasting
• June-July: Using Delicious (I forgot to do a summary post for this topic)
• August-September: Online Social Networks (this post)

Headlines Must be Descriptive or You Lose Readers

My husband is stopping his subscription to Entrepreneur magazine. The main reason he gives is that when he reads the story headlines, he can’t tell what the story is going to be about. He’s a normal busy person. He doesn’t have time to solve mysteries just to read a magazine.

Here are some samples from the September 2007 issue:
• Tuned In
• Buh-Bye
• Come on, Defense!
• On the Rise
• All They Need
• So Long, Big Guys

Print magazines and newspapers can use images, photos and other design elements to draw readers into a story. But times have changed. In today’s world of RSS feeds and online news that link headlines to stories, cryptic and teaser headlines just don’t cut it.

I even find the puns in AdAge irritating. If I can’t tell in a few words what it’s going to be about, I’m gone.

You’d think Entrepreneur would have figured this out by now.

Here’s what the stories were about by the way:
• Tuned In: “alpha moms” (which I find is an offensive term)
• Buh-Bye: firing employees
• Come on, Defense!: securing your web site
• On the Rise: employment and salary growth
• All They Need: Blackberry users
• So Long, Big Guys: handbag designer

PRSA Launches a Conference Blog: '5 Reasons to Launch a Blog'

Tuesday, the Public Relations Society of America published a blog post by Paul Gillan, Remind us again why you aren't blogging, to kick off its 2007 International Conference Blog, PR|Evolution.  The conference will be held October 20-23, 2007 in Philadelphia.  You can register by clicking here. 

In the first post, Gillan gives five reasons for launching a blog backed by examples of companies that have capitalized on each.

Influence policy: General Motors, Google and the National Association of Manufacturers

Reinforce an image: Southwest Airlines' frothy, fun Nuts about Southwest blog

Support customers: Intuit, Microsoft, Dell

Give advice: Kodak, Extended Stay Hotels and Owens Corning

Educate: English Cut custom-made suits and The Tinbasher sheet metal artistry

The blog will have two or three posts a week from conference presenters as we lead up to the conference and Paul Gillin, Katie Paine, Josh Hallett, Peter Himler, Eric Schwartzman, and myself will be live blogging during the conference. 

We plan to use Flickr, YouTube and Twitter to catalogue and communicate with those of you that are there and those that aren't.  We also plan to include a few podcasts.

tags: PRSA, International+Conference, Live+Blogging, PR, Public+Relations

Happy Birthday Smiley!

Whether you love them or hate them, emoticons are celebrating 25 years this week. Happy Birthday Smiley :-)

How does one person take credit for "inventing" such a pop-culture phenomenon? And how did he know it was important enough to remember when he sent the first smiley?

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/5146612.html

Looking for a job in a new city? Network, network, network! And also? Network!

After living in San Antonio for nearly a decade, I made the decision to move back to my hometown of Corpus Christi in February of this year. It was a hard decision to make personally (I love my friends and having access to more than one Target) and professionally (I loved my work, my colleagues, and an active PRSA chapter). Besides those very important reasons, I also wasn’t looking forward to the job hunt in a city where I didn’t have many professional contacts.

Most of the things about looking for a job in another city are very similar to looking for a job in the place you live in now. The things like looking at the city’s Chamber of Commerce, looking at the city’s economic development corporations, etc, those are the same. So, for the purposes of this post, I’ll talk about the most important part of looking for a job in a new city: making friends and influencing people.

I had exactly two professional contacts in Corpus Christi when I decided to make the move. Even though I grew up here, and had childhood friends, I had one friend in our area of work and one contact I had made 10 years before when I graduated college. So, I did a lot of calling friends and colleagues from around the state (and even one in California) to find leads on jobs; and I reconnected with people I only spoke to every few years to see if they knew of openings.

Until my current position, I’d never gotten a job in our field that didn’t have some connection with PRSA. Whether it was a PRSA friend making an introduction, or interviewing at a PRSA luncheon, or linking up with a PRSA colleague who told a friend of a friend about me, my PRSA connections have been invaluable. I think the PRSA folk in San Antonio are especially awesome. I’ve never seen a group of people more willing – and able – to help someone find a job or make a career change.

Network outside public relations. Especially in small communities, you’ve got to be flexible, so go to groups that aren’t strictly public relations. Visit with human resources groups, advertising groups, philanthropy professionals, etc. You cannot afford to have a close mind when you are moving to a new place. Time to put your creative skills to use!

Informational interviews, ask for them! I’ve had a couple of jobs now where there wasn’t really a position open, but one was created for me after talking with the person who became my boss. I went on informational interviews wanting to get to know the industry or area and ended up getting hired because a position was created for me. If nothing else, you’ll get some good networking from it and get your name out there.

Oh, and sometimes the most important part of looking for a job in a new city is plastering said city with your resume. If everyone in the city recognizes your name, you’re bound to find a position. Remember too, that the number one guarantee for finding a job is to quit looking for one. Give up. As soon as you do, you’ll get 18 offers and one of those will be perfect.

Happy hunting!

A Social Network Just for Communicators: MyRagan.com

Learning About Social Media from Your Desk

By far, the online social network that I’ve found most useful is MyRagan.com.

Like other social networks, you sign up for free and create your own profile page. But it’s also easy to join topical forums to discuss common issues. (Facebook is so big, it’s really hard to find groups that you might be interested in. And there are a lot of creepy groups.)

In MyRagan, I’ve answered some folk’s questions and have had my own answered. It’s easy to navigate. There are also free downloads and links to useful resources.

Before this, I hadn’t used Ragan services, publications or conferences. They seemed targeted to really big corporations and were way too pricey for this non-profit employee. But MyRagan.com doesn’t have those limitations.

I strongly suggest you try it out.

For the record, there is another online social network for communicators that launched a few weeks after MyRagan. It’s Melcrum's Communicators' Network. But I’ve not tried it out yet. If you have, let us know what you think of it!

Some Social Networks Are Bad for Your Reputation

Learning about Social Media from Your Desk

During this lesson about online social networks, I’ve listed several that I think are worth trying out, depending on the type of network you are looking for. But there are some that are best avoided.

The latest new one is called Quechup. And it is apparently a front for a spam service, at your contacts’ expense. Read more at “WARNING: Do NOT load Quechup” by Robert Scoble and stay away.

One great thing about social media is that you and I are finding this out through our online networks mostly made up of people we’ve never met.

Remember when your favorite teacher finally said that it’s not about knowing all the answers; it’s about knowing where to look? We’ll never know all the technology, not even the types used most in our industry. We just won’t ever catch up. What matters today is having networks (online and in person) to draw upon and to share with.

Redesigned San Antonio PRSA Web Site Launched

I am happy to say that our chapter was finally able to launch our redesigned web site last week. I was in charge of the site last year (and previously), and one of my goals was to upgrade its look and functionality. But I just didn’t get to it.

We first went online in about 2000 I believe. We used a free Yahoo account and Front Page software. It was not attractive and not easy to update. But at least we were online. The world was different then.

Then we got a new volunteer to create a real design and set up a real domain for us. That’s when we moved from Yahoo to prsanantonio.com. We used a web-based editing software for updating called Web Edit Pro. It was a bit cluncky and limiting. But it worked for us.

That is, until it died this past December. Had I done my job and gotten us upgraded like I was supposed to, the fate of Web Edit Pro would not have affected us. But I didn’t, and it did.

I set up a Google web page to get us by while we looked for a professional designer. (There’s more to this part of the story that I will share later.)

That’s when we found Gray Graphics, who was happy to set up a partnership agreement with us. Gray Graphics specializes in web site design, web site development and content management.

They listened to our needs and developed several options for us that were all consistent with PRSA’s branding requirements. When we picked a design and provided the content, they went to town.

The other part of the picture though is the system we will use to update the site. At the suggestion of Gray Graphics, we are using a CMS (content management system) called SiteFinity. It’s easy to learn and will help us keep the site looking professional and up to date.

So at our luncheon, we had a little celebration. We finally have a web site that accurately reflects the professionalism of our membership.

But the best part is: I’m done!

Business Use of Online Social Networks

Learning About Social Media from Your Desk

The eMarketer Daily newsletter reported in June that “nearly two-thirds of U.S. business professionals use personal and professional social networking web sites, according to the Social Network Practitioner Consensus Survey from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), conducted in conjunction with HR.com.”

The survey found that social networks are used in large proportions to:
• keep internal staff and remote employees connected,
• connect with potential clients and showcase skills,
• job-hunt,
• share best practices with colleagues, and
• get answers to issues they were currently facing.

eMarketer quotes Jay Jamrog of i4cp: "We expected to see a number of respondents utilizing social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook for personal reasons, but we were intrigued at the high percentage of business professionals that use social networking for professional purposes."

New pic for Christie