Ditch the Charger. Keep the Bookcase.

Many people received Ebooks – ranging from the Kindle to the Nook – for Christmas. Not me. My family graciously gave me books: the ones with pages. Here are the reasons why I love books.

1. The book giver can write a meaningful note in the cover. This inscription will make it more difficult to regift but it helps create a meaningful bond between the owner and the giver.
2. The book itself tells a story. The stain on page 32 reminds you of the coffee-spill incident, and the dog-ear fold on page 95 reveals your last effort to give the book a chance. Don’t worry: If you spill coffee on an ebook, remember the accident – which will cost you – by looking back on your bank statement.
3. Choosing a book. An ebook search cannot replace the pleasantry of entering a book store to choose a book.  Finding a gem among shelves of books while sipping on coffee  is a joy that I will never give up.

I don’t want to rant about ebooks but rather praise real books for the experience they offer. Ebooks provide accessibility, convenience and mobility; however, if you ever see me with an ebook, feel free to chuck it on the street and remind me of this post.

Five Ways to Explain Public Relations to Your Mama

During the holidays I shared all that I’m learning about PR to my mom – her reaction: a blank stare. My mom, like most people, doesn’t understand what PR practitioners do. Well, mom you are not alone – even people who practice PR disagree on the definition of public relations. I think PRSA’s definition captures what public relations practitioners do, “PR helps an organization and its public to adapt mutually to each other.”

I know this is a stretch but after I explained this definition to my mom, I thought, “Wow, isn’t this what a great mom achieves too?” Mothers nurture, explain and push (hopefully) her kid into the real world, and in turn she helps the world adapt to her kid. In fact, people usually hold the mother responsible for her kid’s behavior – just like public relation workers are held responsible for their companies’ behavior. So, here are the similarities I noticed between the role of motherhood and public relations.

1. Public relations gets the word out. PR announces news about its company. To get the information out they first tell the key influencers – such as journalists – then trust that journalists will tell the public. My mother certainly enjoys announcing news about my life. And if she wanted to brag about my good deeds or character, she found the influencers among the neighborhood to tell first so they could pass on the information.
2. Public relation practitioners advise companies with the best of intentions. For instance, company lawyers usually want to keep a company’s mistake under wraps but it’s the PR departments responsibility to maintain the publics trust by clearly communicating. Keeping the company accountable to its mistake and allowing the public to view its growth fosters the public’s trust. Good mothers also want their kids to obey them – not because they are all-knowing - but because they see the big picture and understand what’s best for the kid.
3. Public relations encourages social responsibility. PR motivates the company to act in a socially responsible way and holds the employees accountable to live up to its ethical code. When the company follows through, PR practitioners – just like mothers – should spread the good news, so the public can identify a company as a good Samaritan. For example, Pepsi will use the money usually spent on a Superbowl commercial ($3 million dollars) to launch some grants-based community projects.
4. “Better safe than sorry.” Many PR practitioners and mothers live by this simple mantra, which stresses caution and preparation. To prevent  reputation damage and physical harm: prepare, prepare, prepare. For instance, United Airlines could have prevented a YouTube video ranting about its service to explode if they would have responded to Dave Carroll’s inital complaints a year earlier.
5. PR practitioners constantly adapt to the evolving public and company. The Internet introduced some new tools, such as social media, which forced PR practitioners to alter their communication tactics in the last few years. My mother also changed her communication tactics as I grew older – she is finally learning how to text message!

Some believe that you learn everything you need to know in Kindergarten. This post may prove that if you are in PR, all you need to know you can learn from your good ol’mom.

Lions, Tiger and Affairs – Oh My!

As I flip through my US Weekly magazine, I peer at recognizable faces whom I’ve never met, yet feel connected. Scary – I know, but “news” stations, such as Perezhilton.com, US Weekly and the E! Channel, provide a sense of closeness to celebrities by inundating us with unlimited access. With celebrity status comes a caveat: high expectations. How does the public react when celebrities don’t meet their expectations? In most cases, the celebrities response dictates the public’s perception.

Take for instance, the public’s reaction toward Tiger Wood’s and David Letterman’s affair. Tiger neglected to address the public in his response. In fact, he adamantly kept the public out of the crisis, subsequently biting the hand that feeds him. As a result, he loss many of his sponsors,  including Gillette and Accenture, and the respect of many fans.

On the other hand, David Letterman, late-night talk show host, demonstrated that he valued his fans by confronting them first, which minimized rumors. Jack Trout, a marketing strategist, agrees that Letterman effectively apologized by using the art of candor. Trout explains candor in a CBS article: “And it (candor) goes like this: admit a negative to get a positive. In other words, you’ve gotta be candid. Throw it right on the table and if you set it up properly, then you can move into getting a positive.”  Letterman’s brutal honesty and candid approach achieved just what he wanted: forgiveness

The public became even less sympathetic toward Tiger when he disregarded them in his apology statement. To reflect this rift, the “Today” show created a poll for people to express who they were most disappointed in this year. Guess who won? Keeping to his no. 1 record, Tiger brought in the most votes at 34 percent, conversely only 2 percent of people chose Letterman. I’m not saying Tiger cannot reach redemption, but the road to redemption will be much longer if he doesn’t acknowledge the public’s power over his image.

I will leave some words of advice to Tiger: As my favorite comedian, W.C. Fields, said, “There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.”

How to Respond and Recover From a Crisis Situation

I targeted a few companies that neglect podcasting in my last post – so, I thought I would give podcasting a shot. I used Audacity to record my presentation and then synced my voice with SlideShare to create a Slidecast. As a newbie, this process took me longer than it did to create the slides, but a few setbacks increased my determination and I finally succeeded. Hope you enjoy the Slidecast, readers!

A Cure for Writer’s Block: Podcasting

In the toolbox of social media, podcasting remains the shiniest tool – not because of its special abilities but from lack of use. As companies increasingly use blogs, Twitter and other social media tools more effectively, they neglect one of the most practical social media tools: podcasting.

After some exploring, I discovered that many companies’ polished blogs do not compare to their podcast selection. For example, Martha Stewart hosts an extensive blog that involves everything about homemaking. She even includes a Martha Radio, which features clips from that day’s show, but she misses the main point of audio: practicality through downloading, which podcasts offer. I’m convinced that many companies can utilize podcasts, and here are five reasons why.

Provide Value

When I visited Southwest Airlines’ blog, I eagerly clicked its podcast link only to find a podcast that would put most customers to sleep during a flight. Intentional? I think not. Southwest, like many other company podcasts, features financial experts or CEOs who explain its financial standings – perhaps relevant but not valuable. In order to connect with your audience, launch a podcast that will address interesting issues relevant to your business.

I propose that Southwest offers a podcast series focused on travel tips for passengers. Passengers will appreciate this valuable information because it could save them travel time. Also, Southwest could create a podcast series featuring travel experts in cities where it flies. I would definitely listen to a podcast that described interesting shops to visit in San Francisco while en route. The point: Add value and they will listen.

Get Personal

In the eternal words of Maya Angelou, “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.” Writing blogs can only express your voice to a certain extent. Social media – if social – establishes a relationship. A voice behind a relationship adds a personal connection, which is why podcasting is so effective. For example, I often read Shel Holtz’s blog, which offers insight to the communications field. After listening to a few of his podcasts titled “For Immediate Release,” I feel like I know the man. I can now relate better to his posts and get a sense of who he is. In fact, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson pioneered the use of podcasting in their book “How to Do Everything with Podcasting.”

Cut Time

From working in customer service, I realize that frequently asked questions truly exist. What better way to explain frequently asked questions than a podcast? A proactive solution to clogging up phone lines with annoyed customers is a FAQ podcast series. Dell utilizes Twitter to answer customers questions but could go a step further by adding a human voice to ease customers worries. 

Be Convenient

Podcasts save time and money. Podcasts offer an inexpensive way to communicate. Read this post by Ford’s social media director, Scott Monty, about how to start a podcast. Convenience also ties into how people use podcasts. Commuting to work, cooking dinner, working out: You can do all these things while listening to a podcast, which opens up a huge window of opportunity to reach your potential audience. Purina’s podcast not only gives its audience value by focusing on pet issues but also offers a convenient medium to retain the information. I’m sure many dog owners listen to these podcasts while walking their dogs.

Add Credibility

The bestselling book “Made to Stick” claims that sticky ideas emerge from six characteristics. One of these is credibility. How do you add credibility? Bring in the experts. According to the “Made to Stick” authors, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, you can achieve credibility by using an authority or antiauthority. Antiauthorites produce credibility because they represent normal people who share their experience. The antismoking ads in the 1990s used an antiauthority when they featured smoker Pam Laffin, who suffered a failed lung transplant, instead of using an expert, such as a doctor.

Please inform me of any companies that creatively use podcasting. Also, I’m interested to learn how crisis situations could use podcasting. Any examples?

Dejargonize

Over Halloween weekend, the Oregon PRSSA chapter hosted a costume party at Agate Alley Bistro. The event featured four musical artists, which became a key component of my job: the music liaison. Ladies and Jackson, generously offered its PA system (power amplifier) for the event.  As the middleman between the bands and sound technician, I realized how little I knew about sound. My feeling of inadequacy heightened when I introduced the sound technician to the bands and they begun conversing in “band terms.”

This interaction made me appreciate my future career as a communicator. How refreshing to know that my mission as a communicator is to simplify. Public relations practitioners would never use jargon—would they? Unfortunately,  jargon words exist in every industry to help communicate common ideas. The  progression of social media contributes to newly coined terms, such as tweetup, SEO, and social media release that others may perceive as jargon. In fact, many people consider social media jargon because they don’t understand its role. Let this clip explain social media to you in plain English.

 

What would you consider as public relation jargon words that most outsiders wouldn’t understand?

The Customer is NOT Always Right

“The customer is always right” defines the mentality of many companies’ customer service policies.  A company often submits to a person’s complaint in fear of reputation damage. Companies’ eager-to-please approach sometimes attracts money-hungry customers who are not always right. Here are some examples of companies that maintained their dignity by recognizing the customer is not always right.

In 2008, during the recession’s lowest point, American auto industries’ reputation and sales suffered. Many Americans felt the main auto companies, such as General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, didn’t deserve government money to sustain their businesses. Ford encouraged any positive fan base but took legal action against a fan Web site named therangerstation.com when it used Ford’s logo to sell memorabilia. The fan site posted Ford’s charge of $5,000 to its site, but instead of admitting its fault, it denied the truth. Outraged fans reacted to the fine claiming that Ford picked on the “little guy.” When Ford’s social media director Scott Monty noticed this buzz he responded in a tweet stating that he would find out more information from the lawyers and get back to them. Monty provided the public with updates until the truth came out: therangerstation.com illegally profited from using Ford’s emblem. As American as it gets: The truth shall set Ford free.

Go to the mattresses (at Ikea). Just weeks before Ikea opened a store in Moscow, Russia, the local electrical service approached Ikea demanding a large bribe for the use of electrical power. How did Ikea react? They went to the mattresses. Instead of paying an outrageous fee, Ikea rented generators to support the grand opening. Ikea cleverly avoided Russian’s organized crime because they didn’t fear criticism or worse consequences—they did what was right.

So, companies, before you admit you’re wrong and beg your customers for mercy, evaluate the facts. I wish that I had realized the customer is not always right when I worked as a waitress.

Preventing the Domino Effect

Five strategies I would use in the Domino’s YouTube crisis

Communicate Internally
Notify all employees. Employees want to receive information concerning their company from a primary source and not from the media. Ensure employee advocacy by keeping them up-to-date. Domino’s should have alerted the employees of the video and communicated the crisis management plan. Also, an e-mail to employees could have helped identify the branch location where the video originated.

Respond Quickly
People speculated while Domino’s attempted to gather details about the situation. The Consumerist, a consumer’s issues blog, noticed the peculiar Domino’s video on YouTube and posted it to its own Web site. The Consumerist then notified Domino’s Vice President Tim McIntrye of the video via e-mail. McIntrye quickly responded back in a private e-mail message, which The Consumerist extended to the public. I would have advised Domino’s to post an immediate response to The Consumerist’s blog. A quick response acts as the key to transparency and shows that the company recognizes the issue’s importance. Jane Genova, a social media blogger, explains the significance of this late response: “Their erroneous assumption—and it will never happen again—was that ‘anything they said would only add fuel to the online fire.’ The reality is that not responding supplies the oxygen that can transform a minor incident into a global media event.”

Establish Channels
Social Media Today’s blog suggests, “Knowing where the topic is spreading should inform your communication strategy.”  In this case, Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere were asking questions: Where is the branch location? Did the employees serve the pizza? Who are the employees? Did someone order pizza with extra snot and hold the cheese? Domino’s could have kept the public up-to-date on by integrating all these platforms to its crisis communication plan. Tweets notifying the public of the video’s origin and the status of the two employees’ termination would have eased people’s fears and protected Domino’s reputation.

“Do to Others as You Would Have Them Do to You”
Domino’s President Patrick Doyle posted a response on the same channel that spurred the crisis—YouTube. His message included all the vital elements needed but didn’t come quick enough. I applaud him for his message, which first included an apology and explanation and then explained Domino’s response thus far. He then described the steps taken to assure the public an incident like this wouldn’t happen again. Lastly, the message provided resources for additional information. I would suggest that Domino’s continued a YouTube series showing the public how normal branches operate cleanly. A fun, interactive YouTube series could provide the public with inside information about Domino operations to rebuild Domino’s trust.

Create a Meeting Place
Set up a central meeting place. For natural disasters a central meeting place allows everyone to seek refuge and gather resources. On the Internet that meeting place is a Web site. The Domino’s Web site could have acted as a central place for the public to find information. The Web site should provide all links to additional channels, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube videos. Also, Domino’s should have made the new employee guidelines public.

In a recent follow-up interview Domino’s Vice President Tim McIntyre explains the step-by-step crisis plan Domino’s used. He mentions that someone compared the crisis to a spill in a grocery store on aisle five. McIntyre thought if he contained aisle five the mess wouldn’t spill further. Without social media this may have been true, but social media caused a domino effect, subsequently leaking into all aisles. If Domino’s would have established its social media channels and monitored them daily its communications team could have cleaned up on aisle seven rather than the whole store.

Welcome to PRoactive thinking!

Hello, bloggers! With graduation quickly approaching in March 2010, I feel now—more than ever—the importance of being proactive. I designed this blog to engage in conversation and expand my knowledge of public relations while focusing on crisis communications.

The first step of managing a crisis is to prepare, right? So, by entering the bustling blogosphere I hope to successfully prepare myself for the workforce and avoid the crisis of finding myself in a jobless state when March arrives.