Blogjam – Or How I’m Becoming a Social Media Convert (kicking and screaming, of course)

The ups and downs of social media, whether it be blogging, tweeting, playing foursquare or Facebooking really consist of two things: having something to say, and saying it effectively and regularly. As you can see from our Feintuch blog, this is a challenge even in the PR space. It’s also a primary argument I have with some of my clients and certainly my colleagues on occasion.

I think social media is great! Admittedly, I’m a luddite about it, but I truly see it as a tool that, when used effectively, can really propel a company or even a person forward in the public eye. And it certainly has a downside, as over-tweeting becomes tedious, people lose interest and certainly the effectiveness of the communication can be diminished (same as putting out a press release on a daily or even weekly basis).

But what happens when you have nothing to blog? Or things pile up (right Henry?) and you don’t have time to blog, or your social media budget runs dry and your blogger doesn’t work for free? What if you’re a small development-stage company that doesn’t really have any ongoing news?

The ups and downs of this 24/7 medium that we have created are that even if you have nothing to say, and no time in which to say it, you still need to be strategically part of the conversation for your industry. It’s the way people are going to find you, and they’re going to find you. But it’s also a way they’re going to find you relevant.

So if you're going to use it, it’s imperative you say something strategic and constructive: What’s happening in the industry that impacts your company? What’s happening locally that affects your employees or customers? What trade show or financial conference are you going to be attending next week? Or even respond to what others are saying (e.g., about healthcare reform) through a repost or commentary. Blog it, tweet it. But keep updating it and keep it on the regular (maybe not daily, maybe weekly or monthly).

I admit I may have changed my tune a little – even as I write this. Maybe it does make sense for the smaller companies to blog or tweet too. Maybe their having a Facebook page with regular notes about issues impacting their business, even if they don’t have ongoing news, does make sense. But it doesn’t make sense if it’s not regular, reliable, strategic and appropriate.

And yes, we need to continue to practice what we preach here at FC, too. Especially me. Time will tell, and so will the results for our clients. Christa, Savannah, I think you may have a convert on your hands...

Word on the “Street”

Now that travel/vacation season is officially over (sniff, sniff) - I thought we’d reminisce about the summer and share all of the great things we experienced and conquered...

Now, I'm not sure if you’re like me, but every time I travel to a new place I can’t help but put my PR hat on. I’ll be at a restaurant or art exhibit that I absolutely LOVE and immediately have the desire to confront the owner to ask about his/her PR efforts and…can I help? It’s truly a disease. Are there any other PR pros out there that, after eating at an amazing, hidden gem of a restaurant or after visiting a sweet boutique resort off the beaten track, want to grab their smartphones or laptops and immediately post to their social networks that “I was here!”?? Or, are you NOT in PR and you’ve done this!? Then, welcome to the wide world of PR, my friends.

Thanks to social networks, everyone can practice PR now! Word of mouth is one of the best forms of marketing and PR that a brand can have. It’s a fact of life – if you like something, you want to talk about it. But as we know, this goes both ways, if you hate something, you are definitely going to tell the world how much you hate it.

Enter your PR agency.

For businesses (both b2b and b2c), PR agencies help to control the flow of the social network super highway by constantly monitoring and thinking about the next steps for a social media program. If one of your customers loves your new café, chances are they want to become the mayor of it on Foursquare and claim themselves as your biggest fan on Facebook. This in turn increases the chances that their friends/family/colleagues will want to try it for themselves. Newspapers and magazines post pass along rates, which are how many people read a publication without having a subscription (think a magazine sitting in a dentist’s office). This same principle applies to the social media buzz rate. If something is buzzworthy, people are going to pass it along. A PR agency can help you handle the buzz and develop a plan that shows your mayor (i.e. your biggest customer) that you appreciate his/her business.

We all have to remember that social media in its simplest form is a promotional vehicle. For my generation, it’s a little bit easier. When my parents take a picture of themselves, they don’t scream, “OMG, this is going on Facebook!” after they review the picture. Younger generations are constantly thinking in terms of “who can I show/tell” and “how can I get noticed” – the core philosophies of advertising and PR.

To prove this point of the generation gap, I have to refer to a story my dad recently told me. My aunt took my mom and dad out to eat at this great little place in Central Jersey with fresh Italian food. The restaurant was practically empty when they went in and boasted half-price appetizers every night. My aunt told my dad, “Now make sure you don’t tell anyone about this place, because if you tell people about a good thing, it might not be a good thing anymore!” I truly disagree with this statement. Wouldn’t a business want more business so that they can keep their good thing going? Groupon has made their whole business off of encouraging people to spread the word about a special or deal. And with all types of social networks and groups (from books to cars to widgets) – the opportunity to promote a growing business is getting easier.

A customer wants to feel like they are special when they visit and promote a particular local business to others and an owner wants to please their local patrons while enticing new customers. With social media, whether you are an enterprise software company or a cinnamon bun bakery, you need to recognize that your customer are your own little PR army! And your PR agency is the General, helping to wrangle the troops!

It’s time to recognize that word of mouth is social media and social media is PR!

Slow Down and Edit!

There’s nothing worse in the PR world than misinformation. The slightest variation of a word, a decimal point, or emphasis can make the difference between a positive message and a negative one. But in this age of rapid-fire email and real-time communications, the simple act of spending some time editing written communications could mean a tremendous difference and increase its effectiveness exponentially.

Here’s a recent example. We were facilitating a series of interviews for a client with an influential trade publication. In providing the reporter background information, we included a White Paper that had been developed for the client to explain its technology and the general benefits of its use. I received an email from the reporter with several questions, one of which had to do with a mathematical figure that was designed to demonstrate the efficiency and power of the technology. But when he quoted me the figure, he felt it didn’t quite jibe with the messaging.

We wound up going back to the original authors of the paper only to discover that the way they expressed the technology’s energy efficiency was inaccurate. A decimal point too many places to the right and utilizing the wrong metric measurement made it seem pretty useless because the way it was written made it seem like it used one third of the energy that it was supposed to have produced. Fortunately, catching the error demonstrated that our client’s technology was much more viable than it would have appeared had the editorial mistake not been caught. But this was a White Paper that was being delivered as promotional material to prove the company’s concept!

And how embarrassing that the analysts who developed the piece didn’t realize the mistake, and it took several years and a member of the media to uncover it?

Of course there are other examples, one of which I’m told is Henry’s favorite. It almost sounds like a joke, but here goes: apparently there was a PR firm that didn’t do a very good job of editing their own press releases, as it seemed they provided one particular client pubic relations counsel.

The moral of these stories? Even in this fast-paced, real-time, supercharged environment in which we find ourselves, taking the extra five minutes, three seconds even, to edit what we say and how we say it, can make all the difference in the world – and make us all seem a lot smarter.

Oh Analysts, How I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways…

Reason #1,486 why I love working with industry analysts – they tell it like it is! What other third-party resource knows your client’s industry inside and out? They know who the competition is and what they are doing and they are NOT afraid to tell you the honest to goodness truth.As a strategic PR firm, we always recommend an industry analyst program as part of our ongoing PR efforts for most (if not all) of our clients. Industry analysts are the eyes and ears of many industries (from advertising/media to energy, and of course tech) and, unlike journalists these days, they LOVE a good background meeting. With shrinking newsrooms and continuous deadlines, most reporters aren’t interested in spending an hour (or a half hour for that matter) listening to your client babble on about themselves. But an analyst will! They are patient and engaged and most importantly, they always ask the right questions.

Just the other day on the phone with IDC, a tier-one industry analyst group that we pitched and coordinated a briefing with, the analyst and my client went on for more than an hour discussing the market and the future of the telecommunications industry. Suffice it to say, the analyst and my client are now “buddy-buddy” and I know she’ll be coming to us with more questions and requests for background info in the future.

But besides the feel-good stuff that analysts do by providing an ear to bend, they write reports (read by our clients’ customers), they talk to the press constantly, they speak at many large venues with key target audiences, they tweet, they blog, they publish books, they adopt puppies… I’m not entirely sure about the last one, but I wouldn’t be surprised!

The only thing that you must be aware of is that industry analyst programs do NOT produce instant results. Like most PR programs, you need to invest time and effort by following up with the analysts and keeping them up to speed on the latest news and product releases from your client. Like some media outlets, they also like to know about things in advance, which might mean letting them “see behind the curtain” to a new product or service that is not quite fully baked yet. This can be difficult (or very easy) depending on the client. But in the long run, these types of programs do pay off. So if you aren’t incorporating an industry analyst program into your public relations campaign, I hope this has, at least, helped you to consider it.

(Photo Credit:  Mike Arauz)

AATOTW

(Acronyms Are Taking Over The World)

Every so often, something will set off my Women’s soccer team (plug warning: the amazing NY Smoking Aces) to have an extensively long, usually hilarious, email chain. The last one was counted at more than 80 emails. There are 18 of us on the team, so I’m sure that doesn’t help. Especially when the reply all button is so easy to use. But I digress. Towards the end of the last massive email chain, one of the girls used FTW in a sentence. This perpetuated the emails further as apparently very few knew what that stood for. For those of you reading this that don’t either, it’s For The Win. This prompted another girl to email and ask us to decipher ILYVM&WYWH, which her mother had sent her in an email. The solution to this riddle as answered by another teammate was “I Love You Very Much & Wish You Were Here.” No clue how she figured that one out!

The point of all this, besides the hilarity of the responses between my teammates, is that I’ve noticed the use of acronyms has gone beyond email and text exchanges amongst friends and is being used more widely in business correspondence. In fact, that same day I received an email from a reporter filled with acronyms. It took me a few reads to completely understand what he was saying. A couple of months ago, I received an email response from an analyst informing me he was working on a report on LBS. After checking with my co-worker, I had to write back and ask what that meant! Location Based Services it turned out, like Foursquare he politely explained. We even use acronyms in the office to shorten client’s names – LWM, IAI, MBO, TLB etc.

Acronyms have been used for a long time, but it occurred to me after the email exchange with my soccer team how the usage of acronyms has become more common when physically speaking to others and in business. This made me question why acronyms have become so prevalent. Does it have to do with the wider use of Facebook and Twitter for branding purposes. Twitter does only allow 140 characters, making acronyms the best solution. Or, have we become lazy? Or, does it make us feel cool? A special, secret code that only the cool, smart kids can figure out and are aware of?

No matter the question, the answer is an interesting one to contemplate. What effect will this have on the English language? You hear/see in the news how Gen Y is less literate than older generations. Will acronyms contribute and perpetuate to our country's illiteracy rates? O,WWASTTIC&SLR? (Or, will we all start to talk in code and sound like robots?) As someone who deals with writing and reading on a daily basis as the main part of my job, and loves it, it’s very interesting to think about the consequences.

Just consider how many phrases and slang words have become a main part of our vocabulary. “Yea” instead of “yes.” “Rad,” “That’s Hot” (my personal favorite), “props,” “lame,” “gonna,” "sweet," “yeah right.” These have definitely changed our vocabulary and flow into business and even reporters writing (depending upon the publication). While change isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s still change.

The ultimate question then is, will acronyms have a big impact on our vocabulary? Or, will it just be a fad that fades out, much like the hairstyles of the 80’s? It will certainly be interesting to see. If we’re not careful, pretty soon we’ll have acronym dictionaries replacing Webster’s (there are a few that already exist online). Personally, while it made for a hilarious email exchange with my teammates, I hope the acronym fad doesn’t take over the PR or media world.

OAO (Over and Out)

(Photo Credit: Random Jess' Blog)

The Forbidden Dance - B2B & Social Media (Warning: This blog post has nothing to do with the Lambada!)

Earlier this month during Internet Week in NYC, our very own Henry Feintuch organized a PRSA-NY panel discussion on how to get B2B companies to embrace social media.

If you missed it (like I did), below are some snippets from the discussion which featured speakers such as Bloomberg Social Media Lead Ron Casalotti; Capgemini Assistant Director of External Communications Jonathan Blank; CB Richard Ellis Senior Director for Brand Management Ron Houghtaling; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson Senior Business Development and Market Technology Advisor Alison Rooney; MS&L VP of Digital and Social Media Doug Winfield; and SAP Americas Director of Online Marketing and Social Media Michael Brenner:





To view all of the videos on the panel discussion, search YouTube for "PRSA-NY: The Forbidden Dance? B2B and Social Media."

Footie? Soccer? No, It's A PR Opportunity!

PR is EVERYWHERE! Even in South Africa at the FIFA World Cup (that’s the football – soccer for us Americans- world championship held every four years). And this year’s cup is a potential PR extravaganza!

If you’ve been living under a rock, the United States side rallied to come back from a 2-0 deficit against Slovenia on June 17th, and appeared to have scored a third goal for the win in the last five minutes of the match. Mr. Coulibaly was the referee of the match and disallowed the potentially winning goal based on a mysterious off-sides call that has yet to be confirmed or the culprit identified.

So where’s the PR? Well, first, that most people reading this blog are aware of the situation means that basically, as several ESPN commentators put it, Mr. Coulibaly did more for soccer/football in the US in one match than ANYONE had accomplished in the last 100 years. Americans are now tuning into the World Cup in increased numbers, if nothing else, to lend their support to the U.S. side and cheer them on as they attempt to make the quarter final round (see the double-header on June 23). If this doesn’t demonstrate the power of a word of mouth campaign, I’m not sure what does. I hope Adidas, Puma, and Nike are paying close attention. The window’s closing on that news cycle, so you’d better get moving.

Now that’s not to say that there haven’t been some interesting attempts at viral marketing and other PR stunts at the Cup, despite rules that prevent any companies who have not paid for advertising to do any promotions. In fact, two women wearing short orange skirts trying to do some guerilla marketing were arrested as they were promoting a Dutch beer (much to the annoyance of Cup sponsor Budweiser). FIFA gets the difference; they just want to make sure they control the message for their sponsors.

Secondly, I’m afraid Mr. Coulibaly and FIFA are going to need a little crisis counseling. You can’t disallow a beautifully executed goal by one of the world’s leading economies who are considered an underdog in a potentially pivotal match and not have to answer a few questions from the media. While FIFA is currently protecting Mr. Coulibaly, and actions are expected to be taken to prevent him from being the primary referee in any future matches, he’s going to need some messaging help.

Now if we could just meet the guy who invented the vuvuzela...

(Photo credit: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)

Hedging Your Bets in PR

Standing in the infield with my big floppy hat, my feet caked with mud, and the tension spreading through the massive crowd of 150,000 people all rooting for the most exciting two minutes in sports, I couldn’t help thinking about work. Did I reach out to both the early morning and nighttime bookers at CNN? Did I hit the long shot – Today Show? Did I reach out to the sure thing – the marketing trades? I know it may seem odd to compare the 136th Kentucky Derby to PR but my experience last weekend made me realize the similarities.

Over the past month our team has been in hardcore pitching mode for a client that recently released a major branding report that took multiple man hours to complete and an assiduous marketing team to promote. Between the planning discussions, brainstorming, editing and finalizing, I would have bet $1 million that we were a sure thing for the morning, afternoon and late evening news. I even dreamt about Katie Couric reporting that, “Google was named the top brand of the year…” and that my client’s name was on the teaser at the bottom of the TV, “Next up: Brand Consulting Firm Releases Top 100 Global Brands…” We were a sure thing!

But even in PR you can’t always bet on the sure thing -- especially when a little company called Goldman Sachs appears before the Senate Investigations subcommittee or when a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ruins a lot of people’s weeks… Both breaking news stories pushed our news aside but we continued to push through it and not give up in the 13th hour.

This same principle applies in horse racing – a horse with opening odds of 12-1 (Super Saver) could outrun the 3-1 favorite (Looking at Lucky) when the clouds roll in and the track goes from “fast” to “sloppy.” You never know what could happen out there so you trust your gut and keep on riding.

So lesson learned: hedge your bets. In PR, this could mean that you’re willing to comment on late breaking news that might indirectly tie to your company; or it could mean coming up with a vertical strategy by reaching out to publications that certain breaking news is less relevant to. But always remember to not give up - be prepared to keep riding the news cycle because you never know who might come out on top. Giddy up!

Remembering Carol Friend

May 2, 2010

Mr. Peter Walker

Chairman

PIELLE Consulting Ltd.

Museum House

London WC1A PL

United Kingdom

Dear Peter:

I hope this note finds you well and rested after Thursday's memorial service for our friend and partner, Carol Friend. Given our extra long layover in Paris due to the Icelandic volcano, it was impossible to sneak out of the U.S. again for Carol's memorial service.

But I wanted to send this note to you, and perhaps ask for you to share it with her mum, Ida, and family, so that I can express my feelings and respect for someone I considered an extraordinary human being, professional and friend.

I've only come to know Carol well since the early 2000s (my loss) through involvement in ECP Global. We quickly became close colleagues, allies and collaborators on a host of business issues. Her counsel was always wise, her wry humor omniprescent and her pragmatic approach to solving problems and getting to the finish line a strong comfort. I treasure the time we worked together on Octal, emoze and other common clients.

Carol was both a deep individual/thinker as well as a humane person. She volunteered her time and energy and always operated with a strong ethical compass. I learned to trust her and treasure her advice.

I personally looked forward to our shopping expeditions in many world capitals and the joy she found when we went to the Woodbury Commons outlet mall in New York together after she bounced back from a round of surgery. She took particular glee in finding some Anne Fontaine blouses at outrageously low American prices.

As much a sense of loss that I feel here, I can only imagine the one you feel after working, sweating and laughing together with Carol as your business partner for more than 30 years. My thoughts and prayers continue for you, your staff and your clients, to Ida Friend and the rest of the family.

Despite our sadness, I hope that you all take solace in the fact that the public relations industry on both sides of the Atlantic, is a better institution due to Carol Friend. We will miss her, remember her and cherish our times together.

Sincerely,

Henry Feintuch

President

Feintuch Communications &

Director, ECP Global Communication

JumpStarting a Second Business

Last year, at the height of the recession while jobs were being shed and the PR industry was contracting, we launched Feintuch Communications.

Many friends and colleagues questioned our timing; others offered their congratulations for our bold timing and going against the tide. The truth is it was both a scary period while at the same time liberating, exciting and empowering. Imagine -- the chance to build a new, ethically run business focused on the needs of our clients with little corporate baggage getting in the way.

Despite the worst recession in generations and a healthy share of unplanned start-up business challenges, our fledgling firm has grown. We added clients, many of whom expanded their programs with us; launched a healthcare and life sciences practice; expanded our corporate identity, marketing services and digital media offerings; and developed a joint venture investor relations practice.

That kept us busy through TODAY when we launched our sister company -- JumpStart Global Advisors (http://www.jumpstartglobal.com/). This newest venture had a slightly longer gestation period than the six weeks it took to conceive of and launch Feintuch Communications.

The back story: About eight years ago, I was staffing a Supercomm trade show booth in Atlanta for Celvibe, a now defunct Israeli wireless infrastructure company. A young attorney approached me, and believing that I was part of the Celvibe management team, began to pitch me on establishing a U.S. base of operations for "our" company.


Scott Gordon explained that his company, Gordon Global Associates (http://www.gordonglobal.com/), based in Lynbrook, N.Y., actively supported "international companies" seeking to establish a footprint in North America. His services ranged from establishment of the business, to legal, accounting, finance and back office support. I asked him about the obviously missing marketing component before I explained to Scott that I was a fellow New Yorker and a partner in a public relations firm.

We met up in New York and developed a friendship and informal referral network. Prospects liked the concept but its casual nature was a difficult sell. And my former agency business colleagues didn't understand how a venture of this sort would help our firm.

Last year, Scott and Gordon Global helped launch Feintuch Communications with a modified set of services that the company provided to overseas entities. It worked like a charm. So we restarted collaboration talks and decided that if we were to marry our businesses, we needed to provide additional critical services including recruiting/staffing solutions to help overseas companies to internationalize here.

Enter Don Zinn.

Don, another of my former clients and a friend, is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30years of sales, management and hiring experience. He has built and run many of his own high tech businesses and is now an executive vice president at Starpoint Solutions (http://www.starpointsolutions.com/), a leading solutions, staffing and executive search firm headquartered in New York City. Scott and I approached Don with our business concept; Don signed right on and we jumped in to begin business planning.

During the second half of 2009, and through 2010, we continued to meet to decide how our organization would work, what it would be called, how we would render services and how we would promote it. We developed our corporate identity, slowly built our Web site, began calling on prospects and today issued our launch press release (www.jumpstartglobal.com/newsroom).

We've already enjoyed success in attracting world-class partners to the JumpStart Global Advisors umbrella (announcements to follow) and have now been invited by IE Singapore to host a "Doing Business in the U.S." seminar
(www.iesingapore.eventshub.sg/Default.aspx?CalID=1&EventID=135) in Singapore starting May 25.

So 16 months into being an entrepreneur, the score is two companies and growing. The only scary part of it now is what happens when the economy improves?