• Why businesses should use it:

1. Network- connect with other professionals in the field, potential clients/customers, as well as journalists and others who are employed by media outlets.

2. Connect- send messages to people whom you can’t seem to find email addresses or phone numbers for.

3. Share- easily share blog posts, tweets and Facebook updates you’re producing.

4. Listen- see what your audiences are saying and how you need to improve upon your services.

Image Credit: "Linkedin Chocolates" by Nan Palmero

5. Identify- discover who’s deemed as influential in the field, and monitor what they’re doing and saying. They might take you under their wings and serve as your mentors.

6. Market- advertise your products and services through the company page feature.

7. Receive- ask for recommendations from colleagues, clients and customers.

8. Learn- gain a greater knowledge of the industry you’re in through the articles and blog posts your connections post.

9. Promote- gain publicity for your company’s events through LinkedIn Events.

10. Discuss- talk about industry trends and news with like-minded professionals through joining groups.

11. Gather- collect information by conducting polls and surveys.

• How businesses can make the most of it:

1. Completely fill out your profile, including every skill and experience you have underneath your belt, as well as how people can get in touch with you. If potential customers are impressed by your products and services, but can’t contact you, there’s no point in having a profile in the first place.

2. Engage in discussion and don’t be afraid to ask questions. This will help to establish yourself as an expert in the field. What you put into it is what you’ll get out.

3. Link your WordPress, Twitter and Facebook accounts to your LinkedIn profile.

4. Connect with colleagues and other industry professionals. This will build your credibility and more people will view your profile.

5. Make sure that portions of your profile aren’t blocked or invisible to people besides yourself.

6. Download the app for your smart phone or iPhone so you can access LinkedIn on the go.

If that wasn’t enough to convince you, here’s a list of just a few of the many benefits your company will receive as a result of using Storify:

• Your company can better target content that pertains to its products, services and audience.
• Storify stories are more attractive to readers because they feature content from real people and include multimedia elements instead of large blocks of text.
• Your company can advertise its brand, products and services in a new way, creating a mixture of traditional and new technology advertising techniques.
• Your audience will be able to weed through the masses of information they’re viewing on a daily basis and find their ways to what they want to see: your company.
• If the information your company shares is something your audience is looking for, you may be credited as an important, reliable source.
• Your company will be able to support your articles with real time social media dialogue to reinforce your topics’ importance and relevance.
• Your business can share industry-related developments and happenings that might be of interest to consumers and/or employees in an engaging manner.
• Your company can make connections through notifying those whose content you use to create your Storify stories.

Here’s a local example of a Storify story we created for last year’s annual Hair for Hope event that one of our clients, Michael Rose Hair Designs, hosts:

[View the story "Michael Rose Hair Designs' Hair for Hope 2011" on Storify]
 

Not sure how to get started? Visit Storify’s website to sign up for an account. If you need assistance, this tutorial can walk you through how to begin creating stories using Storify.

• To show what consumers are saying about your company and prove to customers that you really do listen to their feedback

Say you own a car manufacturing company that produced a batch of cars with faulty headlights. You can search for the complaints consumers are posting to social media sites and pull them into a Storify story. Next, you can pull the press release your communications department crafted as a result of the crisis and enter any news stories that cover what your company is doing to fix the problem. Since Storify allows users to enter their own text, you can show customers that their complaints are being heard and your company is working hard toward achieving a solution.

Image Credit: Burt Herman and Xavier Damman (founders of Storify) by The Next Web

On the other hand, you could also gather rave reviews of a new product that your company just launched or positive comments about the services your business offers.

Either way, it’s likely that customers will no longer feel like their complaints are floating around in the blogosphere, waiting to be read. They’ll feel important and see that their voices matter.

By doing this, you could be a step ahead of your competitors, and other businesses may watch what you do next because they know your audience engagement skills are top-notch.

• Cover an event

The same goes for businesses as well as public relations professionals—sometimes live blogging or tweeting isn’t an option, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t report what took place. Also, if your consumers missed an event your company hosted, creating a Storify story about it will make them feel like they’re in the loop again and maybe even provide motivation for them to attend your next gathering.

• Launch a product

Storify can be used as a marketing tool. You can gather product photos, customer reviews and news of product developments into one place. This Storify story can be used to train sales representatives and provide consumers with another outlet through which they can leave comments and receive customer support.

• Share information quickly and easily

Sure, websites like WordPress and Blogger have made it easy for their users to post material and interact with other bloggers. But with Storify, there’s no need to copy/paste, download/upload material. Since Storify is Internet-based, everything you need is readily accessible. You can embed your Storify creations into WordPress, Posterous and Tumblr posts, as well as share them through Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

• Curate content from people and companies that your business doesn’t interact with on social media sites

Social media content that you utilize to create a Storify story doesn’t have to be written by who your company follows on Twitter or is friends with on Facebook. Storify is connected with several social media outlets and users have the capability to embed links to other sites, so the possibilities are endless. This means that you can see posts from any number of people, all of which can be sorted through by means of a hashtag or search term.

• Show that your business isn’t alone

Storify’s powerful search tool connects your business with companies that have similar missions, policies and products. If you’re looking for support to back up a recent idea or development your company has produced, create a Storify story featuring comparable opinions. Other businesses might see that your company is smarter than they thought.

Has your company used Storify? What results did you receive?

Since this tool has become a point of discussion among social media gurus and businesses alike, over the next few weeks we’ll discuss what Storify means for public relations professionals as well as why businesses should use it and the benefits they will receive if it’s a part of their regular social media use.

Here are a few implications for the world of public relations:

• It helps create buzz

Storify is another means of gaining publicity for your clients’ ideas and events. Storify stories are more likely to catch your audience’s eyes because of the many elements that go into creating them, not to mention that you can share them with ease.

• It’s easier than live blogging or tweeting about an event

You can capture the details of an event after the fact. This means you can enjoy what’s going on around you instead of focusing on capturing your surroundings in 140 characters. If you do still choose to live blog or tweet, you can later create a Storify featuring what you posted as well as pull in what others published about the same event or topic in case you missed anything.

• Storytelling is a must

Public relations professionals and journalists are in the storytelling business. According to “10 ways journalists can use Storify” by Zombie Journalism, journalists have already begun looking at the ways they can use Storify in their industry, so why shouldn’t public relations professionals or business owners handling their own PR efforts do the same? “Number 10’s social media story” by Katie Moffat explains that “you can carefully craft exactly the story you want your audience to see, with no messy bits that haven’t been approved.” Tracking a trending topic or reporting a story using Storify is more attractive to most audiences than long bodies of text. You control what your readers see and using Storify helps make it easier to see positive publicity and feedback you’re receiving as a result of your hard work.

If you’re a public relations professional, do you plan to implement Storify as a part of your clients’ social media plans? What’re some other reasons why public relations professionals should use Storify?

A recent example of lost authenticity was the “outing” incident of a PR person, which reminds us just how distasteful it is to manipulate the facts to fit an agenda. A PR person wrote an online review for a restaurant that just happened to hire his PR firm. After being called out, he claimed his review was his personal opinion rather than his professional one, but his failure to provide the audience with the necessary information up front caused some turmoil.

Ethical practice of PR can establish your credibility as a business owner, attract potential clients and build a strong reputation. Remember what public relations is all about: the goal is to establish a relationship with your audience, and making the wrong move can harm that relationship.

As a business owner who handles your own public relations, you likely post about news, events, and all things related to your business on different media outlets to spread the word. If it’s not your company’s blog you are writing on, remember these rules when writing about your business:

• Use full disclosure

Make sure you identify your profession and intent. People need to make their own decision regarding the content of the comment, and it is only fair that they do so when they know who the writer is, and if  there are any motives behind the comment.

• Be honest

Avoid asking relatives and friends to post positive reviews for your business, if they are not clients or are unfamiliar with your services. We recently discussed this in another blog post. Potential customers appreciate reading positive and negative reviews who are written by people just like them, because it gives them a better understanding of the business. Asking anyone you know to praise your business just to increase positive comments is dishonest and misleading.

• Use social media wisely

Twitter, Facebook, and blogs are there to help you build and maintain credibility. Distinguish between your professional and personal account, and don’t repost information from one to the other, making it to look like someone else thought it was interesting. Like we said in this post, when a third party retweets or comments on your tweet or post, your audience gets an objective thought, rather than an intentional marketing effort.

Remember: you don’t have control over what others say about you, but you do have control over what you say and do. You can make or break your reputation. Stay true to your audience and it might just do the same.

That is a question we get asked every so often.

I simply don’t subscribe to the belief that all knowledge should be held close to the vest. After all, if everyone did that, how would any of us be good at what we do today?

Our public relations blog is filled with a variety of information. Sometimes we brag on ourselves. Other times, we share some do-it-yourself tips and tricks of the trade. We like to spotlight our interns occasionally. Part of the reason we do all of this is that we are doing what we pound into the minds of our clients daily- developing fresh, new, relevant content.

When we provide step-by-step instructions on how you can make improvements to your website that will help your search rankings and get you more business, or how you can be your own PR pro, we know not everyone will take heed.

We’ve learned that by providing helpful information, people who read it tend to put themselves into one of three categories:

I suggest that you do the same on your website’s blog. I think you’ll find that people will categorize themselves. Some people will take your valuable information and run with it, but some will also get the notion that you know what you’re talking about and they’ll entrust their business to you.

Photo courtesy of WendyPops

Dr. Jurbala is a pretty brilliant guy. He invented a device called the Trigger Tome that corrects in the office what once could only be fixed with surgery.

Prior to this, we didn’t even know what trigger finger was. But now that we do, it’s nice to know that if we or anyone we know ever is diagnosed with it, there’s an expert right here in Central Florida who can fix it in an office visit and prevent the need for surgery.

For more information, please visit: www.triggerfingerdoctor.com.

That is one reason why we recently launched a very simple blog called PerfectlyPR. It’s not flashy or fancy. But it enables us to do something important for our clients- it houses press releases and articles we write, and enables us to spread the word via social media, regardless of whether other media outlets pick it up.

Here’s a real-world example: we recently helped a new business get the word out about opening in a large city. We didn’t have a great deal of luck getting the news into major newspapers in the area. But by posting the business’s release on PerfectlyPR, it gave us an opportunity to post information on Twitter and Facebook, complete with a link to the entire press release. It gave us an opportunity to tell our client’s story our way. And it’s easy for us to show the client how many people responded to the tweet and Facebook post and retweeted/shared it. All of this helps show ROI.

Our hope is that this will generate great results for a variety of clients. We intend to use this for most clients at least for the near future, just to see what shakes out.

The Basics

Paid media is a message that the company pays to be delivered to the customer in the form of advertising, sponsorships, pay per click ads and display ads. Companies favor this type of media because it can be implemented on-demand, while still having some degree of control.

Earned media is a message passed between consumers as a result of an experience with a brand. It is the result of public relations efforts to gain coverage in publications. Earned media often refers specifically to publicity gained through editorial influence, whereas social media is gained through grassroots actions on the Web. Editorial media can include newspaper, television, radio, letters to the editor and even editorials.

No advertising dollars are spent with this type of media, which is why it is regarded as the most credible channel. Forms of earned media are word of mouth, buzz and viral content. Companies have little to no control with this type of media.

In a recent article posted by the Council of Public Relations Firms, they listed the top trends for 2012 and number five was earned versus paid media (http://prfirms.org/inside-pr/top-trends-for-2012). However, they point out that it may be difficult for customers to tell the difference between paid media and earned media.  For instance, when a company launches a social media campaign, they typically hit all avenues – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – to get their message out. Now companies are being told it is not enough to just launch a campaign, they need to advertise on the social media platforms as well.

As an SEO writer, I don’t care how you spin it. Earned media is far more credible to customers than paid media ever will be. There- I said it. Everyone has an opinion and we, as PR professionals, have a different approach to this topic in our office.

Take the newspaper for instance, when you look at it, whether in print or online, do you spend your time reading the articles or looking at the ads? Sure, your business can spend a lot of money on ads that say whatever you want about your business, but do the readers care? Not often. With earned media, if a reporter writes about your business, it frequently works in your favor because articles are seen as objective. You have no control over what the reporter says and that’s exactly how earned media is manifested.

Let’s make this simple: customer opinion can’t be bought. Customers trust each other more than any other source when making a buying decision and only earned media has that power.

Yes, social media is giving earned media a boost by allowing companies to connect with brand users, but the companies need to learn how to respond to the good and the bad and think of ways to stimulate organic marketing efforts.

While earned media is a powerful tool for companies, it is not entirely free. Companies still must focus their efforts on creating high-quality products and services that are able to speak for themselves.  There is some risk in possibly losing control of your message or having it unexpectedly change direction, but you take the same risk when dealing with paid media.

By understanding the importance of earned media, companies can create deeper, long-term relationships with customers that are engaged advocates of their organization.

Something happened recently to a friend of mine in Lakeland and she attempted to get the situation corrected by working directly with the business owner. After five days and an apparent lack of cooperation from the business owner to right the wrong, she weighed her options. Small claims court, where there was a 50-50 chance of winning. Or social media, where she felt she could at least warn others so they could avoid being a victim of an apparent scam. This is what she wrote:

Friends in Lakeland, please be careful if you ever do business with [COMPANY X]. The owner says that he sells Rolex watches, but BEWARE. All of the Rolex links on his website are no good and there is no documentation other than he has a Certified Rolex-trained technician that can help with service and repairs. He advertises all over town on billboards, bus benches and else where that he sells Rolex watches. We thought he would be legit, but we were mistaken and TAKEN by him. We purchased an upgraded Rolex face for my watch and it started to look dirty so I took it to a Rolex dealer to have it cleaned. Well, it’s not dirty, the paint is coming off. Paint????…You got it, he sold us an aftermarket face and it’s FAKE! I purchased it from [COMPANY X] for almost $700 and it’s FAKE!!! But the real kick in the teeth is that he is refusing to make good on it. Never mind he has my real Rolex face that he replaced the fake with. No wonder he can afford to advertise all over town, he’s ripping people off. My only legal recourse is to file in small claims court. The filing fees are $175 and an additional $40 to have him served. I find it hard to believe that he can get away with doing this to consumers. I’m really not extravagant, this was a 20th anniversary gift from my husband….a special purchase that had a lot of meaning and the owner knew it. Should have known better when he refused to give us the Rolex paperwork saying that he would file everything for us. His wife would fill in the serial number and do the paperwork as a courtesy to us for being his customers. What a scam artist. I wonder if he’s just started doing this recently or if he’s been scamming unsuspecting customers for awhile?

One factor worth mentioning is that she didn’t go straight to social media in a fit of anger. She tried to get the problem corrected. I would recommend that everyone put themselves through a bit of a cooling off period before posting something that potentially could damage a business. She is a small business owner herself, and didn’t want to ruin a business’s reputation. She just wanted to not be taken advantage of.

I’m using this as a public relations teaching moment for businesses. In my opinion, this is what a business that finds itself in this situation should do:

- Take action immediately when a customer comes to you with a complaint. Customers in this situation likely are angry and feel taken advantage of. You need to listen to them and allow them to vent. They need to feel as though their concerns have been heard and that you care about correcting the problem.

- If you’ve done something wrong, say so. Apologize. Make it right. In the situation above, perhaps it’s possible that this jeweler believed he had purchased authentic Rolex parts and unknowingly scammed the customer. If that was the case, voicing that possibility and vowing to investigate it might have helped calm the situation.

- If you find that a disgruntled customer has taken to social media instead of allowing you an opportunity to rectify the situation, reach out. Invite the customer to come in so you can try to correct the problem.

I’m a firm believer that just as you want to read positive comments about your business in social media, you NEED to read the (hopefully) occasional negative comment. If some aspect of your business is not as good as it should be, don’t you want to know that? Don’t you want an opportunity to address it and make it right?

I keep a note on my computer so I will read it often. It reads, “Be transparent. Be authentic. Be humble.”

Six words can pack a great deal of meaning. If you will be transparent, authentic and humble in your business dealings, I’m convinced you will achieve success.

Photo Credit: Gipiosio

Taylor Flumerfelt and I connected through the student chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association at Southeastern University, where she is a junior. Once Taylor discovered that she would graduate a year earlier than anticipated, she called on me for help at the end of her sophomore year.

Taylor says she knew this was the right public relations firm for her because of our “level of skill and professionalism.” Color us flattered!

“I know this will be an enriching experience in building my PR skill set and widening the breadth of my knowledge of PR,” she says.

Taylor is majoring in journalism/public relations and minoring in psychology. She has gained experience in event planning through Southeastern University’s Student Body Leadership Council and working with local companies such as Kreative Kartel. Taylor is the president of the student chapter of FPRA at Southeastern University and a member of the Dick Pope/Polk County chapter of FPRA.

The job market in the PR field has become increasingly competitive and PR firms are looking for graduates who don’t need additional training to fulfill the responsibilities of the jobs they’re interviewing for. That’s why internships are so important—they complement the material students learn in the classroom and prepare them for what they will face after graduation.

We know Taylor well enough to know she loves to learn, and she’s excited about the experiences she’ll have during her time with us.

Upon graduating from Southeastern University’s Honors Program in May 2013, Taylor plans to earn a Master of Science in Public Relations and find an event planning job.

We’re excited to help Taylor make the most of her college education and prepare her for the next stage of her life. We’re also excited that she joins two other interns who elected to stay with us for another semester: Melissa Rodriguez and Karen Snir.

The slogan Keep Calm and Carry On was a British public announcement designed to boost the public’s morale in case of a massive invasion during  World War II. The poster was never used and most copies were destroyed. But in 2000, a British book store owner found a copy of the poster and almost immediately, a trend was born.

It may not  be the first public announcement that was adapted and became a cultural icon, but it is one that has managed to inspire numerous slogans and designs and capture our imagination. Some memorable off-shoots include:

• Now Panic and Freak Out
• Panic Dumbass and Behave Like Headless Chickens
• Keep Calm Harry is Still Single
• Keep Calm and Carry On Shopping
• Keep Calm Nobody Else Knows What They’re Doing Either

Why do we like it so much? It’s simple, elegant, and communicates a timeless message. In the age where businesses have 140 characters to express themselves, it’s obvious we like to keep things short and simple. This slogan appeals to us today because we can all relate to those words; who doesn’t need to keep calm during their hectic life and just carry on? So how does the poster stay relevant today? Here’s what  we can learn from the successful slogan:

Keep the message simple

If you’re trying  to connect  with your audience, remember to  keep  your message simple and sincere. The simpler it is, the more people can relate to it. Also keep in mind that you have to catch people’s attention. Some of the best slogans of all times use a declarative statement that can be applied beyond the product  or company and often become a mantra.

Know your audience

The Ministry of Information designed two other posters that were used during  the war. They all had the same simple design of the crown and the all-caps writing on a solid color background. King George’s crown appeared on the upper part of the poster, which was a clever way of saying: “This message is brought to  you by the King.” The Ministry of Information knew that the British public would associate the message with the King by placing a graphic of the crown.

Use continuity to keep your audience’s attention

All three posters used the same style to create a cohesive brand. The font was consistent  throughout the three posters and the only  thing that  was changed was the message and the color of the background. All posters had a solid color background- blue, green and red. These primary colors helped the audience recognize the posters easily and understand the newly developed brand of public announcements.

So there you have it. Follow these guidelines to strengthen your brand identity and keep it relevant. And remember, no matter what  you do, just keep calm.

I have a friend who calls it “the curse of knowledge.” Sometimes we’re too close to the work to be able to write about it and explain it objectively or in layman’s terms. This is a common problem among companies looking to launch their first website, or to update a site that’s been around for a while.

That’s where a Web content writer comes in handy. A Web content writer knows how to cut through the clutter and write copy that gets to the heart of your business and the services and products it provides. However, a professional writer is not a miracle worker or a mind reader. There are some things you need to know prior to seeking a professional writer’s services, and some things you should do on your end to ensure you get results you’re happy with.

Why Look Outside Your Company?
You might think hiring someone from the outside isn’t a good idea because they don’t know anything about your company. But that is precisely the direction you should turn for this important task. A writer who’s experienced in writing Web content but inexperienced about your company will ask the questions that a potential customer who’s considering whether to do business with you might ask.

People in a company who try to generate their own content often are too close to the subject; too well-versed on the jargon. They have the potential to write over the readers’ heads.

Consider SEO
The whole purpose of having a website is to be found online by those who are searching for your products and services, so it’s a wise idea to select a Web content writer who understands search engine optimization. A good SEO writer can use your keywords fluidly on your site so the content sounds natural and not like it’s keyword-stuffed.

Make Yourself Available
The key to writing compelling content is getting accurate information from the subject matter expert. That means you need to carve out some time for a phone interview with the writer. Communicate the elements of your business that are important to you; that you want to see reflected on your website.

Taking the time to educate the writer on the subject matter means that you increase your chances of getting usable content the first time around.

Put On Your Editing Hat
Once your writer has drafted your content, you need to take time to read through it thoroughly. Here is where being the subject matter expert becomes most useful. Is all of the information accurate? Are there any areas where information is lacking and needs to be beefed up? Make note of any changes that should be made and communicate that with your writer.

If you are in need of a professional content writer who understands SEO, call us. We can help.

Photo Credit: J. Paxon Reyes

The Worst Tactics

Netflix- This summer, movie enthusiasts everywhere cried in despair when Netflix raised their prices 60 percent without warning. In addition to raising prices, they also split their online streaming and by-mail DVD packages requiring users to pay for them separately. Customers were outraged and nearly 800,000 cancelled their Netflix subscriptions all together.

Netflix also wanted to redub their DVD services as Qwikster and split those into two sections of the company. But that idea crashed and burned before they could ever start it, thanks to the already existing Twitter account @Qwikster.  The Twitter account’s main photo of a marijuana-smoking Elmo clearly showed how little research Netflix put into Qwikster before announcing it to the public.

Ultimately, Netflix abandoned the split idea, but kept the price hike. CEO Reed Hastings apologized for the confusion saying, “I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.”

Kenneth Cole- At the height of the Cairo riots, designer Kenneth Cole found a way to promote his spring collection. On Feb. 3, Cole took to Twitter and sent “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo — KC.” Clearly perceived as mocking the revolution, Cole apologized, saying his tweet was “poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate. ”

Cole’s apology was too little, too late as a parody Twitter account sprung up and gained 2,500 followers in just two hours. Parody tweets included sensitive subject material to sell Kenneth Cole clothing using the hashtag #KennethColeTweets.

Facebook- Yes, Facebook has committed one of the worst PR blunders in 2011. The popular, all-mighty Facebook apparently does have fears and being overshadowed by Google is probably at least three of them.

In May, blogger and online privacy expert Chris Soghoian received a slew of emails from John Mercurio of the notable public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, prompting him to investigate Google’s rumored violation of user privacy. Mercurio prompted the topic and even offered to help Soghoian write the article and spread it to various media outlets.

As any good journalist would be, Soghoian was skeptical and inquired which of Mercurio clients was spreading this “whisper campaign” against Google. Turns out it was none other than social media giant Facebook, who has definitely gained their fair share of privacy complaints from users.

Facebook hired Burson- Marsteller to spread rumors of Google’s use (or misuse) of users’ private information to discredit Google’s new Social Circle feature in Gmail. A spokesman for Facebook admitted to hiring the PR firm, citing two reasons for attacking Google- the most notable being “Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service.”

It’s doubtful that anyone would overshadow Facebook with more than 800 million users, but they are trying to be sure they stay on top of the social media world.

The Best Tactics

Southwest Airlines- In April, Southwest flight 812 had their cabin remodeled midflight to include a skylight—with no glass. The unexpected tear in the fuselage caused the plane to lose pressure and forced an emergency landing. Blogger Shawna Malvini Redden whipped out her phone, captured the scene and shared it with the world.

Any other airline might have seen that as the worst possible blow to their brand, but Southwest Airlines instead proactively grounded 81 planes for complete inspection- without being told to do so to by the Federal Aviation Administration- to ensure the incident would not repeat itself on another flight.

The company demonstrated that transparency is the best policy when dealing with customers. By the end of their inspections, they found several other planes that required repairs. By this time, media outlets had already shifted their attention to the plane manufacturer and not Southwest.

The proof of a job well done is in the Google search. Many passengers praised Southwest and the pilots for handling the incident extremely well and getting them to their destinations safely.

Kentucky Fried Chicken- KFC has realized in the 21^st century that attention spans are short, technology is prevalent and many kids still need financial help getting into college. In 2010, KFC combined all of these things and asked high school students across the country to dump stuffy scholarship essays and instead send them a tweet to win a $20,000 scholarship.

The winning tweet from California high school senior Amanda Russell cleverly said, “#KFCScholar Hey Colonel! Your scholarship’s the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash!”

This year the Colonel is thinking even more creatively about scholarship entries. KFC is urging high school seniors to tweet a photo showing “why they exemplify Colonel Sanders’ commitment to education and enriching their communities, and why they are deserving of a college scholarship.”

University of Iowa Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Jodi Schafer told USA Today that application essays are “becoming unoriginal” and including social media in the application process will “help bring back some of that creativity.”

Kate Spade- Mashable recently praised Kate Spade for properly using social media to increase the social value of their brand. Their engaging use of multiple social networking sites helped them create a persona their target audience can aspire to be, known as the Kate Spade Girl. Their posts on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter are all written how a normal person would engage online—a real person with favorite things and hopes and dreams to share and errands to do.

“The Kate Spade girl aspires to lead an interesting life — to engage in the arts and literature and travel and adventure,” Craig Leavitt, CEO of Kate Spade told Mashable. “We talk about those things on social media because that’s who she is, and she wants to hear about what her peers are doing. It feels very, very natural for us.”

Their tactics have succeeded. Their online followers have grown by the thousands. Their posts are well received with numerous likes, retweets and reblogs. Each post is an eloquent reminder of how to be a lady. Their online sales have skyrocketed and overall sales have grown nearly 75 percent. Kate Spade has truly revived their brand by updating the way they communicate with their admirers.

There you have it folks, our top 6 memorable PR moves from 2011. Honorable mentions include PR moves from Charlie Sheen and Two and a Half Men, Alec Baldwin Vs. American Airlines, and Bank of America announcing a $5 fee.

What would you have included in this list?

It’s the touching of lips in an expression of affection, greeting or reverence.  Cultures around the world use a kiss as a form of greeting, a form of expressing gratitude, peace and love.

So it is understandable why United Colors of Benetton chose the act of kissing as the focal point of its new UNHATE campaign aimed at “contrasting the culture of hatred and promoting closeness between peoples, faiths, cultures, and the peaceful understanding of each other’s motivations.”

Alessandro Benetton, executive deputy chairman of the Benetton Group, said in an interview with the Economic Times, “a kiss is a statement of tolerating the differences in another. We expect the true message to be conveyed through our campaign.”

Kissing isn’t the first theme I would think of for a tolerance campaign, but whatever.

The idea for their print ads stemmed from the now iconic photo of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German President Erich Honecker kissing as a sign of socialist solidarity- which, by the way, wasn’t considered a job perk by all- on the 30^th anniversary of East Germany’s formation.

However, the Photoshopped images of prominent world leaders kissing each other were not as well received as Benetton creative agency Fabrica might have hoped.

Print ads posted around the world showed various world leaders kissing each other with simple, white copy reading: “United Colors of Benetton supports the Unhate Foundation.”  The most controversial of the ads showed Pope Benedict XVI lip-locked with prominent Muslim leader Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb.

The Vatican protested and demanded Benetton remove the ads, claiming these ads “violate elementary rules of respect for people in order to attract attention through provocation.”

Images of the Pope were removed the day after they were unveiled.

The White House issued a statement declaring the use of the president’s image for commercial gain has always been frowned upon, but they have not considered legal action or demanded Benetton remove all images of President Barack Obama smooching

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

“The label is geared not to a specific target but to a collective one: well-heeled shoppers whom Benetton considers intellectually sophisticated enough to stop assailing them with “buy now”-type advertisements,” according to Benetton’s website.

If this were completely true, why have Benetton’s sales only risen 2 percent in the past 10 years? In the United States alone, Benetton sales dropped from 12 percent in 2000 to 4 percent at the end of 2010.

Could their lack of sales have something to do with their advertising campaigns?

United Colors of Benetton has a history of compiling controversial and provocative advertising campaigns. Their slow sales could be a major factor in their decision to launch yet another shock advertising campaign. We get it. These campaigns get the brand talked about. But audiences quickly rejected the images and deemed Benetton’s current campaign as “offensive” and took their opinions straight to Facebook.

If Benetton is taking an “any publicity is good publicity” approach to selling its products, research doesn’t agree entirely with that approach.

Researchers have found that shock advertising does in fact make campaigns more memorable and prompts consumers to take action, but has Benetton over-used their shock value?

The Brand Channel asked its readers if shock really sells a brand and the general consensus was that it might start talk, but it has nothing to do with selling sweaters.

We would love to hear your opinion on this campaign.

Other Links to Check Out

View the full set of photos here.
Take a look at other things the UNHATE foundation is doing.
Put your own photo on the Kiss Wall.
Watch the short UNHATE film.

We’re sharing them with you as we prepare for 2012, in hope that you’ll leave them behind when you welcome the new year- and avoid being on the receiving end of our Evil Eye Lasers of Death, lest we hear you utter any of these while in our presence.

So from us- Lanette, Lorrie, Karen and Melissa- to you, we present our three most hated public relations approaches:

1. The Best Kept Secret
If your business is the best kept secret, we predict you likely won’t be in business for long. The former president of a local university once called his school a best-kept secret. We once saw a restaurant that had that slogan on their marquis. A. RESTAURANT.

Guess what? Today that restaurant is out of business.

If you feel like this slogan is a good one, please call us. We want to help you. And we promise not to beat you senseless.

2. We Have a Combined __ Years Experience
We find this heinous public relations approach used frequently by law firms. And we positively shuddered when we saw it used on Ragan’s PR Daily recently in reference to layoffs at the Denver post: “The Denver Post, for instance, accepted buyouts from 19 staffers, whose combined experience at the paper was 470 years.”

Why do companies think this approach demonstrates experience? It’s not like a “combined 117 years’ experience” means anything to cynics like us in this public relations agency.

I hear a statement like this and I think of the handful of weathered lawyers in the firm who likely have 25-30 years’ experience each, but then I think of the young punk fresh out of law school who’s been an attorney for five whole minutes. I don’t want that guy or girl. If I’m ready to kick butt in the courtroom, I’m just fine with the attorney who’s been at it only 30 years.

3. Building Buzz
OK, so we’re including this one begrudgingly. Although we here at Lorrie Walker Communications don’t recommend that our clients take part in stupid gimmicks that generate publicity but not sales, the truth is that we use this term. However, out of love and reverence for the great Peter Shankman- who hates this term- we feel it’s only fair for us to give up a lame saying of our own if we’re asking you to do the same.

Peter once said this in a webinar:

I think it would be really good if we could kill the word ‘buzz.’ Unless it’s generating revenue for your company, you’re wasting your time.

Fine, Peter. You win. And you have a point.

Public relations isn’t about stupid stunts, even though there are some crazy things people do that generate publicity and revenue.

At the end of the day, our clients want to make money. A large part of making that happen has to do with getting the word out about their business; making it known that they are the subject matter experts; demonstrating that they have a quality product by garnering earned media for the client.

If you want to accomplish any of these things for your business in 2012, call us. We’re here to help. Here’s wishing you a successful, fulfilling year ahead.

Scenario: a person owns a business. The business has a Twitter account. The business owner has a personal Twitter account. Someone posts a tweet via the business Twitter account and uses the #Lkld hashtag. Then the business owner retweets the tweet and keeps the #Lkld hashtag.

Even if I lived under a rock and had no access to TV and newspapers (but had Internet access, obviously) I could tell you who owns what businesses in Lakeland simply by following the #Lkld hashtag.

Day after day, I see business postings, followed immediately by the owners of those businesses retweeting the posts. And if the person owns more than one business, Katy bar the door! Be prepared to read several identical posts, all in a neat little row.

Business owners who are on Twitter are all after the same thing. We want to get the word out about our businesses. We want clients and customers. Recently, I wrote about writing reviews for businesses and how if we’re not careful, those reviews come across as disingenuous. I feel like these retweets also can fall into that same category if we’re not careful.

The original intent of the retweet was to re-broadcast information that users felt would be of interest to their followers. Mark Evans over at Twitterrati has an interesting take on the value of the retweet.

I think we need to look at the value of our retweets. Business owners, when someone else retweets something you post, all who see that RT see it as coming from an objective third party. That has value, in my mind. I liken it to an advertisement vs. a mention in a newspaper article. Given enough money, you can say whatever you want to say about your business in an advertisement. But people are savvy and often won’t even read an ad. If you can get a reporter to write a story that says those same things about you, readers buy into that. Why? It’s seen as more objective.

So what’s the solution? As a business owner, of course you want your business to succeed and you absolutely should use every tool in your marketing/PR/publicity tool kit to help make that happen- particularly if the tool is free. And believe it or not, I’m not saying you should not RT the tweets posted by your business. But why not give those retweets some legs? If your business tweet uses the #lkld hashtag, why not change it to a different area when you RT it? That way, you help ensure that new eyes will read it, which is your goal in the first place, isn’t it?

If you don’t change your approach, here’s one thing that you’ll never accomplish- building “buzz” for your business (My apologies to Peter Shankman, whom I adore, and I know he despises that term)

These are just my thoughts on the topic. I’m sure there are those who disagree with me. I would love to hear your feedback on this, whether or not it aligns with my opinion.

I like customer reviews. When I’m searching for a product or service and can find where someone has reviewed the company, I take notice. But recently, I noticed that my hair salon was the victim of a disgruntled client who recruited three additional people to write unfavorable reviews on the salon. You get a pretty good idea of the organized effort simply by looking at the dates of all the reviews on the salon’s Google Places page. There’s one from 2009 and two from 2010. Then four on the same day in 2011- all negative.

Because my Lakeland public relations firm also provides occasional PR services for this salon, I was a bit concerned for their reputation. Honestly, if a person feels as though they don’t have a good experience at a business, it is their right to write a review that explains it. But I find it unfortunate that the person recruited additional people to write unfavorable reviews. It goes to show that someone with time on their hands and an ax to grind can do a number on your business. Thankfully for this hair salon, the reviews never seemed to have caused any harm. But they could have.

I see reviews as a way of giving a vote of confidence to a business, or pointing out an area that needs improvement. Businesses ought to know when they’ve done something right- or wrong. But to recruit a handful of people to write negative reviews seems mean-spirited, particularly when a small business is the target. A large chain can absorb a few mean comments. Small businesses seem to take the blow a bit harder.

Conversely, I find it disingenuous to ask people to write favorable reviews for your business when they’re just a family member or friend and they’ve not used your services or purchased your products. I get asked to do this every so often.

If you own a business, should you ask people to write reviews for you? Of course. But ask your clients and customers, not your mother and your Junior League friends. Ask people who have experienced your stellar customer service or benefited from your useful product. Those are the people who will sing your praises the best.

Because reviews are playing such a prominent search engine optimization role these days, more businesses are scrambling to get people to write them. But the more you tap family and friends to write them instead of your faithful customers, the less relevant they will become.

Earlier this month, my husband and I visited his family near Tuckasegee and I learned the story behind the apple butter. I couldn’t help but marvel over what an excellent lesson in marketing and public relations is demonstrated by their apple butter sales process.

Every year, people clamor to place orders for the church’s apple butter. They don’t simply purchase it by the jar; many people buy it by the case. The pastor stops taking orders at 250 jars so he can ensure that people who show up the day the apple butter is made have a shot at purchasing some.

So what does any of this have to do with marketing and public relations? A lot. Congregants of this church make their apple butter just once per year during North Carolina’s apple season. That means those who want some have a tiny window in which to buy it. Between pre-orders and sales on the day the apple butter is canned, every single jar they make is sold.

I don’t love the analogy, but this marketing approach reminds me of McDonald’s and its McRib sandwich. The fast food chain rolls out the McRib sandwich for a limited time every so often. People come in droves to buy the sandwiches. And when it’s removed from the menu, McRib lovers wait in anticipation for its return.

Once an item is introduced and people grow to love it, pulling it out of arm’s reach seems to have an incredible effect on our human desire to want that which we can’t have. Lots of analysts have argued that were the McRib on the McDonald’s menu full-time, it wouldn’t be as popular. In fact, MSN Money wrote a great article on this topic recently.

The members of Tuckasegee Wesleyan Church don’t can apple butter only once a year because they want to follow in the marketing footsteps of McDonald’s. The fact is that making apple butter in such a large quantity is a time-consuming, two-day process that involves just about every member of the church. It’s a lot of work. But I love how they benefit from the “limited time only” nature of their operation.

The client asked if we could send the press release to the media on a Friday afternoon. Here’s what we said:

The short answer is No. It often is a death kiss to send a press release out on a Friday for a couple of reasons.

Doing so virtually guarantees that no media outlets will pick it up. Why? 1) It’s Friday and reporters are people too; they’re thinking about the weekend. 2) TV stations run skeleton crews on the weekends, and those crews typically are there for breaking news, not feel-good feature stories.

Every good PR professional knows what I stated above, and they often use this to their advantage. If a company/organization has something negative or unflattering that must be released, they’ll often pull what we in the industry call the “Friday afternoon news dump.” They send a release at the end of the day on a Friday and cross their fingers that the story will die down over the weekend, or by the time a reporter sees it on Monday, it will be old news and no one will want to cover it. It can backfire horribly. Here’s a great article on the topic.

So when should you send out a press release? Releasing something on a Monday morning is a great idea. Reporters are back at work from the weekend and have morning meetings in which they will be expected to pitch a couple of good story options for the day. If your story doesn’t get selected for coverage that day, there’s a possibility it could be picked up later in the week.

If you have something newsworthy going on in your business and you want help spreading the word, give us a call. We can help.