Social Media Snippets

Effective Public Relations Starts With Trust

November 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I’m currently in the middle of reading two good books – Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents and Chuck Klosterman’s latest, Eating the Dinosaur.

I’ll likely do a video review of Trust Agents when I’m done but there is a reason I mention both. Chuck Klosterman happens to be one of my favorite authors. Early on in this latest book, he talks about the art of interviewing and picks apart the actual interview process, noting preconceived expectations that arise from both interviewers and interviewees. At one point, he interviews NPR’s Ira Glass (I’m also a huge, huge fan of Ira and This American Life), to dig deeper on Glass’ extraordinary ability to take seemingly minor details and moments in people’s lives and transform them to make an audience fully realize the profound impact of such moments.

Glass notes:

“Sometimes I will be talking to journalism students and they will ask how I get people to open up to me, and the answer is that I’m legitimately curious about what those people are saying, I honestly care about the stories they are telling.”

In one word – TRUST.

Or as Brogan/Smith harp in their book, you need to be a trust agent to be an effective communicator.

For PR pros, trust is the foundation of our industry. Our clients trust our strategies and tactics. They trust us to be exceptional brand stewards and to represent their company or organization with complete honesty and transparency. On the same token, traditional journalists and bloggers alike trust the information we provide for public consumption. Social networks thrive because of trust.

Where Does Trust Originate?

To echo Mr. Glass, you have to honestly care. You have to have a legitimate interest in the client or issue you represent. Does this become difficult in PR world? Absolutely. When times are tight, firms begin to reach outside their sweet spot to soak up new business. The problem is that clients will inevitably be cheated if they are not assigned an account team that actually cares about their project. It’s one of the main reasons I love where I work. As a firm, we review new business opportunities together and make sure everyone is onboard and excited about a new client opportunity as opposed to just submitting for any RFP that comes our way.

My current primary clients include the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network and Rush University Medical Center. I love travel and am passionate about organ/tissue donation as well as healthcare marketing. If my job entailed promoting a new soap product, I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t last a day and it would show in a heartbeat.

As we all know, the social Web is amazingly good at picking apart legitimate interests and sussing out those that are simply attempting to plant PR seeds. Do yourself and your clients the service of digging deep to make sure there is legitimate care and interest in a project. It’s the only way to ensure that you’re establishing the necessary foundation for trust.

-Scott

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Social Media · public relations
Tagged: book, Chris Brogan, chuck klosterman, client, eating the dinosaur, julien smith, public relations, Social Media, trust, trust agents

Are IT Social Media Blocks Stifling Workplace Creativity?

October 30, 2009 · 1 Comment

Photo by Spadix

“We recognize the importance and value of being engaged online, BUT, our IT team has a lot of concerns about providing access to social media.”

Ouch.

Unfortunately, IT concerns continue to be a major social media roadblock for many businesses and organizations that have to maintain complicated Web infrastructures. To date, I have yet to hear of any social media site being solely responsible for taking down a company’s IT system. The reality is that the use of social media sites is no more of an IT threat than general employee use of email and the Internet.

Most social networking sites do capture some degree of personal information which is of course always riskier than capturing no information at all. That is why companies are now regularly supplementing existing email/Internet policies with social media policies that guide employee use of sites in the workplace. An IT supporting boss may counter by arguing that providing access to social media is simply flipping a green light for employees to waste time.

Let’s put the obvious aside for a moment (social media’s overall value for relationship building, brand extension and direct engagement) to directly address the concern of social media as a “time suck.”

What’s the Primary Threat to IT Blocking Access to Social Media?

Creativity.

Last week, I was reading Clive Thompson’s “Why an idling mind is the mother of invention” article in the latest issue of Wired (seriously, read this article). Clive struck a chord with a topic that’s been on my mind for some time. He notes that our current work culture is obviously heavily concerned with employee focus and productivity. He then goes on to question whether we might all be more productive if employees were encouraged to allow our minds to drift throughout the day.

Wait a minute…

I know what you’re thinking. We’re not talking about hour-long work naps (though I have heard stories…luckies…) or complete disengagement from work during the day. Rather, Clive poses a strong argument around the notion that allowing employees to escape Word and Excel documents to sift through Facebook, post some tweets or take in a couple YouTube videos can actually be quite beneficial.

I for one, could not agree more – and not just because of my job title. If you’re like me, I’m a creative dweller as opposed to a creative firecracker. Rarely do I roll into a brainstorm session and churn up a final concept within an hour. Rather, to Clive’s point, I drift. My best ideas come when I least expect them. On the train ride to work, scrolling my Twitter stream, out on a run, surfing around the Onion, strolling the city on a photo shoot or mindlessly strumming the guitar. That’s when lightning strikes.

It certainly would be amazing to generate killer creative on demand. Luckily, I have a boss that realizes this is not the case. We’re regularly encouraged to get out of the office for a stroll, take breaks to bounce around and are encouraged to keep tabs on online marketing trends and social media. The result? A workplace opens the doors to a creative firestorm.

Gone are the days of process in/process out. If you want to start seeing some new ideas, a twist on the old model, a step forward for your company, open up those IT roadblocks and encourage employees to get active online. I guarantee you’ll start hearing a lot more brainstorms kick off with the following statement:

“Ooohh, did you all see the {website, video, tweet, etc.} that was kind of like this?”

-Scott

→ 1 CommentCategories: Social Media
Tagged: access, block, clive thompson, creativity, Facebook, IT, Social Media, Twitter, wired magazine

Promoting Organ Donation – With a Twist

October 23, 2009 · 2 Comments

I’ve posted about my active involvement with the organ/tissue donation community before and also about the community’s use of social media to encourage donor registrations.

I’m always keeping an eye out for other states and countries that are trying new tactics to draw attention and educate the public about the issue. Recently, Donate Life Minnesota launched a fun social media campaign called “Half the Men” that targets men ages 45-65. This demographic is always a struggle to reach for the donation community and the campaign does a really nice job of presenting a clear call to action. Be sure to check out the short video spots and you can also follow their campaign updates via Facebook and Twitter.

In the U.S., cultural constraints tend to keep the donation community from getting quite as edgy as some countries when it comes to marketing and advertising. Awhile ago, I came across some videos created by Trillium Gift of Life Network in Ontario that I thought struck a nice balance between being kitschy and still driving home the need for registrations. A fun play off cheesy local commercials, these spots are funny and yet still make the point that ultimately, the lives of transplant patients are only saved as a result of registered donors.

Effectively captivating public attention and driving actionable results is of course a struggle that all marketers face. Kudos to Donate Life MN and Trillium for stepping outside the comfort zone and attempting a new approach to educating others about the issue.

Be sure to check out the spots I’ve included below from Trillium’s YouTube channel.

-Scott