PR For Your Personal Brand

I had the opportunity to sit and think about what has worked for me over the past 16 years when it comes to personal branding through public relations. And then I put together this presentation to use when addressing a group of local women in business. Do you have some personal keys to success that you have identified over the years? Let me know, I'd love to hear what has worked for you.

Social Media Learning

 

"I'm so excited about what I'm learning today on social media I called my PR person over the break and told her we are getting started!" Now that's the kind of comment I like to hear during a presentation.

Last week I was in Maine to present social media at St. Joseph College for their health care symposium and this was the comment I heard from an attendee. I was thrilled with her reaction. But she also commented about one of my key take-aways from the presentation: Implementing social media at an organization takes continuous  learning through education.

However, I'm not sure many organizations understand this when they decide to take the plunge.

Here are some things to keep in mind as your organization moves forward:

Your internal audience is critical to your social media engagment but they need to be kept up to speed through continuous learning. This could include social media overviews, technology updates and in-house workshops on how to set up a Facebook account and more.

On-going education can and should reach as many people as possible throughout your organization. If employees are your best ambassadors, why would you restrict learning to a select group? Social media is not just for the marketing folks. Remember, it's for anyone who has a voice, opinion and Internet access. Take it far, wide and deep!

You want to also accommodate the many different levels of social media understanding present throughout your organization to tailor the education. For example (and forgive me while I generalize), while the Millenials might have a firm grasp of the tools, they may still need guidance on how best to represent the organization online through communications. And while Baby Boomers understand the intricacies of communications they might be a bit more unsure of how to use the tools. One shoe size does not fit all.

Give ongoing education some serious consideration as you move forward. You might even find there are more benefits to providing ongoing education than you anticipated.

Google Alert: Bing falls short on content and public relations

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of weeks ago I tweeted that I was only going to use Bing as my search engine tool of choice for the next five days. As a result of my experiment, this blogpost will be short.

I did my best to break my Google habit but, wow, is that hard. Every gadget I own is set up to naturally access Google. Funny enough, I found myself Googling Bing to get to their homepage. 

Available Wisconsin news was also very limited. Only news generated out of Milwaukee or the Journal-Sentinel came up in searches. I know for a fact we generate quite a bit more news from around the state so I was surpised at the lackluster search results.

Many in my social media circles had plenty of opinions as I set forth in my non-scientific experiment. The majority sang high praises for the map offerings. Which I admit are pretty cool. But, my life requires a bit more than beautiful maps. I need content at my fingertips--quick! 

Another interesting thing that I became aware of during my five-day odyssey? Bing has no credibility. Because I don't hear anything about it since it launched, there's no social media chatter ... nothing. Which equates to little if any credibility and that lead me to doubting my search results. And then wanting to double check my searches with a comparison of Google's results.

Google searches are a great reminder that content is truly king when it comes to the Internet. Forget the imagery, bring on the content.

My observations are also a good lesson for any company: Don't forget the power of generating continuous buzz --especially when you are launching a new service or product. But you better have the product or service to back up the buzz.

 

 

The Role of Social Media in Disaster Communications

Tommy and I give some thought to how social media can play a role in communicating with loved ones when disaster strikes. Sitting at Red Shoes PR chatting it up we decided everyone needs to think beyond phones for communication needs.

Red Shoes Speaks No. 22 Social Media Role in Disaster Communications from Lisa Cruz on Vimeo.

Red Shoes Speak No. 18 FourSquare & Geo Location Tools

Red Shoes Speaks No. 18 FourSquare & Geo Location Tools from Jessica Dennis on Vimeo.

#SXSW with @JessDennis and @lisaredshoespr

Day two of the conference down in Austin, Texas. I have to admit my love affair with Texas continues and in particular, Austin. It's been an intense two days of learning but we wanted to get down a few thoughts on some social media highlights to share. Here's a list to ponder:

 1) Put some flexibility back into that rigid social media plan. It's all about experimenting and seeing what your customers respond to.

2) Watch out desk top computers ... you are on your way out. Mobile technology is coming up right behind you and poised to take over.

3)  Keep an eye on that Backchannel... What's that you say? That's the conversation taking place online while you are up there speaking. Do you respond? Do you acknowledge the backchannel conversation? Presenters need to monitor and respond in real time.

4) It's no longer acceptable to say you don't know the regulations of social media. It's come a long way baby and it's time to read up on FTC regulations.

5)  Privacy is not dead. People care about it more than ever. Privacy is about having control over information so make sure you offer opt-in/opt out. And don't mess with people's perceptions of privacy.

Take a business breather by giving

Check presentation at Geegan for penny drive from Jessica Dennis on Vimeo.

It's always great when a plan comes together. After Haiti's earthquake, we at Red Shoes PR felt compelled to give. And after @tommytrc and Mrs. Tommytrc told us about the penny drive going on at Gegan Elementary, we decided to pull our resources together.

In a matter of weeks, with a little bit of help from us at Red Shoes PR, Gegan Elementary school in Menasha raised $2,000 to donate to our local American Red Cross Chapter. Prospera Credit Union counted up the thousands of pennies. Simple Simon Bakery generously donated dozens of cookies for the winning kindergartners and Appleton Sign helped out with a giant-sized check -- which the boys and girls oooo'ed and ahhhhh'ed about!

Yes, we could have just written a check. But all of us working together to better the world in our own little way has huge rewards. It provided all of us at Red Shoes PR the opportunity to get out of the office, see how we could impact others and see firsthand the joy on all of the childrens' faces.That's worth its weight in gold.

Red Shoes Speak No. 13: Toyota's Crisis Communications Mishap

Red Shoes Speak No. 13 Toyota's Crisis Communications Mishap from Jessica Dennis on Vimeo.

 

Are there such things as "days off" in PR?

My boss, Lisa Cruz, had a very wise tweet a couple of weeks ago, "PR tip: If the media works and you are in PR: You work." (http://twitter.com/LisaRedShoesPR/status/7243291681).

I have to admit that the reason she tweeted this was because she was covering for me when a reporter called to interview one of our clients. It was New Year's Eve afternoon and I had taken a six-year-old to see Frog Princess when I got an e-mail from the reporter. I  texted Lisa from the theater to give her the details and she said she'd take care of it for me. (Don't I have a great boss?)

Then two weeks ago there was a late-day, multiple-injury accident and a number of injured were taken to one of our client's hospitals. I got the first call from the reporter at 9:12 p.m. and Lisa and I finished up the media calls around 12:15 a.m.

The point is that when you commit to a job in public relations, you commit to providing around-the-clock support to the media on behalf of your clients or company. There is always someone sitting at the news desk and if something breaks after-hours, the media is going to cover it, which means you're going to help them. (I'm not even going to get into social media, which also requires 24-hour-a-day monitoring.)

The key to making your job manageable is having a great team of backup support. We have to properly manage vacation schedules so that there are always enough "shoes" to cover anything that may come up. I know that when I take a vacation, I'm asking my colleagues to pick up anything that comes along, whatever time of day or night - and I'm more than happy to help when when one of my co-workers takes vacation. Although you may be lucky enough to take a few days off, your client should never be unavailable to the media.

It also helps to have the expectation that you'll get calls on Saturdays and Sundays. I find that some of the best stories come when I get a call from a reporter on a Saturday afternoon who is following up on a pitch I sent during the week. Gratefully taking the call and getting interviews set up as soon as possible goes a long way in maintaining great relationships with the media.

Red Shoes Speak No. 10: Fly Conan FLY

Red Shoes Speak No. 10 Fly Conan FLY from Jessica Dennis on Vimeo.

Lisa and Tommy talk about the late night talk show spat between NBC and Conan O'Brien. Conan is getting a reported $40 million to leave NBC, now's the time for him to start anew. The Tonight Show is getting old and stale. Does he needs to get away from network TV and take his show to the internet? Be part of the conversion, tell us what you think. #redshoesspeak on twitter.