What to Do With Outstretched Hands

For a number of sectors, there are signs that the economy has begun an upward trend. The tension running through many accounting departments has begun to relax and along with it, the corporate purse strings. For many marketers, this has yielded new opportunities to promote their brand.  Indeed, corporate philanthropy is a great way to build goodwill with the public, increase brand awareness and improve employee morale.

While there is no shortage of organizations willing to take a cheque, now might be a good time to take a close look at the criteria used in selecting your employer’s support.

For example, is it more important to have a little involvement in numerous organizations and activities or to have a more significant impact on a few?  How will you quantify support?  Is it purely financial or can your company also get involved with its employees? What opportunities do you have to leverage and increase the public’s awareness of your involvement?

Corporate donations have evolved from its roots of private companies donating funds and products simply for goodwill. Today, corporate philanthropy is an integral part of an overall marketing strategy.  It is actively used to leverage support, as well as sustain positive brand perception among customers, competitors and opinion leaders. Effective philanthropy requires a well-defined foundation of objectives combined with clear direction to help guide the company’s support.

So, what is your approach to managing corporate donations?

-  Chad Heard, Senior Consultant, chadh@marshall-fenn.com

The Article Says What?

You did your research and pitched the story. A journalist bit, so you set-up the interview with your client. After a couple rounds of media training, your client is ready for the interview. The big day arrives and everything moves flawlessly; the conversation is jovial and both the client and the journalist leave the room happy. A few days later, the piece appears in the media… and it’s not what you were expecting.  Worse, it wasn’t what your client was expecting.

Bad press happens. That’s not going to change. What has changed is the options open to PR people. Where a tightly-worded letter to the editor used to be a PR go-to, the expansion of interaction on the Internet and Social Media have enabled PR people to engage in a conversation created by the media.

Most print/broadcast publications have an online version and most media Web sites allow for user comments. Disagree with something that’s said in a piece? Create a post that:

1) Identifies yourself

2) Outlines your perspective

3) Provides facts to support your case

Properly executed, you can watch as the conversation in the comments section digests your post and – sometimes – turns around in your favour.

Not strong enough? Have you considered recording – and publishing – the interview yourself (http://theflack.blogspot.com/2009/12/pr-insurance.html)? Of course, you need to make sure all parties are aware of your intention to do this well in advance.

Modern resources have expanded a PR professional’s tool belt to the point that their actions after publication can have as big an impact as the original piece.

- Chad Heard, Senior Consultant, chadh@marshall-fenn.com

Here’s my Phone Number, E-mail Address and Facebook Profile

With the continuous development of social media networks, PR professionals – as natural communicators – are jumping onboard. Their reasons are many, but most are a combination of professional and personal curiosity. Yet, an interesting dynamic occurs when the professional and personal lives collide on sites like Facebook.

Originally intended to help college students connect with one another on campus, Facebook has grown beyond its humble beginnings and (particularly in Canada) has become nearly ubiquitous. While companies around the globe grapple with whether they should restrict employee access to social media sites, PR folk will eventually have to decide if they want their personal lives on Social Media networks to meld with their professional world.

Services like Twitter have proven to be easier to integrate into the professional communicator’s world, but there’s an argument to adding a PR person’s Facebook profile Web link to business cards and e-mail signatures. This goes double for those in close-knit industries where relationships with journalists are often a key to success. But also consider the future. There’s a growing demographic for whom Social Media isn’t simply a place to share photos and stories; it’s as integral a communications tool as the mobile phone or e-mail.

Effective media relations has always necessitated organizations identify an easily accessible contact to provide a prompt response to a journalist with a need. But where deadlines used to be measured in days or hours, with the advent of blogs and online publications they’re now measured in minutes, even seconds.

For a new generation of journalists, bloggers and online influencers, services such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are critical tools that help them drive eyeballs to their paid professional work. They also serve as a platform to develop new forms of dialogue (such as Twitter chats) with consumers, raising their profile with the public and, by extension, those in the PR world.

So where does one draw the line? Do you accept a Facebook friend request from a journalist you just met? What about one you spent a week with on a media trip? What if it’s two people in a client-agency relationship? Do you create a profile for business and a profile for your friends and family? Or is it a moderated melding of both?

At its core, Social Media is about providing avenues and opportunities for conversations between groups of like-minded people. It used to be that PR would speak to the public through media relations during regular business hours. More and more, though, PR is expected to join a limitless online conversation facilitated by someone with a measureable online presence. The job of getting the message right is still there, it’s just that the mouth piece has become louder and everything that’s said goes on record – verbatim – for all to consume.

Whether it’s a crisis or an opportunity, how long does the PR profession have before the media not only expects an immediate response, but one using the same medium as the question was delivered? How we approach and manage this phenomenon requires as much forethought and planning as developing the message itself.

- Chad Heard, Senior Consultant, chadh@marshall-fenn.com