Removing Question Marks

Work continues to keep me busy. But I wanted to take a quick break to share a valuable insight from another intelligent co-worker. This co-worker read one of my recent e-mails to a client. The e-mail asked the client several questions about their social media accounts. Since the client knows his/her organization best, I wanted to ask a few questions to be sure I wasn’t missing any important background that could sway the answers to the questions.
 
However, clients don’t pay us to ask questions. They pay us to give them strategic advice. So here’s the insight I received: “Try to remove all question marks from client e-mails.” How is that possible? Let me show you.
 
Instead of asking questions rephrase the questions to fit this formula. “We recommend you …. If you agree, we will proceed with …” This small difference gives the client strategic counsel, while checking for any unknown background. Brilliant!
 
Do you have any recommendations for client conversations?

Thoughtful Responses

I am an impulsive individual. My drive usually pushes me to jump into situations. When I started working at a fast-paced agency about a year ago, I thought my instinct to enter projects running would be appreciated.
 
In some contexts, my fearless attitude is helpful such as in brainstorming sessions (especially when I am the only one participating by phone).
 
Throughout this year, I have been watching my insightful colleagues and mentors respond to both seemingly simple to incredibly complex situations in stride. They pause to clearly form a complete thought that will best lead the next actions. As one mentor put it, “It must be boring, sitting here watching me think.” But those 10 seconds (that are not billable) have led to my growth as a PR professional.
 
My goal, as I embark on year two at Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations, is to thoughtfully answer each question, no matter how small it may seem.
 
Are you an impulsive or cautious individual? How has it help you or hindered you in the PR career?

Be Memorable

This month I was given the privilege of attending the IABC Bronze Quill Awards, thanks to my supervisor and mentor‘s award winning work. The speaker at the awards ceremony happened to be Andrea Kay, a leading career expert.

She offered several valuable tips for professionals. The piece of advice that stuck with me was about networking.

Andrea pointed out through some audience participation that most professionals answer the question, “what do you do?” with their job title or role within their company. Although this is option isn’t bad, stating such a general statement can easily be misunderstood or end that aspect of the conversation quickly. Andrea recommends a sort of elevator speech that succinctly describes what you do and – here’s the key – why you are the best at it in a memorable way.

Sounds cocky right? And who wants to be cocky. However, networking presents the perfect opportunity to open up your world to new possibilities. Confidently answering a question that clearly defines who you are and what you do while adding some interest to the conversation could lead to a favorable outcome for both involved.

How do you introduce yourself in networking situations? Do you feel cocky or confident?

My Brand Logo

Recently I made a big choice; I decided to cut 10 inches of my hair and donate it to Locks of Love. This is the third time I donated a significant amount of hair. Although it gets easier each time, I still hesitate before the cut. As most people can attest, a person is recognized by their hairstyle. Any drastic alteration to length or color can lead to initial confusion.

Before the cut with my friend Jen

All of my clients and most of my co-workers only know me with long hair. By adjusting the length, I change my identity – my brand logo. Would I recommend altering a brand logo to a client?

Honestly, it depends upon the change. If the new logo stayed true to the message of the brand and created positive buzz, transforming the logo could breathe fresh air into the brand.

Am I glad I modified my brand logo? Absolutely. Although it is a radical adjustment, the action reaffirms my personal brand.

Would you recommend a new logo to a client? What do you think of my new look?

My new logo

Raking in the Dough on Twitter

I wanted to pass along a great article my colleague, Amanda DeCastro, brought to my attention.  Amanda is our agency’s expert on non-profits.  She found an article called “And now, Twitter philanthropy” from The Christian Science Monitor about how some non-profits are utilizing Twitter to reach their fund raising goals.

The article explains the rise in “social giving” based on the success of Barack Obama’s campaign. Although the article offers many helpful tidbits, one piece of advice struck me.

When describing ways to use Twitter to a client, I found the advice from Beth Kanter, a non-profits and social media blogger and consultant, to be mandatory. She states in the article, “When you leverage a social network, you can launch smaller, employ the best practices, and gain trust.”

Do you have any advice for fund raising on or off Twitter?

Client Tips

Working at an agency allows me to develop an additional skill, client contact. Honestly, everyone has clients. In other parts of the field the client could be the boss or a company partner.

 

So as I approach the end of my first year in the field, I wanted to pass along a couple of client service tips I learned along the way for entry level professionals, like myself, or for those who are eager to enter the field.

 

1. Make their job easier. Coming from a college environment with group projects, I was accustomed to working with equals and pulling resources together to reach a final goal. Each team member ideally shares the weight of the work in this collaborative environment. Although working with a client is collaborative, my number one responsibility is to make life easier for the client. The client hired my firm to help them.
2. Sit back. I have a lot to offer as a professional. However, my role as an account associate is to allow my team leaders to direct the interaction with the client. I should interject with valuable input, but not control the situation.

 

Do you remember those early years as a professional? Do you have any client service advice?

 

“Medium is the Message”

I love learning. Now that I am in the working world, I have to admit I miss school. Not only due to the great breaks for spring, summer and winter, but for the constant introduction to new knowledge – really geeky, I know.

Luckily for me I work at an agency which continues to teach me everyday. While I am learning from my colleagues, I have also discovered new applications to the theories I learned at UD. Marshall McLuhan’s theory of the “Medium is the Message” came to mind this week.

As I dive deeper and deeper into social media and discuss its application with others, I am learning the medium is the message. Although one could group social media into one medium, I would prefer to break each space into its own medium.

Each space has its own benefits and drawbacks. The reasons why users congregate in one space over another is significant.

Therefore when providing social media recommendations to any client the first questions I ask are: What are your objectives? Who are you trying to reach and why?

The draw of social media may cause a desire to jump into every space. (Love is blind. J) But through research of where the target(s) live and adding my understanding of the benefits of the spaces, I am able to provide a strong recommendation for a social media strategy.

Do you see McLuhan’s theory in social media? Do you categorize each space as its own media?

I’m Still Here

It has been too long since I wrote a blog post. It’s funny how life gets in the way of some things.

My workload has increased which means I need to find other times to do laundry, pay my bills and write on my blog.  And weekend trips don’t help either (check out a picture of me by the Bean in Chicago).

I expressed my concern about the gap between my blog posts to my colleague LaraK who writes a must-read blog.  She told me a blogger trick I would like to pass onto you.

She learned that many bloggers write several posts in the draft stage.  A couple of the drafts are ready for publishing after a tough week.  A couple of drafts are forms of ideas yet to be discovered and “fleshed out”.

This weekend my goal is to fill my draft box.  Wish me luck!

As a blogger have you ever experienced a dry spell? What do you recommend?

How much is enough?

The past couple weeks I have been diving deep into the social media space. While building a plan for a new client, Lifeline of Ohio, my team lead and I wanted to grasp the activity of our target audience in several key spaces, MySpace, Facebook, Blogs, etc.  I thought the numbers looked great, but she wasn’t as convinced.

Here surfaces the question: how much is enough in social media?  At this point I am not sure there is a good answer.

Users in the social media space are often the early adaptors and influencers. So by swaying this group, we hope to sway the entire group. But how many influencers does it take? And do the influencers dwell in our target area?

With traditional media, choosing a target area is built into the medium. On the internet cutting a clear target area is tricky. 

For example, one of my colleagues recently conducted a successful Twitter contest for her client, Morton’s The Steakhouse. She sent out an internal e-mail asking everyone in the agency to spread the word via Twitter. I, who work in the Dayton office, decided again tweeting about the contest since the winner was required to reside in Central Ohio, her target area but not the residence of most of my followers.

For now clearly stating intentions, objectives and rules as well as relying on your instincts is the best PR professionals can do. 

The key going forward will be excellent measurements. So in a couple of months or maybe years we will have learned enough from our practice that the answer will hopefully become clearer.

How do you measure enough of a presence in the social media space? How have you limited a social media campaign to geographic limitations?

Are you hungry?

I am a champion eater. Ask any of my co-workers and they will tell you I love to snack.  As my boyfriend’s father put it the first time he met me, “You eat like a bird”.  It’s true.

This week my hunger has infiltrated into one of my projects called S.M.O.R.E.  (My talented co-worker who developed the name admits she was hungry when she thought of it.) S.M.O.R.E. stands for Social Media Opportunity Research and Evaluation.  Basically, my company searches through the many wonderful social media search tools to find how much a client, their competitors and their core competencies are mentioned in the social media world.

I find this research fascinating. Seeing the buzz coming from actual consumers and tracking it in real time is exciting.  Not only does social media research uncover opportunities to join the conversation or start one, this research can help PR professionals track their campaigns in the social media space with great detail.

From what I gathered in PR classes, defining the impact of public relations campaigns, excluding the impact of other sources, can be difficult. Knowing if the article in the paper led to buzz and helped sales for the client is hard to prove.

Social media and their respective search tools help PR professionals witness, track and monitor buzz better than ever before. So many of the social media search tools also provide graphs and charts that gather all of the information into a neat package, easy for the number hunger business people to understand and recognize. Finally, the valve PR professionals provide is becoming more evident to clients.

With these new tools at my finger tips and new developments coming constantly, my hunger for social media continues to grow.

Do you see the valve in social media and social media tracking systems?  Do you have a favorite search tool?