Schaeffer PR Buzz

Social media helps bail BP out of crisis

This story from NPR about how BP handled the Deepwater Horizon explosion off the Gulf coast makes me think of what a parent might tell a child in trouble: “I’m going to find out eventually.”

The message: You’re not fooling anyone.

The good news for BP is that, after its initial public relations stumbles, it has had some success with PR efforts focused on openness, transparency and interaction with its target audiences. BP has a long road back to repair its image, but it has certainly started the journey with an assist from social media.

 

 

-- Bob Musinski 

A shining moment for the Sun-Times

What does the Pulitzer Prize mean for Chicago? It means the city has some of the nation’s best reporters and photographers who live and breathe to share their front-row seats to society with their readers. The award trains a most-deserving spotlight on the Chicago Sun-Times, and shows us why newspapers are still relevant.

What other institution is going to do this type of in-depth study of serious violence with an eye for changing the status quo?

Members of the Sun-Times staff celebrating the honor. 

 
I hope this also means that the Chicago area takes another look at the journalistic rock star in its midst. 

The recognition for the newspaper couldn’t have come at a better time as the company works to reinvent itself in the midst of industry upheaval while dealing with the loss of its well-respected lead investor, James Tyree.

When I heard the news, I felt a sense of pride as a former Sun-Times staffer myself. I was an editor on the news and feature copy desks in the 1990s and later coordinated the Niche supplements.

I’ve recently joined the account team at Kathy Schaeffer & Associates and look forward to being part of the give and take among newsmakers in Chicago.

KSA offers a hearty congratulations to the entire Sun-Times staff. May you continue to shine a light on the city and show us what you find.

-- Karen Huelsman 

 

Use Twitter to build - not burn - bridges with the media

Recently I’ve noticed a recurring trend in my Twitter stream: journalists are using tweets to air PR grievances. With social media, it’s never been easier for the media to highlight annoying PR habits - mass news release mailings, poorly written materials, etc. – through their personal networks.  One off-topic pitch could land you a starring role in a journalist’s tweet for the day. 

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What these tweets convey in under 140 characters is the reminder that it’s important for PR pros to know who you’re pitching. Get to know their beats, topics of interests or even a few personal tidbits that will help you understand them a little better.

Now for the best part: Twitter is a one-stop source for all of this information - that is assuming the journalist maintains an account.

Though some journalists use the occasional tweet to highlight frustrations, many of them use it as a reporting tool. It’s the perfect channel for them to share their work, seek out stories and connect with others. In fact, many are on it all day, every day.

As PR professionals, it’s now our job to take in all of the information they’re offering and use it to our advantage. Simply create a Twitter list for the media in your location or niche and monitor it throughout the day (Note: for a list of media in the Chicago area, follow KSA’s own Twitter list here: http://bit.ly/gcoulT).

Using social media channels to connect with the media will help keep you out of hot Twitter water and may also improve your chances of landing a placement for your company or client.   

-- Katie Fanella 

 

 

 

Practice your shot before you really need it

It’s almost time for the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, when the reputations of players, coaches – and even schools – change in a split second.

It’s easy to remember some of these career-defining tournament moments, -- no matter what the sport -- such as when a player hits a last-second shot to win

 

… or the defense forces an interception and a linebacker runs it in for a touchdown … or the underdog smashes a serve in the corner where her opponent can’t get it, to win the match.

I like to think about championship play in another way, as a study in crisis management.

Those who emerge as "winners" in a communications crisis have often prepared for the "game" for some time. They've developed a plan, practiced it and have well-defined roles. Offense and defense work interdependently. And, of course, they have the skill and confidence to execute the plan to perfection.

The flip side is the team that crumbles under pressure. When the going gets tough, they lose their cool and their focus. They weren't prepared, didn't have a plan and couldn't execute effectively.

Anyone who has played sports, or dealt with a crisis, knows practice can be the difference between a victory parade and a trip home on a quiet bus.

The same is true for crisis communications.

--Bob Musinski

 

Online connections develop offline relationships

Is social media making us LESS social?

Though many critics support this notion, I strongly believe the opposite is true. 

Has it changed the way we interact with one another? Definitely.      

Has it completely replaced face-to-face interactions? Absolutely not.                               

I think of social media as a supplement to offline relationships. The importance of personal interactions will never cease to exist, but social media allows for them to flourish in a way they never could before.

This helps us maintain personal relationships with friends, family and former classmates, but it’s also highly relevant to professional connections as well.  Networking relationships have expanded from luncheon conversations to daily online interactions.

Take this for example: At an after-work networking hour you start chatting with another professional in your industry. You do the usual business card exchange and go your separate ways. Before the digital age, you may have developed that relationship through phone calls and lunchtime meetings, but that in-person meeting may have been the last.

But, with social media, that connection does not stop with the initial conversation. You can now carry that in-person connection over to LinkedIn, Twitter or any of your social networks of choice. These channels allow you to keep in touch with others easily and usually more frequently. By sending short messages via Twitter or discovering mutual connections on LinkedIn, you’re able to nurture a relationship that could have been lost.

-- Katie Fanella

 

Public Meetings Correct Misinformation, Calm Fears

Have you ever turned on the TV and heard something that upset you to the point that you were motivated to go to a town hall meeting or village forum? You may have been fired up when you got there, but then once you asked a few questions, and shared your thoughts you realized maybe it wasn’t as bad as you initially thought.

For the past few nights, we’ve helped facilitate public meetings that introduced residents to a potential transportation project in Chicago. Some residents came to the meetings upset because they feared the worst about the project.

During these public meetings, which were set up in an open house format, residents had an opportunity to ask their questions, receive some answers and understand how they can make a difference in their communities.

As people were leaving we heard comments such as, “I felt like my concerns were being heard,” and, “I think service is getting better.”

Effective communications can help make the information-gathering process more transparent, address incorrect information and calm the fears of residents.

-- Lisa Soard

Golfing with Royko

I’m enjoying a biography of renowned Chicago journalist Mike Royko (Royko: A Life in Print by F. Richard Ciccone) that was lent to me by a colleague.

The book paints a colorful picture of Royko, but also illustrates the gnawing, nagging toll the column took on his health and personal life over the years.

In addition to his journalistic prowess, Royko was an avid golfer with a solid short game, and hit the links as often as he could with pals such as contractor Dan Hurley.

“Mike, if my life depended on it and I had somebody to make a five-foot pressure putt for me, you’d be my guy,” Hurley once confided.

Royko snorted.  “That’s not what pressure is.  Pressure is when it’s six forty-five, and I have a seven o’clock deadline, and I don’t have a [expletive] thought in my head.”

Not everyone writes five columns a week like Royko did, but whether you’re a producer for a TV morning news show or a three-posts-a-week blogger, everyone needs to feed the beast.

In that sense media relations is a two-way street.  Journalists appreciate story ideas that might be of interest to their readers, viewers or listeners.  If those ideas happen to feature an expert from your organization, or cite a report your company has authored…that’s par for the course.

-- Tim Frisbie 

Measurement: The name of the game in social media

The new year brings new challenges to social media. After reading a myriad of blogs and tweets on this topic, the theme of 2011’s social media activity has become quite clear. It’s all about measurement.

The theme of this month’s Publicity Club of Chicago luncheon could not have been more appropriate. The panel, which included representatives from BurrellesLuce Marketing, PR Newswire and Cision US, used their own professional experiences to offer advice on the best practices of social media measurement.

As PR pros, we enthusiastically dove into Facebook, Twitter and the like when the social media phenomenon first hit. New platforms meant news ways for our clients and companies to make an impression. We were (and still are) excited to engage with others and carry our creative energy over to online channels. But now is the time to focus on results.

Here are the key takeaways from the panel discussion:

• At the very least, 10% of your social media activity should be dedicated to assessing your efforts. 
• Unique URLs are the key to tracking and monitoring success.
• Look to search terms to see if you're connecting with the people you want to connect with and to better understand what information people are seeking.  
• When you receive a negative comment, more times than not your community will come to your aid. Either way, make sure you always issue a response.
• Know how you can influence your business and know what influences your business, in general. Use that knowledge to drive your social media efforts.
• With Twitter, the limit on character space makes it difficult to judge the tone of a tweet. In order to understand the tone, you need to look at who the message is coming from and who's listening. 
• Get to know web analytics to properly track your social media success. Google Analytics is a free and simple tool that offers a wide-range of data.
• When conducting analysis, you need to have both qualitative and quantitative data points. Data is just noise until you add the quantitative element to it.   

-- Katie Fanella 

Adapting to media changes

Journalists are storytellers. No matter what happens to the newspaper industry – and it’s anyone’s guess on what will transpire in the next 5, 10 or 20 years – there will always be a market for storytelling.

That’s good news for public relations professionals.

We’ll often hear someone say “dealing with the media isn’t what it used to be.” That’s true. Many familiar faces have left city and suburban newspapers and TV and radio stations. Newsholes have shrunk. And many editors and writers don’t have time to cover events that would have received a lot of attention in previous years.

But change brings opportunity.

For example, consider:

• the new online hyperlocal publications – such as Patch.com – sprouting up around the Chicago suburbs.
• the increasing amount of content TV stations need for the hours of news airtime each weekday in the early morning, midday and evenings.
• that the web allows newspapers and other news outlets unlimited space to run stories, photo and video.
• the storytelling opportunities on social media – especially when a video goes viral.
• the niche publications – such as Crain’s Chicago Business and its related magazines – that have dedicated audiences, are adopting multiple news gathering platforms and are going strong.

The key? Make sure you have a good story. Even in this splintered and fractured media environment, the one common thread is that good stories resonate with journalists and their readers and viewers, whether it’s a feature story in a local newspaper or a YouTube video.

Today, everyone needs to be a storyteller.

-- Bob Musinski 

 

 

Don’t treat your donors like ATMs

Using social media to raise funds for an advocacy campaign, a charitable cause, a foundation or a nonprofit endeavor seems to top every organization’s to-do list. On its face, it seems easy, and the mechanics really are not that difficult.

However, building relationships with people on social media – particularly with those of the Millennial Generation and Generation X – takes time and care, and is absolutely essential to successful, long-term fund-raising growth, says Allison Fine, co-author of “The Networked Nonprofit.”

Fine does podcasts for the Chronicle of Philanthropy. In a recent interview on PBS News Hour, she noted that social media communities are particularly effective for building relationships with younger donors, who often learn about causes and charities on social media and make giving decisions differently than do their Baby Boomer predecessors. However, she cautions that the key is building relationships. “Don’t treat your donors like ATMs,” she says.

 Source: PBS News Hour

At KSA, we recently finished a communications consulting assignment for a successful, established philanthropic organization that wants to better use communications to attract a new generation of younger donors. In focus groups with current donors and younger prospects, we continually heard comments such as, “Use social media and SHOW me where my money is going.” Or, “Make it relevant to me.” And, “Give me an opportunity to volunteer first and then ask me if I want to donate.”

What we learned echoed Fine’s research. Social media is a valuable tool for reaching new audiences, but, as she says, “It’s not direct mail.” As in all relationships, successful social media campaigns require two-way communications.

In the spirit of building dialogue and relationship, let me know what you think. 

-- Kathy Schaeffer