Media Relations for a New Generation

Saturday I drove to Atlanta with my roommate to participate in The Rescue, an event in 100 cities across 10 countries by The Invisible Children. If you’ve never heard of The Invisible Children, educate yourself.

The Rescue was (and still is) an attempt to end Africa’s longest running war, Joseph Kony’s war in Uganda with an army of abducted child soldiers. The event started Saturday at 3 in every city and is still happening in the cities that haven’t yet been “rescued.” The plan is essentially a non-traditional media relations strategy: To be rescued, each city must attract major media coverage and a celebrity to the site to make a statement of support for The Rescue. The hundreds and thousands of people who gathered won’t leave until they’ve been rescued. In Atlanta, we were rescued 8ish on Saturday by Jeff Foxworthy and Fox 5 News. While I’m writing this, 11 cities still haven’t been rescued– and they’re holding out.

What makes this event different than a protest or something of the sort is the connectivity of 100 cities in 10 different countries all supporting each other online at the same time. Even in the cities where the media has refused to come, the longer the participants stay, the more exposure the movement gets and the more desperate their cries become. The Invisible Children set up an online hub for everyone involved that includes a live-streaming video at the headquarters (the hosts have not slept, making them very interesting at this point in time…), a real-time Twitter update down the side (#therescue was at the top of the Twitter trending topics this weekend), and hundreds of pictures, videos, montages, and articles from every city involved. People in London voicing support for the unrescued in Chicago. People united in a cause and able to encourage thousands of others from their vantage point on the other side of the world.

The thing is, with or without the so craved national media attention, this event is hugely successful. The Internet is a medium, and The Rescue has been ALL OVER IT for the entire weekend. It will continue to be as the stories of people not going to work to stay at the site make the story more and more dramatic. This media relations effort is different because the demonstrators are also creators of media. The event produced (and is producing) more pictures, more videos, and more interviews than media outlets could or would produce. And they’re all available 24/7 on the Web site, on blogs, on YouTube, on Twitter, etc.

Spokane, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Austin, Chicago, Huntington, Charleston, Richmond, Baltimore, and Harrisburg still need help. If you have any influence with media or moguls in any of these cities, please do what you can to aid their rescue. The last city, Chicago, was rescued yesterday by Oprah and her friend Gayle. They’ve invited the Invisible Children people to be on the show today at 4 pm! Check it out!

Message still matters more than method…or math

Image by JP Holecka

I read this post by JP Holecka of POWERSHiFTER Media in Vancouver about the follies of assuming that having a lot of new media “friends,” followers on Twitter, in particular, means a brand is somehow succeeding in creating a positive image in the minds of the masses.

“If you gather up a ton of Twitter followers and have nothing relevant to say. Your brand will become dull and tiresome quickly and the giant swath numbers your brand has worked hard to get will have zero value.”

No matter how you look at it, new media + lotsa followers ≠ mission accomplished !

In fact, lack of well-developed messaging strategy and openness to two-way symmetrical communication can ultimately make all those followers your worst nightmare. What could be worse than directly and personally pissing off several thousand people who used to be your biggest fans?

Holecka says your content, specifically on Twitter, should “be engaging, insightful, helpful and maybe even carry a narrative.”

So, matter how sexy a new online tool may seem, it is not a strategy apart from your strategic implementation of it–and getting as many followers as possible doesn’t count as strategy! Know what you want to accomplish through your chosen media– and then, carry it out with personality and benefit the people who do choose to engage with you.

PR is going digital, how do PRos stay ethical?

This post by Rodger Johnson on PR OpenMic coupled with conversations about corporations getting into the social media world for the first time has spurred some debate in mind (and obviously lots of other people’s) about the ethicality of ghost-blogging for clients. Rodger brought up the point that using our communication skills on behalf of a client is exactly what we do when we write press releases, media advisories, or bylined articles. He says blogging for a client is not different, except for the social media code of authenticity. I commented on his post:

I can see the validity of both sides. My thought is, in a perfect world, PR pros could simply consult clients on how to blog and continually maintain that it is running properly–essentially be social media copy/protocol editors. Afterall, it’s the clients who know their business well enough to write about it with expertise. However, I’ve found that most client web sites aren’t even updated regularly, and in my short life-time, I would say that majority of times I ever reached out to contact an organization I never got a response. So, because our clients are not us… they need our help. I fully agree that they should be an integral part of the planning and ongoing content decision-making.

I’m definitely not whole-heartedly sold on either point of view yet. What do you think? Is maintaining a blog for a client a violation of the social media code of ethics? If so, in this world where PR is going digital, how should PR pros translate their current activities into new media if there’s a whole new set of rules to follow?

Is social media easy street?

My boss at my current internship at JDPR asked me a question today that I thought I’d pose to you:

Is social media–the blogging, the monitoring, the analytics–really cheaper than other forms of marketing/PR or is it just a new way of using a lot of man power and a lot of time?

I have heard a lot of comments lately, in the blogosphere and face-to-face, from people who seem to think social media is the fix for their marketing woes, and they do not seem to realize that strategy and time are as much a part of it as with any other medium. What do you think? Is social media easy street? Or, does maximizing its potential mean hard work by people who know what they’re doing just like traditional methods?

Movement vs. Marketing?

“They say that marketing and PR is built on relationships. Unfortunately there are plenty of BAD relationships out there. The ones that are beneficial for both sides (and last through thick and thin) are the relationships that you invest yourself in.” –Spike Jones of Brains on Fire, Greenville, SC

I read this post by Spike Jones yesterday and haven’t been able to get it out of my head ever since. To sum it up here, Spike argues that the “answer” for you and your company is not the-most-amazingest-ever-made Super Bowl ad or the-longest-ever-made-infomercial (give the man points for picking on two things that have never made logical sense to me) but instead to inspire a movement, a long-term and mutually enriching experience for the people (and don’t forget that it IS people you want to be dealing with) you’re trying to reach.

Marketing is only as good long-term as the cause behind it. I think this concept is SO vital for nonproft/activist groups to grasp. Yes, you can come up with the most of-the-moment branding, and yes, you can jump on the band-wagon of whatever is the latest and greatest medium of reaching your audience. But…ultimately…you’d better have something to say. You’d better inspire someone that your cause is one worth sticking by for the long-haul. You’d better think beyond the marketing/PR campaign you have in the works right now. Because–you can never predict when the economy is going to freak out everyone living in your country. And you can never predict which new technology will be the coolest next month. The only thing you’ve got a handle on is your message. Your mission. Your vision.

So, craft it wisely.

Anyone have any good examples of an organization, for-profit or not, that has this kind of on-going, good relationship with its people?

Spot-on use of Facebook for Online PR

I recently went to dinner at Thaicoon Ricefire and Sushi Bar in Greenville, SC for a friend’s birthday (interesting and irrelevant side-note: friend got sick after about half an hour leaving me having dinner with 5 perfect strangers, all Furman University students, which made for an entertaining evening of conversation that stopped cold and restarted about every 7 minutes).

The owner, Bobby, is a very friendly guy who came around to talk to every guest and stopped to sit   at our table for a while and discuss all manner of randomness. He realized that the majority of his regular  customers were Furman students and that Facebook was the best way to connect with them. So, as he lingered at our table, he encouraged us all to add him as a friend on Facebook by the name Bobby Thaicoon. Each week he randomly goes down his list of friends and picks 8 or 10 to receive a free meal if they come in the following Sunday. And you know what? Every Monday he has 20 or 30 new Facebook friends (undoubtly the amis of those who received free food, these are college students we’re talking about here).

His strategy is brilliant, beyond just marketing. He meets you face to face first, talks to you about life, asks you how your food is, and is an entertaining conversationalist. He’s using Facebook correctly–as a way to connect with people he has already pursued relationship with. The students love him, and they definitely love free food. So, I give Bobby’s tactics an A+. He’s drawing in large numbers of customers by reaching them where they are. And the food is awesome, too

I need Africa more than Africa needs me

So last week I promised to follow up blog for Mocha Club on December 1st. I was still out of town on Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. So unfortunately typical me–but better late than never. Here’s what Barret Ward (from the US but is living in Ethiopia right now) has said about all this:

“When I think of Africa, the following images immediately come to mind: Starvation.  AIDS.  Child soldiers.  Genocide.  Sex slaves.  Orphans.  From there, my thoughts naturally turn to how I can help, how I can make a difference. “I am needed here,” I think. “They have so little, and I have so much.” It’s true, there are great tragedies playing out in Africa everyday.  There is often a level of suffering here that is unimaginable until you have seen it, and even then it is difficult to believe.  But what is even harder is reconciling the challenges that many Africans face with the joy I see in the people. It’s a joy that comes from somewhere I cannot fathom, not within the framework that has been my life to this day.” [read more]

Practice Creativity

In the last week or so I’ve found myself in a number of conversations that ultimately turned into a ping-pong match of idea-swapping and action-suggesting (just made that word up). I’ve always been an avid brainstormer. I love the struggle of finding creative solutions. Several ideas I discussed with TJ were actually implemented a few days later by an organization we’re a part of when it reached out to its volunteers to gain some feedback. I can’t lie, I loved seeing that email show up in my inbox working the public relations strategies I had suggested.

I think I could get addicted to this creativity stuff. New media promotes it. The people behind the golden wall are afraid of it. Our education system has forgotten about it. But the work world demands it.

Then, I think to myself: “How do I become one of those people who has the right idea at the right time?” Waiting for the ever-elusive “inspiration” in crunch time just won’t work. The people I know whom I considered most creative are not creative just sporadically or occasionally–they are habitually and predictably brilliant.

So this is what I came up with: I’m going to practice. You can’t have creativity without creating something. It’s the fundamental action. Solve problems. Write down those crazy ideas that usually flit away to neverland. Put them to use for free for someone who is willing to hear you out. Listen, really listen, to the most creative teachers, speakers, planners, and leaders I know. Creative people surround themselves with other creative people; it’s sort of a way to keep inspiration near by. What it comes down to is truly engaging the mind then acting in some way. What you come up with might surprise you.

A Little PR Practice for this Newbie

Saturday night I was able to represent Mocha Club at CMT’s Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum concert at Littlejohn Colliseum here in Clemson, SC. I’ve mentioned it a lot lately, but Mocha Club is a program that is redefining “the coffee break,” asking members to give up the cost of 2 mochas a month to support different projects in Africa. Lady Antebellum is one of the celebrity sponsors of the organization.

I was officially the PR rep for the evening–I was responsible for pitching the program, answering questions and running the product table. Hundreds of people stopped by the table or at least slowed down to glance at the pictures and displays. At the end of the night, we had 5 new members sign up (which the MC director told me was actually pretty good since their usual circuit is more acoustic/coffee shop music rather than country). But I found myself wishing I could measure the amount of exposure the table had generated.

My thought was that the large display could have featured a website with a specific URL to let the MC staff know if it had led people to later check out the organization on their own. I would have also had informational stickers or hand-outs to give to everyone who was interested. A lot of people considered joining or said they’d think about it later. It would have been nice to put something in their hands to help them recall later, something that also had a specific URL to designate it was the source of their search for information. Also, the online sign ups should ask the question, “When did you first hear about Mocha Club?”

The concerts are a great tool because they get the name out there and (hopefully) get people thinking. The band spends a few minutes letting people know why they support MC and where the table. The number of people who stopped by after the band talked was a lot higher than before. So, I also learned to never underestimate the power of celebrity endorsement!

Beth’s Blog–So much good information!

I’ve been reading Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media a lot lately. This blog by Beth Kanter, a blogger, consultant, and social media guru, has provided me with a lot of practical resources for learning more about spinning all this new media stuff towards more than just making a profit for a PR firm. The site always includes a lot of links to outside resources and examples of PR campaigns done in the nonprofit/activist circuit. Beth has rececntly had some great posts on relationship building through social media networking and twitter etiquette. Check it out!