The four p's, revamped!

Confession: at one time in my life I was a marketing major. While that did not last the entire way through college, I’ve taken my fair share of marketing classes at ONU. This week, David Scott addressed the main takeaway from my marketing classes in his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR: the 4 P’s- product, place, price, and promotion.

Everyone seems to have their own opinion on the importance of the four P’s. Some insist they are essential for any strong marketing or public relations campaign. Some, including Scott, voice that the rules are outdated and do not focus on the consumer. I’m hear today to offer a new way to apply the four P’s rule. I ran across a great article from Bernstein Crisis Management that suggested a new set of p’s to use when dealing with a marketing or public relations crisis situation:

·      Policy: goals and aspirations of the organization should be withheld and strewn through a crisis management situation.

·      People: identity key people involved with responding and communicating during the crisis situation.

·      Plan: complicated plans fail during a crisis. Crisis plans need to be simple, clear, and easy to implement.

·      Platform: the infrastructure that will be used during a crisis situation.

I really enjoyed this striking different list of 4 p’s of marketing and public relations. Crisis situations are their own type of beast in the world of public relations- situations that require careful planning, strategy, and implementation. I think designing a four p’s list for crisis situation provides great guidelines for marketing and public relations organizations across the country. 

Social media: Pink slip solution?

There are many things I hope to experience in my career as a public relations professional: being hired, moving up the corporate ladder, landing my dream job, leaving my mark on an organization. One thing I hope I never experience? Getting fired. It’s a situation I’m sure we all work tirelessly on to avoid. Yet, for some professionals a bad break heads your way and luck just doesn’t seem to be your friend. For Tyler Durbin, a young public relations professional in Columbus, that bad break arrived at his doorstep about a week ago.

Disclaimer: I do not know Tyler Durbin on a personal level. I spoke with him about a week ago at a conference, but that is it. Therefore, I cannot comment on why he was fired or reasoning behind the decisions. However, this blog serves as a space for what I can comment on: his reaction to the unfortunate situation.

When fired, people seem to turn to various things: excuses, hiding places, or maybe the large gallon of ice cream in the freezer. The item most people probably don’t think to turn to is social media. Apparently Tyler Durbin is not most people. About an hour after being fired, Tyler recorded a personal video on his instant reaction to this situation. Tyler chose to go public with the personal video a few days later on his blog. The video log proved to only be the start of his social media campaign. A few days later, this upbeat, inspiring video was posted, proving not only that Tyler has a positive attitude, but knows a thing or two about the power of social media.

These videos evoke various feelings in me. Discomfort. Sympathy. Curiosity. For some I know it creates negative feelings, viewing the videos as unnecessarily awkward glances into a situation that is all too personal. But you know what? We are all watching. No matter how you choose to react, you watch the video all the way through and learn Tyler’s story. This guy knows how to grab attention in a way that counts. Can you think of a better way to make a noticeable splash into a field fueled by social media? I sure can’t.

Regardless of whether you view this as a smart or harmful life decision, I think Tyler helps prove the overwhelming power a creative and thoughtful social media campaign can have on a public. If you play the right cards, you can have a viral hit on your hands. Time will tell, but I have a feeling Tyler will have few job offers in his hand soon.

Easter at the LeGendre's: It's all fun and games until somebody's burns their nose...

After talking with many of my friends, I have discovered that Easter tends to be a laid back holiday for most families. Church in the morning, lunch in the afternoon, and egg hunts in the backyard if weather permits. Through in some candy, pastel colors and way too many hard-boiled eggs and you’ve got yourself the typical American Easter celebration.

Here is another thing I have discovered: my family is extremely atypical when it comes to Easter celebrations. If you visited my house this past Sunday, you were more likely to believe that the 22^nd Olympiad was taking place, because in my family Easter equals game central. Ever since my mom was little, we have a slew of tradition games that take place (traditional in the sense that we have done them for 40 years. Not tradition in the sense that you have heard of them or played them). Let me tell you folks: Easter gets crazy, Easter gets exciting, and most of all, Easter gets competitive. Here’s the rundown of games:

• ·          The Money Hunt: My great-aunt Stella started this game: she would save her spare change every year, wrap each coin individual in wrapping paper, and hide it around the yard. While Aunt Stella passed away a few years ago, the tradition holds strong. This year coins were hidden everywhere from the top of our tree house to underneath the bricks of the deck. I may still have mulch marks on my jeans from the little scuffle my sister and I had trying to reach a money pot hidden within the flowerbed…
• ·         The Nose Roll: Here is all you need to know. You place a plastic Easter Egg at one end of the living room carpet. You then must roll the egg to the other end of the living room. With your nose. The fastest time wins. Yep, that’s right folks, I practice nose stretches all year. This is my far the most coveted title in our family.
• ·         Egg Bocce Ball: Same rules of the traditional game, but family dyed hard boil eggs replace typical bocce balls. A few neighbors gave us puzzling looks this year when we were chucking eggs around the yard…

Sometimes the battle wounds of nose burns and money hunt bruises might give off more of a feeling of Good Friday as opposed to Easter Sunday. However, at the end of the day, you’ll find one happy family. For instance, I came out of the day with yummy candy, hilarious hunting stories, and the title of Nose Roll champion (4.61 seconds baby)! Most of all though, I always finish the day with big smiles and an intense love for my family. Our traditions each year remind me how lucky I am to be part of a family that truly enjoys having fun with each other. Stories from previous Easters get told year after year, creating that deep family bond critical for bringing people together. Hard-boiled eggs and nose rolls might not be the typical material, but they build a strong foundation for my family.

The social marketing compass

This week I dove deeper into Engage by Brian Solis, another book our social media class is reading and discussing. Chapter 21, entitled “Creating your Social Media Plan,” really jumped out at me. The chapter was centered on a concept called the Social Marketing Compass. Its function, as described by Solis, “points a brand in a physical and experiential direction to genuinely and effectively connect with customers, peers and influencers where they interact and seek guidance online.” The following diagram is included in our book:

The more I read about the process of using social media and online public relations techniques to promote an organization or campaign, the more I realize the overwhelming importance of a brand. A brand encompasses all the things that make an organization or product unique: an image, a voice, a feeling, an emotion. All of these elements provide a solid foundation that can draw a customer in and create a personal attachment.

The importance of a brand is truly expressed by the social media compass; by placing the brand at the middle, it reminds practitioners designing public relations campaigns that all decisions should always be made with the brand in mind. Once you have a strong grasp on the brand, you can expand outward, deciding what audience to target, which social media tools will resonate most with that audience, and how they will emotionally react to your message.

Solis’s diagram provides a unique, fresh perspective on a social media plan- a perspective all practitioners should consider!

Social media session with Dr. Iseman

After learning about podcasts in my social media class, we were given the assignment to pair up with a classmate and create our own podcast on a concentrated topic of social media. Below is the result of the pairing of Ellen Keough and I. We interviewed Dr. Stephen Iseman, PRSA Fellow, APR, professor of public relations at Ohio Northern University, and smartest and wittiest man I have ever met. We sat down to discuss the changes he has seen in social media over the course of his career, and how he feels social media is shaping the academic field and young students making the move to the professional playground. Enjoy!

http://reneelegendre.podbean.com/mf/web/8dsy8r/EllenandReneepodcast.m4a

Web communication

In the midst of blogs, podcasts and viral videos, David Scott linked them all together in the ninth chapter of The New Influencers. The chapter discussed web-based communication, primarily related to the beginning steps one takes when creating, designing, and launching a website.

In a day and age when it seems like there are about as many existing websites as there are starts in the sky, one might think it must be easy to create a website; they are such common forms of communication. How can they be hard?? Quite the contrary. I chose to take a web design class last quarter as was greatly humbled concerning my web skills. There are about twenty million steps that go into the design of a website, and each is difficult. Programs that help build websites, such as Dreamweaver, seemed confusing to my layout-oriented brain and proved to be difficult to learn. While I finally learned to master HTML code, it felt like I was back in high school learning another language. Even layout elements are hard; I cannot tell you how many times my navigation pane did not line up with my main body.

The moral? Do not assume all projects related to the web are easy, even if you feel like a social media guru. More importantly, have some respect for the webmaster. Their skills make our lives as a web-driven public relations practitioner much easier. 

Confessions of a Music Junkie

Things I’m worried I’ll lose when I leave college: my knowledge of bizarre and obscure music.

Along with sharing class notes, car rides and cookies (ok, I usually just steal cookies from my friends) one thing me and my college friends share constantly is music. Just this weekend we had a music swapping session: everyone brings their laptops and a flashdrive and we do some music exchanging. If you are a music junkie like me, it is like Christmas. I am constantly receiving new music and getting a new song stuck in my head.

Probably my favorite part about college music exchanges is getting introduced to music I would have never considered. While I’m still not sure I will ever be open enough to accept country, I am constantly surprised at the types of music I can get into. Just this weekend, while I was in Columbus, I was introduced to a new type of music called dubstep, a genre of electronic dance music. While I found most of it to be ridiculous, annoying and seizure inducing, I found that I could not get the song Cinema by Benny Bessani out of my head. Listen. Imagine dancing. No judging :)

My best find of the weekend? My new favorite blog, Cover Song Archive. The tagline is “Songs you know by artists you don’t.” Some of the song covers literally blow my mind. Check it out and be inspired!

Cover letter? Please!

As a senior getting scarily close to graduation day, the job search extravaganza is in full swing. Searching job banks, applications, interviews…most of the time I find myself sitting down at 11:00 p.m. and saying “Maybe I should actually make some time for that class work that is due tomorrow.” Job searching is a full time job itself!

After completing multiple job applications, I have discovered something: organizations and recruiters are getting creative! Gone are the days of simply submitting your cover letter and resume. If you are going into a field based off of creativity, clearly employers want to see if from the start. I have been asked to do a series of creative pieces of work to prove why I am worthy of an internship. The latest? Create a 30 second video answering four question related to your candidacy for our internship. Do you know how complicated it is to fit quality information into 30 short second of video, all while making it creative and memorable? Trust me, it is not a cakewalk.

That is only one example of the interesting assignments I have done for interviews. I have answered real tweets from company consumers. I have written essays around my quirky hobbies. Pretty soon I am just expecting to have requests for a full-fledged novel…

However, while I think these new interview requests are challenging, I think they are speaking loads about the companies that are assigning them. The public relations industry demands unique, creative, innovating individuals…why not test out the skills early? Plus, with some hard work, I find it gives applicants the true opportunity to shine. These applications might be more work. However, with some time commitment and effort, a little bit of extra creativity might just be your way into the office.

Do podcasts have potential?

After covering viral videos and blog posts, we reached another new medium of communication this week in social media class: podcasts. A specialized, small snippet of audio, podcasts offer an alternative to radio. As covered in both our social media class and David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing & PR, podcasts have a lot of benefits: they are cheap, portable, and simple to obtain. With a laundry list of benefits, podcasts should be the next big social media craze, right?

This girl is not convinced yet. I am skeptical for a two main reasons:

1.      Podcasts are supposed to be the new form of radio. However, how popular is radio as a communication dissemination tool? I certainly do not want to knock the radio industry, but figures show that radio is taking a hard hit. The 2011 State of the Media Report by the Pew Research Center showed that radio usage as a source of news for Americans fell by 6 percent. While podcasts are different than radio, they share the same qualities. Qualities that Americans seem to be turning away from in 2011.

2.      While podcasts may provide more topic specialization and ease of mobility than radio, they still require what I find to be a huge downfall of radio: time. I don not know about you, but I am on the social media boat because I can get my news quickly. Instead of sitting down and listening to a 30 minute news or radio program, I can check Twitter 3 times a day during the 10 minute break between my classes. Even with the ease, I may not have time for podcasts.

Take my opinion with large grains of salt. As a social media guru, I am certainly not naïve. Podcasts offer lots of the typical positive qualities of successful social media tools. However, I think a few of the downfalls of podcasts may prevent them from catching on as quickly as some of the other popular tools.

One for One: My TOMS story

Cute shoes. Creative brand. Heart-moving mission. Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes talking to me understands that these three phrases describe my favorite brand, product, and overall organization: TOMS. A quirky, fun shoe company based out of Santa Monica, the mission of TOMS is as simple as it gets: with every pair of shoes you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. I’m part of the TOMS club on the ONU campus, and this past week was huge for our organization as we helped TOMS celebrate their One Day Without Shoes.

There are about a million things that TOMS does exceptionally well that we could talk about (creative shoe designs, community photo wall, active social media presence…do not get me started). However, there is a public relations aspect of TOMS that I believe every business organization should take a lesson from: the power of a story. Ask any person how they heard about TOMS, and I bet four out of five people would tell you they heard the story by word of mouth from a friend or family member. That is how it started for me. I heard about the organization through a friend. After months of telling everyone I knew how much I liked the shoes, I finally got my best friend to take the bait. A spontaneous road trip and too many design debates later, not only was I the proud owner of TOMS; I was a brand activist. The TOMS mission has heart and is rooted in the ideals of giving, caring, and making an impact on the world. How could you not want to share that?

You will even find that many of TOMS promotional tactics to spread their message are rooted in a story. A recent free giveaway sent thousands of blue and white string bracelets to individuals across the county. Every time someone asks me what my bracelet means, the TOMS story is told. The community photo wall encourages TOMS addicts to share where they wear their TOMS. Heck, TOMS biggest awareness event, One Day Without Shoes, seems to function as one big story itself. TOMS supporters go an entire day without wearing shoes to raise awareness. This diagram says it all:

Ultimately, TOMS has found a PR strategy for success: tell a story. A good one will spread like wildfire. Below is a recent video from their 2011 One Day Without Shoes campaign. Watch the video, be moved by the mission, and start spreading the story.

Agencies in Chicago: The trip blew me away

Alright. I am throwing up my hands and admitting something.

I think I am an agency girl.

After years of assuming that the crazy, hectic, competitive lifestyle of a public relations agency professional was not my destiny, I am strongly reconsidering my standpoint. I just returned from a trip with the Ohio Northern University PRSSA chapter to Chicago to tour four public relations agencies ranging in size, clientele, and employee atmosphere (a big thanks to Ruder Finn, Ketchum, Golin Harris and Weber Shandwick). Somewhere between massive amounts of artery-clogging deep dish pizza and sugar rushes from too many Sprinkles cupcakes, I realized that the agency playground might be the best place to put my education to the test and develop as a young public relations professional. Below are my opinions on why all recent graduates should consider checking out an agency:

1. Mentorship around every corner

Any public relations student knows the important of having close professional relationships to turn to for career guidance. In the agency field, there is always someone in the organization who was recently in your shoes. For example, as an intern, you can turn to the account coordinator who was just in your shoes for advice. Some agencies even have structured mentorship programs. Joseph Tateoka shared Ruder Finn’s mentorship program, where individuals are matched up with a company professional that shares similar interests.

2. Built-in job ladders

Agencies are all about commitment: if you put your time in, you can easily climb the organizational ladder. I heard story after story about individuals who started as interns, got hired on as account coordinators, and eventually turned into account executives. In a job market that is still relatively insecure, it is comforting to see that agencies like to keep their employees close by moving them along the path of promotions.

3. Pick your poison

I always assumed since agencies take on multiple clients, a career as an agency professional would be like eating one of those boxed chocolates…you never know what you are going to get. However, I quickly learned that is not the case. While agencies may have multiple types of clients, a professional often lands in a certain client category: healthcare, brand, B2B, consumer, etc. As a student who still enjoys exploring the field, I like the idea of trying different clients as an intern and then landing in an agency sector that best suits my interests.

Ultimately, the trip to Chicago opened up both my eyes and my career path. I am looking forward to exploring the possibilities of working in a public relations agency!

Get Personal

For those of you who may not know, I’m a recently turned coffee addict. When I need to get coffee in my hometown of Toledo, I refuse to go anyplace besides Plate 21, a small, quirky, locally owned coffee bistro approximately two minutes from my house. The owner makes individualized drinks, knows how your life is going, etc. The reason I like it? It’s personal.

Chapter six in Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers focuses on how small business can thrive by using blogs to get personal with customers and accentuate their individuality”

“One of the main reasons people do business with a small company is to get personal service. Blog are all about personality. If you bring a distinctive voice…people will feel like they know you. And that will make it easier for them to do business with you” said Gillin.

Small businesses face enough challenges as is: getting media attention, being financially stable, making ends meet. Therefore, a simple, inexpensive marketing service that allows small businesses to play off of their strong suit of personal service may be just the thing they need.

Powering through PaRtners

This week, my beloved Ohio Northern University PRSSA chapter successfully completed one of our largest challenges this year: hosting the 2011 Central Ohio PaRtners Conference. Sponsored by the Central Ohio Chapter of PRSA, PaRtners is an annual conference put on to help students connect with PR professionals and carve out a path in the career field. While ONU was certainly honored to host the conference, I will be really honest with you and tell you that honored is not a word that came to my mind often in the last few months. Cursed, overwhelmed, bombarded: those are words I felt when speakers cancelled, donations fell through, or registration websites went down.

Putting on an event is rewarding the day of and in the aftermath. But a fair warning to all aspiring event planner out there: it is short lived!  Furthermore, it is not glamorous. You will be hauling all the garbage out when maintenance doesn’t show up. You are not the center of attention. You will be running around behind the scenes fixing all smaller problems.

However aspiring event planners: if you happen to get lucky enough like me, there is one element of event planning that tops all the stressful scenarios and makes the whole thing worthwhile: a strong team. The dedication, energy, and creative enthusiasm my PRSSA team put into this event was phenomenal, making this whole experience worthwhile. Getting through out late nights and early mornings took us from friends to a family, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. That being said, here’s a shout out to my PRSSA polar bears; I would do this again because of you guys!

Shedding some skin: PR secrets from a snake

The few encounters I’ve had with snakes in my life usually involve the snake coming in one direction and me running in the opposite. However, I’ve been willingly following a snake for a week now. Ever since the now famous Bronx Zoo cobra managed to perform a sneaky jail break from its cage about a week ago, I’ve been captivated by the Twitter account for the slithery escapee launched by some genius social media savvy individual.

I would love to be looking at this snake situation from the eyes of the PR department at the Bronx Zoo. What started out as a potential breeding ground for a crisis communication situation Poisonous snake on the loose? No thanks!) turned tons of media spotlight on the Bronx zoo; and not in a negative way, in my opinion. People are flocking to the zoo to see the cobra. Companies are trying to cut promotional deals with the zoo (Venom Energy Drink offered a year’s supply of the product to the zookeeper who found the cobra). There is even a huge contest going onto name the crafty critter. The Bronx Zoo could have had an angry mob of ophidiophobes on their hands. Instead the nation simply fell in love with a toxic but terribly cute snake, and the Bronx Zoo did not have to lift a finger. Talk about a lucky PR break!

Social media tactics do not have to be detail heavy or carry a serious message…sometimes a few simple tweets and some humor can go a long way. Never thought I’d take PR lessons from a reptile, but this case seemed to be full of successsssssssssssssss…