Monthly Archives: May 2009

Back in the Saddle

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It is really hard to come back from vacation, especially one in which I had been primarily unplugged for two weeks. I had very limited Internet access and therefore no Twitter, Facebook, e-mail… even my Blackberry didn’t work. It was great and a much-needed break, but I’m hoping to get caught up this week and back into the social media swing of things.

One piece of great news I did get upon returning home was that this blog has been nominated as “Best Up-and-Coming” blog in the PR Reader’s Choice blog awards. I’m quite humbled to be in the amazing company of folks like Lauren Fernandez, Narciso Tovar and Stuart Foster. If you read this blog and like it, please consider voting in the contest! Apparently voting has been going on for a week already and ends on Wednesday, June 3. I really need to get back in the loop!

I’ll leave you all with a parting shot of one of my favorite photos I took of the Eiffel Tower last week:

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C’est magnifique!

A “Communications Conversation” with Arik Hanson

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_arikhanson_-12k-avatarIf you read Arik Hanson’s blog, Communications Conversations, then you’ve probably enjoyed his series on “PR Rock Stars,” where he’s interviewed a variety of PR and communications professionals. I figured it was about time someone interviewed him for a change, and he graciously obliged. So, as Michael Scott would say, “Well, well, well… how the turntables…” Um, yeah.

You’ve interviewed some talented people in your PR Rock Star series on your blog. What’s your definition of a PR Rock Star?

AH: Contrary to popular belief, there’s no hard-and-fast definition. To date, it’s really just been a list of folks I’ve been big fans of or PR pros who are succeeding in their industry or niche. Typically, I also like to focus on folks tackling timely issues: Kelly Groehler of Best Buy using Twitter as a tool to further brand reputation; Rick Mahn at Land O’ Lakes showing us what a non-traditional rock star looks like; and LeeAnn Rasachak and Sarah Ryder at Select Comfort implementing social media strategies internally and externally to raise awareness and educate. Sorry folks, there’s really no “special sauce.” ;)

You spend a great deal of time mentoring communications professionals, not only online but also through your involvement in PRSA. Who have your mentors been and what are some of the most important lessons they’ve taught you?

AH: I happen to think your mentors don’t necessarily need to be more experienced than you. They don’t have to be 20-year PR vets. They don’t even have to be formalized relationships. But, they do have to provide value. And the best mentor/mentee relationships provide value for the mentor AND the mentee. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. The mentor/mentee model is changing a bit–you’re starting to see that more. Younger folks “coaching up” to senior-level folks (especially in the social media/digital area). Some of the folks I’ve learned from along the way: Deborah Ely-Lawrence (now at Prime Therapeutics), Nicki Gibbs (former PR Rock Star), Katharine Kaboord, Joel Swanson, Rose McKinney, David Mullen, Connie Bensen, David Folkens and Candee Wolf just to name a few. And of course, I have a budding mentor/mentee relationship with you, Amy, that’s I’ve really enjoyed the last few months.

You’re a Twitter “power-user” in the sense that you really make use of the tool to meet people, engage in genuine conversation, share content and make connections. How do you describe Twitter’s usefulness to people who are just starting out and can’t quite get past the “What are you doing” banality?

AH: Good question. To be perfectly honest, I probably don’t do a very good job of articulating Twitter’s value to the “doubters” out there. I think of my brother, who’s always asking me why I invest so much time in this tool. What I tell him is simple. Three reasons: 1) I can meet folks I’d never have the chance to otherwise meet, 2) I can broaden my community exponentially in ways that just wasn’t possible before, and 3) I now have the opportunity to learn from experts and thought leaders from across the world. These are the same folks who may refer me to a potential job, send freelance work my way, or point me toward a volunteering opportunity. My post about the social media MBA was a little tongue-in-cheek, but I have learned about the equivalent of a mini-master’s degree this past year in the social media space thanks to my interactions online. What kind of price tag can you put on that? And along the way, I’ve made some good friends and expanded my circle of colleagues I can turn to for advice and counsel. Those are some pretty powerful reasons, don’t you think?

You’ve got a full time job at Fairview, you blog and consult on the side, your involved with PRSA and you’ve got a wife and two young kids. How do you effectively manage all of this? How do you balance family, work, community and your online activities?

AH: The short answer? I don’t. But, because I’m so passionate about PR and social media, it never really feels like work. So, if I’m writing a blog post at 1 am, it’s not painful. The key for me is focus. You really can spend a lot of time engaging with your community if you’re not careful. You need to be militant about focusing and using your time wisely. For me, that usually means hopping online once in the morning, once at lunch, once before I hit home and after the kids go to bed. I try to write my blog posts in chunks so I’m not writing throughout the week. Saturday afternoons are a good time for me. I can crank out 3-4 blog posts in an hour if I’m feeling especially productive. But, the balance word is very elusive. I’m not sure I’ll ever be the most balanced person. But, I do make sure I commit myself to work I’m passionate about so it never really feels like “work.”

You’re obviously very comfortable with social media from a personal standpoint: you have a great blog and an active Twitter presence. But you’ve admitted that your industry (healthcare) is slower to adopt these technologies. What are you doing to sell others on the value of social media as a communications tool? What would you say to skeptics in your organization or industry?

AH: Lately, I’ve been going with the “Well, just look what Mayo’s doing” argument. Seems lame, but that’s pretty powerful in the health care space–especially when the Mayo Clinic is right down the road in Rochester and they’re widely regarded as one of the better health care brands in the market (Lee Aase, who heads up social media at Mayo, was also just featured in a front-page article in the Star Tribune a few weeks ago, which helps). I just think social media is a very good fit for health care companies for a number of reasons. It’s a people industry and many of these tools focus on better connecting people to people. Also, why couldn’t health care organizations use social media tools as another customer service channel? I mean think of all the patient questions we could answer online–saving thousands upon millions of dollars in potential costs. Or what about using these tools to better enable our patients to share their stories–effectively furthering our brand for us? Like I said, just makes too much sense NOT to do it. Those are the arguments and examples I use. So far, the problem’s not been a lack of “want to” but instead it’s been a question of resources. But, that’s a different discussion ;)

What has been your proudest moment as a PR professional?

AH: I’ve won numerous awards, been recognized by my peers and been a part of very successful client projects, but you know what really gets me fired up? Watching my peers and colleagues succeed. For example, seeing my friend and PRSA colleague Jason Sprenger step up to the plate in a new job and take on a new PRSA leadership role; or watching my good friend Joel Swanson take on an agency leadership role and flat out kick ass for the last few years; or witnessing a couple budding rock stars like Jillian Froelich and Katharine Kaboord come into their own as PR professionals and really start to realize their full potential. Or watching you, Amy, start Social Media Breakfast from scratch in the Albany area and really fill a need for that community. That’s what excites me. I really enjoy helping others succeed. And watching them flourish.

Social Media Smackdown: Columbus, Ohio vs. Columbia, S.C.

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Something a little different for this third round of Social Media Smackdown: I’m comparing how two cities are using social media from a travel and tourism perspective. Both have their namesake from Genoa’s most famous navigator and both are home to college football teams I love to hate. Let’s see how Columbus, Ohio and Columbia, South Carolina are cultivating relationships with fans through social media. Buckeyes or Gamecocks? Let’s find out:

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Round 1: Twitter

Each city has a Twitter account; Columbus can be found @ExpCols and Columbia is @columbiasc and both claim to be the “official” guides to their respective cities. Twitter-Friends, which I’ve used in past Smackdowns to calculate metrics like Conversation Quotient and Link Quotient, was not functioning properly and kept giving me big zeroes in these categories for both accounts. So, I had to go through manually and eye up each Tweetstream to make a judgment.

Columbus, Ohio: Following 1,853; Followers 2,775; Tweets 3,217
Columbus is VERY active on Twitter, posting updates several times a day. Most of their tweets include a link to its CVB blog and there are very few @replies. They often add the #ExpCols hashtag to tweets, but it doesn’t appear that many others do. Essentially, Columbus’ Twitter account can be boiled down to an RSS of its blog (with more interesting teasers to accompany the links to the blog posts).

Columbia, S.C: Following 3,665; Followers 3,832; Tweets 1,140
This Tweetstream is much more interactive – a better mix of @replies and RTs along with links. It looks like the Columbia CVB has used Twitter to promote giveaways and take a thought leadership position in the travel/convention industry: many tweets are links about meeting planning in general. They also recommend other local South Carolina twitter accounts for people to follow and offer tips on things like local grocery deals and weather reports. They also use the #famouslyhot hashtag to identify some of their tweets.

Point: Columbia is using Twitter not only to push out its own content, but also to share interesting tweets and links from others. Columbus, however, uses Twitter more as a broadcast channel. Point to the southerners.

Round 2: Facebook

At first glance, this was a walkaway victory for Columbia, S.C. When I searched Facebook pages for Columbus, Ohio, the page I found first had 16,259 fans. However, the city didn’t appear to be taking advantage of the page very much. The only wall posts were by fans – Columbus didn’t seem to be interacting with them at all. Posts included “shout outs” like “Just visited The Short North. Pretty Cool! White Castle rock on!” Other wall posts by fans are advertisements for events or fundraisers in and around the city. On the photos page, there are a few profile pics and about 20 photos that have been uploaded by fans. There was only one discussion topic posted with no replies. It seemed like a big miss. But when I went to the “Experience Columbus” Web site and clicked the Facebook link from that site, it took me to an entirely different page. This one only had 525 fans, but was much more interactive. The page has Flickr and YouTube streams integrated into it, a feed from its blog, and several posts and links to the wall detailing all the goings-on in the city. But, when I searched “Columbus, Ohio” on Facebook, it didn’t even come up in the results. Searching on just the word “Columbus” revealed the site, but it was listed seventh or eighth in the results.

cbabridgeThe Facebook page for Columbia, S.C., has just over 8,000 fans, but is much more interactive. The site appears to be maintained by the Columbia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, whose staff posts events and news items about what’s going on in the city and invites fans to share their events. What I particularly like is a post on the wall (with a photo) identifying and introducing the Columbia CVB staff. It humanizes the page and lets you know that there are real, live people behind this brand! The photos page includes nine albums, like “Celebrities in Columbia” and candids from various conferences held in the city. On the boxes tab, Columbia has an import of its Flickr stream for more photos and feeds to three different blogs about Columbia. It also includes a .pdf of its meeting planners guide and more than 400 links posted to the page that relate to events, residents or news items about the city. A YouTube box on the home page links to a few videos about Columbia.

Point: Both cities have a good Facebook presence. I like how Columbus is a little less marketing focused. But because it’s so hard to find on Facebook, I think I have to go with Columbia on this one.

Round 3: Web site

Each city’s Web site is run by its Convention and Visitors Bureau. While Columbia’s starts out with a landing page that makes you choose among the Convention Center, CVB and Regional Sports Council sub-sites, Columbus’ home page is more traditional and in my opinion, easier to get pulled into.

colsskylineOn the “Experience Columbus” Web site, you are immediately presented with a scrolling visual of photos from various events around town, a sidebar of social links to six different online locations like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, a hotel booking widget, a blog feed and an events calendar. Despite all this information being on the home page, it’s not too intimidating. There are links and tabs for meeting planners, the media, and then a series of links to dining, lodging and activities in the city. There’s also the option for local Columbus residents to become “members” of the site. The link to the site’s blog takes you to a nice platform that appears to have been posting since last October. The content is written by various members of the CVB staff and discusses local events and suggestions for things to do in the city. They even appear to have featured some guest authors now and then and have done a good job of embedding pictures and videos into the blog. Few of the posts have comments, but overall the blog does appear to be a good source of information for residents and visitors alike. The “IN” portion of the Web site for Columbus residents is interesting; it is basically a call to action for city residents to help share the good news about their city by inviting family and friends and identifying opportunities to host meetings and conferences in the city. Site members get access to special discounts at local merchants.

I disliked how immediately on Columbia’s “Famously Hot” home page I was faced with a choice.  How am I supposed to know which of the three options to choose? Each link took you to an entirely different site. I ended up picking the CVB portion of the site. Each link took you to an entirely different site. It didn’t work (in either Firefox or IE). I kept getting 404 messages. I’m not sure if it was just my computer, but still after several clicks and refreshes (and even trying to access it on one of our four other computers at the house), I couldn’t get it to load. It appears that there are a few blogs on the site (their FB page had links to a few), but anything trying to resolve to the columbiaCVB.com site just wouldn’t fly. FAIL.

Point: Probably unfair since I couldn’t actually load Columbia’s site, but Columbus, Ohio, wins for its simple but effective presentation, obvious links to social outposts, ease of navigation, well-written blog and innovative focus on residents with its “IN” community.

Round 4: Other Social Sites (Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, etc.)

Both cities do a pretty good job here. Both have a Flickr presence, but while Columbia’s is heavily populated with more staged “markeing” shots and logo images, Columbus has its Flickr presence set up as a group pool where other Flickr members can add their own photos and tag them. There are 300+ photos in the pool and they give you a true sense of what the city is like.

On YouTube, Columbia has had a branded channel since 2007 and has 25 videos posted, with over 4,000 views. Columbus’ 13 videos have been viewed more than 2,000 times, but that’s in just two and a half months since they created their YouTube site. Again, the Columbia videos feel a little more produced and staged and focus heavily on meetings and conventions, whereas Columbus features clips on what it’s really like to live in that city (neighborhood profiles, e.g.)

Both cities had MySpace pages (Columbia actually had two). Both pages had about 1,000 friends, and both had integrated their other social outposts onto their MySpace pages. There was really nothing to truly distinguish them. What I found very interesting is the Columbus is using Delicious to bookmark articles and sites about its city and Northern Ohio. They’ve tagged and bookmarked articles from Bon Appetite, Style, and the Columbus Dispatch.

Point: The point goes to Columbus here. Although it was essentially a draw with MySpace and YouTube, Columbus’ more authentic presentation of its city on Flickr and its innovative use of Delicious to draw attention to news about the city gives it the edge.

ALA @ USCThe Final Verdict: It’s a 2-2 tie…but I think the overall win has to go to the capital of the Buckeye state. I really like how, despite the fact that the CVB is backing their online presence, Columbus, Ohio, is really trying to not be too heavy handed with the marketing aspect of it and trying to engage people and give a real portrayal of what the city is like. Columbia, S.C. does a good job having a presence and using some of the social media tools, but it just feels a little more forced somehow – more like the content and messages are being pushed out versus engaging with fans to create content and conversations together.

Plus, Columbia is home to Steve Spurrier, so they should automatically lose anyway. Go Dawgs.

Previous Smackdown: Mountain Hardwear vs. The North Face
Previous Smackdown: Magic Hat vs. Bell’s Beer

Image via Flickr users RatsOnParade and BridgeImages

To Europe, Courtesy of Social Media

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I’m on vacation right now. While you’re reading this, I’m off exploring museums, architecture, parks and cafes. Monsiuer Mengel and I are spending two weeks in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. And in large part, it’s due to social media. Here’s my guide to European Vacation, social media-style.

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1. Win free airfare by entering a blog contest

Yes, be jealous. We flew business class on OpenSkies from JFK to AMS courtesy of tickets I won from travel blog Gadling.com. The site was celebrating its anniversary by giving a pair of tickets away. All you had to do was leave a comment on their blog post and one commenter was randomly selected to win the tickets. That just happened to be lil’ ol’ me!

2. Start following various travel resources on Twitter

Over the past few months, I’ve been following accounts such as @raileurope and @visitholland. Both were helpful in offering information that allowed me to plan and make decisions about our trip. If I happened to notice a tweet about something I wanted to do or read more about on our trip, I would favorite the tweet as a way of bookmarking. A week before leaving, I went back and read through those favorited tweets and made some notes. I also enlisted help from local Albany twitterers for suggestions on the best way to get down to JFK (turns out this is the fastest and cheapest option).

3. Read travel blogs and bookmark content on Delicious and Evernote

I regularly read Gadling, Budget Travel’s This Just In and the New York Times Travel section/blog. Anytime I came across an article offering tips, advice or deals on the cities we were visiting, I bookmarked them via Delicious and tagged them as Europe. Sometimes I chose the “Do Not Share” option in Delicious, just so I wasn’t constantly sending out random articles via FriendFeed. Before the trip, I logged in to Delicious and sorted by the “Europe” tag, printing and highlighting any specific information I wanted to take with me. I also had a few conversations with friends who’d been to Amsterdam and captured their suggestions in an Evernote file that I can refer back to.

4. Check out hotels using TripAdvisor and Hotels.com review boards

We’re quite lucky in that we’re staying at a friend’s empty apartment while in Paris, but I needed to book hotels for Amsterdam, The Hague and Brussels. I relied heavily on the TripAdvisor message boards to make sure I wouldn’t be checking us in to a filthy hotel in a seedy part of town. (Sometimes there’s a reason for seemingly good hotel deals.) I also cross checked the amenities listed for each hotel with reviews done by people who had actually stayed there (is breakfast really free? Do they have WiFi in the rooms or just the common areas?).

5. Use Google StreetView to get the lay of the land

The apartment we’ll be staying in when we get to Paris next week is a bit out of town, near La Defense. We located it on Google Maps and then used the StreetView function to find restaurants that our friend recommended, find a nearby grocery store, and determine what landmarks we need to look for to point us in the right direction when we pop up from the Metro.

6. Pack some good old fashioned guide books

Since I don’t have an iPhone (wah), I can’t take advantage of this totally slick Amsterdam app that would tell me what to see, where nearby restaurants are, what museums are open, and more. So I’ll have to count on Frommer’s, Lonely Planet, and some printed e-mails with recommendations from friends to help us plan out our days. But hopefully next time I head to Europe, it’ll be with an iPhone that can calculate exchange rates, pull up Metro maps, tell me current museum discounts and even translate French on the fly. Someday.

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So, that’s how I got here. I’ve scheduled a few posts for while I’m gone, so hopefully you won’t miss me too much. And I plan to check in every now and then with the laptop to see how everyone’s doing and share a photo or two. I trust y’all to hold down the fort.

Until I get back… Vaarwell – Tot ziens – Au revoir!

Image via Flickr user pedrosimoes7

Having a Crisis Comm Strategy Lets Marriott Sleep Tight

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I’ve saved the best for last, as Roger Conner’s session at the 2009 Ragan Corporate Communications Conference was far and away my favorite. Conner is vice president of communications for Marriott, a company he’s been with for more than 30 years. You can imagine that he’s accumulated a fair number of entertaining stories in that time, and he shared many during his presentation titled “Handling crisis communications at a new level of intensity.”

Describing Conner as affable and engaging would be a bit of an understatement. He had the whole room laughing with his tales, but also shared some remarkable stories of the quick thinking and extra effort needed to protect the public’s faith in one of the world’s most recognized brands. At a major hotel chain, crises can run the gamut from terrorism to health concerns to political unrest to food poisoning. Even the fact that Marriott’s CEO, Bill Marriott, is a member of the Mormon faith presents challenges for the communications team in terms of public perception and managing the brand’s image.

Conner shared the story of the bombing at the Islamabad Marriott in Pakistan in September, 2008. Within an hour of the bombing, Bill Marriott’s statement was posted to his blog, Marriott on the Move. The company effectively used the blog to get its message out without having to wait and pull together a press conference. Mainstream media could visit the blog and pull quotes from it right away. It was also interesting to hear the backstory behind the blog – Bill Marriott is 76 years old and doesn’t use a computer. He audio records all of his blog posts and then they’re transcribed. Knowing that Marriott is such a strong brand name, the communications team felt that it would be better to have its CEO blog than to have someone else in the organization do it – but they wanted to make sure that it was “authentically Bill.”

marriottIn crises like a terrorist bombing, the communications team needs to mobilize quickly. Marriott has a one-pager called the “First Hour Document” that contains everything that communicators need to do and everyone who needs to be called or notified within the first hour of a major incident. Each person on the team has hard and soft copies of this document, and every team member has two-backups that can act on their behalf. Marriott also has several emergency messages pre-written, so that if a particular type of incident happens, they don’t have to spend time writing and can just adapt an existing crisis messages for the situation at hand. Moreover, Conner showed us the “Marriott Comm 2.0 Wheel” – a colorful, graphical display of 17 communications channels that should be looked at and used if necessary during a crisis – everything from mainstream television to Twitter to YouTube.

Another type of crisis communication that Conner touched on was reputation management. Remember the Mumbai terror attack from just a few months ago? It didn’t happen at a Marriott property, but initial news reports said that it did. Conner and his team quickly called news stations to report the error and asked them to remove the Mumbai Marriott from its reports and graphics so that the brand wouldn’t be linked to that event. Similarly, when the recent “Craigslist killer” met his victim at the Marriott Copley Square in Boston, the communications team requested that news outlets stop identifying the hotel in every report after a few days. Conner noted it’s important to divorce your name or brand from the newsmix as soon as possible.

Conner’s session was merely an hour long, but I could have listen to him go on for hours. I hope he decides to write a book when he retires, because he certainly has the material for it. But beyond his colorful candor, he offered some solid advice for brand management during a crisis – and for the most part, Roger Conner’s definition of a crisis far outweighs anything most of us would have to face in our roles as communicators. Thank goodness.

I did notice that Conner was interviewed for myRaganTV, so check that site (next week?) to hopefully see some excerpts of Conner’s remarks. Image via Flickr user zairochka