Join Steve Radick and Steve Ressler for their online training session, When a Star Leaves: How to Sustain Social Media Efforts Over the Long Term, on Tuesday, March 27, 2012.

I talk a lot about the need to do a better job of integrating social media into the world of higher education. That’s why when my alma mater asked me to speak at their annual Communication Week this year, I jumped at the opportunity. Because these students are already learning the basics of social media in their core communication classes, I didn’t want to do yet another Social Media 101 type presentation. Instead, I wanted to help them understand that even though they may learn what Twitter is, how to use it, and some case studies, there’s nothing like doing it in the real world. That’s why I gave a presentation titled “The 7 Things About Social Media That You’re Not Going to Learn in College.”

Here’s the presentation I gave, with the key takeaways below:

Continue reading " 7 Things About Social Media That College Won’t Teach You "

Join Geno Church for his workshop, Bringing Sexy Back to Offline Marketing, on Sunday, October 16, 2011 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. at the PRSA 2011 International Conference, Oct. 15–18 in Orlando, Fla.!

During my session, I’ll help you refocus your public relations efforts and evaluate the power of offline word of mouth for your brand.

With all the social media buzz floating around the public relations industry, let’s look at a few statistics:

• 90% of word of mouth happens offline (face-to- face or voice-to-voice) – Keller Faye Group
• 10% of word of mouth happens online (social media, email, texting) – Keller Faye Group
• 93% of retail sales happens offline – Forrester Research report

So why all this focus and attention on online word of mouth? It’s because offline Word of Mouth is very difficult to do. It’s because marketers treat word of mouth as an output (sustaining the conversation) and not as an input (starting the conversation).

It’s time to talk about The 5th P… PEOPLE

Continue reading " Bringing SEXY Back to Offline Word of Mouth "

Emmanuel Tchividjian

Moderator: Emmanuel Tchividjian, senior vice president and chief ethics officer, Ruder Finn

Panelists:

1. Bill Sailer, senior vice president, legal counsel, Qualcomm, Inc.
2. Andrea Kates, founder, Business Genome.
3. Tom Chernaik, principal, DigComm, Cmp.ly

Of all the sessions I attended at the PRSA 2009 International Conference, this was the most conversational and engaging in terms of audience participation and unscripted dialogue. Emmanuel Tchividjian did a great job moderating the diverse perspectives from three very different professionals, and incorporated the spirit of the topic into his conversational format and open dialogue between the audience and the panelists. Further, his role as senior vice president and chief ethics officer for Ruder Finn lent a perspective of scholarly, almost Socratic moderation of a rather rhetorical discussion, as ethics can often be.
[ADD PICTURE: http://business-genome.com/images/andrea-small.jpg]
[ADD PICTURE: http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/81890156/TomChernaik600k_bigger.jpg]

Continue reading " What Does Ethics Have To Do With Social Media Anyway? "

Because they have the marquee speaking roles, we’ll hear plenty about Arianna Huffington and Todd Buchholz appearing at the PRSA 2009 International Conference: Delivering Value.

Huffington is known for her politically-influential Huffington Post blog, books and presence on National Public Radio’s “Left, Right, & Center” political roundtable.

Buchholz was a director of economic policy to President George H.W. Bush (W’s daddy). Since, he’s been a top-selling author, speaker, columnist and commentator on all things economic. He has also taught economics at Harvard and is a 2009 fellow at Cambridge University. Oh, and he is managing director of a $15 billion hedge fund. For more, see Buccholtz’s official bio. He’s reportedly quite the speaker.

Continue reading " Thank Heaven For YouTube: Selecting Just Eight of 80+ Possible 2009 International Conference Workshops "

Every now and again, a public relations meme appears on the Web — almost to the point where you could set your watch by it. This time around, Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times sparked the conversation with an in-depth article, “Spinning the Web: P.R. in Silicon Valley.”

I respect Claire, and I believe she wrote an extensive article that chronicles the launch of one particular startup and also featured supporting quotes from those public relations professionals who are helping to usher in a new breed of corporate communications.

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While an exposé makes for an interesting read, public relations is undergoing a much more significant renaissance that receives almost zero attention in this article. P.R. in Silicon Valley is far more sophisticated and effective than what’s actually spotlighted in the story, and it’s much more potent than most entrepreneurs, investors and executives realize.

For those truly seeking answers and guidance in regard to the new landscape of public relations and influence, please consider my new book with Deirdre Breakenridge, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” There’s a reason we spent an entire year writing it. Anyone practicing communications, marketing, public relations, advertising, branding, or making sales and marketing decisions on behalf of any company would be remiss not to have read and shared this book. It is the most comprehensive, accurate and practical resource on the subject of PR 2.0 and how the social Web has transformed the world of communications, word of mouth and authority. And it will be relevant and poignant for years to come.

I met with Claire a few weeks ago while she was working on this article, and to be honest, the elements that surfaced in our conversation offered far more value, insight and direction for both public relations practitioners as well as company executives seeking to rise above the noise in traditional and social media. Perhaps it’s merely shelved for a future article, but unfortunately, now’s the time to place the focus on what works, what’s changing and how to contribute to the (r)evolution instead of simply talking around it. As my quote in the New York Times alludes, public relations is much more than what most think it is. While it’s clever, even the headline of the Times article suggests “spin” in the era of the Web. But as my book highlights, and as discussed with Claire, what’s going on right now is so much more important than what public relations used to be — even though it’s still practiced today. This is about putting the public back in public relations, nothing less, nothing more.

Continue reading " PR Does Not Stand for Press Release: Equalizing Spikes and Valleys (Part I) "