Now in its third year, Hispanicize 2012 (#Hispz12) is the annual event focused on Latino trends and trendsetters in social media, entertainment, marketing and media. The event is a partnership of Hispanicize, the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Everyone knows that moms make most of the purchasing decisions in U.S. households. Moms are much more likely to make those decisions based on what other moms think about a product. According to a Fleishman-Hillard & ModernMom.com 2011 Marketing-to-Moms Study, 63 percent of moms surveyed said blogger reviews are influential to their purchase decisions. With Latina women becoming one of the fastest growing demographics online and more than 85 percent of them visiting social networks on a regular basis, it should come as no surprise to see the attention that Latina mom bloggers are garnering from major brands, public relations firms, marketing agencies and media. Latina mom bloggers can be a culturally relevant voice for brands that want to get their products in front of Hispanic moms and families. The question is, how can brands effectively engage with Latina bloggers?

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Join Malayna Williams for her online training session, “Digital Media and Today’s Digital News Release,” now available on-demand. This media relations training sesssion is free to PRSA members.  

Recently, PRSA rolled out new webinar offerings along with a shiny new system.  I was lucky to be invited to present their first webinar on the topic maximizing digital news releases. In true PRSA style, everything was buttoned up and well managed. But the most exciting change was a chat feature than enabled hundreds of PRSA members across the country to communicate with each other throughout the webinar.

Being a working mom, I like to think I’m good at juggling multiple things at once. But I have to admit, presenting while chatting was a bit too much for me. So it wasn’t until after the webinar that I really had a chance to read all the comments and appreciate how much the participants likely got from each other. This is our digital world working just as it should!

Continue reading " Chatting About Digital News Releases "

As is customary at the start of a new year, many communications professionals are seeking ways to stay current with the latest trends for the upcoming year and yearning for professional development opportunities to further their skill set. I am no exception. But the task can be a bit daunting, stressful and, let’s be honest, usually comes with a price tag.

So for 2012, in addition to the plethora of professional development that cost moola (and are well worth it), like luncheons, workshops, conferences, etc., I’m excited about public relations training that is now FREE.

PRSA members now have access to more than 50 free live and on-demand online training webinars ($200 value each). No need to rush to a workshop. No need to request additional professional development funding in my budget. No need to pick one topic over another.

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With thoughts (and client budgets) turning to the New Year, PRSA continues our tradition of an annual PR industry forecast. This year, we feature contributions from 12 creative thinkers in public relations. We asked for insight into trends they believe will fundamentally change the PR industry in 2012.

Below is a compilation of their thoughts. Starting Jan. 3, 2012, and running for 12 consecutive business days, PRSAY will publish each trend as a full blog post.

We hope you find value in reading these predictions. Please add your own in the comments below or by using the hashtag #PRin2012. We’ll capture the best contributions and publish those in a special baker’s dozen post in late-January.

Related: Read the top-11 PR trends for 2011 in this Dec. 22, 2010, PRSay blog post..

Continue reading " 12 Trends to Watch: 2012 Public Relations Forecast #PRin2012 "

There’s big news in the public relations industry this week as the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) recently announced that they are embarking on an international effort to modernize the definition of public relations. Chartered in 1947, PRSA is the world’s largest and foremost organization of public relations professionals and boasts a community of more than 21,000 members across the United States. Their current definition of public relations — “public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other” was last updated in 1982, before Twitter, before Facebook, hell, even before you had a computer at your desk. Technology has changed a lot over the last 30 years. So to have the ways in which organizations and their publics relate to one another, it’s definitely time for a change.

Adam Lavelle, a member of the board of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and chief strategic officer at the iCrossing unit of Hearst, agrees. In the New York Times article linked above, he says:

“Before the rise of social media, public relations was about trying to manage the message an entity was sharing with its different audiences. Now, P.R. has to be more about facilitating the ongoing conversation in an always-on world.”

Unfortunately, ever since the days of Edward Bernays, public relations has had its roots in “managing the message.” Public relations grew out of propaganda, spin and manipulation — no wonder we’ve had an image problem for the last 100 years! Too many public relations practitioners have become so focused on the message that they have totally forgotten the relations part of public relations. As The Cluetrain Manifesto taught us way back in 1999 (also before social media), “public relations does not relate to the public; companies are deeply afraid of their markets.” From press releases that sound like this and media pitches like this, public relations practitioners have gotten lazy, hiding behind words and messages instead of building an actual relationship.

PRSA (disclaimer: I’ve been a member of PRSA or PRSSA since 2000.) should take this same advice while redefining the definition of public relations. The words might end up being totally accurate and insightful, but if public relations practitioners don’t also change their actions, the perception of the industry will never change. I hope that all PRSA members would realize the perception of public relations is about more than words — it’s about actions. And with that, here are ten actions that I’d like to become part of the new definition of public relations:

Continue reading " More Than Words: How to Really Redefine the Term “Public Relations” "