Here are the facts: I have attended many webinars, seminars, boot camps, and teleconferences teaching the ways of PR and the new rules of social media, marketing, pitching etc.

I am a PR professional, early on in my career and I am hungry for knowledge and advancement. I have a passion for networking, learning from others and educating myself in and outside of work. This is all in addition, of course, to my love of Public Relations strategies and emerging social media trends. I don’t think I am a minority here, I think there are plenty of young-er minds out there that want to learn to adapt new practices and learn how to blog better, engage better, pitch better (whatever it may be) and ultimately grow in their industry and in their career.

Specifically I want to learn more about SEO, HTML, and social media and blogging (but not for beginners).  And the sad truth is, I don’t really have all day. I’m in the office from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm most days at an agency I love and give 100 percent to. So here’s my plea, if you’re out there and you know about boot camps, webinars, classes, or people who would be willing to sit down with me. I’m sick of going to seminars and webinars that repeat the same A, B, C rules of Twitter and Facebook, I’m looking for more.

So as I continue to dig for opportunity, and find time and vehicles to further my education in the industry I’m asking you, readers and friends…. to share your knowledge, and challenge me!

Let me just start by saying, this is the style and type of marketing that I love.

Jiffy Lube International recently launched into their second year of their first nationwide cause-marketing campaign ever.  As  “Maintenance Partners for Life” they first teamed up in 2008 with the American Heart Association to help educate people on smart preventative medicine and maintenance.

Preventative medicine keeps hearts a healthy, preventative maintenance keeps a car healthy – and safe!

They set financial goals, time lines, picked out dates for events…and to execute the campaign in it’s first year Jiffy Lube teamed up with a communications firm (Cone, Inc. based out of B oston and known for their strategic branding) and did what you should do an any successful marketing campaign. They set some objectives.

1. Bolster Jiffy Lube’s reach to female customers, and attract new customer.

2. Enhance Jiffy Lube’s reputation as a good corporate citizen.

3. Build pride in the Jiffy Lube brand among franchisees.

4. Make a significant impact in the fight against heart disease in the local communities where Jiffy Lube operates.

What I like about this campaign is the immediately recognized their competition.

A. The amount of competition for the awareness of the media.

B. the American Heart Assoc. does a big national “Wear Red” day in February and they couldn’t compete with this event (especially since they had a similar time frame).

The solution was the steer away from national attention to the marketing campaign and be successful on a local level in each market that the plan was implemented.  This means extra special attention must be paid to the specific trends, styles, media atmosphere etc of each individual local Jiffy Lube market. (Jiffy Lube has 2,200 server centers where local media was targeted.) Not a small task. To achieve this the professionals at Cone Inc and Jiffy Lube had the following three tasks, which I’ve broken down for you.

1.  ACTIVATE – Arm franchisees in local markets with easy-to-use tools to activate to  campaign in their communities.

2. ENGAGE - Leverage the Web to spread the word and engage consumers; and.

3. CREDIBILITY – Use AHA’s platform and content to build credibility.

They used these tactics to jump start local awareness and catered each media/activation kit (handed out to each local service center) to help build excitement in each individual community. The team then successfully integrated the program’s key elements into literally all of Jiffy Lube’s marketing communications channels. This means the program was seen on their website in special webpages, an additional call to action on the Jiffy Lube website that encouraged customers to come and give there cars a “health check” at local service centers, an audio news release featuring a spokesperson for the AHA and Go Red Campaign,and special events including awareness days and luncheons.  Guess what?? They also used social media. Facebook, and hosted a personal blog through ning.com

The take away:based on their success here are some best practices for effective cause marketing campaigns that PR News gathered from Jiffy Lube’s great example.

-Create a traffic-driving component as part of your campaign.

-Make it easy to active the campaign locally.

-Support the campaign with media outreach.

-Employees are your most important ambassadors so get them excited (and prepare them!)

-Measure the campaign against the objectives you set out to achieve.

All in all I’d say this is a great of a nationwide cause-marketing campaign that a lot can be learned and taken away from. Good job Jiffy Lube.

“If you’re going to invest in a campaign like this, you have to know if it’s working!” – Marc Berlinger (account director at Cone Inc.)

I have found myself in the position numerous times to want to argue with corporate professionals about why social media is worth the time and effort it takes to learn to utilize these new mediums. I’ve even given a presentation to introduce how each site/application could possibly used for different types of clients. This post made me realize that the first step is looking more closely at what is is holding our bosses back.   Then we can more strategically plan our rebuttals! Here’s why the boss is scared of that little blue bird….

Here is a summary of Ochman’s post along with some thoughts of my own.

1- Companies think that employees will waste time with social media.

Many large corporations block their employees from accessing the Internet altogether. Others try to block employees from accessing personal email or social networks like Facebook during work hours.  In May, 2009, according to emarketer, there were 29 million smartphones in the United States. That’s a lot of Internet access available to workers everywhere – and employers can’t stop us from accessing the Internet – on breaks, at lunch, in the bathroom, you name it.  The value to workers of having Internet access – in terms of research, communication, and speed – is far greater than the threat of lost productivity. Companies have a right to make policies and rules about personal use of the Internet, but blocking it during work is just stupid.

This is great one. Your employees are already tweeting in the bathroom.. so you may as well them allow them to at their desk, then maybe they’ll learn enough about twitter/foursquare/facebook or whatever it may be to help you implement it into your overall marketing strategy!

2- Haters will damage our brand.

“What about the haters?” is the first question that comes up at my corporate and conference social media workshops. “What if people say bad, mean, nasty things about our brand?”  Well, there may be things you need to change about your brand, and in that case, you should thank them for letting you know what they are. Then you should make changes.  If you have built an online community that includes people who don’t hate you, that community will rise to your defense and they will handle the problem for you.

I completely agree with this one.  Criticism can make your brand stronger if you counteract it, you will learn where your brand needs to improve. You’re getting free and easy feedback through interactive sites!

3- We’ll lose control of the brand.

Listen up: every person with a computer and even a tiny skill level has the tools to make their opinion about your brand heard by other people. They’re already talking about you. Message control is an illusion. Give it up.= Your workers are talking about you in closed Facebook groups designed to keep you out so they can talk about you in peace. Your customers are emailing, Tweeting, Facebooking, and that old standby – calling – their friends about their experience with your brand. You don’t have control. You might as well join the conversation. At least that way you can influence what is being said.

Simply put… since they are already talking about you… joining in gives your brand the change to first listen, then TALK BACK and be pro-active and re-active instead of just observing.

4- Social media requires a real budget! It’s not really cheap, or free.

While many social media tools are free, knowing how to use them takes experience and perspective.  The boss’ friend’s high school or college kid can’t integrate social media into the company’s overall marketing. That requires experience and perspective. Having a large social network and a stellar online reputation helps too.

5- They’re scared they’ll be sued.

Oh puh-lese. Next!

Again, agreed.. you could be sued a number of other ways too. Crawl out from underneath that rock you’re living under… and welcome to the 21st century.

6- They’re scared of giving away corporate secrets or that information on social networks will affect the stock price.

If you don’t already have a social media policy, you need to create one.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” – This is a pretty straightforward and accurate description, but let’s break it down a little more…

A successful brand will seek to accomplish the following:

• Deliver their message clearly
• Confirm credibility
• Connect target prospects emotionally
• Motivate the buyer
• Create and maintain user loyalty

Branding is an essential component of Marketing Communications. You can’t (successfully) market anything with out a clear brand vision for your company or product. The AMA also says that a brand is the sum total of  a consumer/client/consumer’s experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.  This is my personal favorite way to explain a brand. Your complete experience with a product and/or company is what that brand is to you.

If you went to an In N Out Burger and the guy threw your animal style double double at you across the counter then you’re probably not going to have the same perception of the In N Out brand – that most people have. That’s just the way it is. It’s all about experiences and perception. The job of a good brand manager is to have the majority of consumers who deal w/ your company and/or product have a consistently positive experience and perception.

Today, it is important to remember that the world of social media – where transparency is become a key to this branding component of PR and Marketing – we HAVE to do this! We have to be transparent, authentic, and real with our consumers. This means that while yes -  it is important to influence consumers and present your brand in a certain light, it’s just as important today to make sure that brand you are presenting is a genuine and authentic one, and you aren’t just “putting on a front” for your company or product that will fall apart if a consumer sees past the surface. It’s harder than you would imagine to convince the corporate world that it is worthwhile to let a little bit of criticism or complians show – for the sake of being an authentic company or brand that seeks to become more and more successful through improvement and working on weaknesses.

When consuemrs can see you’ve let them see the bad with the good – they know your honest – and when they know your honest, it is then they can begin to trust you – and you can start to build a solid brand from their trust, confidence and respect.

To see the difference between advertising and public relations it’s important to understand that one thing that advertising doesn’t deliver as well as PR is consumer trust. I think that branding is a huge part of this, and I’ll talk more later about how branding is important to create consumer confident in your company/brand/service….

For now, back to advertising – in a recent PR newsletter I read that TNS (a leading marketing information group) surveyed 1,000 US households on the subject of consumer trust late last year.  In that survey, only 35% showed any level of trust at all in advertising. Also, in a Nielsen Online Global Consumer survey, when asked what sort of advertising they trust more, 78% said they trust customer referrals over any type of advertising.

That is exactly what PR aims to deliver: trust, credibility and word of mouth promotion. The third-party endorsement that comes with appearing as a guest on TV show or the morning news, or to have a story written about you in newspapers and magazines, or even your words and advice quoted is absolutely priceless.  Somethings you can’t put a price tag on. This is what can be achieved with PR and at about one-half to one-fifth of the price of an advertising campaign.

This backs up my personal belief that public relations professionals should focus on branding, positioning and placement as a means for communication with your publics and audience, rather than pushing and selling (advertising).  Depending on what kind of PR environment you work  in – I think in some cases in can be easy to be pushed in with marketing/advertising/media relations. And while there is always an overlap to some extent… it’s important to decipher, and recognize the differences – in results, in effectiveness, in value and level of results etc.  And for PR pro’s it’s important to realize also – what it is that you are doing, what category it falls under, what effect you are having with it, and what you need to learn more about!

Next post will focus on branding, and where that fits into the PR spectrum…

There are a few different answers to this question. Some don’t want to deal with regulations, or being held accountable for what is said in discussion on their websites.  Others don’t have the man power – blogging and social media involvement and upkeep is definitely a time consuming branch for any company. Also – there is a huge risk of opening doors to negative criticism , like this example below found in, “More Companies are Using Social Media for Marketing”

In its work for a financial services company, Capstrat detected a popular YouTube blogger who had posted a video slamming the customer service he had received from the company. The video attracted more than 100,000 viewers within 90 minutes.

The client’s vice president of customer service e-mailed the blogger, expressed regret for the problem, and gave the blogger a number to call to discuss the situation. The executive also posted a contrite message on YouTube.

The problem was resolved, and the blogger quickly posted a second video praising the company’s response.

In the end — it really ended up benefiting the company because their positive response was widely heard of, and their customer service turned it around for an unhappy customer, SUCCESSFULLY.  That’s real, that’s transparent, that’s honest… and that’s word-of-mouth at it’s best. That’s what social media marketing is all about.
I have come to a conclusion about these companies that think social media might not work for them, or are uninterested in giving it a shot to see what it would mean. I’m going to go out on a limb here and saying- bad idea.  I think they are wrong. Wrong not to look into social media, work not to explore how it might benefit their company. Just because  not every outlet of social media works for every type of company doesn’t mean there isn’t at least one outlet or way you can be using social media. There are different tears, different levels, and so many creative ways to use social media.  Not ever opening that door is 100% of the time going to be a big loss for that company.

My advice – get yourself out there. Hire a social media expert to evaluate what your company or brand can be doing on the social web. Just do it.

There has been a shift in the methods that defines on-line marketing on customer outreach.  Today the efforts are not so much like using megaphone and getting your message out there as loudly and as noticeably as you can –  so that as many people as possible hear what you have to say and know what your brand is.  It has gone from more of an outreach measured by quantity to a direct and personal message outreach towards an individual. This individual is who you have created the message for. You altered and molded that message for what this person likes, what they think about, what they do in their free time, what kind of family they have, and what they are passionate about. Web technology is now more and more geared to collect personal information about you based on what web sites your visiting, and what you are talking about in your e-mails.  Is it invasive or…awesome? It’s a little process called “on-line profiling” and I vote awesome.  (I would much rather see a Michael Kors add pop up on the left of my monitor than one for Home Depot.) Companies (and on-line brands especially) SHOULD tailor our ads to what a customer likes, especially companies that aim to have an active social web presence.   Cater to your audience, as individuals, instead of using broader advertising and marketing to capture a group.  Sometimes you have to figure out what your average individual customer would be like based on your target group.  What would your ideal customer be like? (Someone that would be most interested in the tool/services/products that you have to offer.)   What music would that person listen to while jogging on a Saturday morning? What kind of connection tools are they interested in on-line? What types of circles do they run in? What are their interests and goals? You use those things to connect them with your brand on a more personal and intimate level. Speak right to the heart of what they want and need. The social media tools that currently exist are rapidly developing to allow marketers  to become much more personally involved with their audience and community.  Eric Imbs talks about how giving the customer an opportunity to choose their favorite color or favorite car, then cater to them based on their choice. He says, “colour is… a much more personal piece of information, which if used properly could make an ad much more targeted and….personal.” Through the on-line profiling that is possible today, we are allowed to get to know our customers at a closer level.  Use this.  Stop shooting for the crowds attention, and connect with your customers on a more intimate level.